New bone-eating worm species discovered in Blanes
A team of researchers coordinated by the University of Barcelona has found, for the first time ever in the Mediterranean Sea, a new species of Osedax, a genus of bone-eating worm that up until now had only be seen in colder and deeper waters. The study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, was led by Sergi Taboada, Ana Riesgo, Maria Bas, Miguel A. Arnedo and Conxita Àvila, researchers from the Department of Animal Biology and the UB’s Institute for Research on Biodiversity (IRBio), as well as Javier Cristobo (Spanish Institute of Oceanography), and Greg Rouse (Scripps Institution of Oceanography, United States), one of the world experts in the study of these organisms.
The article also expands on the phylogenetics, morphology, and ultrastructure of Osedax deceptionensis, another Osedax species that was discovered by the same research group in 2013 at Deception Island in the South Shetland archipelago (Antarctica).