Article: The Prolific Afterlife
Author: Crispin T. S. Little
A:
- Piercing through the abyssal darkness down at 1.240 meters, Alvin's headlights revealed a 20-meter-long whale skeleton partly buried sediment.
-The creature appeared to have been dead for years but the bones and their surroundings teemed with life wriggling worms, centimeter size clams, little snails and limpets, and patches of white microbial mats.
-Investigators have documented dozens of communities that are supported by sunken whale carcasses and have described more than 400 species that are living in and around them, of which at least 30 have not been seen anywhere else.
-Mussels were not the only new animals found in recovered whale bones: a tiny, previously unknown species of limpet.
-Most of the mollusks were known only from other chemosynthesis-based sites: the mussels from sunken wood and hydrothermal vents; vesicomyid clams from vents and cold seeps, where fluids rich in methane and other hydrocarbons leak onto the seafloor; lucid clams from seeps and anoxic sediments and a snail from anoxic sediments.
-Began to take whales that had washed up on the Californian coast and tow them out sea and then sink them in deep waters with up to 2,700 kilograms of steel ballast to counteract the buoyancy of decomposition gases.
-The animals feed directly on the large amounts of blubber and other scraps of nutritious soft tissue left over by the scavengers.
-Once the soft tissue is gone, the whale falls enter the third, and longest, phase, known as the sulfophilic stage.
-Whale bones are extremely rich in lipids a 40-ton whale carcass may contain 2,000 to 3,000 kilograms and their decomposition is a slow process.
-The worm at the southern Californian whale falls as well—where at first it had been overlooked—but in smaller numbers.
-Uniquely it uses green fleshy "roots" to tunnel into exposed whale hones, presumably to obtain lipids or proteins, or both for symbiotic bacteria contained within its roots.
-Osedax is closely related to the giant tube worms that live at many vent and seeo communities.
-The early whales were not yet large enough to host sulfophilic communities.
-The relative lipid content in whale bones probably increased over the past 20 million years or so, perhaps because it enhanced survival as whales moved into open-ocean environments.
-Provannids are only known from chemosynthetic sites, the scientists suggested that the sunken plesiosaurs were able to support a community comparable to the sulfophilic stage of modern whale falls.
-The lack of a skeleton makes it unlikely that direct evidence of the worm will be found, the borings it makes in whale bones may be recorded in fossils, and many investigative groups are actively searching for them.
Author: Crispin T. S. Little
A:
- Piercing through the abyssal darkness down at 1.240 meters, Alvin's headlights revealed a 20-meter-long whale skeleton partly buried sediment.
-The creature appeared to have been dead for years but the bones and their surroundings teemed with life wriggling worms, centimeter size clams, little snails and limpets, and patches of white microbial mats.
-Investigators have documented dozens of communities that are supported by sunken whale carcasses and have described more than 400 species that are living in and around them, of which at least 30 have not been seen anywhere else.
-Mussels were not the only new animals found in recovered whale bones: a tiny, previously unknown species of limpet.
-Most of the mollusks were known only from other chemosynthesis-based sites: the mussels from sunken wood and hydrothermal vents; vesicomyid clams from vents and cold seeps, where fluids rich in methane and other hydrocarbons leak onto the seafloor; lucid clams from seeps and anoxic sediments and a snail from anoxic sediments.
-Began to take whales that had washed up on the Californian coast and tow them out sea and then sink them in deep waters with up to 2,700 kilograms of steel ballast to counteract the buoyancy of decomposition gases.
-The animals feed directly on the large amounts of blubber and other scraps of nutritious soft tissue left over by the scavengers.
-Once the soft tissue is gone, the whale falls enter the third, and longest, phase, known as the sulfophilic stage.
-Whale bones are extremely rich in lipids a 40-ton whale carcass may contain 2,000 to 3,000 kilograms and their decomposition is a slow process.
-The worm at the southern Californian whale falls as well—where at first it had been overlooked—but in smaller numbers.
-Uniquely it uses green fleshy "roots" to tunnel into exposed whale hones, presumably to obtain lipids or proteins, or both for symbiotic bacteria contained within its roots.
-Osedax is closely related to the giant tube worms that live at many vent and seeo communities.
-The early whales were not yet large enough to host sulfophilic communities.
-The relative lipid content in whale bones probably increased over the past 20 million years or so, perhaps because it enhanced survival as whales moved into open-ocean environments.
-Provannids are only known from chemosynthetic sites, the scientists suggested that the sunken plesiosaurs were able to support a community comparable to the sulfophilic stage of modern whale falls.
-The lack of a skeleton makes it unlikely that direct evidence of the worm will be found, the borings it makes in whale bones may be recorded in fossils, and many investigative groups are actively searching for them.
B:
Piercing through the abyssal darkness down at 1.240 meters, Alvin's headlights revealed a 20-meter-long whale skeleton partly buried sediment.The dive video tapes, expedition leader Craig Smith and his team saw that the skeleton was probably either a blue or a fin whale.The creature appeared to have been dead for years but the bones and their surroundings teemed with life wriggling worms, centimeter size clams, little snails and limpets, and patches of white microbial mats.Investigators have documented dozens of communities that are supported by sunken whale carcasses and have described more than 400 species that are living in and around them, of which at least 30 have not been seen anywhere else.Dependence on dead whales was not a freak occurrence.Most of the mollusks were known only from other chemosynthesis-based sites: the mussels from sunken wood and hydrothermal vents; vesicomyid clams from vents and cold seeps, where fluids rich in methane and other hydrocarbons leak onto the seafloor; lucid clams from seeps and anoxic sediments and a snail from anoxic sediments.The early whales were not yet large enough to host sulfophilic communities.The relative lipid content in whale bones probably increased over the past 20 million years or so, perhaps because it enhanced survival as whales moved into open-ocean environments .Provannids are only known from chemosynthetic sites, the scientists suggested that the sunken plesiosaurs were able to support a community comparable to the sulfophilic stage of modern whale falls. The lack of a skeleton makes it unlikely that direct evidence of the worm will be found, the borings it makes in whale bones may be recorded in fossils, and many investigative groups are actively searching for them.
C:
After this article, I learned that on a routine expedition in 1987, oceanographers in the submersible Alvinwere mapping the typically barren, nutrient-poor seafloor in the Santa Catalina Basin, off the shore of southern California. On the final five of the trip, the scanning sonar detected a large object on the seafloor. Piercing through the abyssal darkness down at 1,240 meters, Avin's headlights revealed a 20-meter-long whale skeleton partly buried in sediment. On reviewing the dive video tapes, expedition leader Craig Smith and his team saw that the skeleton was probably either a blue or a fin whale. The creatire appeared to have been dead for years, but the bones and their surroundings teemed with life-wriggling worms, centimeter-size clams, little snails and limpets, and patches of white microbial mats. The skeleton was a thriving oasis in a vast, desert like expanse.
So What:
Began to take whales that had washed up on the Californian coast and tow them out sea and then sink them in deep waters with up to 2,700 kilograms of steel ballast to counteract the buoyancy of decomposition gases.The animals feed directly on the large amounts of blubber and other scraps of nutritious soft tissue left over by the scavengers.Once the soft tissue is gone, the whale falls enter the third, and longest, phase, known as the sulfophilic stage. Take O2 from the seawater to oxidize the sulfide, generating energy for growth.
Say Who?
The author (Crispin T. S. Little)What If...?
What if the worm at the southern Californian that the whale falls? where at first it had been overlooked—but in smaller numbers.Uniquely it uses green fleshy "roots" to tunnel into exposed whale hones, presumably to obtain lipids or proteins, or both for symbiotic bacteria contained within its roots.Osedax is closely related to the giant tube worms that live at many vent and seeo communities.This time reduction poses a challenge to the stepping-stone hypothesis, because fewer active whale falls should make it more difficult for animals to get from 1 chemisynthetic site to another.
What Does this Remind You?
Mussels were not the only new animals found in recovered whale bones: a tiny, previously unknown species of limpet.Whale bones are extremely rich in lipids a 40-ton whale carcass may contain 2,000 to 3,000 kilograms and their decomposition is a slow process.Spacing may be close enough for larvae to disperse from one site to another, which the team saw as further support for their stepping-stone model for the dispersal of chemosynthetic organisms between whale falls, hydrothermal vents and cold seeps.