Bizarre, Mutating “Bone Worms” Discovered In Monterey Bay

Evolutionary twist found on worms that feast on bones of dead animals.

A species of bone worm existing on the carcasses of dead animals on the sea floor in Monterey Bay has done something a little weird.

They've evolved -- to grow tens of thousands of times larger as their ancestors and genetic cousins.

This genetic reversal is "unlike any other" known "in the animal kingdom," according to the San Francisco Chronicle -- and it's also a little bit upsetting for anyone interested in gender equality.

The Osedax worms -- so called because Osedax means "bone devourer" -- were first discovered in 2002. The males were tiny compared to the females; each female worm contained tens of thousands of tiny males that looked like "larvae."

But this species of worm has adapted and evolved. The males are now about the same size as the females, researchers from the UC San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography have found.

The males likewise are now eating the same food as the females: the smaller males ate only scraps inside their mates, but are now eating the same bits of bone -- in this case, the body of a "long-dead seal."

Somehow, the genes for producing full-size males stayed in the genetic material in the previously-seen dwarf males -- and in the competition for resources, this genetic trait is now standing out.

"It's a throwback to an earlier ancestral species more than 40 million years ago," one of the researchers told the newspaper.

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