RAS source details
Jamison-Todd, Sarah; Mannion, Philip D.; Glover, Adrian G.; Upchurch, Paul. (2024). New occurrences of the bone-eating worm Osedax from Late Cretaceous marine reptiles and implications for its biogeography and diversification. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 291: 2020: 1-8.
484429
10.1098/rspb.2023.2830 [view]
Jamison-Todd, Sarah; Mannion, Philip D.; Glover, Adrian G.; Upchurch, Paul
2024
New occurrences of the bone-eating worm <i>Osedax</i> from Late Cretaceous marine reptiles and implications for its biogeography and diversification
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
291: 2020: 1-8
Publication
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The bone-eating worm Osedax is a speciose and globally distributed clade, primarily found on whale carcasses in marine environments. The earliest fossil evidence for Osedax borings was previously described in plesiosaur and sea turtle bones from the mid-Cretaceous of the United Kingdom, representing the only unequivocal pre-Oligocene occurrences. Confirming through CT scanning, we present new evidence of Osedax borings in three plesiosaur specimens and, for the first time, identify borings in two mosasaur specimens. All specimens are from the Late Cretaceous: one from the Cenomanian of the United Kingdom, two from the Campanian of the southeastern United States, and two from the Maastrichtian of Belgium. This extends the geographic range of Osedax in the Cretaceous to both sides of the northern Atlantic Ocean. The bones contain five borehole morphotypes, potentially created by different species of Osedax, with the Cenomanian specimen containing three morphotypes within a single tooth. This combined evidence of heightened species diversity by the Cenomanian and broad geographic range by the Campanian potentially indicates an earlier origin and diversification for this clade than previously hypothesized. Preservational biases indicate that Osedax was probably even more widely distributed and speciose in the Cretaceous than apparent in the fossil record.
Atlantic Ocean (without specification)
Paleontology, Fossils, Paleobiology
Systematics, Taxonomy
Systematics, Taxonomy
Date
action
by
Osedax Rouse, Goffredi & Vrijenhoek, 2004 (additional source)
