CRITTER TRIVIA TUESDAY brings you this sea creature (aka is this just another way to get in a female’s pants?):
In a newly-discovered genus of bone-devouring critter which has no eyes, stomach or mouth and which use bacteria to dissolve the fat in whale bone so it can feed on them with strange root-like "limbs", each mature female found so far, has up to 100 microscopic males living inside their bodies. Like the drones of bees, their only function in life is to provide sperm for the female to use to perpetuate the species with...gives a whole new meaning to moving in now doesn’t it?
And the answer is OSEDAX genus, aka "Zombie Worms", were first discovered by scientists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute using the submarine ROV Tiburon in our very own Monterey Bay in February 2002! The worms were found living on the bones of a decaying gray whale in the Monterey Canyon, at a depth of 9,491 ft. Makes us wonder if there are Zombie Worm rules....
