The death of a whale, or any substantial carcase that falls to the seabed, provides an abundant nutritional opportunity for organisms living in the depths and otherwise dependent on marine snow. Osedax frankpressi is a small worm that speedily colonises the skeleton, sending out root-like threads that force their way into the bone marrow and absorb the nutrients.[5] Inside these root structures are bacteria in the order Oceanospirillales with which the worm is in symbiosis. It is probable that the presence of these bacteria, with their ability to metabolise organic material, enables the worms to live on carcases.[3]
This worm has developed an unusual reproductive strategy to suit its circumstances, these being an occasional superabundance of food, in widely scattered locations, appearing at irregular intervals. Up to 900,000 individual worms have been found on a single carcase. It is thought that larvae that settle on carcases all develop into female worms, while larvae that settle on the female worms develop into microscopic males and are incorporated into the female worms' tissues.[5] Here they remain, with up to 100 males per female worm, providing sperm for their fecund partners. The female worms produce offspring continually. The vast majority of larvae will never find a suitable place to settle, but sufficient numbers will do so to provide the next generation of worms.[5]
