Kingdom Animalia Family Siboglinidae Genus Osedax Order Sabellida | Class Polychaeta Phylum Annelida Rank Species | |
 | ||
Similar Osedax frankpressi, Osedax, Osedax roseus, Osedax japonicus, Oceanospirillales | ||
Osedax rubiplumus is a species of bathypelagic Polychaetes that is reported to sustain itself on the bones of dead whales.
Description
Their paedomorphic males are 0.4–1.1 millimetres (0.016–0.043 in), and have an incompleted prototroch with a posterior hooked chaete. The species have 16 hooks with 6-8 capitium teeth, which have handles that are 18–23 micrometres (0.00071–0.00091 in). The female ovisac is measured 8 mm by 4 mm by 0.3 mm, with four posterior roots which have spherical lobes. They also have a trunk which is 3.8 centimetres (1.5 in) in length and 2 millimetres (0.079 in) wide with the crown plumes which are 2.1 centimetres (0.83 in) in length. The species is found in East North Pacific where it is abundant. They are used in Calmodulin.
References
Osedax rubiplumus Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA