Osedax worms have been found in oceans all over the world. They’ve only ever been spotted on bones, which makes some scientists think that the bone-eaters are specialized to live in odd ecosystems, such as whale falls. “Those kinds of animals are definitely uniquely adapted to the environment in which you find them, ”says marine biologist River Dixon. She is a graduate student at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

But as recent experiments show, the bone-eaters may not be picky about what type of bones they devour(吞食). Last year, biologists spotted Osedax worms in the Gulf of Mexico for the first time. And not on whale bones. Dixon was part of a research team that made the discovery. In early 2019, her group put the dead bodies of three alligators(短吻鳄)in water about 2 kilometers deep. Over the next few months, they sent a remote-controlled vehicle a few times to spy on what were essentially “alligator falls”.

51 days after the alligators were placed in the seawater, scientists revisited. “The flesh was gone”, Dixon says. . “It had been reduced to just the skeleton(骨骼).” And just as at whale falls, it hosted a carpet of bone-eating Osedax worms. These worms were similar to other bone-eaters but represented a never-before observed species. That means the scientists who found them get to name it (although Dixon says they haven’t settled on a name yet).

The lab where Dixon works studies food systems in the deep ocean. Algae and plants use photosynthesis(光合作用)to turn sunlight into food. Animals eat those plants and algae to survive. Then larger animals may eat those animals. But sunlight doesn’t reach the deep ocean’s bottom. So other pathways are essential. These pathways include whale falls and other dead bodies. The scientists wondered how alligator falls fit into a larger food web. To find out, they submerged them.

Studying alligator falls, Dixon says, could help show how life evolved(进化)in the deep sea. It’s possible that the creatures found on whale falls and other falls today, Dixon says, evolved from creatures that hundreds of millions of years ago would have devoured plesiosaur (蛇颈龙) falls.

43-year-old John Chadwick started live-streaming (直播) life of the birds with their chicks.But just weeks after uploading the videos to YouTube, he gained millions of views from around the world.

John said, “To think that tens of millions of people have been watching the birds from around the world is just incredible and quite overwhelming.”

The sound engineer bought the bird box by accident. He placed it on a willow tree in his back garden in March, and within hours two blue tits (蓝冠山雀) moved in and they had five chicks. At first, he only wanted to show his family what the birds were up to.

John said, “Within a day the birds moved in, and I wanted to know what was going on inside. I started to livestream and do video highlights every day-on the first day 100 people watched it. It showed things like the chicks being fed in the nests as the parents carried in caterpillars (毛毛虫). After three months, I had 2, 000 subscribers.”

John decided to put a final video together and keep it as short as possible-showing the birds going into the nests, the eggs hatching, and the chicks fledging(长羽毛).

Now despite the huge global success of the videos, John is unlikely to make enough for a nest egg of his own. He still needs to struggle for his family. But some people say they find it quite relaxing and genuinely fascinated by John’s videos.

He said, “My personal challenge to myself was to get out of my comfortable zone. And I enjoy exploring new areas. But I keep in mind that I need to care for my family.”