Mr Nicholas Higgs

Postgraduate Student

Contact details

Telephone extension: 37414

Email address: eendh@leeds.ac.uk

Room: 12.a, 17 Springfield Mount

Project Details:

Project title: The taphonomy of giants: whale-falls, bone-eating worms and stepping-stones in the deep

Supervisors: Dr. Crispin Little, Dr. Adrian Glover (Natural History Museum, London), Dr. Thomas Dahlgren (Göteborg University, Sweden)

Start date: 1st October 2008

Funding: NERC PhD CASE award with the Natural History Museum, London

Research Area
In recent years a series of both chance discoveries and experimental manipulations have provided some of the first data on the fate of whale-remains in the deep ocean (Smith & Baco 2003). These �whale-falls� constitute one of the most outstanding habitats known in the deep-sea .The decomposing remains fuel a chemosynthetic ecosystem that shares many characteristics with hydrothermal vents and cold seeps. Evidence from the fossil record of whales has shown that similar communities have been living on dead whales for the past 30 million years (Amano & Little 2005, Goedert et al. 1995).
One of the more remarkable discoveries in recent years is the bone-eating worm, Osedax, a sessile polychaete that is capable of burrowing into and feeding on the rotting bones using a novel microbial symbiosis (Rouse et al., 2004; Glover et al., 2005). The activities of Osedax may play a key role in determining whale-fall community longevity, acting as a foundation species for these communities (Braby et al. 2007).

Research Objectives
As yet the trace fossil of Osedax, and its presence in fossilized whale bones has not been investigated. By examining in detail the burrowing behaviour, morphology and trace of Osedax in extant whale remains, we will for the first time be able to test for the presence of this organism in the fossil record.
The objectives of this project will be to:

1. characterise the borings and trace of Osedax in freshly-recovered bone
2. establish how Osedax carry out this burrowing
3. examine fossil bone from recently excavated material for Osedax traces
4. determine the role of microorganisms in the taphonomic process

Biography

Academic History
Oct 2008 to Present: Â Â Â Â Â Â Postgraduate Research Student, University of Leeds
Jun 2007 to Aug 2007:Â Â Â Research Intern, Dr. G. Paterson, Natural History Museum, London
Oct 2004 to Jun 2008: Â Â Â MSci (Hons), Marine Biology, University of Southampton

Conferences attendend and upcoming*
Oct 2008: Â Â Â Â Â Â Siboglinidae: A model system for the understanding of evolution, adaptive radiation, microbial symbioses and ecology at extreme environments
*Jun 2009: Â Â Â Â 4th International Symposium on Chemosynthetic Based Ecosystems