bone-eating snot flower worm

plural bone-eating snot flower worms

1. A worm-like creature, Osedax mucofloris, that feeds on the carcasses of minke whales in the North Sea.

   Known informally as the bone-eating snot-flower worm, it looks like a frilly pink plume growing up out of sheer bone

   2010 October 21, “Los Angeles News - Rob Brezsny's Free Will Astrology Column”, in LA Weekly

   3 more examples

   Bone-eating snot flower (Osedax mucofloris) is the unglamorous name given to a species of worm discovered feeding off minke whale carcasses in the North Sea

   2005 October 19, “Bone-eating snot flower worm hitches a ride on whales”, in The Guardian

   Once all the meat has been stripped away, even the bones provide food for a creature called the "bone-eating snot flower worm" (Osedax mucofloris).

   2010 May 27, “Creatures of the deep surface at new exhibition”, in CNN

   Such a range of habitats along with a wide range of feeding strategies, including predation, deposit feeding, filter feeding, parasitism and symbiosis, as well as the unusual strategy adopted by the bone-eating snot-flower worm

   2012, DEK Ferrier, “Evolutionary crossroads in developmental biology: annelids”, in Development

   Synonyms: bone-eating snot flower