Xylophaga dorsalis (W. Turton 1819)

Plant / grows inside
animal of Xylophaga dorsalis grows inside dead, submerged, waterlogged wood of Trees

Large organic food falls to the deep sea – such as whale carcasses and wood logs – are known to serve as stepping stones for the dispersal of highly adapted chemosynthetic organisms inhabiting hot vents and cold seeps. Here we investigated the biogeochemical and microbiological processes leading to the development of sulfidic niches by deploying wood colonization experiments at a depth of 1690 m in the Eastern Mediterranean for one year...

Natural timber carried into the sea from rivers in winter flood, or processed timber in the form of mans ships, boats and lost cargo, form a very special habitat for certain groups of wood-boring bivalve molluscs, of which the most well-known are the ship-worms of the family Teredinidae. A closely related group of molluscs are the wood piddocks, members of the Xylophagidae, whose wood-boring capabilities are just as devastating as those of the shipworms...

Xylophaga dorsalis is a species of bivalves in the family Xylophagaidae.