Scientists Dropped Alligators Into the Deep Sea. Here’s What Ate Them

Want to see the uncut footage from my dives and baited camera drops before everyone else? Join my Patreon here: http://patreon.com/barnydillarstone 01:12 - Why Alligators? 05:46 - Alligator 1 09:38 - Alligator 2 12:53 - The Third Alligator _____________________________________________ Go check out my field channel @barnydillarstone Follow me on: Instagram - http://instagram.com/barnydillarstone _____________________________________________ RESOURCES: - McClain et al. 2019, the original alligator fall experiment at ~2,000 m: isopods on the first carcass within 43 hours, the second stripped to bone by day 51, and the third gone after 8 days with the 45 lb harness and weight dragged 8 m (the large elasmobranch suggestion). Also the source for the deep-sea carbon-deficit motivation: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225345 and https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6924670 - Bryant, Nunnally, Hanks & McClain 2022, the sediment study around the 19.5 kg alligator. It found up to three times more carbon than background sediment and argues that the size threshold for enriching sediments is lower than assumed: https://doi.org/10.1111/maec.12707 - Berman, Hiley, Read & Rouse 2024, the formal description of Osedax craigmcclaini from the alligator bones, and Osedax bozoi from cow bones at the same Gulf depth (Zootaxa 5443(3): 337–352): https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5443.3.2 and https://zenodo.org/record/11045291 - Danise & Higgs 2015, Osedax borings in ~100-million-year-old plesiosaur and sea turtle bones, showing the worms fed on marine reptile falls before whales existed: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2015.0072 and https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk/handle/10026.1/3329 - Smith, Glover, Treude, Higgs & Amon 2015, the whale-fall review covering successional stages, bone lipids and whale falls as evolutionary stepping stones: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-marine-010213-135144 and https://core.ac.uk/works/100908260 - McClain, Nunnally, Chapman & Barry 2018, the 5-year wood fall experiment at 3,203 m, where more wood meant more species: https://par.nsf.gov/servlets/purl/10166878 - McClain & Barry 2014, wood fall community composition tracking energy availability: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2014.0129 - Bienhold et al. 2013, how deep-sea wood falls sustain chemosynthetic life: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0053590 - Smith et al. 2016, the 27-year abyssal Pacific time series where sinking carbon met only about 63% of seafloor demand, for the carbon-deficit point: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7175715