It seems so obvious that someone should have thought of it decades ago: Since parasites have plagued eukaryotic life for millions of years, their prevalence likely affected evolution. Psychologist Marco Del Giudice of the ...
Nearly half of the human genome is composed of genetic parasites—transposons, plasmids, viruses, and other genetic elements that have one thing in common: they don't make any beneficial contributions to their hosts, and ...
Salt marshes are home to tiny crustaceans called amphipods that keep a low profile: Their gray-brown coloring helps them blend in with their surroundings, and they spend most of their time hiding under vegetation. But when ...
Ecology
Aug 23, 2023
0
248
In a world full of bizarre animals, hairworms are some of the strangest. Hairworms are parasitic worms that manipulate the behavior of their hosts in what's sometimes called "mind control."
Evolution
Jul 18, 2023
1
277
Using fossilized eggs in up to 2,500-year-old feces from Viking settlements in Denmark and other countries, researchers at the University of Copenhagen's Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences and the Wellcome Sanger ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 5, 2022
3
168
A new analysis of remains from medieval Cambridge shows that local Augustinian friars were almost twice as likely as the city's general population to be infected by intestinal parasites.
Archaeology
Aug 19, 2022
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1185
Microscopic mites that live in human pores and mate on our faces at night are becoming such simplified organisms, due to their unusual lifestyles, that they may soon become one with humans, new research has found.
Evolution
Jun 21, 2022
4
676
As many humans prepare to unwrap their Easter eggs, scientists have solved one of nature's biggest criminal cases, an egg forgery scandal two million years in the making. Their findings suggest that the victims of this fraud ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 11, 2022
0
160
Ants are renowned in the insect world for their complex social structure and behaviors. Workers and foragers support the queen, faithfully carrying out their social roles for the overall health of the colony. This complex ...
Plants & Animals
May 18, 2021
1
64
Forager ants do it, vampire bats do it, guppies do it, and mandrills do it. Long before humans learned about and started "social distancing due to COVID-19," animals in nature intuitively practiced social distancing when ...
Ecology
Mar 4, 2021
1
348
