#Roundworms discovered in Great Salt Lake are new to science https://phys.org/news/2025-12-roundworms-great-salt-lake-science.html

"#Nematodes are ubiquitous on Earth... Yet none had been positively detected in #GreatSaltLake until 2022, when expeditions by kayak and bike led by Julie Jung recovered nematodes in the lake's microbialites, the lithified mounds covering parts of the lakebed... nematodes became just the 3rd metazoan taxon known to inhabit the lake's highly saline waters, the other #animals being brine #shrimp and brine #flies"

#NewSpecies!
New nematode from the #mediterraneansea just surfaced:

Desmoscolex nibelungus

Treatment: https://treatment.plazi.org/id/E8363960-FFB1-8A4D-7BEF-4E50F0EC94E2
Publication: https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2025.1004.2969
#ejtaxonomy #DesmoscolexNibelungus

#FAIRdata
#science #OA #openaccess #biology #taxonomy #ecology #biodiversity #nature #wildlife #conservation #animals #nematoda #roundworms #deepsea

Rare #fossil embryos show early #Ecdysozoa development in #Cambrian era https://phys.org/news/2024-12-rare-fossil-embryos-early-ecdysozoa.html paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0031018224006242

"it suggests a bag-shaped body is likely primitive for #ecdysozoans (a diverse group of #animals including #roundworms, velvet #worms, #insects, and #crabs), while a vermiform body, characteristic of crown-group ecdysozoans, evolved later."

The Hidden World of Electrostatic Ecology https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-hidden-world-of-electrostatic-ecology-20240930/

"Invisibly to us, #insects and other tiny creatures use #StaticElectricity to travel, avoid predators, collect pollen and more... #ticks and #roundworms hitch rides on electric fields generated by larger animal hosts. In a behavior known as ballooning, #spiders take flight by extending a silk thread to catch charges in the sky... static attracts #pollen to #butterflies and #moths, and may help #caterpillars to evade predators"

Tiny #roundworms carve out unique parasitic niche inside #pseudoscorpion's protective covering https://phys.org/news/2024-06-tiny-roundworms-unique-parasitic-niche.html

Ectoparasitic nematodes developing in the integument of a Baltic amber pseudoscorpion https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08912963.2024.2341848

"In a parasitic first, a Baltic #amber specimen has revealed that millions of years ago, tiny worms known as #nematodes were living inside of and feeding on the outer protective layer of #pseudoscorpions."

With discovery of #roundworms, Great Salt Lake's imperiled ecosystem gets more interesting
https://phys.org/news/2024-03-discovery-roundworms-great-salt-lake.html

Newly identified #nematodes from the #GreatSaltLake are associated with #microbialites and specially adapted to #hypersaline conditions: Julie Jung et al. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2023.2653

"they discovered thousands of tiny #worms in the lake's microbialites, those reef-like structures that cover about a fifth of the lakebed."

Funnel web spiders, box jellyfish, and now I read this:
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/aug/28/live-worm-living-womans-brain-australia-depression-forgetfulness

I think I might be too scared to visit Australia!

#Australia #roundworms

#Amber reveals #evolution of #parasitism of nematodes https://phys.org/news/2023-07-amber-reveals-evolution-parasitism-nematodes.html

Widespread mermithid nematode parasitism of Cretaceous #insects https://elifesciences.org/articles/86283

"#Nematodes (#roundworms) are distributed worldwide in almost all habitats. The #Mermithidae, a family of nematodes larger than others, are obligate #invertebrate #parasites... 16 new #mermithids associated with their #insect hosts were described, including nine new species, which triples the diversity of #Cretaceous Mermithidae"