by Gregory McNamee Talk about your worm’s-eye view of the world.
From time to time, I am pleased in this column to announce the
discovery of some hitherto unknown species,or the rediscovery of
one thought to have disappeared. An international team of
scientists has done this one better, announcing the discovery of
an entirely new phylum comprising an ocean-dwelling flatworm
called Xenoturbella and its kin, collectively the acoelomorphs.
Interestingly, these creatures seem to be backward-evolving:
their ancestors had gill slits and guts, but the current
acoelomorphic configuration lacks them. As researcher Maximilian
Telford of University College London puts it, “We’ve got these
very simple worms nested right in the middle of the complex
animals. How did they end up so simple? They must have lost a
lot of complexity.” * * * If in the course of evolution you
decided to lose your ears, you would have good reason. The world
is a noisy place, thanks to ever-busy humans, and it’s getting
noisier. In response, many