🚀 go-pugleaf

Rick and Di wrote:

> digenetic trematodes, such as Fasciola hepatica (the liver fluke) pass
> through several hosts, and undergo both asexual and sexual reproductive
> phases.  The utilise a snail as an intermediate host where the asexual
> reproduction occurs, and then migrate into the eye stalks of the snail.  The
> snail basically carries the developing parasites to teh tops of plants,
> where they can be eaten by sheep and cattle (the definitive hosts) and the
> cycle starts over.  This multiple host and polymorphism is a feature of this
> branch of the Platyhelminthes.
>
> hope this helps

Yes it confirms that truth IS stranger than fiction, and whets my appetite
for more bizzaro nature....

Thanks!

>
> Rick
>
> Che Guava wrote:
>
> > I have for some time thought that social Darwinism was based
> > on a crude simplification derived from an even cruder simplification:
> >
> > 'survival of the fittest'
> >
> > It seems, as we develop a more sophisticated understanding of
> > complex ecologies, that co-operation may in fact be the far more
> > important
> > organising principle.
> >
> > I was reminded of this watching Attenborough when he made a passing
> > comment
> > that we are only 20% us.
> >
> > By which he meant that the micro-organisms, bugs and bacteria with
> > whom we live in symbiosis (or are hosts to their parasitism, a form of
> > unconscious biological charity  ;-)  are the majority partner.  8^o
> >
> > Now some of these critters we can't live without..   gut bacteria
> > for example, are essential to digestion... but I thought this was a good
> >
> > forum to seek some clarification on two related issues:
> >
> > Mitochondria..  I remember a sci-fi story that suggested these were
> > alien DNA sitting in the drivers seat of our cells piloting us all
> > toward
> > a civilization which would ultimately develop technology advanced
> > enough to return them home.   ;-)
> >
> > If ever there was an opposite to anthropomorphism, that must be it.  B^)
> >
> > My question is..  are these mitochondria truly 'alien' i.e., not of our
> > DNA,
> > but like the other 80% Attenborough alluded to,  'the other'
> >
> > And what basically, is their function?
> >
> > The other query is really a long shot.. I'm just hoping to encounter
> > someone with equally eclectic interests on this one..
> >
> > At at friends farm while housesitting I sampled much of their bookshelf
> > of an evening, by the old pot bellied stove.
> >
> > One story, (author and title noted but subsequently lost), described a
> > micro organism
> > which I found absolutely astonishing. (It was, I understood, a work of
> > non-fiction
> > of the genre.. 'strange but true').
> >
> > It described a bovine parasite.  during it's lifecycle it is excreted
> > into the soil,
> > from there it passes into ants.
> > Now at some point in its lifecycle it migrates to the ants central
> > nervous
> > system, and causes it to climb to the very top of grass stalks!  8^o
> >
> > >From there it has the best chance of being munched by grazing cows!!!
> >
> > Now I understand the principles of natural selection.
> > I subscribe to the theory of evoluution..
> >
> > but bugger me dead..  modifies ant nervous system in such a way as to
> > override ant control,  causing behavioral change which amounts to
> > turning it
> > into a vehicle for takeoff???
> >
> > Q1  anyone else aware of this life cycle
> >
> > Q2 Anyone know the name /  author of the book?
> >
> > Q3 Anyone got similar stories.  (non-fiction preferred ;-)
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> > Che
> > -----
> > The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
> > But I have promises to keep,
> > And miles to go before I sleep,
> > And miles to go before I sleep.
> >
> >  -Robert Frost "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"