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SCIENCE: Worms With Three Sexes Live in Poisonous Lake in California

Mono Lake - pixabay

Mono Lake in California contains super salty, arsenic-laced water and very few signs of life. Now, researchers have found eight worm species that thrive in the extreme ecosystem — and one of those species has three sexes, according to a new study. Mono Lake lies in the eastern Sierra Mountains and serves as habitat for brine shrimp, diving flies, bacteria and algae, but nothing else — or so scientists thought. Biologist Paul Sternberg and his colleagues at the California Institute of Technology thought that microscopic worms called nematodes might lurk in Mono Lake, partially because the wriggling creatures are considered … Read more

SCIENCE: Game of Thrones Hits the Deep Seas

Hodor Hodor

Marine worms that dwell in the numbing cold of the deep ocean don’t care if winter is coming. Be that as it may, several newly described species of these worms now owe their names to “Game of Thrones,” inspired by the remorseless Arya Stark (Abyssarya acus) and everyone’s favorite man of few words, Hodor (Hodor hodor and Hodor anduril). The deep-sea worms are part of a family called Polynoidae, which includes about 900 species. These newfound creatures were collected during an expedition to the equatorial Pacific Ocean, at depths of between 13,000 and 16,000 feet (4,000 and 5,000 meters), scientists … Read more