Half-billion-year-old parasite still threatens shellfish

Tracie Ventimiglia — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 22:22:53 +0000

Half-billion-year-old parasite still threatens shellfish Tracie Ventimiglia Tue, 11/04/2025 - 14:22 More News Jules Bernstein November 04, 2025

A new study has unexpectedly discovered that a common parasite of modern oysters actually started infecting bivalves hundreds of millions of years before the dinosaurs went extinct.

The research, published in iScience, used high-resolution 3D scans to look inside 480-million-year-old shells from a Moroccan site known for its exceptionally well-preserved sea life. The scans revealed a series of distinctive patterns etched both on the surface of the fossils and hidden inside them.

Rare fossil reveals ancient leeches weren’t bloodsuckers

Tracie Ventimiglia — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 23:33:57 +0000

Rare fossil reveals ancient leeches weren’t bloodsuckers Tracie Ventimiglia Fri, 10/10/2025 - 16:33 More News Jules Bernstein October 01, 2025

A newly described fossil reveals that leeches are at least 200 million years older than scientists previously thought, and that their earliest ancestors may have feasted not on blood, but on smaller marine creatures.

“This is the only body fossil we’ve ever found of this entire group,” said Karma Nanglu, a paleontologist with the University of California, Riverside. He collaborated with researchers from the University of Toronto, University of São Paulo, and Ohio State University on a paper describing the fossil, which is now published in PeerJ.