Miss Cellania finds the most interesting stuff, both at
Mental Floss and
her own website.
I think she outdid herself with this post:
6 Really Weird Worms.
Here's a truly weird one:
The
Terriswalkeris terraereginae, or giant blue earthworm, is an Australian worm. In a land where an animal has to be pretty weird to be even noticed, the giant earthworm is not only a lovely shade of Prussian Blue, it also can grow up to two meters long!
Doctors in Arizona thought a Phoenix-area woman had a possible brain tumor, but it turned out there was something else penetrating her brain – a worm.
Doctors removed the worm and don't believe Alvarez will have any lingering health problems. No one knows exactly where she picked up the worm –- doctors said worms can come from eating undercooked pork or spread by people who don’t wash their hands after using the bathroom, according to the report.
Source:
Fox News
Hotlix: Original Worm Snax in BBQ, Cheddar Cheese, and Mexican Spice flavored worms for your snacking pleasure. Savor the CRUNCH!
I wonder what the saturated fat content is ...
(
via)
Earthworms studied in agricultural fields have been found to contain organic chemicals from household products and manure, indicating that such substances are entering the food chain.
Manure and biosolids, the solid byproduct of wastewater treatment, were applied to the fields as fertilizer. Earthworms continuously ingest soils for nourishment and can accumulate the chemicals present in the soil.
The chemicals investigated are considered indicators of human and animal waste sources and include a range of active ingredients in common household products such as detergents, antibacterial soaps, fragrances, and pharmaceuticals.
Source:
Science Daily
tapeworms are as strange as animals can get...
These flat, ribbon-like creatures live inside the digestive tracts of vertebrates. The tapeworms that live in humans can get up to sixty feet long. They feed on our food, despite the fact that they have neither a mouth nor a digestive tract. Their bodies are like a kind of inside-out intestine, rippling with finger-like projections that absorb nutrients. Once inside us, tapeworms can live for decades, deftly escaping the notice of the immune system despite their being as long as an anaconda. Some tapeworms have hooks or suckers on their front end ("head" is too generous a term), which they use to anchor themselves in place. They can also swim upstream to meet food coming out of the stomach and drift back down the intestines to feed, releasing chemicals to slow down their host's peristalsis so that they don't get swept away.