Tiny rotifers defeat the Red Queen


This week’s NPR Science Friday presented a fascinating report on rotifers, also known as “wheel animalcules”* due to the way they rotor food into their cylindrical bodies.** Besides being so funny-looking, these critters are unique in being only female — no guys to bother with (a bit of a bummer coming up as we are to Valentine’s Day).  According to the Red Queen hypothesis this single gender situation should have put rotifers at an evolutionary disadvantage.  However, these animalcules manage to thrive, albeit plagued by parasites.  They survive by tolerating dehydration for amazing-long periods while riding the wind to their next home – typically a single drop of water.

Check out this entertaining Science Friday video on rotifers, which features new research by Paul Sherman and Chris Wilson of Cornell University.  Warning: Although this production would be rated “G” for gender, it may not be suitable for children due to some horrifying imagery of lethal fungal parasites.

*Detailed in Welcome to the Wonderfully Weird World of Rotifers

**Seen in the brief video Life in a Drop of Water: Rotifer

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