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This story references a new study from the University of Oxford and the MBL.

Invertebrate science is crawling with breakthroughs. It should always be this way.

It91�������יs been a busy few weeks in the news in so very many ways, including for science stories about creepy-crawlies and other unsightly animals that make most people91�������הunfairly91�������הrecoil in horror.

First, there was the news that ants can perform lifesaving emergency amputations on one another to treat leg wounds and prevent infections. Diligent insect medics, with brains barely as big as the punctuation in size-8 font, were spotted carefully assessing the injuries of nestmates with a few gentle licks before operating with razor-sharp jaws. , this is the first time that lifesaving amputations have been observed in a nonhuman animal. ...

More? : puddle-dwelling wormlike organisms known as rotifers long ago stole DNA from bacteria, incorporated it into their own genome and91�������הwhen feeling under the weather91�������הuse this DNA to produce their own antibiotic remedies. It91�������יs likely that rotifers evolved this incredible trick more than a million years before Alexander Fleming dabbled with 91�������לmould juice91�������ם to stumble upon penicillin. 91�������לIn the current scientific age,91�������ם the discovery91�������יs co-author Chris Wilson told me, 91�������לthe undiscovered country is the DNA of little-known creatures, and the rotifers have the most outlandish DNA landscapes of any known animal.91�������ם

Source: Ant Surgeons? Transatlantic Butterflies? Worms That Make Antibiotics? | Slate