Science World, February 12th, 2001
As Gross As It Gets How far would you go to survive? Consider a parasite--an organism that lives on or inside another organism, or "host." The lancet fluke, for example, is a leaf-shaped flatworm, and this deceptively simple-looking species--Dicrocoelium dendriticum [dye-KROW-sealy-um den-DRIT-ic-um]--has a wildly elaborate life cycle. Adult flukes naturally live in and dine on the livers of grass-eating mammals like cows. The parasites shed their eggs in cow manure (see diagram, right). Hungry snails--host number two--then devour the egg-infested dung. Fluke eggs hatch in a snail's intestin...
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