I collect tales of parasites the way some people collect Star Trek plates. And having filled an entire book with them, I thought I had pretty much collected the whole set. But until now I had somehow missed the gruesome glory that is a wasp named Ampulex compressa.

As an adult, Ampulex compressa seems like your normal wasp, buzzing about and mating. But things get weird when it’s time for a female to lay an egg. She finds a cockroach to make her egg’s host, and proceeds to deliver two precise stings.

Continue reading “The Wisdom of Parasites” →

What do they have in common? Ask my brother. 

Originally published January 26, 2006. Copyright 2006 Carl Zimmer.

I’ve got an article in tomorrow’s New York Times about the discovery of a remarkable case of convergence: an ancient relative of today’s crocodiles and alligators that evolved a dinosaur’s body–80 million before the dinosaurs evolved it. Here’s the paper.

Update, 1/26 7 am: Here’s Seth Sean Murtha’s nice sketch of Effigia okeeffeae. A bigger version is here.

Update, 2/1 9 am: Be sure to check out Carl Buell’s croc gallery. 

Continue reading “Plagiarizing Dinosaurs” →

My review of the Darwin show at the American Museum of Natural History is in the new issue of Discover. You can read the full text here. 

Originally published January 25, 2006. Copyright 2006 Carl Zimmer.

Are brain parasites altering the personalities of three billion people? The question emerged a few years ago, and it shows no signs of going away.

I first encountered this idea while working on my book Parasite Rex. I was investigating the remarkable ability parasites have to manipulate the behavior of their hosts. The lancet fluke Dicrocoelium dendriticum, for example, forces its ant host to clamp itself to the tip of grass blades, where a grazing mammal might eat it. It’s in the fluke’s interest to get eaten, because only by getting into the gut of a sheep or some other grazer can it complete its life cycle.

Continue reading “The Return of the Puppet Masters” →