Brain Parasites Make Their Way Into Shell-Bound Baby Lizards
Scientists found parasitic worms in the brains of lizard embryos. How did they get there?
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00:00Scientists found parasitic worms inside the brains of lizard embryos
00:05before the animals ever hatched.
00:07How did they get there?
00:13It turns out that these parasitic worms hide out in the ovaries of the lizard's mothers
00:18and then make their way into the developing embryo
00:21before a hardened shell forms around the animal.
00:24The scientists that found these worms believe this is the first time
00:27a parasite has been found that passed from a mother reptile into its offspring.
00:33This has been found in mammalian species
00:37where a parasite can either pass through the placenta to the developing animal
00:42or it can be passed on through the breast milk after birth.
00:45Because this sort of parasitic transmission hadn't been seen in reptiles before,
00:49scientists thought that by laying eggs,
00:52reptiles actually restricted the number of ways that parasites can get into their young
00:56so they'd have to wait until the animals actually hatch before burrowing into their brains.
01:02But after making the shocking discovery of these worms inside lizard embryos,
01:07scientists now think that reptilian embryos might be more vulnerable to parasites than once thought.
01:13But they don't yet know how these worms might affect the animals' health and behavior after they hatch.
01:26NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology