02.09.10
Rotifers as escape artists
Like Escape Artists, Rotifers Elude Enemies by Drying Up and — Poof! — They Are Gone With the Wind
ScienceDaily (Feb. 8, 2010) — They haven’t had sex in some 30 million years, but some very small invertebrates named bdelloid rotifers are still shocking biologists — they should have gone extinct long ago. Cornell researchers have discovered the secret to their evolutionary longevity: these rotifers are microscopic escape artists. When facing pathogens, they dry up and are promptly gone with the wind.