Sam Andrews @oceanoculus.com · Apr 22 Let's get statistically sea-nificant 🧮 480 million The number of years a group of oyster shell-boring spionid polychaete parasites has existed. Image: Adult marine shell-boring spionid polychaete. Credit Vasily Radishevsky/ Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences
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Not only have these little parasites been affecting shellfish for 480 million years, but, as Karma Nanglu, lead author of the study, says, it seems "this group of worms hasn't changed its lifestyle in nearly half a billion years."
Researchers studying 480-million-year-old fossil shells from Morocco noticed some rather unusual question-shaped markings both inside and outside of them. After some investigation, they confirmed that these markings matched the traces spionid worms leave behind on modern-day oyster shells.