Parasites, Often Miscast as Villains, Are Ecologically Critical — and Declining

When Chelsea Wood was a child, she would often collect Periwinkle snails on the shores of Long Island. “I used to pluck them off the rocks and put them in buckets and keep them as pets and then re-release them,” Wood said. “And I knew that species really well.” It wasn’t until years later that Wood learned that those snails were teeming with parasites. “In some populations, 100 percent of them are...

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