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?

Transcript

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