Parasites May Be Hijacking Evolution on Planet Earth : ScienceAlert

Life is not always straightforward about the business of living.

A food web, for instance, consists of chains upon chains of organisms stealing other organisms’ energy-processing abilities.

We can’t process sunlight into the sugars we need for energy; we wait for plants to do it, and eat them. Carnivores can’t properly digest plants; they wait for other animals to eat plants, then eat those animals.

In other words, most of us piggyback off other organisms in some way – but parasites take the notion to its ultimate conclusion. Why go about the hard work of living when you can get some other…