Sunday, February 9, 2014

A sloth's microbiome

This is about the coolest article ever, about the organisms growing on and around the three-toed sloth.  Apparently, the sloth harbors a species of moth in its fur, which fertilizes a type of algae that also grows in the fur, and the sloth eats the algae as a supplementary food source.  I don't imagine the preacher who wrote, "Oh Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder consider all the works thy hands have made," was imagining sloth-fur algae.  But I'd put this ecological discovery right up there with the really important finds that help to explain a part of our world.

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