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> If so, does their destination matter to them? Not an expert, but it definitely does. They can be incredibly specific in how they do things. I got a bad case
by gs17 3y ago
> If so, does their destination matter to them?
Not an expert, but it definitely does. They can be incredibly specific in how they do things. I got a bad case of swimmer's itch after kayaking and it turns out it's from a parasite's larva. In a bird, it would go in through the feet, get into the circulatory system, mate inside the circulatory system, get their eggs into the bird's gut and let them be pooped out where they then need to do another process in a snail. In a human, they just get stuck in your skin and cause an immune reaction.
- heywoodlh 3y agoThis brings up a follow-up question: how do the parasites know where to go? For example, the parasite in this article has never been observed in a human before -- yet it knew how to navigate a human's body well enough to get to the brain. That's some pretty impressive adaptive navigational instinct.
- swores 3y agoThey'll be responding to things like temperature, ph level, etc. since they don't have a map to follow, and over many many generations the ones that follow the environmental clues that lead them to the best places for them to go will be the ones that reproduce the most, hence "learning" (sort of) where to go through evolution. Therefore when they find themselves in a new animal, like a human, they're not in a "shit I'm lost!" situation, they'll just act based on the same stimuli as normal, wherever that takes them.
- kijin 3y agoIt probably doesn't know, and just got stuck in the brain by chance. It's not even clear that the brain is actually the optimal location for it to survive and/or reproduce, since the sample size is so small.