Why Madagascar's Tapeworms Matter--To You

Everything is connected. And when I say everything, I include you, dear reader, and the tapeworms of Madagascar. They carry a hidden history of our entire species. I'm sure we'd all prefer that there was no such connection. Tapeworm are not just gross, but they are pretty much the polar opposite of the human existence. They have no brain. They have no eyes. They lack mouths and guts, having turned their body inside out, absorbing food through its surface. Most of their hideously long body is made up of segments, each of which contains its own supply of both eggs and sperm. To reproduce, the tapeworm fertilizes its eggs, either with its own sperm or another tapeworm's, and then sheds its segments. Once out of the body, those segments can crawl around on the ground on their own. But, like it or not, tapeworms--or at least the pork tapeworm Taenia ...