A challenging worm: Salinella is covered with mystery | Environment

LAST February, his colleagues Gert and Philipp and my daughter Francesca, in the east of the Argentine and Mountains, a long journey to a remarkable city called Río Cuarto. We went to search for an unusual distinction worm.

Why worm? As people, we naturally love the most familiar animals. However, from the point of view of a zoologist, vertebrates from mammals and birds to frogs and fish can be seen as a variation in a single theme. We all have one head at one end (skull, eyes and jaws); In the middle, several pairs of limbs (an aquarium fish fins or arms and legs); And a spine that ends with a tail, holding all this together.

If the animals were forms of transportation, the vertebrates, which we were so obsessed with, would have countless brands, varieties and colors of cars. However, there will be invertebrates, and especially many types of worms, aircraft, submarines, single bikes, hot air balloons, space hoppers, jetpacks and roles skates. Most of the story of the real diversity of animal life and the story of animal evolution are among these worms.

Certain worm we are looking for can be the least known animal that has been recorded so far. Johannes 19th century German zoologist, Johannes Frenzel, is the only person who sees him. Salinella named – small salt resident – but rareness is not the largest USP. According to Frenzel, Salinella is the oldest and simplest of all living animals. Amoeba and algae to worms, butterflies and people on the way to an old staging pole survived. Salinella is a time machine for someone interested in the beginning of the animal kingdom (like me). In order to examine Salinella’s simple body, genes and real relationship with other animals, it would be to step from a portal 600 meters before animals invented themselves.

There is one last thing you need to know about Salinella (I hope to prepare you less than the victorious result of our reconnaissance trip): The most difficult to explain how Frenzel has found and the most chaotic instruction set you will read in a scientific article: the world’s worst treasure map.

In the 1890s, Frenzel was given a salty land example by a colleague Wilhelm “Guillermo” Bodenbender. The origin of the sample is simply noted as “salt pans in the Río Cuarto region .. Frenzel added a small tap water to his example, but he reported that a small iodine was “inside”. The precious example remained on a sunny window for a few weeks, where the lid seemingly loose, “dust and sand, dead flies, etc. fell abundant”. While reading this protocol, was the real source of worm Frenzel from completely opaque – salt pans or soil? Where were the examples gathered? Did he just get inside the window with a dead fly?

The uncertainty of Frenzel’s instructions meant that our journey was taken with hope rather than the expectation of success. However, the charm of rediscovering the lowest of the lowest worms was irresistible. Argentina was great, Buenos Aires is eye -catching and cool, hot, dusty and infinite flat. Two weeks later, perhaps our most useful discovery was how difficult it would be to find the source of Bodenbender’s salty soil. In the past 130 years, he saw a landscape from unlimited Pampas to the fields of endlessly infinite soy, clover and corn. However, the insight into the origins of the animal kingdom that may come from this magnificent worm is so attractive that we will continue to look.

• Max Telford like that Jodrell professor ZOOLOGY AND comparative Anatomy in UCL and the author Tree of life

• Between 24 March and April 2, as part of our The invertebrate competition of the year, a 10 short list of invertebrates He was selected by readers and was selected by our wildlife writers from more than 2,500 candidates. The voting for the 2025 invertebrate of the year will last from Wednesday, April 2 to Friday, April 4, and the winner will be announced on Monday, April 7.