Friday, July 22, 2011

Parasites help reveal new ecological rules

"The major finding of our research is that all types of animals –– parasites or otherwise –– appear to follow exactly the same for how common they are," said Ryan Hechinger, lead author and associate research biologist with the Marine Science Institute at UCSB.

"This includes birds, fishes, insects, crabs, clams, and all the parasites that live inside and on them," said Hechinger. "They all seem to follow the same rule. And the rule is simple. You can predict how common an animal is just by knowing how big an individual is and how high in the food chain it is."

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