Some of nature’s most unusual finds remain unrecognized for decades, or even centuries, after their initial discovery—and that has proven true once again with several strange new creatures recently uncovered in museum collections and from other sources.

The findings reveal at least ten new examples of some of the animal kingdom’s strangest worms, showcasing their remarkable diversity and a few unusual traits, such as bodies that appear to repeatedly branch into multiple different ends, almost evoking the fantastic beasts of ancient mythology.

Such characteristics, however, are what earned these creatures their unique name: branching worms. These marine animals belong to a group of creatures known as annelids and possess a single head but grow elaborate, almost plant-like networks of branching bodies.

The creatures are known to science, although they are reclusive, spending most of their lives hidden inside sea sponges that thrive in a range of different ocean environments, with their many branching appendages spreading throughout the internal structures of their aquatic hosts.

New Examples of Earth’s Strangest Worms

Previously, only three varieties of these oceanic oddities were known. However, a new study published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society has revealed as many as ten likely new species, some of which had been hidden away in museum collections for more than a century.

The study, led by researchers at the University of Göttingen, used the specimens, along with genetic data and other information, to reconstruct the evolutionary history of the animals with the help of DNA sequencing, anatomical analyses, and several newly collected specimens.

Based on their findings, a total of thirteen distinct forms of branching worms are now known, which are found across the Indo-Pacific, the Red Sea, and the ocean waters near New Zealand. Based on the available genetic data, these creatures appear to stem from two major evolutionary lineages: Ramisyllis, a genus that was already known to researchers, and now an entirely new genus, which has been dubbed Cladosyllis.

“Our findings would have been impossible without access to valuable museum specimens,” said study leader Professor Maria Teresa Aguado, Scientific Curator of the Biodiversity Museum at Göttingen University. “These collections are not just repositories of old samples, but resources that continue to generate new discoveries.”

Hidden in Plain Sight

Remarkably, some of these specimens had been accessible to researchers for more than a century. Several of the newly assessed early specimens were retrieved from within sponges held in the Senckenberg collection, which dates to 1914.

Researchers were successfully able to reveal these “hidden” specimens without damaging their hosts by using micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) imaging.

However, along with the discoveries, a few answers to longstanding questions have also emerged.

Going back to the nineteenth century, many of these rare branching worms were classified as a single widespread species. However, now researchers say that a far more diverse evolutionary family exists, with various kinds associated closely with specific sponge hosts in each of the geographic regions where they reside.

Some of the newly identified specimens inhabit sponges that thrive in shallow water, while others dwell within glass sponges, a species that is found at depths exceeding 1,000 meters below the surface. This reveals the level of specialization among different hosts, which the research team believes has been a driving force behind the diversity of these bizarre worms that have evolved to rely on them.

Despite their special adaptations, it is nonetheless believed that all branching worms evolved from a common ancestor, meaning that their very unusual body plan evolved only once, and thereafter produced two major lineages with some physical differences.

The research team believes there are likely to be other undiscovered varieties of branching worms out there, and thanks to the new research, discovering them could be more feasible in the near future, and may reveal additional insights into these bizarre ocean worms and their unique evolutionary place in marine biodiversity.

The study, “Many Branches, One Lineage: Museomic Insights into the Diversity and Evolution of Branching Syllid Worms,” appeared in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.

Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. A longtime reporter on science, defense, and technology with a focus on space and astronomy, he can be reached at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow him on X @MicahHanks, and at micahhanks.com.

Authorities in Australia said Wednesday that they arrested two men accused of participating in cybercrimes for TeamPCP, a prolific group of hackers that, over nine months, has carried out a relentless series of supply-chain attacks that infected more than 1,000 organizations worldwide.

In a statement, the Australian Federal Police said the two men were arrested and charged with 14 offenses. The statement said the men were members of TeamPCP, which by the authorities’ count, compromised more than 1,000 organizations worldwide. The statement didn’t identify the men, except to say they lived in the Western Australian towns of Cottesloe and Mandurah. KrebsOnSecurity, citing a lengthy investigation, provided what it reports to be both defendants' names, along with an extensive background of their lives and the mistakes that led to their downfall.

The hacks that keep on hacking

TeamPCP has vexed law enforcement officials and security personnel around the world since it emerged in December. The group is best known for a sustained series of supply-chain attacks that laced open source software with malware that self-propagated from one package to another. The viral infections worked by targeting organizations’ CI/CD pipelines, which are used to rapidly develop, update, and deploy software.

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Hundreds of US government drones have switched from border surveillance to a different surveillance mission this summer—looking for signs of screwworm infestations in wild animals and livestock herds.

The flesh-eating New World Screwworm is the parasitic larva that emerges from eggs laid by flies in the open wounds or body openings of warm-blooded animals and humans, with untreated cases potentially leading to severe injury or death. Since the first screwworm cases were detected in South Texas in June, the US Department of Agriculture and US Customs and Border Protection have been conducting “one of the most extensive animal-health surveillance operations in the country,” the USDA said on August 10 in social media posts on platforms like X and Facebook.

The effort involves at least 200 drones owned by the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency. But the actual number in use "varies depending on availability and need," a USDA spokesperson told Ars.

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Schistosoma mansoni is a parasitic worm that infects millions of people worldwide, entering the body through the skin. Unlike bacterial infections that often cause pain and inflammation, S. mansoni usually slips in unnoticed, rarely causing discomfort. Scientists have long wondered why our skin’s defenses don’t react more strongly to this invader.

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and Tulane University explored whether a specialized group of pain-sensing neurons, called TRPV1+, plays a role in detecting and fighting off S. mansoni during its invasion. TRPV1+ neurons are nerve cells in the skin that respond to heat, spicy foods, and certain bacteria and fungi. When activated, they can trigger pain and release molecules that alert the immune system. Previous researchers have shown that these neurons help defend against bacterial and fungal skin infections, but their role in fighting off parasites was unclear. 

To examine how S. mansoni infects its hosts, the team conducted experiments using groups of 4 to 8 mice, matched for age and sex. They repeated each experiment 2 to 3 times to ensure their data was reproducible. They anesthetized the mice, exposed their ears to a solution containing 100 to 150 live S. mansoni larvae, and covered the area with vaseline to keep the solution in place. After 20 to 30 minutes, they counted the number of larvae remaining in the mice’s ears to assess how many had successfully penetrated their skin. 

Next, the team measured pain sensitivity in the mice exposed to the parasite by placing them in chambers and applying an infrared heat source to their paws. They recorded how long it took each mouse to withdraw its paw as a sign of pain. They repeated this test 3 times per paw on each mouse, waited at least 5 minutes between each measurement, and calculated an average withdrawal time. They found that mice infected with S. mansoni were approximately half as sensitive to heat-induced pain as an uninfected control group, suggesting that the parasite could be suppressing the mice’s TRPV1+ neurons.

To investigate this further, the team isolated nerve cells that transmit sensory signals from the mice’s skin, known as dorsal root ganglia, and grew them in the lab. They stimulated these neurons by adding a spicy compound in chili peppers, known as capsaicin. Then they measured calcium influx, a sign the neurons were active, using a special dye that glows differently under a microscope depending on calcium levels. This allowed them to see how active the neurons were and how many molecules they released in response to infection and stimulation. They found that 68% of neurons from uninfected mice responded to capsaicin, but only 26% of neurons from infected mice did so, confirming that the parasite dampened their sensory neuron responses.

To test whether restoring the mice’s neuron activity could help their bodies resist parasite invasion, the researchers genetically engineered the mice to produce a light-sensitive protein in their TRPV1+ neurons, called channelrhodopsin. They “turned on” these neurons by stimulating them with blue light for 30 minutes every day for 5 days before infecting the mice with parasites. Six days later, they assessed the mice’s immune response by using a laser to count immune cells in samples of ear tissue. They also determined how far the parasites had spread by counting larvae in lung samples. They saw that mice with the artificially activated TRPV1+ neurons had nearly double the immune response, blocked roughly twice as many larvae at the skin, and had about 20% fewer parasites in their lungs.

Next, the researchers selectively destroyed TRPV1+ neurons in a new set of mice using a compound known as resiniferatoxin. Three weeks later, they confirmed the treatment had worked by testing the mice’s pain sensitivity using the same heat assay as before. After confirming the mice had lost their pain sensitivity, the team exposed the mice to the parasites. They found that the reinfected mice had 1% to 3% weaker skin immune responses and approximately 25% to 30% more parasites in their lungs than a control group, further confirming that TRPV1+ neurons play a protective role during early infection.

The team concluded that S. mansoni has evolved ways to silence pain-sensing neurons, like TRPV1+. Their discovery suggests that future scientists could boost skin immunity against parasites by targeting sensory neurons. For example, they could develop topical creams or therapies that activate these neurons to help our bodies fight off S. mansoni and similar parasitic invaders.

The post A parasite that numbs your pain appeared first on Sciworthy.

Dozens of cryptographically verified open source packages from Microsoft were compromised late last week to add advanced credential-stealing code that was triggered when developers opened them in AI coding agents.

In all, multiple researchers said, 73 packages were flagged as malicious when automated systems on GitHub blocked them on the platform. Rather than noting they are malicious—and that developers who used AI agents to work with them should assume their systems are compromised—the Microsoft-owned GitHub said it disabled the packages “due to a violation of GitHub's terms of service.” The text went on to encourage the package owner to contact GitHub.

Devs: Assume compromise and proceed accordingly

It wasn’t until Monday that Microsoft even raised the possibility the packages were infected. In an email, the company stated: “We have temporarily removed some repositories as we investigate potential malicious content.”

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