Harry and Andrew,

I take it that parasites of marine organisms are not readily transferred to
humans. Can you tell that a marine bivalve or gastropod is infected with
parasites just by looking at it, or is this a microscopic thingy?

> I feel I've trespassed into your (evolutionary) turf here.  Maybe I need a
little editing here.

Not at all! Soft tissues of mollusks are rarely preserved in the fossil
record, unless you count ligamental and similar tissue as 'soft'. We've
discussed preservation of ligaments on this listserver before. I would like
to know whether parasitic infections affect the shell in ways that could be
recognized in fossils, the way that drillholes and some other signs of
predation (and commensalism) are.

Andy

Andrew K. Rindsberg
Geological Survey of Alabama

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