Gianoli talks about the fact that termites were recently discovered to have microbes in their guts that make it possible for them to digest the chemicals in wood. In other words, the most signature behavior of termites—wood-eating—is made possible by entirely different organisms living within them. The termite’s gut microbes, in turn, are able to function thanks to yet smaller microbes that live within them. The presence of these animals-inside-animals predates the evolution of the termite itself—some termite ancestor likely acquired them by eating dead plant material where microbes were
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