We’ve seen how individual animals rely on microbes for ordinary and essential aspects of their lives, like building organs or calibrating immune systems. We’ve also briefly seen that some microbes can bestow on their hosts more unusual abilities, from the illuminated camouflage of the bobtail squid to the regenerative skills of the Paracatenula flatworm. Now, we’ll see how other microbe-given superpowers have turned some groups of animals into evolutionary winners, which can digest indigestible foods, withstand inhospitable places, survive fatal meals, and otherwise succeed where other species
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