Prof. Dr. Arendt at EMBL Heidelberg has devoted his career to research how the central nervous system aka the brain developed. He and his team do so by examining the marine ​​annelid Platynereis dumerilii, a small worm which came into existence during the Cambrian explosion more than 500 million years ago.


Prof. Dr. Arendt told me that next time I´  m at a European beach (they can be found at any temperate to tropical zone seas) during a new moon I should take a flashlight and look into the sea, I might witness this living fossil procreate. Both male and female worms dissolve during this process.

For them it´  s a once in a lifetime thing, so not just a petit mort but the real one.

Prof. Dr. Arendt at EMBL Heidelberg has devoted his career to research how the central nervous system aka the brain developed. He and his team do so by examining the marine ​​annelid Platynereis dumerilii, a small worm which came into existence during the Cambrian explosion more than 500 million years ago.


Prof. Dr. Arendt told me that next time I´  m at a European beach (they can be found at any temperate to tropical zone seas) during a new moon I should take a flashlight and look into the sea, I might witness this living fossil procreate. Both male and female worms dissolve during this process.

For them it´  s a once in a lifetime thing, so not just a petit mort but the real one.