Yeah finding out that earthworms are an invasive species in North America left me really shookhttps://twitter.com/bug_gwen/status/1226552340133617664 …
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Replying to @AcornFrances
The Ice Age left northern North America worm-free, and the native forests evolved completely differently as a result (with a thick layer of slow-decaying mulch on the floor rather than topsoil as we know it)
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Replying to @arthur_affect @AcornFrances
European farmers inadvertently returned earthworms to the soil when they arrived and totally transformed the ecosystem into a New World/Old World hybrid
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Replying to @arthur_affect
My mind is so blown. I’m a nerd about invasive plants and other insects, but earth worms have not even been close to on that list! The Darwin connection is fascinating too.
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Replying to @AcornFrances
It's a weird cultural parallel Like obviously the original European settlers didn't intentionally bring the worms or have opinions about them But the way the worms changed the soil matches European beliefs about the virtue of plowing and tiling the earth
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This idea that land is useless and barren until it's been broken up into fertile soil by human labor is a cultural bias that's done a lot of harm
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