News Animals

Vinegar eels can synchronize swim

Confined to a water droplet, nematodes displayed an ability rare in the animal kingdom

image of a swarming ball of vinegar eels

As vinegar eels (pictured) mob together, they synchronize their wiggling, which forms collective waves that cascade through the swarm.

Anton Peshkov

By Nikk Ogasa

Trapped within a bead of water, thousands of tiny worms wiggle in hypnotic synchrony as they stream around the globule’s rim. And at the center of this undulating gyre some of the creatures congregate into a writhing mass, like the pupil of a demonic eye.