Regina G. Barber

Sometimes researchers get clues that only give a small portion of the whole mystery.

And like the world's greatest detective, Batman, karma had to deal with a mysterious character.

But in this case, it was a fossil that nobody could figure out.

They did have a name for it, though.

The Riddler.

Like the Batman villain.

Karma's detective skills even helped a mystery outside of his specialty.

A few years ago, while at the University of Toronto, he stumbled upon some fossils that he suspected could be a rare first.

At first, his colleagues didn't think he was onto something.

Then after looking deeper into specimens from the same dig site, they realized...

That's Danielle DeKarl, a paleontologist at the University of Toronto.

Together with her and Karma on today's show, we get into an ancient haunt, parasites.

We talk about what the Riddler tells us about the power of parasites through the ages and why breakthroughs in our fossil record may be tucked away in a basement.

I'm Regina Barber, and you're listening to Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR.

All right, for the lowdown on these creepies, these parasites this Halloween season, our dynamic duo is Carmen Nenglu and Danielle DeCarl.

Danielle, let's start with the basics.

What are the qualifications for being a parasite?

Yeah.

OK, so I've heard of a few kinds of parasite fossils, like the ones that live on other organisms and steal their food.

Like what kinds of parasites can be found in these fossil records?