Try Not To Catch Face Cancer From An Endangered Tasmanian Devil!

“Biologists first encountered the cancer in the late 1990s. The tumors grew on the devils’ faces or inside their mouths, and within six months the animals were dead. The first cases appeared in eastern Tasmania, and with each passing year the cancer’s range expanded westward. When scientists examined the cells in the tumors, they got a baffling surprise. The DNA from each tumor did not match the Tasmanian devil on which it grew. Instead, it matched the tumors on other devils. That meant that the cancer was contagious, spreading from one animal to another.”
 — Nature, in all its weird and terrifying glory, is killing off the already endangered Tasmanian Devils with contagious face cancer. The disease hasn’t yet jumped to humans, yet.

Photo by variationblogr.