Hacker News Reader

North America did not have an extensive earthworm ecology like Eurasia even though they had some worms. They are an invasive animal[0] brought from Europe that creates problems for the many North American plants and ecosystems not adapted to the pervasive effects of such worms. The worms you find in soil are largely non-native.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasive_earthworms_of_North_A...

View on HN

That is the spiel from academics on the publish or perish treadmill. Fossil burrows of the same form as the European worms exist in North America. Worms were also maintained to the south of the ice cover so it is disingenuous to declare that all North American worms are nonnative.

Pressure to publish = dismiss any academic claim without evidence? No

> it is disingenuous to declare that all North American worms are nonnative.

Nobody made that claim. That's the strawman you chose to argue against instead.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com