The water flea has genetically adapted to climate change. Biologists from KU Leuven, Belgium, compared 'resurrected' water fleas—hatched from 40-year-old eggs—with more recent specimens. The project was coordinated by Professor Luc De Keester from the Laboratory of Aquatic Ecology, Evolution and Conservation. The water flea Daphnia is a zooplankton organism that is typically found in shallow ponds and lakes. Under normal circumstances, water fleas reproduce asexually: they clone themselves. But in difficult living conditions - during food shortages or heat waves, for instance - they switch to a different type of procreation: they mate and lay dormant eggs. As the...