Comic #2277: 2011-08-08

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Description

Here is a detailed description of the comic:

1. Panel 1:
   • Background: Illustration of a horn snail with a large yellow circle in its shell.
   • Text: "The trematode infects a horn snail, castrates it, and uses its body to reproduce."
2. Panel 2:
   • Background: Close-up of a killifish with a yellow circle on the side of its head.
   • Text: "There, it releases cercariae, which attach to killifish and burrow toward their brains."
3. Panel 3:
   • Background: A group of fish, one of which is shimmying and flashing its shiny sides upwards.
   • Characters: Two fish with dialogue bubbles.
   • Fish 1: "Why you doin' that, Frank?"
   • Fish 2: "Because it's awesome."
4. Panel 4:
   • Background: Illustration of a bird swooping down toward a killifish.
   • Text: "This gets the parasite to its ultimate goal: the gut of a predatory bird."
   • Dialogue: "What are the odds?"
5. Panel 5:
   • Background: Scene of the bird excreting something into the water.
   • Text: "From there, they are excreted back into the water to infect snails."
   • Dialogue: "Hahahaha! Everything is as I foresaw it."
6. Panel 6:
   • Background: A collage of various animals and insects.
   • Text: "What happens to the killifish isn’t strange in nature. In fact, it may be common."
7. Panel 7:
   • Background: Two characters discussing under a cosmic backdrop.
   • Characters: One person with a blue shirt and glasses; the other with darker skin.
   • Text: "Since humans are atop their food chain, it’s not clear that we’re subject to the same sort of manipulations… though sometimes I wonder about astrophysicists."
   • Dialogue: First character: "These send signals to space so aliens can find us!"
   • Second character: "Awesome!"

This description focuses on visual elements, dialogues, and key actions in each panel, making it accessible to readers with different needs.