Leeches ... actually do something :)

A fossil of the ancient leech Macromyzon, with its sucker at the bottom.
Credit...Andrew Wendruff

In looking at this ancient ancestor of the leech family, one sees indirect reference to the pols of this once great nation known as America as they are worse as they do nothing, parasitize money from us in doing nothing and endlessly hump for reelection as that is the only thing they actually care about doing while doing nothing in "working" in our behalf 24/7. :)

If you look around Waukesha County in Wisconsin today, it can be difficult to imagine a tropical coastline teeming with trilobites, the oldest known scorpions and jawless vertebrates. But 437 million years ago, during the Silurian period, these creatures lived and died there, some getting washed into a salty cove and entombed under mats of microbes. Soft-bodied species were preserved in remarkable detail, with some retaining traces of eyes, guts and even hearts.

A team of scientists recently described the region’s latest fossil find: the oldest known species of leech. In a paper published Wednesday in the journal PeerJ, scientists say the parasitic worm pushes back the origins of these organisms by at least 200 million years. They also highlighted its remarkable powers of suction and surprising appetite for prey.

Hirudo medicinalis sucking blood

But at least leeches do something, right? :)