Under the clinical sterility of glassware, life can do some rather curious things. Whether such behaviors are exclusive to laboratory environments or represent a common survival strategy is often a topic for heated debate.

One bizarre activity glimpsed in past lab experiments has now been recorded under natural conditions, proving once and for all that some worm species will construct towers from their own squirming bodies to catch a ride out of town when the going gets tough.

Positioning a digital microscope over rotting fruit, researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Germany watched the itty-bitty scavengers feed until it was time to migrate to greener pastures by climbing atop one another and stretching for the sky.

"I was ecstatic when I saw these natural to

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