Dubbed a “living fossil” by researchers, the Yao silkworm has been domesticated in virtual isolation for a millennium by the Baiku Yao ethnic group in China. New genetic research on the strain finds that the Yao silkworm (larvae shown here) is a primitive form of the domestic silkworm species Bombyx mori and more distantly related to other wild silkworm species. (Photo courtesy of Yan-Qun Liu, Ph.D.)