European INVADERS? Say what???? Maybe the earthworms came with the Asian INVADERS who came across the ice bridge and spread across this continent, becoming what are called "indigenous" people.

Google key words "earth worms in the new world?" for info. As a descendant of an INVADER, I don't feel worthy of answering your query.

Holy smokes Barb, your asperity is just as displaced as my sense of humor.

Dave Nelson

Glaciers will do that.

fam62.....[head hanging sheepishly] sorry I got so radical over one word. BUT in my defense, wi/o punctuation "", I couldn't detect an attempt at irony/humor. Here in CA the word 'invader' is a polarizing term with layers of meaning. If one even uses the term 'alien species' to describe invasive non-native plantlife, it raises hackles big time.

But ... to the OP ... from what I can see, glaciers are cited as the reason why no earthworms before colonization. But I wonder if there are earthworms in South America, where no glaciers ever were. Also read somewhere that there were no earthworms 'native' to Australia before colonizing from Europe. No glaciers in Aust. for sure. And a lot of the 'experts' are just surmising. I doubt that earthworm populations were noted by nomadic, non-farming populations, so who knows if worms were here before Euro. colonizers.

Many indigenous peoples did farm, including selectively breeding many important food crops we use today. However, few of them used written records of any kind, and oral tradition breaks down when you decimate the library system. Even if their oral histories were completely intact, it is unlikely that they would be taken seriously. Europeans never do.

There was a long time between the ice age and colonization. I feel that if the top soil was sufficiently recovered to support the large native forests and agriculture, there would have been sufficient time for worms to have moved in and repopulated. However the worms brought by the colonists may have displaced the native species.

Besides, most of North America was not covered by glaciers.

Barb

All in good fun, no harm done.

I would not be surprised if, when they get into deeper drilling on Mars they find some sort of worm.

Dave Nelson