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The comparative genomics study between earthworms and their marine relatives reveals that sea worms broke their genome into a thousand pieces to rebuild it in a radically different way when they set foot on dry land 200 million years ago. The study, published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, could challenge Darwin's theory of evolution, by showing that these worms colonized land according to evolution by leaps and bounds. The group led by Aurora Ruiz-Herrera (IBB-UAB) is participating in this work that has been led by the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE), a joint center of the Spanish National Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) and the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF).