This all takes place within six hours.

These findings are the latest in a growing collection of studies that confirm an ever-expanding roster of wildlife eats microplastics and smaller particles known as nanoplastics. That research, in turn, has raised questions—so far unanswered­—about potential effects on the food chain, and to human health.

What’s different and new is that this project attempts to get beyond documenting consumption and begin to understand the consequences for the wildlife whose diet now includes regular samplings of plastic. The surprise discovery was the rapid speed with which plastic particles spread across most major organs of the body.

The research team was led by the University of Plymouth in southeast England and involved scientists in Scotland and Canada. The