In the Amber Museum ... primitive lice feeding on the feathers of dinosaurs

Ahmed El-Deeb

In his famous novel "Jurassic Park" writer Michael Crayton imagines the possibility of cloning dinosaurs from the remnants of their blood preserved in the guts of mosquitoes that killed that blood, before being buried for millions of years in the fossilized amber.

But if making cloning like this still falls - at least not yet - under the scope of science fiction, then the idea on which the imagination is based is quite real.

Amber is nothing but a natural organic secretion that came out of a liquid from trees that lived millions of years ago, and held in his heart some of the insects that he met while flowing in his way, then froze with the passage of time to become as a pure gorgeous one of the most beautiful possible coffins, and the most preserved in the burial inside them, and in complete isolation On air, germs and all the decomposers.

Antique lesion
Certainly, the effect of the novel - and of course the movie necessarily - on this generation was enormous, until many of its sons decided to study paleontology and some of them specialized in studying pests that intruded on dinosaurs.

This is the same as the research team of Dr. Chungkun Xie and his colleagues from Capital Normal University in Beijing, who published a study a few days ago in the Nature Communications journal in which he announced the discovery of a new species of insect - much like lice - in Myanmar (Burma), who was found detained in an amber estimated to be one hundred million years old A year, with his feathers fed back dinosaurs.

Dr. Shih says, “The amber specimen that we found was excellent preserved to make us look at these insects as if they were still alive! The likes of these vampire lesions played important roles in our human history, such as the fleas that caused the Black Plague epidemic.” .

Before this discovery was the oldest known louse of science feeding on the feathers of birds that roamed Europe 44 million years ago, but the discovery of the new insect - its scientific name Mizovathras Evangelist - has now opened the door to understanding the natural history of these parasitic insects, which continued a mystery to science for a long time because of the difficulty Find samples saved for them.

Generations and generations
The research team had found ten insects in the stage of nymphs - the length of each is only one fifth of a millimeter - of the same type in two samples of amber, with two feathers of dinosaurs showing the effects of insect loan.

There is a striking resemblance between "M. Evangelist" insects and contemporary lice, from the absence of wings, small eyes, short legs and sensing pods, but there are some differences in the oral parts (which are more complicated for contemporary lice) and in the form of claws at the ends of the legs.

There is another important difference from a behavioral point of view. While most contemporary lice species are known for their strong selection for victims of only one type, but sometimes only for part of the families of other families, it seems that the two feathers found inside the two amber pieces are likely to return to dinosaurs of two different types.

However, the effects of spoilage and nibbling on the plumes are very similar to those of the bites of contemporary lice that specialize in feeding on bird feathers, which suggests that M. Evangelic insects are responsible for the effects on the plumes.

While lice specialized in targeting humans feed on their blood, many other types of lice - including this primitive discovered type - feed on feathers or scales of leather and do not bring blood, which may afflict fans of the "Jurassic Park" with some frustration, but they will still - however - In awe awaited dread deserving of the first dinosaur cloning that humans would venture into.