Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday December 13 2017, @12:03PM   Printer-friendly
from the jurassic-park-2.0 dept.

Fossil evidence suggests that feathered dinosaurs were infested with ticks:

Feathered dinosaurs were covered in ticks just like modern animals, fossil evidence shows. Parasites similar to modern ticks have been found inside pieces of amber from Myanmar dating back 99 million years. One is entangled with a dinosaur feather, another is swollen with blood, and two were in a dinosaur nest.

Scientists say the discovery, which has echoes of Jurassic Park, is the first direct fossil evidence that ticks fed on the blood of dinosaurs. The research is published in the journal, Nature Communications. "Ticks parasitised feathered dinosaurs; now we have direct evidence of it," co-researcher Dr Ricardo PĂ©rez-de la Fuente of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History told BBC News. "This paper represents a very good example of the kind of detailed information that can be extracted from amber fossils."

Prototicks? On my nanoraptors?

Also at Science Magazine, NYT, and NPR.

Parasitised feathered dinosaurs as revealed by Cretaceous amber assemblages (open, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-01550-z) (DX)


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by pkrasimirov on Wednesday December 13 2017, @01:11PM

    by pkrasimirov (3358) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday December 13 2017, @01:11PM (#609201)

    I'm sure somebody will use DNA analysis to prove ancestry and proudly put it in their law-firm title, like "Consulting since -99M BC".

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2