Bedbugs Evolved More than 100 Million Years ago - and Walked the Earth with T. Rex:
Bedbugs – some of the most unwanted human bed-mates - have been parasitic companions with other species aside from humans for more than 100 million years, walking the earth at the same time as dinosaurs.
Work by an international team of scientists, including the University of Sheffield, compared the DNA of dozens of bedbug species in order to understand the evolutionary relationships within the group as well as their relationship with humans.
The team discovered that bedbugs are older than bats – a mammal that people had previously believed to be their first host 50-60 million years ago. Bedbugs in fact evolved around 50 million years earlier.
[...] Experts have now discovered that the evolutionary history of bed bugs is far more complex than previously thought and the critters were actually in existence during the time of dinosaurs. More research is needed to find out what their host was at that time, although current understanding suggests it's unlikely they fed on the blood of dinosaurs. This is because bed bugs and all their relatives feed on animals that have a "home" - such as a bird's nest, an owl's burrow, a bat's roost or a human's bed – a mode of life that dinosaurs don't seem to have adopted.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 20 2019, @03:59PM
was probably there to watch the first bedbugs evolve
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 20 2019, @04:06PM
Even bedbugs diss homeless bums.
(Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Monday May 20 2019, @05:59PM
Two of those are descendants of dinosaurs. Also, birds as a group are much older than bats and date back to around 170 million years ago. So birds would have been around for bedbugs to prey upon.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 20 2019, @06:24PM (1 child)
Melania wishes to disagree.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 21 2019, @12:40PM
Melania wants to share her bed with bed-bugs?
Note that "some of the most unwanted bed-mates" doesn't say there aren't more unwanted bed-mates, it only says there are few of them. Or maybe just one.