tiny dracula with a taste for dinosaur blood
Last Updated : GMT 09:03:51
Almaghrib Today, almaghrib today
Almaghrib Today, almaghrib today
Last Updated : GMT 09:03:51
Almaghrib Today, almaghrib today

Ticked off

Tiny 'dracula' with a taste for dinosaur blood

Almaghrib Today, almaghrib today

Almaghrib Today, almaghrib today Tiny 'dracula' with a taste for dinosaur blood

The team could not identify which type of dinosaur the feather had belonged to
Paris - Al Maghrib Today

Dinosaurs, the most fearsome creatures ever to walk the Earth, were bugged already 100 million years ago by a paltry pest that still plagues animals today: the bloodsucking tick, scientists have discovered.

Preserved for eternity in amber, fossilised tree resin, researchers have found a hard tick -- uncannily similar to those we know -- clinging to a 99-million-year-old dinosaur feather, a team wrote in the journal Nature Communications this week
"The discovery is remarkable because fossils of parasitic, blood-feeding creatures directly associated with remains of their host are exceedingly scarce, and the new specimen is the oldest known to date," they said in a statement.

The well-preserved, juvenile insect was less than a millimetre in size, had eight legs, but no eyes.

One of its legs was entangled in the barb of a "pennaceous" feather -- those with a central quill as sported by some dinosaurs and their modern offspring: birds.

The team could not identify which type of dinosaur the feather had belonged to, but dated it to the Cretaceous period some 145 million to 66 million years ago.

"So although we can't be sure what kind of dinosaur the tick was feeding on, the mid-Cretaceous age of the Burmese amber confirms that the feather certainly did not belong to a modern bird, as these appeared much later in... evolution," said study co-author Ricardo Perez-de la Fuente of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.

The fossilised tick provides the first evidence of an early parasitic relationship between ticks and dinos, the team said.

And they found further evidence, though less direct, with the discovery of two specimens of a different tick -- which they named after the fictitious bloodsucker Count Dracula -- also locked up in amber.

These ticks had remains of skin beetle larvae stuck to them. Skin beetles feed in nests, consuming feathers, skin, and hair.

- Is it a bird? -

"And as no mammal hairs have yet been found in Cretaceous amber," the ticks' host was likely to have been a feathered dinosaur, said the team.

The pair of ticks were named Deinocroton draculi from the Greek for "terrible" (deinos) and "tick" (kroton), followed by a nod to Bram Stoker's famous vampire.

"Together, these findings provide direct and indirect evidence that ticks have been parasitising and sucking blood from dinosaurs within the evolutionary lineage leading to modern birds for almost 100 million years," the researchers said.

"While the birds were the only lineage of theropod dinosaurs to survive the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous 66 million years ago, the ticks did not just cling on for survival, they continued to thrive."

Ticks feed off the blood of animals, sometimes transmitting ailments such as Lyme disease, typhus, or tick fever.

The team said whatever remained of the blood the ticks had sucked, would not have preserved any dinosaur DNA.

Source:AFP

almaghribtoday
almaghribtoday

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

tiny dracula with a taste for dinosaur blood tiny dracula with a taste for dinosaur blood

 



Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

tiny dracula with a taste for dinosaur blood tiny dracula with a taste for dinosaur blood

 



Almaghrib Today, almaghrib today Skincare PR Performance Full Year 2017

GMT 09:22 2018 Monday ,22 January

Skincare PR Performance Full Year 2017
Almaghrib Today, almaghrib today New hunt for flight MH370 gets under way

GMT 11:03 2018 Wednesday ,24 January

New hunt for flight MH370 gets under way
Almaghrib Today, almaghrib today Modern colorful bedroom renovation

GMT 10:57 2017 Thursday ,21 December

Modern colorful bedroom renovation
Almaghrib Today, almaghrib today Puigdemont candidate for Catalan president

GMT 13:56 2018 Tuesday ,23 January

Puigdemont candidate for Catalan president
Almaghrib Today, almaghrib today Turkey detains dozens more

GMT 10:47 2018 Wednesday ,24 January

Turkey detains dozens more
Almaghrib Today, almaghrib today The Rake announces editorial updates

GMT 10:46 2018 Tuesday ,16 January

The Rake announces editorial updates
Almaghrib Today, almaghrib today Europe brings on charm and blue skies

GMT 11:51 2018 Tuesday ,23 January

Europe brings on charm and blue skies
Almaghrib Today, almaghrib today For the Variety of Interior Design Styles

GMT 10:46 2017 Tuesday ,19 December

For the Variety of Interior Design Styles
Almaghrib Today, almaghrib today US Christian tourists see deep meaning

GMT 13:44 2018 Monday ,22 January

US Christian tourists see deep meaning
Almaghrib Today, almaghrib today Amazon to open first cashierless shop

GMT 10:03 2018 Tuesday ,23 January

Amazon to open first cashierless shop

GMT 12:50 2017 Friday ,15 September

Fati Jamali received offer to participate

GMT 11:50 2017 Friday ,08 September

Ragheb does not intend to participate in drama

GMT 09:45 2018 Friday ,19 January

Syria threatens to 'destroy' Turkish warplanes

GMT 14:54 2018 Sunday ,07 January

Monfils predicts 'tough' Australian Open

GMT 12:13 2017 Thursday ,24 August

Qamar praises reactions to “Kiss My Lips”

GMT 20:38 2012 Thursday ,08 November

Iraq needs $1 trillion to rebuild

GMT 19:53 2016 Thursday ,13 October

Study: Egypt 'first date fruit producer' in world

GMT 13:33 2016 Thursday ,25 August

European equities slide in choppy trade

GMT 16:06 2011 Monday ,01 August

England lucky as France draw Spain

GMT 11:23 2012 Thursday ,02 February

Facebook files for highly anticipated IPO

GMT 22:19 2017 Thursday ,17 August

Opening of border to Qatari pilgrims welcomed

GMT 10:06 2017 Tuesday ,17 October

Cuba has duty to prevent attacks on US envoys: Trump

GMT 08:19 2017 Friday ,14 April

Nelly Karim in Luxor to stimulate tourism

GMT 09:28 2012 Thursday ,19 April

AD Sports to air UAE football in HD, surround sound

GMT 13:45 2017 Sunday ,30 April

Shraddha Kapoor and Arjun Kapoor in Dubai

GMT 20:13 2017 Wednesday ,27 September

Kuwait’s economic measures provided

GMT 22:30 2017 Friday ,29 September

Official underlines economic improvement

GMT 11:05 2017 Wednesday ,27 December

British navy frigate escorts Russian warship in North Sea
Almaghrib Today, almaghrib today
 
 Almaghrib Today Facebook,almaghrib today facebook  Almaghrib Today Twitter,almaghrib today twitter Almaghrib Today Rss,almaghrib today rss  Almaghrib Today Youtube,almaghrib today youtube  Almaghrib Today Youtube,almaghrib today youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

.almaghribtoday .almaghribtoday .almaghribtoday .almaghribtoday
almaghribtoday almaghribtoday almaghribtoday
almaghribtoday
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
almaghribtoday, Almaghribtoday, Almaghribtoday