Discover the oldest insect in the world

Scientists found the corpses of three insects in amber in Italy and they thought they were the oldest insects on earth.

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The chronology of three insect corpses is about 230 million years old, meaning that they were born in the Three Gorges and at the same time as dinosaurs. They consist of two ticks and a fly. Two very small ticks should be very difficult to observe them with their eyes. To find them, David Grimaldi, a researcher from the American Museum of Natural History, and colleagues examined about 70,000 amber drops in northeast Italy, the AP reported.

Two ticks in amber in the northeast
Italy. They belong to two separate ticks. (Photo: AP)

Scientists have discovered some insect carcasses in amber, but three insect carcasses in Italy are at least 100 million years older than they are.

Unlike other fossils in fossils, the dead bodies in amber are much better preserved because they are not compressed. Thus scientists can see many details on their bodies.

"We can compare many parts of the organism since ancient times in amber with living things today," Gramaldi said.

After comparing two ticks in ticks with amber today, Grimaldi found them very similar. The two differences between them are the number of legs and the shape of the mouth. This is what makes them feel surprised, because the earth's ecosystem has changed a lot since the animals in the amber died. When they were alive, the planet had only one continent, some dinosaurs and flowering plants were not born. Today's ticks live on flowering plants, but their ancestors only exist on non-flowering trees.

Derek Briggs, director of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History in the US, describes the discovery of the Gramaldi group as an important event.

"These three insect corpses will help us better understand the evolution of life on Earth , " he commented.