Ancient lice trapped in amber 100 million years

Scientists have discovered that a very small lice-like insect today is stuck in amber masses with an intact dinosaur fur.

The findings, published today in Nature Communications, provide the earliest evidence of insects living on dinosaur feathers. 10 lice-like insect corpses cling to two dinosaur feathers in an amber mass dating back 100 million years found in northern Kachin province in Myanmar.

Mesophthirus engeli specimen in amber mass.(Photo: CNN).

The newly discovered insect, named Mesophthirus engeli , reveals the early structure of lice ancestors. M. engeli has no wings and similar body lice. The team found that they chew very well through the traces of a dinosaur fur.

Previously, the earliest hairy-eating insect was thought to be Megamenopon rasnitsyni. Fossils of this lice were excavated in Germany 44 million years ago, according to Chungkun Shih, research author at the Smithsonian Institution's Natural History Museum. The researchers also found evidence of the blood-sucking parasitic insects in the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods between 66 and 201 million years ago.

Thanks to the new discovery, the team determined that fur-eating parasites evolved at the same time as the furry dinosaurs became diverse in the mid-Cretaceous period. M. engeli also has some characteristics that are different from lice today, including the beard and hooked legs.

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