Discover the ancient fossil fly 'vampire'

Scientists have published fossils of bat flies, small 'vampire' insects that rely on the blood of bats and then transmit malaria at least 20 million years ago, Live Science magazine (USA). ) reported.

Scientists say the bat fly fossils were discovered in an amber (dated to about 20-30 million years) from the La Búcara mine in the Cordillera Septentrional mountain range (Dominican Republic, Caribbean region). Bats fly only leave bats during mating season and in this case, a bat flies inadvertently trapped in the sticky resin of the tree and preserved to this day.

Bats fly fossils are preserved in amber.

'Bat fly is a special case of evolution, it depends on bats and this case is not found anywhere else in the world,' said the zoologist George Poinar. This study, working at Oregon State University (USA), said.

'Bats are mammals that lived about 50 million years ago, they know how to actually fly and the earliest bat species on earth have claws and know how to climb trees. We believe bat flies suck blood at least for half of the time. Bat flies live in bat feathers, the structure of bat flies is flat and flattened like fleas, allowing them to move easily between bat feathers , 'Poinar said.

According to the journal Science Daily , flies fly the malaria epidemic, providing more evidence that malaria has been raging 20 million years ago. The bat fly genus found in this study is now extinct.