The fossil mosquito is 46 million years old

Scientists recently discovered fossils of blood-sucking mosquitoes dating back 46 million years ago in a clay plate in northwestern Montana, USA.

According to LiveScience, mosquito fossils have been identified by researchers from 46 million years ago. Mosquitoes are full of blood after taping a bird or a mammal, but then accidentally falling and sinking to the bottom of the lake.

The analysis found organic compounds in hemoglobin, oxygen-transporting proteins in the blood of the mosquito's abdomen in fossil samples.

The bloody fossil mosquito is found in Montana.(Photo: LiveScience)

Fossils were discovered in a clay slab, a type of stone shaped from sediments deposited at the bottom of the lake. Meanwhile, most insect fossils are found in amber, the remains of dry sap, where insects are better preserved.

During the study, Dale Greenwalt, a National Museum of Natural History in Washington, USA, and his colleagues could explore the inner depths of mosquito fossils thanks to bismuth molecules , a type of needle. Heavy types can vaporize the chemicals found in fossils.

The airborne chemicals are then analyzed by a spectrometer, a device that can determine the chemical based on atomic mass. This technique allows the discovery of fossil samples without destroying the specimen as before as the commonly used fossil grinding techniques.

Normally, the discovery of insects that died many years ago is not entirely new. However, the mosquito was discovered not to decompose immediately after death but transformed into fossils and persisted for a long time.

This finding also provides evidence that porphyrins , organic compounds discovered in living organisms from bacteria to humans, are extremely stable, whereby scientists can study the animals and plants have died for a long time.