The tick sucks dead blood stuck in amber 100 million years

The amber piece found in Myanmar is the only fossil of the blood sucking tick, wrapped in spider web.

A group of scientists at the University of Kansas discovered that the body sucked blood in amber from the Cretaceous period in Myanmar, Fox News reported on June 18. This is the oldest blood-sucking tick fossil and the only piece of amber to date that keeps the carcasses caught by spiders.

The two sides of the piece of amber contain veins sucking blood.(Photo: University of Kansas).

Through research, experts say the tick caught the spider web 100 million years ago. The spider covered the struggling animal with many layers of silk. After that, the sap flowed down, confined it in an airtight sphere and gradually hardened into amber.

Determine the sucking blood kept in special amber rare.Amber is a fossilized resin, so the organism wrapped inside is usually a tree that lives in the stump. Meanwhile, ticks often stick grass on the ground for easy access to the host and suck blood.

The team determined the tick belongs to the Ixodidae family, carrying a hard crust on its back to protect the body. Inside the amber, it is covered by many threads. Mushroom growth can also produce thin silk, but the branching pattern of silk makes them think that they are released by spiders.

Scientists are not sure whether spiders catch blood to eat or not. Some species today eat blood, but the spider is not stuck in the amber. Therefore, it is impossible to know which spider is exactly. Another possibility is that the spider mites suck blood to make it immobile and not destroy the network.