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Microbes 100M Years Old Found In Termite Guts
viyh writes with coverage on MSNBC of the discovery of ancient microbes fossilized in the gut of a termite. "One hundred million years ago a termite was wounded and its abdomen split open. The resin of a pine tree slowly enveloped its body and the contents of its gut. In what is now the Hukawng Valley in Myanmar, the resin fossilized and was buried until it was chipped out of an amber mine. The resin had seeped into the termite's wound and preserved even the microscopic organisms in its gut. These microbes are the forebears of the microbes that live in the guts of today's termites and help them digest wood. ... The amber preserved the microbes with exquisite detail, including internal features like the nuclei. ... Termites are related to cockroaches and split from them in evolutionary time at about the same time the termite in the amber was trapped."
While Crichton's Jurassic Park did indeed have scientists cloning dinosaurs from blood sucked up by mosquitos now trapped in amber, supplementing the missing portions with amphibian DNA, I've seen that possibility more or less debunked since the novel was published. Much more promising seems the idea of using soft tissues that are by some great luck preserved inside fossils, of which a couple of cases have been publicized in recent years.
One does not simply walk into Myanmar
Sure one does. It's the walking out part that makes for the real trick.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Without the protozoa, the termite would starve. Meanwhile, the protozoa would quickly die outside of the termite, resulting in a relationship of dependence between the animals that scientists call "mutualism."
From the Symbiosis article:
The definition of symbiosis is in flux, and the term has been applied to a wide range of biological interactions. The symbiotic relationship may be categorized as being mutualistic, parasitic, or commensal in nature. Others define it more narrowly, as only those relationships from which both organisms benefit, in which case it would be synonymous with mutualism.
Hmm, live and learn.
One hundred million years ago a termite was wounded and its abdomen split open
That would make a better film than most of the crap out there at the moment.
Heh sounds like the beginning of an 'Alien' sequel.