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Huge Jurassic Fleas May Have Fed On Dinosaurs
ananyo writes "Primitive fleas were built to sup on dinosaur blood in the Jurassic period, more than 150 million years ago. The potential host–parasite relationship has been uncovered thanks to a set of beautifully preserved fossils found in China. Today, the varied group of parasitic insects known as fleas frequently infests mammals and birds. But little is known about their origins. Researchers have now extended the history of the parasites by at least 60 million years. Whereas modern fleas range from 1 to 10 millimeters in length, the Jurassic and Cretaceous species were between 8 and 21 millimeters. The Jurassic and Cretaceous fleas also lacked the spring-legged, jumping specializations of modern species, and their siphoning mouthparts were armored structures studded with saw-like projections, unlike the smooth jaws of modern fleas."
Is there anything from that era that wasn't super sized? Are the Q slowly changing the gravitational constant of the universe over time? TELL ME!
I bet Fred Flintstone spent a fortune on Dino Advantix II
...finding some of those fleas trapped in amber, harvest the dino DNA therein, clone a zoo of dinos, and start an amusement park off the coast of Costa Rica. What could possibly go wrong?
But I'm more amazed at the fact that there's a freakin' picture with the article.
Written as "huge" I was expecting 8 to 21 cm not 8 to 21 mm. Sooo unimpressed.
I'm told you guys in Florida have cockroaches the size of dachshunds, that kind of scale is what I was expecting.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Smaller is more competitive; everything shrunk as resources dwindled. In the future, we'll all be 3' high...
You think that's bad. You haven't seen NY Bedbugs. Sure, they look like a normal bedbug. But these guys really take in blood. When finished, they waddle off the size of a basketball and still manage to ninja themselves out of site. You know you've been bitten when you feel light headed. But you know what the worst part of it is? You don't get paid for that "blood donation" and they always come back for more.
Life is not for the lazy.
I heard one got hired and worked for the Port Authority for a week before someone noticed.
Were any of these fleas preserved in amber?
Big fleas have little fleas
upon their backs to bite 'em;
and little fleas have lesser fleas,
and so, ad infinitum.
In Jurassic Pangaea, pancakes eat you!
Can't remember the name of the story, but (much like Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder", though in a humorous vein) it involved a time traveler going back to hunt T-Rexes. He shoots and kills one, then strides towards the T-Rex to take a trophy...only to be met by a multitude of large external parasites abandoning the T-Rex and looking for a new host. Doesn't end well for the hunter. Anyone remember the name of this story?
And, yeah, 21 mm may not sound like much, but think of dealing with a horde of inch-long fleas, and that may bring a different image to mind. ..bruce..
Bruce F. Webster (brucefwebster.com)
You're thinking of "Poor Little Warrior" by Brian Aldiss. One of my favorites.
But it wasn't humorous at all. The protagonist is in a severe depression, not sure he wants to live, and tries this time safari to snap out of it.
After he shoots the brontosaur, its parasites swarm him, snipping off his fingers, shredding his chest, etc. It takes a minute or two for him to die. Very nasty. Not really funny. But a good story.
The paper's authors are listed as Huang, then Engel, and others. Keeping in mind that the specimens were found in China. Yet this story somehow describes the authorship as "Engel and others". Huh.
Brian Aldiss I believe.
Those are shit parasites. The first rule of being a parasite is you don't kill your host. The second rule is that you can break the first rule, but only if you've got another host lined up.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
The Ex-Wife.
... am glad I haven't seen any obligatory "overlords" posts for this story.
Oh, wait.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
Let's take some dinosaur blood from the fossil and merge its DNA with African frog DNA and we'll make the greatest petting zoo in the world!
are alive and well and now feed off our stock markets and banking sector.
... what happened to these massive parasites, apparently they evolved into Chris Dodd.
Hey, they had a host lined up, but their assumption that whatever killed the Tyrannosaur would be big enough for them was off. Give them a break, they're bugs!
The enemies of Democracy are
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Can't remember the name of the story, but (much like Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder", though in a humorous vein) it involved a time traveler going back to hunt T-Rexes. He shoots and kills one, then strides towards the T-Rex to take a trophy...only to be met by a multitude of large external parasites abandoning the T-Rex and looking for a new host. Doesn't end well for the hunter. Anyone remember the name of this story?
And, yeah, 21 mm may not sound like much, but think of dealing with a horde of inch-long fleas, and that may bring a different image to mind. ..bruce..
I think it's "Poor Little Warrior!" by Brian Aldiss. It was the first thing I thought of, too.
-Gareth
"Whereas modern fleas range from 1 to 10 millimeters in length ..."
Whoa, 1cm sounds pretty darned big for a flea. That's about the same size as a typical bee. Wikipedia says fleas reach up to 3.3mm which seems more reasonable to me.
Anybody know of a modern-day flea species that actually reaches 10mm? (What do they live on, elephants?)
I think somebody dropped a decimal point somewhere. .04 to .4 inches.
10 mm = 1 cm = . 4 inches ! ! ? ?
So 1 to 10 mm would be a range of
Where can you find a flea that is almost half an inch?
According to the wiki site, "Fleas are 1.5 to 3.3 mm long/"
Link here
Thanks -- you're right. It's "Poor Little Warrior" (1958) by Brian Aldiss. I suspect it was a tongue-in-cheek response to Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder" (1952).
Bruce F. Webster (brucefwebster.com)