95 Million-Year-Old Bugs Found in African Amber!!!

[Savwafair2012 Profile]

Newly discovered pieces of amber have given scientists a peek into the Africa of 95 million years ago, when flowering plants blossomed across Earth and the animal world scrambled to adapt.

Suspended in the stream of time were ancestors of modern spiders, wasps and ferns, but the prize is a wingless ant (above) that challenges current notions about the origins of that globe-spanning insect family.

“Most specimens represent a unique fossil record of their group from Africa, and some are among the oldest records in the world,” wrote researchers in a paper April 5 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.



The amber, which is formed when plant resin fossilizes, preserving flora and fauna trapped within, was found in what is now northwest Ethiopia. Ninety-five million years ago, it was part of a disintegrating Gondwana, one of two vast land masses that spawned the seven modern continents.

Most amber deposits have been found in former parts of Laurasia, the other supercontinent of the time. The Gondwana record is relatively sparse.

The amber in the latest study dates to the middle of the Cretaceous era, which followed the dinosaur-dominated Jurassic and witnessed the rise of mammals, birds and flowering plants. Mammals get most of the attention, but changes to flora were just as profound.

Before the Cretaceous, flowering plants — which are now the most diverse type of terrestrial plant — didn’t exist. By the mid-Cretaceous, they dominated the land. Existing plants and animals had to adapt, filling the flowery new niches. The new study is a snapshot of that process.



While it will take years to interpret the ecological tales trapped in the new amber, one important story is already suggested. Inside the Ethiopian amber is an ant that looks nothing like ants found in Cretaceous amber from France and Burma. Those deposits had placed the origin of ants in Laurasia. That’s no longer certain.

“The Ethiopian amber is of great importance for improving our knowledge of the evolutionary history of terrestrial arthropods, plants and Fungi,” wrote the researchers.







Images: Photos From Alexander Schmidt/PNAS: 1) Wingless ant; 2) False fairy wasp; 3) Tree fern; 4) Springtail. Diagram: Breakup of Pangea./USGS.

[Naranja Profile]

Once I found a dead fly on my floor, I estimated it to be atleast 200 billion years old.

[Kingz Profile]

Once I found a dead fly on my floor, I estimated it to be atleast 200 billion years old.

If that was supposed to be humor..... ah well

Cool stuff by the way Sav.... wondering when they are going to implement Jurassic Park style science...

[Lowsix Profile]

Sav that was Killer!
Thanks boss.

[Blacktooth Profile]

the size of the balls on that thing

[Nihilgeist Profile]

Seeing news like this makes me wonder just how much of the animal/plant life existed in the past that we will have no idea about either because we haven't found preserved specimens yet or we never will because they didn't have the rare opportunity of being preserved for us to find.

[Blacktooth Profile]

Seeing news like this makes me wonder just how much of the animal/plant life existed in the past that we will have no idea about either because we haven't found preserved specimens yet or we never will because they didn't have the rare opportunity of being preserved for us to find.

excellent example of sooo many things your absoloutly right

[Hamal67 Profile]

Nice post, this is interesting too.

Fossil hunter finds 140-million-year-old spider's web http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/scie ... s-web.html

[Naranja Profile]

Once I found a dead fly on my floor, I estimated it to be atleast 200 billion years old.

If that was supposed to be humor..... ah well

Cool stuff by the way Sav.... wondering when they are going to implement Jurassic Park style science...

No its true I compared it to an old log I found in my backyard thats also 200 billion years old.....

You see where im getting at? Yes I found it quite funny last night (hilarious actually) but It was more like, they cant be sure of how old stuff are I mean come on pin point 95 million years based on what? Its just "expert" guessing.

They have found petrified wood and fish before that they thought where millions of years old but when using other methods of measuring they found them to be just thousand years old. Who knows?

http://www.howtobuildadinosaur.com/

[jetxvii]

im a tree wizard