Paleontologists Found Dino Blood sucking Ticks Trapped in Amber

In a Jurassic Park sort of way, the ticks may very well have sucked dino blood. And Paleontologists have their greasy little paws on the really old ticks that are encased in amber.

Paleontologists have found entombed in amber a 99-million-year-old tick grasping the feather of a dinosaur, providing the first direct evidence that the tiny pests drank dinosaur blood.

Immortalized in the golden gemstone, the bloodsucker’s last supper is remarkable because it is rare to find parasites with their hosts in the fossil record. The finding, which was published Tuesday, gives researchers tantalizing insight into the prehistoric diet of one of today’s most prevalent pests.

www.nytimes.com...


The Paleontologists also found a tick that was engorged with blood making it 8 times it's normal size. They did not include a picture of the fat tick.

They also found one tick that was engorged with blood, making it about eight times larger than its normal size. Dr. Pérez-de la Fuente said it was impossible to determine the host animal for that tick, and alas, he added there was no chance they could perform any Jurassic Park shenanigans by extracting its stolen blood.

My absolute favorite quote of the day:

" the feather of a dinosaur "

Knowledge is power.

Oh no.....they wouldn'tsurelynot........

you see....life,............ findsaway

a reply to: seasonal

I thought a Paleontologists' paws would be more dusty than greasy.

a reply to: GBP/JPY

Nah the DNA will have degraded to nothing useful long long LONG ago.

The oldest DNA recorded was found in Greenland ice, and estimated to be between 450,000 and 800,000 years old.

Wow it took this to provide them evidence that ancient ticks sucked blood? Simply Cosmic intellect... SMH. Bet they'll really be upset to find the blood they sucked is also fossilized.
a reply to: seasonal

a reply to: Tundra

Yes, dusty or dirty.

originally posted by: seasonal
a reply to: Tundra

Yes, dusty or dirty.

And sometimes muddy.

originally posted by: Tundra
a reply to: seasonal

I thought a Paleontologists' paws would be more dusty than greasy.

Depends.
Were they eating chicken wings?

originally posted by: SecretsoftheBlueApples
Wow it took this to provide them evidence that ancient ticks sucked blood? Simply Cosmic intellect... SMH. Bet they'll really be upset to find the blood they sucked is also fossilized.
a reply to: seasonal

Gah even 99 million years ago they were dealing with those little bastards. I can handle a lot of things spiders don't bother me, I'm fine with most bugs, snakes and pretty much most animals. But ticks freak me out. The way the burrow in and drain you and their #ing heads stay inside if you pull them out and get infected. Then there's the fact they can give you lyme disease, just from an innocent walk through the grass or forest.

I don't care how long it was in amber. I would still burn it just to be safe.

originally posted by: SecretsoftheBlueApples
Wow it took this to provide them evidence that ancient ticks sucked blood? Simply Cosmic intellect... SMH. Bet they'll really be upset to find the blood they sucked is also fossilized.
a reply to: seasonal

I bet they won’t be upset over that, I bet they were absolutely expecting it to be. SMH

You can go to the Tucson Gem & Mineral show and see so much amber with insects in them, it will astound you. All for sale, small and huge pieces, with every type of insect embedded in them.

Millions of years old, All fossilized, and thus no retrievable DNA.

i am waiting for that " someone " to claim :

the existance of 100 million YO blood sucking ticks falsifies evolution

I never knew ticks were around that long. If they had gone extinct, then or now, they'd never be missed. I hate ticks, next season it's my mission to do everything I can to eradicate them around my property. They are so tough I'd believe it if they cracked open the amber and it crawled out searching for more victims. The only good tick is a dead tick, period.

originally posted by: MichiganSwampBuck
I never knew ticks were around that long. If they had gone extinct, then or now, they'd never be missed. I hate ticks, next season it's my mission to do everything I can to eradicate them around my property. They are so tough I'd believe it if they cracked open the amber and it crawled out searching for more victims. The only good tick is a dead tick, period.

Guinea hens will get the ticks. But they are a little noisy.

a reply to: seasonal

This is cool, but I think I should point out that even IF it were possible to clone a dinosaur, you'd never be able to do it from the blood pulled from those tics. What was ignored in JP was that those mosquitoes they were using to clone dinosaurs would have sucked blood from more than one dinosaur, mixing up the dna.

a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

Bugs and bug like animals are some of the oldest animals in the world.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

Maybe more than one dino.

a reply to: seasonal

It would be a dino cronenburg nightmare.