Summary
30 August 2012
Scientists say they've found the oldest bugs of their type ever preserved in fossilised tree resin, in the Alps of northern Italy. The finding by an international team of researchers has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
Reporter:
Mark Duff
New species of ancient mites were found in 230-million-year-old amber droplets.
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Report
High in the Dolomites of northeastern Italy, Italian researchers chipping away at rocks formed more than 200 million years ago found two miniscule mites and a fly preserved in tiny drops of amber. Highly-magnified photographs of the creatures show the mites, in particular, to be perfectly preserved. At 230 million years old, they're about 100 million years older than the oldest previous find of their kind.
The bugs probably fed off the leaves of the tree in whose resin they were eventually preserved. Researchers say the discovery shows the mites' ability to adapt to changing evolutionary conditions. For film lovers, though, it has striking echoes of the Stephen Spielberg blockbuster, Jurassic Park, in which a team of scientists use the DNA of a mosquito preserved in amber to recreate dinosaurs with predictably terrifying results.
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Vocabulary
- chipping away at
knocking off bits of (rocks)
- miniscule
very very small
- preserved
maintained in its original state
- magnified
close-up
- resin
sticky flammable organic substance
- adapt
adjust, cope with
- striking echoes
close similarities
- predictably
expected
