Blood old 46 million years in the fossil mosquito - TF1

class=”title SZ11 c7″> Mosquito (archives) / Credits: TF1/LCI

Hemoglobin was preserved for 46 million years. American entomologists announced Monday the discovery of a novel mosquito fossilized with blood in his abdomen, absorbed in his last meal back to those early days. No question as to the remake of Jurassic Park , since the dinosaurs died there 65 million years.
The animal came from a sedimentary layer a former lake northwest Montana USA . “This is the first fossil of a mosquito yet full of blood ever found,” said Dale Greenwalt, a retired biochemist working at the Museum of Natural History in Washington and lead author of the discovery, published in the Proceedings the American Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
The oldest fossil mosquito back 95 million years to a time when dinosaurs were still on the planet, but it did not contain blood, said the scientist.
Although 14,000 species of insects feed on blood, including ticks, fleas and mosquitoes, there has been virtually no fossils discovered testifying this mode of supply in the history of evolution. Only four fossil specimens have been found in which parasites sleeping sickness (trypanosome) and malaria (Plasmodium) indicate that these insects fed on blood.
Makers very high iron

A spectrometric analysis to nuclear magnetic resonance polarization, preserving the mosquito, has revealed that his abdomen contained very high levels of iron that was the source of porphyrin molecules which enter into the composition of the blood.
These data confirm the existence of the preservation of complex biomolecules in fossil for very long periods, the researchers said. They also note that other large fragile molecules such as DNA generally do not survive fossilization.
This discovery also helps to extend the life of this family of insects to at least 46 million years. The fossil mosquito containing blood was found in the collection of an American entomologist dating back 25 years ago and donated to the Museum of Natural History in Washington, said Dale Greenwalt.