Diverse structural-colored insects in mid-Cretaceous amber from northern Myanmar. [Credit: NIGPAS]
Posted on 07/06/2020 10:38:34 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
To understand how and why color is preserved in some amber fossils but not in others, and whether the colors seen in fossils are the same as the ones insects paraded more than 99 million years ago, the researchers used a diamond knife blades to cut through the exoskeleton of two of the colorful amber wasps and a sample of normal dull cuticle.
Using electron microscopy, they were able to show that colorful amber fossils have a well-preserved exoskeleton nanostructure that scatters light. The unaltered nanostructure of colored insects suggested that the colors preserved in amber may be the same as the ones displayed by them in the Cretaceous. But in fossils that do not preserve color, the cuticular structures are badly damaged, explaining their brown-black appearance.
What kind of information can we learn about the lives of ancient insects from their color? Extant cuckoo wasps are, as their name suggests, parasites that lay their eggs into the nests of unrelated bees and wasps. Structural coloration has been shown to serve as camouflage in insects, and so it is probable that the color of Cretaceous cuckoo wasps represented an adaptation to avoid detection. "At the moment we also cannot rule out the possibility that the colors played other roles besides camouflage, such as thermoregulation," adds Dr. CAI.
(Excerpt) Read more at eurekalert.org ...
Diverse structural-colored insects in mid-Cretaceous amber from northern Myanmar. [Credit: NIGPAS]
“... may be the same as the ones displayed by them in the Cretaceous”
Yeah, just like evolution “may be”. That’s all evolutionary scientists have. A bunch of may be.
Jeff Goldblum Is in there somewhere.
It’s AOC! Miss Zanti Misfit’’.
99 million years in a ball!
99 million years!
Take one down and slice it around,
98 million years in a ball.............
Hey, no shortcuts -- 98,999,999 years in a ball, 98,999,999 years...
I think he's on the phone, asking what his mantra is.
A million here, a million there, and pretty soon your talking about real time.....................
In most cases thats a symptom the phone cord is plugged in below the belt.
Black exoskeletons matter!
Uh, the preferred term is 'Cretaceous insect exoskeletons" ...
What a racist statement. The word “insect” is a micro aggression that triggers my fears of the white Patriarchy.
Not to mention “cretaceous” which is obviously ageism.
Never could figure out how those Alien Ant Like Creatures could build Interstellar Spaceships without having Opposable Thumbs.
Opposable antennae.
LOL.
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