Dinosaurs had fleas too _ giant ones, fossils show

AP ^ | Feb 29, 1:16 PM EST | SETH BORENSTEIN 
AP Science Writer

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- In the Jurassic era, even the flea was a beast, compared to its minuscule modern descendants. These pesky bloodsuckers were nearly an inch long.

New fossils found in China are evidence of the oldest fleas - from 125 million to 165 million years ago, said Diying Huang of the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology. Their disproportionately long proboscis, or straw-like mouth, had sharp weapon-like serrated edges that helped them bite and feed from their super-sized hosts

AP Photo/D. Huang

But Engel said it's not just the size that was impressive about the nine flea fossils. It was their fearsome beak capable of sticking into and sucking blood from the hides of dinosaurs

These flea beaks "had almost like a saw running down the side," Engel said. "This thing was packing a weapon. They were equipped to dig into something."

Just finding the fleas was a stroke of luck, He first found one in a Chinese fossil market and mentioned it to someone at his hotel. The other guest showed him a photo of another fossilized flea, telling him it was from Daohugou in northeastern China. Huang went there and found fleas preserved in a brownish film of volcanic ash. The grains of rock were so fine you could see antennae and other details of the fleas, he said.

It shouldn't seem too surprising that there were large fleas more than 100 million years ago. If you go back even farther in time, ancestors of dragonflies and damsel flies had 3-foot wingspans, Engel said.

[PapaBear3625]

It shouldn't seem too surprising that there were large fleas more than 100 million years ago. If you go back even farther in time, ancestors of dragonflies and damsel flies had 3-foot wingspans, Engel said.

Insects do not have lungs. Reparation is accomplished using trachial tubes, which sets an upper limit on the size of an insect. For these giant insects to get enough oxygen, it implies that the Jurassic period had a more oxygen-rich atmosphere than today.

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It does make one wonder just how much of the atmosphere a Chicxulub sized asteroid impact can blow off into space...