Interesting article about 99 million year old lice

Introvertebrate

Arachnoprince
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Interesting. I once read an article stating that the reason invertebrates were so big in prehistoric times (dragonflies with 28" wingspans, etc.) was due to the atmosphere having a higher oxygen content than it has now.
 

Poonjab

Arachnoking
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Interesting. I once read an article stating that the reason invertebrates were so big in prehistoric times (dragonflies with 28" wingspans, etc.) was due to the atmosphere having a higher oxygen content than it has now.
Second this. I too have heard the same theory.
 

The Snark

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I bumped across several articles a while back that were essentially 'if you can't find intact animal tissues, find their parasites which will have evolved in accordance with them' The parasites being much hardier and more numerous than the hosts.
 

schmiggle

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This is really interesting! I would have expected lice to evolve well after the K/T boundary, but here they are. I wonder if they jumped from mammals to dinosaurs or vice versa. I'm going to try to find a date for the separation that relies on DNA
 

The Snark

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I would have expected lice to evolve well after the K/T boundary, but here they are. I wonder if they jumped from mammals to dinosaurs or vice versa.
Since lice aren't obligatory parasites like fleas or mosquitoes, the K-T doesn't seem to present an insurmountable barrier.
 

sschind

Arachnobaron
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My mother in law used to tell stories about how she used to watch these lice get trapped in the amber when she was a little girl.
 
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