A remarkable collection of insects and a spider web encased in amber from 112 million years ago has been discovered in quarries within the Amazon rainforest.
Xavier Delclòs from the University of Barcelona, along with his team, learned that amber—resulting from fossilized tree resin—had been unearthed from the Genobeva quarry in eastern Ecuador’s Oriente Basin, prompting them to investigate the site in 2022.
The amber from this region is believed to originate from the resin of coniferous trees from the Araucaria family, prominent when modern-day Ecuador was part of the ancient Gondwana Supercontinent.
Amber deposits are sourced from two primary origins: the tree crown and the roots. Substances from the ground may entrap remnants of insects and other organisms in resin, later turning into amber—a process known as Bioin Crucion.
While most amber found in the quarry originated from underground sources, during initial diggings, the team collected 60 notable pieces of ground amber for further study in the lab.
Over a third of these specimens showcased the bioencapsulation of various insects, plants, and even spider webs, dating back to the Cretaceous period, particularly from the Mozazo era. “This is the first time [Mesozoic] amber with insects and spider biopackages has been discovered in South America, and they are certainly new species,” states Delclòs.
The insect specimens included diverse species of flies, bees, beetles, and mosquitoes. All thrived in a humid forest environment during the age of dinosaurs, likely near abundant lakes, rivers, and marshes necessary for some species’ life cycles.
Polypore beetle encased in amber discovered in Ecuador
Enrique Peñalver
Visitors to the site are definitely advised to use insect repellent. “And perhaps look for a way to avoid encounters with carnivorous dinosaurs,” he humorously suggests.
“Some mosquitoes exhibit blood-feeding behavior, implying that they at one time relied on vertebrate blood, possibly from birds or non-avian dinosaurs,” he notes.
However, the dinosaur DNA that mosquitoes may have ingested from amber is likely compromised by the chemical properties of resin. “We cannot recreate a Jurassic Park from Cretaceous amber, certainly not with current techniques,” Delclòs remarks.
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A recently identified giant stick insect species, discovered in the wet tropical rainforests of Australia, is poised to be recognized as the heaviest insect ever recorded on the continent.
Acrofera Alta weighs 44 grams, roughly equivalent to a golf ball, and measures around 40 cm in length. To date, only two female specimens have been collected, with a third individual photographed and released by surprised locals.
The genus of these insects has been known since 1835, yet this particular species remained hidden from scientific discovery, likely due to its elusive habitat, according to Angus Emmott from James Cook University in Townsville, Australia.
The lush, damp tropics of northeastern Australia serve as a pristine wilderness, rich with cool rainforests and home to other rare species like tree kangaroos.
So far, Acrofera Alta has only been found in tree canopies above 900 meters, specifically in the mountainous regions of Millaa Millaa and Mount Phypipamee in Queensland.
The species name Alta reflects both the altitude of the forests it inhabits and the height of the trees it commonly frequents.
“It has very large wings, but due to its bulky body, it can only use them to glide down to the ground,” Emmott explains.
Current population status remains uncertain. “We can’t really determine its rarity,” Emmott states. “It’s limited to small stretches of high-altitude rainforests and exists primarily in the canopy, making it less visible to observers unless they survive being affected by cyclones and birds.”
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Paleontologists have identified a new genus and species of whitefly from fossils found in Miocene crater lake deposits at Hindon Mar, near Dunedin, Otago, South Island, New Zealand.
Close-up of two small pupae Miotetraleurodes novaezelandiae It is attached to the leaves of angiosperms. Image credit: Drohojowska others., doi: 10.1007/s12549-024-00628-z.
Adult whiteflies are small insects about 3 mm in size, and immatures are even smaller.
The fossil discovered at Hindon Maar is approximately 1.5mm x 1.25mm and was preserved by pasting it on the back of a fossilized leaf.
It has a black, oval body and has some similarities with modern whiteflies, such as shape and color, but differs in that all parts of the body are clearly defined by deep sutures.
“Fossils of adult whiteflies are not uncommon, but unusual circumstances are required for the pupa (the protective shell in which the insect emerges) to become fossilized,” says palaeontologist at the University of Göttingen and former postdoctoral researcher at the University of Göttingen. says Dr. Uwe Kaulfus. University of Otago.
“About 15 million years ago, the pupal leaves must have been torn off the tree, blown into a small lake, sunk to the deep lake bed, become covered in sediment, and become fossils.”
“It must have happened in quick succession because the fossils of the small insects are so well preserved.”
“The new genera and species described in our study are Miotetraleurodes novaezelandiaerevealed for the first time that whitefly insects were an ecological component of ancient forests in the South Island. ”
“It was difficult to see much with the naked eye, but when we looked at the fossils under a microscope we could see amazing details,” said Emeritus Professor Daphne Lee from the University of Otago.
“The fact that they are still alive on leaves is incredible and extremely rare.”
“These small fossils are the first of their kind to be found in New Zealand, and only the third pupa fossil of this type known worldwide.”
“These new discoveries from the Otago fossil site are an important contribution to our understanding of New Zealand's past biodiversity and forest ecosystem history. It means we have a new appreciation for the importance of it.”
“Most people are interested in big fossils, big charismatic fossils, but most of the animals in the forest are insects.”
“New Zealand is home to 14,000 insect species, 90% of which are found nowhere else in the world.”
“The discovery of these tiny fossils shows that this insect group has been present in Aotearoa New Zealand for at least 15 million years.”
“This provides a well-dated calibration point for molecular phylogenetic studies.”
of study Published in a magazine Paleobiodiversity and paleoenvironment.
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J. Drohojovska others. The first Miocene whiteflies and parrots (Hemiptera: Sternorrhyncha: Aleyrodoidea and Psylloidea) from Aotearoa, New Zealand. Paleobio Paleoembupublished online on October 1, 2024. doi: 10.1007/s12549-024-00628-z
The plant produces a juicy, sweet fruit with a secret seed inside, which entices fruit-eating mammals like toucans, flying foxes, and orangutans to take a bite.
As these animals travel and digest their meals, they pass the fruit seeds through their waste. This method has helped plants that cannot move disperse seeds over larger areas.
This process has been crucial for ecosystems for a long time, but recent research indicates that insects and invertebrates also play a significant role in seed dispersal.
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Ants are the most well-known seed-dispersing insects, spreading seeds from plants containing special oil bodies called elaiosomes. These seeds are then carried to ant nests, where the ants eat the elaiosomes and discard the seeds either on the surface or deep underground.
Other insects are also thought to aid in seed dispersal, particularly for non-green plants that parasitize other plants or consume fungi for nutrients.
For example, small woodlice distribute seeds from parasitic bell-shaped plants, helping in the growth of new plants.
In New Zealand, researchers found that wetter crickets help in the dispersal of plant seeds by feeding on them and spreading them through their waste. This phenomenon is important for areas where ground-dwelling mammals are not present.
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Research also shows that Japanese camel crickets play a role in dispersing seeds by eating and expelling them. This is significant as insects may have a broader role in seed dispersal than previously thought.
This challenges the traditional understanding of seed dispersal and highlights the importance of insects in ecosystem functioning.
About our experts
Professor Ellen Sims is a biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, with published work in magazines such as BMC Ecology and Ecology Letters.
Professor Kevin Banks is a field biologist at Victoria University of Wellington, with work published in journals like Plant Ecology and Ecological Research.
Professor Kenji Suetsugu is a biologist at Kobe University, with work published in journals like Ecology and New Botanist.
Artificial lighting at night can affect tree leaves
Shutterstock/Patrick Kosmider
Urban trees lit by streetlights tend to have tougher leaves and be less eaten by insects than those that spend the dark nights, a pattern the researchers say could disrupt the flow of energy up the food chain and have negative effects on urban biodiversity.
Zhang Shuang Zhang and his colleagues at the Chinese Academy of Sciences studied the Japanese five-story pagoda (Styphnolobium japonicum) and Green Ash (AshBeijing’s street trees appear to be relatively free of insect damage compared to other trees in the city.
The researchers collected around 5,500 leaves from 180 trees at 30 locations in Beijing, including near the distinctive orange glow of sodium streetlights and in dark areas at night, and measured the leaves’ size, firmness, moisture content, and nutrient levels. They also recorded any evidence of insect damage.
Leaves taken from under streetlights were stronger and less affected by insects: for Chinese sophora trees, 2.1% of leaves were damaged in the lit areas and 5.3% in the dark, while for ash trees, 2% of leaves were damaged near streetlights and 4.1% in the dark.
The researchers couldn’t answer that question, but they did say in their paper that with fewer leaves for insects to eat, less energy flows up the food chain to insects and birds, which could have a knock-on effect of further reducing biodiversity.
The researchers acknowledge that the mechanisms by which leaf damage is reduced are still unclear and require further investigation — for example, increased light could make insects more visible to predators, reducing their numbers and their impact on trees.
Owen Lewis The Oxford University researcher says the study is intriguing but doesn’t prove causation, and he suggests future studies should take plants from areas with and without street lighting, place them in a controlled environment, and observe the insects’ behavior to see whether they prefer trees that grow in dark conditions.
Lewis also notes that measuring herbivores is complicated. Heavy damage can mean leaves are less nutritious, forcing insects to eat more of them. Holes caused by insect damage can also get bigger as leaves get bigger, he says.
“My intuition is that this may be a fairly subtle effect,” he says. “In central Beijing, the impact of light pollution on insect feeding will be more pronounced as urbanization progresses.” [the area is]”It’s probably trivial how much pollution there is, how much semi-natural habitat there is, etc. It’s important, but it’s probably not the main threat to insect diversity and ecosystem function.”
Amsterdam’s tiny street gardens provide habitat for insects
Marijke Thyssen/Shutterstock
A study of small urban gardens in the Netherlands found that they can be havens for insects and other wildlife. The two most effective factors were having a lot of plants and a wide variety of plants, whether or not the plants were native.
“Even in a really small garden, just a few plants can make a big difference.” Joe Morpurgo At Leiden University in the Netherlands.
Morpurgo says there have been some studies on biodiversity in larger gardens, but virtually none on smaller ones, so in 2019 his team surveyed 65 urban gardens in Amsterdam and The Hague, all measuring less than 10 square metres.
The researchers measured factors such as the total number of insects, the number of different species, whether the plants were native, and the area covered by the plants. Plant cover was calculated by adding up the area covered by individual specimens, so the garden’s cover can be greater than the area of the land due to plant overlap.
The researchers found that insect abundance and species richness were strongly correlated with plant cover and plant richness, but surprisingly, neither garden size nor native plant cover made any difference.
In theory, native plants should be better: Pollinating insects often adapt to particular flower shapes, and some plant-eating insects will eat specific varieties.
There are several possible explanations for why the proportion of native plants had no effect, Morpurgo said. For example, insects that breed in cities could be omnivorous, or many of them could be invasive species (the study did not categorize insects as native or not).
A study on the large-scale gardens of Wisley, England produces almost the same results“The more plant matter there is, the more invertebrates there are.” Andrew Salisbury These studies were led by staff from the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS).
But one RHS study found that native plants could support slightly higher numbers of plant-eating species, such as caterpillars, Salisbury said.
Morpurgo said he would continue to encourage people to grow native plants, which he said have many more benefits, including cultural value as well as helping insects.
His main advice is to do nothing and just allow plants, even those we might call weeds, to grow and attract wildlife: “If you leave everything alone, nature will come into your garden,” says Morpurgo.
Hawk moths are less likely to visit flowers if air pollution changes their smell.
Image courtesy of Floris van Brugel
Insects may have a hard time finding flowers because air pollutants are breaking down the chemicals responsible for the flowers' attractive scent.
“In recent years, there has been increasing interest in 'sensory pollution,'” he says. Jeff Riffel at the University of Washington in Seattle. This pollution resulting from human activities can change wild animal behavior by changing or introducing new stimuli, he says.
For example, we know that noise pollution affects bird songs and may be linked to an increase in whale strandings. Light pollution, on the other hand, can disorient a variety of animals, including migratory birds and sea turtles.
However, little is known about how human activities affect animals' sense of smell. Riffel and colleagues therefore investigated the effects of anthropogenic pollutants on plant pollinators.
They focused on ozone and nitric acid radicals, which are pollutants produced by the interaction of vehicle exhaust and gases in the atmosphere. Both are known to react with compounds emitted by flowers to change their scent.
The research team discovered pale evening primrose (evening primrose), a desert flower found in North America. Both pollutants degraded aroma compounds, but nitrate radicals did so more completely.
To study whether this led to changes in the behavior of the flowers' main pollinators, the researchers exposed species of hawk moths, including the hawk-moth sphinx.Hyles Lineata), flowers that emit a natural floral scent, or flowers that have been engineered to emit a degraded scent.
Primroses that emitted degraded scents were visited 70% less frequently than flowers that emitted naturally delivered scents. This decline in visitors could affect the hawkmoth's health, Riffel said. Researchers estimate that reduced moth visitation could reduce the amount of fruit plants produce by 28 percent, potentially having ripple effects on the broader ecosystem.
The researchers' models show that since the Industrial Revolution, the distance at which hawk moths can detect flowers has shrunk from about two kilometers to just a few hundred meters.
“This is another reason why we need to switch to energy sources that do not involve combustion,” say team members. Joel Thornton, also at the University of Washington. “Reducing nitrogen oxide emissions would be a win not only for air quality, but also for ecosystem function and agriculture.”
Although water striders are small insects, they have an amazing ability to withstand the impact of raindrops that are tens of times heavier than themselves. Slow-motion video of being crushed by water reveals tricks to avoid being crushed by water, including how to ride a water jet, shoot into the air and somersault before landing. There is.
As their name suggests, water striders can be found walking along the surface of ponds, lakes, and rivers around the world. They have long legs covered in microscopic hairs that trap air and help the insect float in water.
“One day I saw them skating by the water and thought, ‘What do they do when it rains?'” andrew dickerson at the University of Tennessee. The weight of a raindrop is more than 40 times that of an adult water strider. “How do they survive? Submerged or thrown into the air?” he added.
To investigate, Dickerson and his colleagues placed several water striders in a glass aquarium filled with water, applied droplets of water, and recorded the creatures’ reactions on slow-motion video.
The researchers noticed that when raindrops hit insects on the water’s surface, the insects initially remained unharmed because of their low density. However, it was dragged into the resulting impact crater. The crater’s collapse then spewed out a stream of water that returned to the surface, taking the insects with it.
In a few cases, the researchers witnessed water striders jumping from the water jets before they returned to the surface. “It was so beautiful. You could see it do backflips out of that jet,” Dickerson says.
However, if the water strider cannot escape from the jet of water, it will be sucked back down. Luckily, their hairy, water-repellent feet allowed them to float and swim back to the surface.
“This is the equivalent of them surviving when we get hit by a car, and in some cases going through a very acrobatic journey in the process,” Dickerson said. .
In the late 1990s, when I was studying for my PhD, I read an article touting the “next big thing” in the food sector. To be honest, the next highlight didn’t seem very appetizing. Apparently, within the next 10 years, we’ll all be eating Beetleburgers.
Entomophagy, the eating of insects, is common in many parts of the world. Considering the ethical issues of livestock farming, the article boldly proclaimed that insect farms are the future of food.
Insects raised without welfare issues are excellent at converting foodstuffs that are unavailable to us into proteins that we can use. Additionally, they require far less space than livestock and produce far fewer greenhouse gas emissions than cows.
But despite some obvious benefits, a quarter of a century later, customers in developed countries still aren’t eating flies or baking with beetles. The reason is obvious. More than 1,000 species of insects are eaten around the world, most commonly in the tropics, but Western societies generally do not eat “bugs.”
Like the bushtucker trial I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here Eating insects is a repulsive idea to many people.
A piglet eats food made from black soldier fly larvae in the animal house at the University of Bologna. – Photo credit: Luigi Avantaggiato
Articles extolling the virtues of eating insects continue to appear frequently in the media. And while the headlines often feature shock values, authors are increasingly focusing on the ethical and climate-friendly aspects of insect farming.
If you look beyond the headline ‘Grasshoppers for Beginners’, you’ll quickly see that insects are already well-positioned to play a more important role in our food chain. Instead of eating fried grasshoppers with a side salad of mealworms, we’re developing better ways than ever to use insects as food for our favorite animals.
Insects could be a protein-rich game changer
The star of this insect animal feed revolution is the black soldier fly (Hermesia Illuscens). Adults are only about 16 mm (about 0.5 inches) long and resemble small, independent wasps. But soldier flies don’t have stingers and don’t sting, so this mimicry is just an evolutionary ploy.
A widely distributed species, the key to the black soldier fly’s importance is its larvae. This is because black soldier fly larvae are “non-selective” feeders. This is a polite way of saying that you will eat almost anything.
Black soldier fly larva. – Photo credit: Luigi Avantaggiato
They thrive on all kinds of food, from manure to animal and vegetable food waste. This property makes it excellent for waste disposal. For this alone, the flight of black soldiers is beneficial to us, but only before we turn them into animal feed.
The waste treatment process is called “ento remediation” and uses large chambers called bioconverters that house large numbers of black soldier fly larvae. These larvae consume food and other organic waste, producing soil-like organic residue that can be used as a rich fertilizer.
Inside the bioconverter, the larvae grow rapidly, and more than 50 percent of the weight they gain is protein. Once they reach the pupal stage (the stage of metamorphosis into an adult), they reach their nutritional peak. At this point, it has already helped convert the waste into fertilizer, which can be harvested and used as animal feed.
Bioconverter at the BEF Biosystem facility in Alessandria, Italy. – Photo credit: Luigi Avantaggiato
Insect animal feed can replace traditional animal feed, which often relies on soybean meal. Soybeans have a high environmental cost due to the land and water required to grow them and the resources required for transportation.
Although much of the research on animal feed production has focused on feeding livestock such as pigs and chickens, the black soldier fly is also attracting attention as a food source for farmed fish. Currently, the majority of feed for farmed fish often consists of fishmeal. Fishmeal is also used as livestock feed and is made by drying and crushing fish.
While this makes good use of fish parts we don’t eat and bycatch that can’t be returned to the ocean, fishmeal production can promote overfishing and the decline of fragile marine ecosystems.
Replacing fishmeal with sustainably farmed insects could revolutionize this important aspect of marine conservation.
Desert locusts (grasshoppers) raised for animal feed at the Italian Cricket Farm in Turin, Italy – Photo credit: Luigi Avantaggiato
From pet food to human food
However, black fruit flies are not the only species raised as animal feed. Some species of locusts breed very well and are relatively easy to maintain.
Insects are small and do not require much space, so it is possible to keep them under strictly controlled conditions to optimize their growth and reproduction. Those who keep reptiles are probably familiar with house crickets (Aketa Domestic). These light brown crickets are widely grown as pet food, but their potential as a source of protein for livestock is also attracting attention.
These insects may also eventually become a more direct part of our diet. The Italian Cricket Farm in Turin, Italy, is investigating the possibility of processing crickets into a protein-rich “insect flour” that can be incorporated into our food products. Currently awaiting European food safety approval, it is precisely this type of processing that could become a culturally acceptable way for insects to enter our diets.
In fact, crickets are quite delicious even when eaten without being processed into flour. A few years ago I ran an insect-eating workshop at the Cheltenham Science Festival. At that time, a local chef prepared a series of dishes for people to try. Beer-battered fried brown crickets sandwiched between sage leaves were a snack that people tried at first out of curiosity, but were so delicious they returned within seconds.
After digesting organic waste at the BEF Biosystem facility in Alessandria, Italy, black soldier fly larvae are harvested and turned into animal feed. Digested organic waste is used as soil fertilizer – Photo credit: Luigi Avantaggiato
Cricket farms in Italy produce around 200,000 crickets a year, which can be scaled up relatively easily. The production efficiency of crickets is amazing. Every 1 kg (2.2 lb) of crickets requires only 1.7 kg (3.7 lb) of feed to produce. Compare this to the 10 kg (22 lb) of feed required to produce 1 kg of beef and the benefits are clear.
Additionally, the final product is incredibly nutritious, containing twice the protein of beef, as well as a variety of vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, and other nutrients.
Changing tastes and ethics
As with any new idea in food production, potential disadvantages must be carefully considered.
It is clear that what an animal eats can influence the quality of the meat that is subsequently produced. Research on this is ongoing, but data so far suggests that while insect diets can affect the fatty acid content of meat, these changes have no negative impact in terms of taste and are not noticeable. It has been shown that this is not the case.
Another important issue to ponder is the ethics of raising insects. Ethical concerns about animal use are complex and change in response to changes in society and our scientific understanding.
Over the past few decades, we have seen much higher welfare standards introduced into livestock farming than were thought necessary in the past, but many would argue that there is still a long way to go.
These welfare advances have focused primarily on mammals, secondarily on poultry, and to a lesser extent on fish. However, insects are not mentioned at all in ethical discussions about animal use.
Black soldier flies are kept in an “aviary” at the Bug’s Life farm in Perugia, Italy, to encourage breeding. – Photo credit: Luigi Avantaggiato
In fact, we tend to think that insects cannot feel pain or suffering. However, this view is beginning to change.
We are beginning to learn more about the internal world of insects, and are discovering that they may be able to feel what we perceive as pain. Although this is an emerging field of research, the conclusion is that we may need to rethink the way we think about insects in many cases.
Having said that, I think it is actually very unlikely that we will change our views until insects are given the same welfare measures as “traditional” farm animals. The biggest advantage of using insects for food, either directly or through animal feed, is that they are environmentally friendly.
Dredging oceans for fishmeal and growing soybeans for protein feed are environmentally harmful, associated with high carbon costs and habitat loss or degradation.
On the other hand, raising insects has the potential to significantly reduce environmental impact. They occupy less space, use fewer resources to produce more protein, can utilize waste produced by humans, and do not rely on habitat development or displacement.
Crane fly cakes and locust bread may not be on your plate anytime soon, but insect-raised pork, chicken and beef certainly will be. Maybe that article from 25 years ago was onto something after all. Insects may really be the future of food.
All pterosaur eurypterids (sea scorpions), giant aquatic arthropods with large claws, were considered apex predators, but some scientists believe that certain species are not predatory because their claws are weak. suggested. New research reveals that their claws were stronger and were only used to capture prey. Other appendages chewed it up. Fossils found in the pterosaur eurypterids show that some species specialized in lightly armored crustaceans and fishes, but most species specialized in heavily armored fishes.
Size of sea scorpions (Euripterids) over time.pterosaur eurypterid Jachelopterus (Background), the largest arthropod of all time, and a eurypterid of the Hibertopteridae family. Siltoctenus (Foreground) The size of a human (an average British male) compared to the silhouette of its eurypterid relatives. Image credit: Simon Powell.
Sea scorpions (family Eurypteridae) are ancient aquatic creepy crawlers (arthropods) that lived long before the dinosaurs, from 467 million to 253 million years ago.
These include the “pterygoids” (428 to 391 million years ago), which had large, fearsome claws. Grows up to 2.5 meters longthe biggest bug that ever existed.
An extinct millipede called Arthropleura was It is claimed that it is even largerHowever, if the length of 12 to 14 preserved body segments is 76 cm, the body length of an animal with 32 segments is (76/12 x 32), which is just over 2 m (excluding the head).
All pterosaurs, eurypterids, were thought to have been ferocious apex predators. tyrannosaurus About their time.
Later, some scientists believed that pterygoid claws acutiramus It could only catch and slice weak, soft-bodied prey, and its eyesight wasn't sharp enough Becoming a predator.It has been demoted from the top echelon of predators and even a label is attached “Pussycat”.
According to new research, nails acutiramus It was much more robust. Suggestions that they would snap were based on incorrect assumptions.
The apparent lack of an “elbow joint” doesn't hurt either. This was at the base of the nail. Also, the claws were used only for catching prey. If it had more powerful mouthparts in the groin, it would kill or chew it up.
It doesn't matter that their eyesight is poor either. Their prey is large, and some non-predatory insects (such as bees and butterflies) have eye indicators similar to arthropods that were considered predators.
Computer modeling and experiments with robotic swimming eurypterids also show that pterosaurs were slower swimmers than expected. They were so large that relatively small swim paddles could not provide sufficient propulsion, so a flat tail (telson) served both as a rudder and as propulsion.
Analysis of the types of fossils found with pterygomorphs also suggests that: acutiramus It specializes in lightly armored crustaceans (called foliaceans) and pterophytes. Eretopterus Therodont fish and pterigotus and Jachelopterus About the more heavily armored placoderm fish.
Evidence of predation (claw marks) and fossilized feces (coprolites) confirm that some eurypterids ate armored fish, trilobites, and even other eurypterids.
Previous studies have generally dismissed suggestions that Eurypteridae influenced the evolution of early vertebrates (fish) in a predator-prey arms race, but this new study This suggests that pterosaurs and other eurypterids probably had some influence on the evolution of early vertebrates.
The evolutionary relationships of pterygoids have also changed. Their shape, vision, fossil associations, ecology, and stratigraphic record all indicate that: acutiramus It was more basic Jachelopterus and pterigotus.
This is the largest arthropod in history (Jachelopterus lenaniae) It is now estimated to be about 2.6 meters long, 10 centimeters longer than previous estimates. The biggest bug is now a little bigger.
S. J. Brady. 2023. Paleoecology of the pterygoid eurypterids: Pladicnia and paleontological assemblages. Earth Science Bulletin 98(4); doi: 10.3140/bull.geosci.1891
Domestic cats have been recorded to eat more than 2,000 other species, and the actual number of species they eat is probably much higher. This is the result of a first attempt to create a comprehensive list.
“We know that cats eat a lot, but I don’t think anyone has really looked into the full story,” he says. Christopher Lepczyk At Auburn University in Alabama. “We started thinking, how big is this problem? Are there any animals that cats aren’t eating?”
Based on scientific papers, his team created a database of what cats ate and where they ate. This list includes 981 birds, 463 reptiles, 431 mammals (including humans), 119 insects, 57 amphibians, and 33 species belonging to other groups.
Of these 2,084 species, 347 are considered endangered or already extinct in the wild, including the western quoll, green turtle, and Newell’s shearwater, including the Stevens Island wren. But the study didn’t consider how big a role cat predation played in these cases, Lepczyk said.
These numbers are far from telling the complete story, he says. “We are just the tip of the iceberg.”
For example, in many cases where cats were recorded eating insects or other invertebrates, the species was not identified.
“The range of cats’ diets far exceeds what we’ve seen in many other carnivores and predators,” Lepczyk said. “There are few things cats won’t eat.”
Some of the species included in the database are also scavenged by cats, which is part of the reason why the list includes species too large for cats to kill. But in some cases, such as green sea turtles, cats can catch juveniles, Lepczyk said.
The study did not consider what could be done to reduce the amount of wildlife killed by domestic cats. However, some helpful measures include keeping your cat indoors or in a fenced yard, microchipping, and having your cat spayed or neutered.
It was also recently discovered that cats can spread the brain-altering parasite that causes toxoplasmosis to both wildlife and humans.
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