Fossils reveal the long-term relationship between feathered dinosaurs and feather-feeding beetles UniofOxford PNASNews
Molt remains of feather-feeding beetle larvae intimately associated with downy feather portions from an unidentified theropod dinosaur in Early Cretaceous amber of Spain. Insets show the head with powerful mandibles of one of the larval molts and the pigmentation pattern of feather second order branches , with the main stem of one feather at the right of the amber fragment. Amber fragment is only six millimeters across.
New fossils in amber have revealed that beetles fed on the feathers of dinosaurs about 105 million years ago, showing a symbiotic relationship of one-sided or mutual benefit, according to an article titled"Symbiosis between Cretaceous dinosaurs and feather-feeding beetles" published inThe main amber fragments studied, from the Spanish locality of San Just , contain larval molts of small beetle larvae tightly surrounded by portions of downy feathers.
When looking at modern ecosystems, we see how ticks infest cattle, frogs capture insects with acrobatic tongues, or some barnacles grow on the skin of whales. These are just a few of the diverse and complex ecological relationships between vertebrates and arthropods, which have coexisted for more than 500 million years. The way that these two groups have interacted throughout deep time is thought to have critically shaped their evolutionary history, leading to coevolution.
Isolated molt of the feather-feeding beetle larva found in the Spanish amber outcrop of Rábago/El Soplao, with detail of its powerful mandibles . Length of the molt is less than two millimeters. Credit: CN IGME-CSIC
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