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Dinosaur-Era Insect Had Its Own Bendy Straw
Newser • • science
Key Points:
- Researchers in Israel and China have identified a new insect species, Cretodorus noonoo, preserved in 99-million-year-old Burmese amber from the Cretaceous period.
- The species is named after the Teletubbies' vacuum character "Noo-Noo" due to its distinctive corrugated feeding tube resembling the character's trunk-like hose.
- High-resolution scans reveal that Cretodorus noonoo had a flexible, elongated feeding tube nearly twice its body length, used to tap tree sap by penetrating deep into bark cracks.
- This unique feeding adaptation, featuring a two-lobed tip for anchoring, suggests that fire-prone, thick-barked forests of the dinosaur era favored specialized insects, many of which have no modern equivalents.
- The discovery provides new insights into ancient ecosystems and the evolutionary solutions insects developed to thrive alongside dinosaurs.
