It’s the first direct evidence we have of the parasites feeding from dinosaurs. It’s also the oldest evidence of ticks acting as parasites.
A new study of a fossil from Burma reveals a tick grasping a dinosaur feather, providing our first evidence that ticks preyed on dinosaurs.
Scientists also found a new species of tick — Deinocroton draculi, or “Dracula’s terrible tick” — that fed on dinosaur blood.
Unfortunately, the “Jurassic Park”-style extraction of dinosaur DNA from the ticks is still impossible.
Mosquitoes weren’t the only creatures to feed off the blood of dinosaurs and then to get trapped in amber.
Blood-sucking ticks also feasted off dinosaurs 99 million years ago, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Communications that examines a Burmese amber fossil containing a trapped tick grasping a dinosaur feather.
It’s the first direct evidence we have of the parasites feeding on dinosaurs, according to the study.
Tech: A 99-million-year-old fossil shows even dinosaurs got bitten by ticks
