Paleontologists discover 'worm' 100 million years ago

Nanjing, March 8 (Xinhua -- Insects from 100 million years ago have formed a complex structure similar to the "tweezers" for predaging.
Reporter 8 from the Chinese Academy of Sciences Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology was informed that the Institute's mesothetical insect research team led a group of paleontologists, recently about 100 million years ago in the cretaceous middle-term Burmese amber, found a very special form, tentacle base formed a "tweezer" structure of insects.
is of great significance to understand biological evolution and early insect behavior.
Chenyang, an assistant researcher at the Nanjing Institute of Paleontology and a participant in the study, said the newly discovered insects belonged to the mossy subcoste of the crypto-winged worm.
from the morphological point of view, they are longer than their counterparts, the jaw must be long stick-shaped, the upper jaw has teeth, long enough.
more interesting is that their tentacles are significantly longer in two sections, the abdominal surface has two rows of regularly arranged hair, and the first and second sections can be freely bent between.
when the second section of the tentacle bends downwards, a "tweezer" structure consisting of many large stiff hairs is formed.
" insects are closely related to behavior.
Comparing the tentacle patterns and habits of these newly discovered insects with lying insects, we speculate that they were specialized in their 'tweezer'-like structures at the time, most likely to prey on a very common small creature on land: jumping insects.
" Cai Chenyang explains that with the "tweezers" structure, once the insect's tentacle base bends, the fresh hair attached to it can "hold" the jumping worm, making it difficult for the jumper to escape.
the discovery of this structure also provides a new basis for further understanding of early ecosystems and studying the evolutionary relationship between predators and captured predators.
was published in the British academic journal Scientific Reports on the evening of July 7.
research has been supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences strategic pilot projects, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Natural Science Foundation and so on.
source: Xinhua News Agency.