XIAM007

Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World

Monday 27 August 2012

230 million years old Prehistoric bugs from time of dinosaurs found frozen in amber - 100 million more than oldest -

230 million years old Prehistoric bugs from time of dinosaurs found frozen in amber - 100 million more than oldest - 

Photomicrographs of the two new species of ancient gall mites in 230-million-year-old amber droplets from northeastern Italy


Scientists said Monday they have found three well-preserved ancient insects frozen in amber -- and time -- in what is Earth's oldest bug trap.
The discoveries in Italy may sound like something out of "Jurassic Park," but these bugs are even older than that. They are about 230 million years old, which puts them in the Triassic time period, and about 100 million years older than what had been the previously known oldest insects trapped in amber, or fossilized tree resin.
Researchers painstakingly examined 70,000 droplets of amber found in northeastern Italy. Stuck in them were two microscopic mites and much of one fly. The mites are too small to be seen with the naked eye and the fly is a bit tinier than a fruit fly, researchers say.
The discovery was reported Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
While older insects have been found in rock fossils, these are different because they are not compressed and better preserved, said study lead author David Grimaldi, curator of the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
And you can see more detail, he said.
"That's the great thing about amber. You can make this incredible detailed comparison with living species." Grimaldi said.
When he compared the ancient mites to their modern-day descendants, he was surprised by how similar they are. Except for differences in the mouth and fewer legs, "they're dead ringers for (modern) gall mites," he said. The modern ones can be found in bubbles, or galls, on plant leaves.
And that's surprising because the world has changed a lot from when these bugs were alive. Back then, there was only one giant continent, some early primitive dinosaurs and no flowering plants. Mites now live on flowering plants, but their ancient relatives must have stayed on trees, Grimaldi said.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/08/27/prehistoric-bugs-from-time-dinosaurs-found-frozen-in-amber/?intcmp=features

Man steals Ebola patient's phone, gets infected -

Man steals Ebola patient's phone, gets infected - 


A thief has caught the deadly Ebola virus after stealing a mobile phone from a patient with the disease, an African newspaper has reported.
Uganda's Daily Monitor reports that the 40-year-old man travelled close to two miles from his home town to the Kagadi Hospital in the Kibaale district, and crept into the isolation ward in the dead of night.
He then made off with a patient's phone worth $23.
The patient had the deadly Ebola fever, but before he died he managed to tell police of the theft.
Officers tracked down a man who had started using the phone, who then confessed to the crime.
The man claimed he had visited the ward to "comfort" patients, though he didn't know any of them in person, district police commander John Ojokuna Elatu told the Sunday Monitor.
Soon afterwards he started showing signs of the disease.
Kibaale District Health Officer, Dr Dan Kyamanywa, said: “The suspect is admitted at Kagadi Hospital with clinical signs of Ebola. He is receiving medication.”


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/08/27/man-steals-ebola-patient-phone-gets-infected/