Researchers have chance on a fossil parasite with a spectacular sucking setup , which it used to give on Jurassic salamanders in northeastern China . They named itQiyia jurassica .
The rainfly larva was about two centimeters long , and it live in fresh water lake of innovative - day Inner Mongolia about 165 million years ago . It had a tiny brain , a tube - shape body , and caterpillar - similar legs . The underside of its mid - body ( or thorax ) was completely transformed into a giant , circular sucking plate , and its mouthpart were work like sting . These specialized component part allow the fly larva to stick to itself to passing salamanders and suck their roue after piercing it with their mouthparts . It probably choose to attach itself behind the gills , where the skin is thinner and there are pot of blood vessels .
Bo Wang from the University of Bonnin Germany and colleaguesdescribed the bizarre , aquatic ectoparasitebased on five specimens in this calendar week ’s issuing ofeLIFE . “ No insect exist today with a comparable torso shape , ” Wang say in anew release . " Qiyia " means " bizarre " in Chinese , and " jurassica " refers to the Jurassic eld of the fossils . Here ’s a reconstructive memory of the newfangled species viewed from the side :
chiliad of fossilised fire hook , as well as 300,000 diverse and well - preserved fossil insects were find at the same location in Middle Jurassic Daohugou bed near Ningcheng , China . The very well - granulate mudstone was able to uphold the finer item , while the groundwater conditions prevented decomposition by bacterium .
astonishingly , the investigator did n’t find any fogey fish in the lake , which could explicate why parasite like these survived : Fish predators usually keep rainfly larvae in hinderance . " The uttermost adaptations in the design ofQiyia jurassicashow the extent to which being can specialize in the course of evolution,”saysstudy coauthorJes Rust , also from University of Bonn . Here , you could see its petite head capping its thorax ( B ) and a reconstructive memory of the sucker ( five hundred ) .
The alimentation experience was likely unpleasant for the salamanders , but these parasites did n’t shoot down their hosts . The larvae finally transmogrify into adult dirt ball ; investigator do n’t have enough information yet to mull over about what they may have looked like .
Theworkwas write ineLIFEthis calendar week .
prototype : J. Chen et al . , eLIFE 2014
