Feathered dinosaurs probably had lice

(The feathered dinosaurs of Sinornithosaurus, Wikimedia Commons image)

Non-feathered dinosaur may have spent much of their time nibbling from insects and scratch, a new study that suggests suggests that some dinosaurs were the first animal hosts of lice.

"Our analysis suggests that bird and mammal lice before the extinction of the dinosaurs, began diversifying" was quoted as principal investigator Kevin Johnson in a University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign press release. "And given how lice are common on birds, in particular, and also to some extent in the area of the mammals probably insisting on a variety of hosts in the past, possibly including dinosaur."

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This view is strengthened in the journal paper itself. The researchers to write: "these data give an early - to mid - Cretaceous origin (115-130 million years ago) for lice, which suggests that these parasites infect pinnate probably theropod dinosaurs."

Johnson, an ornithologist at the State concludes natural history survey at the University, and his colleague Dino lice after a partial family tree for lice. They did this by comparing the DNA sequences of genes of 69 today's power transmission lines. Changes in gene sequence are believed to a reliable measure of solidarity between different species in the same basic animal group can. Because these changes in the course of time to accumulate, they can also be used to create a rough timeline of the evolution of the related groups of organisms.

Family tree lice specifies that the wingless insects to have been, long before want-the ultimate dust 65 million years ago bit.

During each, which with dealt lice, such as such as head lice on children, know how persistently and hearty these insects can be, it is still surprised to learn that lice have been around as long. The oldest fossils found so far, which are similar to modern bird and mammal groups are less than 65 million years ago, Johnson said. That believe the previous, that big bird and mammal lineages-as well as their body flat insect-led to which appeared only after the dinosaurs went extinct.

But the lice DNA findings indicate that modern birds and mammals were already up, than not dinosaurs extinct. The researchers see because special trains according to one specific any can host animal develops. Wing have lice, for example, long bodies, which allow them, blend between the barbs in a spring and thus evade preening. Gopher-lice have grooves in the tops of their heads on a single wave of hair of clasp.

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These special characteristics make difficult for lice shift to other hosts. As a result, their is evolutionary history very closely with that of their hosts. This story provides evidence of the existence of mammals and birds, 65 million years ago.

United States investigator Vincent Smith "Lice as living fossils, are," explained the former postdoc in the lab of Johnson's was and is now in the natural history museum in London. "The record of our past is written in these parasites and of reconstruction of their evolutionary history, we can lice as a marker to determine the evolutionary history of their hosts."

If dinosaurs actually, how much the researchers suspect said lice Johnson, "perhaps birds only their lice of inherited dinosaurs."

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