A new order of insects appears in amber The hundred million year old Cretaceous amber found in Burma

A new order of insects appears in amberThe hundred million year old Cretaceous amber found in Burma has provided palaeontologists with a series of spectacular finds of late, including a piece of feathered dinosaur tail (see http://bit.ly/2jLhLBT) and the wings of a long gone early bird (see http://bit.ly/2hpvCQK), and the latest is a bug so unusual that taxonomists (those who classify lifeforms) have had to create a whole new order for it (the 32nd in Phylum Arthropoda, Class Insecta, dubbed Aethiocarenodea).Dubbed the ET bug for its alien like triangular head (it’s most unique feature, since the vertex points towards the body rather than away from it like in other insects) and bugging eyes, it had no wings, and seems to have lived in cracks in tree bark. The mouthparts suggest an omnivorous creature, whose diet probably included mites, fungi and plant matter. There were also glands on its neck, complete with droplets of secretions that probably repelled predators.The species was named Aethiocarenus burmanicus after its country where the two sole samples of this new order were found. Considering that a million or so insects have been described (both live and extinct), something different enough to warrant a whole new order is an unexpected and very uncommon event.LozImage credit: George Poinar/Oregon State Universityhttp://bit.ly/2kI3RADhttp://bit.ly/2kegYwRhttp://bit.ly/2jq6gBXOriginal paper, paywall access: http://bit.ly/2jspjIQ -- source link
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