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Hundreds of thousands of people worldwide die each year from malaria and other diseases transmitted by mosquito bites.
Female mosquitoes cause these deadly bites because they have specialized mouthparts that male mosquitoes do not.
But it wasn’t always like that. Researchers say they have discovered the oldest known fossils of mosquitoes – two males found in pieces of an ancient orange substance called amber.
The male mosquito is 130 million years old. They were found near the present-day town of Hamman in Lebanon. To the surprise of the researchers, only the female mosquitoes have long beaks.
Dany Azar is a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology and Lebanese University. Asar says they are bloodsuckers. The lead author of the study, recently published in Biology nowadded, “This research is a very important thing in the evolution history of mosquitoes.”
The two fossil mosquitoes, representing the same extinct species, are the same size and shape as modern mosquitoes. However, the beaks used to obtain blood are shorter than those of modern female mosquitoes.
Study author André Nel of the National Museum of Natural History of Paris described the discovery as “very surprising.”
The special body The two mosquitos were beautifully preserved in what was found. Both insects have a sharp jaw with a triangular shape of the jaw and a long structure with tooth-like elements.
Researchers say they suspect mosquitoes evolved from insects that didn’t feed on blood. They think that the mouth was developed for obtaining blood food that was used first stabbing trees in order to obtain useful water.
Plant growth may have influenced feeding differences between male and female mosquitoes. At the time these two mosquitoes were stuck in the tree juice it ended up being amber, the blood plants began to spread for the first time.
From the findings, Azar said that all primitive mosquitoes, both male and female, were bloodsuckers. And the male mosquitoes lost power after that.
Researchers say that although these are the oldest mosquitoes, mosquitoes may have appeared millions of years earlier. They said molecular evidence suggests mosquitoes evolved 200 million to 145 million years ago.
There are over 3,500 species of mosquitoes worldwide, found everywhere except Antarctica. Some animals spread diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, Zika fever, dengue and others. The World Health Organization says that more than 400,000 people die each year from malaria – an infectious disease – most of them children under the age of 5.
Will Dunham reported this story for Reuters. Edited by John Russell for VOA Teaching English.
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fossil – n. something (such as a leaf, skeleton, or footprint) from an ancient plant or animal
evolution – n. an idea that the differences between plants and animals are due to changes that occurred in a natural process over a long period of time
sort of – n. a group of animals or plants that are similar and can produce small animals or plants
body –n. the parts that make up a living thing
stabbing — v. to make a hole in or through something
juice – n. a liquid in a plant that carries the plant’s nutrients