2020-03-14 The Week Junior

14

Scienceand technology

The Week Junior•14March

T

wo 99-million-year-oldcockroaches have been

found inapieceofamberinacave in Myanmar.

Amber is treeresin,athick ,gooey liquid produced by

pine trees, that hasbeen fossilised. Theroaches are

the oldestcave-dwelling creatures ever discovered.

Theyarealso the first cave animals to be found from

theCretaceousPeriod,atime from 145 to 66 million

years ago when dinosaursroamed the planet.Until

now,the oldestcave-dwelling creaturesfound were

only65millio nyears old.

NamedCrenocticola svadbaand

Mulleriblattina bowangi,the

insectshave many of the

characteristics of today’s

cave dwellers, with small

eyes and wings, pale

bodies and long arms

and antennae. This

suggests they had long

been adapted to life in

the gloomy darkness,

and researchers say that

the scuttling insects may

have fed on dinosaur poo.

Caves arewell suited for

fossilising theremains of living things

because theremains areoften undisturbed by wind,

water or scavenging animals. Asaresult, many

fossils have been discovered incaves, including

large mammals such ascats, wolves and even

humans. However,most of these creatures used

caves as temporary shelters,rather than living in

them permanently.Far fewerfossils of permanent

cave dwellers have been found.

The scientists who made the discovery,led by

Peter Vršanský at the Slovak Academy of Sciences

in Slovakia, admit they arepuzzledby

how the insectscame to be trapped

in amber.The creatures that

arefound as fossils inside

amber usually live on or

near trees. Sincetrees do

not generally grow inside

caves, it’sstrange that the

cockroaches wound up

in theresin.

One theory is that tree

roots might have stretched

down into thecave wherethe

roaches wereliving, which means

the drippingresin would have trapped

the bugs while they wereinside thecave.

Oldestcave-dwelling creatures

found perfectly preserved

Tree resin.

One of thecockr oachfossils,

Crenocticola svadba,in th eamber.

Dinosaurtail

In 2015, scientists in

China boughtapieceof

amber fromamarket.

Inside theyfound a

preserved dinosaur tail,

complete withfeathers.

Gecko

An extremely well

preserved geckowas

found in Russian amber

in 2005. Thefossil

revealed details of its

grippyfeet.

Babybird

A99-million-year-old

pieceofamberfound

in Myanmar in 2017

wasdiscovered

withababy bird

preserved inside.

Creatures trapped in time

TOUGH

CRITTER

Acockr

oachca

nhold its

breath

foruptos

even

minutes, and

caneven

survive

underwa

ter

forhalf an hou

r.