99-million-year-old cockroach is earliest cave-dweller

• Autores: Michael Marshall
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 3271, 2020, pág. 14
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • A cockroach preserved in amber is the earliest cave-dwelling animal identified from the dinosaur era. The specimen was found in the Hukawng Valley in Myanmar. The rocks where it was discovered are 99 million years old, midway through the Cretaceous period, when the last dinosaurs lived. This new Cretaceous cockroach has been dubbed Mulleriblattina bowangi. It is strange that a cave-dwelling organism became trapped in amber, which comes from tree sap. It may have wandered close to the cave entrance and come into contact with amber from trees growing nearby. No other cave-dwelling animal, of any kind, can be confidently attributed to the dinosaur era or earlier.