Giant Jurassic fleas sucked but couldn’t jump

The shortest poem ever written is known as Lines on theAntiquity of Microbes or, more simply, as Fleas. It goes: Adam/ Had ‘em. It’s a cute verse, but we don’t need Blblical references to know what the first fleas fed upon. As with many questions about ancient life, we can turn to fossils. Among a horde of insect fossils recovered from China and Mongolia, Diying Huang from the Chinese Academy of Sciences has discovered several species of giant fleas. There are nine individuals from three different species, and they hail from the middle Jurassic and early Cretaceous periods. “These outcrops have given us thousands of exquisitely preserved insects, but fewer than ten fleas,” says Andre Nel, who led the study. The fossilised insects had many features that identify them as fleas – ancient precursors to the ones we know and loathe. But they had many unusual traits too. For a ...