Microbes 100M Years Old Found In Termite Guts 145
viyh writes with coverage on MSNBC of the discovery of ancient microbes fossilized in the gut of a termite. "One hundred million years ago a termite was wounded and its abdomen split open. The resin of a pine tree slowly enveloped its body and the contents of its gut. In what is now the Hukawng Valley in Myanmar, the resin fossilized and was buried until it was chipped out of an amber mine. The resin had seeped into the termite's wound and preserved even the microscopic organisms in its gut. These microbes are the forebears of the microbes that live in the guts of today's termites and help them digest wood. ... The amber preserved the microbes with exquisite detail, including internal features like the nuclei. ... Termites are related to cockroaches and split from them in evolutionary time at about the same time the termite in the amber was trapped."
but is there any dinosaur dna in there? (Score:5, Funny)
Summer block buster (Score:5, Funny)
One hundred million years ago a termite was wounded and its abdomen split open
That would make a better film than most of the crap out there at the moment.
Epic Advemture (Score:5, Funny)
Is it just me, or does the summary read like the start of a legend that serves as prelude to an epic adventure?
I want to go on a quest to this "Myanmar" place and find the termite amber and throw it into the nearest volcano before the Evil One's minions get their hands on it.
OMG! That's why they went extinct...GACK! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:but is there any dinosaur dna in there? (Score:4, Funny)
What's not exciting about out-of-control velocotermites?
100M year old bugs (Score:5, Funny)
Sounds like the work of Microsoft.
Re:Epic Advemture (Score:5, Funny)
You have been disemboweled.
Restore, Restart, or Quit?
100 million? (Score:5, Funny)
Don't you mean 6,000?
Re:Epic Advemture (Score:5, Funny)
One does not simply walk into Myanmar
Screw that! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Summer block buster (Score:4, Funny)
Quote of the Day (Score:5, Funny)
And tasted it, and found it good.
And that is why your Cousin May
Fell through the parlor floor today.
-- Ogden Nash
Re:Summer block buster (Score:5, Funny)
Hot lesbian termite sex?
I dunno. Maybe.
Re:Yes, but it's in Chickens, not frogs (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Amber preservation (Score:5, Funny)
And then revive him from DNA? Now there's material for a horror movie. "Politician Park."
Comment removed (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Screw that! (Score:5, Funny)
This is what killed them off, their tastiness.
Re:Amber preservation (Score:3, Funny)
Oh, shit, the Cheney got loose!
Re:Summer block buster (Score:5, Funny)
Hot lesbian termite sex?
Probably not... termites prefer wood.
Re:Summer block buster (Score:3, Funny)
Aren't terminates hermaphrodites?
Dunno about terminates, but thermites are thermaphrodites, at least when in heat.
Re:I'm confused. (Score:5, Funny)
It's easy to find, it's north of Kampuchea, to the west of French Indochina and Siam and to the east of Hindustan and Bengal.