Monday, December 18, 2006

Germs Found Trapped in Amber Lived With First Dinosaurs

061213-amber-germs_big.jpg Scientists have discovered a "microworld" of 220-million-year-old life trapped in tiny drops of ancient amber.

The fossilized plant resin preserved bacteria, fungi, algae, and microscopic animals known as protozoans some 220 million years ago?the era when the very first dinosaurs began to appear.

... Surprisingly, these microscopic organisms look quite familiar to today's scientists. Alexander Schmidt and colleagues from the Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany, report that the microbes have undergone few or no physical changes since the Triassic period?from 245 million to 208 million years ago. - natgeo

Very strange! How similar? Shouldn't they be 220 million years simpler?

1 comment:

mylesfromnowhere said...

Sounds like it would be tough to sell venture capitalists on a theme park based on these.