Russian scientists discovered ancient pollen in the body of a fossil insect. Reported by the Paleontology Institute. Borisyak RAS.
The specimen was found near the village of Sylva in the Chekarda paleontological complex. The age of the sedimentary rocks in it reaches 280 million years. In the Permian period, this was an ancient lagoon covered with abundant vegetation, which served as a habitat for insects. In total, about 10 thousand fossil insect specimens have been found here since the middle of the 20th century.
The authors of the new study studied six insects from the genus. Tillyardemia Scientists from this collection examined tilardembians under a fluorescent microscope and found that their chest, abdomen, head, and leg soles were covered with clusters of pollen grains. In addition, semi-digested pollen was found in the hindgut area of one of the insects.
“It’s no wonder when a pollen-scattered insect becomes trapped in resin and turns into amber bark. But in our case we are dealing with insects preserved in the form of straight tracks on the rock. Such insects first fall into the water before petrifying. It is a great achievement that the pollen is not washed out of them, ”explains Alexander Khramov, the head of the study.
Judging by the taxonomic composition of the pollen, Tilliardembians, among them Rufloriaceae (Rufloriaceae) – extinct gymnosperms that grew in the Paleozoic on the territory of modern Siberia. This allows us to conclude that insects participate in the pollination of these plants, but there is no clear evidence for this yet – a person can accidentally fall into pollen. Tilliardmbians themselves were insects 1.5 cm long, short legs and long bodies. They remotely resembled modern earwigs, but their bodies were covered with feathers in which pollen was caught.
The authors hope that such studies will reveal precisely in evolutionary history that insects began to pollinate plants.
Earlier archaeologists clarified ancient DNA in the refuge of humanity in the ice age.