Cockroaches — some of the oldest ancient living organisms on the planet, the first hints of the appearance which appeared 300 million years ago. In those ancient times insects lived in caves, gradually adjusting to the dark damp environment of the underground world and increasing power for the future conquest of the planet. Recently discovered a pair of 99-mln year old cockroaches who witnessed the dinosaurs, shows how nature and evolution do their work despite ice ages, mass extinctions and fall to the planet of asteroids.
In those hard times, when the Land went to the fearsome Tyrannosaurus Rex, the cockroaches were very different from the present. A couple of fossilized specimens discovered in one of the ambers in Myanmar is the oldest known example of the so-called «thropomorphic» organisms — creatures, who at the time managed to adapt to the dark environment of ancient caves. Although currently biologists have many examples of cockroaches and other cave insects with wings, pale bodies and long antennae-antennas, it is these instances that belong to two different closely related species are the most we have ever find with similar characteristics, writes the portal .
the ancient Fossil of a cockroach and its modern descendant
Describing his discovery, the researchers referred to the fact that both the cockroach is so well preserved thanks to amber — the fossilized ancient resin, securely canned insects for millions of years. It is known that amber fossils common for small creatures who live near trees because of the ancient resin, dripping with tree roots in the cave cockroaches, then hardened around paleoanthropology, turning them into almost eternal reminder of how old our planet is.
Until now it was known that the history of cave cockroaches dates back to the Cenozoic era which began about 65 million years ago. Whatever it was, scientists had reason to believe that some of the hardiest living things on the planet may be much older than previously thought. Based on genetic analysis detected in the amber of insects, scientists have found that cockroaches are indeed the same age as the dinosaurs, during its long existence, adapting to the most adverse conditions of our planet. Thus, cockroaches have helped them successfully survive the many troubles of planetary scale in the form of extreme climate change, ice ages, droughts, floods and other not the most desirable for life events.
According to official data, today there are more than four thousand different types of cockroaches, able to eat even inedible such things as ink, particles of dead skin of humans and animals, soap, or glue. Despite the repulsive appearance of these insects, cockroaches are considered to be the man, helping him to fight other insects, as well as giving it massive support in case of soil fertilization with nitrogen so necessary for plant growth. In other words, extinction of cockroaches would have caused enormous damage to the ecosystem of the planet and mankind itself.
once upon a time the cockroaches were
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