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Registered Member #543
Joined: Tue Feb 20 2007, 04:26PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4992
Ancient fossils show fig wasps remain unchanged
BBC 16 June 2010
A study of three ancient fossils found on the Isle of Wight in the 1920s has revealed that evolution has not altered the fig wasp in 34 million years.
The specimens, housed at London's Natural History Museum, were previously thought to be of ants but a new examination confirmed their origins.
Dr Steve Compton, of the University of Leeds, said the fig wasp fossils were "fascinating" because of their age.
He also highlighted their similarity to the modern species. 'Complex relationship'
Dr Compton, who led the study, explained: "This means that the complex relationship that exists today between the fig wasps and their host trees developed more than 34 million years ago and has remained unchanged since then."
Fig wasps attach themselves to an individual tree and spread its pollen.
Each tree is exclusively pollinated by just one or two species of wasp.
Modern fig wasps carry the pollen they collect in special pockets beneath their bodies.
Dr Compton's team was able to identify pollen pockets on the wasp fossils, and even grains of fig pollen within them.
He said: "Although we often think of the world as constantly changing, what this fossil gives us is an example of something remaining unchanged for tens of millions of years - something which in biology we call stasis."
The research has been published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters.
Registered Member #193
Joined: Fri Feb 17 2006, 07:04AM
Location: sheffield
Posts: 1022
It also indicates that the fig hasn't changed much. Given that people have been eating figs since before we were people (and presumably farming/ selectively breeding them for as long as we have farmed bred anything) that seems to me to be at least as interesting as the unchanged wasp.
Registered Member #2463
Joined: Wed Nov 11 2009, 03:49AM
Location:
Posts: 1546
There are two kinds of wasps here, and likely more. These can make paper nests, and also mud nests, and affix them to buidings. Perhaps a method can be found to store interesting history in the DNA of such insects to be re-read in 40 million years. Of course the algorythm would have to edit out all that really is of no importance in the long term.
To quote a famous line "The Media Is The Message".
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Ancient Isle of Wight fossils show fig wasps remain unchanged
