By Meghan Rosen
Mites could give competitors on Survivor a run for their game-show money.
Two of the tiny creatures, trapped in fossilized tree resin, smash the record for ancient amber-preserved arthropods, a group of critters that includes beetles, butterflies, spiders and shrimp. At 230 million years old, the mite fossils are about 100 million years older than previous finds, and suggest that mites’ basic body blueprint may be built to outwit, outplay and outlast.
“Dinosaurs have come and gone, but mites have hardly changed,” says David Grimaldi of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. “Their body form is quite similar to what we see in gall mites today.”