[Rockhounds] 100M year old termite fossil in amber reveals gut microbe details

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

One hundred million years ago a termite was wounded and its abdomen 
split open. The resin of a pine tree slowly enveloped its body and the 
contents of its gut.

In what is now the Hukawng Valley in Myanmar, the resin fossilized and 
was buried until it was chipped out of an amber mine. The resin had 
seeped into the termite's wound and preserved even the microscopic 
organisms in its gut. These microbes are the forebears of the microbes 
that live in the guts of today's termites and help them digest wood.

The fossil is the earliest example of a relationship between an animal 
and the microbes in its gut, a new study shows.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30887832/

--- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts ---
multipart/alternative
  text/plain (text body -- kept)
  text/enriched
---