Re: Evidence of vector-borne disease in dinosaurs?

[Phil Bigelow <bigelowp@juno.com>]

Which reminds me:
Does anyone have the full reference for the paper that described dormant
yeast cells that were extracted from the gut of a bee stuck in Tertiary
amber?  One author may have been Rob Desalle, but I'm probably wrong. 
AMNH seems to ring a bell.  The paper was published roughly 10-11 years
ago.

[For the benefit of those who are not familiar with this paper, the
authors claimed to have revived (rehydrated) the little buggers and
cultured them.]

<pb>
--

On Mon, 02 May 2005 13:23:28 -0500 Tim Williams
<twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com> writes:
> 
> Poinar, G., Jr and Poinar, R. (2004).  Evidence of vector-borne 
> disease of 
> Early Cretaceous reptiles.  Vector Borne and Zoonotic Diseases. 4: 
> 281-284
> 
> Abstract: "A blood-filled sand fly, _Palaeomyia burmitis_, was 
> recently 
> described from Early Cretaceous Burmese amber.  Within the 
> alimentary canal 
> of this sand fly were the amastigotes and promastigotes of a 
> digenetic 
> leishmanial trypanosomatid.  Inside the lumen of the thoracic midgut 
> of the 
> fossil sand fly were nucleated blood cells, some of which were 
> intact and 
> others in various stages of lysis and disintegration.  The present 
> study 
> identifies these blood cells as reptilian and describes putative 
> developing 
> amastigotes inside spherical to oval whitish vacuoles within some of 
> the 
> fossil blood cells.  The significance of this find is discussed, 
> especially 
> regarding the high possibility that Cretaceous dinosaurs were 
> infected by 
> trypanosomatids."
> 
> In the Appendix of this paper is a brief description of how dinosaur 
> DNA was 
> extracted from the blood cells, and used to clone a living sauropod 
> 
> dinosaur.  The sauropod was kept in a pen behind the research lab.
> 
> 
> 
> Just kidding.  (The paper is real though.)
> 
> 
> 
> Tim
> 
> 
> 
>