247 million years old: scientists find larva of the oldest mosquito on the planet in Mallorca

A fossil dating back 247 million years was found in Mallorca. The larva of the oldest mosquito has preserved the structure of the head, some parts of the digestive and respiratory systems.

According to Dicyt, the larva was found a few years ago near the small port of Estellenx, in the north-west of the island of Mallorca. Now it has been studied using the latest methods.

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The study involved the Spanish Geological and Mining Institute (IGME-CSIC), Museu Balear de Ciències Naturals (FJBS-MBCN), the National Museum of Natural History of the Sorbonne University (France) and the Museum of History. University of Oxford (UK). The paper was published in the journal Papers in Palaeontology.

An international team of researchers identified this fossil as the oldest larva of a dipteran group on Earth (a group of insects that includes flies and mosquitoes) that lived 247 million years ago.

The authors described a new genus and species: Protoanisolarva juarezi or Juárez primordial anisopodoid larva, named after Josep Juárez, a resident of Mallorca who discovered the fossil during his search. "The complete larva, which predates even the oldest known dinosaurs, left a faint carbon imprint on two surfaces that were exposed when the rock was split open," the report said.

Lead study author Enrique Penalver said that while examining the fossil under a microscope, he dropped a drop of alcohol on it to increase the contrast of the various structures. "I was able to observe with fascination that it had preserved the external and internal structure of the head, some parts of the digestive system and, most importantly, its respiratory system."

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The fossil is currently at the Miquel Cruzafont Institute of Catalan Paleontology in Mallorca, where it will be permanently stored.

Earlier, we reported how scientists in Tanzania accidentally stumbled upon mute frogs that no one had ever seen before.

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