Feathered dinosaurs were annoyed by tiny pests that are still familiar to many schoolchildren -- and their horrified parents -- today: lice.
Scientists discovered previously unknown tiny insects similar to modern lice trapped in amber, along with a partially damaged dinosaur feather. The findings, published in the journal Nature Communications on Tuesday, provide the earliest evidence that insects fed on dinosaur feathers. While the image of a scaly, reptilian dinosaur persists in popular culture, scientists now believe that many dinosaurs had feathers.
Read MorePrior to this study, the earliest known insect feeding on feathers is Megamenopon rasnitsyni, a fossilized louse found in Germany that lived 44 million years ago, said Chungkun Shih, study author at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History. There is past evidence of parasitic insects that fed on dinosaur blood during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, from 66 million to 201 million years ago.
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