Creationism in Crisis
Feathered Dinosaurs Had Beetles Living on their Feathers Whose Descendants Now Live on Bird Feathers
Feathered Dinosaurs Had Beetles Living on their Feathers Whose Descendants Now Live on Bird Feathers
Remnants of dermestid beetle larvae and feathers in 130-million-year-old amber
Dermestid (larder) beetles
Is there ever a day goes by when yet another science paper refutes creationism without even trying?
Well, maybe the odd public holiday when scientists take a day off from revealing the facts about the world, but refuting creationism is, and has always been, the incidental result of research into biology, archaeology and geology, and today is no exception.
For instance, we learn today that feathered dinosaurs not only existed 30 million years before birds evolved, but that those feathers were host to dermestid beetles, just as are modern bird feathers.
Dermestid beetles, also known as skin or hide beetles, are a type of beetle belonging to the family Dermestidae. They are found worldwide and are commonly associated with carcass decomposition, but they can also feed on a wide variety of organic material, including dried plant material, feathers, and even leather.Leaving aside the little problem for creationists that these beetles were getting trapped in amber some 300 million years before Earth was created according to the childish creationist fairy tales, this is also lovely evidence that the modern species of dermestid beetles co-evolved with their feathered hosts as the 'avian' dinosaurs evolved into birds.
Dermestid beetles are known for their ability to efficiently clean carcasses of flesh, skin, and hair, making them popular among museums, taxidermists, and forensic scientists. The beetles are used to strip flesh and tissue from bones, leaving behind a clean and intact skeleton. This process is known as "dermestid beetle cleaning" or "dermestid beetle taxidermy."
According to a study published in the journal "Forensic Science International" in 2012, dermestid beetles are an effective tool for forensic entomologists in determining the post-mortem interval of human remains. The study found that the presence and activity of dermestid beetles on decomposing human remains can help estimate the time since death, particularly in cases where other insects are not present or are unable to colonize the body due to environmental conditions.
Dermestid beetles are also used in the field of zoology, where they are used to study the diet of animals. By analyzing the contents of dermestid beetle stomachs, researchers can learn about the types of animals a particular species preys upon.
In addition to their practical uses, dermestid beetles are also important ecologically. They play a role in the decomposition of dead animal matter and can help to recycle nutrients back into the ecosystem.
References:ChatGPT (21 Apr 2023) Tell me about dermestid beetles, please, with references. [Response to user question]
- "Dermestid Beetles." University of Florida Department of Entomology and Nematology,
http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/misc/beetles/dermestid_beetles.htm- "Forensic Entomology: Dermestid Beetles and Their Significance in Time of Death Estimation." Forensic Science International, vol. 219, no. 1-3, 2012, pp. 237-240., doi: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2011.12.026.
- Gordon, Robert D., and Karen M. Hackbarth. "Dermestid Beetles as a Tool in Wildlife and Zooarchaeological Research." Journal of Archaeological Science, vol. 26, no. 6, 1999, pp. 685-690., doi: 10.1006/jasc.1998.0307.
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The analogy is with human lice which co-evolved as the hominids diverged from the chimpanzees and gorillas, so there is now a clear evolutionary relationship between the lice that infect humans and the lice that infect the other African great apes.
Human lice and chimpanzee lice are closely related, but they have diverged into different species over time as their hosts have evolved separately. Human lice belong to the Pediculidae family, while chimpanzee lice belong to the Pthiridae family.So, after that diversion into an illustration of the evolutionary relationship between parasite and host, here is what the Oxford University news release has to say about the beetles that lived on dinosaur feathers. The press release concerns the findings of a team which included Spanish, American and German researchers, led by Dr Ricardo Pérez-de la Fuente, of Oxford University Museum of Natural History:
Studies of lice DNA have shown that human lice and chimpanzee lice diverged from a common ancestor around 6-7 million years ago, which is approximately when the human and chimpanzee lineages diverged. This suggests that the evolution of human and chimpanzee lice is closely tied to the evolution of their respective hosts.
One study published in Molecular Biology and Evolution in 2003 analyzed the DNA of human head lice, body lice, and chimpanzee lice to investigate their evolutionary relationships. The researchers found that human head lice and body lice are very closely related and likely diverged from a common ancestor relatively recently, possibly within the last 170,000 years.
They also found that chimpanzee lice are more distantly related to human lice, and likely diverged from a common ancestor around 5 million years ago. This suggests that chimpanzee lice evolved separately from human lice as their host chimpanzees evolved separately from humans.
Overall, the evolutionary relationship between human lice and chimpanzee lice provides insight into the shared ancestry and divergence of humans and chimpanzees over millions of years.
Reference:Reed, D. L., Smith, V. S., Hammond, S. L., Rogers, A. R., & Clayton, D. H. (2004). Genetic analysis of lice supports direct contact between modern and archaic humans. PLoS biology, 2(11), e340. https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.0020340
[Me: What other parasites show this evolutionary relationship between humans and the other great apes? With reference, please.]
Several other parasites show a similar evolutionary relationship between humans and other great apes. One example is the malaria parasite, which infects both humans and chimpanzees.
Studies of malaria parasites have shown that the parasite that infects humans (Plasmodium falciparum) and the parasite that infects chimpanzees (Plasmodium reichenowi) are very closely related and likely diverged from a common ancestor when the human and chimpanzee lineages diverged.
One study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2010 analyzed the genomes of several Plasmodium species, including P. falciparum and P. reichenowi. The researchers found that these two species are so similar that they can interbreed in laboratory experiments. This suggests that they are closely related and likely diverged relatively recently in evolutionary time.
Another example is the louse species that infests gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla). A study published in the Journal of Medical Entomology in 2012 analyzed the DNA of lice collected from western lowland gorillas in Cameroon and found that the gorilla lice are closely related to human head lice. This suggests that the lice species that infest humans and gorillas are also closely related and likely diverged from a common ancestor relatively recently.
References:
- Liu, W., Li, Y., Shaw, K. S., Learn, G. H., Plenderleith, L. J., Malenke, J. A., ... & Sharp, P. M. (2010). African origin of the malaria parasite Plasmodium vivax. Nature communications, 1(1), 1-8.
- Reed, D. L., Smith, V. S., Hammond, S. L., Rogers, A. R., & Clayton, D. H. (2004). Genetic analysis of lice supports direct contact between modern and archaic humans. PLoS biology, 2(11), e340.
- Veracx, A., & Raoult, D. (2012). Biology and genetics of human head and body lice. Trends in parasitology, 28(12), 563-571.
The study I mentioned in my previous answer was about human head and body lice, not specifically human pubic lice. However, there is evidence that human pubic lice (Pthirus pubis) also have an evolutionary relationship with chimpanzee lice (Pthirus gorillae).
One study published in Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution in 2008 analyzed the DNA of pubic lice collected from humans and chimpanzees to investigate their evolutionary relationships. The researchers found that human pubic lice and chimpanzee lice are very closely related and likely diverged from a common ancestor around 3.3 million years ago, which is consistent with the estimated divergence time of humans and chimpanzees.
This study suggests that pubic lice have a similar evolutionary history to head and body lice, and that their evolution is closely tied to the evolution of their respective hosts.
Reference:Reed, D. L., Light, J. E., Allen, J. M., & Kirchman, J. J. (2008). Pair of lice lost or parasites regained: the evolutionary history of anthropoid primate lice. BMC biology, 6(1), 1-12.ChatGPT3 (20 Apr 2023) Tell me about the evolutionary relationship between the lice humans are infected with and those the chimpanzees have, with reference, please. [response to user question]
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New fossils in amber reveal that beetles fed on the feathers of dinosaurs about 105 million years ago. The exquisite specimens show one of the best supported examples of a close interaction between vertebrates and arthropods in the fossil record. The study has been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
Analysis of spectacular fossil amber fragments, from the locality of San Just in north-eastern Spain, revealed moults of tiny beetle larvae tightly surrounded by portions of downy feathers. The feathers belonged to an unknown theropod dinosaur that lived around 105 million years ago, during the Early Cretaceous. This means that the feathers could not have come from a ‘modern bird’ species, since current evidence indicates that this group appeared about 30 million years later in the fossil record, during the Late Cretaceous.Our findings demonstrate that beetles and feathered theropods have interacted since the Mesozoic, and shed light on the evolutionary importance of early relationships between arthropods and vertebrates.
Dr Ricardo Pérez-de la Fuente, co-lead author
Oxford University Museum of Natural History Oxford, UK.
The larval moults preserved in the amber were identified as related to modern skin beetles, or dermestids. Dermestid beetles are infamous pests of stored products or dried museum collections, feeding on organic materials that are hard for other organisms to digest such as natural fibres. However, dermestids also play a key role in recycling organic matter in the natural environment, and often inhabit the nests of birds and mammals, where feathers, hair, or skin, accumulate.
The feathers had almost certainly become detached from the host dinosaur, since they showed signs of damage and decay, including fungal strands growing on their surface. Consequently, the researchers propose that the beetle larvae probably lived in or on a dinosaur nest, where enough feathers could accumulate to sustain a population. This nest would have been on or close to a resin-producing tree, with the first step leading to the formation of the amber fossils happening when a flow of resin trapped the larvae and feathers, preserving them together for millions of years.
Similarly, modern bird and mammal nests are inhabited by diverse communities of insects and arachnids that feed on the rich –yet often highly specialised– sources of organic material, which include keratin in the form of feathers, hair, and skin, as well as faeces.
Isolated moult of the feather-feeding beetle larva found in the Spanish amber outcrop of Rábago/El Soplao, with detail of its powerful mandibles (right). Length of the moult is less than two millimetres
Image credit: CN IGME-CSIC).Dr Pérez-de la Fuente’s research focuses on preservation in amber and fossil arthropods, particularly insects and arachnids dating from the Cretaceous. In this new research, his contribution included identifying the fossil insect species captured in the amber fragments.It is unclear whether the feathered theropod host benefitted from the beetle larvae feeding on its detached feathers in this plausible nest setting, however, the theropod was most likely unharmed by the activity of the larvae since our data indicate that these did not feed on "living" plumage. Furthermore, the larvae lacked defensive, bristle-like structures which among modern dermestids can irritate the skin of nest hosts, even killing them.
The fossils puzzled us for a while, since they show some features that do not fall among the modern diversity of skin beetles’ he said. ‘Fortunately, working at OUMNH gives me access to one of the best entomological libraries in the world and more than five million pinned insect specimens in its collections, which can be used to match against fossils. I’m incredibly lucky to work with such privileged assets.
Dr Pérez-de la Fuente
Vertebrates and arthropods have coexisted for more than 500 million years, and their interactions throughout deep time are thought to have critically shaped their evolutionary history, often leading to coevolution. In modern ecosystems, examples of these diverse and complex ecological relationships include ticks infesting cattle, frogs capturing insects with acrobatic tongues, and barnacles growing on the skin of whales.Moult remains of feather-feeding beetle larvae intimately associated with downy feather portions from an unidentified theropod dinosaur in Early Cretaceous amber of Spain. Insets show the head with powerful mandibles of one of the larval moults (top) and the pigmentation pattern of feather second order branches (bottom), with the main stem of one feather at the right of the amber fragment. The length of the amber fragment is 6 millimetres across.Image credit: CN IGME-CSIC.
Nevertheless, direct evidence of arthropod-vertebrate relationships is extremely rare in the fossil record. The only previous instances had been of parasites, either chewing lice or blood-sucking ticks. But in this new study, the researchers believe that the theropod dinosaur was either unharmed by the beetles or may even have benefitted from the cleaning effect of the beetle feeding on its detached feathers.The emerging view is that some groups of arthropod symbionts of feathered theropods in the late Mesozoic transitioned to modern birds in the Cenozoic, Earth's current geological era. I suspect that as more fossils are unearthed we will keep finding more key evidence on how two of the most prominent groups of animals, arthropods and vertebrates, have influenced each other’s fascinating, and often intertwined, evolutionary pathways.
Dr Pérez-de la Fuente
The paper ‘Symbiosis between Cretaceous dinosaurs and feather-feeding beetles’ has been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
In their published, open access paper, the team say:
SignificanceIt should be obvious to anyone but a young child or a creationist, that, as species diverge and evolve along different lines so any obligate parasites or symbionts on the ancestral species will diverge and evolve with them. It should also be obvious to anyone but a young child or a creationist why an evolutionary explanation for this evidence of earlier species descendants being found on later species is best and most simply explained as the result of an evolutionary process rather than the result of supernatural magic done by an invisible magician in the sky.
Vertebrates and arthropods are two of the most successful and frequently fossilized animal groups, but direct evidence of their interaction in deep time – entailing the joint, intimate fossilization of remains from both groups – is extremely rare. Our discoveries in fossilized plant resin (amber) from the Early Cretaceous of Spain show that a symbiotic relationship, likely commensal/mutualistic, was established between beetle larvae feeding on detached feathers and feathered dinosaurs (theropods) more than a hundred million years ago. Only two previous records of arthropod–theropod symbiosis involving direct fossil evidence were known, both parasitic. Our findings demonstrate that beetles and feathered theropods have interacted since the Mesozoic, and shed light on the evolutionary importance of early symbiotic relationships between arthropods and vertebrates.
Abstract
Extant terrestrial vertebrates, including birds, have a panoply of symbiotic relationships with many insects and arachnids, such as parasitism or mutualism. Yet, identifying arthropod–vertebrate symbioses in the fossil record has been based largely on indirect evidence; findings of direct association between arthropod guests and dinosaur host remains are exceedingly scarce. Here, we present direct and indirect evidence demonstrating that beetle larvae fed on feathers from an undetermined theropod host (avian or nonavian) 105 million y ago. An exceptional amber assemblage is reported of larval molts (exuviae) intimately associated with plumulaceous feather and other remains, as well as three additional amber pieces preserving isolated conspecific exuviae. Samples were found in the roughly coeval Spanish amber deposits of El Soplao, San Just, and Peñacerrada I. Integration of the morphological, systematic, and taphonomic data shows that the beetle larval exuviae, belonging to three developmental stages, are most consistent with skin/hide beetles (family Dermestidae), an ecologically important group with extant keratophagous species that commonly inhabit bird and mammal nests. These findings show that a symbiotic relationship involving keratophagy comparable to that of beetles and birds in current ecosystems existed between their Early Cretaceous relatives.
Peñalver, Enrique; Peris, David; Álvarez-Parra, Sergio; Grimaldi, David A.; Arillo, Antonio; Chiappe, Luis; Delclòs, Xavier; Alcalá, Luis; Sanz, José Luis; Solórzano-Kraemer, Mónica M.; Pérez-de la Fuente, Ricardo
Symbiosis between Cretaceous dinosaurs and feather-feeding beetles
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(17), e2217872120. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2217872120.
Copyright: © 2023 The authors.
Published by PNAS. Open access
Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0)
But, if creationists were capable of a thinking process beyond that of young children, there would be no creationists and the cult leaders would need to think of another way to fleece gullible people for a living.
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