This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Some 99 million years ago, during the age of the dinosaurs, a tiny insect belonging to a species previously unknown to science became trapped in tree resin. The resin hardened and turned into amber, and the fossil preserved within it has now enabled a team of researchers from the School of Zoology and The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History to identify and describe a new species: Cretodorus noonoo, or "Noo-Noo." Alongside the description of the new species, the study reveals an extraordinary biological adaptation that characterized Noo-Noo and its close relatives: exceptionally long and flexible mouthparts, which in Noo-Noo reached nearly twice the length of its body.
The researchers believe that this unusual structure enabled the insects to reach food sources that were inaccessible to insects with more rigid mouthparts, deep inside cracks and crevices in tree bark. The study, published in the journal Insects, was conducted by Dolev Fabrikant and Dr. Leonidas-Romanos Davranoglou of the School of Zoology, Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History and New Environmental School at Tel Aviv University, in collaboration with Dr.
Yanzhe Fu of the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The researchers examined insect fossils belonging to Neazoniidae, an ancient family of planthoppers, including 13 specimens preserved in Kachin amber from Myanmar. In their modern relatives, the mouthparts are structured like a simple needle, allowing them to pierce plant tissues and suck fluids from them.
The ancient insects examined in the study, however, were found to possess extremely elongated mouthparts, the surface of which was densely covered with transverse folds. Using high-resolution micro-computed tomography, the researchers were able to reconstruct their internal structure. The scans showed that the folds were not merely external ornamentation but part of the structure itself.
They likely gave the mouthparts flexibility while preventing them from kinking or collapsing—much like a bendy drinking straw or a corrugated flexible hose. Further evidence comes from the fossils themselves: In several specimens, the mouthparts were preserved in a bent position. Because the amber froze the insects in place when they became trapped in the resin, the researchers view this as further evidence that the mouthparts were also flexible during the insects' lifetimes.
Such a structure is unknown among their living relatives today, pointing to an ancient evolutionary solution that has since disappeared. The new species' unusual appearance also inspired its name: Cretodorus noonoo. The epithet "Noo-Noo" was chosen after the friendly vacuum cleaner from the children's television series Teletubbies, whose long, flexible hose resembles the mouthpart of the ancient insect.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
