Thank goodness THESE became extinct: Fleas that preyed on dinosaurs were 10 times size of ours - and had bite 'like a hypodermic syringe'

By ROB WAUGH

Thankfully, the fleas - found in Inner Mongolia, and analysed by experts at Oregon State University - seem not to be an ancestor's flea, but instead a separate breed of monster that has since died out

What kind of insect would have dared to crawl over the bodies of dinosaurs, plunging its proboscis between their scales to drink blood?
Answer: a flea-like insect 10 times the size of ones today, with a bite that would have felt like a hypodermic syringe.
Thankfully, the fleas - found in Inner Mongolia, and analysed by experts at Oregon State University - seem not to be an ancestor's flea, but instead a separate breed of monster that has since died out.
‘These were insects much larger than modern fleas and from the size of their proboscis we can tell they would have been mean,’ said George Poinar, Jr., a professor emeritus of zoology at Oregon State University, who wrote a commentary on this find in the same journal.

Giant female (left) and male (right) fleas from the Middle Jurassic. Scientists believe they may have fed on feathered dinosaurs

‘You wouldn't talk much about the good old days if you got bit by this insect,’ Poinar said. ‘It would have felt about like a hypodermic needle going in. We can be thankful our modern fleas are not nearly this big.’
Poinar, who is an international expert in ancient and extinct insect life forms, said it's possible that the soft-bodied, flea-like insects found in these fossils from Inner Mongolia are the evolutionary ancestors of modern fleas, but most likely they belong to a separate and now extinct lineage.
Called Pseudopulex jurassicus and Pseudopulex magnus, they had bodies that were more flat, like a bedbug or tick, and long claws that could reach over scales on the skin of dinosaurs so they could hold onto them tightly while sucking blood.

Feathered Deinonychus dinosaurs in the early Cretaceous. Scientists speculate that the fleas could have evolved their large, toughened mouthpieces specifically to penetrate dinosaurs' scaly hides

Modern fleas are more laterally compressed and have shorter antennae, and are able to move quickly through the fur or feathers of their victims.
‘These are really well-preserved fossils that give us another glimpse of life into the really distant past, the Cretaceous and Jurassic,’ said Poinar, who has also studied ‘younger’ fleas from 40-50 million years ago preserved in amber.

source: dailymail