Louse needs a douse

[frank bliss <frank@blissnet.com>]

That is a big louse!  The "timber" it was crawling around had to be  
widely spaced.  It would (I suppose) crawl around feather shafts far  
enough apart for such access or force scales apart far enough for  
it's girth to slide under.  The protuberances on it's head makes me  
think it wasn't suited for being under scales but for being between  
feather shafts similar to lice on modern avian theropods.  Maybe some  
of those hairy pterosaurs were their targets. With a 17 mm body  
length, it had to have a really big host for it to go relatively  
unnoticed.  Makes me itchy all over just considering the critter. So  
much for wanting to time travel back to the Cretaceous.

Frank (Rooster) Bliss
MS Biostratigraphy
Weston, Wyoming
www.cattleranch.org


On May 18, 2006, at 3:11 PM, Tim Williams wrote:

> Phil Bigelow wrote:
>
> > Can w'all get back to talking about dinosaurs?
>
> I don't know.  Maybe we should ask W'all.
>
> I sometimes wonder if the "virus extinction hypothesis" for  
> dinosaurs is itself a practical joke.  IMHO, it is difficult to  
> take seriously.
>
> > Even a discussion about
> > those mega dino-lice would be appreciated.  Is a jpg of this critter
> > available?
>
> Apparently there's a reconstruction of _Saurodectes_ in...
>
> Grimaldi, D. and Engel, M.S. (2005). Evolution of the insects.  
> Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
>
> ... which I haven't seen.
>
> Here's how Grimaldi and Engel (2006) describe this beastie:
>
> "_Saurodectes vrsanskyi_ from the Zaza Formation shales of Baissa,  
> Siberia (Barremian or slightly younger Neocomian in the Early  
> Cretaceous, ca 130 Ma) is a putative louse or close relative  
> thereof, but also an exceedingly bizarre insect (a revised,  
> original reconstruction of it is in Grimaldi & Engel 2005). At 17  
> mm body length it is far larger than any living louse (suggesting  
> it had a huge host) and it had huge protuberances on each side of  
> the head, but it also had some features consistent with  
> Phthiraptera, including a small thorax and apparent aptery, short  
> sprawling legs, a largely membranous abdomen (with tergites and  
> sternites lost or vestigial), and large spiracles and lateral  
> tracheal trunks."
>
> Sounds cool, huh?  Except if you happen to be the host.
>
> Cheers
>
> Tim