August M
A tiny creature trapped in ancient resin has upended assumptions about mosquito evolution.
According to Illustreret Videnskab (Science Illustrated), researchers examining a piece of 99-million-year-old Burmese amber have identified the oldest known mosquito larva — and its anatomy is far more modern than scientists expected.
Amber fossils are prized because they preserve organisms in remarkable detail, including delicate soft tissues rarely fossilised in other contexts.
Everything from feathers to microscopic organisms can become sealed in tree resin before it hardens, creating exceptionally detailed snapshots of prehistoric ecosystems.
But aquatic larvae almost never appear: they live in water, not on tree bark, making their entrapment a geological accident of the rarest kind.
Scientific significance
The study, published in Gondwana Research, highlights how even tiny amber inclusions can reshape evolutionary timelines.
For entomologists, the fossil demonstrates that some mosquito lineages were already established when dinosaurs roamed Earth — and that their development has changed remarkably little since.
A modern-looking ancient mosquito
The team identified the specimen as a new species, Cretosabethes primaevus, preserved with extraordinary clarity
What makes the fossil so striking, Illustreret Videnskab (Science Illustrated) notes, is that it closely resembles today’s Sabethini mosquito larvae, is that it resembles today’s Sabethini mosquito larvae.
Lead researcher André Amaral said in a press release that, unlike other Cretaceous mosquito fossils belonging to extinct groups with unfamiliar anatomies, this larva “is very similar to modern species.” notes Illustreret videnskab (Science Illustrated)
Clues to ancient habitats
The amber originates from Myanmar’s Kachin region and dates to the late Cretaceous.
Researchers propose that the larva likely lived in small water-filled pockets in tree canopies, an environment still used by modern Sabethini species.
Such a habitat would explain how resin flowing down a tree could encase a water-dwelling organism — a rare but possible scenario.
Sources: Illustreret Videnskab (Science Illustrated); Gondwana Research; Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich press release.
