Nanjing, March 25 (Xinhua) - According to the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NIGPAS), a team of scientists from China and abroad recently discovered the first fossilized tapeworm in amber from Myanmar, marking the first tapeworm body fossil ever found. This fossil provides the most reliable record of flatworm body fossils to date, offering direct evidence for understanding the early evolution of tapeworms.
The related research findings were recently published in the prestigious international journal Geology.
Tapeworms belong to the phylum Platyhelminthes, with about 5,000 known species, all of which live as parasites and can infect nearly all vertebrate animals, including humans, with species like the pork tapeworm. Tapeworms are widely distributed in almost all terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems.
According to Luo Cihang, a doctoral student at NIGPAS who was a key participant in the study, the fossil discovered this time is the first body fossil of a tapeworm and also the first report of the order Pseudophyllidea. Pseudophyllidea tapeworms are one of the most diverse tapeworm groups in the ocean, widely distributed and easily recognizable.
"Molecular biology suggests that Pseudophyllidea tapeworms may have originated about 200 million years ago, but due to the parasitic habits of tapeworms and their easily degradable soft bodies, fossil records are extremely rare, with no previous evidence of fossils found. Therefore, our knowledge of the early evolution of tapeworms is very limited," said Luo Cihang.
Of note, this study demonstrates that amber can preserve the internal structures of soft-bodied organisms. Previously, research on internal structures of organisms in amber has focused on arthropods. Researchers found through scanning that the anterior part of the fossil preserves exquisite internal structures, with stacked cone-shaped structures consistent with the partially extended proboscis morphology of Pseudophyllidea tapeworms.
Luo Cihang stated that since almost all living Pseudophyllidea tapeworms are endoparasites of marine cartilaginous fish, this study also provides a rare case of marine endoparasites being encased in amber, offering new clues for understanding amber entombment and reconstructing ancient environments. (End)
