ancient hairy tick found in New Jersey

[Robert A. (Bob) Morris]

If you watch the Sopranos or grew up in New Jersey (I qualify on both
counts), you may know that many strange things are buried in New
Jersey, and the headline at abcnews.com will not surprise you:

"Ancient Blood-Sucker Found in New Jersey"

The story cites an article by Grimaldi and Klompen in the current
Annals of Entomological Society of America in which the authors report
a 90 million year old, hairy backed, tick Carlos jerseyi, embedded in
amber from New Jersey. Apparently this pushes back an estimate of the
age of the order (Acarina?) some 50 million years.


Bob Morris