ancient hairy tick found in New Jersey

[John R. Grehan]

>  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.

This is a nice example of fossils representing the minimal age of fossilization
rather than the absolute phylogenetic age of a lineage. Although 'everyone'
knows
this distinction is often ignored, particularly in biogeography and with
molecular
clocks (although sometimes with propaganda to convince the reader that
the fossil record in question is accurate, reliable, precise, well known etc.).

John Grehan