Cockroaches Probably Cleaned Up after Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs undoubtedly produced huge quantities of excrements. But who cleaned up after them? Dung beetles and flies with rapid development were rare during most of the Mesozoic. Candidates for these duties are extinct cockroaches (Blattulidae), whose temporal range is associated with herbivorous dinosaurs. An opportunity to test this hypothesis arises from coprolites to some extent extruded from an immature cockroach preserved in the amber of Lebanon, studied using synchrotron X-ray microtomography. 1.06% of their volume is filled by particles of wood with smooth edges, in which size distribution directly supports their external pre-digestion. Because fungal pre-processing can be excluded based on the presence of large particles (combined with small total amount of wood) and absence of damages on wood, the likely source of wood are herbivore feces. Smaller particles were broken down biochemically in the cockroach hind gut, which indicates that the recent lignin-decomposing termite and cockroach endosymbionts might have been transferred to the cockroach gut upon feeding on dinosaur feces

Healthy wetlands, healthy people: mosquito borne disease

We evaluate the links between wetland breeding mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae), vector-borne disease transmission, human incidence of disease and the underlying mechanisms regulating these relationships. Mosquitoes are a diverse taxonomic group that plays a number of important roles in healthy wetlands. Mosquitoes are also the most important insect vectors of pathogens to wildlife, livestock and humans, transmitting many important diseases such as malaria, West Nile virus, and Ross River virus. Mosquitoes interact with a variety of invertebrates and vertebrates in complex communities within wetlands. These interactions regulate populations of key vector species. Healthy wetlands are characterized by intact wetland communities with increased biodiversity and trophic structure that tend to minimize dominance and production of vector mosquito species, reservoir host species and minimize risk of disease to surrounding human and animal populations. In a public health paradigm, these natural ecological interactions can be considered a direct ecosystem service—natural mitigation of vector-borne disease risk. Anthropogenic disruptions, including land-use, habitat alterations, biodiversity loss and climatic changes can compromise natural ecological processes that regulat