How to translate text using browser tools
20 March 2017 Fossilized Mammalian Erythrocytes Associated With a Tick Reveal Ancient Piroplasms
George Poinar
Author Affiliations +
Abstract

Ticks transmit a variety of pathogenic organisms to vertebrates, especially mammals. The fossil record of such associations is extremely rare. An engorged nymphal tick of the genus Ambylomma in Dominican amber was surrounded by erythrocytes from its mammalian host. Some of the exposed erythrocytes contained developmental stages of a hemoprotozoan resembling members of the Order Piroplasmida. The fossil piroplasm is described, its stages compared with those of extant piroplasms, and reasons provided why the mammalian host could have been a primate. The parasites were also found in the gut epithelial cells and body cavity of the fossil tick. Aside from providing the first fossil mammalian red blood cells and the first fossil intraerythrocytic hemoparasites, the present discovery shows that tick–piroplasm associations were already well established in the Tertiary. This discovery provides a timescale that can be used in future studies on the evolution of the Piroplasmida.

© The Authors 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com
George Poinar "Fossilized Mammalian Erythrocytes Associated With a Tick Reveal Ancient Piroplasms," Journal of Medical Entomology 54(4), 895-900, (20 March 2017). https://doi.org/10.1093/jme/tjw247
Received: 27 September 2016; Accepted: 14 December 2016; Published: 20 March 2017
JOURNAL ARTICLE
6 PAGES

This article is only available to subscribers.
It is not available for individual sale.
+ SAVE TO MY LIBRARY

KEYWORDS
Dominican amber
fossil Ambylomma tick
fossil erythrocyte
fossil piroplasm
Paleohaimatus calabresi gen. et sp. n.
RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS
Get copyright permission
Back to Top