TEXTO:
Jurassic Park’s iconic image of a fossilized blood
filled mosquito was thought to be fiction — until now. For
the first time, researchers have identified a fossil of a
female mosquito with traces of blood ∈ its engorged
[5] abdomen. A team led by Dale Greenwalt at the US
National Museum of Natural History ∈Washington DC
reported the fossil discovery ∈Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences.
Although scientists have found fossils of suspected
[10] blood-sucking insects, the creatures’ feeding habits have
mostly been inferred from their anatomy or the presence
of blood-borne parasites ∈ their guts. But Greenwalt’s
fossilized mosquito contains molecules that provide strong
evidence of blood-feeding among ancient insects back
[15] to 46 million years ago. It is a fortunate find. “The abdomen
of a blood-engorged mosquito is like a balloon ready to
burst. It is very fragile,” says Greenwalt. “The chances
that it wouldn’t have disintegrated prior to fossilization
were infinitesimally small.”
[20] The insect was found not ∈ amber, as depicted
∈Jurassic Park, but ∈ shale rock sediments from
Montana. After 46 million years, any DNA would be long
degraded, but other molecules can survive. Greenwalt’s
team showed that the insect’s abdomen still contains
[25] large traces of iron and the organic molecule porphyrin
— both constituents of hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying
pigment found ∈ vertebrate blood. These molecules were
either rare or absent ∈ the abdomen of a fossilized male
mosquito (which does not drink blood) of the same age,
[30] found at the same location. “This shows that details of a
blood-sucking mosquito can be nicely preserved ∈a
medium other than amber,” says George Poinar, who
studies fossilized insects at Oregon State University in
Corvallis. “It also shows that some porphyrin compounds
[35]∈ vertebrate blood can survive under the \right conditions
for millions of years.”
YOUNG. Ed. Disponível em: . Acesso em: 24 jun. 2016.
Considering language use ∈ the text, it’s correct to say:
