Cretaceous Lice: Chewing lice (which look a lot like modern lice) and nits have been found on feathers dating from the mid-Cretaceous period. Which means there's a good chance that Velociraptor was riddled with lice. #Invertebrate 🧪 - www.cell.com/current-biol... - academic.oup.com/nsr/article/... - ThreadSky

the-episiarch.bsky.social • 1 day ago

Cretaceous Lice:
Chewing lice (which look a lot like modern lice) and nits have been found on feathers dating from the mid-Cretaceous period.

Which means there's a good chance that Velociraptor was riddled with lice.
#Invertebrate 🧪
- https://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(24)00027-7
- https://academic.oup.com/nsr/article/12/2/nwae479/7945223

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Comments

swordznsorcery.bsky.social•1 day ago

That's fantastic!

pantherapardus.bsky.social•1 day ago

I think velociraptors felt otherwise. 🤭

swordznsorcery.bsky.social•1 day ago

That's their fault for not inventing combs.

the-episiarch.bsky.social•1 day ago

It's interesting to think about how Velociraptor might have dealt with lice, because the beak tip of modern birds are shaped in such a way that allows them to effectively kill lice during preening https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rspb.2004.3036
And most non-avian theropod dinosaurs did not have that

swordznsorcery.bsky.social•1 day ago

That is interesting, yes!

pantherapardus.bsky.social•1 day ago

Maybe they had a symbiotic relationship with a much smaller species of something like some modern animals do. 🤔

the-episiarch.bsky.social•1 day ago

It's certainly possible, for example a range of modern birds provide cleaning services for a wide variety of larger animals including giant tortoises, capybara, seals, and more
https://www.scielo.br/j/bn/a/cx4vzMJnKQMKjDftsVXb5sp/?lang=en&format=html