When giant fleas roamed earth – no, really

The modern-day flea, at 1/16 to 1/8 of an inch, is among the most bothersome of insects, with bites that can be both irritating and, at times, dangerous to humans.

Imagine, though, what life would have been like 150 million years ago, when blood-sucking fleas nearly an inch long scuttled across the earth.

That’s the claim being made by Chinese and French paleontologists, who have pored over nine extraordinary fossils unearthed from Inner Mongolia and Liaoning province.

The ancient fleas measured about eight-tens of an inch long for females, and nearly six-tenths of an inch for males, according to Agence France-Presse.

The fleas, which co-existed with dinosaurs, were wingless and, unlike their counterparts today, could not jump and had comparatively small mouths, according to the study.

But for all that, they were supremely adapted to their environmental niche, and a description of the prehistoric parasites sounds like something out of a science-fiction movie.

“They had claws which enabled them to grip onto hairy or feathered reptilians, whose hide was then pierced with a long, serrated ‘siphon’ to suck out a blood meal,” according to the wire service.

The fleas were so successful that when the dinosaurs were wiped out some 65 million years ago they smoothly moved onto mammals and birds, eventually becoming smaller over time.

The study was led by Andre Nel of France’s National Museum of Natural History and appears in the British journal Nature.

(Above: A female flea, left, and male flea from the Middle Jurassic period. These blood-gobbling parasites grew up to nearly an inch long. Photo credit: Agence France-Presse.)