Gigantic super-fleas

As if impending extinction wasn't enough, dinosaurs were also plagued by giant mega-fleas that impaled their soft underbellies and feasted on their blood. The super-fleas, which were around ten times the size of the fleas that bother dogs nowadays had an extra-painful bite because of their huge suckers. It would have felt like a hypodermic needle going in – a flea shot, if not a flu shot.
The fossilised remains of these fleas were found by Chinese scientists. The mega-midges could be the ancestors of modern fleas, but they're more likely to be a separate and now extinct kind of pest. Pseudopulex jurassicus and Pseudopulex magnus had bodies that were flat, like a bedbug or tick, and long claws that could reach over the scales on the skin of dinosaurs so they could stay latched on while sucking their blood. Fleas today are more laterally compressed, have shorter antennae and are able to move quickly through the fur or feathers of their victims. 94 per cent of the 2,300 known species of modern fleas attack mammals while the rest feed on birds.
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