Cockroach Reappears in North America After 49 Million Years

First Posted: Jan 06, 2014 08:23 AM EST
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After 49 million years, a certain cockroach has reappeared in North America. In the genus Ectobius, this cockroach has a long fossil history in Europe and now, scientists are learning a bit more about this creature's past and present.

The cockroach is a major textbook example of an invasive organism. It's the most common cockroach inhabiting a large region from northernmost Europe to southernmost Africa. In addition, it has a long fossil history and has been found in Baltic amber in Europe that is about 44 million years old. At one point, researchers thought that this lineage was exclusively from the Old World. Yet now, scientists have found that it may have also occurred in the New World.

The researchers uncovered four ancient Ectobius spcies in the 49-million-year-old Green River Formation near Colorado. These specimens were actually located in deposits that were five million years older than the Baltic amber. That said, it seems as if these cockroaches became extinct in North America while remaining present in Europe.

"About 65 years ago, several entomologists in the northeastern United States noted that four species of Ectobius were present in North America," said Conrad Labandeira, one of the researchers, in a news release. "It was always assumed that these four newcomers were the first Ectobius species to have ever lived in North America. But the discovery in Colorado proves that their relatives were here nearly 50 million years ago."

So what does this mean? It's likely that the cockroach lived in the New World, but then became extinct. Another population continued to exist in the Old World, though. Then, the cockroaches were reintroduced once more.

The findings reveal a bit more about this species of cockroach. More specifically, it shows that "invasive" species may not be as invasive as we once thought.

The findings are published in the journal Annals of the Entomological Society of America.

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