Ancestor of the Black Death

[Anomalocaris]

Bacteria in ancient flea may be ancestor of the Black Death

About 20 million years ago a single flea became entombed in amber with tiny bacteria attached to it, providing what researchers believe may be the oldest evidence on Earth of a dreaded and historic killer - an ancient strain of the bubonic plague.

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[Patient Zero]

That's wild.

i've always been fascinated by how devastating the plague (and to a lesser extent, small pox) was.

Good find, Anomalocaris.

2 u.

Edited September 28, 2015 by Misanthropic

[Sir Wearer of Hats]

Will they call it "The Grey Feeling a bit Crook"?

[Sundew]

"There is no danger..." Now perhaps, but wait until they start sequencing its genes and inserting them into modern Yersinia pests, just for fun.

[taniwha]

No doubt this is how dinosaurs were wiped off the earth.

[Taun]

I think they should explore this fully... I mean, what could possibly go wrong?

[bee]

. great news... .... smiley malfunction - it's that one with the eyes going from side to side

While there's no risk of this ancient bacteria coming back to life and infecting people in the present, its discovery does offer scientists with a chance to study how it evolved over millions of years.

famous last words.... totally agree Taun - what could possibly go wrong

.

Edited September 30, 2015 by bee

[Patient Zero]

I think they should explore this fully... I mean, what could possibly go wrong?

Ahh, we'd be fine.

According to dickipedia, 5-15 people contract plague each year in the US.

For a disease that killed 75 to 200 million people, peaking in Europe in the years 1346 to 1353, i'd say we're doin' alright.

Go science!

Edit: Cut n' paste resulted in cut and misinformation. Whoopsie.

Edited September 30, 2015 by Misanthropic

[Taun]

Ahh, we'd be fine.

According to dickipedia, 5-15 people contract plague each year in the US.

For a disease that killed 75 to 200 million people, peaking in Europe in the years 1346 to 1353, i'd say we're doin' alright.

Go science!

Edit: Cut n' paste resulted in cut and misinformation. Whoopsie.

The problem is that the "black Death" or Bubonic Plague, that we have today is a mutated version of the one that swept through Europe in the 1400's... A disease that is

millions of years removed from Human's means it is millions of years removed from our immune systems... It could easily be more deadly than the plague of the 1400's...

[Ealdwita]

Ealdwita snippet alert....

The amount of the population who died from the original bubonic strain was 50%.

• 
  A variant of the disease was pneumonic plague, which attacked the lungs. Victims died quickly, in one or two days. The mortality rate in this case was 90%.
  
• 
  Another variant was septicaemic plague, which infected the blood. Again victims died quickly and the mortality rate was 100%.
  
• 
  So, looking at those figures....if you're gonna catch plague, the bubonic version would seem the preferable variety.
  

[Athena1979]

The Dominican republic is a ways away from Europe.

[jarjarbinks]

Just like Inferno from Dan Brown

[Patient Zero]

The problem is that the "black Death" or Bubonic Plague, that we have today is a mutated version of the one that swept through Europe in the 1400's... A disease that is

millions of years removed from Human's means it is millions of years removed from our immune systems... It could easily be more deadly than the plague of the 1400's...

You're absolutely correct.

Thank you for teaching this old dog something new.

[Frank Merton]

Ealdwita snippet alert....

The amount of the population who died from the original bubonic strain was 50%.

• A variant of the disease was pneumonic plague, which attacked the lungs. Victims died quickly, in one or two days. The mortality rate in this case was 90%.
  
• Another variant was septicaemic plague, which infected the blood. Again victims died quickly and the mortality rate was 100%.
  
• So, looking at those figures....if you're gonna catch plague, the bubonic version would seem the preferable variety.
  

Well maybe -- the more lethal an infectious disease is, all else being equal, the shorter the time before it burns itself out. Still that is little encouragement for those with it.

[Taun]

The Dominican republic is a ways away from Europe.

Not with todays jet travel... A case could be made that it is actually much closer... Back in the 1400's (or so) it would take weeks for a person to travel from

say, Istanbul (still called Constantinople then) to Paris... Today, to travel from The Dominican Republic to Paris, takes only a few hours...

The plague(s) back then spread in patterns of years, creeping relatively slowly from one area to another... Today, any major outbreak would be global in a matter

of hours...

Edited October 1, 2015 by Taun

[cathya]

Well, let's not open that amber and try to examine this flea. We've got enough problems to deal with in our world today.