In the 1993 blockbuster film jurassic parkScientists brought dinosaurs back to life by extracting DNA from the blood of mosquitoes frozen in amber.
“One hundred million years ago, there were mosquitoes, just like today,” park owner John Hammond, played by actor Richard Attenborough, says in narration. “And, just like today, they fed on the blood of animals, even dinosaurs.”
Now, researchers in Florida say they’ve done something similar.
Over the course of eight months, the University of Florida research team identified the DNA of 86 different animals from the blood of tens of thousands of Florida mosquitoes.
“Using mosquitoes, we capture vertebrates from the smallest frogs to the largest animals such as deer and cattle,” school entomologist Dr. Lawrence Reeves explained in a statement. “There are also animals with very diverse life histories: arboreal animals, migratory animals, resident birds, amphibians as well as native animals, invasive animals or endangered animals.”
University of Florida researchers analyzed the blood of tens of thousands of Florida mosquitoes and discovered the DNA of much of the region’s biodiversity (University of Florida)
The idea is not to resurrect extinct species, but to capture snapshots of all the animals living in and around the university’s Deluca Sanctuary.
The preserve is located 80 miles south of Orlando and is managed by the university.
To do this, scientists need to capture well-fed mosquitoes. Fortunately, these mosquitoes usually rest before laying eggs and were easily caught in the researchers’ vacuum traps.
Female mosquitoes are the only biters because they use proteins in their blood to reproduce. The blood they suck is stored in the abdomen and then used to grow eggs, sometimes laying 200 eggs at a time.
Researchers capture mosquitoes at DeLuca Preserve, 80 miles south of Orlando (UF/IFAS, Tyler Jones)
Over eight months, Reeves and other researchers collected more than 2,000 “blood meals” from 21 species of female mosquitoes.
Analysis of the blood found that mosquito feeding was quite indiscriminate.
Bald eagles, coyotes, rattlesnakes, otters, toads, turtles, alligators—it doesn’t matter. No species is safe.
The researchers say the blood contains nearly all of the region’s spiny biodiversity.
Only one large mammal escaped the mosquito’s bite.
This 2006 photo shows the endangered Florida panther. There are fewer than 230 left in the wild (NPS/Rodney Cammauf)
The endangered Florida panther, one of the state’s two big cats, along with the bobcat, has used the blood of mosquitoes to evade detection.
But the researchers point out that this may actually be a technological triumph.
According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, there are only about 120 to 230 adult panthers left in the wild south of Lake Okeechobee in southeastern Florida.
Black panthers can be so rare that it’s even hard to find the mosquitoes that feed on them.
