Mosquito larva found in 99-million-year-old amber

An "excellently preserved" fossil of mosquito larva has been found by scientists in Myanmar, in southeast Asia.

It's thought to be from the Cretaceous era, which means it could be around 99 million years old.

It's been identified by experts a new species and been given the name Cretosabethes primaevus.

Finding the fossil trapped in a piece of amber has been described by the team as a "rare stroke of luck".

Why is the discovery so significant?

Until now only fossils of adult mosquitoes had been found, so to have found a larva - the young that has hatched from an egg - is something the research team are excited about.

Finding this mosquito also helps the team to understand how the insect has evolved over time and questions previous beliefs on when they first emerged.

It had originally been thought that they could have been around during the Jurassic Period, about 201–145 million years ago, based on fossils found of phantom midges (a close relative of mosquitoes with the scientific name Chaoboridae).

However, these have several differences to mosquitoes as we know them today.

The Cretaceous era, when this mosquito fossil dates from, is the same time period as dinosaurs like the Tyrannosaurus rex roamed the earth

The new discovery shows this mosquito larva does in fact share features with current day mosquitoes, which makes it more interesting.

Zoologist André Amaral from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich was part of the study.

He said: "This fossil is unique, because the larva is very similar to modern species - in contrast to all other fossil discoveries of mosquitoes from this period."

The researchers say this study seems to show that mosquitoes had already diversified and changed in the Jurassic period, and that the "shape and structure of their larvae has remained remarkably similar for almost 100 million years".

"This new fossil indicates that extinct forms of mosquitoes coexisted with modern ones during the Cretaceous [period]" they added.

There are more than 3,700 known mosquito species living on earth today

How this larva was preserved is also of interest to the scientists.

It's not that unusual for ancient insects to be preserved in amber, which is tree resin that hardens over millions of years until it becomes a fossil.

In fact if you've seen the original Jurassic Park film, you might remember a mosquito trapped in amber being a key part of the plot!

Some of the the most common insects from this region to see preserved in amber are spiders, beetles, bees, wasps, ants, and adult flies

The researchers think this mosquito larva would have lived in a tree branch hollow or between the leaves of plants, where a small amounts of water could have gathered.

For the larva to be discovered in amber, a drop of resin needed to fall into a tiny pool of water.

This is why the finding has been described as "a rare stroke of luck" for the team.