Figure 1. Fossilized nits of chewing lice, tightly affixed to feathers of an enantiornithine bird, entombed in mid-Cretaceous amber from northern Myanmar. (a) Isolated barbs and regularly arranged ...

The new paper presents the earliest known evidence of insects feeding on feathers, and the authors suggest that this type of parasite evolved during or before the middle of the Cretaceous period, ...