45
characteristic of the modern genus Yersinia (Poinar 2015). Yersinia pestis is the
causal agent of plague, a flea-transmitted disease that has decimated human populations throughout history (Perry and Fetherston 1997). It is not possible to determine
if the bacteria associated with the fossil flea is related to Yersinia, however it was
Fig. 2.22 Filaments with
elementary branching
(arrows) of the
Actinobacterium,
Paleorhodococcus
dominicanus, in an anal
droplet of the Dominican
amber kissing bug,
Triatoma dominicana.
Scale bar = 7 μm
Fig. 2.23 Clusters of
coccobacilli (arrows) in the
rectum of the flea,
Atopopsyllus cionus, in
Dominican amber. Scale
bar = 7 μm
2 Fossil Record of Viruses, Parasitic Bacteria and Parasitic Protozoa