Transcript:

ambience: Marsh

When you think of a prehistoric animal, you might picture something large and lumbering. But there's one creature that was here on earth long before the dinosaur, and it's still alive and well today. I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by DuPont.

"The oldest thing that I've seen that's still around is an aquatic leaf beetle, and it's a 35-million-year-old fossil that's been found, and the same species is still alive today."

Scott Elias is a paleontologist at the University of Colorado in Boulder. He says that the aquatic leaf beetle owes its longevity in part to its preference for marshy areas. It's a type of habitat that's been plentiful on earth no matter how the climate has changed. The aquatic leaf beetle can fly, and so it can always find a new marsh if necessary. And, in addition to holding the record for being the longest living species, these insects have a rather unusual way of breathing underwater.

"The adults feed on the part of the plan that's above the water line and the juvenile lives underwater, feeding on the parts that are below the water, but it does this by snorkeling, and what it does is, it has a little tube in its abdomen that has a sharp point and it punctures the stem of a reed and since there's air moving up and down that hollow stem it literally is tapping into the air that the plant is getting and using that to snorkel to the surface, so it can stay underwater its entire sub-adult stage of life without ever having to come up for air."

And that helps the young beetles avoid being eaten by birds. It's also no surprise to scientists that the oldest fossil found so far is of a beetle. Unlike insects that decompose quickly, such as a house fly, beetles have hard bodies called exoskeletons, and they're perfect for preservation. Pulse of the Planet is presented by DuPont, bringing you the miracles of science, with additional support provided by the National Science Foundation. I'm Jim Metzner.