The new T. rex: A leech with an affinity for noses
Thursday, April 15, 2010 - 05:21
in Paleontology & Archaeology
The new T. rex has ferociously large teeth lining a single jaw. But its length is less than 2 inches. Tyrannobdella rex, which means tyrant leech king, is a new species of blood sucker that lives in the remote parts of the Upper Amazon. Although its regular host remains unknown, it was discovered three years ago in Peru when a 44.5 millimetre leech was plucked from the nose of a girl who had recently been bathing in a river. The new species, described in PLoS ONE, has led to revising the group of leeches that has a habit of feeding from body orifices of mammals...