Jurassic Park Wasn't That Far From Reality (But Not As You Think)

Remember this cult scene from the first Jurassic Park : a mosquito frozen in amber filled with dinosaur blood sucked out of a syringe and a few genetic manipulations later, a T-Rex roar tears through the jungle of Isla Nublar. If this scenario of this legendary film is pure science fiction (not to mention the repeated sequels, which have pushed the envelope a little far), Steven Spielberg, by reworking Michael Crichton’s novel, finally had some flair.

The mosquito, an annoying parasite that we want to break out with tap-dancing every summer, is in reality a “ biological hard drive » on six legs. A very serious study published in Scientific Reports has just confirmed that these insects are peerless spies for biologists and ecologists of all stripes. In Florida, researchers at the local university have swapped Alan Grant’s hat for cutting-edge DNA sequencers. Their mission? Prove that the mosquito is the best wildlife census tool ever invented by evolution.

Of the ” drones » ultra-effective organic

As soon as a mosquito bites you (or your dog), it unknowingly takes a high-precision biological sample. For researchers at the University of Florida, these “ blood meals ” are real gold mines for wildlife monitoring.

Why bother setting up hundreds of expensive camera traps that miss small animals hiding under leaves, or birds in the canopy when you can let thousands of winged micro-syringes do the dirty work? By analyzing more than 2,000 mosquito specimens collected from the DeLuca Preserve, the team was able to chart an ultra-complete inventory of the local ecosystem: 86 species of vertebrates have been identified.

Suffice to say that the panorama was exhaustive: raccoons, coyotes, white-tailed deer, snakes, eagles, and even alligators or gopher tortoises. Female mosquitoes, driven by instinct, do not discriminate when it comes to drawing blood necessary for the maturation of their eggs. They thus capture the genetic fingerprint of everything that moves, allowing scientists to know exactly which populations inhabit a given area, how they move and whether certain endangered species are still present.

Real-time data: short-term evidence

This is where reality diverges even further from Spielberg’s fiction, but it’s for a good cause. Unlike DNA fossilized in amber which has been waiting for millions of years, DNA collected by a mosquito is ultra-perishable data.

Once the blood is sucked, the nucleic acids it contains degrade in just 24 to 48 hours in the insect’s stomach. In addition, a mosquito is a poor traveler: it rarely strays more than a few hundred meters from its food source. For ecologists, it’s a godsend.

Environmental DNA samples obtained through air or water can sometimes be several weeks old and have drifted for kilometers. On the contrary, by delivering this fresh data, the mosquito offers researchers almost perfect temporal and geographic geolocation. Let’s take an example: if raccoon DNA is found in a specimen, it is irrefutable proof that the mammal was there, and was bitten precisely at this location, less than two days ago.

« Mosquitoes are generally perceived as pests or vectors of disease, which is largely deserved », Recognizes Lawrence Reeves, entomologist at the University of Florida. “ But in their ecosystems, they also play important roles, and we show here that they can help monitor other animals, to better conserve them or better manage natural environments. », continues the researcher.

They will certainly not help us transform a chicken into a velociraptor, but this new method of monitoring wildlife proves to be extremely reliable in addition to being very economical. We could, theoretically, extrapolate it to many places around the globe to keep an eye on endangered animal speciesbut also detect the arrival of invasive species before their populations get out of control. That said, it won’t help us appreciate mosquitoes more or forget that they are the deadliest animals on the planet (around 830,000 annual deaths), but this work still shows that they have a certain ecological interest. Which, given their status and reputation, was not won in advance.