Three-eyed monster peeking!

Flying insects preserved in ancient Burmese amber for millions of years, it was a species of the genus and a new family of flies that had never been observed before. United States scientists who discovered the animal 100 million years old were referred to insects such as the unicorn for a single horn on his head.

Small insect specimens preserved perfectly awful shape it has. A small horns protruding from the top of his head, and three eyes perched on the tip of the horn. The shape of this strange vision should make it able to detect insect predators coming, but this clever defense mechanism was lost in the process of evolution.

 
"No bugs that have horns like that and there is no any animal that has horns with his eyes at the end," said George Poinar Jr.., Professor of zoology at Oregon State University, Corvallis, who has just announced the new species in the journal Cretaceous Research .

Poinar suspect there is a strange animal that was probably a harmless little insects that eat the pollen and nectar of tropical flowers. "But it looks very odd," he said. "One reviewer called it a monster of our study, and I must admit that the only other possible flies like it looks like. I think to make a number of animal face mask for Halloween."

Ancient flying insects is estimated between the ages of 97 and 110 million years of life in the jungles of Burma and trapped in amber. Tree sap is sticky and thick, covering the animal, then turned into stone and preserved all the characteristics of these animals as alive, including odd-eyed horn-thirds. "If BASED on the wings, the beast looks like other flying insects in Bibionomorpha families," said Poinar. "However, these animals came from the end of the period when many Cretacous Start strange evolutionary adaptation occurs. Horn and specialized eye may benefit the insect in the search for small flowers, but useless when the flowers become larger so that it became extinct . "

Poinar named the new flying insects Cascoplecia insolitis. The name is derived from the Latin word "cascus" for old and "insolates" for the strange and bizarre. Insects also have a variety of other unusual characteristics, such as odd-shaped antenna and unusually long legs that can help him climb the flower.