9781422279137

Nature’s Grand Plan ATURE S RAND LAN

The fly-like insect called a thrip was a tiny thing, less than .08 inches (2 mm) long. When she died, it’s safe to say no one paid much attention. Just by accident, though, the thrip got a nice funeral when her body was safely preserved in a drop of amber until scientists found it some 105 million years later. When the scientists examined the little thrip under a microscope, they found some- thing interesting. Stuck to the insect’s face were small, yellow grains that looked like a fine layer of dust. Those grains were pollen. It was proof that nature had come up with the “pollination plan” tens of millions of years ago—and it still works today.

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