Chapter 107 The Capital Museum comes to visit: Mosquitoes from the Jurassic Period (35)

at night,

Su Ran did not tell the old man that he found amber in the forest.

The main reason is that the old man doesn’t quite understand this thing.

However, the news reported how Su Ran discovered amber in the forest.

"The young forest ranger station chief in Linhai?" The old man suddenly asked Su Ran, "Xiao Ran, is this person mentioned in the news you?"

Facing the old man's curiosity, Su Ran nodded and said, "Yes, we did find amber in the forest today."

Old Man Amber knew a little bit, not much, but he knew what it was.

But he didn't know the scientific research value of insect amber, so he was surprised and said, "I didn't expect you to be on the news, Xiaoran. But is amber so precious?"

My grandfather is not stupid. Anything that can make the news must have some value and deserve attention from the outside world.

Not only Su Ran's grandfather saw the news, but also in a room of less than 80 square meters in the city, Wei Wenjing poked her husband's arm while eating: "Old Su, look, is that our son?"

Su Wunong looked at the news, which reported that a young forest ranger had discovered natural amber that was tens of millions of years old.

And there are related images.

"The person on TV looks a bit like our son." Su Wunong pushed the frame of the glasses.

Wei Wenjing didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "If it's not like him, then he is our son!"

Su Wunong was stunned when he heard this: "It's really Xiaoran. I didn't expect him to be on the news. And he didn't tell us that he was promoted to webmaster?"

After all, he is within the system, and Su Wunong knows very well that the stationmaster of a forest ranger station is generally not competent without a staff position.

After hearing her husband's explanation, Wei Wenjing was delighted and quickly called her son.

On the phone, my mother blamed myself for not telling her and my father the news.

Su Ran explained that he wanted to talk to her in person after some time.

The mother also understands her son's thoughts, and she feels extremely gratified to see her child achieve what he has today.

He even sighed, "Hey, your father and I wanted to stop you from going to the countryside to be a forest ranger. Now I see that we were foolish."

"Mom, don't say that. I didn't think of this at first. You and Dad should take care of your health. Grandpa and I will go to see you later."

The mother and son exchanged greetings for a while, and then the call ended.

Su Wunong suddenly saw his wife holding a mobile phone with tears in her eyes and choked up.

He immediately asked with concern: "What's wrong, honey? Why are you crying after just talking to your son on the phone?"

Su Wunong held his wife in his arms. Wei Wenjing said sadly, "As parents, we didn't help our child, and we even opposed him doing the right thing."

"That's fine, but now our Xiaoran is so outstanding, what can we give him?"

When children grow up, they need to get married, and when they get married, they need to buy a car and a house.

Wei Wenjing asked her husband how much money the family had saved.

Su Wunong said, "You are the one who has been in charge of the money. It's just over 300,000 yuan."

"Three hundred thousand..." Wei Wenjing paused, "It's only enough to buy a car. When Xiaoran gets married, we can't let him live with his wife here. Girls are very picky nowadays and don't like to live with their parents-in-law. Besides, our house is not big."

Su Wunong sighed, but this matter is not so absolute: "We don't need to buy a car yet, just give our car to Xiaoran. Three hundred thousand as a down payment is enough to buy a 100-square-meter house."

"Besides, Xiaoran hasn't found a partner yet, so we're just worrying about nothing."

Wei Wenjing was speechless: "...That's true."

The next day.

Su Ran planned to do nothing for the next two days and just wait for the latest news from the Paleontological Research Institute.

I had just finished brushing my teeth in the bathroom and was about to go outside to the yard to breathe the first breath of fresh air of the day.

I saw several cars with Beijing license plates driving towards me from a distance.
-
The appearance of several Beijing A cars suddenly made the quiet little village lively.

The villagers all walked to the side of the road and looked towards Su Qingquan's house.

At this time, grandpa had just gotten up to wash up.

The old man likes to dry heave when brushing his teeth, and the noise is quite loud, but Su Ran has gotten used to it.

Because he always feels that older people are like this.

After brushing his teeth, the old man watched as a car with a Beijing A license plate drove out of the yard and asked his grandson curiously, "Your friends in the capital?"

Su Ran was disappointed.

Come on, he doesn’t have any friends in the capital.

It would be more accurate to say that they were netizens or fans from there, but the people in the car were dressed very formally and it was obvious that they were not ordinary people.

Soon, an old man in a Zhongshan suit walked towards Su Ran with a smile on his face.

There were several people following him, who seemed to be his subordinates or colleagues.

While Su Ran was still confused, Bi Shouqing began to introduce himself: "Hello, you must be Station Master Su Ran, you are indeed a handsome man. Let me introduce myself, I am Bi Shouqing, the curator of the Capital Museum."

"Hello, Director Bi." Su Ran smiled politely. He didn't really understand why the people from the Capital Museum came to him for the first time.

But he seemed to have guessed a little.

Seeing Su Ran's puzzled expression, Bi Shouqing also smiled and said, "To be honest, we came here specifically to inquire about the amber. I wonder if you, Stationmaster Su, have decided how to deal with it?"

Although Su Ran discovered the amber, it does not mean that he is the owner of the amber. If nothing unexpected happens, Su Ran originally planned to donate the amber to the provincial museum after the paleontological research institute has research results.

After learning that Su Ran intended to donate it to the museum, Bi Shouqing was delighted: "Instead of donating it to a local museum, it would be better to put it in our Capital Museum."

"Of course, this is my request on behalf of the museum, and we will not accept Stationmaster Su's kindness in vain."

"Then our museum will reward you with 200,000 yuan, and you will be noted as the discoverer of the amber in the introduction."

This condition is very tempting.

Not to mention the $200,000 prize, just being officially recognized and even labeled as the first discoverer of amber, the honor and popularity it brings are not comparable to ordinary marketing publicity.

Su Ran had no intention of donating it to anyone, as it would have to be handed over to the country in the end.

Why not donate to the Capital Museum and get such a generous reward?

Just at this moment, a cold snort came from behind them.

I don’t know when, a few cars from the province arrived, along with a large group of people.

Su Ran saw Deng Jiaying was among them.

After nodding to her, the man walking in front of Deng Jiaying said sarcastically, "I'm not saying that you, the National Museum of China, are too greedy. That amber was found in the forest in our jurisdiction. Even if you want to donate it, you should donate it to our local provincial museum!"

"This is Zhao Youcai, Director Zhao. He heard that people from the Provincial Museum were coming, and he knew they were coming for the amber, so he rushed over without stopping." Deng Jiaying whispered beside Su Ran.

"What about you? Why are you here too?" Su Ran asked.

Deng Jiaying smiled and said, "I just happened to meet Director Zhao, and the results from the Institute of Biology will be out today, so I came here to inform you."

Watching the two gangs fighting in the yard, Su Ran was distracted by the scent of Deng Jiaying and didn't pay attention to what they were arguing about for a while.

But looking at the current situation, it seems that both museums want to get the opportunity to exhibit natural amber.

Zhao Youcai put his arm around Su Ran's shoulders and said, "I don't want to argue with you anymore. My brother will definitely not donate the things to you. Besides, even if we follow the procedures, it won't be your turn to be the first to publish."

Zhao Youcai speaks a bit loudly, but that's just the character of some northerners.

Compared to the literary-looking Bi Shouqing, Su Ran felt more approachable towards Zhao Youcai, who looked a bit burly and even silly.

At this time, in the live broadcast room, netizens had their own opinions on where the amber should be sent.

"I think it should be given to the Capital Museum. After all, it is an institution in the capital. If you have this network of people, it will be convenient for you to do anything in the future."

"Bullshit, if you really want to talk about connections, wouldn't it be more convenient to donate to the local area? The Capital Museum sounds great, but the Provincial Museum can't be that bad."

"I think the main reason is that Director Zhao hasn't said anything about giving Brother Su any benefits. He came to the Capital Museum with sincerity from the beginning."

Just when the atmosphere was getting a little dull, Su Ran and Deng Jiaying's phones rang.

"What? The research results are out?!"

The two said in unison.

"Everyone, let's not discuss this for now. Listen. I'm going to the provincial research institute first."

The two groups of people kept their mouths shut like good kids.

As he spoke, Su Ran got on the truck and waved at Deng Jiaying, "What are you standing there for? Aren't you going?"

"oh oh!"

The two drove quickly to the Institute of Paleontology.

After Su Ran and Deng Jiaying put on their white coats and walked into the laboratory, the director and Jiao Shengmin, who had been busy for two days and two nights without closing their eyes, came over and said with a smile:
"After careful observation using advanced scientific instruments such as laser confocal microscopes and fluorescence microscopes, we preliminarily determined that this amber is 1.3 million years old."

As soon as this conclusion came out, the live broadcast room was in an uproar!
"Fuck, 1.3 million years ago, that was still the Jurassic period."

“So there were mosquitoes this small back then?”

"Damn it! Mosquitoes are such bad creatures that they can live so long. It seems like it's really hard to exterminate them. I hate it."

Jiao Shengmin and his colleagues have discovered much more than this.

"This is a male mosquito, and it has preserved its unique piercing-sucking mouthparts."

Other features they discovered in their study include a sharp triangular jaw and an elongated structure with small teeth.

Nowadays, female mosquitoes have piercing-sucking mouthparts for sucking blood, while male mosquitoes have degenerated mouthparts and mostly suck floral nectar.

The piercing-sucking mouthparts of the male mosquito discovered this time suggest that male mosquitoes were also blood-sucking insects 1.3 million years ago.

Jiao Shengmin summed up this major discovery. He said excitedly: "This insect amber is about 1.3 million years old. The mosquito in the amber should be the oldest mosquito fossil."

"This discovery is sufficient to prove that male mosquitoes also sucked blood in the early stages of the evolution of the Culicidae family, and reveals that the early blood-sucking behavior of insects was more complex than we thought."

The atmosphere in the laboratory was filled with great joy.

The director of the Institute of Paleontology said happily: "It seems that we can use this major discovery to publish a special international academic journal."

You should know that mosquitoes are blood-sucking insects that suck the blood of humans or animals and spread diseases.

Blood-sucking behavior in insects is thought to have evolved from piercing-sucking mouthparts used to feed on plant sap, but the evolution of blood-sucking behavior has been difficult to study.

This is partly due to gaps in the insect fossil record.

Today, there are more than 3000 different types of mosquitoes in the family Culicidae, but our understanding of their origins and early evolution is extremely limited.

Through this ancient mosquito fossil, the Chinese scientific research community can fill this gap for the first time in the world!
There is an extremely bold idea in the barrage.

"Since it is from the Jurassic period and is extremely well preserved in amber, is it possible that we can extract the blood from the mosquito to see if there is dinosaur DNA, just like in the movie Jurassic Park?"

(End of this chapter)