Burmese amber is an extremely important source of mid-Cretaceous plant and animal remains with over 870 species of organisms, ranging from protozoa to vertebrates, described from this source. The amber mines are located on the West Burma Block that according to geologists was originally part of Gondwana. The present study introduces some angiosperms and insects in Burmese amber whose closest extant relatives have a Gondwanan distribution and there is no previous evidence of a Laurasian distribution. Based on this evidence, it is proposed that organisms in Burmese amber represent a selection of tropical to subtropical life forms that inhabited the interconnected continents of Gondwana in the Early Cretaceous. Based on the fossil record of angiosperms and their diversity in Burmese amber, the West Burma Block could not have rafted from Gondwana to SE Asia before the Early Cretaceous.

Protozoan cysts and helminth eggs preserved in a coprolite from the Early Cretaceous Bernissart Iguanodon shaft in Belgium demonstrate that representatives of 3 phyla parasitized dinosaurs by that period. These fossil parasite stages are described and their possible effect on dinosaurs discussed. These findings represent the earliest fossil records of protozoan and helminth parasites of terrestrial vertebrates.

Nematodes are one of the most abundant groups of invertebrates on the face of the earth. Their extremely poor fossil record hinders our ability to assess just when members of this group invaded land and first became associated with plants. This study reports fossil nematodes from the stomatal chambers of the Early Devonian (396 mya) land plant, Aglaophyton major. These nematodes, which are tentatively assigned to the order Enoplia, are described as Palaeonema phyticum gen. n., sp. n. in the new family Palaeonematidae fam. n. Diagnostic characters of the family are: i) cuticular striations; ii) uniform, cylindrical pharynx with the terminal portion only slightly set off from the remainder; and iii) a two-portioned buccal cavity with the upper portion bearing protuberances. The presence of eggs, juveniles and adults in family clusters within the plant tissues provide the earliest evidence of an association between terrestrial plants and animals and may represent an early stage in the evolution of plant parasitism by nematodes.

Triatoma dominicana sp.n. (Hemiptera: Reduviidae: Triatominae) is described from a fifth instar nymph exuvia in Dominican amber and represents the first fossil representative of this subfamily. The new species is placed in the tribe Triatomini and tentatively in the genus Triatoma on the basis of the following characters; body length of 19.5 mm, body and appendages without long hairs, antenniferous tubercles without conspicuous apicolateral projections; abdomen with a series of five median tubercles; only fourth antennal segment annulated; lateral postocular callosities absent; stridulatory sulcus present and pronotum with discal and lateral tubercles. Trypanosoma antiquus sp. n. is described from two fecal droplets adjacent to Triatoma dominicana, thus providing the first fossil evidence of a triatomine-trypanosomatid vector association. The metatrypanosome stages of the fossil are similar in size to those of T. cruzi and could be a progenitor of this species. Mammalian hairs adjacent to the fecal droplets suggest that the vertebrate host for both the triatomine and trypanosomatid was a bat. Based on these findings, it is possible that bats were the original vertebrate hosts of T. cruzi–like trypanosomes. Vector-Borne Zoonotic Dis. 5, 72–81.