ABSTRACT
The present work reviews the topic of ancient vertebrate pathogens that have been discovered associated with arthropods in Tertiary and Cretaceous amber. The great majority of these pathogens have been recorded inside the alimentary tract or body cavity of their vectors. Microorganisms resembling those that cause malaria, Lyme disease and plague, as well as many other diseases, provide evidence of the antiquity of pathogens that infect us today.
Acknowledgments
The author thanks two anonymous reviewers whose comments are greatly appreciated and Roberta Poinar for remarks on earlier drafts of this paper.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.