| Paleotriatoma Temporal range:
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|---|---|
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| Holotype | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hemiptera |
| Suborder: | Heteroptera |
| Family: | Reduviidae |
| Subfamily: | Triatominae |
| Genus: | †Paleotriatoma Poinar, 2018 |
| Species: | †P. metaxytaxa
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| Binomial name | |
| †Paleotriatoma metaxytaxa Poinar, 2018
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Paleotriatoma metaxytaxa is a species of fossil insect belonging to the subfamily Triatominae (kissing bugs) of the family Reduviidae. Living kissing bugs are blood-sucking insects responsible for the transmission of Chagas disease.[1] Chagas is a parasitic disease affecting millions of people mainly in South America, Central America and Mexico.[2]
The species was described from a single specimen with excellent preservation. The specimen was preserved in amber, in deposits from the Middle Cretaceous (possibly Albian) age. The specimen contains developing flagellated trypanosomes in its hindgut, suggesting that early triatomines might have been transmitting pathogenic protozoa to vertebrates as early as 100 million years (Ma).[1]
- ^ a b Poinar, George (January 2019). "A primitive triatomine bug, Paleotriatoma metaxytaxa gen. et sp. nov. (Hemiptera: Reduviidae: Triatominae), in mid-Cretaceous amber from northern Myanmar". Cretaceous Research. 93: 90–97. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2018.09.004. S2CID 134969065.
- ^ "Chagas disease". www.who.int. Retrieved 2023-04-06.