Discovering anew speciesis always a freehanded deal , but finding a creature that does n’t even fit into any know family within the beast realm is earth - shatteringly nerveless – even if that critter is only about 100 micrometer caliper long . Hence the excitation skirt the late find of a tiny fossilize invertebrate in a 30 - million - year - old firearm of amber , which has been dubbed the ‘ mold pig’ . Despite its minuscule proportions , this ancient organism is a wolf of a find , revealing the existence of a previously unknownfamily , genus , and speciesof microinvertebrate that lived during the mid - 3rd point , which began some 65 million old age ago and lasted more than 63 million years . Officially namedSialomorpha dominicana , from the Hellenic words sialos ( imply productive grunter ) and morphe ( meaning shape ) , the creature admit its deed from its roly-poly appearance and the fact that it feeds mainly on fungi .   The uncovering has been name in a new theme in the journalInvertebrate Biology , with the study writer noting that the mould pig “ share character with bothtardigradesand mite , but distinctly belongs to neither group . ”Study co - author George Poinar Jr explained in astatementthat “ no claws are present at the end of their leg as they are with tardigrade and touch , ” adding that “ we do n’t know when the Sialomorpha lineage originated , how long it lasted , or whether there are descendants live on today . ”Researchers found hundreds of specimen fossilized in a piece of amber from the Dominican Republic , allowing them to conduct a detailed analytic thinking of various aspects of the mold pig ’ chassis . The tiny chubsters were observed to have four pairs of legs , pliant head , and were able-bodied to moult their exoskeleton in parliamentary procedure to grow . The amber also contained false scorpion , nematodes , fungus , and protozoa , giving researchers a good mind of the types of animals that mold pigs shared their home ground with .   The fact that this fresh detect metal money is now extinct makes it heavy to study them further , although Poinar Jr ’s previous work feed birth to the estimation of extracting DNA from fossils preserved in amber , inspiring Michael Crichton to writeJurassic Park . It ’s unlikely anyone will be resurrecting the mold copper in a microscopical version of the ill - fated fictitious park , although at least if they did you would n’t need to worry about getting eat up while on the john .