Fifteen Million-Year-Old Tick Found Carrying Disease Resembling Lyme Disease.

The Los Angeles Times (5/30, Morin) reports recent research published in Historical Biology found a tick trapped 15 million years ago in an amber droplet may have been infected with a bacteria resembling Lyme disease. The tick was found in the present-day Dominican Republic. Of four ticks found, only one appeared to carry the disease, "suggesting that it either inherited the bacteria from its mother or obtained it from an animal it had seized on for a blood meal

from: http://mentalillnesspolicy.org/national-studies/commitmenthomiciderates.html