Nuttalliella namaqua has been described as a “living fossil” and the closest extant species to the ancestral tick lineage. It was previously proposed that the Nuttalliella lineage parasitized reptile-like mammals in the Permian and had to switch hosts several times due to mass or host lineage extinctions. Extant hosts include girdled lizards and murid rodents. The current study extends knowledge on the extant host range of N. namaqua using gut meal analysis of field collected specimens. Nymphs and females can parasitize a variety of reptiles that includes skinks, geckos and girdled lizards. Blood-meal from a hyrax was also detected in a specimen suggesting that N. namaqua could parasitize a broader range of mammals than the previously suggested murid rodents. Rather than being host specific, N. namaqua is proposed to be a generalist and the ability to switch and parasitize multiple hosts allowed it to survive multiple mass and host lineage extinctions.
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机译：Nuttalliella namaqua被描述为“活化石”，是最接近祖先壁tick谱系的现存物种。先前有人提出，Nuttalliella世系寄生了二叠纪的爬行动物样哺乳动物，并且由于大量或宿主世系的灭绝而不得不转换宿主数次。现存的寄主包括环蜥蜴和鼠类啮齿动物。当前的研究使用野外采集标本的肠粉分析扩展了纳马猪笼草现存宿主范围的知识。若虫和雌性动物会寄生各种爬行动物，包括石龙子，壁虎和环蜥蜴。在标本中还检测到了非洲蹄兔的血粉，这表明纳马猪笼草比以前建议的啮齿类啮齿动物更能寄生更多种类的哺乳动物。 N. namaqua并非是特定于宿主的，而是被提议为多面手，并且能够切换和寄生多个宿主，从而使其能够在多个群体和宿主世系的灭绝中生存。
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