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The Prehistoric Insect Thread

Adam Khor

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2209280/Scientists-create-spiny-ancestor-cockroaches-300m-years-ago.html

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Capt'n Midnight

first picture looks like a six legged iguana :pac:

Galvasean

They look like something from a sci-fi horror film to me!

Adam Khor

http://www.livescience.com/25028-fossil-scorpionfly-mimicry.html

hangingfly-ginkgo.jpg?1353956532

Capt'n Midnight

*hugs ginkgo*

Wibbs

I use my three gingkos as weather guides. No really. I've kept a note of them for the last 20 years. They vary widely on bursting into leaf or dropping same with each year. More than other trees I have. When they spring buds I know pretty much frosts are likely gone, when they go golden and shed leaves I know the cold is on the way soon. Over the years I've noticed them vary by a month or two in both. No bloody wonder they've lasted so long

Adam Khor

Wibbs wrote: »

I use my three gingkos as weather guides. No really. I've kept a note of them for the last 20 years. They vary widely on bursting into leaf or dropping same with each year. More than other trees I have. When they spring buds I know pretty much frosts are likely gone, when they go golden and shed leaves I know the cold is on the way soon. Over the years I've noticed them vary by a month or two in both. No bloody wonder they've lasted so long

I have a cycad and I don´t miss the chance to tell people its a plant from the age of dinosaurs XD Bet u do the same?

Rubecula

*sigh* I have brambles and weeds

Galvasean

I've got some grass. That's about as exotic as my garden gets...

Adam Khor

This time a lacewing larva that used vegetal matter to disguise itself:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/a-110-million-year-old-trash-collector/

extinct-lacewing-decorated-itself-with-garbage_62163_600x450.jpg

Adam Khor

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/Gorgonopsid_skull.jpg

Rubecula

Just waiting for Richard Attenborough to come hobbling along on his stick ......

Adam Khor

Strashilids have been described as "the most enigmatic insects"- they were believed to have been parasites but they turn out to be swimming flies:

http://news.yahoo.com/jurassic-insects-wrongly-accused-sucking-dino-blood-180421274.html

(ˆ didn´t die a virgin)

Fear not, the actual fleas found last year (the big ones that couldn´t jump) are still real.

Adam Khor

It has a wingspan of 92 mm

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0062420

journal.pone.0062420.g001&representation=PNG_M

journal.pone.0062420.g001&representation=PNG_M

Adam Khor

Unfortunately, its from after dinosaurs U-U

http://www.sci-news.com/paleontology/science-blood-mosquito-fossil-01461.html

Galvasean

Bah, another 20 million years and we'd have had it!

Adam Khor

http://phys.org/news/2013-10-bees-underwent-massive-extinction-dinosaurs.html

Rubecula

Makes a bit of sense when you think about it. Bees need flowering plants to survive and a lot of them were killed off. Not something I have ever thought about before though. Thanks Adam.

Adam Khor

http://gizmodo.com/a-fossilized-ancient-ant-queen-emerges-from-a-46-millio-1751894746

Adam Khor

Were actually prehistoric lacewings.

http://www.heritagedaily.com/2016/02/paleobotanist-plays-role-in-discovery-of-jurassic-butterflies/109446

Adam Khor

From the Cretaceous. The soldier termites are really impressive.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-02/amon-1ap021116.php

Linnaeus

Many marvellous small creatures have been preserved in amber. Some specimins are crystal-clear, presenting a wealth of intricate details which we might never have known otherwise.

In recent times, in Canada, chunks of amber containing mysterious fluffy filaments have been discovered. Many palaeontologists claim that this is "dino-fuzz". Do you agree? I think that, in the name of science, a few of the less spectacular pieces of amber should be broken in order to extract and analyze the filaments.

Adam Khor

Sorry, it's kind of in French. :B

Apparently it was about 1 cm, had a long, sensorial organ on top of the head that activated the huge jaws, and preyed on prey at least as large, or larger than itself.

http://passeurdesciences.blog.lemonde.fr/2016/05/26/une-etrange-fourmi-licorne-de-99-millions-dannees/

Adam Khor

http://www.sci-news.com/paleontology/ancient-beetles-pollinated-orchids-04122.html

Adam Khor

Of course it was overshadowed by the dinosaur's tail, but pretty interesting creature from about the same time and place. It may have been a very specialized parasitoid, unable to fly but able to leap like a grasshopper.
http://www.sci-news.com/paleontology/wingless-wasp-burmese-amber-04277.html

Capt'n Midnight

So that was about 100mya about the time ants split from wasps.

Please let there be DNA's as the cladistics aren't easy.:)

“If you focused on its strong hind legs you could call it a grasshopper. The antenna looked like an ant, the thick abdomen more like a cockroach,” Prof. Poinar said.

“But the face looked mostly like a wasp, and we finally decided it had to be some kind of Hymenoptera.”

Adam Khor

To be expected I suppose.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/08/science/fossilized-leaves-insect-bites-patagonia.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FPaleontology&action=click&contentCollection=science&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=5&pgtype=collection

Adam Khor

I thought ants had appeared in the Jurassic, as early as 160 million years ago?

Adam Khor

http://www.sci-news.com/paleontology/earliest-fossil-evidence-butterflies-moths-germany-05624.html

Adam Khor

https://www.paleowire.com/just-out-whirling-in-the-late-permian-ancestral-gyrinidae-show-early-radiation-of-beetles-before-permian-triassic-mass-extinction-bmc-evolutionary-biology/
12862_2018_1139_Fig1_HTML.gif?resize=300%2C290&ssl=1

12862_2018_1139_Fig1_HTML.gif?resize=300%2C290&ssl=1

Adam Khor

https://phys.org/news/2018-04-million-year-old-insect-revealed-fossil-scales.html