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Fossilized Cicada Entombed In Opal Reveals Precious Gems Can Contain Ancient Life Rachael Funnell, IFL_Science, October 7, 2023 https://www.iflscience.com/fossilized-cicada-entombed-in-opal-reveals-precious-gems-can-contain-ancient-life-57413 Rare Fossil Reveals Cicada Entombed in Opal An insect trapped in a precious gem points to new places to search for ancient life Carolyn Wilke, Scientific American https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/rare-fossil-reveals-cicada-entombed-in-opal1/ The open accesspaper is: Chauviré, B., Houadria, M., Donini, A. et al. Arthropod entombment in weathering-formed opal: new horizons for recording life in rocks. Sci Rep 10, 10575 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-67412-9 Yours, Paul H.

Being a Colorado native, I have taken multiple trips to the public-access Florissant Fossil Quarry located near Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument in Florissant, Teller County, Colorado. This quarry provides fossil collectors fantastic access to the shale layers of the Florissant Formation, a late Eocene (Priabonian, ~34 million years old give or take) lagerstatte known for its diverse fauna of fossil insects, in addition to plants, gastropods, and very rarely vertebrates. Most fossils occur in very thinly laminated ashy grey shales. Other lithologies present include well-sorted tan course sandstones and well-sorted grey claystones. A lacustrine depositional environment is apparent, and though the Florissant Formation has previously been interpreted as the remains of a single large lake (the retroactively named Lake Florissant), it is now generally thought that deposition occurred across several smaller lakes, which of course shifted in their exact location throughout the period of deposition. This thread is for me to share some of my better quality (or more interesting) fossil insect finds from the Florissant Fossil Quarry, and to allow other people to share their Florissant insects. I intend on updating this thread as I make more collecting trips. Most insect fossils found at Florissant are of poor quality, however exceptionally beautiful specimens do crop up quite frequently. Regardless, identification even down to family level is usually very difficult, and some specimens I even have difficulty assigning to an order. Additional reading: https://bioone.org/journals/palaios/volume-27/issue-7/palo.2011.p11-084r/DEPOSITIONAL-SETTING-AND-FOSSIL-INSECT-PRESERVATION--A-STUDY-OF/10.2110/palo.2011.p11-084r.short Please note that at least for now picture quality is not ideal. I do not have the capacity to take good quality macro photographs, but I am doing the best that I can. The scale of the ruler is millimeters, magnification (when applicable) is noted. Order Diptera (True flies): Probably my best-preserved Florissant insect (and one of the first ones I ever found). Another fly. I'd like to be able to identify this one to family (and it almost certainly is identifiable to family) but I haven't been able to place it. This is a gorgeous fossil! Magnified 20X under a stereo microscope. Another gorgeous fossil fly. Possibly a gnat (suborder Nematocera), but I'm not 100% on this identification. Partial fly of indeterminate family, most of the abdomen is apparently missing. Both wings are preserved, the thorax and head are also nicely detailed. This is an example of a march fly (Family Bibionidae), probably the most common insect at Florissant. Many specimens (such as this one) are preserved without their wings. The head and mouthparts are very nicely preserved here, I feel shameful that I could not manage a better photograph. Crane fly, (Family Tipulidae). The preservation quality is not fantastic, but the gross anatomy can be easily made out (both wings, the abdomen, thorax, head, eyes, and even the halteres and some of the legs are present). Order Hymenoptera (Bees, ants, wasps, and relatives): A nice solitary bee (clade Anthophila). The details are not as high-fidelty as some other Florissant insects, but a nice complete specimen. Order Hemiptera (True bugs): Magnified 20X under a stereo microscope. A shield bug (superfamily Pentatamoidea). This is a really neat specimen because fossil Hemipterans aren't particularly common. Indeterminate Order: A large insect that I've never quite been able to place. Two wings are very faintly preserved which would normally be indicitave of a fly, but this specimen just doesn't look much like a fly otherwise. The antennae are interesting, it's a very large insect, and the tibia has an interesting flange. Unfortunately I can't seem to get a good look at the mouthparts (which has been very useful for me in the past for identification). Magnified 20X under a stereo microscope. At first I thought this might be an ant (family Formicidae) but under magnification the shape of the head is more suggestive of a fly. Very poor preservation, I'm not confident I'll ever get a solid answer here. Larvae: A nice plump fly larva, looks to me to be from a botfly (family Oestridae) or a relative. A very strange fossil. The segmentation and tagmosis definitely means this is an arthropod of some sort, and an insect larva is my current interpretation. Still, I've never seen anything quite like it. I've had a few people suggest to me this might be the abdomen of an earwig, but that's definitely not the case (earwig cerci do not look like this or articulate with the abdomen in this manner). Non-Insect Invertebrates: Just an example of one of the tiny gastropods that are common. It takes a keen eye to see them, but once you can recognize them you realize they're very plentiful. If you have some fossil insects from this locality in your collection, feel free to post them here too! Cheers!

There was one particularly unwelcome visitor to the NJ Fossil Show parking lot this past August. I didn't know what it was at the time and followed it around the parking lot for a few minutes before I could get this pic of it. It's a clumsy flyer and displays a bright red abdomen as it flies. It is the Spotted Lanternfly, a true bug, a hemipteran and is potentially one of the most damaging invasive species to arrive on US shores. They drain the sap out of trees and while their main food source is/has been another invasive species, the tree ailanthus (Tree of Heaven- its a tropical looking tree seen on the sides of highways in the NYC area and elsewhere), here in the US they are attacking many plants of vital importance! Spotted Lanternflies have little or no natural enemies here in the US and are multiplying at an alarming rate. The invasion started in Pennsylvania and is quickly radiating outward. I can't give all the details here but look it up, it is bad. https://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/terrestrial/invertebrates/spotted-lanternfly https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lanternfly-invastive-species-pest-united-states-kill/

Hello Friends, This time i'd like to show something that is very rare for me. Never before i didnt saw that bug in baltic amber. I didnt found yet any material about inclusions of Lygaeoidea. Body 3mm. Enjoy