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Showing results for tags 'insect'.
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Insect head in burmese amber Hello all, I found an interesting piece of amber from Myanmar with a large insect head in it, the head is about 5 mm in size. It shows three teeth like serrations, I suspect it to be a wasp. Its a bit degraded but still interesting to me. Anyone have some ideas what it could be?
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Got a cool one for you guys: a decent sized scorpion in amber from Burma. Probably about 100 million years old. The most interesting part to me is the tail sort of curves down 90 degrees perpendicular to the body (you can see it in the last pic side view) and that kind of 3D preservation is rare in amber. Usually everything flattens out on a plane so this is neat. I'm excited! The scorpion is about 1.5cm, and 2cm if you include the pincers. Whole piece is 4cm long heightwise.
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I found an insect fossil and wasn't sure of what kind of insect it was. It was from Colorado Florissant. It was to bad that it was on a very small piece, so the back end was missing ( as well the first half is very rough and broke). But the good half was nicely detailed. Will post both halves and different zoom of good half. #1 (first half) (this is the rough/broke half) #2 (second half with measure) #2 (second half different angle and closer) #2 (second half closer on head)
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Found a fossil from the Florissant Colorado shale I'm thinking is a spider been looking for. It is very faded but wanted see if others thought was a spider too or if its something else. Was sure remember book saying spiders had bad preservation, so thinking maybe why so faded. Posting both halves. #1 (first half) #2 (second half) #2 (measure second half) If this would be a spider is it still good to spray it to protect? or could there be a problem as its faded a lot?
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Possible coprolite with insect wing fossil? Upstate NY Hudson valley find
featherandbone posted a topic in Fossil ID
I found this in orange county, Hudson valley NY. The specimen is approximately 6 inches in diameter. It has little tunnel like holes in it and this ridged fossil. Could this be a coprolite? Is the fossil a wing, or could it be plant material? Thank you for your help! -
I found an insect that needed help with. Was thinking at first it was a beetle, then wasn't sure. The back made me think beetle but then the head seemed like ant or maybe I'm just way off. If anyone knows the id of the insect or just if its beetle, ant or another type of insect not thinking of would be thankful any help. Will post both halves. #1 ( first photo measure)( first half) #1 ( first again little closer turned) ( first half) #2 (second half)
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29 million-year-old nest of fossilised grasshopper eggs found
pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon posted a topic in Fossil News
The rather amazing discovery of an underground nest of about 50 fossilised eggs of an insect in the grasshopper-lineage (orthoptera) has been discovered in Michell, Oregon, at the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. It's dated to the Oligocene-period, at 29 million years old, and is truly spectacular for its preservation. Insect eggs rarely preserve, and little information exists on the evolution of grasshopper-relatives. So finding a nest full of them is an amazing discovery! CNN-report here, original article here. -
Curious if anyone recognizes this beetle (?) from the Florissant Formation (Eocene; Teller County, Colorado). I had a look through "The Fossils of Florissant" (Meyer 2003) but did not see an obvious match.
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Hello everyone, and I hope you're all well. I recently ordered a Baltic amber specimen from a reputable dealer. The seller sent me this HD photograph of the inclusions, which are fungus gnats or Mycetophilidae. The largest gnat is about 6 mm long. The amber is Eocene in age, and was collected in Kaliningrad, Russia. Does anyone know the genus or species? Thanks for the help!
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A Mystery Solved - Caddisfly Larva from Florissant
Opabinia Blues posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
About a year ago I made a post where I made a post on the forum where I shared some of my more interesting fossil insects I had found at the Florissant Fossil Beds in Colorado. For those uninitiated, the Florissant Formation is an Eocene (Priabonian Stage, ~34 Ma) lägerstatte notable for exceptional preservation of plant and arthropod fossils. My original post can be found here: One of the fossils I showed off in that post was of an insect larva which I had interpreted as a fly (order Diptera) larva, speculating that it may be a botfly larva because it possessed setae which resembled those of a botfly. I had never been super confident in this interpretation, and over the last year I’ve showed the fossil to several knowledgeable friends, paleontologists, and entomologists. What has emerged is a different consensus that I am much more confident with (and is far more intriguing than what I had originally thought!): this fossil is in fact the dorsal view of a caddisfly larva (order Trichoptera). There are several anatomical characteristics present which I had failed to notice initially. To start, I was viewing the fossil backwards. I had interpreted that anterior end as the posterior end and vice versa. Once I had this corrected, it became clear that the insect’s head and thorax are both clearly definable and both eyes are visible on the head. Additionally, small portions of the legs are visible sticking out from the thorax as well. I originally did not see any legs which had informed my original interpretation, but in this fossil most of the legs are tucked underneath the body and not visible. Here’s the fossil. The anterior end faces to the left. Here’s a picture of a modern caddisfly larva sans its protective casing. It is oriented in the same fashion as the fossil, for comparison: Caddisflies are closely related to butterflies and moths (order Lepidoptera) but they have larvae which live in bodies of water. Many caddisfly species’ larvae build little casings out of silk and pebbles/debris to protect themselves, but this is not universal. The larva seen here is not within a casing, so it either died in a rare instance in which it was not in its case or it is of a species which does not build cases. Adult caddisflies have been reported from Florissant, as have fossils of isolated larval casings, but I was unable to find a description of a body fossil of a caddisfly larva. Not to say one doesn’t exist, they just seem to be obscure. So there you have it: a really interesting and unique find from this fossil locality. Just needed another half dozen or so sets of eyes to figure out what was actually going on there! -
Yesterday we had a day in the Southern Highlands region of NSW, Australia looking for Triassic fish fossils but had time to check out a nearby site we were told about. The Cenozoic plant fossils from this area have been known for decades, although no work has been done on them yet so I'm not sure how old they are. Our fossil insect friend has been interested in this site for a while and he tracked down a property with a great deposit of the material, here we spent an hour or so and found some great specimens! I look forward to revisiting the site and collecting more. These specimens will be given to the Australian Museum collection so they can be worked on (hopefully) one day. I'm still photographing the rest of the specimens we collected but here are three for now. The first is this weevil(?) elytron: A tiny conifer cone: A complete beetle(?), I prepared what I could but I'm not game to go any further without magnifying equipment. More to come!
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Three fossils dug from Fossil Oregon: First 2 fossils are a bit of a jumble, not hoping for a specific id, but mostly wondering if these are plant/seed matter or bones of some stipe? If they are bones would anyone be able to tell if they were fish, reptile or ? Last one seems very insect like to me, though this could be just wishful thinking. Am I in anyway correct here? Thanks so much. Austin
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Hello! In the past couple months I have been searching out terrestrial arthropod fossils of the carboniferous. In this time I have procured quite a few specimens that I would love to have examined by members of the community, especially those experienced in the identification of carboniferous fauna. I will post the specimens one by one over the next week, if they turn out to be something different than the name they were sold by I will not be disappointed. My experience in Entomology and close disciplines such as Arachnology and Myriapodology has only been with modern species, excluding minor experience with arachnids in amber, so I am so excited to pick your brains! The first fossil was indicated as being from the Carboniferous Zaleskie Beds of Poland, dated at 314 mya. It was sold to me as a "roach" though I know roaches had yet evolve so if so i'm guessing this would be a roachoid. The fossil itself is 3.0 x 2.5 x 1 cm. I will be posting pictures of the specimen below, please let me know if you have any questions or need further information to support a conclusive ID. Thank you all so much for your help! Looking forward to your input.
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I was going through some pieces from a long time ago and am looking to see if anyone has an ID on these two pieces- each one is on 1/2, I do not have the other half. This first piece I think it a partial Roachoid, what do you think? This next piece is small and I am thinking that I am seeing an insect wing, what do you think? @RCFossils @stats @connorp
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I work at a rock shop at the moment, and I found this labeled as a fossil insect but to me it looked liked a trilobite. My coworker said the rock is probably from the Eocene which would rule out trilobites. Any idea of what it could be exactly? I have no idea where it was found exactly
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My wife found this possible insect fossil in the Green River formation. We saw an identical example in a group with others with no name at the insect fossil exhibit at Fossil Butte National monument, any ideas? It is about 1.75cm diameter.
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I'm interested in amber and copal inclusions. It make me excited. Species that are already extinct and invisible are also a great inspiration to my artwork. I want to learn more information
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Recently acquired this amazing piece, a true female mosquito in Mexican Chiapas amber, very interesting to look at, especially the long needle-like proboscis which is used for biting and drawing blood. I’ve attached some high quality pictures below on the specimen Order: Diptera Family: Culicidae Common Name: Female Mosquito
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As many of you know I recently bought a Mazon Creek collection from my friend of mine that I have known and collected with for the past 30+ years. Along with the fossils was a lot of his paperwork on the fossils- not where they were found, etc., but pictures and times that he loaned specimens to museums. One specimen was a winged insect that he had loaned to a person from Harvard (Museum of Comparative Zoology- MCZ). Bob did not have a picture of the fossil and kind of thought it was a dragonfly. This person had visited the Mazon Creek Open House that was held on October 27th, 1984, at Northeastern Illinois University, which was the home of the Mazon Creek Project. Bob had brought the fossil to show other collectors and probably to get an id. The person asked if she could borrow it for study at Harvard and he agreed and “loaned” it to her and later received a receipt for the fossil and personal letter from her. That was the last time he had ever heard anything about the fossil. This has always been a sore subject with Bob and he would mention it all of the time, and that is why I have always been turned off to loaning any specimens. A couple months back I told Bob that I was going to reach out to Harvard and see if they could tell me anything about the fossil, since it was never returned. I sent a nice e-mail to them along with PDFs of the receipt and letter. About two weeks later, I received an email response from a Curatorial Associate at MCZ Harvard. She advised me that they looked at all of their Mazon creek fossils and could not find a particular fossil that I was describing with the information and # that I had for the specimen. Mind you, the receipt had a number assigned to it as well as what it was, as far as their identification (Spanidoera). She did send me an attachment, that contained all of their fossils from Mazon Creek. She further advised me, that after the person that borrowed it left Harvard, she went to another school to get her PhD and then advised me where she might be currently working. I thanked her for the information and that she advised me that they will continue to keep an eye out for the fossil. I then did some more searching, and I actually found the person that I had been looking for and an email address for her. I sent her an email and attached the same email that I sent to Harvard and I expounded by stating that I was Bob‘s friend and that he has talked about this for the past 25 years. She got back to me and stated that she was on vacation and when she arrives home, she would look through some of her old boxes from MCZ, but also stated that it could be in the MCZ Collection , but hard to locate. I thanked her and waited for a response. She got back to me on Wednesday and advised me that she was going to go through the boxes over the weekend. A couple of hours later I received a follow-up e-mail from her advising me that the had found the fossil and it matched up with the number that was assigned to it. I was so happy. I asked her to send me some pictures of it, which she did. She sent a very nice email, apologizing and say that she did not know why she did not return it after she left MCZ and thought maybe she was going to do a paper on it, or something else, but she did not remember. Either way, it was great that she went through her stuff and found this piece. She mailed the fossil out to me on Friday and I received it this evening. I have not let Bob know, as I want to drive to his house and show it to him and then let him know what it is. She also included a nice letter that I will present to him. I advised her that I will send her a picture of Bob holding the fossil. I know what many people are thinking, why did he not check on the fossil before? All I can say is that is how Bob is, he loaned it and just figured it was lost, although it always bothered him. In addition, he does not have a computer and since I had the receipt and letter, something that I did not know he had in the past, I decided to play detective. If I had known about the letter and receipt, I would have handled this decades ago. Now for pictures of the fossil. This piece was not freeze/thawed by Bob, as most of his fossils were. Looking at it, I can tell that he found it opened in the field. One side has great detail, if he had found it when it first opened, it would have been outstanding. Still this is a great looking piece, and in my opinion, large for an insect. If anyone has an ID, pass it on please. As stated above the woman who borrowed it listed it as “Spaniodera”. I am wondering if it is from the family Geraridae?
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Hello, Just wanted to ask for opinions on whether this is a female mosquito in Burmese Amber? I’ve attached some pictures below and closeup (best quality I can get) From what I’ve been told, this particular mosquito is a female using the branched antennae to identify it as a female. Males have a much more plumose (feather-like) antennae. Female mosquitoes are known for drawing blood to produce their eggs, hence this mosquito would have been capable of drawing blood. Please note its long proboscis it would have used to draw blood. It also has fine hairs on its wings characteristic of true mosquitoes (aids in producing the buzzing sound). And also that novices may sometimes mistake some gnats and midges for mosquitoes. A closer examination will reveal the differences. Male mosquitoes have very plumose (feather-like) antennae and do not bite; they feed on nectar and other plant juices. Females have only a few short hairs on the antennae and with their long proboscis are blood-sucking. Appreciate any opinions, thanks in advance!