Researchers at the University of Illinois have reexamined an amber catalog found more than half a century ago, discovering a number of impressive specimens.
A newly discovered cricket species, which lived 20 million years ago, is noteworthy because it represents a brand new chapter in the evolutionary life of a subfamily of locusts called Cladonotinae, according to a University of Illinois press release.
Most modern locusts don't have winds, nor do most of them fly in any traditional sense. But almost all of their ancestors had winds and did fly.
An ancient pygmy grasshopper discovered, called Electrotettix attenboroughi, which had small wings that were not used for flying.
"We wouldn't exactly call it a missing link," said Sam Heads, a paleontologist at the Illinois Natural History Survey (INHS), which is part of the Prairie Research Institute at the University of Illinois. "But it's certainly an interesting intermediate between a fully winged ancestor and a wingless descendent."
"Grasshoppers are very rare in amber and this specimen is extraordinarily well-preserved," Heads added.
The grasshopper was found inside a type of amber that also trapped plant remnants, fungi, midges, ants, and wasps.
Head believes these specimens provide clues as to the environment they thrived in at one point.
The treasure trove of amber was first collected by INHS entomologist Milton Sanderson in the Dominican Republic back in the 1950s.
The collection is finally being appreciated once again by Head and his colleagues after years of abandonment in Illinois.
The findings were detailed in a recent edition of the journal ZooKeys.
"Fossil insects can provide lots of insight into the evolution of specific traits and behaviors, and they also tell us about the history of the time period," Heads said. "They're a tremendous resource for understanding the ancient world, ancient ecosystems and the ancient climate -- better even, perhaps, than dinosaur bones."
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