Fossil Insect Collaborative-Digitization Project

Ancient Insect Ge****ls Found in 50-Million-Year-Old Fossil A newly discovered assassin bug features a well-preserved phallus the size of a grain of rice

For the bibionid enthusiasts out there! This paper includes many specimens digitized as part of the Fossil Insect Collaborative TCN.

A Revision of fossil Bibionidae (Insecta: Diptera) from the Oligocene of Germany | SKARTVEIT | Zootaxa A Revision of fossil Bibionidae (Insecta: Diptera) from the Oligocene of Germany

Happy Halloween! 🕷🕸 To celebrate, we’re sharing some fossil creepy crawlies found in the museum! —

If you thought these creepy crawlies were hard to get rid of today, they’ve had that reputation for their entire existence! We can trace the cockroach line back 300 million years ago to the Pangaea supercontinent. As the continents began to drift 200 million years ago, cockroach species went along for the ride and diversified as they were spread across the globe. Some even gave rise to praying mantises during the Cretaceous period!

Today, cockroaches continue to be hardy survivors, becoming increasingly resistant to insecticides. As individuals susceptible to insecticides are killed off, survivors pass down these insecticide-resistant genes to offspring creating new generations of cockroaches that are much more difficult to kill!

Head to our Stories throughout the day to see more of our fossil creepy crawlies!

For this week's we feature the amazing snout beetle. It only looks like a speck or a period on the rock where it is found, but up close, it's displays amazing detail. It is one of hundreds of species of beetles that have been described from the Florissant Formation.

Might look like one, but armed with a “beak” and six wings--this is no dragonfly. Check out those preserved color patterns!

This primitive order of insect (Palaeodictyoptera) disappeared in the Permian-Triassic Extinction around 252 million years ago. Among the first insects with wings, these “beaked” beauties had specialized mouthparts used for sucking juice from plants.

Unlike modern insects with four wings, this order tucked an extra set of tiny winglets just behind their head.

This specimen, named Dunbaria after Peabody curator Carl Dunbar, is about 280 million years old.

YPM IP 001002 Dunbaria fascipennis, Lower Permian (300-275 million years old), Wellington Formation, Kansas.

While many people are familiar with the iconic megafauna of Southern California's tar pits, insects were an equally important component of ancient LA's ecosystem.

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County's departments of Rancho La Brea and Invertebrate Paleontology recently mobilized a large dataset of insects (and other arthropods) collected from Rancho La Brea.

These are La Brea's first collections shared to GBIF and iDigBio. Check them out! https://doi.org/10.15468/zdn495

Fossils of L.A. Breas Initiative La Brea Tar Pits and Museum

Greetings, fossil insect enthusiasts! 🐛 The LACM Invertebrate Paleontology dataset on GBIF now includes some unusually preserved "glass" arthropods from the Southern California desert.

These specimens were silicified in ancient lake sediments that are now part of the Miocene Barstow Formation. Eventually, they were extracted from concretions using dilute acid and later digitized as part of the Fossil Insect Collaborative TCN. This particular collection was a gift of John Jenkins (LACMIP loc. 17898).

Want to see more? All records from this collection can be recalled by: 1) visiting the LACMIP dataset on GBIF: https://doi.org/10.15468/6nxzen and 2) free text searching for "17898". To view thumbnails, choose "Gallery" view. And voilà, there you have some fossil insects--and friends--to complete this .

Fossils of L.A.

Reminder: First Webinar in the new series on inclusive teaching is Wednesday (April 8th) at 11 am!

In light of COVID-19 we will also be talking specifically about how to think about inclusion in education during a pandemic. Please join us!