Name: Insecta: Grylloblattodea, Blattogrillidae
Age: Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous
Size (25.4 mm = 1 inch): 27 mm long with 33 mm wingspan; Matrix: 100 mm by 85 mm
Location: Ningchang, Nei Mongol (Inner Mongolia) Autonomous Region, China
Code: BCF022
Price: $195.00 - sold
 Description:
China affords us a wonderful variety of exquisitely-preserved insects.
While Liaoning Province, home of the fabulous “feathered dinosaurs”
is best known., Inner Mongolia has also been a source for many specimens
as well. This is an exquisitely-preserved example of a most uncommon
order, the Grylloblattodea. The extant examples are wingless insects
confined to cold regions of the Northern Hemisphere commonly known
as “Ice Crawlers” which are thought to be basal members
of the Orthopterida, and had been termed “living fossils”
by their describer. Interestingly, the Permian and Jurassic members
of the Order were winged, as is this exceptional example. Their closet
relatives are thought to be the Mantophasmatodea, or African Rock
Crawlers, the most recently-discovered extant insect order. Indeed,
some researchers have proposed that the two orders should be united.
This is the ONLY such example I have ever seen, and would make a fine
addition to any fossil insect collection. |
