Fine Cretaceous Stonefly Insect Fossil from Liaoning

Liaoning Province in northeast China has remained one of the hottest paleontology study sites on earth the past two decades. Liaoning is perhaps most famous for discoveries of feathered dinosaurs. From feathered dinosaurs to birds to reptiles with color patterns, the fine lake silts of Liaoning preserved the most intricate of life from more than 100 million years ago. Relatively hard to preserve insects are well represented in the diverse Liaoning biota.

Stoneflies are thought to be among the most primitive groups of Neoptera (that contains almost all winged insects), with ancestors identified from Carboniferous and Lower Permian time. The true stoneflies are only somewhat younger. This fine fossil specimen exhibites great detail down to the wing venation. It shares the piece of Cretaceous shale with two small larval insect forms.