Cretaceous Insect Fossil from Yixian Formation

he Yixian Formation in Liaoning Province in northeast China has remained one of the hottest paleontology study sites on earth the past two decades, and 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 often preserved the most intricate details of life from more than 100 million years ago. Relatively harder to preserve insects are well represented in the diverse Yixian biota.

Insects fossils preserved in shale are notoriously difficult to identify, and sometimes even the order is uncertain. This is especially so when the view is the dorsal side, when wings can block the view of the abdomen, and the head, thorax, abdomen and wings can block view of legs. On the other hand, the dorsal view might reveal wing venation better than a ventral view. I won't venture a guess here; pick your poison, katydid, moth, roach, hopper. Nonetheless, it's a pretty little insect fossil.