Researchers took a new look at a collection of 20 million-year-old amber that was first collected over 50 years ago.
The findings helped the researchers gain new insights into the world of ancient tropical insects. The team especially focused on the pygmy locust, which was a rose thorn-sized grasshopper that fed on moss, algae, and fungi, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign reported. The finding is exciting because it represents an intermediate stage in the evolution of this subfamily of locusts. Ther research was reported in the journal ZooKeys. The researchers also found "mating flies, stingless bees, gall midges, Azteca ants, wasps, bark beetles, mites, spiders, plant parts and even a mammal hair," in the samples.
"Grasshoppers are very rare in amber and this specimen is extraordinarily well-preserved," said Sam Heads, a paleontologist at the Illinois Natural History Survey, a division of the Prairie Research Institute at the University of Illinois.
The specimen was found in over 160 pounds of Dominican amber collected by former INHS entomologist Milton Sanderson in the 1950s. Since most of the amber was clouded with oxidation the process of screening it was extremely difficult. Each "window" must be carefully cut and polished. Heads named the specimen Electrotettix attenboroughi, after Sir David Attenborough, a British filmmaker and naturalist.
"Sir David has a personal interest in amber, and also he was one of my childhood heroes and still is one of my heroes and so I decided to name the species in his honor -- with his permission of course," Heads said.
The pygmy locust was found in an amber sample also containing "wasps, ants, midges, plant remnants and fungi."
"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."
