THIS TINY BEETLE HAS BEEN STUCK IN AMBER FOR 99 MILLION YEARS
Forget John, Paul, George and Ringo, our favourite beetle is named Jason, or Kekveus jason. Dr Shuhei Yamamoto discovered a tiny featherwing beetle trapped in amber while poring over the archives at the Field Museum in Chicago. Amber is made from fossilised resin, a sap-like substance made by plants. When prehistoric animals got trapped in the resin, their bodies would get incorporated into it as it hardened, preserving them perfectly for years – in this case 99 million years.
“I didn’t have much confidence at first, but after cutting and polishing the amber so
I could get a better look, I realised, ‘oh, this is truly an amazing fossil’,” said Yamamoto.
Measuring less than half a millimetre, the tiny beetles take their name from the feathery fringe found on their wings that enables them to catch the air and float like dandelion seeds. The team named their find after the Greek hero who sailed the world in search of the Golden Fleece.
By looking at the beetle through a microscope, Yamamoto noticed that its body was preserved in fine detail, and he could see a series of three grooves running like pinstripes up its body. This feature is not found in its modern cousins, meaning the insect belonged to a different species and genus from living featherwing beetles.
“This tiny beetle lived during the Cretaceous Period, it saw actual dinosaurs,” said Yamamoto. “The amber the beetle was found in is like a time capsule.”