Oldest discovery to date of physogastric insects

Trapped in tree resin and preserved as in a time capsule: fossils enclosed in amber yield detailed insights into the anatomy of long extinct species. LMU zoologists Prof. Joachim T. Haug and Dr. Carolin Haug have discovered fossil lacewing larvae (relatives of today's green lacewings) with conspicuously enlarged abdomens. Found in roughly 100-million-year-old amber in Myanmar, the fossils stem from the Cretaceous period. "This is the oldest discovery to date of so-called physogastric insects, which are capable of greatly enlarging their trunk," says Haug.

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