Frozen in time Ancient insects trapped in amber at the precise moment they hatched from their eggs

The Sun ^ | Dec 20, 2018 | Harry Pettit, Senior Digital Technology and Science Reporter

[ETL]

The rare fossils are helping scientists understand how ancient bugs hatched from their eggs

The insects became trapped in the sticky resin 130million years ago, shortly after bursting through the shell – and scientists aren't sure how the creatures met their grisly fate.

The amazing fossils are helping researchers understand how ancient bugs hatched and took their first steps in the ancient world.

Like many modern animals, the insects used a tool known as an egg-burster to smash through the egg shell.

"The structures that make hatching possible tend to disappear quickly once egg-laying animals hatch, so obtaining fossil evidence of them is truly exceptional," said study author Dr Michael Engel, a scientist from the University of Kansas.

The team studied insects trapped in 130-million-year-old Lebanese amber, or fossilised tree resin.

All the fossils studied were stripped from the same piece of amber, and are as thin as a pinhead.

Microscopic images showed that the newborn insects, which were ancient relatives of the modern green lacewing, were locked in the amber alongside tiny egg shell fragments.

Researchers believe the insects were trapped by resin while still clutching the shells from which they had freshly emerged.

The eggs were likely planted on a tree or other plant, exposing them to resin seeping from the trunk.

Scientists spotted evidence of egg bursters, marking the first fossilised evidence of the often short-lived hatching tools.

And while the preserved bugs are millions of years apart from their modern relative the green lacewing, the pair's egg bursters are remarkably similar.

This suggests the sophisticated hatching mechanism has lasted through over 100million years of insect evolution. The bugs were ancient relatives of the modern green lacewing

"Egg bursters are diverse in shape and location," said study lead author Dr Ricardo Pérez-de la Fuente, a scientist at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.

"Modern green lacewing hatchlings split the egg with a 'mask' bearing a jagged blade. Once used, this 'mask' is shed and left attached to the empty egg shell, which is exactly what we found in the amber together with the newborns."

The study was published in the journal Palaeontology.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks fieldmarshaldj. Look Back in Amber...

[bert]

No insect hatches from an egg.

An adult insect is preceeded by a larvae that at some time past hatched from the egg. The larval form grows and then is metamorphised into an adult. Larvae grow. Adult insects do not