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Stunning fossil trapped in amber reveals previously unknown species that lived during the time of dinosaurs

When dinosaurs roamed Earth, their surroundings looked very different than the world of today. But there were also some similarities. And now scientists have confirmed a new one: Diverse firefly species lit up the night during the late Mesozoic.

The discovery comes from a fossil of an ancient firefly species that was initially discovered in 2016, trapped in 99 million-year-old Burmese amber from northern Myanmar. The beetle is only the second firefly species from the Mesozoic to be identified.

Scientists estimated that fireflies evolved aerial bioluminescence, the ability to glow during flight, at least 100 million years ago in a July 2022 study that analyzed the first Mesozoic firefly fossil that was described in 2015. But because firefly remains from this period can be difficult to come by since the insects’ softer bodies don’t preserve well in the fossil record, the evolution of the beetles and their bioluminescence has been difficult to pinpoint, experts say.

The recently identified species, dubbed Flammarionella hehaikuni, could help researchers better understand the early evolution of fireflies and this characteristic trait, according to a study published September 11 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

"The fossil helps bridge gaps in understanding the evolutionary history of the lampyroid beetles (the beetle family fireflies belong to) and shows that key traits, like abdominal light organs, have remained consistent since the mid-Cretaceous," said lead study author Chenyang Cai, professor расстояние от россии до китая at Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, in an email.