Description

Early Cretaceous (Berriasian)
Yixian Formation
Huangbangi Valley, Beipiao, Liaoning Province, China
22mm larva on 67mm slab.

Insect. Arthropod.

We’re not sure if this is an adult insect or some kind of a predaceous larva. The Early Cretaceous is long enough ago that there were still some insect groups that didn’t make it to the modern world nor the Cenozoic Era at all. A Cretaceous insect expert around would have an idea of the possibilities.

There’s never a Cretaceous insect expert around when you need one so I asked the mailman to take a look.  He thought it could be a beetle larva. Beetles were already present at the time.

Compression-type fossils are tougher to ID than amber inclusions because compressions allow just one view.  Amber allows a 3D view from different angles.