This is the “Fossil Friday” post #296.  Expect this to be a regular feature of the website.  We will post fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com.  Please include a short description or story.  Check the #FossilFriday Bluesky/Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world!

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This beautiful roachoid wing was collected from the Mazon River by Chris Berg… the esteemed president of ESCONI. We call them roachoids, because true roaches don’t show up in the fossil record until the late Jurassic. Roachoids have been found in Pit 11 and most of the Amazon Creek terrestrial deposits.

Roachoids are the second most common order of insects found in the Mazon Creek biota. At one point, Dr. Eugene Richardson listed 26 genera and 37 species.  Unfortunately, later work by Jörg W. Schneider has greatly reduced the number to just a few species. While wings are fairly common, complete roachoid specimens are quite rare. It is now generally accepted that roachoid wings alone can not be used to differentiate species. They are too variable (unlike other insect groups). It has been found that even the left and right side wings of the same insect have inconsistencies in the venation. Currently, the are two known body types, which may well denote just two species.

We highlighted a nice complete specimen from Pit 3 a few years ago. That one ended up in the Smithsonian (see Fossil Friday #47).

Thanks for sharing this beautiful wing, Chris!