Early Cretaceous (Berriasian)

Yixian Formation

Liaoning Province, China

Big 15mm insect on 123mm slab.

Insect. Arthropod.

There’s never a Cretaceous insect expert around when you need one.  Because I just got bit by a mosquito, I have some experience with insects so I am going to say it could be a beetle. The fact that it seems to display elytra (wing covers) offers evidence that it could be a beetle.

Compression-type fossils are tougher to ID than amber inclusions because compressions allow just one view and the specimen is distorted because of it.  Amber allows a 3D view from different angles.