Large Cretaceous Insect Fossil with Distinct Ovipositor

Liaoning Province in northeast China has remained one of the hottest paleontology study sites on earth the past two decades. Liaoning is perhaps most famous for discoveries of feathered dinosaurs. From feathered dinosaurs to birds to reptiles with color patterns, the fine lake silts of Liaoning preserved the most intricate of life from more than 100 million years ago. Relatively hard to preserve insects are well represented in the diverse Liaoning biota. This insect fossil from the age of dinosaurs exhibits many fine details such as fine venation in the wings. It's ID is uncertain, maybe a cockroach (Blattaria) or a Planthopper (Hemiptera), but its size is large, and its ovipositor is distinctly preserved. Fossils of roaches with internal ovipositors are thought to have first appeared in the early Cretaceous.