A researcher concluded that a large insect found in a US state more than 10 years ago “dates back to the Jurassic period”, knowing that it had disappeared permanently and mysteriously decades ago.
According to the New York Times, this insect was first found in 2012 on the wall of a Walmart store in Arkansas, and its specifications were later confirmed by chance.
Perhaps the Corona epidemic in 2020 was of great merit in this scientific discovery, because the conditions of the stone prompted the entomologist, Michael Skvarla, to dig up many insects that he had collected.
Skvarla, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, studied insects he had collected earlier, while giving his lectures to students via the “Zoom” application.
The American professor was explaining to the students how to distinguish when it comes to the exact specifications of insects, in order to compare them with each other.
In the midst of the lecture, he put the camera lens attached to the microscope over the object he found in 2012, and instructed the students to abstract the characteristics of the insect.
At the time, it was believed that this insect belongs to the species known as the ant lion or “Laith Afrin”, because it is similar to a dragonfly, which was not true.
And the American scientist later noticed that this insect had a wingspan of five centimeters, which means that it is too large to be an ant lion.
The researcher explains that he noticed a number of differences while looking carefully at the insect that was in front of him, especially in terms of the lack of arteries in the wing, and it did not have antennae as usual.
This insect, distinguished by the reticulated wing, and its scientific name is “Polystoechotes punctata”, had mysteriously disappeared in North America during the fifties of the last century, after it was widespread during the Jurassic period.
