Discovery reveals a gap of 30 million years undocumented before in the evolution of the dragonfly.
For the first time in Canadian paleontology, a wing of fossilized dragonfly of the Cretaceous The period has been identified as a new species. Found in the Alberta dinosaurs’ provincial park, it represents the first dragonfly fossils never recovered from the rock strata of the Canada dinosaurs. The discovery, made by a research team from McGill University, helps to fill a gap of 30 million years in the evolutionary file of dragonflies.
The specimen was determined in 2023 by a undergraduate student McGill during a course on the vertebrate paleontology field led by Professor Hans Larsson.
A surprising fossil discovery
“We are exciting an area where many fossils of leaves had been found while crashing rocks,” said André Mueller, principal of the study and master’s student at the Larsson laboratory in the Biology department of McGill. “When the partial wing was discovered, we were caught by surprise because we did not expect to find insects there.”
The team has appointed the new species Cordualadensa acorni. Due to its remarkable distinction and its unique anatomy, they have even created a new family – CORDUADENSIDAE – To classify it. They chose “Acorni” for the name of the species in the honor of the professor of the University of Alberta, John Acorn, entomologist and scientific communicator at the University of Alberta who promoted the natural history of Alberta for decades, including with the television program “Acorn, The Nature Nut”.
Addition to the Alberta Fossil file
“This is the very first dinosaur age dragonfly found in Canada,” said Mueller. “Her scale was on the width of a human hand, and although small, she would have been an important part of the Cretaceous ecosystem – a tasty Raptor snack, without a doubt.”
The fossil was discovered in the formation of Dinosaur Park, 75 million, a site, internationally recognized for its exceptional abundance of remains of dinosaurs. Until this discovery, however, evidence of insects in the training were almost entirely absent. The only insect previously reported was a tiny aphid preserved in the Amber.
“This discovery doubles not only our knowledge of insects of the park, but also represents a completely unknown preservation method, printing fossils, for insect fossils in the region,” said Alexandre Demers-Potvin, a former Larsson doctoral student and now postdoctoral scholarship holder of McGill’s biomedical ministry. “We have now started to find more insect fossils by widening where and how we are looking for. The diversity of the life of insects during this period was probably much greater than we thought. ”
The new fossil helps to fill a large evolving gap of 30 million years. This is the first known North American member of a large group of dragonflies called Cavilabiata. “The anatomy of the wing tells us that this species has been adapted to slide; a feature associated with migration dragonflies today and perhaps a key to their success,” said Larsson. “This specimen also gives a glimpse of life in Canada 75 million years ago, adding a new important part of the ecological puzzle of one of the most diverse dinosaurs sites in the world.”
Reference: “New family of fossil dragonflies (Odonata, Cavilabiata) of the training of the Upper Cretaceous (Campanien) Dinosaur Park Formation, Alberta, Canada” by André S. Mueller, Alexandre V. Demers-Potvin and Hans this Larsson, August 1, 2025, Canadian Journal of Earth Siences.
Two: 10.1139 / CJES-2024-0162
The financing of field work was supported by a discovery subsidy of the CRSNG (RGPIN / 04370-2022) allocated to HCEL. This research was carried out using the infrastructure of the adaptable land observation system, funded by the Quebec government, McGill University and the Canadian Innovation Foundation Project 36146.
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