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Extinct insects hunted like predatory giraffes

Immature lacewings had long, spindly ‘necks’ that might have helped them hide their bodies from their prey.
Artist's reconstruction of Palaeoneurorthus baii

The larva of an ancient lacewing insect (artist’s impression) probably lived on shallow lake bottoms. Credit: Bai Bingyang, Central Academy of Fine Arts China

Newfound fossils have revealed a Jurassic ‘giraffe’: an insect with a prodigiously long, skinny ‘neck’ that might have helped the animal to conceal its large abdomen from its prey1.

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Nature 614, 596 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00405-6

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 16 February 2023: An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of the author’s institution.

References

  1. Du, X., Niu, K. & Bao, T. Proc. R. Soc. B https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.2500 (2023).

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