# Eocene and modern entomofauna differ—a Cretaceous‐like larva in Rovno amber

## TL;DR

A 35-million-year-old insect larva found in Ukrainian amber shows that ancient insect forms survived much longer than previously thought.

## Contribution

The discovery of a Cretaceous-like larva in Eocene amber challenges the assumption of a fully modern fauna at that time.

## Key findings

- A lacewing larva with Cretaceous-like morphology was found in 35-million-year-old Rovno amber.
- This morphology persisted for over 60 million years longer than previously believed.
- The find indicates that the Eocene entomofauna was not as modern as commonly assumed.

## Abstract

We report a 35 million‐year‐old lacewing larva from Ukrainian amber. This insect larva has a morphology up to now only known from 100 million‐year‐old amber. Therefore, this morphology survived more than 60 million years longer than previously assumed. Our find contradicts the common notion that the fauna 35 million years ago was already very modern.