Rare insect fossils to be exhibited in China

Beijing: An exhibition of rare insect fossils, including that of an ant believed to be 165 million years old, will open tomorrow in southwest China's Sichuan Province.

The month-long exhibition, organised by the Insect Museum of West China, will show fossils of some of the oldest ants, dragonflies, beetles and bees, many of which date back to the Jurassic period.

"The reason for the scarcity of insect fossil is that their exoskeleton do not preserve very well," said museum curator Zhao Li.

Some of the fossilised insects look totally different to their modern descendants, while others look like the same, Zhao added.

The most precious specimen in the exhibition is an ant fossil, which is believed to be 165 million years old, around 45 million years older than an ant fossil found by American archaeologists in the Amazon rain forest, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The well-preserved fossil was found in volcano limestone in Ningcheng County, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Zhao said.

The Insect Museum of West China, the biggest insect museum in Asia, boasts more than 4,00,000 insect samples collected from over 40 countries.