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New Species of Extinct Damselfly Was Trying to Get Lucky When It Died

The amber mines of northern Myanmar produce yet another amazing time capsule to the past.

One hundred million years ago, during the Cretaceous period, a trio of amorous damselflies were looking to attract some ladies with a traditional courtship dance. Unfortunately for the insects, these romantic appeals were abruptly cut short by a deadly deluge of amber resin that trapped and killed the males.

But this literal boner-killer for the damselflies is now a boon to paleontologists, as the amber preserved a stunning tableau of their bygone mating routine.

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Excavated in northern Myanmar, the specimen marks the first time that courtship behavior in "odonates"—the taxonomic order containing damselflies and dragonflies—has been identified in the fossil record, according to a new paper in Scientific Reports.

The research, authored by Daran Zheng and Bo Wang of the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, named this new species of Cretaceous odonate Yijenplatycnemis huangi (not to be confused with the oddball herbivore dinosaur known as Yunnanosaurus huangi).

Read More: How This 99-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Tail Ended Up in a Burmese Amber Market

Like many of its extant damselfly relatives, the amber-encased Y. huangi appears to have used its enlarged, patterned limb segments, particularly the tibiae, to flag the attention of prospective mates. The amber spookily captures one individual extending his limbs forward in a move that might have been intended to threaten rival males or show off his physical attributes to interested females.

Either way, the ancient insect's earnest attempt to pass on its genes, way back in the era of the dinosaurs, lives on in the captivating natural time capsule.

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