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The scarab, known by its Latin name Cretophengodes, was found fossilized in a piece of amber in northern Myanmar. The tropical location was full of insects during the Cretaceous Period, said study author Chenyang Cai, an associate professor at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.
“We even have records of dinosaur remains from the same amber deposit in which the Cretophengods were found,” Cai said.
Each of the insect’s antennae had 12 segments that derived from it, but what caught Cai’s attention was the light organ tucked away in his abdomen. This organ gave the beetle bioluminescence, the ability of a living organism to produce its own light, Cai said.
Modern insects such as fireflies and glowworms are part of Elateroidea, the same classification of superfamily animals as that of the beetle.
Cretophengodes is one of the oldest bioluminescent beetles found, giving researchers a glimpse of the earliest elements in the evolution of this superfamily.
It is not known why the beetles were bioluminescent, but based on parents, Cai speculated that the function was used as a defense mechanism. Today, some young beetle larvae from the same superfamily have used light to protect themselves from predators, and adults are known to use their light abilities to attract mates.
Study author Erik Tihelka, a paleobiology student at the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol in the UK, said he wanted to spend time researching which predators drove the evolution of the bioluminescence in Cretaceous beetles. His hypotheses included bird-like dinosaurs and digger animals that foraged on the forest floor.
“I find it fascinating that we may owe the firefly glow to an ancient predator-prey arms race with dinosaurs,” Tihelka said.
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