Fossilized Insect Discovered Not in Amber, But in Opal

sauce: https://entomologytoday.org/2019/01/18/fossilized-insect-discovered-amber-opal/

The specimen is an extremely rare example featuring “play of color” throughout the stone. But, most exciting in this particular opal—and likely of most interest to readers of this blog—is not the play of color but rather the inclusion. Embedded within the opal is an intact encased insect.

As evidenced in the photos, you can see what appears to be a complete insect encased beautifully inside. Upon close inspection, the insect appears to have an open mouth and to be very well preserved, with even fibrous structures extending from the appendages.

The specimen was examined recently by the Gemological Institute of America and received a letter of provenance for the rarity of such an inclusion. The letter includes the GIA report number from the examination of the stone. From a gemological standpoint, this is truly an exciting and extremely rare, notable find. And the same can likely be said from the entomological perspective

Further research is being conducted on the specimen.