A remarkable discovery in Alberta, Canada, has shed light on ancient ecosystems from the time of the dinosaurs. A student from McGill University uncovered a 75-million-year-old dragonfly fossil, marking a first for Canada. Published in the Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, the study highlights a new dragonfly species that provides crucial insights into the evolutionary history of insects.
The Discovery of Cordualadensa Acorni in Dinosaur Provincial Park
In a field expedition to Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, McGill University graduate student André S. Mueller made an extraordinary discovery, an ancient dragonfly fossil, the first of its kind found in the region. While the park is known for its dinosaur remains, the discovery of insect fossils is rare, and even more so for dragonflies. Mueller was part of a paleontology field course, where the team initially focused on collecting fossilized plants and leaves. The last thing they expected to find was an insect fossil.
“We were taken by surprise as we were not expecting to find any insects there,” said Mueller. The fossil was a fragment of a hind wing, approximately the size of a human hand, which had been preserved in the rock. The discovery, made in the late-Cretaceous layers of the park, turned out to be the fossil of a previously unknown dragonfly species named Cordualadensa acorni. This species is the first Mesozoic dragonfly discovered in Canada, and it fills a significant gap in the fossil record, helping scientists understand how ancient insects fit into their ecosystems during the dinosaur era.
The Fossil’s Significance in Paleontological Research
Cordualadensa acorni is more than just a rare find, it’s a critical piece of the puzzle in understanding insect evolution. The fossil is placed within the extinct dragonfly group Cavilabiata, characterized by specific egg-laying structures. This discovery is particularly important because it fills a 30-million-year gap in the dragonfly fossil record, providing a rare snapshot of how dragonfly species evolved over time. Its discovery provides new insights into the development of dragonfly wing shapes and their role in the broader ecosystem.
Scientists studying the fossil have reconstructed the delicate network of veins in the preserved wing, which offers valuable clues about the flight capabilities of this ancient insect. The wing structure reveals features that indicate Cordualadensa acorni was an efficient glider, much like modern migratory dragonflies. This discovery is significant not only because it’s the first dragonfly fossil from Canada’s Dinosaur Park Formation but also because it highlights how dragonflies contributed to ancient ecosystems. As top predators in insect food webs, their presence suggests the availability of smaller insects for their diet, which would have supported other predators in the ecosystem, such as small predatory dinosaurs.
Reconstructing the Ecosystem of the Late Cretaceous
The Cordualadensa acorni fossil offers insights into the Cretaceous riverside ecosystem, a time when dinosaurs roamed what is now southern Alberta. During the late Campanian stage of the Cretaceous, the Dinosaur Park Formation, known for preserving a rich array of dinosaur fossils, also captured the flora and fauna of ancient wetlands. The newly discovered dragonfly fossil suggests that the ecosystem was teeming with life, where dragonflies would have patrolled over calm ponds and river channels, hunting for smaller insects.
In the reconstructed ecosystem, Cordualadensa acorni would have been part of a complex web of life. It would have skated across water surfaces, where duck-billed hadrosaurs and horned ceratopsians came to drink, hunt, or cool off. This new understanding of the late Cretaceous ecosystem gives scientists a more complete view of life in this period, revealing the interconnections between insects and dinosaurs that were previously difficult to study.
NOTE – This article was originally published in Indian Defence Review and can be viewed here