A recently-discovered site in southeastern Utah has yielded beautifully preserved fossils of plants, insects, and other small animals. These fossils provide an extraordinary snapshot of the Morrison Formation ecosystem, 151 million years ago.
The newly-described predatory hemipteran insect from this site is only the second insect body fossil ever reported from the Upper Jurassic age Morrison Formation. The Morrison Formation is best known for its famous dinosaurs, like Allosaurus, Stegosaurus, Apatosaurus, Barosaurus, and many more.
Scientists from Argentina and Utah named the insect Morrisonnepa jurassica, honoring both the geological formation and the geologic age of the specimen. Modern relatives of this genus are relatively large predatory carnivores that eat invertebrates, but that also prey on vertebrates like small fish and amphibians.