Beetle fossil over 200 million years old found in Winterswijk quarry

A very rare fossil of a beetle that lived in the Netherlands 200 million years ago was found in a quarry in Winterswijk, according to a scientific publication in Paläontologische Zeitschrift written by paleontologists from Utrecht University, ANP reports.

The researchers found the fossilized beetle in a brick layer that is a quarter of a billion years old. The beetle lived in the Triassic period. In that period almost all the earth's continents were still joined together as super continent Pangea. In that time the current Winterswijk was on the coastline of an inner sea that stretched from Gelderland to Poland.

A number of ancient fossils have been found in the Winterswijk quarry. But according to the Volkskrant, fossils from the Triassic period are very rare.

The Triassic period started with a wave of extinction during which about 90 percent of life on earth disappeared. Life restarted in the era that followed. A kind of blueprint of current flora and fauna can be seen in the creatures and plants of that period, according to the newspaper.