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With a body length of around 26.5 millimeters and a wingspan of 68.2 millimeters, the adult female cicada from the 47-million-year-old oil shale of the Messel Pit has been almost completely preserved.

Pressed into a piece of rock is the flattened, 47 million-year-old body of a cicada. Measuring about 1 inch (26.5 millimeters) long with a wingspan of 2.7 inches (68.2 millimeters), its fossilized ...