# @nationalparkservice on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/C2QbvGmvCpd
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/21020542-nationalparkservice-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/28402794d9.jpg
- **Posted:** 2024-01-18T21:30:58.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** National Park Service (@nationalparkservice) — https://gondola.cc/nationalparkservice

## Caption

Patience, grasshopper. Patience. 

How about 29 million years? A clutch of fossilized grasshopper eggs, believed to be the first ever found, has been discovered in John Day Fossil Beds National Monument in Oregon. 

Originally identified as ant pupae or ant eggs, the discovery of the intact nest in 2016 resulted in confirmation that these were not made by ants. Micro-CT scans were used to investigate the internal structures. The shape of the eggs is consistent with modern grasshoppers that lay their eggs in underground nests. Never has a fossil egg pod of grasshoppers been found and described, attesting to their rarity and the exceptional preservation of the John Day fossil beds. 

Get to the hopper. The fossilized egg pod is named Subterroothecichnus radialis, while the individual eggs are named Curvellipsoentomoolithus laddi. (Have fun with that one.) Both names speak to the shape and nature of the trace fossils and egg fossils, but the eggs are named posthumously after the first National Park Service superintendent of John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, Benjamin Ladd. Mr. Ladd began the protection and resource management and science programs at the park that study and protect these specimens, which are currently only known from within National Park Service boundaries. These fossils are a testament to the National Park Service mission and the policies and programs established under Mr. Ladd’s leadership between 1975 and 1993. 

Images: Closeup view of fossilized grasshopper eggs found at @jdfossilbedsnps.

#grasshopper #fossils #fossil #science #johndayfossilbeds #oregon

## Stats

- **Views:** 0
- **Likes:** 84,882
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- **Comments:** 507

## Credits

| Name | Username | Profile | Role |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| National Park Service | @nationalparkservice | https://gondola.cc/nationalparkservice | Government Organization |

## Tags

johndayfossilbeds, fossil, fossils, science, oregon, grasshopper

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