Modern Mayfly

 Modern Mayfly

Photograph by Wildlife GmbH/Alamy

A male mayfly in the Ecdyonurus genus clings to a stem in an undated picture.

"If you look at a modern photograph of a mayfly, it would be the closest to the fossil one," Knecht told National Geographic News by email this week.

Knecht noted that mayflies usually sit with most of their abdomens touching the ground. "It is this behavior that has helped to create such an anatomically informative and complete impression," he said.

(Read more about the brief, lusty life of the mayfly in National Geographic magazine.)

Published April 6, 2011

DIRECCION: -science-fossils-insects-bugs-mayflies-mayfly-flying