Mesozoic relative of the common synanthropic German cockroach Blattodea

Cockroaches, with an evolutionary history going back 350 Myr and with over 100,000 fossil specimens collected so far, form one of the most consistent fossil records in terrestrial arthropods. In addition to their descendants, the eusocial termites and predatory mantises, their variability is presented by such diverse forms as bioluminescent, somatically translucent, beetlelike, predatory, aquatic, semisocial, eusocial and viviparous species. In spite of their conservativeness at higher taxonomic levels, the evolutionary tempo of cockroach species is comparatively high. The modern families of cockroaches only appear as early as the Cretaceous, and the oldest taxon closely resembling a living genus described here from the Early Cenomanian ca. 96 Ma French amber greatly increases, by 46 Myr, their expected antiquity. ?Blattella lengleti sp. n. – a close relative of a common synanthropic German cockroach, indicates that this genus andor its very close relative shared environments with dinosaurs, almost 100 Myr before it occupied human households. © 2008 WILEYVCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim