Newest insect order

The newest taxonomic order of insects is Aethiocarenodea, which contains only a single species, be Aethiocarenus burmanicus. Formally described and named in 2017, this unique species is long extinct. It is known from only one tiny specimen, found embedded inside a sample of amber from Myanmar's Hukawng Valley and dating back almost 100 million years, to the Cretaceous Period. Its species has many strange morphological features, of which the most unusual (totally unique among all known insects, past and present) is the vertex of its triangular head being attached to its thorax's pronotum (the dorsal exoskeletal plate of the thorax's first segment), rather than its hypotenuse.

This singular species' beautifully preserved type (and currently only) specimen (a wingless female) possesses a long, slender body and legs, as well as a pair of huge laterally sited compound eyes, enabling it to look behind itself as well as in front. It also bears a pair of distinctive glands on the side of its neck, which may have released noxious chemicals to ward off would-be predators. Its jaw structure indicates that it was probably omnivorous.