Russian Miners Unearth Cockroach Fossil Sealed in Amber for 40 Million Years

RUSSIA – A fossilized cockroach believed to be 35 to 40 million years old was discovered in Russia’s Kaliningrad Region, the company announced on Thursday, describing it as one of the most remarkable insect finds in recent years.

The insect was found during routine manual sorting at the Kaliningrad Amber Combine, a state-run facility operated by Russian tech conglomerate Rostech.

Encased in a 41×21 mm piece of amber weighing 7 grams, the cockroach fossil lies just beneath the surface, with its wings, legs, and head preserved in stunning detail.

“We rarely see specimens preserved this cleanly. The way the resin captured the insect is unusually perfect—close enough to reveal its full body structure, but buried just deep enough for us to polish around it without causing any harm. That kind of preservation is pure luck,” said Anna Dugina, a gemologist at the Kaliningrad Amber Combine.

The fossil is the largest cockroach-type inclusion uncovered by the facility in the past five years.

Dugina explained that while the insect’s anatomy doesn’t match cockroach species commonly found today, close relatives still thrive in humid tropical regions suggesting a long evolutionary lineage.

As reported by IOL, the fossil has been transferred to the Kaliningrad Regional Amber Museum, which houses more than 14,000 amber artifacts including over 3,000 with preserved biological inclusions from prehistoric eras.

Located near the village of Yantarny, Kaliningrad contains over 90% of the world’s known amber reserves.

The Kaliningrad Amber Combine is the only enterprise globally mining amber at an industrial scale and is renowned for pioneering techniques that protect fragile inclusions.

Experts say discoveries like this offer rare, vivid snapshots of Earth’s distant biological past.