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The first cicada concert was 47 million years ago

A fossil found in Germany marks the world’s oldest known member of the singing cicada family

A fossilized cicada embedded in a piece of rock with its wings outstretched

Fossil of Eoplatypleura messelensis, the oldest known cicada, discovered in Germany’s Messel Pit and dating back 47 million years to the Eocene Epoch.

Senckenberg Nature Museum

By Larissa G. Capella

The oldest known fossil of a singing cicada reveals that these insects were making music during the Eocene epoch — long before humans existed.