Glowing prehistoric beetle Artistic reconstruction of Cretophengodes azari gen. et sp. nov. Credit: Dinghua Yang Glowing insects like fireflies, fire beetles and worms are a romantic, magical sight – but the fossil record of their light-producing adaptations is sparse. A beetle has now shone some of its light on this conundrum. It was unsuspectingly trapped and exquisitely preserved in golden amber in a dinosaur-dominant rainforest ecosystem about 100 million years ago. “With over 3500 described species, beetles are the most diverse light-producing organisms on land, but when and how their pyrotechnic abilities came about has long remained a mystery,” says Erik Tihelka, from the University of Bristol, UK, co-author of a study published in the journal