NEW PERSPECTIVES ON LATE TRIASSIC INSECT DIVERSITY 
AS REVEALED BY A LOCALITY IN THE DANVILLE BASIN

	FRASER, N.C., Virginia Museum of Natural History, 	
		Martinsville, VA  24112
	GRIMALDI, D.A., American Museum of Natural History, 
		Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY  	
			10024-5192

In general terms, Triassic sediments are often regarded as being rather 
unfossiliferous. This is particularly true for terrestrial invertebrates, 
and it is highlighted by the fact that, worldwide, there are numerous 
Permian and Jurassic sites containing diverse insect faunas.  By 
contrast, there are no similar Triassic localities producing rich 
assembalges of insects.  This rather poor fossil record has been 
literally taken by some authorities as evidence that the Triassic 
represents a "bottle-neck in diversity" resulting from the great end-
Permian extinction.
	A Carnian locality on the North Carolina-Virginia border is 
yielding an incredibly diverse flora and fauna, and includes the oldest 
definitive records for a number of modern families of insects.  For 
example, the presence of at least six families of dipteran indicate that 
this important order originated at least by the Middle Triassic. 
Furthermore, the assemblage also includes taxa previously only 
recorded in the southern hemisphere.
	The new finds suggest that putative low diversities in Triassic 
insect assemblages may after all be merely a product of a lack of 
collecting effort and/or inappropriate sampling methods.  Sharp 
distinctions between the Triassic of Laurasia and Gondwana also need 
to be reassessed.