Every now and then evolution throws up a creature so perfectly adapted to its way of life that improvement seems impossible. Such species are rewarded by longevity. They survive for eons with little change. The dragonfly is a living fossil, one of the oldest orders in the animal kingdom. One famous dragonfly fossil from the Jurassic limestone of Germany is 200 million years old.
Every wing vein is recorded with astonishing fidelity.
The pattern matches in almost every detail the drawing of a dragonfly wing in the current Peterson Field Guide to the Insects. Some of these ancient flyers had wingspans exceeding two feet. Dinosaurs came and went, pterodactyls flourished and disappeared, thousands of species of mammals evolved and became extinct. Dragonflies go on and on, the Energizer bunnies of evolution. Sit by the summer pond and watch them.