| Chosha Temporal range: Late Mississipian, | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Clade: | Pancrustacea |
| Clade: | Allotriocarida |
| Subphylum: | Hexapoda |
| Genus: | †Chosha Tihelka et al., 2026 |
| Species: | †C. praecursor |
| Binomial name | |
| †Chosha praecursor Tihelka et al., 2026 | |
Chosha is an extinct genus of stem-group insect known from a single fossil specimen from the Tesnus Formation of Texas.
From ch′osh, a Navajo word for insect, "in reference to the Navajo creation myth, wherein the first landmass was occupied by ancient insect-like creatures whose descendants populated the Earth".
The fossil (catalogue number SDNHM 28852) had been found in 1985 by Emerson and Schram and considered a juvenile specimen of the remipedian Tesnusocaris, an interpretation put into doubt in 2011.
Paleoentomologist Erik Tihelka noticed a drawing of the fossil in an old Russian textbook and decided to re-analyze the specimen. In 2026, Tihelka and coworkers published a redescription of the fossil as a stem-insect. Features consistent with Hexapoda are the uniramous antennae, a thorax with three segments and an abdomen with 11, and the legs consisting of six podites. The specimen is a female as shown by the presence of an ovipositor, another feature unique to insects. The presence of gills and abdominal paddle-like appendages suggest a semiaquatic way of life.