Tuesday, November 29, 2016

10 Earliest Prehistoric Insects

Copyright 2018 by Gary L. Pullman

Want to know what prehistoric insects looked like? Think of really huge, scary-looking dragonflies, crane flies, silverfish, and ants.


Insects have been bugging other forms of life as long ago as the Silurian Period (from about 443.7 to 416 million years ago), (LINK 1) when the world's oldest insect first appeared.

Today, we're pestered by insects as small as gnats. Think what a backyard barbecue might have been like, had we humans coexisted with the first insects. Like dinosaurs, most were huge, compared to their modern descendants!
As pesky as prehistoric insects must have been for the animals (and, often, the other bugs) they shared our prehistoric planet with, they're valuable to understanding what the world and life were like back—way back—in the day.
From youngest to oldest, here are the ten earliest prehistoric insects known to science.
10 Afromyrma

The tenth oldest insect debuted during the Cretaceous Period (from about 145.5 to 65.5 million years ago). (LINK 2)

The Arfromyrma genus fossil found at Orapa, Botswana, has been classified as a member of the Myrmicinae subfamily of ants, although the incomplete specimen's poor condition has caused this classification to be challenged. (LINK 3)

Ants of the Myrmicinae subfamily have narrow pestioles (waists) and a rigid prothorax (the segment of the body connecting the head and the abdomen). The hardened lower part of their face, the clypeus, is well-developed, as are the eyes. Myrmicinae ants usually can sting. (LINK 4)

9 Ororaphidia

Four more insect genera, the ninth, eighth, seventh, and sixth oldest, appeared during the Jurassic Period (from about 199.6 to 145.5 million years ago). (LINK 5)

Recovered from Daohugou, Inner Mongolia, China, the Ororaphidia genus fossil is the oldest remains of the snakefly ever found there. (LINK 6)

The snakefly still exists. It is easily identified, as it has a “small head and long, slender 'neck,' which is actually the elongated prothorax.” About 3/5 of an inch long, the snakefly has two pairs of “net-veined wings, long antennae, and chewing mouthparts.” The female also has an egg-laying organ, the ovipositor. Snakeflies eat the larvae of other insects and, for this reason, help to control the insect population. (LINK 7)

8 Mongolbittacus


Discovered in Ningcheng, Inner Mongolia, China, the fossilized Mongolbittacus genus insect, is a hangingfly (LINK 8)—a “long-legged scorpionfly of the family Bittacidae, resembling the crane fly but having four wings rather than two and hanging from leaves or twigs by the front or middle legs while using the hind legs to seize prey, mostly small flies.” (LINK 9)
Found in a humid, tropical environment, a male Mongolbittacus specimen measures approximately 17/50 of an inch long with somewhat longer wings, about 11/25 of an inch in length. Its rounded head displays powerful chewing mouthparts; large, oval compound eyes; and fine, threadlike antennae. Its body consists of three segments, and it has long, slender, but bristly, legs equipped with spurs and claws. (LINK 10) Like several other prehistoric insects, the Mongolbittacus was predatory, feeding on other bugs. (LINK 11)

7 Jurahylobittacus


The Jurahylobittacus is the second of the two new genera of hangingflies. Its fossil was found in northeast China. Resembling the Formosibittacus insect, it is distinguished from other genera by its characteristic cross veins. (LINK 12)

6 Formosibittacus
Collected in Daohugou, Inner Mongolia, China, a well-preserved fossil of the Formosibittacus genus insect reveals it to be a hangingfly. It is differentiated from other genera by its series of cross veins. (LINK 13)

The only fossil is complete, except for a missing hind wing. The other wings exhibit a “mottled color patterning,” and the forewings are approximately 3/50 of an inch long, the hind wings 9/10 of an inch in length. The narrow wing base broadens to 1/5 of an inch along its length. (LINK 14)

5 Palaeodictyopteroidea

The Permian Period (from about 299 to 252 million years ago) produced the fifth oldest insect. (LINK 15)

The Palaeodictyopteroidea genus insect also closely resembles the modern dragonfly. Its wingspan ranges from 7 and 87/100 inches to almost 20 inches. Its body consists of ten segments. The rounded head is relatively large, with strong jaws. Its mouthparts, adapted from “feeding on spores, pollen, and fruit,” enable it to both pierce and suck “plant sap,” making it the world's first significant “herbivorous insect.” (LINK 16) (With an insect like this one flying around, even dinosaurs were lucky this bad boy wasn't a carnivore!)
It is also equipped with simple, similar fore and hind wings of an occasionally triangular shape. The larger forewings exhibit the beginnings of an arranged network of veins. It also has bristly antennae, slender legs, a segmented abdomen with pronounced “lateral lobes,” and two short tails. (LINK 17)

4 Sinomeganeura
The next three oldest insects started life during the Carboniferous Period (from about 359.2 to 299 million years ago). (LINK 18)

In a world of large, even gigantic, insects, the one and one-fourth-inch-long Sinomeganeura genus specimen, with a wingspan of 2 and 4/25 inches, is the smallest of all. More slender than its wings, it isn't much longer, either. Unfortunately, the fossilized specimen is both incomplete and somewhat damaged, so it's difficult to discern much else from the remains. (LINK 19) However, members of the Sinomeganeura genus may be the primary, if not the only, predatory insects of the late Paleozoic Era. (LINK 20)

3 Bohemiatupus
Like other members of the Odonata group, members of the Bohemiatupus genus have the greatest wingspan (28 inches) of all insects, present and prehistoric alike. The Bohemiatupus genus fossil was found in Bohemia. Resmbling modern dragonflies, the group is defined by the arrangement of the veins in its fore and hind wings and represents the first giant griffinfly found on the European contient. (LINK 21)

Sexually, the Bohemiatupus genus is unusual. Males lack accessory genitalia, (LINK 22) the glands that produce seminal fluid and spermatophores. (LINK 23) Undeveloped females are even more extraordinary. They have an organ, the mask, developed from the labia, used to seize and hold prey. (LINK 24)

2 Archaeognatha (or Meganeura)

Although some consider an Archaeognatha order specimen to be the second-oldest insect, (LINK 25) others believe that the Meganeura genus holds this title. The former appeared about 304 million years ago (LINK 26) (some say 390 to 392 million years ago), (LINK 27) during the Carboniferous Period. The latter debuted almost 304 million years ago. (LINK 28) (When millions of years are involved, it's difficult to pinpoint, with precision, when an insect made its first appearance.)

The Archaeognatha order fossil was found on the north shore of Canada's Gaspe Bay. Archaeognatha insects are the ancestors of the modern silverfish. (LINK 29) Their descendants are little changed from their prehistoric forbears (LINK 30) and closely resemble their present-day progeny. (LINK 31)

Wingless, these insects are small, with long, arched bodies covered in scales. They have long antennae; compound eyes that join near the top of the head; “partially retractable” mouthparts with mandibles evolved for chewing; and long mouth appendages. (LINK 32)

Along their legs and sternums, small jointed “styli,” considered to be “rundimentary appendages,” further differentiate them from other insects. Their sternums are also equipped with three hardened parts used to attach themselves to surfaces on which they molt, or shed, their skin. (LINK 33)

Using their tails as springs, they can leap to a distance of 12 inches. Although their “thin exoskeleton” may dehydrate, they absorb water through “reversible membranous vesicles.” (LINK 34)

Members of the Archaeognatha order have an usual “courtship.” Males attach spermatophores to a “thread” spun “from their abdomens.” The female deposits these packaged spermatozoa in her oviposiror. She then “lays about 30 eggs in a suitable crevice.” The insects “live up to four years,” which is “longer than many larger insects” survive. (LINK 35)

Insects of the Meganeura genus resemble the modern dragonfly. However, due to the oxygen-rich prehistoric environment, they had a wingspan of more than two feet, (LINK 36) as compared to the dragonfly's six-inch wingspread. (LINK 37) Both the prehistoric ancestor and its modern descendant devour other insects. (LINK 38)
1 Rhyniognatha hirsti

The oldest known insect, Rhyniognatha hirsti, may or may not have had wings. If so, the wings did not survive with the fossilized specimen. First described in 1926, by entomologist Robin John Tillyard, the fossil indicates a definite insect's jaw. Likely, it fed on sporophyll plants. (LINK 39)

Found in Scotland's Aberdeenshire Rhynie, the insect was trapped when the water from hot springs' geysers and springs, which contained large amounts of silica, cooled and the silica crystallized. The discovery of the world's oldest insect suggests that insect flight may have originated sooner than thought. (LINK 40) (Not soon enough, though, it appears to have helped the unfortunate Rhyniognatha hirsti avoid its fate.)






































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2 comments:

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