Friday, August 3, 2012

Amazing fossil discovery shows how insects got their wings

[IO9]  The fossil is described in this week's Nature, and has been dubbed Strudiella devonica. Dated to the Late Devonian, around 370 million years ago, this 8mm long fossil has a "six-legged thorax, long single-branched antennae, triangular jaws and a 10-segmented abdomen," all features that would push it into the context of an insect — and possibly the oldest complete insect fossil ever discovered.