Abstract
Insects are the most diverse lineage of all life in numbers of species, and ecologically they dominate terrestrial ecosystems. However, how and when this immense radiation of animals originated is unclear. Only a few fossils provide insight into the earliest stages of insect evolution, and among them are specimens in chert from Rhynie, Scotland's Old Red Sandstone (Pragian; about 396–407 million years ago1), which is only slightly younger than formations harbouring the earliest terrestrial faunas. The most well-known animal from Rhynie is the springtail Rhyniella praecursor (Entognatha; Collembola), long considered to be the oldest hexapod2,3. For true insects (Ectognatha), the oldest records are two apparent wingless insects from later in the Devonian period of North America4,5. Here we show, however, that a fragmentary fossil from Rhynie, Rhyniognatha hirsti, is not only the earliest true insect but may be relatively derived within basal Ectognatha. In fact, Rhyniognatha has derived characters shared with winged insects, suggesting that the origin of wings may have been earlier than previously believed. Regardless, Rhyniognatha indicates that insects originated in the Silurian period and were members of some of the earliest terrestrial faunas.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Change institution
Buy or subscribe
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Learn more
Rent or buy this article
Prices vary by article type
from$1.95
to$39.95
Learn more
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
![New light shed on the oldest insect (1) New light shed on the oldest insect (1)](https://i0.wp.com/media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1038%2Fnature02291/MediaObjects/41586_2004_Article_BFnature02291_Fig1_HTML.jpg)
![New light shed on the oldest insect (2) New light shed on the oldest insect (2)](https://i0.wp.com/media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1038%2Fnature02291/MediaObjects/41586_2004_Article_BFnature02291_Fig2_HTML.jpg)
References
Rice, C. M. et al. A Devonian auriferous hot spring system, Rhynie, Scotland. J. Geol. Soc. 152, 229–250 (1995)
Article ADS CAS Google Scholar
Hirst, S. & Maulik, S. On some arthropod remains from the Rhynie Chert (Old Red Sandstone). Geol. Mag. 63, 69–71 (1926)
Whalley, P. & Jarzembowski, E. A. A new assessment of Rhyniella, the earliest known insect, from the Devonian of Rhynie, Scotland. Nature 291, 317 (1981)
Labandeira, C. C., Beall, B. S. & Hueber, F. M. Early insect diversification: Evidence from a Lower Devonian bristletail from Québec. Science 242, 913–916 (1988)
Shear, W. A. et al. Early land animals in North America: Evidence from Devonian age arthropods from Gilboa, New York. Science 224, 492–494 (1984)
Article ADS CAS Google Scholar
Hennig, W. Insect Phylogeny (John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1981)
Kristensen, N. P. in The Insects of Australia (ed. Naumann, I. D.) 125–140 (Cornell Univ. Press, Ithaca, New York, 1991)
Jeram, A. J., Selden, P. A. & Edwards, D. Land animals in the Silurian: Arachnids and myriapods from Shropshire, England. Science 250, 658–661 (1990)
Article ADS CAS Google Scholar
Tillyard, R. J. Some remarks on the Devonian fossil insects from the Rhynie chert beds, Old Red Sandstone. Trans. Entomol. Soc. Lond. 76, 65–71 (1928)
Scourfield, D. J. The oldest known fossil insect. Nature 145, 799–801 (1940)
Carpenter, F. M. in Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Part R: Arthopoda 4: Superclass Hexapoda (ed. Kaesler, R. L.) 1–655 (Geol. Soc. Am., Boulder, Colorado, 1992)
Rasnitsyn, A. P. & Quicke, D. L. J. History of Insects (Kluwer, Dordrecht, Netherlands, 2002)
Kühne, W. G. & Schlüter, T. A fair deal for the Devonian Arthropoda fauna of Rhynie. Entomol. Gen. 11, 91–96 (1985)
Staniczek, A. H. The mandible of silverfish (Insecta: Zygentoma) and mayflies (Ephemeroptera): Its morphology and phylogenetic significance. Zool. Anz. 239, 147–178 (2000)
Fürst von Lieven, A. The transformation from monocondylous to dicondylous mandibles in the Insecta. Zool. Anz. 239, 139–146 (2000)
Wheeler, W. C., Whiting, M., Wheeler, Q. D. & Carpenter, J. M. The phylogeny of the extant hexapod orders. Cladistics 17, 113–169 (2001)
Labandeira, C. Insect mouthparts: Ascertaining the paleobiology of insect feeding strategies. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 28, 153–193 (1997)
Brauckmann, C., Brauckmann, B. & Gröning, E. The stratigraphical position of the oldest known Pterygota (Insecta. Carboniferous, Namurian). Ann. Soc. Geol. Belg. 117, 47–56 (1996)
Grimaldi, D. Insect evolutionary history from Handlirsch to Hennig, and beyond. J. Paleontol. 75, 1152–1160 (2001)
Gaunt, M. W. & Miles, M. A. An insect molecular clock dates the origin of the insects and accords with palaeontological and biogeographic landmarks. Mol. Biol. Evol. 19, 748–761 (2002)
Dudley, R. The Biomechanics of Insect Flight: Form, Function, Evolution (Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 2000)
Berner, R. A. & Canfield, D. E. A new model for atmospheric oxygen over Phanerozoic time. Am. J. Sci. 289, 333–361 (1989)
Article ADS CAS Google Scholar
Kukalová-Peck, J. in The Insects of Australia (ed. Naumann, I. D.) 141–179 (Cornell Univ. Press, Ithaca, New York, 1991)
Hasenfuss, I. A possible evolutionary pathway to insect flight starting from lepismatid organization. J. Zool. Syst. Evol. Res. 40, 65–81 (2002)
Chiappe, L. The first 85 million years of avian evolution. Nature 378, 349–355 (1995)
Article ADS CAS Google Scholar
Novacek, M. J. Fossils, topologies, missing data, and the higher level phylogeny of eutherian mammals. Syst. Biol. 41, 58–73 (1992)
Edwards, D., Selden, P. A., Richardson, J. B. & Axe, L. Coprolites as evidence for plant–animal interactions in Siluro-Devonian terrestrial ecosystems. Nature 377, 329–331 (1995)
Article ADS CAS Google Scholar
Gensel, P. G. & Andrews, H. N. Plant Life in the Devonian (Praeger, New York, 1984)
Alego, T. J., Scheckler, S. E. & Maynard, J. B. in Plants Invade the Land (eds Gensel, P. G. & Edwards, D.) 213–236 (Columbia Univ. Press, New York, 2001)
Wellman, C. H., Osterloff, P. L. & Mohiuddin, U. Fragments of the earliest land plants. Nature 425, 282–285 (2003)
Article ADS CAS Google Scholar
Acknowledgements
We thank A. J. Ross for loan of the material discussed herein and M. G. Rightmyer for comments on and support of the study.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Division of Entomology, Natural History Museum, and Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Snow Hall, University of Kansas, 1460 Jayhawk Blvd, Lawrence, Kansas, 66045-7523, USA
Michael S. Engel
Division of Invertebrate Zoology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, New York, 10024-5192, USA
David A. Grimaldi
Authors
- Michael S. Engel
View author publications
You can also search for this author in PubMedGoogle Scholar
- David A. Grimaldi
View author publications
You can also search for this author in PubMedGoogle Scholar
Corresponding author
Correspondence to Michael S. Engel.
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Engel, M., Grimaldi, D. New light shed on the oldest insect. Nature 427, 627–630 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature02291
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature02291
This article is cited by
-
34-kDa salivary protein enhances duck Tembusu virus infectivity in the salivary glands of Aedes albopictus by modulating the innate immune response
- Chalida Sri-in
- Aunyaratana Thontiravong
- Sonthaya Tiawsirisup
Scientific Reports (2023)
-
Terrestrial arthropods broadly possess endogenous phytohormones auxin and cytokinins
- Makoto Tokuda
- Yoshihito Suzuki
- Ayman Khamis Elsayed
Scientific Reports (2022)
-
The period of insect research in the tropics: a bibliometric analysis
- M. C. Moshobane
- T. T. Khoza
- S. Niassy
International Journal of Tropical Insect Science (2022)
-
Insights into the genomic evolution of insects from cricket genomes
- Guillem Ylla
- Taro Nakamura
- Cassandra G. Extavour
Communications Biology (2021)
-
Using full-length metabarcoding and DNA barcoding to infer community assembly for speciose taxonomic groups: a case study
- Mengdi Hao
- Qian Jin
- Aibing Zhang
Evolutionary Ecology (2020)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.