World’s oldest moths also roamed Jurassic Park, say Utrecht researchers
Dutch NewsAn international team of scientists led by researchers from Utrecht University have found the oldest fossil remains of moths and butterflies known to date. The fossil remains are more than 70 million years older than the oldest fossils of flowering plants and shed new light on the co-evolution between flowering plants and pollinating insects, researchers Timo van Eldijk and Bas van de Schootbrugge claim. ‘As the super continent Pangea started to break apart, biodiversity on land and in the oceans suffered a setback with many key species becoming extinct,’ says Master’s student Van Eldijk. Instead, this group diversified during a period of ecological turnover.’ Palaeontologist Bas van de Schootbrugge says the fossil remains contain distinctive hollow scales, and provide clear evidence that there was a group of moths sucking mouth-parts, as have the vast majority of living moths and butterflies. ‘This evidence has transformed our understanding of the evolutionary history of moths and butterflies as well as their resilience to extinction,’ says Van Eldijk.
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