Worlds oldest butterfly and moth fossils discovered in 200 million year old pond scum
4Worlds oldest butterfly and moth fossils discovered in 200-million-year-old pond scum.
We'll never look at pond scum the same way again.
Scientists in Germany discovered the oldest known fossils of moths and butterflies while sifting through what could be described as 200-million-year-old "pond scum" — ancient soil samples filled with pollen, spores, pieces of plants and insect legs and wings.
Mysteriously, the fossilized insect remains turned out to be more than 70 million years older than the oldest known fossils of flowering plants, throwing a monkey wrench into how the co-evolution between flowers and their pollinating insects occurred.
"The consensus has been that insects followed flowers," said Boston College research professor Paul K. Strother, co-author of the study published Wednesday in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances. "But that would be 50 million years later than what the wings were saying. It was odd to say the least, that there would be butterflies before there were flowers."