LJWorld.com

• Email
• iPod-friendly
• Print

Michael Engel has scoured the earth, searching for ancient insects.

He never imagined the biggest discovery of his career would come out of a museum storage drawer.

But that's exactly where the Kansas University scientist and a colleague found what is now believed to be the oldest insect on record -- a 407 million-year-old, fossilized bug that looked something like a tiny mayfly or dragonfly.

"After years and years of fieldwork, here it was at a museum," Engel said. "It's an amazing thing."

An article detailing the insect discovery is published today in the journal Nature. It's already creating a buzz among insect enthusiasts who previously thought the oldest bug specimen was about 30 million years younger.

"It just tells us that we ought to continue the hunt" for ancient insects, said Derek Briggs, a professor of paleontology at Yale University. "These things aren't exactly thick on the ground."

Engel, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, and assistant curator of the KU Natural History Museum, was working with colleague David Grimaldi, curator of entomology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, on a book about the evolution of insects when the pair made their discovery.

They were at the Museum of Natural History in London in July 2002, analyzing specimens for the book when they came across a fossil encased in translucent rock in a drawer.

The fossil had been collected in a hot spring near Rhynie, Scotland, in the 1920s, but Engel said microscope technology at the time didn't allow for a proper analysis of the specimen.

KU researcher gets buzz from ancient bee species (8-17-03) Nature Journal KU Natural History Museum

Engel and Grimaldi analyzed the rock and found a pair of triangular jaws that are similar to those only found in winged insects. They were able to date the insect back to 407 million years ago.

"I remember the look on Michael's face and mine when we looked at it," Grimaldi said. "He said, ‘Are you seeing what I see? This is incredible.'"

The insect -- called Rhyniognatha, or "Jaws from Rhynie" -- was about a quarter-inch long. It may have sailed between the knee-high tropical plants of its time, possibly feeding on spores.

Previously, the oldest insects on record were 379-million-year-old fragments found 20 years ago in upstate New York. DNA evidence suggests insects originated about 434 million years ago, though no fossil that old has been discovered.

Though the specimen didn't have wings, Engel said its other traits, including its large mandibles, point to the fact that the insect did have wings that weren't preserved. The oldest winged animal on record before this find was about 320 million years old.

"We had no idea that insects might have developed wings so early on in their evolutionary history," said Bill Shear, professor of biology at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia. "Either insects have been around for a lot longer prior to this time or wings and flight developed very rapidly after the origin of insects."

Engel said the new insect should provide new insight into the evolution of life on earth. He noted that insects have lived through periods that caused mass extinctions among other species.

"Insects are the most diverse group of animals today," he said. "We talk about the age of dinosaurs or the age of mammals, but those have all occurred during the overarching age of insects. They control every aspect of human life. They're beneficial for agriculture and the greatest evil for agriculture. They're completely and wholly integrated into the welfare of human existence."

Engel, who is in New York this week, said he had been surprised by how much attention the article has generated. New Scientist, Reuters and the New York Times are among the media outlets that have written stories on it.

"We knew we had something good, but we didn't realize it would create the tremendous stir that it has," he said. "I'm doing nothing but fielding questions. It's actually created a larger buzz than I thought it would."

The Associated Press contributed information to this report.