World’s Oldest Bugs! Yes, They’re Still ‘Icky’. (ca. 420,000,000 BC)
Back In 2003, scientists stumbled across the fossilized remains of what has been dubbed the world’s oldest land-dwelling creature. Discovered in eastern Scotland, paleontologists have determined that the fossilized millipede is more than 420 million years old, beating out the previous record of a 400-million-year-old spider-like creature that was also found in Scotland.
The millipede has been dubbed “Pneumodesmus” by scientists, and it was actually discovered by an amateur scientist who found it near the fishing port of Stonehaven, along the coast.
The fossilized remains show a highly developed system of breathing for the creature, which has caused palaeontologists to wonder whether there were even earlier versions of millipedes with more primitive internal systems, suggesting that this one was the result of natural micro-evolutionary processes.
In 2004, a second fossil from around 438 million years ago was discovered in Scotland’s Rhynie, and was inside a piece of old, red sandstone. This fossil is considered the world’s oldest insect, and has been dubbed “Rhyniognatha hirsi”. Although its lack of wings may cause some to wonder whether it should be considered a land creature, the mandible structure is definitely that of an insect.
Since Scotland seems to be the haven for ancient fossilized bugs, scientists are beginning to understand why there is such a plethora of bug life on Earth today. If insects and crawling bugs had a ‘head start’ on over other living creatures millions of years ago, the amount of diversity of insect and bug life certainly begins to make logical sense!
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Tomorrow: A brief history of ancient Greek coins.
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