The First Modern Roadmap of Insect Family Tree Reveals How Species First Evolved

There's been a major breakthrough when it comes to the study of insects. Scientists have published the first modern roadmap of insect evolution, revealing how these creatures are related and uncovering their true ecological, economic and medical importance.

"When you imagine a giant map of the evolution of life on Earth, insects are by far the largest part of the picture," said MichelleTrautwein, the Academy curator who contributed to the fly-related portion of the study, in a news release. "We have not had a very clear picture of how insects evolved-from the origins of metamorphosis to which insects were first to fly. Now sequencing technology allowed us to compare huge amounts of genetic data, and for the first time ever, we can fill these knowledge gaps. Science is taking us closer to solving the mysteries of the evolution of life than ever before."

In this case, the team of scientists used a dataset consisting of 144 carefully chosen species. This allowed then to make reliable estimates on the dates of origin and relationships of all major insect groups based on the dataset. In the end, they showed that insects originated at the same time as the earliest terrestrial plants about 480 million years ago. This, in particular, seems to indicate that insects helped shape the earliest terrestrial ecosystems. Not only that, but the researchers found that insects developed wings to fly 400 million years ago, which is long before any other animal.

"Phylogeny forms the foundation for telling us the who?, what?, when?, and why? Of life," said Karl Kjer, one of the researchers. "Many previously intractable questions are now resolved, while many of the 'revolutions' brought about by previous analyses of smaller molecular datasets have contained errors that are now being corrected."

The latest findings reveal a bit more about the evolution of insects and could have important implications for future studies. For applied research, it will become possible to comparatively analyze metabolic pathways of different insects and also specifically target pest species and insects.

The findings are published in the journal Science.