Possibility that butterflies smelling flower honey inhabited the earth before flowers

by Karina Vorozheeva

Butterflies (butterflies) and moths (moths) have "longing" mouth which is a long straw-like mouth for sucking flower nectar and moisture. Up to now it was thought that creatures with oral love like butterflies and galleries appeared to appear due to the appearance of flowers in the plants, but according to the latest research paper, butterflies have flowers It seems to have lived on the earth before existence.

A Triassic-Jurassic window into the evolution of Lepidoptera | Science Advances
http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/1/e 1701568

Triassic Butterfly Park? - Scientific American
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/triassic-butterfly-park/

The Oldest Known Butterflies Existed Before Flowers | Smart News | Smithsonian
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/oldest-known-butterflies-existed-flowers-180967805/

It was long known that there are things like insect-derived spots in fossils, but in previous fossil investigations, research focusing on pollen and spores to investigate the ecosystem was the main . However, in the latest research, fossilized scales covering butterflies and bodies of fossils were discovered from fossil samples mined in the northern part of Germany, which is a topic.

Timo van Eldik, a graduate student at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands and elsewhere in the Netherlands, for example, analyzed the fossils excavated in detail, and it was found that it is about 200 million years ago, butterflies and scales I will. About 210 million years ago is the era from the late Triassic to the beginning of the Jurassic . As a result of analyzing the fossils, it has been revealed that the scales covered the ancient butterflies or feathers, bodies, and feet of ancient tobacco.

by Ye Fung Tchen

The research team used Erdik et al. To analyze scaly fossil is a needle with nose hair of a person at the tip and a very powerful microscope. In an interview with the New York Times , Mr. Erdik said, "Nose hair has a length and elasticity just right to get pollen and butterflies.The nose hair was received from the professor, so I asked who the nose hair is I do not know, maybe you should not ask me, "he says about unusual equipment used in the experiment.

Fossils have been found in the investigation of 70 specimens found at the site digging more than 300 meters from the surface of the earth, and as examined by optical microscopy, the scales have a petal-like structure and mesh like a herringbone It seemed to have been. The oldest scaled fossil found so far was about 129 million years ago.

In previous studies it was presumed from the structure of the scales that early butterflies and galls had "big jaws to eat food". However, Mr. Erdik again analyzed scaly fossils, and it seems that "scaly gaps" found only in the "kiss" part of butterflies are found. About this, Mr. Erdik said, "There is a gap in the structure of the scales, that a big change must have occurred in the earlier butterflies' butterflies before (the big jaw did not change to a snout) "I am talking in the interview .

Butterfly stretching a straw-like snout and sucking flower nectar

by Aaron Burden

According to Erdik et al 's analysis, scaly fossil seems to be about 210 million years ago, but flowering plants that open flowers appear about 140 to 160 million years ago It has been. In other words, this research paper published this time shows that the earlier butterflies and inhabitants inhabited the earth before the flowers appeared.

At that time, the mystery remains as to what purpose the kiss used to suck the nectar of the flowers was used for the purpose at the beginning, but researchers said about "plants born in the Jurassic It was speculated that it was being used to eat the most popular gymnosperm pollen among the gymnosperm . "