Evolution of Insects
There are certain things we all take for granted. Probably on the bottom of the list for most of us is where did insects come from? But if you are a curious bug person the evolution of insects will be of interest to you.
Because evolution for everything began millions of years ago the same goes for insects. It is estimated that the class of insects originated about 480 million years ago. The truth is none of us was around then to confirm this.
For those of you who do not know the definition of insect, in simple terms, it is that they are an invertebrate with an outside shell or exoskeleton (like cockroaches, flies, praying mantids, beetles etc), three-part body, three pair of jointed legs, compound eyes and antennae.
There are over one million species and they tend to exist in every type of environment including the ocean. There have been changes every 200 to 300 million years and insects were the first class to develop wings around 400 million years ago. As global climate has changed several times during history so has the diversity of insects.
Many early groups of insects became extinct roughly 250 million years ago to the current insect orders. A family tree that dates back over 400 million years ago was accomplished by a group of ambitious scientists. The timeline established during their research indicates that insects probably started colonizing the planet about the same time as plants. So the next time you slap that bug or crush it with your foot remember you are stepping on over 400 million years of evolution.
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