It has led scientists to rethink the ways in which plants and bugs evolved, and it seems that they evolved faster than we thought. Recently, they have been thought to move from a pond environment to a mixed forest in just 40 million years.
Researchers at the University of Texas, Austin, USA discovered this when they discovered Kerrera Island in the Inner Hebrides Islands of Scotland.
They used a sophisticated technique, including the extraction of microscopic minerals from the rock deposits in which the fossil is preserved.
The analysis identified the fossil of this ancient arthropod dating back 425 million years - 75 million years younger than other scientists have estimated the oldest fossil.
Fossil of the world’s oldest "bug" - 425 million years old. This ancient creature only took 40 million years to leave the lake to live in the forest ecosystem
And other research using similar fossil dating methods, has also discovered the oldest fossil of a soil-bearing main stem plant - also found in Scotland - dating to the same year. self.
This improved technique has been refined by Stephanie Suarez, a graduate student at the University of Houston.
Previously, Stephanie used this technique to find that the specimen of another species of a multi-legged species - thought to have been the oldest dating at that time - was about 14 million years younger than estimated - one shot. has now stripped the title of its oldest beetle.
Stephanie Suarez improved on the traditional technology used today by separating zircon ore from the specimen
In this study, the scientists used the same technique to transfer the crown to a new specimen and to delve deeper into the origin and evolution of bugs and plants.
Michael Brookfiel, research associate at the University of Austin’s Department of Geosciences and a part-time professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston, said it was a big jump from these little friends to the community. The forest is very complex, and overall it didn’t take much time.
It seems that a rapid pace of diversification took place from the mountain valleys, down to the lowlands and then to the whole world.
The authors believe that there may be even older bugs and plant fossils here - even in areas known to conserve sophisticated fossils of the same era - but they have yet to discover them. .
The findings were published in the journal Science Biological History.
