Early Flight? Winged insects appear surprisingly ancient

New analyses of a fossil ignored for decades in a British museum suggest that winged insects may have emerged as early as 400 million years ago, tens of millions of years before scientists expected.

OLD CHOPPERS. Characteristics of the mouthparts (arrow and bottom) of a 400-million-year-old fossil hint that the creature was a winged insect. Grimaldi/Columbia University Press

The fossil had been excavated near Rhynie, Scotland, and was first described in the late 1920s.