Original Kin: Six-legged bugs may have evolved twice

Six legs, new; more legs, old. That could be an adage for biologists who hold that all six-legged terrestrial bugs evolved from a single relatively recent branch of the ancient lineage of arthropods. Earlier, they say, that tree had sprouted branches of crustaceans, spiders, millipedes, and other organisms with more legs.

INSECT GENEALOGY. Springtails such as this millimeter-scale Gomphiocephalus hodgsoni have six legs but might not be closely related to insects.