Ancient Butterfly Ancestor Found in Fossilized Poop, Rewriting Insect Evolution

The discovery of a 236-million-year-old fossilized excrement containing butterfly scales reveals a much earlier origin for butterflies and moths, providing insights into their survival after a mass extinction event. This finding helps us understand how life adapts and evolves, offering valuable knowledge about the history of our planet and its inhabitants. In the heart of Argentina's Talampaya National Park, paleontologists unearthed a remarkable find: fossilized excrement, or coprolites, dating back 236 million years. These coprolites, remnants of herbivorous animals, contained a surprising secret. Microscopic analysis revealed tiny scales, similar to those found on modern butterflies and moths, embedded within the fossilized waste. This discovery pushes back the known timeline for the Lepidoptera order, which includes butterflies and moths, by approximately 35 million years. Previously, the oldest physical evidence dated back to the early Jurassic period. Genetic studies had suggested an even earlier origin, around 241 million years ago. The Argentina find bridges a significant gap in the fossil record. The Ampatiri eloisae species, as the researchers named it, lived shortly after the Permian extinction, the most devastating extinction event in Earth's history. The presence of these early butterflies suggests that they had already developed a proboscis, the long, coiled feeding tube used by modern butterflies to drink nectar. Interestingly, flowers did not exist during the Triassic period. Instead, these early butterflies likely fed on sugary droplets produced by primitive plants. This finding challenges the previous understanding of the proboscis as solely an adaptation for flower pollination, suggesting it evolved earlier as a survival mechanism. This discovery highlights the resilience of life and its ability to adapt to challenging environments. It underscores the importance of examining even the most unassuming remnants of the past, as they can hold crucial clues to understanding the history of life on Earth. The study of Ampatiri eloisae provides a new perspective on the evolution of butterflies, revealing their origins as survivors of a mass extinction, not just as colorful adornments of a flowered world.