Researchers have chronicled and consolidated the evolution and classification of insects from all around the world in a project called 1KITE (1K Insect Transcriptome Evolution) which details the most intensive insect family tree ever made.  

Insects can be considered as the most diverse animal group and even if they are miniscule in size, they do play a pivotal part in the pollination of plants and also serve as food for other animals.This research will help to better understand these creatures especially their ability of flight, parasitism and herbivory patterns.

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According to researcher Michelle Trautwein, from the California Academy of Sciences, it is still unclear how insects evolved from their first origins of metamorphosis into flying. New technology have allowed scientists to compare large amounts of genetic data of insects for the first time in history that will fill in the gaps of evolutionary mysteries. 

More than 100 scientists and researchers have analyzed some 1,478 genes taken from 144 insect species that span all major insect groups so that the origins of these creatures can be traced back and they can be classified accordingly.

Scientists have learned from this study that Insects and plants have influenced the early stages of the Earth's ecosystem. Insects developed wings some 400 million years ago, which make them the first animals to fly.

The origin of insects date back to 479 million years ago, called the Early Ordovician period, and about 406 million years ago, in the early Devonian era, when insects learned how to fly. Major extant lineages of insects are traced back to some 345 million years ago during the Mississippian era and the major diversification of holomeatabolous insects happened during the Early Cretaceous period, according to the study.

According to study author Bernhard Misof, of the Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig in Germany, insects apparently evolved on land where they survived on food from early terrestrial plants. About two thirds of all the known animals on the planet are all insects that evolved from remipedia, a group of poisonous crustaceans.

This comprehensive study of the diversification of insects is published in the journal Science.

TagsEvolutionary Insect Family Tree Reveals Insects Were the First Animals to Fly 400 Million Years Ago, evolution of insects, Insects, family tree map insects develop wings, 1KITE