Insect of the Week #1
Photo Credit: (Engel & Grimaldi 2004)
I decided I would like to do a fun weekly topic on a certain insect, thus "insect of the week" is born. I won't have much criteria for selection, except for it being an insect, whether dead or alive.
The oldest true insect ever found is Rhyniognatha hirsti, it was discovered in a fragment of Rhynie chert in 1919 by Reverend W. Cran.
The specimen itself is associated with winged insect features and is an important evolutionary link in winged insect evolution. The specimen also had large mandibles, however it's difficult to say what they were truly used for. It is assumed R. hirstifed on plant sporophylls like other insects of the time.
A small counter argument on this specimen comes from a study that used 3D modeling techniques and concluded the mandibles and other features resembled a myriapod (centipedes) instead.
Image Credit: (Carolin Haug & Joachim T. Haug, 2017)
Regardless of the true anatomy, if the find turns out to be a true insect, the emergence date of insects would be placed in the Silurian period, making insects one of the earliest terrestrial members on the planet.
I would like to post more information on this particular "insect", however, information is very limited.
Hope you enjoyed the first installment of "insect of the week"
Hi, @dakotashade. In my opinion, it will be good for you to invest your time on making an article about insects which have a great deal of information that can strike some sort of discussion to make it more interactive. Regarding the article:
Both of the images used are cited, that's good but we were unsure about the copyright information regarding those pictures. I understand sometimes it is difficult for us to search or synthesize an image that is relevant to our topic of discussion, but you need to make an extra effort such us contacting and asking for permission from the original author if the image is, indeed, copyrighted.
You need to cite your article references and I'm sure you must be using some website or book or journal to make this article. Give the original author some credits.
If you have any problem regarding STEM-related articles, you can join steemSTEM Discord Channel and we will be glad to assist you.