Talk about a prehistoric plot twist.<\/p>\n
A 324-million-year-old fossil that spent decades collecting dust in the basement of a California museum has turned out to be one of the earliest known insects on earth, rewriting the evolutionary history of life on Earth.<\/p>\n
For 40 years, the prehistoric creepy crawler \u2014 specimen No. 28852 \u2014 sat tucked away in a drawer at the San Diego Natural History Museum, labeled Tesnusocaris goldichi \u2014 another run-of-the-mill ancient shrimp-like crustacean<\/a>.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for the California Morning Report newsletter\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe biggest news, opinion and culture shaping California right now.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n People view artifacts at the San Diego Natural History Museum ahead of National Fossil Day. Facebook\/@SanDiegoNaturalHistoryMuseum<\/p>\n Turns out, scientists had it completely wrong.<\/p>\n Thanks to an eagle-eyed Cambridge University PhD student who flew across the pond to inspect the forgotten slab, the museum has slapped a brand new label on the artifact: Chosha praecursor. It\u2019s not a crustacean. It\u2019s an insect.<\/p>\n The stunning reclassification officially crowns the prehistoric critter among the \u201cearliest uncontested insects\u201d ever discovered, the San Diego Union Tribune <\/a>reported. The discovery reportedly blew open the long mysterious \u201chexapod gap,\u201d which is a 60 million year blackout in the fossil record during which early bugs seemingly vanished from Earth.<\/p>\n Museum staff members hold fossils in honor of National Fossil Day. Facebook\/@SanDiegoNaturalHistoryMuseum<\/p>\n The breakthrough came when Cambridge doctoral researcher Erik Tihelka spotted pictures of the long-overlooked fossil in a textbook and booked a ticket to SoCal to take a closer look himself, according to the San Diego Union Tribune.<\/p>\n The creepy crawler had classic insect features, including six legs attached to its thorax, an egg-laying organ and a tail-like filament extending from its end, while also boasting numerous extra pairs of paddle-like legs jutting out from its abdomen \u2014 a crustacean feature.<\/p>\n Museumgoers look at fossils. Facebook\/@SanDiegoNaturalHistoryMuseum<\/p>\n Scientists reportedly believe the creature may have used its extra paddle legs to glide through the water \u2014 offering a rare glimpse into how ancient aquatic ancestors evolved into the insects that crawl and fly<\/a> across the planet today.<\/p>\n The specimen originally made its way to the Golden State back in 1985, after being brought back from a dig in Brewster County, Texas. It was classified as a crustacean in 1991.<\/p>\n Now, it\u2019s getting the rockstar treatment it deserves. Museum bosses have pulled the evolutionary relic out of the basement and locked it safely inside a glass display case on the museum\u2019s lower level, where visitors can gawk at the creature that bridges the gap from sea to land.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is nothing that makes a curator happier than having a researcher use the collection,\u201d Tom Dem\u00e9r\u00e9, the museum\u2019s director of paleontology, told the San Diego Union Tribune.<\/a> \u201cTo have a specimen that has been in the collection for 40 years have a new life in the scientific literature, and hopefully in the general public\u2019s mind, shows that new discoveries can be made.\u201d<\/p>\n Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters <\/p>\n California Post News: Facebook<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>, TikTok<\/a>, X<\/a>, YouTube<\/a>, WhatsApp<\/a>, LinkedIn<\/a> \t\t\t\t\t\t
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