One of the oldest pollinators found in Russia
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Domestic paleontologists have discovered fossil insects that lived more than 280 million years ago
The oldest pollinators of plants may have been discovered by Russian paleontologists. Fossil remains of Tillyardembia insects that lived more than 280 million years ago have been found in the Perm Territory.
As it became known to MK, the discovery was made at the site of the Chekarda geological section, on the left bank of the Sylva River. The sedimentary rocks located here were formed at the beginning of the Permian period at the bottom of an ancient reservoir rich in vegetation and insects.
As MK was told at the Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, scientists studied flat imprints of insect bodies on rock. It turned out that their head, chest, abdomen and legs were covered with pollen. Previously, the most ancient insects with pollen on the body, and not just in the stomach, were found in amber from the Cretaceous period (145-66 million years ago). The find of Russian researchers is at least 100 million years older.
According to scientists, tilyardembians resembled modern earwigs. They could fly, were covered with thick hairs, to which pollen stuck. Conifer pollen was present in their rather limited diet. Perhaps, a flat body 15 mm long allowed them to climb under the cone scales and thereby pollinate them.
All this suggests that tilardembia is the oldest pollinators of plants known to science.
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