First, the article title is quite interesting, and caught my attention. Props given where it's due.
I wasn't aware of the dust that coated butterfly wings were actually their scales. Apparently, in order to obtain the fossils of the butterfly scales, these researchers used a probe that was tipped with a human nose hair, which apparently has the perfect shape and springiness to collect butterfly scales. To imagine this is mind boggling, as this sort of specific task must be extremely meticulous to perform. Props given to Mr. van Eldijk, who was tasked with this job.
Using these scales, an important discovery, or potential discovery, was made. It was thought to prior that most ancient insects were to have mandibles, while modern butterflies and moths have a proboscis. As insects that have proboscis have hollow scales, and the scales found in the fossils were also hollow, researchers were able to come to the conclusion that ancient moths and butterflies had proboscis instead of mandibles.
These discoveries are linked to seeing how past insects were involved in pollination processes, and shows how somehow even a tiny scale could help prove an important theory of how the world used to work in the past. It's fascinating to believe that people out there are studying microscopic fossils of butterfly scales, especially using human nose hairs to extract them. I didn't know what I was expecting when I clicked on the article, but I learned something truly interesting from it. Even in the prehistoric eras of Earth, life was fascinating. Learning about the past can surely help us in understanding further how our world works now.
No comments:
Post a Comment