World’s oldest butterflies and moths found in Argentina: 236 million years old

The chicken vs egg debate now has a competitor, and we know the answer to what came first...

Researchers studying fossilised dung (the lucky ones) from Argentina’s Parque Nacional Talampaya, have uncovered the oldest physical evidence of butterflies and moths—tiny wing scales dating back to approximately 236 million years ago, during the Triassic period.

The study, published in Journal of South American Earth Sciences, shows that microscopic scales, around 200 µm long, were confirmed as belonging to Lepidoptera, pushing back the known appearance of these insects by about 40 million years compared to the previous earliest fossils from the Early Jurassic.

Prior genetic research had suggested that Lepidoptera may have originated around 241 million years ago, but direct fossil evidence was missing - until now.

Scientists have named a new species, Ampatiri eloisae, and placed it within an appropriate subgroup, characterised by the presence of a proboscis. This proboscis, traditionally thought to have evolved to feed on floral nectar, interestingly existed in an environment devoid of flowering plants, which did not appear until much later.

So there’s the question: what did they use it for? Well, these early insects likely used their proboscis to feed on sugary secretions from things like conifers, which produced droplets attractive to insects.

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This finding challenges prior assumptions about the evolution of the proboscis, suggesting it originally evolved for non‑floral feeding and only later facilitated flower pollination - something that shows the ingenuity of nature and life’s ability to find a way. Ian Malcolm was right.

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