''Archaeolepis mane'' is amongst the earliest undisputed

lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) or lepidopterans is an order (biology), order of winged insects which includes butterflies and moths. About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera have been described, representing 10% of the total described species of living organ ...

n fossils. It dates from the Lower Jurassic (ca ). It was found in the

Charmouth Mudstone Formation The Charmouth Mudstone Formation is a Formation (geology), geological formation in England, dating to the Early Jurassic (Sinemurian–Pliensbachian). It forms part of the lower Lias Group. It is most prominently exposed at its type locality in cl ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

, United Kingdom.

Etymology

''Archaeolepis'' means 'ancient scale', referring to the antiquity of the specimen, and the

scales Scale or scales may refer to: Mathematics * Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points * Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original * Scale factor, a number ...

(modified and flattened hairs characteristic of butterflies and moths) that identify it as a

n. The species name, ''A. mane'' means 'dawn', further emphasising that it is the earliest known member of this group.

Taxonomy

Both the genus and the species were first described in 1985 by Paul Whalley.

Discovery

The fossil was found by J. F. Jackson (1894–1966) of

Charmouth Charmouth is a village and civil parish in west Dorset, England. The village is situated on the mouth of the River Char, around north-east of Lyme Regis. Dorset County Council estimated that in 2013 the population of the civil parish was 1,31 ...

, and later purchased by the British Museum of Natural History. The fossil of ''Archaeolepis'' was not studied until the 1980s, when it was described as a type of early lepidopteran, the family that includes butterflies and moths. The fossil (which comprises a wing) is just over 5 mm long (0.2 inches) and 2 mm wide.

Distribution

The species has been found only at Birchi Nodules, Black Ven, Charmouth.

Significance

The fossil of ''Archaeolepis'' consists of wings with scales that are similar to those in

lepidopterans Lepidoptera ( ) or lepidopterans is an order (biology), order of winged insects which includes butterflies and moths. About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera have been described, representing 10% of the total described species of living organ ...

. Recent re-examinations have backed up this conclusion. When it was found it pushed the known fossil range of lepidopterans back another 50 million years. This was surprising, because it had been assumed that butterflies and moths first emerged alongside flowering plants in the Cretaceous. Finding ''Archaeolepis'' in the Early Jurassic, means that the first members of this group must have originated earlier. Similar scales to those of butterflies and moths have been found in earlier deposits from the Latest Triassic, and some researchers argue this, along with evidence from genes, provides evidence for a much earlier appearance of the group.Wahlberg, N., Wheat, C.W. and Peña, C. 2013
Timing and patterns in the taxonomic diversification of Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths)
''PLOS one'', 8(11), p.e80875. But the identification of these fossils is disputed, so ''Archaeolepis'' remains the oldest confirmed fossil lepidopteran.

References

External links

Genus ''Archaeolepis''
{{Taxonbar, from1=Q21293814, from2=Q20675320, from3=Q4034280 Early Jurassic insects Fossil taxa described in 1985 Transitional fossils † Fossil Lepidoptera Jurassic insects of Europe Monotypic prehistoric insect genera Early Jurassic animals of Europe Taxa named by Paul E.S. Whalley