Tuesday 10 October 2017

Meet Madagascar's oldest animal lineage, a whirligig beetle with 206-million-year-old origins


Date:  October 4, 2017
Source:  University of Kansas

There are precious few species today in the biodiversity hotspot of Madagascar that scientists can trace directly back to when all of Earth's continents were joined together as part of the primeval supercontinent Pangea.

But a new study in the journal Scientific Reports suggests the Malagasy striped whirligig beetle Heterogyrus milloti is an ultra-rare survivor among contemporary species on Madagascar, boasting a genetic pedigree stretching back at least 206 million years to the late Triassic period.


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