More than 300 million years ago, an
insect landed on a muddy surface to rest and, when it flew off again, it left behind
a complete impression of its body that has remained etched into a rock in Massachusetts (USA) until today. "It is a perfect copy of his body," says its discoverer, Richard J. Knecht, of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University (USA), who adds that it is the oldest in history belonging to a being I live flying.
Based on the shape of the footprint that the insect left on the rock -the outstretched legs and sunken belly-, Michael S. Engel, an entomologist at the University of Kansas, has concluded that it belonged to the order Ephemeroptera , known as ephemeral for the short duration of their life. Details of their finding are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ( PNAS ).
