Early Insect Diversification: Evidence from a Lower Devonian Bristletail from Québec

Abstract

The earliest insect for which there is significant structural data, a bristletail (Archaeognatha) from the Early Devonian (Emsian Stage) of the Gaspé Peninsula of Québec, Canada, is described. Detailed analysis of the head indicates that this insect had large, bulging, separated, compound eyes, monocondylic mandibles, and numerous sensory setae. This fossil, the oldest record of terrestrial animal life from North America, suggests that early hexapod diversification occurred contemporaneously with the emergence of the first vascular land plants during the Silurian.