News Paleontology

The oldest known pollen-carrying insects lived about 280 million years ago

Ground-dwelling Tillyardembia was probably picky about which trees it climbed for pollen

An illustration of a Tillyardembia sitting on a plant.

Fossils reveal that the earwig-like insect Tillyardembia (illustrated) transported pollen from plant to plant about 280 million years ago.

Andrev Atuchin

By Sid Perkins

The oldest known fossils of pollen-laden insects are of earwig-like ground-dwellers that lived in what is now Russia about 280 million years ago, researchers report. Their finding pushes back the fossil record of insects transporting pollen from one plant to another, a key aspect of modern-day pollination, by about 120 million years.