On the origin of insect wings…

Our mini-review recapping the insect wing origin debate and featuring a recent cool paper from Mann and Estella labs is now published on Current Biology.

“Sometime in the Devonian, perhaps about 400 million years ago, insects became the first clade to conquer the sky. Recent evo-devo studies have begun to unravel the mysterious origin of the flight structure that made insects into extraordinary six-legged fliers.”

Hope this will be a good primer when you want to learn how six legged flying buggers have evolved!  link

On Media

Our work has been featured on some science news outlets. Here are some links!

Growing wings on beetle abdomens provides another clue in the mystery of where insect wings come from. The VERGE

Image of the Day: Ectopic Wings. The Scientist

The origin of insect wings has been revealed by gene editing. New Scientist

Also, here is  the behind-the-paper story written by David. Very fun to read. Highly recommend!

Can a beetle with 12 extra wings help explore the evolutionary origin of insect wings? Nature ecology & evolution Community