Prehistoric Insects: Life Before the Modern World
Welcome
For over 400 million years, insects have been among the most successful animals on Earth. Long before dinosaurs walked the land, insects had already taken to the skies, developed complex social behaviors, and diversified into thousands of forms. Many of these ancient creatures were dramatically different from anything alive today — giant dragonflies with wingspans wider than a human arm, predatory insects the size of hawks, and bizarre parasites unlike anything in the modern world.
This site covers the world of prehistoric insects, from the earliest wingless hexapods of the Devonian period through the great diversification of the Cretaceous, ending with the mass extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. Browse by geological era, explore individual species profiles, discover the fossil sites where these creatures were found, or learn about the science behind how we study insects that lived hundreds of millions of years ago.
Browse by Geological Era
Devonian Period
419–359 million years ago. The first insects appear. Wingless hexapods colonize land alongside the earliest forests.
Carboniferous Period
359–299 million years ago. Giant insects thrive in oxygen-rich swamp forests. The first winged insects take flight.
Permian Period
299–252 million years ago. Insects diversify rapidly, then face the greatest mass extinction in Earth's history.
Triassic Period
252–201 million years ago. Insects recover and adapt. Early social insects and aquatic larvae appear.
Jurassic Period
201–145 million years ago. Beetles explode in diversity. Insects and plants begin co-evolving in new ways.
Cretaceous Period
145–66 million years ago. Flowering plants transform insect life. Amber preserves incredible specimens.
Featured Species
- Meganeura A giant dragonfly-like insect from the Carboniferous with a wingspan of up to 70 cm.
- Rhyniognatha hirsti The oldest known insect, preserved in 410-million-year-old Devonian chert.
- Kalligrammatidae Jurassic lacewings that evolved to look and behave remarkably like modern butterflies.
- Sphecomyrma A Cretaceous "proto-ant" preserved in amber, bridging the gap between wasps and ants.
The Science of Ancient Insects
- Oxygen and Gigantism Why insects in the Carboniferous grew to enormous sizes, and what limited them.
- The Evolution of Insect Flight How insects became the first animals to fly, millions of years before birds or bats.
- Amber as a Time Capsule How tree resin preserved insects in extraordinary three-dimensional detail.