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Epic worldwide effort explores all of insect history

Analysis confirms many relationships, rethinks dragonflies, doubts dino lice

snakeflies

ANCESTRY WITH SIX LEGS  In a massive new analysis, snakeflies (Dichrostigma flavipes shown) and all the other orders of living insects get a place in a genealogical tree.

Oliver Niehuis/ ZFMK, Bonn

By Susan Milius

- More than 2 years ago

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By analyzing a locust swarm of data —1,478 genes from each of 144 kinds of insects and their relatives —a worldwide research team has reconstructed the tale of how insects arose and took over the Earth.