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24-legged fossil solves a 40-year gap in insect evolution
A fossil discovered in 1985 in western Texas has finally been correctly identified, resolving the so-called "hexapod gap" — a tens-of-millions-of-years hole in the fossil record of insect evolution published in Nature. The specimen, from the Early Carboniferous period, was misidentified for decades because its imprint was barely visible on dark rock; new analysis revealed it had 24 legs, making it a transitional form between marine invertebrates and land insects.
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