Fossil scales illuminate the early evolution of lepidopterans and structural colors

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dc.contributor.authorZhang, Qingqing
dc.contributor.authorMey, Wolfram
dc.contributor.authorAnsorge, Jörg
dc.contributor.authorStarkey, Timothy A.
dc.contributor.authorMcDonald, Luke T.
dc.contributor.authorMcNamara, Maria E.
dc.contributor.authorJarzembowski, Edmund A.
dc.contributor.authorWichard, Wilfried
dc.contributor.authorKelly, Richard
dc.contributor.authorRen, Xiaoyin
dc.contributor.authorChen, Jun
dc.contributor.authorZhang, Haichun
dc.contributor.authorWang, Bo
dc.contributor.funderNational Natural Science Foundation of China
dc.contributor.funderChinese Academy of Sciences
dc.contributor.funderNatural History Museum
dc.contributor.funderEuropean Research Council
dc.contributor.funderYouth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
dc.date.accessioned2018-05-31T11:56:30Z
dc.date.available2018-05-31T11:56:30Z
dc.description.abstractLepidopteran scales exhibit remarkably complex ultrastructures, many of which produce structural colors that are the basis for diverse communication strategies. Little is known, however, about the early evolution of lepidopteran scales and their photonic structures. We report scale architectures from Jurassic Lepidoptera from the United Kingdom, Germany, Kazakhstan, and China and from Tarachoptera (a stem group of Amphiesmenoptera) from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber. The Jurassic lepidopterans exhibit a type 1 bilayer scale vestiture: an upper layer of large fused cover scales and a lower layer of small fused ground scales. This scale arrangement, plus preserved herringbone ornamentation on the cover scale surface, is almost identical to those of some extant Micropterigidae. Critically, the fossil scale ultrastructures have periodicities measuring from 140 to 2000 nm and are therefore capable of scattering visible light, providing the earliest evidence of structural colors in the insect fossil record. Optical modeling confirms that diffraction-related scattering mechanisms dominate the photonic properties of the fossil cover scales, which would have displayed broadband metallic hues as in numerous extant Micropterigidae. The fossil tarachopteran scales exhibit a unique suite of characteristics, including small size, elongate-spatulate shape, ridged ornamentation, and irregular arrangement, providing novel insight into the early evolution of lepidopteran scales. Combined, our results provide the earliest evidence for structural coloration in fossil lepidopterans and support the hypothesis that fused wing scales and the type 1 bilayer covering are groundplan features of the group. Wing scales likely had deep origins in earlier amphiesmenopteran lineages before the appearance of the Lepidoptera.en
dc.description.sponsorshipNational Natural Science Foundation of China (41572010, 41622201, and 41688103); Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDPB05); Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (2011224)en
dc.description.statusPeer revieweden
dc.description.versionPublished Versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.articleide1700988
dc.identifier.citationZhang, Q., Mey, W., Ansorge, J., Starkey, T. A., McDonald, L. T., McNamara, M. E., Jarzembowski, E. A., Wichard, W., Kelly, R., Ren, X., Chen, J., Zhang, H. and Wang, B. (2018) 'Fossil scales illuminate the early evolution of lepidopterans and structural colors', Science Advances, 4(4), e1700988, (8pp). doi: 10.1126/sciadv.1700988en
dc.identifier.doi10.1126/sciadv.1700988
dc.identifier.endpage8
dc.identifier.issn2375-2548
dc.identifier.issued2018
dc.identifier.journaltitleScience Advancesen
dc.identifier.startpage1
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/6231
dc.identifier.volume4
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherAmerican Association for the Advancement of Scienceen
dc.relation.projectinfo:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020::ERC::ERC-STG/637691/EU/Animal coloration through deep time: evolutionary novelty, homology and taphonomy/ANICOLEVO
dc.relation.urihttp://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/4/e1700988
dc.rights© 2018, the Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC)en
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
dc.subjectLepidopteran scalesen
dc.subjectAmphiesmenopteraen
dc.subjectMicropterigidaeen
dc.subjectJurassicen
dc.subjectFossilen
dc.subjectFossil tarachopteran scalesen
dc.subjectOptical modelingen
dc.titleFossil scales illuminate the early evolution of lepidopterans and structural colorsen
dc.typeArticle (peer-reviewed)en
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