====== Insect flight evolution ======

>Sometime in the Carboniferous Period, some 350 to 400<sup> </sup>million years ago, when there were only two major land masses, insects began flying.__ How and why insect wings developed is not well understood,__ largely due to the scarcity of appropriate fossils from the period of their development in the Lower Carboniferous."
>\\ Source : [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insect_flight#Evolution_and_adaptation|Wikipedia]]

There are three main theories regarding how insect flight may have evolved. None of which has sufficient fossil evidence as to be generally accepted.

• The Paranotal hypothesis - that wings might have evolved from insects' already existent 'paranotal lobes'. There is, however, a lack of fossil evidence.

• The Epicoxal hypothesis - that the wings came from abdominal gills of aquatic insects (termed 'tracheal gills'). Again, the fossil evidence is lacking.

• The Endite-exite hypothesis - that the wings arose as a mutation, or adaptation, of 'endites' and 'exites', which are currently existing arthropod limb features. Also no fossil evidence.

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