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Our
understanding of butterfly origins is based on the
study of living Lepidopteran species.
We
can often learn about evolution from the fossil
record, but there are relatively few butterfly fossils.
Those that do exist, like the 40-million-year-old
Prodryas persophone, are remarkably similar
to modern-day forms -- so the fossil record sheds
little light on the origin of today's butterflies.
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Butterfly in Amber |
Many
scientists believe that the specialized association between
today's butterflies and flowering plants suggests that butterflies
developed during the Cretaceous Period, often called the
"Age of Flowering Plants," 65 million to 135 million years
ago -- a time when dinosaurs also roamed the earth.
Evolutionary
relationships among major Lepidopteran groups are not
well understood. What we do know is that, despite the
attention they receive from scientists and the public
alike, butterflies are not the pinnacle of Lepidoptera
evolution. One recent theory is that an obscure moth family,
the Hedylidae, represents the closest living relatives
of the butterflies. Essentially, this theory suggests
that butterflies are just a group of brightly colored
moths.
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