A FOSSIL of an advanced fly maggot has been discovered in the Antarctic – the first ever found there. That could mean complex flies evolved millions of years earlier than was thought.
The tiny fossil, found by Allan Ashworth of North Dakota State University at Fargo, shows the tip of a fly pupa. The pupa belongs to the Cyclorrhapha suborder, the same as the modern house fly, and it lived during a warm spell 3 to 17 million years ago (Nature, vol 423, p 135).
Most biologists think these flies evolved in the northern hemisphere during the late Cretaceous, over…
