When most people think of the word prehistoric, they picture visions of dinosaurs or maybe cavemen telling stories around a campfire. It’s not often that someone brings up some of the other organisms that roamed the earth millions of years ago. But just like today, many other creatures lurked among the flora and fauna of those far off times.

In fact, some of them are still with us.

New Discoveries

We are always learning more about the insect world and the diversity across God’s creation. Earlier this month, scientists in New Zealand uncovered 15-million old fossils of a new species of whitefly that was entirely unknown previously.

 Miotetraleurodes novaezelandiae is very clearly related to the whiteflies of today, but their bodies were more rigidly segmented. It’s possible the modern-day whitefly developed more smoothed-over edges to help them fly easier and survive better.

Kiwi scientists were also excited by the discovery of a psyllid wing. That may not sound quite so momentous, but it’s the first evidence that the plant eating lice were on the Land of the Long White Cloud long before British colonists visited the island nation.

Older Than the Dinosaurs

Scientists who study these things tell us that the dinosaurs dominated the planet starting about 245 million years ago. That sounds pretty impressive… until we start talking about ancient insects. Silverfish, dragonflies, and beetles have all been around much longer than that. Spiders, not an insect, but still scary and annoying, have been spinning their webs for more than 500 million years.

Who knows what they ate, since paper was only invented about 5000 years ago, but the oldest insect fossils ever found was of a wingless variation on the 120 different species of silverfish. One that lived 365 million years ago.

A few years ago, archeologists discovered 230-million-year-old beetle fossils, preserved by dinosaur poop. That’s nearly twice as old as the insects found in amber that inspired Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park novels and films, and entomologists say other species of beetles go back nearly 330 million years!

On the positive side, researchers say dragonflies and damselflies – God’s natural pest control solutions – date back 300 or maybe 400 million years ago. They’re considered the first winged insects to emerge. And while the ones we see today don’t get much larger than our hands, the fossil record shows that one species had wingspans of nearly 2 feet across!

When Giants Roamed the Earth

In the 1950s, the thought of giant insects taking over human habitations was the subject of many a thrilling film. But it’s not as fictional as we’d like to imagine. The super-sized dragonflies, also known as Griffenflies, were the largest insects on the earth. But they were not the only larger than life creatures that needed to be contended with.

50 million years ago, the giant land snail grew to nearly two feet in length. It was slimy, shelled, and not something you’d want to stumble into at the beach. Luckily, it can’t kill you. The same can’t be said for another creature as big as a baby.

It doesn’t matter if you’re on land or in the water, prehistoric arachnids could turn any day into a bad one. Jaekelopterus Rhenaniae is a giant sea scorpion that grew to more than 8 feet in length. What’s worse, the claws of the giant arthropod could be as big as a man’s head! Perhaps they were the being God was referring to when he mentions an undersea Leviathan in the book of Job.

While they didn’t get as big, the Pulmonoscorpius kirktonensis – or giant land scorpions found in Scotland – were deadly. About 2 feet long, their sting could kill small animals, especially if applied repeatedly. Thankfully, they mostly dined on small insects.

Resilience is the Name of the Game

Some insects, for good or bad, have survived and thrived on this earth, maybe even long before humans started wandering around. While that’s not the most exciting thing to think about, we have to admire them for their ability to adapt and survive. We’ve often taken cues from insects as we engineer and build new inventions.

Unfortunately, some of the most irrepressible insects are also the most annoying. Mosquitoes, recently dubbed the most dangerous insect on the planet thanks to their multiple disease vectors, have been around for 225 million years. That’s a lot of blood.

Ants may be industrious but they’re also prolific and long-lived. Scientists estimate that 12,000 ant species have been on our planet for 140 to 168 million years – and there may be up to 20 quadrillion individual ants at any time.

Lice and termites are neck in neck, both about 120 million years old. They’re edged out by one of the most disgusting of pests – the cockroach. Not only have roaches been crawling around since the crustaceous era with the dinosaurs, they can live a week or more without their heads!

And yet we’re still surprised when they start developing resistance to the chemicals developed in the last 100 years to keep them at bay. The best defense against roaches, ants, silverfish, and spiders is the all-natural solutions that have been around for millennia. Our Go Green Perimeter Plus applies those treatments to your home and perimeter – protecting you, your family, and your pets without putting them at risk. For more details, or information on any of our green solutions, please give us a call!