What was the first flying animal?

The first animal to fly on Earth was an ancient insect called Rhyniognatha hirsti 400 million years ago. The oldest insect fossil was discovered in the famous Rhynie Flint Formation (Scotland, Early Devonian Period of the Paleozoic Era, 396-407 million years ago): a wingless endognathous insect Rhyniella praecursor of the order Collembola of the order Entognatha (Hirst et Maulik, 1926). A total of 12 complete or incomplete fossil specimens of this species have been discovered in the Rhynie area. And after strict petrological testing, it was determined that the composition of the specimens was consistent with that of the surrounding Devonian flint layers, eliminating the possibility of contamination by modern species fossils [3]. Since then, the insect fossils discovered by scientists in the Devonian and Carboniferous periods were also wingless species. Among them, fragments of the head and thorax of the order Lithocera were found in the Early Devonian period 390 million years ago. During the Middle Devonian (370-390 million years ago), fossils of wingless insects such as the order Lithocera and the order Chrysomelidae were found in many places in Europe and North America.

The oldest wingless insect Rhyniella praecursor Hirst et Maulik, 1926 (Collembola)

More than 200 million years ago, pterosaurs became the first vertebrates to conquer the blue sky; soon after, feathered dinosaurs flew into the blue sky, gracefully transformed into birds, and still rule the sky today; and the earliest flying mammals - ancient flying beasts appeared 100 million years earlier than bats 50 million years ago.

The oldest suspected winged insect Rhyniognatha hirstiTillyard, 1928

Flying has always been a human desire. Flying birds, weird insects and light and soft white clouds will arouse their fantasies of flying. There are many myths and legends about flying in various ancient civilizations, such as the Chinese Cowherd and Weaver Girl and Chang'e flying to the moon, the ancient Greek myth of Theedalus and his son escaping with wings, and the mysterious flying carpet in Arabian mythology.

The oldest preserved insect wing (Ancient Dictyoptera)Delitzschala bitterfeldensisBrauckmann et Schneider, 1996

Although humans have invented and realized the dream of flying with the help of aircraft more than a century ago, they are latecomers in the family of flying animals. So, how do animals fly to the blue sky, and what kind of evolutionary process have they experienced? Humans have learned various mysteries of flying from animals that fly actively with their own organs, and have achieved the feat of conquering the blue sky and the universe with external equipment. There are thousands of mysteries of flying, and learning some of them may be crucial to our human flight. Then let us uncover the mysteries of flying together.

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