On the basis of an assemblage of fossilized wing scales recovered from latest Triassic and earliest Jurassic sediments from northern Germany, we provide the earliest evidence for Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies). The diverse scales confirm a (Late) Triassic radiation of lepidopteran lineages, including the divergence of the Glossata, the clade that comprises the vast multitude of extant moths and butterflies that have a sucking proboscis. The microfossils extend the minimum calibrated age of glossatan moths by ca. 70 million years, refuting ancestral association of the group with flowering plants. Development of the proboscis may be regarded as an adaptive innovation to sucking free liquids for maintaining the insect's water balance under arid conditions. Pollination drops secreted by a variety of Mesozoic gymnosperms may have been non-mutualistically exploited as a high-energy liquid source. The early evolution of the Lepidoptera was probably not severely interrupted by the end-Triassic biotic crisis.

中文翻译：

---

鳞翅目进化的三叠纪-侏罗纪窗口。


根据从德国北部三叠纪晚期和侏罗纪早期沉积物中发现的翼鳞化石组合，我们提供了鳞翅目（飞蛾和蝴蝶）的最早证据。不同的尺度证实了鳞翅目谱系的（晚）三叠纪辐射，包括舌目目的分化，目目目由大量现存的具有吸吮喙的飞蛾和蝴蝶组成。这些微化石将舌蛾的最小校准年龄延长了大约 10 年。 7000万年，驳斥了该群体与开花植物的祖先联系。长鼻的发育可被视为在干旱条件下吸吮游离液体以维持昆虫水分平衡的适应性创新。多种中生代裸子植物分泌的授粉滴可能已被非互利地用作高能液体来源。鳞翅目的早期进化可能没有受到三叠纪末生物危机的严重干扰。