Cretaceous Insects

Article | Updated 10 years ago

The Cretaceous period was a significant time for the evolution of insects.

Although many familiar insects such as beetles, flies and cockroaches already existed, the Cretaceous saw the appearance of several new groups that play important roles in the ecology of the world today.

The consumers

Step outside today and one of the first insects you are likely to encounter are ants. Ants play an important role in ecosystems as key consumers of other organisms. Despite their vast number and variety today, ants only appeared in the mid-Cretaceous about 90 million years ago, and remained quite rare until about 50 million years ago. There is some evidence suggesting that ancient ants had social nesting behaviours, just like modern ants.

The pollinators

Bees are the most important pollinators of flowering plants in the modern world. Fossil bees are known from the mid-Cretaceous, not too long after flowering plants first appear in the fossil record. Another important group of pollinating insects, the nectar sucking butterflies, also evolved in the Cretaceous.

The waste disposers

In today’s ecosystems, termites play an essential role eating ‘waste’ such as decaying plant matter. They first appeared in the Cretaceous, evolving from the ancestors of cockroaches. Fossilised termite mounds have been discovered from the Cretaceous, suggesting that prehistoric termites had already evolved social nest building behaviour.