Researchers trace evolution of insects back to 480 million years ago

A team of more than 100 researchers from China, the United States, Germany and several other countries published the first modern road map of insect evolution on Thursday.

The study, published in the US journal Science, reconstructs the insect "tree of life" and answers long-standing questions about the origins and evolution of the world's largest, most diverse animal group.

The findings are the work of scientists from the 1KITE project that aims to study the transcriptomes, or all expressed genes, of more than 1,000 insect species encompassing all recognized insect orders.