11/07/2014

Piecing Together the Puzzle of Insect Evolution

12:08 minutes

When a pesky fruit fly flits about your kitchen, it might be difficult to marvel at the insect as a piece of an evolutionary puzzle hundreds of millions of years in the making. But that’s not the case for Michelle Trautwein at the California Academy of Sciences. She specializes in Diptera—or flies—and was one of 100 researchers to work on a multinational study examining insect evolution, published in Science this week. Trautwein discusses new insight into when the first winged insects might have appeared on earth and other findings from the study.

Segment Guests

Michelle Trautwein

Michelle Trautwein is the curator of Entomology at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, California.

Meet the Producer

About Becky Fogel

Becky Fogel is a newscast host and producer at Texas Standard, a daily news show broadcast by KUT in Austin, Texas. She was formerly Science Friday’s production assistant.