On the Net (where the discovery spread like wildfire in just a few days and where a google search now yields thousands of results!), some people mention the resemblance of  this little animal to grasshoppers. However, to speak of Strudiella as an ancestor of one or other species is undoubtedly a bit premature. “ What we can say, is that its group must be close to something that gave rise to the insects we know today and which points to a particular evolution ”, explains Julien Denayer.    

The debate is open

Since this discovery, the paleontologists from Liege have tasked themselves with describing the environment in which the insect must have lived. The chances are, given the shape of its mandibles, that it was phytophageous (that is to say that it fed exclusively on plants) or omnivorous (eating a mixture of food of both plant and animal origin). It undoubtedly lived on land (seemingly, its body does not seem to possess any organ or morphological characteristic that would allow it to develop in an aquatic environment). Could it have fallen into the water one day to find itself  “imprisoned ” in the sediment of this river? The little animal has not yet revealed all its secrets.

Yet what counts for the three researchers, is that the debate is now open. “ A lot of work remains to be done. The discovery of this fossil will invite a lot of critical analysis, questions and reactions on the part of the scientific community. Indeed it has already done so to a great extent! ”, says Cyrille Prestianni.

Some ask questions about the real “ identity ” of Strudiella: is it really an insect? But in the end it doesn’t matter: “ That is the interest of scientific discoveries! The material is available to all the researchers who want it. ” The fossil, which will be preserved in the collections of the Royal Institute of Natural Sciences of Belgium, is likely to attract a throng of international specialists in the next few months.

“ We hope that this will encourage researchers to concentrate more on the Devonian, because it is a difficult period and is relatively unstudied ”. Often, science is blocked due to lack of financial means. Now that we know this type of insect exists, this may help to unlock funding ”, add the three collaborators.

In the meantime, the research will probably continue until 2015 in the small quarry of Strud. The excavations of a Belgian deposit will rarely have been so long. Yet, having revealed the presence of Ichtyostega and then Strudiella, the rocks of the quarry in Namur probably still have a lot of things to reveal…