
Tufts University geology major Richard Knecht
recently found a 300 million-year-old fossilized impression of a flying insect outside of a Massachusetts strip mall. He learned about the site from a 1929 master's thesis that he encountered while researching his own senior thesis. The specimen dates from a time when insects are thought to have been developing the ability to fly. It also provides a long sought justification for strip malls.
(image credit: Jodi Hilton, Tufts University, sciencedaily.com)