redwolf writes:
Kind of sounds like there might have originally been flightless versions and flying versions. It's not obvous how fossils could show the difference.
It is just as well then that this research was not based on fossil evidence. The paper
Nature 421, 264 - 267 (16 January 2003)
Loss and recovery of wings in stick insects
MICHAEL F. WHITING*, SVEN BRADLER” & TAYLOR MAXWELL”
is based on phylogenies derived from molecular data.
Admittedly this appears to be a case of 're-evolving' wings only in as much as it probably represents the loss of one or two key genes in the pathway which were then functionally recapitulated not the
de novo re-evolution of the entire system, the rest of the developmental mechanism haviong been maintained during the gap due to their roles in other organs, i.e. limb development.
TTFN,
WK