300m-year-old 'ancestor of the cockroaches' recreated

Scientists from Manchester University had little to go on other than small holes left in a rock by the decomposing bodies of the insects, but by scanning the 'fossils' in a CT scanner - along with 3,000 X-ray scans, they were able to re-produce the insects down to the smallest details.

It allowed the team to learn about the biology, lifestyle and diet of the two long-extinct insects - one of which came with sharp spines to help it avoid predators, the 'Daily Mail' reported.

The process is analogous to how scientists could re-create the long-dead citizens of Pompeii by pouring plaster into gaps left in the volcanic ash.

Both are members of a group called the Polyneoptera