The head part of a specimen, preserved in a fragment of
Rhynie Chert, was collected in 1919 by the Reverend W. Cran, who provided it to
Arthur Stanley Hirst,
Samarendra Maulik and D.J. Scourfield. Hirst and Maulik published a report in 1926; in it they described
Rhyniella praecursor, which is now known to be a
springtail. Several other pieces, including the
Rhyniognatha head, were also described as "supposed
larval insect" though yet unnamed. The specimen was named as
Rhyniognatha hirsti in 1928 by entomologist Robin J. Tillyard. In 2004
Michael S. Engel and
David A. Grimaldi (2004) analyzed ''Rhyniognatha hirsti's
mouthparts, and came to the conclusion that Rhyniognatha
likely had wings, as they determined the mouthparts resembled those of a mayfly, a flying insect. Nevertheless, a detailed reanalysis by Carolin Haug & Joachim T. Haug in 2017 came to a different interpretation, concluding that the identity of Rhyniognatha hirsti'' as a
myriapod, specifically a
scutigeromorph centipede, was better supported by the available evidence, without being able to exclude an insect identity completely. ==References==