Insects are the most abundant group of animals on Earth, accounting for more than 50% of all biological species (including bacteria, fungi, viruses), and their tracks are found in almost every corner of the world. At present, more than 1.7 million species of organisms have been found on the earth, and there are more than 1 million species of insects known to humans, more than all other animal species combined, and there are still many species yet to be discovered, so insects can be regarded as the most common organisms on the earth.
However, even in this little insect, there are too many secrets that we don't know.
The earliest known insect fossil appeared in the Devonian period, 425 million years old, and is a millipede fossil excavated from a fossil excavated in Scotland in the early 20th century.
The fossils of insects that appeared after this fossil are the Carboniferous Period 70 million years later. During this period, the atmosphere was high in oxygen, the climate was warm and humid, swamps were everywhere, and large-scale forests appeared on the continent, which made insects flourish, reaching at least 1,000 species.
Many of them have particularly large insects, such as giant spiders.
Giant veined dragonfly with wingspan of up to 70 cm,
Super giant Pomono Scorpion,
There is also the knotweed centipede, which is very fortunate to have become extinct.
Among the Fossils of the Carboniferous Period, at least 23 species of insect fossils were found, and the appearance of these insects was not much different from that of today.
So here comes a question that is difficult to explain in Darwin's Theory of Evolution—origin.
According to the Theory of Evolution, organisms evolved from a long process of natural selection. For example, humans are modern humans → australopithecus→ Homo sapiens→.
For insects, from the Devonian to the middle of the Carboniferous Period, not a single fossil about insects has been found, and in the Carboniferous Period, winged dragonflies, centipede scorpions with hard shells, and spiders with strong bouncing power suddenly emerged, lacking the process of evolution.
And insects are different from other animals in that the shell of insects is composed of a substance called "chitin", which is not soluble in water, so all the fossils we can see about insects are complete, and the fossils are not like dinosaurs, fish, and mammals.
This raises a new question, if there are fossils of other organisms in the middle 70 million years, then the insects also have fossils, but until today no fossils of insects have been found. So these 70 million years are also known as the "blank period" of insects.
Thus was born the "insect alien origin theory", which believes that these bugs were originally living creatures on alien planets, and then their eggs came to Earth through meteorites or comets, and finally hatched on Earth and adapted to the Environment of Earth.
This theory can explain why so many insects can emerge in the Carboniferous period, and why insects look so strange.
I'm sure most people are still quite afraid of bugs, because bugs are so bumpy.
All the vertebrates in the world (including humans) are wrapped in bone in meat, but insects, arthropods, are all bones growing on the outside, and meat and internal organs are grown inside.
And of all the known animals, only insects have "pure wings." Unlike birds, whose wings evolved at the expense of their forelimbs, insects have both multiple legs and wings, and the wings are still located behind their own bodies, which is more perfect than birds.
There is another place where insects are different from most creatures, and that is the eyes. In addition to insects, most animals have two eyes, but insects also have small eyes, these small eyes are called "single eyes", two large eyes are two compound eyes, each eye has countless small eyes.
Their one eye can only sense light, while the compound eye can feel both light and color. Depending on the insect species, the number of compound eyes is also different. A fly has 2,000 small eyes on one compound eye, while a dragonfly can reach 20,000 small eyes.
In addition to the eyes, the respiratory organs of insects are also very special, almost all animal respiratory organs grow on the head, but the insect's possibility grows on the stomach, it is directly on the lungs to open, so if the insect is put into the water it is difficult to drown.
Another characteristic of insects is also the characteristic that we hate the most, that is, the vitality is particularly tenacious. Insects have lived on Earth for nearly 400 million years, and what they used to look like now, their body structure can adapt to a variety of environments. Moreover, its important organs are scattered in various parts of the body, so there will be cases where Xiao Qiang's head can be cut off and it can survive for a long time.
Most animals are the same from small to large, but insects are not, such as butterflies, when they are small, caterpillars to cocoons become butterflies, from caterpillars to butterflies look completely different, which is called "complete metamorphosis" in biology.
Especially this cocoon, biologists opened the cocoon and found that the cocoon was full of viscous liquid, and these liquids can eventually turn into butterflies?!!!
In order to study the relationship between these liquids and cocoons, the American zoologist Carol Williams did such an experiment, he found four cocoons born in the same year, the first intact; the second cut in half; the third inserted a small tube in the middle of the cocoon but allowed the liquid to flow up and down; the fourth inserted a tube, but there was a small ball in the middle to prevent the liquid from flowing.
After some time, the first naturalized into a butterfly; the second first half became the upper half of the butterfly, and the lower half became unchanged; the fourth died in the form of a cocoon; and the third was particularly peculiar, it became a normal butterfly but connected by a tube in the middle.
Isn't that amazing! More amazing is still behind, insects also have a super "anti-physical movement" ability, such as dragonflies can suspend in the air soaring, plummeting, rapid advance, sharp retreat, human beings have not been able to fully imitate the dragonfly's flight mode, only drones can probably imitate the movement of dragonflies, but far from the explosive power of dragonflies.
Another example is the cockroach, the moment when the cockroach is stationary to running, it can run 66 centimeters in 1 second, that is to say, it can reach a speed of 2.376km/h, and it can stop immediately after reaching this speed, for humans, it can create an object that reaches this speed instantaneously, but it cannot stop instantly like a cockroach. How insect bodies were able to withstand such a powerful force remains a mystery to this day.
In 2013, biologists in the UK discovered that the larvae of an insect called the "Elytra Waxhopper", although small, can jump out of a meter at once, and it is very fast. The investigation found that the "Elytra Wax Cicada" has two gears on both legs, and the two gears bite together to ensure that its two legs will always be the same strength and speed. This is also the first time that humans have found the "mechanical structure" of gears in animals.
The rotation speed of the two gears exceeds 33,000 revolutions per minute, while the acceleration of the gear rotation reaches 700g, which can instantly accelerate the leafhopper to a speed of 3.9 meters per second.
Equally amazing is the shell lang, the desert shell lang has to run to a long distance to find the "food" it needs, scientists have found that the shell lang no matter how far away from its home, it can directly make food into a ball and carry it home. Later, it was found that during the day, Shi Shell Lang relied on the sun to locate the location of his home. When there is no sun at night, it can be located by the starlight in the universe, and these stars cannot be seen by human eyes.
There are so many secrets in the small insects, are the insects that are missing 70 million years of history from outside the earth? Or is it the mutation and evolution of the earth's original organisms? Feel free to leave a message below to let us know!