The evolution of insect swarms from XNUMX million years ago

Chapter 105 The disappeared strange shrimp

At the trench.

Having escaped the tsunami, the first batch of transporters had arrived safely and were now slowly diving down with their paddling feet.

All around, the guarding soldiers were also swinging their paddling feet and tail segments, with their sickle limbs spread wide, and their compound eyes looking around vigilantly.

This sea area was once the territory of the Anomalocaris Nest Group, but Lin Yi still did not relax his vigilance - when the first tsunami occurred, the huge waves had dispersed Lin Yi and the Anomalocaris Nest Group's troops, cutting off contact between the two parties. .

Since ancient times, in troubled times, people's hearts have changed. Lin Yi is not sure whether the same is true for hive mind consciousness hives.

Although he was not prepared to stab the anomaly shrimp nest in the back, he didn't know what the other party was thinking.

The reconnaissance mother swam forward, running the echolocation system, sending sound waves down the trench to determine the situation below.

But what surprised Lin Yi was that the scanning results showed that there were no larger creatures still active under the trench, and only a small number of signals that seemed to represent fish schools or groups of small cornerstones were returned.

Several second-generation soldiers took the lead and dived downwards. A large number of transport workers gathered together and temporarily rested on the side of the trench under the protection of a few fearless soldiers.

At the same time, the scout mother swung her five pairs of paddling legs, crossed the trench, and slowly moved towards the other side, the territory of the original Anomalocaris nest colony.

The surrounding scenery began to look familiar yet unfamiliar. Lin Yi couldn't help but recall what happened when he first arrived in this sea area.

At that time, his entire wealth was nothing more than a first-generation pioneering female frog the size of a Poseidon helmet shrimp and some first-generation guarding soldiers, chasing the breeding pods all the way to this trench.

At that time, the starlight in the sky and the fluorescence emitted by the hornstones in the sea complement each other, which is extremely beautiful.

It was not like today's sky, where there was only a layer of toxic gases covering the atmosphere, pouring acid rain, and the blazing remnants of the supernova that brought death and disaster faintly through the clouds.

Looking around again, the originally colorful bryozoan coral reefs have begun to fade into a grayish white color representing death. This is caused by the loss of symbiotic organisms called nematodes as the reef-building organisms die.

The seabed is littered with the carcasses of various species of anomalocaridids. Their exoskeletons are covered with various forms of trilobites, which are eating the corpses of these previous overlords, making people lament the reincarnation of heaven.

On both sides of the blue-black body of Ordinary Anomalocaris, the swimming leaves and roots were broken. It seemed that the relatively fragile structure was torn apart in the tsunami.

The three compound eyes of the three-eyed Hed shrimp have long lost the luster that represents life. The huge Hed shrimp with full teeth cannot escape this fate. Its broken body has become a gluttonous feast for the surviving scavengers. A pair of appendages No longer able to open it again, the mouth is tightly closed, no longer as majestic as before.

Even the most vigorous swordfish-shaped Hurd shrimp cannot escape the fate of being swept away by the tsunami. The sharp sword edge at the front of the head shell was inserted diagonally into the sand on the seabed, like a broken magic weapon inserted into the soil, eroded by the years.

The scene was quite tragic and tragic, and Lin Yi's consciousness became heavier and heavier.

The nests of Anomalocaris were severely affected by the tsunami. Perhaps their swimming leaf structure was too fragile in the face of the big waves and could not withstand the torn apart by the strong waves. As far as the eye could see, there were corpses everywhere.

below. In the compound eyes of the second-generation soldier, there was no sign of any individual of the Anomalocaris nest group. Even the mother nest was gone. It was unknown where it was carried by the Anomalocaris nest group. Lin Yi couldn't help but feel a little worried. On the one hand, he didn't want to see anything unexpected happen to this true social nest group that he had fought side by side. On the other hand, he didn't want the two sides to turn against each other and fight each other.

Now, the other party's disappearance gave him an even worse premonition. Preparing for the worst, he controlled more scout females to swing their five pairs of paddling legs, looking for traces of the Anomalocaris nests.

eat, divide, reproduce

Since the last time, those huge creatures from the wider world tore apart a large number of divided sub-bodies, and its consciousness fell into silence again.

The sub-body with the ability to perceive the world outside was also torn apart, making it no longer able to perceive as it once did.

It can endure darkness if it has never been exposed to light. The original sensory organ can no longer meet its needs, and it urgently needs to evolve a similar daughter body again to regain the ability to perceive.

But soon, it discovered that not only the sub-bodies that split off later, but also the original sub-body that carried consciousness had lost the ability to move.

Its consciousness died as a large number of sub-bodies, and was forced to sleep again, leaving only its primitive instincts of division and eating.

And for some unknown reason, although the food supply is sufficient, once the daughter body divides, it will die immediately. Its consciousness fell into a long sleep until this day came.

Long-standing memories flooded into his consciousness - violent shaking and impact, and then the faint light that was always bright in his eye spots disappeared.

Another child body was split, but this time, it was not killed directly.

Its newly regained consciousness does not know what happened, but it knows that the restriction, finally gone, split, and the instinctive mission of reproduction can continue.

The sac-like organ protrudes from the mouth and secretes a large amount of special digestive enzymes to dissolve the large pieces of flesh and blood tissue in front of it. The tube feet and hydraulic system squirmed, trying to drive the body away from this place.

The child body squirmed and crawled out of the space that had previously imprisoned it. However, there was no light coming from the eyes again, but it was still dark.

The thought of "seeing" came to mind again. A child body with eyeballs was quickly split, and it once again looked at this familiar yet unfamiliar world.

What appeared in front of it was still a scene like a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood - it recognized these remains as belonging to the long creatures and giant floating beasts it had seen before.

In his eyes, a full picture of the object imprisoning it appeared - it was also a giant floating beast. But the appearance is different from the others. There is no pair of ferocious appendages, replaced by more flat feet.

Its consciousness has not yet been able to understand the meaning of imprisonment and research. It only feels that it was probably swallowed by a giant floating beast, but it was not digested and absorbed for some reason.

As for those offspring that died just after birth, although it also cannot understand the concept of "breeding", it can vaguely guess that the other party is using some method to deliberately collect and devour its offspring.

In consciousness, a signal called anger rises with the influx of memories. At this moment, it only has one thought left. This is also the first time it has had strong thoughts other than eating and reproducing.
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【revenge】.

(End of this chapter)