The evolution of insect swarms from XNUMX million years ago

Chapter 116 Grandfather Paradox Upgraded Version - Ancestor Paradox

In the compound eyes of Gong Hao and Bing Hao, more and more strange early fish figures appeared.

For example, the several armored fishes in front of me have flat bodies, large heads, and have already developed even fins, or they are primitive placoderms - they have already developed a primitive lower jaw.

If Lin Yi remembers correctly, in later generations, they were called Miracle Xiushan fish. Research shows that they combine the characteristics of many types of early fish and reveal the early evolution of jawed fish.

But now, everything about the value of research in later generations is no longer important to Lin Yi. All he knew was that he was indeed in the right place.

Yes, what he wants to do is just follow the hometown complex he had in his previous life and want to go back to his hometown 400 million years ago.

Now, the appearance of these species shows that the position of this pioneering mother and the accompanying workers and soldiers are already near the Xiushan Formation of later generations, and they can be regarded as setting foot on the land of their previous motherland.

Logically speaking, this was the fulfillment of a long-held wish, but now, Lin Yi felt a little disappointed.

Nothing but this era, there is not much difference between here and elsewhere. The same algae and coral reefs, the same armored fish, horseshoe crabs and stickleback fish, just some slightly different endemic species.

Everything in his previous life was too long ago, like a dream. If the trajectory of evolution had not indeed followed the results speculated by the research in his memory, he would even doubt the authenticity of the memory of his previous life.

The huge body of the pioneer mother slowly turned around in the sea and retreated backwards.

But at this moment, Lin Yi seemed to have thought of something, and Kao Muhao's body couldn't help but be startled.

For a moment, he seemed to have returned to the day when he had just woken up in the body of the feather-winged horseshoe crab and the moment when he faced the huge corpse on the corner stone.

"Maybe hundreds of millions of years from now, this shell that has been mineralized over the long years will be able to see the light of day again, allowing future generations to get a glimpse of the scales and feathers of this barbaric era."

The thoughts at that time are clearly present in the consciousness, and they have not been forgotten at all because of millions of years.

Since you can no longer find any traces of your past life, why not leave some traces in the ground and send your thoughts in this way?

At this moment, he had the urge to directly bury the body of the pioneer mother in the seabed of this sea area that would produce a large number of fossils in the future, but in order to avoid the strange butterfly effect, he resisted this idea.

The traces left behind are, of course, traces of species that have been discovered by later generations.

A large number of micronized torpedoes swarmed out and killed each nearby creature. From the apex predator Horseshoe crab, the medium-sized predator Horseshoe crab, to various armored fishes, Miracle Xiushan fish, agile Tujia fish, creepy Shen's stickleback, and other weird ones that he couldn't even name. Small trash-picking creatures have all become targets of micron torpedoes.

Creatures killed by micronized torpedoes will not show any scars on their appearance, and can avoid leaving traces on their bones, which can be surmised by later generations of research.

A large number of workers swung their paddles and swam down, using their chelicerae to grab the corpses of creatures killed by micronized torpedoes, and began to dig up sand on the seabed, burying their bodies in the sand.

The huge body of the pioneer torpedo stayed on the seabed, allowing more miniaturized torpedoes to rush forward to deal with more unlucky creatures. At this time, Lin Yicai suddenly realized a problem - in later generations, the speculation about the large number of fossils buried in the Xiushan Formation was that there had been earthquakes in this generation, or a large number of freshwater rivers were washed away, and a large number of creatures were buried alive by the sand.

But now it seems that apart from the unpredictability of earthquakes, there is no trace of fresh water channels and sedimentation. At this moment, he seemed to understand something.

On the way away from this land, Lin Yi suddenly fell into deep thought - he thought of an extremely serious problem.

In later generations, there is a classic paradox about time travel - if you travel back to the past and kill your grandfather, will you also disappear?

But now, what Lin Yi faces seems to be a more serious problem, which may be called the upgraded version of the grandfather paradox, the ancestral paradox.

He didn't know whether this world was still the one he lived in in his previous life, or a parallel time and space, but at least everything so far was consistent with the research and speculation he had seen in his previous life.

In other words, now, every move he makes may trigger a butterfly effect with unimaginable consequences.

Previously, he was not completely unprepared. The remains of most of the grade individuals, including the remains of the killed Helical Stone Nest Group, were deliberately recovered by him and ensured that no traces would be left.

But there are more situations that he can't do anything about. For example, before his arrival, there were traces of the life of the Anomalocaris nest group and the Orthospermum nest group. In addition, the most critical issue is the "ancestor paradox".

Due to the limitations of fossils, the true ancestors of later terrestrial vertebrates cannot be determined for the time being. This means that any fish species with jaws, except for the sticklebacks that have been separated, is likely to be the ancestor of later land vertebrates.

Although the evolution of species is a long-term cluster evolution process, and it will not lead to the extinction of a large number of species just because one or two individuals are captured, the situation is somewhat different now.

The situation in the Silurian and Devonian periods was that large predatory horseshoe crabs, represented by pterygoid horseshoe crabs, occupied the top ecological niche and suppressed the enlargement of fish.

After the regression event from the late Silurian to the early Devonian, the pterygoid horseshoe crabs declined, and the small garbage-picking horseshoe crabs did not compete with the jawed fishes, resulting in the rapid expansion of the jawed fishes. Change and diversification, forming an unprecedented prosperous era.

In Lin Yi's current form of existence, after the sea retreat at the end of the Silurian period, he could completely take over the ecological niche of the pterygoid horseshoe crabs and continue to suppress jawed fishes, preventing the subsequent flourishing of fishes in the Devonian period.

In this way, there will naturally be no bony fishes to separate from placoderms, let alone the differentiation of ray-finned fishes and lobe-finned fishes, and there will naturally be no differentiation between lobe-finned fishes and terrestrial vertebrates. 's appearance.

Then the pattern of the world will be completely rewritten, and the butterfly effect it will cause will directly cause Lin Yi to cease to exist, which is something he does not want to see.

But if you let yourself be constrained by this, or even stop developing, it will be tantamount to abandoning your martial arts, and even seeking death. The mystery of the original brood has not yet been solved. If any powerful enemies suddenly appear like the starfish, If you are unable to cope with it, your own existence will still be erased.

The situation fell into a dilemma for a while, and Lin Yi had to come up with a two-pronged strategy to preserve his own existence.

　It has been modified. This will be the case for the time being. If anyone has a good idea, you can mention it in the opinion solicitation chapter and I will adopt it depending on the situation.

　　

　

(End of this chapter)