The evolution of insect swarms from XNUMX million years ago

Chapter 202 The Last Bao (2)

What appeared in Ying Zhifu's eyes was a familiar yet unfamiliar structure - it was metal, and it obviously had traces of processing. It must not be a natural product, but a creation of technological civilization that has been processed through complex processes!

However, now, these structures have cracked and disintegrated, becoming irregular remains. It can only be seen from the appearance that when these structures are intact, they should be a huge ring shape, and have various unknown functions, or simply just Decorative raised structure.

This made Lin Yi feel a little dazed for a while - in the fern forest from the Late Carboniferous to the Early Permian, the remains of suspected technological civilization artifacts suddenly appeared, giving him an inexplicable sense of unreality - to be precise, he didn't want to admit it in his heart. all of these.

One side of the metal fragment has obvious traces of high-temperature burns, but the other side is as clean as new, with no traces of oxidation or rust. Combined with its shape and structure, the tragic state of shattering and deformation and the appearance in the middle of the suspected crater, it is all It explains one thing - this structure fell from outside the atmosphere.

The Mid-Ordovician meteor event, the original mother nest in the middle of the Dikla crater, the various conspiracies behind it, and the fallen structures of technological civilization all prove that the emergence of mother nests and nest colonies is not the result of nature, but It was caused by the intervention of unknown beings.

The shadow fly spewed out a breath of turbid air from the spiracles on its abdomen, as if it was sighing at all this. I have to say that even though he was mentally prepared, Lin Yi was still a little sad when he really faced the truth.

Withdrawing his thoughts, he continued to look at the center of the wreckage. A large number of fern tree roots and vines had covered these remains, giving them a strange sense of dilapidation - which made Lin Yi feel at ease.

The vines almost completely covered it, indicating that this had been happening for a long time. The secret intervenor has most likely given up here, otherwise it would be impossible to let all this exist after the accident, and not even carry out the simplest destruction of corpses and traces.

Among the wreckage, a large number of fern tree roots and vines gathered together to form an astonishingly thick fern tree. Its diameter far exceeds that of any fern tree on the inner and outer sides, and the vines and rhizomes that make up its structure are more twisted and twisted. There are also a large number of structures similar to aerial roots hanging down, making it almost a forest of single trees.

At present, it seems that this fern tree fell out of the atmosphere together with the structure. Perhaps its seeds were stored in this special metal structure that may be a space station. For some reason, it maintained a rough shape during the fall. It was intact and grew into this giant forest tree.

These ferns may be the product of genetic editing of seeds carried into space by the unknown intervenor. After falling into the atmosphere, they proliferated as invasive species in a sense and soon formed this fern forest. .

But at this time, the structure of these ferns shows that these strange ferns are, in a sense, victims of various previous events - the real culprit is someone else.

The center position of these lignified vines presents an astonishing sight - at the bottom of the huge ferns, a large number of fungi grow between the root systems, almost replacing the original soil structure.

Between the hyphae, you can faintly see a huge spherical structure wrapped by a large number of rhizomes, and some extremely thick roots are connected behind the structure, which seems to be the key to maintaining the life of the spherical structure.

But at this time, these rhizome structures were already covered with hyphae, and there were a large number of fruiting body-like structures clinging to them. Through previous analysis, Lin Yi already knew that these fruiting body-like structures were these strange fungi. spatial synapse. The hyphae are connected to the neural structure of the brain, and the ends are connected to the spatial synaptic nerves, forming an organizational form similar to a nest. Normally, one fruiting body and matching mycelium are enough to control a giant horseshoe crab spider.

Other fruiting bodies on the giant horseshoe crab do not have spatial synaptic functions, they are just attack organs. Even if it is as huge as a leaf-claw worm, it only has two structures similar to fruiting bodies contained in the body, which serve to connect it to the consciousness network.

Today, so many fruiting body structures are parasitic here, which already illustrates the extraordinary nature of that spherical structure. There must be something special about it that makes it worthy of being colonized by a large number of fungi.

Shadowfly continued to move forward, passing through the vine structures that seemed to be disturbed and swinging randomly, and slowly approached the huge fern in the center. A pair of well-developed compound eyes stared at the spherical structure in the middle, thoughtfully.

From the outside, this structure does not seem to have any practical use. And in the body of a true social creature or a normal wild animal, there are only a few possibilities for having such a structure that seems to have no substantial function.

One is related to reproduction, such as the inflated abdomen of a termite queen, but this structure is obviously not used for reproduction. The second is for sexual display, such as antlers, but this is obviously not possible with plants.

Then there is only one possibility left, a possibility that can be called a special case. This structure is a developed, brain-like structure used for thinking!

It is incredible that such a structure appears in plants. But considering that it came from a space station laboratory suspected of unknown intervenors, it is not impossible. Moreover, judging from the fact that fungal fruiting bodies are parasitic in large numbers, the possibility is not low.

Now, everything about the end-Devonian mass extinction is revealed - the initial meteorite impact of the Kelvasa event was caused by the structure of the Intervenor space station that disintegrated for unknown reasons and fell into the atmosphere. Subsequently, the Hangenberg incident was caused by these symbiotic or unilaterally parasitic plants and fungi.

Thinking of this, Lin Yi suddenly had a bold idea - since this fern tree is likely to have a developed brain, and the brain is parasitized by fungi, does that mean that if the fungus is eliminated, this fern tree will have a brain? Can the special plant "awaken" and communicate with Lin Yi?

Of course, all this is based on the assumption that plants are forcibly parasitized by fungi. If the two parties have a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship, the plants are not the victims as Lin Yi imagined, but simple accomplices. All this is in vain.

But no matter what, Lin Yi planned to try out a possibility - once successful, he would probably be able to obtain more information about the unknown intervenor. No matter how bad it is, there will always be something gained.

A plan to eliminate parasitic fungi based on virus-like microorganisms will soon be devised. Now, we are just waiting for the final implementation process.

(End of this chapter)