The evolution of insect swarms from XNUMX million years ago

Chapter 216 Digging deep and expanding widely (2)

Soon, the first brand new individual, which Lin Yi decided to simply call Aircyst Insect, was produced. It quickly floated into the air under the action of hydrogen in the body. On its head, a pair of well-developed compound eyes scanned the earth and viewed Mars from the air. surface conditions.

As far as the eye can see, there is still a mixture of plant ash and iron oxide, making the earth appear rusty red. Endless desert, eternal silence - this is the ultimate fate of most planets in the universe, even if they once had life.

The jet propulsion system of the Air Bladder Insect began to operate, pushing its huge body forward in mid-air, and began to explore and expand toward unknown distances. A pair of compound eyes and specialized antennae swayed, checking the situation along the way to make sure not to miss any traces.

At the same time, the original location of the first Martian mother nest and the expansion of the carpet structure underground also began to be explored underground. As an important part of the excavation plan for the ruins left by Bao on Mars, in the forest Proceed quickly and under easy control.

The roots of the fungus decompose rocks, absorb various inorganic substances, and supply the photosynthesis system and chemical energy synthesis system in the body to jointly produce a large amount of organic matter, allowing the fungus to continue to proliferate.

After proliferating to a certain extent on the ground, the growth center of the fungus blanket begins to be placed underground - some main root systems begin to thicken, some structures begin to expand, and some special structures begin to form.

The shape of these special structures is similar to the energy storage rhizome structure of the mother nest in the sea and its own carpet. It is oval in shape and lies horizontally on the ground - in the end, it still looks like a giant potato.

The surface is full of holes. Since it is in a relatively closed underground, these holes do not connect the pupal sac and the valve structure, and can directly produce hierarchical individuals - the underground mother nest of the nest is formed.

At this time, a large number of high-level individuals that looked like ordinary workers, but had a pair of digging legs that looked like later generations of mole crickets, began to emerge from the underground mother nest - they were digging workers. Once they were born, they began to dig in the soil, looking for possibilities. Mark of.

According to Bao's final description, Bao's race once spread all over Mars and the fifth planet. Even after a true carpet bombing of incendiary bombs by unknown intervenors, there will be a lot of debris left - which may include the Lin Easily useful biological structures.

Every time the excavation workers excavate a certain distance forward, the roots of the fungus carpet extend out, automatically reinforcing this passage to avoid landslides. In this way, a wide tunnel is gradually cleared.

More roots were also drilling deeper, detecting possible wreckage. Soon, there was a harvest - in the perception of the roots, a spherical structure that was obviously not naturally generated was discovered, and the excavation workers immediately headed in that direction. March forward and clear the way.

A large number of excavation workers were excavating at the same time, and combined with the reinforcement of the carpet root system, the passage quickly extended in that direction, and a space was excavated around the object. Lin Yi needed to check the details of the object's shape first to see if he could guess its specific function.

Soon, a completely buried structure that had become a fossil appeared in front of Lin Yi. From the appearance point of view, it is the true body of a Bao, which is no different from the last Bao living on earth.

The knotted branches have fallen down, and have been somewhat flattened by the long years, and their original shape cannot be seen. Only the developed spherical structure that seems to house the brain is relatively intact.

After confirming the shape, the roots of the fungus carpet began to extend, clinging to its surface. The fine roots extended into its body, breaking it down and trying to see its overall internal structure. As expected, the result was that there was no useful information. What should have been there was the last Bao tree on the earth. There was no brand-new structure that could provide inspiration for Lin Yi.

But this is also expected. At least, it shows that Bao is indeed very prosperous on Mars. Even after a devastating blow, a considerable amount of underground debris still remains.

Among such a large number of underground wreckage, it is likely that there are a small number of other well-preserved facilities that Lin Yi can successfully reverse engineer and develop some useful functions for him.

In the excavation room, the first air cyst worm that flew out had also found a suitable place to establish its mother nest - it was a wide plain with traces of former river channels nearby, which seemed to have been suitable for biological survival. location.

The air cyst worm began to lose altitude and slowly fell to the ground. Subsequently, the body gradually stopped moving and began to pupate towards the mother's nest. The nutrients and carpet structure stored in the body also spread out and began to proliferate and spread.

What followed was a familiar operation. The second Mars brood successfully pupated, and a large number of exploration vehicles were produced. They searched nearby to see if there were any traces on the ground.

At the same time, the fungus carpet continues to proliferate and spread, with a massive root system extending underground. The main root system thickens and expands, forming an underground mother nest, producing excavation workers, and starting underground excavation to search for the possible remains of Bao.

At the same time, more air cysts were produced from the first mother nest on Mars and launched into the air, expanding to various places. The pupae turned into various Mars mother nests. The above process was repeated, and the nests were transferred to different places. The first wave of massive expansion on the planet.

Cornerstone 2, launched in the second wave, also arrived at Mars successively, bringing more materials from the Earth, landing on the surface of Mars and pupating into a new mother nest, further accelerating the pace of expansion.

After such a period of time, both the former equator and the poles have been visited by the nest group. A large number of exploration and excavation workers conducted large-scale exploration on the ground and underground, and unearthed the fossils of Bao one by one. .

It is a pity that most of them are completely petrified Ba'ao strains, and they do not have any special structures as Lin Yi expected, or even complete space creature templates.

Their reliance on organic structures caused most traces of their existence to be extinguished in the annihilating fire caused by unknown intervenors. Even the fossils in the stratum only exist by themselves and are not special structures.

Until, in the coldest polar regions, when excavators dug out a special structure again, Lin Yi discovered that it was still intact to a considerable extent, and it seemed that due to the low temperature, its existence form was not so much Fossils, rather, mummies, or dead wood.

A large number of excavation workers immediately approached this section of dead wood that was not completely petrified under the control of Lin Yi, and the roots of the fungus carpet also clung to it, preparing to conduct a final analysis on it to see this brand-new, never-before-seen structure. What interesting new discoveries can it bring?

(End of this chapter)