The evolution of insect swarms from XNUMX million years ago

Chapter 236 The real oriole
On the endless desert, a huge figure several meters long trudged, leaving deep footprints on the yellow sand.

At first glance, the figure looks somewhat similar to a tortoise, but it is even weirder. The forelimbs are longer than the hind limbs, and the entire front body is more developed and wider, but it is still slightly smaller than the body, and there are two bones protruding backwards. On the board's head, the already small eyes were slightly cloudy, proving that its lifespan was about to come to an end.

Cuposaurus belongs to a group of parareptiles that flourished in the late Paleozoic. During the Permian period, this group was the most important large herbivore.

Normally, these giant herbivores, which are unprecedented in size and have come later but have to wait for the emergence of dinosaurs, move in groups and rely on their huge size and numerical advantage to avoid predators.

But this old cup dragon has found it very difficult to keep up with the pace of the group, and can only move forward in this desert alone, facing this dangerous land.

Its keen sense of smell has already smelled the smell of danger, but at this time, its aging body functions can no longer support its escape, and it can only wait quietly for death to come.

Beside him, a large, slightly curved rectangular head poked out from behind a sand dune, followed by another giant beast more than three meters long. It was shaped like a wolf, but it had no hair on its body and was covered with similar scales. Its structure also lacks the iconic external ears and nose of mammals, making it look like a lizard.

The wolf-lizard beast is as ferocious as a wolf and as cold-blooded as a lizard. It belongs to the Neotherapsids - the Orydonts, and is the largest hunter in this group. Throughout the Paleozoic Era, they are definitely the strongest land outside the nest group. hunter.

The vigorous limbs move, allowing the huge body of more than three meters long to run lightly on the sand dunes, killing the old Cuposaurus below. In the mouth, a pair of sharp teeth like daggers stood out. They were highly specialized canine teeth, which pioneered the saber-tooth hunting style, the most ferocious hunting style of the Synapsis.

The old Cuposaurus moved its limbs in panic, but its weak body functions could no longer support its huge body and run quickly. On the other hand, the wolf lizard beast had limbs that were hanging down instead of growing on its sides, making it no weaker than any future generations. The mobility of a large beast.

The well-developed canine teeth staggered and bit down, and bright red blood splashed out, splashing on the yellow sand. The thick, bone-armored skin was pierced by the canine teeth as easily as a knife cutting tofu, and bit off the trachea, ending it. s life.

……

Immediately, the huge body pounced forward and knocked down the old Cuposaurus. Regardless of the opponent's struggle, it opened and closed its bloody mouth and bit the neck of the Cuposaurus fiercely.

The wolf-lizard beast's eyes, which retain the cruelty and cold-bloodedness of the Sauromorpha, but also possess the cunning and viciousness of the Synapsid, rotated as they looked at the prey in front of them.

Finally, the exhausted Old Cuposaurus stopped, half-turned around, faced the approaching wolf-lizard beast, and let out a hoarse scream.

But unfortunately, the next second, the roar stopped suddenly, and the huge body staggered, slipped from the corpse of the prey, and lay neatly beside the old Cuposaurus who had just died.

A pair of forelimbs with sharp claws stepped on the corpse of the prey, raised the entire front half of the body, and roared to the sky. This was the roar of the Permian beast king, which was enough to make ordinary creatures everywhere tremble.

"The target has been confirmed to be unconscious and can be prepared for transportation."

An unmanned reconnaissance aircraft rose from above the sand dunes. The blades with a special structure stirred the air and made a subtle buzzing sound. Below, a tubular structure slowly retracted under the belly of the aircraft. Just now, it was this The root structure fired a powerful tranquilizer beacon, stunning the predatory creature.

"Prepare to land, temporarily recover all small unmanned aerial vehicles, and monitor the scene to prevent targets from being killed."

Facts have proved that the types of anesthetics that are more effective on the mechanical bones of the home planet are also effective on the organisms on this planet. In other words, theoretically, this powerful anesthetic will work on any carbon-based organism that breathes oxygen and exhales carbon dioxide. to the effect. The huge body of the tilt-rotor aircraft had switched to a hovering attitude and was slowly heading towards the scene. The released small unmanned aerial vehicles also gathered towards the main body, preparing to be recovered by the main body.

"It's really a strange creature. It uses those... specialized scales? As an attack method, it is completely different from the predators on the home planet, but it has a certain structural similarity."

"The red blood should also use iron ions to transport oxygen, similar to the creatures on the home planet."

"Stop talking nonsense now, install it first and transport it back to the ship as soon as possible for detailed scanning."

The four rotors of the tilt-rotor aircraft set off strong airflow, causing sand and rocks to fly on the ground. Immediately, three landing gears protruded from the bottom of the belly of the aircraft, and the huge aircraft slowly fell on the sand.

The huge tail hatch slowly opened, and several armed men jumped out of the cabin, two of them carrying guns behind their backs. A pair of forelimbs, with the assistance of a powered exoskeleton, lifted a specially made huge iron cage from both ends and loaded the paralyzed predator into it.

"Looking at it like this, it's not easy to mess with, but if it's placed on the home planet, it's probably not a weak predator."

"It's a pity that it's us who encountered it. Take out the restraints and tie them tightly. Be careful that this thing wakes up again, but no one has tried how long this dose of anesthetic can numb it."

During the conversation, one of them took out a roll of special strong material tape from his side, and then tightly tied the predator's ferocious feeding structure and appendages to avoid accidents.

"The capture has been completed, what should I do with this one that was just killed?"

"Take some genetic samples and bring them back for analysis. As for the body, just leave it here."

"Well, it's a pity that there is so much meat. If I could cut some of it back, it would be better than eating compressed synthetic food every day."

"Be patient. When the greenhouse is erected, the conditions will be much better. If you eat this kind of meat indiscriminately, be careful of killing someone."

……

A scientific researcher also stepped off the aircraft, took out a tubular structure, inserted it into the body of the killed creature, and extracted a tube of bright red blood from the creature.

After collecting some more skin and other tissue samples, the body was simply thrown aside, and the anesthetized large predator was moved into the aircraft cabin with its iron cage in preparation for transportation.

After handling the scene, when all personnel boarded the aircraft again, the hatch was closed, and the four rotors began to rotate again, raising airflow and pushing the aircraft body to slowly leave the ground, rise into the sky again, and gradually go away.

However, from beginning to end, no individual noticed that there were countless small arthropods nearby, in the air, and on the grass blades, and they used their well-developed compound eyes to see everything.

(End of this chapter)