The evolution of insect swarms from XNUMX million years ago

Chapter 244 Research and Speculation

"What a wonderful life form. I never thought that natural evolution could evolve such a life form."

On the huge experimental platform, a wild saw-toothed saw ant was fixed in an abstract posture above. Its eyes were empty and lifeless, and it was obviously comatose or dead. The screen next to it showed the structure of its body. Each section.

"A thin shell is wrapped in the body, and the inside contains a layer of classic pressure muscles of shellfish, while the outside is attached with fibrous muscles like those of mechapods, which solves the problem that the muscles cannot be attached to support the body after the belt becomes larger. The problem is that the larvae do not have a similar structure. The exoskeleton is thin and does not affect molting. It uses one-time pupation to transform from larvae to adults. It is a wonderful structure. "

The flashing light signals on the head structure are accompanied by exclamations from time to time, proving the surprise and exclamation emitted by the signals - in fact, as a sociobiologist, this is the second time Willery has come into contact with his true calling.

The first experience was too heavy. He didn't want to recall that past event, but devoted himself wholeheartedly to this research. After all, this was the first time that wild life in this form was discovered.

"How are the results of the genetic material sequence comparison? Can the phylogenetic position be determined?"

"It has been preliminarily determined that its closest species is a large amphibian crustacean, but it does not have most of its characteristics, and it does not have predatory habits, but is a scavenger."

A three-view specimen of the horseshoe crab was displayed on the screen. The assistant on the side had already sorted out most of the data and simultaneously transferred the data to Willery's personal terminal.

"There are several similar species found in nearby areas." Following the assistant's report, another picture of Cryptophorus horseshoe crabs appeared on the screen, "But according to the capture team, their number does not seem to be large and they may not be the dominant species. Moreover, it differentiated from the former very early, and its genetic relationship is not close. "

"In other words, two species that are phylogenetically homologous, but diverged very early, and are distantly related species, exist at the same time?" Willery briefly put down the instrument in his hand, turned his upper body, and glanced at the assistant beside him. , "And it is not a dominant species, nor is there any intermediate species found in the phylogeny?"

"Indeed, it has been determined that the landing range is a large area in the center of the circle that does not contain similar species. It is basically certain that there are no similar species on the main continent of the planet."

To be able to board the exploration fleet and join the scientific research team, it is necessary to have an outstanding mind. On the assistant's head structure, the light signal flashed suddenly, as if he thought of something: "We cannot rule out the possibility of relics in some isolated environments. That is to say ."

"Yes, these species were probably once quite prosperous and diverse, but later became extinct due to various reasons." Before boarding the exploration fleet, this assistant had worked with Willery for many years, and they already had a good understanding. He immediately saw that He understood the other party's thoughts, "And now, there is some evidence, such as this one discovered by the exploration team."

On the screen, the picture changed again, and what appeared this time was a complete fossil of a Rhineyecker horseshoe crab, which was quite well preserved, with ferocious chelicerae, well-developed compound eyes, flat paddling feet and telson, etc. Features are clearly visible.

"At least in the past, this was a quite advantageous group. It at least once included species with multiple ecological niches such as medium and large aquatic predators, large amphibious scavengers, and small aquatic omnivores." He looked at the screen. Fossils, and then looking at the body on the test bench in front of him, Willery continued to explain his speculation slowly: "According to the genetic sequencing results, they began to differentiate on a large scale probably nearly 100 million years ago. The time is close to the time when this planet’s terrestrial ecosystem took shape.”

"It may be that during this period of time, one of them landed on land and specialized itself step by step to compete with those large cyborgs. In the process, complex society evolved."

"Subsequently, due to various reasons, other large terrestrial or aquatic crustaceans went extinct, leaving only members of these few distant clades, including this creature."

"However, there seem to be more creatures on land that look similar to these creatures, but are not similar to this social target creature and are very small."

Several pictures of large scorpion remnants similar to Pneumonia and the last members of the order Ceratophora appeared on the screen, representing the clade of arachnids.

"This just shows the specialness of these creatures. They and those small terrestrial crustaceans may have differentiated in the water and landed independently. And this branch may have already had preliminary sociality in the water , Only then can they compete with the cyborgs for a period of time after landing and evolve a structure suitable for large-scale development.”

The ability of enemapods to increase in size is slightly inferior to that of mechapods and brachiopods. This can be seen from any larvae on the home planet. The fact that these crustopods can overcome the many difficulties of becoming large and compete with mechanoskeleton-like creatures that are not inferior to the brachiopods on their home planet proves that there must be something unusual about them.

If Lin Yi could hear the other party's guess at this time, he would definitely sigh. He is worthy of being an elite among the aliens. He can make an accurate guess based only on incomplete and deliberately misleading results.

"It has been determined that there are no structures that may be related to raising the next generation, and there are no acquired damage or atrophy residues in the body. It is determined that these individuals are not born with the ability to reproduce, and have lost this ability for a long time."

Another burst of reports interrupted the conversation between Willery and his assistant. It was the latest autopsy results, and the results "confirmed" their guesses in a sense.

"In other words, for this species to exist normally, it must have a highly specialized division of labor. Their degree of differentiation is indeed higher than that of initially social creatures such as Kirill's slender-toothed hunting insects on their home planet."

"Yes, let the capture team bring the new equipment dropped from the air and go to the nest of these creatures. Continue to go deeper. There must be other forms of division of labor inside. This special form must capture the ones alive. Others can kill them all. die."

At this time, what Lin Yi, who was still waiting to execute his next plan, didn't know was that a truly fully armed alien combat team was getting ready to go back to the nest of wild saw-toothed saw ants. Capture alive the wild-toothed saw ant queen that he pretended to be a wild animal to the end.

(End of this chapter)