The evolution of insect swarms from XNUMX million years ago

Chapter 46 Fearless Soldiers
  It is said to be an endoskeleton, but in fact it is far from the endoskeleton of later vertebrate animals.

Essentially, a layer of exoskeleton with a slightly different shape is placed inside the body to support the body and attach muscles. Its gene fragment comes from the outer head shell structure of bivalve shell arthropods such as leaf shrimp, and the overall shape is incomplete arc-shaped.

This "endoskeleton" is probably similar to the ribs of vertebrates and serves to protect internal organs and prevent impact.

In order to further strengthen the protection of internal organs, Lin Yi also installed a pair of gene fragments from the horn stone air chamber on the inside, but after integrating into the plate-footed horseshoe crab template, it is more similar to a sac-like structure, which assists in sinking and floating at the same time. Similar to the cushioning effect of an airbag.

Behind the curved shell is a thick and long skeleton that resembles a spine and runs through the entire body, but the segments are still the segmented structure of arthropods. There are also "limbs" on some body segments, which are connected to the limbs of the real exoskeleton of the body.

Such a structure is modified by slightly editing the gene fragments related to molting development, and then reversely embedding the pupation development gene fragments of the mother nest into the new grade gene sequence.

Essentially, this method is to wrap the old shell in the body, and then modify the genetic fragments of the new shell, so that the old shell and the new shell take on completely different shapes.

Moreover, the interior of this "pseudoendoskeleton" is hollow, and there are holes with a special structure on the shell, through which the nervous system and circulatory system can be connected to the interior.

The hollow interior of the "pseudoendoskeleton" is also filled with muscle tissue, further enhancing the muscle strength of the template.

In order to better exert the maximum strength, the relatively narrow interior of the "pseudoendoskeleton" is equipped with the hydraulic muscles of arthropods, while the exterior is attached with fibrous muscles similar to those of vertebrates. Both have their own advantages and disadvantages, but when combined cleverly, one plus one can achieve a greater effect than two.

Of course, although this kind of blind reform in a curved way to save the country does have an effect, it also comes at a cost.

The price is that the new level cannot grow and develop normally, and can only be molded through pupation in the mother's nest, and the size can no longer grow even a little bit after being formed.

Therefore, Lin Yi developed the new pupal sac mother nest as a "shipyard" specifically for building these large grades to solve this problem. But for now, it seems it's all worth it.

Taken together, the new template is a super giant insect with an efficient conductive nervous system with myelin sheath, an inner and outer double-layered skeleton, two sets of muscle systems, and book-like gills that actively absorb water and are combined with a water-jet propulsion system. Gathering the strengths of all schools, carrying forward the concept of harmonizing styles, combining style and style, and learning from each other’s strengths to make up for weaknesses.

Because the main gene sequence of the new grade template comes from the fifty-oared battleship horseshoe crab, and it is a transcendent existence, Lin Yi decided to name this new grade after the equally epoch-making dreadnought in the history of human naval warfare. To be a fearless soldier.

If the fifty-oared warship Horseshoe Crab is the most magnificent warship in the early cold weapon era, then in the ocean of this era, the Dreadnought Soldier will be the most powerful dreadnought, making all enemies fearful. As their name suggests, they move forward fearlessly and use their devastating destructive power to crush all enemies in front of them.

With specially improved sickle limbs with hooks and triangular pyramidal blades and a water-jet propulsion system, the Dreadnaught's attack power and maneuverability are absolutely top-notch, and its defense naturally cannot fall behind.

Although Lin Yi had always thought that stacking armor was a dead end, it still feels really good now. After all, Youdao says that a moderate amount of armor stacking is good for physical and mental health, and excessive armor stacking will result in the most severe beatings. With the multiple blessings of the water jet propulsion system, shield scale exoskeleton and air bags, the armor can be stacked very thickly without worrying. Affects mobility. To this end, Lin Yi specifically referred to the concept of composite armor in later generations. After many tests, he mixed multiple layers of calcium, chitin, and horny materials in a specific structure to create an extremely strong appearance for the fearless soldier. skeleton.

The price of this complex exoskeleton structure is that it can no longer be injected with calcium to allow it to grow naturally. However, the complex double-layer shell structure originally meant that the fearless soldiers could only be produced through pupation, which was not unacceptable.

The newly born fearless soldier moves its huge body, and the nearby workers and soldiers appear so small in front of it. Even the pioneering mother and the filtering mother are eclipsed in front of it.

The water-jet propulsion system controlling the fearless soldier slowly started to operate. Feeling every sensation coming from the nervous system of the new individual body, Lin Yi immediately decided to start the next round of testing.

Thinking about it, under his control, several soldiers were slowly dragging a huge conical object forward with their blade-covered sickle limbs, approaching the huge fearless soldier.

This is the shell of a cornerstone. Lin Yi controlled ordinary soldiers to wander outside the Dikla Crater for a long time, and finally encountered the cornerstone. He hunted it and brought the shell back to the nest for him to test the new level.

As a benthic trilobite-eating predator, the shell of the hornstone is thicker than that of the actively swimming predator. If the fearless soldier can successfully crush the shell of the hornstone, then the shell of the hornstone will be thicker. Of course, the shell is not a problem either.

The fearless soldier opened his pair of long and thick sickle limbs with thorns like wolf thorns, and clamped the corner stone's shell between them, slowly increasing his strength.

Under the combined action of the two sets of muscle tissue, the thick triangular pyramid-shaped spines on the sickle limbs are slowly embedded into the solid shell.

A crackling sound immediately sounded, and the cracks spread along the point where the blade was embedded. Finally, with a crisp sound, the huge shell broke into several pieces, scattered on the seabed, and even hit a The unlucky worker who had no time to dodge.

Then, the fearless soldier opened its mouthparts, and a pair of smaller sickle limbs picked up a piece of shell and brought it to his mouth, slowly biting it down - yes, the fearless soldier's mouthparts, Lin Yi also embedded a piece of casing from the underworld into it. The improved gene fragment related to the jaw base structure of the crane insect gives it another means of attack.

Even with its still primitive mouthparts, the power it can exert is terrifying given its size. The shell fragments were easily shattered again.

The control worker cleared away the remains of the shell, and Lin Yi couldn't help but fall into deep thought - in terms of attack power, the fearless soldier did meet his expectations, and it was enough to violently break the shell of the adult helical stone.

Later, he conducted defense and speed tests. In each aspect, the fearless soldier achieved perfect results and even exceeded Lin Yi's expectations. While this made him a little happy, he continued to test some of the whimsical abilities he had added to the Fearless Soldier template.

(End of this chapter)