The evolution of insect swarms from XNUMX million years ago

Chapter 81 Ink Sac
  After a brief exchange of abstract gestures between the two parties, Lin Yi finally understood what the group of anomalocaridids wanted to express.

This also answered the doubt in his mind - why the strange shrimp nest group was so badly beaten by the straight spiral stone nest group, and was forced to escape into the abyss.

Even if the other party's gene editing and ability cannot create a grade like the full-toothed Heard shrimp, they still don't know that the swordfish-shaped Heard shrimp is not suitable for dealing with the right spiral hornstone and have not yet developed a new grade to deal with it.

Although judging from the pattern the other party drew on the seabed, it was just an enlargement of the size of an ordinary Anomalocaris to the level of a fully-toothed Heard shrimp. But at least it is a targeted level for the right spiral stone nest group.

Later, the opponent also drew a large number of scaled-down patterns of helical stones next to the pattern shaped like a helical stone - probably to express the scene of cooperative fighting between larvae and adults.

This is the first time that the Anomalocaris nest group has mentioned the existence of the larvae of Orthospermum. It is likely that the Orthospermum nest group also developed the tactic of cooperative combat between larvae and adults in the battle with the Anomalocaris nest group.

In the picture, the pattern representing the larvae of Orthospermum entwines the swimming lobes and appendages of an enlarged version of the common Anomalocaris nest, restricting its ability to move.

The pattern representing the adult uses the sharp tip of the conical shell to pierce the body of an enlarged version of the ordinary Anomalocaris. It is clearly the tactic used by Zhihejiushi in his first team battle with the second-generation Hyogo.

It seems that the emergence of this tactic was also created when fighting against the Anomalocaris nest group.

Immediately, the swordfish-shaped Hurd shrimp appeared on the screen again. This time, they used their sharp sword-like protrusions to knock out the Orthophora larvae one by one, just like later swordfish did when they rushed into a school of fish.

From the description, it seems that both sides have experienced a war of attrition for a long time - this is probably the normal state in a battle between two hives.

If it were a human war, in this case, the two sides would most likely have found a way to negotiate a peace to avoid wasting national power.

But among the nests, since there is a third party in the room, the Helical Stone Nest is an existence that kills all other creatures, which means that the only way to end the war is to wait for one party to exhaust its subsequent vitality.

Or, one party develops a level or tactic that is powerful enough to break the deadlock - in a sense, the fearless soldier is such a level that has enough power to break the deadlock.

According to the description of the Anomalocaris nest group, in that protracted war of attrition, it was the Straight Spiral Stone Nest group that developed the levels and tactics that were enough to break the deadlock.

Through some gestures, the hive mind consciousness of the anomalocaridids nest described another level of the helical stone nest group. In appearance, at least in the shape of the anomalocaridid ​​nest group, this level is different from the ordinary helical stone nest group. There is no difference in adults.

But in the description of the other party. These grades, which are similar to those of helical stones, have some capabilities that ordinary helical stones do not have. It can be said that they are beyond the times.

At first, what the other party drew was difficult for Lin Yi to understand - it drew countless densely arranged long curved lines under the patterns representing corner stones, and it was unknown what they represented.

After Lin Yi drew a question mark, the other party saw this and controlled an ordinary shrimp to swim down, close to the seabed, and flapped its swimming leaves vigorously, raising waves of sand and dust, making the seawater turbid.

Then, the body of the three-eyed Heder shrimp swam out of the sand, once again drew the pattern of those dense long lines, and pointed with its appendages to the murky water behind it, and then pointed to those long curved lines.

It seems to be intended to convey that those individuals that resemble orthospiral rocks splash out a large amount of sand, making the water turbid and causing the anomalocaridids nest group, which uses vision as its main way of perception, to lose their vision.     But this method is bound to be inefficient. It is unlikely that it could push an anomalocaridid ​​nest to this extent. Lin Yi guessed that the other party might just want to express the point of muddying the water.

And this, linked to the identity of cephalopods, reminded Lin Yi of one of the black technologies of cephalopods in later generations, inkjet.

Cephalopods are divided into subclass Nautilus and subclass Octopus, and the two sides can be distinguished simply by whether they have a shell wrapped around the body. The hornstones, including the hornstones that make up the nest group, are members of the subclass Nautiloids.

Compared with the Nautiloid subclass, which may have appeared in the Cambrian period, the Cryptoid subclass appeared later, probably only in the Carboniferous period.

But members of the subclass Octopus, such as octopus and squid, have the most black technology. Their highly evolved intelligence, astonishing ability to change color, and intelligence allow them to reach the pinnacle of survival.

Since the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous, after the ammonites were sent away in a wave, the remaining cephalopods have the highest diversity only in the subclass Octozoa.

As for the Nautilus, after the ammonites who played more fancy went to meet the seven old blacks, basically the only things left were the air chambers and water jet propulsion systems passed down from the corner stones.

As the ancestors of the subclass Nautilus, it is even more impossible for horned rocks to play tricks. If they want to develop an ink sac structure, they will have to evolve for another 2 and a half years.

What's more, in this era, the horned stones, as the mainstream niche predators, have not evolved the need for similar abilities, which means that if the horned stone nest group really has a similar grade, it must be independently genetically edited.

Now that Lin Yi's gene editing ability is limited, he doesn't think the gene editing ability of the Orthogonal Stone Nest Group can be any better. Changing the tentacles like Youxuejiaoshi is already the limit.

But the existence of the self-exploding corner stone showed that things were not as simple as he imagined. It is not easy to edit the genetic sequence of the structure that produces and stores sodium.

In other words, the helical stone nests may actually have ink sacs that can spray large amounts of ink into the seawater to obstruct the enemy's sight.

Perhaps the Orthospinalis nest group analyzed the genetic sequence of the Anomalocaris nest group's three-eyed Hed's shrimp, allowing them to evolve in a targeted manner and develop an ink sac structure, which was sprayed over a large area to limit the field of view of the Anomalocaris nest group.

Lin Yi didn't know how the Orthogonal Stones confirmed the enemy's position in the ink. At least so far, no relevant gene fragments have been found in the gene sequences of all levels of the Orthospinalis nest group.

But fortunately for him, he has developed an echolocation system based on the sound-producing organs of the primitive mother's nest. In a sense, it will not be affected by the inkjet of the right spiral stone nest group.

However, what he was more curious about was that he also displayed a visual-based perception method, and why the Straight Helical Stone Nest Group had never sent out such a grade with the ability to spray ink.

Even the opponent's floating mother nest did not contain the relevant genetic sequence, which made Lin Yi even more curious about the origin of these grades with inkjet capabilities.

(End of this chapter)