Giant Bug Mystery

Insect Inspiration Solves Giant Bug Mystery by David Catchpoole - Excerpt from Creation Magazine Vol. 27 No. 4

'Can you imagine a time when mayflies were over five time bigger than today, and the ground was walked by giant ants - their queen bigger than a hummingbird? What about if insects looking somewhat like gigantic flying cockroaches with 43 cm wingspans came into your kitchen? Would you have felt uneasy with gargantuan dragonflies - wingspans as wide as a hawk's- darting around you?

Sound impossible? In fact, all of these examples are known from actual fossils - so at some time in the past such creatures were living on this earth. The largest fossil insect found so far, the dragonfly Meganeura, had a wingspan of 71 cm (nearly 2ft 5 in).

For years, scientists have puzzled over how such giant insects could have existed at all, let alone fly. The problem was lack of oxygen. Biology textbooks have long taught that insects don't breathe - at least, not like we do. Instead of lungs sucking in air via nostrils or mouth, insects have a network of tiny air tubes (tracheae) which open to the outside air via a row of small holes (spiracles) along each side of the body. It was understood that insects don't actively inhale or exhale; so it was taught that air only seeps in and out of the insects' air tubes passively. Obviously, such 'passive diffusion' is a very slow process. And it only works over short distances....

Researchers used new X-ray technology to look inside live insects - which showed that insects pump their air tubes much as humans expand and contract their lungs. ...

Even while at rest, the insects exchanged up to half of the air in their main tubes about every second. As Dr. Westneat leader of a research team observed. 'They are really pumping some gas. (This is comparable with birds and mammals - e.g. humans at rest have a lung ventilation of about 10%, but this may reach 75% during exercise).

This remarkable discovery solves the mystery of how colossal insects could have existed in the past, without the need for higher oxygen levels in the atmosphere.'

The insects on earth are really amazing as well as the human capacity being incredible.
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