What is the biggest insects ever lived in?
The largest insects ever lived are members of the extinct precious order of protodonata, which means "early dragonfly". The name "Griffinfly" has been designed for members of these order, because important differences differ from modern dragons. The test record record of the protodonata ranges from late carbon to the late Permian periods of the paleozoic era. That was about 300 million years ago, before dinosaurs that developed during the mesozoic era.
The largest known type is the late Permian meganeuropsis permiana , with wings longer than 75 cm (30 inches or 2.5 ft) and estimated weight of more than 450 g (1 lb.), similar to the crow. This is greater than any insects that have ever lived, land or air- the most difficult insects today is the larval stage of the Golian beetle with a highest weight of 115 g (4.1 oz). Because the late carbon meganeura is a kind of similar size to meganeuropsis and is much better known, information in this article will primarily focus on meganeur .
To get a better understanding of the size of the meganeura and his fellow citizens, the biggest dragon found in South America, has a range of only seven inches, about the third size of Meganeura . Meganeura was a predator who made a living by other insects and even small amphibians. Its name means "large rides" on the net lived on its wings. Most of the fossils meganeura are just wings fragments, although several full -fledged wings and even fewer impressions on the whole body were found. So far, a few body impressions have been dug up by globular head, large mandions, large chest, strong barbed legs and long and slim belly like dragonfly. The only impressions that have been found are Meganeuridae families. Other members of the protodonata are known only by frfragments of the wing OM.
tracheal insect breathingTorical, especially carbon insects, exceeded well. However, it is assumed that at a time of carbon, which contained a huge number of trees and other oxygen-producing plants, the level of oxygen of the Earth's atmosphere was about 30-35% rather than 20% today. This would give enough oxygen to allow larger insects, and a fossil record suggests that it really does. However, some insects, such as meganeura , are increasingly than the limit predicted insect circulation models, even taking into account other oxygen. Therefore, the reasons for this broken limits were a lot of controversy in paleontology. It could take years or decades of debate and fossil hunting until we have a good answer.
type meganeura is so popular that the scientific periodical about fossil insects is the name afterwards.