Carboniferous insects were unusually large, how did they disappear later?

Why were Carboniferous insects so large, and how did they disappear later? First of all, according to the current archaeological research, the oxygen content of the Carboniferous period is the highest in the history of the earth, when the proportion of oxygen reached an astonishing 45% (21% today), so the reason why the oxygen content of the Carboniferous period is so large is that the fungi at that time could not decompose lignin, so when plants absorbed carbon dioxide, they locked a large amount of carbon in their own bodies and could not interact with the outside world.

Then when there is more and more oxygen in the air, some animals have slowly evolved, their size is getting bigger and bigger, and finally there are some prehistoric creatures like giant centipedes, giant dragonflies, etc., these huge insects with their huge size, and fast moving speed, once became the overlord of nature at that time, but these giant insects are not invincible, because some reptiles have appeared at that time, and the size of these reptiles is even larger than them.

In addition, due to the accumulation of a large amount of carbon in the body of plants, when these plants die, a thick layer of carbon will be formed on the surface, and these carbon layers will eventually form coal, but the appearance of coal has led to a series of chain reactions, the earth's crust is constantly moving, the mantle produces high temperatures and ignites the underground coal, and these burning coals eventually spread to the ground and ignite the vegetation on the surface.

Due to the high oxygen content in the air, the fire covered more than 50% of the ground in a very short period of time, and the burning of a large number of combustible materials not only produced deadly poisonous gases, but also left many animals without food, so the mass extinction occurred. In this catastrophe, the arthropods were devastated, almost all of them were extinct, and the reptiles, although they were also hit hard, miraculously survived, and finally the dinosaurs, the descendants of the reptiles, turned out to be the overlords of the next era. What do you think about this?

As the temperature of the earth decreases, most of the plants begin to die, and the oxygen content in the air also begins to decrease, causing the large insects to die because they cannot adapt to the environment, and the small insects remain.

In the eyes of many people, centipedes are one of the five poisons that are feared and hated, although they are only a few centimeters long, and the largest is about 10 centimeters, but they can still make people's hearts hairy. If there is a giant centipede in nature, it is tantamount to a nightmare in people's lives, and it is also a thrilling plot that can only appear in commercial movies, but in the Carboniferous Period, which was known as the "Age of Giant Worms" more than 300 million years ago, there were actually many giant centipedes with a body length of nearly three meters on the earth, and this kind of monster in human imagination actually existed!

When you grow very big, you need a lot of food, and when the oxygen content decreases, you don't have enough food, and you will become smaller.

The Carboniferous period is an era of the evolution of the earth, about 100 million years to 100 million years ago, is the main formation period of modern fossil fuel coal, so it is called the Carboniferous, the land area of the Carboniferous period is much larger than now, the life on land has been unprecedentedly developed, the temperature at that time was warm and humid, swamps were everywhere, and a large scale of forests was formed on the continent, which is also the reason for the large-scale formation of coal.

The Carboniferous period is also called the age of giant insects, the insects at that time were not as small as we see in modern times, the spiders at that time were the size of human heads, and the wingspan of dragonflies was nearly one meter, which was the largest insect found in modern times. So what is it that makes insects so huge?

We all know that the oxygen content of our earth is about 21%, and at the peak of oxygen in the Carboniferous period, it reached an astonishing 35%, which is very suitable for arthropods to reproduce, thus giving birth to a large number of giant insects.

Each of these giant insects is now a creature that only appears in science fiction films, and dragonflies now feed on mosquitoes, so I wonder what dragonflies with a wingspan of nearly one meter will feed on?

Insects have actually ruled the earth, they are not as small as we seem today, and they have ruled the earth for 65 million years. During this period, the high concentration of oxygen provided the basic elements of life for many giant organisms, and the flight activity of insects was highly metabolically demanding, and higher oxygen concentrations meant that more cells could be respirated.

It is reported that in the course of the study, scientists also specifically analyzed the relationship between the body size of modern insects and the length of their trachea. For example, in those days, a dragonfly could reach 70 centimeters on its wings. Scientists explain that more than 300 million years ago, the ratio of insect body size to the size of their trachea reached a very high level – because the higher the concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere, the less capacity the respiratory system has to process the air.

With the current relatively low oxygen concentration, the theoretical size of the insect does not exceed a few centimeters. However, once the level of oxygen in the atmosphere increases to the level of the Paleozoic, then the mosquitoes and cockroaches that we usually see may pose a great threat to human life.

However, at the end of the Carboniferous period, a long fire ended the age of giant insects due to excessive oxygen levels. Due to the abundance of vegetation over tens of millions of years, large quantities of coal are buried under the forest. It may have been a volcanic eruption that ignited the coal buried underground, and the high oxygen levels contributed to the spread of the fires, turning the entire forest into a sea of fire.

This devastating fire continued to burn for decades, and the high temperatures combined with the toxic gases released by the burning of coal caused the extinction of 46% of the planet's species at that time, known as the Carboniferous coal extinction event.

In addition to the giant insects on the earth during the Carboniferous period, there were also these amazing creatures!

1.Spinosaurus. I believe that friends who have watched "Jurassic Park 3" know that Spinosaurus is described as a super killer, which is a terrible name, and he has another name for "tyrant". Spinosaurus lived in Africa and was 18 meters long and weighed more than 10 tons. In terms of length, the Titan Python is long but slightly less weighty.

Which of them is stronger between the two, we may never know, so it can only be guessed.

2.Titan Python.

The Titan Python is certainly a terrifying presence in the history of the Earth. Compared to the Titan Python, the biggest snake in modern life is also just a petite one. Studies have shown that the length of the snake body of the titan python can reach 15 meters, which is equivalent to the 5th floor.

It is also 90 centimeters in diameter and is very thick. After the extinction of the dinosaurs, the Titan Python followed the law of the jungle and became the alternative ruler of the earth.

3.Megalodon.

The megalodon is one of the largest animals, and it is known from various film documentaries that it is considered the greatest creature in history. Scientists believe that the Megalodon in the Carboniferous season resembles a great white shark, but the size varies greatly. A great white shark is only meters, while a megalodon can grow up to 14 meters and weigh more than 40 tons!

4.Leeds fish.

Leeds is a prehistoric fish that lived hundreds of millions of years ago, i.e. they lived in the same period as the dinosaurs. Leeds fish may be the largest hard skeleton in history. If this is correct, it may be the largest fish on the planet.

So, how big is a leeds fish? Currently, scientists say it's only 10 meters long, and some say it can grow to meters in a 2013 study at the University of Glasgow. There are even rumors that they can grow up to 35 meters long, surpassing blue whales, but this number may be partially exaggerated.

5.Giant rhinoceros.

The giant rhinoceros is the largest land animal in history. Generally speaking, it can reach a height of meters at the shoulder and a body length of more than 8 meters, almost twice the length of a modern elephant. It also weighs a terrifying 20 tons, three times that of an elephant.

While there is no physical resemblance between the two, the giant rhinoceros and the modern rhinoceros do have a connection.

6.Aeolus pterosaur.

Aeolus pterosaur is the largest known flying animal, with the largest wingspan reaching meters. However, their bodies are light and weigh only 250 kilograms.

7.Ancient Blue Whale.

There is no doubt that the ancient blue whale was the largest animal in the Carboniferous Age, and there are clear differences among the ancient blue whale population, with the largest blue whale being 33 meters long and weighing 180 tons.

8.Fragile two-chambered dragon.

This is the creature most likely to surpass the size of a blue whale, but only one spine has been found so far. Its spine is 15 meters long, and if its shape is the same as the length of its spine, then it could reach a terrifying length of 58 meters and weigh up to 22 tons. Of course, this is just an assumption.

This is the introduction of the Carboniferous giant creatures here.

Titan pythons, giant rhinos, dragon whales, nautilus, etc., these creatures all exist, and there are many types of these creatures.

There are a lot of corals. Brachiopods. Shark. Bony fish. Ray-finned fish. Amniote. Slingshot taxa. In fact, the creatures of this period were very prosperous.

And dinosaurs. Dinosaurs were the largest creatures on Earth during the Carboniferous period, living in water and air, herbivores and carnivores.

Plants and marine animals, amphibians, their bodies are very large, and they are very powerful.

Forest lizards, newts, lungthic centipedes, etc., the earth in the Carboniferous period was a feast of carbon and oxygen, and the oxygen content was so abundant that there would be so many giant insects.

Top 10 Planetiferous Horror Prophets: Forest Lizard, Giant Vein, Newt, His's Rhizome, Lung Scorpion, Arthropod Centipede, Archaeopteryx, Three-Eyed Dinosaur Shrimp, Horseshoe Crab, and Crocodile without Acanthus.

1. Giant veined dragonfly.

2. Forest lizard. 3. Lung scorpion.

4. Lead-in newt. 5. His's root toothfish.

6. Knuckle centipede.

7. Three-eyed dinosaur shrimp.

8. Horseshoe crab. 9. Ancestor single-bowed beast.

10. No spiny cavity.

Carboniferous. Known as the Age of the Giant Bugs.

Because there were a lot of huge bugs at that time. The oxygen content of the earth's atmosphere reached 35% in the Carboniferous period, and the high oxygen content indicates that the plants are luxuriant, there is enough food for animals, and the environment is more suitable for growth.

The energy flow in nature starts from plants, which fix nitrogen and carbon in the atmosphere, collect energy from sunlight, synthesize organic matter, and become the first energy level in nature.

Animals have enough food, and the abundance of food brings a huge number of certain organisms that can be raised, and evolution is based on the population, and the larger the population will produce more variation, and in the competition for survival, the larger organisms have a certain advantage. On the other hand, insects and vertebrates.

They breathe with an open and closed breath located in the abdominal valve trachea, and the higher the concentration of oxygen in the air, the better it is for them to breathe, supporting a larger body size.

In the competition for survival and the constant changes in the environment, the size of insects gradually increases. However, for insects, large size is both an advantage and a disadvantage, although large size can avoid the attacks of some small animals, for contemporaneous dinosaurs and other creatures, they are just an appetizer, and the wing structure like a dragonfly, supporting the flight of a large body is not good. In the Cretaceous period, hundreds of millions of years ago.

There was also a sudden increase in atmospheric oxygen content, but the size of insects has shrunk, and at that time there were already some large vertebrates that could fly, and later the appearance of birds, insects had more natural predators, and the size was too dazzling, and the competition for survival made their size decline.

The body size of the organism is the result of multiple factors, the most basic is the gene mutation, the body size of the existing related genes can be increased, but environmental factors, survival competition may make the body shape of the organism become a factor that is not conducive to survival, under the action of a variety of factors, the body size of the organism is constantly changing.

When the oxygen content in the environment is high, abundant and abundant, the metabolic capacity of the insects will be enhanced, so the insects are very large.

These animals were created because of the changes in the environment that led to genetic changes, because the environment at that time was suitable for the growth of large animals.

Because during the Carboniferous period, the earth was very rich in resources, so the insects at that time were very large.

I think this is mainly because the oxygen content in the air was very large at that time in the Carboniferous period, which could support the evolution of organisms to such a large size, so the insects at that time were relatively large.

Because the vegetation coverage on the earth was very high at that time, the oxygen content on the earth's surface was much higher than now, which could support the development of animal size in a larger direction.

Since the oxygen content of the earth at that time was several times that of today, the amount of oxygen absorbed by living organisms also increased.

The most dangerous thing in the Carboniferous period was not reptiles, but giant insects, among which giant dragonflies were the size of eagles.

Since they do not transport oxygen through blood, but through hollow ducts, the air enters directly throughout the body; In the Carboniferous period, there was a large number of dense and tall vegetation, and the oxygen content was dozens of times that of today, and the tubes of the insects became thicker and larger due to the increasing amount of oxygen they breathed.