Australian garden insects with Denis Crawford
Insects were the first organisms to fly, but how did wings evolve ? Why did wings evolve?
The ability to fly is probably the most important evolutionary step for insects and is one of the reasons that insects are so dominant in most terrestrial ecosystems today.
I hope you enjoy the video!
It’s incredible to think that giant insects once ruled the skies, 300 million years ago during the Carboniferous period. The very first flying insects evolved even further back – about 400 million years ago. Insects had the skies to themselves – there were no flying reptiles, let alone birds or flying mammals.
There is a lively debate going on as to why the Carboniferous insects were so large. I cover a couple of the theories in this video.
I hope you enjoy the video.
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LINKS to some resources:
Science Daily
UCSC
PNAS
IMAGE credits:
Meganeura monyi:
Muséum de Toulouse, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Meganeuropsis permiana:
Zyoute, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Paleodyctioptera:
Jakub Prokop, Ewa Krzemińska, Wiesław Krzemiński, Kateřina Rosová, Martina Pecharová, André Nel and Michael S. Engel,
CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Paleodyctioptera: See page for author, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons