Meganeura was the largest dragonfly in the world, and the largest flying insect.
In prehistoric times, the animal inhabitants of this planet were not small, on the contrary. Everything was bigger, except for the insects. How much trouble and trouble will today’s mini-mosquito cause us… and then imagine that, for example, the meganeura, a prehistoric insect, had a wingspan of up to three-quarters of a meter! To this day, it is the largest flying insect in the world, as evidenced by rare fossils.
Life on Earth has been around for billions of years, and the geological periods that preceded the dinosaurs were relatively rich in species. Since the prehistoric period, our Earth has gone through several geological cycles. The animals and plants we see today are just evolutionary descendants of ancient creatures that lived hundreds of millions of years ago. In every animal today, we would find its prehistoric relative with a little imagination.
But then there were the creatures that didn’t look like anything that lives today. They lived in the Permian period, which lasted 40 million years and ended after the “great extinction” 250 million years ago. There is controversy over how carbon and perm insects were able to grow to such large proportions. At that time, 300 million years ago, the largest flying insect that ever existed lived on Earth. Giant dragonfly, meganeura.
Watch the video about the meganeur here:
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Source: Youtube
Meganeura – fear of the prehistoric sky
Meganeurs controlled the Earth before the dinosaurs and are called the largest flying insect that ever existed. This giant dragonfly ancestor spent most of its time in the air, where the meganeura fed spiders and other insects, but did not despise even smaller amphibians and even reptiles. No creature was safe from this giantess.
Most fossil finds of this monster were made in France, Great Britain or the United States, but were widespread everywhere. It then got its name from the number of nerves on its wings. The family did not have only one species, but several species belonged here, all similarly monstrous.
In the millions of years that menaneurs have lived here, they have hardly changed and maintained their huge size until they have gradually diminished to their present dimensions. During her lifetime, the wingspan of this dragonfly reached up to 75 centimeters, which is almost half the height of an adult.
Meganeura has been adapted to open habitats, but scientists agree that fossils say the insect was prone to overheating. Her eyes were relatively large in proportion to her body size, but so are today’s dragonflies. The meganeura had thorns on its shins and insteps, which were great for capturing prey in flight.
Everything we know about meganeura today is thanks to fossils found in France, where they were discovered in the late Carboniferous coal strata in Commentry in 1880.
Meganeurus fossil from Taiwan.
What caused the size of this dragonfly? The researchers discovered that this is how oxygen spreads through the insect’s body through its tracheal respiratory system. Thanks to this, the upper limit of the length (power) of the body is set. And the prehistoric insects crossed several times.
What did people eat in prehistory? Their ingenuity knew no bounds. Let’s get inspired!
reading for 7 minutes
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The reputation of the meganeura in the modern world
Although the meganeura resembled today’s dragonflies, it was predatory and, as we said, fed mainly insects. It is this predation that has made it very attractive in today’s world, so this belly insect appears not only in films about Jurassic Park or Godzilla, but also Walking with Monsters and in numerous video games.
For more information, see this interesting document:
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Source: Youtube
In 1911, scientists thought that the meganeura was able to fly only because the Earth’s atmosphere at the time contained more oxygen than the current 20%. And, as it turned out, this assumption was later confirmed by further knowledge about the relationship between gigantism and oxygen availability. Thanks to this, this insect, in its prehistoric size, would definitely not be able to survive in today’s atmosphere.
In any case, it is the largest insect that has ever inhabited our Earth. And let’s hope it stays that way.
Resources:
historyofyesterday.com, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meganeura, www.univision.com
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