Evolution doesn’t always mean an animal becomes objectively better. There are a lot of factors in play.
Research Sources:
Averof M, Cohen SM. Evolutionary origin of insect wings from ancestral gills. Nature. 1997 Feb 13;385(6617):627-30. doi: 10.1038/385627a0. PMID: 9024659.
Deora T, Singh AK, Sane SP. Biomechanical basis of wing and haltere coordination in flies. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2015 Feb 3;112(5):1481-6. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1412279112. Epub 2015 Jan 20. PMID: 25605915; PMCID: PMC4321282.
Image Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/animal/insect
https://www.marylandzoo.org/animal/sebas-short-tailed-bat/
https://academy.allaboutbirds.org/course-list/
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/dragonfly-dramas-56810631/
https://www.livescience.com/24071-pterodactyl-pteranodon-flying-dinosaurs.html
https://ptes.org/campaigns/stag-beetles-2/stag-beetle-facts/
https://www.planetnatural.com/stag-beetle/
https://genent.cals.ncsu.edu/insect-identification/order-diptera/
https://senecaparkzoo.org/mombasa-golden-starburst-tarantula/
https://news.osu.edu/fossil-is-the-oldest-known-scorpion/
https://critter.science/the-fascinating-tailless-whip-scorpion/
https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/2756-insect-antennae
https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/whip-spiders-only-look-terrifying-ucla-biologist-reports
Video Sources:
FD Wildlife Ep.5: Just Insects
Real Science- The Insane Biology of: The Dragonfly
Monster Bug Wars TV Series
Walking with Monsters Documentary
Backwater Reptiles- Whip Spider AKA Tailless Whip Scorpion
source
Another great video! I now have a deeper appreciation of insect wings.
About 8 months ago you released a video titled "What is a Spider?". In it you mention how 99.9% of spiders are carnivorous/venemous/6 or 8 eyed. I would love see a video about the spiders that lack one or more of the aforementioned traits.
Please keep making videos
Banger of a video!
Algorithm Bump!
Great video, but I'm surprised you didn't cover the benefits metamorphosis or exoskeletons!
Granted, those are also likely reasons why insects don't grow large anymore (most people go with the change in O2 conc. but I don't think that is the main reason)
Lovely video and on topics quite niche, which you obviously have quite an expertise in. I can’t wait to see what you do next!
Pretty cool
I get so happy every time you post a video! Your knowledge of arachnids feeds my brain. I am very passionate about them (jumping spiders specifically) but can't focus well enough to do all the research I want to. So you do it for me and i listen about it. 😂
Superb audio quality!
Insects having that much appendices going on makes sense when you look at others cruataceans, with are the closest relatives of insects, but the wing itself still a really fenomenal modification of those appendices that aperread and we still don't know exactly the process
So insects used to have 10 appendages like Arachnids do, but converted 4 of these into wings?
Eh, I’d say pterosaurs kinda count as having, like, 2 and two-half limbs; the wings had fingers on them and were used for walking. They were pretty messed up creatures so it’s understandable to not fully grasp it if it’s not your specialty
Cool. Thanks for sharing.
Keep in mind regarding insect diversity, a lot of that is hyper-local. Consider Megalogomphus hannyngtoni, a large dragonfly that lives in specific fast-moving montane forest streams in Western Ghat, India. Compare this to the leopard, a carnivoran that is practically cosmopolitan in Afro-eurasia. A good chunk of the diversity within insects comes from them having on average much smaller range at the species level than megafauna.
How does this only have ~300 views? I expected like 3 mil! Hoping the algorithm catches onto you, I LOVE niche topics like these! Very nice formatting too
2:14 it's so funny to see three "titan" species of flying, and then bats. Like no disrespect to bats, but I'd probably forget them if you asked me to name different animals that fly from a high-level point of view.