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PLUMBING LIMITATIONS. "Why are insects small? In the Paleozoic Era, atmospheric oxygen levels peaked significantly higher than the current level. Along with this oxygen peak came giant insects, many times larger than those currently observed. This suggests that oxygen transport may inhibit insects from becoming giants." https://lnkd.in/dVziXg3 View in LinkedIn

COMPLEX MOLECULES. "SimSoup model that is closer to real chemistry and more open ended. Molecules and the types of Interactions between them are constructed by the model itself using simple rules based on valence theory. Results of a preliminary run of the model are presented. Most of the Molecules produced are of a few simple types with low molecular weight. There is a ‘long tail’ of many low frequency Molecules, many of which are more complex with high molecular weight." https://lnkd.in/dEyx_i7 View in LinkedIn

INFLEXIBLE PLUMBING SYSTEM. "Unlike many other ectotherms, in insects, gas exchange takes place through a system of tubes, the tracheae, that lead directly to the cells of the mitochondria, where oxygen acts as an electron receptor during respiration. The exceptionally high power demands of insect flight, coupled with this gas exchange system, led early physiologists to conclude that large modern flying species may be at their performance limits." https://lnkd.in/dcXHB7K View in LinkedIn

COPIER. "A hypercycle occurs when an enduring sub-population increases in number until it becomes co-dominant with a dominant species. The species forming the enduring sub-population is not self-maintaining, but acts as a copier for the dominant species." https://lnkd.in/dryBAUG View in LinkedIn

"GIANT INSECTS, with wingspans as large as 70 cm, ruled the Carboniferous and Permian skies. Here we show, using a dataset of more than 10,500 fossil insect wing lengths, that size tracked atmospheric oxygen concentrations only for the first 150 Myr of insect evolution." https://lnkd.in/dEANyiE View in LinkedIn

PEAK OF GIGANTISM. "Gigantism as a hallmark of competitive superiority appears to have lost its luster on land after the Mesozoic in favor of alternative means of achieving dominance, especially including social organization and coordinated food-gathering." https://lnkd.in/dv_ZqB3 View in LinkedIn

LARGE VERSUS SMALL. "It has long been known that very large plants and animals are functionally unlike their smaller counterparts: they are more likely to be top consumers or producers, to tolerate a greater range of environmental conditions (at least in the case of animals), to maintain internal homeostasis more effectively, to be less vulnerable as adults to lethal predation, to compete more successfully for mates (again mainly in animals) and to be more prone to extinction during times of crisis." https://lnkd.in/dv_ZqB3 View in LinkedIn

GIGANTISM. "The largest species (global giants) in all categories are of post-Paleozoic age. Gigantism at this level appeared tens to hundreds of millions of years after mass extinctions and long after the origins of clades in which it evolved.” https://lnkd.in/dv_ZqB3 View in LinkedIn

PREHISTORIC GIGANTISM. https://lnkd.in/dfVpM2x View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE ponders the issue of gigantism during certain periods of evolution, when insects, plants, and animals gained enormous sizes. Our focus this weekend is on giant insects and why they arose. We grew up learning that insects are at their physiological limit today, due to their respiratory system, so how were ancient insects so big? How were they differently adapted to overcome their plumbing? And were they structurally different so that they could carry a greater body mass on delicate wings? View in LinkedIn