How Did Insect Metamorphosis Evolve?
Metamorphosis—the process through which some animals abruptly transform their bodies after birth—has long inspired misunderstanding and mysticism.
By combining evidence from the fossil record with studies on insect anatomy and development, biologists have established a plausible narrative about the origin of insect metamorphosis, which they continue to revise as new information surfaces. The earliest insects in Earth's history did not metamorphose; they hatched from eggs, essentially as miniature adults. Between 280 million and 300 million years ago, however, some insects began to mature a little differently—they hatched in forms that neither looked nor behaved like their adult versions.
This shift proved remarkably beneficial: young and old insects were no longer competing for the same resources. Metamorphosis was so successful that, today, as many as 65 percent of all animal species on the planet are metamorphosing insects.
Interesting reading via SA
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/insect-metamorphosis-evolution/
Gif:
Pale Green Awlet (Burara gomata, Coeliadinae, Hesperiidae)
This is a rather rare circumstance where the colours and markings of a larva transition over into the adult.
Photos credit: sinobug
https://www.flickr.com/photos/itchydogimages/31881191040/in/album-72157677190448311/
#biodiversity #metamorphosis #coolcritters #insects
65 percent of all animal species on the planet are metamorphosing insects...
ReplyDelete~;o)...
Thanks for the link, but I don't fully understand it. "Biologists" have established a plausible narrative about the origin of insect metamorphosis. Who are those biologists? What is the narrative? Are there any new results here?
ReplyDeleteWell the article cites journal articles, books and different papers. Read it when you have time and if you still find it ambiguous we will figure out together. I'm kinda interested in bugs evolution.
ReplyDeleteHave a good year Magnus Lewan !
Corina Marinescu I read the linked articles, but they all talk about previous discredited theories. I found none about the current state of research.
ReplyDeleteHave a good year, you too! And thanks for a lot of interesting posts!
Read the NatGeo article "3-D Scans Reveal Caterpillars Turning Into Butterflies"
ReplyDeleteAnd paper here: http://rsif.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/10/84/20130304
SA article talks about "metamorphosis history" of the bugs. Which spans from 1651 till 2012, which is not wrong or less informative...is interesting, in my opinion, but needs a 5 year update.
Perfect! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI keep wondering if it's painful to dissolve your body into gelly and wait for it to reform into a new body.
ReplyDeleteMetamorphosis is weird, and even weirder in places outside the insects: starfish go from a bilaterally symmetric child form to (sometimes) a pentagonal symmetry, and in at least one case the adult form grows inside the child form, pops out, and leaves the child form still alive, like two different life forms were hastily smooshed together. (I read a book that makes the claim that's exactly what happened, in fact, and theorizes that subsequent metamorphoses, including mammalian adolescence, are just reflections of the survival advantages that having multiple body shapes to deal with different life stages provides. Can't find the title right now, but it was pretty out there.)
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