The evolution of insect swarms from XNUMX million years ago

Chapter 170 Photosynthesis (2)

Brand-new photosynthetic structures have begun to be used on mother nests and floating mother nests in various places. On the sides of the mother nest, the duct structure and the skin flap structure have begun to be produced, and lotus leaf-like structures have spread out.

Of course, because chloroplasts have not been obtained at this time, these structures are still colorless and transparent. Only when the necessary chloroplasts are obtained from plants can they appear emerald-green like those sea slugs of later generations.

As for the acquisition of chloroplasts, those sea slugs of later generations relied on specific types of algae to obtain chloroplasts. However, this is mainly related to their feeding habits, not just the ability of these algae to provide chloroplasts that can be easily synthesized.

Before evolving the behavior of plastid-stealing, these sea slugs had already fed on specific types of algae. Therefore, even if they evolved the behavior of plastid-stealing, they still caught an algae until it died and obtained it from them. Chloroplasts.

But now Lin Yi doesn't need to catch an algae like this - logically speaking, all algae can provide suitable chloroplasts, and naturally the one with the most algae will be caught.

At present, the ones that Lin Yi has the most access to are the algae that he had cultivated before. Now that Lin Yi no longer needs them, it is time to let them play their last remaining heat.

A large amount of nodules were recycled together with the culture structure. Since Lin Yi had accumulated a lot of nodules over the years, this wasteful recycling method also provided a lot of nutrients.

These chloroplasts were also absorbed by Lin Yi and stuffed into the photosynthetic structure, so that the photosynthetic structure finally began to show emerald green.

The giant eggs produced by the nesting workers and the pioneering mothers, which will develop into the mother nest, will contain a small amount of chloroplasts and related proteins. When they pupate into a new mother nest, the photosynthetic structure can be directly produced. and provide nutrients.

The next period of time will be the comprehensive promotion of photosynthetic structures, providing a steady stream of nutrients for the nest group and achieving complete self-sufficiency.

The floating mother nests that had been eliminated and had not given birth for a long time were once again pupated in large numbers, using lotus leaf-like photosynthetic structures mixed with filter-feeding whisker-like structures hanging below to obtain nutrients for the nest colony.

At the same time, the new floating mother nest will also have a core supply bag and a hose structure for transporting nutrients to realize the supply of grade individuals and facilitate the transport of nutrients produced by the transport workers and other grades.

The output of nutrients is increasing day by day. Every day, a large number of transporters, escorted by a group of soldiers, swing their paddling feet into the river and transport nutrients to the land mother nests along the river.

On land, more level individuals were also produced, and they continued to carry out the two most important tasks of encircling and suppressing enemy nests and finding anomalocaridid ​​nests.

During this time, clues finally made progress.

After a siege of an astonishingly large mound group, when the leaf-clawed worms stationed in the mound group were killed by the successive bombardments of the Kuai-Wing Divers, Lin Yi discovered something strange in the mother nest under the mound. something.

Here is another genetic sequence of Anomalocaris, and this time, according to the genetic sequence, its structure is not as abstract as the previous Anomalocaris, which had an upper jaw as its head and lower jaw as its appendages, but it is also very specialized. The swimming lobes and caudal lobes of this Anomalocaris have also been specialized into structures similar to the pectoral fins, anal fins and caudal fins of fish. The overall structure is streamlined, suitable for rapid swimming and long-term cruising.

This seems to be the consistent style of the Anomalocaris nest group - starting from the combat arms at that time, that is, the swordfish-shaped Heard shrimp, they have shown a tendency to cruise or swim in the ocean, and often use streamlined shapes and reasonable This is achieved by specializing the structure of the swimming leaves, instead of choosing to fly with a big force like Lin Yi.

The emergence of two anomalocaridids species that are completely different in appearance but share some structural similarities increases the possibility that they belong to a nest group.

But the strange thing is that in both gene sequences, no gene fragments related to the structure of synapses were found at all. If the gene fragments of the previous one could still be explained by the fact that the gene fragments were scattered or missing, the gene fragments of this one are quite complete. It is unlikely that a single gene segment related to the structure of synapses was lost.

Things began to contradict themselves. All evidence points to the fact that this is the level of the Anomalocaris nest, but they are missing the special synaptic structure that is most critical to the nest.

The appearance of this anomalocaridid ​​is similar to that of Schendhans shrimp, and its body shape is also similar to that of Schendhans shrimp fossils discovered later. This made Lin Yi have to doubt its relationship with Schendhans shrimp, and perhaps it is a direct ancestor.

Perhaps the Anomalocaridids nest group encountered the wild Schendhans shrimp ancestor, absorbed its genetic sequence, and developed that strange Anomalocaris species with a structure similar to the upper and lower jaws of vertebrates. This seems to be the most reasonable explanation at present. .

But there are still various problems. For example, Lin Yi had never discovered wild predatory Anomalocaris in the Ordovician, and the freshwater ecosystem had not yet taken shape at that time. If these species like Schendhans shrimp were really wild, non-nesting species, their origins would be unclear. became a problem.

This was not like the early arachnid species, which could be explained by having no distinctive features and not recognizing it when he saw it. With the special body structure of Anomalocaris, as long as he had seen it before, there was absolutely no way he could not recognize it.

The blank fossils in later generations can be explained by the fact that stratigraphic movements caused the fossils to be completely buried deep underground, with no chance to see the light of day again. However, Lin Yi saw with his own eyes that he did not find any wild non-nest Anomalocaris individuals.

From this point of view, it is more reasonable to speculate that the previous Anomalocaris individual with a similar jaw structure of this species similar to Schendhans shrimp belongs to the Anomalocaris nest group. This species, similar to Schendhans shrimp, probably plays a role similar to that of a soldier, responsible for grooming, while the jawed individuals play a role similar to that of a soldier.

But how could such a worker-like person responsible for logistics appear in the genetic storage of the maternal nest of terrestrial arthropod nests? This made Lin Yi a little worried.

There are various signs that the Anomalocaris nest colony seems to be declining. And based on the competitiveness of the nest group, even if it is severely weakened after surviving the mass extinction, it is unlikely that it can compete with wild creatures.

Why did the strange shrimp nests end up like this? Lin Yi suddenly felt shuddering in his heart - could it be that the missing synapse structure was not an accident? And is the decline of the Anomalocaris nests related to all this?

With doubts, Lin Yi once again accelerated the speed of advancement and search - after discovering the pteropod horseshoe crab, he had a hunch that he would not be far away from finding the Anomalocaris nest and uncovering the truth of it all.

(End of this chapter)