The evolution of insect swarms from XNUMX million years ago

Chapter 282 Alien Ecology (2)

Continuing forward, more strange creatures appeared in the shadow fly's compound eyes, including some guys who were hiding deeply. They were also invisible in the infrared band. Their figures were clearly captured, and they were interesting to catch. to extract and analyze gene sequences for further research.

I don’t know whether it’s because lower gravity reduces the cost of flying, or because the basis of the food chain is composed of a large number of migratory locusts. Among small and medium-sized animals, the proportion of flying creatures is surprisingly high. There are even many in the forest that cannot actively fly. An animal that can glide without power.

These flying creatures can probably be classified under the same class classification unit, and they can basically fly. According to the taxonomic standards of later generations, it seems that they can be called wyverns, in order to correspond to the fact that they are more or less similar to the legendary bipedal flying dragons. image.

However, what is interesting is that these "flying dragons" seem to have independently evolved the ability to fly in batches. This can be clearly reflected - not all of them have structures similar to membrane wings or flesh wings, but some have feather-like structures. special structural scales.

It is nothing new for two closely related groups to have feathers and wing membranes respectively. In later generations on earth, most of the small theropod dinosaurs known as the sculptornisaurus had bird-like wings, but only one The species name is Qi Pterosaur, which has wing membranes similar to those of pterosaurs and bats.

However, the wing membrane structure of Qiopterosaurus was considered a relatively failed structure and did not last long. In the end, it failed to compete with its close relatives with bird-like wings and became extinct early. On this planet, it seems that the ecological niche for flying insectivores is far more abundant than at any time on earth, allowing two kinds of "flying dragons" with feather-like structures and wing-like membrane structures to coexist.

There are even some nondescript things mixed in, such as the forelimbs with wing membranes and the hind limbs with flight feathers, creating a multi-wing layout. What's more, the forelimbs have flight feathers, but they are wider and shorter, and the hind limbs are shorter. Long, with wing membranes, it looks like an alien version of Salovesaurus, with a duck-like layout.
The various flying creatures highlight a hundred flowers blooming, or a group of demons dancing wildly. To a certain extent, they also highlight the richness of Alien's flying ecological niche. The different emphasis brought by different wing shapes and layouts may also serve to stagger the ecological niche and maximize strengths and avoid weaknesses. Avoid the effects of competition.

However, these feather-like structures are also somewhat interesting. They are more like a structure between feathers and scales, with the strength of scales and the lightness of feathers. Taking into account the advantages of both, it seems more appropriate to call them "feather scales".

In terms of materials science, alien life forms also show a higher level of evolution than life on earth. It is hard to imagine that this is a habitable planet born in the Tianyuan IV system, which was formed later than the solar system. Perhaps The enhanced version of the Middle Ordovician meteor event did play its due role in accelerating biological evolution.

Apart from these, what surprised Lin Yi was that he actually discovered a vertebrate-like animal that had achieved "white whoring wings", a feat that vertebrates on earth have struggled with for hundreds of millions of years without achieving results.

It is still a member of the "Flying Dragon Class", but its appearance is quite different from its close relatives. Both its front and rear limbs maintain a posture suitable for land movement. Only its back has a series of developed muscle groups and five pairs of special structures. Elongated "feather scales".

They are somewhat similar to a long-scaled dragon with two pairs of restored scales. However, there are no long-scaled dragons on the earth these days. Lin Yi doesn't know what a long-scaled dragon looks like, so he doesn't know if there is any existence between them. convergence relationship.

These five pairs of feather scale wings can be flapped together as a whole, or they can be separated and swing individually. Although it is slightly slower than the traditional feather membrane wing, its flexibility is far better than that of using indirect flight muscles. Neoptera are a bit more flexible. However, it is no longer a useful gene sequence for the current nest group, but a gene fragment related to the feather scale itself. Lin Yi is indeed a little interested, but only a little bit. After wandering around on land, he focused his exploration on the sea to check the situation in the sea.

The oceans of this planet are also rich in deuterium and tritium resources, so Lin Yi decided to go directly to a big one - an underwater version of the biological fusion reactor slowly began to pupate, with this place as the center, and then collect a large amount of materials to produce products level individual.

However, the output is still the traditional pioneering method, which makes the whole process a little inconsistent. In this regard, Lin Yi said that it is not that the new method cannot be used, but that the old solution is more cost-effective.
A large number of pioneering mother flies have been patrolling the ocean. The familiar three pairs of feeding appendages filter the nutrients in the sea, break them down for consumption, and extract and analyze the gene sequence to determine the underlying conditions of the marine ecology.

Compared with the terrestrial ecology, which is quite different from the earth, there is nothing much to say about the marine ecology. It is still the nutrient transfer mode of big fish eating small fish. The mainstream organisms in the sea are also similar to the ray-finned fish on Earth.

Naturally, large filter feeders are indispensable among them - on this planet, the largest filter feeder Lin Yi has ever discovered is not a marine amniote that has returned to the ocean like on Earth, but a normal fish, and its size is not inferior to blue whale.

Considering that on Earth, some large filter-feeding bony fish are also called "Kun", such as Leeds fish, the official name is "Leeds Kun", therefore, these alien large filter-feeding fish can also be simply named A certain Kun.

Their body color is also interesting. While their entire body is as black as ink, they have two white stripes on their shoulders and back, almost running through their entire body. At the same time, some adults have elongated fin structures with variable colors, looking like several colorful whiskers floating in the sea.

So Lin Yi thought about it for a while and decided to call it "Cai Xu Kun" - it was very appropriate, but a little weird. It seemed that there was always an old friend appearing in front of his eyes, but the long memory of his past life prevented him from remembering it. Which old friend it is, I’ll give it up.
Regarding the investigation of the specific environment, Lin Yi also came to a conclusion. The ocean environment of this planet is completely suitable for ordinary earth creatures to survive - it may not be very comfortable, but it will not be life-threatening.

Moreover, the ocean area is no less than that of the earth, and it also has a large area of ​​shallow continental sea, rich in resources. If all the nests on the earth were moved here during the Ordovician period, it would not be impossible to support them. This made Lin Yi determine the next plan.

On Earth, the moment he finalized his plan, a large number of grade individuals began to get busy again, preparing to carry out a major project and completely solve a remaining problem.

(End of this chapter)