The evolution of insect swarms from XNUMX million years ago

Chapter 61 Primitive Mother Nest
  The structure of this thing is very simple. Apart from the sound-producing organ, there are no other complex organs inside.

But compared with the mother nest of the nest group that has been changed beyond recognition, the genetic sequence is not like any other living thing, and the genetic sequence of the feather-winged horseshoe crab, anomalocaris or hornstone has been stitched together, this mother nest does not seem to be integrated with the nest group. Lin Yi discovered something in the gene sequence of the nest life form.

Considering that it has been determined that its function is similar to the mother's nest, but it lacks the accompanying nest group, and it may be in some primitive form, Lin Yi decided to call it the primitive mother's nest for the time being.

The genetic sequence of the mother's nest is quite complex and Lin Yi cannot fully analyze it. But now, by studying the original mother nest with a relatively simple genetic sequence, Lin Yi has made some discoveries.

At present, all evidence points to the mother nest and the original mother nest being extraterrestrial objects that fell into the atmosphere during the Middle Ordovician meteor event.

Therefore, we will not mention its origin for the time being, only its functions and abilities.

The original mother nest can edit the genetic sequence of living things, and the biggest difference of the mother nest is probably the integration of special gene sequences related to the synaptic structure of the brain, that is, the structure that connects the hive mind consciousness.

So, this raises another question - how does the mother nest edit the genetic sequence of an organism.

The starfish nest that appeared inexplicably was caused by individual starfish eating the tissue fragments of the mother nest.

However, when Lin Yi killed the Orthogonal Stone Mother Nest several times, the benthic creatures that scavenged for garbage also ate the Orthogonal Stone Mother Nest tissue, but no changes occurred.

He couldn't help but think of the fact that the ancient jaws laid eggs immediately after eating the yellow-brown liquid produced by the original mother's nest, and the genetic sequence of the hatchlings hatched from the eggs was somewhat different.

Perhaps they have a way to affect biological embryos, causing directional mutations in the genetic sequences of biological embryos. The key to this must be the yellow-brown liquid.

Moreover, after some analysis, it seems that the body fluids of the Orthohelix mother nest also contain this special yellow-brown liquid.

Based on the analysis of the original mother nest, Lin Yi finally learned the nature of these yellow-brown liquids.

These yellow-brown liquids contain a special type of body cells that are somewhat similar to blood cells - to be precise, they are not cells, but a virus-like tissue.

They were noted because among the crowd of blood cell analogs, the role of these virus-like tissues was completely unclear.

After some research on the original brood gene sequence and editing the underlying logic of the leader's ancient jaw gene sequence, Lin Yi finally understood some of their functions.

These virus-like tissues are the key for the mother nest to absorb and edit biological gene sequences.

Since he could not perceive the microscopic level, he did not know the specific principle. He could only speculate that they would enter the cell membrane of somatic cells like viruses, and then find a way to enter the cell nucleus and use some special method to intercept a small segment of the genetic sequence.

Then, we find a way to embed the obtained gene sequence into the genetic sequence of biological embryos, thus completing the gene editing of the next generation of organisms.

Lin Yi didn't know how these virus-like tissues stored gene sequences and completed the complex editing process, and he was planning to study these parts in the next step.

If these related gene sequences can be understood, these gene sequences can be easily reverse-integrated into the individual's gene sequence, and gene editing capabilities no longer depend on the mother's nest. There is an example of a nest colony that does not rely on the mother nest - starfish.

But Lin Yi let the mother nest absorb a large number of its samples, but he didn't find out why. After all, living things have different constitutions and cannot be generalized. The operation of echinoderms is still not easy for ordinary people to understand.

Therefore, after absorbing a large number of samples, he temporarily gave up the idea of ​​​​reverse research through starfish.

Likewise, he wants to figure out how to share genetic sequences between broods in real time.

Currently, the sharing of genetic sequences between broods relies entirely on producing individuals to carry genetic sequences for other broods to absorb, or directly multiplying new broods, which is quite inefficient.

If we can figure out how to store gene sequences in virus-like tissues and how to edit gene sequences, and then arrange them, we may be able to realize the mother nest, or real-time sharing between individuals.

However, none of the nests he encountered so far had this function, and he could only explore on his own.

After a while, no more results could be found, so Lin Yi had no choice but to continue to focus on the reconnaissance sites in various places, searching for traces of the right spiral stone nest group.

Finally, on this day, the figure of the straight spiral stone appeared in the field of vision of the reconnaissance mother in one direction.

And not one, but two adults and countless larvae are preying on a Poseidon Helmet Shrimp. The two-meter-long body also seemed a bit small in front of the huge shell of the straight helical stone, but the combination of two adults and countless larvae made it impossible to escape.

Taking advantage of the fact that the other party did not seem to notice the scouting mother, under Lin Yi's control, the armor plate at the opening of the mother's barn opened, and the micro-spy snake swam out from it, quietly approaching the two preying worms. Adult.

It seems that the Orthogonal Stone Nest Group has not noticed the effect of the micron spy, nor does it care. He was still concentrating on dealing with the Poseidon Helmet Shrimp in front of him. Biting
  The tentacles of the first adult Orthospermum were tightly wrapped around the head shell of the Poseidon Helmet Shrimp, and the sharp horny beak was crunching as it gnawed. The second one tore at the soft hindquarters of the Poseidon Helmet Shrimp and ate together with the larvae.

The tissue fluid gushed out, which in a sense facilitated the approach and attachment of the microscopic spy. Taking this opportunity, the miniaturized spy used the suction cup structure under his body to quietly adsorb on the top of the shell of the adult helical stone.

Seeing that the miniaturized spy had succeeded, the reconnaissance mother's huge body, paddling feet and feeding appendages were folded at her side, and the water jet propulsion system was running at full speed, pushing her streamlined body to accelerate away from the scene.

Although he didn't know whether the opponent was just a hunting team of the Straight-Helical Stone Nest Group, or a main force like the last three-sided attack, Lin Yi was still prepared to mobilize a large number of troops to annihilate them in one fell swoop.

The huge body of the fearless soldier slowly rose from the seabed, followed closely by the bodies of the ordinary soldier, the second-generation pioneer mother and the filter foreign mother.

At the same time, Lin Yi's newly developed cannon fodder brigade - the second-generation pioneering motherhao - was dispatched this time. Waves of sound waves of a specific frequency were sent out in all directions, and a large number of eel-shaped bodies were twisting and following behind. .

After a period of cultivation, the first batch of controlled leader Ancient Jaws are ready to go into battle. This battle will be the first actual combat test of these mad dogs in the sea.

(End of this chapter)