The evolution of insect swarms from XNUMX million years ago

Chapter 76 Exploring the Land
  The targeted evolution of the right spiral stone nest group sounded the alarm for Lin Yi.

At least the opponent's accumulated knowledge gave them enough time to try and make mistakes before the group was wiped out by Lin Yi. If they were allowed to develop a level similar to that of a fearless soldier, the outcome would still be uncertain.

This was why he was determined to explore land at this time. At this time, if a relatively complete ecosystem has been formed on the land, at least with primitive plants such as mosses and lichens and primitive animals such as exhaling insects, he will prepare to pupate into a mother nest on the land.

After all, cephalopod molluscs, no matter how powerful they are in the water, are worse than fish once they leave the water.

At least the lobe-finned fish among fishes successfully landed on land and became the ancestors of all land animals. Later generations of ray-finned fish also had the ability to pupate twice on the shore, such as mudskippers.

As for cephalopods, from the possible ancestor Neyeckia to Lin Yi's previous life, there was not even a single freshwater species, let alone one that came ashore.

Therefore, although Lin Yi did not think that there was a chance that the Straight Spiral Stone Nest Group would be overturned, he still planned to leave a backup plan just in case, leaving one or several mother nests on the shore in case of emergencies. need.

In our imagination, if the situation is really critical and forced to go ashore, the terrestrial mother nest will do its best to collect moss and other possible primitive plants to obtain nutrients and continue to multiply, in exchange for a chance of making a comeback.

Although there is not enough fossil evidence, some studies have shown that breath insects, or similar creatures, are indeed likely to have appeared in the Late Ordovician, and their appearance also means that bryophytes will inevitably appear.

Thinking about this, Lin Yi began to explore the pupa transformation of Gonghao.

The structure of the book lung has not changed much compared to the book gills, and it can be used both underwater and on land. Therefore, exploration workers can give birth directly in the mother nest in the water.

Soon, the first exploration worker was born from the mother nest and headed towards the coast under the control of Lin Yi.

Since the exploration vehicle was used to explore land, Lin Yi did not install paddles or water-jet propulsion systems that were of little use and would take up space.

Therefore, it cannot swim and can only crawl on the seabed toward the shore. But after all, its main function is to explore the land, so this shortcoming is not harmful.

After finding a gentle coast, Lin Yi controlled the exploration tool and climbed up slowly. Five pairs of well-developed appendages stepped on the sand and gravel on the seabed, pushing a body about the same size as an ordinary worker forward upward.

The first pair of appendages slowly came out of the water, and the surge in gravity made Lin Yi feel familiar yet strange - he once again regained the feeling of being a land animal.

It's a pity that things are different and people are different. Controlling the exploration tool, he climbed out of the water step by step. On the long coastline, except for the shrimp, there was no trace of any animal.

When I saw the explorer, the nearby shrimp was still eating moss, completely ignoring the existence of this body.

Perhaps in this era when animals have not landed on a large scale, they are not wary of the creatures on land, even if their appearance is obviously not straight shrimp.

He controlled the explorer to open his claws and grab a straight shrimp.

The pincers with large conical spines immediately pierced their not-thick exoskeleton, and tissue fluid sprayed out, staining the explorer's chelicerae.

Another pair of chelicerae with fine serrated protrusions immediately began to wreak havoc on the wound, tearing the appendages of the shrimp at the same time and cutting them off root by root. It wasn't until all this was done that the other nearby shrimps realized and quickly ran away dragging their bloated bellies - of course the speed was really terrible.

After acquiring one, Lin Yi, who was not short of food resources at this time, also let the other shrimps go. He controlled the exploration tool to drag the corpse of the shrimp back to the seaside and slowly put it back into the water.

In the water, ordinary workers had already come forward, took the corpse of the shrimp, turned around and swam towards the mother's nest, stuffing it into the holes on the surface of the mother's nest for absorption.

Although there are already grades that can land on land, the shrimp has some relationship with the myriapods of later generations, and there may be something good in its genetic sequence.

Afterwards, the explorer turned his body again, with five pairs of weight-bearing feet stepping on the fine sand, and marched step by step towards the wider inland.

Although he had been mentally prepared, Lin Yi was still a little disappointed when Gong Hao actually set foot on this primitive continent called Gondwana.

The imaginary mosses and lichens do not exist, and there are no traces of primitive land creatures such as exhaling insects. It seems that outside the area where the shrimps move, there are two completely different worlds from the vibrant ocean.

The only thing that catches the eyes is the endless yellow sand and the huge rocks mixed in between. The uncovered earth was scorching hot under the sun, and the scorching wind carried the sand grains across the exoskeleton of the explorer.

The water was gradually lost, and the original exoskeleton's water-retaining performance was slightly inferior to that of later generations. It could not withstand the dry and hot wind from the inland, as if to tell Lin Yi that this road was indeed unworkable.

After a round of inspection, Lin Yi was sure that he was really early.

Tens of millions of years later, during the Silurian Period, plants would arrive on a large scale, and then they would evolve lignin and vascular structures, forming a lush forest of vascular plants. By then, various arthropods will also land one after another and spread out in a new world.

But now, none of this exists. Plants only grow in moist areas along the coast. To form such a scene, primitive bryophytes need to slowly transform the environment, lock in water and nutrients, and transform the land. must be suitable for complex organisms to survive.

Even if Lin Yi knew, he couldn't speed up the process.

Although with the current gene editing capabilities of Mother Nest, there is no problem at all in editing a large number of animals that live on land. But he can do nothing about the genetic sequence of plants, and without the existence of producers, constructing an ecosystem is empty talk.

Without a complete ecosystem, even if the mother nest can survive on land, it will be impossible to continue to develop and make a comeback. This is contrary to Lin Yi's original intention.

The nutrients stored in the body of the exploration worker are enough for it to move forward for several days without eating any food. The water source can also be replenished by the nearby river, allowing Lin Yi to continue to control it as it goes deeper into the interior in a meaningless manner.

But if you continue to go inward, the situation will not change, but will become more desolate.

After thinking about it, Lin Yi temporarily gave up the idea of ​​taking root on land. Rather than bothering with this, it is better to find ways to produce more fearless soldiers, so that there is no possibility of a comeback for the Straight Spiral Stone Nest Group.

As for landing, we should wait for the further improvement of the terrestrial ecosystem before making any plans.

(End of this chapter)