What Will Tully's Next Plan Be???
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Krilons Resa
Jerry's married?!
For its size the Atlas beetle is one of the strongest animals on Earth, and can carry almost 4 kg, in comparison that's the equivalent as a human carrying two adult Elephants with a Zebra thrown in for good measure.If they could grow to the size of a Donkey and still regain there strength for there size they wouldn't even notice you if you sat on there back.
So baddass.
Bombardier beetles are the most baddass of baddass creatures on the planet. It's almost like science fiction how baddass they are.
Bombardier beetles are the most baddass of baddass creatures on the planet. It's almost like science fiction how baddass they are.
Krilons Resa
Jerry's married?!
They did not hunt humans because there were no humans to hunt, but insects of gargantuan proportions really did exist 300 million years ago.
Bloodthirsty cockroaches plot to destroy humans!
Scientists use fossil DNA to reconstruct gigantic man-eating ants!
Super-sized alien flies invade Earth!
Typical supermarket tabloid headlines? Perhaps. But for decades, frightening mythical images such as these have been prime fodder for monster movies and late night television. The images prey on our fascination and fear of insects.
The enormous insects depicted in bad B movies exist mostly in the realm of science fiction. However, insects of giant proportions really did exist 300 million years ago. They were not as big as dump trucks, but some insects achieved masses many times greater than those of their modern relatives.
The fossil evidence is abundant. Scientists know that dragonflies with wing spans as wide as a hawk’s and cockroaches big enough to take on house cats thrived during the Paleozoic era (245-570 million years ago). At the same time, mammoth millipedes longer than a human leg skittered across prehistoric soil.
Hundreds of different huge species evolved during the late Paleozoic era. The first dinosaurs appeared just about the time the giant insects disappeared.
These ancient giants fascinate Jon Harrison. A physiologist and professor of biology at Arizona State University, Harrison wants to know why giant insects evolved, and why they then disappeared.
The answer may lie in how insects breathe, according to research findings by Harrison and his colleagues. The ASU scientists are busy studying how the respiratory physiology of modern insects affects their body size.
Recent geologic findings opened a new window of thought on this issue. Some researchers are analyzing the composition of ancient soils. Their findings seem to comply with theoretical models. The findings indicate that there was a “pulse” in the concentration of environmental oxygen during the Paleozoic era.
In other words, there was much more oxygen in the atmosphere 300 million years ago than there is today. During this period, the oxygen concentration in the air reached 35 percent, almost double the present level of 21 percent. Oxygen concentration stayed high for about 100 million years, then dropped precipitously to about 15 percent.
Scientists think that the then-recent evolution of oxygen producing land plants caused this oxygen peak. Interestingly, the rise and fall of atmospheric oxygen also coincided with the evolution and extinction of giant insects.
Harrison’s colleagues include Robert Dudley from the University of Texas at Austin, and Jeffrey Graham of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif. They propose that the temporary overlap between the oxygen peak and the appearance of giant insects was more than just coincidence.
Other researchers had speculated that oxygen availability might limit the ultimate body size for insects. Harrison and his colleagues took the idea a step further. They hypothesized that high ambient oxygen could have permitted the existence of giant species. The demise of winged monsters and behemoth beetles 100 million years later may be explained partly by the simultaneous decrease in the air’s oxygen content.
Harrison says that the amount of available oxygen limits insect body size because of how the creatures’ respiratory systems are made. Instead of lungs, insects breathe with a network of tiny tubes called tracheae. Air enters the tubes through a row of holes along an insect’s abdomen. The air then diffuses down the blind-ended tracheae.
The distance oxygen can travel down the tracheae depends on its concentration in the air. If atmospheric oxygen is doubled, theory says that it should be able to make it twice as far.
According to Graham and Dudley, escalating Paleozoic oxygen levels may have helped speed oxygen transport in the longer tracheae of bigger insects. The environment itself could have opened the respiratory door for Paleozoic insects, allowing giant species to evolve.
....
http://researchmag.asu.edu/stories/bugs.html
Bloodthirsty cockroaches plot to destroy humans!
Scientists use fossil DNA to reconstruct gigantic man-eating ants!
Super-sized alien flies invade Earth!
Typical supermarket tabloid headlines? Perhaps. But for decades, frightening mythical images such as these have been prime fodder for monster movies and late night television. The images prey on our fascination and fear of insects.
The enormous insects depicted in bad B movies exist mostly in the realm of science fiction. However, insects of giant proportions really did exist 300 million years ago. They were not as big as dump trucks, but some insects achieved masses many times greater than those of their modern relatives.
The fossil evidence is abundant. Scientists know that dragonflies with wing spans as wide as a hawk’s and cockroaches big enough to take on house cats thrived during the Paleozoic era (245-570 million years ago). At the same time, mammoth millipedes longer than a human leg skittered across prehistoric soil.
Hundreds of different huge species evolved during the late Paleozoic era. The first dinosaurs appeared just about the time the giant insects disappeared.
These ancient giants fascinate Jon Harrison. A physiologist and professor of biology at Arizona State University, Harrison wants to know why giant insects evolved, and why they then disappeared.
The answer may lie in how insects breathe, according to research findings by Harrison and his colleagues. The ASU scientists are busy studying how the respiratory physiology of modern insects affects their body size.
Recent geologic findings opened a new window of thought on this issue. Some researchers are analyzing the composition of ancient soils. Their findings seem to comply with theoretical models. The findings indicate that there was a “pulse” in the concentration of environmental oxygen during the Paleozoic era.
In other words, there was much more oxygen in the atmosphere 300 million years ago than there is today. During this period, the oxygen concentration in the air reached 35 percent, almost double the present level of 21 percent. Oxygen concentration stayed high for about 100 million years, then dropped precipitously to about 15 percent.
Scientists think that the then-recent evolution of oxygen producing land plants caused this oxygen peak. Interestingly, the rise and fall of atmospheric oxygen also coincided with the evolution and extinction of giant insects.
Harrison’s colleagues include Robert Dudley from the University of Texas at Austin, and Jeffrey Graham of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif. They propose that the temporary overlap between the oxygen peak and the appearance of giant insects was more than just coincidence.
Other researchers had speculated that oxygen availability might limit the ultimate body size for insects. Harrison and his colleagues took the idea a step further. They hypothesized that high ambient oxygen could have permitted the existence of giant species. The demise of winged monsters and behemoth beetles 100 million years later may be explained partly by the simultaneous decrease in the air’s oxygen content.
Harrison says that the amount of available oxygen limits insect body size because of how the creatures’ respiratory systems are made. Instead of lungs, insects breathe with a network of tiny tubes called tracheae. Air enters the tubes through a row of holes along an insect’s abdomen. The air then diffuses down the blind-ended tracheae.
The distance oxygen can travel down the tracheae depends on its concentration in the air. If atmospheric oxygen is doubled, theory says that it should be able to make it twice as far.
According to Graham and Dudley, escalating Paleozoic oxygen levels may have helped speed oxygen transport in the longer tracheae of bigger insects. The environment itself could have opened the respiratory door for Paleozoic insects, allowing giant species to evolve.
....
http://researchmag.asu.edu/stories/bugs.html
Impudent
I Turned Into a Martian
- Feb 26, 2006
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Damn, my skin crawls just reading this thread. Mostly just spiders creep me out, but those huge fucking beetles and that fucking centipede! Ugh! There were some big bugs where I went on vacation last week. My brothers and I were walking one night and all of these beetles crossed our path. I stepped on one but beetles are fucking panzer and don't die and it started crawling up my leg. I started screaming and kicking my leg frantically until it came off. We then ran in terror from the scene. None of the beetles were nearly as big as some pictured here, though.
Thanatopsis123
ç½é¬¼
Necromunchkin
Lord of the Whisky
Thanatopsis123 said:I was just at work changing a light bulb outside when one of these dropped in on me.
I've had that fun experience a few times. I swear these feckers had it out for me when I was younger, got nailed so many times, and joyous nausea. Ironically, they may be, aesthetcially speaking, the purest embodiment of arachnid beauty. Deadly feckers.
spaffe
Geisterglut
Personally I don't mind insects that much, as long as they don't bite me or crawl on me. But I guess that's because here in Sweden the biggest ones aren't really that big, as Erik pointed out. Allthough hornets are pretty damn nasty and this fella I came across while out walking last summer, was really cool :]
Btw, does someone here live in an area where there are killer bees? Those abominations living in my neighbourhood would seriously make me migrate :|
Btw, does someone here live in an area where there are killer bees? Those abominations living in my neighbourhood would seriously make me migrate :|
yeah I'm allergic to bees, fucking killer bees I kill them at every opportunity (bees, wasps, hornets)
Impudent
I Turned Into a Martian
- Feb 26, 2006
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My step brother told me about these things.
Camel spiders. He was stationed in Saudi Arabia in the Air Force and encountered some of these. He says you'll wake up in the morning and just have one nawing on your leg. Here's what a bite looks like:
Camel spiders. He was stationed in Saudi Arabia in the Air Force and encountered some of these. He says you'll wake up in the morning and just have one nawing on your leg. Here's what a bite looks like:
Reign in Acai
Of Elephant and Man
the guy I work with says one day he opened his duffle bag and one ran up out of the bag and straight up his arm. he screamed like a girl.
I'de probobly fucking passout if one of those things jumped out of my duffle bag and onto my arm. Well, I'de probobly scream like a bitch, then have the shakey-shudder-ughhh-thats-so-gross-trembly-things over and over thinking about it.
Reign in Acai
Of Elephant and Man
Trylakos
gimme my key bitch!
the iraqi spider didn't blow up?
I'm pretty sure that is not the creature that causes that bite, I've seen the article that is from, and it was from a spider's bite, which causes an infection, and the dumb fucker didn't do anything about I guess. that picture is after 10 or so days
still not as scary as the crab spiders, even if they are underwater
edit: anyone remembe rthis beast? http://adultswim.vandaliersheart.com/ohno.swf
I'm pretty sure that is not the creature that causes that bite, I've seen the article that is from, and it was from a spider's bite, which causes an infection, and the dumb fucker didn't do anything about I guess. that picture is after 10 or so days
still not as scary as the crab spiders, even if they are underwater
edit: anyone remembe rthis beast? http://adultswim.vandaliersheart.com/ohno.swf
Krilons Resa
Jerry's married?!
Krigloch the Furious
Pants full of poo
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