Scientists rethink why giant insects once ruled the skies, finding oxygen may not explain their size or disappearance.
Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Fossils from Australia’s Talbragar beds reveal the oldest known midges in the Southern Hemisphere. (CREDIT: Gondwana Research) ...
Thirty years ago, they came up with an answer known as the “oxygen constrain hypothesis.” For decades, we thought that any dragonflies the size of hawks needed highly oxygenated air to survive because ...
Scientific consensus is that high oxygen levels allowed these humongous fliers to exist, but a new study throws that idea ...
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Why don't giant prehistoric insects still exist?

Three hundred million years ago, dragonfly-like creatures with wingspans stretching 70 centimeters patrolled the skies of a world nothing like our own. These griffinflies, as paleontologists call them ...
James is a published author with multiple pop-history and science books to his name. He specializes in history, space, strange science, and anything out of the ordinary.View full profile James is a ...
Often referred to as the ‘gold of the North’, Baltic amber serves as an exceptional natural time capsule, preserving a fascinating variety of flora and fauna. Cutting-edge scientific discoveries ...
Time travel with insects -- The buggy planet -- Rise of the arthropods -- The Cambrian period, 541-485 million years ago, and the Ordovician period, 485-444 million years ago -- Silurian landfall -- ...
Insect life-cycle polymorphism : introduction / S. Masaki and W. Wipking -- Diversity and integration of life-cycle controls in insects / H.V. Danks -- Seasonal plasticity and life-cycle adaptations ...
Deep under the Jurassic rock beds of New South Wales, scientists discovered fossilized insects that push back the history of one of the world’s most hardy families of flies. These fragile traces, ...