Where Have the Hawk-Sized Insects Gone?

ScienceNOW ^ | June 4, 2012 | Sid Perkins

[SunkenCiv]

Big old cousin. Large flying insects that lived before birds evolved, such as the 300-million-year old Stephanotypus schneideri (main image),were typically much larger than those that evolved afterward, including the 12-million-year old Epiaeschna lucida (top left, shown to same scale). Credit: (Stephanotypus) Wolfgang Zessin

[SunkenCiv]

Giant Bugs a Thing of the Past, Study Suggests
National Geographic News | November 21, 2007 | Hope Hamashige
Posted on 11/22/2007 8:27:40 AM PST by ricks_place
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1929315/posts

sidebars from there:

Scientists find fossil of enormous bug
AP via YAHOO! | 11-20-07 | Thomas Wagner
Posted on 11/20/2007 10:45:12 PM EST by Pharmboy
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1928675/posts

Scientists Uncover Fossil of Biggest Bug Ever at 8 Feet Long
Fox News | 11-21-07
Posted on 11/21/2007 1:36:51 PM EST by Renfield
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1928960/posts

390-million-year-old scorpion fossil — biggest bug known
Eurekalert! | 11/21/07 | Janet Rettig Emanuel
Posted on 11/21/2007 5:29:48 PM EST by Teflonic
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1929079/posts

[SunkenCiv]

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[cripplecreek]

I personally think falling oxygen levels was the primary driver of shrinking insects. I know that considerably larger insects have been grown in labs.

Its the summer of the dragonflies here in southern Michigan. Hot and dry with dragonflies of all kinds everywhere.

[a fool in paradise]

Pterodactyl ate 'em.

[a fool in paradise]

Reminds me of a song, “Where have all the man-eating flowers gone...”

[JRandomFreeper]

Someone like me had a recipe.

/johnny

[jessduntno]

Bush killed them.

[fishtank]

It’s too bad there’s so much evo BS in the article......

[Tax-chick]

Maybe rhino-sized bearded dragons ate them.

[Boogieman]

Not just falling levels of O2, but falling atmospheric pressure as well. That’s why no land animal will ever reach anything near the size of a brachiosaur again. The higher atmospheric pressure in the past created more buoyancy, offsetting gravity to an extent.

[Harold Shea]

It would be great to be able to go back to

those days and walk around looking at these

creatures...as long as I have a force-field

generator turned on

[cripplecreek]

Considering the fact that the article is about evolution it shouldn’t be a real shocker.

[MIchaelTArchangel]

They became Democrats and migrated to Washington DC to suck the life blood out of the nation.

[cripplecreek]

The pressure would also make it easier to force oxygen into the blood streams.

[haroldeveryman]

“Where Have the Hawk-Sized Insects Gone?”

Houston.

[Kenton]

Where Have the Hawk-Sized Insects Gone?

Canada.

[BenLurkin]

Maybe the earth’s gravity has changed.

[marron]

for the first 170 million years or so of flying-insect evolution, wing length grew and shrank in step with variations in average oxygen concentration. Then, between 140 million and 130 million years ago, wing length dropped even though oxygen levels began to rise.

This is extremely cool.

[sport]

Man made global warming got them.