Recently, the scientists at the Argonne National Laboratory of US Dept. of Energy, used x-ray to explain the anatomy of giant insects. This was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of science. The study was funded by the National science foundation.
During the Paleozoic era, some insects developed into giants as atmospheric oxygen levels reached record highs. However, as the level of oxygen diminished, the giant insects were slowly killed. The researchers believe that the gigantism is mainly caused by the respiratory mechanism. The humongous beetle species are the ones that were studied mostly.
The research team used a bunch of well defined xray images that were produced in the Advanced Photon Source(APS) labs of Midwestern and Arizona state University. The main goal of the team was to study the tracheal system, and how it is influenced when the body size increases. These folks believe that the tracheal system is where the answer lies to the question of gigantism. I think that the insect x-ray proved the hypothesis of the team.
The discoveries were very interesting. The bodies of the larger beetle species(Titaneus giganteus) were mostly used up by the tracheal tubes. I had no idea that tracheal tubes could be that big! No wonder, those bugs were huge. The main orifices were bottlenecks of the tracheal tubes. This study is a first step towards understanding the control factor of the insect body sizes.
Image Credits: Biologynews
