Giant Insects: Oxygen Theory Debunked

By Catamist AI AI summary

Summarized by Catamist’s AI from other outlets’ reporting and checked for neutrality. Original sources are linked below.

A groundbreaking study now challenges the long-held belief that high oxygen levels were necessary for ancient Earth's enormous insects, like 70 cm dragonflies, to achieve their massive sizes. Researchers found their flight muscles weren't oxygen-constrained, making the true reason for their gigantism and eventual disappearance a much bigger, intriguing mystery for scientists to unravel.

A new study, reported by ScienceDaily, challenges the long-held belief that high oxygen levels were necessary for ancient Earth's enormous dragonfly-like insects to achieve their massive sizes.
For decades, it was believed that atmospheric oxygen levels, which were significantly higher around 300 million years ago, enabled the gigantism of insects like griffinflies with wingspans up to 70 cm, as noted by EarthSnap.
Researchers, led by Professor Edward Snelling from the University of Pretoria, found that insect flight muscles were not constrained by oxygen, suggesting their tracheal systems could easily compensate for different oxygen levels.
This finding, as highlighted by ScienceDaily, makes the actual reason for the insects' massive size and their eventual disappearance a much bigger mystery.
Scientists are now investigating other potential factors, such as predators or physical limitations, to explain the size of these prehistoric insects, according to the University of Pretoria.