It’s what limits their size. If insects had lungs, they could get larger. 300 million years ago, when the oxygen content in the atmosphere was temporarily higher, there were huge dragonflies with 75 cm wingspan (2.5 ft).
In the original Jurassic Park novel by Michael Crichton, one of the animals they’ve cloned are these giant dragonflies. Its only one line in the book (Tim, one if the kids, sees one fly by and recalls reading about them) but it caught my attention as just straight impossible. I remember thinking, “Unless you’re somehow controlling the oxygen level of the air around this entire island, there’s no way that bug can’t breathe.”
It’s what limits their size. If insects had lungs, they could get larger. 300 million years ago, when the oxygen content in the atmosphere was temporarily higher, there were huge dragonflies with 75 cm wingspan (2.5 ft).
In the original Jurassic Park novel by Michael Crichton, one of the animals they’ve cloned are these giant dragonflies. Its only one line in the book (Tim, one if the kids, sees one fly by and recalls reading about them) but it caught my attention as just straight impossible. I remember thinking, “Unless you’re somehow controlling the oxygen level of the air around this entire island, there’s no way that bug can’t breathe.”