Lost Worlds: the Forgotten Creatures of Prehistory

dragonflies the size of hawks centipedes larger than humans a strange managerie of giant insects amphibians reigned over the Earth 300 million years ago over time these huge creatures shrunk in size or disappeared the reasons for their Progressive Extinction remain controversial predation pressure on these large insects in particular as the as they were less maneuverable than than the smaller insects uh in addition to this increased predation there was likely competition between birds and insects uh especially these large predatory insects for the same food sources and so both of those factors likely led to a a decrease in in insect size this competition between birds and insects still happens [Music] today just like flying lizards and parasaurs birds would have had an influence on the size of insects but why have giant insects completely disappeared leaving only today's small insect population a last clue could provide an answer it came from a fossil Rich site close to where anones was found in the Chinese region of loning northeast of Beijing the numerous eruptions that shook the region 125 million years ago have helped preserve certain plants from including the ancestors of flowering plants discover in 2002 by the paleobotanist sun they would have had an unexpected impact on the extinction of the last large-sized dragon flies but here uh in China in the west Le we found at all this know an we call the arus this is archo fructus the first flower to appear on our planet on this fossil seen through a microscope we can distinguish the male organs the female organ these characteristics allow sunate to confirm that this fossil belongs to the angiosperms a family of plants whose seeds are enclosed ins of fruit unlike conifers according to the paleobotanist these plants were Aquatic and grew on Lake Shores but what does the appearance of the first flowering plants have to do with the extinction of large carnivorous insects Andre Nell believes these two events are linked many families of insects