Q: why are insects so succesfull?

[MrMistery]

Patrick is right. While the ecoskeleton is deffinetly a problem it would allow slightly bigger bugs. But oxigen can not diffuse through the travhea longer than 2.5 centimeters(1 inch)

[2810712]

Changes are to ba expected to occur as bugs [ insects] increase in size . They would not be just the enlarged figure of the bugs we see today.
Otherwise, seeing an amoeba we would never had thought that humans evolved from those microbiots , so evolution can do anything anything . One couldn't easily expect the evolution origin of life from just chemicals and the hot and rude lightening in the early sky of earth.
It can evolve new mechanisms [ physiological evolution] , and morphological evolution etc.
So, this may happen that nsects , after some yrs ,have sapienisides in their huge homes and we creep frightenningly into the wall-crivices to save our lives... isn't it???

hruusheekeish

[MrMistery]

Insects are onh a lower step on the evolution tree-as Darwin named it. From here some animals moved on, developed new structures and grew bigger, while insects remained small. Here is a hypothetical situation: if a bacteria suddently developed a nuclear membrane(yeah, i know that is impossible)where would you put the new organism: in Protista or Eubacteria(or Monera )? Protisa of course. Thus if an insect suddently grew an endoskeleton we would not consider it an insect any more.
Regards
Andrew

[victor]

Insect that has an endoskeleton body??wow, that will make difficulties in classifying them...um, wait...we classify insects from their feet, wings and type of mouth isn't it? that's no relation with their endoskeleton (as long as they still don't have a backbone )

[Inuyasha]

Inscects follow the J curve. Mass production in short periods of time. It's a stragdy that works well for less developed organisims that do not specialize as much as higher organisms.

[2810712]

Right MrMistry , but as we talk about humans having bigger size , we don't call our ancestors and humans the same species... so , this is similar case...
We don't need to clasify them in same catagory, we call those enlarged organisms insects instead of some new name, because we are not using scientific language...

hruuheekeish

[biostudent84]

Inscects follow the J curve. Mass production in short periods of time. It's a stragdy that works well for less developed organisims that do not specialize as much as higher organisms.

Actually, all species follow the J-curve. It's just that the most successful organisms are able to turn a J-curve into an S-curve.

Humans, for example are still on a J-curve. It is estimated that sometime in our lifetime, that J-curve will crash, unless we do something about it.

[biostudent84]

Insect that has an endoskeleton body??wow, that will make difficulties in classifying them...um, wait...we classify insects from their feet, wings and type of mouth isn't it? that's no relation with their endoskeleton (as long as they still don't have a backbone )

Well, insects DO have a thick nerve bundle running down their backs, in the same place that chordates have a spine.

[har0bed1813]

what is a J-curve and an S-curve

[b_d_41501]

A J-curve is a term for exponential growth.

The rate of growth variation with temperature for most plants (and many "cold-blooded" animals) follows what is commonly called an S-curve because of its shape. There are several stages on this rate-limiting growth curve:

* the initial stage where no activity (growth) occurs
below a specific base temperature;
* a stage (2) of rapidly increasing growth with temperature;
* a stage (3) of optimal growth increasing linearly with temperature;
* a stage (4) beginning at the maximum tolerable temperature where growth rate remains constant or declines with increasing temperature.

[Beetle]

Well, insects DO have a thick nerve bundle running down their backs, in the same place that chordates have a spine.

No they don`t. They have nerve bundle on their ventral side and in most of the advanced goups it`s centralised in the torax in form of ganglion with nervs that goes from it.

Althoug insect have exoscelet thay have invaginations of it wich serves as anchoring points for muscels. What if evolution turn in the direction of enlarging that invaginations?

The biggest insect ever was a dragonfly from devon with a wing span about 70cm. Also in that time lived giant scorpins about half meter long. Scary period?! They say it`s because of high oxigen level that insect could get that big.