Naked Science Forum
General Discussion & Feedback => Just Chat! => Topic started by: tony6789 on 19/07/2006 20:15:14
-
what did mosquitoes evlove from?
NEVER! underestimate youth
-
It's a well documented fact that mosquitoes evolved from Brontosaurus
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F+http%3A%2F%2Fimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv286%2Fneilneil%2Fbrontosaurus.jpg&hash=84373003fc216c327112ce9a74a9c52d)
...from giant vegetarians to tiny flying blood suckers it's quite a long tale !!.........
.....but that's the truth and don't let anyone here tell you otherwise !! [;)]
Men are the same as women, just inside out !
-
Wikipedia does not say much on it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito
quote:
The Mosquito is a member of the family Culicidae; these insects have a pair of scaled wings, a pair of halteres, a slender body, and long legs. The females of most mosquito species suck blood from other animals. Size varies but is rarely greater than 15 mm (0.6 inch). Mosquitoes weigh only about 2 to 2.5 mg (0.03 to 0.04 grain). They can fly at about 1.5 to 2.5 km/h (0.9 to 1.6 mph) and most species are nocturnal.
Mosquitoes are believed to have evolved around 170 million years ago during the Jurassic era (206–135 million years ago) with the earliest known fossils from the Cretaceous era (144–65 million years ago). They evolved in the land mass that is now South America, spreading initially to the northern continent Laurasia and re-entering the tropics from the north. Ancestral mosquitoes were about three times the size of the existant species and they are a sister group to the Chaoboridae (biting midges).
So, they have been around for about 170 million years (possibly around 30 million years after early mammals first developed), but it does not say what they developed from.
The idea of mosquitoes 3 times as large as today (or even ones that are 1.5cm large today) does make me cringe just a little.
George
-
the brontasouras huh neil? well that does sound a bit....um....whats the word im looking 4?....of the wall
NEVER! underestimate youth