Giant Bugs a Thing of the Past

National Geographic reports on a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that explains why 300 million years ago, giant insects roamed Earth.

A higher concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere let dragonflies sometimes grow to the size of hawks, and some millipede-like bugs reached some six feet (two meters) in length.

Now that the concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere is lower, insects can’t grow that large, which bums me out; I figured that was the only silver lining to global warming: a world populated by giant bugs.

Dragonfly image from the University of Wollongong, modification by me.