December 1, 2005--Destination Mars?
Every once in a while you hear about something for the first time and it changes the way you view the world. This happened to me a couple of days ago when reading in the NY Times about a new book, Evolution of the Insects (see link below to article). Have no fear, this will not be another of my rants about evolution and Intelligent Design, but rather about the insects themselves.
Let me begin with biomass--if you were to place all the insects in the world on one side of a huge balance scale and all the other creatures that inhabit the Earth on the other, the insects’ biomass would far outweigh the rest of us—all dogs and cats and cattle and monkeys and elephants and whales and humans.
Next consider the number of insect species—from the fossil record, we know that the earliest insects emerged about 400 million years ago. Once they developed wings they were able to move into new territories, increase their access to food, and thereby evolve into many more separate species. Today, there are estimated to be more than 5 million distinct insect species, again in total dwarfing all other known species, including animals, plants, fungi, and protozoans.
And insects have been quite impervious to cataclysmic global disasters. They came onto land more than 50 million years before the vertebrates and were barely affected by the various mass extinctions that wiped out the dinosaurs and other species.
But they now face a real threat to their existence—from humans. Some insects such as roaches (who we all know will be able to withstand a nuclear war) have adapted effectively to our inventions and encroachments. But many other insects, as we “develop” more land and damage their habitats and food supplies, are imperiled.
In fact, the authors of Evolution of the Insects claim that because insects are so ecologically essential to the Earth, it would be much better for the future if all vertebrates, including humans (especially humans?), would depart at once for Mars leaving the insects behind. If in contrast the insects were to rocket away, forests would cease to exist and the rivers and oceans would become toxic.
Actually, if we decide not to move to Mars, remaining here with the insects, the forests will still cease to exist and the rivers and oceans will become toxic.
And here I was worrying about the Bed Bug infestation of some of New York’s finest hotels.
Let me begin with biomass--if you were to place all the insects in the world on one side of a huge balance scale and all the other creatures that inhabit the Earth on the other, the insects’ biomass would far outweigh the rest of us—all dogs and cats and cattle and monkeys and elephants and whales and humans.
Next consider the number of insect species—from the fossil record, we know that the earliest insects emerged about 400 million years ago. Once they developed wings they were able to move into new territories, increase their access to food, and thereby evolve into many more separate species. Today, there are estimated to be more than 5 million distinct insect species, again in total dwarfing all other known species, including animals, plants, fungi, and protozoans.
And insects have been quite impervious to cataclysmic global disasters. They came onto land more than 50 million years before the vertebrates and were barely affected by the various mass extinctions that wiped out the dinosaurs and other species.
But they now face a real threat to their existence—from humans. Some insects such as roaches (who we all know will be able to withstand a nuclear war) have adapted effectively to our inventions and encroachments. But many other insects, as we “develop” more land and damage their habitats and food supplies, are imperiled.
In fact, the authors of Evolution of the Insects claim that because insects are so ecologically essential to the Earth, it would be much better for the future if all vertebrates, including humans (especially humans?), would depart at once for Mars leaving the insects behind. If in contrast the insects were to rocket away, forests would cease to exist and the rivers and oceans would become toxic.
Actually, if we decide not to move to Mars, remaining here with the insects, the forests will still cease to exist and the rivers and oceans will become toxic.
And here I was worrying about the Bed Bug infestation of some of New York’s finest hotels.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
10:52 AM
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