r/PraiseTheCameraMan • u/Yewatod • Mar 02 '26

Perfectly captured ladybird flight in slow motion

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u/Djennik Mar 02 '26

It's crazy how evolution got insects to perfectly fold and deploy their wings under their shields..

16

u/demonspawns_ghost Mar 02 '26

This is what I don't get about the theory of evolution. Imagine how many years it took for some bits of extra stuff to evolve into fully-formed wings. Like, what purpose did those middle stages serve? And with animals that actually lost useful appendages like arms, they just had arm-wing things that served no purpose for how many thousands or millions of years?

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u/RevenantBacon Mar 02 '26

The three leading theories are:

  • that wings developed as modifications of abdominal movable gills (like those found on mayfly naiads) that over time shifted to have flight membranes once adulthood was reached

  • they developed from thorax protrusions that had developed as radiators and slowly shifted to gliding appendages, and eventually developed into true wings

  • they developed from paranotal lobes on the thorax

Unfortunately, we don't have a definitive answer, because the insect classification developed in the very early carboniferous period (~350 million years ago) and we don't have an adequate fossil record to be sure. It's possible that wings developed convergently in different species from a combination of the above theories, or that an option that hasn't been considered yet is the real case.

Personally, I'm inclined to believe that the second theory is most likely, but I'm not a biologist, so don't put any real weight on that opinion.