Evolution of winged insects

[helloween]

Not much is know about evolution of winged insects. I read some where that insects evovled directly from marine arthropods. Unlike birds , who evovled from land dwelling reptiles. Insects wings evovled from gill like structures on some arthropods used to float on freshwater lakes during early carboniferous period. does anybody has good resource on this subject?

[PhDP]

1 - All insects are winged (unless they secondarily lost their wings).

 

2 - Insects are likely related to crustaceans, Gonzalo Giribet have recently postulated the existence of the "pancrustacea" group (i.e.: insects are derived from crustaceans). Which is odd as most people thought insects were primarily related to myriapods (millipedes, centipedes...), but the pancrustacea hypothesis looks solid.

 

3 - I would suggest Heming's "Insect Development and Evolution", but it's quite technical. Another suggestion; "The Thermal Warriors: Strategies of Insect Survival", the author talk about flight (even if it's not the main theme of the book) and it's one of the few good and rigorous science popularization book, IMO.

[helloween]

do u have any free online resource?

[PhDP]

No.

[iNow]

You may find some help at one or more of the following search results (it's usually best to stick the the "dot" edu sites when possible... http://www.blahblahblah.edu):

 

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUS275&q=entomology+wings

[lucaspa]

Not much is know about evolution of winged insects. I read some where that insects evovled directly from marine arthropods. Unlike birds , who evovled from land dwelling reptiles. Insects wings evovled from gill like structures on some arthropods used to float on freshwater lakes during early carboniferous period. does anybody has good resource on this subject?

 

http://www.bio.psu.edu/People/Faculty/Marden/project2.html

http://www.kgs.ku.edu/Extension/fossils/insect.html

 

Insect wings seem to be an example of exaptation: evolving for one function and then suddenly gaining another function. In the case of insect wings, they are modified gills and appear to have been originally used as heat exchangers by land dwelling, but wingless insects. A study by JG Kingsolver and MAR Koehl published the first hard data to support a shift from thermoregulation to flight as a scenario for the evolution of wings. The article is "Aerodynamics, thermoregulation, and the evolution of insect wings: differential scaling and evolutionary change", Evolution, 1985. Using models the authors showed that the modified gills were better as heat exchangers as they got larger. The point where the modified gills were optimal as heat exchangers turned out to be the minimal point where the modified gills could act aerodynamically as wings. You can find it discussed by SJ Gould in "Not necessarily a wing" in Bully for Brontosaurus, pg. 139-151, 1991. and in an updated review by Kingsolver and Koehl here: ftp://128.32.118.46/pub/koehl/Kingsolver_Koehl_1994.pdf

[CDarwin]

2 - Insects are likely related to crustaceans, Gonzalo Giribet have recently postulated the existence of the "pancrustacea" group (i.e.: insects are derived from crustaceans). Which is odd as most people thought insects were primarily related to myriapods (millipedes, centipedes...), but the pancrustacea hypothesis looks solid.

 

So that whole neotenic myriopod thing is out? I don't know a whole lot about entomology, but that's always what I've encountered as the origins of the insects.

[lucaspa]

So that whole neotenic myriopod thing is out? I don't know a whole lot about entomology, but that's always what I've encountered as the origins of the insects.

 

It appears to be complicated. Some people are hypothesizing that crustaceans and hexopods (of which insects are a part) form a clade called "pancrustacea".

 

A news summary in Science is here: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/314/5807/1883

 

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1634985

 

The most recent comprehensive book about insects and their evolution is here: http://www.cambridge.org/uk/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521821495

[bombus]

1 - All insects are winged (unless they secondarily lost their wings).

 

This depends on your definition of an insect. Silverfish for example are classed as Class Insecta in many texts.

 

I think the term Hexapod/Hexapoda is now used instead of Insect/Insecta to include all six legged arthropods including both Apteregotes (all wingless insects) and Pteregotes (winged and secondarily wingless insects).

 

It appears to be complicated. Some people are hypothesizing that crustaceans and hexopods (of which insects are a part) form a clade called "pancrustacea".

 

A news summary in Science is here: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/314/5807/1883

 

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1634985

 

The most recent comprehensive book about insects and their evolution is here: http://www.cambridge.org/uk/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521821495

 

Interesting stuff. I like cladistics!