The Flavors of Other Worlds: 13 Science Fiction Tales from a Master Storyteller by Alan Dean Foster

Author:Alan Dean Foster [Foster, Alan Dean]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: WordFire Press

8

That Creeping Sensation

350 million years ago. Or 300 million years ago. What’s fifty million years when you’re talking about giant bugs?

It’s the Carboniferous period, when oversized arthropods ruled the Earth. Most folks think of it as hot and humid, which it was. Fewer realize that there was a lot more oxygen in the atmosphere. More oxygen allows insects, who have an entirely different and generally less efficient respiratory system than mammals and reptiles and a number of other life forms, to grow larger. How much larger? Naw … I’m not going to do that work for you. If you’re curious to read how big the Protodonata and their fellow carboniferans grew, there’s plenty to read about them.

Doing so got me to wondering what might happen to their descendents if the oxygen level in our atmosphere rose suddenly and significantly once again. Thanks to our own ignorance.…

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