![t8Oa0[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/PEpwc7P.jpg "t8Oa0[1].jpg")
Is it possible to selectively breed an insect species under extremely Oxygen rich conditions and make them create offsprings with bigger insects, and possibly after dozens of generations, create a giant insect species ?
>>7978328
Sure, but it would take a whole lot of time.
Keep in mind that if you release them to our atmosphere outside of oxygen rich controlled conditions they will die, so you wont be able to unleash them to the population.
honestly you can do anything with selective breeding. especially if you're talking about giving each insect a perfect environment for growth
theoretically, if this was done under conditions that exactly a replicate of the conditions of the late carboniferous period, sure.
>>7978333
>Not preparing to put your giant insects inside armored high pressure atmosphere suits.
GIIIIITTTTTTT GUUUUUDDDDDD
>>7978344
But anon, surely higher than regular atmospheric pressure would harm the mega insects?
>>7978344
It would be like wearing a space suit without a helmet and going into space
is that a real thing ?
>>7978333
I don't know if it'd take all that long. I can't find anything about Wikipedia about it and I can't be fucked to look elsewhere, but I know that in flies a maximum of 5 days will pass from conception to sexual maturity in even non ideal conditions. Other insects may have a generation time that is lower or higher, but using flies as an example, there are 72 generations in a year. In a 20 year experiment there would definitely be some results, especially seeing that progressively higher oxygen content puts evolutionary pressure on the population.
>>7978884
Well I didnt mean to imply that it would take whole generations (human) to show results.
What you say is pretty much correct, the generation time of a species is what allows it to be subject to evolutionary engineering. This is why algae for example can be engineered to survive in more inhospitable conditions than the ones they usually live in, in mere days. Insects with small generation times should be easy to engineer as well, although I wouldn't feel comfortable putting an exact or approximate date, since these experiments aren't guaranteed to work.
It may be possible but the necessary genetic mutations will need to at some point be present in the gene pool. You can't grow insects to super size if the required genes are not there to be selected for.
Selective breeding can create just about anything you can imagine. Just look at the diversity of life on the planet.
But it is doubtful you could complete such a project in your lifetime through breeding alone. Genetic engineering gets easier by the day as we learn more.
>>7978884
They won't automatically evolve to grow bigger because of the oxygen. Growing bigger needs to provide a survival advantage.
The researcher can provide that selective pressure by only breeding the biggest ones. But left to their own devices the higher oxygen levels won't automatically make them evolve bigger.
It's the combination of an environment that allows them to grow big and the selection of the big ones that will create a larger variant. You need a way to pick out the ones with the traits you want and then to actually isolate them and breed only those that have the traits you want.
>>7980093
I thought the reason why all the insects were fucking huge back in the prehistoric era was because of the excess oxygen
>>7980093
>Growing bigger needs to provide a survival advantage.
Wouldn't the fact that excess oxygen was there automatically favor the performance of larger specimens within the natural size variation of a given species?
>>7980918
a big part of giant insects in the Carboniferous was that there weren't really any aerial predators (like birds or pterosaurs) apart from insects themselves, nor were there any orb weaver spiders to build webs. predation pressures on big flying bugs were therefore much lower, so being a bigger target wasn't as much of an issue, and the advantages of larger size were therefore more available.
like >>7980093 said, there needs to be some selective pressure.
>>7978344
if you are going to build armored pressure suits, why mot just make giant robotic insects instead.
>>7980954
No. It entirely depends on the life history of the species. If being larger doesn't make an individual pass on more of its genes compared to the competition then there is no selective benefit of being large. If anything unnecessary size equates to the missallocation of metabolic resources that could otherwise have been spent on sperm competition etc...
>>7978328
I honestly think the oxygen thing is bullshit. There is literally no reason whatsoever arthropods are limited in size now except for competition with more efficient lifeforms. Evolution doesn't just stop because it makes a theory convenient.
>>7983104
Oxygen helped, it wasn't the only thing of course, but it surely helped.
![Phoenix_Thinking_2[1].gif](https://i.imgur.com/rw6q9VS.gif "Phoenix_Thinking_2[1].gif")
>>7978328
Why not just breed them to have improved circulation?
