So I guess the question I should be asking is "why haven't the crustaceans taken over the land?", which they have in fact done a reasonable job at.
Interestingly, some people think that wings came from ancestral gills at some point along the line.
We have isolated crustacean homologues of two genes that have wing-specific functions in insects, pdm (nubbin) and apterous. Their expression patterns support the hypothesis that insect wings evolved from gill-like appendages that were already present in the aquatic ancestors of both crustaceans and insects.
I can't think of any insects that I know stay underwater, without coming up for air. Oh, hellgrammites I think. Other larvae? Not mosquito.
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timeasmymeasure
Re: literal answer
Date: 2005-08-02 07:33 pm (UTC)Interestingly, some people think that wings came from ancestral gills at some point along the line.
I can't think of any insects that I know stay underwater, without coming up for air. Oh, hellgrammites I think. Other larvae? Not mosquito.