When the Earth Started to Sing – David G. Haskell
Emergence Magazine Podcast
00:00
The Evolution of Insect Wings
An extinct cricket-like species from 270 million years ago is the first known singer on land. The evolution of insect wings opened the door to song on land. Flying insects could rapidly escape from predators, and so making sound was no longer so risky. Wings also turned out to be excellent soundmakers - their papery surfaces connected to pulsing flight muscles like loudspeakers hooked up to amps. Did these sounds attract mates? Repel rivals? Or were they defensive, like the alarm buzzes that many modern arthropods give when threatened? We cannot know, but we can imagine the sound, Earth's tentative first song.
Transcript
Play full episode
