Thursday, July 29, 2010

Most Ancient of Living Creatures!



I had no idea that dragonflies are considered the most ancient of living creatures. Wow! That's some kind of existence in my opinion. Dragonflies have existed some 300,000 million years ago. That predates dinosaurs 100 million years and birds 150,000 million years. Now I ask you, can you imagine there NOT being birds on earth. Unbelievable thought. Dragonflies are considered the world's fastest insects and can fly up to 30-60 miles per hour. Seriously, when I went searching for the names of these two little guys, I discovered these amazing facts about the species that just blew my mind. The first image is a female common whitetail dragonfly. The second image is a female widow skimmer. I believe both are very common dragonflies. I'm just starting to notice dragonflies and perhaps I'm developing a fascination. Nonetheless, I'm impressed. Enjoy!

Postscript: Sandy asked if I knew how the widow skimmer got it's name. One website termed him a "dead beat dad". I guess that explains it.

3 comments :

  1. These are interesting dragonfly facts, Carol - you wonder how that "widow skimmer" was named...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sandy, the way one of the websites termed it, he's a dead beat dad. I thought that was funny. Carol

    ReplyDelete
  3. Two fabulous and facinating Dragons. Glad to hear you've caught the 'bug' Carol. FAB.

    ReplyDelete