And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, ....and it was so.
Genesis 1:24
"In the last several years there has been increased interest in and research into so-called “microinsects.” These are insects that are miniaturized compared to the majority of other insect species. They include species of wasps, beetles, and ants.
Such microinsects are comparable in size to some single-celled organisms. M. mymaripenne has only 4,600 neurons, several orders of magnitude fewer than in larger insects. This is the smallest number of neurons in all insects.
The smallest free-living insect is a beetle called Scydosella musawasens, which illustrates another example of miniaturization. The body size of S. musawasens is only 325 micrometers. Their brains contain approximately 9,500 cells with an average diameter of approximately 1.25 micrometers.
Recent research by a group of Russian scientists has found a second parasitic wasp species (Megaphragma polilovi) whose brain neurons lack a nucleus. The paper’s authors write, “Our finding shows that a similar variant of saving space due to the lysis of the cell bodies and nuclei of neurons in the brain and other parts of the central nervous system.....”
A common characteristic of small animals, including not just insects, is that they generally have larger brains relative to body size. According to so-called Haller’s Rule, smaller animals have proportionally larger brains than larger-bodied forms.
One question that can be asked is:
Q: Does reduced brain size affect the behavior of animals?
A: The answer appears to be that there is no effect.
An analogy can be drawn between the miniaturization of brains and the miniaturization of electronic circuits. Ever since the invention of the transistor there has been a consistent reduction in the size of electronic semiconductor circuits. This transformation was even given a name “Moore’s Law” by Gordon Moore, the co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel. According to Moore’s Law the number of transistors in a given area of an electronic circuit doubles every two years. And just as electronic circuits have been reduced in size, while also maintaining and even improving performance, miniaturized insect brains also achieve performance similar to normally sized insect brains."
MindMatters
Genesis 1:24
"In the last several years there has been increased interest in and research into so-called “microinsects.” These are insects that are miniaturized compared to the majority of other insect species. They include species of wasps, beetles, and ants.
Such microinsects are comparable in size to some single-celled organisms. M. mymaripenne has only 4,600 neurons, several orders of magnitude fewer than in larger insects. This is the smallest number of neurons in all insects.
The smallest free-living insect is a beetle called Scydosella musawasens, which illustrates another example of miniaturization. The body size of S. musawasens is only 325 micrometers. Their brains contain approximately 9,500 cells with an average diameter of approximately 1.25 micrometers.
Recent research by a group of Russian scientists has found a second parasitic wasp species (Megaphragma polilovi) whose brain neurons lack a nucleus. The paper’s authors write, “Our finding shows that a similar variant of saving space due to the lysis of the cell bodies and nuclei of neurons in the brain and other parts of the central nervous system.....”
A common characteristic of small animals, including not just insects, is that they generally have larger brains relative to body size. According to so-called Haller’s Rule, smaller animals have proportionally larger brains than larger-bodied forms.
One question that can be asked is:
Q: Does reduced brain size affect the behavior of animals?
A: The answer appears to be that there is no effect.
An analogy can be drawn between the miniaturization of brains and the miniaturization of electronic circuits. Ever since the invention of the transistor there has been a consistent reduction in the size of electronic semiconductor circuits. This transformation was even given a name “Moore’s Law” by Gordon Moore, the co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel. According to Moore’s Law the number of transistors in a given area of an electronic circuit doubles every two years. And just as electronic circuits have been reduced in size, while also maintaining and even improving performance, miniaturized insect brains also achieve performance similar to normally sized insect brains."
MindMatters
