BUGS!
THE COCKROACH
COMPILATION AND COMMENTARY
BY LUCY M. WARNER
DECEMBER 1, 2016


Have you ever noticed that in the time it takes to remove your eyes from the interloper that you have found in your bathroom to look around the room for a swatter or some Raid to spray on it, a roach will have disappeared when you look back. Do they possess magical powers? No. From the Wikipedia article below, roaches have been clocked by scientists moving at 3.4 miles per hour, so that’s why it’s so hard to kill them. You can say, what’s so great about that? A cheetah runs up to 80 mph. A cockroach is usually under four inches long, however, so in my opinion he’s probably one of the best of nature’s sprinters. See the Wikipedia article below.

There was a great movie called Men in Black, in which there were very talented space aliens that were able to transform themselves into any physical form that wouldn’t drive us insane from simply looking at them. The scene I remember most was taking place in a bar with the usual gang of neighborhood guys hunched over their beers. I can’t remember what the stimulus causing it to happen was, but they all, in the blink of an eye, transformed into their true selves – googly eyed monsters with tentacles around their mouths, for instance, and several man-sized cockroaches.

I think there are certain things of which we have an instinctive fear – the edge of a cliff, being engulfed by a tsunami wave, a snake, a forest fire, a tornado, rabid animals, and large ugly bugs. Some of the worst are the South American Bird Spider, the praying mantis, ticks, and large winged roaches. My experience with a roach of that particular type was in a cabin we rented at a South Carolina beach motor court. The roach was between 2 and 3 inches long. When I took a whack at it with a rolled up newspaper, it leapt immediately off the wall and flew around my head. I was finally able to kill it.

That was horrifying. Even more horrifying is the fact that roaches are one of the first insects to appear on dry land, and they have been such a nearly perfect species that they are easily recognizable going back farther than the dinosaurs. Now that’s good genetic material!



http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/11/1112_TVbigroach.html

Giant Roach Fossil Found in Ohio Coal Mine
Bijal P. Trivedi
National Geographic Today
November 12, 2001

Geologists at Ohio State University have discovered a fossil of a giant prehistoric cockroach that roamed North America about 300 million years ago.

The cockroach is about 3.5 inches long (9 centimeters)—twice as large as the average modern American roach but slightly smaller than some specimens found in the tropics.

The roach, which predates the dinosaurs by about 55 million years, scuttled around Ohio during the Carboniferous period when the state was hot and swampy.

Although bug fossils are quite common it is rare to find complete specimens. The Ohio specimen, which was found in a coal mine, was surprisingly well preserved.

The mine has also yielded a fossil of one of the smallest cockroaches, and another fossil has preserved the ancient color patterns of that insect.

"Normally, we can only hope to find fossils of shell and bones, because they have minerals in them that increase their chances for preservation," said Cary Easterday, a master's student at OSU. "But something unusual about the chemistry of this ancient site preserved organisms without shell or bones with incredible detail."

Intricate details of the giant cockroach have been preserved in the ancient rock. Scientists can see veins from the wings and fine bumps covering its surface. The antennae and legs are folded around its body, and even its mouth parts can be seen in the imprint.

The mine, located at the junction of Ohio State Routes 7 and 11, initially attracted attention because of the diverse range of plant fossils that were found there. What was most unusual was that many plant fossils found were three-dimensional, rather than the usual pressed 2-D fossils.

The strip coal mine has also yielded fossils of two rare arachnids, a giant centipede-like insect measuring about 60 inches long (150 centimeters) and 12 inches wide (30 centimeters), and a new genus and species of gerarid insect*.

The Carboniferous was a period of dramatic climate change. At the time Easterday's cockroach was fossilized the climate was changing from a year-round wet tropical climate to seasonal tropical—with a wet and a dry season.

Prior to 300 million years ago the area had experienced a massive plant extinction. Easterday believes that fossils from the area may reveal how animals responded to the rapid climate change and which species survived the extinction.

Easterday's cockroach findings were reported at the recent annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Boston.

. . . .


Note. I can find absolutely no reference to the term “gerarid insect,” but I have written an email to the zoology department of my Alma Mater UNC-CH for information. Good day to all!