Look! This giant, hairy cicada lived with dinosaurs and was terrified of birds

When dinosaurs were rampaging across the earth, a giant cicada-like insect called Palaeontinidae flew through the sky and fed on tree sap. But something disturbed its peaceful existence and triggered the evolution of wings that could launch it quickly, according to a new paper published this week.

These giant insects were big, fat, and slightly hairy, and they lived an idyllic life munching on the sticky substance on the inside of woody trees, plants that had just arrived on the world stage. The Palaeontinidae could not make as much noise as modern cicadas. But they were big, with a wingspan half a foot wide. Despite their terrifying size, something drove these enormous insects to adapt.

“Why would they suddenly want to develop fast flights? The answer seems to be air.” Edmund Jarzembowskiinsect paleontologist and co-author of a new paper published Friday in the journal Science Advances, says Inverse.

Danger is a great motivator. When the research team looked at fossils of the insect, they understood the aerial dynamics these giant cicadas were capable of. They found “remarkable” improvements since the Palaeontinidae family tree first emerged at the end of the Permian, the time just before the dawn of the dinosaurs. As dinosaurs evolved during the Triassic and Jurassic, the Palaeontinidae also evolved, with greater flight speed and greater maneuverability.

Their need for speed overlaps with the rise of birds. For paleontologists, this is unlikely to be a coincidence.

“I think they were trying to stay alive,” Jarzembowski says. The Palaeontinidae were a delicious “flying wedge” packed with protein and muscle. Coming out the sides, these insects had wings that Jarzembowski calls “wonderful.” At the height of their evolution, the Palaeontinidae’s forewings pointed forward and joined with the hindwings to fly through the air from one point to another. “They could certainly move forward.”

Insects were the first animals with powered flight on Earth, Jarzembowski says. Long before dinosaurs, giant dragonflies and other huge insects gained a foothold. But it was during the era of the dinosaurs, the Mesozoic, that flying predators first appeared.

“We have a slow-motion arms race for 160 million years,” says Jarzembowski, which began in the Triassic and peaked when the Jurassic period transitioned into the last geological chapter of the dinosaurs, known as the Cretaceous. It’s a great survival story, he says. “I mean, look how long they survived before going extinct there.”

When the first birds bloomed, they were hungry. They probably didn’t share the giant cicadas’ food either. “I don’t know of any birds that depend on tree sap,” Jarzembowski says. The liquid from the tree is not as nutritious, he adds. “You have to drink gallons of that stuff.”

Birds would have had a harder time catching later versions of giant cicadas, when the insect species developed anteromotor flight. Here, the insect’s movement is driven primarily by the forewings. The rear wings were mechanically coupled to them, flapping in sync with the front pair.

But like many animals of the time, they became extinct and scientists currently don’t understand why. Jarzembowski hopes to learn more about these long-lost insects if a fossil of their larva one day turns up. New computer models could test their math and recreate the way the wings would have actually flown.

Jarzembowski’s great wish is to receive a phone call informing him that they did not die along with the dinosaurs. If they managed to survive the mass extinction of the late Cretaceous, it would contribute considerably to the history of their resistance. But they still managed to survive 160 million years on Earth, a good record. In their wake, Jarzembowski says these giant insects “have left us all wondering and admiring them.”