Evolution of Dragonflies

All life began from a common ancestor. According to most scientists, animal life is thought to have evolved from a flagellated protist. This protist evolved by a cellular membrane folding inward, which became the first digestive system in the Animalia kingdom (Campbell, Reece &, Mitchell, 1999). As time went on, the animalia kingdom became more diversified and the class Arthropoda arose. Arthropods had and still have several characteristics in common. Some of these characteristics include segmented bodies, jointed appendages, compound and/or median eyes, and an external skeleton. Arthropods may breathe through their gills, trachea, body surface or spiracles. Within the order of Arthropods there exits the largest class in the animal kingdom, Insecta. Insects share such common features as three pairs of legs, usually two pairs of wings, a pair of compound eyes, usually one pair of antennae, and a segmented body (head, thorax, abdomen). But from where in time did all of these insects evolve? Wingless insects first appeared in the Devonian period approximately 380 million years ago following the development of the vascular seedless plants. Insects possibly evolved due to the first appearance of seedless vascular plants. These plants were a huge untapped source of food. According to fossil records, insects appeared quickly after plants in order to possibly fill in a new niche. The evolution of insects occurred in four stages (Columbia University Press, 2003). The dragonfly appears in the second stage and therefore this paper will only cover the first two stages. The first stage is known as the Apterygote stage. These were the