ANGELS ARE INSECTS?

I’ve never liked or trusted angels. I also found them wholly implausible. Their physiology made no sense. Where were the muscles to flap those bloody great wings on their backs? As with a bunch of other biblical weirdness like the Nephilim (who I exploited at length in the Renquist Quartet) I decided they were probably an alien lifeform deliberately confusing primitive sheep-herding humans. Now, however, we have a quasi-scientific study that they might be damn great humanoid insects.   

“Angels are most commonly represented as winged humanoids, with two arms, occasionally two feet suggesting the presence of legs, and two wings (often feathered). This six-limbed state is not a vertebrate structure, as any look at basic vertebrate anatomy quickly reveals. The capacity for flight has arisen in three vertebrate lineages — volant flight in pterosaurs [Reptilia], birds [Aves], and bats [Mammalia]; gliding flight in a range of lizards, snakes, fish and — and in NONE of those has it resulted in the addition of limbs. All three groups have wings derived from some element of the forelimbs. The forelimbs are dedicated to flight functions at the expense of some typical uses in the general vertebrate plan, but are never supplemented by additional limbs. Angels therefore are not vertebrates or derived from vertebrate stock. The implications of this are profound. The only winged invertebrates are in the Class Insecta insects [Insecta]. Insects constitute the largest taxon on earth (or, apparently, anywhere else). Insects are six-legged (hexapodal) and may have 1-2 pairs of wings, for a total of 8-10 “limbs.” Angels thus represent a highly derived insect group with secondary loss of limbs, derived from a hexapodal ancestry.” Click here for the whole story

Click here for The Imperialites (Thanks Richard)

The secret word is Cherub