If you’re not a fan of insects, count yourself lucky to have been born into this time period and not 300 million years ago, when Meganeura roamed the skies. An ancient ancestor of modern day dragonflies and damselflies, Meganeura were giant predatory insects who survived on a steady diet of smaller, more vulnerable bugs.

With a wingspan almost the size of a man’s footstep, you’d have trouble squishing the Meganeura with a rolled-up newspaper. Also, newspapers didn’t exist back then. According to extinct insect experts, Meganeura were able to grow to this size due to a lack of aerial predators. Another theory suggests that critters of this kind developed in water becoming terrestrial, growing bigger as a means of protection against the higher level of oxygen.