Question: why do animals like dragonflies have such different babies, whereas, we don't.

Emperor Dragonfly answered on 7 Nov 2017:

Great question…! Insects like dragonflies are really good at having bodies that are suited to what they need to do at each stage of their life – and many (but not all) can undergo the process of metamorphosis where an individual can go into a resting state and completely reorganise their bodies, to emerge in a completely different form. Just imagine if you could change your body to help you with whatever you needed to do – like getting long legs for playing football at break, and big eyes and brain for when you are in class…

Having said that both dragonfly nymphs and adults are both eating machines, just for different reasons – the nymphs eat and eat, shedding their skins as they get bigger, so that they are ready to transform into an adult in the summer. Adults don’t grow much, if at all, but they must keep eating all the time as they have a high energy lifestyle – flying fast, chasing rivals and mates, and defending their territory and their mate are very demanding and most eat on the wing.. it’s like a continuous McDonalds drive through!

So the short answer is that Dragonflies have such different babies, because the babies are perfectly adapted to what they need to do – which is eat everything they can catch in their muddy ponds!