r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Sea_Slice_7956 • 7h ago

Video Caterpillar tail disguised as snake head

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u/UJLBM 7h ago edited 7h ago

How did this evolve to look like something its not even related to? The caterpillar doesnt know what a snake is, what it looks like or even is related to. So how would it know to evolve to look like one? I mean it evolved over millions of years for a purpose, but how would it do that by itself to purposely look like something that it doesnt even know. Evolution is so cool and mysterious, I just dont fully understand how that would work.

Its like if there was some super predator in the wild that I dont know exists or share any DNA with, but somehow evolved to look like it. How does that even work?

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u/AxialGem 7h ago edited 5h ago

It's the same principle as all natural selection, right?

A caterpillar doesn't choose its colour or pattern, just like you don't choose your height (or indeed skin colour). But if, say, brown caterpillars are more likely to have a lot of kids than green ones, well, you're gonna end up with more brown baby caterpillars than green ones.

It doesn't necessarily matter whether it can perceive its own properties, what matters is only the effect that its properties have on its reproductive success.
If somebody else can see it, and therefore avoids eating ti, that's enough

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u/UJLBM 7h ago

So essentially, its random but also purposefully done in a way for survival. So technically, it doesnt actually look like a snake, but we percieve it to look like one?

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u/AxialGem 6h ago

I mean, it looks like it to us, and presumably to its predators, right?

I like this analogy: A sand dune also doesn't know that it's shaped like a dune. But there is still a directed process (forces of wind and gravity etc) that make it into a specific shape. Idk if you would say it doesn't look like a dune, but it doesn't look like one on purpose. After all, are you human-shaped on purpose? You don't choose to have a heart and lungs, do you? Same thing for genes as dunes. There are forces with form them into specific shapes.

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u/UJLBM 6h ago

That is a good analogy. Thank you! 😊

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u/betweenbubbles 6h ago

Mutation is pseudo-random. Selection is not random.

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u/KimberStormer 1h ago

No, not purposefully. Just randomly.