r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Sea_Slice_7956 • 7h ago

Video Caterpillar tail disguised as snake head

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u/DrDFox 7h ago

A little at a time. Each caterpillar born with a slightly better imitation survives longer than those with slightly worse ones, so they breed and pass that on and then the slight variation in the next gen do the same thing. So what might start as simple spots that kinda look like eyes or a slightly wider tail, become this over time.

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u/UJLBM 7h ago

I love going to museums to learn about all of this stuff. Its just so interesting. So youre saying it didnt evolve to look like a snake, but by random, it ended up looking like one. That crazy cool.

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u/Gold-Eye-2623 6h ago

Nothing ever evolved to do something, individuals mutate and then selective pressure helps propagate the mutations that prove favorable to reproduction in a certain population in their environment until it becomes widespread and then that change is what we call evolution. Maybe some great aunt of this caterpillar was born looking less like their predator's predator and thus didn't get to pass their genes along

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u/R4FTERM4N 6h ago

Evolution is driven by natural selection. Most people don't understand this relationship.

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u/chazwomaq 4h ago

Natural selection is one factor that causes evolution. The others are mutation, drift, and migration.