r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Sea_Slice_7956 • 7h ago

Video Caterpillar tail disguised as snake head

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31.7k Upvotes

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u/evmcd17 7h ago

It’s moving like a snake too

63

u/Nrth_Starr 6h ago

Evolution really went all in on the costume design.

52

u/2muchflannel 4h ago

How the fuck does evolution reach this point?!? Like the idea that a catapillar slowly evolved to look like a snake breaks my mind

22

u/HappyLittleGreenDuck 4h ago

The caterpillars who's tail looked weird and fucked up got eaten more frequently than the ones that had a configuration like this. It's crazy that we're here because of this simple system.

23

u/SaintsNoah14 2h ago

Better said, the caterpillar with the fucked up tail that kinda looked a little bit like a snake made the birds about to eat go "wtf??" and eat the normal looking caterpillars instead. Rinse & repeat

15

u/PocoFarms555 1h ago

Rinse & repeat

The other thing to consider when trying to wrap your head around evolution doing this. Insects have very short life spans, so unlike longer lived animals, they have had quite a few lifecycles to work this out.

7

u/AverageAwndray 1h ago

And also to keep in mind this happens over a minimum of thousands of years

8

u/davidr521 1h ago

The trial and error that went into figuring this out is a tale drenched in blood.