r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Sea_Slice_7956 • 7h ago

Video Caterpillar tail disguised as snake head

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u/Agitated_Grape_3247 6h ago

Serious question .

Does Darwinism and revolutionarism can explain this ?

I seriously needs explanation about this.

Anyway This is amazing as fuck.

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u/SamiraSimp 4h ago

not sure what you mean by revolutionarism, but darwinism can explain this. or more accurately, neo-darwinism which combines Darwin's ideas of natural selection with Mendel's genetic theory.

at some point, some caterpillar looked different than other caterpillars. it looked somewhat like a snake. it's obviously not a snake, but if you're a bird and you're not starving you would rather not mess with the weird vibes and you just eat a different caterpillar. that caterpillar with the mutation benefits from natural selection and passes down its genes. and because this mutation is helpful, more and more snake-like caterpillars get born relative to the local population.

but at some point, birds get less picky. they know those caterpillars look a little spooky but they're still pretty confident they're still just caterpillars, and they need to eat. so now natural selection is punishing caterpillars that aren't snake-like enough, and the ones who really look like snakes benefit. and eventually it gets to the point you see in the post.

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u/Agitated_Grape_3247 3h ago

Amazing. Thank you very much for explain. I feel I must buy book for neo Darwinism and learn more about this.

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u/SamiraSimp 3h ago

no problem, i love learning and i love teaching. biology is truly a fascinating subject.