this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2024
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Science Memes

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Biomimicry (mander.xyz)
submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 98 points 6 months ago (2 children)

They dont. It just happens that natural selection favored flowers that looked vaguely bird like and over time, flowers that looked more and more like a bird outcompeted the ones that looked less like one.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 6 months ago (2 children)

What's funny is how absurd this is. Most flowers don't look like birds and they're fine.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 6 months ago (3 children)

This has nothing to do with natural selection. It's just a coincidence that the buds very shortly and from a specific angle vaguely look like birds.

Most of the images shared are probably photoshopped to enhance the effect too.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 6 months ago (1 children)

looks at user name

Sounds like something a BIRD would say!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

Squaaawk, you got me!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Wow you're right.

It's more like "look at this blossom that looks a bit like a bird" rather than "look at this type of tree that makes bird-like blossoms".

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

I don't think photoshop is needed to find the right flowers and photograph at the right angle.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 6 months ago (1 children)

It's about tiny percents.

A bird will land on a flower.

A bird will not land on a bird.

So every one in a million time a bird mistakes a flower for a bird, that's a flower that survives.

All you have to do is wait a couple million years for the odds to turn in the bird flower's favor.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago (1 children)

...But birds pollinate flowers. How is a bird not landing on this (particular, too) flower going to help it survive?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Maybe they're tree scarecrows to keep bugs away

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Sir, I believe those would be scarebugs.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

If they keep bugs away then I'll take a dozen.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Right, but what about the mimic plant? It mimicks whatever plant is near it. And it can mimic plastic plants. https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth/2022/11/30/23473062/plant-mimicry-boquila-trifoliolata

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Should be a pretty trivial experiment to replicate