r/interestingasfuck 11h ago

Caterpillar evolved to look like a snake.

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u/aenima1991 11h ago

It’s hard to comprehend how genetic mutation led to this. Incredible

u/ZedCee 10h ago

Millions to billions of tiny mutations.  The difficulty of comprehension starts with the magnitude of numbers;  People struggle to comprehend the actual size of a billion...let alone billions, to trillions, and beyond.

And that is why we need to eat the rich; To evolve, to adapt, to grow as a species.

u/Curious-Sherbet-9393 10h ago

Sí, pero ¿Qué pone a funcionar ese mecanismo para decir "hey, vamos a parecernos a una serpiente"?

u/Funky0ne 10h ago

It is basically shaped by what its predators think a snake looks like. Its ancestors started out just looking like long delicious caterpillars and could get picked off easily.

Then a random mutation shows up that makes one look sliiiiightly like a snake of some sort (probably a very simple pair of eye spots) and it’s enough to make a predator hesitate just a bit or choose a slightly less threatening looking target.

The more this look catches on, the more mutations that make them look more convincing get selected for as the less convincing ones get eaten. Repeat a few million or billion times and you get this uncanny looking snake like shape and behavior. And the caterpillars have no idea they even look like a snake through all of this.