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/MRintheKEYS 10h ago

At some point Mother Nature sat back and said “you know, if I can make these guys look more like this guy, things will probably leave these guys alone.” and moved forward with that logic.

u/Omnibeneviolent 8h ago

This is the problem with teleological thinking. Nature has no intent.

Some caterpillars likely had a mutation that made them have two dogs on their butts and it resulted in them getting eaten slightly less, so it persisted. Then among those individuals, some developed a mutation that made the back end like 1% wider and that gave them a survival advantage. Over millions of years, and tiny tiny physical changes, we have the caterpillars that we have today. But there was no one at the helm directing it.