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When Nature Is Freakier Than Sci-Fi
The large tongue eating parasitic isopod is spooky. great picture.
- biohacker42 17y agoThis doesn't explain why nature is freakier, it's just a collection of freaky pictures.
- ugh 17y agoIs that really so hard to answer? Everything that’s possible (to form through evolution) can form. Evolution doesn’t care about human aesthetic judgments. (This is obviously not strictly true, but close enough.) It is very much conceivable that we won’t think of the same things evolution can form. And it is just a collection of freaky photos, but the title doesn’t imply differently.
- biohacker42 17y agoExcept that deleterious mutations will be selected against. So only adaptations which make some sense will be passed on. That includes things like anemia which provides protection from malaria. And the title does very much imply some kind of answer or elaboration or something that's not simply look at these freaky pics An honest title would have been upvoted a lot less here, but probably more over at reddit.
- ugh 17y ago“Except that deleterious mutations will be selected against. So only adaptations which make some sense will be passed on.“ Yeah, you are right, my second sentence is a little misleading. Evolution is certainly constrained. Not everything that is in some abstract sense possible (And what does that even mean?) will or even can form. But evolution is most certainly (most of the time) not constrained by human aesthetic judgments. There are strange things out there in nature.
- pmichaud 17y agoThat isopod parasite is hardcore, I'll try to forget I read that bit.
- pavel_lishin 17y agoWhy does that fish seem to have teeth?
- TrevorJ 17y agoThe newt reminds me of wolverine and how his claws come out through his skin. Pretty interesting stuff all around.