Fresh from BoingBoing

[trompelol]

The rich man's stick insect, better known as the various leaf-mimicking arthropods and frogs, have adapted to their natural leaf and leaf-litter habitats in a really awesome way. Their exoskeletons - or skin, for the frogs - resemble fresh, fallen, and dead leaves, winning them the gold medal in the Camouflage Olympics.

Original article is HERE.

Comments

[mushroom_maiden]

That is AMAZING. I wonder how they do that? How does this come about? The evolution of it baffles me. Colours to match environment, sure, but looking THAT MUCH EXACTLY LIKE A LEAF? Do they have cameras in their DNA or what?

[emojoe]

Same old evolution that gave us opposable thumbs and gave giraffes long necks. It developed slowly, and the ones who (accidentally) looked more like leaves survived and had kids who looked like leaves, some of whom would slightly improve on it (accidentaly/incidentally).

[thetragicreturn]

Oohhhh, now it makes more sense. But, man, that must be one LONG evolutionary development. o_o

[mushroom_maiden]

that's amaaaaazing. I love the world!

[bleached_drama]

It's kind of like the million monkeys typing on a million typewriters for a million years - enough mutations over the course of time can produce a few lucky accidents. One bug gets a lucky mutation, then its great great grandchild gets another one that's even better, and after enough generations, you have something startlingly good.

I guess you could say that it's not so much them having cameras in their DNA as their predators having cameras in their eyes, and the predators help determine who is successful. Very neat.

[lightning_rose]

Of course, thanks to the Internet, we now know the thing about infinite monkeys on typewriters writing Hamlet is a complete myth. :)

[mushroom_maiden]

bwahahahahaha, good call :D

[lightning_rose]

Thanks, I wish I could claim full credit, but it's a paraphrase of a well known quote by Robert Wilensky.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_monkey_theorem_in_popular_culture#Internet_culture

[mushroom_maiden]

oh, nice :D

[bleached_drama]

Yeah, I found that out when I forgot how many monkeys it was and Googled it. XDXDXD

[mushroom_maiden]

that's super amazing. and fascinating. I know creationists are idiots, but really, sometimes I can't blame them. Sometimes nature seems to amazing to be true! Even though it is true ^_^ I love it love it love it!

[bleached_drama]

I'm semi-obsessed with evolution. If you ever feel like geeking out about this subject, I recommend these books:

The Beak of the Finch: describes a decades-long observational experiment of Darwin's finches in the Galapagos that completely blew biologists' minds

The Woman That Never Evolved: describes sexual selection from a female perspective, which has historically been completely ignored

The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal: traces human quirks and features back to our primate roots

...I always seem to be plugging these here. ^^;;;

[mushroom_maiden]

awesome! Thanks! :D