this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2024
895 points (97.5% liked)

Science Memes

11217 readers
3919 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] xkforce@lemmy.world 98 points 8 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.

[–] orphiebaby@lemm.ee 44 points 8 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 30 points 8 months ago (2 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.

[–] vzq@lemmy.blahaj.zone 35 points 8 months ago (1 children)

looks at user name

Sounds like something a BIRD would say!

[–] Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 8 months ago

Squaaawk, you got me!

[–] orphiebaby@lemm.ee 1 points 8 months ago

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

[–] Zink@pawb.social 17 points 8 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.

[–] orphiebaby@lemm.ee 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] fuckingkangaroos@lemm.ee 7 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Maybe they're tree scarecrows to keep bugs away

[–] oce@jlai.lu 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Sir, I believe those would be scarebugs.

[–] Old_Fat_White_Guy@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

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

[–] exocrinous@lemm.ee 13 points 8 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

[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 3 points 8 months ago

Should be a pretty trivial experiment to replicate