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| Man-eating Plants; an evolutionary possibility? | |
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| Topic Started: Aug 10 2010, 08:06 PM (2,171 Views) | |
| Scrublord | Aug 10 2010, 08:06 PM Post #1 |
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Father Pellegrini
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It's well known that various plants-- Venus flytraps, sundews, pitcher plants, butterworts, and bladderworts--have all evolved the ability to trap and digest animal prey. The largest pitcher plants are even capable of killing and digesting small mammals and birds. But could carnivorous plants somehow evolve to tackle even larger prey? And if so, what conditions would bring this about? |
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My Projects: The Neozoic Redux Valhalla--Take Three! The Big One Deviantart Account: http://elsqiubbonator.deviantart.com In the end, the best advice I could give you would be to do your project in a way that feels natural to you, rather than trying to imitate some geek with a laptop in Colorado. --Heteromorph | |
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| colddigger | Aug 10 2010, 08:17 PM Post #2 |
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Joke's over! Love, Parasky
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They could definitely evolve to tackle larger prey, given that the prey was stupid. Problem with that is that the larger land life of Earth are birds and mammals, neither of which are particularly dumb. I suppose they could evolve to consume large lizards and maybe snakes... Or their traps could be extremely well hidden, possibly a snare or bear trap style of capture. The need for greater amounts of nutrients than now (perhaps make them the size of small trees) in an environment who's invertebrate populations are incredibly low would be a good push. Trapping rabbits and such might be a result. Of course they would need to kill the animal quickly before they might get damaged, but drowning could take care of that. |
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| Dean | Aug 11 2010, 01:32 PM Post #3 |
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Infant
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The problem with specializing on man-eating is that all it takes to make it extinct are two humans: One who gets eaten, another who notices the plant eating him, and then he tells everyone about it and the plant is exterminated. |
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| colddigger | Aug 11 2010, 01:39 PM Post #4 |
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Joke's over! Love, Parasky
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I thought he was just calling it a man eating plant, and that he actually meant just a plant that consumes prey larger than a fly. |
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| Pando | Aug 11 2010, 02:22 PM Post #5 |
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Obey or I'll send you to the moon
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I saw a pitcher plant "eat" a mouse. I don't see how they could evolve. If the area has such poor soil that they need to consume so much, then I don't see how they could survive. |
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| colddigger | Aug 11 2010, 02:34 PM Post #6 |
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Joke's over! Love, Parasky
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How about if it (the species) was already carnivorous but then it was moved into an area with incredibly low soil nutrients, but high levels of large prey. The plants that could handle the large prey were the ones that survived and eventually were able to handle larger prey and so on. |
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| SIngemeister | Aug 11 2010, 04:37 PM Post #7 |
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Hive Tyrant of the Essee Swarm
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What if it came from outer space? |
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| colddigger | Aug 11 2010, 04:45 PM Post #8 |
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Joke's over! Love, Parasky
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And enjoyed singing? |
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| Scrublord | Aug 11 2010, 05:23 PM Post #9 |
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Father Pellegrini
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Then it would not be a plant, and thus belong in the Habitable Zone and not here. In any case, what I was referring to was carnivorous plants capable of trapping and digesting large vertebrates--say, the size of a sheep. A Venus Flytrap-style snap trap would obviously be impractical, as would sticky leaves like a sundew. My guess is that a large-vertebrate-eating plant would be sort of like the Deathbottle from The Future is Wild, lying underground so that prey could just fall in. |
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My Projects: The Neozoic Redux Valhalla--Take Three! The Big One Deviantart Account: http://elsqiubbonator.deviantart.com In the end, the best advice I could give you would be to do your project in a way that feels natural to you, rather than trying to imitate some geek with a laptop in Colorado. --Heteromorph | |
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| MitchBeard | Aug 11 2010, 09:18 PM Post #10 |
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proud gondwanan
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Carnivory is a response to low levels of Nitrogen or Phosphorous. Either in very poor soils or in epiphytic plants. For a carnivorous plant living on the ground with a trap big enough to catch and contain a person, the plant would probably have root area enough to obtain the nutriment it needs from the soil. For an epiphytic plant I don't think they would get big enough to tackle people sized prey. If only because there is no need to as there isn't many prey items that size up there. They could probably still get bigger than they are though. They'd have to become a lot more durable than most Nepenthes, and would need more support from the tree than just hanging to support their weight. |
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| colddigger | Aug 11 2010, 11:08 PM Post #11 |
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Joke's over! Love, Parasky
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To be honest I don't see why a carnivorous plant would bother with large prey when it's probably easier to just take in hundreds of small prey. |
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| MitchBeard | Aug 12 2010, 05:41 AM Post #12 |
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proud gondwanan
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exactly |
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| Temporary | Aug 12 2010, 04:34 PM Post #13 |
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Transhuman
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Perhaps we need to add in another step, shall we? Instead of directly getting nutrition from the animals, how about the plant still gets nutrients from the soil. However, the soil gets nutrients from the animal. In mythology, I remember that somewhere there was a legend of a plant that could kill people and then as they rot it nourished the soil for it to grow. I'm not saying things in mythology are all realistic, but this one is. I'm just giving credit where credit is do. Poisonous plants aren't anything new. Neither are plants that launch things. How about a plant that, when touched, fires a volley of needles or quils that inject a neurotoxin into whatever they touch. In mere seconds the animal drops dead. Then as it rots it adds nutrients to the soil. |
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| colddigger | Aug 12 2010, 05:08 PM Post #14 |
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Joke's over! Love, Parasky
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Something else would come along and eat the carcass, or drag it away, the plant would need some way to keep scavengers from reaching its kill. |
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| Pando | Aug 12 2010, 06:32 PM Post #15 |
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Obey or I'll send you to the moon
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How about it can puff poison that near-instantly kills the victim? That way the scavengers are part of the meal too. |
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2:31 PM Jul 11