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A comment on Beetle grows ‘termite’ on back to steal food. Parent comment

Re:Beetle grows ‘termite’ on back to steal food by INTPenis on Thursday September 07, 2023 @04:15AM (#37416092)
If evolution is just nature throwing dice, then it would take many, many generations to evolve something that complex.

I think we see more of these interesting finds in the world of small animals because they have a much higher frequency of turnover. Therefore a higher statistical probability to produce interesting adaptations.

I'm just a layperson so I'm using my own terminology here.

Then there's the other interesting possibility, that there is some way to consciously influence the evolution of DNA. I mean it's pretty freaky that this beetle evolved an exact replica of a termite, a creature it presumably spends a lot of time around. How did its DNA "know" to evolve in that diretion? Are there thousands of beetles out there with half assed copies of termites on their backs?

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Re:Beetle grows ‘termite’ on back to steal food by rendall on Thursday September 07, 2023 @06:54AM (#37417143)
> I think we see more of these interesting finds in the world of small animals because they have a much higher frequency of turnover. Therefore a higher statistical probability to produce interesting adaptations.

This is the best argument against so far. Still, if a species co-evolved alongside us since our ancestors were small furry animals, this would be quite a few generations.

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