"A female digger wasp not only lays her egg in a caterpillar so that her larva can feed on it, but carefully guides her sting into each ganglion of the prey’s central nervous system, so as to paralyse it but not kill it. This way, the meat keeps fresh. It is possible the prey might be aware of being eaten alive from inside but unable to move a muscle to do anything about it."

(Richard Dawkins, River Out of Eden)

Is nature really so barbaric and callous? The digger wasp is but one example of the indifference of nature and evolution. But is it all so cruel? The natural world contains astonishing beauty and in this Blog I want to highlight some amazing evolutionary stories and share my awe and passion for one of the most important theories ever conceived by mankind.

Wednesday, 24 September 2014

Thorny Devils drink with their skin...

The thorny devil has developed skin that allows them to drink without putting water to their mouths. This amazing lizard is able to drink water no matter where it hits them on their body, since they posses tiny little grooves between their spikes which direct the water to their mouths. Once they walk through dew-filled grass and shrubs they begin to gulp. This causes the water to move towards their mouth using a capillary action.


The Thorny devil has evolved to have another interesting and useful feature. When a predator tries to attack the lizard's head the thorny devil hides it and exposes a fake, spike-filled lump located in their back which bares a strong resemblance to their real head. This confuses predators and means no harm comes to the lizard if the predator bites the ball of spikes, since the spikes cause their mouths considerable pain when bitten.

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