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 Vimto
Male, 40-49, Europe
 1989 Posts
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Monday, October 03, 2011 9:13:03 AM
Hey, a bug that carries mace. |
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 PopeRocket
Male, 30-39, Western US
120 Posts
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Saturday, October 01, 2011 7:20:53 PM
Yeah? Well Honey Badger doesn't give a $#!%. |
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 Andicicle
Male, 18-29, Eastern US
441 Posts
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Saturday, October 01, 2011 11:55:53 AM
up till recently, they believed that it was simply a smelly cloud it excreted. they only recently realized it was both defensive and offensive. |
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 DixxyRarr
Female, 18-29, Midwest US
2677 Posts
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Saturday, October 01, 2011 10:24:40 AM
Up next: Hippo gets explosive diarrhea.
Could not click the link fast enough (what is WRONG with me??) |
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 cyborg
Male, 13-17, Midwest US
2799 Posts
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Saturday, October 01, 2011 7:42:41 AM
awesome |
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 MrAtari
Male, 30-39, Europe
1079 Posts
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Saturday, October 01, 2011 7:21:07 AM
Never pull that thing's finger... Oh, luckily he hasn't any |
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 phoneybone
Male, 18-29, Western US
1750 Posts
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Saturday, October 01, 2011 2:42:46 AM
hot caustic liquid out of one's anus
sounds like what happens to me after Taco Bell |
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 614188
Male, 18-29, Australia
214 Posts
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Friday, September 30, 2011 11:43:13 PM
i shoot the same thing on my face
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 Yaezakura
Female, 18-29, Eastern US
427 Posts
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Friday, September 30, 2011 10:22:04 PM
Yaezakura beat me to it while I was typing.
Well, to be fair, your contribution was far better constructed than mine, and the link to a source that explained the possible evolutionary path of the firing mechanism is more than I bothered with. So I may have been first, but I give the win to you, good sir. |
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 davymid
Male, 30-39, Europe
11682 Posts
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Friday, September 30, 2011 10:08:11 PM
Yaezakura beat me to it while I was typing. |
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davymid
Male, 30-39, Europe
11682 Posts
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Friday, September 30, 2011 10:07:40 PM
We know relatively very little about beetle evolution, as they're rarely preserved in the fossil record, except in very rare deposits of amber. Even then, the specimens are mostly disarticulated. However we do know that insects, with their short life-cycle, can evolve at extraordinary rates. These kinds of experiments are performed on flies every day, mostly in high-school science classrooms.
"God of the Gaps", I'm afraid. We just don't know yet. But we can speculate.
I encourage you to read this article if you have the time. |
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davymid
Male, 30-39, Europe
11682 Posts
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Friday, September 30, 2011 10:07:29 PM
Peabody, if I may:
@evanbartlett, Just how long did all that take?
Millions of years. Possibly 10s of millions of years, maybe hundreds. We know beetles have been around much longer than that. Heck, we've got scientific proof. Imagine that!
If they needed this mechanism to survive, how did their ancestors survive without it? And if their ancestors could survive without it, why did they need to evolve it in the first place?
They likely evolved this behaviour over time. It's not like one day a beetle appeared that could squirt hot acid out its ass. They probably started out as being distasteful in their exoskelton, then were able to eject that distasteful substance (much like many species of ants do, in the form of formic acid), then adapted the formula further. |
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Yaezakura
Female, 18-29, Eastern US
427 Posts
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Friday, September 30, 2011 10:05:50 PM
something new*. |
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Yaezakura
Female, 18-29, Eastern US
427 Posts
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Friday, September 30, 2011 10:05:31 PM
Just how long did all that take?
If they needed this mechanism to survive, how did their ancestors survive without it? And if their ancestors could survive without it, why did they need to evolve it in the first place?
Need is the wrong word. Evolution does not have a final plan it is working towards. It tries a million different things, and some of them happen to survive.
Much like how the evolution of the complex eye can be seen in various stages of living animals, it's not hard to imagine how, over time, what probably was once a mechanism for releasing a foul tasting/smelling chemical would slowly change its composition based on diet and changes in the body to become more volatile. During this process, many beetles with malformed chambers probably did not survive, as many today with mutations that cause them to be malformed are not. Evolution isn't "oh, here's something brand new", but it's the change of existing structures into something ne |
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 MrPeabody
Male, 30-39, Eastern US
1457 Posts
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Friday, September 30, 2011 9:46:39 PM
@evanbartlett
Just how long did all that take?
If they needed this mechanism to survive, how did their ancestors survive without it? And if their ancestors could survive without it, why did they need to evolve it in the first place? |
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davymid
Male, 30-39, Europe
11682 Posts
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Friday, September 30, 2011 9:38:37 PM
@simmerdown: An excellent example of irreducible complexity, indeed.
Ah, ukulelemike, a Creationist/Intelligent Design proponent.
*Looks up profile*
Religion: Christian
Politics: Conservative
Favorite Book: The Bible, (KJV 1611)
Favorite Song: A Mighty Fortress is Our God
Ah yes, I think I see what's happened here. |
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 jadoig
Male, 30-39, Canada
389 Posts
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Friday, September 30, 2011 9:32:54 PM
That's pretty awesome. I wonder what it has to make it immune. It was getting sprayed too. |
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 Gerry1of1
Male, 50-59, Western US
25652 Posts
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Friday, September 30, 2011 8:39:58 PM
Big deal. I do the same thing after a curry. |
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 deathxtra
Male, 13-17, Western US
2810 Posts
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Friday, September 30, 2011 7:40:15 PM
Evolution? The beetle just had indian food for lunch and was using it to his advantage. |
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GringoLoco
Male, 18-29, Southern US
17 Posts
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Friday, September 30, 2011 7:33:01 PM
what a jerk. those ants weren't doing anything to him. |
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 srgkoala
Male, 18-29, Canada
295 Posts
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Friday, September 30, 2011 6:47:39 PM
That beetle needs yo lay off the spicy burritos... |
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 evanbartlett
Male, 30-39, Western US
547 Posts
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Friday, September 30, 2011 6:39:59 PM
There is very little in the way of nature demonstrating irreducible complexity. ID (not be be confused with its parent of the same acronym) is the same theory that has been used to describe the mammalian complex eye, even though it is easy to trace the evolution of every part of it. |
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evanbartlett
Male, 30-39, Western US
547 Posts
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Friday, September 30, 2011 6:35:52 PM
SImmerdown:
Insects produce quinones for tanning their cuticle. Quinones make them distasteful, so the insects evolve to produce more of them and to produce other defensive chemicals.
The insects evolve depressions for storing quinones and muscles for ejecting them onto their surface when threatened with being eaten. The depression becomes a reservoir with secretory glands. This configuration exists in many beetles, including close relatives of bombardier beetles.
Hydrogen peroxide becomes mixed with the quinones. Catalases and peroxidases appear along the output passage of the reservoir, ensuring that more quinones appear in the exuded product.
More catalases and peroxidases are produced, generating oxygen and producing a foamy discharge, as in the bombardier beetle Metrius contractus.
As the output passage becomes a hardened reaction chamber, still more catalases and peroxidases are produced, gradually becoming today's bombardier beetles. |
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 Fatninja01
Male, 18-29, Australia
23995 Posts
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Friday, September 30, 2011 6:03:34 PM
wow... and this is nature. I want that power! :) |
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 ukulelemike
Male, 40-49, Western US
129 Posts
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Friday, September 30, 2011 5:40:23 PM
@simmerdown: An excellent example of irreducible complexity, indeed. And I believe there is a third chamber which inhibits the two chemicals from reacting together until clear of the beetle's backside, so that's three chambers, three chemicals, which, if evolved, would have kept blowing the poor li'l fellers up for millions of years until one got it right. Somehow I don't see that it would be possible, since no one would be alive to breed.
I may be incorrect about the third chamber, but no time right now to check on it. |
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