this post was submitted on 24 May 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The future is gonna be tree with crabs....

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago

Land will be trees, beaches will be crabs, and I've heard oceans will be nothing but jellyfish

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

That makes sense. And I feel like it makes me understand trees better. This is what I’m thinking.

The fitness landscape for a moving creature underwater is pretty limited. You gotta be hydrodynamic and there aren’t many solutions to that. But we still get variety; eels and jellyfish, for example.

With plants you also have some strong limitations. Plants don’t move. They’re rooted to the ground. Plus they compete over height. So, the solution set consists of sturdy and tall trees.

Moving creatures on land have a lot of more options so evolution achieved more variety. I’m not sure if distinct branches of moving creatures on land arrived at the “same” evolutionary solution.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago

Trees are like every other plant, ONLY MORE SO

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

I thought crab-like animals were all actually pretty closely related to each other, i.e. all crab-like animals are arthropods, which is a less broad category (despite the incredibly huge amount of species in it) than 'all plants that can form a wooden trunk'. Any taxonomists here to confirm/deny?

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago (2 children)

So if you look at a tiny blade of grass and a gigantic tree its like looking at a Chihuahua and a brachiosaurus. And there are smaller things and bigger things in the aminal kingdum!

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago

Heh, branch

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

I want to be a tree too when I grow up!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Trees are tall because trees are tall.

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