this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2024
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Science Memes

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top 27 comments
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[–] [email protected] 52 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I mean they're only weird because we're not used to them, giraffes, narwals and sea-urchins are pretty weird as well.

Not to mention something like the platypus

[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Even snakes are bizarre. We have a creature with no limbs, just a very dangerous head and a potentially very dangerous body, and it uses its skin to move. And they can eat things whole which are several times the size of their head. Seriously, wtf.

Oh and even better, they range in size from adorable little worms to big enough to eat a human whole. And what kind of exercise do constrictors even do to get strong enough to suffocate something that outweighs it??

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago

Even weirder is that snakes evolved from critters with legs, and multiple times independently. They were like "legs? We don't need no stinking legs."

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Oh, how about those furless apes? I heard their offsprings have to be supervised ALL THE TIME for several years or they might kill themselves by accident. Crazy!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Edit: Shit I misread that comment.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Just think of the Cambrian as Life being roughly a multiplayer Spore-like game doing an open alpha test or an early access release.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 2 months ago (1 children)

They look like an average Spore creation. We have sword meatloaf, spiky hotdog, spaghetti mouth, and Bob.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

Spore should sue for copyright infringement!

[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 months ago

Leave them alone, they're just products of their environments!!

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Why did swords sticking out of brain need to evolve?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Because up to that point animal life was closer to sponges than anything else. Maybe a moving blob here and there in the ediacaran. Then shit evolved predation, mobility, pursuit sensation… And so what does the blob do? The simplest thing that by chance can change in its dna. And what is that? Hardened spikes with no real anchoring or repurposing. Just swords sticking out of a brain.

Meanwhile someone else is evolving to float around and have the majority of its body mass by stingers and someone else is becoming all of bugs

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Anomalocaris means "weird shrimp" so I get the feeling the Cambrian freaks out the nerds sometimes, too.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

My favorite ancient critter (actually pre-Cambrian) is Omnidont which means "all teeth".

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The first picture is actually just an ancient router.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago

linksys brainswordianos

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

took a little while to figure out that somewhere between four and ten appendages with a mouth on the front and a butthole on the back was the best layout.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

What was it, yesterday an article about some larvae, well preserved with organs after 500 million years. It threw it's shit out through the mouth.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

Wiwaxia, Hallucigenia, Tully Monster and Anomalocaris if anyone's wondering

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

The aliens we were imagining as children?

We are way past that.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

It's not a phase mom

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

Well someone hasn't played Spore.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

These just look like normal deep sea creatures. Ever see those videos with the marine biologists talking while they explore the deep with an unmanned submarine? They find weird shit like this all the time.

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

It's just a phase mom!