Chameleon Vine Discovered in Chile


Much Peace and Understanding

Memetic polymorphistic mistletoe!
This is a sweet find!

A new challenge for evolution theory.

Care to elaborate on this?
I only vaguely know what you mean and would be interested to hear relevant thoughts about it.

This is so incredibly fascinating. I'll be intrigued to hear more as researchers try to pin down the mechanism that this plant uses to identify its host plant. Thanks for sharing this!

Well, they need to explain how random mutations created such a thing. As they usually say using "occam's razor" (which IMO it's a flawed and usually used out of context concept) some thorns or a poison would be a lot more effective at keeping predators away than making such a complex system to mimic other plants shape and form.

they should have named it the flattery vine. since imitation is the sincerest form

I don't see why random mutations couldn't account for it. This mimicry likely wasn't one gene. It was something that was selected for over time as it was successful, and was likely multiple genes mutating and the mimicry mechanism evolved too. They suggest here that it likely was a way to avoid insect predation.. where thorns wouldn't help and many insects are resistant to poisons. So a more elaborate mechanism would be appropriate to protect against herbivory. I don't think calling a mutation random even slightly devalues, or reduces the wonder or profundity of life. Evolutionary theory really pretty clearly speaks in a deep way to the nature of the universe to me... spontaneity, creation, change, infinite possibilities. I don't think it's reductivist to call it random I guess is what I'm saying. Evolutionary biology really allows for endless admittance of possibilities and permutations so long as they survive in the gene pool and are successful.

Perhaps you're missing the point
This happens in real time, not EVO time.



This world is one Strange Happening.

I see what you mean. Yeah I didn't mean to seem so brash or anything either, I think I misinterpreted it the post as a sort of discounting of evolutionary theory altogether or something. But you're right - this isn't evo time in terms of the adaptations. I need to read it all anyway.. would be interesting to see which seeds it puts out depending on which host its attached to. Very cool stuff! Such inteliigence. Such an active and responsive universe we live in!

Thats some insane plant skills! That they must somehow be able to determine the structure of another plant in the first place is incredible.

Extremely interesting finding!




Despite extraordinary for our human understanding, this can very well be accounted by the Evolutionary Theory. The vine does not mimic the leaf shape of every plant it climbs, but rather of several of its hosts. The vine learned (evolutionary speaking) to read signals from its most commonly-associated plants and accordingly direct new leaf development to several (possibly pre-encoded?) variants.

Just as all organisms read their environment and respond accordingly, well some respond in (extraordinary for our understanding) ways.

I don't mean to imply that this isn't a matter of evolution, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but simply that just because evolutionary theory can account for this phenomena does not exclude other possibilities de facto.

^
Exactly; in the absence of the whole truth we may have to resort to Models to explain the world but that doesn't mean that there isn't more to that. Whatever that is.

I think you answered your own query: thorns or poison would be more effective and simpler, so the likelihood of another defensive mutation appearing and prevailing would have to be, well, RANDOM.

I fail to see challenge for evolutionary theory. The evolutionary function is even outlined in the article.

(and, for the record, I fully agree with Global Infundibulum:
"Exactly; in the absence of the whole truth we may have to resort to Models to explain the world but that doesn't mean that there isn't more to that. Whatever that is."

Great find regardless of any surrounding debate.

JBArk

If I understand the article, the evolutionary time is the time it took to selectively adapt the ability. The fact that the effect happens in real time is astounding, but only unique because it is a plant. Many of the 160 species of chameleons can mimic their environment by changing colour, in real time.

Cheers,

JBArk