You ever, you know, think about how butterflies and moths evolved coiling proboscises roughly 200 million years ago in the Triassic when the dinosaurs were around, and they still like to drink the tears out of reptiles’ eyes, but flowers didn’t evolve until about 125 million years ago, so what if flowers evolved to look like eyes?
@vruba the evolution of the flower seems absurd in the highest possible degree
@maxfenton A flower I particularly appreciate is the dogwood, which it turns out is not even technically a flower! (At least the part I particularly appreciate isn’t.)
@vruba In order for dogwoods to evolve whole states where it’s like against the law to cut them down they to evolve laws
@vruba (i should go read some more of that eye book)
@vruba well I do NOW charlie
@vruba or at least taste like eyes
@vruba Maybe they did, we don't have any preserved dinosaur soft tissue ;)
@vruba
Purely coincidentally, I posted this a couple weeks ago:
https://guildofscientifictroubadours.com/2023/03/19/science-art-a-fossil-flower-cycadeoidea-ingens-1924/
Might make you feel better, might make things worse.
@grantimatter Much better and much worse, thank you.
@vruba Some of the cycad trunk diagrams in the source material had a very shoggoth look.
I would really appreciate a paleontologist telling me there’s a good reason this doesn’t make sense, because it messes with the way I look at flowers.