Life Meets the Lens: Nature Museum
We have been told that everything on this planet is interconnected and a small change at one place could lead to a new one. Cyanobacteria, a very simple and mostly ignored life form has changed the way life exists on this earth by producing oxygen through photosynthesis.
There are many other events that happened in the past which led to the development of interdependence between life forms.
A small flower that grows in a desert after a rainfall is dependent on another life form, a bee for transferring its genes to the next generation and this bee itself is dependent on the same flower for the development and survival of its colony that might exist in the same desert.
In the same way a small spider has a huge impact on the population of the birds.
You might think of the spider as a food for the young bird and its newborn, but it is far beyond this simple role it played.
Before building the nests, most of the birds search for the spider webs and collect it all over its beak. Spider silk acts as a glue to bind the base of the nest with the place it is built upon.
Once the nest is built, the bird covers the nest with the silk, so that the nest won’t open up. Due to its flexible nature spider silk also helps to accommodate the growing bodies of the young birds.
This is how amazingly our natural world is connected with each other
What perfect spheres are these, but why are we posting them?
These are made by one of the most fascinating insects belonging to the family Scarabaeidae and known as Dung beetles.
They depend on the excreta of other organisms as a source of food. They roll the dung to feed their young. Female, lays an egg on these poop-rolls. Many dung beetles are very specific about the poop they eat.
In relation to its size the Onthophagus taurus dung beetle is not only the world’s strongest insect – it’s the world’s strongest animal! When moving balls of dung, it can pull 1,141 times its own body weight – that’s the same as a human dragging six full double-decker buses along a road!
All the plants which we see today are the result of evolution which led to the development of the amazing features in them. Development of thorns, special chemicals and ability to capture insects are few of the common examples we have already known. Despite standing in the same place for years, plants have developed amazing methods during the evolution for the dispersal of its offspring in the form of seeds.
Wind is one of the mediums which helps in this process. Animal fur is a perfect medium which helps in the efficient dispersal of seeds for many different species of plants. Many times we have also helped in the dispersal of seeds through our clothes.
This dispersal through the animal fur is possible due to the presence of hooks, spines and barbs either directly on the seed or over the seed coat. They also come in different shapes.
Next time when a seed sticks on your clothes, do give a closure look to this amazing method that has been developed over the billions of years.