Nature...just....WHY

[Nightkill the Emperor]

Well, I'll sleep well at night.

[Condunum]

That sounds rather interesting. Thanks for the story, I guess.

[Augarundus]

op

fapfapfap

[Miss Defied]

Well, I'll sleep well at night.

Here's a bedtime story linked from the OP source.
Nighty night!

[Xomic]

Don't you think it'd be too evolutionarily complicated?

No, arguments of irreducible complexity are bogus.

What about Irreducible terrifying?

[Wikkiwallana]

http://www.oceanographerschoice.com/2011/07/the-most-repulsive-barnacle-in-the-world/

(Image)

The rhizocephala are a superorder within the subclass Thecostraca, the group of crustaceans that includes all the barnacles, but their form is highly modified from the familiar acorn and gooseneck barnacles. The only visual indication we have that these creatures are related to the other barnacles is their nauplius and cyprid larvae. In the normal barnacles, these larvae find a rock, stick themselves to it, grow a shell, and spend the rest of their days filter feeding.

Rhizocephalan larvae do not settle on rocks. Instead, the females settle on other crustaceans–usually crabs, and usually on the gills, where the crab’s exoskeleton is thinnest. This is important, because soon after settling, the larva injects its soft innards into the crab. This may take place through one of the larva’s antennae, wielded like a hypodermic needle, or the larva may molt and stick itself on the crab while it develops a special stylet inside its body. When the time is right, it everts this poker into the crab and injects its guts as a worm-like body called a vermigon.

This is where it starts to get really awful. The injected mass of visceral cells, now called the “interna,” starts to grow inside the host’s fluid-filled cavities, branching out root-like through the entire body, but concentrating on the digestive tract. Somehow, the parasite keeps the host’s immune system from attacking this network of invasive threads while it grows, drawing nourishment continuously from the host’s precious bodily fluids.

When mature, the female interna extrudes an appendage out of the host’s body. This is called the externa, and it is little more than a gently-pulsing sac of gonads, attached to the host’s body by a short stalk, emitting a trail of pheremones to attract male larvae. When these larvae arrive, they land on the externa, and inject their soft insides into it. They then migrate into special seminal receptacles and fuse with the female, becoming nothing more than soft clumps of sperm-producing tissue, themselves parasitic on the already-parasitic female. Eggs are fertilized and released, and the cycle begins again.

But wait–it gets even sicker. In many cases, the externa is extruded under the crab’s tail flap, where it would carry its own eggs. Some species of rhizocephalans actually chemically castrate the crab, and then modify its behavior–that is, perform mind control–compelling it to take care of the parasite’s gonads as if they were the crab’s own children. This works even in males, who don’t ever carry eggs, and never exhibit any of these behaviors on their own. In these cases, the crab stops growing, and never molts again. It spends the rest of its days as a kind of zombie, eating food that will be sucked out of its digestive tract by the parasite that destroyed and replaced its reproductive system.

Now aren’t you glad you know all that?

Why do things like this even exist?

Don't you think it'd be too evolutionarily complicated?

Compared to the life cycle of your average fluke, that's peanuts.

[Birkinghamia]

That's...really gross.

Poor crab, spending the rest of its days as a zombie.

[Transhuman Proteus]

http://www.oceanographerschoice.com/2011/07/the-most-repulsive-barnacle-in-the-world/

(Image)

The rhizocephala are a superorder within the subclass Thecostraca, the group of crustaceans that includes all the barnacles, but their form is highly modified from the familiar acorn and gooseneck barnacles. The only visual indication we have that these creatures are related to the other barnacles is their nauplius and cyprid larvae. In the normal barnacles, these larvae find a rock, stick themselves to it, grow a shell, and spend the rest of their days filter feeding.

Rhizocephalan larvae do not settle on rocks. Instead, the females settle on other crustaceans–usually crabs, and usually on the gills, where the crab’s exoskeleton is thinnest. This is important, because soon after settling, the larva injects its soft innards into the crab. This may take place through one of the larva’s antennae, wielded like a hypodermic needle, or the larva may molt and stick itself on the crab while it develops a special stylet inside its body. When the time is right, it everts this poker into the crab and injects its guts as a worm-like body called a vermigon.

This is where it starts to get really awful. The injected mass of visceral cells, now called the “interna,” starts to grow inside the host’s fluid-filled cavities, branching out root-like through the entire body, but concentrating on the digestive tract. Somehow, the parasite keeps the host’s immune system from attacking this network of invasive threads while it grows, drawing nourishment continuously from the host’s precious bodily fluids.

When mature, the female interna extrudes an appendage out of the host’s body. This is called the externa, and it is little more than a gently-pulsing sac of gonads, attached to the host’s body by a short stalk, emitting a trail of pheremones to attract male larvae. When these larvae arrive, they land on the externa, and inject their soft insides into it. They then migrate into special seminal receptacles and fuse with the female, becoming nothing more than soft clumps of sperm-producing tissue, themselves parasitic on the already-parasitic female. Eggs are fertilized and released, and the cycle begins again.

But wait–it gets even sicker. In many cases, the externa is extruded under the crab’s tail flap, where it would carry its own eggs. Some species of rhizocephalans actually chemically castrate the crab, and then modify its behavior–that is, perform mind control–compelling it to take care of the parasite’s gonads as if they were the crab’s own children. This works even in males, who don’t ever carry eggs, and never exhibit any of these behaviors on their own. In these cases, the crab stops growing, and never molts again. It spends the rest of its days as a kind of zombie, eating food that will be sucked out of its digestive tract by the parasite that destroyed and replaced its reproductive system.

Now aren’t you glad you know all that?

Why do things like this even exist? Don't you think it'd be too evolutionarily complicated?

Not really. With evolution you get some remarkably complex results and sometimes not so remarkably complex results.

Parasites really are a good example of this, evolving to take advantage of another organism.

I'm actually not going to. I'm just wondering why it went to such trouble...

Why what went to so much trouble? Evolution? Evolution is mindless - it has no intent, no plan or design. The important thing here is it got to a point that worked, very well since it isn't something the crab will probably be evolving itself to safety from anytime soon.

The parasite? It doesn't have a choice.

It does indeed, but one would think there's an easier way...

An easier way to do what? Look at exactly what the parasite is doing - this way works fine.

An easier way to exist? To eat and reproduce? Sure, maybe, but that niche is filled with plenty of other things. This one has found its own and it isn't facing any competition.

Be a very simple, rapidly producing parasite, like the other worms? I dunno. The confusion is mostly due to the fact I don't want it to be true

There you go - like other worms. If it was a very simple, rapidly producing parasite like other worms it would be in competition with all of those other very simple, rapidly producing parasites.

[Shnercropolis]

There ware worse things.

[Wikkiwallana]

I'm actually not going to. I'm just wondering why it went to such trouble...

Well in that case, by "it" do you mean rhizocephala? It went to that much trouble because it figured out how to maximize it's own ability to survive and thrive by doing the least amount of work possible. So it evolved to create this complex method of living off of another creature much to the detriment of said creature. We have something similar in the human species as well. They're called "derivatives traders."

I don't know any derivatives traders that hollow out a guy's scrotum and set up housekeeping. A few lawyers, but no derivatives traders.

[Jewcrew]

I have added this creature to my list of animals that I believe G-d created just to screw with humanity.

It also includes the platypus, the emperor penguin and the panda.

[Xathranaar]

No, arguments of irreducible complexity are bogus.

What about Irreducible terrifying?

Part of the theory of Malevolent Design.

[Xomic]

What about Irreducible terrifying?

Part of the theory of Malevolent Design.

"Problem of evil? more like problem of good!"

[Empire of Narnia]

That is freaky.


I agree with the "Malevolent Design"

[Risottia]

I have added this creature to my list of animals that I believe G-d created just to screw with humanity.

It also includes the platypus, the emperor penguin and the panda.

The platypus, I can understand.
But the panda and the emperor penguin? They seem sort of ordinary, everyday-common-sense animals, except for the liking for extreme temperatures and the bamboo-only thing.

Well, I'll sleep well at night.

I'll sleep better knowing I'm not a crab.

[Jewcrew]

I have added this creature to my list of animals that I believe G-d created just to screw with humanity.

It also includes the platypus, the emperor penguin and the panda.

The platypus, I can understand.
But the panda and the emperor penguin? They seem sort of ordinary, everyday-common-sense animals, except for the liking for extreme temperatures and the bamboo-only thing.

Well, I'll sleep well at night.

I'll sleep better knowing I'm not a crab.

The emperor penguin is a flightless bird that lives in the most inhospitable landscape on Earth and its feeding ground is literally hundreds of miles from its breeding grounds. Its the running joke of the bird world.

The panda is a bear - a carnivorous animal with a carnivorous digestive tract not designed to break down plant matter - that eats grass. And it needs help to have sex.

Edit: In case you didn't know, bamboo is a type of grass.

[Risottia]

Its the running walking and swimming joke of the bird world.

Fixed. Have you ever seen a penguin trying to run?
Anyway, yeah, a bit of a fail of an animal, but not disturbing.

The panda is a bear - a carnivorous animal with a carnivorous digestive tract not designed to break down plant matter - that eats grass. And it needs help to have sex. Edit: In case you didn't know, bamboo is a type of grass.

I know, but that's just a bit sad - and clearly bound for extinction if some stupid humans didn't think that masturbating pandas is a good way to spend some time...

But not downright creepy and scary as the possession-by-barnacle thingy.

[Jewcrew]

Its the running walking and swimming joke of the bird world.

Fixed. Have you ever seen a penguin trying to run?
Anyway, yeah, a bit of a fail of an animal, but not disturbing.

The panda is a bear - a carnivorous animal with a carnivorous digestive tract not designed to break down plant matter - that eats grass. And it needs help to have sex. Edit: In case you didn't know, bamboo is a type of grass.

I know, but that's just a bit sad - and clearly bound for extinction if some stupid humans didn't think that masturbating pandas is a good way to spend some time...

But not downright creepy and scary as the possession-by-barnacle thingy.

Never said they were creepy, just... screwy.

I figure G-d designed the platypus to screw with our perception of classes of animal (a mammal that lays eggs, has a duck bill and poisons you with its feet!?), the emperor penguin as a joke and the panda to see how well we really understand the concept of evolution (so far, I think we're failing).

The barnacle is obviously to terrify us.

[Xathranaar]

The emperor penguin is a flightless bird that lives in the most inhospitable landscape on Earth and its feeding ground is literally hundreds of miles from its breeding grounds. Its the running joke of the bird world.

If it's a joke, I must have missed the punchline.

The Emperor Penguin lives on the most inhospitable land on earth and travels miles from its feeding grounds to a climate so severe that few predators can hope to survive it. It is a supreme swimmer, and one tough motherfucker. It is the bad-ass of the bird world.

[Divair]

The emperor penguin is a flightless bird that lives in the most inhospitable landscape on Earth and its feeding ground is literally hundreds of miles from its breeding grounds. Its the running joke of the bird world.

If it's a joke, I must have missed the punchline.

The Emperor Penguin lives on the most inhospitable land on earth and travels miles from its feeding grounds to a climate so severe that few predictors can hope to survive it. It is a supreme swimmer, and one tough motherfucker. It is the bad-ass of the bird world.

They're training for their invasion of the world.

[Jewcrew]

The emperor penguin is a flightless bird that lives in the most inhospitable landscape on Earth and its feeding ground is literally hundreds of miles from its breeding grounds. Its the running joke of the bird world.

If it's a joke, I must have missed the punchline.

The Emperor Penguin lives on the most inhospitable land on earth and travels miles from its feeding grounds to a climate so severe that few predictors can hope to survive it. It is a supreme swimmer, and one tough motherfucker. It is the bad-ass of the bird world.

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should! I can see how this can be viewed from either side, however.

[Jewcrew]

If it's a joke, I must have missed the punchline.

The Emperor Penguin lives on the most inhospitable land on earth and travels miles from its feeding grounds to a climate so severe that few predictors can hope to survive it. It is a supreme swimmer, and one tough motherfucker. It is the bad-ass of the bird world.

They're training for their invasion of the world.

I bow before our flightless, feathery overlords!

[JuNii]

and now for something completely different...

the effects of music on a squid...
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/sq ... 59091.html

enjoy...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-OVrI9x8Zs

[Radiatia]

Ah yes, parasites, another of God's beautiful creatures that he lovingly and carefully designed. While on LSD.

[Transhuman Proteus]

Ah yes, parasites, another of God's beautiful creatures that he lovingly and carefully designed. While on LSD.

I like Stephen Fry's comment on the matter:

"…and I love when people watch, I don’t know, David Attenborough or a Discovery Planet type thing, you know, and see the absolute phenomenal majesty and complexity, and bewildering beauty of nature, and you stare at it, and then somebody next to you goes “and how can you say there’s no God? Look at that!”

And then five minutes later, you’re looking at the life cycle of a parasitic worm whose job is to bury itself in the eyeball of a little lamb, and eat the eyeball from inside while the lamb dies in horrible agony, and then you turn to them and say: “where’s your God now?”"