Convergent evolution is more common than you might think. Trees, for example, have separately evolved at least 100 times.
Can you explain more? Sounds interesting
As an aside there: the blog post briefly talks about birds. It turns out that membrane wings are much easier to evolve than feathered wings. There have been lots of membrane winged creatures (including "birds" with membrane wings in the Jurassic) but not nearly as many appearances of feathered wings.
(Tulips and oak trees are both angiosperms, flowering plants, and share a common angiosperm ancestor. Pine trees on the other hand are gymnosperms.)
That was in a botanical garden in Australia. No idea what they were or how common they are. Blew my mind.
One of these trees has 47,000 stems:
> Most agree [...] that Pando encompasses 42.89 hectares (106 acres), weighs an estimated 6,000 metric tons (6,600 short tons) or 13.2 million pounds, and features an estimated 47,000 stems, which die individually and are replaced by genetically identical stems that are sent up from the tree's vast root system, a process known as "suckering". The root system is estimated to be several thousand years old, with habitat modeling suggesting a maximum age of 14,000 years and 16,000 years by the latest (2024) estimate.[
> quaking aspen regularly reproduces via a process called suckering. An individual stem can send out lateral roots that, under the right conditions, send up other erect stems; from all above-ground appearances the new stems look just like individual trees. The process is repeated until a whole stand, of what appear to be individual trees, forms. This collection of multiple stems, called ramets, all form one, single, genetic individual, usually termed a clone.
That said, it’s one of the most stable woods so it doesn’t warp much which is why it’s a popular base material for plywood and it’s easy on cutting tools. I usually only use it for the interior parts of drawers.
https://farm-energy.extension.org/poplar-populus-spp-trees-f...
The Mary Rose shafts seem to mostly have been poplar.
Not that this would be very relevant nowadays but still.
Also the fruit was fun to throw at people when I was a kid... Very stinky.
what nation?
I suppose you are actually talking of a time preceding prehistory by a fair lot!
Hi, Wikipedia doesn't agree with you:
> Prehistory [...] is the period of _human_ history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins c. 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems.
Emphasis mine on "human".
https://iview.abc.net.au/show/david-attenborough-s-galapagos
Here is a YouTube playlist, I think it was episode 3, Evolution:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3iXsS5tZSZG4gcYrblBd...
Also see the wiki page mentioned in the sibling comment.
One of the largest trees I've ever personally seen was a mullberry on some long-abandoned land adjoining mine. But they're also a bush?
I for one welcome our new mushroom overlords.
TruffleLabs•7mo ago
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The real journey was all the zombies we infected along the way.
Juliate•7mo ago
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reactordev•7mo ago
pryelluw•7mo ago
Shivers …
teeray•7mo ago
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adityaathalye•7mo ago
In my imagined world of Halahala, silent stories have occupied prime real estate since 2005. I think of them like music without lyrics, jazz-like in the experience. The Cordyception is another riff on Halahala’s staple theme of nature, sustainability and our obsession with a certain ladder. An Attenborough documentary led me to these marvellous fungi called Cordyceps and the rest is pure Halahala. The fungi infect and take over specific insect-hosts – body and mind – commanding them to a high vantage point for dispersing spores.
I swear I drew this before the pandemic
—Appupen
HelloUsername•7mo ago
https://venturebeat.com/2013/08/06/the-last-of-us-creators-i...
ge96•7mo ago