The part about the mutated DNA is insane. During the process of evolution, some of these plants basically repurposed and readjusted their basic plant tool-kit for a drastically different purpose. The fundamental working remains similar, clearly establishing a link to the original version, yet the execution and result are completely new.
@@benjaminwaitukaitis1138 These are evolutionary pressures we're talking about since is happened multiple times which implies its something in the environment.
It doesn't make sense, how can natural selection have fun with another gene set. How did the genes to build the trap get selected if it is just a fun version. In a "fun" version both good and bad mutations would be selected.
What I find most interesting of all of this is how the underlying mechanisms for carnivory are rooted-pun intended-in the genomes of many plants, since they're usually used for defense against pathogens and herbivorous insects. With how common knowledge carnivorous plants are, it really surprises me that they aren't used as examples of how evolution works with what it has. Also, makes one realise how plants are very much alive and "aware" of the world surrounding them
yes it puts vegans and vegetarians to shame honestly. Plants are clearly alive, too. The sooner we stop explaining away everything we see with "evolution" (which itself has observable evidence) the sooner science can actually start advancing.
@@ciondotcom do you know what it means for something to be a 'theory' in science? Or let's say a 'Law'? Or are you playing with words and concepts you haven't taken the time to understand? Do you realize nothing in science is proven? That it's arguable that science cannot ever prove anything? It's just that unbelievably stupid religious idiots have attacked evolution to the point that people feel that have to say evolution is not proven. Well gravity is not 'proven'. Do you believe gravity exists .........?
@@ciondotcom Literally everything in science is a "theory". The idea being:" As far all the evidence, proof, and testing we have at this point, this seems to be how it works, but there can always be evidence we aren't aware of" In the same way that all evidence up until now points to you falling straight down if you jump out a second story window.
I live in the Venus flytraps range in North Carolina. I’ve been able to play with them in my whole life . Unfortunately the Carolina bay near my house they lived in was filled in and a Walmart was built there. Habitat loss is a real danger to our wild Venus flytraps. Just thought I’d share that
Lucky you, I live in this same area, haven't seen a native one yet! I'm a few miles from the Green Swamp where I know they live, but despite searching through swampy areas on my land, no sign of them.
@@raterus there’s a long leaf pine forest that the nature conservancy owns somewhere near the fire tower on 211. Never been there but have heard they are there. It’s not advertised but is open to the public. I’ve been meaning to check it out but haven’t had time yet
I'm with you, we will make man size eating venus fly traps. They will be fast growing and man eating size well within a year. Once they are created, I'm going to give a few to neighbors.
Loved this video! I have always found carnivorous plants fascinating had had several venus flytraps. But I didn´t know how they actually worked or evolved. Thank you for the video ^^
carnivorous plants: 1. have *chemical timer* 2. have a control system to know when to close the trap (similar to nerves?) 3. can *move* the traps (like muscle! how do they do this?) 4. can digest and absorb small animals (while not digesting their own tissue!) damn...
@@krish33319 A brain isn’t all that necessary to create a “simple” movement like the plants do. Have you ever seen a video of a headless fish moving around when you throw salt on its body? It’s a similar concept to how the plants move: Charged ions stimulating motor nerves (motor nerve equivalent for these plants) to create the movement.
@@krish33319 you say no brain, but you're only thinking about the animal idea of a brain. We have no idea of the plant family tree species have a different kind of brain, one that would be completely alien to our idea of what a brain should look like. Evolution comes up with many variants of things that ultimately function in the same of similar way. So plants may have a brain, but one that's so different to ours, that we wouldn't know it was the plants brain.
They're clearly on their way evolving even more complex motor system and given enough time they may ended up evolving some sort of plant "brain" that is unlike anything we know of but served similiar purposes anyway
Incredible show of convergent evolution with those pitcher plants, I wonder what other pressures our changing world will put on plants that would lead them to carnivory.
Yes, an “Insane Biology of” carnivorous plants! I’m an amateur CPs grower on my free time and a fan of the channel, it’s the perfect combination. Though on 1:38, aren’t waterwheels’ (aldrovanda) traps also snap traps? I believe bladderworts (utricularia) are the ones with suction traps.
The thing I'm more surprised about is that in only 70 million years, Drosera, Dionaea and Nepenthes diverged from a common ancestor and spread to every continent except Antarctica. These plants have very specific growing conditions, and generally don't get dispersed by animals.
there is literally no evolutionary pressure for that, and why humans? there are easier animals to trap. and it would take longer than that. clearly you dont understand evolution
@@Tatusiek_1 I'm indulging the fantasy, he was just making a perspective characterization, just how crazy it would be from the perspective of the insect. No one's even here saying it would be a possibility reality, damn dude calm down. I think we've all had too many interactions with anti evolution individuals.
I was sort of the opposite. Growing up in coastal SC I was used to seeing them all of the time playing in the woods and just figured they were a regular plant that was everywhere.
600 species of carnivorous plants? Wow! And how did I never know that Venus Fly Trap & Pitcher Plants were both native to the US, I had always assumed they were exotic tropical plants. This was a fascinating & informative video 👍
NC resident here- a lot of people don't realize how fascinating the flora of the Carolinas is! It's considered a sub tropical climate, very warm with lots of rain and varied levels of tree cover. The Appalachian mountains are home to some microclimates due to unique conditions in a small area, making the shale Barrens of the blue smokies home to the Eastern prickly pear cactus. Not to mention we have a very similar climate to eastern Asian countries like China and Japan, so a lot of plants native to that area grow here- Nice for willow trees, and interesting with the bamboo, but a cause for concern now that kudzu has begun to swallow the entire southeast of America. There are so many interesting plants in these states, I love learning about them!
I grew up in Wilmington and my 5th grade class took a field trip to Carolina Beach State Park where we learned about Venus Fly Traps from the park ranger there. It’s a core memory for me.
Imagine being a bug, minding your own business walking along a leaf... But then the ground folds in, trapping you, and your body starts melting. Horrifying.
I simply love your narrating voice, your language - and the passion i hear. The subjects you choose is also very interresting, thus I follow this channel. Keep up the good work, you're really good at it! And keep sience alive.
Thank you so much for answering this question! I knew that it was a nitrogen poor environment that drove the evolution of carnivorous plants, but the specifics of how their DNA changed to do so was always a mystery! And now, I will go eat some bacon.
Excellent video, as always. The part where you said "all plants can potentially become carnivorous"... do trees fall into this same category of "plants"? A carnivorous oak tree or something would be INSANE. Luring in birds and squirrels as its meal... or unsuspecting neighborhood children that decided to climb on it. *evil chuckle*
I think its unlikely that oaks would take the path of carnivory because they have such robust roots that they should be able to reach all the nutrients they need without resorting to "extracting" them from more mobile lifeforms. They all have the potential but that doesn't mean that the same evolutionary pressures will push them all in the same direction.
@@jasonreed7522not to mention even if lack of nutrients via the Earth/photosynthesis wasn’t a pressure, a carnivorous tree would need to eat a lot of bigger animals to sustain their large size.
Amazing video and interesting topic, as always! Even the suggested Brilliant course looks promising. It was a bit tough to see all those unlucky flies going to a certain slow death, though.
I mean.. we kind of do. There is an enormous variety of plants that can harm or even kill humans. Thankfully, most of the ones that can kill you require you to ingest them. As far as I'm aware, there aren't any plants that can kill a human just by touching it (outside of severe allergies of course).
@@lahma69 how about the hogweed? there are several other plants that can harm u just by u being in their proximity. there are even plants full of silica crystals as a defense mechanism to harm u by getting near them or touching them like the gympie gympie not just eating them
Thank you for your work. I’m always so pleased to see new video from you. As a biology student I once did a work on these plant and couldn’t have summed up as well as you just did.
This channel is great. The highlight for me is the evident passion behind the thorough research and great writing. I hope you'll continue to release great content like this!
The 'teeth' of Venus Fly Trap is actually flexible like bristles of a brush, it cannot bite through anything, that is because during evolutionary process it had no need to, if however the plant found itself in an environment that had bugs that were very tough, it would no doubt adapt to have hard shell like teeth that can bite through harder bugs with shells
Love your channel. Nature is so awesome. It's a shame people are more bothered by their own egos and what they own as to what this world is actually about.
Have always loved carnivorous plants so this video was very interesting. It's so bizarre 11:40 how two pitcher plants evolved completely separate and ended up looking so similar.
This is a beautifully in-depth scientific explainer of the Stephanie Sammann. This video was clearly thoroughly researched and presented in an easy-to-understand fashion for the public at large. It is so rare to see such detail in a RUclips science explainer video!
I can´t belive you're actually getting those kind of messages that you showed. I was so exciting watching the video and learning and seeing that was a shock!
@@SerechII even so it still deserves more. If snoop dog were to release a new rap video that shit would have a million views in minutes, it "should" be the other way around
My friend got me a venus fly trap for my birthday (they're very uncommon where I live) so now i'm learning everything I can about them! One question though.. Everywhere I read that you can't feed a Venus flytrap a dead insect, stating that stimulation of struggling is necessary, but can I not stimulate it using a needle from a small gap in the side in order to start the digestive process? (I found a freshly dead moth and don't want it to go to waste)
The mutation of duplicated genes increases the size of the state space available for evolution. Simple mutation, without duplication won’t get as far as fast. Exceptional presentation!
@@Adrian-rb4qp for your kind information I was watching right after the video was posted & commented after watching around 1 or 2 mins because it already gave a vibe that it's really very informative. And TBH, I'm still watching because it's not finished yet and the main thing is it's so interesting.
@@TheKingBeyondEverything just what did he lie about? All of his ideas are tediously written out for the world to scrutinize. He was not correct on some things, had the right idea about others and was predictively correct about others yet. No where in his work is there an actual lie, it would have gone against everything he was trying to do, simply find the truth about the world.
@@Subfightr Woah! Dude, I ain't no creationist. I was trying to give the movie a title. Our flatearthers-living-on-a-eliptoid-planet-creationists believe and claim that Darwin was a liar with proofs that hold no ground.
What a fascinating video! As Count Cocofang mentioned, the portion about how these plants changed their DNA is superb!!! The section on Dionaea muscipula and calcium ions is pure genius! I grow and teach about these plants. Their reconfiguring their DNA is miraculous! In my horticulture classes at the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens, I ask this question a lot: "Are plants sentient? Do they know what they are doing? Do they have a "nervous system?" Your answer? ...Yes or No...
Well,they can't feel pain,they think about sex most times,have intelligence,can trade and are quite the most vengeful things in the world Yes,well,mostly
Currently taking Part in a Molecular Phylogenetics advanced module in my Bio Master, so this Video fits perfectly. The Professor giving the course even researches carnivorous and parasitic plants^^
That may be the best one yet! I remember, "Snap Dragons" when I was a Kid. Think of how Darwin would react if he could visit us today, if only for a week!
This Chanel is just amazing. Thx so much. English is not my first language. But the way you talk and explain is so so clear. So I can understand everything. 👍👍
The aquatic waterwheel plant is actually a snap trap too, one of only 2 in the world including the Venus flytrap. The bladderwort is a suction trap though.
"some plants we know today might in the future evolve to become predatory" Question: Have we identified any that appear to be currently _in the process_ of doing so?
Woah. Super awesome video!! So glad I stumbled across this. Thank you so much. This is exactly the kind of videos I crave. Question though: are these plants also using photosynthesis? I would assume so right..? How would a Venus fly trap grow up. He’d be to small when he’s a baby to eat bugs, right?
They do. When you have a seedling, their first leaves use photosynthesis only, then the traps start developing. They eat microfauna until they are big enough to go for flies or bigger. Photosynthesis is still important to them.
Thank you for this! Charles Darwin’s greatest discovery ,evolution, often leads people today to think that was his only contribution. But Darwin was a great and thorough scientists whose keen observations led to discoveries that would have made the careers of lesser men. The detailed discussion you provide shows the importance of understanding how things happen. I had a “pet” Venus flytrap when I was a child. I remember well the attempts to feed it little bits of meat and the excitement of the whole family when it finally caught a fly.
Darwin was a lying hack. If evolution is a thing, where's the proof? Fossil records? Genetic materials? There isn't any. Our history of creation is in the holy Bible. It can be backed up by secular history, & science. Humans were never apes, nor Neanderthals. God is a loving God, not cruel. God bless & may Jesus make himself real to you. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth & the life. No one comes to the Father, but by Me." John 14:6
I have a flytrap and learning how to care for it has gotten me so fascinated with carnivorous plants. I'm now starting a carnivorous plant garden, and plan on getting any and all plants I can care for in my region.
I never realized how the plant at the end of Harry Potter and the sorcerers stone worked like an actual Venus fly trap. The more you struggle the faster it eats you and if you don’t move it releases you
What a brilliant video, David Attenborough, eat your heart out! I wonder if you were to grow a VFT in soil with a good supply of Nitrogen but didn't let it catch insects, would it be able to survive or would it die? I really enjoyed this, and found the whole thing about how the traps worked totally amazing, well done you! 👍
This is a great video! However, as a pretty big, carnivorous plant enthusiast, I do have a few things to mention. There are 4 known genuses of pitfall type traps: Sarracenia, found in North America, Nepenthes, found throughout mainland Asia, eastern island nations, and Australia, Cephalotus, found only in Australia, and Heliamphora, found on tepuis in South America. The last 2 are much less common and therefore not well known, but look absolutely stunning! The waterwheel plant, Aldrovanda vesiculosa, is actually more of an underwater venus flytrap. Their traps will rapidly shut on prey underwater that gets caught in them, so they don't use suction. Bladderworts, or Utricularia, do use suction based traps to capture their prey, and they have the fastest known trapping mechanism in the entire animal kingdom! Sundews, Drosera, and the Venus Flytrap, Dionaea, are part of the same family, Droseracea, and looking at some Drosera species you can see their similarities! Drosera are the most abundant genus of carnivorous plant, with nearly 200 known species and likely many more yet to be discovered. If you wanna know more about these amazing plants, feel free to reach out to me here or on Instagram at jarmata_, I'd be more than happy to give ya resources and share my personal experiences growing carnies!
That comment, “if you believe 150 billion years is all it takes to create humans and animals then it doesn’t take much to fool you”. This, is irony incarnate. Both sad and funny that we still have people like this in 2024
Love your channel and I've been enjoying it for a while now. It's unfortunate that "creationists" most likely attack you in the comments or say insensitive things regarding your belief in how life has come about, however, just because they do that doesn't mean you have to belittle creationists in return. There are lots of plausible explanations for how life has come to be that is scientifically backable and lots of discrepancies in evolutionary science as well... so it's important to search for truth but recognize our limitations of understanding as humanity and being willing to put down our pride of "being right" and allowing space for conversation. Using "ammo" to fight against the creationists seems to just be a defensive stance against people who may have wrongly attacked you. I say this as a "creationist" as you would call me myself who understands the realities of evolution and where it is true, but also the limitations of evolutionary theory and where scientists are just really guessing.
I completely agree I myself am a Christian and think evolution is a completely plausible way God could have brought about biodiversity. Just like the laws of nature, I believe could have God created evolution and make it happen. A good source I reccomend to anyone struggling with this issue or wondering how a Christian can possibly believe in evolution is Biologos. I highly recommend it to Christian and atheist alike. It is an organization that shows how science and faith don't conflict, but are actually in harmony, and a main topic of theirs is evolution. HIGHLY recommend.
The problem with some of the folks in your comment section is that they think a book from the Iron Age is the most updated work on biology that exists...
if it had enough it might even stay open. with the change that the fly or better some social insect will come back. Some ants have been seen working around a Venus fly and feet it. they give the plant there dead or dying ants. keep the Venus safe. and in return they do get the opportunity to collect the nectar with out being eaten.
"I do not feel obliged to believe that same God who endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect had intended for us to forgo their use." - Galileo Galilei God is great. Science is awesome. Great video!
I knew about the flytraps and the pitcher plants, but I have NEVER heard of the Water Wheels in my nearly 40 years of existence. Time to do some deep diving!
Great video, as usual. Just a few questions that are mechanistically unclear to me: - 4:06, you say that the "stretching causes ion channels to burst open," but stretching is a macroscopic event and ion channels are nanoscopic; is it really the case that the stretching causes it directly or does it involve an initial mechanotransduction event? - 4:09, "calcium ions flood out," I get, but where are they flooding out from, where are they flooding into, and how does that cause motion? Is it like animals releasing calcium intracellularly from the sarcoplasmic reticulum, or do they move extracellularly and initiate secondary signals more like an action potential? If it's intracellular, it could act directly on actomyosin (or something like it and its related mechanisms), but it seems like you're describing extracellular calcium efflux. If it's extracellular and works more like an action potential, how does that signal get transduced to result in motion? I'm guessing it works like this: macroscopic hair has mechanotransducing elements that cause intracellular Ca to efflux, generating an action potential that propagates out; perhaps there is a region between the two hairs that require a certain concentration threshold to ensure the two hairs are triggered (a gradient-dependent mechanism); threshold being reached centrally initiates a secondary action potential that radially triggers intracellular efflux of sequestered Ca, which is then free to bind and activate elements associated with actomyosin, which then transduces force through the cytoskeleton, which is linked with transcellular and extracellular structural elements. Is that correct? I realize this might be beyond the scope of the video, haha.
Normal plants: I live in harmony with animals and sometimes even cooperate with them.
Venus fly trap: PEACE WAS NEVER AN OPTION
Another Venus Flytrap: "Death to all insects! MWA HA HA HA"
@@plantguy9 Actually Venus Flytraps reproduce with flies, so that is a terrible idea.
@@UniDocs_Mahapushpa_Cyavana wooshhhhh
@@bro-ly8lt Just saying Venus Flytraps cooperate with insects too.
@@UniDocs_Mahapushpa_Cyavana wooooooooosh
The part about the mutated DNA is insane. During the process of evolution, some of these plants basically repurposed and readjusted their basic plant tool-kit for a drastically different purpose. The fundamental working remains similar, clearly establishing a link to the original version, yet the execution and result are completely new.
In gamer terms: they used a mod.
divine intervention? is this "jump" detectable?
@@benjaminwaitukaitis1138 No
@@benjaminwaitukaitis1138 These are evolutionary pressures we're talking about since is happened multiple times which implies its something in the environment.
It doesn't make sense, how can natural selection have fun with another gene set. How did the genes to build the trap get selected if it is just a fun version. In a "fun" version both good and bad mutations would be selected.
What I find most interesting of all of this is how the underlying mechanisms for carnivory are rooted-pun intended-in the genomes of many plants, since they're usually used for defense against pathogens and herbivorous insects. With how common knowledge carnivorous plants are, it really surprises me that they aren't used as examples of how evolution works with what it has. Also, makes one realise how plants are very much alive and "aware" of the world surrounding them
yes it puts vegans and vegetarians to shame honestly. Plants are clearly alive, too. The sooner we stop explaining away everything we see with "evolution" (which itself has observable evidence) the sooner science can actually start advancing.
Evolution is a theory not confirmed
@@ciondotcom do you know what it means for something to be a 'theory' in science? Or let's say a 'Law'?
Or are you playing with words and concepts you haven't taken the time to understand? Do you realize nothing in science is proven? That it's arguable that science cannot ever prove anything?
It's just that unbelievably stupid religious idiots have attacked evolution to the point that people feel that have to say evolution is not proven.
Well gravity is not 'proven'. Do you believe gravity exists .........?
@@ciondotcom Literally everything in science is a "theory". The idea being:" As far all the evidence, proof, and testing we have at this point, this seems to be how it works, but there can always be evidence we aren't aware of"
In the same way that all evidence up until now points to you falling straight down if you jump out a second story window.
@@N313GrayFox
Well maybe he should try to disprove that last one
I live in the Venus flytraps range in North Carolina. I’ve been able to play with them in my whole life . Unfortunately the Carolina bay near my house they lived in was filled in and a Walmart was built there. Habitat loss is a real danger to our wild Venus flytraps. Just thought I’d share that
Lucky you, I live in this same area, haven't seen a native one yet! I'm a few miles from the Green Swamp where I know they live, but despite searching through swampy areas on my land, no sign of them.
@@raterus there’s a long leaf pine forest that the nature conservancy owns somewhere near the fire tower on 211. Never been there but have heard they are there. It’s not advertised but is open to the public. I’ve been meaning to check it out but haven’t had time yet
Walmart is a blight
classic usa
Have you tried cultivating them?
Woh I can't wait to learn about the biology of venus fly traps so I can genetically engineer my own carnivorous plants
I smell a super villain coming up.
That's supercool
@@TheKingBeyondEverything Poison Ivy already exists! LOL :P
I'm with you, we will make man size eating venus fly traps. They will be fast growing and man eating size well within a year. Once they are created, I'm going to give a few to neighbors.
Can I commission an Audrey II from you when you do /j
Loved this video! I have always found carnivorous plants fascinating had had several venus flytraps. But I didn´t know how they actually worked or evolved. Thank you for the video ^^
Watch the new green planet series
999
Nature now: meat-eating plants
Nature 1.000.000 years in the future: *photosynthetic humans*
So, basically. *Superman*
So, druids.
No evolutionary pressure for that to ever happen
@@Zaihanisme We would control our evolution by then. Imagine being able to live off sunlight and water.
@@saadisave sounds boring
You’re awesome. I find real engineering’s content interesting but it’s yours which inspires me to become a genetic engineer
Yes, and why is a channel called 'real science' referring to a very natural biology of one of Earth's creatures as 'insane'?
Now how long until they turn into crabs?
The beginnings of the Mi-Go?
(i.e. Flying Space Crabs from the Cthulhu Mythos)
Everythings a crab...eventually
carnivorous plants:
1. have *chemical timer*
2. have a control system to know when to close the trap (similar to nerves?)
3. can *move* the traps (like muscle! how do they do this?)
4. can digest and absorb small animals (while not digesting their own tissue!)
damn...
@@krish33319
A brain isn’t all that necessary to create a “simple” movement like the plants do. Have you ever seen a video of a headless fish moving around when you throw salt on its body? It’s a similar concept to how the plants move: Charged ions stimulating motor nerves (motor nerve equivalent for these plants) to create the movement.
5. can reject the wrong kind of meal and re-set.
6. can ignore rain drops
Mine's putting up a seed-stalk right now !
@@krish33319 you say no brain, but you're only thinking about the animal idea of a brain. We have no idea of the plant family tree species have a different kind of brain, one that would be completely alien to our idea of what a brain should look like. Evolution comes up with many variants of things that ultimately function in the same of similar way. So plants may have a brain, but one that's so different to ours, that we wouldn't know it was the plants brain.
They're clearly on their way evolving even more complex motor system and given enough time they may ended up evolving some sort of plant "brain" that is unlike anything we know of but served similiar purposes anyway
Incredible show of convergent evolution with those pitcher plants, I wonder what other pressures our changing world will put on plants that would lead them to carnivory.
How about trees that catch and then absorb house cats ??
@@peterdarr383 like the alien tree from movie Evolution
0
L
Agreed, it’s one hell of a coincidence
Yes, an “Insane Biology of” carnivorous plants! I’m an amateur CPs grower on my free time and a fan of the channel, it’s the perfect combination. Though on 1:38, aren’t waterwheels’ (aldrovanda) traps also snap traps? I believe bladderworts (utricularia) are the ones with suction traps.
You are correct, bladderworts have their own insane biology too!
How long before you grow man-eating plants?
Great catch, likely a case of out-dated/poorly listed stock footage being used.
Yes, and why is a channel called 'real science' referring to a very natural biology of one of Earth's creatures as 'insane'?
@@fluentpiffle for dramatic effect...
The thing I'm more surprised about is that in only 70 million years, Drosera, Dionaea and Nepenthes diverged from a common ancestor and spread to every continent except Antarctica. These plants have very specific growing conditions, and generally don't get dispersed by animals.
Trust me they did to Antarctica, 🇦🇶 was a jungle before it was frozen
Imagine if 7000 years from now there are massive redwood trees that disguise themselves as Huts so they can kill humans.
(nods with eyebrows raised) good point
I'm thinking it would take more than 7000 years.
@@AlbertaGeek yeah I'm sure he agrees, just pulled a number out of his ass
there is literally no evolutionary pressure for that, and why humans? there are easier animals to trap. and it would take longer than that. clearly you dont understand evolution
@@Tatusiek_1 I'm indulging the fantasy, he was just making a perspective characterization, just how crazy it would be from the perspective of the insect. No one's even here saying it would be a possibility reality, damn dude calm down. I think we've all had too many interactions with anti evolution individuals.
Im so excited for this new installment
Never realized the fly traps were native to the Carolinas, I always thought they were a "tropical" plant and were from far away places.
I was the same way, when I first found out about them it made me so proud to be a Carolina boy. Lol. Gotta love nature
I was sort of the opposite. Growing up in coastal SC I was used to seeing them all of the time playing in the woods and just figured they were a regular plant that was everywhere.
600 species of carnivorous plants? Wow! And how did I never know that Venus Fly Trap & Pitcher Plants were both native to the US, I had always assumed they were exotic tropical plants. This was a fascinating & informative video 👍
NC resident here- a lot of people don't realize how fascinating the flora of the Carolinas is! It's considered a sub tropical climate, very warm with lots of rain and varied levels of tree cover. The Appalachian mountains are home to some microclimates due to unique conditions in a small area, making the shale Barrens of the blue smokies home to the Eastern prickly pear cactus. Not to mention we have a very similar climate to eastern Asian countries like China and Japan, so a lot of plants native to that area grow here- Nice for willow trees, and interesting with the bamboo, but a cause for concern now that kudzu has begun to swallow the entire southeast of America. There are so many interesting plants in these states, I love learning about them!
I grew up in Wilmington and my 5th grade class took a field trip to Carolina Beach State Park where we learned about Venus Fly Traps from the park ranger there. It’s a core memory for me.
Imagine being a bug, minding your own business walking along a leaf... But then the ground folds in, trapping you, and your body starts melting. Horrifying.
I simply love your narrating voice, your language - and the passion i hear. The subjects you choose is also very interresting, thus I follow this channel.
Keep up the good work, you're really good at it! And keep sience alive.
Underrated narrating
Explain this, Vegan!
“Nature, red in tooth and claw”
Correction: I own a Venus Flytrap. Sometimes they shut quickly, if the plant is hungry or not feeling lazy. But, sometimes the traps shut slowly.
I have a few hundred of them in my growing pools. There are a number of factors that determine how quickly a stimulated trap will close.
Keep it up! Don't let others get u down. These videos are really high quality and deserve more attention.
Thank you so much for answering this question! I knew that it was a nitrogen poor environment that drove the evolution of carnivorous plants, but the specifics of how their DNA changed to do so was always a mystery! And now, I will go eat some bacon.
She did such an incredible job too. Dawkins like in the way her amazement of the topic was palpable yet highly informative. Amazing talent
Excellent video, as always. The part where you said "all plants can potentially become carnivorous"... do trees fall into this same category of "plants"? A carnivorous oak tree or something would be INSANE. Luring in birds and squirrels as its meal... or unsuspecting neighborhood children that decided to climb on it. *evil chuckle*
Bro,i heard that chuckle,u planning something?
@@guizintheinsect5022 My mad scientist side refuses to answer that question.
@@ScottyHunter hmmmmmmmmmm......
I think its unlikely that oaks would take the path of carnivory because they have such robust roots that they should be able to reach all the nutrients they need without resorting to "extracting" them from more mobile lifeforms.
They all have the potential but that doesn't mean that the same evolutionary pressures will push them all in the same direction.
@@jasonreed7522not to mention even if lack of nutrients via the Earth/photosynthesis wasn’t a pressure, a carnivorous tree would need to eat a lot of bigger animals to sustain their large size.
Amazing video and interesting topic, as always! Even the suggested Brilliant course looks promising. It was a bit tough to see all those unlucky flies going to a certain slow death, though.
There are few things that make me happier than seeing flies dying 🤣🤣🤣
Flies... are flies , they don't matter really
@@ximirux2408 Humans... are humans, they don’t matter really
Absolutely fascinating!! The narrator’s voice and tempo is perfect. Another amazing video!
It's nice to be a large mammal. Imagine having to fear plants.
I mean.. we kind of do. There is an enormous variety of plants that can harm or even kill humans. Thankfully, most of the ones that can kill you require you to ingest them. As far as I'm aware, there aren't any plants that can kill a human just by touching it (outside of severe allergies of course).
@@lahma69 how about the hogweed? there are several other plants that can harm u just by u being in their proximity. there are even plants full of silica crystals as a defense mechanism to harm u by getting near them or touching them like the gympie gympie not just eating them
Poison ivy would like to have a word with you.
plant eating human are staple creature in adventure space sci-fi movies or book
@@guydreamr Poison Ivy aint gonna kill you.
Thank you for your work. I’m always so pleased to see new video from you. As a biology student I once did a work on these plant and couldn’t have summed up as well as you just did.
Yes, and why is a channel called 'real science' referring to a very natural biology of one of Earth's creatures as 'insane'?
Excellent video as always
You haven’t even watched it yet
@@Adrian-rb4qp I already watched it and it was an excellent video. Well researched,interesting and engaging.
being a 19th century naturalist: *feeding cheese to plants*
living the dream
This channel is great. The highlight for me is the evident passion behind the thorough research and great writing. I hope you'll continue to release great content like this!
Jacob, look at LIZARDEARTH
The 'teeth' of Venus Fly Trap is actually flexible like bristles of a brush, it cannot bite through anything, that is because during evolutionary process it had no need to, if however the plant found itself in an environment that had bugs that were very tough, it would no doubt adapt to have hard shell like teeth that can bite through harder bugs with shells
This is the most interesting playlist on RUclips, please don’t stop ❤️
Every time I watch this show, no matter how well learned I am on the subject, I learn something new.
"Feed me, Seymour!"
I'm STARVING! 😂
Love your channel. Nature is so awesome. It's a shame people are more bothered by their own egos and what they own as to what this world is actually about.
Have always loved carnivorous plants so this video was very interesting. It's so bizarre 11:40 how two pitcher plants evolved completely separate and ended up looking so similar.
This is a beautifully in-depth scientific explainer of the Stephanie Sammann. This video was clearly thoroughly researched and presented in an easy-to-understand fashion for the public at large. It is so rare to see such detail in a RUclips science explainer video!
Low nitrogen and it's replacement leads to luring, trapping, and consuming living creatures. Gotta love the drive to survive. Excellent video! 👍 😃
I can´t belive you're actually getting those kind of messages that you showed. I was so exciting watching the video and learning and seeing that was a shock!
Loving this video. Currently live in Northeast South Carolina (Fly trap territory) and have seen them regularly on hikes. Love these plants
this is one of my favorite channels! it doesn’t even feel like im learning while im watching it’s so intriguing and entertaining
It's crazy that a video of this quality doesn't have more views.
Tragic
they need some work on the titles and channel name
it was uploaded an hour before your comment lol
@@SerechII even so it still deserves more. If snoop dog were to release a new rap video that shit would have a million views in minutes, it "should" be the other way around
@@Subfightr general public does not enjoy science and discoveries
My friend got me a venus fly trap for my birthday (they're very uncommon where I live) so now i'm learning everything I can about them! One question though..
Everywhere I read that you can't feed a Venus flytrap a dead insect, stating that stimulation of struggling is necessary, but can I not stimulate it using a needle from a small gap in the side in order to start the digestive process? (I found a freshly dead moth and don't want it to go to waste)
I didn't realize how tiny the range of a venus fly trap was. Amazing
Of course now it’s much bigger thanks to people dispersing the plant and keeping them as pets.
One of the best channels on RUclips/Nebula! Peak video essays about interesting topics. Just can’t get enough.
The mutation of duplicated genes increases the size of the state space available for evolution. Simple mutation, without duplication won’t get as far as fast. Exceptional presentation!
Very Informative 👍🏻
You haven’t even watched it yet
@@Adrian-rb4qp for your kind information I was watching right after the video was posted & commented after watching around 1 or 2 mins because it already gave a vibe that it's really very informative. And TBH, I'm still watching because it's not finished yet and the main thing is it's so interesting.
What an amazing person Charles Darwin was
agreed. I wish they'd make a movie about him!
@@realscience Netflix might read this and make a movie who knows 😃
@@realscience Charles Darwin: A Scientist or a Liar?
@@TheKingBeyondEverything just what did he lie about? All of his ideas are tediously written out for the world to scrutinize. He was not correct on some things, had the right idea about others and was predictively correct about others yet. No where in his work is there an actual lie, it would have gone against everything he was trying to do, simply find the truth about the world.
@@Subfightr Woah! Dude, I ain't no creationist.
I was trying to give the movie a title.
Our flatearthers-living-on-a-eliptoid-planet-creationists believe and claim that Darwin was a liar with proofs that hold no ground.
The most informative channel for BIOLOGY LOVERS on the whole RUclips 😇😇
Love from India ❤️❤️
"FEED ME, SEYMOUR!!!"
FEED ME ALL NIGHT LONG!
The quality of the content is insane. Keep on doing the good work real science team.
What a fascinating video!
As Count Cocofang mentioned, the portion about how these plants changed their DNA is superb!!! The section on Dionaea muscipula and calcium ions is pure genius! I grow and teach about these plants. Their reconfiguring their DNA is miraculous! In my horticulture classes at the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens, I ask this question a lot: "Are plants sentient? Do they know what they are doing? Do they have a "nervous system?"
Your answer? ...Yes or No...
Well,they can't feel pain,they think about sex most times,have intelligence,can trade and are quite the most vengeful things in the world
Yes,well,mostly
You did an absolutely amazing job! Beautiful
Currently taking Part in a Molecular Phylogenetics advanced module in my Bio Master, so this Video fits perfectly. The Professor giving the course even researches carnivorous and parasitic plants^^
"Ah look at that pretty sunflower!"
"NO BILLY THATS A SUNDEVOUVER!"
*Billy is stuck with only his legs poking out of the plant*
I'm really glad you guys keep posting this videos explaining this interesting things. Please don't stop! I love you work!
This proves that under stressful circumstances, living things adjust by using a more brutal approach ಠ_ಠ
That may be the best one yet! I remember, "Snap Dragons" when I was a Kid. Think of how Darwin would react if he could visit us today, if only for a week!
This Chanel is just amazing. Thx so much.
English is not my first language. But the way you talk and explain is so so clear. So I can understand everything.
👍👍
The aquatic waterwheel plant is actually a snap trap too, one of only 2 in the world including the Venus flytrap. The bladderwort is a suction trap though.
Came here to say this. :P There are very few good bladderwort videos.
never thought i would be so interested by an ad. i love the narrator’s voice
I love how the story keeps unfolding and getting exponentially more interesting throughout the video!
"some plants we know today might in the future evolve to become predatory"
Question: Have we identified any that appear to be currently _in the process_ of doing so?
Woah. Super awesome video!! So glad I stumbled across this. Thank you so much. This is exactly the kind of videos I crave.
Question though: are these plants also using photosynthesis? I would assume so right..? How would a Venus fly trap grow up. He’d be to small when he’s a baby to eat bugs, right?
They do. When you have a seedling, their first leaves use photosynthesis only, then the traps start developing. They eat microfauna until they are big enough to go for flies or bigger. Photosynthesis is still important to them.
Carnivorous plants can survive without carnivory, just not when they are competing with meat-eating plants.
Yes, they still get energy from photosythesis as usual. Carnivory, as mentioned in the video, just helps supplement the nitrogen.
Very neat explanation. I didn't know the full story until today. Thanks.
So one day we might get carnivorous roses?
That'll be a nice touch of irony
Production value on these videos is insane. BRAVO!!
Thank you for this! Charles Darwin’s greatest discovery ,evolution, often leads people today to think that was his only contribution. But Darwin was a great and thorough scientists whose keen observations led to discoveries that would have made the careers of lesser men. The detailed discussion you provide shows the importance of understanding how things happen. I had a “pet” Venus flytrap when I was a child. I remember well the attempts to feed it little bits of meat and the excitement of the whole family when it finally caught a fly.
Darwin was a lying hack. If evolution is a thing, where's the proof? Fossil records? Genetic materials? There isn't any. Our history of creation is in the holy Bible. It can be backed up by secular history, & science. Humans were never apes, nor Neanderthals. God is a loving God, not cruel. God bless & may Jesus make himself real to you. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth & the life. No one comes to the Father, but by Me." John 14:6
@@discobikerAndRosie something tells me even if you saw macro evolution in real life you wouldn't accept it
@@discobikerAndRosie everything you asked for exists. In terms of your delusions on god, nothing exists for that besides a man made rule book.
@@RealRiders lemme guess,creationist in the comments section?
I have a flytrap and learning how to care for it has gotten me so fascinated with carnivorous plants. I'm now starting a carnivorous plant garden, and plan on getting any and all plants I can care for in my region.
1 year later: So did you start that garden?
I never realized how the plant at the end of Harry Potter and the sorcerers stone worked like an actual Venus fly trap. The more you struggle the faster it eats you and if you don’t move it releases you
Philosophers stone not sorcerers stone.
@@danielledewitt1 North America had the first book use Sorcerer's Stone.
@@Slain087 North america got the name wrong.
These videos are absolutely incredibly knowledgeable and instructive. The way you guys explain things is phenomenal. Im a huge fan
Love ya keep up the good work
Venus flytraps absolutely fascinate me. Such clever plants.
“Gives me more ammunition against creationists that always seem to flood my comments” is probably why creationists are flooding your comments lol
What a brilliant video, David Attenborough, eat your heart out!
I wonder if you were to grow a VFT in soil with a good supply of Nitrogen but didn't let it catch insects, would it be able to survive or would it die?
I really enjoyed this, and found the whole thing about how the traps worked totally amazing, well done you! 👍
Can you please do an episode about snails, I love them but I just learned they spread diseases. I'm also curious how do they get their shells¿
Thank you, this is exactly the in-depth video I was looking for on carnivorous plants.
The moral of this video: The day of the triffids is a very real possibility.
This is a great video! However, as a pretty big, carnivorous plant enthusiast, I do have a few things to mention. There are 4 known genuses of pitfall type traps: Sarracenia, found in North America, Nepenthes, found throughout mainland Asia, eastern island nations, and Australia, Cephalotus, found only in Australia, and Heliamphora, found on tepuis in South America. The last 2 are much less common and therefore not well known, but look absolutely stunning! The waterwheel plant, Aldrovanda vesiculosa, is actually more of an underwater venus flytrap. Their traps will rapidly shut on prey underwater that gets caught in them, so they don't use suction. Bladderworts, or Utricularia, do use suction based traps to capture their prey, and they have the fastest known trapping mechanism in the entire animal kingdom! Sundews, Drosera, and the Venus Flytrap, Dionaea, are part of the same family, Droseracea, and looking at some Drosera species you can see their similarities! Drosera are the most abundant genus of carnivorous plant, with nearly 200 known species and likely many more yet to be discovered. If you wanna know more about these amazing plants, feel free to reach out to me here or on Instagram at jarmata_, I'd be more than happy to give ya resources and share my personal experiences growing carnies!
Feed me, Seymour!
That comment, “if you believe 150 billion years is all it takes to create humans and animals then it doesn’t take much to fool you”.
This, is irony incarnate. Both sad and funny that we still have people like this in 2024
Love your channel and I've been enjoying it for a while now. It's unfortunate that "creationists" most likely attack you in the comments or say insensitive things regarding your belief in how life has come about, however, just because they do that doesn't mean you have to belittle creationists in return. There are lots of plausible explanations for how life has come to be that is scientifically backable and lots of discrepancies in evolutionary science as well... so it's important to search for truth but recognize our limitations of understanding as humanity and being willing to put down our pride of "being right" and allowing space for conversation. Using "ammo" to fight against the creationists seems to just be a defensive stance against people who may have wrongly attacked you. I say this as a "creationist" as you would call me myself who understands the realities of evolution and where it is true, but also the limitations of evolutionary theory and where scientists are just really guessing.
I completely agree
I myself am a Christian and think evolution is a completely plausible way God could have brought about biodiversity. Just like the laws of nature, I believe could have God created evolution and make it happen. A good source I reccomend to anyone struggling with this issue or wondering how a Christian can possibly believe in evolution is Biologos. I highly recommend it to Christian and atheist alike. It is an organization that shows how science and faith don't conflict, but are actually in harmony, and a main topic of theirs is evolution. HIGHLY recommend.
This was so cool. Thanks for the information. As I get older. I like this stuff. In school I hated it. But now it’s fun to learn about things.
I would love to see a video made by you debunking the most common creationist ideas that you have encountered!
The problem with some of the folks in your comment section is that they think a book from the Iron Age is the most updated work on biology that exists...
"The Insane Biology of: The Human" for 1 million subscribers!
What a great video. Never I have seen so much deph. Well done. I just learned a lot of from where my friends outside originated from.
I grow these plants as a hobby. They are fun and rewarding to grow ;)
Your videos are the best! I binged almost all of them! Had to save some for later... Thanks 🙌
they dont always close fast, sometimes its a very smooth motion that doesnt scare the fly
if it had enough it might even stay open. with the change that the fly or better some social insect will come back.
Some ants have been seen working around a Venus fly and feet it.
they give the plant there dead or dying ants. keep the Venus safe.
and in return they do get the opportunity to collect the nectar with out being eaten.
So badass! I love your work!
"I do not feel obliged to believe that same God who endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect had intended for us to forgo their use." - Galileo Galilei
God is great. Science is awesome. Great video!
I knew about the flytraps and the pitcher plants, but I have NEVER heard of the Water Wheels in my nearly 40 years of existence. Time to do some deep diving!
So this is the plant that eats meat. I wonder what do vegetarians have to say about this. 😅
You mean vegans?
I have one of these as a house plant and I never knew they were so chemically complex. Super cool 😎
So what you're saying is whether it's by robots or plants, ultimately, humanity is doomed?!
This channel is amazing! Love the content!
Great video, as usual. Just a few questions that are mechanistically unclear to me:
- 4:06, you say that the "stretching causes ion channels to burst open," but stretching is a macroscopic event and ion channels are nanoscopic; is it really the case that the stretching causes it directly or does it involve an initial mechanotransduction event?
- 4:09, "calcium ions flood out," I get, but where are they flooding out from, where are they flooding into, and how does that cause motion? Is it like animals releasing calcium intracellularly from the sarcoplasmic reticulum, or do they move extracellularly and initiate secondary signals more like an action potential? If it's intracellular, it could act directly on actomyosin (or something like it and its related mechanisms), but it seems like you're describing extracellular calcium efflux. If it's extracellular and works more like an action potential, how does that signal get transduced to result in motion?
I'm guessing it works like this: macroscopic hair has mechanotransducing elements that cause intracellular Ca to efflux, generating an action potential that propagates out; perhaps there is a region between the two hairs that require a certain concentration threshold to ensure the two hairs are triggered (a gradient-dependent mechanism); threshold being reached centrally initiates a secondary action potential that radially triggers intracellular efflux of sequestered Ca, which is then free to bind and activate elements associated with actomyosin, which then transduces force through the cytoskeleton, which is linked with transcellular and extracellular structural elements.
Is that correct? I realize this might be beyond the scope of the video, haha.
Love this channel
It adds to the perspective of human understanding