-
Asked by to Amelia, Clem, Izzy, Sarah on 17 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
Question: could there one day be a carnivorous plant big and dangerous enough to eat proper mammals like lions etc
- Keywords:
-
Isabel Webb answered on 17 Mar 2014:
Evolution happens because a mutation occurs in the DNA and the mutated species is able to survive with that mutation – either because it has no effect, or because it is a benefit to the species.
There are already big carnivorous plants like Nepenthes, the giant pitcher plant which can catch rats (http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8195000/8195029.stm). This evolved in an area of the Philippines where humans rarely go. I think that if carnivorous plants evolved to get really big it would have to happen somewhere where humans wouldn’t end up getting excited and cutting them all down.
Larger animals are carnivores themselves often, so would be unlikely to get close enough to get near enough to fall into a pitcher plant. Larger animals like lions also have very sharp claws, and so could probably escape – the plants would have to evolve really thick leaves! Many carnivorous plants succeed because of sticky stuff that traps things and you would need something really really sticky to stick down a big mammal.
I personally don’t know if the evolution to become really big would be enough of an advantage for really big carnivorous plants to emerge. However, evolution does not have a perfect direction to follow, and can’t always be predicted – so maybe one day we will have massive carnivorous plants on this planet that can eat lions.
Or maybe, one day we already did have massive carnivorous plants, and they became extinct. Who knows??? Maybe someone will find a fossil that can show us this.
-
Amelia Frizell-Armitage answered on 17 Mar 2014:
Wow how cool (but terrifying) would that be! have you read the book Day of the Triffids?
A plant does not have teeth or a digestive system like we do, so the way a carnivorous plant eats, or digests, it’s prey is by trapping it, and then releasing enzymes (chemicals) which basically liquidize the prey. Once this happens the plant can absorb all the nutrients that have been released, almost like the animal dissolves into the plant. The carnivorous plants around at the moment only eat small animals and insects.
For a plant to eat really big animals the plant itself would have to be HUGE.. big enough to trap the prey and strong enough to hold on to it – I’d image that something like a lion would put up a good fight if it got caught by a plant! The plant would then need to be able to release enzymes strong enough to dissolve the lion, and I would imagine this would take a very long time with such a large animal.
So in short, if plants can evolve to be big enough I guess the answer to your question is yes! However this would take thousands of years considering how small carnivorous plants are at the moment so you don’t have to worry!
-
anon answered on 17 Mar 2014:
This is the kind of question I would have asked if I had this when I was at school.
This is an interesting idea, and my word, I’ve tried finding evidence for them in prehistory. There is a large amount of evidence of giant insects in those days…But I could not find anything for plants which might have eaten them 🙁 the hunt is on!
Also, who says a rat isn’t a proper mammal 😛
-
Sarah Harvey answered on 18 Mar 2014:
😀 This question reminded me of what always used to happen to me on a racing game my bro has on his playstation, eaten by a giant plant just as I’m about to cross the finish line…
Seriously though, I think the others covered most things I wanted to say! I imagine a carnivorous plant big enough to eat a large mammal would have its main difficulty in being strong enough to hold them especially if they were struggling, maybe if there was one which poisoned them then absorbed them afterwards it would work!
Comments