Wednesday 15 February 2012

How to Grow a Planet- Growing Confusion?

The 'How to Grow a Planet' series on BBC TV is visually impressive and entertaining but it does not deal especially well with the concept of co-evolution (http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01c8b5t/How_to_Grow_a_Planet_The_Power_of_Flowers/). The second episode suggested that flowers had driven the development of colour vision in primates, by using colour to signify ripe fruit. One should note, additionally, that some uses of red mean poisonous rather than ready to eat. Even so, it is extremely unlikely that cones in the retina came about solely as a result of manipulation by flowers. Colour vision is important in other sets of circumstances (finding a mate and locating animal prey) and it is much more likely that the plant's signals and the primate detector systems drove each other in evolutionary terms.

1 comment:

speed said...

What the show implies us humans and creatures are the by-product of flowers & grasses. Plants have chosen humans to be genetically modified in order to evolve quicker and move even planet hop in order to create life and survive. One could argue many planets have sustained life in the past and during earths creation earth has inherited Plant DNA, bacteria from asteroids and fragments from such planets suffering a apocalyptic event.

Some of My Favourite Pictures of Lepidopteran Larvae

Caterpillars of moths and butterflies from the UK and India