Dionaea phylogeny, or: THEY CAME FROM THE ORT CLOUD!!
Michael.Chamberland (23274MJC@MSU.EDU)
Sat, 17 Jun 95 08:57 EDT
> >So where did all the other CPs come from? There is a theory that this sola
> >system is terrorized by a rogue star named "Nemesis" that rips through our
> >system every 12 million years...causing mass extinctions. It is possible t
> >planets revolving around Nemesis break up and chunks of them fall to the ea
> >when this happens. This explains Nepenthes, Cephalotus, Heliamphora, VFTs,
> >Droseras, Sarracenia, and Darlingtonia all inhabiting different regions of
> >earth...simply because that's where the planetary debris came down. Okay,
>
> So, as resident astronomer I chuckle. I've argued against many parts of
> Steve's humorous scenario in the past, so won't repeat those. But I do note
> in Steve's newest picture the plants came from Nemesis, which is a theoretic
> brown dwarf star. Of course, such a star would emit all its radiation in the
> infrared (and not visible), so Steve you'll have to explain how plants which
> adapted to life on the surface of a pitch-black planet suddenly developed
> chlorophyll and all the associated pigments, presumably in only a few
> generations. You have your job cut out for you!
As in the dark depths of Earth's own oceans, the surface of Nemesis is
teeming with the flickering strobes of bioluminescence! Here CP exist
as true heterotrophs, extracting minerals from thier prey, and
photosynthesizing the dying flashes of light from their victims!
(The insect family on Nemisis can be broken into two groups, the "warm
whites" and the "cool whites". Nemesian CP seem to catch these in equal
numbers. :-)
Hey, never mind raising crickets or fruit flies for my CP, I want to
raise fireflies for them! (will a firefly keep flashing when caught
if a VFT? For how long?).
Michael