What a shit diet!
one mouse one cup?
Some great new research has found a rather interesting symbiotic relationship, where before there was believed to be only a very one-sided one.
The latest research and observations have concluded that one of the largest carnivorous plants, a pitcher plant Nepenthes rajah from Borneo, encourages it’s prey to leave a present, rather than just eat it.
It’s a lovely bit of behaviour to discover and makes complete sense from an evolutionary point of view. Pitcher plants evolved to catch insects to digest may have mutated in a way that attracted small mammals to eat from it, these then left nutrient rich dropping and would have returned often providing the advantage to the plant with this mutation to gain a selective advantage, over time you can predict the outcome would be the perfect match you see today – Wonderful.
It’s also an elegant way to show how much of an advantage it is for an organism to find a niche no one else has exploited, how many other “poo eaters” would it have to compete with? None! ensuring a constant and reliable supply of rich nutrients. other great example would be the pearl fish Carpus sp. which lives inside the anus of Sea Cucumbers, I doubt there is much competition for that real estate.
Also congratulation to the team at Monash and Royal Roads University for not just settling for accepting the simple explanation and modifying our understanding of these plants. The strength of science is exactly this approach and why we learn more about the world about us and get closer to the truth with every modification, Bravo.
Love evolution, love biology, love science
Answers In Genius 
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