Groundskeepers
Insects
1. "Flies will start working on the deceased (or dung) within ten minutes of death--they can sense it somehow--and give births to millions of maggots (miniature eating machines) within a day. They are followed by other types of flies, spiders, and beetles. Millions of maggots will cover a corpse within a few days. Some scavengers eat part of the carcass, and hide part for later. All expel the fecal products, which starts another cycle of smaller scavengers that may be eaten by carnivores and so on down and then back up the food chain. Among the missing links is how spiders eat. They secrete their digestive juices, and once their meal is liquefied, they suck the juice up like a kid with a straw in a soda-pop can. One wonders if predecessors had tried to host of digestive juices, starving all the while, until they genetically found the right one. It would have taken a massive mutation to create these processes and have them all work together so nicely."
SYMBIOSIS
1. "Symbiosis describes an unusually close or mandatory association between two or more unrelated species for their mutual survival. . . . Symbiosis should not be confused with
commensalism, which means eating at the same table. For example, there's a worm that rooms with a hermit crab. It even shares the same meals, but as best scientists can tell, they are merely an odd couple. Another extremely bizarre, dot-sized animal called
Symbion pandora lives inside a Norwegian lobster's mouth, where it vacuums up passing food particles for itself and reproduces by growing a youngster out its own rear end. It can also produce a dwarf male that is only a brain and reproductive organs. No one has the faintest idea what group of animals this species belongs to our how it came about."
Mutual Dependence
2. "Just the fact the fact that we require oxygen from plants and they require carbon dioxide from us tells us most of life is a symbiotic relationship. Our families have a type of symbiotic relationship, as do our co-workers and teammates. Depending on another species is quite common in Nature."
3. "A tarantula species in Texas maintains a symbiotic relationship with a frog that is small enough to hop between the arachnid's legs. Although the tarantula could easily eat the frog, it seems to know somehow that this particular amphibian will protect its eggs from flies and other insects with a flick of the tongue. Meanwhile, the frog's predators fear the tarantula. A similar relationship exists between a lizard and a scorpion comfort; the lizard benefits from the scorpion's protection."
4. "There are mice that travel around with beetles clamped to their fur like necklaces or brooches. These beetles eat fleas that infect mice habitats--a meal in exchange for protection. Wolbachia bacteria, a common symbiont in insects, can actually change the sex of the host insect's offspring."
5. "The vanilla flavoring found in your kitchen cupboard is a consequence of symbiosis. The vanilla bean comes from an orchid plant that can only be pollinated by a tiny stinger-free, flea-sized bee that knows how to go under a minute septum and take the pollen to the next plant. For 300 years Europeans repeatedly failed to grow this plant; now they do it by artificial insemination. Making things even more difficult is the fact there's only a three-hour window when this flower stays open. This special bee and very unique plant had to have originated together."
