Comment on Tigers 🐅 🐯

jeena@piefed.jeena.net ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

• superniceperson@sh.itjust.works ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Only in areas with tigers, and then it would only express itself enough if there were enough evolutionary pressure exclusively on that survival tactic.

  As long as other causes of death happen to deer in tiger territories and as long as speed remains a good survival strategy, minor mutations that would only provide an advantage in extreme specific scenarios like a tiger stalking them wouldn’t have a chance to be spread.

  There’s also a whole host of additional brain power that needs to be dedicated to more complex colour blending and processing, and that may add enough delay to offset any potential gain in recognizing a threat.

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  • MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    minor mutations that would only provide an advantage in extreme specific scenarios

    Most north european can digest lactose.

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    • zalgotext@sh.itjust.works ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      North Europe is a frozen wasteland where nothing grows for like a third of the year, being able to digest lactose in those months is hugely advantageous. I don’t think “winter” counts as an “extreme specific scenario”

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      • MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        Hey northern europe is not all Iceland.

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    • Demdaru@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Black death IIRC. Milk was one of few easily availabke foods when farmers died off. So, extremely specific scenario.

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• apotheotic@beehaw.org ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Presumably yes, but its still down to a roll of the dice whether a mutation like that happens in the first place, and whether the individuals who have that mutation live long enough to breed, and whether that mutation actually gets passed down, etc

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• Xatolos@reddthat.com ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  It could, but it might also lead to something harmful for the deer at the same time. I’m not sure if the gene affecting the deer’s eyesight is known, but it could be a pleiotropic gene (a gene that influences multiple traits at once).

  If that’s the case, and the other effect is negative and somehow spreads through the population, it could become a future issue for the deer. Think about humans—we lost the ability to produce our own vitamin C. Almost every other mammal can produce their own (except for hamsters). When this happened, it didn’t harm us right away, so it spread through the population. But over time, it led to issues that weren’t a problem before, like scurvy.

  Same could happen to the deer.

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• meliaesc@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  It’s been far more important, evolution wise, to be agile and quick enough to avoid predators. Like a security camera can only tell you how someone was murdered.

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• hexabs@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  And then soon we’d have green tigers.

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  • uniquethrowagay@feddit.org ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    There are no green mammals because of some biology reason I can’t remember.

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    • hexabs@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Yeah I think it was a balance patch, because mammals that could photosynthesize were too OP.

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    • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Basically all mammalian pigmentation is just melanin, so mammal colorings are mostly just different amounts of brown combined with different amounts of red, and some animals don’t even have the red.

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      • MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        Some birds are green.

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    • Aqarius@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Also, the vast majority of mammals don’t see green either.

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• Churbleyimyam@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Competitive advantage over their deer peers.

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