Why are there so many beetle species?
knowablemagazine.org
knowablemagazine.org
There is a story, possibly apocryphal, of the distinguished British biologist,
J.B.S. Haldane, who found himself in the company of a group of theologians. On
being asked what one could conclude as to the nature of the Creator from a
study of his creation, Haldane is said to have answered, “An inordinate
fondness for beetles.”>Haldane was making a theological point: God is most likely to take trouble over reproducing his own image, and his 400,000 attempts at the perfect beetle contrast with his slipshod creation of man. When we meet the Almighty face to face he will resemble a beetle (or a star) and not Dr. Carey [the archbishop of Canterbury].
Life: beetles, plus extra features which must be justified.
I never read the opinion that beetles were simple in the "MVP" sense of the word. I think they can be quite complex life forms.
It is definitely possible I haven’t thought this out very well.
I’d like to suggest the swap of oyster in the place of clam, because oysters are less mobile than clams.
This leads to a funny observation: for some reason I think a worm and an oyster are obviously animals, like if you were a caveman with no notion of genetics or the tree of life and you came across either, I suspect you’d think “this thing is obviously some kind of animal.” But a sponge is not so obvious, I think, to our hypothetical caveman. I could believe a sponge is a weird plant.
I think you need at least one distinguishing feature beyond the minimal to become obviously an animal, for some reason.
The roots of "animal", "fungus", and "plant" are completely arbitrary; anything outside the chosen root can be called a "protist" (many marine "plants" are counted as protists nowadays).
Then I saw the videos of them quickly evading predators or just swimming around in general. e.g:
Clamming was a surprisingly fun way to waste a morning as a kid, it is like playing at the beach with objectives. If you ever happen across somebody with a license, I suggest giving it a try.
Dude... There are water beetles that live underwater, but do also fly and walk. This is not "mininum viable" in any sense of the term. Just because they have smaller brains and less developed immune systems does not mean that they are millions of years beyond mammals in fantastic specialization!
Maybe they enjoy it.
I would think the opposite; scorned humans often turn even more violent.
See this video from Clint's Reptiles for the explanation: https://youtu.be/-aV78eNbdTU?si=DCe3ZUx8C6IKlXJe&t=978
Usually, when we find something like this, the answer is because "taxonomy is more art than science". Like trees or fish. Both exist all over their respective branches of the evolutionary tree. You have fish species that do not have a common ancestor that does not also include "not fish".
Same with trees. Two "trees" can exist in groups with "not trees"
Although, I guess the picture could also be incomplete. It could just be showing the beetle lineage and not anything else that may branch from those branches.
In which case, this could be another case of cancerification. As much as nature loves a crab, it loves to start from a beetle.
It's also how differentiated (and isolated) the habitats themselves became over 100s of millions of years of climate change and plate tectonics.
I suppose that helps with species longevity.
Pratchetts's books are full of that kind of reference.
But then he was talking about the "pinnical" of life and evolution. Ponder thought he meant humans, capable of mastering their world.
Then he looked down and saw the leg twitch...
_________
> The little god's hands twitched. 'I don't know, I do try to diversify, but sometimes it's so difficult...'
> Suddenly he ran across the crowded cave towards a huge pair of doors at the far end, and flung them open. 'I'm sorry, but I just have to do one,' said the god. 'They calm me down, you know.' Ponder caught up. The cave beyond the doors was bigger than this one, and brilliantly lit. The air was full of small, bright things, hovering in their millions like beads on invisible strings.
> 'Beetles?' said Ponder.
> There's nothing like a beetle when you're feeling depressed!' said the god. He'd stopped by a large metal desk and was feverishly opening drawers and pulling out boxes. 'Can you pass me that box of antennae? It's just on the shelf there. Oh yes, you can't beat a beetle when you're feeling down. Sometimes I think it's what it's all about, you know.'
> 'What all?' said Ponder.
> The god swept an arm in an expansive gesture. 'Everything,' he said cheerfully. 'The whole thing. Trees, grass, flowers... What did you think it was all for?'
> 'Well, I didn't think it was for beetles,' said Ponder. 'What about, well, what about the elephant, for a start?'
> The god already had a half-finished beetle in one hand. It was green. 'Dung,' he said triumphantly.
_________
> 'Apes? Oh, very amusing, certainly, and obviously the beetles have to have something to entertain them, but . . .' The god looked at him, and a celestial penny seemed to drop. 'Oh dear, you don't think they're the purpose of the whole business, do you?'
> 'I'd rather assumed—'
> 'Dear me, the purpose of the whole business, you see, is in fact to be the whole business. Although,' he sniffed, 'if we can do it all with beetles I shan't complain.'
> 'But surely the purpose of— I mean, wouldn't it be nice if you ended up with some creature that started to think about the universe—?'
> 'Good gravy, I don't want anything poking around!' said the god testily. 'There's enough patches and stitches in it as it is without some clever devil trying to find more, I can assure you. No, the gods on the mainland have got that right at least. Intelligence is like legs – too many and you trip yourself up. Six is about the right number, in my view.'
* And in that moment he knew that, despite the apparent beetle fixation, here was where he’d always wanted to be, at the cutting edge of the envelope in the fast lane of the state of the art.
They are small, hard and easy to manipulate and keep dry. A big collection fits in any room and they have an entertaining endless diversity of forms and colours, so primates like to collect them.
Don't believe me? How many roundworm or fly species do we know? How many we don't know still?
Because beetles are randy little buggers... yeah, baby. [0]
(It also helps when both your size and food source(s) let you survive extinction events easier than those silly mega- fauna/flora)
When you transcend the physical form into a body of energy (hint: OR=constructive, XOR=deconstructive, NOT=XOR(k,1), NOT( OR(j,k) )=NOR(j,k), NOR=Functionally Complete, ergo EMF or even sound can be Turing Complete), then as an energy body you may want to interact with physical forms again w/o ionizing them; So you'll create (sentient) machinations that can do tasks. Because your design parameters include survivability across large thermal and pressure gradients you'll [re]discover giant robotic beetle design.
If you'll excuse me, I've got to tend a Kephri (beetle of remanifestation) who is eagerly attempting to choose an Odin to ride this 6-legged "Steed" next Ragnorok.