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LESSON 5 · The Silent Intelligence of Plants

Repurposed for Hunting

Becoming a predator required no entirely new organs. Existing glands were repurposed to make glue and digestive enzymes. Leaf edges became snap-traps. Other leaves curled into pitfall tubes.

This is why carnivory could evolve so many separate times in unrelated families: evolution reached a radically different feeding strategy by recycling existing parts rather than inventing from scratch.