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.