this post was submitted on 16 Dec 2025
512 points (98.9% liked)

Science Memes

17894 readers
1821 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Deceptichum@quokk.au 34 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (3 children)

Maybe it's a form of xenoparity like Messor ibericus, where one species is giving birth to an entirely separate species alongside its own.

[–] jimmux@programming.dev 14 points 1 week ago

I never heard of xenoparity before, this is fascinating.

Supposedly it only evolved about 5 million years ago, and some colonies still rely on external populations? Nature is constantly finding new ways to undermine our attempts to think we know how shit works.

[–] rapchee@lemmy.world 10 points 2 weeks ago
[–] TexasDrunk@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

First, thank you for pointing this out. I had to go and fill my brain hole with a bunch of information about this absolutely fascinating discovery. I really thought you were discussing some science fiction concept initially.

Second, what in the actual fuck did I just read?!?