this post was submitted on 24 May 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] sun_is_ra@sh.itjust.works 166 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Had to look it up because I didnt beleive

sure enough its correct

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree

[–] ch00f@lemmy.world 131 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Something poetic and quaint about a link to a Wikipedia article titled "Tree"

[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 42 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

reddit has broken me. I was expecting it to point to weed.

[–] VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world 30 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] ByteJunk@lemmy.world 19 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Reddit has broken me. I was expecting a rickroll

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[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 99 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (7 children)

Also cool that for a period of like 60 million years, nothing decomposed dead trees. As they would die or fall over, they'd just stay there, piling up. This is where most oil came from. The massive amounts of trees stacking up before bacteria and fungus evolved to decomposed them. Imagine 60 million years worth of trees just lying around.

*Thought I'd add an edit, since this post got quite a few eyes on it: It was mostly coal that all those trees turned into. Not oil.

[–] Dogyote@slrpnk.net 45 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

Didn't those trees become coal, not oil?

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[–] turtlesareneat@discuss.online 28 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Mushrooms are the great undertaker, the great decomposer. The Langoliers. They are just waiting to eat you, and they're happy to share their fruits in the meantime. They're fattening you up. They can wait.

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[–] Ileftreddit@lemmy.world 23 points 2 weeks ago

I thought that was coal

[–] stabby_cicada@slrpnk.net 22 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I imagine dead trees were flammable, even back then. And oxygen levels were 15% higher. Can you imagine the forest fires?

[–] Crassus@feddit.nl 20 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Fire wasn't invented back then

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[–] Anomalocaris@lemm.ee 77 points 2 weeks ago (8 children)

I'm a billion years, crabs will start turning into trees and trees into crabs. merging into the ubercreature

[–] khannie@lemmy.world 56 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm a billion years

Damn. You look good for your age.

[–] Comment105@lemm.ee 17 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I'd argue, but I agree. I don't need to know how they look, if they're a billion years and capable of communicating, whatever state they're in looks good. Even if its a fungus posessed rot monster.

[–] ladicius@lemmy.world 14 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
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[–] PlantDadManGuy@lemmy.world 15 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

"ubercreature" excuse me, lichen would like a word with you

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[–] m_xy@lemmy.world 67 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (3 children)

here’s a cool blog post that expands on this There’s no such thing as a tree (phylogenetically)

i didn’t even put it in a bookmark folder, it’s just loose on my bookmark bar because it’s such an interesting post that i reread from time to time

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[–] hash@slrpnk.net 62 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

So that's why every stargate planet looks like Canada

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[–] kubica@fedia.io 61 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Nature likes things that turn hard- Wait what?

[–] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 47 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Weren't there like, several millions of years where trees evolved but nothing had come yet to break down wood, so like, generations of dead forest just fell on top of each other until some fungus was like "that looks yummy"?

[–] ryedaft@sh.itjust.works 47 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The molecule is called lignin. And yes, there was a good 60 million years before that particular problem was cracked.

[–] OrganicMustard@lemmy.world 23 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] meyotch@slrpnk.net 28 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

First, we bio-engineer bacteria and fungi to prefer plastic as food.

Second, these bacteria become a serious endopathogen in the human body while scavenging our precious bodily microplastics.

Third, we engineer a bacteriophage to attack the bacteria in our brains.

Fourth…

The whole human comedy just keeps going and going

[–] OrganicMustard@lemmy.world 18 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The beautiful part is that when wintertime rolls around the gorillas simply freeze to death

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[–] ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world 40 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

I think palm trees are a kind of grass

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[–] NotASharkInAManSuit@lemmy.world 35 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Also, no such thing as fish.

Google it.

[–] boydster@sh.itjust.works 26 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Impossible. If there were no such thing as fish, how could bees be fish?

[–] NotASharkInAManSuit@lemmy.world 32 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (4 children)

I don’t have the tools to know how to respond to this comment. You win.

Edit: Holy shit. I just did a quick google. Boydster is not shitting us. Just google “bees are fish.” Oddly enough, this actually furthers the thesis of fish not existing.

[–] Devmapall@lemm.ee 18 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (3 children)

To add on for anyone who is lazy like me, the thing where Google summarizes says California has classified bees as fish under an environmental protection act. According to the first result (Reddit) it's because fish is a catch all term in that law. Instead of listing all the animals they just use fish. Because fish,bees, and the other animals are all invertebrates.

Now whoever reads this has three Lemmy comments, a reddit thread reference, and an ai overview reference as some solid sources

[–] DancingBear@midwest.social 18 points 2 weeks ago (10 children)

Fish are vertebrates they have a backbone

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[–] Deconceptualist@lemm.ee 34 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

My sister in law recently quipped that "Trees are a social construct" and at first I thought she was just being glib but now I can't get that statement out of my head.

[–] resting_parrot@sh.itjust.works 24 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I listen to a podcast called Completely Arbortrary. They talk about a different tree species each episode. They say trees are a strategy, not a strict definition.

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[–] miss_demeanour@lemmy.dbzer0.com 33 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] DeathsEmbrace@lemm.ee 31 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Its called convergent evolution and you also have some shit you wouldnt believe that makes all apes similar to us.

[–] OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca 18 points 2 weeks ago

Apes are so similar to us because we came from a common ancestor. I'd love to hear if there are traits we evolved independently after we split though.

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[–] twice_hatch@midwest.social 28 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)
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[–] OpenStars@discuss.online 23 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

And it's not even one creature or even type of creature. Look up rhizobium.

Tbf, as we learn more about our gut microbiomes, it turns out that humans are that way as well. Maybe that's why we have the thoughts in our heads vs. the feelings in our guts... (no that's actually not it at all, except... isn't it though?).

[–] DoubleSpace@lemm.ee 16 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

I figure the feeling of being in your head is simply due to your eyeballs being located there. Now I want to put a 3d camera on my hips, and steam it to VR goggles.

[–] meyotch@slrpnk.net 17 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

The hips do not lie. Ipso facto, you would be seeing ultimate truth.

It turns out that the meaning of life is at crotch level.

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[–] carpelbridgesyndrome@sh.itjust.works 22 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

There are fern trees, conifer trees, and flowering trees. Where are my moss trees?

[–] Ledericas@lemm.ee 15 points 1 week ago

theres also a definition of a what a tree in the sense , its develops wood, many things are tree like, but not trees: such as palms(just overgrown herbs), dracaena( aka cabbage tree, they have something dracenoid thickining.) extinct plants like giant lycophytes and ferns

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