It seems like every day we learn an astounding new fact about the natural world, and now scientists have discovered a member of the animal kingdom whose survival technique is so mind-blowing we just have to stand up in front of the computer and cheer: This species of salamander has evolved a sell-by date from 1992 so predators think it’s expired.
This is seriously incredible! Nature is truly beautiful and amazing.
In a recent study published in the scientific journal Nature, researchers confirmed that the spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum) has gradually evolved over millions of years to carry a certification from the United States Department of Agriculture that it went rancid towards end of George H.W. Bush’s presidency. Researchers have observed potential predators, including raccoons, skunks, and snakes, checking the salamander’s sell-by date and immediately fleeing out of fear of getting food poisoning or dealing with the foul taste of spoiled salamander meat. Even though many of the salamanders are perfectly fresh and would probably taste delicious, this natural mode of deception functions as an ingenious biological defense mechanism!
Absolutely mind-blowing! Our amazing planet is full of everyday miracles if you just know where to look!
“Fossil records combined with thorough genetic analysis indicate that as far back as 90 million years ago, an early evolutionary ancestor of the spotted salamander had evolved to display an expiration date indicating it had gone bad several weeks prior,” says Professor Rhona Daniels of the University of Michigan, one of the leading researchers on the project. “This early expiration date was enough to drive away some of the pickier predators, but at this time the salamander was still vulnerable to certain carnivores who consider the expiration date a loose suggestion and think that eating food a week or two past the posted sell-by label is mostly fine.”
“Once the salamanders evolved a sell-by date from the height of the grunge era, though, this method of defense became far more robust,” Daniels continued. “Only the grossest creatures are going to think it’s okay to eat an animal that expired all the way back before Aladdin came out. It’s really quite an elegant way of letting predators know, ‘I taste like sour milk and if you eat me you will barf.’”
Well, this is officially the coolest thing we’ve read in our entire lives. Just when you think nature can’t get any more magnificent, it goes ahead and does something like this. We really want to see one of these salamanders in the wild now so we can watch this expiration date drive away predators in real-time!
