Eh yeah, they basically become lifeform soup at some point, so I also would not have guessed they can retain memories. But apparently the soup remembers.
When the caterpillar goes into its cocoon, it basically liquifies itself into a soup, including the nervous system. So for a while scientists didn’t know how much of the old caterpillar really remained in the new butterfly, or if it was essentially killing itself and birthing a new organism from the goop.
Unfortunately for the common misunderstanding, “basically” is doing too much heavy lifting there. Most of their cells are replaced or reconfigured during metamorphosis but the central nervous system is not reduced to an unconnected paste. Linking an ancient Reddit thread for an overview and terms to chase down if you’re curious. https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/mpqu2/what_happens_to_a_caterpillars_brain_during/c32x1pc/
You should look up what happens during metamorphosis. Their whole body turns to liquid in the cacoon and then they reform as a butterfly. So where would the memories be stored?
I mean, that’s science, innit? You form a reasonable hypothesis and then ruthlessly attack it.
I think it’d be perfectly reasonable to ask why a butterfly needs to remember anything at all about what it did as a caterpillar. It likely has a completely different diet (maybe it doesn’t eat at all), it sees the world from a very different perspective, it is orders of magnitude faster, it has all that mating shit to figure out…
I think it’s that they become ooze at one stage part.
Eh yeah, they basically become lifeform soup at some point, so I also would not have guessed they can retain memories. But apparently the soup remembers.
Okay thats crazyyy
When the caterpillar goes into its cocoon, it basically liquifies itself into a soup, including the nervous system. So for a while scientists didn’t know how much of the old caterpillar really remained in the new butterfly, or if it was essentially killing itself and birthing a new organism from the goop.
Unfortunately for the common misunderstanding, “basically” is doing too much heavy lifting there. Most of their cells are replaced or reconfigured during metamorphosis but the central nervous system is not reduced to an unconnected paste. Linking an ancient Reddit thread for an overview and terms to chase down if you’re curious. https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/mpqu2/what_happens_to_a_caterpillars_brain_during/c32x1pc/
You should look up what happens during metamorphosis. Their whole body turns to liquid in the cacoon and then they reform as a butterfly. So where would the memories be stored?
Not really. Elementary school mislead you.
I mean, that’s science, innit? You form a reasonable hypothesis and then ruthlessly attack it.
I think it’d be perfectly reasonable to ask why a butterfly needs to remember anything at all about what it did as a caterpillar. It likely has a completely different diet (maybe it doesn’t eat at all), it sees the world from a very different perspective, it is orders of magnitude faster, it has all that mating shit to figure out…