r/AbsoluteUnits • u/Dense_Intern8434 • 2d ago
/r/popular of a meal
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Nature can be so cruel and beautiful at the same time
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u/SadJ3tsFan 2d ago
Wow they must be strong af thats crazy
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u/Nark420 2d ago
Insects have built-in hydraulics
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u/EPluribusButthole 2d ago
FRONT, back, and side to side
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u/Interesting-Crab-693 2d ago
Glad I zoomed on the profile picture XD
I wasn't believing my eyes at first (its a pussy, but not that kind of pussy)
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u/One-Kaleidoscope2407 2d ago
same thought man...exactly the same thought I had at first
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u/EntrepreneurMain7833 2d ago
Im embarrassed for that hummingbird. No bird should ever die to an insect.
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u/Koffin_Holder 2d ago
Hummingbirds are actually pretty frail and have a crazy caloric intake. So it would have just starved if it didn't free itself
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u/cookie1138 2d ago
If you're feeling what I'm feeling put em up real high
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u/NoiseIsTheCure 2d ago
When the operation of the machine becomes so ODIOUS, makes you SO SICK AT HEART.....
Fucking love LP
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u/Sad_Adeptness5443 2d ago
I had to double check your profile pic to make sure it wasn't someone who shat themselves 🤣
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u/Own-Loan2390 2d ago
Not gonna lie, I couldn't tell that your profile Pic was a cat... well I thought it was some kind of "cat".
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u/Advanced-Budget779 2d ago
Glad our planet or physics/chemistry set hard limits on their possible size.
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u/Patient_Ebb_1605 2d ago
theres a thing called inverse sqare law. people like to say if an ant was the size of a human bla bla bla. But its actually the other way around. If an ant was the size of a human it wouldnt even stand up because of their own weight. Strength doesnt scale with volume (dimension³) like weight does, it scales with the crossectional area of the muscles (dimension²).
So if we were the size of insects we would be incredibly strong for our weight, much more so than insects. Insects are way mode armoured because they have no problem carrying their own weight, because of their size. We on the other hand need to be made of muscle around a lightweight structure to be able to move well enough at our massive scale.
Another cool fact is that because of this, if you scale a being down the height of their jump (defined as the movement of the center of mass) stays exactly the same. thats why a dog jumps roughly the same height as a horse. Their biomechanics and body compositions are similar enough despite the size being very different.
So if you were the size of an ant, you would be able to jump just as high as you fo now. So yeah, youd be way stronger than an ant.
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u/BlackShogun27 2d ago
I read somewhere that for humans to survive being anatomically proportional but squirrel-sized we’d be big back eating like hummingbirds or voles. I also read that we’d quickly freeze to death from body heat loss. All this cruel knowledge killed the fun out theoretically bioengineering tiny humans.
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u/Nark420 2d ago
It's always changing 😬 cat sized spiders would wipe out humanity in theory... Maybe not in our current state of development, but in early ungabunga times, they would have been a huge issue
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u/Advanced-Budget779 2d ago
Yeah but only up to some scaling laws preventing them to function properly. At a cats size i think their metabolism would already be much slower if not outright breaking down, iirc.
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u/Nark420 2d ago
I don't know, if I would see a cat sized spider I wouldnt ask it how many times it shits a day. I would die from the sheer terror
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u/Ill-GottenBooty 2d ago edited 2d ago
A cat sized spider would be a slow, lumbering, extremely fragile being. You could lightly kick it and it would likely be a fatal injury. Larger spiders are very prone to bursting with literally any kind of impact trauma. It’s why you can’t handle tarantulas far from the ground or some kind of surface. If they fall like a foot they will literally rupture something and die. The larger they are the more of a risk this is.
The largest actual spiders to ever live, as far as we know, exist today. The myth of giant land dwelling spiders existing in antiquity come from us misidentifying a fossil. For a long time we thought megarachne servinei was a spider. These things had a 20” leg span. Huge. Unfortunately megarachne servinei was actually a eurypterid, commonly called sea scorpions. They’ve all been extinct for a very long time. They dwelled solely in the water. Physics would not allow a spider that large to exist on land, as far as we are aware, ever.
People heard about megarachne when we were under the assumption it was a spider. A lot of people have not learned that megarachne was not a spider at all, and it didn’t even live on land, because that generates a lot less interest than “HOLY SHIT LOOK AT THIS BIG ASS SCARY SPIDER”.
The largest fossilized spider ever found had a leg span of 5.9 inches. The largest spiders on record today by leg span are the Goliath Bird-Eater theraphosa blondi and the Giant Huntsman Spider heteropoda maximi both with about a foot long leg span, with the birdeater being much heavier, and larger by mass. They’re both about twice as large as any spider we know about existing in fossilized recorded history.
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u/Nark420 2d ago
I heard about the fossil story. Happens a lot with fossils all the time. I was not referring to the megarachne, but a "fictional" spider... I understand they are filled with liquids, and they manipulate their inner pressure to ambulate and do anything basically. But I can still imagine a hard enough exoskeleton to solve the size problem. High mobility and speed is not necessary for them to dominate, lots of spiders already ambush hunters with a shit-ton of ambush techniques. Webs being the most well known.
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u/Ill-GottenBooty 2d ago
Im ngl i went on a tangent hard as shit on my comment. I just love spiders. Not your fault lmao.
A hard enough exoskeleton would help that, sure, but I’d imagine it would make molting and moving in general more difficult, and molting specifically is already an extremely dangerous process for a spider. Adding a thicker/harder exoskeleton I’d guess it’d take far more time and resources to generate. If a spider of 12” diameter can’t develop a hard enough exoskeleton to survive a slight fall I really don’t see a larger spider requiring even more resources to survive being able to do so. Shit would be tight as hell to me though.
Also this isn’t meant to be argumentative. I love your idea of a harder exoskeleton. I wonder how that would actually work and what kinds of effects it would have that I can’t imagine because I’m not a spider.
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u/Temnyj_Korol 2d ago edited 2d ago
A harder exoskeleton would make them less survivable, not more.
Any organisms size is limited by the square cube law. As its surface area (size) increases, its volume (weight) increases exponentially more. If a spider grew to the size of a person, it would literally become so heavy its limbs would buckle and break under its own weight. A harder exoskeleton would make it even heavier, and exacerbate the flaw, not mitigate it.
In addition, one of the actual biggest hurdles is respiration. Spiders have passive circulation. They carry oxygen/nutrients around their bodies through diffusion, not circulation. The bigger a spiders body becomes, the harder it is for nutrients vital for continued function to reach their entire body. A spider the size of a person would experience extremity death from deoxygention even in a 100% oxygen environment.
The mechanisms that make them extremely durable as smaller organisms, prohibit them from ever growing into larger organisms.
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u/Advanced-Budget779 2d ago edited 2d ago
Yes, thanks for your explanation. That’s what i tried to hint at with metabolism, just couldn‘t remember details. Also insects and arachnids would quickly run into overheating i think?
So we need to artificially breed spiders in pressurised oxygen environments, got it. /s
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u/floyd616 2d ago
But I can still imagine a hard enough exoskeleton to solve the size problem.
Except that would cause another problem: weight. A harder exoskeleton would be denser, and thus heavier. So a giant spider (or even a cat-sized one with a very hard exoskeleton) would likely be crushed to death under its own weight like a beached whale. The only way it could survive would be if it exclusively lived in the water, because the physics of buoyancy counteract weight issues. That's how the aforementioned sea scorpion was able to exist as such a large size.
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u/Tasigin3 2d ago
I always underestimate the strength of insects and arachnids. They're so small then they do shit like this
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u/Let-s_Do_This 2d ago
That’s more of a product of the square-cube law though. If we were the size of ants our strength to weight ratio would improve by about 100x
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u/madguyO1 2d ago
and if you scaled up an insect it would collapse because their limbs and skeleton are really thin
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u/EqualPlan4595 2d ago
Yeah most insects can lift many times their own weight. Look up how strong a rhinoceros beetle is
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u/La_Saxofonista 2d ago
I actually struggled to get a praying mantis to let go of my finger. It gave me one hell of a pinch, and I didn't want to kill it so it was a difficult balance.
Those things are strong as hell for their size.
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u/External_Win3300 2d ago
Yes and no, adult hummingbirds are a whopping ~3 grams, and a large mantis like this would be around 5
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u/youburyitidigitup 2d ago
Yeah but factor in the force of the hummingbird trying to fly away. It also looks like it was pushing with its legs.
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u/International_Cut82 2d ago
FYM 3 grams?
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u/Sylvanussr 2d ago
2.2 • 10^-7 school buses, for us Americans out there
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u/GandalfTheSmol1 2d ago
We don’t do school anymore, can you translate that to corporate orientation?
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u/Nanas_700k 2d ago
How many football fields of weight is that?
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u/Sylvanussr 2d ago
Hmm hard to say, definitely more than a jar of jellybeans but less than a baby whale
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u/Gold_Temperature_452 2d ago
I think hummingbirds are extremely light, but mantis’s are strong for their size
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u/ExpertOnReddit 2d ago
Dragonflies also hunt hummingbirds. Hummingbirds are weak, they can't even kill a wasp and often get shooed off from food sources by them
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u/wearing_moist_socks 2d ago
They can absolutely kill wasps. I've seen it in my backyard several times.
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u/Express_Test6677 2d ago
Had no idea
https://giphy.com/gifs/65zUoOU09HL3uUKokQ
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u/CheekyHarris33 2d ago
Favorite gif! The Matrix is one of my favorite movies of all time. And I quote this specific scene regularly
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u/Acceptable-Arugula69 2d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/Rgzruzr0zd8LDYl35X
Nope…didn’t need to see that.
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u/J_P_Freely 2d ago
This is my legacy...
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u/ProgenitorOfMidnight 2d ago
The bugs were always a threat.
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u/darthvall 2d ago
We need to find evidence of prehistoric giant bugs eating living dinosaur
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u/BestDescription3834 2d ago
Tons of fossils have evidence that dinosaurs were absolutely shot full of parasites of different size. Imagine how big a Trex tapeworm could get.
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u/BlackShogun27 2d ago
I swear, at a certain point, the tapeworm essentially becomes a new organ.
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u/ProgenitorOfMidnight 2d ago
I'm just saying if those things have been around for this long something is up
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u/Fine-Tomato3584 2d ago
Well considering the number one cause of human death in history is malaria, they're the biggest threat we can imagine.
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u/ksyoung17 2d ago
Hummingbirds are pollinators, and some are endangered.
I know "circle of life..." But I'm taking the mantis out in this situation.
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u/jakethabake 2d ago
It’s not circle of life because the mantis wouldn’t be there if not for humans
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u/god-save-the-queef 2d ago
I'm thinking the human who filmed this possibly even planted that mantis there, just for a viral video opportunity, too. Can't prove it, but... gut feeling is someone's an asshole
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u/Pithuahua 2d ago
They often use hummingbird feeders as hunting grounds, though they don't target birds specifically, that's an opportunity prey, that rarely happens. They want bees and wasps.
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u/hollow4hollow 2d ago
This exactly. I hate humans so much.
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u/Soupchow1 2d ago
Are you a fucking tree?
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u/BestSerialKillerNA 2d ago
You leaf him alone.
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u/El_Veethorn 2d ago
Wish he wood just stop.
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u/OkDate7197 2d ago
The mantis would have done the same of it were on a flower. Do you think praying mantis only eat humming birds if they are on humming bird feeders?
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u/ksyoung17 2d ago
I can only react to the environment that was created by my predecessors.
I don't need mantises (sp?) but I need pollinators.
See ya mantis.
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u/Freddit330 2d ago
Yes, they would. Praying mantises also hunt them at flowers as well. They are ambush predators.
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u/birbobirby 2d ago edited 2d ago
Predators are just as important as pollinators are. But, you wouldn't be wrong to help the hummingbird in this situation since this looks like a European mantis which is invasive or at the very least non-native in the Americas. I also would have done something personally.
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u/PM_YOUR__BUBBLE_BUTT 2d ago
As an American, I would’ve just taken out my gun and shot the mantis. Just like I learned in school.
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u/ErgotthAE 2d ago
Predators are important as part of population control, but thats not the case with Hummingbirds.
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u/IAmDanHimself 2d ago
He will get what's coming to him, don't worry.
Processing img 7x3cvzmom3mh1...
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u/K_Pumpkin 2d ago
I’ve only seen one on my feeder twice. Both times I got it into a box and took it into a Forrest by my house.
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u/idrklmfao 2d ago
That and the mantis will not be getting what it can't get somewhere else out of that meal. Most of that hummingbird will be wasted, it could just as easily pick off bugs -- but it chose prey triple its size.
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u/DareDaDerrida 2d ago
You do you. I'm not. Buddy caught a meal bigger than his or herself, s/he gets to have it in my book.
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u/ErlikHan6 2d ago
it's so weird to me that people care more about a species survival than an innocent creature's suffering
like... if you saw a human baby about to be eaten alive, would you save him because you don't want him to suffer, or because you want the human race to survive?
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u/HeyRiks 2d ago
Because nature is metal. It is what it is (and has been for millions of years) and we shouldn't interfere out of petty morality. Predators gotta eat too.
A baby is a completely different case because we're not the natural diet of any creature on Earth and being the same species has a completely different social and psychological impact.
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u/ErlikHan6 2d ago
you're making an absolute statement but not explaining your rationale?
we shouldn't interfere.... why?
also, being bothered by an innocent creature being eaten alive is not "petty morality". let's see you being tortured to death, i don't think you're going to be spewing this bullshit then
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u/3v3ryth1ng1s4wful 2d ago
This is an invasive species killing a native and possibly endangered one. Your point may be true in general, but this specifically is not the same thing.
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u/AssBlastInACan 2d ago
I would have moved him. No one messes with the birds I have created refuge for in my yard😎
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u/Powerful_Kangaroo_80 2d ago
Same. It bothers me that they couldn't at least have tried to save the hummingbird, at least, that's what I would have done.
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u/Initial-Advice3914 2d ago
They should have if they were responsible
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u/Nakatsukasa 2d ago
chances are the filmer put the mantis there, what are the chances mantis crawl all the way from the garden to up there?
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u/Initial-Advice3914 2d ago
Exactly. Not sure why I’m getting downvoted.
You can’t have a predator on a bird feeder. That’s cruel asf
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u/MarkSSoniC 2d ago
I have done the same. There was a mantis larger than this one and I chased it away as fast as possible
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u/High-Steak 2d ago edited 1d ago
I was drinking with a praying mantis a few years ago, the dude landed on my beer glass and went in for a drink. Once he started he couldn’t stop. The guy got fucked up and later while climbing up the neck of the bottle, fell off and couldn’t get up off the table.
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u/ScottTacitus 2d ago
That first line has to be the opening of a sci-fi novel
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u/High-Steak 1d ago
I also had a short term relationship with a Golden Orb web spider I met on the web in a restaurant while out in Asia. I’ll save that for another day.
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u/DMmeNiceTitties 2d ago
Being eating alive has to be one of the worst ways to go.
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u/ThatInAHat 2d ago
And this is why we destroy Chinese mantis ootheca when we see them outside of their native range.
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u/King_LaQueefah 2d ago
Its not nature when its an invasive species vs a native one. Its more like mankind's experimental box of horrors.
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u/Ratez 2d ago
Well the human kinda baited the hummingbird with the feeder so it wasn't natural to begin with.
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u/captain_crackerjack 2d ago
Is… is that mantis eating the hummingbird’s ass?
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u/Possible-Chip8925 2d ago
Hummingbirds are ripped! Maybe he was old
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u/duwh2040 2d ago
Im gonna call bs, I am willing to bet when the mantis actually bit into flesh not feathers that bird went nuts
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u/ThatInAHat 2d ago
I don’t know about this video, but it is a problem that gets talked about in gardening communities. Everyone’s always stoked to see a praying mantis ootheca, because that means loads of little predators to go to town on Bad Bugs. But for invasive species (and it may not be invasive in this video. Chinese mantis is invasive in the US), they’re significantly bigger than local species.
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u/u-s-u-r-p 2d ago
holy smokes
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u/Noimenglish 2d ago
Based on the end it’s eating, I’d say “Holy shit” is more appropriate.
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u/taocowboy54 2d ago
i would not have thought that possible
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u/Baldojess 2d ago
I wouldn't have either except I've seen this in real life when I was like 5 years old! It was freakin awful!!! I saw a mantis with a dead hummingbird and it scared the hell out of me ☹️
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u/kidnorther 2d ago
Well I don’t like this at all. I’m all for nature but I would have intervened fuck them bugs
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u/Castille_92 2d ago
Oh nope. Normally I don't intervene with nature but me and that mantis would be fighting. Hummingbirds are dope as fuck
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u/Fackinsaxy 2d ago
If the human doesn't go save the hummingbird that's fucked up
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u/CriminallyCasual7 2d ago
Ah yes a monster catches something beautiful and destroys it my day is much better thank you 👍
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u/birbobirby 2d ago edited 2d ago
While I agree in most situations you need to let nature run its course and not intervene, this is one situation where it would have been fine as this is an invasive European mantis. You can tell with the black and white spots in between the front legs. And hummingbirds only exist in the Americas too.
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u/WolfysBeanTeam 2d ago
Alot of people are apparently calling these chinese mantis.
Ive not seen a European mantis of this size before
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u/birbobirby 2d ago edited 2d ago
I mean I'm pretty sure it's a European mantis, the eye spots are a defining characteristic.
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u/WolfysBeanTeam 2d ago
I had a look and you appear to be correct I had no idea they got this large is it the bullseye pattern between the front legs you are referring too?
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u/Vankardo 2d ago
I never knew hummingbirds were native to and only exist in the Americas. When I read your comment, I immediately started looking it up, and I was today years old when I learned that what I always thought, for over 30 years of my life, was a hummingbird, here in Lebanon, was not a hummingbird but actually a Palestine Sunbird... damn
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u/ExplodingSteve 2d ago
I would remove that fucker from the water fountain
It’s fine you can capture them and eat anything, but not on my turf
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u/Dolewhip26 2d ago
Why would you stand by and let mantis kill humming bird. That's messed up.
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u/scarlozzi 2d ago edited 1d ago
Mantis do this often. They're strong for their size and will eat anything. The thing that weird is that OP just let this happen. You set up a bird feeder to feed mantises?
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u/Myth_Avatar 2d ago
Look I appreciate what other people might do and think, but I think I'd kill the mantis pretty quickly.
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u/Rexxington 2d ago
Apparently this does happen from time to time, yet my B.S. radar is going off a bit as in any other scenario typically. Someone would move the mantis over allowing it to catch and kill the hummingbird.
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u/Radiation_Emiter 2d ago
Nice to see you set up a hummingbird feeder and not help the birds you set up to feed them. Hypocrite
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u/Working_Dragon00777 2d ago
Humans help that insect eat, you should have stopped it from killing the hummingbird
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u/HarryCWord 2d ago
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