• the post of tom joad
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    16023 days ago

    I came here hoping to read more about this worm and its slime guns but no one did much yet so i had to look it up and now I’ve become the commenter i hoped to find? I hope the mildly interested people following after me find this cool:

    The slime is incredible stuff. It leaves the worm’s nozzles as twin streams of sticky liquid. But once it touches the target, it hardens almost immediately into a stiff, hard gel that is neither sticky nor soluble in water. It’s an incredible transformation and for the prey, it’s a fatal one. By ‘milking’ an Australian velvet worm called Euperipatoides rowelli and studying its slime, Haritos has discovered that its properties come from a special type of chaotic protein.

    Chaos Bolt! Man this worm is cool.

    National geographic (2 minute read)

    • pancakes
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      5922 days ago

      Thank you for being the commenter you hoped to find but couldn’t and are instead the commenter i hoped to find and did.

    • @blackbrook
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      211 days ago

      What makes it harden? Is it nonnewtonian? Does it impale its prey?

      • the post of tom joad
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        111 days ago

        Its been a bit since i read it now but i think hitting the air makes it dry very quickly (something having to do with the chaotic shape of the proteins in the “beam”). Its a quick read if you want to check my memory

  • @herrcaptain@lemmy.ca
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    5723 days ago

    According to Wikipedia it’s actually a slime attack, so let’s not get too excited. God’s favorite beast is still probably the Platypus.

    • Gormadt
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      3123 days ago

      Have you seen the number of beetle species?

      God’s favorite critters are beetles for sure

      Platypus seems more like, “Let’s see how many features I can cram in something before it breaks people’s immersion.”

      • @RamblingPanda@lemmynsfw.com
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        1623 days ago

        Hey Jesus, wanna build something with the spares box? It’s full with all the weird stuff I couldn’t fit into the other animals.

  • Gormadt
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    3123 days ago

    Velvet worm used Slime Gun

    It’s super effective!

    Honestly though those action shots are cool AF

    • @ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.world
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      21 days ago

      Yeah but they don’t show how random it is.

      In these still shots they look like focused beams but in reality they just spray that shit all over the place.

      Edit: Found a video.

      • Gormadt
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        1022 days ago

        “I swear this never happens,” lies the velvet worm assessing the slime that’s everywhere