What is biomimicry and what are the main benefits?
In: Biology
I suppose you’re referring to the evolutionary biology phenomenon.
Organisms often evolve to mimic other objects or organisms in appearance or other apparent traits to protect themselves. For example, an insect may evolve to look like a small tree branch, now it’s well camouflaged and can’t be easily seen by predators. A plant may be really nutritious for animals, so they keep eating it or stepping on it and so on, but another plant in the habitat may be poisonous and the animals avoid it, so the first plant may evolve to look like the second, so animals leave it alone and let it survive. Some extend the definition of mimicry beyond appearance, like with those releasing odors reminiscent of dead and decomposing organisms, which attracts insects that then may either facilitate carrying seeds or even get digested by the plant as a food source. This phenomenon is quite common in insects but it’s seen across many types of species too. It’s just evolution.
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