averagemoe
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So, we have this article here talking about how spiders used to work before the JTRH engine came along. They were just constantly a particular shade of blue that would only camouflage in the Palace room style. But the implication seems to be that at some indeterminate point while the DAA was a thing, they recalled the style and caused an accelerated evolution of spiders to be arachnid chameleons.

But hold on. Remember when Beethro time-traveled to like, ten thousand years before his time? Caught in an Eddy, 2S,3E, there's a nest of spiders. And those spiders have chromatophores.

So, at some point, spiders must have lost the ability to change color, only to later regain it. Does evolutionary science have a term for this?

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Rabscuttle
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The blue spiders could be a divergent species that evolved in tropical shallows.

It probably costs a lot of energy to continually change colours so if you're living in a primarily pale blue environment, a spider that loses that ability would generally outsurvive one that doesn't. You see similar things with birds on islands with fewer predators losing the ability to fly.

The introduction of the palace style gave these tropical spiders a new environment that they were suited for, and they were able to become the dominant species in most dungeon environments.

The subsequent recall of Palace shifted the environment again, and without camouflage the tropical spiders had less defense against their natural enemies, so the camouflaging ones were able to spread back inside from the swamps.

IQubic
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If we are allowing non-canonical speculation about how spiders on the Eighth might evolve in the future, I point you towards Spider Nest from the MaGDL contest, made by Xindaris.

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navithmastero
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averagemoe wrote:
So, we have this article here talking about how spiders used to work before the JTRH engine came along. They were just constantly a particular shade of blue that would only camouflage in the Palace room style. But the implication seems to be that at some indeterminate point while the DAA was a thing, they recalled the style and caused an accelerated evolution of spiders to be arachnid chameleons.

But hold on. Remember when Beethro time-traveled to like, ten thousand years before his time? Caught in an Eddy, 2S,3E, there's a nest of spiders. And those spiders have chromatophores.

So, at some point, spiders must have lost the ability to change color, only to later regain it. Does evolutionary science have a term for this?

There is indeed a term for this! It's called back mutation.

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[Last edited by navithmastero at 07-21-2024 05:29 PM]

Zaratustra00
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navithmastero wrote:

averagemoe wrote:
So, we have this article here talking about how spiders used to work before the JTRH engine came along. They were just constantly a particular shade of blue that would only camouflage in the Palace room style. But the implication seems to be that at some indeterminate point while the DAA was a thing, they recalled the style and caused an accelerated evolution of spiders to be arachnid chameleons.

But hold on. Remember when Beethro time-traveled to like, ten thousand years before his time? Caught in an Eddy, 2S,3E, there's a nest of spiders. And those spiders have chromatophores.

So, at some point, spiders must have lost the ability to change color, only to later regain it. Does evolutionary science have a term for this?

There is indeed a term for this! It's called back mutation.

Also known as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atavism

averagemoe
Level: Smiter

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Rabscuttle wrote:
The blue spiders could be a divergent species that evolved in tropical shallows.

It probably costs a lot of energy to continually change colours so if you're living in a primarily pale blue environment, a spider that loses that ability would generally outsurvive one that doesn't. You see similar things with birds on islands with fewer predators losing the ability to fly.

The introduction of the palace style gave these tropical spiders a new environment that they were suited for, and they were able to become the dominant species in most dungeon environments.

The subsequent recall of Palace shifted the environment again, and without camouflage the tropical spiders had less defense against their natural enemies, so the camouflaging ones were able to spread back inside from the swamps.

Maybe the Spider Cave was like, a refuge of the unmutated type. It's location in Akandia makes it easy to doubt the validity of Gunthro's story.

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