Arbogast

God done a cool job on the Fly Traps and Pitcher Plants and such. Personally, it is an article of Faith with me that God created these creatures through Evolution, so I will have my cake and eat it too!!!:notworthy

Its really no mystery this relatively common type of plant evolved (Pitcher Plants are very common in Georgia, USA if you know where to look). The boggy areas these plants thrive in are common, and by its nature a boogy soil lacks certain things a rotting insect provides a plant. So, a plant evolving a good place for an insect to die and rot is not really surprising.

That is all a Pitcher Plant specialized function is, a good place for an insect to get stuck and rot.

Bubba out

MrDarwin

I haven't re-read this thread and I'm sure it's already been mentioned, but these new molecular phylogenies are demonstrating that in almost every case, the closest relatives of these plants with complex, active traps are turning out to be plants with passive flypaper traps, strongly suggesting an evolutionary progression from simple to complex traps.

In fact, non-carnivorous plants with sticky hairs are pretty common, probably using those hairs to discourage herbivorous insects--many of them actually trap and kill insects and from there it's a pretty small step to true carnivory. In some cases it's not clear whether they obtain nutrients from the dead bugs--passive carnivory may be more common than has previously been suspected.

I've pointed out before that mousetraps--the favorite design analogs of IDers--themselves have undergone some evolution over the years. The earliest mousetrap was a rock (or foot).

Sauron

Ahem.

http://www.nybg.org/pr/carnivorous.html