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Symbiotic Relationships - Jeremy

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Hi, it's the natural noob here, today, I'm going to explain about symbiotic relationships between two creatures. 

If you like Marvel comics, you might think that symbiotes are aliens from another universe (which is correct if you really admire fiction and comics). 

This type of symbiote (from science fiction and comic books) can give you powers such as superhuman strength, the ability to breathe underwater, or camouflage like the Venom character; and make endless webs like Spider-Man. 

What I'm going to talk about is more scientific, so let me explain it more precisely, there are three types of symbiotic relationships: mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism (yeah, these are real scientific words, mind blowing!)

So the first one, mutualism, it's when two creature have a relationship that benefits each other (both of them). 

 As seen in the image, this Nile crocodile benefits from a free dentist check-up. While this Egyptian plover is getting a free meal. That is the basic idea of mutualism. So mutualism can be explained on the Venom symbiotes, the alien symbiote benefits to have a host to live with and the host will have superpowers. That's a "win-win".

Commensalism is when a creature benefits and the other is not harmed or gets any benefits. For example, a tree and a bird or a squirrel. These animals live in or on the tree, but they won't harm the tree. There are also no benefits for the tree. There's also a famous example of clownfish and the coral reefs:

The skin of clownfish are not harmed by the coral which give them a protection from their predators. But the coral reefs are not harmed and not rewarded. That's a great example of commensalism.


The last type of symbiotic relationship is parasitism. Why am I showing this weird worm with a stick on it? Actually, it's a famous medicine in China and Tibet called the cordyceps sinensis. Also known as the caterpillar fungus and the Chinese name of this is the "caterpillar in summer and the fungus in the winter". That's a really weird name! Parasitism is basically a relationship between two creatures that one profits off other's nutrition or other's healthy condition. This caterpillar fungus is a worm or a caterpillar (a larvae of a ghost moth, the insect underground) which was infected by a type of fungus. With the nutrition the fungus grows and the larvae dies. Although it's a worm that dies and a type of mushroom grows out of it, it is a valuable medicine, it's called the "soft gold" in China. A similar, and simpler, example of parasitism is a lion eating its prey. The lion gets enough energy but it's prey is dead or badly harmed.

There are three types of symbiotic relationship in nature: mutualism, commensalism and parasitism. Did you understand the concept after this explanation? I hope yes:)

-Jeremy


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