# Venus Flytraps **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [November 29, 2002, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/venus-flytraps/139517 "2002-11-29T18:07:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2002, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/venus-flytraps/139517/1 "2002-11-29T18:07:20Z")
In regards to the Staff Report [Was the Venus flytrap brought to earth by a meteor?](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mvenusflytrap.html), what about the “simply appeared some time in our planet’s history” part of the question. Are there fossils, remains or other evidence of ancestors and/or now-extinct relatives of the Venus Flytraps and sundew plants? ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2002, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/venus-flytraps/139517/2 "2002-11-29T23:32:41Z")
Google, “fossil record sundews”. [http://www.sarracenia.com/faq/faq4780.html](http://www.sarracenia.com/faq/faq4780.html) > [@](#): > > The evolotion of carnivorous plants is not well known. This is not because there is anything really mysterious going on, it is just that carnivorous plants do not have very rigid parts which are likely to get fossilized (sundews, for example, are very soft), nor do they make huge numbers of leaves each season to increase the chance of one being fossilized. > > \< snip \> > > For example, if you read the entry on the carnivorous plant Aldrovanda vesiculosa, you will see that there is a good fossil record for this plant and its progenitors. Unfortunately, the record is of the seeds. Only one fossil leaf of this plant’s ancestors has ever been found. > > \< snip \> > > Do not get confused into thinking they did not evolve on this planet! - snerk \* Anyway… More than you probably wanted to know here about fossilized sundew species. Geek alert. 😃 [http://bestcarnivorousplants.com/aldrovanda/papers\_online/Fossil.htm](http://bestcarnivorousplants.com/aldrovanda/papers_online/Fossil.htm) And just this single mention, FWIW. > **[Home](https://www.antarctica.gov.au/)** > [@](#): > > Scientists in Antarctica have discovered fossilised spores and pollen of sundews… ---
**Author:** ![jimbobboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/22d042/32.png) [@jimbobboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimbobboy)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2002, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/venus-flytraps/139517/3 "2002-12-03T19:37:29Z")
There is a superb discussion of the plant and its habits in a recent Scientific American: [http://www.sciam.com/askexpert\_question.cfm?articleID=00045544-C58D-1D5B-90FB809EC5880000&catID=3](http://www.sciam.com/askexpert_question.cfm?articleID=00045544-C58D-1D5B-90FB809EC5880000&catID=3) In it, Lissa Leege of GSU describes not only the mechanism of carnivory, but the motivation for it. This may help dispel any residual suspicion that these plants eat bugs here because they were used to doing it on their home planet. ---
**Author:** ![elelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@elelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elelle)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2002, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/venus-flytraps/139517/4 "2002-12-04T02:23:34Z")
Good question, Kat! The main wonder in my amateur mind is that since the Venus Flytrap is a native of the coastal bogs, in the midst of piney woods here in North Carolina; perhaps that condition of sedimentation would be less likely to yield a nice fossil. I dunno, but there’s a swell carnivorous plant botanist, recently retired from the NC Botanical Garden, in my neighborhood. Will try to find out. ---
**Author:** ![RM\_Mentock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@RM\_Mentock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RM_Mentock)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2002, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/venus-flytraps/139517/5 "2002-12-04T13:42:46Z")
“here in North Carolina”? Nirvana, eh? I’m not sure I should introduce this geologic subject in an obviously botanical thread, but Doug’s comment that “despite any X-Files episodes to the contrary, neither of the Carolinas used to be a meteor crater,” seems to ignore the serious speculation about the [Carolina Bays](http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/cbaymenu.html) (click on the top image to see the first overhead view of the bays, which apparently touched off the controversy of their origin.) Not that anyone is sure that the bays were produced by an impact. ---
**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2002, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/venus-flytraps/139517/6 "2002-12-04T16:11:11Z")
RM, you beat me to it. I had just come in to post about the Bays and reference [this site](http://www.georgehoward.net/cbays.htm), which has some really nice pictures in it and covers both sides of the debate. I used to live about a half-mile from one of these (in Sumter, SC) and it was an obvious feature. The agent who sold us our house told us the meteor story. It had been partially filled in to build a strip mall and a few buildings had been built on the “bottom” but it was still recognizable. I have no idea what they really are but they definitely do exist! ---
**Author:** ![RM\_Mentock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@RM\_Mentock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RM_Mentock)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2002, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/venus-flytraps/139517/7 "2002-12-04T16:49:54Z")
Cool, tanstaafl, that was the first link that came up when I googled for the bays. It’s got a lot of interesting stuff in that article–it has that first overhead image of the bays also, but farther down in the page. Then, I thought, what does a special assistant to Jesse Helms know about geology? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2002, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/venus-flytraps/139517/8 "2002-12-04T17:03:18Z")
Anyone who worked for Jesse Helms should know about fossils! [sub]sorry, sorry…[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2002, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/venus-flytraps/139517/9 "2002-12-04T17:16:29Z")
Special assistant to Jesse Helms? I missed that part. I tried to find a terraserver image of the area I lived in but they didn’t seem to have one for that area. [Here’s a topo map of the area, though](http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?z=17&n=3754608&e=552948&size=m). Notice “Cypress Bay” near the center of the map as well as several other (unnamed) dashed blue ovals near the top and bottom of the map.