Imagine looking at a flower and predicting an animal no one had ever seen. đ¸đŚâ
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In 1862, Charles Darwin examined a Madagascan orchid with an 11-inch nectar spur and made an extraordinary prediction. Somewhere in Madagascar, he argued, there had to be a moth with an impossibly long tongueâlong enough to reach the nectar hidden deep inside the flower.â
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Many dismissed the idea as ridiculous.â
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Forty years after Darwin's death, scientists discovered the giant hawkmoth Xanthopan praedicta, with a proboscis reaching up to 14 inches long. It wasn't until 1992 that researchers finally documented the moth pollinating Darwin's orchid in the wildâ130 years after his original prediction.â
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The story didn't end there. In 2024, botanists described a close relative of Darwin's orchid and named it in honor of the remarkable hawkmoth that pollinates itâa reminder that evolution continues to reveal new chapters in a story Darwin began more than 160 years ago.â
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As our latest issue explores, Darw...
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