Sort of like you see in cartoons, a terrestrial animal that could be “squished” without breaking any bones and goes back to their non-squished state. It’s something I think is more observable in aquatic life, like say octopuses that can squeeze themselves into small spaces.
While there may be examples of what you are thinking of, I think the most common solution developed by evolution is invertebrates without an exoskeleton, meaning no skeletal structure at all.
The whole point of having bones is their rigidity. Animals that don’t require a rigid structure, simply have no bones, chitin, exoskeleton or shell.
As others have pointed out, there are plenty of squishy terrestrial animals, but they don’t have flexible bones or any bones for that matter. Those that do have bones, also have cartilage, and there are many sea creatures that rely almost exclusively on it. However, I can’t think of a single terrestrial animal that would be composed of cartilage to that extent. I guess gravity opposes such ambitions, and weeds out anyone who tries to pull off a build like that.
Thanks to you & @Brokkr@lemmy.world for your replies. Not sure why but this curiosity was lingering in mind so I thought I’d put the question out there in case there might be some really unique example of such an organism.
I guess it’d have to be a very unique environment to drive such an adaptation, which would be fascinating in itself.
Biology is full of strange exceptions. As soon as you think you’ve figured out a rule that applies to something, you’ll find some obscure creature that violates that rule just to piss you off.
Sort of like you see in cartoons, a terrestrial animal that could be “squished” without breaking any bones and goes back to their non-squished state. It’s something I think is more observable in aquatic life, like say octopuses that can squeeze themselves into small spaces.
While there may be examples of what you are thinking of, I think the most common solution developed by evolution is invertebrates without an exoskeleton, meaning no skeletal structure at all.
The whole point of having bones is their rigidity. Animals that don’t require a rigid structure, simply have no bones, chitin, exoskeleton or shell.
As others have pointed out, there are plenty of squishy terrestrial animals, but they don’t have flexible bones or any bones for that matter. Those that do have bones, also have cartilage, and there are many sea creatures that rely almost exclusively on it. However, I can’t think of a single terrestrial animal that would be composed of cartilage to that extent. I guess gravity opposes such ambitions, and weeds out anyone who tries to pull off a build like that.
Thanks to you & @Brokkr@lemmy.world for your replies. Not sure why but this curiosity was lingering in mind so I thought I’d put the question out there in case there might be some really unique example of such an organism.
I guess it’d have to be a very unique environment to drive such an adaptation, which would be fascinating in itself.
Biology is full of strange exceptions. As soon as you think you’ve figured out a rule that applies to something, you’ll find some obscure creature that violates that rule just to piss you off.