By Tim Binnall
A school presentation on unique flora living in Georgia took an unexpected turn when biologists cracked open a carnivorous plant and discovered that it had scarfed down a small lizard. The surprising find was revealed on Sunday in a Facebook post by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources' Wildlife Division. They explained that biologists from the department had recently visited a local elementary school to teach students about some of the states' more noteworthy native plants, specifically the carnivorous flora that can be found in the area.
"The plan was to dissect a pitcher plant to show the students its contents, which are typically comprised of beetles and a variety of flying insects," they wrote. However, when they sliced into the specimen that had been brought along for the presentation, "to everyone's surprise," they discovered a small green anole lizard was nestled inside the digestive system of the carnivorous plant. It is uncertain how exactly the creature wound up in such a weird predicament, though the department put forward a possible scenario which could have led to it occurring.
Noting that "this carnivorous plant attracts insect prey with a combination of scent, gravity and a waxy, slippery substance," they indicated that when bugs get too close to it, they "fall into the pitcher" and then become lodged in a shaft which contains "downward-pointing hairs." This causes the prospective meal into an inescapable situation wherein they are eventually forced further down into the "lowest part of the pitcher," to be drowned and digested in a pool of liquid. As such, the department posited that the lizard had likely been "chasing after an insect to dine on before slipping and becoming this plant's feast."