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[-] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 18 points 2 months ago

Babies in protective escape pods, like a bunch of little Kal-Els.

[-] egrets@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Pollen kind of is analogous to semen in a very broad sense, though, in as much as the pollen grain produces (rather than carries) sperm and delivers it to the ovule, right? It's not the same when examined closely, but that's the point of analogies. Grainy semen.

[-] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

I mean sort-of but not. Matrotrophy evolved independently, so there is no relationship between the "smaller, mobile gametophyte" in plants and the "small mobile gamete" in animals. It's just coincidence/ convergence.

And we know that it absolutely is coincident/ convergence, because in the evolutionary ancestors of vascular plants, its the haploid phase that form large bodies, and the diploid phase that analogous to sperm/pollen and eggs/megasporangia.

So like, mosses, green algae, red algae. They do things very differently than vascular plants.

[-] egrets@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

I won't argue the point further than this message, and I appreciate the details you've provided, but the point of analogies is drawing parallels to quickly aid understanding at a surface level.

Nothing analogous to finding a needle in a haystack actually involves rooting through dry grass for a sliver of metal, but the analogy still stands.

[-] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

The limits of metaphor are when they do more to disguise than to explain.

We shouldn't confuse things that can be difficult or require significant study to understand or explain with convenient but wrong stories.

If a metaphor fails the first test, than we shouldn't use it.

[-] egrets@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

I agree - but parallels can be a quick and effective way to communicate information where the specifics aren't important, even if they have to be consciously discarded for someone diving further into the detail.

[-] phdepressed@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago

Right but the poofy dandelions aren't pollen they're seeds.

[-] egrets@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago

Sure, but OP's image says:

hell, pollen isn't analogous to sperm,

this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2025
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