Caterpillar DNA to Butterfly (Enzymology)

A butterfly, as you all know, is from a caterpillar. One with many feet and legs, hairy, kind of a worm with legs. It goes into a cocoon and emerges as this beautiful creature that can fly and can have beautiful colors.

There’s no resemblance at all between the caterpillar and the butterfly.

Do you know a butterfly has a much bigger brain than a caterpillar? It’s still the same creature, and in fact, has the same DNA.

This is what happens. Inside are enzymes that literally digest the caterpillar. It melts the caterpillar body down so that it becomes a goo, mostly. But inside of the goo are these imaginal disks. Sounds like image or imagine. Imaginal disks. These were already there inside the caterpillar and by design does not get melted down. The imaginal disks then use the nutrients of the goo and begin growing all new parts that ultimately become the butterfly.

Even more amazing, they’ve discovered the butterfly literally retains some of its memories from its caterpillar stage

Maybe our greatest potential is not as successful caterpillars but creatures that seem to melt away only to transform into beautiful creatures with bigger brains that can do things caterpillars would never dream.