Word Pairs

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Words
New research [sheds / shards] light on how carnivorous plants like the Venus fly trap developed a [taste / tasty] for meat. A study from the University of Würzburg in Germany suggests that [stubble / subtle] changes in the genetics of plants led to some [become / becoming] carnivorous. These changes led to the development of some of nature's most [genus / ingenious] species. Carnivorous plants adapted [novella / novel] and devious ways to entice and snare insects. The Venus fly trap uses clam-like leaves that [snap / snip] shut when an insect crawls between [us / them] . The pitcher plant is shaped like a vase - insects go inside and then cannot [crawly / crawl] up the slippery insides. The sundew plant has long sticky leaves, which [roll / rail] up after insects get stuck on them.

Researchers in a [various / variety] of fields collaborated in the study. They [included / inclusive] computational evolutionary biologist Jörg Schultz and plant biologist Rainer Hedrich. They [sequential / sequenced] and compared the [genomes / gnomes] of carnivorous plants to non-carnivorous plants. They discovered that meat-eating plants developed from the same [commonly / common] ancestor about 60 million years ago. Dr Schultz said: "We were able to [trace / trade] the origin of carnivorous genes back to a [duplication / subtraction] event that occurred many millions of years ago in the genome of the last common [ancestral / ancestor] of the carnivorous species." Dr Rainer added: "The function of these genes is [related / belated] to the ability to sense and digest animals and to utilise their [nutritious / nutrients] ."

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