Former Oxford University Professor, Richard Dawkins, has sparked ridicule by hypothetically asking why Lions don’t weave nets to catch prey on the plains of Africa.
The 79-year-old brain box was slammed by followers who expressed disbelief when he asked why lions and spiders don’t achieve more press attention for doing simply what nature intended.
Taking to Twitter on Monday, Prof Dawkins threw a proverbial cat among the pigeons when he allowed his mind to spew out some ramblings through his thumbs.
But his musings provoked a near furious response form his 2.9 million followers as they accused him of posing ridiculous questions.
Prof Dawkins tweeted: “If lions were discovered weaving antelope-catching nets ten lion-lengths wide, it would be headline news.
“Yet spiders weave intricate insect-catching nets hugely bigger than themselves, and we treat it as commonplace. What’s the difference?”
Seemingly fascinated with the abilities of arachnids, he continued: “Spider webs seem remarkable because they involve externally visible behaviour.
“But is web-weaving really any more remarkable than the unseen weaving of cells in embryology?
“Web-weaving is Extended Phenotype embryology: just another amazing route by which DNA weaves phenotypes.”
Whether he was trying to spark some kind of scientific debate became irrelevant when fans lampooned his musings.
One follower mockingly replied: “if spiders started roaring and devouring gazelles it would be headline news. yet lions do this every day and receive no press coverage.”
And another wrote: “I think we treat spider webs as commonplace because they are commonplace, and that the antelope-catching nets would be news because they would be new.”
Many followers seemed truly astonished that one of the greatest minds in modern British education could be so fascinated with something so simple.
One tweeted back: “Yeah if lions instantly developed prey-catching tool adaptations that would be pretty monumental. Did you just discover spiders?”
And another mocked him, writing: “Yes an animal that does something completely novel and unlike anything we've previously seen them do becomes headline news. Great observation Richard.”
Prof Dawkins was the University of Oxford's Professor for Public Understanding of Science from 1995 until 2008.
A regular on TV science programmes, he first caught the public's attention with his his 1976 book The Selfish Gene.
