Evoultion of the Venus flytrap.?

Question

Can anyone explain to me how the Venus flytrap made the move from a normal plant using Photosynthesis to becoming a carnivore?

I know there is not a huge amount of information available as plants have a habit of not fossilising that well but what’s the official theory if there is one?

Answer 1

Even if plants did fossilize better, the difference in flytraps and other plants would be pretty subtle in a fossil.

But there are other plants, like a number of mimosa species, that react to stimuli like being touched. Many others react slower but with similar mechanisms (not just differential growth) to light. Most (probably all) plants can absorb nutrients through their leaves. It's not a great leap to put these things together for a plausible hypothesis about the evolution of the flytrap and advantages these pre-existing features could give for survival in the nutrient poor Carolina swamps, allowing natural selection to favor plants more like the current species. Supporting that hypothesis with actual evidence might be more difficult.