Plants naturally spread. The earliest species, ocean algae, were moved by water currents.

Simple aquatic plants then grew on wet land as ancestors of mosses and liverworts. Slowly, these evolved into more conventional plants, with roots, vascular tissue, wood, and seeds.

Wind, floods, and land movement became new spreaders of such plants, leading to the formation of forests. Further evolution allowed plants to develop fruits, which were dispersed through animals that ate them.

Some plants produce fake fruits to survive, fooling birds into eating and spreading their seeds. One such plant is the black-bulb yam (Dioscorea melanophyma).

Researchers reported the yam’s unique ability to deceive in the 12 January issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, according to Science News (SN).

As plants like yams do not have seeds, they reproduce by cloning. They grow buds called bulbils, which tend to fall off and sprout near their parents. The black-bulb yam can transform its buds into fake, seedless berries that some birds eat, spreading it far and wide, SN reported.

In animals, the natural ability to deceive is very rare, such that one became an instant online celebrity when it was reported.

Farmer Jin Xiaolin discovered the unusual behavior of one of his four lambs when he sold the livestock at a market last month. After selling three at 420 yuan each, the fourth, only 10 days old, immediately collapsed and appeared lifeless whenever a customer tried to touch it, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported.

Buyers thought the unmoving lamb was sick and refused to buy it. However, as soon as people walked away, the lamb would quietly get back up and act completely normal, according to SCMP.

Jin decided not to sell the baby lamb and took it home. On 13 January, his relative shared videos of the lamb playing dead, and the clips attracted more than 10 million views across multiple platforms and gained 32,000 followers on one platform. One fan offered nearly 130,000 yuan to buy the lamb, but Jin refused.

People also started flocking to Jin’s home in Zhongfang Village, Shizuishan, in Ningxia, northwestern China, just to see the lamb.