With a simple tweet, Anne Hilborn threw down the gauntlet.

“What are the best spots? Deez spots,” tweeted the Virginia Tech Ph.D. student, who is studying cheetahs in Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park.

Less than three hours later, Sophie Gilbert, a wildlife biologist at the University of Idaho, responded: "What are the world's most beautiful spotted animals? Cheetah's gotta be in there... I'd argue deer fawns, 2..."

With that, the #bestspots debate was on. Soon, biologists around the world were posting photos of their favorite spotted animals, from insects and octopuses to leopards and tapirs. When those researchers studying striped animals started to feel left out, the #beststripes debate opened up, becoming so popular that #bestspots became a trending topic on Twitter