This beautiful creature...
A coelacanth, was caught off the coast of Tanzania by a primitive fisherman about two weeks ago. Here's a clip from a news article on the fish:
The species had been thought to have died out around the time dinosaurs became extinct, until one was found there [Tanzania] in 1938. Fossil records for the fish date back more than 360 million years and suggest that it has changed little over that period.
Can I admit that I laughed a little when I read this? Here's what I'm trying to understand--is this the one species that looks the same now as it did "360 million years ago"? Did all his brothers and sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles and the like grow to be more advanced creatures while this guy was pulling a Dori ("just keep swimming, just keep swimming")?
I mean I know that Creationism, the idea that God literally created the universe from nothing in 6 days and that the universe is relatively young is only the mindset of fools like me. But fools like me want to know, how does one creature stay exactly the same for 360 million years while just about everything else is becoming something other creature?
I guess its this: this fish knew how to deal with peer pressure. This fish swam upstream. He didn't need to be like the other fish. He was his own fish. He was ugly and swam down near the bottom of the ocean and he didn't need to follow the rest of the "morphin" crowd. We should hire this fish to talk to the Youth of America.
Just some thoughts from the fool's bench.
The current answer for why that guy hasn't evolved is; "Beats us." More holes are being poked in Darwins myopic theory all the time. Not to say he is completely wrong, just that it is a very insufficient theory. From the Coelocanths point of view, he's thinking "What's to evolve? I'm perfect the way I yam"
Posted by: Bob Hamilton | July 30, 2007 at 11:56 PM
I think the crucial question is really, How does it taste?
Posted by: Nate | July 31, 2007 at 03:27 PM