Apparently this golden poison frog has been getting its evolution on. Why does it want to make the Baby Jeebus cry?
The power of convergent evolution has fascinated naturalists from Charles Darwin onward, and it helps explain the appearance of the many aesthetic and functional déjà-vus that abound throughout nature: the sleekly hydrodynamic silhouettes of sharks and dolphins, the spindly wings of bats, birds and pterosaurs.
As evolutionary biologists see it, the underlying principle of evolutionary convergence - that often there is one right tool for the job, and that selective pressures will reinvent the bio-utensil whenever the need arises - exemplifies just how non-random and ostensibly purposeful natural selection can be, and how readily it may be mistaken for evidence of supernatural "design."
Though I can hardly be counted among their fans, I have got to give it to the NYT for refusing to use the false propaganda term "intelligent design," opting instead for the more appropriately descriptive "supernatural 'design.'" Supernatural! And 'design' in scare quotes. Right on. I'm not accustomed to agreeing w/ the Times; I'm feeling a little woozy. Is this a sign that the universe is righting itself again on its axis, or is the whole world still a-tilt?
That is encouraging.
Posted by: Alicia | Monday, 15 August 2005 at 11:53 AM
It is promising, Alicia! Sadly, I feel compelled to praise every little syllable of intelligent analysis in our MSM, so rarely do they exhibit any!
Posted by: ae | Monday, 15 August 2005 at 12:44 PM