Mutations, supposedly, are the
driving force of evolution. By the rare occurrences of
beneficial mutations, animals progress to become, well, other
animals. There is one fact, however, that overshadows this
hopeful theory. Most mutations are harmful. They are
often destructive, and many times plain useless.
Have you ever read the headline, "Baby Tiger Born With
Feathers"? Or rather, "Green Iguana Grows
Fur"? Of course you haven't. But why?
Simply put, it's genetically impossible.
Rather, every once in awhile you'll read the type of headline that
just emerged last month. Reported by the Kingston
Whig-Standard, it read,
"Three-legged chicken
becomes talk of the town."
Truth, sometimes, is
stranger than fiction.
It lives in Bert Thompson’s barn, a chick that straggles around,
walking a bit awkwardly. Why? Cause it's got three
legs.
“That’s one messed-up chicken,” said Ayla, Thompson’s
13-year-old daughter.
The third leg doesn't have any toes, but the leg is definitely a
leg, with the same texture and color of the other two complete
legs.
According to Ian Chin-Sang, a molecular geneticist at Queen’s
University, a three-legged chicken is, believe it or not,
progress.
“It’s the driving force of evolution. You have to have
mutation."
The article goes on to praise Darwin's theory of evolution, but
don't let this case fool you. Mutations are most often
anything but helpful. Unlike what evolution espouses,
natural selection doesn't strive to change what is present;
rather, it preserves it.
Mutations, it must also be noted,
are the result of one of three occurrences: The rearrangement of
genetic information, the duplication of genetic information, or
the depletion of genetic information. Never, ever are they
the result of unique, newly created genetic information. Take
notice that the chick was born with another leg . . . it wasn't
born with a flipper.
In any case, it's clear to see that this chick didn't benefit from
the theory.
Weird Fish Dredged From Sea Floor
by Jonathan
Drake
S: TheAge.com.au (6-23-03)
They're freaky looking; something you'd expect to see on some
sci-fi horror movie.
Researchers trawling the Tasman Sea recently dredged up a host of
bizarre deep-sea creatures, not to mention hundreds of rare and
new species.
"We know so little about the deep sea (but) two-thirds of the
planet is ocean, and most of it is deep sea," said researcher
Mark Norman, from Museum Victoria.
What
they brought up included deep-sea sharks, stingrays, rattail
fishes, blobfish, prickly dogfish, and giant sea spiders.
One creature, the fangtooth, has teeth longer than its head.
In order to avoid piercing its own brain when it shuts its mouth,
the teeth fit nicely into opposing sockets.
The
total came to 500 species of fish and 1,300 invertebrates (animals
without backbones). Categorizing them, including that of more than
100 new species and the rare finds, will take until the end of the
year.
Truly, one can only imagine what other amazing (and horrific)
creatures inhabit the depths of this planet's oceans.
Fisherman Spies Sea Serpent
S: Farshores (6-25-03)
Originally Publish: The
Halifax Herald / NS | Matt Hunt Gardner
Alder Point - There's a new fish story making the rounds here.
Lobster fisherman Wallace Cartwright of Alder Point, Cape Breton
County, claims he saw a "sea monster" recently and the
Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History believes him.
"We had just hauled into the cove south of the light (house)
in Point Aconi, in the direction of my traps," Mr. Cartwright
said Tuesday.
"Then I thought I saw a big log in the water. I turned to my
buddy and said, 'Geez, that would be a dandy thing to run into.'
It was a pretty big stick.
"Then I saw a head on it, like a sea turtle, and it came
about a foot up out of the water."
He said the creature's snake-like body was about eight metres
long, smooth and brownish. When it saw the boat approaching, it
quickly submerged, surfacing again two minutes later about 60
metres away.
At first Mr. Cartwright was wary of getting close to the creature.
"God knows, that thing might have been able to jump out of
the water, and I'm sure it could have swallowed you whole, I'm
sure," he said.
Before resuming fishing, though, they followed the creature for
about 45 minutes as it submerged and surfaced five or six times,
headed for deeper water.
"I've been a lobster fisherman for 30 years, and I know what
a bunch of seals or eels on the surface look like. This was one
distinct animal," said Mr. Cartwright. "One I've never
seen before."
The curator of zoology at the Museum of Natural History in Halifax
thinks Mr. Cartwright's sea serpent was actually an oarfish, which
is found in cold, deep waters north of Great Britain.
"There aren't too many eight-metre-long fish in the world, it
could only be one of a few known things. That's if it's a known
species at all," said Andrew Hebda.
"We have some specimens here at the museum taken from waters
off Labrador and the Scotian Shelf, and we have no idea what they
are."
But he said from the description Mr. Cartwright gave him, the
creature is probably an oarfish, or ribbonfish. It likely followed
a cold ocean current to Cape Breton.
Few oarfish have ever been caught; most specimens seen are washed
up on beaches. So encounters with live specimens are rare.
Oarfish are said to be the longest of all fish. Their ribbon-like
bodies usually grow to eight metres, but specimens up to 17 metres
long have been reported.
Mr. Cartwright's helper, who didn't want to be named, tells of a
similar sighting near Alder Point some 60 years ago.
Mr. Hebda said there have been over 31 sightings of "sea
monsters" in or off Nova Scotia over the last 140 years.
Usually described as multi-humped serpents, most are basking
sharks, he said.
"There have been reports from Lake Ainslie, and Aspy Bay.
Cranberry Lake has some monsters in it too," he said.
"There have also been recent sightings of oarfish-like
creatures off Antigonish and P.E.I."
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