In Memoriam of Life's Unfit


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In this section:  In Memoriam of Life's Unfit • Unnatural Selection

To those that just didn't make the cut.


Evolution recognizes all the life forms whose adaptations led them to be the fittest and to survive, but forgets all the others whose adaptations just didn't make the cut.

Maybe we can't find their fossils, but we can still use reason and imagination to know they existed and express our gratitude for helping to make life what it is today.

Note:  This page is dedicated to those with the advanced evolutionary adaptation of having a tongue in their cheek, and to those who can truly appreciate the incredible design and technology found in even the simplest things in life.


The Adaptation:

 

In Memoriam:

To cope with the problem of excess blood pressure when bending over, giraffes have a network of very small elastic blood vessels to accommodate excess blood when the head is lowered.  A highly specialized vessel near the brain acts as a sponge, slowly absorbing blood until the pressure warns the animal to lift its head before damage occurs.  A unique system of valves that prevent backflow solves the problem of fluctuating venous pressure.   To all those evolving giraffes who passed out and drowned while trying to get a drink of water and to those who couldn't reproduce because their mate always had a headache.
Cats have whiskers the same width as their bodies, allowing them to know if they will get stuck in small places before they enter.   To all those evolving cats with undersized whiskers who got stuck escaping to small places and were devoured from behind.
Birds have highly sophisticated and efficient aerodynamic design in their wings, which, as demonstrated by man's early attempts to fly, is no easy feat to develop.   To all those evolving bird-wanna-be reptiles who tried to fly but plunged to their deaths before their appendages had evolved into usable wings.
Sharks have highly developed senses enabling them to detect one part blood in one million parts of water, enabling them to find prey at great distances.   To all those evolving sharks who went hungry because their nose for blood was only as good as Motorola's famous Six Sigma quality program - 3.4 parts per million.
Digestion required the evolution of a very delicate balance of acids and mucous linings in the stomach.   To all those evolving creatures with too little mucous who digested their own stomachs and those with too little acid who couldn't digest their food to survive.
Many flowering plants have evolved symbiotic  relationships with specific insects for cross pollenization in order to reproduce.   To all those evolving flowering plants whose symbiotic insects didn't evolve soon enough to enable them to reproduce.
Reproduction in insects and mammals alike requires complementary and rather precisely compatible organs capable of "docking."   To all those creatures whose over and under sized equipment proved once and for all by their inability to mate that size really does matter.

And here are some submitted by you, the readers:

Lower species give birth to offspring who are programmed to immediately find food and shelter and survive on their own without parental care.  Higher species care for their young for months or years before they have the ability to fend for themselves.   To all those unfortunate species that became extinct because they didn't develop this parental care relationship soon enough in the evolutionary process to keep their own offspring from dying of exposure or starvation.
Reproduction is essential to all present life forms and it requires sophisticated reproduction mechanisms. The common ancestor of all living things must have had a reproduction mechanism right from the start, otherwise we all would not be here.   To all those fizzled common-ancestor-wanna-be life forms that hit the jackpot of accidentally assembling themselves to life but lacking the luck of getting a bundled reproduction mechanism at the same time.

The idea here is to think of the unfavorable or incomplete variations in the evolution of life that would have caused the lesser adapted creatures to be the big losers in the battle for survival.

Can you think of another example? Send it to:

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If we look, we see quite a bit of evidence for design, but can't everything still be explained by chance and natural selection?

In this section
 In Memoriam of Life's Unfit • Unnatural Selection


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