The Adaptation:
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In Memoriam:
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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Many flowering plants have evolved symbiotic relationships with
specific insects for cross pollenization in order to reproduce. |
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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." |
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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:
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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.
