A Suave Slug: How Evolution Imitates Mythology


posted by admin on ,

No comments

In the dense tropical rainforest of Borneo live species unknown to science. One new find is Ibycus rachelae, a slug that, like the mythological Cupid, shoots its mate with an arrow of love. The dart injects an amorous hormone into its reluctant partner to liven things up.

And how does evolution explain this suave strategy? It would be something like this. First, the hormone happened to evolve and somehow served some purpose in the hapless slug. But the hormone also happened to work wonders when the lights were low. On those rare occasions when the slug was lucky, the hormone might somehow transfer to its partner when there was physical contact.

But this occurred rarely and so didn't help too much. That is, until the randomly designed slug happened to develop an arrow. The arrow worked wonders when it happened to fire at a prospective partner, and it happened to be armed with the hormone. That slug's wild success would proliferate into generations of gigolos.

That's how evolution works. Things that work luckily arise sometimes, and they are then selected.

This slug-turned-Cupid tale is typical of evolutionary storytelling. Stories such as these are told over and over. From textbooks to peer reviewed journals, just-so stories, as with the process of evolution, arise and persist.

But don't evolutionists ever tire of absurdity? Don't they ever think twice about their silliness? Or are they just winking at each other while taxpayers fund their imaginations? Either way, who needs Cupid, evolution is our new mythology.

Leave a Reply