J E L L Y F I S H
Go back 250 million years to the Age of Dinosaurs
and you find jellyfish, not all that different from how
they appear to us today, quietly adrift. Now, go back
another 500 million years in time to discover the most
advanced and dominant animal its the day. The Earth
was mostly covered with oceans whose waters were
warmer than todays. There were many shallow seas,
thick with tropical jellyfish drifting all about.
They have no brain, no bone, no heart, no blood.
They are 98 percent jelly. Gelatinous material
capable of making decisions. They can respond
to visual threats with the speed of a mouse
running under the sofa. They manage
without a resident wizard holed up in the noggin.
Their scattered neural network diffuses responsibility
with no central authority to intervene on behalf
of the whole.
S E A S Q U I R T
What kind of biologically engineered life form preceded
the vertebrates? Crabs? Starfish? SpongeBob?
Nothing makes sense. The creature above is a tunicate,
a static filter feeder found in most any marine habitat
offering a hard surface for its anchorage. How likely
is it that this mindless, limbless, porcelain vase lookalike
would eventually lead to some dynamic, vertebrate form?
The adult sea squirt above is nothing like its
juvenile form. The larva hatching from a tunicate's
eggs looks like a tadpole from a frog pond.
A hollow nerve cord runs the animal's length,
from eyespots to powerful tail. The notochord,
a stiff but pliable precursor to the vertebra,
provides strength. This tadpole phase
lasts no more than 24 hours. The larva's mouth
cements itself to a rocklike surface once contact
is made. The animal reconfigures itself into its
unspectacular adult phase.
What is to prevent a tadpole larval type from
succeeding with this body plan? It's a winner -
sensing light, powerful tail, beginnings of a central
nervous system and vertebra. The basis for putting
on the brakes towards SpongeBob is the process called
neoteny - juvenile features replace adult characteristics
that prove less advantageous to the organism's survival.
The achievement of adult mobility delivers new
incentives for providing even greater improvements
to the animal's performance.
Winners survive.
S T A R F I S H
Starfish eat mussels and clams. Starfish have no teeth.
Their food has protective shells. The starfish has five
strong arms to pry the shell open, revealing a buffet
of tasty shellfish innards. Still the starfish has nothing
to break their food into small pieces and guide these
morsels into their mouth. Crabs, spiders and insects
all have small fingerlike structures around their mouth
to provide this service. That isn't feasible for starfish
because their mouth drags the ground, likely damaging
any delicate mouth fingers.
The starfish solution is to push their stomach
out through their mouth and douse the exposed
tissue with acid. The tissue is dissolved into a
nutrient rich broth that the waiting stomach sops up.
Nature has engineered a truly out of the box
award winning solution.
C R A B
You live your life heavily armored and you spend
much of your time squeezed into narrow rock crevices.
You are not king of your realm. You live to survive
another day in a nasty neighborhood. Crabs like you
come and go. They always wind up being someone's
dinner. A few breed youngsters before they go.
Some crabs among the next generation are running
around with your brand of genetics imbedded
in their being.
And isn't that what it is all about, biologically speaking?
The continuation of life. Protecting life's genetic formula.
Here is a purpose. Is it Nature's or is this merely
humanity's questioning for purpose?
Where is the bottom line?
What is this about?
Why?
S P I D E R
It is a tight fit but this animal appears to have
unexpected problem solving abilities.
How does abstract planning fit into such a tiny brain?
They've had over 300 million years to refine
their mental processes. Three hundred million
generations to attack the problem anew by
constantly tweaking their genetic code.
The incentive is to always improve.
Somewhere among the many competing species
innovation always finds a place that works.
O C T O P U S
How does an octopus keep track of eight arms?
It doesn't need to. Each arm has its own sense for
touch, taste and smell as well as its own mini-brain
to call the shots once it had made sense of things.
Up to a point. Sometimes the organism needs
to be focused as an animal of one.
There is a central authority capable of overriding
dissension when a singular response is required.
Place a tightly-screwed jar containing a tasty
crab in front of a hungry octopus.
Nice try. No problem. The octopus has
crab legs for brunch. Quick cognitive reasoning.
Certainly more than instinctual, stimulus-response.
It is not a grass-munching cud chewer. They have
free time but little curiosity. An octopus has both
the free time and curiosity to be clever.
Imagine intellect among the invertebrates.
Most underrated problem solver:
The answer is b. fruit flies
* * * * *
OVER EASY
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