Mary’s Monday Metazoan: Showoff
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Since I just received my very own copy of The Digital Cuttlefish Omnibus, I had to include a picture of a cuttlefish this week, even if this one doesn’t have a book of poetry.
You can order your own copy, too. Keep it by the bedside for amorous readings, or something.
I have just learned that hagfish can absorb nutrients directly through their skin and gills simply by wallowing in the rotting flesh of a carcass. Somehow, that just makes the whole world look beautiful again.
Some poor embryo acquired a pair of embryonic axes, and look what resulted. It’s 7 weeks old, so all the internals seem to be functioning all right, so maybe it has hope for a long life.
Pay special attention to those orange spots on the anal fin.
(via Kevin Bauman)
Those spots help this fish get oral sex.
As is the case in many fish species, the sight of a brightly coloured male somehow triggers females with ripe eggs to start releasing them. But in cichlids, there is a twist. Females hold their eggs in their mouths and incubate them there after fertilisation – a behaviour that is thought to have evolved to protect the eggs from predators.
As soon as a female has spawned her eggs, she collects them up in her mouth. Normally, sperm released into the water by a male nearby will then fertilise the eggs.
But males of certain cichlid species in east Africa have evolved a way to increase the odds that females take up their sperm. Oval yellow markings resembling the eggs are found on the anal or pelvic fins. When a female approaches the male, she thinks she sees an egg on its fin, so tries to vacuum it up in her mouth – and get a mouthful of sperm from the canny male in the process.
That fish may think it’s come up with a clever trick, but the Catholics know it’s going to fry.
The theologian John MacArthur has a new book titled Slave: The Hidden Truth About Your Identity in Christ. His premise is that this is what being a Christian is all about: it’s about being a slave to your lord.
“Slave” is the word that almost every English translation of Scripture has avoided using, in favor of the term “servant.” But MacArthur insists that the image of a slave is absolutely critical for understanding what it means to follow Jesus.
I think he’s on to something, actually. Those creepy stories by Horvath are all about being servile and sucking up to Jesus, after all.
Let’s make a deal. Christians get to bow and scrape and do the menial work (since Christian education involves so much corruption of science, that’s all they can do competently anyway), while we atheists get to revel in pride and arrogance and good education. We’ll be in charge, they can be our servants. It’ll be good practice for heaven, don’t you think?
