The Indian Express/The Hindu – Feb.4-5, 2009 reported:
Scientists from Delhi and Brussels universities have discovered several new species of frogs in India’s western coast, besides rediscovering some species believed to have become extinct.
Another report from Colombia is of a species of glass frog, Nymphargus genus, new to science, having been discovered besides ten new species of amphibians.
--- Good for the frogs, of course, but I too feel pleased. After hearing so much about species getting extinct it was nice to know that things are not over yet; life, or Nature if you like, is still kicking. Details are not available yet, but it would be wonderful to know whether some of these are actually newly mutated species, not just newly discovered. There are reports of new insects being formed, of course, but frogs are in a different class.
Thoughts of Darwin and Evolution are inevitable .It should be remembered that Darwin never called it evolution ; he was strongly against this word. Evolution implied a sort of predestination, a teleological design, a fated “plan” of Nature ,etc. Based on his lifelong study of the world`s life species, Darwin was consistently opposed to this idea. He called it “descent with modification”—meaning that modifications (mutation) take place randomly, and harmony with the emerging environment enables some species to survive, not others. Predestination has unfortunately crept into the word/ideas of “evolution”. Very unscientific, this.
Also the idea of predestination is, deep down and fundamentally, well, feudal — very much frog-the-well! Capitalism is far better and open-ended, and in its growth phase , does not care for it; it gives everyone a small, yes, but a fighting chance. And , gosh, frogs are out in the open coasts of India and forests of Colombia – evolv..., er, descending with modifications!
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