OkRemember when you last had a bad back? That's because you're supposed to walk around on all fours, and your pelvis is attached at the wrong angle. Appendix? What's that for? Well, your ancestors needed it to create bile to help digest all the fruit you used to eat when you were a monkey. Caught a virus recently? That's because an existing virus mutated in such a way that it became able to exist in your body, and thus become successful. Ginger hair? Well, that's because your ancestors couldn't get enough vitamin D in the north of Europe. Ever seen a bulldog? It was born by caesarian section, because this man-made (or 'artificially evolved') creature has a head so big it won't actually fit out of its mother's womb. Without us, it's fucked. In fact, point to any living thing, and you can find a whole history going right back to its genus. Plaice is a delicious flat fish, but ever wondered why it has both eyes on the same side of its head? Well, millions of years of swimming horizontally along the bottom of the ocean with one eye on the floor had a part to play in that.
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Fri 15 Jun 2007, 13:05,
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