Friday, April 04, 2008

Neither fish nor …

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Well, actually, it
is a fish. A fish that walks, sort of, on its fins.

Thanks to the world's most interesting English-language newspaper, London's Daily Mail, for bringing this to my attention, and hence to yours.

My purpose in presenting this odd bod — having just been discovered, his species doesn't seem to have a name yet — is … well, look, if you clicked over to this currently subprime blog in the foolish expectation of sipping from a fount of wisdom, I wanted you to at least get something for your trouble.

How fantastical and at the same time absolutely functional for their environments living creatures often are. Make of that what you will.

If I may be allowed to once again haul out Sir Arthur Eddington, the astronomer:
"Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine; it is stranger than we can imagine."


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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not that suprising to me:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walking_catfish
They can breathe air with simple lungs and 'walk' from body of water to body of water with thier fins. Very easy to catch if not in water. In water, you catch them like any other catfish (belive it or not, corn kernals work well as bait for catfish).
And if you've ever eaten wild catfish then you already know what they taste like.

Rick Darby said...

Speaking of catfish: why do cats like the taste of fish? In a state of nature, where there's no one to open a tin of Purina for them, how often do cats get fish for dinner? They don't even like going near the water!