Evolutionary tangent

MARTIN HENERY (mhenery@rna.bio.mq.edu.au)
Tue, 18 Jun 1996 19:56:58 GMT+1000

Here is a tangent I would like to rant on,
>
> Any real "protector" of these natural wonders would have no problem
> understanding the ordeal you are going through to give up these plants. To
> watch them grow and mature, to do all you can to help them develop to the
> very best they are able, realizing that you are doing your part to protect
> & preserve something that very uniquely exemplifies the incredible
> diversity & ingenuity of creation, and then to have to give up your

A small quibble. Coming from a scientific background, I would have
thought that carnivory in plants uniquely exemplifies the incredible
species diversity and ecological relationships between organisms that
have evolved over millions of years of plant evolution rather than
evidence of a creator.
It is for this reason that I see the dramatic loss of biodiversity and
species, most of which are much less
charismatic than vertebrates or carnivorous plants, as such a
condemnation of modern human activities. That any species, which in total
took the entire history of life on earth to evolve, a period of time
to which the majority of humans is incomprehensibly massive
relative to our own lifetimes (several billion years), could be wiped
out in the merest blink of geological time by humans, is to me, abhorent.
This loss is emphasised by the fact that our society is still dependent on
worldwide ecosystem processes that are carried out by other species
whose relative importance is unknown and cannot afford to be lost before
their resource potential and role is realised/understood.

Note: This is not an attack against against Christian religion but a
summary of why I think carnivorous plants are special and why all
extant species should be appreciated and treasured because as we
ourselves are, they are products of millions of years of selection.

Thats much better now,

Martin Henery

Macquarie University
Sydney, Aust.