The
Boston Globe reported today that a new bizarre crustacean has been discovered in the South Pacific. It has a feature, I noticed, that flies in the face of intelligent design. Follow me over the fold to check it out.
Here it is:
Let's look at the story first. It's interesting enough by itself.
PARIS --A team of American-led divers has discovered a new crustacean in the South Pacific that resembles a lobster and is covered with what looks like silky, blond fur, French researchers said Tuesday.
Scientists said the animal, which they named Kiwa hirsuta, was so distinct from other species that they created a new family and genus for it.
The divers found the animal in waters 7,540 feet deep at a site 900 miles south of Easter Island last year, according to Michel Segonzac of the French Institute for Sea Exploration.
The new crustacean is described in the journal of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris.
The animal is white and just shy of 6 inches long -- about the size of a salad plate.
In what Segonzac described as a "surprising characteristic," the animal's pincers are covered with sinuous, hair-like strands.
It is also blind. The researchers found it had only "the vestige of a membrane" in place of eyes, Segonzac said.
The researchers said that while legions of new ocean species are discovered each year, it is quite rare to find one that merits a new family.
The family was named Kiwaida, from Kiwa, the goddess of crustaceans in Polynesian mythology.
The diving expedition was organized by Robert Vrijenhoek of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California.
Now why would this thing have remnants of eyes if it doesn't need to see at all? If you accept evolution, this hardly comes as a surprise. Eyes are organized structures, and ever-increasing entropy suggests they should not be maintained if there is no selection for them. That is, if eyes don't provide you with an advantage, the random processes of nature will ultimately eliminate them. But if you're an ID subscriber, you can only scratch your head.