Thursday, November 08, 2007

Not Something To Be Sawn Off

The current speculation is that the spoonbill offers a kind of foresail to smooth the forward glide, lifting the paddlefish's head slightly as it is raking in the zooplankton. The spoonbill has also been shown to be wired with electrosensory receptors that should, in theory, give its owner a heads-up on the weak electrical fields that indicate a lot of zooplankton about. But again, it makes no difference if you eliminate that spoonbill.

So what is it doing on the snout of a paddlefish?

The only hint I am able to give, is that it is very beautiful. And that from a divine point of view, or from a paddlefish point of view, it is not something to be sawn off.