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NEWS > SCIENCE > WALKING FISH EMERGING FROM OIL SPILL BENT ON REVENGE
WALKING FISH EMERGING FROM OIL SPILL BENT ON REVENGE
July 10 2010
Venice, LA – For 3.7 billion years life on Earth has been in a constant state of evolution. Though many people incorrectly associate the existence of life itself with the process of evolution, their nay saying and lack of comprehension does not make the 
process any less of a fact. Even in our own bodies we see the effects of evolution, in remainder of tail that makes up the end of our spine and in the largely superfluous wisdom teeth that most have removed. Selected for discontinuation, evolution has diminished those traits and given proof of the evolutionary process.
Of course much of that process is still very much a mystery to science. Why for example did humans evolve to such high levels in a few millions years when dinosaurs ruled the earth for over 160 millions of years and none developed language or self awareness? Also not clearly understood is how fast the process occurs. While some evidence suggest that the process moves slowly over many years, other evidence shows rapid jumps with certain traits vanishing or appearing in a few generations. Because science has only been studying the process of evolution for a short period of time there has been little opportunity to observe it in action, until now as walking fish rising from the muck of the Gulf oil spill start to push towards land on what is assumed to be a path of vengeance.
“One of the fishes that we describe is completely restricted to the oil spill area. If we are still finding new species of fishes in the Gulf, imagine how much diversity -- especially microdiversity -- is out there that we do not know about,” John Sparks, curator of Ichthyology at the AMNH told Discovery News. “Right now the fish have very small fins that function much like arms allowing them to move across the sea floor. We have seen this type of activity in other areas but they are undocumented in this region making it more likely that they were spawned by the oil spill itself.”
Because the fish are still relatively small it is believed unlikely that they pose a serious threat to human populations, yet.
“This is a fascinating development for all kinds of reasons. It is entirely possible that this what early humans looked like, that our ancient ancestors started to develop these kinds of limbs and eventually moved from the sea to the land in the process carving out a path for our rise which means that we are seeing evolution in motion,” said Scrape TV Science analyst Dr. Howard Poe. “It also gives us a great insight into the process of evolution itself. We are seeing nature evolve a specific characteristic in response to external stimuli. We know this happens, polar bears for example, or zebras, but we have never observed it occurring. Seeing a spontaneous leap such as this gives us a whole new perspective to the whole evolutionary principle.”
The Spotted Handfish in Australia also displays similar walking ability, though has done so for a number of years.
“Because these fish are so small, they likely wouldn’t be a major threat to us even if 
they arrived in massive numbers. Coming onto land would be utter suicide because unlike them humans have developed the things like firearms and swords which would utterly decimate them. They would be better suited to staying in the ocean and damaging our food supplies, kind of an oceanic blockade,” continued Poe. “Of course if their big brothers, namely sharks, started to evolve this ability then we will be in real serious trouble. Like really serious. I mean we still outnumber them but there are sharks all over the world. A systematic strike could cripple us before we had a chance to respond and then millions of years of evolution would have been wiped out in an instant, just like the dinosaurs.”
The U.S. Coast Guard has been actively patrolling the area keeping an eye out for any changes.
Anna Phillips, Science Correspondent
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