Sunday, November 1, 2009

Omphalos

A fossil ammonite from somewhere in the Cretaceous-Jurassic, 65-208 million years ago. Like most forms of life ever to live on earth, ammonites are now extinct, but they are related to the squid, cuttlefish, and octopus. The soft bits -- in other words, the animal -- lived in only the outermost chamber (camera) of this spiral shell. I found this in Stoned, on 5th Avenue in the Slope, which I passed in a bus on a rainy day.

Heard a biologist the other day say you don't "believe in evolution" any more than you "believe in gravity." Evolution, like gravity, like the universe, is. It's not an option.

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