RAZD, here is a site that catalogues bad/weird/suboptimal designs in living things.
http://oolon.awardspace.com/SMOGGM.htm
For those with weak stomachs I don't suggest reading the one on spotted hyaena reproduction. Ouch.
Here's a good example of silly design:
quote:
Flatfish Skulls
The twisted skulls of bony flatfish (order Pleuronectiformes): around 500 species including halibut, plaice, sole and turbot. If you are a fish and want to hug the contours of the sea bed, there are two ways your body can be flattened. The most obvious is front to back, laying on your tummy, as rays and some sharks are. Sharks are generally already slightly flattened dorsoventrally. Most bony fish, however, tend to be flattened in a vertical direction (higher than they are wide). No surprise to an evolutionary biologist, then, that those bony flatfish that do swim at the bottom are flattened sideways, and lay on their side.
The problem with this is that one eye would always be pointing at the sea bed. They solve this by the skull contorting during development, so that one eye migrates to the other side. You will notice though that their mouths are still sideways on. They are cartoon stereotypes of what a mutant should look like. How is this 'intelligent design', rather than design constrained by history, by the materials it started with?
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