WORDS: ROGER MORONEY
PHOTO: BEN WILKINS
WOULD DARWIN HAVE CALLED THIS
AN EVOLUTIONARY DEAD-END…?
EVOLUTIONARY DEAD END?
S0
harks have not changed their appearance
for several million years which is kind
of denial of the theory of evolution
but it says one very important thing.
The sleek physical design and dimensions of
the shark are quite simply as good as it gets.
It does not require modifying, unlike
many other creatures with time-tags
going back a few million years. Some got
bigger, some got smaller, some grew taller
and some changed colour as genetics
and environmental changes emerged.
Yep, all to do with adapting to changing times
and conditions I guess. But old sharky… evolved
into the perfect marine hunter perfectly so
no need to head off to the biological factory
for modification work. As long as we don’t
completely wreck the great oceans (which
we appear to have become rather adept at)
the shark will most likely remain the same.
So too, I guess, will the cockroach because
it too has seen little or change apparently
through the millenniums of time.
98 KIWI RIDER
Right then, that’s my nod to Charles Darwin
for this issue as he was the chap who pursued
the whole theory of evolution concept.
I wonder what he would have made of
technical and mechanical evolution… for such
components of life are pretty well made to
evolve. For the better (in the majority of cases).
When Honda rolled out motorcycles
with electric starts there was a collective
“wow”. We thought only cars had them.
But then once upon a time cars did not
have them and were cranked to a start.
However, those early electric start
jobs rolled off the production lines
with a safety net installed.
In the form of the traditional kick start
lever… just in case. And, like cars, disc brakes
began appearing on motorcycles.
My early CB750 had a beaut single disc
on the front although I was left a tad
tainted by jealously because one other
local chap had a CB750 with two discs on
the front. Now the discs are everywhere.