Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site uwmacc.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!uwvax!uwmacc!dubois From: dubois@uwmacc.UUCP (Risky Rat) Newsgroups: net.origins Subject: Re: Salt Water Taffy Message-ID: <1384@uwmacc.UUCP> Date: Fri, 9-Aug-85 08:34:04 EDT Article-I.D.: uwmacc.1384 Posted: Fri Aug 9 08:34:04 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 12-Aug-85 04:31:56 EDT References: <1337@uwmacc.UUCP> <384@phri.UUCP> Distribution: net Organization: Mousetrap Records Lines: 55 >> [Paul DuBois] >> J Chervinski, "Salinity tolerance of the guppy, _Poecilia reticulata_ >> Peters", J Fish Biology, 24(4), April 1984, 449-452. >> ... table and abstract deleted... >> The practical significance of this work is that brackish water and salt >> marshes are favorable mosquito breeding habitats. Stocking of guppies, >> which feed on the mosquito larvae, is thus a pest control measure. >> The significance may also extend to some of the discussion in this >> newsgroup...I thought that perhaps some of the readers might be >> interested. > [Michael Lonetto] > Very interesting. What does it have to do with evolution? The guppies > don't "evolve" in 168 hours. They already have the ability to live in > salt water. Swamp fish tend to be very adaptable with regard to water > quality. Is that the evolution you refer to? Please be more specific. It doesn't have anything to do with evolution. I wasn't referring to anything about evolution. (pre-reply comment: Golly! Often we see the statement that "all 'pro-creation' writings of creationists are simply anti-evolution statements." I guess one unfortunate manifestation of this expectation is that when something not anti-evolution appears, it becomes incomprehensible?) Andrew Koenig asked, long ago, about the consequences, with regard to fish mortality, of a flood. The question was motivated, I believe, by the expectation that the difference in habitat of fresh- and salt-water fish would would cause the death of all the members of one or both groups. I mentioned, in response to the original question, the existence of salmon, and also a quotation from _The Origin_: "[S]alt-water fish can with care be slowly accustomed to live in fresh water; and, according to Valenciennes, there is hardly a single group of fishes confined exclusively to fresh water, so that we may imagine that a marine member of a fresh-water group might travel far along the shores of the sea, and subsequently become modified and adapted to the fresh waters of a distant land." The article by Chervinski also has a bearing on this issue, and when I ran across it recently, I thought that it might be worthwhile posting. It doesn't *prove* a flood of course, nor was that my intent. It shows that in such an eventuality, not all fresh-water fish would die. (It does not show that all fresh-water fish would live.) -- | Paul DuBois {allegra,ihnp4,seismo}!uwvax!uwmacc!dubois --+-- | Ritual and Ceremony: Life Itself. |