602
such a being fits in? What, if any, role does it play in the ecological flux of a world
that could not be said to have gone mad, prior to its, our, arrival on the scene no
more than 300,000+ years ago, if that? Are there comparable behavioral digests for
any species, predicated upon their novelty and newness to the earth?
At the turn of the twenty-first-century researchers on the Galapagos island of
Daphne Major noticed a large cactus finch that had arrived on the small island,
mated with the endemic Geospiza fortis (a smaller native finch) and produced
entirely new, large, viable offspring hybrids. Within four generations of successful
mating by those chicks, the new species—by then one of four such finch species on
the island—numbered 26.
4
There are undoubtedly countless other newly arrived
species that are, as yet, undetected. In contemplating other examples, Dr. Ken
Saladin, Emeritus professor of biology at Georgia College and State University,
points out that the “nylon-eating bacteria in the genus Flavobacterium,” can be no
older than nylon itself, invented in 1935. And Dr. Saladin cites data regarding two
sub-species of sea urchin in Western Australia, Heliocidaris erythrogramma, a
Scottish monkey flower, Mimulus peregrinus, no more than 143 years old, and a
Swiss cabbage family species, Cardamine eboracensis, first seen to have arisen
around 1979.
5
With real-time evolution occurring rampantly throughout the world,
and at least 80,000 chemicals in commercial use (at least 2000 new chemical compounds introduced each year, largely untested), the projected associated species is
simply unknown, but a nylon-eating bacterium is certainly indicative of the possibilities at large.
6
Hybridization is one of the dominant precursors of future biological diversity
under Anthropocenic conditions of multiple stressors, syncretistic chemical reagents
and resulting reactants in every biome, and the unnatural loading of tension, more
and more such stress, beyond tenable thresholds. Given this context, human reflection is at a crossroads in trying to gauge the relativity of our presence as a new species. Even more confused, troubled by the acceleration of bias that is our singular
lens through which we attempt to scrutinize present and past biological conditionals
and relations, nothing we do or think quite captures the stark, unknowable extent of
our behavioral impacts; let alone of those upon ourselves.
We can correlate, roughly, cause-and-effect, in terms of heritable traits, climate
change and pregnancies, the reproductive rate and contagion within human
populations of pathogens, or the levels of dissolved oxygen in lakes and its impact
4 “A New Bird Species Has Evolved On Galapagos And Scientists Watched It Happen,” by Michelle
Starr, November 24, 2017, ScienceAlert, https://www.sciencealert.com/darwin-s-finchesevolve-into-new-species-in-real-time-two-generations-galapagos, Accessed October 11, 2019.
5 “Which species is the youngest on Earth?” Ken Saladin, Emeritus professor of biology, Georgia
College and State University, https://www.quora.com/Which-species-is-the-youngest-on-Earth,
Accessed October 11, 2019. Saladin cites a former BBC site titled “World’s Youngest Species,”
http://esciencenews.com/sources/bbc.news.science.nature/2012/11/22/worlds.youngest.species,
Accessed June 19, 2020. See also, Kinoshita, S., Kageyama, S., Iba, K., Yamada, Y. and Okada,
H. Utilization of a cyclic dimer and linear oligomers of ε-aminocapronoic acid by Achromobacter
guttatus K172, Agric. Biol. Chem. 116, 547–551 (1981), FEBS 1981.
6 See “It could take centuries for EPA to test all the unregulated chemicals under a new landmark
bill,” by Mark Scialla, PBS NewsHour, June 22, 2016, Accessed October 11, 2019.
64 Fundaments of Observation and Melancholy
such a being fits in? What, if any, role does it play in the ecological flux of a world
that could not be said to have gone mad, prior to its, our, arrival on the scene no
more than 300,000+ years ago, if that? Are there comparable behavioral digests for
any species, predicated upon their novelty and newness to the earth?
At the turn of the twenty-first-century researchers on the Galapagos island of
Daphne Major noticed a large cactus finch that had arrived on the small island,
mated with the endemic Geospiza fortis (a smaller native finch) and produced
entirely new, large, viable offspring hybrids. Within four generations of successful
mating by those chicks, the new species—by then one of four such finch species on
the island—numbered 26.
4
There are undoubtedly countless other newly arrived
species that are, as yet, undetected. In contemplating other examples, Dr. Ken
Saladin, Emeritus professor of biology at Georgia College and State University,
points out that the “nylon-eating bacteria in the genus Flavobacterium,” can be no
older than nylon itself, invented in 1935. And Dr. Saladin cites data regarding two
sub-species of sea urchin in Western Australia, Heliocidaris erythrogramma, a
Scottish monkey flower, Mimulus peregrinus, no more than 143 years old, and a
Swiss cabbage family species, Cardamine eboracensis, first seen to have arisen
around 1979.
5
With real-time evolution occurring rampantly throughout the world,
and at least 80,000 chemicals in commercial use (at least 2000 new chemical compounds introduced each year, largely untested), the projected associated species is
simply unknown, but a nylon-eating bacterium is certainly indicative of the possibilities at large.
6
Hybridization is one of the dominant precursors of future biological diversity
under Anthropocenic conditions of multiple stressors, syncretistic chemical reagents
and resulting reactants in every biome, and the unnatural loading of tension, more
and more such stress, beyond tenable thresholds. Given this context, human reflection is at a crossroads in trying to gauge the relativity of our presence as a new species. Even more confused, troubled by the acceleration of bias that is our singular
lens through which we attempt to scrutinize present and past biological conditionals
and relations, nothing we do or think quite captures the stark, unknowable extent of
our behavioral impacts; let alone of those upon ourselves.
We can correlate, roughly, cause-and-effect, in terms of heritable traits, climate
change and pregnancies, the reproductive rate and contagion within human
populations of pathogens, or the levels of dissolved oxygen in lakes and its impact
4 “A New Bird Species Has Evolved On Galapagos And Scientists Watched It Happen,” by Michelle
Starr, November 24, 2017, ScienceAlert, https://www.sciencealert.com/darwin-s-finchesevolve-into-new-species-in-real-time-two-generations-galapagos, Accessed October 11, 2019.
5 “Which species is the youngest on Earth?” Ken Saladin, Emeritus professor of biology, Georgia
College and State University, https://www.quora.com/Which-species-is-the-youngest-on-Earth,
Accessed October 11, 2019. Saladin cites a former BBC site titled “World’s Youngest Species,”
http://esciencenews.com/sources/bbc.news.science.nature/2012/11/22/worlds.youngest.species,
Accessed June 19, 2020. See also, Kinoshita, S., Kageyama, S., Iba, K., Yamada, Y. and Okada,
H. Utilization of a cyclic dimer and linear oligomers of ε-aminocapronoic acid by Achromobacter
guttatus K172, Agric. Biol. Chem. 116, 547–551 (1981), FEBS 1981.
6 See “It could take centuries for EPA to test all the unregulated chemicals under a new landmark
bill,” by Mark Scialla, PBS NewsHour, June 22, 2016, Accessed October 11, 2019.
64 Fundaments of Observation and Melancholy