May 1, Tiktaalik Roseae, Back in the News  (1)

 

Tiktaalik Roseae is back in the news,

Devonian creature, up out of the ooze,

With four limb-like fins, it could slither and flop,

Exploring the shore of warm arctic bayous.

 

Once up on the shore, it could slither and flop;

That wasn’t enough; we know it did not stop.

It started migrating; (there wasn’t a wall)

And now we have creatures that walk, run, and hop.

 

It started migrating; (before Trump, no wall.)

The land was inviting; he’d wander through all.

No ICE to arrest him, he did not fear jail,

Just wriggled along at a leisurely crawl.

 

Without ICE to chase him, he did not fear jail,

No laws and no money, no excessive bail.

He still had a problem; could not respire air,

Without nose and lungs, his migration would fail.

 

To wander on land, creatures must breathe the air.

They had to respire to explore all that’s there.

That’s true of all creatures that live on the land.

Tiktaalik, at first, seemed to be unaware.

 

So, all tetrapods that first crawled on the land,

In millions of years would come to understand

That they needed lungs, noses, fingers, and toes.

But four feet came first, and much later, the hand.

 

Land creatures evolved lungs, nose, fingers, and toes;

Then Homo tool makers, like us, wearing clothes.

If Tiktaalik foresaw he’d lead to Ted Cruz,

Would he have rethought the migration he chose?

 

Since now, evolution has led to Ted Cruz,

We ask, should Tiktaalik have stayed in the ooze?

 

• See Sabrina Imbler, New York Times, April 30, 2022, “Is Four-Footed Fish to Blame for World’s Woes?”