Wonder of wonders Chapter XII 55

Evolution and Embryo

( Embryological Wonders )

Nature is a mine of Wonders

inexhaustible and tantalizing,

some of them mind blowing

some of them fantastic
many amazing, astonishing
and some awe inspiring
but all are without exception
universally surprising.

But one has to dig deep

in order to unearth gems
many lying buried under
or in the stones or stems;
the labour one puts in is
pretty hard and time taking
but worth it really, as it is
revealing and rewarding .

C.Darwin and A.Wallace

discovered bio evolution .

By visiting many continents

studying their flora and fauna,
leaving no stone unturned and
certainly leaving no lacuna ;

They bore through thoroughly

many disciplines painstakingly;
sifted many facts ,and organized
or interpreted samples scientifically
to develop the theory of evolution .
.
Darwin had to sail through
for it seas and oceans for years
Wallace had to walk through
jungles after jungles for years;

Wonder of wonders 56
Both gained great insight and
surely stumbled on biogeography !.
and their gift of knowledge has
contributed gems to science of biology.

[Yet they had to swim against the

then current of thought vigorously
and faced lot of criticism, without
any hiccups or any sigh, sportingly] .

Transducing Malthusian vision

to the field of Biology
taking ‘survival of the fittest’
in the ‘struggle for existence’
and viewing it all in the
light of Natural selection
They made a paradigm shift
in the arena of bio vision .

Darwinian modification of the theory

that “ ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny”
lead early to another great realization ;
that similarity in early embryonic morphogeny
reveals common descent of distinct species
and their later modifications indicate adaptation
for differing environ in diverging species ;
Thus it covered both heridity and variation
becoming basis for ‘Descent with modification’

It is hardly believable but true really

that in their early stages embryos
of fish fowl seal salamander and humans
look so alike that it is difficult to identify
or assign them to their species easily;

.
Mythologically human form one gets only
after passing through many thousands of yony
while this may be a figment of imagination only
but, it is also a fact that while still in the womb
human embryo does assume various forms
repeating history of the evolution of its species.
and assumes human form at later stages only.
Wonder of wonders 58

It is difficult to understand why after all

Nature keeps a record of generations
after generations like a pandit in pushkar,
and repeats and reproduces it like the later
without fail every time a new individual arrives
in this world –in the same way as a pandit
does, when a jajman arrives in the holy pushkar.

The last but not the least, what to say

it is the occurrence of similarity in the
homologous organs of very different species
amazes, astounds and surprises us, but reveals
relation and pathway of evolution as they say;

Who could imagine indeed that in particular

the arms of men, wings of birds, and forearms
of reptiles and amphibians are made of similar
bones ie similarly developed Radius and Ulna
indicating descent from a common ancestor !

even more interesting is the story

of the fish gills and human ears
as the cartilage of former and mid ear
bone of later are ,unbelievably, said to be
a celebrated case of homology .
adding one more wonder to our kitty .

Oh ! How nature takes care of all this conserving

some features , altering some, generally gradually
in a systematic orderly way and manages efficiently
whole of this complex universe so very wonderfully .

Some Rishis say Nature is ‘Maya’ and the God Mayapati, 

and the world is a maya jaal created and destroyed by Him
just as a spider generates spins and swallows its own web;
It may or may not be so but astonishing wonders of Nature
do show it is its own or some body’s or His perplexing Jadugari .

5/108 SFS Santosh Ratan

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Mansarovar jaipur
 Mayan tu prakritim vidyan maiynam tu maheshvaram-----Shvetashvtar upnishad

Yatho urnabhi srijte grihnte ch---tatha afshrat sambhavtih vishvam—Mundak upnishad

..