The Creationist's Nightmare: The Frogfish

I watched Nature on PBS yesterday and I saw an animal I don't remember ever seeing before....at least not in the last 15-20 years since I've been interested in evolutionary heritage.

Luckily enough, Youtube's Nature channel had the exact clip I was intrigued by (it is less than 2 minutes long). Besides the more common frogfish, included in the video is the batfish (now that is one weird looking fish):


It is pretty obvious that the frogfish wipes out a few of the old creationist rhetoric like "lets see fins evolve into feet." Another few more evolutionary steps and the frogfish could easily turn into an amphibian. Just give them a few million years and a dried up ocean bottom in their case (unlikely to happen though).

The frogfish really slaughters the micro/macro argument.

It is pretty clear as to why the frogfish have modified their fins in such a way. The purpose of life is to make sure the next generation makes it (tell that to a creationist and watch them turn blue). These fish have evolved to hang by rocks and the ocean floor as they must have an abundant food source there and a lack of predators helped by the fact they have evolved to use camouflage, not only to hide from prey but also to hide from the fish they prey on. And since ocean rocks tend to stay put, the fish don't need to travel much.

Is it me, or doesn't it look like the frogfish has 7 or eight toes on each fin that touches the ground?

And that batfish sure makes it look like God was in one of his comical moods when he created them. Maybe he was in a jolly mood when he decided to flood the earth and killing almost every animal on this planet:

Oh wait, God created batfish when he created every animal on the earth less than 10,000 years ago. It still looks like he has a kinky side. He gave the fish Kim Basinger lips complete with lipstick.