Quest for tooth

Even as we share the wonder of scientists who have discovered the fossil of a pre-historic crocodile that had a dinosaur-like head—it terrorised its contemporary marine creatures some 135 million years ago—we have to admit to a certain amount of trepidation. That creature won’t come back from dead but it may come alive in yet another Hollywood sequel of the Jurassic Park.

One of the few certainties of life is that humanity has had enough of dinosaurs on screens who never seem to be able to eat the hero, or his girl. Steven Spielberg, responsible for this mayhem, must be stopped, if necessary by telling him that in the scale of viewer suffering, War of the Worlds-II is more acceptable than Jurassic Park-IV. But, of course, with Hollywood you never know. You never know with nature either, as scientists, some of whom tend to think there isn’t much left to know, continuously find out. There was apparently no indication in the body of knowledge that constitutes evolutionary science that a croc with T-Rex head ruled the waters at some point in the past. It’s very well for scientists to say now that this dino-croc filled the same evolutionary niche as killer whales. But such hindsights, useful as they are in furthering understanding, seem insignificant compared to the occasional whale of a story that nature allows us to discover.

Perhaps, the people who should most carefully read these stories are those Americans determined to contest evolution as the science of life. President Goerge Bush seems sympathetic to them. ‘Intelligent design’, the anti-evolution lobby’s supposed doctrine, can’t handle, among other things, the sheer variety and the apparent ruthlessness displayed in the history of life. To say God created the dino-croc is silly. More silly than saying a crocodile body with a dinosaur head is a good metaphor for the Bush administration.