Books in Science: WTF, Evolution?! Shows off Unintelligible Design

Evolution may be based in science, but it can be far from logical. Think of the blobfish, for example; what caused something like that to evolve? And what about the nose-picking bird that eats parasites out of an elephant seal's nose? There are some weird and wacky animals in the natural world and Mara Grunbaum, author of WTF, Evolution?!, has taken notice.

In her new book, WTF, Evolution?!, Grunbaum points out some of the strangest creatures in the Animal Kingdom and why they simply don't make sense in evolutionary terms. For example, the horned lizard has the ability to shoot blood from its eyes in order to startle predators; and the tongue eating louse has the ability to replace a fish's tongue with its own body. Using humor, Grunbaum teaches her readers a bit more about the animals that can be found across the globe.

"I've always been kind of interested in science. I always liked it in school," said Grunbaum. "I was always interested in the outdoors and nature in particular. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, where there's a lot of water and forests and squishy tide creatures."

While many people are attracted to large, charismatic mammals, Grunbaum was the opposite. She was more interested in the strange and wild--the "squishy tide creatures" of the world.

"I had just started a full time job writing about science for kids and in the course of all of my research, I'd come across all of these strange animals with strange evolutionary adaptations that just made me think 'what the hell,'" admitted Grunbaum. "They always entertained me and amused me."

Inspired by the animals she came across while writing, Grunbaum started a blog that essentially made fun of the adaptations that some animals had evolved. Each post showed a picture of a strange animal with some kind of comment about its evolutionary adaptations.

"One of my favorites was one that was on the blog a long time ago...the southern elephant seal," said Grunbaum. "There are these birds that co-exist with them and actually eat the parasites out of their noses. So one of the pictures we used was a bird with its beak up this seal's nose. And I feel like it's a good example of if you were designing something from scratch, the best way to do it isn't to design a bird that picks a seal's nose."

Not surprisingly, the blog took off. While Grunbaum first intended to only post irregularly, she found herself discovering more and more animals to write about--much to the amusement of her readers. Now, she's created a book detailing some of the highlights from her blog in addition to new material.

"I'm trying to be funny and entertaining," said Grunbaum. "But I also hope that it gets across some of the science involved, and that people learn a bit along the way while being entertained."

You can check out some of the hilarious pictures and captions from WTF, Evolution?! for yourself on Mara Grunbaum's blog.