According to legend, Pope Gregory the Great, in AD 600, proclaimed that fetal rabbits were fish and could be eaten during Lent.* In response, it is said, southern French monks domesticated rabbits to assure their supply.
Now, it is reported that the legend may not be true.* It is claimed that the statement actually may have been made by St. Gregory of Tours, not the Pope. St. Gregory is said to have referred to Roccolenus, a man who ate young rabbits during Lent.
However, is it true that rabbits are not fish? In point of fact, there is a genus of fish named "Rabbitfish." They have large, dark eyes and mouths resembling rabbit mouths. Rabbitfish are herbivorous, eating algae in the wild. If kept in aquaria, they eat fresh vegetables, much like rabbits.
Let me advance a theory. Suppose that over millions of years certain fish evolved into rabbitfish. Then, suppose that climate change caused some lakes and rivers to dry up. As a result, some rabbitfish evolved into land living creatures now called rabbits. Thus, by reason of two prominent earth forces acknowledged by scientific communities and the media, rabbits are the result of Darwinian evolution and climate change.
May the Easter Fishy bring you a big basket of candy and eggs.
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*Saey, "Fishy Rabbit Tale Debunked
For Lent", Science News, March 17,
2018, p.5
© Daniel J. Kucera 2018
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