Thanks furball! The tiger salamander isn't what was the subject of the recent documentary I saw, but interesting nonetheless. This was some sub-saharan creature totally dependent upon water, or lack thereof. If it is a dry year, the creature lays eggs that turn into an amphibious animal. In a wet year it lays eggs that turn into an acquatic animal. I think this was on Discovery or Animal Planet. I'll see if I can find it. It's interesting because drought could render this species extinct but somehow it adapts to either wet or drought conditions during egg laying. So how do it know?? Maybe if it rolls snake eyes, we have X kind of eggs? What if it layed eggs for drought conditions and then the monsoons set in. Or layed eggs for wet conditions and a drought set in? No intelligent design here, nope.
It has the necessary genes for either mode of life and depending on environmental conditions it turns on either one set or the other.
You're right, no intelligent design, just natural selection favoring the existence of alternate developmental routes determined by transcription factors.
No, no intelligent design there. The eggs are the same, the difference comes in a developmental switch that is affected by environmental conditions. These developmental divergences are often subtle in their beginnings, but have a profound effect on the adult animal.
The real question would be: What happens if the switch is set to aquatic and there is a sudden drought or vice versa? A short term disaster for the critter.