Natural History Museum - Behind the Scenes

"Few people get to glimpse the treasures hidden behind the scenes at the Natural History Museum, but the photographer Gautier Deblonde was granted rare access to its secret corridors and store rooms. The palaeontologist Richard Fortey, who spent more than three decades working at the museum, takes us on a guided tour

Most great museums have treasures hidden away behind the public galleries, but the Natural History Museum must belong in a class of its own. Beyond the familiar dinosaur displays lies a secret warren of galleries and store rooms, stuffed with millions of specimens."

Read the full article with photographs at the Telegraph.

Thanks to: Archaea to Zeaxanthol

I'm Adrian Thysse and
I'm a Hammerhead Shark.

Undersea Volcanoes Caused Extinction

Scientists at the University of Alberta release findings that suggest that undersea volcanoes triggered an extinction event 93 million years ago.

"According to their research, the eruptions preceded the mass extinction by a geological blink of the eye. The event occurred within 23 thousand years of the extinction and the underwater volcanic eruption had two consequences: first, nutrients were released, which allowed mass feeding and growth of plants and animals. When these organisms died, their decomposition and fall towards the sea floor caused further oxygen depletion, thereby compounding the effects of the volcanic eruption and release of clouds of carbon dioxide in to the oceans and atmosphere. The result was a global oceanic anoxic event, where the ocean is completely depleted of oxygen. Anoxic events-while extremely rare-occur in periods of very warm climate and a raise in carbon dioxide levels, which means that this research could not only help prove a mass-extinction theory, but also help scientists studying the effects of global warming."

Read the complete article at the University of Alberta Express News

(Turgeon, S. C. & Creaser, R. A. Nature 454, 323–326 (2008).)

Darwin Bust or Bust

We are off to London, England next Tuesday - does anyone out there know where someone could find a bust of the bearded Darwin or Huxley or other such memorabilia?

Also, we will spend a week in Yorkshire and a week in Pembrokeshire - any Darwin or Wallace related sites worth seeing in those areas?

All tips appreciated!

E.O. Wilson Article

The New York Times has a new article by Nicholas Wade on Scientists at Work, featuring Edward O. Wilson.

Amoung other things, it mentions his latest dispute:

"The new fight is one Dr. Wilson has picked. It concerns a central feature of evolution, one with considerable bearing on human social behaviors. The issue is the level at which evolution operates. Many evolutionary biologists have been persuaded, by works like “The Selfish Gene” by Richard Dawkins, that the gene is the only level at which natural selection acts. Dr. Wilson, changing his mind because of new data about the genetics of ant colonies, now believes that natural selection operates at many levels, including at the level of a social group."

(Photo by Jim Harrison, 2003)

July 18 Correction:
Because of an editing error, an article on Tuesday about the biologist Edward O. Wilson described incorrectly his forthcoming book with Burt Hölldobler, “The Superorganism.” It is a new book — not an “updated edition” — that contains new information on termites, wasps, bees and ants, as well as information updated from their earlier book “The Ants.”

New Mesozoic Bird from China

Tetrapod's Darren Naish has a look at Zhou et al.'s paper on the enantiornithine bird Pengornis houi.

From the abstract:

Most of Mesozoic bird diversity comprises species that are part of one of two major lineages, namely Ornithurae, including living birds, and Enantiornithes, a major radiation traditionally referred to as 'opposite birds'. Here we report the largest Early Cretaceous enantiornithine bird from north-east China, which provides evidence that basal members of Enantiornithes share more morphologies with ornithurine birds than previously recognized. Morphological evolution in these two groups has been thought to be largely parallel, with derived members of Enantiornithes convergent on the 'advanced' flight capabilities of ornithurine birds. The presence of an array of morphologies previously thought to be derived within ornithurine and enantiornithine birds in a basal enantiornithine species provides evidence of the complex character evolution in these two major lineages. The cranial morphology of the new specimen is among the best preserved for Mesozoic avians. The new species extends the size range known for Early Cretaceous Enantiornithes significantly and provides evidence of forelimb to hind limb proportions distinct from all other known members of the clade. As such, it sheds new light on avian body size evolution and diversity, and allows a re-evaluation of a previously proposed hypothesis of competitive exclusion among Early Cretaceous avian clades.

See my other brief dinobird articles with photos.

Carl Woese - Microbiologist

Carl Woese Born 15 Jul 1928

American microbiologist who recognized the existence of the organisms Archaea as a third domain of life, distinct from the previously recognized two domains of bacteria, and life other than bacteria. On 2 Nov 1977, his identification of methanogens, a form of life dating back some 3.5 billion years, was reported from the University of Illinois. Woese had long studied the evolutionary track of DNA and RNA. In 1976, he was approached by his colleague Ralph Wolfe, who presented a group of methane producing organisms. Woese studied their RNA and recognized their lack of the entire oligonucleotide sequences. Methanogens are found in oxygen-deficient environments, and mostly obtain their energy by reducing CO₂ and oxidizing hydrogen, and releasing methane.

(From today in Science History)



See his paper On the Evolution of Cells (2002) for an overview of how life may have developed before natural selection could take place, and how

"...there would come a stage in the evolution of cellular organization where the organismal genealogical trace (recorded in common histories of the genes of an organism) goes from being completely ephemeral to being increasingly permanent. This point in evolution, this transition, is appropriately called the ‘‘Darwinian Threshold.’’ On the far side of that Threshold ‘‘species’’ as we know them cannot exist. Once it is crossed, however, speciation becomes possible. The Darwinian Threshold truly represents the Origin of Species, in that it represents the origin of speciation as we know it."

In 2003 he received the Crafoord Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for his discovery of a third domain of life, the Archaea.

T.H. Huxley Speaks - On the Oxford Debate

From a letter to Frederick Dyster:

Has the rumour of the Oxford row reached Tenby? It was great fun. I had said that I could not see what difference it would make to my moral responsibility if I had had an ape for a grandfather, and saponacious Samuel thought it was a fine opportunity for chaffing a savan. However he performed the operation vulgarly and I determined to punish him – partly on that account and partly because he talked pretentious nonsense. So when I got up I spoke pretty much to the effect–that I had listened with great attention to the Lord Bishop's speech but had been unable to discover either a new fact or a new argument in it–except indeed the question raised as to my personal predilections in the matter of ancestry–that it would not have occurred to me to bring forward such a topic as that for discussion myself, but that I was quite ready to meet the Right Rev. prelate even on that ground. If then, said I, the question is put to me would I rather have a miserable ape for a grandfather or a man highly endowed by nature and possessed of great means and influence and yet who employs these faculties and that influence for the mere purpose of introducing ridicule into a grave scientific discussion–I unhesitatingly affirm my preference for the ape.

Whereupon there was unextinguishable laughter among the people, and they listened to the rest of my argument with the greatest attention. Lubbock and Hooker spoke after me with great force and among us we shut up the bishop and his laity.

I happened to be in very good condition and said my say with perfect good temper and politeness–I assure you of this because all sorts of reports [have] been spread about, e.g. that I had said I would rather be an ape than a bishop, etc.

All the Oxford Dons were there and several hundred people in the room–so that I think Samuel will think twice before he tries a fall with men of science again.

If he had dealt with the subject fairly and moderately, I would not have treated him in this way–But the round-mouth, oily, special pleading of a man who is ignorant of the subject, presumed on his position and his lawyer faculty gave me a most unmitigated contempt for him. You can't think how pleased all his confrères were. I believe I was the most popular man in Oxford for full four and twenty hours afterwards.

T.H. Huxley

September 9, 1860.

The Oxford Debate took place on the 30 June, 1860.

See another viewpoint of the debate at my blog entry for Alfred Newton.

And the Huxley response at an old post at Natural Reckonings

Read more >> Options >>

Joggins Fossil Cliffs now UNESCO site

July 7, 2008

The Joggins Fossil Cliffs, (Canada), a 689 ha palaeontological site along the coast of Nova Scotia (eastern Canada), have been described as the “coal age Galápagos” due to their wealth of fossils from the Carboniferous period (354 to 290 million years ago). The rocks of this site are considered to be iconic for this period of the history of Earth and are the world’s thickest and most comprehensive record of the Pennsylvanian strata (dating back 318 to 303 million years) with the most complete known fossil record of terrestrial life from that time. These include the remains and tracks of very early animals and the rainforest in which they lived, left in situ, intact and undisturbed. With its 14.7 km of sea cliffs, low bluffs, rock platforms and beach, the site groups remains of three ecosystems: estuarine bay, floodplain rainforest and fire prone forested alluvial plain with freshwater pools. It offers the richest assemblage known of the fossil life in these three ecosystems with 96 genera and 148 species of fossils and 20 footprint groups. The site is listed as containing outstanding examples representing major stages in the history of Earth.(From UNESCO press release)

"At long last, the world has recognized the importance of the fossils Dawson (Sir John William Dawson) discovered a century and a half ago as a young geologist walking along a beach at Joggins, N.S.

His finds would inspire Charles Darwin, document the emergence of the world's first reptiles and supply evidence that reptiles, mammals and birds share common ancestry.

When Lyell returned to Nova Scotia in 1852, he and Dawson discovered fossils at Joggins that would rock the scientific world.

"The two are walking along the beach when they find a stump," recounted (McGill University paleontologist Robert Carroll) Carroll. In the trunk of a primitive tree, they discovered the skeletal remains of a small, four-legged amphibian dating to 312 million years ago. They also found a prehistoric snail - a discovery Darwin later described in On the Origin of Species.

"They are the first people to discover that these animals had been preserved in the trees at Joggins," said Carroll.

Dawson later found a small reptile, about the length of a pencil, and named it Hylonomus lyelli, in Lyell's honour. Hylonomus means "forest wanderer."

By never wasting a moment, Dawson managed to fit fieldwork into his hectic schedule at McGill. He kept unclassified specimens on the windowsill and studied them when he had a spare minute, for example when waiting for a horse-drawn cab.

The emerging fossil record was making it clear that the Earth was much older than some 6,000 years, as a literal reading of the Bible suggests. But Dawson never doubted that faith could be reconciled with science. Perhaps, he speculated, days in the Bible's story of creation really meant geological periods.

Dawson couldn't accept Darwin's theory of a godless universe where human life had no higher purpose that the scramble to survive. He also pointed out gaps in Darwin's arguments on fossils.

But as Darwin's ideas gained currency, Dawson's reputation as a researcher waned."

Read the full article by Marian Scott at Rocking the Science World

See the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica entry for a brief biography of Sir William Dawson.

See this pdf for an overview of Dawson's contributions to geology.

Go to the Joggins Fossil Cliffs Webpage

(Photo provided by the Joggins Fossil Institute)

Evolution: Education and Outreach #3

The latest edition of Evolution: Education and Outreach is now available. All articles are open access: Sample articles include:

Some Thoughts on “Adaptive Peaks,” “Dobzhansky’s Dilemma”—and How to Think About Evolution

Niles Eldredge

The Concept of Co-option: Why Evolution Often Looks Miraculous

Deborah A. McLennan

Evolutionary Trends

T. Ryan Gregory

The Importance of Understanding the Nature of Science for Accepting Evolution

Tania Lombrozo, Anastasia Thanukos and Michael Weisberg

Evolution, Just Say Yes: Prothero on Fossils

Enjoy these and more at Evolution: Education and Outreach