hey darwin! can i buy you a beer?
"Nevertheless, Darwin noted, 'there is in this respect one strange anomaly; namely, that when frightened it [marine iguanas of the galapogos islands which feed on sea-weed found on the seafloor] will not enter the water.' He didn't get that on hearsay. He cornered an animal, grabbed it, and threw it into a large tide pool left by the ebbing sea.
Evolutionary biology, as I've said, is not generally an experimental science. But there are historic exceptions.
This interaction between Darwin and a hapless marine iguana is reported in the Journal. Having been rudely tossed, the iguana swam straight back to where Darwin stood, like an Apache dancer returning to her partner. Darwin threw it again. Again it returned. 'It swam near the bottom, with a very graceful and rapid movement, and occasionally aided itself over the uneven ground with its feet. As soon as it arrived near the margin, but still being under water, it either tried to conceal itself in the tufts of sea-weed, or it entered some crevice. As soon as it thought the danger was past, it crawled out on the dry rocks, and shuffled away as quickly as it could.' But the hapless iguana wasn't dealing with some idle yahoo, some sadistic schoolboy with a short span of attention; it was dealing with Charles Darwin. 'I several times caught this same lizard, by driving it down to a point, and though possessed of such perfect powers of diving and swimming, nothing would induce it to enter the water; and as often as I threw it in, it returned in the manner above described.' Despite his occasional moments of character lapse (especially twenty-three years later, in the matter of Wallace), Darwin seems generally to have been an admirable, unpretentious man as well as a great scientist, and I take this iguana encounter as exemplary. He was inexhaustibly curious. He was observant. He was gentle but firm. He was smart. And he wasn't afraid to look like a lunatic."
- p. 207 of David Quammen's The Song of the Dodo
i have to admit, i've never really felt one way or the other about darwin. after reading the above, picturing myself sitting on the beach watching this crazy man throw an iguana in the water time after time, i kind of want to hang out with him.
i'm reading this book as a prep for our trip to the amazon. it's about biogeography. it came highly recommended by the paleontologist who is organizing our trip. i'm about a third of the way through and so far it has had not a lot to say about the amazon and much more to say on evolution and how the varying theories of evolution have come about.
it feels apt to be reading this 200 years after darwin's death.
Evolutionary biology, as I've said, is not generally an experimental science. But there are historic exceptions.
This interaction between Darwin and a hapless marine iguana is reported in the Journal. Having been rudely tossed, the iguana swam straight back to where Darwin stood, like an Apache dancer returning to her partner. Darwin threw it again. Again it returned. 'It swam near the bottom, with a very graceful and rapid movement, and occasionally aided itself over the uneven ground with its feet. As soon as it arrived near the margin, but still being under water, it either tried to conceal itself in the tufts of sea-weed, or it entered some crevice. As soon as it thought the danger was past, it crawled out on the dry rocks, and shuffled away as quickly as it could.' But the hapless iguana wasn't dealing with some idle yahoo, some sadistic schoolboy with a short span of attention; it was dealing with Charles Darwin. 'I several times caught this same lizard, by driving it down to a point, and though possessed of such perfect powers of diving and swimming, nothing would induce it to enter the water; and as often as I threw it in, it returned in the manner above described.' Despite his occasional moments of character lapse (especially twenty-three years later, in the matter of Wallace), Darwin seems generally to have been an admirable, unpretentious man as well as a great scientist, and I take this iguana encounter as exemplary. He was inexhaustibly curious. He was observant. He was gentle but firm. He was smart. And he wasn't afraid to look like a lunatic."
- p. 207 of David Quammen's The Song of the Dodo
i have to admit, i've never really felt one way or the other about darwin. after reading the above, picturing myself sitting on the beach watching this crazy man throw an iguana in the water time after time, i kind of want to hang out with him.
i'm reading this book as a prep for our trip to the amazon. it's about biogeography. it came highly recommended by the paleontologist who is organizing our trip. i'm about a third of the way through and so far it has had not a lot to say about the amazon and much more to say on evolution and how the varying theories of evolution have come about.
it feels apt to be reading this 200 years after darwin's death.