His References To Rare Species Had Two Possible Meanings
The coming long weekend is the last chance for Torontonians to see the special exhibit Charles Darwin: The Evolution Revolution at the Royal Ontario Museum. Heavy on facsimile letters and fake animal specimens, the show uses a biographical approach to introduce fundamental concepts of evolution.
A recurring minor motif is Darwin’s habit, shocking now but perfectly in bounds for a 19th century naturalist, of acquainting himself with his animal finds by eating them. He observed that one species of small armadillo encountered on his Beagle voyage was tasty but not enough eating for three hungry men. After searching over a vast South American territory for a rumored species of flightless rhea, Darwin had the sinking feeling of looking down at his plate and realizing that he and the Beagle crew were presently engaged in eating one. (He was able to salvage enough of the delicious carcass to assemble the specimen he was looking for.)
I didn’t know that Darwin collected fossils along with his living animal specimens, sending megatherium skulls and a glyptodont armor shell back to England.
Displays underline the extreme reluctance with which Darwin finally presented the theory he knew would ignite a storm of criticism-and would batter the faith of others, as it had stripped away his own.
After a section on advances in evolutionary knowledge since Darwin’s day, the creationist argument is tackled directly, via video soundbites from a host of leading scientists.
The show heads from here to the Natural History Museum in London. Previous stops were in the US, where it had trouble attracting sponsorship. Among the sponsors for the Toronto leg is The Observer, the official magazine of the United Church of Canada. Although I’m not someone you’ll find sitting in a pew, this fact makes me extremely proud of the church I was raised in. Go United!