Fossil of the Week

This is an ark shell, a member of the bivalve family Arcidae, which has members still living today. If you are a shell collector this one probably looks very familiar. It is Arca zebra abisiniana, described by Weisbord in 1964 in Bulletins of American Paleontology no. 204. It is the holotype, collected from the Abisinia formation of Playa Grande village in northern Venezuela. It is a very young fossil, Pleistocene in age or less than 2 million years old.

The species: This specimen was described as a subspecies of Arca zebra, the modern "Turkey Wing" shell found today from North Carolina through the Caribbean. The fossil subspecies is said to differ from the living species by lacking the broad radial depression so characteristic of the modern form (although in my experience, this is a highly variable feature even today). The living species is striped brown and white, as reflected by the species name "zebra." The fossil subspecies is named after its fossil formation.

The publication: BAP 204 is a 564-page monograph entitled "Late Cenozoic Pelecypods from Northern Venezuela." In addition to its fossils, it covers many living species from the region, and is lavishly illustrated, plus includes an extensive bibliography.

The author: Norman Weisbord (1901-1990) was a student of PRI-founder Gilbert Harris. He received an Associate degree from Cornell University in 1923, followed by a Masters degree in 1926, and had a very successful career in the petroleum business (which hired paleontologists in those days). Warren Allmon's history of PRI, "The First 75 Years," tells us that as part of his job, Weisbord worked for long stretches abroad, and sent specimens to PRI from foreign locales. He published 19 major paleontological monographs in the Bulletins alone, covering a wide diversity of topics from corals to mollusks, mostly from the Cenozoic of the circum-Caribbean.

Text by Paula Mikkelsen

24 Days of Darwin...

For the past 24 days scientists, physicians, students, and people from all different backgrounds have shared their thoughts on Darwin and his seminal work. Today, on the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin of Species, I believe that we should end this series with Darwin's own words:

"There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved."- Charles Darwin

24 Days of Darwin...

"What does the Origin of Species mean to you today?"

I am living, breathing proof that you don't have to be an academic to love and admire the work of Darwin.

Every time I revisit the Origin of Species I'm impressed by the intellectual passion, dedication and directness found in its pages. However, what resonates most with me is how beautifully this work illustrates what is possible when we have the curiosity and courage to ask “why” and “how”.

For more than twenty years, Darwin researched, contemplated, and reevaluated his theory before one line was ever published. Utilizing straightforward arguments, contemporary references, and minimal jargon, Darwin offered both academics and the educated upper and middle classes a lens through which to view the natural world. Now, after 150 years of scientific study and improved technology, the evidence supporting Darwin’s theories on evolution and natural selection is overwhelming.

In celebrating the anniversary of this work, we must remind ourselves and others that the act of scientific inquiry is for everyone. Critical thinking and the pursuit of knowledge are paths rife with challenges, but with passion and perseverance comes understanding.

While I wish everyone had the opportunity, time and interest to read Darwin’s work, I know, sadly, that this is not the case. My hope, instead, is that we, as scientists, educators, parents, and interested laypeople, find new, interesting and more accessible ways to share key concepts. Through our collective enthusiasm, I am convinced we can reinvigorate and reframe the discourse.

Jennifer Liber Raines, PRI Trustee

24 Days of Darwin...

"What does the Origin of Species mean to you today?"

Last night I went to visit my partners parents and we got on the discussion of Darwin and The Origin. (I should point out that it's been said that I take some delight in getting my partners parents all "riled" up with my liberal leanings. They like Sarah Palin. They like George W. Bush. They are much closer to John McCain's age then they are to our current Presidents age. So I wasn't certain as to how this conversation was going to go.) To my surprise - they are on the side of science and reason!

They reminded me that the belief of evolution was not a political belief, but it was simply science. I think that was an important message to hear. Evolution is not to be politicized. It's science. It's really that simple.

Billy Kepner, Director of Marketing and Communications at PRI

24 Days of Darwin

"What does the Origin of Species mean to you today?"

Countless others (and a number in this blog) have pontificated upon the huge significance of The Origin of Species in laying the foundation for our understanding of the history of life, and of the social and cultural implications. We are in addition fascinated by the story – how one insightful person was able to make quantum leaps in understanding in just a few decades of personal study, and by the manner in which he communicated his findings to such a broad spectrum of audiences. And the book remains current and all the more remarkable because, in spite of limitations Darwin faced in data and technology (relative to now), such a high percentage of what Darwin wrote remains relevant and close to the scientific consensus today. Yet it is also true, of course, that 150 years of research by tens of thousands of scientists internationally has brought us to levels of detail far beyond the original foundation that Darwin provided. Thus many of the strongest arguments for reading The Origin of Species would seem to be largely focused upon historical perspectives. But for me for The Origin offers us a couple important lessons that may inform our own work now and explain further why this one book holds so much attraction.

Firstly, a way of working: The Origin of Species served a different purpose, and had a different structure, than most other books in science. It was, as Darwin himself described it, "one long argument." While containing long lists of empirical information, it is all toward a comprehensive, cross-disciplinary argument for just a couple central ideas. Of course, scientists still use focused arguments regularly for published scientific literature, but these are usually presented in short articles on very narrow topics. The Origin of Species reminds us of the effectiveness of working toward a cohesive, cross-disciplinary approach to the body of our work (even if it's never published in a book as an argument founding a new field!). As an aside, this brings to mind current educational research suggesting that humans learn better when we explore a few "Big Ideas" deeply rather than dozens of ideas shallowly (work in which PRI's Don Duggan-Haas has been a national leader). One wonders if it might be effective, by analogy, to focus our students long-term on developing portfolios documenting their own long arguments toward a few Big Ideas.

Secondly, a way of doing science: Limitations of the human mind and lifespan force us to specialize in our research: those who do evolution research know best a particular category of organisms, study them in a particular way, often in a particular area, time interval, and environment. We all know intellectually that each of us would have a deeper understanding if we worked more broadly, and it is a truism among researchers that what one accepts about the relative significance of evolutionary mechanisms depends on one's specialties. The Origin of Species reminds to try to make one long argument from all the available sources of information, and to grapple explicitly with the difficulties. It isn't that no one has thought to take this broader view since Darwin, but simply that in spite of better impulses to do so, our personal constraints tend to push us toward narrow expertise. The same could likely apply to any broad field of human endeavor. The Origin of Species is for me a model of effective and enduring scholarship.

Rob Ross, PhD., Associate Director for Outreach
Paleontological Research Institution and its Museum of the Earth

What's Going On at the Museum of the Earth..

"Why Everyone Should Read On The Origin of Species"
Friday, November 20
Doors 6:00, Lecture 6:30
Tickets $10
Join us for an evening lecture on Friday, November 20 led by our Director, Warren Allmon. He'll be discussing why Darwin's book - though 150 years old - continues to hold great importance in our modern day lives. Light hors d'oeuvres and wine will be served.
Purchase your ticket in advance by calling 607.273.6623 x11, clicking here, or at the Museum admissions desk. Tickets also available at the door.

Dinosaur TrainDinosaur Train at Museum of the Earth
Sunday, November 22
2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
The Education Department at WSKG Public Broadcasting and Museum of the Earth are teaming up to host a very special “Dinosaur Train” event. Visitors will enjoy free admission beginning at 2 p.m. and an afternoon full of educational, dinosaur-themed activities! Children can also meet Buddy the T-Rex, the star of the newest PBS KIDS show, Dinosaur Train.

Up Next!

Cecil's Dino Holiday PartyCecil's Dinosaur Holiday Party
Saturday, December 5
11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Join us for a day full of fun holiday activities. Take your picture with Cecil, make a snow globe, and more! At 2:30 p.m. we'll have a special performance from Tom Knight Puppets. Be sure to put it on your calendar now!

Holiday Closings
Please note that in addition to our normal winter hours (closed on Tuesday and Wednesday) the Museum of the Earth will be closed on the following dates:

* Thursday, November 26
* Thursday, December 24
* Friday, December 25
* Friday, January 1

24 Days of Darwin...

"What does the Origin of Species mean to you today?"

Many years ago, I read the Origin as a biology student,and of course, I was impressed by the observations, intellect and science. But as I grow older it is Darwin the man, and the context within which he wrote the Origin, that impresses me, too. I think few understand the depth of Darwin’s feelings for his family, for the death of his child, the deep love he had for his wife, and the intense conflict he had about the implications of his ideas. The theories put forth in the Origin were not only counter to established scientific theories of the time, but also in direct conflict with many beliefs held by his wife. He took great risks publishing the Origin not only with his peers, but with his own family. He wasn’t just the "dome-headed, white bearded scientist who said we came from apes"; he had a deep sympathy and respect for the passions and feelings of others. As I have moved from being a bench scientist to science education and outreach,I have become more aware of the role of interpreting science to the public in a manner that is legible, that conveys a passion for the process of science, and that gives science meaning in our everyday lives. "Give people facts and you feed their minds for an hour. Awaken passion and curiosity, and they will feed their own minds for a lifetime". I don't believe the majority of people understand Darwin, the man – his passions, his fears, his risks - or that his values and characteristics are inherent in many scientists today.

Carlyn Buckler, PhD
Outreach Associate at PRI

Fossil of the Week

Here's an interesting bisected specimen from our Type and Figured Collection. This is PRI 5868, a fossil cephalopod (related to today's squid and octopuses) called Virgoceras cancellatum named by Rousseau H. Flower in 1939, in Palaeontographica Americana number 10. It is from the Laurel limestone, Clinton group, of the Middle Silurian Period (approximately 430 million years ago) of Westport, Indiana, between Indianapolis and Cincinnati. This is the holotype of the species. The 7-inch specimen includes only the hind part of the shell.

The species: Virgoceras is an uncoiled nautiloid cephalopod (in the taxonomic order Orthocerida), closely related to the living Chambered Nautilus and extinct ammonites. This shell has been bisected - sliced down the center, so that you are looking at the internal structure. You can clearly see the shell chambers linked by a centrally-placed tube called the siphuncle. The animal lived in the last, largest chamber only (missing in this specimen). In life, the smaller chambers were filled with gas, connected to one another by the siphuncle - the gas could be adjusted to control the buoyancy of the animal, in other words, its ability to hold its position in the water column. Today's Chambered Nautilus does the same thing. The long, uncoiled shell of Virgoceras probably made the animal less agile than modern cephalopods, and it most likely lived near the bottom, feeding on trilobites.

The publication: PA no. 10 is an impressive 200-page monograph on the family Pseudorthoceratidae. It contains original descriptions of 31 new species, several new genera, and one new subfamily. In addition, it includes a very readable section on the anatomy of the nautiloid shell and how the animals probably lived. This issue is now out of print, but the entire text is online as part of the Biodiversity Heritage Library (http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/10119).

The author: Rousseau Hayner Flower (1913–1988) was a prolific paleontologist, known as much for his eccentric personality as for his science. In addition to Devonian cephalopods, he wrote on fossil corals and other invertebrates, describing several hundred new species. He was apparently infamous for bad behavior, for example, mocking an organization with low standards by attending a meeting dressed as an ape and having his dog inducted into the society. Later in life, he moved to New Mexico, took to wearing western-style clothes, carrying bullwhips and pistols, and reportedly shot a hole through his office ceiling. He was also a skilled cellist, pianist, organist, violinist, and composer - all without having taken any lessons. The New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources published a memoir in honor of his paleontological contributions in 1988. Flower was Gilbert Harris' student, receiving his PhD in 1935.

text by Paula Mikkelsen

24 Days of Darwin...

An ecologist of education’s take on The Origin of Species

I read The Origin with an educator’s eye; considering the myriad of things it implies about how to nurture understanding of the world we live in. A key idea is that, while Darwin was clearly a brilliant scientist, he likely would have meant little to most of us had he not taken a really, really cool trip and studied closely the things he saw on that journey. Knowing Darwin’s work has deeply informed my own as I’ve sailed the educational system in my conceptual Beagle – having seen more than 200 instructors in action in rural, suburban and urban public schools, state colleges, elite liberal arts colleges, land grant universities and the Ivy League. If you want to better understand this world, ask yourself: Where am I going on my Beagle?

-Don Duggan-Haas, Education Research Associate, PRI

The Evidence for Evolution

Evolution continues to be a controversial topic in modern day society, so as we approach the 150th anniversary of On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin, we thought our readers might find a quick rundown of the evidence that supports evolution to be useful. We hope you'll all take some time to celebrate the anniversary this month by joining us for one of our events, by striking up a conversation about evolution with someone, or by learning something new about evolution!

The Evidence for Evolution (or, “Why evolution is almost certainly true.”)

1) Biogeography. Living things show patterns of geographic distribution consistent with the view of common ancestry in one place, followed by dispersal and change in adjacent places. These patterns make no sense except in light of evolution.

2) Fossils. The fossil record provides literally thousands of examples of older forms differing slightly from similar younger forms, which is what we would expect if evolution is true. Such patterns make no sense except in light of evolution.

3) Comparative anatomy. All organisms are adapted to their local environments, but all organisms also display numerous features that are not adaptive. Evolution explains such features as inherited from ancestors, which might have acquired them as adaptations for very different functions in very different environments.

4) Observable small scale changes. Evolution can be observed occurring every day – in the bacteria that make us sick and which often develop resistance to antibiotics; in insects that develop resistance to pesticides; in the plants and animals we develop through selective breeding for agriculture or domestication; and in natural populations which change in response to changing environmental conditions. If we extrapolate these processes to longer lengths of time, we can reasonably conclude that they explain much of the pattern and history of all life.

5) Classification. Living things are classifiable into a hierarchy of groups within groups. This is not entirely a human construct, but clearly reflects the hierarchical structure of the features that organisms possess. This structure is explicable only if organisms share a common ancestor and have changed through time.

6) Genetics. All life on Earth shares the same basic structure for its genetic material, and the same mechanism – the genetic code – by which that material instructs cells what to do. This is explicable only if life has a single common ancestor and has changed through time.

7) Natural selection. Natural selection – the phenomenon of organisms that possess heritable features which enhance their ability to survive and reproduce leaving more offspring – is in the view of most evolutionary biologists the most important cause of evolutionary change. Natural selection can be seen abundantly in nature and in the laboratory.

24 Days of Darwin...

"What does the Origin of Species mean to you today?"

Barnes and Noble used to sell a number of unabridged classics in miniature form, about the length and width of your hand. They were thick, and had small print, but this copy of The Origin was also only $5, a major score for my 15-year-old self. Before finding it, I'd only read some of the more widely-quoted sections that textbook authors like to use as anchor points at the beginnings and ends of chapters. What struck me was both the thought that being a field biologist would be a pretty interesting way to spend a life, and Darwin's obvious and enthusiasm and satisfaction at being able to say, "Look, I figured out how this all fits together." He was the first person to make these profound observations about the nature of the world and the place of humans in it, and provided thoughtful, extraordinary evidence for his extraordinary claims. That kind of intellectual pioneering was inspirational as a high school student, and still is today.

Kelly Cronin, Outreach Project Support Associate
PRI

A "New" Origin

A "New" Origin?

By now, everyone has heard that November 24th, 2009 marks the sesquicentennial anniversary of the publication of On The Origin of Species. Here at the Museum, around the county, and around the world people are finding ways to commemorate this landmark in our understanding of evolution. Creationists aren’t missing this opportunity to spread their message, either. To that end, on November 19th Ray Comfort and Living Waters are giving away more than 100,000 copies of an abridged (4 chapters crucial to Darwin’s argument, including 2 on biogeography and one linking morphology, embryology, and evolution, and Darwin’s introduction have been excised) version of The Origin to universities across the US. This new version includes an introduction written by Ray Comfort that Eugenie Scott of the National Center for Science Education describes as “a hopeless mess of long-ago-refuted creationist arguments, teeming with misinformation about the science of evolution, populated by legions of strawmen, and exhibiting what can be charitably described as muddled thinking.”

PRI outreach staff will join Cornell students on Thursday, November 19th to provide resources for students to find more information on evolutionary biology. Look for us on the Cornell Campus wherever the “new” version of The Origin is being distributed. Additionally, we have endorsed an open letter to the Cornell community by Cornellians for Science, Logic, and Reason, which can be found by clicking here.

24 Days of Darwin...

"What does the Origin of Species mean to you today?"

Like many a smart man, I married up. I married a scientist. My wife is an evolutionary biologist-in-training, studying immune strategies in tree swallows and extra-pair mating in house wrens (or, as I’ve often explained to my parents, “the raucous sex lives of birds”). What little grasp I have on science is thanks to my wife’s patience, encouragement, and occasionally exasperated looks as I “rediscover” things like the white-breasted nuthatch at our bird-feeder for the tenth time. My relationship to science is strictly as an interested, eager observer. I have the luxury of being able to say that I really like science without ever having to actually produce any usable scientific results. That I know terms like “multi-level selection theory”, “maternal effects”, and “K-T boundary” is because I like to surround myself with people equally excited about science – many scientists, some not, but all curious about the world we live in and what makes it tick.

I’m finally reading Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species from start to finish, ahead of Warren Allmon’s talk this upcoming weekend. It’s my first full reading of The Origin; I’d only read the first and last few chapters previously. In the past, I’ve argued that the ideas put forth in The Origin are so widely disseminated that the book itself has long outlived its role as “required reading”. I’m still not sure if I’d consider The Origin, or any one book for that matter, a prerequisite for intelligence, but what I’m finding while reading Darwin’s writing is something I had never before noticed while picking through it – an obvious enthusiasm on Darwin’s part for telling the story of his ideas to a curious reader. There’s a humility in his delivery, but it’s a humility backed up by such a well-trodden path of discovery, a confidence that every word he wrote was measured against the years Darwin gave to fine-tuning his thesis.

Is The Origin required reading, as Warren asserted when he began this series of commentary? I’m still not comfortable with that, though I’d encourage anyone to pick it up. What I am now convinced of, though, is the need for every scientist to embrace that same sense of wonder, glee, and excitement that Darwin did (in his Victorian fashion) in The Origin. There’s a whole group of eager non-scientists, just like me, happy to hear more about the latest, greatest, weirdest, most transformational, and most unlikely in the word of science, and who better to hear it from than the scientist her- or himself.

24 Days of Darwin...

"What does the Origin of Species mean to you today?"

I was in a class on Shakespearian literature during my undergraduate career, taught by a Shakespearian scholar, Dr. Tom Berger. Instead of reading and reflecting on the text, which was obviously wonderfully written, he talked about how the printing press worked during Shakespeare's time. He also talked about how the stages were set up, typical attendance of Shakespeare performances during his life, and other seemingly trivial details about the time when Shakespeare was writing his works. Our exam was not one full of quotations to analyze, but rather included questions like "What planets (and their respective god's) represented each day of the week?" The point of the exercise was to teach us that we needed to understand the popular culture of Shakespeare's time in order to understand his work. Once we understood these things, phrases we thought to have been poetic prose became funny jokes in common vernacular, and we read his works and laughed aloud.

Reflecting on the question, "What does the Origin mean to me today?" I think what I most gain from it is the picture of what a scientist should be. Charles Darwin, much like William Shakespeare, wrote his works for a public audience. Today, scientists aim to publish in Science and Nature, but rarely print their work at a level readable by a high school classroom. In the Origin, Charles Darwin uses examples like pigeons to explain how evolution works. This may be archaic and abstract to readers today, but was a common hobby when the Origin was written. I wish more scientists, myself included, would look to this as an example of how to bring science to the public. To teach and explain new scientific concepts using examples that all society is familiar with, instead of only select other scientists, would help our country to be more scientifically literate.

Trisha Smrecak
Paleontological Research Institution
Global Change/Evolution Project Manager

24 Days of Darwin...

"What does the Origin of Species mean to you today?"

When I give tours at the MOTE, I like to point out the little corner of the museum that holds the Charles Darwin display, as arguably the heart of the museum. It amazes me that, without any knowledge of genetics, let alone DNA evidence, Darwin formulated his theory of evolution simply through his observations--by sailing around the world in little wooden ships, and sending specimens home to England in little wooden boxes. Of course now we know that modern scientific techniques validate his theory, which I feel has laid the groundwork for humanity's conscious evolution: beyond the traditional paradigm of man as steward and tamer of nature, and forward to our crucial modern realization of the interconnectedness of life.

Jennifer Cleland, Museum of the Earth Volunteer

24 Days of Darwin...

"What does the Origin of Species mean to you today?"

It means startling insight. Darwin and other scientists of his day knew that species change over time – that life evolves – but they did not know how. By carefully observing the patterns of nature, and thinking hard about what those patterns implied, Darwin had his “aha! moment”. He realized that all species on earth are related to each other, and that a process he dubbed “natural selection” was the main force creating the diversity of life around us. His was an elegantly simple explanation, and one that we now know to be fact, but also one that could emerge only through careful observation.

Mike Webster
Director, Macaulay Library
Cornell Lab of Ornithology

24 Days of Darwin...

"What does the Origin of Species mean to you today?"

Then and now, the book illustrates the insurmountable value of physical evidence to understanding the history of all life. When our culture's appreciation of the meaning of evidence seems limited to crime shows on television (like CSI), Darwin's remarkable accumulation of instances from nature to explain its derivation always reminds me of how essential it is to substantiate any idea. His gathering of observations from so many facets of natural history (embryology, geographic distribution, the fossil record, hybridism, morphology, and more) to explain species change over time was unprecedented in 1859. And today it's difficult for anyone to work with the wide range of organisms and processes that nineteenth-century naturalists were sometimes able to. His gathering of the evidence was so comprehensive and detailed that the Origin remains enlightening . . . If I could take a few books to a desert island, it would be one.

Dr. Sheila Ann Dean, Editor
Darwin Correspondence Project
Cornell University
Author of "Charles Darwin: After the Origin"

24 Days of Darwin

"What does On the Origin of Species means for you today?"

I have heard about Charles Darwin, the author of the “Origin of the Species” in my native country, Hungary for the first time around 1947. That was the time when the (communist) government started a large scale campaign to discredit religious beliefs. Darwin’s name was mentioned in connection with the idea, that humans originated from monkeys, not created. You were expected to believe it, because the government said so, no explanation given. Nobody took it seriously. Later, I became a student in the Geologist Technician School in Hungary, where I studied paleontology among other geological topics. The fact that Darwin came to his conclusions after systematic observation became more obvious to me. However, we were never exposed to or told to read the books Darwin wrote and described his experiences which led him to came to his conclusions. The first time I realized that he wrote books about his observations and laid down in detail the reasons for his conclusions was when I was living here in the USA. I was working on a survey of books in Mann Library as a Book Conservation Technician, one day I opened up a book from the shelf. It was the “Origin of the Species”. When I looked at the author, Charles Darwin I was in awe. The book next to it was the “Voyage of the Beagle”, both first editions. I still remember the excitement I felt seeing and holding the first edition of these pioneering works which changed so much about understanding and knowledge about the origin of humans and reformulated our relation to each other.

~Eniko Farkas, Volunteer, Museum of the Earth

24 Days of Darwin...

"What does the Origin of Species mean to you today?"

In the frontispiece of the Origin Charles Darwin included an epigraph from Francis Bacon’s Advancement of Learning:

To conclude, therefore, let no man out of a weak conceit of sobriety, or an ill-applied moderation, think or maintain, that a man can search too far or be too well studied in the book of God’s word, or in the book of God’s works; divinity or philosophy; but rather let men endeavor an endless progress or proficience in both.

What studied humility, what outrageous hubris, Darwin appropriated in a single sentence! Truth, he confirmed, was to be found not only in the pages of holy scripture but in layers of bedrock, litter on a forest floor, the laying of pigeons’ eggs.

Darwin’s crowning achievement rests not on his audaciously irreverent hypothesis; Alfred Wallace came to the same place. Rather it rests on the patient, considered, relentless examination of “God’s works”—and man’s works: the evidence of bedrock fossils, beetles on forest floors, and fanciers’ pigeons.

It was Darwin’s immersion in the natural world, from islands to mountains, from barnacles to worms, from orchids to cave fish, that informed a curious but cautious mind over two decades. It was his eloquent marshalling of a thousand points of data in the pages of the Origin that showed the world that seeing is believing.

Rob Mackenzie, MD

President and CEO of the Cayuga Medical Center

PRI Board of Trustees

Fossil of the Week

This week, something more familiar! This is PRI 5388, a snail called Bellerophon calcifer named by H. F. Cleland in November 1900, in Bulletins of American Paleontology number 13. It is from the Mohawk Valley, east of Fort Hunter, New York, between Albany and Schenectady. This is a "syntype" specimen. Syntypes is a very "old school" word for all of the original specimens used by an author to name a species, before scientists bothered naming a holotype and paratypes (see our previous Fossil of the Week installments to understand these terms). Sometimes a scientist will later name one of the syntypes to serve as a holotype - this is called a "lectotype."

The species: The fossils described by Cleland's paper, including B. calcifer, were collected as part of a class in the Cornell Summer School of Geology taught by Professor Gilbert Harris (PRI's founder and first director). The material is from the Early Ordovician Period, about 475 million years old. The shell of Bellerophon is coiled with the midline in a single plane, so that one side of the shell is a mirror image of the other side. The edges of the mouth of the snail shell were flared outward (which you can barely see at about "4 o'clock" on this shell), and they were separated by a narrow slit, called the selenizone. Bellerophon is also the name of a hero in Greek Mythology, famous for riding the winged horse Pegasus and slaying the Chimera - perhaps the snail shell was thought to resemble Bellerophon's helmet.

The author: Herdman Fitzgerald Cleland (1869-1935) was a professor of geology at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. After early schooling in Nebraska, he received his PhD from Yale and spent the next summer in the field collecting fossils with Gilbert Harris. He filled in for Harris, teaching his classes while Harris was away, and then joined the Williams College faculty in 1901. His doctoral dissertation, published in the US Geological Survey Bulletin, was on the fossils of the Hamilton Formation exposed along Cayuga Lake here in Ithaca. He had many interests including geology and early human cultures. His last work was a booklet entitled "Why be an Evolutionist?" in 1930. He was killed tragically when the steamship Mohawk sunk off the coast of New Jersey en route to Yucatan; he was taking six students there to study Mayan ruins. Three of the students also died in the shipwreck. According to a published obituary, his last reported words were "I'm sorry the trip is off, boys, but I wish they had waited till the water was warm before they threw us in."

24 Days of Darwin...

"What does the Origin of Species mean to you today?"

Darwin has become synonymous with the recognition of the process of evolution and the phenomenon of natural selection. One can argue about Darwin’s ultimate significance to understanding the evolutionary process and even dispute the preeminence assigned to him in the context of his predecessors, contemporaries and successors and their discoveries (genetics at the population and molecular levels). To me, though, today and most days, the name brings to mind two things: a lecture about Darwin by the great ecologist G. Evelyn Hutchinson that inspired me to become a paleontologist, and Darwin’s famous characterization of the uncertain ancestry of the flowering plants as the “abominable mystery”.

William L. Crepet
Professor and Chair
Department of Plant Biology
Cornell University

24 Days of Darwin...

"What does the Origin of Species mean to you today?"

Today in our schools, mentioning The Origin would probably give you blank stares from everyone but the teachers. I find this horribly depressing at best, for The Origin is truly a great piece of literature that I believe is key to understanding the world around us. In reading The Origin, I found that before one truly understands it, one must first translate it from the older English and then read the sentence over again. Then again, that could just be me. The concepts, however, were not only perfectly simple, but are things we now take for granted. The idea that animals and plants are shaped by their environment, for example, is taught from first grade to college and beyond. The idea that destroying that environment will quite possibly bring about their demise of that species of animal or plant is another "standard" fact we take for granted. It is my personal opinion that reading parts of The Origin should be encouraged in public schools as part of scientific curriculum in general.

Aurora Solla
Youth Volunteer, Museum of the Earth

24 Days of Darwin...

"What does the Origin of Species mean to you today?"

As a scientist, the sheer impact of The Origin on science is unquestionable to me, and others have already commented on this here as well as, probably better than, I could. As an editor (especially of the book Charles Darwin: After the Origin, by Sheila Ann Dean, published by PRI in February of this year), I am awestruck by the story of how Darwin “rushed to publish” what he considered only an “abstract” of his ideas, in order to join Alfred Russel Wallace in a joint publication on the theory of natural selection (but also to avoid being “scooped” by Wallace). This 500-page “abstract” was incomplete in Darwin’s view, and he spent the rest of his life generating and publishing evidence to support it, as author Dean so elegantly explains in her book. One might respond, "Now that's focus in research!" but alas, because almost everything biological on the planet could be observed as evidence, Darwin was free to explore many avenues, and indeed, he did. As a “gentleman scholar,” Darwin had no administrative pressure levied on him to publish, and one can only wonder when, in how many volumes, or in fact IF, The Origin would have been published if he hadn’t been forced to finish. Leonardo da Vinci said, “Art is never finished, only abandoned.” Paul Valery said the same for poems, as did George Lucas for movies. The same goes for books – Darwin's Origin is a perfect example. Thank you, Mr. Wallace.

Dr. Paula Mikkelsen
Associate Director for Science
and Director of Publications
Paleontological Research Institution

24 Days of Darwin...

"What does the Origin of Species mean to you today?"

Many have commented on how modern “The Origin” can seem when revisited for insights about the evolutionary process. I recently had just such an experience. Darwin, we know was influenced by Charles Lyell, whose geological studies supported a great age for the Earth, and so provided the necessary sweep of time for the evolutionary processes Darwin hypothesized. This has led some authors to conclude that Darwin must have believed that rate of evolution had to be a ponderously slow. For example, in his book “The Evolution Explosion” Steve Palumbi (2001) describes how strong natural selection created by human activity has led to many instances of adaptive evolution that have taken place in just a few generations. This is a topic that my colleagues and I have explored and published on ourselves. However, Palumbi asserts that “Darwin thought … evolution by natural selection had had a long, long time in which to operate.” And so “He made a serious error about the speed with which evolution can happen.” Because having a long time to operate does not necessitate slow evolution, I wondered what Darwin really thought about the rate of evolution. In “The Origin” on page 183 of the first edition, I found the following thoroughly modern perspective: “But it is difficult to tell … whether habitats generally change first and [characters] afterwards; or whether slight modifications of [characters] lead to changed habitats; both probably often change almost simultaneously.” Neither Palumbi nor I could have put it better.

Nelson Hairston, Jr.
FHT Rhodes Professor of Environmental Science
Chair, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Cornell University

24 Days of Darwin...

"What does the Origin of Species mean to you today?"

When I first joined PRI as the Director of Marketing and Communications I attended a lecture given by our Director, Warren Allmon. (If you've never heard Warren speak you should definitely attend one of his Darwin lectures! He's giving a lecture here at the Museum on November 22 and one at the 92nd Street Y on November 18th.) Up until that point I had never really read much about Darwin. I knew who he was and I knew his theories, but I had never read his books including On the Origin of Species. When Warren gives a talk on Darwin, he has a standard line that he uses. He used it in that presentation some three years ago, and he repeated it here on the blog in our first "24 Days of Darwin" posts. He states that, "You cannot consider yourself truly adequately 'educated' without having read it."

I'm a pretty educated guy. I'm a pretty literate person. I've read hundreds and hundreds of books. I've traveled the world. So I like to think that I'm adequately "educated." That said, after hearing Warren I felt like I should get that book and STAT! So from that room, I ordered it from Amazon on my iPhone, and had it delivered in three days. And then I read it.

I was expecting it to be this boring book about science. When I was growing up I didn't have a true interest in science. I leaned more towards history, literature, and the arts. I was a straight B science student. I liked it, but never loved it. I had never had the chance to read the book and never had to for any courses during my college career. I thought the book was very interesting, I felt it dragged in a few parts, but it made perfect sense to me. It was common-sense science. I know that it's not, but that's what it felt like for me.

Someone said to me the other day that reading the Origin is like reading "Dickens." You know -- it is, and it was. That's why 150 years later the Origin is still important and still talked about it because it’s a good book! I approached the book not as a text-book but as a non-fiction novel, and I truly enjoyed it. I found that it's important for more than just its theory of evolution but because it's art. For me Darwin's book was fascinating and engrossing. Not because of the science but because it was literature. The science was an added bonus. If you haven't read it - give it a try. If you liked Dickens you will like Darwin! Then, some might say that you will be truly, adequately, educated.

Billy Kepner
Director of Marketing and Communications
Paleontological Research Institution and its Museum of the Earth

Fossil of the Week

This week's fossil is PRI 28297, Echinocaris punctata (Hall, 1863). It is a "hypotype," which is a fancy technological word for a specimen of an already-named species that was illustrated (or "figured" in science-speak) in a publication that extends the knowledge about the species (in other words, the picture can't just be a photograph in a coffee-table book). Our "type and figured collection" contains many hypotypes, which are in many ways just as important as type specimens. This particular hypotype was illustrated and discussed in the very short paper "New and interesting fossils from the Devonian of New York," by Axel Olsson in Bulletins of American Paleontology number 23, in December 1912. The specimen was worthy of mention because it was found in a new "horizon," that is a layer of fossils that it had never been found in before. This one is from the McGraw or University Quarry on Cornell Campus, from the Upper (or Late) Devonian, Genesee Group, Ithaca Formation - which sounds (and is) really local, and in essence means about 400 million years old.

The species: This fossil is a kind of animal that you might never have heard of before - a phyllocarid crustacean. A phyllocarid (the living ones are called leptostracans) is a very small shrimp-like critter that has a laterally flattened, bivalved carapace enclosing jointed feathery legs for swimming, stalked compound eyes, and a tapering abdomen ending in a forked tail. Phyllocarids live in mud or sometimes in the plankton, along with copepods which they closely resemble. The oval shape that you can see on the rock (here only about an inch long) is the carapace of the phyllocarid - that's the equivalent of the main body of a lobster (minus its tail, legs and tentacles). The sharp "keel" on the fossil is probably the junction of the two carapace valves. There is no widely known common name for these tiny creatures, but the name "sea fleas" has been used. Modern phyllocarids filter-feed, that is, they strain organic particles from the seawater for food using their feathery appendages. There are only about 40 species of living phyllocarids. The living phylocarid Nebalia bipes is illustrated here (photograph by Hans Hillewaert Lycaon, via Wikimedia Commons).

The author: Axel Adolf Olsson (1889-1977) was a student of Cornell Professor Gilbert Harris (PRI's founder and first director), earning an Associate degree in 1913 (so he was a student when he published the paper discussed here). He spent most of his career studying fossil mollusks as a paleontologist in the petroleum industry, and retired to Florida in the 1950s. He served on the Board of Trustees at PRI, and was its president three separate times in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1960s. He was a strong supporter of PRI relocating to the south, because many of the fossils in its collection, including most of those studied by Harris, are from the southeasterm coastal plain.

24 Days of Darwin...

"What does the Origin of Species mean to you today?"

To me, the significance of Darwin' Origin is that, as I turn and look at the well-worn copy on my shelf, it is a reminder that the idea's of a single individual can affect the human species entire. Many think of education as learning a new skill, or memorizing lengthy lists or definitions, but it is my opinion that the greatest educators are those that allow their students--intentionally or not--to see the world with new eyes, whether it's as simple as appreciating the alternating color pattern on a leaf or as complex as understanding humanity's place in the universe. In this respect, Darwin's Origin is undeniably significant, and it is among the very best examples of
education.

Richard A. Kissel
Director of Teacher Programs
Paleontological Research Institution

Old Earth Creationism...

As we approach the 150th anniversary of the publication of the Origin of Species, and while we celebrate the 200th year since Charles Darwin's birth, it is important to realize that our work is not complete on understanding or educating on matters of evolutionary theory. The New York Times just published an excellent story talking about 'old earth' creationism beliefs growing among Islamic cultures. 'New Earth' creationism believes that the Earth is only 6-10,000 years old because the Earth was created in 6 days and the bible is a historical text that explains everything since its inception, and so disagrees with sciences like geology, cosmology, and biology. 'Old earth' creationism sees no problem with geologic time and that the Earth is around 4.6 billion years old, because it doesn't conflict with anything in their religious texts or dogma.

What was exceptionally interesting about this article is that Islamic cultures in their home countries see few problems with scientific observations and accept an old Earth hypothesis. Religious Islamic people from the US or Canada, however, have adopted a 'New Earth' creationism stance, even though there is no written basis for it in their religion.

The article is below:

Science

Creationism, Minus a Young Earth, Emerges in the Islamic World

By KENNETH CHANG

Published: November 3, 2009

A growing number of Muslims seem to accept the idea of a very old planet but reject human evolution, international academics said at a recent conference.

24 Days of Darwin...

"What does the Origin of Species mean to you today?"

Darwin’s On the Origin of Species permits those of us in the physical and biological sciences to view the world and to test the relationships we observe in a truly scientific context. I cringe when I hear that someone “believes” in evolution. Evolution is not a statement of faith, it is a rational, scientific theory subject to careful scientific scrutiny and testing. Moreover, the study of evolution permits us to more clearly understand relationships between organisms and to perform virtual medical miracles that have transformed human welfare. Evolutionary studies form a crucial cornerstone of modern existence.

Dr. Rodney M. Feldmann
Department of Geology
Kent State University
President, Board of Trustees Paleontological Research Institution

24 Days of Darwin...

"What does the Origin of Species mean to you today?"

I have been teaching evolution to non-majors in biology for almost thirty years at Cornell. The only reading that has remained constant over these years is Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. By starting with this extraordinary book each year, students grasp the wide compass Darwin saw in evolution: animal and plant breeding, heredity, natural selection, random factors, morphology, paleontology, geographical distribution, embryology, and the promise that humans were included in evolution. Darwin even helps us to understand why modern evolutionists use teleological language to describe natural selection. We have never done better than Darwin on ridding purposive language from evolution. No other book could take its place in my teaching of evolution.

William B. Provine
Andrew H. and James S. Tisch Distinguished University Professor
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Cornell University

24 Days of Darwin...

"What does the Origin of Species mean to you today?"

As I reread portions of Darwin's seminal work, I am reminded anew of the power of words to be revolutionary and to retain their strength over time. It may have taken Darwin several decades to publish his observations from the HMS Beagle voyage, but that time was well spent when one considers the effect his words still convey 150 years later. His conclusions on "that perfection of structure and coadaptation which so justly excites our admiration" retain their vibrancy and "justly excite our admiration" to this very day. I expect that this will still be true at the bicentennial and beyond.

Anne R. Kenney
Carl A. Kroch University Librarian
Cornell University

24 Days of Darwin...

Why the Origin still matters today:

It is truly unfortunate that the subject of what are and are not to be considered the "great books" has become so politicized, because it is a simple historical fact that there have been a relatively small number of books that have had a disproportionately enormous effect on human thought, and therefore on human history. Any such list must -- and almost all of them do -- include On the Origin of Species. This book is remarkable in many ways. No other single scientific book has had such a rapid, wide, and large impact among so many people (it was, after all, written not just for scholars but also for the educated general reader). The Origin fundamentally and permanently altered humanity's view of itself and its relationship to the rest of nature. It founded modern biology, and reoriented numerous other fields. And incredibly little in it is obsolete; I cannot think of any other scientific book that is still worth reading so long after publication, not just for historical interest but for its empirical content and convincing arguments. The Origin is still the best general book ever written about evolution, and it is just a great read, filled with original and ingenious arguments and clever, even grand, turns of phrase. If any book deserves to be called "great", it is this one. You cannot consider yourself truly adequately "educated" without having read it.

Warren D. Allmon
Director, Paleontological Research Institution
Hunter R. Rawlings III Professor of Paleontology,
Department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences,
Cornell University