I hate a barnacle… 6 Jan 2008 …said Charles Darwin, more than any man ever has. He should have, too – he spent seven years of his life working up the first encyclopedic monograph on the group. But that pales into insignificance compared to Alan Southward, who died last year. The Other 95% has a very nice roundup post on Southward’s work on barnacles, including a just-published paper, which you should immediately go read. And some nice pictures of my favourite historical invert, the Gooseneck Barnacle that gave rise to the myth of the Barnacle Goose. Evolution General Science Species and systematics
Ecology and Biodiversity Counting species 26 Aug 201122 Jun 2018 Suppose a scholar of toys wanted to count the number of kinds of toys in the world. Since this information is not generally recorded, the scholar might look at the ways toys are used, the sales figures, or the designs recorded in the patents and trademarks offices in order to… Read More
General Science Etruscans 20 Jun 200718 Sep 2017 In a well known quote, the nineteenth century historian and classicist Theodore Mommsen said that the origins of the Etruscans was “neither capable of being known nor worth the knowing”. He had no idea of the results made possible by molecular genetic studies, naturally, as nobody did at that time,… Read More
Creationism and Intelligent Design Tautology 2: The problem arises 23 Aug 2009 After Williams and others had made the comment that fitness is a tautology, it came around that the point needed to be discussed in more detail. One such discussion was by a student of Dobzhansky’s, Richard Lewontin. Read More
Thanks for the link! Sometimes I feel we are losing all the great naturalists, but I suppose that has been said every generation. I hope the jobs and funding are available to secure a future for the next generation of great naturalists. I love the barnacle goose story, was almost going to include it…
The thing is, Kevin, that the great naturalists of the next generation are all but invisible to us now. But they are out there, be assured.