Book Progress #20

I knew I would have to bite the bullet and get to Charles Darwin eventually. I have mentioned Darwin here and there as I have gradually expanded my other chapters, but up until last night I did not have any section specifically addressing how the idea of evolution by natural selection came about. (I have actually spent far more time talking about T.H. Huxley, Richard Owen, Albert Koch, and William Buckland, at least thus far.) The story of both the man and the idea have been told so many times that I do not want to simply summarize other more in-depth biographies, the sheer volume of Darwin's literature and correspondence making it difficult to pick an angle of attack for the chapter.

Obviously I might change things as I learn more, but Darwin's reflections on doodlebugs, kangaroos, and the duck-billed platypus on January 19, 1836 provided a good launching point for discussion. So far I have gotten as far as the young Mr. Darwin embarking on his trip around the world on the HMS Beagle (for a humorous, fictional account of Darwin and historical contingency see The Science of Discworld III: Darwin's Watch) but I need to do some more research before I comfortably elaborate things further.

I don't want the entire chapter to be solely about Darwin, though. Brilliant as he was he was not the only one thinking about evolution, especially during a time when more naturalists were becoming concerned with "secondary laws" that could explain the problem of the origin of species. It is a complex task, intertwining the narrative of Darwin's life with that of the evolving state of 19th century science, but I can't think of any other way to approach the problem.

If I had the rest of the summer free to work on the book every day I am fairly confident that I would get everything finished (if not edited once) by the time fall classes commence. That is not a luxury that I have, and even though my progress is more consistent than it used to be I still find myself short on time. I may have to work more strategically, reading biographies of Darwin (like Desmond & Moore's Darwin: The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist and Browne's Charles Darwin: Voyaging & Charles Darwin: The Power of Place) while I actively work on the chapters that are already nearing completion. I've had this general strategy in mind all along, finishing a few solid chapters as representative of the book and working on the rest as I search for an agent, and it looks like I may end up finishing the first "real" chapter last.

I know I could churn out a complete book within the next month if I really wanted to but that wouldn't be a book I would be proud of. (It would probably be about as interesting as dry wheat toast.) I want to write the book that I feel has been so far missing from my own shelves, and while I do expect some criticism given my non-professional status I still think that I can do better than other writers who hold advanced degrees but don't know how to convey their own passion for science in writing.

(New sections are in bold)

Introduction

Huxley's rejoinder to Wilberforce at Oxford - Darrow puts Bryan in the hot seat - Behe's astrological mishap - One long argument - Flickering candles in the dark - Monstrous myths - Evolutionary archetypes -

Natural Selection

Separate creations - The need to be respectable - Botany and beetles - Acquired characteristics - An alternate interpretation of "adaptation" - Sublimation of parts - Why not secondary law? - Bon voyage, Mr. Darwin - Seasick

Avian Dinosaurs

Noah's ravens vacation in New England - Hitchcock's Jurassic birds - A little fossil birdie told me about evolution - A misplaced feather - From London to Berlin - The source of Huxley's inspiration - Megalosaurus = an ossified, fossilized, underdeveloped chick - The unimportance of Archaeopteryx - Hypsilophodon as a good transition - Problems with the Pachypoda - How did we get such beautiful fossils? - Ornithosuchus or theropods? - The case of the missing clavicles - 75 years of pseudoscuhian narrative - Barnum Brown's forgotten Daptosaurus - Ostrom's "terrible claw" - "Tetrapteryx" and Microraptor

Whales

Koch's Missourium - Hydrarchos - The king of the seas flees to Europe - Maybe Basilosaurus, maybe not - Huxley's overlooked insight - Intercalary whales - The problem of whale evolution - Diphyly of whales? - 70+ years of Protocetus - An unexpected skull - But what did it look like? - Indocetus - Teeth: confusion and convergence - Mesonychids, Perissodactyls, and Artiodactyls - The double-pulley - Diapsids did it first - From eel-like to tuna-like - Locomotion in the ocean - Limb buds - Unexpected vestiges - What development can do - Telescoping - Toothed mysticetes - Aetiocetus

Horses

Darwin's problems with paleontology - Evolution, sure, but natural selection? - Gaudry and Hipparion - Kowalevsky and Anchitherium - Huxley's linear phylogeny - Wherefore art thou, Hyracotherium? - "A gift from the Old world to the New" - Marsh's "toy horse" - Huxley buried under bones - Ladder of horse evolution - Putting the litoptern before the horse

Human Evolution

Tyson's dissection of a "pigmie" - A chimp's place in the Chain - Where are the "missing links?" - White's 1799 attempt to save the Chain - The intellectual Rubicon - Without language there is no thought - Glorified apes and lowly humans - Buckland's "Red Lady" - She's no lady - Where were the ante-diluvian humans? - The "mammoth" of Gasconade county - A muddied reputation - Cave contamination - Brixham cave - An unequal partnership - Falconer's enthusiasm, Prestwich's skepticism - Evidence from abroad - Somme Valley turning point - 1859 - Complaints and queries - Pre-Adamites - The Neanderthal that was mistaken for an Irishman - The Neanderthal fossils get named - Dubois goes to Indonesia - Skull of an ape, leg of a human - "Java Man" - The transitional gibbon-man - The discovery of "Peking Man" - Dart's Australopithecus - An irrelevant ape - Le Gros Clark to the rescue - Osborn vs Bryan - Harold Cook's Mystery Tooth - Hesperopithecus = Prosthenops - What makes us human? - Ask a stupid question... - Ape-like humans, not human-like apes - Caught in the Chain

Conclusion

Troodon sapiens? - It's all about the brain - Walking with dinosaurs - Eerie similarity - Evolution doesn't close a door without opening a window - Generations - "Nylon-eating bacteria" - Hop, skip, and a jump to citrate use - How can we know? - Unfamiliar ET's - Alternative apes - No fast-ball-throwing baboons - Prof. Ichthyosaurus - Little but a twig