Great picture of the marine iguana, a species unique to the Galapagos. I don’t think they’re related to the “kimono” dragons…

COMMENT: Darwin’s ideas about evolution were hardly new by the time he got to writing about them — PZ’s remarks (provided by a link above) elude to this. Decades earlier others made essentially the same observations & drew comparable conclusions, though they lacked the data to conclusively determine how changes in species occurred. Notable [but not exclusive] in this regard was the Surgeon/Anatomist John Hunter who as early as 1767 made similar observations regarding a discovered Mastodon tooth/teeth and by 1793, with a huge reference collection of human & animal anatomy (still preserved), when he died, was in the process of writing similar [heretical, for the time] views about evolution. In his portrait he purposefully selected as one of the background items a notepage portraying the evolutionary progression of skulls (for example), that was some 50 years before Darwin developed, much less published, his culmination effort. (John Hunter & his home, incidentally, is believed to be the model from which Robert Louis Stevenson patterned his Dr Jekyll & Mr. Hyde character)

Some people (e.g. Owen) recognized the patterns Hunter & others (including Darwin, decades later) documented, but could not shake their religious handicap & objected to ‘evolutionary’ explanations by insisting this was evidence of a Divine plan; even such academic-theological resistance highlighted the fundamental issues & inspired further study.

Thus, the development of the theory of evolution/natural selection was, in a sense, a “team effort” as is typical of major developments in most professions/fields.

This is not meant to demean Darwin so much as put his contribution in proper perspective — he built on the work of many others and his contribution wasn’t so much innovative as was the culmination of much work by many before him (and unlike many of his predecessor who were heroically outspoken regarding such a heretical conpet as ‘evolution’ [or whatever they referred to it as], Darwin withheld from publication his findings for a decade). Disregarding them is analogous to [the non-historical scenario, I hope] in which S. Hawking were credited in the not too distant future for the theory of relativity, black holes, etc. because his publications remained widely published & known while others like Einstein, etc. were ignored/overlooked.

Unfortunately, this pattern of disregarding those that incrementally established the foundation & idolizing those that reached some “finish line” is very common. Who can name the engineers that made the Wright Brother’s aircraft succeed; or, name the engineers that invented & made Henry Ford’s modern assembly line work; or, name the physicists & engineers that made Von Braun’s rocket visions a reality, etc????

Let’s be sure to give Darwin his due recognition–but only his due and no more. If for no other [selfish] reason that doing otherwise distorts & undermines our understanding of & appreciation for the history we admire. Historical reality is far more interesting than [inadvertently] invented myths.

President Phil: Could also be P^2,,,

Gary 7