All posts tagged with evolution

The Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution 2013 Annual Conference occurred in Chicago, IL, July 7-12.  Tomoko Steen, of the Library of Congress, promoted BHL to conference attendees, including many scientists, teachers and experts in ecology and evolution.  Steen distributed pins and stickers and also posted a description of BHL, prepared by Grace Costantino, to the evoldirdirectory. Many attendees were interested to learn about BHL and several expressed interest in attending a BHL presentation at future conferences.

Tarsiers are a family of small primates that today are found only in the islands of Southeast Asia. Among the species in the family is one of the world’s smallest primates – the Philippine Tarsier – weighing between 3.9-5.4 ounces (the world’s smallest primate is the Berthe’s Mouse Lemur). Tarsiers are perhaps most recognized for their enormous eyeballs, which are approximately as large as their entire brain.

Sometimes I come across items in the BHL collection that elicit an immediate response. In this case it was, “Look at all those ears!”

In 1858, Journal and Proceedings of the Linnean Society: Zoology published a paper proposing what would later be recognized as a revolutionary scientific concept: the theory of Evolution by means of Natural Selection. If we were to ask you who penned this publication, chances are your response would be Charles Darwin.

“If this were true, adios theory”

Such important words for Darwin, and so revealing to us. They offer us insight into the inner workings of this brilliant mind as he nursed to full fruition an idea that started on the now-legendary Galapagos Islands. Studying the works of the leading scientists of his time was critical to Darwin’s development of this idea. By applying, and sometimes countering, the theories of others, he constructed one of our most important scientific foundations – Evolution. He documented this intellectual progression in the margins of the books in his library. And this marginalia, and indeed digital scans of his personal library, are now available for you to peruse at your leisure on BHL in Charles Darwin’s Library!

“How old is that fossil and how do you know it?” This is the introductory sentence, and the question addressed, in this week’s book of the week, How Old are Fossils (1927), by Sharat Kumar Roy. According to the author, this is a question that is often asked by visitors to a museum, but it is also a question that is particularly time-consuming to answer.