Evolution and fossils

Donald Prothero asked me to pass along this request for feedback. He wrote an excellent book on evolution (with illustrations by the inimitable Carl Buell) that beautifully complements the theory with the details of common descent. If you’ve read it — I’m working on my copy now — let him know what you think!

EVOLUTION AND FOSSILS

Last night’s Nova program did an outstanding job, given the nature of
their show and the time limits imposed by their format. But we still have a
long way to go to convey to the general public just how strong the fossil
evidence for evolution has become. Those few animations of fossils in the
Nova special and website were OK, but most of the public (especially those
with creationist leanings) distrusts animations, so we need to show them
actual fossils that are relatively easy for a non-paleontologist to
interpret. We need to make the case over and over again that there are
hundreds of nice transitional sequences in the fossil record, from the micro
to the macro scale, to overcome the creationists’ systematic campaign of
lies and distortions about fossils. Their mantra is “There are no
transitional fossils,” and as Josef Goebbels once said, a lie repeated often
enough becomes the truth. We need to counteract this propaganda, and the
nice specials about dinosaurs (with little or no evolutionary content) are
not enough.

As readers of this website know, Carl Buell and I just put together a
book on the topic, Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why it Matters(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll)
(Columbia Univ. Press, available on their website or on Amazon.com. I’m
flattered by the nice comments about Carl Buell’s art in our recent book
(webpost on Pharyngula.org, Oct. 18). Carl did an amazing job putting
together beautiful restorations of extinct critters, as well as many new
versions of phylograms and family trees of extinct animals to show just how
many transitional fossils the creationists must deny. We tried as much as
possible to bring in the most up-to-date information about transitional
forms, especially the more recent discoveries that only the specialists know
about. We even managed to scoop the scientific literature–we have an image
of a transitional giraffid fossil with a neck intermediate in length between
a modern giraffe and primitive short-necked giraffid. Nikos Solounias
graciously sent it to me, even though his article is still in press.

Now that the book is out, I’d appreciate any feedback from the readers of
Pharyngula.org about what you liked or didn’t like, and what you would
recommend in the way of changes. I’m about ready to revise it slightly for
the second printing, so timely reviews would be very helpful.

Dr. Donald R. Prothero
Lecturer in Geobiology
California Institute of Technology

Of Books in Neurobiology

Over the last few weeks, we the Neuro class have finished our last book and we began Time, Love, Memory by Jonathan Weiner. The theme of this book is experiments on behavior on fruit flies, drosophila.

I’m beginning to see why fruit flies would be such a good choice. They are low maintainance and are offer much more statistic data potential. T. H. Morgan was known for his early work on fruit flies. From my understanding, he’s the first one to use them as a model species. Seems much more economical than the classic mice or dogs.

I also find it pretty cool that Seymour Benzer, a pioneer in molecular biology, was previously a physicist who helped develop the transistor. After working on the transistor, he became a biologist. It seems like quite a shift. Since the 40s/50s, has there been a change in the ability of people to change fields at such an advanced level? If we turn the clock back to the 1600s, the time of our previous book: Soul Made Flesh, there was much more of an interplay between fields. I guess all sciences are united by the Scientific Method, but it does seem like kindof a jump.

Brain food and eye candy for evolutionists

So that’s what Carl Buell has been up to…Donald Prothero and Carl have been working on a new book, Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), containing descriptions of important transitional fossils, and as you can tell from the title, directly countering some of the silly claims of the creationists. This is going to be one of those books everyone must have.

To whet your appetite, Carl sent along one of the many color plates that will be in the book—this is Sinodelphys, a 125 million year old marsupial.

i-540643750132feb6037c86e01d5232bb-sinodelphys.jpg

You’re already drooling, aren’t you? You want this book. You must have this book. It’s less than $30 at Amazon; it’s not available just yet, but any moment now…so pre-order it already!

How nice!

Dr. Mario Beauregard and Denyse O’Leary have come out with a new book, The Spiritual Brain, that Ms O’Leary has announced on her blog. I asked if she’d send me a review copy, and oh, boy, she’s going to. This could be interesting.

It’s received accolades from such stellar reviewers as Andrew Newberg, Michael Egnor, Michael Behe, and Jeffrey Schwartz, and it apparently concludes that “spiritual experiences are not a figment of the mind or a delusion produced by a dysfunctional brain”. See? It’s getting fun already.

Even better, I’m currently re-reading Soul Made Flesh: The Discovery of the Brain–and How it Changed the World(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll) — we’re using the book in my neurobiology course — and I can’t help but notice that the Beauregard/O’Leary thesis seems to be one that we were moving away from in the 17th century. A comparison of these two books might be entertaining, too.

Of course, book reviewing can be a risky business. I might get sued again, or worse, converted to Catholicism. Tune in in a few weeks and find out!

Reading material

Here you go, a few links with promises of interesting reading. Much more so than you’ll find here, where I’m buried beneath efforts to finish up my Seed column, prepare for a lecture tomorrow, get a lab organized for Wednesday, write an entry for an encyclopedia, and shovel through piles of administrative paperwork of various sorts…

  • Some good news for the upcoming Darwin Year of 2009 — Steve Jones will be publishing a new book, Darwin’s Garden, on time for the celebration. I have to say, though, that PR from publishers is a little disturbing: “Jones, who moved to Little, Brown from Transworld with c.e.o. Ursula Mackenzie” makes it sound like he’s had some very peculiar addresses and opens completely inappropriate speculation about his relationship with Ms. Mackenzie. It should be good anyway.

  • Other good fun can be had on the blog, Prehistoric Pulp. If you want to keep up with the latest books and games that involve primeval creatures, paleontology, and evolution, it’s a great source.

  • I was sent a link to Asimov’s The Last Question. I swear, I’ve got to have read a few dozen science fiction stories that have pretty much the same plot, and I suspect sf editors must get this one over and over. So now I’m wondering…was Asimov the first to unleash this cliche on us all (in which case, it wasn’t a cliche when he wrote it), or has it got antecedents?

Janet Browne’s new book

I must have been sleeping, because I hadn’t noticed that this came out: Janet Browne, the author of a most excellent two-volume biography of Darwin, has a new book titled Darwin’s Origin of Species: A Biography. That one is going right to the top of my Amazon wishlist.

Michael Barton has a review.