Palaeontologia Electronica http://palaeo-electronica.org

Lipps, Jere H., 2008. Darwin’s Day. Palaeontologia Electronica Vol. 11, Issue 1; 2E:6p;http://palaeo-electronica.org/2008_1/commentary/darwin.htm

Darwin’s Day

Jere H. Lipps

I am writing this on February 12—Charles Darwin’s birthday. He would be199 years old. In just another year, wewill celebrate in many ways his 200th

birthday. Societies, institutes, and peopleall over the world will do this, almostalways to honor him for his biologicalachievement. Yet, had he never written aword about evolution, barnacles, or otherbiological topics, he still would be famousfor his geological contributions. All geolo-gists and paleontologists know that weowe him a great deal—far too much toenumerate here, of course. Many of ushonor him by celebrating his birthday,and around Berkeley we are no excep-tion. Today we had cakes in differentdepartments, museums or labs, with hisname, finches, iguanas or, less cre-atively, worms emblazoned on them withdifferent-colored icings. We had speciallectures, always with more than onespeaker because everyone wants to bein on his birthday. We even had a photocontest for the “best Darwin picture” (ofany sort). My iguana did not win, insteadsome bug did, but there were lots ofother photographic subjects too, looselyconnected with the great man.

Other colleagues honor him contin-uously by collecting his books, citing hiswritings, visiting his tomb in the northaisle of Westminister Abby wheneverthey visit London, tracking his stepsthrough the Galapagos, or perusing hisnotes in the Cambridge library (no onewants to admit they just read the reprint).

Walking in Darwin's footsteps. Beach-goers play on the blacksand beach in Matavai Bay near Point Venus, probably none realiz-ing they had walked where Darwin, and indeed, Cook and Blighhad walked more than 170 years previously. On November 17,1835, Captain Fitzroy set up instruments on Point Venus (to the leftof the picture), where Lieutenant (later Captain) Cook took hisobservations of the transit of Venus across the sun 66 years earlier,to make navigational measurements. Darwin took advantage ofthe time by climbing the valley in the background to a spot"between 2000 and 3000 feet" from which he made his observa-tions of the island of Eimeo (Moorea today) and its reef, as anengraving in a frame, the breakers on the reef representing theframe, the smooth lagoon the marginal paper, and the island itselfthe drawing.

LIPPS: DARWIN’S DAY

2

Probably the most dedicated of these admirerswas Irving Stone (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Stone), not a paleontologist, but a renownedbiographical novelist whose great book The Originrecounts Darwin’s life and adventures with literaryacumen. To write this book, Stone set out to under-stand Darwin like no other could have since theman himself had lived some 170 years before.Stone traveled to all the places Darwin had goneon the Beagle except for Tierra del Fuego. He sleptin Down House for two weeks, wrote on Darwin’sgreen felt-covered writing board, spent more thantwo years reading Darwin’s thousands of docu-ments kept at Cambridge, wandered the Galapa-gos trying to grasp what Darwin saw and thought.

None of us have or could have come close tothis kind of devotion to Darwin. Yet, I imagine we allwould like to think of ourselves as Darwinophiles. Ido. I admire how his life developed, how fortunatehe was to have sailed on HMS Beagle, and howdedicated he was to writing it all down. All paleon-tologists must envy his adventures in the field andhis seemingly relaxed life at Down House recallingand writing about them. I’ve had the good fortuneto have traveled and worked in most of the placeshe too explored, although no method was involvedand most of the places I went were for entirely dif-ferent reasons. It is because Darwin went so manyplaces that any of us have a chance to imitate him.Darwin did have a remarkable time on the Beagle.

Darwin wrote 17 books, many articles, andthousands of letters to his correspondents--toomany for a working paleontologist to digest.Indeed, today as I sat listening to speaker afterspeaker at our Darwin celebration talk about thegreat man’s influence or accomplishments in onefield of biology or another (these were biologists,so they made no comment whatsoever on Darwin’scontributions to geology), one eminent biologistleaned over and said “I haven’t even read the Ori-gin” and another admitted that he had not either. Iwas stunned—didn’t they read all of Darwin’sbooks? Or at least the Origin of Species, Descentof Man and the Voyage of the Beagle? The truth isthat few of us have done that. But in those booksare some neat thoughts.

So I celebrate Darwin’s life today, with aselection of quotations from his books. They arenot the best but they are pertinent to paleontolo-gists and inspiring to me. Probably thousandsmore could have been listed, but these are mychoice today:

Darwin, philosopher of science

False facts are highly injurious to the progress ofscience, for they often endure long; but false views,if supported by some evidence, do little harm, forevery one takes a salutary pleasure in proving theirfalseness; and when this is done, one path towardserror is closed and the road to truth is often at thesame time opened. Descent of Man.

As a teacher, this is my favorite Darwin state-ment. While he wrote many other important ones,this one neatly and succinctly describes how sci-ence works or should work. Hypotheses proposed,proven false and rejected. No one should be afraidto propose a well-developed idea supported bysome facts, but they should be prepared to have itrejected as more data become available developedby competing scientists. If this happens to you, youshould be proud that your door was closed and anew road opened. Remind your critics that Darwinsuggested you do it just that way. This is the wayscience works best.

Darwin, paleoecologist

We here see at the bottom of the cliffs, beds con-taining sharks' teeth and sea-shells of extinct spe-cies, passing above into an indurated marl, andfrom that into the red clayey earth of the Pampas,with its calcareous concretions and the bones ofterrestrial quadrupeds. This vertical section clearlytells us of a large bay of pure saltwater, graduallyencroached on, and at last converted into the bedof a muddy estuary, into which floating carcasseswere swept. The Voyage of the Beagle.

Darwin’s eye saw not just the present, butalso the past quite clearly. This is not unique or aspecial sign that he was a genius. Many buddingpaleontologists do the same, and we hone thatcapability into our hypotheses and papers. It’scomforting to see that Darwin did it before us, put-ting one observation after another into place to seethe whole ancient picture. Standard stuff now daysamong us. As usual, Darwin set a precedent.

Darwin, paleobiogeographer

The existence in South America of a fossil horse,of the mastodon, possibly of an elephant, and of ahollow-horned ruminant . . . are highly interestingfacts with respect to the geographical distributionof animals. At the present time, if we divide Amer-ica, not by the Isthmus of Panama, but by thesouthern part of Mexico] in lat. 20 degs., where thegreat table-land presents an obstacle to the migra-tion of species, by affecting the climate, and by

PALAEO-ELECTRONICA.ORG

3

forming, with the exception of some valleys and ofa fringe of low land on the coast, a broad barrier;we shall then have the two zoological provinces ofNorth and South America strongly contrasted witheach other. The Voyage of the Beagle.

Darwin was always thinking, always trying topaint the big picture while not ignoring the smallestdetail. Of course he never went to Panama or Mex-ico and his impressions of these places came fromthe literature he read. On the Beagle he and Capt.Fitzroy were well prepared with a small library ofcritical books by naturalists who had visited otherplaces and by practitioners of the larger sciences—Charles Lyell’s great volumes on geology were onboard too. Darwin, in spite of his persistent sea-sickness, or maybe because of it, read them too.

Darwin, stargazer

At last I am certainly in the Southern Hemisphere,& whilst enjoying the cool air of the evening I cangaze at the Southern Cross, Magellan’s cloud &the great crown of the South. In August quietlywandering about Wales; in February in a differenthemisphere; nothing ever in this life ought to sur-prise me. Diary.

Not a remarkable quote or even one describ-ing an unfamiliar sight for paleontologists, it doesremind me of the differences between his time andours. Darwin had looked skyward at night as mostpeople of his time likely did while on excursions oreven at home. Most paleontologists can joyfullyrelate well to Darwin in this matter as we loungearound campfires in the field, butthe majority of modern peoplehave never truly seen the nightsky at its finest as did Darwin orwe. They are stuck in big, well-litcities, mostly watching television,and never venturing into themountains, onto the deserts or outto sea where they would evenstand a chance of seeing all thosemillions of stars and star forma-tions. Whenever I tell a group ofpeople or a class of studentsabout the sky I saw at night onsome outcrop here or there, I seedeadness in their eyes—theyhave no idea what I am talkingabout. Nor commonly do theycare. We could have talked toDarwin about so many things that

the rest of the people could not. We are closer tohim than many of us imagine.

Darwin, sedimentologist

No one doubts that our world at one time consistedof crystalline rocks, and that it is to their disintegra-tion through the action of air, water, changes oftemperature, rivers, waves of the sea, earthquakesand volcanic outbursts, that we owe our sedimen-tary formations. These after being consolidatedand sometimes recrystallized, have often beenagain disintegrated. The Formation of VegetableMould Through the Action of Worms

Darwin understood the rock cycle well, andmade observations on it wherever he went. He hadmany examples of sedimentary processes from hisobservations on the Beagle.

Darwin, reef geologist

. . . it may be asserted that there is not one point ofessential difference between encircling barrier-reefs and atolls: the latter enclose a simple sheetof water, the former encircle an expanse with oneor more islands rising from it. I was much struckwith this fact, when viewing, from the heights ofTahiti, the distant island of Eimeo standing withinsmooth water, and encircled by a ring of snow-white breakers. Remove the central land, and anannular reef like that of an atoll in an early stage ofits formation is left; remove it from Bolabola, andthere remains a circle of linear coral-islets,crowned with tall cocoa-nut trees, like one of themany atolls scattered over the Pacific and Indian

The picture frame. Darwin's picture frame (the barrier reef with breakers inbackground), marginal paper (the lagoon) and the drawing (Moorea) on thenorthwest side of the island.

LIPPS: DARWIN’S DAY

4

Oceans. The Structure and Distribution of CoralReefsandThe view was striking: it may aptly be compared toa framed engraving, where the frame representsthe breakers, the marginal paper the smoothlagoon, and the drawing the island itself. The Voy-age of the Beagle.

Darwin climbed Tahiti from Matavai Bay¸ theusual British anchorage where Beagle lay, and sawMoorea, then known as Eimeo, some 25 km dis-tant. This view of Moorea, which he compared to apicture in a frame, together with his observations ofthe other Society Islands, especially Bora Bora(Bolabola) as recounted above, came together toconfirm his ideas about the formation of atolls. Hisdescription, again was perfect, and his conclusionswell drawn. Every coral island whether low or highthat he encountered he put into his own grand pic-ture of the process of fringing, barrier and atoll reefformation. Now every elementary geology, biologyor oceanography text has Darwin’s picture of thatprocess in living color. Paleontologists have hugelybenefited from his atoll theory ever since, regalingclasses with stories of sinking mountains, giantclams, bleaching corals, and the pending demiseof reefs altogether at human hands. I’d like Dar-win’s opinion on that!

Darwin, on food

Like their brothers the sea-kind, they are ugly ani-mals, of a yellowish orange beneath, and of abrownish red colour above: from their low facialangle they have a singularly stupid appearance. . .. These lizards, when cooked, yield a white meat,which is liked by those whose stomachs soarabove all prejudices. The Voyage of the Beagle

Like some paleontologists and geologists Ihave known who tell entertaining stories of catch-ing and roasting snakes (especially rattlesnakes) inthe desert, Darwin lived off the land and sea alongwith the crew of his ship. In the course of victualiz-ing the Beagle, many unusual animals were eatenthat Darwin never tasted in England. Not only didDarwin and the crew eat iguanas, but also tor-toises, various fish from the streams and sea, trop-ical plants unlike any they had seen elsewhere,and even some invertebrates, giant clams in partic-ular. Darwin was often pained at the thought ofremoving such huge numbers of animals (espe-cially the giant tortoises of the Galapagos) merelyfor food, for he foresaw their possible extinction.

Darwin, systematist

Nor shall I here discuss the various definitionswhich have been given of the term species. No onedefinition has satisfied all naturalists; yet every nat-

uralist knows vaguely what he meanswhen he speaks of a species. Originof Species, 6th Edition.

Judging from what I just satthrough at our Darwin celebrationtoday, not much has changed in acentury and a half. Our speakerstonight went on about what specieswere until we had a long list. Darwinwould have been amused, had helived to 199 years. He would havebeen intrigued as well because theidea of what a species is or should beis a fundamental issue in biology andpaleontology, and it is not easilyresolved. We argue about it all thetime, sometimes raising our voices,so it must be very important indeed. IfDarwin was not so certain, then wehad better be careful too!

Darwin, taphonomist

The accumulation of each great fos-siliferous formation will be recognisedas having depended on an unusual

Darwin, describing the land iguana of the Galapagos, concluded that"they are ugly animals" with a "singularly stupid appearence" but that"when cooked, yield a white meat." He apparently did not like the idea ofeating one of these because he thought that only certain people couldindeed eat one.

PALAEO-ELECTRONICA.ORG

5

occurrence of favourable circumstances. Origin ofSpecies, 6th edition.

Darwin was aware, as some paleontologiststoday are not, that fossilization requires specialconditions that may affect our interpretations in sig-nificant ways. His view came from his knowledgeand observations of not just the geological occur-rences of fossils but also of how animals andplants lived and died today. Influenced in so manyways by Charles Lyell, his uniformitarian method isnot surprising. We still do it this way today.

Darwin, bioturbationist

In the year 1837, a short paper was read by mebefore the Geological Society of London, {2} "Onthe Formation of Mould," in which it was shown thatsmall fragments of burnt marl, cinders, &c., whichhad been thickly strewed over the surface of sev-eral meadows, were found after a few years lyingat the depth of some inches beneath the turf, butstill forming a layer. This apparent sinking of super-ficial bodies is due, as was first suggested to me byMr. Wedgwood of Maer Hall in Staffordshire, to thelarge quantity of fine earth continually brought upto the surface by worms in the form of castings.These castings are sooner or later spread out andcover up any object left on the surface. The Forma-tion of Vegetable Mould Through the Action ofWormsand The plough is one of the most ancient and mostvaluable of man's inventions; but long before heexisted the land was in fact regularly ploughed, andstill continues to be thus ploughed by earth-worms.It may be doubted whether there are many otheranimals which have played so important a part inthe history of the world, as have these lowly orga-nized creatures. The Formation of VegetableMould Through the Action of Worms

Sometimes considered an unusual side stepfor Darwin, his book on Vegetable Mould andWorms is a class in bioturbation. He carefullybrought together his, his own sons’ and other’sobservations and measurements to conclude thatworms had a huge effect on the landscape, at thesame time noting that other forces contributed tothe diminution or addition of the worms’ efforts.Worms covered up flint flakes, rocks, buildingstones and even entire buildings with their castingsfairly quickly depending on the soil type and condi-tions. This process was enhanced by the subsid-ence caused by the worms working below the

objects. Truly a textbook on bioturbation that withlittle creativity can be used to demonstrate marineprocesses as well. Use it in your classes. Thehypotheses, facts, and data tables are all thereeven for lab analysis.

Darwin, the micropaleontologist

It is not an insuperable difficulty that Foraminiferahave not . . . progressed in organization since eventhe Laurential epoch; for some organisms wouldhave to remain fitted for simple conditions of life,and what could be better fitted for this end thanthese lowly organized Protozoa. Origin, 6th Edition.

Wouldn’t you just know it, when Darwin waswrong, he chose my organism to be wrong about.This quote shows that Darwin was human too. Hegot it wrong. Foraminifera, of course, have “pro-gressed” indeed in evolution, just like every othergroup, and that progression is easily grasped now.In his day, foraminifera were less well known, buteven then their overall diversity and a good portionof their geologic history was known, at least amongthe French where d’Orbigny had described anddocumented so many of them. But in England, Brit-ish foram workers, particularly Darwin’s good col-league William Carpenter, did not believe theFrench. To Darwin, the British view made sense—protozoans did seem to be simpler than otherorganisms and therefore why should they evolve?.But he was influenced by his friends, perhaps notthe best way to proceed. Had he had the time, orlooked at forams instead of worms, he surely wouldhave realized his mistake.

***Charles Darwin was a great naturalist, geolo-

gist and biologist. His work has endured long andstill forms the basis of much new research. Thelate Dan Axelrod, a paleobotanist who often fol-lowed the Darwinian method, used to tell us that ifwe needed a research project, just read Darwinand expand on some problem he had identified, forDarwin had seen it all and knew what was impor-tant and what was merely trivial. Not bad advice,especially when combined with modernapproaches to our science.

In the coming Darwin-fest next year, let’s besure to include his non-biological contributions, forsometimes they get lost among all the good biolog-ical ones he left us. Start planning for this celebra-tion now. Perhaps we can have a world-wide on-line party in his honor. We owe him a great deal.

LIPPS: DARWIN’S DAY

6

REFERENCES

Darwin references from which quotationswere extracted are listed below. Note that pagenumbers are not given for the quotations becausethese numbers vary from original to reprints of Dar-win’s works. You may or may not have access tothe original material, but everyone using nearly anylanguage can read Darwin. Most of Darwin’s writ-ings are now available on line. Just search inAsk.com or another search engine for “Darwinbooks” or the title of a particular one, and you willfind a choice of sites.

Coral Reefs: Darwin, Charles. The Structure and Distri-bution of Coral Reefs. London, Smith, Elder Publish-ers, 1842.

Descent of Man: Darwin, Charles. The Descent of Manand Selection in Relation to Sex. London, John Mur-ray Publishers, 1871.

Diary: N. Barlow, Editor, Charles Darwin’s Diary of theVoyage of HMS Beagle. Cambridge, Cambridge Uni-versity Press, 1933.

Origin 6th Edition: Darwin, Charles. The Origin of Spe-cies by means of Natural Selection; or, the Preserva-tion of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life 6th

Edition, London, John Murray, 1872.Voyage: Darwin, Charles. Journal of Researches into the

Natural History and Geology of the Countries VisitedDuring the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle. London, HenryColburn Publishers, 1839. Published later as TheVoyage of the Beagle.

Worms: Darwin, Charles. The Formation of VegetableMould, through the Actions of Worms, with Observa-tions on Their Habits. London, John Murray, 1881.