The History Book Club discussion

This is a thread to discuss Evolution and the "origin of the species".

Of course, who can forget this classic:

The Origin of Species

Charles Darwin

Goodreads Write-up

Voyage with Darwin as he gathers the raw material that ushered in the greatest intellectual revolution in 2,000 years upon the publication of this very book!

Or this other controversial book:

by Richard Dawkins

From Wikipedia:

The Selfish Gene is a book on evolution by Richard Dawkins, published in 1976. It builds upon the principal theory of George C. Williams's first book Adaptation and Natural Selection. Dawkins coined the term "selfish gene" as a way of expressing the gene-centred view of evolution as opposed to the views focused on the organism and the group. From the gene-centred view follows that the more two individuals are genetically related, the more sense (at the level of the genes) it makes for them to behave selflessly with each other. Therefore the concept is especially good at explaining many forms of altruism, regardless of a common misuse of the term along the lines of a selfishness gene.
An organism is expected to evolve to maximize its inclusive fitness — the number of copies of its genes passed on globally (rather than by a particular individual). As a result, populations will tend towards an evolutionarily stable strategy. The book also coins the term meme for a unit of human cultural evolution analogous to the gene, suggesting that such "selfish" replication may also model human culture, in a different sense. Memetics has become the subject of many studies since the publication of the book.
In the foreword to the book's 30th-anniversary edition, Dawkins said he "can readily see that [the book's title] might give an inadequate impression of its contents" and in retrospect thinks he should have taken Tom Maschler's advice and called the book The Immortal Gene.[1]

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Self...

Video Introduction:

Listen to Richard Dawkins:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciFe8J...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/spe...

Edge: The Third Culture

http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/selfi...

Your Inner Fish: A Journey Into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body

Neil Shubin

Goodreads Write-up:

Why do we look the way we do? What does the human hand have in common with the wing of a fly? Are breasts, sweat glands, and scales connected in some way? To better understand the inner workings of our bodies and to trace the origins of many of today's most common diseases, we have to turn to unexpected sources: worms, flies, and even fish. Neil Shubin, a leading paleontologist and professor of anatomy who discovered Tiktaalik's the "missing link" that made headlines around the world in April 2006 tells the story of evolution by tracing the organs of the human body back millions of years, long before the first creatures walked the earth. By examining fossils and DNA, Shubin shows us that our hands actually resemble fish fins, our head is organized like that of a long-extinct jawless fish, and major parts of our genome look and function like those of worms and bacteria. Shubin makes us see ourselves and our world in a completely new light. Your Inner Fish is science writing at its finest; enlightening, accessible, and told with irresistible enthusiasm.

Awards:

National Academies of Sciences Book Award (2009), Phi Beta Kappa Science Book Award (2008), Society of Midland's Authors Nonfiction Book Prize (2009)

The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time

Jonathan Weiner

On a desert island in the heart of the Galapagos archipelago, where Darwin received his first inklings of the theory of evolution, two scientists, Peter and Rosemary Grant, have spent twenty years proving that Darwin did not know the strength of his own theory. For among the finches of Daphne Major, natural selection is neither rare nor slow: it is taking place by the hour, and we can watch.

In this dramatic story of groundbreaking scientific research, Jonathan Weiner follows these scientists as they watch Darwin's finches and come up with a new understanding of life itself. The Beak of the Finch is an elegantly written and compelling masterpiece of theory and explication in the tradition of Stephen Jay Gould

Awards:

Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction (1995)

Darwin's Dangerous Idea

Daniel C. Dennett

Publisher's Synopsis:

In a book that is both groundbreaking and accessible, Daniel C. Dennett, whom Chet Raymo of The Boston Globe calls "one of the most provocative thinkers on the planet," focuses his unerringly logical mind on the theory of natural selection, showing how Darwin's great idea transforms and illuminates our traditional view of humanity's place in the universe. Dennett vividly describes the theory itself and then extends Darwin's vision with impeccable arguments to their often surprising conclusions, challenging the views of some of the most famous scientists of our day.

David Quammen
Island biogeography mostly, but also a large section of the book detailing how evolution ties into biogeography and population distribution. Author also covers the differences between Darwin's theory and Wallace's theories on evolution.

Stephen Jay Gould
Many works by this author would apply to evolution. Especially his collections of essays. But much of natural history is concerned with evolution and its effects.

Thank you Jane, these are great adds.

*chuckle* If you ever get a section on farming/agriculture, watch out, I might flood the thread! ;)

Carl Sagan

This book contains Carl Sagan's thoughts on the evolution of human intelligence. I'm reading this right now, and I believe that Sagan's use of somewhat ordinary language makes this an interesting and informing read.

Good job Eric with the citation, and that author/scientist was a giant. A great loss.

I fell in love with Alfred Russell Wallace while reading "The Song of the Dodo", cited above by Judy, and I can't wait to get to know him better. This looks like a good biography.

Goodreads blurb:

In 1858, Alfred Russel Wallace, aged thirty-five, weak with malaria, isolated in the Spice Islands, wrote to Charles Darwin: he had, he said excitedly, worked out a theory of natural selection. Darwin was aghast--his work of decades was about to be scooped. Within two weeks, his outline and Wallace's paper were presented jointly in London. A year later, with Wallace still on the opposite side of the globe, Darwin published "On the Origin of Species."

This new biography of Wallace traces the development of one of the most remarkable scientific travelers, naturalists, and thinkers of the nineteenth century. With vigor and sensitivity, Peter Raby reveals his subject as a courageous, unconventional explorer and a man of exceptional humanity. He draws more extensively on Wallace's correspondence than has any previous biographer and offers a revealing yet balanced account of the relationship between Wallace and Darwin.

Wallace lacked Darwin's advantages. A largely self-educated native of Wales, he spent four years in the Amazon in his mid-twenties collecting specimens for museums and wealthy patrons, only to lose his finds in a shipboard fire in the mid-Atlantic. He vowed never to travel again. Yet two years later he was off to the East Indies on a vast eight-year trek; here he discovered countless species and identified the point of divide between Asian and Australian fauna, 'Wallace's Line.'

After his return, he plunged into numerous controversies and published regularly until his death at the age of ninety, in 1913. He penned a classic volume on his travels, founded the discipline of biogeography, promoted natural selection, and produced a distinctive account of mind and consciousness in man. Sensitive and self-effacing, he was an ardent socialist--and spiritualist. Wallace is one of the neglected giants of the history of science and ideas. This stirring biography--the first for many years--puts him back at center stage, where he belongs.

by Peter Raby (no photo)

Andrew Berry(no photo) Alfred Russel Wallace

by David Quammen

Terrific add Bea.

Kathy wrote: "Bentley wrote: "The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time

Jonathan Weiner

On a..."

It was wonderful. Highly recommended. Evolution is happening, now, in real time, observably.

Kathy wrote: "The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution

by Richard Dawkins

Synopsis

Richard..."

Dawkins is great at writing about evolution and related issues. One of the clearest science writers around, I think.

(His writings on atheism are another matter - I don't find them as good, even though I am also an atheist)

The Scopes "Monkey" trial captivated the nation as it pitted two of the great orators of the 20th century against each other;.....Clarence Darrow vs William Jennings Bryan....and challenged the theory of evolution. Darrow for the defense lost the case but his arguments have gone down in history and he pretty much made a fool of Bryan, who died one day after the end of the trial.

Monkey Business; True Story of the Scopes Trial

by John Perry (no photo)

Synopsis:
The Scopes Monkey Trial in Dayton, Tennessee was a watershed moment in the history of this country. The ramifications of those proceedings are still being felt today. However, it is not necessarily the arguments from the courtroom floor that are reverberating in the halls of America today. The way the entire event was conducted and perceived by the rest of the nation set the tone for how creationists and evolutionists have been viewed by society ever since. Marvin Olasky and John Perry tell the true story in Monkey Business. Most people have a misunderstanding of what happened based on slanted newspaper reporting accounts of H. L. Menken, who made fun of creationists. As a result, the case for creationism has been crippled in the eyes of society. But this account of what happened is far from accurate. Monkey Business will offer the facts of the story and an apologetic for divine creation.

Jill wrote: "The Scopes "Monkey" trial captivated the nation as it pitted two of the great orators of the 20th century against each other;.....Clarence Darrow vs William Jennings Bryan....and challenged the the..."

Indeed, having read quite a bit about this trial here and there, the arguments made by Darrow and Bryan were not really new. But the fact that two of the most eminent (perhaps *the* most) lawyers in the nation were debating it and not in (say) New York but in the Bible belt.

As for Mencken - well, Mencken mocked everyone, not just in this trial but in most of his newspaper columns and reporting (the only exception to this that I know of is his book by H.L. Mencken

The man who challenged the Christian ethic of creationism through his theory of evolution, this book covers his early life and his voyages on the Beagle.

Charles Darwin: Voyaging

by E. Janet Browne (no photo)

Synopsis;

Few lives of great men offer so much interest--and so many mysteries--as the life of Charles Darwin, the greatest figure of nineteenth-century science, whose ideas are still inspiring discoveries and controversies more than a hundred years after his death. Yet only now, with the publication of Voyaging, the first of two volumes that will constitute the definitive biography, do we have a truly vivid and comprehensive picture of Darwin as man and as scientist. Drawing upon much new material, supported by an unmatched acquaintance with both the intellectual setting and the voluminous sources, Janet Browne has at last been able to unravel the central enigma of Darwin's career: how did this amiable young gentleman, born into a prosperous provincial English family, grow into a thinker capable of challenging the most basic principles of religion and science? The dramatic story of Voyaging takes us from agonizing personal challenges to the exhilaration of discovery; we see a young, inquisitive Darwin gradually mature, shaping, refining, and finally setting forth the ideas that would at last fall upon the world like a thunderclap in The Origin of Species.Few lives of great men offer so much interest--and so many mysteries--as the life of Charles Darwin, the greatest figure of nineteenth-century science, whose ideas are still inspiring discoveries and controversies more than a hundred years after his death. Yet only now, with the publication of Voyaging, the first of two volumes that will constitute the definitive biography, do we have a truly vivid and comprehensive picture of Darwin as man and as scientist. Drawing upon much new material, supported by an unmatched acquaintance with both theintellectual setting and the voluminous sources, Janet Browne has at last been able to unravel the central enigma of Darwin's career: how did this amiable young gentleman, born into a prosperous provincial English family, grow into a thinker capable of challenging the most basic principles of religion and science? The dramatic story of Voyaging takes us from agonizing personal challenges to the exhilaration of discovery; we see a young, inquisitive Darwin gradually mature, shaping, refining, and finally setting forth the ideas that would at last fall upon the world like a thunderclap in The Origin of Species.

Taking a different tack on the "Evolution" thread, what about books that posit the next step in evolution? e.g. one of my favorite SF books

by Theodore Sturgeon

Synopsis:
There's Lone, the simpleton who can hear other people's thoughts and make a man blow his brains out just by looking at him. There's Janie, who moves things without touching them, and there are the teleporting twins, who can travel ten feet or ten miles. There's Baby, who invented an antigravity engine while still in the cradle, and Gerry, who has everything it takes to run the world except for a conscience. Seperately, they are talented freaks.Together, they compose a single organism that may represent the next step in evolution, and the final chapter in the history of the human race.

In this genre-bending novel- among the first to have launched sci fi into the arena of literature -one of the great imaginers of the twentieth century tells a story as mind-blowing as any controlled substance and as affecting as a glimpse into a stranger's soul. For as the protagonists of More Than Human struggle to find who they are and whether they are meant to help humanity or destroy it. Theodore Sturgeon explores questions of power and morality, individuality and belonging, with suspense, pathos, and a lyricism rarely seen in science fiction.

Great adds Kathy. Very good.

In the evolution topic a great history book isBanquet at Delmonico's: Great Minds, the Gilded Age, and the Triumph of Evolution in America Barry Werth

The trial of the century pitted Clarence Darrow representing school teacher John Scopes who taught evolution against the God-fearing firebrand, William Jennings Bryan. Although Darrow lost, he basically made a mockery of Bryan. And who better to report than the sardonic genius, H.L. Mencken. This book is worth your while, regardless of which side you are on.

A Religious Orgey in Tennessee: A Reporter's Account of the Scopes Monkey Trial

by H.L. Mencken

Synopsis

"The native American Voltaire, the enemy of all puritans, the heretic in the Sunday school, the one-man demolition crew of the genteel tradition." -Alistair Cooke on H.L. Mencken

Fiercely intelligent, scathingly honest, and hysterically funny, H.L. Mencken’s coverage of the Scopes Monkey Trial so galvanized the nation that it eventually inspired a Broadway play and the classic Hollywood movie Inherit the Wind.

Mencken’s no-nonsense sensibility is still exciting: his perceptive rendering of the courtroom drama; his piercing portrayals of key figures Scopes, Clarence Darrow, and William Jennings Bryan; his ferocious take on the fundamentalist culture surrounding it all—including a raucous midnight trip into the woods to witness a secret “holy roller” service.

Shockingly, these reports have never been gathered together into a book of their own—until now.

A Religious Orgy In Tennessee includes all of Mencken’s reports for The Baltimore Sun, The Nation, and The American Mercury. It even includes his coverage of Bryan’s death just days after the trial—an obituary so withering Mencken was forced by his editors to rewrite it, angering him and leading him to rewrite it yet again in a third version even less forgiving than the first. All three versions are included, as is a complete transcript of the trial’s most legendary exchange: Darrow’s blistering cross-examination of Bryan.

With the rise of “intelligent design,” H.L. Mencken’s work has never seemed more unnervingly timely—or timeless

Thank you for keeping up your threads. Good job.

Excellent work here, Kathy.

It still stuns me that people are willing to accept the half truths and untested assertions behind "intelligent design". There will always be things we are still seeking to understand in science, but that does not mean that an invisible creature with supernatural powers is responsible.

Sad.

Scott: I remember a passage in, I think it was actually Darwin, that the idea that some 'intelligent creator' would create such imperfections as the human body, with its famous blind spot of the human eye as well as a myriad of other problems, is an insult to the very creator. He/She/It doesn't know how to design very well, apparently.

Evolution by natural selection has withstood 150 years or so of rigorous scientific scrutiny, now backed up by DNA evidence. Yet those who want to trash evolution often use quotes from Darwin to try and change minds. Meyer is one of those who have found a profitable niche by playing on the words of Darwin when it really doesn't matter any more since we are way past that. Evolution is now a cornerstone of science.

Here is another point of view on Meyer's Signature in the Cell:

http://www.skepticblog.org/2013/08/28...

And here is an excellent New Yorker essay on Darwin's Doubt:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs...

Here is a basic Wikipedia article on Stephen C. Meyer himself:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_...

Thank you Jimmy for all of your posts.

Thank you Kathy for all of the adds.

The Purposeful Universe: How Quantum Theory and Mayan Cosmology Explain the Origin and Evolution of Life

by Carl Johan Calleman

Synopsis :

"Between the simplicity of religion and the absurdity of an empty randomness, Carl Johan Calleman here proposes to us a brilliant but plausible third way: The Tree of Life. Here we have finally a modern theory of the origin and evolution of life that unifies the most recent discoveries of science with ancient wisdom. Without ever imposing God on us, this great book brings agnostics like myself to face the evidence.” - Jean-Claude Perez, Ph.D., author of Codex Biogenesis: les 13 codes de I’AND [The 13 Codes of DNA]

Using recent findings within cosmology, coupled with his broad understanding of the Mayan calendar, biologist Carl Johan Calleman offers a revolutionary and fully developed alternative to Darwin’s theory of biological evolution--and the theory of randomness that holds sway over modern science. He shows how the recently discovered central axis of the universe correlates with the Tree of Life of the ancients. This provides an entirely new context for physics in general and especially for the origin and evolution of life and suggests that we look upon ourselves as part of a hierarchy of systems that are all interrelated and evolve in a synchronized way.

Calleman’s research demonstrates that life did not just accidentally “pop up” on our planet, but that Earth was a place specifically tagged for this. He demonstrates how the Mayan calendar describes different quantum states of the Tree of Life and presents a new explanation for the origin and evolution of consciousness. Calleman uses his scientific background in biology and cosmology to show that the idea of the Purposeful Universe is real. He explains not only how DNA but also entire organisms have emerged in the image of the Tree of Life, a theory that has wide-ranging consequences not only for medicine but also for the origin of sacred geometry and the human soul. With this new theory of biological evolution the divide between science and religion disappears.

CARL JOHAN CALLEMAN holds a Ph.D. in physical biology from the University of Stockholm. He has been a senior researcher at the University of Washington and has served as a cancer expert for the World Health Organization. He is also a leading expert on the Mayan calendar and is the author of The Mayan Calendar and the Transformation of Consciousness and The Mayan Calendar. He lives in Seattle.

Be sure and tell us how you liked the book, Krishna. It helps other members make decisions as to whether to read it as well Thanks for your post.

Thank you Jill and Kathy for assisting Krishna. What country are you from Krishna?

Thanks Kathy

Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation

by Bill Nye

Synopsis:

"Evolution is one of the most powerful and important ideas ever developed in the history of science. Every question it raises leads to new answers, new discoveries, and new smarter questions. The science of evolution is as expansive as nature itself. It is also the most meaningful creation story that humans have ever found."—Bill Nye

Sparked by a controversial debate in February 2014, Bill Nye has set off on an energetic campaign to spread awareness of evolution and the powerful way it shapes our lives. In Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation, he explains why race does not really exist; evaluates the true promise and peril of genetically modified food; reveals how new species are born, in a dog kennel and in a London subway; takes a stroll through 4.5 billion years of time; and explores the new search for alien life, including aliens right here on Earth. With infectious enthusiasm, Bill Nye shows that evolution is much more than a rebuttal to creationism; it is an essential way to understand how nature works—and to change the world. It might also help you get a date on a Saturday night.

Thank you Francie

A book by one of the most controversial biologists of the 20th century.

Symbiotic Planet: A New Look at Evolution

by Lynn Margulis

Synopsis:

Although Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution laid the foundations of modern biology, it did not tell the whole story. Most remarkably, The Origin of Species said very little about, of all things, the origins of species. Darwin and his modern successors have shown very convincingly how inherited variations are naturally selected, but they leave unanswered how variant organisms come to be in the first place.In Symbiotic Planet, renowned scientist Lynn Margulis shows that symbiosis, which simply means members of different species living in physical contact with each other, is crucial to the origins of evolutionary novelty. Ranging from bacteria, the smallest kinds of life, to the largest—the living Earth itself—Margulis explains the symbiotic origins of many of evolution’s most important innovations. The very cells we’re made of started as symbiotic unions of different kinds of bacteria. Sex—and its inevitable corollary, death—arose when failed attempts at cannibalism resulted in seasonally repeated mergers of some of our tiniest ancestors. Dry land became forested only after symbioses of algae and fungi evolved into plants. Since all living things are bathed by the same waters and atmosphere, all the inhabitants of Earth belong to a symbiotic union. Gaia, the finely tuned largest ecosystem of the Earth’s surface, is just symbiosis as seen from space. Along the way, Margulis describes her initiation into the world of science and the early steps in the present revolution in evolutionary biology; the importance of species classification for how we think about the living world; and the way “academic apartheid” can block scientific advancement. Written with enthusiasm and authority, this is a book that could change the way you view our living Earth.

Thank you Jose

Domesticated: Evolution in a Man-Made World

by Richard C Francis (no photo)

Synopsis:

We would still be living at subsistence level as hunter-gatherers if not for domestication. It is no accident that the cradle of civilization the Middle East is where sheep, goats, pigs, cattle, and cats commenced their fatefully intimate association with humans.

Before the agricultural revolution, there were perhaps 10 million humans on earth. Now there are over 7 billion. Moreover, our domesticated species, in stark contrast to their wild ancestors, have also thrived. In a human-constructed environment or man-made world it pays to be domesticated. In fact, many domesticated species initiated the process of domestication by choosing to live near human settlements. This self-domestication was particularly important during the early stages of the wolf-to-dog transition.

Richard Francis s mission in the pages of this book is to explain how the domestication process works. He accomplishes this by focusing on our favorite domesticated species dogs, cats, horses, all the way to reindeer.

Domestication is an evolutionary process driven by both natural and artificial selection. The primary trait under selection is tameness, the capacity to tolerate close human proximity. But selection for tameness results in a host of seemingly unrelated by-products, from floppy ears to changes in coloration to skeletal alterations. It s a package deal known as the domestication syndrome. We humans, too, show signs of the domestication syndrome, which some believe was key to our evolutionary success. By this view, human evolution parallels the evolution of dogs from wolves, in particular.

A natural storyteller, Francis weaves history, archaeology, and anthropology to create a fascinating narrative while seamlessly integrating the most cutting-edge ideas in twenty-first-century biology, from genomics to evo-devo."

Evolution: Frauds, Hoaxes & Lies

by Stephen Johnson (no photo)

Synopsis:

The educational system teaches children not to think. Any student who uses logic and solid scientific evidence to question the Theory of Evolution is ridiculed and insulted into submission. The students who submit become non-thinking robots who dare not question the dogma presented.

A fourth-grade elementary school class was observed at the park playing a three-legged race game, where adjacent legs of the two kids were placed into a bag. The kids must cooperate with each step in order to run. The kids thought it was great fun. The teacher told them they were being trained to cooperate.

Actually, it was brainwashing kids into conforming to a system in which they are not allowed to have individual thoughts or opinions. They must become a "team player" and submit to peer pressure. Communist countries have used this same brainwashing technique for decades. The brainwashing of school children continues by teaching them there is no absolute right or wrong, and the teacher is absolutely positive about it.

Whatever the children think is right for them is OK. That is of course until they question evolution. They are then told they are wrong. This brainwashing results in children who are unable to think logically, scientifically, or accurately.

Lone Survivors: How We Came to Be the Only Humans on Earth

by Chris Stringer (no photo)

Synopsis:

A leading researcher on human evolution proposes a new and controversial theory of how our species came to be

In this groundbreaking and engaging work of science, world-renowned paleoanthropologist Chris Stringer sets out a new theory of humanity's origin, challenging both the multiregionalists (who hold that modern humans developed from ancient ancestors in different parts of the world) and his own "out of Africa" theory, which maintains that humans emerged rapidly in one small part of Africa and then spread to replace all other humans within and outside the continent. Stringer's new theory, based on archeological and genetic evidence, holds that distinct humans coexisted and competed across the African continent--exchanging genes, tools, and behavioral strategies.

Stringer draws on analyses of old and new fossils from around the world, DNA studies of Neanderthals (using the full genome map) and other species, and recent archeological digs to unveil his new theory. He shows how the most sensational recent fossil findings fit with his model, and he questions previous concepts (including his own) of modernity and how it evolved.

Lone Survivors will be the definitive account of who and what we were, and will change perceptions about our origins and about what it means to be human.

Women After All: Sex, Evolution, and the End of Male Supremacy

by Melvin Konner

Synopsis:

There is a human genetic fluke that is surprisingly common, due to a change in a key pair of chromosomes. In the normal condition the two look the same, but in this disorder one is malformed and shrunken beyond recognition. The result is a shortened life span, higher mortality at all ages, an inability to reproduce, premature hair loss, and brain defects variously resulting in attention deficit, hyperactivity, conduct disorder, hypersexuality, and an enormous excess of both outward and self-directed aggression.

It is called maleness.

Melvin Konner traces the arc of evolution to explain the relationships between women and men. With patience and wit he explores the knotty question of whether men are necessary in the biological destiny of the human race. He draws on multiple, colorful examples from the natural world—such as the mating habits of the octopus, black widow, angler fish, and jacana—and argues that maleness in humans is hardly necessary to the survival of the species.

In characteristically humorous and engaging prose, Konner sheds light on our biologically different identities, while noting the poignant exceptions that challenge the male/female divide. We meet hunter-gatherers such as those in Botswana, whose culture gave women a prominent place, invented the working mother, and respected women’s voices around the fire. Recent human history has upset this balance, as a dense world of war fostered extreme male dominance. But our species has been recovering over the past two centuries, and an unstoppable move toward equality is afoot. It will not be the end of men, but it will be the end of male supremacy and a better, wiser world for women and men alike.

Siberian Town Stakes a Claim as Humanity’s Cradle

by ANDREW E. KRAMER


The Cradle of Humanity Nature Park, near the entrance to the Denisova cave. Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times

SOLONESHNOYE, Russia — Wood smoke hangs like a mist over this town, nestled in a valley deep in Siberia. The log houses lean at jaunty angles, dogs bark in the yards and cows, their neck bells clanging, walk the dusty streets.

At once picturesque and poor, Soloneshnoye, like so much of rural Russia, was passed over by the oil boom and bust of faraway Moscow.

But for all its woes, the town may have found its ticket in another form of fossil fuel: human prehistory, linked to discoveries of ancient bones in the area.

In an emerging model of evolution, widely supported by scientists, different types of early humans, including Neanderthals, interbred and left their genetic traces with many of us today. It is a theory known in the scientific literature as “admixture between archaic and anatomically modern humans.”

Piece by piece — a finger bone here, a toe there — the nearby Denisova cave has been yielding clues central to this scientific narrative. It has given rise to hopes for a tourism industry and scientific conferences here that could give the town’s fortunes a boost.


Tatyana G. Belikova, a curator and guide at the Soloneshnoyski Regional Museum, illuminated layers of sediment in the Denisova cave. Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times

“Every year, we find something interesting,” said Aleksandr S. Voronov, the mayor. Just this summer, the cave produced a new find: the world’s oldest known needle. “The more we find, the more interesting it becomes,” he said.

The discoveries encapsulate what scientists say makes this place unique: It is the only spot on earth where bones of three types of early humans, Neanderthal, Denisovan and homo sapiens, have all been discovered, though they did not necessarily live here at the same time.

The area has a long way to go before it can give the Lascaux cave in southern France a run for its money. So far, the town has opened a paleoanthropology wing at the local museum, and the regional government plans to pave the road to the Denisova cave.

Along the route, a cave man-themed roadside attraction has popped up. Called the “Cradle of Humanity,” it shows various types of cave dwellers — hairy, bucktoothed and wide-eyed — with information on their transformation from apelike to more recognizably human. The display captures the strange overlap in evolution that allowed interbreeding.

A guest lodge for visitors and scientists has opened near the cave. A few miles away, another lodge doubles as a retreat for soaking in a tub of a traditional Mongolian medicinal bath, in water with fermented deer antlers. A third lodge is under construction.


A sign showing ancient forms of humans welcoming visitors to the Cradle of Humanity Nature Park last month. Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times

Read the remainder of the article: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/20/world/europe/...

Discussion topics:

a) Have you ever been to the Lascaux cave in southern France, the Denisova cave in Russia, or any other place such as these?

b) What do you think of these discoveries?

Source: The New York Times

Khan Academy offers free learning and is a wonderful site:

Here is a learning entry on the Lascaux Caves - if you read through the article you will find at the bottom some very interesting links.

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanitie...

by Emily Arnold McCully

@Betty - I found your article fascinating but I have never been to the Lascaux Caves but am very interested in doing so. I think the discoveries are amazing. There is a video at the bottom of the Khan entry which shows how some of them might have been done - fascinating really.

The Book That Changed America: How Darwin's Theory of Evolution Ignited a Nation

by Randall Fuller

Synopsis:

A compelling portrait of a unique moment in American history when the ideas of Charles Darwin reshaped American notions about nature, religion, science and race

"A lively and informative history." - The New York Times Book Review

Throughout its history America has been torn in two by debates over ideals and beliefs. Randall Fuller takes us back to one of those turning points, in 1860, with the story of the influence of Charles Darwin's just-published On the Origin of Species on five American intellectuals, including Bronson Alcott, Henry David Thoreau, the child welfare reformer Charles Loring Brace, and the abolitionist Franklin Sanborn.

Each of these figures seized on the book's assertion of a common ancestry for all creatures as a powerful argument against slavery, one that helped provide scientific credibility to the cause of abolition. Darwin's depiction of constant struggle and endless competition described America on the brink of civil war. But some had difficulty aligning the new theory to their religious convictions and their faith in a higher power. Thoreau, perhaps the most profoundly affected all, absorbed Darwin's views into his mysterious final work on species migration and the interconnectedness of all living things.

Creating a rich tableau of nineteenth-century American intellectual culture, as well as providing a fascinating biography of perhaps the single most important idea of that time, The Book That Changed America is also an account of issues and concerns still with us today, including racism and the enduring conflict between science and religion.