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LIBRARY  OF  THE 


<< 

<^  FOR  ^ 


/v^      FOR  THE        ■<^ 

^     PEOPLE 


^    EDVCATION    O 

p^  FOR  ^^ 

O,  SCIENCE  ^ 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2010  with  funding  from 
Natural  History  Magazine,  Inc. 


http://www.archive.org/details/naturalhistory10301amer 


Ref 

QH1.N346« 

V.  103     i>( 

no.  1 

January 

1994 


The  camera  for  those  who  look  at  this  picture  and  think,  "Gosh,  how'd 
they  open  up  the  shadows  without  blowing  out  the  highlights?" 


When  staring  into  the  mouth  of  a 
10  ft.  grizzly  bear,  you  tend  to  think 
about  life.  Limbs.  And  how  handy  legs 
are.  Not  the  fill-flash  ratio  needed  to 
expose  teeth  about  to  rip  your  leg  off.       segments.  It  measures  the  brightness 

Nikon  created  the  N90  specifically 
for  complicated  situations  like  this. 
When  you  have  no  time  to  think.  A 
brown  bear  on  brown  earth,  about  to 
mangle  a  brown  shoe.  So  instead  of 
overexposing  this  picture  like  other 
cameras  might,  the  NQO"  works  for 


you,  properly  analyzing  the  situation  determine  the  bear's  reflectance.  And 

and  delivering  an  accurate  exposure.  then  provides  the  precise  amount  of 

Here's  how  it  does  it.  The  3D  Matrix  fill-flash  needed  to  lighten  the  bear's 

Meter  divides  the  scene  into  eight  dark  brown  fur,  without  overexposing 

his  slightly  yellow  teeth, 
in  each  one  of  the  segments  and  then  The  N90  can  give  you  near-perfect 

compares  them  for  contrast.  D-type  exposures  when  other  cameras  would 

lenses  incorporate  the  subject's  distance  be  fooled.  Or,  for  that  matter,  eaten, 
which  allows  the  N90  to  calculate  the  Professionals  trust  the  N90.  So  you 

proper  ambient  light  exposure.  can  too.  Because  it  works  just  as  well 

The  SB-25  Speedlight  fires  a  rapid  on  children  eating  ice  cream  as  it  does 

series  of  imperceptible  pre-flashes  to  on  bears  eating  people. 


The  N90  System 

Seethe  Nikon  N90  at  aiirliorized  dealers  where  yvu  see  this  s\tnbol.Nikoit  Data  Link  System  available  Winter  '93.  For  more  on  our  MasterCard,  call  l-800-NtKON-35. 


Nikon 

We  take  the  world's 
greatest  pictures: 


NATURAL 
HISTORY 


Vol.  103,  No.  1,  January  1994 


Cover:  with  flukes  raised,  a  right  whale  sails  across  the  bay — whales  often  do  this 
repeatedly — at  its  wintering  grounds  near  Argentina's  Peninsula  Valdes. 
Story  on  page  40.  Photograph  by  Iain  Kerr. 


2  Letters 

4  State  of  the  Museum:  1994 

The  New  President's  Vision  of  Science  and  Society 

6    Losing  Game  Allyn  Maclean  Stearman 

Tales  about  fearsome  natives  in  remote  Bolivia  may  have  been 
apociyphal,  but  the  arrow  in  the  settler's  thigh  was  real. 

12    This  View  of  Life  Stephen  Jay  Gould 
Cabinet  Museums  Revisited 

22    This  Land  Roben  H.  Mohlenbrock 
Paxton  Cone,  New  Mexico 


26   Sex,  Drugs,  and  Butterflies  Michael  Boppre 

The  stronger  the  chemical  perfume  of  a  male  butterfly,  the  more  alluring  he  is  to  females. 

34  Young  Lizards  Can  Be  Bearable  Richard  SMne 

In  cold  climates,  moms  give  their  young  a  head  start — at  a  price. 

40  Among  Whales  y?oge/- Payne 

On  calm,  sunny  mornings,  sleeping  whales  "are  scattered  throughout  the  bay  like 
drifting  logs,  with  the  sounds  of  their  snores  filling  the  air." 

48    Wings  on  Their  Fingers  Rick  a.  Adams  and  Scott  C.  Pedersen 

To  earn  their  wings,  young  bats  face  a  steep,  often  fatal,  learning  curve. 

56    A  Fly  in  Ant'  S  Clothing  Gregory  Paulson  and  Roger  Akre 
Beguiled  by  the  shape  and  odor  of  a  parasite, 
ants  welcome  it  into  their  home  with  open  arms. 

60   Science  Lite  Roger  l.  Weisck 

Spring  in  the  Air 

62  At  the  American  Museum 
of  Natural  History 

66  Reviews  Paul  D.  Spudis 

Vanished  Greatness 

70  Celestial  Events  Gail  s.  cieere 

Lost  but  Not  Forgotten 

72  A  Matter  of  Taste  Raymond  Sokoiov 

Pyramid  Power 

76  The  Natural  Moment 

Photographs  by  Seiichi  Meguro 
Ghost  in  a  Snowstorm 

78  Authors 


NATURAL 
HISnORY 


A  moiuhlv  m;iE 


I  Cfi  nW^WSrsT;  S  k' 


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Letters 


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uiiderslandinc  and  prescnin 


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Breadfruit— Puerto  Rican  Style 

In  "A  Fruit  Freely  Chosen"  ("A  Matter 
of  Taste,"  September  1993),  Raymond 
Sokolov  explores  the  ways  breadfruit  is 
prepared  and  eaten  in  the  British  and 
French  islands  of  the  Caribbean.  He  does 
not  mention,  however,  the  use  of  this  fruit 
in  Spanish-speaking  islands. 

Breadfruit  trees  can  be  found  all  over 
Puerto  Rico.  Panapen,  or  pana,  as  we 
Puerto  Ricans  call  breadfruit,  is  usually 
cooked  while  still  green.  The  skin  is  re- 
moved and  the  flesh  cut  into  trapezoid- 
shaped  pieces  and  boiled  until  tender  The 
taste  is  slightly  sweeter  than  a  potato's. 
The  boiled  pana  can  also  be  mashed  and  a 
little  flour  added  to  make  pasteles — pies 
filled  with  stewed  beef,  pork,  or  chicken. 
Puerto  Ricans  also  love  tostones  de 
pana — fried  breadfruit  sticks,  but  my  per- 
sonal high  point  in  breadfruit  came  while  I 
was  camping  on  a  beach  on  the  island  of 
Culebra,  off  the  "main  island"  of  Puerto 
Rico.  As  the  sun  set  on  the  horizon,  a  fish- 
erman brought  to  my  tent  some  baked 
balls  of  breadfruit  stuffed  with  lobster 
meat.  Every  bite  was  heaven. 

Miguel  Buxeda 
Miami,  Florida 

Defensive  Snoring  Defended 

Although  Roger  L.  Welsch  does  not 
mention  me  by  name,  I  am  the  paleoan- 
thropologist  whose  hypothesis  on  human 
snoring  is  the  butt  of  his  September  1993 
column,  "For  Immediate  Release."  As  a 
rancher  in  northwest  Wyoming  for  the  past 
eighteen  years,  I  appreciate  the  barnyard 
humor.  One  correction  needs  to  be  made, 
however:  Welsch  got  the  wrong  idea  when 
the  American  Anthropological  Associa- 
tion indicated  in  their  press  release  fliat  I 
was  affiUated  with  the  Institute  of  Human 
Origins.  In  fact,  I  have  only  been  con- 
nected via  friendship,  fieldwork,  confer- 
ence attendance,  and  contributions. 

Maybe  the  feUas  at  Slick's  tavern  would 
like  to  know  that  snoring  (not  to  be  con- 
fused with  sleep  apnea,  which  is  patholog- 
ical in  nature)  is  brought  on  by  hormones 
(predominantly  male).  And  although 
many  people  do  laugh  when  they  hear  my 
hypothesis — that  snoring  protected  our 


forebears  by  warning  away  predators — 
they  usually  come  around  to  my  way  of 
thinking  when  they  see  how  the  medical 
facts  fit  with  the  paleoanthropological,  an- 
thropological, and  primatological  data  I 
have  collected.  As  to  flatulence  in  mam- 
mals, they  all  do  it  and  all  are  capable  of 
being  audible.  Unlike  snoring,  flatulence 
is  equally  a  malady  of  flie  young.  (If  a 
child  snores,  this  indicates  a  pathology; 
one  must  reach  physical  maturity  with  an 
age-softened  palate  in  order  to  snore  prop- 
erly and  keep  the  beasties  at  bay.) 

Carol  Andersen  Travis 
Jackson,  Wyoming 

Camouflage  Is  Relative 

I  do  beUeve  that  Simon  D.  Pollard  ("Lit- 
tle Murders,"  October  1993)  has  fallen 
prey  to  an  old,  untested  assumption  about 
cryptic  arthropods.  He  states  that  the  abil- 
ity of  a  female  crab  spider  to  match  flower 
color  "makes  her  a  formidable  predator  of 
pollinating  insects  and  affords  her  some 
protection  from  becoming  a  victim  her- 
self." Vertebrate  predators  such  as  birds 
probably  see  flower  colors  as  we  do,  so  a 
color-matched  spider  may  be  missed.  But 
bees,  one  of  the  largest  pools  of  prey  for 
the  spider,  see  best  on  the  ultraviolet  end 
of  the  spectrum.  They  are  therefore  drawn 
to  many  otherwise  plain-looking  flowers, 
whose  "hidden"  patterns,  called  nectar 
guides,  are  visible  only  to  ultraviolet-sen- 
sitive eyes.  (We  humans  can  see  them  only 
with  the  help  of  an  ultraviolet  lamp  or  with 
special  lenses.)  Tom  Eisner  and  coOeagues 
observed  in  1969  {Science,  vol.  166,  pp. 
1 172-74)  that  crab  spiders,  cryptic  to  us  in 
"normal"  light,  are  conspicuous  to  crea- 
tures with  ultraviolet  vision. 

Thus,  crab  spiders  and  similar  flower- 
dwelling  arthropods  may  be  invisible  to 
predators  such  as  birds  and  lizards,  but 
they  are  easily  seen  by  many  prey.  The 
most  likely  evolutionary  explanation  for 
this  (if  there  is  one)  is  that  visual  predators, 
and  not  improved  hunting  success,  have 
selected  for  crypsis.  We  need  to  remember 
that  safety,  like  beauty,  resides  in  the  eye 
of  the  beholder. 

Jack  C.  Schultz 
Julian,  Pennsylvania 


2    Natural  History  1/94 


YOU'RE  LOOKING  AT 
THE  REASON  A  LOT  OF 
OURCOMPETTTORS 
DON'T  BUILD  WAGONS 
TMORE. 


FORD  TAURUS 

AMERICAS 
BEST-SELUNG  CAR.' 

When  we  created  the  Taurus 
Wagon,  we  created  a  wagon  unlike 
any  other.  A  wagon  with  a  level 
of  style,  performance  and  comfort 
that  sent  it  to  the  top  of  the  best- 
seller list.  And  took  the  competi- 
tion out  of  the  competition. 

Continual  refinement  makes 
Taurus  Wagon  a  design  leader  with 
the  look,  ride  and  handling  you'd 
expect  from  a  fine  sedan.  Inside, 


the  seats  are  comfortable  and  the 
controls  easy  to  identify  and  oper- 
ate. Outside,  its  smooth,  flowing 
lines  not  only  make  it  more  attrac- 
tive, they  help  make  it  more  aero- 
dynamic. And,  for  an  added 

measure  of 
safety,  dual 
air  bags** 
are  standard 
and  ABS  is  available  on  every 
Taurus  Wagon. 

Experience  Taurus  Wagon  your- 
self. You'll  see  that  it's  more  than 
just  an  impressive  wagon . . .  it's  an 
impressive  automobile. 


•'M 


EVERY  1994  FORD  COMES 
WITH  OUR  ROADSIDE 
ASSISTANCE  PROGRAM^** 

Help  is  only  a  toll-free  call  away 
should  you  and  your  family  need 
a  flat  tire  changed,  lockout  assis- 
tance or  a  fuel  delivery. 

'Based  on  1993  MVTD  manufacturer's  reported  retail 

deliveries. 
"Driver  and  right  front  passenger  supplemental  restraint 

system.  Always  wear  your  safety  belt. 
**3  years/36.000  miles.  See  dealer  for  details. 


HAVE  YOU  DRIVEN 
A  FORD  LATELY? 


State  of  the  Museum:  1994 


A  New  President's  Vision 
of  Science  and  Society 


In  November,  after  her  first  week  on  the 
job,  the  new  president  of  the  American 
Museum  of  Natural  History,  Ellen  V.  Put- 
ter, discussed  with  the  editor  of  Natural 
History  her  vision  of  the  future  of  the  Mu- 
seum and  its  role  in  society.  Excerpts  from 
the  interview  follow: 

This  Museum  has  a  unique  capacity  to 
help  each  of  us  answer  the  underlying 
question:  Where  do  I  fit  in?  When  you 


look  at  what's  shown  here  or  think  about 
what  goes  on  here,  you  begin  to  get,  not 
answers,  but  clues  or  pathways  to  thinking 
about  where  you  fit  in,  both  biologically 
and  culturally.  And  that  relates  to  how  we 
all  get  along. 


We  have  an  attitude  problem  about  sci- 
ence in  this  country.  But  we  can't  concede 
because  of  that.  I  think  that  this  Museum 
can  play  a  unique  role  in  informing  the 


At  an  exhibit  under  construction.  Museum  President  Ellen  V.  Putter  stands  in  front 
of  a  Diprotodon,  the  largest-known  marsupial.  The  fossil  will  be  on  display  when  the 
Halls  of  Mammals  and  Their  Extinct  Relatives  open  at  the  end  of  April  1994. 

Peter  Goldberg 

4    Natural  History  1/94 


pubhc  about  science  because  we  can  do  it 
in  a  way  that  no  other  type  of  institution 
can.  The  minute  you  come  through  our 
portals,  your  sense  of  wonder,  your  imagi- 
nation are  piqued.  That's  the  beginning  of 
interest,  the  beginning  of  learning.  We  can 
build  on  that  spark  both  here  and — in  co- 
operation with  teachers — m  the  schools. 
By  putting  together  effective  software  and 
other  educational  materials,  we  can  have  a 
great  impact.  I  am  very  committed  to  mak- 
ing that  happen.  The  class  visit  is  the  be- 
ginning of  a  process:  first,  to  get  the  stu- 
dents to  come  back  and,  second,  to 
reinforce  the  visit  and  develop  ways  of 
helping  them  learn  on  their  own  by  using 
our  materials.  This  apphes  to  adults,  too. 
The  technology  revolution  opens  a  new 
world  for  museums.  We  can  put  together 
primers  and  programs  that  speak  to  every- 
one. I  think  lifelong  learning  about  science 
is  important  for  children  and  adults.  I 
know  it  is  important  for  society. 


Of  course,  fund  raising  is  an  important 
part  of  this  job.  It's  necessary  to  keep  the 
Museum  active  and  at  the  forefront.  How 
we  maintain  what  we  do  superbly  and  step 
up  to  new  obhgations — as  a  partner  with 
the  city,  as  a  partner  with  the  schools,  as  a 
major  voice  in  national  and  global  discus- 
sions of  social  and  scientific  issues — is 
one  of  the  great  challenges,  one  that  will 
require  funding  to  do  well. 


I  have  a  great  personal  interest  in 
human  rights,  in  social  justice,  in  helping 
all  of  us  to  get  along.  I  suppose  this  reflects 
in  some  measure  my  legal  training.  The 
anthropological  side  of  the  Museum,  with 
its  studies  of  the  meaning  and  values  of 
cultural  diversity,  gives  us  a  special  role  in 
this  city.  Even  as  we  take  on  a  broader  role 
nationally  and  internationally  in  scientific 
issues,  we  won't  for  one  moment  fail  to  be 


a  solid,  contributing  institutional  citizen  of 
New  York  City. 


We  have  a  national  shortage  of  scien- 
tists, and  among  the  communities  that  are 
least  represented  in  science  are  women 
and  minorities.  I  come  from  an  institution 
(Barnard  College)  that  has  a  strong  track 
record  of  producing  women  scientists,  in- 
cluding many  who  have  become  leaders  in 
their  fields.  This  Museum  is  an  important 
research  institution — with  scientists  at  the 
laboratory  bench  and  in  the  field.  The  Mu- 
seum can  help  by  speaking  out  nationally 
about  the  importance  of  training  more  sci- 
entists and  by  offering  internships  for 
women  and  minorities,  as  well  as  for  other 
students.  That  would  be  a  nice  linkage 
with  my  background  and  with  my  strong 
concerns  about  women's  issues  and  social 
justice. 


The  Museum  is  at  an  important  inter- 
section for  social  change,  for  education,  as 
well  as  for  pure  research  and  scientific  lit- 
eracy. This  institution  is  a  mediator  of  un- 
derstanding. Our  role  should  be  to  facili- 
tate and  to  help.  We  should  not  be  afraid  to 
raise  questions,  even  controversial  ones.  A 
contemporary  museum  has  to  be  brave 
enough  to  raise  questions. 

From  1981  to  1993,  Ms.  Futter,  44,  was 
president  of  Barnard  College,  where  she 
led  curricular  reforms,  major  building 
projects,  and  fund-raising  campaigns.  A 
former  associate  of  the  New  York  law  firm 
ofMilbank,  Tweed,  Hadley  &  McCloy,  she 
now  serves  on  the  boards  of  numerous  or- 
ganizations and  is  chairman  of  the  Fed- 
eral Reserve  Bank  of  New  York.  Her  hus- 
band, John  A.  Shutkin,  is  a  lawyer,  and  her 
two  daughters,  Anne,  12,  and  Elizabeth,  8, 
are  regular  visitors  to  the  Museum  their 
mother  now  heads. 


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Losing  Game 

Coaxed  out  of  Bolivia 's  vanishing  wilderness,  the  last  Yuqui 
are  reluctant  to  give  up  the  hunt 


by  Allyn  MacLean  Stearman 

I  first  heard  of  the  people  I  later  came  to 
know  as  the  Yuqui  in  the  early  1960s, 
when  I  was  a  Peace  Corps  volunteer  work- 
ing in  agricultural  development  in  lowland 
BoUvia.  I  was  assigned  to  the  old  Francis- 
can mission  town  of  San  Carlos,  which  sits 
on  a  bluff  overlooking  a  wide  expanse  of 
lowland  forest  to  the  west;  in  the  distance, 
the  first  ranges  of  the  Andes  rise  abruptly 
from  the  blue-green  haze.  The  villagers,  I 
found,  were  fond  of  recounting  what  I  sus- 
pected were  apocryphal  tales  about  iso- 
lated groups  of  native  Amazonians  still 
living  in  inaccessible  comers  of  this  wil- 
derness. About  forty-five  miles  northwest 
of  the  city  of  Santa  Cruz,  San  Carlos  was  a 


With  large  game  scarce,  a  Yuqui  hunter 
killed  a  macaw  for  food. 


jumping-off  point  for  hunters,  loggers,  and 
the  occasional  settler,  who  stopped  to  buy 
supplies  at  our  local  stores.  From  time  to 
time,  we  would  hear  unconfirmed  reports 
of  shooting  incidents  involving  these  ad- 
venturers and  the  shadowy  people  of  the 
forest. 

One  memorable  day,  four  men  carried  a 
wounded  settler  into  San  Carlos;  a  large, 
bamboo-tipped  arrow  had  pierced  his 
thigh.  Old  Ignacio  Leon,  at  the  center  of 
the  crowd  that  gathered  around  the  man, 
looked  at  the  arrow  and  solemnly  pro- 
nounced, "It  is  from  the  people  we  call 
chori,  the  ones  who  live  in  the  forest."  We 
talked  about  this  incident  for  weeks  after- 
ward as  the  villagers  pon- 
dered this  close  encounter 

Such  confrontations  have 
had  a  place  in  lowland  Boli- 
vian folklore  since  early  colo- 
nial times.  Just  prior  to  the 
European  conquest,  accord- 
ing to  tales  recorded  in  the 
early  Spanish  chronicles,  the 
warlike  Itatin,  inhabiting 
what  is  now  northern  Para- 
guay, sent  raiding  parties 
north  into  the  plains  and 
forests  of  eastern  Bolivia,  pri- 
marily to  take  land  from  the 
indigenous  people  and  cap- 
ture individuals  for  use  as 
slaves.  The  Yuquf,  Siriono, 
and  other  present-day  Gua- 
rani-speaking  peoples  in  Bo- 
livia are  most  likely  the  de- 
scendants of  Itatin  warriors 
who  chose  to  remain  in  this 
territory. 

During  the  early  years  of 
Spanish  expansion  into  low- 
land Bolivia,  these  groups 
fought  the  European  advance 
but  were  ultimately  defeated. 
Most  of  the  survivors  ended 


Kenl  H.  Bedford 


up  near  missions  such  as  San  Carlos, 
where  they,  and  other  indigenous  peoples, 
interbred  with  Europeans  to  form  the  pre- 
sent-day mestizo,  or  mixed,  population. 
Only  some,  like  the  Yuqui,  found  refuge  in 
the  forests  beyond  the  reach  of  their  ene- 
mies. 

In  their  infrequent  encounters  with  out- 
siders over  the  years,  the  Yuqui  were  in- 
variably hostile.  Well  aware  of  the  group's 
fierce  reputation,  Bolivians  entering  the 
wilderness  went  well  armed  and  prepared 
for  conflict.  Even  with  firearms,  however, 
they  were  often  no  match  for  the  elusive 
Yuqui,  waiting  in  ambush  with  seven- 
foot-long  bows  and  arrows.  Often,  only  a 
glimpse  of  an  armed  Yuqui  was  enough  to 
keep  people  out  of  an  area  for  years. 

Then,  in  the  1950s,  the  Bolivian  gov- 
ernment decided  to  make  the  development 
of  the  lowlands  a  priority  and  began  pro- 
moting pioneering  by  the  highland  peas- 
antry. As  far  as  the  Bolivian  government 
was  concerned,  much  of  this  region  was 
vacant  land.  With  colonization  projects  ex- 
panding to  the  north  and  south  of  their  ter- 
ritory, the  Yuqui  found  themselves  trapped 
in  a  vise  of  settlement. 

Violence  escalated  as  more  colonists 
moved  into  the  region.  To  put  an  end  to  the 
Yuqui  threat,  as  well  as  occasional  pilfer- 
age of  crops,  the  settlers  began  to  plan  or- 
ganized manhunts.  Learning  of  the  in- 
creased sightings  and  hostihties,  the  New 
Tribes  Mission,  a  group  of  North  Ameri- 
can Protestant  missionaries,  set  up  camp 
near  the  Chimore  River,  about  ninety 
miles  west  of  San  Carlos,  to  try  to  make 
peaceful  contact  with  the  Yuqui.  After 
several  public  debates,  the  missionaries 
convinced  the  settlers  that  the  better  strat- 
egy would  be  to  "pacify"  the  Yuqui  rather 
than  to  risk  more  lives  in  efforts  to  exter- 
minate them. 

From  1955  to  1965,  the  missionaries 
engaged  in  a  tedious  campaign  to  earn  the 


6    Natural  History  1/94 


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trust  of  one  nearby  group  of  Yuqui.  This 
was  often  a  nerve-racking  endeavor.  The 
Yuqui  men  v\  ere  fond  of  wrestUng  and  ap- 
plying choke  holds,  an  often  serious  game 
of  dominance.  They  also  enjoyed  pretend- 
ing to  shoot  arrows  at  the  missionaries  at 
close  range,  catching  the  arrow  at  the  last 
moment  as  it  slid  across  the  bow.  One  mis- 
sionary was  wounded  in  the  hand  when  he 
reached  up  to  protect  himself  and  caught 
the  tip  of  an  arrow. 

Finally,  in  1965,  friendly  contact  was 
achieved,  and  after  anodier  four  years  of 
gradually  lengthened  periods  of  residence 
at  the  missionary  camp  on  the  river,  the 
small  Yuquf  band  made  the  decision  to 
give  up  their  nomadic  existence.  Deci- 
mated by  skirmishes  with  settlers,  they 
numbered  only  forty-three. 

In  the  late  1970s,  another  band  was 
sighted  as  colonists  began  spreading  far- 
ther into  Yuqui  territory.  Again,  hostilities 
resulted  and  unknown  numbers  of  Yuqui 
were  killed.  As  before,  the  missionaries 
set  out  to  befriend  this  new  group,  and 
with  the  assistance  of  the  Yuqui  who  had 
previously  been  pacified,  the  process 
moved  somewhat  more  quickly.  On  De- 
cember 28,  1986,  the  new  group,  number- 
ing twenty-three  people,  was  brought  to 
the  Chimore  River  camp.  Nineteen  more, 
probably  the  last  surviving  in  the  wilder- 
ness, were  coaxed  to  follow  in  late  Sep- 
tember 1989.  With  the  addition  of  the  new 
bands,  as  well  as  the  natural  increase  as- 
sisted by  modem  health  care,  in  1990  the 
Yuqui  population  reached  about  130. 

I  met  the  first  of  the  now  sedentary 
Yuqui  in  1982,  having  become  an  anthro- 
pologist following  my  stint  in  the  Peace 
Corps.  I  had  recently  begun  fieldwork 
with  members  of  another  lowland  indige- 
nous people  known  as  the  Siriono.  The 
group  I  was  studying,  first  contacted  in  the 
mid- 1930s,  were  settled  in  Ibiato,  a  com- 
munity about  250  miles  northeast  of  the 
Chimore  River  camp  {see  "Territory 
Folks,"  Natural  History,  March  1986).  At 
the  time,  no  one  knew  much  about  the 
Yuqui,  but  they  were  thought  to  be  an  iso- 
lated contingent  of  Siriono.  Curious  about 
this  possibility,  I  spent  enough  time  with 
them  to  learn  that  they  indeed  came  fi^om 
the  same  ancestral  group.  But  the  Yuqui 
and  Siriono  languages  and  cultures  had  di- 
verged significantly  during  their  years  of 
separation. 

Even  for  foragers,  the  Yuquf,  like  the 
Siriono,  had  an  unusually  simple  material 
culture.  As  fo.  est  dwellers  before  contact, 
they  had  no  means  of  making  fire,  wore  no 
clothes,  built  no  structures,  and  did  not  use 


watercraft.  Their  household  goods  con- 
sisted of  a  hammock  and  a  baby  sling, 
both  made  from  twined  tt^ee  fiber,  and  a 
few  hastily  made  baskets  that  could  read- 
ily be  discarded.  The  Yuquf  did  not  adorn 
their  bodies  with  bright  feathers  or  elabo- 
rate painting.  Their  one  concession  to 
style  was  for  the  women  to  pluck  their 
eyebrows  and  brow  hair,  giving  them  a 
startling  resemblance  (from  the  perspec- 
tive of  outsiders)  to  aging,  balding  men. 

The  Yuquf  depended  on  palmwood 
bows  and  two  types  of  arrows  to  provide 
most  of  their  meat  protein.  Wild  game  was 
supplemented  by  fish,  which  were  taken 
from  forest  ponds  by  hand  or  with  bow 
and  arrow.  Unlike  other  Amazonian  peo- 
ples, who,  in  addition  to  hunting  and  gath- 
ering, practiced  slash-and-bum  agricul- 
ture, the  Yuqui  planted  no  crops. 

By  1982  the  Yuqui  at  the  Chimore 
River  camp  had  been  settled  there  for  a 
dozen  years,  but  they  continued  to  forage 
for  most  of  their  food.  Their  farming  ef- 
forts were  still  rudimentary,  consisting  of 
exploiting  a  few  stands  of  plantains  estab- 
lished by  the  missionaries,  and  they  pre- 
ferred meat  and  fish  to  the  suppUes  of  flour 
and  dried  milk  provided  by  the  mission. 
Unlike  many  other  Amazonian  groups, 
their  dietary  taboos  excluded  httle,  except 
snakes  and  insects.  Even  here  an  excep- 
tion was  made  for  bee  larvae,  which  the 
Yuqui  harvested  along  with  honey.  On 
honey-gathering  trips  with  the  Yuquf  into 
the  forest,  I  was  always  offered  a  slab  of 
comb  containing  not  only  honey  and 
pollen  but  also  several  cells  of  immature 
bees,  which  the  Yuquf  called  milk.  (De- 
spite all  my  intentions  to  experience  Yuquf 
life  to  the  fullest,  I  could  never  develop  a 
taste  for  this  treat:  no  matter  how  much  the 
Yuquf  touted  their  delicate  flavor,  the  lar- 
vae reminded  me  of  blackboard  chalk.) 

Honey  was  an  important  part  of  the 


Yuquf  diet,  even  though  they  had  access  to 
refined  sugar  at  the  mission  store.  I  was  al- 
ways amazed  at  the  amount  of  effort  the 
Yuquf  were  willing  to  put  into  a  honey 
hunt,  felling  tree  after  U-ee  until  a  good 
supply  was  found.  They  would  consume 
enormous  amounts  of  this  sought-after 
food  in  a  single  sitting,  laughing  at  my  in- 
ability to  tolerate  so  much  of  a  good  thing. 

Going  after  honey  was  only  one  aspect 
of  Yuquf  foraging,  which  often  combined 
the  search  for  animals,  fruit,  and  honey 
into  a  single  expedition.  While  the  men 
did  the  hunting,  women  were  far  from 
tagalongs:  they  were  constantly  on  the 
lookout  for  edible  items  and  sometimes 
spotted  game  before  the  hunters  did.  They 
were  expert  trackers,  capable  of  mimick- 
ing animal  calls  to  bring  prey  within 
shooting  range. 

One  morning  during  my  second  visit  to 
the  Yuqui  in  1983,  the  young  headman, 
Leonardo,  and  his  wife,  Loida,  came  by 
my  house  to  invite  me  to  go  on  a  monkey 
hunt  and  to  fish  for  sdbalo,  a  large  bony 
fish  found  in  oxbow  lakes.  Loida  told  me 
that  they  had  located  several  promising 
bee  trees  along  the  trail  we  would  follow. 
Even  if  we  didn't  get  any  fish  or  game, 
Loida  assured  me,  we  were  certain  to 
come  back  with  honey.  Leonardo  had  his 
.22  rifle,  Loida  carried  his  bow  and  several 
arrows,  and  I  took  the  ax.  Most  Yuquf  men 
now  possess  firearms,  but  ammunition  is 
expensive,  making  bow  hunting,  particu- 
larly for  fish,  still  a  useful  technology. 

After  walking  for  almost  two  hours 
through  the  forest,  we  heard  a  commotion 
in  the  ttees  overhead.  Leonardo  stopped 
abruptly,  holding  up  his  hand.  Loida  put 
down  the  bow  and  arrows  and  motioned 
for  me  to  do  the  same  with  the  ax.  Then 
she  showed  me  how  to  cup  my  hand  and 
press  my  mouth  against  the  palm,  making 
a  sharp  sound  with  my  lips.  It  sounded  just 


A  missionary  tows  a  Yuqui-built  canoe  to  the  river  for  launching. 


Allyn  Maclean  Stearman 


8    Natural  History  1/94 


like  a  monkey  screech.  Smiling  at  my  be- 
ginner's efforts  at  animal  calling,  Loida 
motioned  for  me  to  move  in  a  wide  circle 
under  the  trees.  While  Leonardo  stood 
still,  she  moved  in  the  opposite  direction. 

We  continued  calling  the  monkeys, 
which  began  to  move  closer,  answering 
with  their  own  sharp  cries.  Out  of  the  cor- 
ner of  my  eye,  I  saw  Leonardo  raise  his 
rifle  and  get  off  two  quick  shots.  A  mo- 
ment later  I  heard  a  third  shot,  and  a  yel- 
low squirrel  monkey  fell  from  the  trees. 
Loida  picked  it  up  by  the  tail  and  struck 
the  wounded  animal  sharply  against  a  tree, 
killing  it  instandy.  Two  others,  apparently 
dead,  remained  caught  in  the  tangle  above. 
We  cut  long  poles  from  arrow  cane  and, 
after  several  attempts,  finally  dislodged 
the  remainder  of  our  prey.  After  tying  the 
monkeys  together  with  a  vine,  Leonardo 
tossed  them  over  his  shoulder  and  we  con- 
tinued our  trek. 

.  Our  next  stop  was  a  small  pond  in  the 
forest.  Leonardo  said  we  could  rest  there 
and  make  camp  while  he  fished.  As  Loida 
and  I  gathered  wood  for  a  fire  to  roast  the 
ripe  plantains  we  had  brought  along, 
Leonardo  tried  his  luck  with  his  bow. 
Within  an  hour  he  had  shot  three  good- 
sized  sdbalo,  which  Loida  threw  whole  on 
the  green-stick  grill.  She  also  took  advan- 
tage of  the  stop  to  singe  the  hair  off  the 
monkeys — a  foul-smelling  chore  that  I 
quickly  moved  away  from,  using  as  an  ex- 
cuse my  curiosity  about  Leonardo's  fish- 
ing techniques. 

He  pointed  to  a  place  in  the  pond  where 
there  was  an  almost  imperceptible  ripple. 
Instantly,  an  arrow  flew  into  the  water.  The 
long  shaft  shuddered  a  moment  before  the 
fish  splashed  to  the  surface,  the  arrow  em- 
bedded in  its  side.  After  several  misses  but 
many  more  successes,  Leonardo  had 
caught  another  ten  sdbalo  by  late  after- 
noon. These  were  strung  whole  on  a  vine 
for  transporting. 

Following  our  meal  of  fish  and  plan- 
tains, we  started  back  toward  camp.  The 
sun  was  low  in  the  sky,  and  the  Ught  was 
coming  through  the  trees  at  right  angles. 
Darkness  falls  quickly  here.  I  asked  Loida 
if  we  would  go  after  the  honey  as  well, 
now  that  we  had  fish  and  game  to  bring 
back.  She  smiled  and  said,  "Of  course.  If 
we  don't  take  it,  our  relatives  will."  The 
bee  tree  had  been  spotted  by  Leonardo 
some  days  before  and  was  just  off  the  trail 
we  were  following.  Leonardo  cut  through 
the  tree  quickly  while  I  waited  with  Loida 
at  its  base,  trying  to  adopt  her  nonchalant 
attitude  as  to  which  way  the  tree  might 
fall.  Within  a  half  hour,  we  had  our  honey 


safely  wrapped  in  palm  flower  sheaths  and 
were  on  our  way  home. 

In  1983,  a  Yuqui  returning  home  from  a 
hunt  laden  with  fish,  game,  fruit,  and 
honey  was  a  common  sight.  Animals  were 
plentiful,  and  people  seldom  had  to  ven- 
ture more  than  a  day's  walk  from  camp  on 
foraging  expeditions.  For  a  period  of  fifty- 
six  days,  I  kept  track  of  all  flie  fish  and 
game  brought  back  by  the  Yuqui  men. 
Most  of  flie  fish  came  from  the  Chimore 
River,  which  the  Yuqui  had  learned  to  ex- 
ploit by  using  hook  and  line  and  the  gill 
net  supplied  by  the  mission.  At  the  time, 
there  were  seventy-three  Yuqui  at  the  Chi- 
more camp,  and  according  to  my  figures, 
each  consumed  an  average  of  three  ounces 


of  animal  protein  per  day.  This  was  well 
above  minimum  nutritional  standards  set 
by  the  United  Nations  and  similar  agen- 
cies and  compared  favorably  with  the  con- 
sumption rate  of  other  Amazonian  people 
on  whom  similar  studies  have  been  done. 
I  returned  to  the  Chimore  River  five 
years  later,  in  1988,  excited  about  meeting 
the  new  Yuqui  who  had  arrived  in  1986. 1 
expected  the  intervening  years  of  perma- 
nent settlement  to  have  had  some  effect  on 
game  animal  densities  and,  therefore,  on 
Yuqui  hunting  strategies  and  success  rates. 
But  I  was  unprepared  for  the  degree  of 
change  that  had  occurred.  In  1983,  the 
Yuqui  were  still  isolated  from  the  major 
settlements  of  colonists  in  the  Chapare  col- 


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onization  zone.  Other  than  the  few  Yu- 
racare  famihes  who  had  always  hved  in 
the  area,  the  banks  of  the  Chimore  River 
were  undisturbed.  The  Yuqui  hunted  this 
area  without  fear  of  competition  or  of  en- 
counters with  Bolivian  settlers — occa- 
sions still  fraught  with  uncertainty. 

Now,  as  I  traveled  upriver  with  my 
fieldwork  supplies,  the  area  looked  like  a 
suburb  of  the  pioneer  settlements  in  the 
Chapare:  house  after  house  lined  the 
southern  bank.  Most  of  the  settlers  were 
growing  coca  for  the  drug  trade.  With  the 
booming  international  market  in  cocaine, 
lands  that  normally  would  have  been  ig- 
nored as  settlement  areas  were  now  being 
cleared  for  this  lucrative  crop.  As  a  result, 
in  just  five  years  the  Yuqui  camped  on  the 
river  found  themselves  hemmed  in  on 
three  sides  by  colonists.  This  not  only  af- 
fected their  access  to  the  forest  but  also 
had  an  impact  on  fish  and  game  supplies. 

Colonists  were  now  competing  for  these 
resources,  particularly  since  current  pat- 
terns of  coca  production  do  not  encourage 
subsistence  farming.  Typically,  land  is 
cleared  and  burned,  and  coca  bushes  are 
set  out.  Once  the  plants  are  estabUshed,  the 
grower  remains  in  the  region  only  long 
enough  to  pick,  dry,  and  pack  the  leaves 
for  sale,  returning  to  the  highlands  be- 
tween harvests.  A  coca  farmer  does  not 
take  the  time  or  make  an  effort  to  grow 
food  crops  or  keep  domestic  animals,  both 
requiring  a  great  deal  more  attention  than 
the  hardy  coca  bushes,  which  continue  to 
produce  even  in  the  midst  of  weeds.  Hunt- 
ing and  fishing  thus  provide  a  convenient 
substitute  for  conventional  provisions. 

The  game  species  most  affected  by  the 
presence  of  colonists  was  the  white-lipped 
peccary,  which  runs  in  large  herds  and  is  a 
significant  and  preferred  source  of  meat 
for  the  Yuqui.  Unfortunately,  peccaries  are 
also  the  preferred  food  of  the  colonists,  be- 
cause the  animal  is  large  and  the  meat  has 
a  mild  flavor  similar  to  that  of  many  do- 
mestic animals.  The  Yuqui  claimed  that 
they  had  not  seen  a  peccary  herd  pass 
through  their  hunting  territory  for  three 
years,  attributing  this  to  overhunting  by 
colonists  and  the  disturbance  to  the  habitat 
created  by  increased  settlement. 

Of  greater  consequence  to  Yuqui  sub- 
sistence was  the  recent  depletion  of  fish  in 
the  Chimore  River.  While  interviewing 
missionaries,  Yuqui,  and  settlers  who 
lived  along  the  river,  I  learned  that  colo- 
nists, unwilhng  to  invest  the  money  and 
time  needed  to  catch  fish  with  nets  and 
other  fishing  gear,  were  illegally  using  dy- 
namite to  kiU  fish.  Many  of  the  coca  farm- 


ers colonizing  the  area  were  ex-miners 
(ironically,  laid  off  from  their  jobs  to  trim 
the  national  debt  and  free  funds  to  fight  the 
drug  war).  Most  of  these  ex-miners  were 
experts  at  using  explosives,  which  they  ca- 
sually tossed  into  the  river  to  supply  a  few 
days'  meals. 

The  practice  devastated  spawning 
areas.  Adding  to  the  problem,  the  remain- 
ing fish  were  being  taken  by  commercial 
fishers,  who  stretched  nets  across  the  en- 
tire width  of  the  river.  These  entrepre- 
neurs, whose  motorized  launches  were 
outfitted  with  large  ice  chests,  had  fished 
out  the  Chimore  to  supply  the  markets  of 
the  cities  of  La  Paz,  Cochabamba,  and 
Santa  Cruz.  Primarily  as  a  result  of  the  de- 
cline in  their  fishing  productivity,  the 
Yuqui  were  consuming  on  average 
slightly  under  an  ounce  and  a  half  of  ani- 
mal protein  a  day,  far  below  recommended 
nutritional  requirements. 

Hunting  success  also  could  not  keep 
pace  with  population  growth,  despite 
modifications  in  hunting  strategies.  In  the 
past,  there  were  certain  animals  the  Yuqui 
seldom  killed  because  they  considered  the 
meat  inferior.  In  particular,  coatis  and 
kinkajous,  both  members  of  the  raccoon 
family,  were  said  to  "taste  bad  and  make 
you  sick."  In  1983,  only  four  coatis  and 
one  kinkajou  were  captured  in  an  eight- 
week  period.  In  1988,  this  number  had  in- 
creased to  forty-three  coatis  and  fifteen 
kinkajous  for  a  similar  period.  The  Yuqui 
were  now  actively  hunting  these  animals 
for  food  but  complaining  all  the  while  that 
if  hunting  weren't  so  bad,  they  would  have 
tastier  animals  to  choose  from.  The  older 
people  talked  constantly  about  the  lack  of 
white-lipped  peccaries,  wistfully  remem- 
bering the  days  when  these  and  other  pre- 
ferred game  animals  such  as  capybara  ac- 
counted for  most  of  the  meat  in  camp. 

The  Yuqui  were  also  venturing  farther 
away  from  the  mission  and  for  longer  peri- 
ods of  time,  although  this  meant  giving  up 
the  security  and  comfort  of  mission  life 
(the  Yuqui  had  come  to  depend  on  the 
store  and  clinic,  as  well  as  the  presence  of 
missionaries,  who  acted  as  a  buffer  against 
the  real  and  perceived  threats  of  the  out- 
side world).  They  often  hunted  on  the 
other  side  of  the  river,  where  settlement 
was  still  sparse  and  game  animals  rela- 
tively plentiful.  Having  to  cross  the  Chi- 
more brought  with  it  the  risk  of  drowning, 
for  although  the  Yuqui  were  now  making 
and  using  dugout  canoes,  few  could  swim, 
except  for  those  raised  in  the  Chimore  set- 
tlement. In  recent  years,  two  Yuqui  men 
have  been  lost  in  canoe  accidents. 


Loida  (with  whom  I  had  shared  many 
successful  foraging  trips  in  the  past), 
Leonardo,  and  two  other  families  left  the 
mission  for  ten  days,  camping  about  six 
miles  away  on  the  other  side  of  the  riven 
There  they  killed  and  ate  howler  monkeys, 
fish,  and  other  animals  that  were  plentiful 
in  this  remote  area.  Loida  delighted  in 
telling  me  about  all  the  food  they  con- 
sumed during  the  trip.  But  she  also  com- 
plained that  she  had  to  spend  nights  away 
from  her  house  (she  had  not  done  so  for 
more  than  three  years),  and  that  she  suf- 
fered greatly  from  the  mosquitoes,  rain, 
chilly  mornings,  and  the  threat  of  preda- 
tors lurking  in  the  forest. 

Living  at  the  mission  station  on  the  Chi- 
more has  undermined  the  Yuqui's  ability 
to  survive  under  precontact  conditions. 
Although  they  are  not  yet  full  participants 
in  the  new  world  around  them,  they  are  de- 
pendent upon  it  for  many  of  their  needs. 
At  the  same  time,  they  continue  to  look  to 
the  forest  to  supply  much  of  their  food.  As 
more  of  this  wilderness  becomes  the  prop- 
erty of  others,  the  Yuqui  will  confront 
even  greater  stresses  on  their  traditional 
foraging  patterns.  At  present,  the  mission 
supplements  their  diet  with  surplus  food 
provided  by  the  U.S.  government,  but  this 
does  not  offer  a  long-term  solution. 

The  Yuqui  will  probably  be  forced  to 
become  better  farmers,  an  activity  they 
dislike  and  avoid  when  possible.  Farming 
also  takes  away  time  the  Yuqui  would 
rather  spend  searching  for  game.  For  the 
present,  they  prefer  growing  plantains,  a 
perennial  crop  that  is  ideally  suited  to  their 
often  haphazard  attempts  at  cultivation. 
Other,  more  demanding  crops,  such  as  rice 
and  com,  have  frequently  failed,  either 
from  a  lack  of  agricultural  expertise  or 
from  neglect.  By  their  own  definition,  the 
Yuqui  are  not  farmers  but  "people  of  the 
forest." 

Alejandro  and  his  family  stopped  by 
my  house  to  say  goodbye  when  I  had  to 
leave.  I  noticed  that  they  were  heavily 
laden  with  household  items  for  an  ex- 
tended trip.  "Where  are  you  off  to?"  I 
asked  the  family.  Resting  his  shotgun  eas- 
ily on  his  shoulder,  Alejandro  answered, 
"Across  the  river  to  the  place  where  the 
howler  monkeys  are  eating  wild  papaya. 
There  is  no  longer  any  meat  here,  and  I  am 
a  hunter." 

Allyn  Maclean  Stearman  is  a  professor  of 
anthropology  at  the  University  of  Central 
Florida  and  Senior  Fellow  in  the  Tropical 
Conseiyation  and  Development  Program 
at  the  University  of  Florida. 


10    Natural  History  1/94 


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Natural  History  1/94  •^DE4 


Tffls  View  of  Life 


Cabinet  Museums  Revisited 

'.-packed  Victorian  displays  still  contain  up-to-date  messages 


Jam 


by  Stephen  Jay  Gould 

In  Dublin's  fair  city,  at  the  heart  of 
Georgian  elegance  near  Trinity  College 
and  the  Old  Parliament  House,  stands  an 
anatomically  correct  statue  of  Molly  Mal- 
one.  I  do  not  speak  of  Molly  herself,  who 
may  or  may  not  be  properly  rendered  (I 
didn't  particularly  notice),  but  of  her  leg- 
endary wares.  She  holds  two  baskets,  one 
full  of  cockles  and  the  other  of  mussels — 
not  quite  "alive,  alive,  o!"  in  their  bronzed 
condition,  but  clearly  sculpted  as  accurate 
representatives  of  the  appropriate  species. 
The  artist  has  respected  zoological  diver- 
sity by  representing  the  song's  complete 
natural  history.  (To  comment  on  diversity 
of  another  valued  kind,  I  never  understood 
why  the  song's  third  verse  included  the 
only  nonrhyming  couplet  in  such  a  consis- 
tent and  admirable  ditty:  "She  died  of  a 
fever;  and  no  one  could  save  her."  But 
then  I  learned  that  these  words  do  rhyme 
in  Ireland — just  as  "thought"  and  "note" 
rhyme  in  Yorkshire,  and  therefore  in 
Wordsworth.) 

Just  a  few  blocks  from  Molly  and  right 
next  to  the  Dail  (the  modem  Parliament  of 
the  Irish  Republic),  stands  the  Dublin  Mu- 
seum of  Natural  History.  This  museum 
traces  its  origin  to  a  private  association  of 
fourteen  citizens,  founded  in  1731  as  the 
Dublin  Society.  The  first  public  exhibit 
(largely  of  agricultural  implements) 
opened  in  1733  in  the  basement  of  the  Old 
Parliament  House.  George  11  provided  a 
royal  charter  in  1749,  and  parliamentary 
grants  began  in  1761.  Growing  collections 
required  a  new  building,  and  a  govern- 
ment grant  of  five  thousand  pounds,  made 
in  1 853,  largely  financed  the  present  struc- 
ture. Lord  Carlisle,  the  lord  lieutenant  of 
Ireland,  laid  the  foundation  stone  in  March 
1856.  His  lordship,  speaking  in  orotund 
tones  suited  both  to  Victorian  practice  and 


to  the  dignity  of  his  official  title,  expressed 
a  hope 

that  the  building  about  to  arise  on  this 
spot... may,  with  its  kindred  departments, 
furnish  ever-increasing  accommodation  for 
the  pursuits  of  useful  knowledge  and  hu- 
manizing accomplishments,  and  open  for 
the  coming  generations  worthy  temples  of 
science,  art,  and  learning,  at  whose  shrine 
they  may  be  taught  how  most  to  reverence 
their  creator,  and  how  best  to  benefit  their 
fellow  creatures. 

I  learned  these  details  of  the  museum's 
history  in  a  fine  pamphlet,  The  Natural 
History  Museum  Dublin,  by  C.  E.  O'Rior- 
dan.  (You  may  buy  your  copy  of  this  gov- 
ernment document  at  the  museum  itself,  as 
I  did,  or  you  may  pick  one  up  at  the  Gov- 
ernment Publications  Sales  Office  at  the 
memorable  address  of  Molesworth  Street, 
Dublin.)  The  museum  building,  although 
harmonizing  with  its  earlier  Georgian  sur- 
roundings in  exterior  design,  could  not  be 
more  quintessentially  Victorian  within. 
Two  fully  mounted,  magnificently 
antlered  skeletons  of  the  fossil  deer 
Megaceros  giganteus — informally,  if  in- 
correctly, called  the  Irish  elk — greet  visi- 
tors at  the  entrance  to  the  ground  floor 
(while  a  third  skeleton  of  an  unantlered  fe- 
male stands  just  beyond).  The  rest  of  the 
ground  floor  mostly  houses  representative 
collections  of  Irish  zoology,  phylum  by 
phylum  and  family  by  family  (a  case  of 
the  "roundworms  of  Ireland"  or  on  "Irish 
crabs"  certainly  conveys  an  impression  of 
admirable  thoroughness  in  coverage). 

The  remainder  of  the  museum,  a  first 
floor  and  two  galleries  above,  seems  even 
more  frozen  into  its  older  style  of  full  and 
systematic  presentation.  Cast  ironwork 
and  dark  wood  cabinets,  the  mainstays  of 
Victorian  exhibition,  abound.  Copious 


Ught  enters  through  the  glass  ceiling  and 
streams  around  the  shadows  made  by  cab- 
inets and  their  contents.  Heads  and  horns 
adorn  the  walls  in  profusion,  and  we  won- 
der for  a  moment  whether  we  are  visiting  a 
museum  or  a  lord's  trophy  room. 

The  ensemble  seems  so  coherent  that 
we  might  view  the  entire  display  as  an  em- 
bodiment of  a  blueprint  in  the  head  of 
some  Victorian  museum  worthy  under  the 
spell  of  John  Ruskin.  In  fact,  as  with  any 
living  entity,  the  exhibits  were  melded, 
fused,  reordered,  and  cobbled  together 
over  many  decades — although  these  par- 
ticular decades  did  end  quite  some  time 
ago.  The  horns  were  not  installed  until  the 
1930s,  but  most  of  the  other  exhibits  have 
changed  Uttle  since  Victoria  and,  later,  her 
son  Edward  VII  ruled  this  land — or  at 
least  since  the  locals  demoted  Edward's 
son  George  V  to  establish  the  Irish  Free 
State  in  1921. 

O'Riordan,  who  provides  a  meticulous 
account  of  every  change  in  venue  for  any 
stuffed  bird  or  seashell,  also  acknowledges 
twentieth-century  stability.  He  discusses  a 
massive  rearrangement,  begun  in  1895,  to 
establish  the  current  scheme  of  Irish  spec- 
imens on  the  ground  floor,  with  a  run- 
through  of  worldwide  Linnaean  order  on 
the  first  floor  and  galleries  above.  He 
writes:  "The  recruitment  of  extra  staff  in 
1906  enabled  work  on  the  invertebrates  on 
the  top  gallery  to  proceed  quickly  and  this 
was  completed  by  1907.  The  exhibition  on 
the  upper  floor  and  gaOeries  has  not  radi- 
cally changed  since."  He  then  mentions 
the  addition  of  several  Irish  elk  skulls  to 
the  ground  floor  exhibit  in  1910  and  com- 
ments: "Apart  from  relatively  minor  alter- 
ations in  the  content  and  disposition  of  the 
exhibits,  the  overaU  theme  and  plan  of  the 
exhibition  has  since  remained  the  same." 


12    Natural  History  1/94 


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We  tend — i  idsely  I  shall  soon  argue — to 
view  such  -  .ability  as  a  sure  sign  of  stag- 
natioi  ii  not  decrepitude  and  ruin.  Our 
basic  concept  of  "Victorian"'  includes  im- 
ages of  soot-blackened  buildings,  cold  in- 
terior spaces  lined  with  dark  wood,  chip- 
ping paint,  peeling  wallpaper,  and  shelves 
of  bric-a-brac.  In  many  towns,  the  classic 
late- Victorian  (Queen  Anne)  mansions  are 
now  either  funeral  homes  or  lawyer's  of- 
fices— and  neitlier  enterprise  seems  much 
beloved  of  late. 

I  confess  that  my  first  visit  to  the  Dublin 
Museum  of  Natural  History  did  nothing  to 
dent  this  stereotype.  I  spent  a  good  part  of 
1971,  yardstick  in  hand,  measuring  the 
skulls  and  antlers  of  Irish  elks.  I  visited  the 
manors  of  the  Marquess  of  Bath  and  the 
Earl  of  Dunraven,  and  I  measured  the  mis- 
treated male  of  commercialized  Bunratty 
Castle  (near  Shannon  Airport),  where  be- 
sotted revelers  at  the  nightly  medieval 
banquet  had  left  the  poor  fellow  with  a  fat 
cigar  in  his  jaws  and  coffee  cups  on  the 
tines  of  his  antlers.  But  the  best  stash  of 
specimens  belongs  to  the  museum  in 
Dublin,  where  the  two  skeletons  can  be 
supplemented  with  another  fifteen  heads 
and  horns,  mounted  high  on  the  walls  of 
the  ground  floor,  one  head  above  each 
major  cabinet. 

The  same  Dr.  O'Riordan  greeted  me 
warmly  and  treated  me  well;  his  speci- 
mens formed  the  centerpiece  of  my  study 
(published  in  the  professional  journal  Evo- 
lution in  1974,  but  initially,  in  a  more  gen- 
eral version,  as  my  very  first  article  for  this 


magazine  in  1973).  The  specimens  were 
fine,  but,  oh  my,  the  museum  was  a  dingy 
place  back  then.  Little  light,  less  comfort, 
and  dust  absolutely  everywhere.  I  had  to 
sit  on  top  of  the  tall  cabinets  to  measure 
the  heads  mounted  above.  There  the  dust, 
undisturbed  for  so  many  years,  had  con- 
gealed into  thick  layers  of  grime.  I  doubt 
that  any  living  being  had  been  up  there 
with  any  sort  of  cleaning  device  since 
Leopold  Bloom  met  Stephen  Dedalus  in 
Nighttown  (or  since  Molly  Malone  last 
sold  the  sort  of  staff  labeled  in  the  ground 
floor  exhibits  as  "MoUusca  of  Ireland"). 

With  such  memories,  I  approached  my 
visit  in  September  1993  with  some  trepi- 
dation— for  the  extrapolated  curve  of  dete- 
rioration did  not  lead  to  happy  expecta- 
tions. I  could  not  have  been  more  joyously 
surprised.  Not  one  jot  or  tittle  of  any  ex- 
hibit has  been  altered,  but  all  the  surround- 
ings have  been  restored  to  their  original 
condition — not  just  accurately,  but  lov- 
ingly as  well.  An  army  of  brooms  has  been 
through  the  premises  (I  think  of  the  enor- 
mous clone  constructed  by  Mickey  Mouse 
in  the  Sorcerer's  Apprentice  of  Fanta- 
sia)— and,  as  my  grandmother  would 
surely  have  said,  "you  could  eat  off  the 
floor"  (although  I  never  understood  why 
all  my  older  relatives  invoked  this  expres- 
sion, as  I  couldn't  imagine  why  anyone 
would  want  to  try  the  experiment,  how- 
ever thorough  the  scrubbing).  The  glass 
ceiling  has  been  cleaned,  and  the  light 
floods  through.  The  dark  wood  of  the  cab- 
inets has  been  repaired  and  polished,  and 


"My  only  ambition  in  life  is  to  become  part  of  the  fossil  record.' 


the  glass  now  shines.  The  elaborate  cast 
ironwork  has  been  scraped  and  decorated 
in  colorful  patterns  reminiscent  of  the 
"painted  lady"  Victorian  houses  of  San 
Francisco.  The  ensemble  now  exudes 
pride  in  its  own  countenance — and  I  fi- 
nally understood,  viscerally,  the  coherent 
and  admirable  theory  behind  a  classical 
Victorian  "cabinet"  museum  of  natural 
history. 

Two  factors — one  a  prejudice,  the  other 
a  condition — generally  debar  us  from  ap- 
preciating the  Victorian  aesthetic.  First, 
our  smugness  about  progress  leads  us  to 
view  any  contrary  vision  from  the  past  as 
barbarous.  Thus,  when  modernism  es- 
poused simple  geometries,  with  unoma- 
mented  and  functional  spaces,  the  Victo- 
rian love  of  busy  exuberance  became  a 
focus  of  pity  and  derision.  (We  might 
praise  an  old  Japanese  house  for  anticipat- 
ing modem  simplicity,  but  what  could  we 
do  with  a  shelf  of  curios?)  In  a  sense,  this 
dismissal  might  be  viewed  as  payback,  for 
the  Victorians  aggressively  depicted  their 
own  times  as  the  pinnacle  of  progress  and 
fliey  often  treated  the  past  with  condescen- 
sion. In  any  case,  our  knee-jerk  dismissal 
of  fliings  Victorian  is  now  fading  as  the 
preservationist  movement  wins  more  con- 
verts and  as  postmodernism  brings  eclecti- 
cism and  ornament  back  into  architecture 
and  design. 

Second,  and  more  important,  our  image 
of  Victorian  has  not  been  set  by  the  objects 
themselves,  as  constructed  for  their  own 
time,  but  by  their  present  appearance,  usu- 
ally after  a  century  of  neglect  and  deterio- 
ration. The  situation  is  almost  perverse.  I 
would  not,  after  all,  allow  my  image  of 
"grandfaflier"  to  be  set  by  the  present  state 
of  my  Papa  Joe's  remains  at  his  gravesite. 
Why,  then,  do  we  conceptualize  "Victo- 
rian" as  a  ramshackle  building  with  bro- 
ken steps,  creaking  floors,  and  peeling 
paint — fit  only  for  the  Addams  family  or 
as  the  Halloween  haunted  house  set  up  by 
the  local  Jaycees? 

My  first,  and  keenly  revealing,  experi- 
ence with  Victorian  as  Victorians  knew  the 
style,  divested  of  a  century's  overlay  in  de- 
terioration, occurred  in  1976  when,  to  cel- 
ebrate our  nation's  200th  birthday,  the 
Smithsonian  Institution  opened  a  replica 
of  the  Philadelphia  centennial  exposition 
of  1876.  This  wonderful  exhibition  in- 
cluded plows,  pharmaceuticals,  imple- 
ments for  house  and  farm,  and,  above  all, 
machines  and  engines,  all  spanking  new, 
freshly  painted,  and  entirely  in  working 
order,  with  all  their  wheels,  whistles,  and 
hisses.  I  particularly  remember  a  case  of 


14    Natural  History  1/94 


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I  prefer  to  sponsor  a  D  boy    D  girl     D  either  in  the  area  I  Ve  checl<ed  below. 
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ax  blades — all  shiny  and  sharp.  And  I  real- 
ized that  i.  had  always  pictured  Victorian 
tools  as  rusted  and  dull — without  ever  ar- 
ticulating to  myself  the  obvious  point  that 
they  must  have  been  gleaming  and  func- 
tional when  first  made.  I  am  always 
amazed  at  the  power  of  a  prejudiced  as- 
sumption (however  absurd,  and  especially 
when  backed  by  a  mental  picture,  for  pri- 
mates are  visual  animals)  to  derail  the  log- 
ical thinking  of  basically  competent  peo- 
ple hke  myself. 

1  remember  Glasgow  as  the  planet's 
ugliest  city  upon  my  first  visit  in  1961,  and 
as  one  of  the  loveUest  places  I  had  ever 
seen  upon  my  return  in  1991.  The  differ- 
ence: Glasgow  is  the  world's  greatest  Vic- 
torian city  in  public  and  commercial  archi- 
tecture. All  the  major  downtown 
buildings,  horribly  soot-blackened  and  de- 
crepit in  many  other  ways  in  1961,  have 
now  been  cleaned  and  showcased,  often 
by  converting  traffic  orgies  into  pedestrian 
malls.  I  was  stunned  by  the  exuberance  of 
these  buildings,  each  different  in  its 
curves,  ornaments,  and  filigrees;  each 
vying  with  all  the  others,  yet  somehow 
forming  an  integrated  cacophony  (you 
have  to  see  them  to  know  why  my  chosen 
description  is  not  oxymoronic).  I  was  re- 
volted at  my  first  sight  of  the  Natural  His- 
tory Museum  in  London — each  archway 
of  its  elaborate  Romanesque  entranceway 
blacker  and  grimier  than  the  one  within — 
and  uplifted  by  the  subtle  colors  and  arch- 
ing forms  of  the  cleaned  building.  The 
Victorian  secular  glass  of  Harvard's 
churchlike  Memorial  Hall  passed  beneath 
my  notice  for  twenty-five  years.  Now  I 


force  these  wonderful  windows,  designed 
by  John  La  Farge  and  other  great  Ameri- 
can glassmakers,  and  resplendent  in  their 
newly  cleaned  state,  upon  the  notice  of 
every  visitor,  for  Memorial  Hall  is  stop 
number  one  on  my  personal  tour  of  Har- 
vard's architecture. 

I  now  add  the  Dublin  museum  to  this 
list  of  Victorian  buildings  uplifted  from 
squalor  to  glory  by  the  simple  expedient  of 
restoring  them  to  the  original  intentions  of 
their  architects  and  designers.  Most  of  all, 
this  splendid  restoration  taught  me  some- 
thing that  1  had  never  appreciated  about 
Victorian  museum  design. 

The  display  of  organisms  in  these  mu- 
seums rests  upon  concepts  strikingly  dif- 
ferent from  modem  practice,  but  fully  con- 
sonant with  Victorian  concerns.  Today,  we 
tend  to  exhibit  one  or  a  few  key  speci- 
mens, surrounded  by  an  odd  mixture  of 
extraneous  glitz  and  more  useful  explana- 
tion, all  in  an  effort  to  teach  (if  the  intent  be 
maximally  honorable)  or  simply  to  dazzle 
(nothing  wrong  with  this  goal  either).  The 
Victorians,  who  viewed  their  museums  as 
microcosms  for  national  goals  of  territor- 
ial expansion  and  faith  in  progress  fueled 
by  increasing  knowledge,  tried  to  stuff 
every  last  specimen  into  their  gloriously 
crowded  cabinets — in  order  to  show  the 
full  range  and  wonder  of  global  diversity. 
(In  my  favorite  example.  Lord  Rothschild, 
richest  and  most  prolific  of  all  great  collec- 
tors, displayed  zebras  and  antelopes  in 
kneeling  position  or  even  supine,  so  that 
one  or  two  extra  rows  could  be  inserted  to 
include  all  specimens  in  floor-to-ceiling 
displays  at  his  museum  in  Tring.)  The 


^I^Q^t-l^i^ 


standard  Victorian  cabinet  (including 
many  in  the  Dublin  museum)  provides 
several  rows  of  locked  wooden  drawers 
beneath  the  creatures  on  display  under 
glass — to  house  all  the  museum's  addi- 
tional specimens,  which  can  then  be 
shown  to  professionals  and  others  with 
specialized  interests. 

I  realize  that  this  tactic  of  displaying 
every  last  specimen  includes  a  dubious 
side  in  recording  the  spoils  of  aggressive 
and  militaristic  imperialism,  with  all  the 
attendant  racism  and  ecological  disregard. 
But  do  honor  and  acknowledge  the  coun- 
tervaiUng  virtue  of  exhibiting  such  pleni- 
tude— as  best  expressed  in  the  words  of 
Psalm  104:  "0  Lord,  how  manifold  are  thy 
works!...  the  earth  is  full  of  thy  riches." 
You  can  put  one  beetle  in  a  cabinet  (usu- 
ally an  enlarged  model  and  not  a  real  spec- 
imen), surround  it  with  fancy  computer 
graphics  and  push-button  whatsits,  and 
then  state  that  no  other  group  maintains 
such  diversity.  Or  you  can  fill  the  same 
cabinet  with  real  beeties  representing  a 
thousand  species — of  differing  colors, 
shapes,  and  sizes — and  then  state  that  you 
have  tried  to  display  each  kind  in  the 
county. 

The  Victorians  preferred  this  second  ap- 
proach— and  1  am  with  them,  for  nothing 
thrills  me  more  than  the  raw  diversity  of 
nature.  Moreover,  the  Victorian  cabinet 
museum  thrives  upon  an  exquisite  tension 
in  conrniingling  (not  always  comfortably, 
for  they  truly  conflict)  two  differing  tradi- 
tions from  still  earlier  tunes:  the  seven- 
teenth-century baroque  passion  for  dis- 
playing odd,  deformed,  peculiar,  and 
"prize"  (largest,  smaUest,  brightest,  ugh- 
est)  specimens — the  Wunderkammer  (or 
cabinet  of  curiosities)  of  older  collectors; 
and  the  eighteenth-century  preference  of 
Linnaeus  and  the  Enhghtenment  for  a  sys- 
tematic display  of  the  regular  order  of  na- 
ture within  a  coherent  and  comprehensive 
scheme  of  taxonomy.  (Pardon  a  littie  toot 
on  the  personal  horn,  but  my  recent  book 
with  photographer  Rosamond  Purcell, 
Finders  Keepers,  illustrates  thesedifferent 
components  in  notable  collectors  from 
Peter  the  Great  to  Lord  Rothschild.) 

1  have  long  recognized  the  theory  and 
aesthetic  of  such  comprehensive  display: 
show  everything  and  incite  wonder  by 
sheer  variety.  But  I  had  never  realized  how 
powerfully  the  decor  of  a  cabinet  museum 
can  promote  this  goal  until  I  saw  the 
Dubhn  fixtures  redone  right.  Light  floods 
flirough  the  glass  ceiUng,  creating  a  fasci- 
nating interplay  of  brightness  and  shadow 
reflecting  off  both  specimens  and  architec- 


16    Natural  History  1/94 


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tural  elements  of  iron  struts,  wooden  rail- 
ings, and  the  dark  wood  and  cleai'  glass  of 
the  cabinets  themselves.  The  busy 
arrangement  of  cabinets  mirrors  the 
crowding  of  organisms,  while  the  contrast 
between  dark  wood  and  clear  glass  rein- 
forces the  variegated  diversity  of  the  crea- 
tures within.  The  regular  elements  of  cast 
iron  and  cabinetry  echo  the  order  of  taxo- 
nomic  schemes  for  the  allocation  of  speci- 
mens. The  exuberance  is  all  of  one 
piece — organic  and  architectural. 

I  write  this  essay  to  offer  my  warmest 
congratulations  to  the  Dublin  museum  for 
choosing  preservation — a  decision  that 
was  not  only  scientifically  right  but  also 
ethically  sound  and  decidedly  courageous. 
The  avant-garde  is  not  the  only  place  of 
courage;  a  principled  stand  within  a  recon- 
stituted rear  unit  may  call  down  just  as 
much  ridicule  and  demand  equal  fortitude. 
Crowds  do  not  always  rush  off  in  ad- 
mirable or  defendable  directions. 

In  choosing  to  construct  a  dynamic  mu- 
seum of  museums,  in  asserting  the  old 
ideal  of  focusing  display  on  nature's  full 
diversity,  in  restoring  their  interior  space 
to  Victorian  intent  by  harmonizing  archi- 
tecture with  organism,  the  Dublin  mu- 
seum's curators  have  stood  against  most 
modem  trends  in  museums  of  science — 
where  fewer  specimens,  more  emphasis 
on  overt  pedagogy,  and  increasing  focus 
on  "interactive"  display  (meaning  good 
and  thoughtful  rapport  of  visitor  and  ob- 
ject when  done  well,  and  glitzy,  noisy, 
push-button-activated  nonsense  when 
done  poorly)  have  become  the  norm. 

Much  as  I  love  the  cabinet  of  full  vari- 
ety, I  could  not  defend  Dublin's  decision  if 
this  exhibit  in  the  old  style  usurped  all 
available  space  for  displaying  natural  his- 
tory. After  all,  we  have  learned  something 
in  the  last  century,  and  many  of  the  newer 
techniques  work  well,  particularly  in  get- 
ting children  excited  about  science.  But 
Dublin  has  found  a  lovely  solution.  They 
have  restored  their  original  housing  to  one 
of  the  world's  finest  and  fullest  exhibits  in 
the  old  and  stiU-stunning  cabinet  style — 
not  just  a  room  to  showcase  the  past,  but 
an  entire  building  in  full  integrity.  And 
they  have  opened  a  new  building  on  the 
next  street  for  needed  exhibits  in  a  more 
modem  vein  (now  featuring  the  great  in- 
evitability of  this  year  of  Jurassic  Park — 
a  display  about  dinosaurs). 

I  would  not  be  defending  the  cabinet 
style  if  such  museums  only  honored  a  wor- 
thy past.  I  support  this  ideal  of  fullest  pos- 
sible display  because  it  remains  so  vital 
and  exciting,  as  capable  as  ever  of  inspir- 


ing interest  (as  well  as  awe)  in  any  curious 
person.  I  agitate  for  these  old-style  muse- 
ums because  they  are  wonderful  today. 
They  provide,  first  of  all,  a  richness  in  va- 
riety not  available  elsewhere.  When  I  vis- 
ited the  Dublin  museum,  for  example,  a 
college  course  in  drawing  had  convened 
on  the  premises — and  each  student  sat  in 
front  of  a  different  mammal,  sketching  at 
leisure. 

But  a  second  reason  beyond  immediate, 
practical  utility  must  be  embraced  if  my 
argument  has  any  power  to  persuade.  This 
more  subtle,  and  controversial,  point  was 
beautifully  expressed  by  Oliver  Sacks  in 
two  letters  written  to  me: 

My  own  first  love  was  biology.  I  spent  a 
great  part  of  my  adolescence  in  the  Natural 
History  Museum  in  London  (and  I  still  go  to 
the  Botanic  Garden  almost  every  day,  and  to 
the  Zoo  every  Monday).  The  sense  of  diver- 
sity— of  the  wonder  of  innumerable  forms 
of  life — has  always  thrilled  me  beyond  any- 
thing else.  [December  1990] 

Love  of  museums  was  an  intense  passion 
for  me,  for  many  of  us,  in  adolescence.  Erik 
Kom,  Jonathan  Miller,  and  I  spent  virtually 
all  our  spare  time  in  the  Natural  History 
Museum,  each  of  us  adopting  (or  being 
adopted  by)  different  groups — holothuria 
(Erik),  polychaetes  (Jonathan),  cephalopods 
(myself).  I  can  still  see,  with  eidetic  vivid- 
ness, the  dusty  case  containing  a  Stheno- 
teuthis  carolii  washed  up  on  the  Yorkshire 
coast  in  1925.  I  have  no  idea  whether  that 
case,  or  any  of  the  dusty  cases  we  were  so  in 
love  with,  still  exist — the  old  museum,  the 
old  museum  idea,  has  been  so  swept  away.  I 
am  all  for  interactive  exhibits,  like  the  San 


Francisco  Exploratorium,  but  not  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  old  cabinet  type  of  museum. 
[September  1992] 

None  of  these  three  teen-agers  grew 
into  a  professional  zoologist  (although 
others  of  the  same  clone  and  cohort,  in- 
cluding me  at  the  New  York  museum  that 
publishes  this  magazine,  did) — but  all  be- 
came men  of  great  accomplishment,  at 
least  partly  because  they  maintained  (and 
transferred  to  their  chosen  profession)  a 
museum-inspired  love  of  detail  and  diver- 
sity. My  friend  Erik  Kom  is  England's 
finest  antiquarian  book  dealer  in  natural 
history;  Miller's  work  in  medicine  and 
theater,  and  Sacks's  in  neurology  and  psy- 
chology, are  well  known.  Sacks,  in  partic- 
ular, has  based  the  passionate  humanism 
of  his  unique  insight  into  individual  per- 
sonalities— his  revival  of  the  old  "case 
study"  method  in  medicine — upon  his  ear- 
lier love  for  zoological  taxonomy.  In  his 
letter  to  me,  he  continued,  "I  partly  see  my 
patients  (some  of  them,  at  least)  as  'forms 
of  life,'  and  not  just  as  'damaged,'  or  'de- 
fective,' or  'abnormal.'  "  These  "old-fash- 
ioned" museum  displays  had  a  profound 
effect  upon  the  lives  of  three  supremely 
talented,  yet  remarkably  different,  men. 

I  must  therefore  end  with  a  point  that 
may  seem  outstandingly  "politically  in- 
correct," but  worthy  of  strong  defense 
nonetheless.  We  too  often,  and  tragically, 
confuse  our  legitimate  dislike  of  eUtism  as 
imposed  limitation  with  an  argument  for 
leveling  all  concentrated  excellence  to 
some  least  common  denominator  of  maxi- 


18    Natural  History  1/94 


The  original  hardcover  editions  of 
For  Whom  the  Bell  Tolls  —  together  with 
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head,  Miss  Lonelyhearts,  East  of  Eden — 
have  long  been  out  of  circulation,  unavailable 
to  all  but  the  rare  book  trade  where  their 
value  has  skyrocketed. 

1948 
^^^^^m  1929 

1925       ^^^^     I^^^^1937  1934 


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mal  accessibility.  A  cabinet  museum  may 
never  "play"  to  a  majority  of  children. 
True  majorities,  in  a  TV-dominated  and 
anti-intellectual  age,  may  need  sound  bites 
and  flashing  lights — and  I  am  not  against 
supplying  such  lures  if  they  draw  children 
into  even  a  transient  concern  with  science. 
But  every  classroom  has  one  Sacks,  one 
Kom,  or  one  Miller,  usually  a  lonely  child 
with  a  passionate  curiosity  about  nature 
and  a  zeal  that  overcomes  pressures  for 
conformity.  Does  not  the  one  in  fifty  de- 
serve an  institution  as  well — a  magic 
place,  like  a  cabinet  museum,  that  can 
spark  the  rare  flames  of  genius? 

Elitism  is  repulsive  when  based  upon 
external  and  artificial  Umitations  like  race, 
gender,  or  social  class.  Repulsive  and  ut- 
terly false — for  that  spark  of  genius  is  ran- 
domly distributed  across  aU  the  cruel  bar- 
riers of  our  social  prejudice.  We  therefore 
must  grant  access — and  encouragement — 
to  everyone;  and  we  must  be  unceasingly 
vigilant,  and  tirelessly  attentive,  in  provid- 
ing such  opportunities  to  all  children.  We 
will  have  no  justice  until  this  kind  of 
equaUty  is  attained.  But  if  only  a  small  mi- 
nority respond,  the  true  enthusiasts  of  all 
races,  classes,  and  genders,  shall  we  deny 
them  the  pinnacle  of  their  soul's  striving 
because  all  their  colleagues  prefer  passiv- 
ity and  flashing  lights?  Let  them  lift  then- 
eyes  to  hills  of  books  and  at  least  a  few 
museums  that  display  the  full  magic  of  na- 


ture's variety.  What  is  wrong  with  this 
truly  democratic  form  of  eUtism? 

While  in  Dublin,  I  also  visited  Saint 
Michan's  church,  with  its  beautifully 
carved  organ,  which  Handel  played  (al- 
though some  dispute  die  claun)  at  the  pre- 
miere of  Messiah,  first  performed  in 
Dublin  in  1742.  Handel,  who  wrote  four 
great  odes  for  the  coronation  of  George  11; 
the  same  JCing  George  who  then  granted  a 
royal  charter  that  eventually  led  to  the 
Dublin  Museum  of  Natural  History.  And  I 
thought  of  my  favorite  chorus  (not  "Hal- 
lelujah!") in  part  two  of  Messiah,  set  by 
Handel  witii  a  richly  polyphonic  begin- 
ning and  a  strong  homophonic  ending — a 
lovely  analogy,  I  thought,  to  the  interplay 
of  nature's  wondrously  variegated  diver- 
sity with  the  unity  of  taxonomic  order  and 
evolutionary  explanation,  flie  themes  so 
well  displayed  and  intertwined  in  the 
Dublin  museum.  And  I  thought  of  the 
words,  expressing  the  most  noble  mission 
of  teachers:  to  expand  out  to  the  ends  of 
knowledge,  and  then  to  gather  in — by 
song,  by  writing,  by  instruction,  by  dis- 
play. "Great  was  the  company  of  the 
preachers.. . .  Their  sound  is  gone  out  into 
all  lands,  and  their  words  unto  the  ends  of 
the  world." 

Stephen  Jay  Gould  teaches  biology,  geol- 
ogy, and  the  history  of  science  at  Harvard 
University. 


loiHas 


"Members  of  the  Peaceful  Village  Armchair  Travelers  Club  will  'take  off'  on  their  first 

trip  fifteen  minutes  from  now.  Destination:  The  Lillian  Coonty  Room  of  the  Rita 

Whittington  Nursing  Home.  That's  this  room  next  door  Program:  Professor  F.  Slemp  of 

Ord,  Nebraska,  is  going  to  give  a  lecture  on  natural  history,  and  if  I  find  any  cigarette 

butts  in  there,  you  will  all  stay  home  next  time!" 


20    Natural  History  1/94 


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(please  print) 

NAME 

COMPANY  NAME 

ADDRESS 

CITY 


STATE- 


_ZIP_ 


x; 


^  .Con 
Bdison 


'Hie  Cltjrof'NewJoii^ 


TfflSLAND 


Jack  W.  Dykinga 

IPP^^l^B^ 

K^^«« 

Hl^^^ 

rfl^ 

Paxton  Cone,  New  Mexico 


Volcanoes  have  been  an  active  force  in 
northwestern  New  Mexico  for  the  past 
four  million  years,  beginning  with  the  first 
violent  eruption  of  Mount  Taylor.  Some 
590  square  miles  of  lava  between  the  Zuni 
Mountains  and  Acoma  now  provide  a  mu- 
seum of  volcanic  phenomena.  This  arid, 
inhospitable  area  is  known  as  El  Malpais, 
"the  badlands."  Part  of  the  land  is  private, 
part  is  managed  by  the  National  Park  Ser- 
vice, and  part  is  managed  by  the  Bureau  of 
Land  Management.  A  small  area  falls 
within  Cibola  National  Forest. 

Paxton  Cone,  on  the  National  Forest 
land,  was  created  between  10,000  and 
40,000  years  ago,  when  an  eruption  sent  a 
river  of  lava  northeastward  down  Zuni 
Canyon.  Lying  about  thirty  miles  south- 
west of  the  present-day  community  of 
Grants,  the  cone  built  up  from  cinders  that 
fell  around  the  eruption  orifice.  The  lava 
that  flowed  northeast  was  thick  and  tarlike; 
it  solidified  leaving  very  rough,  sharp  sur- 
faces and  an  intricate  network  of  fissures. 
This  type  of  lava  is  called  aa  (the  word  is 
Hawaiian). 

Cinder  cones  are  only  one  of  four  vol- 
cano types  found  in  the  Malpais  area.  The 


by  Robert  H.  Mohlenbrock 

most  violent,  exemplified  by  long-extinct 
Mount  Taylor,  is  the  stratovolcano,  which 
ejects  material  into  the  upper  atmosphere. 
When  it  last  erupted.  Mount  Taylor  sent 
tons  of  lava,  cinders,  ash,  and  steam  into 
the  air  as  its  crater  walls  fell  inward  to 
form  a  caldera.  Less  violent  are  shield  vol- 
canoes, broad,  flat  volcanoes  that  often  re- 
lease their  energy  through  several  orifices. 
Shield  volcanoes  usually  can  be  recog- 
nized by  multiple  craters  at  the  top.  Fi- 
naUy,  basalt  cones,  with  wide,  steep-sided 
craters,  erupt  rapidly  and  send  out  a  rather 
thin-textured  lava  that  cools  to  a  smooth  or 
somewhat  ropy  surface.  This  type  of  lava, 
referred  to  as  pahoehoe,  is  the  most  com- 
mon in  El  Malpais. 

At  higher  elevations,  where  conditions 
are  relatively  cool  and  moist,  the  Malpais 
area  is  forested  with  well-developed  conif- 
erous trees.  Douglas  firs  and  ponderosa 
pines  are  found  at  elevations  between 
7,000  and  8,900  feet,  along  with  a  lower 
layer  composed  primarily  of  Rocky 
Mountain  juniper.  Douglas  firs,  which  re- 
quire more  moisture,  are  found  mainly  on 
northern  slopes  and  on  rough  lava  where 
rainwater  tends  to  accumulate  in  the  fis- 


Douglasfirs  and  ponderosa  pines  grow  on  Paxton  Cone,  above, 
which  erupted  between  10,000  and  40,000  years  ago.  Left:  Claret 
cup  cactus  and  yellow-flowered  pericome  cling  to  the  volcanic  rock. 


23 


sures.  Quaking  aspens,  which  also  need  a 
lot  of  water,  can  also  be  found  in  these  lo- 
cations. 

Douglas  firs  germinate  poorly  in  the 
lava  because  of  the  heated  surface  of  the 
rock.  Botanist  Alton  Lindsay  has  found 
that  during  the  summer,  the  surface  tem- 
perature of  the  lava  rises  as  high  as  129°  F. 
According  to  Lindsay,  the  roots  of  Dou- 
glas firs  get  under  the  surface  crust  of  the 
lava  and  grow  along  small  tunnels  that  are 
warm  and  moist,  but  contain  no  soil.  As 
the  roots  get  older,  they  may  break  through 
the  thin  lava  crust  and  be  partly  exposed. 
The  growth  of  many  of  these  trees  is 
stunted  by  lack  of  nutrients  and  water,  and 
they  are  often  bent  eastward  in  response  to 
the  strong  prevaihng  winds.  Lindsay,  who 
has  studied  the  vegetation  patterns  on  El 
Malpais  for  years,  found  one  mature, 
cone-bearing  Douglas  fir  that  was  only 
sixteen  inches  high. 

At  about  7,000  feet  and  below,  Douglas 
firs  drop  out  and  the  plant  community  is 
dominated  by  ponderosa  pines,  with  a  va- 
riety of  shrubs,  wildflowers,  and  grasses 
often  creating  an  understory.  Ponderosa 
pines  have  thicker  needles  than  the  Dou- 
glas firs,  and  their  roots  penetrate  more 
deeply,  keeping  them  well  supplied  with 


Paxton  Cone 

For  visitor  information  write: 
Forest  Supervisor 
Cibola  National  Forest 
2113  0sunaRoadNE 
Albuquerque,  New  Mexico  87113 
(505)  761-4650 


water.  And  because  their  very  large  seeds 
produce  sturdy  seedlings  that  send  out 
roots  promptly  and  deeply,  they  can  ger- 
minate in  spite  of  the  hot  lava  surface. 

The  Douglas  fir  zone  and  the  ponderosa 
pine  zone  extend  to  lower  altitudes  in  El 
Malpais  than  in  nearby  areas  free  of  lava. 
As  a  possible  explanation  for  this,  Lindsay 
suggests  that  the  dark  lava  becomes  hotter 
than  nonlava  rock,  stimulating  an  upward 
convection  of  heated  air  that  causes  an 
extra  measure  of  rain  to  fall  on  the  lava. 
Rainwater  accumulates  in  the  fractured 
lava  long  enough  for  plants  growing  there 
to  replenish  their  supply. 

Here  and  there  in  El  Malpais  are  sink- 
holes in  which  water  accumulates,  drain- 
ing down  from  the  Zuni  Mountains  or 
emerging  from  natural  springs.  These 
oases  are  home  to  duckweeds,  sago  pond- 


.4  dead  juniper  stands  among  the  living 
on  a  lichen-covered  lava  flow. 

George  H.  H.  Huey 


weed,  and  watercress,  surrounded  by  a 
border  of  cattails,  soft-stem  and  three- 
square  bulrush,  reed  grass,  and  swamp 
milkweed.  But  at  the  lowest  altitudes,  be- 
tween 6,200  and  7,000  feet,  water  is  usu- 
ally scarce.  Plants  that  can  make  it  here  in- 
clude pirions,  one-seeded  juniper,  banana 
yucca,  and  cactuses.  Broad-leaved  shrubs, 
such  as  Apache  plume,  skunkbush  sumac, 
New  Mexico  privet,  and  a  couple  of  gnarly 
oaks,  grow  in  lava-free  zones  or  where 
shallow  soil  has  slowly  built  up  in  lava  fis- 
sures. The  broad-leaved  plants  often  have 
some  mechanisms  to  prevent  desiccation, 
such  as  leaves  that  are  extremely  smaU, 
succulent,  or  covered  with  hairs. 

In  many  places,  the  aa  supports  only 
gray,  yellow,  or  orange  lichens,  which  ce- 
ment themselves  to  the  black,  craggy  sur- 
face of  the  lava.  Requiring  few  nutrients 
for  their  minimal  growth  and  effectively 
conserving  the  moisture  in  their  tissues, 
the  hchens  may  remain  glued  to  the  lava 
for  hundreds  of  years.  Lava  does  not  cover 
all  of  the  the  Malpais  area,  however.  Is- 
lands of  deeper  soil  with  richer  vegetation, 
called  kipukas,  dot  the  landscape.  Today's 
kipukas  probably  resemble  the  region  as  it 
was  prior  to  volcanic  activity. 

Robert  H.  Mohlenbrock,  professor  emeri- 
tus of  plant  biology  at  Southern  Illinois 
University,  Carbondale,  explores  the  bio- 
logical and  geological  highlights  of  the 
156  U.S.  national  forests. 


0  100  Miles 

3 


Grants 


MEXICO 


Joe  LeMonnier 


24    Natural  History  1/94 


"^r™ 


hey  were  chiefs  and 
shamans,  hunters,  healers, 
artist  and  storytellers... 
Peoples  of  genius  who  made  the 
desdtts  bloom,  built  medicine  wheels 
to  vaatch  the  heavens  and  civilized  a 
continent  long  before  the  Europeans 
arrived. 

Now  you  can  see  their  world 
through  their  own  eyes.  Understand 
what  they  thought  and  believed — and 
fought  so  hard  to  keep. 


Maps,  reconstmctions  of  places 
and  events,  dazzling  picture  essays 
and  detailed  narrative  bring  yoti 
closer  to  Atnerica's first  civiliza- 
tions than  ever  before... 


B  A    It 

EH^K 

KRii^li 

BRICAN  IN D lAJS! S 


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Edward  S.  Ross 


Sex,  Drugs,  and 
Butterflies 

For  male  milkweed  butterflies,  a  dead,  withered  leaf 
may  have  a  chemical  allure  no  pretty  flower  can  match 


by  Michael  Boppre 

Observe  the  butterflies,  sombre  black  fel- 
lows. .  .flying  in  a  crowd  round  a  shrub  with 
thick  silvery-looking  leaves.  It  is  the 
Toumefortia  Argentifolia,  a  tree  that  I  see 
on  almost  every  seashore  that  I  have  visited 
throughout  the  Pacific...  A  branch  is  bro- 
ken, and  the  leaves  are  hanging  dry  and 
wilted.  The  butterflies  settle  on  the  dead 
leaves  in  swarms,  almost  pushing  and 
jostling  one  another  to  get  a  good  place.  No- 
tice that  it  is  the  withered  leaves  and  flowers 
that  they  prefer,  and  seem  to  become  half- 
stupid  in  their  eagerness  to  extract  the  pecu- 
liar sweetness,  or  whatever  it  is,  that  the 
leaves  contain. 

Since  these  observations  were  pub- 
lished in  1890  by  C.  M.  Woodford,  in  A 
Naturalist  Among  Headhunters,  other  re- 


ports in  the  scientific  literature  have  de- 
scribed butterflies  apparently  sucking  at 
dead  parts  of  Toumefortia  trees  and  a 
number  of  other,  unrelated  plants.  For 
nearly  a  century,  these  reports  were  a  great 
puzzle  to  naturalists  and  scientists:  first, 
because  dead  plants  are  dry  and  butterfly 
mouthparts  are  designed  to  suck  up  liq- 
uids, and  second,  because  only  male  but- 
terflies were  seen  at  the  dead  leaves.  Only 
in  the  last  few  decades  have  scientists  in 
Australia,  Europe,  and  the  United  States 
pieced  together  an  explanation  involving 
complex  interactions  of  sexual  communi- 
cation and  chemical  protection. 

The  butterflies  Woodford  watched  were 
members  of  the  genus  Euploea  (com- 


Left:  Male  crow  and  blue  tiger  butterflies  congregate  on  a  bundle 
of  dried  Heliotropium  plants,  in  search  not  of  food  but  of 
pyrrolizidine  alkaloids.  Numerous  other  insects,  such  as  the 
snouted  tiger  moth,  above,  are  attracted  to  the  dried  parts 
of  plants  containing  these  protective  compounds. 

Michael  Bopprd 


monly  known  as  crows)  in  the  milkweed 
butterfly  subfamily,  Danainae.  Other  fam- 
ily members  include  the  tiger,  queen,  and 
monarch  butterflies.  Males  of  all  danaines 
possess  hairy  glandular  organs.  Nine- 
teenth-century naturalist  Fritz  Miiller  pro- 
posed that  all  these  "pencils,  tufts  or 
manes  of  hair,"  which  he  found  in  a  vari- 
ety of  forms  in  the  males  of  many  butterfly 
species,  were  odoriferous  organs  serving 
"as  an  excitement  to  the  opposite  sex." 
The  proof  came  nearly  one  hundred  years 
later  In  the  mid-1960s,  smdies  by  Lincoln 
Brower  (now  at  the  University  of  Florida, 
but  then  at  Amherst  College)  and  his  co- 
workers showed  that  male  Florida  queen 
butterflies  locate  females  visually  and, 
once  they  are  within  close  range,  emit 
chemicals  from  these  glandular  organs,  or 
hairpencils,  to  seduce  them.  Such  chemi- 
cal sexual  stimulation  is  widespread  in 
butterflies  and  moths,  but  the  danaines  ex- 
hibit one  of  the  most  elaborate  chemical 
communication  systems  known  among 
the  Lepidoptera.  (The  American  monarch, 
Danaus  plexippus,  is  an  exception.  In  the 
mating  strategy  of  this  species,  chemical 
communication  plays  a  minor  role.  Male 
scent  organs  are  much  reduced  and  rarely 
employed  in  sexual  interactions,  which  ap- 
pear to  the  human  eye  more  like  rape  than 
seduction.) 

During  courtship,  a  danaine  male  hov- 
ers above  a  female.  He  exfiudes  his  hair- 
pencils  (usually  hidden  inside  his  ab- 
domen) close  to  her  antennae  and  then 
expands  them,  often  for  just  fractions  of  a 
second.  In  many  species,  the  sudden  pro- 
trusion and  expansion  of  the  hairpencils 
deUvers  tiny,  pheromone-laden  particles  to 
the  female's  antennae,  which  are  lined 
with  olfactory  receptors.  Without  ade- 


27 


quale  pheromonal  stimulation,  the  female 
would  reject  her  suitor. 

Not  all  danaine  pheromones  smell 
alike,  and  the  human  nose  can  detect  some 
differences  in  the  male  perfumes  of  milk- 
weed butterfly  species.  Mostly  they  smell 
strong  but  pleasant  to  us:  some,  sweet  like 
chocolate;  others,  more  like  pineapple. 
However,  for  a  more  precise  identification 
of  the  pheromone  composition,  sophisti- 
cated technical  equipment  is  needed.  Jer- 
rold  Meinwald,  of  Cornell  University,  and 
Stefan  Schulz  and  Wittko  Francke,  of  the 
University  of  Hamburg,  have  analyzed  the 
chemistry  of  hairpencil  extracts  taken 
from  many  species  and  found  that  the 
pheromones  are  species-specific  bouquets 
made  up  of  twelve  to  fifty  volatile  compo- 


nents, most  of  which  are  "unsmellable"  by 
the  human  nose. 

What  is  the  male  telling  the  female  with 
this  fanfare  of  pheromones?  Danaine  but- 
terflies locate  one  another  by  sight,  so  the 
pheromones  caimot  be  long-range  attrac- 
tants.  However,  mimicry  is  very  common 
among  these  butterflies,  so  something 
more  than  just  visual  inspection  may  be 
necessary  to  allow  members  of  a  species  to 
recognize  one  another.  At  close  range,  the 
female  may  use  the  male's  perfume  to  de- 
termine which  species  her  suitor  belongs 
to;  "Let  me  smell  you  so  I  can  know  who 
you  are." 

But  there  appears  to  be  more  than  spe- 
cies recognition  to  the  story.  Certain 
chemical  compounds  are  common  compo- 


nents in  the  pheromone  bouquets  of  many 
danaine  species  and  thus  are  unlikely  to 
contribute  to  species  specificity.  Called  di- 
hydropyrrolizines,  these  chemicals  often 
make  up  the  largest  proportion  of  the  hair- 
pencil  volatiles,  with  up  to  500  ng  (a  half 
thousandth  of  a  gram)  in  a  single  pair  of 
hairpencils,  an  enormous  amount  com- 
pared with  that  of  pheromones  in  other  in- 
sects. These  chemicals  must  serve  a  differ- 
ent purpose. 

Studies  with  field-caught  male  danaines 
revealed  that  the  amount  of  dihydropy- 
rrohzines  varies  gready  from  individual  to 
individual.  Freshly  hatched  males  possess 
various  other  pheromone  components  but 
lack  dihydropyrrolizines  entirely,  and  as 
Thomas  Pliske  and  Thomas  Eisner,  of 


28    Natural  History  1/94 


Cornell  University,  discovered,  male 
queen  butterflies  lacking  this  type  of  com- 
pound are  much  less  successful  in  getting 
accepted  by  a  mate.  These  findings  sug- 
gested that  the  chemicals  played  an  impor- 
tant role  in  the  lives  of  the  butterflies,  but 
no  one  knew  just  what  that  role  was  or 
where  the  dihydropyrrolizines  were  com- 
ing from. 

The  answers  to  these  questions  began  to 
come  in  the  mid-1970s,  from  scientists 
working  independently  (John  Edgar,  with 
the  Commonwealth  Scientific  and  Indus- 
trial Research  Organization  in  Australia) 
and  collaboratively  (Jerrold  Meinwald  and 
others  at  Cornell,  and  Dietrich  Schneider 
and  me  at  the  Max  Planck  Institute  for  Be- 
havioral Physiology).  We  now  know  that 


adult  male  milkweed  butterflies  utilize 
certain  secondary  plant  compounds, 
known  as  pyrrolizidine  alkaloids  (PAs),  as 
chemical  precursors  for  synthesizing 
dihydropyrrolizines.  (Secondary  plant 
compounds  are  chemicals  that  are  not  part 
of  the  plant's  essential  molecular  makeup 
but  that  frequently  have  a  defensive  func- 
tion and  lead  to  better  survival.) 

The  butterflies  use  their  sense  of  smell 
to  locate  the  dry,  withered,  or  damaged 
parts  of  certain  plants  that  contain 
pyrrolizidine  alkaloids.  After  landing  on 
an  appropriate  plant,  the  butterflies  walk 
about,  probing  the  surface  here  and  there 
with  their  proboscises.  Eventually  they 
settle  down  at  one  spot  and  release  drops 
of  fluid  on  the  plant.  They  tiien  reimbibe 


The  crow  caterpillar,  left,  may  gather  and 
store  certain  noxious  plant  compounds, 
such  as  cardenolides,  while  feeding  on  its 
host  plant.  Below:  The  chrysalis  of  a  friar 
butterfly  has  a  strong  metallic  luster,  the 
effect  of  light  reflecting  off  many  thin 
layers  in  the  cuticle. 

Photographs  by  Michael  Boppr6 


the  fluid  mixture  and,  with  it,  some  of  the 
plant's  PAs.  Butterflies  often  congregate  in 
small  groups  and  fight  over  spots  previ- 
ously wetted  by  others.  What  Woodford 
saw  a  century  ago  was  undoubtedly  such 
an  incident,  for  Toumefortia  trees  contain 
pyrrolizidme  alkaloids.  (Other  PA  plants 
include  Crotalaria,  or  rattlebox,  in  the  pea 
family;  Senecio,  or  groundsel,  in  the  aster 
family,  and  Heliotropium  in  the  borage,  or 
forget-me-not,  family.) 

These  alkaloids  occur  in  Uving  as  well 
as  dead  plants,  but  in  live  tissue,  the  com- 
pounds are  sealed  within  cell  vacuoles, 
where  the  butterflies  cannot  detect  them. 
If,  however,  a  leaf  has  been  damaged  by, 
say,  leaf-feeding  beetles,  it  may  attract 
male  milkweed  butterflies,  which,  chick- 
enlike, scratch  at  it  with  their  legs,  creating 
fresh  tears  in  the  plant  tissue  and  thus 
gaining  access  to  the  alkaloids  within. 

Using  pyrrolizidine  alkaloids  purified 
from  plant  extracts,  we  have  demonstrated 
that  the  butterflies  are  after  flie  PAs  and  not 
any  other  plant  compounds.  And  flieir  in- 
terest in  these  chemicals  is  independent  of 
any  nutritional  requirements:  their  sole 
reason  for  visiting  PA-containing  plants  is 
to  gather  the  alkaloids.  These  butterflies, 
then,  visit  two  groups  of  plants:  those  they 


29 


Tim  Laman;  The  Wildlife  Collection 


After  scratching  at  a  beetle-damaged 
Heliotropium  leaf,  two  blue  tiger  males, 
below,  gain  access  to  the  pyrrolizidine 
alkaloids  within.  These  butterflies  must 
also  continue  the  regular  business  of 
feeding  on  nectar,  right. 

Michael  Boppre 


feed  on,  which  could  be  thought  of  as  gro- 
cery stores,  and  those  they  gather  sec- 
ondary chemicals  from,  which  could  be 
cbnsidered  pharmacies. 

Why  do  males  engage  in  these  efforts? 
Some  twenty  years  ago,  biologist  Miriam 
Rothschild  studied  moth  larvae  feeding  on 
fresh  PA  plants  and  proposed  that  insects 
are  capable  of  stockpiling  the  alkaloids  to 
protect  themselves  from  predators.  In  the 
years  since  her  suggestion,  chemical 
analyses  conducted  by  several  separate  re- 
search groups  have  revealed  that  pyrro- 
Uzidine  alkaloids  gathered  by  adult  butter- 
flies from  dry  plants  are  used  for  the  same 
purpose.  The  insects'  storage  capacity  is 
impressive:  up  to  15  percent  of  a  butter- 
fly's dry  weight  may  be  made  up  of  un- 
converted pyrrolizidine  alkaloids  ex- 
tracted from  dry  plants. 

Behavioral  tests  of  butterfly  predators 
have  shown  that  the  stockpiled  PAs  can 
provide  the  insects  with  protection  from 
many  enemies.  These  chemicals,  which 
become  toxic  once  ingested,  taste  bad  and 
have  been  found  to  be  repellent,  to  varying 
degrees,  to  some  mice,  bats,  lizards,  spi- 
ders, birds,  and  all  unadapted  insects. 

Some  members  of  the  milkweed  butter- 
fly family  —  monarchs  and  queens  —  are 
protected  by  other  chemicals  unpalatable 


to  predators.  Unlike  PAs,  fliese  chemicals, 
known  as  cardenolides,  have  an  immedi- 
ate effect  on  heart  rate  and  blood  pressure. 
Neither  egg-laying  females  nor  larvae 
specifically  seek  out  cardenoUdes,  but  if 
the  larval  host  plant  contains  them,  fliey 
are  ingested  along  with  food.  Stored  in  the 
larval  body  and  retained  into  adulthood, 
these  cardenolides  deter  several  predators, 
as  has  been  well  documented  during  the 
last  twenty-five  years.  Film  footage  based 
on  Lincoln  Brower's  studies  with  blue  jays 
provided  the  most  memorable  proof:  blue 
jays  eating  with  gusto  and  then  immedi- 
ately vomiting  up  monarch  butterflies  that 


had  been  reared  as  larvae  on  cardenoUde- 
containing  plants. 

For  certain  milkweed  butterfly  species 
or  individuals,  then,  pyrrolizidine  alka- 
loids add  another  dimension  to  their  un- 
palatability,  while  for  others,  the  alkaloids 
may  be  the  only  defensive  compounds.  In 
all  cases,  however,  these  plant  chemicals 
play  a  dual  role  in  the  lives  of  danaines: 
they  help  males  seduce  females,  and  they 
act  as  potential  lifesavers.  Thus,  males 
have  good  reason  to  pursue  pyrroUzidine 
alkaloids.  But  why  is  a  female  so  inter- 
ested in  whether  or  not  a  suitor  smells  of 
the  PA-derived  dihydropyrrofizines?  And 


30    Natural  History  1/94 


^^,^^**^-^ 


'V?**-- 


'^'^'Sss'iQB.r.^-. 


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V 


'*;■■■■  1 


why  does  she  seem  to  use  them  in  select- 
ing a  mate? 

As  the  research  teams  of  Thomas  Eisner 
and  Keith  S.  Brown,  Jr.,  have  demon- 
strated, male  milkweed  butterflies  transfer 
more  than  just  sperm  to  the  female  during 
copulation:  included  in  the  ejaculate  is  a 
mass  of  pyrrolizidine  alkaloids,  previously 
collected  by  the  adult  male  from  plants. 
This  nuptial  gift  varies  from  male  to  male: 
the  more  of  the  alkaloids  a  male  has  taken 
in,  the  more  his  personal  perfume  will 
smell  of  dihydropyrroUzines  and  the  more 
PAs  he  has  to  offer  a  female.  Thus,  if  a 
male's  aroma  is  an  indication  of  the  size  of 


the  nuptial  gift  he  is  likely  to  present,  the 
female  may  have  a  meaningful  basis  for 
choosing  a  mate:  the  more  alkaloids  she 
can  get  from  the  male,  the  more  she  will 
possess  to  protect  herself  and  to  incorpo- 
rate into  her  eggs  for  their  protection,  too. 
Studies  of  the  chemical  ecology  of 
milkweed  butterflies  led  to  a  better  under- 
standing of  other  insects  that  utihze  PA- 
containing  plants  as  grocery  stores  and 
pharmacies  at  the  same  time.  The  larvae  of 
several  tiger  moth  species  (family  Arcti- 
idae)  store  PAs  for  their  protection,  and 
some  also  use  them  as  pheromone  precur- 
sors. Although  many  are  speciahzed  to 


feed  on  PA  plants  exclusively,  not  aU  are 
capable  of  detecting  PAs  directly.  Among 
the  most  interesting  of  the  PA  moths  are 
those  such  as  Creatonotos  species,  which 
respond  to  PAs  behavioraUy,  as  danaines 
do.  The  larvae  of  these  moths  can  feed  and 
develop  perfectly  well  on  a  variety  of 
shrubs,  including  some  that  contain  PAs 
and  others  tiiat  do  not.  Under  experimental 
conditions,  however,  these  caterpillars 
show  a  definite  interest  in  flie  alkaloids, 
feeding  eagerly  on  almost  any  material, 
mcluding  fiberglass  disks,  as  long  as  the 
material  has  been  first  impregnated  with 
the  chemicals.  As  with  the  milkweed  but- 


31 


terflies,  their  enthusiasm  for  these  chemi- 
cals is  independent  of  their  nutritional  re- 
quirements. 

Creatonotos  moths  exhibit  some  strik- 
ing similarities  to  danaine  butterflies. 
Males  possess  eversible  scent  organs, 
called  coremata,  that  emit  a  dihydropy- 
rrohzine  derived  from  pyrrolizidine  alka- 
loids, and  they,  too,  stockpile  unconverted 
PAs  for  protection  and  transfer  them  to  fe- 
males. However,  there  are  some  basic  dif- 
ferences. Both  male  and  female  Creatono- 
tos feed  on  PA  plants,  gathering  the 
protective  compounds  together  with  food, 
and  they  do  so  only  as  larvae  (the  short- 
lived adults  do  not  feed  at  all).  So  while 
milkweed  butterflies  accumulate  PAs  as 
adults  only,  Creatonotos  moths  hatch  with 
a  fixed  amount  of  pheromone  and  protec- 
tive chemicals.  In  both  groups,  the  degree 
of  protection  varies  from  individual  to  in- 
dividual, as  does  the  amount  of  male 
pheromone. 

The  dihydropyrrolizines  of  many  da- 
naines  and  Creatonotos  are  structurally 
identical,  but  their  roles  in  influencing  the 
behavior  of  conspecifics  are  quite  differ- 
ent. In  most  butterflies  and  moths,  males 
expand  flieir  scent  organs  only  in  the  final 
phase  of  courtship,  after  the  sexes  have 
come  together  through  sight  (butterflies) 
or  smell  (moths).  Creatonotos  males,  in 
contrast,  display  their  organs  for  hours, 
starting  at  dawn,  whether  any  females  are 
around  or  not.  The  pheromones  the  males 
release  appear  to  lure  both  females  and 
males,  leading  to  the  establishment  of 
mating  aggregations,  or  leks.  Since  Cre- 
atonotos females  also  produce  phero- 
mones to  lure  males  (as  is  typical  among 
moths),  the  genus  appears  to  use  two 
markedly  different  means  of  bringing  the 
sexes  together 

We  have  not  yet  been  able  to  conduct  a 
detailed  field  study  of  these  rare,  noctur- 
nal, and  quite  small  moths,  but  one  aspect 
of  their  biology  has  already  added  a  fasci- 
nating element  to  the  complex  story  of 
plant  alkaloids  and  insects.  In  the  field, 
some  Creatonotos  individuals  have  gigan- 
tic coremata,  exceeding  the  insects'  wing- 
span;  others  of  the  same  species  have 


Male  milkweed  butterflies  and  male 
Creatonotos  moths  use  pyrrolizidine 
alkaloids  for  protection  and  in  the 
synthesis  of  sex  pheromones.  The 
butteifiies  emit  pheromones  from 
glandular  organs  known  as  hairpencils, 
below.  The  size  of  a  moth 's  scent  organs, 
or  coremata,  right,  depends  on  the 
amount  of  PAs  it  gathered  as  a  lan'a. 

Photographs  by  Michael  Boppre 


coremata  so  tiny  fliey  are  almost  invisible; 
and  yet  others  exhibit  intermediate  sizes. 
In  file  laboratory  we  have  experimented 
with  feeding  Creatonotos  larvae  different 
amounts  of  pure  PAs  and  have  demon- 
strated a  direct  correlation:  the  more  PAs  a 
moth  took  up  while  it  was  a  larva,  the 
larger  its  coremata  and  the  more  PA-de- 
rived  pheromone  it  produces.  (No  other 
part  of  the  moth  is  affected  by  these  di- 
etary changes.) 

Available  phylogenetic  evidence  indi- 
cates that  adaptations  to  utilize  pyrro- 
lizidine alkaloids  evolved  several  times  in 
various  insect  groups.  Certain  leaf  beetles, 
grasshoppers,  and  chloropid  flies,  for  in- 
stance, as  well  as  numerous  other  species 
of  butterflies  and  moths,  seek  out  these 
chemicals  independent  of  feeding.  Experi- 
ments have  demonstrated  that  these  in- 
sects are  attracted  to  the  alkaloids,  whether 
they  are  presented  in  the  form  of  dry  plants 
or  laboratory  dishes  impregnated  with  the 
chemicals.  Not  all  these  insects  possess 
male  scent  organs,  so  the  chemicals'  role 
as  a  pheromone  precursor  is  Hmited,  and 
not  all  insects  that  need  them  to  produce 
pheromones  use  them  in  the  same  way  in 
sexual  communication.  By  improving 
their  chances  of  survival  and  perhaps  by 
increasing  their  reproductive  success, 
however,  aU  do  better  with  PAs.  For  these 
insects  at  least,  purloining  plant  poisons 
pays  off.  D 


32    Natural  History  1/94 


\\s^: 


Y)iingLizaiids  CanBeBeamble 

In  Australia,  live-bearing  skinks  have  evolved  from  egg  layers.  Why? 
by  Richard  Shine 


One  of  the  reasons  I  was  attracted  to  the 
study  of  Hzards  and  snakes,  rather  than 
other  kinds  of  animals,  is  that  they  gener- 
ally like  to  stay  in  bed  on  cold  mornings, 
just  as  I  do.  I  thought  that  I  wouldn't  have 
to  rise  at  dawn  (like  the  bird  watchers)  or 
muck  through  muddy  swamps  at  night 
(Uke  the  frog  catchers)  because  Australian 
skinks  come  out  into  the  woods  and  fields 
on  sunny  afternoons. 

Unfortunately,  as  I  discovered  in  the 
field,  these  common  little  hzards  are  so 
elusive  after  they  have  warmed  up  by  mid- 
morning  that  they  are  almost  impossible  to 
catch.  Chilly  mornings  are  the  best  time  to 
pick  them  up  as  they  lie,  rigid  with  cold, 
under  their  nighttime  logs.  In  the  Brind- 
abella  Range  of  southeastern  Australia, 
where  I  study  and  collect  skinks,  I  imag- 
ined the  kookaburra  birds  were  mocking 
me  with  their  annoying  "laughter"  as  I 
turned  over  logs  from  first  light  until  the 
sun's  rays  dispersed  the  morning  fog.  Each 
morning  a  few  hours  after  dawn,  I  re- 
turned to  my  tent,  with  dew-soaked  socks 
and  chattering  teeth,  to  boil  the  billy  (ket- 
tle), change  into  dry  clothes,  and  sit  by  the 
campfire  gloating  over  the  fruits  of  my 
morning's  labors. 

My  prizes  wouldn't  have  impressed 
most  people.  Every  day  I  caught  about 
twenty  small,  drab  skinks,  most  of  them 
less  than  six  inches  long.  Why  endure  so 
many  bone-numbing  morns  to  collect 
these  Uttle  creatures?  Because  to  me  they 
were  objects  of  intrigue:  I  hoped  that  they 
might  help  me  solve  one  of  the  great  mys- 
teries of  reptiUan  reproduction. 

All  these  unspectacular  skinks  may 
look  very  similar,  but  they  include  several 
species  that  are  biologically  very  different. 
About  half  the  Brindabella  hzard  species 
reproduce  by  laying  eggs  (oviparity);  the 
other  half,  by  giving  birth  to  fully  formed 
babies  (viviparity).  Those  that  lay  eggs 
range  from  the  elegant  little  elf  skink, 
which  Uves  under  cool,  moist  logs,  to  the 
larger,  three-lined  skink,  which  basks  in 
the  open  and  rapidly  sprints  between  snow 
grass  tussocks  when  approached.  The  hve 
bearers  are  all  active  in  the  daytime  and 
are  generally  larger  than  the  egg  layers. 


Among  them  are  two  varieties  of  heavyset 
water  skinks,  confident  lizards  that  are 
undisputed  owners  of  large  logs  on  the  for- 
est floor.  As  I  approached,  they  would  fix 
me  with  a  balefiil  glare;  but  reluctant  to 
move  out  of  the  warm  sunlight,  they  were 
easily  caught  with  a  noose  of  fishing  line 
at  the  end  of  a  rod. 

In  all  skinks,  egg  layers  as  well  as  hve 
bearers,  the  females  ovulate  their  large, 
yolky  follicles  in  late  springtime  (Novem- 
ber in  Australia).  These  are  immediately 
fertilized  internally  by  sperm  that  they 
have  stored  either  for  a  week  or  two  (in 
spring-mating  species)  or  throughout  the 
entu-e  winter  (in  autumn-mating  species). 
Eggs  are  laid  in  a  moist,  protected  site 
under  a  log  or  rock.  In  hve-bearing  spe- 
cies, the  females  retain  membranous  eggs 
without  shells  inside  their  oviducts. 

The  soft,  leathery  shells  of  lizard  eggs 
are  much  more  permeable  to  water  than 
are  the  brittle  eggs  of  birds;  thus,  egg  lay- 
ers need  to  deposit  their  eggs  in  moist  en- 
vironments. Because  of  this  water  uptake, 
hzard  eggs  swell  to  twice  their  initial  size 
as  they  develop.  Since  both  types  of  eggs 
absorb  water  as  the  embryos  grow,  preg- 
nant females  of  live-bearing  species  are 
grossly  distended  by  the  end  of  the  gesta- 
tion period. 

By  getting  several  pregnant  females  to 
run  along  miniature  "lizard  raceti-acks"  in 
the  laboratory,  I  was  able  to  show  that  they 
are  much  slower  runners  than  their  non- 
pregnant counterparts,  especially  when 
close  to  birthing  time.  In  laboratory  trials, 
small,  venomous  white-lipped  snakes — a 
common  predator  of  the  Brindabella 
skinks — were  much  better  at  catching 
pregnant  hzards  than  nonpregnant  ones. 
While  these  tests  appear  to  confirm  the 
self-evident  (ask  any  pregnant  woman 
how  the  last  few  weeks  of  pregnancy  af- 
fect her  mobility),  they  were  the  first  of 
their  kind.  (Charles  Darwin  said  he  "loved 
a  fool's  experiment,"  because  it  is  remark- 
able how  often  the  "obvious  truth"  turns 
out  to  be  wrong.) 

I  am  continually  amazed  that  lizards  so 
similar  in  other  ways — size,  shape,  color, 
diet,  and  general  behavior — can  differ  so 


profoundly  in  the  way  they  bring  forth 
their  young.  When  viviparous  species 
omit  an  external  egg  stage,  they  also  sub- 
stantially increase  the  length  of  time  dur- 
ing which  a  female  must  carry  her  devel- 
oping young. 

She  pays  a  heavy  price  for  this  burden. 
Not  only  is  she  slower  in  outrunning 
predators  and  capturing  prey,  but  her  store 
of  fat  may  be  so  reduced  as  to  impair  her 
reproductive  ability  the  following  year. 
Why  should  both  egg  laying  and  live  bear- 
ing occur  in  otherwise  similar  species? 
My  curiosity  was  piqued  about  the  pos- 
sible adaptive  advantages  of  hve  bearing. 


34    Natural  History  1/94 


Ken  Griffiths:  NHPA 


An  Australian  lowland  water  skink, 
above,  is  surrounded  by  her  brood  of 
live-bom  babies.  This  species  strongly 
asserts  territorial  claims  to  logs  or 
basking  spots.  Left:  A  female  western 
skink  broods  her  eggs  at  Gardner  Ridge, 
east  of  Brooking,  Oregon. 


Alan  D.  St.  Jotin 


35 


Australian  blacksnake  babies  emerge 
fully  formed  from  membranous  "eggs," 
above,  almost  immediately  after  the 
female  extrudes  them.  Common  in  the 
cool  Brindabella  Range,  these  venomous 
snakes  prey  on  skinks.  Collet's  snake, 
right,  a  member  of  the  same  genus  from  a 
warmer  habitat,  lays  shelled  eggs  that 
take  two  months  to  hatch. 


36    Natural  History  1/94 


What  gains  could  justify  tiie  costs? 
Both  egg  laying  and  live  bearing  can 
occur  even  within  a  single  species,  as  in 
Bougaineville's  skink,  an  almost  limbless 
burrowing  lizard  from  southeastern  Aus- 
tralia. While  mainland  populations  are  egg 
layers,  those  on  isolated  southern  islands 
produce  their  young  alive.  In  some  cases 
these  islands  are  only  a  few  miles  off  the 
coast,  and  the  egg  layers  and  live  bearers 
live  in  very  similar  habitats.  Studies  have 
shown  that  the  difference  in  reproductive 
modes  is  genetically  determined  and  not 
subject  to  short-term  change.  Since  egg 
laying  in  reptiles  is  believed  to  be  the 
primitive,  or  ancestral,  condition,  the  is- 
land populations  must  have  evolved  vi- 
viparity in  fairiy  recent  times — certainly 
since  the  last  Ice  Age. 


When  I  combed  the  literature  to  find  out 
how  many  times  viviparity  had  been 
known  to  evolve  within  lizards  and 
snakes,  I  found  many  more  examples  than 
I  had  expected:  about  a  hundred  separate 
origins  of  this  characteristic.  Furthermore, 
they  occurred  in  a  definite  pattern. 

In  ahnost  every  part  of  the  world  where 
there  are  lizards  and  snakes,  live  bearers 
are  the  dominant  type  only  in  colder  parts 
of  their  ranges.  In  the  tropical  rain  forests 
of  northern  Australia,  less  than  one-third 
of  the  lizard  and  snake  species  are  live 
bearers,  while  the  vast  majority  lay  eggs. 
But  in  the  cold  and  windy  mountains  of 
southern  Australia,  the  proportion  of  live 
bearers  rises  to  almost  100  percent  of  the 
indigenous  reptiles.  Among  the  few  spe- 
cies that  brave  even  colder  habitats,  in- 
cluding European  adders  inside  the  Arctic 
Circle,  Canadian  garter  snakes  in  the 
frigid  fields  of  Manitoba,  or  the  small 
lizards  that  scun^y  across  snowdrifts  at 
12,000-foot  elevations  in  the  Andes,  all 
are  viviparous.  Almost  a//  of  the  live  bear- 
ers that  are  closely  related  to  egg  layers — 
presumably  those  that  most  recently 
evolved  from  them — are  found  in  colder 
habitats. 

Although  viviparous  species  have 
evolved  in  many  other  animal  groups  be- 
sides reptiles,  any  correlation  between 
their  reproductive  pattern  and  cold  cli- 
mates isn't  apparent.  In  some  cases,  the  re- 
verse trend  appears.  Viviparous  sharks  and 
rays,  for  instance,  tend  to  inhabit  tropical 
or  subtropical  oceans,  while  egg-laying 
species  live  in  cooler  waters.  Among  am- 
phibians, there  are  no  clear  correlations. 
Some  European  salamanders  that  Uve  at 
low  elevations  are  egg  layers,  while  their 
high-elevation  relatives  produce  well-de- 
veloped offspring. 

Viviparity  has  also  evolved  at  least 
twice  in  tropical  amphibians,  where  pro- 
tection of  the  eggs  against  drying  out  may 
be  the  most  important  advantage  for  these 
animals.  Oddly  enough,  cold  climates 
have  not  led  to  viviparity  in  any  species  of 
birds,  although  such  cold-adapted  flight- 
less birds  as  penguins  would  seem  likely 
candidates.  Mammals  evolved  viviparity 


A  pregnant  female  agama  lizard  from  Africa 
is  an  egg  layer  She  carefully  regulates  her 
temperature  by  pushing  her  body  away 
from  the  hot  rock  while  she  basks. 


Don  W.  Fawcett 


only  once — early  among  their  egg-laying 
ancestry — and  it  eventually  spread 
throughout  almost  the  entire  group.  (Platy- 
puses and  echidnas  are  the  only  surviving 
egg-laying  mammals.) 

Reptiles  aside,  the  number  of  times  vi- 
viparity has  evolved  in  living  vertebrates 
is  small — about  ten  instances  in  sharks 
and  rays,  a  dozen  in  bony  fishes,  four  in 
amphibians,  one  in  mammals,  and  none  in 
birds.  Because  the  trait  spread  throughout 
mammaUan  Uneages  so  long  ago,  we  have 
lost  any  basis  for  a  comparative  study 
within  that  group. 

With  a  hundred  origins  of  viviparity  in 
reptiles,  however,  we  have  at  least  some 
hope  of  finding  a  plausible  explanation  as 
to  why  this  characteristic  has  evolved  so 
often.  Correlation  with  climate  may  pro- 
vide a  starting  point.  Why  should  reptiles 
show  so  many  striking  examples  of  evolv- 
ing viviparity  in  colder  habitats?  Under 
cooler  conditions,  what  factors  could  en- 
able live-bearing  reptiles  to  become  more 
successful  than  their  egg-laying  cousins? 

One  answer  was  proposed  more  than 
fifty  years  ago  by  three  scientists  (Rudolf 


37 


Photographs  by  Richard  Shine 


The  oviparous  skink  Saproscincus  mustelinum  with  her  eggs,  right,  and 
the  viviparous  species  Pseudemoia  entrecasteauxii,  below, 
are  abundant  in  many  parts  of  the  Australian  high  country. 


Mell,  Claire  Weekes,  and  A.  M.  Sergeev) 
who  had  studied  reptiles  in  three  different 
countries  (China,  Australia,  Russia)  and 
published  their  results  independently  in 
three  different  languages  (German,  Eng- 
lish, French).  All  had  noticed  that  vivipar- 
ity was  more  common  in  cold-climate  rep- 
tiles, and  each  suggested  that  embryos 
developed  inside  the  female  would  have 
better  odds  of  surviving  the  cold. 

Their  explanation  was  that  the  pregnant 
female's  warmth  insures  that  the  young 
develop  not  only  more  safely  but  also 
much  more  quickly.  Whereas  cold  soil  ex- 
poses eggs  to  dangerously  low  tempera- 
tures and  the  embryos  develop  slowly, 
eggs  kept  inside  the  female's  body  are 
warmed  whenever  she  basks  in  the  sun- 
light. Even  when  air  and  soil  temperatures 
are  close  to  freezing,  many  reptiles  can 
keep  their  own  body  temperatures  at  about 
85°  F  by  judicious  basking. 

This  idea  is  supported  by  the  timing  of 
Uzard  embryo  development.  In  the  Brind- 
abellas,  embryos  of  egg  layers  may  spend 
as  much  as  50  percent  of  their  develop- 
ment time  in  the  mother's  oviducts — 
about  a  third  longer  than  in  warmer  habi- 
tats. After  fertilization,  oviparous  females 
deposit  a  thick,  calcareous  shell  around 
their  eggs,  and  lay  them  from  forty  to  sixty 
days  later.  Eggs  laid  during  the  AustraUan 
midsummer  (December-January)  in  the 
mountains,  where  soil  temperatures  are 
low,  develop  slowly,  and  may  hatch  late  in 
autumn  (March-April).  By  contrast,  vivip- 
arous females  can  keep  their  babies  much 
warmer,  so  they  develop  more  quickly. 
Live-bearing  females  usually  give  birth  to 
living  young  in  late  summer  (February)  or 
early  autumn  (March),  at  least  a  month  be- 
fore the  eggs  of  their  oviparous  cousins 
will  hatch. 

This  head  start  for  the  young  may  be  the 
most  important  advantage  of  viviparity. 
Babies  bom  early  have  more  time  to  grow 
before  the  onset  of  winter  and  more  time 
to  locate  safe  hibernation  sites  where  they 
are  less  likely  to  freeze.  Young  lizards  that 
emerge  earUer  can  set  up  and  defend  terri- 
tories against  later  arrivals.  Also,  being 
kept  warm  during  incubation  may  result  in 


the  young  being  somehow  "better" — per- 
haps larger  or  smaller  or  fatter  or  thinner 
or  quicker  or  smarter.  Fitness  may  involve 
all  of  these  attributes  at  various  times  or  at 
different  stages  of  the  life  cycle — and  it  is 
always  relative  to  the  environment.  Many 
aspects  of  an  individual  reptile's  hfe  are 
determined  by  the  temperatures  it  experi- 
ences while  still  in  the  egg.  Incubation 
temperatures  can  affect  the  animal's  size, 
shape,  color,  basking  behavior,  agiUty,  and 
strength.  In  all  crocodiUans,  many  turtles, 
and  some  lizards,  incubation  temperatures 
even  determine  the  sex  of  the  individual. 

The  lizards  that  I  found  during  those 
frosty  Brindabella  mornings  helped  to 
confirm  some  of  the  earlier  investigators' 
ideas.  Pregnant  females  were  slowed 
down  by  their  babies,  making  them  easier 
for  predatory  snakes  to  capture.  Embryos 
that  remained  inside  viviparous  females 
were  kept  warmer,  and  did  develop  much 
faster  than  did  eggs  laid  in  natural  nests 
under  rocks  and  logs.  Overall,  this  warm- 
ing reduces  the  total  incubation  period  by 
about  one  month.  Without  this  accelerated 
development,  eggs  of  most  of  the  ovipa- 
rous species  would  not  have  enough  time 
to  hatch  before  the  onset  of  winters  (at 
least  in  cooler  years),  and  thus  would  be 
killed  by  freezing.  Short  summers  may  be 
the  reason  that  so  few  species  of  oviparous 
reptiles  reproduce  successfully  in  very 
cold  areas,  where  soU  temperatures  are  fa- 


vorable for  only  a  brief  period  each  year. 

The  data  from  the  Brindabella  skinks 
also  supported  my  hunch  that  retaining 
eggs  inside  the  female's  body  might  di- 
rectly influence  the  quality  of  the  hatch- 
lings.  I  checked  this  possibility  by  testing 
the  development  of  eggs  laid  in  captivity 
by  oviparous  skinks.  I  incubated  some  at 
normal  (soil)  temperatures,  and  others 
from  the  same  clutch  at  hotter  tempera- 
tures— simulating  the  warmth  of  a  basking 
mother's  oviducts.  Compared  with  their 
siblings  from  cool-temperature  incuba- 
tion, the  artificial  viviparous  babies  were 
shorter,  fatter,  and  generally  less  active, 
but  were  much  faster  runners  when  tested 
on  my  lizard  racetracks.  They  also  devel- 
oped more  quickly  and  hatched  earlier.  I 
carried  out  a  similar  experiment  with  one 
of  the  Uve-bearing  species  by  giving  some 
pregnant  females  access  to  more  basking 
time,  and  again  found  that  the  higher  tem- 
peratures affected  the  shape  and  behavior 
of  the  newborn  Uzard. 

I  still  don't  know  if  these  characteristics 
of  artificially  warmed  babies  would  help 
them  survive  any  better  or  grow  any  faster 
in  the  wild.  By  marking  and  releasing  lab- 
incubated  young  of  both  types  and  then  re- 
capturing them  later,  I  hope  to  learn  more. 
Meanwhile,  my  hopes  of  sleeping  until 
midmoming  have  faded  away,  and  I  am 
resigned  to  enduring  more  dawn  laughter 
from  the  Brindabella  kookaburras.        D 


38    Natural  History  1/94 


Among  Whales 

In  the  fall,  southern  right  whales  return  to  the  waters  off 
Patagonia  to  mate  and  raise  their  young 


by  Roger  Payne 

In  1970  I  read  about  a  sighting  of 
twenty  right  whales  along  a  little-traveled 
section  of  Argentine  coastline  called 
Peninsula  Valdes  (about  halfway  between 
Buenos  Aires  and  Cape  Horn).  Because 
right  whales  were  almost  extinct  before  re- 
ceiving protection  in  1937,  seeing  several 
at  once  was  a  rare  event. 

I  had  never  heard  of  Peninsula  Valdes 
but  noticed  it  was  at  the  same  latitude 
south  of  the  equator  that  Cape  Cod  is  in 
the  north.  I  knew  that  right  whales  came  to 
Cape  Cod  every  year,  even  though  they 
are  rare.  Peninsula  Valdes's  two  nearly 
landlocked  bays,  Golfo  San  Jose  on  the 
north  and  Golfo  Nuevo  on  the  south,  bear 
a  striking  similarity  to  Cape  Cod  Bay  and 
Nantucket  Sound;  and  the  combined  land- 
forms  of  Cape  Cod,  Martha's  Vineyard, 
and  Nantucket  are  so  like  Peninsula 
Valdes  that  I  wondered  whether  right 
whales  might  also  be  coming  there  each 
year.  The  New  York  Zoological  Society, 
where  I  then  worked,  provided  the  funds  to 
go  investigate,  and  so,  in  late  September 
1970,  I  went  to  Argentina  with  an  old 
friend,  Oliver  Brazier,  and  my  then  wife, 
Katharine  Payne. 

We  drove  from  Buenos  Aires  to  Rio 
Negro,  the  northern  boundary  of  Patago- 
nia, on  what  is  now  a  paved  highway  (at 
the  time  it  was  a  dirt  track  in  places).  Four 
days  later  we  stood  on  the  beach  at  Punta 
Norte,  the  northeast  point  of  Peninsula 
Valdes.  Three  right  whales  were  playing  in 
the  surf  less  than  fifty  feet  offshore. 

Lysa  Leiand 


^^li 


■iS^ 


40    Natural  History  1/94 


Adapted  from  Among  Whales,  by  Roger  Payne.  Reprinted  by  arrangement 
witti  Macmillan  Publishing  Company  Copyrigtit©  1994  by  Roger  Payne. 


■^v. 


A  subadult  right  whale,  below,  about  twelve  feet  long, 
swims  in  the  bay  ojf  Peninsula  Valdes.  Adult  southern 
right  whales  can  grow  to  fifty  feet  in  length.  Inset: 
The  cliff  hut  observation  point. 


Flip  Nicklin;  Minden  Pictures 


^*t«A. 


^^^^'i&m 


-•i,^^^^ 


In  the  days  that  followed,  we  found  the 
peninsula  to  be  one  of  the  world's  greatest 
comings-together  of  land,  sea,  and  wild- 
life. The  currents  in  the  bays,  which  can 
reach  six  knots,  are  generated  by  tides  that 
rise  and  fall  as  much  as  thirty  feet — a  tidal 
ampUtude,  the  locals  claim,  second  only  to 
that  in  the  Bay  of  Fundy.  Albatrosses,  pe- 
trels, shearwaters,  fulmars,  terns,  and  gulls 
ride  the  winds  of  the  roaring  forties,  while 
penguins  shuffle  up  beaches.  We  saw  sea 
lion  rookeries  and  elephant  seal  harems 
that  stretched  for  thirty  miles  along  the 
shore  to  where  they  dissolved  in  the  dis- 
tant heat  shimmer.  Elephant  seals  reared 
up  as  we  approached,  making  loud,  intim- 
idating belches — an  after-diimer  noise  of 
such  exquisite  vulgarity  tliat  even  the  most 
jaded  eight-year-old  boy  could  not  have 
failed  to  be  stunned  with  delight  by  them. 

One  morning  one  of  our  hosts — we 


were  guests  of  the  local  tourist  office — 
showed  Katy  a  deserted  beach  in  Golfo 
San  Jose  from  which  he  had  often  seen 
whales.  Later  that  afternoon  we  all  visited 
the  place.  It  was  less  than  a  mile  long  and 
flanked  by  tall  cliffs  that  stretched  along 
the  coast  to  the  north  and  west.  I  climbed 
the  westem  cliffs  and  walked  to  a  nearby 
headland,  where  we  later  established  an 
observation  hut.  The  wind  had  died,  and 
the  sun  was  setting  in  a  spectacular  display 
of  colors.  As  the  peace  and  stillness  seeped 
into  me,  a  whale  started  breaching  far  out 
in  the  bay,  followed  in  the  next  few  min- 
utes by  two  others  closer  to  shore.  In  all  I 
counted  thirty-two  right  whales. 

I  reaUzed  that  we  had  discovered  the  ul- 
timate place  from  which  to  study  whales,  a 
place  where  they  came  so  close  to  shore 
that  we  could  work  from  land  and  not  dis- 
turb them.  Neither  would  we  have  to  raise 


enormous  funds  to  support  the  costs  of  op- 
erating seagoing  boats.  Here  we  could 
even  bring  our  four  young  children,  and 
they  would  be  safe,  safe  among  whales. 

The  next  year,  with  fiinds  from  the  New 
York  Zoological  Society,  we  established  a 
camp  on  the  beach  and  later  a  permanent 
research  station.  Katy  and  I  lived  there  for 
almost  four  years  with  our  children,  the 
most  formative  of  their  lives  and  our  hap- 
piest as  a  family.  It  was  the  longest  I  have 
ever  hved  continuously  in  the  wild,  and 
this  stretch  of  Patagonian  coast  became 
my  heart's  home. 

Since  we  founded  Whale  Camp  twenty- 
three  years  ago,  I  have  returned  to  Penin- 
sula Valdes  every  year  between  August 
and  mid-November  (with  the  exception  of 
three  seasons  when  others  were  present  to 
do  the  work) — the  longest  continuous 
study  of  a  whale  species  based  on  recog- 


42    Natural  History  1/94 


The  right  whale 's  baleen,  left,  allows  it  to 
filter  copepods  and  krillfrom  the  sea. 
Here  the  whale  is  probably  not  feeding 
but  skimming  along  the  surface  to  cool  off 
in  the  warm  winter  waters. 

James  D.  Watt;  Planet  Earttl  Pictures 


nized  individuals.  We  can  now  identify 
more  than  1,200  individuals.  Some  we 
have  seen  hundreds  of  times;  others  we 
have  never  seen  again  because  they  were 
either  passing  through  or  have  subse- 
quently died. 

Nothing  is  more  exciting  than  seeing 
the  first  whales  arrive  at  Peninsula  Valdes 
for  the  winter.  Each  year  these  whales 
make  the  long  migration  from  the  cold, 
subpolar  waters  of  Antarctica  to  winter  in 
Patagonia's  warmer  waters.  Their  enor- 
mous size  and  thick  blubber  are  adapta- 
tions enabling  them  to  keep  warm  enough 
and  swim  far  enough  to  gain  access  to  the 
most  enormous  blooms  of  food  on  the 
planet — the  annual  swarms  of  krill  in  the 
icy  Antarctic  Ocean — as  well  as  to  return 
to  their  warmer  wintering  grounds  to  mate 
and  give  birth  to  young. 

The  pregnant  females  in  our  Argentine 


population  probably  make  the  1 ,400-mile 
swim  without  eating.  They  linger  in  the 
bays  of  Peninsula  Valdes  for  up  to  four 
months,  during  which  time  they  give  birth 
to  a  calf  Although  a  mother  may  get  an 
occasional  snack,  she  is  basically  fasting. 
(Normally,  right  whales  catch  their  prey 
by  skim  feeding;  we've  recently  discov- 
ered, however,  that  the  whales  of  Penin- 
sula Valdes  are  not  feeding  when  they 
swim  along  with  their  mouths  open  but  are 
probably  cooling  off  in  the  warm  waters 
through  a  heat-exchange  mechanism 
along  the  roof  of  the  mouth.) 

For  months  after  her  calf  is  bom,  a 
mother  pumps  massive  quantities  of  rich, 
creamy  milk  into  the  calf,  which  may  gain 
as  much  as  125  pounds  a  day — at  least  in 
the  first  few  weeks — while  also  putting  on 
a  thick  blubber  coat.  At  the  end  of  this  pe- 
riod, the  mother — still  fasting — leaves  the 
wintering  grounds  with  her  calf  and  swims 
all  1,400  miles  back  to  the  feeding 
grounds.  We  are  still  not  certain  that  we 
have  found  the  main  summer  copepod  and 
krill  basket  for  Peninsula  Valdes's  right 
whales  (although  South  Georgia  does  look 
like  a  good  bet,  as  do  the  waters  around 
Tristan  da  Cunha). 

We  can  watch  the  mothers  and  calves 
closely  from  our  observation  hut  (called 
the  cliff  hut),  located  above  the  only  place 
for  miles  where  the  cliffs  plunge  straight 
into  the  water.  When  the  tide  is  halfway  up 
the  cliff  or  higher,  the  water  is  just  deep 
enough  for  whales  to  swim  directly  below 
the  hut.  Mothers  with  calves  faithfully  fol- 
low the  16.5-foot-depth  contour  at  Penin- 
sula Valdes,  (just  deep  enough  for  a  large 
mother  to  be  clear  of  the  bottom  but  not 
enough  to  allow  attacks  on  her  calf  from 
below  by  killer  whales  and  sharks).  They 
are  creatures  of  habit  and  will  swim  to  ex- 
actly the  same  area — even  the  same 
rock — year  after  year.  Once  they  start  hav- 
ing calves,  they  return  to  the  bays  of 
Peninsula  Valdes  once  every  three  years. 
So  while  following  the  16.5-foot  contour, 
they  swim  along  almost  touching  the 
cliffs.  Hundreds  of  whale-sized  underwa- 
ter niches  in  the  eroded  hardpan  along  the 
shore  provide  shelter. 


Satellite  photographs  of  Cape  Cod,  top, 
and  Peninsula  Valdes  show  striking 
similarities  in  landforms. 

Roger  Payne 


The  places  chosen  by  mother  whales  to 
defend  their  calves,  unlike  the  niches 
where  they  hide,  are  open  areas  with  soft, 
sandy  bottoms  and  plenty  of  room  on 
every  side  from  which  to  launch  cata- 
clysmic haymakers.  Right  whales  defend 
themselves  with  their  tails,  which  they 
sweep  sideways  with  stunning  effect.  (In 
this  sense  they  are  like  the  "undefended" 
apatosaurus  now  believed  to  have  fought 
off  attackers  by  sweeping  them  off  their 
feet  with  its  massive  tail,  perhaps  even 
breaking  or  disjointing  hmbs  in  the  proc- 
ess.) I  suspect  that  if  a  person  were  struck 
by  a  right  whale's  tail,  the  blow  might  well 
be  deadly. 

1  once  watched  a  pack  of  killer  whales 
move  along  a  line  of  female  right  whales 
and  their  calves.  As  the  orcas  approached 
a  mother  and  calf,  the  mother  would  flex 
her  body,  cocking  her  tail  for  a  blow  to- 
ward the  closest  killer  whale.  They  never 
attacked.  From  the  cliff  hut,  Katy  observed 
a  nearby  group  of  mothers  form  a  ring 
around  the  calves  as  killer  whales  passed 
nearby.  With  their  heads  directed  toward 
the  center  of  the  circle,  they  thrashed  the 
water  frantically  with  their  flukes.  Had 


43 


Roger  Payne 


Old-time  whalers  referred  to  the  callosities  on  the  right  whale's  snout 
as  the  "bonnet,"  below.  The  unique  patterns  of  these  callosities 
identify  individual  whales.  Right:  Usually  most  of  the  individuals  in  a 
mating  group,  like  the  one  here,  are  males  in  pursuit  of  a  single 
female  that  is  the  center  of  attention. 


any  orca  tried  to  get  at  the  calves  in  the 
middle  of  the  ring,  it  would  probably  have 
been  killed  outright. 

Females  with  calves  appear  to  form  the 
center  of  the  herd  in  our  comer  of  the  bay, 
but  over  the  years — through  observations 
from  the  cliffs,  boats,  and  the  air — we 
have  been  able  to  piece  together  other  in- 
formation about  the  herd's  overall  struc- 
ture and  movements.  Joining  the  primary 
mother-calf  unit  are  subaduh  males  and 
females,  whose  mothers  have  given  birth 
to  new  calves.  After  a  few  years  of  travel- 
ing with  this  group,  however,  young  males 
disappear,  perhaps  going  off  to  live  with 
other  males,  while  the  females  remain 
with  the  group  until  the  year  they  give 
birth  to  their  first  calf,  when  they  are  be- 
tween five  and  nine  years  of  age.  We  don't 
know  where  the  females  go  between  calv- 
ing years;  we  only  know  that  they  subse- 
quently reappear  every  three  years  on  av- 
erage with  a  new  calf. 

Covering  up  to  twelve  miles  in  a  day, 
the  herd  doesn't  take  up  a  station  at  just 
any  point  along  the  shore,  but  moves  back 
and  forth  along  a  fixed  and  relatively  small 
stretch  of  the  coastUne.  Once  estabhshed, 
the  beat  remains  the  same  for  years,  usu- 
ally between  headlands  projecting  out 
from  the  general  contour  of  the  coast.  This 


behavior  makes  sense  given  the  underly- 
ing acoustics,  as  points  of  land  cast  under- 
water acoustic  shadows,  and  we  suspect 
that  right  whales  use  sound  as  a  means  of 
staying  together  in  herds. 

Along  the  most  extensive  sandy 
beaches  of  the  peninsula,  the  mothers 
stretch  out  across  the  water  each  day  like 
beads  on  a  chain.  Look  at  them  in  the 
morning,  and  the  whole  group  appears  sta- 
tionary, a  mother  every  half-mile  or  so. 
Look  again  at  lunch  time,  and  sometimes 
the  entire  herd  has  moved  as  much  as  six 
miles,  but  their  spacing  is  still  more  or  less 
intact.  Females  appear  to  help  themselves 
to  the  best  areas — a  long  beach,  protected 
from  the  full  force  of  wind  and  storm 
waves,  with  a  gently  sloping  sand  bot- 
tom— and  to  push  everyone  else  out, 
which  is  just  what  seems  to  happen. 

We  have  learned  to  identify  individuals 
by  callosities — patches  of  thickened  skin 
distributed  on  the  top,  front,  and  sides  of  a 
whale's  head — which  make  a  whale  rec- 
ognizable from  all  directions  except  from 
below.  Callosities  tend  to  be  more  devel- 
oped in  males  than  females,  and  males 
seem  to  use  their  callosities  for  fighting, 
the  way  bulls  use  their  homs — only  not  for 
gouging  but  for  scraping  opponents. 
Thousands  of  external  parasites,  called 


cyamids,  or  whale  hce,  cover  the  naturally 
gray  callous  tissue  so  thoroughly  they 
make  it  look  white.  As  the  cyamids  feed 
on  the  thickened,  dead  skin  of  the  callosi- 
ties, they  sculpt  the  tissue  into  distinctive 
forms.  Another  way  to  identify  individual 
whales  is  by  their  distinctive  white  belly 
markings,  ff  we  are  diving  in  murky  water, 
these  bright  white  markings  look  almost 
luminous  and  are  clearly  visible  long  be- 
fore the  rest  of  the  whale  looms  into  view. 
Callosities  and  belly  patches  probably  also 
enable  the  whales  to  identify  and  recog- 
nize one  another. 

Although  the  whales  of  Peninsula 
Valdes  appear  to  be  active  day  and  night, 
mornings  are  their  favored  time  for  sleep- 
ing, and  when  the  morning  is  especially 
calm  and  sunny,  they  are  scattered 
throughout  the  bay  like  drifting  logs,  with 
the  sounds  of  their  snores  filling  the  air. 
When  their  nostrils  don't  open  and  close 
cleanly,  the  snores  sound  like  deep  growls, 


44    Natural  History  1/94 


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which,  when  heard  at  night,  may  sound 
scary  to  the  uninitiated. 

When  a  mother  falls  asleep  in  the  shal- 
lows, the  faUing  tide  lowers  her  slowly  to- 
ward the  sea  bed.  Often  her  flippers  dig 
deep  into  the  sand  before  she  wakes  up 
and  moves.  This  leaves  obvious  flipper 
impressions,  which,  if  the  day  is  cakn,  sur- 
vive the  falling  tides  so  we  often  can  walk 
out  to  where  the  whale  was  sleeping  and 
admire  her  flipper  prints.  As  we  stand  be- 
tween them  on  the  vast,  draining  tide  flats, 
the  scale  of  these  marks  is  an  eloquent 
statement  of  just  how  big  the  whales  are. 

Aside  from  these  tranquil  activities,  the 
whales  are  engaged  in  courtship  and  mat- 
ing when  in  residence  at  Peninsula  Valdes. 
Surrounding  the  central  core  of  mothers 
are  groups  of  adult  males,  scattered  widely 
about  in  the  middle  of  the  bay.  They  ap- 
pear to  be  doing  nothing  except  for  engag- 
ing in  occasional  bouts  of  furious  breach- 
ing— ^possible  challenges  to  the  group  of 


males  that  has  taken  up  a  position  closest 
to  the  coast  and  with  the  greatest  access  to 
the  females.  We  do  not  yet  know  exactly 
what  is  going  on,  but  perhaps  the  males 
nearest  the  shore  help  reduce  the  pressure 
from  other  males  on  the  mothers  with 
calves  (thus  increasing  the  chances  that 
calves  will  not  be  injured). 

There  is  no  pair  bonding,  and  on  any 
given  day  a  male  may  mate  with  several 
females.  But  since  a  female  is  slightly 
larger  than  a  male,  she  can  easily  avoid  un- 
wanted mating  attempts.  Whales  mate 
belly-to-belly,  so  one  of  the  female's 
strategies  is  to  swim  into  shallow  water 
and  scrape  the  male  off  on  the  bottom. 
Once,  when  a  male  managed  to  squeeze 
himself  under  a  female  in  shaUow  water,  I 
saw  her  flex  her  back  dramatically  so  that 
her  head  and  tail  Ufted  out  of  the  water  into 
the  air,  bringing  many  tons  of  weight  bear- 
ing down  on  top  of  him.  He  left. 

Another  strategy:  Instead  of  lying  beUy 


up,  the  female  puts  her  tail  in  the  air,  hold- 
ing it  there  for  minutes  at  a  time.  If  the 
male  is  to  mate  with  her  in  this  position,  he 
must  put  his  tail  into  the  air  alongside  hers. 
But  without  his  tail  to  act  as  a  propeller,  he 
can't  swim.  He  has  to  use  his  flippers  to 
drag  his  whole  body,  held  in  a  vertical, 
head-down  position,  around  her  as  he  tries 
to  achieve  proper  alignment  with  her. 
Meanwhile,  she  simply  revolves  slowly 
about  her  own  long  axis,  keeping  her  ven- 
tral slit  just  out  of  reach,  and  when  she 
needs  to  breathe,  she  slips  off  to  one  side 
and  grabs  a  few  breaths.  Whenever  a  per- 
sistent male  tries  to  get  beneath  her,  she 
roUs  forward  and  raises  her  tail  into  the  air 
once  again. 

A  male's  testes  weigh  2,200  pounds, 
making  them  the  largest  on  earth  (and  par- 
ticularly impressive  when  compared  with 
the  150-pound  testes  of  the  blue  whale,  the 
largest  animal  in  the  world).  Presumably 
such  large  testicles  have  evolved  because 


45 


Rip  Nicklin;  Minden  Pictures 


A  mother  and  large  calf  rest  in  shallow  water,  below.  A  right  whale, 
opposite,  breaches  off  Peninsula  Valdes. 


Roger  Payne 


of  the  right  whale's  mating  system,  in 
which  multiple  males  compete  to  insemi- 
nate the  female.  The  one  who  gets  the 
most  sperm  into  the  female  will  have  the 
best  chance  of  being  the  father  of  a  calf. 

Yet  by  cooperating  rather  than  compet- 
ing, males  gain  at  least  some  chance  of 
mating  with  a  female.  In  our  bay,  we  have 
seen  groups  of  males  stay  together  for  pe- 
riods of  at  least  six  weeks.  We  are  not  sure 
yet  how  they  are  related  or  how  they  got 
together  in  the  first  place,  but  we  have 
watched  such  groups  try  to  push  a  female, 
who  was  lying  belly  up  and  inaccessible, 
under  the  water  so  one  of  them  could  mate 
with  her. 

We  suspect  that  many  of  the  groups  are 
made  up  of  related  males,  hi  a  group  of 
brothers,  even  if  one  whale  gets  less  than 
his  rightful  share  of  successful  matings,  he 
still  shares  roughly  half  the  genes  that  his 
more  successful  brother  passed  along  to 
the  next  generation.  If  groups  of  related 
males  are  thus  favored,  this  would  explain 
why  every  year,  for  three  years,  some 
young  males  return  to  the  same  breeding 
areas  to  gather  with  their  brothers. 

We've  also  noticed  tliat  while  a  mother 
discourages  her  calf  from  playing  (be- 
cause the  mother  has  to  provide  all  of  the 
calf's  caloric  intake  at  a  time  when  she  is 


fasting),  she  will  allow  her  calf  to  play 
with  subadults,  at  least  some  of  which  are 
her  calves  from  previous  years.  In  this 
way,  two  related  males  can  get  to  know 
each  other  so  that  later,  when  both  are  sex- 
ually mature,  they  may  become  members 
of  the  same  mating  group. 

The  sense  of  tranquillity,  of  hfe  without 
urgency,  power  without  aggression,  has 
won  my  heart  to  whales.  One  time  I 
watched  a  mother  frustrate  her  calf's  at- 
tempts at  nursing  by  moving  into  shallow 
water  where  the  calf  could  not  get  under- 
neath her  to  nurse — ^just  the  way  she 
would  lead  a  male  into  water  too  shallow 
for  him  to  fit  beneath  her  The  calf  still 
pestered  her,  so  she  rolled  on  her  back, 
easing  herself  under  the  calf  and  cradling 
it  in  her  flippers.  She  then  came  up  from 
below,  stranding  the  calf  high  and  dry  on 
her  chest,  and  patting  it  slowly. 

As  the  season  at  Peninsula  Valdes  nears 
its  end,  the  right  whales  ease  themselves 
out  through  the  entrance  to  Golfo  San 
Jose,  perhaps  to  rendezvous  briefly  with 
companions  and  acquaintances  at  Punta 
Norte  and  then  set  out  across  the  vast 
South  Atlantic  toward  eitiier  South  Geor- 
gia or  Tristan  da  Cunha.  I  always  wonder  if 
I  will  see  them  again  and  what  revelations 
I  will  be  privileged  to  witness.  D 


46    Natural  History  1/94 


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Thousands  of  Mexican  free-tailed  bats  emerge  at  dusk  from  a 
cave  entrance  at  Carlsbad  Caverns  National  Park,  New  Mexico. 

John  Cancalosi 


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Wings  on  Their  Fingers 

Despite  50  million  years  of  evolution,  bats  don't  become  expert  fliers  overnight 

by  Rick  A.  Adams  and  Scott  C.  Pedersen 


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As  the  sun  sets,  we  approach  the  exit 
hole  of  a  maternity  colony  of  little  brown 
bats  {Myotis  lucifugus)  that  has  taken  up 
residence  in  the  historic  armory  at  Fort 
Laramie,  Wyoming.  This  colony  contains 
only  females  and  young;  the  males  gather 
in  bachelor  colonies  several  miles  away.  A 
few  feet  from  the  hole  in  the  building's 
wall,  we  block  the  bats'  exit  path  with  our 
harp  trap,  a  large  metal  frame  vertically 
strung  with  more  than  two  hundred  wires 
spaced  an  inch  apart. 

At  dusk,^  several  adult  bats  leave  the 
colony  to  begin  their  nightly  insect  hunt. 
The  first  flies  toward  the  trap,  stops  in 
midair,  hovers,  deftly  backs  away,  and  es- 
capes capture.  A  second  adult  quickly 
folds  up  into  a  cannonball,  barrels  force- 
fully between  the  wires,  then  flies  away  on 
the  wind.  Another  shps  through  sideways, 
its  wings  perpendicular  to  the  ground. 
Barely  tapping  the  wires,  it  leaves  us 
amazed  at  its  split-second  timing  and  acro- 
batic skills. 

Moments  later,  a  juvenile  exiting  the 
colony  awkwardly  attempts  an  evasive 
maneuver,  but  hits  the  trap  and  drops  gen- 
tly into  a  capture  sack  below.  In  quick  suc- 
cession, several  other  juveniles  tumble  out 
of  the  exit  hole,  only  to  join  their  clumsy 
comrade  in  the  sack.  Within  a  few  min- 
utes, we  have  bagged  a  dozen  surprised, 
but  unharmed,  juvenile  little  brown  bats. 

Bats,  the  only  true  flying  mammals,  are 
thought  to  have  evolved  more  than  50  mil- 
lion years  ago,  during  the  Eocene  period, 
from  an  insectivorous  ancestor  related  to 
moles  and  shrews.  Anatomists  have 
known  for  at  least  three  hundred  years  that 
a  bat's  wing  contains  finger  bones  of  the 
same  form,  number,  and  relative  position 
as  those  of  the  human  hand.  The  scientific 
name  for  this  mammalian  order  is  Chi- 
roptera  (hand-wing),  implying  that  the 
bat's  wing  differs  from  other  mammals' 
forelimbs  only  in  shape  and  proportion. 
Indeed,  each  wing  is  composed  of  an  elon- 
gated forearm  and,  except  for  the  thumb, 
extremely  long  fingers  sandwiched  be- 
tween two  thin  sheets  of  skin.  The  diminu- 
tive thumb  is  left  free.  Elastic  webbmg 
connects  the  fingers  to  one  another  and 


49 


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Bill  Beatty 


Not  yet  able  to  fly,  a  juvenile  little  brown  bat,  left,  clings  head-up 
to  a  tree  trunk.  Wlien  landing,  older  bats  execute  a  flip  that 
allows  them  to  hang  from  their  feet.  Magnified  ten  times,  a 
stained  embryo  of  a  little  brown  bat,  below,  about  thirty  flve  days 
old,  shows  early  bone  development.  Cartilage  appears  in  blue 
and  bone  in  red.  Fingers  have  begun  to  elongate  for  their 
eventual  fiinction  as  wing  struts. 

Rick  A.  Adams  and  Scott  C.  Pedersen 


then  to  the  body,  forming  a  broad  wing 
surface.  A  similar  membrane  spreads  be- 
tween the  legs  and  tail,  completing  an  air 
foil  that  surrounds  the  entire  body.  Most 
insect-eating  bat  species  strike  the  insects 
with  their  wings,  then  grasp  the  stunned 
prey  with  their  feet. 

Juveniles  are  not  as  agile  or  maneuver- 
able  as  adult  bats.  One  reason,  of  course,  is 
simply  inexperience,  but  restrictions  asso- 
ciated with  growth  and  development  also 


handicap  young  fliers.  Bats  first  attempt  to 
fly  when  they  are  about  four  weeks  old, 
but  their  wings  are  still  underdeveloped.  In 
some  species,  including  most  insectivo- 
rous bats,  youngsters  have  only  about  20 
percent  of  the  adult  wingspan.  Yet  in  four 
weeks,  the  rest  of  the  juvenile's  body  may 
have  reached  60  percent  of  the  adult  size. 
This  imbalanced  development  leaves  the 
young  in  a  precarious  situation,  for  their 
early  flights  are  awkward  at  best.  In  fact,  it 


is  not  uncommon  at  our  maternity  site  to 
observe  what  appear  to  be  very  disgrun- 
ded  young  bats  walking  back  to  the  roost 
after  having  apparently,  for  whatever  rea- 
son, given  up  on  flying  for  that  night. 
Their  wings  reach  full  size  about  forty  to 
fifty  days  after  birth. 

A  bat's  ability  to  fly  is  preceded  by  a 
long  process  that  begins  well  before  it  is 
born.  Although  some  researchers  have 
studied  the  development  of  flight  in  bats, 
little  work  had  been  done  on  bone  forma- 
tion in  their  wings.  By  focusing  on  the 
growth  studies,  we  hope  to  shed  light  on 
the  diversity  and  plasticity  of  the  ancestral 
vertebrate  body  plan:  four  limbs,  each 
ending  in  five  digits.  We  are  interested  in 
the  unique  developmental  events  that 
allow  bats  to  transform  an  otherwise  "stan- 
dard issue"  mammalian  embryo  into  an 
airborne  SiCvo-bat. 

To  observe  growth  rates  and  the  differ- 
entiation of  anatomical  structures  in  pre- 
served embryos,  we  used  special  chemical 
stains  that  migrate  to  difl'erent  kinds  of  tis- 
sues, a  technique  that  had  not  previously 
been  appUed  to  the  little  brown  bat.  Alcian 
blue  combines  with  certain  sugars  (rnu- 
copolysaccharides)  in  the  developing  car- 
tilage, while  aUzarine  red  lodges  in  the  cal- 
cium found  in  developing  bone.  After 
staining,  the  embryo  is  "cleared"  using  an 
enzyme  (usually  trypsin)  that  digests 
much  of  the  remaining  skin,  muscle,  and 
connective  tissue.  Now  the  embryo  speci- 
men becomes  translucent,  allowing  a  clear 
view  of  the  stained  bones  and  cartilages. 
The  final  preparation  is  rather  like  a  three- 
dimensional,  color  version  of  an  X-ray 
image. 

In  mammals,  most  skeletal  elements 
begin  as  cartilage  "models,"  or  precursors 
of  adult  structures.  As  each  bone  develops, 
the  cartilage  becomes  infused  with  cal- 
cium salts  that  will  eventually  form  a  hard, 
hollow  matrix.  As  more  salts  are  de- 
posited, the  cartilage  is  eventually  re- 
placed by  ossified  calcium,  at  which  point 
the  bone  stops  growing. 

Most  bats  develop  in  utero  for  about 
fifty  to  sixty  days,  but  we  began  to  see  sig- 
nificant developments  in  the  skeleton 


51 


Stephen  Dallon;  NHPA 


A  roosting  little  brown  bat,  below,  exposes  its  daggerlike  teeth, 
evolved  for  crunching  the  exoskeletons  of  insects.  Right:  A  mouse 
fieesfrom  a  dive-bombing  false  vampire  bat,  a  Southeast  Asian 
species.  Bats  that  feed  on  small  mammals  have  stronger  wings  tlian 
do  insect-eating  bats  but  are  less  versatile  aerial  acrobats. 


Wayne  Lankinen;  Bruce  Coleman.  Inc. 


about  thirty-five  days  after  fertilization.  At 
this  stage,  the  cartilaginous  model  for  the 
entire  skeletal  system  had  already  formed. 
In  fact,  some  calcification  had  begun  in  the 
lower  jaw  (dentary)  and  collar  bone  (clav- 
icle), as  indicated  by  their  absorption  of 
red  stain.  The  embryo's  eyes,  which  had 
long  been  apparent  as  small  black  dots, 
now  appeared  as  larger,  hollow  spheres.  Its 
mitten- shaped,  cartilaginous  hands  with 
incipient  models  of  each  finger  were  also 
visible.  The  hand  was  about  one-third  the 
size  of  the  head,  which  is  about  average 
for  many  mammaUan  species  at  this  stage. 
No  features  indicated  that  this  embryo  was 
to  become  a  flying  mammal. 

Only  near  the  beginning  of  the  third 
trimester,  about  forty  days  into  gestation, 
did  the  fetus  begin  to  appear  distinctly 
"batlike."  As  development  continued,  the 
fingers  grew  at  an  accelerated  rate  that 
outpaced  that  of  the  body — the  first  indi- 
cation of  the  formation  of  wings.  We  could 
now  see  bone  at  the  centers  of  the  hmbs;  it 
would  continue  to  be  deposited  outward 
toward  both  ends,  which  is  typical  for 
mammals.  At  this  stage,  we  also  saw  cal- 
cification of  the  cartilaginous  ribs,  scapula, 
and  the  spine. 

Dramatic  changes  now  took  place  in  the 


fingers,  which  continued  their  accelerated 
growth  until,  just  before  birth,  they  ex- 
ceeded the  length  of  the  forearm.  At  the 
end  of  the  third  trimester,  the  feet  were  al- 
most fully  developed;  the  toes  and  thumbs 
had  grown  claws.  These  little  hooks  will 
allow  the  juvenile  bat  to  cling  to  its 
mother's  fur  immediately  after  birth.  In  a 
few  more  days,  a  newborn  can  hang  from 
its  feet  in  the  roost  while  its  mother  leaves 
the  colony  to  feed. 

Although  the  most  striking  feature  of 
bats  is  certainly  their  wings,  other  anatom- 
ical features  show  a  unique  pattern  of 
growth.  The  timing  of  their  dental  devel- 
opment, for  instance,  is  different  from  that 
of  most  other  mammals.  Their  highly  re- 
curved milk  teeth,  which  are  apparent  pre- 
natally,  are  probably  adapted  for  grasping 
the  mother's  nipple  while  suckling. 
Whereas  most  mammals  retain  their  milk 
teeth  for  months,  some  bat  species  lose 
these  teeth  soon  after  birth  and  have  adult 
denfition  even  before  they  are  weaned.  In 
other  species,  the  process  begins  before 
birth.  The  molars  that  really  grind  the 
food,  and  do  not  have  milk  teeth  precur- 
sors, typically  begin  erupting  in  utero. 
This  early  start  may  mean  the  difference 
between  life  and  death  for  young  bats  by 


52    Natural  History  1/94 


nt'. 


A  moth  attempts  an  evasive  movement 
as  an  echolocating  greater  horseshoe  bat 
approaches.  The  bone  development  of 
these  bats,  which  are  native  to  Europe, 
Asia,  and  North  Africa,  is  adapted  for 
maneuverability  in  flight. 

Stephen  Dalton;  NHPA 


allowing  them  to  ingest  an  adult  diet  al- 
most as  soon  as  they  begin  flying.  By  con- 
trast, young  mice  must  eat  a  soft  diet  for 
some  time  until  their  adult  teeth  come  in. 

As  the  juveniles  begin  to  be  weaned, 
both  their  teeth  and  wings  develop  enough 
to  allow  attempts  at  hunting  insects  in 
flight.  About  a  week  after  they  begin  fly- 
ing, they  shift  to  the  adult  diet  of  moths, 
flies,  and  beetles.  Now  their  teeth  are  ca- 
pable of  masticating  food,  but  young  bats' 
abihty  to  capture  prey  remains  limited  by 
underdeveloped  wings  and  inexperience. 

During  the  three  weeks  after  birth  and 
just  before  its  first  flight,  a  juvenile  bat's 
wings  develop  faster  than  they  did  in  the 
prepartum  period.  At  the  time  of  their  first 
flight,  the  wingspan  of  a  little  brown  bat 
may  be  only  20  percent  of  an  average 
adult's. 

Because  they  receive  elaborate  parental 
care  in  the  maternal  roost,  most  newborn 
bats  survive  the  first  few  weeks  of  life. 
After  juveniles  begin  to  take  flight,  how- 
ever, the  mortahty  rate  soars,  and  most  do 
not  make  it  through  the  first  year.  Because 
a  growing  bat's  wings  change  somewhat 
in  size  and  shape  practically  every  fime  it 
attempts  to  fly,  there  are  subtle  but  notice- 
able changes  in  wing  performance. 

If  someone  were  confinuaUy  changing 
your  car's  power  and  cornering  ability 
while  you  were  learning  to  drive,  you  can 
imagine  how  difficult  it  would  be  to  avoid 
disaster.  An  analogous  situation  exists  for 
young,  newly  flying  bats. 

Among  insectivorous  species,  the 
young  must  quickly  become  capable  of 
capturing  enough  insects  to  fuel  a  heart 
rate  that  exceeds  1, 100  beats  per  minute  in 
flight.  When  grounded  because  of  exhaus- 
tion or  poor  flight  skills,  the  young  are 
soon  gobbled  up  by  raccoons,  skunks, 
snakes,  or  coyotes.  But  even  though  "de- 
velopment on  the  wing"  is  a  highly  precar^ 
ious  adventure,  more  than  nine  hundred 
different  species  of  bats  have  evolved 
throughout  the  world — about  25  percent 
of  all  living  mammalian  species.  With  all 
its  perils  and  improbabilities,  "batness" 
has  been  a  tremendously  successful  en- 
deavor for  these  mammals.  D 

54    Natural  History  1/94 


Microdon  pipen  flies  develop  within  small  chambers  called 
puparia,  below,  formed  from  the  skin  of  the  flies'  last  larval 
stage.  A  scanning  electron  micrograph,  right,  reveals  the 
intricately  sculptured  surface  of  the  larval  skin. 

Photographs  by  Gregory  Paulson 


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56    Natural  History  1/94 


A  Fly  in  Ant's  Clothing 


Beware  of  larval  imposters 
by  Gregory  Paulson  and  Roger  D.  Akre 


As  the  sun  rises,  the  dull  thud  of  an  ax 
echoes  through  a  valley  in  northern  Idaho. 
A  group  of  elk,  startled  by  the  sound, 
begin  to  move  purposefully  toward  the 
forest,  when  the  sudden  roar  of  a  chain 
saw  sends  them  headlong  toward  the  shel- 
ter of  the  trees.  The  cause  of  this  commo- 
tion is  not  another  logging  operation; 
rather,  it  is  our  research  team  in  search  of 
Microdon — the  subject  of  our  long-term 
study.  Microdon  are  syrphid  flies,  also 
known  as  flower  or  hover  flies,  and  they 
live  most  of  their  lives  in  the  nests  of  so- 
cial insects.  Although  some  tropical  Mi- 
crodon live  with  wasps,  the  North  Ameri- 
can species  we  study  are  associated  only 
with  ants.  We  have  gathered  them  from 
colonies  of  carpenter  ants  and  from  the 
nests  of  Formica  ants  in  stumps  and  logs. 
Hence  the  need  for  our  sophisticated  col- 
lection equipment:  an  ax,  a  pry  bar,  and  a 
chain  saw. 

Most  of  our  coUecting  expeditions  have 
been  carried  out  in  the  northwestern 
United  States,  particularly  in  northern 
Idaho.  We  have  also  "stalked"  Microdon 
in  the  Midwest,  from  the  Black  Hills  of 
South  Dakota  to  the  forests  of  northern 
Minnesota.  While  Microdon  are  fairly 
easy  to  find  once  you  know  exactly  where 
to  look,  tiiey  are  not  common.  This  prob- 
ably holds  true  for  most  inquiUnes,  insects 
that  reside  in  the  nests  of  other  insects. 
Most  have  a  parasitic  or  predatory  symbi- 
otic relationship  with  their  hosts.  Their 
strategy  is  to  live  in  the  midst  of  their 
hosts — and  subtly  live  off  them — without 
being  detected. 

Each  year  we  begin  our  studies  as  soon 
as  the  snow  melts.  Mature  Microdon  lar- 
vae overwinter  deep  within  the  ant  nest.  In 
spring,  they  move  to  the  surface  of  the  nest 
to  pupate.  This  is  when  they  are  easiest  to 
find  and  extract.  If  the  ant  colony  is  within 
a  decayed  stump  or  log,  as  is  frequently 
the  case,  the  larvae  and  pupae  wiU  be  read- 
ily visible  when  the  wood  is  split  open 
with  an  ax  or  pry  bar.  Microdon,  like  all 
"higher"  flies,  pupate  within  a  chamber,  or 
puparium,  formed  from  the  skin  of  the 
final  larval  stage.  The  larvae  secrete  a  glue 
that  tightly  bonds  with  the  wood  and  holds 


the  puparium  in  place  as  the  pupa  devel- 
ops and,  later,  as  the  adult  emerges.  Adult 
Microdon  are  quite  hairy  and  range  from 
gray  to  orange  depending  on  the  species. 
Microdon  piperi  adults  are  a  striking 
metallic  green  and  are  strong  and  agile 
fliers.  They  live  only  long  enough  to  mate 
and  lay  eggs,  often  in  the  same  nest  from 
which  they  fliemselves  emerged.  We  are 
most  intrigued,  however,  not  by  the  beau- 
tiful adults,  but  by  the  biology,  morphol- 
ogy, and  behavior  of  the  immamre  forms 
of  Microdon. 

Perhaps  because  of  their  sluglike  ap- 
pearance, Microdon  larvae  were  at  first 
misidentified  as  mollusks  and  later  as  scale 
insects;  their  true  identity  as  flies  was  not 
revealed  until  the  1880s.  How  they  survive 
was  long  debated,  but  since  the  1970s,  sci- 
entists have  known  that  some  species  prey 
on  ant  larvae.  The  extent  and  the  exact 
mode  of  predation  were  unknown  until 
1985,  when  one  of  the  larval  sttategies 
came  to  hght. 

In  an  experiment,  Wilham  Gamett,  of 
the  University  of  Cincinnati,  placed  many 
first  instars  (the  first  of  three  larval  stages) 
in  a  glass-sided  observation  nest  complete 
with  host  ants  and  their  brood.  Previously, 
most  entomologists  had  thought  fliat  the 
first  instars  dispersed  immediately  upon 
hatching,  settling  deep  within  the  ant  nest. 
In  this  experiment,  most  of  the  larvae 
under  observation  had  disappeared  and 
were  thought  to  be  dead.  One  remained, 
however,  and  at  about  1/32  inch  long  was 
visible  only  through  a  dissecting  micro- 
scope. It  was  clinging  to  the  outer  surface 
of  an  ant  cocoon.  The  magnification  re- 
vealed the  larva  becoming  rounder  and 
rounder,  as  if  it  were  exerting  pressure  to 
distort  its  shape.  Suddenly,  it  was  simply 
gone.  A  httle  time  and  deductive  reason- 
ing led  to  the  conclusion  that  the  larva  had 
inserted  its  mouth  hooks  into  the  silken 
cocoon  and  created  a  hole  large  enough  to 
allow  it  to  enter.  When  the  instar  had  ex- 
erted enough  pressure  and  the  hole  was 
large  enough,  the  larva  quickly  popped  in- 
side (and  a  new  term,  "pupa  poppmg," 
was  coined).  The  disappearing  larvae  were 
simply  inside  the  cocoons,  feeding  on  the 


57 


A  larval  Microdon,  mimicking  an  ant  larva,  is  grasped  by  an  adult  Formica 
ant,  to  be  carried  away  for  safekeeping.  The  papery  cocoon  just  under  the 
Microdon  holds  an  ant  pupa. 


Roger  D.  Akre 


ant  pupae  and  molting  into  the  next  larval 
stage.  The  discovery  of  pupa  popping 
proved  invaluable  to  our  work.  It  ex- 
plained why  newly  hatched  Microdon  had 
rarely  been  found  before  in  the  field  and 
provided  us  with  an  efficient  method  of  lo- 
cating them.  Now,  instead  of  searching  for 
the  fly  larvae  as  we  had  in  the  past,  we 
concentrate  on  collecting  ant  cocoons, 
which  can  be  carefully  opened  in  the  lab  to 
see  if  they  contain  Microdon. 

Microdon  larvae,  especially  later 
stages,  also  feed  on  ant  larvae,  moving 
freely  about  the  ant  brood  chamber  as  they 
do  so.  One  day,  some  of  the  Microdon  lar- 
vae that  we  had  exposed  in  a  tree  stump 
provided  us  with  another  surprise.  We  saw 
these  instars  fold  themselves  lengthwise 
until  they  were  practically  indistinguish- 
able from  ant  cocoons.  After  this  transfor- 
mation, agitated  worker  ants  arrived, 
seized  the  impostor  young,  and  carried 
them  to  the  safe  depths  of  the  nest.  We  had 
discovered  a  most  unusual  case  of  aggres- 
sive mimicry.  The  ants  perceived  the  fly 
larvae  to  be  ant  cocoons.  The  prey  was 
tricked  into  protecting  the  predator. 

How  were  the  Microdon  able  to  accom- 
plish this  feat?  Chemical  communication 
is  important  in  ants,  so  we  thought  that  this 
deception  might  be  chemically  based. 
Tests  carried  out  by  U.  S.  Department  of 


Agriculture  entomologist  Ralph  Howard 
showed  that  the  chemistry  of  the  outer, 
hard  cuticle  of  the  larval  flies  and  that  of 
the  larval  ants  matched  almost  perfectly. 
On  the  outside,  the  flies  were  chemical 
mimics  of  the  ant  larvae.  The  ants  merely 
mistook  the  folded  Microdon  for  their  own 
developing  offspring  and  transported  them 
to  safety.  Subsequently,  we  watched  for 
and  observed  this  subterfuge  many  times. 
We  also  saw  ants  carrying  aggregates — 
whole  clumps — of  Microdon  larvae,  just 
as  they  often  grasp  and  transport  aggre- 
gates rather  than  single  larvae  of  their  own 
species. 

We  wanted  to  find  out  if  Microdon  ac- 
quired these  recognition  chemicals  from 
eating  ant  larvae  or  if  they  synthesized  the 
chemicals  within  their  own  bodies.  To  an- 
swer this  question,  we  studied  Microdon 
albicomatus  and  one  of  its  host  ants,  Myr- 
mica  incompleta.  In  the  spring  of  1989,  we 
collected  235  fly  larvae;  we  washed  some 
in  a  solvent  to  extract  the  chemicals  for 
analysis  and  kept  more  than  a  hundred 
others  alive  for  radioisotope  testing.  The 
chemical  analyses  confirmed  that  the 
chemicals  on  the  surface  of  the  Microdon 
matched  those  of  its  host,  and  radioisotope 
labeling  revealed  that  a  larva  did  indeed 
synthesize  the  chemicals  to  match  those  of 
its  host — a  case  of  true  chemical  mimicry. 


This  chemical  defense  is  employed  only 
by  Microdon  larvae;  adult  flies  are  readily 
attacked  and  killed  by  the  ants.  The  adults' 
defense  is  solely  behavioral.  They  pupate 
near  the  nest  surface  so  that  they  can  make 
a  quick  getaway,  and  they  tend  to  emerge 
early  in  the  morning  when  worker  ants — 
especially  carpenter  ants,  which  are 
largely  nocturnal — are  least  active. 

We  know  that  many  species  of  Mi- 
crodon are  host  specific,  that  is,  they  reside 
with  just  one  type  of  ant,  but  some  can  be 
found  with  two  or  even  three  different 
hosts.  Microdon  albicomatus,  for  ex- 
ample, has  turned  up  in  nests  of  several 
species  of  Formica  ants,  as  well  as  in 
colonies  of  the  unrelated  genus  Myrmica. 
We  are  still  hying  to  unravel  the  relation- 
ships that  occur  with  multihost  Microdon 
and  to  determine  if  these  insects  can 
change  their  recognition  chemicals  in  re- 
sponse to  a  change  in  host. 

Microdon  larvae  have  a  topography  of 
odd  structures  covering  the  back  of  their 
sluglike  bodies.  Most  highly  developed 
and  visible  on  mature,  third-larval  instars, 
some  of  these  structures  look  like  toad- 
stools, others  like  flowers,  and  stiU  others 
are  beyond  analogy.  On  the  underside  of 
the  larvae  are  other  elaborate  protuber- 
ances, some  of  which  remind  us  of  the 
"Schmoos"  created  by  Al  Capp  in  his 
comic  strip  LiT  Abner.  Although  these 
structures  have  long  been  known,  their 
function  has  not.  We  now  suspect  that  they 
contain  glands  or  glandular  openings  for 
secreting  the  chemicals  that  the  larvae  use 
to  mimic  their  hosts.  Since  the  surface  is 
so  convoluted,  it  would  also  present  an 
enormous  area  for  the  dispersion  of  these 
chemicals.  The  reticulations  may  also 
physically  deter  attacks  fi^om  the  host  ants. 
Yet  another  possible  function  is  as  a  recep- 
tor system  for  chemical  signals  from  the 
ant  larvae  or  from  the  adult  ants. 

For  all  our  educated  guesses  as  to  the 
secrets  of  these  sdoictures,  perhaps  just  as 
appealing  is  the  suggestion  made  by  the 
European  entomologist  E.  Heckt  in  1912 
fliat  they  are  "a  result  of  an  exuberance  of 
forms,  which  overrides  with  elan  the  bor- 
ders of  the  purely  necessary  forms."  That 
exuberance  and  elan  can  be  perceived  in  a 
larva  is  hardly  more  surprising  than  the  re- 
centiy  discovered  chemical  and  behavioral 
ploys  displayed  by  Microdon. 

Gregory  Paulson  is  an  instructor  in  the 
Program  in  Biology  and  Roger  D.  Akre  is 
a  professor  in  the  Department  of  Entomol- 
ogy at  Washington  State  University  in 
Pullman,  Washington. 


58    Natural  History  1/94 


AMERICAN  MUSEUM  OF  NATURAL  HISTORY 

FAMILY  ADVENTURES 


MEXICO'S 
COPPER  CANYON 
By  Train 
July  9-16, 1994 

A  rail  journey  through 
Mexico's  mammoth  and 
scenic  Copper  Canyon, 
or  Barranca  del  Cobre, 
is  one  of  the  most  breath- 
taking journeys  in  the 
world.  Over  four  times 
the  size  of  the  Grand 
Canyon,  Barranca  del 
Cobre  is  a  natural  mar- 
vel best  experienced 
along  a  rail  route  itself 
considered  a  marvel  of 
engineering.  Explore  a 
remarkable  region  that 
has  long  been  home  to 
the  Tarahumara,  an  iso- 
lated people  whose  abil- 
ity to  traverse  rugged 
terrain  on  foot  is  leg- 
endary. 


KENYA 
SAFARI 
August  8-21, 1994 

An  African  safari  is  an  extraordinary  experience  and 
Kenya  possesses  some  of  Africa's  best  attractions:  the 
famous  herds  of  game  in  Masai  Mara  are  spectacular 
and  accessible;  the  views  from  escarpments  embracing 
the  Great  Rift  Valley  are  sublime;  the  semi-arid  North- 
em  Frontier  District  shimmers  with  magical  light  at 
dusk;  and  the  morning  air  in  the  Aberdare  Mountains  is 
incomparably  invigorating.  August  is  a  glorious  time  to 
enjoy  the  African  bush  and  the  abundance  of  wildlife 
found  there.  Join  us  for  this  special  safari  and  discover 
the  wonders  and  tremendous  diversity  of  Kenya's  finest 
game  parks. 

American 
Museum  of 
Natural 
i>&i^BM  History 

Discovery  Tours 


Join  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History 
this  summer  on  an  exciting  travel  adventure 
designedfor  the  whole  family.  Discovery  Tours 
has  developed  four  travel  opportunities,  taking 
into  consideration  the  diversity  of  interests  and 
special  needs  of  family  travel.  Lecture  pro- 
grams for  both  children  and  adults  will  be  held 
in  tandem  with  Museum  and  guest  lecturers 
who  will  help  us  explore  and  experience  the 
natural  wonders  and  traditional  cultures  of  four 
spectacular  destinations. 


GALAPAGOS 

WILDLIFE 

AND  ANDEAN 

HIGHLANDS 

July  14-25, 1994 

One  of  the  greatest  liv- 
ing laboratories  of  natu- 
ral history,  the  Galapa- 
gos Islands  are  unsur- 
passed in  their  primeval 
beauty.  Sea  lions,  pen- 
guins, marine  and  land 
iguanas,  seabirds  and 
many  other  species  of 
plants  and  animals, 
some  of  them  unique  to 
these  islands,  can  be 
found  here.  Discover 
these  remarkable  islands 
as  well  as  the  magnifi- 
cent Andean  highlands 
and  the  city  of  Quito  in 
Ecuador,  an  ancient 
capital  of  the  great  Inca 
Empire. 


CIVILIZATIONS 
OF  THE 
MEDITERRANEAN 
June  30  -  July  13, 1994 

From  classical  Greek  and  Roman  times  through  the 
Byzantine  Empire,  the  eastern  Mediterranean  region 
has  exerted  an  enormous  influence  on  world  history,  art 
and  culture.  With  exotic  cities,  magnificent  landscapes 
and  innumerable  remnants  of  glorious  ancient  civiliza- 
tions, this  region  is  one  of  the  most  exciting  destinations 
in  the  world.  Join  us  aboard  the  174-cabin  Daphne  this 
sununer  as  we  explore  such  sites  as  Ephesus  in  Turkey, 
Knossos  on  the  island  of  Crete,  Greece's  Olympia. 
Akrotiri  on  Santorini  and  the  acropolis  on  Rhodes,  as 
well  as  the  historic  cities  of  Istanbul  and  Athens. 


Central  Park  West  at  79th  St. 

New  York,  NY    10024-5192 

Toll-free  (800)  462-8687  or 

(212)  769-5700  in  NYS 


ScffiNCE  Lite 


Spring  in  the  Air 

Sooner  or  laWr,  scientists  will  get  the  message 


by  Roger  L.  Welsch 

As  I  understand  it,  scientists  watch  for 
natural  patterns  and  then  try  to  determine 
exactly  how  they  work  and  what  they 
mean.  Not  that  scientists  are  the  only  peo- 
ple capable  of  spotting  bits  and  pieces  of 
these  patterns,  which  are  often  wide- 
spread. Take  gravity,  for  example.  Not 
easy  to  miss  gravity.  After  all,  it's  not  as  if 
Newton  invented  gravity.  Cave  dwellers 
had  to  deal  with  gravity.  Trilobites  had  to 
deal  with  gravity. 

Recentiy  I've  had  to  deal  with  springs 
(boing-boing  springs,  not  trickle-trickle 
springs).  Springs  have  suddenly  and  dra- 
matically inserted  themselves  in  my  life. 
Like  the  troglodyte  or  trilobite  contemplat- 
ing gravity,  I  have  had  the  uncomfortable 
problem,  therefore,  of  sensing  a  pattern 
without  being  able  to  pin  it  down.  See 
what  you  can  do  with  my  raw  data  and 
maybe  someday  they'll  name  a  syndrome 
after  you. 

It  all  started  one  morning  when  I  was  in 
my  shop  working  on  a  tractor  transmis- 
sion. I  studied  the  technical  manual  in  de- 
tail; I  looked  at  the  housing,  levers,  gears, 
and  rods  carefully  and  from  every  angle;  I 
proceeded  slowly  and  cautiously.  The 
problem  is,  when  it  comes  right  down  to  it, 
I  don't  know  anything  about  mechanical 
things,  so  in  my  case  all  of  these  precau- 
tions are  bottom-Une  necessities. 

Whoever  wrote  the  technical  manual 
must  have  taken  his  degree  in  the  works  of 
Jean-Paul  Sartre.  Nothing  was  obvious, 
even  when  it  appeared  to  be  obvious.  My 
suspicions  were  aroused  by  the  line  in  the 
manual  that  said,  "Be  careful  not  to  lose 
the  detente  spring  and  ball."  Maybe  I  was 
tipped  off  because  the  statement  seemed 
clear  and  straightforward.  Right — don't 
lose  the  detente  spring  and  ball.  Made 
sense  to  me.  But  hey,  wait  a  minute.  In  the 
chapter  on  engines,  the  book  doesn't  say, 
"Don't  lose  the  pistons,"  even  though  pis- 
tons are  fairly  important  components  of  an 
engine.  I  know  that  much  about  mechani- 
cal things.  So  why  go  to  the  trouble  of 


mentioning  that  I  shouldn't  lose  the  de- 
tente spring  and  ball?  For  that  matter,  what 
is  a  detente  spring  and  baU? 

I  looked  at  the  accompanying  diagram. 
An  arrow  numbered  46  pointed  in  the  gen- 
eral direction  of  precisely  where  I  was 
working  in  the  transmission.  Number  46 
in  the  Ust  said  "detente  spring  and  ball."  I 
checked  the  book's  index;  nothing  about 
detente  springs  or  balls.  Gently  I  eased  out 
the  shaft  that  obscured  the  location,  inso- 
far as  1  could  tell,  of  the  detente  spring  and 
ball.  So  far,  so  good.  1  used  a  little  mirror 
on  a  flexible  handle  to  see  if  I  could  find 
anything  resembling  a  spring  and  ball. 
Nothing.  It  had  to  be  inside  something 
else,  maybe  behind  the  shaft.  I  eased  the 
shaft  out  a  little  farther.  Still  nothing.  I  slid 
the  shaft  another  quarter  of  an  inch. 

And  then  it  happened.  I  heard  an  ever- 
so-tiny  ping  and  just  out  of  the  comer  of 
my  eye  sensed — I  didn't  actually  see  it, 
only  sensed  it — something  very  small  fly- 
ing at  great  speed  out  of  the  transmission 
case,  straight  out  the  open  window  six  feet 
to  my  right,  and  into  the  two-foot-high 
grass.  I  didn't  need  the  manual  to  tell  me 
what  it  was. 

I  had  no  more  flian  sputtered,  "Well,  I'll 
be  dipped  in..."  when  my  astonishment 
was  enhanced  by  the  roar  of  my  daughter 
Antonia  riding  by  my  shop  window  on  our 
riding  mower,  throwing  mangled  grass — 
and  presumably  one  detente  spring  and 
one  detente  ball — in  every  direction. 

I  suppose  a  skeptical  spirit  would  con- 
sider aU  that  a  coincidence:  "Big  deal,  you 
lost  a  spring  and  ball,  it  flew  out  the  win- 
dow, and  your  daughter  ran  over  it  wifli  a 
mower.  You're  not  going  to  get  a  law  of 
physics  out  of  that,  Welsch."  Well,  I'm  not 
done  with  die  story. 

The  next  day  I  went  to  Kerry's  grocery 
store  after  picking  up  the  mail,  but  to  my 
surprise,  Kerry  hadn't  opened  yet.  I  sat  on 
his  doorstep  waiting  almost  a  quarter  of  an 
hour  before  he  finally  came  rushing  up. 
Here,  verbatim,  is  what  he  told  me: 


"Sorry  I'm  late,  Rog.  I  can't  believe  my 
bad  luck.  I  borrowed  a  lawn  sprinkler  from 
Dad  yesterday.  Of  course  he  asked  me  if  I 
knew  how  to  use  it,  and  of  course  I  told 
him  I'd  have  to  be  an  idiot  not  to.  You 
know,  it's  one  of  the  'chuck-chuck-chuck- 
chuck...  sizzle-sizzle-sizzle'  ones."  Pivot- 
ing on  his  right  foot,  his  right  arm  ex- 
tended, Kerry  imitated  a  sprinkler  jerking 
step-by-step  in  one  direction  and  then 
quickly  sweeping  back. 

"Well,"  Kerry  continued,  "I  wanted  to 
adjust  it  so  it  would  cover  the  yard  but  not 
hit  the  house,  so  1  was  prying  away  at  this 
little  lever  thing  under  the  sprinkler  head 
and  all  at  once,  PING..."  and  Kerry's 
forefinger  described  an  arc  I  knew  all  too 
weU.  "This  spring-thing  flew  about  thirty 
feet  out  into  the  weeds.  I  just  came  back 
from  Maurie  Flembeck's  place,  because  I 
heard  he  has  a  metal  detector.  If  I  don't 
find  that  blasted  spring  before  tonight,  my 
dad  is  going  to  kiU  me." 

Right.  "Just  another  coincidence."  Still 
not  convinced?  Later  that  same  day  I  was 
talking  with  my  brother-in-law  Gary  and  I 
told  him  what  had  happened  to  Kerry  and 
me.  And  he  told  me  about  the  time  he  was 
sitting  out  in  a  boat  blind  with  Mick  the 
Brick(layer)  waiting  for  some  ducks  to 
come  within  range.  Mick  was  showing 
him  how  you  have  to  depress  a  little  pin 
inside  the  chamber  of  certain  shotguns  be- 
fore you  can  slide  the  bolt  out,  and.. . .  See? 
You've  spotted  the  pattern  too.  That's 
right:  a  ping,  a  flash  of  hght,  and  a  httle 
plunk  in  the  water  about  thirty  feet  from 
the  boat. 

I  called  up  Mick  to  see  what  he  had  to 
say  about  the  events  Gary  had  described, 
and  to  verify  my  impression  of  an  im- 
mutable pattern  and  potential  law  of 
physics.  Mick  confirmed  Gary's  account, 
but  even  more  to  the  point,  he  told  me 
about  die  time  in  Marine  boot  camp  when 
the  drill  instructor  was  in  the  middle  of  a 
lecture  on  how  to  dismantle  some  weapon 
or  another  and  said,  "Whatever  you  do. 


60    Natural  History  1/94 


ladies" — that's  the  way  DIs  talk — "what- 
ever you  do,  be  sure  you  keep  your  thumb 
on  that  httle  slot  right  in  front  of  the  set 
screw,  because  if  you  don't. . ."  and  at  that 
point  a  spring  leaped  from  beneath  the 
thumb  of  the  poor  unfortunate  sitting  next 
to  Mick. 

Mick  used  the  very  same  word  Kerry, 
Gary,  and  I  had  used — "ping" — and  with 
his  hand  he  described  the  lightning  arc. 
Except  in  this  case,  since  there  were  no 
weeds,  grass,  or  water  for  it  to  land  in,  the 
spring  found  its  way  to  the  ceiling,  direcdy 
to  a  twelve-foot-long  fluorescent  light 
bulb  immediately  over  the  drill  instruc- 
tor's head.  Mick  says  that  even  before 
some  of  the  little  pieces  of  glass  had 
stopped  rocking  on  the  concrete  floor,  the 
DI  hoisted  the  miserable  miscreant  by  his 
collar  and  dragged  him  from  the  building, 
never  to  be  seen  again.  "He's  probably  still 
carrying  buckets  of  sand  from  one  end  of 
the  camp  to  the  other,  even  these  twenty 
years  later,"  Mick  said. 

I  think  it  is  pretty  clear:  springs  are  not 
simply  coils  of  metal  capable  of  storing 
small  amounts  of  energy  for  later  release. 
There  is  substantial  reason  to  believe,  in 
my  opinion,  that  springs  can  think.  They 
do  think.  And  their  thoughts  are  consistent 
and  malevolent. 

Scientists  continue  to  turn  their  giant 
telescopes,  antennas,  and  radiotelescope 
dishes  toward  space,  waiting  for  a  sign,  a 
message,  a  clue  that  intelligent  life  exists 
"out  there."  I  predict  that  sooner  or  later 
one  of  them  will  be  adjusting  the  digital 
calibration  retainer  or,  for  that  matter,  try- 
ing to  fix  a  cheap  ball-point  pen,  and  will 
see  the  sign,  hear  the  message,  or  sense  the 
clue  he  or  she  had  looked  for  in  the  inky 
blackness  of  outer  space:  "Ping!" 

In  fact,  didn't  I  read  somewhere  that  the 
last  message  from  the  Mars  Observer  was 
"Ping"? 

Folklorist  Roger  L.  Welsch  lives  on  a  tree 
farm  in  Dannebrog,  Nebraska. 


AMERICAN  MUSEUM  OF  NATURAL  HISTORY 


ANCIENT 
TURKEY 

By  Private  Steam  Train 
May  31  -  June  12, 1994 


With  exotic  cities,  magnificent  landscapes  and  innumerable  remnants  of 
glorious  ancient  civilizations,  Turkey  is  one  of  the  most  exciting  destina- 
tions in  the  world.  This  spring,  join  the 
American  Museum  aboard  a  refurbished 
steam  train  as  we  explore  this  ancient 
land.  Highlights  include  the  fabled  city 
of  Istanbul,  Turkey's  capital,  Ankara,  the 
ancient  sites  of  Ephesus,  Pergamum, 
Heirapolis  and  Aphrodisia,  and  the 
bizarre  formations  and  underground 
cities  of  Cappadocia.  Join  us  for  an 
extraordinary  adventure  through  the 
Turkish  countryside  by  steam  train. 


American 
Museum  of 
Natural 
>ffiz!>'i*  History 

Discovery  Tours 

Central  Park  West  at  79th  St. 

New  York,  NY    10024 

Toll-free  (800)  462-8687  or 

(212)  769-5700  in  NYS 


Scientific  tests  prove  jl  -^ 

NordicTrack  is  ^i 


The  evidence  is  in.  NordicTrack  is 
"The  World's  Best  Aerobic  Exercisa*." 

Experts  agree  that  cross-country  skiing  is  the 
most  effective  aerobic  workout  available.  And 
NordicTrack  accurately  simulates  this  smooth, 
effective  motion  to  give  you  a  workout  that 
burns  more  fat  than  other  exercisers. 

The  #1  total-body  workout  -  NordicTrack. 

NordicTrack  exercises  all  the  major  muscle 
groups  throughout  your  body.  Plus,  you'll  raise 
your  metabolism  more  quickly  so  you  can  keep  the 
weight  off.  In  fact,  a  NordicTrack  workout  bums  up 
to  1,100  calories  an  hour. 

Don't  settle  for  less. 

Only  NordicTrack'  exercisers  feature  a  patented 
flywheel  and  one-way  clutch  mechanism  to  provide 
a  smootli,  non-jarring  motion  that's  easy  on  your 
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61 


At  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History 


The  Accelerating  Global  Crisis 

Environmental  and  demographic  issues 
in  the  next  century  will  be  the  subject  of  a 
free  talk  by  Paul  M.  Kennedy,  the  J. 
Richardson  Dilworth  Professor  of  History 
at  Yale  University  and  author  of  Preparing 
for  the  Twenty-First  Century.  The  lecture, 
the  first  of  a  four-part,  Tuesday-evening  se- 
ries, will  take  place  on  January  18,  at  7:30 
P.M.,  in  the  Main  Auditorium  of  the  Mu- 
seum. Other  topics  in  this  series  include  the 


rise  of  global  cities  on  January  25;  the  role 
of  ethnicity,  religion,  and  nationaUsm  on 
February  15;  and  the  prospects  for  global 
renewal  on  February  22. 

In  "Undesirable  Elements,"  the  eight 
members  of  Ping  Chong  and  Company  will 
dramatize  their  experiences  of  having  been 
bom  in  one  culture  and  now  finding  them- 
selves in  another.  The  program  will  be  pre- 
sented on  Sunday,  January  23,  at  2:00  and 
4:00  P.M.,  in  the  Kaufmann  Theater.  Call 


(212)  769-5315  for  information  about  this 
and  other  free  events  that  are  part  of  the  Mu- 
seum's  year-long  program,  "Global  Cul- 
tures in  a  Changing  World." 

Supernovas  and  Star  Formations 

The  life  cycles  of  stars  and  the  links  be- 
tween stellar  death  and  the  creation  of  life  in 
the  universe  will  be  discussed  by  Catherine 
Garmany,  of  the  University  of  Colorado's 
Joint  Institute  for  Laboratory  Astrophysics. 
The  lecture,  part  of  the  "Frontiers  in  Astron- 
omy and  Astrophysics"  series,  will  be  held 
on  Monday,  January  10,  at  7:30  p.m.  Tickets 
are  $8  ($6  for  members).  For  information 
about  this  and  other  Planetarium  events,  call 
(212)  769-5900. 

Sea  Monsters  During  the  Age 
OF  Dinosaurs 

Gigantic  aquatic  reptiles  that  lived  245 
million  years  ago  and  were  the  world's 
largest  predators  will  be  the  subject  of  a  talk 
on  Thursday,  January  27,  by  paleontologist 
Judy  Massare,  professor  of  earth  science  at 
SUNY  Brockport.  This  lecture  will  be  held 
at  7:(X)  pm.  in  the  Kaufmann  Theater.  Call 
(212)  769-5606  for  information. 


Drawings  by  Waurd  Indians  of  two  masks, 
a  toucan,  and  a  young  tapir  are  on  display 
in  the  Museum 's  Akeley  Gallery. 

Bob  L  Nugent 


62    Natural  History  1/94 


The  Coral  Reef  at  Night 

The  undersea  transformations  of  a  coral 
reef  at  night  will  be  the  subject  of  a  talk  by 
Joseph  Levine,  an  associate  in  the  ichthyol- 
ogy department  at  Harvjird  University's 
Museum  of  Comparative  Zoology  and  au- 
thor, with  photographer  Jeffrey  Rotman,  of 
The  Coral  Reef  at  Night.  Levine's  talk  will 
be  presented  in  the  Kaufmann  Theater  at 
7:00  P.M.,  on  Tuesday,  January  11. 

Ancient  Egyptian  Jewelry 

Colored  breast  ornaments  found  in  the 
tomb  of  Tutankhamen  had  particular  sym- 
bolic properties  for  ancient  Egyptians. 
Robert  Steven  Bianchi,  curator  of  the  Egyp- 
tian department  at  the  Brooklyn  Museum 
for  fifteen  years  and  author  of  Inside  the 
Tomb  of  Nefertiti,  will  give  a  slide-illus- 
trated talk  about  ancient  Egyptian  jewelry 
on  Thursday,  January  6,  at  7:00  rm.,  in  the 
Kaufmann  Theater. 

The  Shoestring  Players 

The  tale  of  a  prince  journeying  far  and 
wide  to  find  a  cure  for  his  ailing  father  will 
be  performed,  with  three  other  folktales 
from  around  the  world,  by  the  Shoestring 
Players  on  Saturday,  January  29.  Using  only 
minimal  costumes  and  no  sets,  the  Shoe- 
string Players  call  upon  the  audience's 
imagination  to  envision  the  props  and 
scenery.  The  program,  for  children  ages  5 
through  12,  takes  place  at  1 :30  and  3:30  rm. 
in  the  Kaufmann  Theater  Call  (212)  769- 
5606  for  ticket  availability. 

Designs  of  the  Waura 

Since  1986,  anthropologist  Vera  P. 
Coelho  and  artist  Bob  L.  Nugent  have  en- 
couraged the  Waura  Indians  of  the  Mato 
Grosso  area  of  Brazil  to  reproduce  in  draw- 
ings the  motifs  of  the  ornamental  art  por- 
trayed in  their  body  painting,  pottery,  bas- 
ketry, and  woodcraft.  An  exhibition  of  their 
geometric  designs,  anthropomorphic  fig- 
ures, mythological  or  supernatural  beings, 
zoomorphic  figures,  and  landscapes  will  be 
displayed  in  the  Akeley  Gallery,  beginning 
on  Friday,  January  14,  and  running  through 
Thursday,  March  24. 

These  events  take  place  at  the  American 
Museum  of  Natural  History,  Central  Park 
West  at  79th  Street  in  New  York  City.  The 
Kaufmann  Theater  is  located  in  the  Charles 
A.  Dana  Education  Wing.  The  Museum  has 
a  pay-what-you-wish  admission  policy.  For 
more  information  about  the  Museum,  call 
(212)769-5100. 


American  Museum  of  Natural  llistorv 


France 


Cruising  through  Provence 

June  23 -July  3, 1994 


The  Rhone  River  wends 
its  way  through  Provence, 
one  of  France's  most  pic- 
turesque regions.  Lov- 
ingly captured  on  canvas 
by  Van  Gogh,  Gauguin, 
Cezanne  and  others,  it  is  a 
beguiling  region  that 
blends  history,  culture 
and  natural  beauty  to  per- 
fection. 


A  team  of  Museum  ex- 
perts accompany  us  as  we  cruise  up  the  Rhone  aboard  the  5-star  m.s. 
Cezanne  from  Martigue  to  Viviers.  We  will  discover  the  splendor  of 
ancient  Rome  as  exemplified  by  the  ruins  in  Aries,  Viviers,  Nimes  and 
St.  Remy's  environs.  Cities  and  towns  rife  with  medieval  remnants,  such 
St.  Gilles,  Aigues-Mortes,  Avignon,  Les  Baux-de-Provence  and  Aix-en- 

Provence,  add  to  the  his- 
toric atmosphere  of  our  itin- 
erary. Not  to  be  forgotten, 
we  will  also  enjoy  the  sub- 
lime beauty  of  the  country- 
side, including  the  magnifi- 
cent Luberon  range  and  the 
isolated  marshes  and  sand 
dunes  of  the  Camargue.  Join 
us  for  this  special  jour- 
ney through  southern 
France. 


American 
Museum  of 
Natural 
History 

Discovery  Cruises 

Central  Park  West  at  79th  St. 

New  York,  NY  10024-5192 

Toll-free  (800)  462-8687  or 

(212)  769-5700  in  NYS 


63 


ITie  Marl^t 


Art/Crafts 


Financial 


Tours/Trips 


ACCURATE  CAVE  ART  TRANSCRIPTS,  Free  book- 
let available.  Gallery  of  Prehistoric  Paintings,  1202 
Lexington  Avenue.,  Suite  314,  New  York,  NY  10028 


Books/Publications 


DINOSAUR  &  HORSE-LIKE  tracks  found  togetfier? 
Free  sample  newsletter.  Anomanology,  10926-0 
HOLE,  Riverside,  CA  92505 


PUBLISH  YOUR  BOOK!  Join  our  successful  auttiors. 
All  subjects  invited.  Publicity,  advertising,  beautiful 
books.  Send  for  fact-filled  booklet  and  free  manu- 
script report.  Carlton  Press,  Dept  NHA,  11  West  32 
Street,  New  York  10001, 


Bargain  Books 


I  Save  up  to  80%  on  publishers'  overstocks,  ^ 

I  remainders.   Thousands  of  books,  from' 
yesterday's  best  sellers  to  rarely  seen  titles.  I 
Birds  &  Animals,  Nature.  Gardening, 
I  Cooking.  Fiction,  History — over  40  subject  I 
areas.  Write  for  FREE  CATALOG.  ' 

^amilton  box  15-919,  Fails  village,  CT  O6O3J 

3-D  PUBLICATIONS  FOR  EVERYONE!  A  variety  of 
posters,  books,  View-Master  reels,  etc.  for  all  ages. 
Extraordinary  gifts,  decor,  and  teactiing  aids!  For  cat- 
alog, send  $1 .00  U.S..  Canada,  and  Mexico;  $2.00  all 
otfiers  (refundable  witfi  order!)  to:  Cygnus  Graphic, 
Box  32461 ,  Phoenix.  AZ  85064-2461 . 

WE'LL  PUBLISH  YOUR  BOOK!  Our  45  years  expen- 
ence  will  help  you  to  success, Send  Manuscript  or  out- 
line for  free  information  and  evaluation,  Rivercross 
Publishing  Inc.  Dept  NH,  127  East  59th  Street,  New 
York,  NY  10022 


Education 

LEARN  INTERIOR  DECORATING,  Earn  commis- 
sions. Home  study,  PCD, I,  Atlanta,  Georgia.  Free 
literature.  (800)362-7070  Dept,  HA124, 

SPEAK  SPANISH,  FRENCH  OR  ANY  OF  71  Lan- 
guages as  U.S.  diplomats  do  using  same  self-study 
cassettes/textbook.  Nearly  50%  savings!  Free  cata- 
log. Call  Audio  Language  Institute,  1-800-722-6394. 

2  DAY  DINOSAUR  SESSIONS  in  Montana.  Write 
Dino's,  Box  796,  Bynum,  MT  59419  or  call(406)469- 
2314. 

VETERINARY  ASSISTANT/Animal  care  careers. 
Home  study.  P,C,D,I.,  Atlanta,  Georgia,  Free  Litera- 
ture. (800)362-7070  Dept.  CA124. 


Employment  Opportunities 

EASY  WORK!  EXCELLENT  PAY!  Assemble  prod- 
ucts at  home.  Call  toll  free  1-800-467-5566  Ext, 
6371 

ENVIRONMENTAL  OPPORTUNITIES— Monthly  bul- 
letin lists  environmental  job  openings  throughout  the 
U.S.  Free  details.  EOV  PO,  Box  788,  Walpole,  NH 
03608  (603)756-4553 

GET  PAID  FOR  READING  BOOKS!  $100  per  book. 
Send  name,  address  to  Caico  Publishing  (Dept.  C- 
515),  500  South  Broad,  Meriden,  CT  06450. 

MOUNTAIN  WEST  ENVIRONMENTAL  OPTIONS 
employment!  Send  SASE  to  MWEO-4R,  3355  S. 
Flower  #106,  Lakewood,  CO  80227  (303)  985-7111 


FREE  INFORMATION!  Allow  the  Government  to  fi- 
nance your  small  business.  Loans/Grants  to 
$687,900.  Call  24  hour,  free  recorded  message: 
(313)-825-6700,  Dept  1259 

LET  THE  GOVERNMENT  FINANCE  your  small  busi- 
ness. Grants/loans  to  $500,000.  Free  recorded  mes- 
sage:(707)  449-8600.  (LAI) 


Merchandise/Gifts 

METEORITES— RARE  SPACE  COLLECTIBLES. 
Display  specimens,  jewelry,  books.  Authenticity  guar- 
anteed. Catalog  $2.  Bethany  Sciences.  P.O.  Box 
3726-N,  New  Haven,  CT  06525 


Miscellaneous 

BUFFALO  RANCHING  makes  good  ecological  sense 
for  the  Amehcan  prairie.  Please  write  or  call  for  free 
catalog  of  a  full  range  of  buffalo  products  to:  Thunder- 
ing Herd  Buffalo  Products,  RO,  Box  1051,  Dept,  NH- 
1,   Reno,  NV  89504   1-800-525-9730. 


HELP  US  REDUCE  U.S.  POPULATION! 

Send  today  for  our  FREE  BROCHURE  and  learn 
why  we  recommend  a  smaller  U.S.  (and  world) 
population.  NPG  is  a  nonprofit  membership  orga- 
nization founded  in  1972. 

NEGATIVE  POPULATION  GROWTH,  INC. 

P.O.  Box  1206,  210  The  Plaza,  Suite  8B 

Teaneck,  NJ  07666 

Music 

MT  LAUREL  DULCIMERS:  Hand-crafted  instru- 
ments. For  Free  Brochure  call  800-995-1441  or  612- 
822-7335.  700  200th  Avenue.  NE,  Cedar,  MN  55011 


Organizations 


"FRIENDS  OF  THE  MAYA"  A  national  organization 
who's  local  chapters  support  individual  Maya  sites  and 
archaeology  If  Maya  culture  and  archaeology  is  your 
thing,  dig  in  and  become  a  member.  $30.  Box  241, 
Gladwyne,  PA.  19135 


Photo/Optical 


BINOCULAR  SALES  AND  SERVICE,  Repairing 
binoculars  since  1923,  Alignment  performed  on  our 
US.  Navy  collimator  Free  catalog  and  our  article 
"Know  Your  Binoculars,"  published  in  Audubon  Maga- 
zine. Mirakel  Optical  Co.  Inc.,  331  Mansion  St.,  West 
Coxsackle,  NY  12192  (518)731-2610 


Rentals 


SOUTH  WEST  COAST  SCOTLAND.  Scottish  Is- 
land of  outstanding  natural  beauty  the  Isle  of  Colon- 
say.  Traditional  farmhouses  and  crofters'  cottages 
available  for  holidays.  April  to  October.  Extensive 
wildlife,  rare  species  of  birds  and  wild  flowers. 
Guided  tours  for  naturalists.  Walking,  fishing,  boat- 
ing and  historic  sites.  Renowned  Rhododendron 
garden.  5  hours  travel  time  from  Glasgow  Airport 
(44)-9512-312. 

TROPICAL  MARCO  ISLAND.  Southwest  Florida  gulf- 
coast.  Unsurpassed  birding  and  marine  life.  Choice 
of  accommodation,  inexpensive  to  executive.  (305) 
434-3580. 


ADVENTURE  CALLING!  Outstanding  wildlife  safaris 
in  Kenya,  Tanzania,  Botswana.  Rwanda,  Zimbabwe  & 
South  Africa.  Low  cost  camping  or  deluxe.  Amazon! 
Cruise,  camp,  hike  or  paddle  the  jungle  wilderness. 
Fantastic  flora  &  fauna,  Galapagos!  Swim,  sail  and 
snorkel  Darwin's  "Enchanted  Isles."  Choice  yachts, 
Machu  Picchu  option.  Costa  Rica!  Rainforest  expedi- 
tions alive  with  dazzling  birds  and  tropical  wildlife. 
Small  groups,  expert  guides,  guaranteed  departures. 
Free  Brochures!  (800)  525-6772.  Special  Interest 
Tours,  134  W.26  St.  (C)  NY  NY  10001 


'lufcavTi 


WlljbivrFESSANCTUARY    OF     THE    AMERICAS 

^COSTARICA 

).^' -/^TpoPICAL  NATURE  EXPLORATIONS 


ADVENTURES  IN  AFRICA  &  EGYPT  Economical 
camping  safans  In  Kenya,  Tanzania  &  Uganda.  Kili- 
manjaro climbs,  gorilla  tracking,  London/Nairobi  over- 
land, more.  Also  extensive  program  of  unique  tours  in 
Egypt,  Israel,  Turkey  Jordan.  Free  color  catalogs.  Hi- 
malayan Travel,  (800)  225-2380  (24  hours). 

AFRICA:  Personalized  safaris  in  East  and  Southern 
Africa  featuring  Ranch/Private  Home  Safaris,  Box  49, 
Mt.  Tremper,  NY  12457  1-800-724-1221. 


u^os*  eu/zmA. 


6<jLcier- 
A.cl-\  en  Vu  res 


C,illFo:Tn,velCMil,V 

800-642-2742 


ALASKA  WILDLAND  ADVENTURES  How  will  you 
plan  your  Alaska  vacation?  Our  informative  24  page 
brochure  describes  how  you  can  experience  Alaska's 
most  beautiful  wilderness  regions,  see  its  famed  wild- 
life, and  stay  in  unique  backcountry  lodge  accommo- 
dations. Why  just  sightsee  Alaska  when  you  can  ex- 
perience it?  Call  for  free  brochure:  (800)334-8730. 

ALPS  OF  SWITZERLAND.  'The  Hikers  Paradise." 
Moderate  optional  length  Day  hiking,  1-3  weeks. 
Brochure.  Alpine  Adventure  Trails  Tours,  783P  Cliff- 
side  Drive,  Akron,  OH  44313-5609 

AMAZON  RAINFOREST  EXPLORATION  with  natu- 
ralist guide.  Stay  at  beautiful  lodge/deep  jungle  camp. 
Affordable  rates,  small  groups/independent  travelers. 
Free  brochure  (800)765-5657  Sol  International 
13780  S.W.  56th  St,  107,  Miami  FL  33175. 


GALAPAGOS 

1           COSTARICA           1 

AFRICA 

First  Class  Cruises  with  Naturalist  Guides. 

Naural  History  Adventures  to  Costa  Rica 

Tented  Safaris  to  Kenya,  Tanzania,  Rwanda  & 

Botswana 

10  years  ol  Quality  Natural  Hislory  Trips 
Worldwide 

■SS^vSl 

A 

? 

800  351-5041     ■ 
P.O.BOX3656-C10  1 

1   Sonora,  GA  95370   ■ 

64    Natural  History  1/94 


ANCIENT  EGYPT:  Escorted  tours,  expert  lectures, 
May  and  June  94.  Itineraries  from:  Dr.  Herta  Jogland, 
Khemet  Tours,  WVSC,  Box  100.  Institute.  WV  25112- 
1000  (304)346-2240 


GALAPAGOS 


You,  9  other  adventurers  and  our  licensed 
naturalist  will  soil  by  yacht  to  explore  more  islands 
than  any  other  Galapagos  expedition.  60  trip 
dotes.  Machu  Picchu  option.  Free  brochure. 

Inca  Floats'  510-420-1550 
1 31 1  -N  63rd  St.,  Emeryville  CA  94608 


ATTENTION  NATURE  LOVERSATEACHERS!  Join 
accredited  summer  worl<stiops  in  Belize.  Rainforest- 
ecology/Mayan  Studies/others.  Tel  011  501  92  2164 
FAX  011  501  92  2029.  Maya  Mountain  Lodge.  Box 
46.  San  Ignacio,  Belize. 

AUSTRALIA/NEW  ZEALAND  WALKABOUTS: 
Nature,  Hiking  and  the  Outdoors,  Enjoying  hiking  and 
camping  safaris,  lodge  stays,  and  island  resorts  in 
New  Zealand's  scenic  National  Parks  and  Milford 
Track;  Australia's  Outback,  Tropical  Nortti.  and  Great 
Barrier  Reet.  Pacific  Exploration  Co..  Box  3042-N, 
Santa  Barbara.  CA  93130  (805)  687-7282 


UNIQUE  DESTINATIONS 

30  adventure  and  naturalist  itineraries: 
nomads,  tribal  peoples,  festivals,  wildlife. 

AFRICA,  INDONESIA,  INDIA,  SOUTH  AMERICA 

TURTLE  TOURS,  INC. 

Box  #1147/  Dept  NH,  Carefree,  AZ  85377 
Tel:  (602)  488-3688     Fax:  (602)  488-3406 


CANOE  CANADA'S  ARCTIC.  Extremely  remote  fly-in 
canoe  trips  in  Canada's  Northwest  Territories.  Daily 
close-up  sightings  of  wolves,  muskoxen.  caribou, 
moose.  Wild-life  biologist  guide.  Operating  20  years. 
Brochure.  Canoe  Arctic.  Inc.,  Box  130C,  Fort  Smith, 
N.W.T,  Canada  XOE  OPO 

COSTA  RICA.  National  Parks,  wildlife,  birdwatching. 
rafting,  beaches.  Guaranteed  weekly  departures  and 
customized  itineraries.  Free  brochures.  Terra  Adven- 
tures. 70-15  Nansen  St..  Forest  Hills.  NY  11375. 
(800)  53-TERRA. 

EVERGLADES/FLORIDA  KEYS  ECOLOGY  cruises 
aboard  comfortable  houseboat.  Snorkel,  birdwatch, 
beachcombe.  3  day  cruise/hotel  vacations.  Chic 
Charney,  Box  295,  Key  Largo.  FL  33037.  (305)  453- 
9766. 


NAfUlt  TRAVEL 

._M<    /  Global  experience, 

,10  exceptional  guides  and 

^'     superior  itineraries  to 

?'        over  30  destinations  on 

j'  six  continents.  Call  for 

our  free  catalog. 

The  World  leader 


^INTERNATIONAL 
lEXPEDITIONS'NC 


ExcellenI  boats.  Plus  Amazon  &  Andes. 


COSTA  RICA! 


In-depth  nalural  history  adventures.  Small  Rroups.f 
Voyogers,  Depl.  NG,  Box  915,  llhaca,  NY  14851.  ]-800-533-b299 


FRENCH  DISCOVERIES.  Exceptional  inn-to-inn 
walking  tours  in  Provence,  the  Loire,  Perigord,  Bor- 
deaux and  Alsace.  Tel  (617)  424-9498.  France:  Dis- 
coveries. Salviac  46340.  Tel/fax:  (33)  65.41 .59.59 

GALPAGOS-AMAZON.  Best  choice  of  cruises:  Luxury 
to  Economy  Combine  with  Indian  markets  or  Amazon 
jungle.  Free  brochures.  Terra  Adventures,  70-15 
Nansen  St.,  Forest  Hills.  NY  11375  (800)53-TERRA. 


Vill>1J!];iJ.-liVMT7ill 


Natural  history  wilderness  float  trips  on  a  selection  of  the  finest 
British  Columbia  and  Yukon  rivers.  Each  a  unique  experience 
highlighting  a  different  combination  of  landscapes,  waters  and 
ecosystems  Sunny  forests,  fjords  and  canyons  Glaciers,  wild- 
llowers  and  grizzlies  Musk  ox,  nanwhal  8.  gyrtalcon  in  the  Arctic, 

Canadian  River  expeditions  (604)  738-4449 

#31-3524  West  16th  Ave,  Vancouver,  BC,  Canada  V6R  3C1 


GALAPAGOS  ISLjANDS  tours  since  1979.  Mainland 
Ecuador/Peru/Bolivia  options.  Joseph  Colley,  LAST,  Inc. 
43  Millstone,  Randallstown,  MD  21133  (410)922-3116 

GALAPAGOS.  Specializing  in  comprehensive,  profes- 
sionally-led. natural  tiistory  and  photo  tours  of  the 
Galapagos  Islands.  Monttily  departures/12  passen- 
ger yachts.  Galapagos  Travel.  PO.  Box  1220,  San 
Juan  Bautista,  CA  95045.  (800)969-9014. 


NORTHWEST  TERRITORIES 
DANCE  with  the  WOLVES'! 


pliv  k'lii  l'.i>''i  iiii|''.  I"i  .11  h'  '■  r  .1  'i.i  ■'  ■  I  ■!.  I, .  muskoxen  herds,  the  great 
caribou  iiiigijiiun,  rcipiuii,  iihijijIl-iv  ■.^ol^.llul.^.■l,  shorebiids,  natural  history, 
and  so  riiuch  more  ,.al  ihe  Thelor.  the  most  remote  wildlife  sanctuary  in  the 
world!  Each  8-day  program  costs  $3,450,00  USD  from  Minneapolis.  Also  8- 
16  day  canoe  &  rafi  expeditions    Besl  references  available. 


1-(800) 
667-WILD 


GREAT  CANADIAN 

ECOVENTURES 


A  1-800^334734 


INDIA,  NEPAL,  TIBET.THAILAND,  BORNEO.  Indone- 
sia. Tours,  treks,  wildlife  safaris.  Huge  selection.  Af- 
fordable rates.  Free  color  catalogs.  Himalayan 
Travel.  (800)225-2380  (24  flours). 

INEXPENSIVE  WORLDWIDE  TRAVEL.  Escorting  time 
sensitive  business  documents.  475  international  flights 
weekly  Air  Courier  Association  1-303-279-3600. 

JOURNEY  WITH  WHALES  along  Baja  California  aboard 
the  Pacific  Queen.  Gray  whales,  elephant  seals,  dol- 
phins; island,  lagoon  exploration:  superb  bird  pfiotogra- 
phy.  8/10  day  expeditions  December-April.  Pacific 
Queen/Fisherman's  Landing,  2838  Garrison  Street.  San 
Diego.  California  92106  (619)  726-2228;  (619)  224-4965 

jr\  J     J  1  J    -^  jrl  ^ 

In-depth  group  &  private  safaris.  Excellent  Guides. 
East  Africa.  Botswana,  Namibia. 

VOYAGERS,  Dept  NH,  Box  91 5, 
^^  llhata,NY1485]. 

jpf\    1-800-633-0299 


MACHU  PICCHU.  Trekking  the  Inca  Trail  to  Machu 
Picchu.  Amazon  lodges/cruises.  Patagonia.  Guar- 
anteed departures,  customized  itineraries.  Free 
brochures.  Terra  Adventures.  70-15  Nansen  St.,  For- 
est Hills,  NY   11375.  (800)53-TERRA. 


NATURAL  HISTORY  TRAVEL,  Superb  naturalist 
guides,  small  groups,  outstanding  itineraries:  Tanza- 
nia, Galapagos,  Everglades,  Belize,  Cost  Rica, 
Trinidad,  Amazon,  Jamaica,  Alaska,  New  Mexico,  Ari- 
zona, Texas.  Call  for  free  brochure;  Massachusetts 
Audubon  Society  (800)  289-9504 


QUALITY  TOURS  FOR  QUALITY  PEOPLE.  Unique 
personalized  woridwide  tours,  small  groups,  wide  in- 
terests. Warren  Harden  Tours,  Box  720155.  Norman. 
OK  73070  (405)364-6343. 

RAINFORESTS  OF  THE  AMAZON.  Visit  the  oil 
towns  on  tfie  Rio  Napo;  learn  about  rainforest  biology 
in  a  jungle  school  alongside  Ecuadorian  guides;  dis- 
cover the  changing  lifestyles  of  the  people  who  infiabit 
Amazonia.  Small  specialized  trips  to  Ecuador,  Costa 
Rica,  Thailand,  Nepal,  and  more.  Myths  and  Moun- 
tains. 251  Cheswold  Lane,  Haverford,  PA  19041 
(800)484-7422,  ext  1184. 


ALASKA 

Birds  •  Bears  •  Marine  Mammals  •  Tidepools 

Pristine  coaslal  wilderness,  glaciere.  nesling  eagles,  rookeries,  fishing.  The 
world's  best  known  photographers  come  to  our  deluxe  lodge.  Master  chef, 
fresh  seafood,  winner  of  Harper's  '81  and  '89  Hideaway  of  the  Year  20 
yeai3  of  operation.  Professional  guides/naturalists.  M950/peiMiy5  days 

Kachemak  Bay  Wilderness  Lodge 

Box  956  NH.  Homer,  AK  99603    (907)  235-8910 


SOUTH  &  CENTRAL  AMERICA;  Overland  &  natural 
history  tours,  Amazon,  Galapagos,  Andean  trekking. 
Free  color  catalog.  Himalayan  Travel.  (800)225-2380. 

SWITZERLAND  FREE  hikers  map  of  Swiss  alpine 
trails.  Mountain  Hiking  Tours  from  $700/week.  Box 
655    Dept  N  Southport,  CT  06490.    203-259-0178. 

TOUCH  THE  PAST  -  Join  leading  Souttiwestern  Ar- 
chaeologists excavating  Ancestral  Puebloan  (Anasazi) 
sites  in  souttiwestern  Colorado.  Journey  to  spectacular 
ruins.  Hike,  raft,  and  trek  through  dramatic  mountains, 
mesas,  and  canyons.  Explore  the  rich  and  diverse  cul- 
tures of  the  Souttiwest.  Expand  your  artistic  abilities  in 
exciting  workshops.  Visit  Native  American  artisans  in 
their  homes  and  studios.  For  complete  program  catalog 
call  303-565-8975  or  write  Crow  Canyon  Archaeological 
Center,  23390  County  Road  K.  Cortez.  CO  81321 
(please  include  $1  for  postage). 


AMAZON 


Ki-eivizsi 


Interact  with  world  renowned 
scientists.  Experience  a  new  dimension  in 
rainforest  conservation  ■  the  ACEER  Canopy 
Walkway  System  &  Amazon  Biosphere  Reserve. 
Feel  excitement  while  witnessing  nature's  greatest 
spectacle  on  her  mightiest  river  -  the  Amazon, 
8-Days.  Departs  March  19  &  26,1994.^ 
S1798  atl-inclusive  from  Miami. 


INTERNATIONAL 
EXPEDITIONS"^ 


800-633-4734 


One  Environs  Park  •  Helena.  Alabama  35080  ■  (205)  428-r70O 


65 


_The  Marl^t^  Si 


VIEWS 


JAtASKA  •  GALAPAGOS 
ARCTIC  •  RUSSIA  •  BAJA 
^    AUSTRALIA  •  PATAGONi; 


Quality  Natural  History  &  Photography 

Trips  -  20  Years  Experience 

BIOLOGICAL  JOURNEYS 

1696N  Ocean  Dr..  McKinieyville.  CA  95521 
800-548-7555  or  707-839-0178    

TREAD  LIGHTLY  to  the  Amazon,  Belize,  Mongolia 
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Waiting  for  custome I  s  m  nunhein  India. 

Dawn  Starin 


Vanished  Greatness 


by  Paul  D.  Spudis 

Between  1961  and  1969,  the  United 
States  chose  to  compete  with  the  Soviet 
Union  in  the  initial  exploration  of  another 
world  in  the  solar  system,  the  moon.  This 
epoch  saw  the  emerging  infant  technology 
of  space  flight  boldly  pressed  into  the  ser- 
vice of  scientific  exploration.  Don  Wil- 
helms  relates  this  inspiring  story  from  the 
perspective  of  both  an  observer  and  a  par- 
ticipant. 

Wilhelms's  long  career  as  a  geologist 
for  the  U.  S.  Geological  Survey  (USGS) 
has  been  devoted  mainly  to  reconstructing 
the  history  of  the  moon  by  studying  pho- 
tographs of  its  surface.  He  was  involved  in 
the  geological  training  of  the  Apollo  astro- 
nauts and  in  the  selection  of  sites  on  the 
moon,  both  for  the  initial  demonstration 
landings  and  for  the  later,  more  sophisti- 
cated scientific  expeditions.  But  his  princi- 
pal scientific  contributions  are  in  the  area 
of  historical  geology,  or  the  natural  history 
of  the  moon  preserved  in  its  layered  rocks. 
Like  that  of  the  earth  and  other  rocky  plan- 
ets, the  moon's  record  may  be  read  and  re- 
constructed from  photographs  of  its  sur- 
face. 

The  episodic  story  of  how  we  came  to 
understand  the  history  and  processes  that 
have  shaped  the  moon  begins  with  the  pi- 
oneering work  of  Grove  Karl  Gilbert,  first 
chief  geologist  of  the  USGS,  who  mar- 
shaled evidence  in  1893  that  craters  on  the 
moon  were  formed  by  the  colhsion  of  as- 
teroidal  bodies.  The  largest  of  these  im- 
pacts formed  a  prominent  feature  on  the 
front  side  of  the  moon,  the  Imbrium  Basin, 
a  crater  more  than  600  miles  across. 

Fast-forwarding  to  1949,  Wilhelms 
highlights  the  work  of  astronomer  Ralph 
Baldwin,  whose  book  The  Face  of  the 
Moon  got  nearly  everything  right:  that  the 
moon's  craters  were  formed  by  impact; 
that  the  dark  maria  were  volcanic  lavas; 
and  that  the  surface  of  the  moon  was  old — 
very  old. 


After  reading  this  book,  Nobel  Prize- 
winning  chemist  Harold  Urey  became  ob- 
sessed with  finding  out  more  about  the 
moon,  which  he  believed  was  a  piece  of 
primeval  nebular  matter,  unheated  and  un- 
modified since  the  creation  of  the  solar 
system,  4.5  billion  years  ago.  Urey  cam- 
paigned for  the  scientific  exploration  of  the 
moon,  using  the  up-and-coming  technique 
of  rocketry,  which  had  been  salvaged  from 
the  ruins  of  a  smoldering  and  prostrate 
Germany.  Aiding  him  in  this  task  was  Ger- 
ard Kuiper,  a  heretic  astronomer  who  was 

To  A  Rocky  Moon:  A  Geologist's  His- 
tory OF  Lunar  Exploration,  by  Don  E. 
Wilhelms.  University  of  Arizona  Press, 
$29.95,  477pp.,  illus. 

interested  in  the  planets  and  who  treasured 
photographs  as  a  source  of  data. 

Meanwhile,  beginning  in  1948,  a 
young,  energetic  geologist  was  mapping 
the  uranium  deposits  of  the  Colorado 
Plateau  and  dreaming  of  exploring  the 
moon.  From  that  point  on,  Eugene  Shoe- 
maker devoted  his  career  to  making  geol- 
ogy a  part  of  the  burgeoning  and  nascent 
lunar  exploration  program.  Such  an  explo- 
ration strategy  was  far  from  self-evident: 
to  Shoemaker,  more  than  any  other  per- 
son, Wilhelms  gives  credit  as  the  founder 
of  an  entirely  new  discipline,  planetary  ge- 
ology. Shoemaker  went  on  to  establish  a 
branch  at  the  USGS,  created  specifically  to 
study  the  geology  of  other  planets  in  the 
solar  system  and  charged  with  mapping 
the  geology  of  the  moon  to  support  the 
Apollo  effort. 

The  addition  of  geology  into  the  mix  of 
scientific  subdisciplines  involved  in  the 
exploration  of  space  created  an  amusing 
and  intriguing  conflict  of  goals  and  tech- 
niques— a  conflict  that  continues  to  the 
present  day.  Wilhelms  carefully  (and  I  be- 


66    Natural  History  1/94 


lieve,  objectively)  recounts  the  fundamen- 
tal differences  in  the  thought  patterns  and 
methods  of  those  scientists  who  specialize 
in  the  "quantitative"  sciences  (such  as 
physics  and  chemistry)  and  those  who 
work  in  the  "descriptive"  sciences  (such  as 
geology  and  biology).  Unraveling  the 
complex  history  of  a  planet  requires  both 
approaches,  but  it  is  Wilhelms's  thesis 
(and  one  that  I  completely  agree  with)  that 
our  fundamental  understanding  of  the 
moon  came  more  from  the  "descriptive" 
geological  approach  than  from  the  highly 
mathematical  conjectures  of  certain  physi- 
cists and  astronomers — Nobel  Prizewin- 
ners notwithstanding. 

Once  President  Kennedy  articulated  the 
goal  of  a  manned  lunar  landing,  a  space- 
faring  infrastructure  had  to  be  created  al- 
most literally  from  scratch.  The  story  of 
the  engineering  involved  in  this  heroic  feat 
is  recounted  in  several  recent  books  (most 
enjoyably  in  Apollo:  The  Race  to  the 
Moon,  by  Charles  Murray  and  Catherine 
Bly  Cox,  published  in  1989  by  Simon  & 
Schuster).  Wilhelms'  great  accomplish- 
ment is  to  complement  these  narratives  by 
adding  a  perspective  of  science  and  scien- 
tific planning,  including  insider  accounts 
of  the  fights,  arguments,  exhortations,  and 
contributions  of  the  scientists  who  were 
charged  with  the  task  of  helping  men  land 
safely  on  the  moon  and  then  explore  it  pro- 
ductively. 

Although  the  idea  of  safely  landing  on 
the  moon  seems  obvious  to  us  today,  in 
1962  perspectives  were  primitive,  to  say 
the  least.  Like  medieval  cartographers, 
some  alarmists  raised  specters  of  dragons 
in  "bottomless  pits  of  dust"  and  of  lunar 
soil  so  chemically  reduced  that  it  would 
explode  when  it  made  contact  with  the 
pure  oxygen  of  the  Apollo  lunar  module. 

Project  Apollo  was  not  merely  a  pro- 
gram to  land  men  on  the  moon,  it  was  a 
strategy  for  lunar  exploration.  Wilhelms 


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first  describes  how  we  prepared  scientifi- 
cally to  go  to  tiie  moon.  This  preparation 
involved  mapping  the  moon  (because  all 
good  explorers  need  maps),  training  the 
astronauts  to  be  precise  scientific  ob- 
servers, and  sending  a  variety  of  un- 
manned precursor  probes  to  tell  us  about 
the  nature,  composition,  and  state  of  the 
lunar  surface.  These  robotic  probes  were  a 
boon  to  lunar  science:  they  mapped,  sur- 
veyed, tasted,  and  examined  the  moon  on 
a  variety  of  scales.  They  produced  data 
that  are  still  being  analyzed  as  we  continue 
to  unravel  the  moon's  secrets.  But  most 
importantly,  they  paved  the  way  for  the 
coming  of  Apollo  and  proved  that  the 
things  people  had  to  fear  on  this  epic  jour- 
ney were  largely  illusory;  the  moon  be- 
nignly and  patiently  awaited  them. 

Wilhelms  next  recounts  each  Apollo 
lunar  mission  in  detail,  including  that  of 
the  hard-luck  Apollo  13,  which  exploded 
on  the  way  to  the  moon  in  1970,  nearly 
costing  the  lives  of  its  crew.  For  each  mis- 
sion, he  describes  the  scientific  prepara- 
tions (including  the  oft-contentious  selec- 
tion of  a  landing  site),  the  mission  itself, 
what  we  learned  from  the  mission,  and 
how  that  information  fit  into  our  emerging 
picture  of  the  history  and  evolution  of  the 
moon. 

Each  chapter  is  expertly  and  carefully 
drawn,  and  the  scientific  controversies  are 
told  at  a  level  that  makes  them  easily  un- 
derstood by  the  general  reader.  We  see 


through  these  pages  how  the  Apollo  sys- 
tem developed  from  a  minimalist  engi- 
neering test-bed  into  a  robust  and  aston- 
ishingly capable  exploration  tool.  This 
emergence  was  neither  a  foregone  conclu- 
sion nor  a  fortuitous  happening,  but  came 
about  through  the  determined  efforts  of  a 
dedicated  group  of  talented  engineers  and 
scientists  who,  in  my  opinion,  gave  the 
American  taxpayers  the  best  value  for 
their  money  that  they  have  ever  gotten,  be- 
fore or  since. 

Wilhelms  sprinkles  his  text  with  many 
anecdotes.  He  has  a  fine  eye  for  the  char- 
acter sketch  and  a  dry,  understated  wit; 
both  tools  serve  him  well  in  his  description 
of  the  myriad  characters,  eccentrics,  and 
occasional  genius  that  this  business  seems 
to  attract.  We  meet,  for  example,  Dan  Mil- 
ton, a  geologist  who  applied  for  astronaut 
training,  although  colleagues  who  rode  in 
a  car  with  him  as  driver  feared  for  their 
lives;  Gordon  Swann,  raconteur  and  good- 
ole-boy,  who  nimbly  jumped  political 
minefields  and  ably  led  the  field  geology 
team  for  the  Apollo  14  and  15  missions 
(which  gready  increased  the  scientific  ca- 
pability and  productivity  of  the  Apollo 
system);  and  tlie  inimitable  Hal  Masursky, 
a  geologist  who  ran  through  obscure  air- 
ports to  yet  another  meeting  (where  some 
momentous  decisions  occurred)  to  look 
after  the  interests  of  the  geologists. 

Some  of  the  sharply  drawn  portraits  are 
of  the  men  who  went  to  the  moon:  Neil 


In  1971,  Apollo 's  lunar-lander  Falcon  set  dow  n  neai  the  moon 's  Apennine  Mountains. 
Vehicle  tracks  and  footprints  are  visible  in  the  foreground. 

NASA  photo  AS15-92-12430 


68    Natural  History  1/94 


Armstrong,  first  man  on  the  moon  and  one 
of  the  best  and  brightest  of  the  "galvanized 
geologists,"  according  to  Wilhelms;  Dave 
Scott,  a  test  pilot  who  went  bonkers  for  ge- 
ology and  turned  in  a  stellar  scientific  per- 
formance as  commander  of  the  first  of  the 
complex  "J-missions,"  the  enhanced 
Apollo  science  missions;  and  Harrison 
"Jack"  Schmitt,  the  only  professional  ge- 
ologist to  go  to  the  moon,  who  got  the 
chance  that  Gene  Shoemaker  missed — to 
swing  his  rock  hammer  on  the  boulders  of 
the  Taurus-Littrow  Valley. 

The  story  concludes  with  Wilhelms's 
chapter  describing  what  we  have  learned 
in  the  years  separating  us  from  the  Apollo 
missions.  That  this  can  be  adequately  done 
in  20  pages  (out  of  nearly  500  for  the 
whole  book)  is  no  testament  to  laziness  on 
Wilhelms's  part,  but  rather  a  reflection  of 
the  pitiable  state  of  lunar  exploration  dur- 
ing the  last  twenty  years.  America  has  not 
sent  a  mission  to  the  moon  since  Apollo  1 7 
in  December  1972,  and  the  Russians  have 
not  done  so  since  August  of  1976. 

If  all  goes  well,  we  may  see  some  new 
lunar  data  in  our  lifetimes  as  the  joint  De- 
fense Department-NASA  mission  called 
Clementine,  scheduled  to  be  launched  in 
January  1994,  will  map  the  distribution  of 
minerals  over  the  entire  moon  during  the 
course  of  a  two-month  period.  But  this 
new  robotic  mission  will  not  be  followed 
by  a  marmed  mission — or  even  any  addi- 
tional robotic  probes — in  the  foreseeable 
future.  In  1989,  then  president  George 
Bush's  attempt  to  reestablish  direction  and 
purpose  for  our  space  program  by  caUing 
for  a  return  to  the  moon  floundered,  and 
then  sank,  in  a  sea  of  media  carping,  con- 
gressional blundering,  and  parochial 
whining  from  the  scientific  community. 

Don  Wilhelms  has  written  the  definitive 
history  of  the  scientific  exploration  of  the 
moon.  Its  lively  and  entertaining  text  in- 
forms and  stimulates,  but  there  are  some 
slight  flaws.  The  illustrations  are  not  re- 
produced very  well,  and  the  place  map  of 
lunar  localities  used  as  the  frontispiece  is 
quite  useless  as  the  guide  to  craters  and 
maria  that  it  was  meant  to  be.  However, 
don't  let  these  minor  problems  dissuade 
you  from  reading  this  book;  from  enjoying 
and  savoring  a  distant  time  when  America 
was  confident,  looked  forward  to  the  fu- 
ture, and  did  not  shrink  from  challenge. 

Paul  D.  Spudis,  a  staff  scientist  at  the 
Lunar  and  Planetary  Institute,  Houston, 
Texas,  is  deputy  leader  of  the  science  team 
for  the  Clementine  moon  mission,  to  be 
launched  in  January  1994. 


SaguaroGalleiy  is  pleased  to  presmtO^ 


Featuring  Charles  R.  Knight  who  is  com 


ickred  to  be  the  Father  of  Pte^historic  >«ldlif  e  art 


RiJoU*  andjean  Day  Zailinger 

Peter  Zollinger 

Gregory  Wen^cl 

Bob  Walters 

Seaghan  ViBreaslain} 

Mike  Trcic 

Dovia  A.  Thomas 

William  Stout 

Jan  Sovak 

Paul  Sarum 

Michael  Skre|mick 


Michael  Rothtnan 
David  Peters 
Mory  Mueller 
David  Mooney 
Ralph  W.  Miller,  III 
Tony  MeiritJu;"' 
Tony  McVey 
;      Lloya  McCaffery 
David  Marrs* 
Mfchdel  Malicki 
Dan  LoRiisso 


Berislav  Kr^ie 

Vladimir  Krb 

Paul  Koro-^hetz 

Ely  Kish 

Karl  Huber 
Doug  Herulcrson 

Mark  Hallct 

Dale  Guthrie 
James  Gumey* 

John  Gurche* 
Brian  Franczak* 


Tracy  L.  Ford 

John  P.  Fiichner 

Sttphen  and  Sylvia  Cierka.'. 

Mitth  Crawford 

Donna  Braginelt 

Joseph  Brady 

Jarne,*  S.  Boydslon 

Wayne  D.  Barlowe 

;   Al  and  ShoTon  Allen 


P  J       ,      „„  29  1994  by  Stephen  fterlots  and  Mark  Hallet. 

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No-Risk  Home  Examination. [2931 


69 


Celestial  Events 


Lost  but  Not  Forgotten 


by  Gail  S.  Cleere 

As  the  new  year  begins,  Mars  is  liidden 
in  the  solar  glare,  along  with  Mercury, 
Venus,  Neptune,  and  Uranus.  The  Mars 
Obseiyer  is  hiding,  too.  All  contact  with 
the  spacecraft  was  lost  last  August  21, 
after  it  had  journeyed  450  million  miles  to 
reach  the  red  planet.  For  several  weeks, 
technicians  tried  everything  they  could 
think  of  to  reestablish  contact,  but  no  re- 
sponse was  picked  up  on  NASA's  Deep 
Space  Network  of  antennas.  Without  con- 
tact, scientists  have  no  way  of  telling 
where  the  spacecraft  is  or  even  if  it  still  ex- 
ists. It  may  be  uselessly  orbiting  Mars,  or 
it  may  have  sped  past  its  destination  on  a 
path  that  will  eventually  take  it  out  of  the 
solar  system. 

The  silence  began  just  as  flight  con- 
trollers at  California's  Jet  Propulsion  Lab- 
oratory sent  signals  to  pressurize  the 
spacecraft's  propellant  tanks  in  prepara- 
tion for  maneuvers  that  would  place  it  in 
orbit  around  Mars.  Pressurizing  the  tanks 
required  opening  valves,  which  are  oper- 
ated by  firing  small  explosive  charges.  The 
resultant  jolts  may  have  caused  the  space- 
craft's main  and  backup  clocks  to  fail  si- 
multaneously when  faulty  transistors  or 
wiring  welds  were  jarred,  crippling  the 
craft's  central  computers  and  communica- 
tions systems.  Transistors  of  the  type  used 
in  the  Mars  Observer  have  failed  on  other 
spacecraft,  such  as  the  NOAA-1  weather 
satellite.  A  NASA  committee  has  been  set 
up  to  investigate  the  failure  and  to  insure 
that  no  other  spacecraft  contains  the  sus- 
pect transistors. 

The  loss  of  the  Mars  Observer  has  been 
a  major  setback  for  planetary  scientists. 
The  first  spacecraft  to  visit  Mars  since  the 
Viking  landers  touched  down  in  1976,  the 
Mars  Observer  was  to  have  mapped  the 
planet  from  an  altitude  of  250  miles  for 


one  Martian  year  (687  Earth  days).  Its  in- 
struments were  designed  to  provide  a 
wealth  of  data  on  the  red  planet's  topogra- 
phy, atmosphere,  climate,  and  geology. 
More  than  a  hundred  scientists  were 
poised  to  begin  analyzing  the  flow  of  data 
beamed  to  Earth — more  data  on  the  red 
planet  than  had  been  obtained  from  all  the 
previous  Mars  missions  combined. 

Some  of  the  infoimation  was  crucial  to 
planning  future  Mars  missions  that  are  al- 
ready scheduled.  Another  NASA  space- 
craft, named  Pathfinder,  is  due  to  land  on 
Mars  in  July  1997  to  carry  out  the  Mars 
Environmental  Survey  Mission.  Path- 
finder will  include  a  lander  and  a  rover 
carrying  instruments  and  cameras  for 
gathering  information  from  the  planet's 
surface.  Scientists  were  hoping  for  more 
detailed  images  of  the  Martian  terrain 
from  Mars  Observer  to  help  them  select 
Pathfinder  landing  sites. 

Last  September,  in  the  wake  of  the 
Mars  Observer  disaster,  Daniel  Goldin, 
NASA's  chief  administrator,  challenged 
his  agency  to  find  a  way  to  build  and 
launch  another  Mars  spacecraft  by  Octo- 
ber 1994,  when  the  earth  and  Mars  come 
into  proper  alignment  (which  happens 
only  once  every  twenty-six  months).  A 
team  of  scientists  was  quickly  put  together 
to  review  the  options.  Thek  recommenda- 
tion was  to  use  spare  Mars  Obser\>er  elec- 
tronic and  instrument  components,  which 
were  built  as  test  models  and  backups  and 
are  now  stored  in  New  Jersey,  and  assem- 
ble them  on  a  lightweight  military  satellite 
frame.  The  craft  could  have  been  carried 
aloft  by  the  space  shuttle  and  boosted  out 
of  the  earth's  orbit  by  rocket,  or  it  could 
have  been  launched  on  a  foreign  rocket. 
Despite  NASA's  efforts,  however,  a  new 
Mai'S  spacecraft  will  not  be  ready  on  time. 


The  Russians  plan  to  take  advantage  of 
next  October's  window  of  opportunity  to 
launch  landers  that  will  reach  Mars  in  late 
1995.  This  mission  will  feature  not  only 
landers  but  also  rovers  that  wiU  traverse 
the  terrain  analyzing  samples,  as  well  as  a 
balloon  that  will  drift  along  dragging  sen- 
sors across  the  Martian  surface.  NASA 
will  have  to  wait  until  1996  to  launch  a 
mission  to  Mars. 

The  Planets  in  January 

Mercury  is  close  to  the  sun  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  month.  During  the  final 
week  of  January,  however.  Mercury 
moves  far  enough  away  to  be  spotted  on 
the  western  horizon  just  after  sundown.  It 
will  make  a  close  approach  to  Saturn  at  the 
end  of  the  month. 

Venus  reaches  superior  conjunction 
wifli  the  sun  on  the  16th.  It  is  then  behind 
the  sun. 

Mars  is  a  morning  object,  but  much  too 
close  to  the  sun  to  be  seen. 

Jupiter  rises  a  couple  of  hours  after 
midnight  and  shines  brightly  in  the  south- 
em  sky  by  dawn.  The  planet,  now  residing 
in  the  constellation  Libra,  continues  its  ret- 
rograde (western)  motion  across  the  sky 
and  approaches  Zubenelgenubi,  the  third- 
magnitude  star  that  marks  the  right  claw  of 
Scorpius.  On  the  morning  of  the  6th,  the 
waning  crescent  moon  stands  weU  below 
and  to  the  right  (west)  of  Jupiter,  and  on 
the  7th  it  will  be  well  below  and  to  the  left 
(east)  of  Jupiter. 

Saturn  is  in  Aquarius  this  month,  rising 
in  midmoming  to  the  east  of  the  sun.  It  sets 
in  the  west  a  few  hours  after  sunset.  This 
gives  us  a  chance  for  one  last  look  at  the 
ringed  planet  before  the  sun's  glare  over- 
powers it.  On  the  evening  of  the  14th,  Sat- 
urn will  be  the  bright,  yellowish  white 


70    Natural  History  1/94 


"star"  well  off  to  the  left  (east)  and  slightly 
below  the  waxing  crescent  moon.  The 
brighter  planet  Mercury  will  be  near  Sat- 
urn by  month's  end. 

Uranus  and  Neptune  are  in  conjunc- 
tion with  the  sun  on  the  1 1th  and  12th. 

Piuto  is  hidden  near  the  tail  star  of  the 
faint  constellation  Serpens,  not  far  from 
Jupiter  Pluto  will  remain  in  this  position 
throughout  1994,  making  its  way  slowly 
eastward  toward  the  constellation  Ophi- 
uchus,  and  will  remain  closer  to  us  than 
Neptune. 

The  Moon  reaches  last  quarter  on  the 
4th  at  7:00  P.M.,  EST;  is  new  on  the  1 1th  at 
6: 10  P.M.,  EST;  reaches  first  quarter  at  3:27 
P.M.,  EST,  on  the  19th,  and  is  full  on  the 
27th  at  8:23  a.m.,  EST 

The  Quadrantid  meteor  shower  is  one 
of  the  year's  most  potent.  This  shower  ap- 
pears to  emanate  from  a  point  between  the 
constellations  Bootes,  Draco,  and  Her- 
cules. The  name  of  the  shower  is  from 
Quadrans  Murahs  (the  wall  quadrant),  an 
eighteenth-century  constellation  created 
in  a  failed  attempt  to  rename  the  classical 
constellations.  The  Quandrantid  meteors 
are  characteristically  blue  in  color  and 
leave  long  silver  trails.  The  shower  has 
been  known  to  reach  rates  of  100  meteors 
per  hour,  but  usually  for  only  a  few  hours 
during  the  peak  of  the  shower.  This  year 
the  Quadrantids  will  peak  on  January  3  at 
12:00  noon,  EST.  Before  sunrise  on  this 
date,  the  Quadrantids  are  likely  to  be  only 
about  a  quarter  as  numerous  as  during  the 
peak.  The  bright,  waning  gibbous  moon  in 
the  sky  will  not  help.  Parent  comets  have 
been  identified  as  the  source  of  meteors  in 
other  showers,  but  not  for  this  one. 

Gail  S.  Cleere  lives  in  Washington,  D.C., 
and  writes  on  popular  astronomy. 


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-181 

Ready 


A  Matter  of  Taste 


Pyramid  Power 

The  USDA  has  abandoned  the  four  basic  food  groups, 
and  confusion  reigns 


by  Raymond  Sokolov 

More  nonsense  has  been  written  about 
nutrition  than  any  other  topic  so  important 
to  the  survival  of  the  human  race.  Fad 
diets  promoted  by  doctors  have  cost  wor- 
ried people  billions  of  dollars  and  millions 
of  hours... for  nothing.  Meanwhile,  even 
the  medical-nutritional  establishment 
(MNE,  pronounced  mo-ney)  has  flip- 
flopped  enough  on  this  vital  topic  to  erode 
the  confidence  of  panicked  laypeople. 

As  a  child,  I  watched  apparently  sen- 
sible adults  go  on  weight-reduction  diets 
heavily  canted  toward  protein  and  shun- 
ning carbohydrates.  My  parents'  friends 
would  gorge  on  steak  and  other  red  meats 
loaded  with  fat  and  turn  their  noses  up  at 
potatoes  and  rice  and  bread.  Then  the  bad 
news  came  in  about  cholesterol,  so  they 
dropped  all  that  red  meat  and  began  peel- 
ing the  skin  off  chicken.  They  dropped 
butter  altogether,  along  with  eggs,  whole 
milk,  and  cheese. 

By  and  by,  the  news  thundered  through 
from  the  East  that  Asians,  with  very  little 
fat  of  any  kind  in  their  diets,  are  less  vul- 
nerable to  many  chronic  diseases  than  we 
Westerners  are.  They  also  had  lower  rates 
of  colon  cancer  because  they  were  happy 
to  eat  foods  high  in  fiber. 

These  dire  facts  led  more  or  less  di- 
rectly to  the  boom  for  oat  bran,  which 
some  studies  showed  provided  an  obvious 
source  of  fiber.  (The  phrase  high  fiber  al- 
ways makes  me  think  of  high  five,  that  ex- 
uberant greeting  popularized  by  some 
African-Americans.  After  eating  an  oat 


bran  muffin,  I  often  suppress  the  impulse 
to  give  my  wife  a  high  five  across  the  table 
to  celebrate  my  dietary  shrewdness.)  No 
sooner  had  American  cereal  producers  ad- 
justed to  the  demand  for  oat  bran  than  the 
flighty  world  of  official  nutritional  dogma 
came  forth  with  an  awesome  and  all-en- 
compassing ukase.  In  1992  the  U.  S.  De- 
partment of  Agriculture  made  headlines 
and  waves  with  the  Food  Guide  Pyramid. 

Intended  as  a  simplifying,  graphic  de- 
vice for  representing  modern  thinking 
about  healthful  eating,  the  pyramid  con- 
fused laypeople  and  infuriated  profession- 
als in  both  industry  and  science.  Leaving 
aside  that  the  new  symbol  was  not  a 
(three-dimensional)  pyramid  but  a  (two- 
dimensional)  triangle,  the  "pyramid" — 
with  its  four  "tiers"  and  six  "groups"  sub- 
divided into  eighteen  categories  of 
foods — was  not  a  simplifying  substitute 
for  the  old-fashioned  system  of  four  food 
groups  that  it  was  meant  to  replace. 

The  old  four  groups  (originally  seven, 
but  don't  try  to  keep  track;  no  nondietitian 
ever  really  succeeded)  were  all  created 
equal,  just  like  people.  In  a  "balanced" 
diet,  educated  consumers  divided  their 
meals  equitably  between  each  group:  (1) 
milk  and  dairy  products;  (2)  meat, 
chicken,  and  fish;  (3)  grains  and  breads; 
(4)  fruits  and  vegetables. 

From  the  modem  point  of  view,  this  is 
not  only  a  crude  system  but  also  a  danger- 
ous one.  It  seems  to  recommend  that  we 
devote  half  our  consumption  to  foods  rich 


in  fat  and  low  in  fiber  (groups  1  and  2). 
The  pyramid  abandons  this  innocent  pol- 
icy of  apparent  nutritional  egalitarianism 
in  favor  of  a  frank  elitism  favoring  carbo- 
hydrate sources  over  protein  sources  and 
demoting  fat  to  pariah  status.  At  the  pyra- 
mid's broad  base,  the  bread,  cereal,  rice, 
and  pasta  group  is  approved  for  six  to 
eleven  daily  servings.  The  next  tier  up, 
narrower  and  by  implication  less  worth- 
while, contains  both  the  vegetable  group 
(three  to  five  servings)  and  the  fruit  group 
(two  to  four  servings).  Still  higher  up,  tier 
three  is  divided  between  the  milk,  yogurt, 
and  cheese  group  (two  to  three  servings) 
and  the  meat,  poultry,  fish,  dry  beans, 
eggs,  and  nuts  group  (two  to  three  serv- 
ings). At  the  apex  of  the  triangle  are  fats, 
oils,  and  sweets,  which  we  are  admon- 
ished by  the  USDA  to  "Use  Sparingly." 

Brief  reflection  should  make  it  obvious 
why  almost  no  one  liked  this  new  dietary 
polygon.  Those  who  took  it  on  its  own 
terms  wanted  to  know  why  foods  of  such 
different  nutritional  content  as  navy  beans 
and  porterhouse  steak  were  put  in  the 
same  group.  The  dairy  industry  wondered, 
with  justice,  why  skim  milk  and  nonfat 
yogurt  should  be  lumped  together  with 
whole  milk  and  cheese.  OUve  oil  produc- 
ers didn't  tiiink  their  product  should  be 
tarred  with  the  same  brush  as  lard  and 
chocolate  fudge. 

These  were  not  just  sectarian  concerns. 
They  raised  real  questions,  but  they  did 
not  go  to  file  heart  of  die  pyramid's  prob- 


72    Natural  History  1/94 


AMERICAN  MUSEUM  OF  NATURAL  HISTORY 


Exploring  the  world  with  expert  lecturers 


CRUISES 

ISLAPiDS  OF  THE 
IMDIAM  OCEAn 

Zanzibar,  Comoros,  Madagascar 
and  the  Seychelles 
March  9-26,  1994 

GALAPAGOS  ISLAHDS 
AMD  QUITO 

March  25  -  April  6,  1994 

MYTHS  AMD  REALITIES 
or  POLYMESIA 

Tahiti,  the  Tuamotus  and 

the  Marquesas 

April  1-12,  1994 

rRAPiCE:  CRUISIMG 
THROUGH  PROVEMCE 

June  23  -  July  3,  1994 

civiLizATioris  or  the 

MEDITERRAPiEAh 

Italy,  the  Greek  Isles  and  Turkey 
June  30  -  July  13,  1994 

ICEBREAKER  EXPEDITIOh 
TO  THE  riORTH  POLE 

July  12-31,  1994 

ALASKA'S 
iriSIDE  PASSAGE 

July  13-22,  1994 

CROSSROADS  OE  THE 

coriTiriEriTS 

Alaska  &  the  Russian  Far  East 
July  20-30,  1994 

BEYOriD  THE  MORTH  CAPE 

Spitsbergen  to  Bergen 
August  6-21,  1994 


DISCOVERY 

CRUISES  AND 

TOURS 


The  American  Museum  of  Natural  His- 
tory has  been  conducting  travel  pro- 
grams to  remote  and  magnificent  areas 
since  1953.  Working  closely  with  the 
finest  tour  operators,  we  carelfully  de- 
sign innovative  and  distinctive  travel 
opportunities.  We  select  lecturers  from 
the  Museum's  extensive  staff  of  scien- 
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programs  attract  seasoned  and  discern- 
ing travelers  who  want  to  satisfy  their 
intellectual  curiosity  while  enjoying 
comfortable  cruise  and  land  facilities. 


VOYAGE  TO  AHTIQUITY 

Turkey  and  the  Greek  Isles 

Aboard  the  Sea  Cloud 

August  28  -  September  13,  1994 


TRAIN  TRIPS 

BERLIh  TO  ISTANBUL 

May  23  -  June  4,  1994 

AnCIEriT  TURKEY 

By  Private  Steam  Train 
May  31  -June  12,  1994 

BEIJihG  TO  MOSCOW 

September  15-30,  1994 


LAND 
PROGRAMS 

A  PASSAGE 
THROUGH  iriDIA 

February  1-21,  1994 

NATURAL  TREASURES 
or  COSTA  RICA 

February  5-16,  1994 

BRITAIN  LAKE 
DISTRICT  WALK 

June  6-16,  1994 

MOROCCO:  THE  ROAD  OF  A 
THOUSAND  KASBAHS 

September  24  -  October  8,  1994 

AROUriD  THE  WORLD 
BY  PRIVATE  JET 

January  19  -  February  21,  1995 

FAMILY 
ADVENTURES 

CIVILIZATIONS  OF  THE 
MEDITERRANEAN 

Greek  Isles  and  Turkey 

Aboard  the  Daphne 
June  30 -July  13,  1994 

MEXICO'S  COPPER  CANYON 

July  9-16,  1994 

GALAPAGOS  WILDLIFE  AND 
ANDEAN  HIGHLANDS 

July  14-25,  1994 

KENYA  SAFARI 

August  8-21,  1994 


American  Museum  of  Natural  History/Discovery  Cruises  and  Tours 
Central  Park  West  at  79th  St.  New  Yorii,  NY  10024-5192 


(212)  769-5700  in  New  York  or 
Toll-free  (800)  462-8687 


lem.  The  pyramid,  by  itself,  did  not  di- 
rectly answer  the  most  fundamental  ques- 
tion it  raised  with  its  own  jargon:  What  is  a 
"serving,"  and  how  many  servings  from 
each  group  should  be  combined  to  make  a 
dish  or  a  meal?  The  poor  consumer,  al- 
ready bludgeoned  by  health  statistics  and 
doctors  into  supposing  that  cheese  kills, 
was  now  confronted  with  an  ostensible  an- 
swer to  the  life-or-death  question  of  what 
to  eat,  but  the  answer  could  not  be  under- 
stood and  did  not  ever  speak  to  the  prob- 
lem of  the  well-meaning  cook  in  a  real-life 
kitchen.  Just  imagine  the  quandary  of 
someone  about  to  cook,  say,  spaghetti  alia 
carbonara,  trying  to  calculate  how  many 
servings  of  pasta  or  unsmoked  bacon  or 
sparingly  grated  Parmesan  were  in  the 
total  recipe  and  how  many  forkfuls  equal- 
ing how  many  "servings"  were  consumed 
by  each  family  member.  And  did  the  cook 
have  to  ask  each  one  at  the  table  what  he  or 
she  had  eaten  at  lunch  so  as  to  make  the 
amount  of  noodles  on  the  plate  tally  with 
that  person's  pyramidal  goals  for  the  day? 

Underlying  all  of  this  inevitable  confu- 
sion was  the  fundamental  question,  what 
is  a  serving? 

This  is  not  easy  to  find  out.  But  if  you 
can  find  a  USDA  pubhcation  of  August 
1992  called  The  Food  Guide  Pyramid,  it  is 
clear  enough,  in  its  way.  "What  counts  as  a 
serving?"  it  asks  rhetorically.  Well,  it  goes 
on,  a  serving  of  bread  is  one  shce  (thin? 
whole-wheat?  egg  chaUah?  Don't  ask).  A 
serving  of  ready-to-eat  cereal  is  one 
ounce,  so  get  out  your  scale  and  don't  be 
surprised  if  the  amount  seems  mingy.  A 
serving  of  raw,  leafy  vegetables  is  one  cup 
(compressed  or  not?  Who  knows?),  but  a 
serving  of  fiaiit  is  only  a  half  cup,  while  a 
serving  of  fruit  juice  is  three-quarters  of  a 
cup,  even  though  fruit  juice  is  usually 
more  concentrated  than  whole  iruit. 

Logic  evaporates  altogether  in  the  dairy 
tier.  A  serving  of  milk  is  the  same  as  a 
serving  of  yogurt:  one  cup,  no  matter  what 
the  actual  fat  content  of  either.  Utterly  ab- 
surd is  the  cheese-serving  guideline:  one 
and  one-half  ounces  of  so-called  natural 
cheese  but  two  ounces  of  processed  cheese 
(up  with  Velveeta,  down  with  cheddar). 
And  in  the  high-protein  tier,  the  USDA 
wants  you  to  believe  that  two  to  three 
ounces  of  cooked  lean  meat,  poultiy,  or 
fish,  one  cup  of  cooked  dry  beans,  two 
eggs,  or  four  tablespoons  of  peanut  butter 
are  fungible  quantities — each  is  equiva- 
lent to  one  serving. 

Perhaps  I  have  convinced  you  that  the 
food  guide  pyramid  is  a  snare  and  a  delu- 
sion. If  so,  I'm  not  particularly  happy 


about  it.  In  fact,  the  pyramid  makes  me 
sad,  in  the  way  that  every  well-meant  fail- 
ure to  do  good  lowers  one's  spirits.  The 
pyramid,  to  mix  a  metaphor,  had  its  heart 
in  the  right  place.  Its  bottom  line  (bottom 
tier?)  was  clear  and  valid:  fat  is  bad;  plant- 
derived  foods,  especially  those  made  from 
grain,  are  good. 

Unfortunately,  that  message  was  lost  in 
the  pseudogeometry  and  semantic  tangle 


i        Karen  Karp's  Banana  Bread 

Thiee  flours  combine  to  give  this  perfect 
tea  cake  its  serious  flavor.  Karp  is  a 
restaurant  consultant  in  New  York.  She 
recommends  substituting  six  small  fin- 
ger bananas  for  the  three  regular  ones 
whenever  possible.  Remember  that  fin- 
ger bananas  must  be  very  ripe,  almost 
mushy  in  the  hand;  otherwise  they  will 
be  fibrous  and  unappealing. 

8  tablespoons  (1  stick)  wisalted 

butter,  at  room  temperature 
'A  cup  sugar 

2  large  eggs 

3  ripe  bananas  or  6  finger  bananas 
1  tablespoon  milk 

1  cup  flour 
'A  cup  rye  flour 
'A  cup  whole-wheat  flour 
I  teaspoon  salt 
1  teaspoon  baking  soda 
1  teaspoon  baking  powder 
Sesame  seeds 

1 .  Preheat  oven  to  325  degrees.  Grease 
a  9  X  5  X  3-inch  loaf  pan  and  set 
aside. 

2.  Use  a  whisk  or  a  hand  mixer  to 
cream  tlie  butter  and  sugar  in  a  large 
mixing  bowl  until  light  and  fluffy. 
Beat  in  die  eggs  one  at  a  time  and 
continue  beating  until  the  color  of  the 
mixture  is  pale  yellow. 

3.  In  a  small  bowl,  mash  the  bananas 
with  a  fork.  Then  mix  in  the  milk  and 
chopped  nuts. 

4.  In  another  bowl,  mix  togetlter  flour, 
salt,  baking  soda,  and  baking  pow- 
der. 

5.  Add  banana  mixture  to  the  butter- 
sugar-egg  mixture  and  stir  until  well 
combined.  Add  dry  ingredients  from 
step  4  and  continue  stirring  until  the 
flour  disappears. 

6.  Pow  the  batter  into  the  prepared  loaf 
pan.  Smooth  and  level  the  top.  Sprin- 
kle with  sesame  seeds  and  bake  for 
an  horn-  or  until  a  toothpick  inserted 

^       in  the  center  comes  out  clean.  Set 
I      aside  to  cool  on  a  rack  for  1 5  min- 
utes. Then  slide  a  knife  around  the 
edges  of  the  banana  bread  to  make 
sure  it  doesn't  stick  to  the  pan. 

7.  Place  a  platter  over  the  open  side  of 


of  tiers  and  groups  and  servings.  But  the 
basic  message  is,  in  fact,  the  nutritional  or- 
thodoxy of  our  day.  Most  people  now  ac- 
cept as  common  sense  that  densely  caloric, 
easily  storable  fats  are  undesirable  for 
people  who  typically  live  long  enough  in  a 
sedentary  manner  to  acquire  cardiovascu- 
lar and  other  diseases  associated  with  obe- 
sity and  the  accumulation  of  cholesterol. 
"Common  sense"  also  dictates  that  grains 


the  pan,  invert,  and  unraold.  Invert 
the  bread  onto  a  rack  (so  the  top — 
the  convex  side  that  was  exposed  in 
the  oven — is  up)  and  let  cool  com- 
pletely before  slicing. 

Yield:  One  loaf 


AU-Rye  Banana  Bread 


This  is  a  somewhat  less  fiercely  health- 
ful version  of  a  recipe  printed  on  the  Ar- 
rowhead Mills  rye  flour  bag.  It  has  much 
less  molasses  and  uses  real  milk  instead 
of  powdered.  If  you  want  the  full-bore 
molasses  taste,  simply  eliminate  the 
sugar  and  use  M  cup  molasses.  The  orig- 
inal recipe  also  suggested  honey  as  a 
sweetener,  another  attractive  option. 

4  tablespoons  ('A  stick)  unsalted 

butter 
'A  cup  sugar 

1  tablespoon  molasses 
3  eggs 

2  hatuiJias,  mashed 
1  teaspoon  vanilla 
%  cup  milk 

2'A  cups  rye  flour 

1  teaspoon  salt 

2  teaspoons  baking  powder 

1.  Preheat  oven  to  325  degrees.  Oil  a 
9  X  5  X  3-inch  loaf  pan  and  set  aside. 

2.  With  a  whisk  or  a  hand  mixer,  cream 
the  butter,  sugar,  and  molasses.  Then 
mix  in  the  eggs,  banana,  vanilla, 
milk,  and  'A  cup  water. 

3.  In  another  bowl,  stir  together  the 
flour,  salt,  and  baking  powder.  Stir 
this  mixture  into  the  banana  mixture 
until  the  flour  disappears. 

4.  Pour  batter  into  the  prepared  loaf  pan 
and  bake  for  1  hour-  or  until  a  tooth- 
pick inserted  into  the  center  comes 
out  clean.  Let  cool  for  15  minutes. 
Then  sMde  a  knife  around  the  edges 
of  the  banana  bread  to  make  sure  it 
doesn't  stick  to  the  pan.  Place  a  plat- 
ter over  the  open  side  of  the  pan,  in- 
vert, and  unmold.  Invert  the  bread 
onto  a  rack  (so  the  top — the  convex 
side  that  was  exposed  in  the  oven — ^is 
up)  and  let  cool  completely  before 
slicing. 


Yield:  One  loaf 


74    Natural  History  1/94 


and  their  derivatives  offer  a  desirable  al- 
ternative source  of  nutrition:  cholesterol- 
and  fat-free  calories  easily  put  to  use  and 
dissipated,  and  much  fiber 

This  was  not  at  all  the  common  sense  of 
yesteryear.  In  1968,  that  annus  mirabilis 
of  revolutionary  thought  and  action,  if  I 
had  suggested  that  a  grain-based  diet  ex- 
tremely low  in  animal  fat  was  the  way  to 
go,  almost  everyone  (including  the  most 
radical)  would  have  dismissed  the  idea  as 
unhealthful  and  dangerous  macrobiotic 
extremism.  Now  most  of  us  have  swung  in 
that  direction,  at  least  in  our  minds.  Why? 
How  did  it  happen? 

In  traditiontQ  societies,  new  ideas  per- 
colated downward  from  elites  to  a  wider 
public.  In  our  world,  where  novelty  rico- 
chets from  all  sides  at  high  velocity  carried 
by  the  mass  media,  the  rate  of  communi- 
cation is  almost  instantaneous,  but  there  is 
still  a  vestige  of  tiie  old  top-down  dy- 
namic. Serious  medical  and  nutritional  re- 
search has  gradually  convinced  those  ca- 
pable of  rational  thought  that  the 
low-fat/high-fiber  theory  is  correct. 

Why  didn't  science  reach  this  conclu- 
sion sooner?  The  reason  is  simple.  To  dis- 
cover the  nature  of  optimal  diet  is  not  the 
same  as  learning  to  cure  a  disease.  Disease 
kills  dramatically,  one  person  at  a  time, 
and  it  can  be  studied  with  efficiency  in  in- 
dividuals. Optimal  diet  reveals  itself 
through  statistics  and  must  be  studied  in 
many  people  over  long  periods  of  time. 
The  data  are  notoriously  unreliable  be- 
cause people  are  quick  to  lie  about  what 
they  put  in  their  mouths.  But  these  ob- 
stacles have  been  laboriously  and  te- 
diously overcome.  First  came  the  evidence 
about  obesity  and  cholesterol  in  the  Fram- 
ingham  Heart  Study  in  Massachusetts. 
Then,  decisively,  comparative  data  arrived 
from  China,  and  the  discussion  was,  in  a 
major  sense,  oven 

Since  1983,  a  joint  Chinese- American 
project  (by  the  Academy  for  Preventive 
Medicine  in  Beijing  and  Cornell  Univer- 
sity) has  investigated  the  diet  of  6,500 
rural  Chinese.  The  results  show  with  dev- 
astating clarity  the  superiority  of  a  plant- 
based  diet.  The  average  Chinese  diet  was 
only  10  percent  animal  based.  Less  than 
15  percent  of  the  calories  were  derived 
from  fat.  Chinese  ate  a  third  less  protein 
than  Americans,  and  only  about  a  tenth  of 
that  protein  was  animal.  Americans  got 
about  70  percent  of  their  protein  from  ani- 
mals. Chinese  fiber  consumption  was 
huge  compared  to  American.  Chinese, 
moreover,  typically  have  about  half  the 
blood  cholesterol  that  Americans  have. 


And  the  incidence  of  heart  disease  and 
cancer  is  much  lower  in  China  than  here. 

The  most  impressive — and  depress- 
ing— statistics  are  tiiose  that  show  the  dis- 
astrous effect  of  modest  increases  in  ani- 
mal-based food  consumption  on  the 
Chinese  sampling.  Heart  disease  and  can- 
cer rates  climbed. 

All  of  this  confirms  the  theory  that  ani- 
mal fat  and  animal-based  foods  in  general 
produce  the  diseases  rife  in  affluent  West- 
em  societies.  This  is  a  negative  result  and 
leads  to  a  negative  course  of  action:  re- 
duce consumption  of  animal-based  foods. 
But  there  is  also  a  positive  conclusion  to 
be  drawn  and  a  positive  course  of  action  to 
be  taken:  Increase  the  intake  of  plant- 
based  foods,  not  just  as  a  desperate  alter- 
native but  as  a  constructive  remedy,  a 
restoration  of  balance  in  what  we  eat. 

I  am  not  advocating  a  rigorous  vegetar- 
ian regimen.  But  I  do  believe  that  all  evi- 
dence points  to  a  need  for  radical  renova- 
tion of  the  way  we  plan  meals,  that  we 
must  find  ways  of  de-emphasizing  meat 
and  of  tilting  the  scales  toward  plant-based 
foods.  Unwavering,  true  vegetarianism  re- 
quires a  moral  commitment  that  only  a  mi- 
nority will  embrace. 

Instead,  we  should  be  revamping  our 
menus  by  choosing  dishes  rich  in  vegeta- 
bles and,  especially,  grains.  Grains  supply 
the  food  energy  and  the  fiber  we  must 
have  to  survive.  They  are  versatile,  and 
they  are  major  ingredients  in  thousands  of 
recipes  people  already  love.  The  trick  is  to 
put  these  grain-centered  dishes  at  the  cen- 
ter of  our  diet,  rather  than  the  periphery. 

Something  like  this  has  already  been 
happening.  The  vogue  of  pasta  is  a  key  ex- 
ample. So  is  the  fi-end  toward  Asian  stir 
fries  (despite  insidiously  high  amounts  of 
fat  from  the  oil  used  in  frying)  and  other 
dishes  in  which  the  central  ingredient  is 
rice  and  in  which  meat,  when  there  is  any, 
is  a  superaddition,  almost  a  condiment.  As 
this  kind  of  eating  becomes  more  com- 
mon, it  will  be  less  normal  or  mandatory 
to  plan  a  meal  around  a  cut  of  meat,  such 
as  a  roast  or  a  steak.  This  readjustment  of 
attitude,  moderate  and  gradual,  will  have 
the  revolutionary  goal  of  returning  our 
meals  to  a  pattern  that  has  been  the  histor- 
ical norm  for  most  human  beings  at  all 
times  everywhere.  The  battle  will  be  won 
if  ordinary  Americans  ask  themselves: 
Should  we  have  risotto  tonight?  Or  barley 
with  chicken? 

Raymond  Sokolov  is  a  writer  whose  spe- 
cial interests  are  the  history  and  prepara- 
tion of  food. 


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75 


The  Natural  Moment 


Ghost  in  a  Snowstorm 


Gliding  silently  through  the  chilly  night,  a  flying 
squirrel  navigates  a  forest  in  Hokkaido,  Japan's 
northernmost  island.  Although  this  species  (Pteromys 
volans)  is  known  as  the  European  flying  squirrel,  it  ranges 
throughout  the  coniferous  forests  of  Eurasia,  from  Finland  to 
eastern  Siberia  and  the  northern  tip  of  Japan.  Brown  with 
white  underparts  in  summer,  its  entire  coat  turns  silver  gray 
and  silky  smooth  in  winter. 

A  versatile  climber  that  is  awkward  on  the  ground  (and 
avoids  walking  on  it),  a  flying  squirrel  can  glide  as  far  as 
130  feet  from  tree  to  tree.  A  furry  flightskin  on  the  sides  of 
its  body,  joined  to  the  front  legs  and  rear  ankle  joints,  acts  as 
an  airfoil,  while  the  bushy  tail  serves  as  a  rudder.  Active 
mainly  in  the  evening  and  at  night,  flying  squirrels  eat  birch 
bark  and  leaves,  buds  of  coniferous  and  deciduous  trees, 
insects,  pine  seeds,  alder  catkins,  berries,  and  mushrooms.  In 
winter,  the  northern  populations  feed  almost  exclusively 
on  larch  bark  and  buds. 

Photographer  Seiichi  Meguro  has  dedicated  himself  to 
photographing  the  squirrels,  foxes,  and  other  shy  forest 
creatures  near  his  Hokkaido  home.  Since  flying  squirrels 
habitually  traverse  the  same  routes  on  flieir  feeding  rounds, 
Meguro  positioned  himself  near  tiie  sites  of  their  regular 
flights.  Focusing  his  camera  on  the  area  in  which  he 
expected  a  squirrel  to  leap,  he  clicked  away  when  one 
appeared.  Because  the  squirrels'  movements  are  very  rapid, 
Meguro  finds  it  useless  to  follow  tiiem  through  the  camera's 
viewfinder.  Working  at  night,  when  his  subjects  are  most 
active,  the  photographer  kept  after  the  squirrels 
for  five  years  before  he  was  able  to  create  this  eerie  winter 
nocturne. — R.  M. 


r«-v 


Photographs  by  Seiichi  Meguro 


Nature  Production 


76    Natural  History  1/94 


9 

■ 

q 

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'^-t^M 

m 

^^^Bi  ^^^BI^^^H^' 

2^ 


On  the  Trail  of  the 
Titans  of  Prehistory., 

WIIUK'VN  MltSHIMW  NAlTJKAl  H^T<>Rvl 


Bafbsaurus 


'^rw<:V7!:ii''V'"f' 


\<K\SMt.\s\~im,f  NATURAL  IIIM^mt: 

Li  lymimosauiiis 


ODrytliosaurus 


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Authors 


Richard  Shine  (page  34),  shown  here 
with  a  black-headed  python,  was  bom  in 
Brisbane,  Australia,  and  has  been  fasci- 
nated by  snakes  and  lizards  since  an  early 
age.  He  used  to  keep  several  at  home,  but 
says  "I  now  have  enough  of  them  to  look 
at  when  I'm  at  work."  The  forty-three- 
year-old  herpetologist  has  earned  two  doc- 
torates: a  Ph.D.  from  Australia's  Univer- 
sity of  New  England  in  1975,  and  a  D.Sc. 
fi-om  the  University  of  Sydney  in  1988.  He 
now  teaches  in  the  biology  department  at 
the  University  of  Sydney.  Shine's  field- 
work  has  taken  him  from  the  chilly  Brind- 
abella  Range  in  southern  Australia  to 
northern  Australia's  wet-dry  tropics.  Shine 
says,  "My  skink  studies  combine  two  of 
my  greatest  interests:  the  biology  of  rep- 
tiles, and  the  ways  that  evolutionary 
processes  operate.  I'll  admit  to  choosing 
the  Brindabellas  as  a  study  area  partly  be- 
cause it  has  good  trout  streams  (and  I'm  an 


avid  fly  fisherman),  but  the  sad  reality  is 
that  I've  been  so  busy  working  on  the 
fizards  that  I've  never  managed  to  even 
unpack  my  rod.  Still,  it's  good  for  the  soul 
to  know  that  the  trout  are  there." 


Roger  Payne  (page  40)  earned  his  doc- 
torate from  Cornell  University  in  1962 
with  a  dissertation  on  owls  that  locate  prey 
in  total  darkness  by  sound.  His  research  on 
owl  and  bat  acoustics  eventuaUy  led  him 
to  study  whales  and  to  finding  things  out 
through  observation  rather  than  experi- 
mentation. An  accomplished  cellist  by  av- 
ocation, Payne  is  particularly  attuned  to 
the  sounds  and  rhythms  of  whales.  "I  have 
been  studying  whales  continuously  since 
1967,"  Payne  says,  "and  one  must  be  con- 
tent to  observe  these  animals  with  a 
metronome  on  adagio."  Payne,  who  in 


1971  established  what  is  now  caUed  the 
Whale  Conservation  Institute  in  Lincoln, 
Massachusetts,  plans  to  continue  investi- 
gating whale  vocaUzations,  as  well  as  the 
effects  of  pollution  on  whales  and  other 
marine  mammals.  For  more  information, 
Payne  recommends:  The  Sierra  Club 
Handbook  of  Whales  and  Dolphins,  by 
Stephen  Leatherwood  and  Randall  R. 
Reeves  (San  Francisco:  Sierra  Club 
Books,  1983)  and  Dolphins,  Porpoises 
and  Whales  of  the  World:  The  lUCN  Red 
Data  Book,  by  M.  Klinowska  (Washing- 
ton, D.C.:  Island  Press,  1991). 


78    Natural  History  1/94 


As  a  high-school  student,  Michael 
Boppre  (page  26)  took  a  summer  job  at 
the  Max  Planck  Institute  for  Behavioural 
Physiology  at  Seewiesen,  an  isolated  "sci- 
ence village"  in  an  idyllic  landscape  in  the 
German  countryside.  The  atmosphere 
there — a  satisfying  mix  of  work  and  pri- 
vate life,  with  many  interesting  research 
groups  and  famous  visitors  ("most  coming 


to  see  Konrad  Lorenz") — convinced  Bop- 
pre to  "study  biology  and  nothing  else." 
When  he  did  his  university  studies  at  Mar- 
burg, he  continued  to  spend  most  of  his 
holiday  time  at  Seewiesen.  A  1972  trip  to 
Kenya  sparked  a  great  interest  in  the  trop- 
ics and  fieldwork.  Now  a  full  professor 
and  director  of  the  University  of  Frei- 
burg's Institute  of  Forest  Zoology,  Boppre 
continues  his  work  in  the  interdisciplinary 
field  of  chemical  ecology,  which  includes 
the  study  of  behavior,  physiology,  mor- 
phology, taxonomy,  and  evolutionary  biol- 
ogy. For  more  on  butterflies,  Boppre  rec- 
ommends The  Biology  of  Butterflies, 
edited  by  R.  I.  Vane-Wright  and  P  R.  Ack- 
ery  (Princeton:  Princeton  University 
Press,  1 989),  in  which  he  has  a  chapter  en- 
titled "Chemically  Mediated  Interactions 
Between  Butterflies." 


BERLIN  TO  ISTANBUL 

A  Train  Journey 

Aboard  the  Red  Prussian 

May  23  -  June  4, 1994 


Join  a  team  of  Ameri- 
can Museum  and  guest 
lecturers  next  spring  on 
a  fascinating  journey 
from  Berlin  to  Istanbul. 
Following  the  tracks  of 
the  legendary  Orient 
Express,  we  will  travel 
aboard  the  Red  Prus- 
sian from  eastern  Ger- 
many through  Czecho- 
slovakia, Poland,  Hun- 
gary, Romania,  Bul- 
garia and  Turkey. 

Along  the  way  we  will  explore  many  of  the  grand  and  historic  cities  of 
Eastern  Europe,  including  Berlin,  Dresden,  Prague,  Krakow,  Budapest, 

Plovdiv,  Edime  and  Sofia,  as  well 
as  some  of  the  small  towns  and 
picturesque  villages  that  have  re- 
tained their  rural  charm.  Continu- 
ing along  the  age-old  route  be- 
tween Europe  and  Asia,  we  culmi- 
nate our  journey  in  Istanbul  where 
the  two  continents  meet. 

The  privately-chartered  Red  Prus- 
sian, once  used  exclusively  by  East- 
em  European  dignitaries,  is  an  ideal 
base  for  exploring  this  region.  En- 
joy a  front  row  seat  from  which  to 
watch  the  beautiful  landscapes  and 
historic  cities  of  Eastern  Europe 
unfold. 


American 
Museum  of 
Natural 
History 

Discovery  Tours 

Central  Park  West  at  79th  St. 

New  York.  NY   10024-5192 

Toll-free  (800)  462-8687 

(212)  769-5700  in  NYS 


79 


Bat  researchers  Scott  C.  Pedersen  (in  a 

Costa  Rican  field,  right)  and  Rick  A. 
Adams  (in  Colorado,  with  a  chiropteran 
friend,  above)  coauthored  "Wings  on 
Their  Fingers"  (page  48)  despite  the  3,000 
or  so  miles  that  separate  them.  Both  are  as- 
sistant professors:  Adams  teaches  zoology 
at  the  University  of  Wisconsin  at  White- 
water and  Pedersen  is  currently  at  the 
American  University  of  the  Caribbean 
School  of  Medicine,  at  Montserrat,  British 
West  tidies.  Pedersen's  lifelong  interest  in 
aircraft  flight  led  to  his  study  of  biological 
flight  systems.  Some  of  his  bat  research 


has  also  focused  on  echolocation.  Adams 
has  had  a  special  affection  for  bats  ever 
since  his  childhood  in  Bethesda,  Mary- 
land, when  he  accidentally  killed  one  with 
a  frisbee.  ("Something  about  the  twirling 
attracts  them"  he  says,  "and  may  distort 
the  readings  of  their  echolocation  sys- 
tems.") The  two  met  during  graduate  stud- 
ies at  the  University  of  Colorado  at  Boul- 
der, where  they  discovered  a  mutual 
interest  in  bone  development.  Adams  is 
president  and  founder  of  the  Colorado  Bat 
Society,  which  is  dedicated  both  to  educat- 
ing the  public  about  bats  and  to  conserving 


Colorado  species.  For  more  on  bats, 
Adams  and  Pedersen  recommend  Just 
Bats,  by  M.  Brock  Fenton  (Toronto:  Uni- 
versity of  Toronto  Press,  1 983);  America 's 
Neighborhood  Bats,  by  Merlin  Tuttle 
(Austin:  University  of  Texas  Press,  1988); 
and  Bats:  A  Natural  History,  by  John  Hill 
and  James  Smith  (Austin:  University  of 
Texas  Press,  1984). 


A  former  bus  driver  and  car  dealer, 
forty-three-year-old  wildlife  photographer 
Seiichi  Meguro  (page  76)  nightly  wan- 
ders the  forests  near  his  home  in  the 


Kamikawa  District  of  Hokkaido,  Japan, 
searching  for  suitable  subjects.  "I  was  fol- 
lowing some  red  foxes  over  a  mountain," 
he  says,  "when  I  encountered  an  appealing 


little  fellow — a  flying  squirrel — gliding 
from  tree  to  tree."  Fascinated,  Meguro 
spent  years  observing  the  squirrels'  habits. 
His  "Natural  Moment"  photographs  were 
taken  near  Takasu-Town  on  snowy 
evenings  in  January  and  March,  when  "an 
unskilled  observer  would  not  even  have 
noticed  the  gliding  squirrels."  Using  a 
Canon  Fl,  with  a  Canon  FD  85mm  fl.2 
lens,  and  two  flashes  (one  mounted  on 
each  side  of  the  camera),  he  froze  the 
squirrel's  flight  on  Kodachrome  64  film. 
Meguro  takes  photographs  "in  the  hope 
that  if  people  learn  more  about  wildlife, 
they  will  not  be  so  thoughtless  in  destroy- 
ing habitats  for  the  sake  of  human  conve- 
nience. Even  a  very  small  child  does  not 
step  on  vegetation  if  he  or  she  knows  the 
name  of  that  plant."  Some  of  Meguro's 
photographic  sequences  have  been  pub- 
lished in  Japan  as  popular  children's 
books.  They  include  A  Fox  Called  Boro 
and  a  Flying  Squirrel  Called  Nenai 
(Tokyo:  Gakken,  1984),  and  The  Forest  of 
Akkamui  (Tokyo:  Kumon  Publishing, 
1987). 


80    Natural  History  1/94 


To  Operate  This  Highly  Advanced  Training  Equipment, 

It  Takes  A  System  Oi  Sensitive  Countemeights,  Reinforced  Suspension  Cables, 


WORLDWIDE  SPONSOR 
1934/1996  OIYMPIC  GAMES 


It^  Everywhere  \bu 
Want  To  Be? 


Natural  hietory      horary 
AM.  MUS.  NAT.  HIST.  LIBRARY 
Received  on:  01-10-94 
Ref  5.06(74.7)M1 


WeVe  Desig 
A  Protected  Area. 


At  Jeep,  we're  continually 
looking  for  ways  to  protect  the 
planet,  and  we  think  we've  come 
up  with  some  pretty  good  ideas 
to  protect  one  area  in  particular. 
It's  the  area  known  as  Jeej?  Grand 
Cherokee  Limited. 

You  see,  the  Quadra-Trac' 
aU-the-time  four-wheel  drive  system 


See  limited  warranties,  restrictions,  and  details  at  dealer.    'Always  wear  your  seat  belt. 


that  can  take  you  to  the  top  of  a 
mountain  also  helps  keep  you  firmly 
planted  to  the  freeway.  Even  when 
the  weather  turns  wet  or  snow^. 

Jeep  Grand  Cherokee  also  has 
a  standard  driver's  side  air  bag^and 
f^&p'    standard  four-wheel  anti- 
^^^    lock  disc  brakes.  And  the 
.mli^  body  of  the  vehicle  is  rein- 


forced with  side-guard  door  beams 
made  of  ultra-high-strength  steel. 
If  you'd  like  to  explore  Jeep 
Grand  Cherokee's  protected  area, 
please  call  1-800-JEEP-EAGLE. 
■feur  dealer  would  be  more  than 
happy  to  show  you  around. 

There's  Only  One  Jeep! 


JeeR 


A  Division  of  the  Chrysler  Corporation. 


Jeep  is  a  registered  trademark  of  Chrysler  Corporation. 


m. 


•»♦.*. 


•:  • 


■■<f;  ■•■« 


"'     >^* 


•% 


k 


r*'t 


%i\ 


^^ 


>.  -< 


,"     ;*» 


^ 


-fe^^ 


FORD  TAURUS 

AMERICAS 
BEST-SELUNG  CAR." 


When  we  created  the  Taurus 
Wagon,  we  created  a  wagon  unHke 
any  other.  A  wagon  with  a  level  of 
style,  performance  and  comfort  that 
sent  it  to  the  top  of  the  best-seller 
list.  And  took  the  competition  out 
of  the  competition. 

Continual  refinement  makes 
Taurus  Wagon  a  design  leader  with 


the  look,  ride  and  handling  you'd 
expect  from  a  fine  sedan.  Inside, 
the  seats  are  comfortable  and  the 
controls  easy  to  operate.  For  an 
added  measure  of  safety,  dual  air 
bags**  are 
standard 
and  ABS 
is  available. 


mm 


'      YOU'RE  LOOKING  AT 
THE  REASON  A  LOT  OF  OUR 

COMPETITORS  DON'T 
BUILD  WAGONS  ANY  MORE. 


EVERY  1994  FORD  COMES  WITH 
OUR  ROADSIDE  ASSISTANCE 
PROGRAM^** 

Help  is  only  a  toll-free  call  away 
should  you  and  your  family  need  a 
flat  tire  changed,  lockout  assistance 
or  a  fuel  delivery. 

Experience  this  Taurus  Wagon  for 
yourself.  Once  you've  seen  what  it 


can  do  on  the  road,  you'll  under- 
stand that  it's  more  than  just  an 
impressive  wagon . . .  it's  an  impres- 
sive automobile. 


*Based  on  1993  MYTD  manufacturer's  reported 

retail  deliveries. 
''Driver  and  right  front  passenger  supplemental 

restraint  system.  Always  wear  your  safety  belt. 
'*3  years/36,000  miles.  See  dealer  for  details. 


HAVE  YOU  DRIVEN 
A  FORD  LATELY? 


te;4ii 


«-  ;(•#«» 


K^EDITION  TO  THE, 


^I^'b 


July  12-31, 1994 


The  North  Pole,  surrounded  by  more  than  500  miles 
of  drifting  pack  ice,  has  long  been  a  coveted  prize  for 
explorers.  Conquered  only  within  this  century,  it 
continues  to  add  names  to  an  already  illustrious  list  of 
explorers,  among  them  Peary,  Amundsen,  Ellsworth 
and  Nansen.  The  American  Museum  of  Natural  His- 
tory invites  you  to  join  a  team  of  museum  scientists 
for  a  once-in-a-lifetime  opportunity  to  cross  the  polar 
ice  cap  and  stand  at  90  degrees  north.  Sailing  aboard 
a  powerful  Russian  icebreaker,  we  will  travel  safely 
and  comfortably  to  the  North  Pole,  avoiding  the 
extreme  hardships  faced  by  previous  adventurers 
who  had  to  travel  overland  and  aboard  ships  ill- 
equipped  for  the  ice.  Along  the  way,  we  will  search 
for  walrus,  seals,  seabirds,  whales,  polar  bears  and 
other  Arctic  wildlife.  We  will  also  explore  Franz 
Josef  Land,  a  remote  Russian  archipelago  where  early 
Arctic  expeditions  wintered,  and  Norway's  wildlife- 
rich  East  Spitsbergen.  Join  us  for  an  unforgettable  adventure. 


American 
Museum  of 
Natural 
History 

Discovery  Cruises 

Central  Park  West  at  79th  Street 

New  York,  NY   10024-5192 

Toll-free  (800)  462-8687  or 

(212)  769-5700  in  NYS 


NATURAL 
HISTORY 


Vol.  103,  No.  2,  February  1994 


Cover:  a.  hawlcftsh  hovers  above  an  antler  coral  in 
the  sea  near  Maui.  Slury  on  page  50.  Photograph  by 
Andrew  G.  Wood;  Photo  Researchers,  Inc. 

4  Nature's  Infinite  Book  .lared Diamond 

Stinking  Birds  and  Burning  Books 

14    This  View  of  Life  Stephen  Jay  Gould 
In  the  Mind  of  the  Belwlder 

24   Science  Lite  Roger  l.  Weisch 

Astrophys  Ed 


"^     26    Fire,  Ice,  and  Eagles  Text  and  photographs  by  Alexander  Ladigin 
The  American  eagle's  bigger  cousin  in  Siberia  has  a  taste  for  salmon,  too. 

34    An  UnSHAGGY  Dog  Story  Alana  Cordy-ColUns 

Twelve  hundred  years  ago,  traders  from  Ecuador  may  have  introduced 
a  walking  hot-water  bottle  to  Peru. 

39  A  Lethal  Gene 
42   Some  Likje  It  Cold  Bemd  Heinrich 

Why  would  a  moth  choose  to  fly  about  on  a  winter  day? 

50  The  Case  of  the  Missing  Lobsters  Jeffrey  Poiovina 

Investigators  solve  a  mystery  in  Hawaii  by  showing  that  no  crime  took  place. 

60  Celestial  Events  Gaii  s.  cieere 

Baggitig  the  Little  Green  Man 

62    Reviews  Steven  Austad 
Reflections  on  Slime 

66  At  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History 

68    This  Land  Robert  H.  Mohlenbrock 
Traverse  Creek,  California 

72   A  Matter  of  Taste  Raymond  Sokoiov 

Through  a  Mill,  Coarsely 

76    The  Natural  Moment  Photographs  by  Michael  S.  Quintan 
The  Quick  and  the  Dead 

78  Authors 


26 


NATURAL 
HISTORY 

A  rnonllilv  niasiazine  of  the  Aniericiin 


Nature's  Infinite  Book 


Alan  P.  TfeRNES  Editor 

Ellen  Goldensohn  Managing  Editor 

Thomas  Page  Designer 

Board  of  Editors 

Robert  B.  Anderson,  Florence  G.  Edelstein, 
Rebecca  B.  Finnell,  Jenny  Lawrence, 
VrrToRjo  Maestro,  Richard  Milner,  Judy  Rice, 
Kay  Zakariasen  (Pictlires) 

Contributing  Editors 

Les  Line.  Samuel  M.  Wilson 

Lisa  Stillman  Copy  Editor 

Peggy  Conversano  Asst.  Designer 

David  Ortiz  PicnireAssl. 

Carol  Barnette  Text  Processor 

John  Jeffers 

L.  Thomas  Kelly  Publisher 
Bari  S.  Edwards  General  Manager 
Ernestine  Weindorf  AssI.  to  the  Publishei 
Edward  R.  Buller  Business  Manager 
Gary  Castle  Circulation  Director 
Ramon  E.  Alvarez  Direct  Mail  Manager 
Judy  Lee  Asst.  Circtilation  Manager 
Brunilda  Ortiz  Asst.  Fulfillment  Manager 
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Account  Managers 

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OF  Natural  History 

A  1 25-year-olcl  insiiuiiion  deciicaied  lo 
iinderslanding  and  preserving 
biolocical  and  cultural  diversii-, 


William  T.  Golden 
Chairman,  Board  of  Trustees 

Ellen  V.  Futter 

President  and  Chief  Executive 


Nattiml  History  OSSN  0028-0712)  is  published  raontlff 
the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History,  Central  Park  West 
at74ih  Street,  New  York,  N.Y.  10024.  Subscriptions;  $28.00 
a  year,  in  Canada  and  all  other  countries:  $37.00  a  year.  Sec- 
ond-class postage  paid  at  New  York.  N.Y.  and  at  additional 
mailing  otTiiTCs.  Copyright  ©  1994  by  American  Museum  of 
Natural  History.  All  rights  reserved.  No  pan  of  ttus  periodical 
may  be  reproduced  without  written  consent  of  Natural  History. 
Send  subscription  orders  and  nndeliverablc  copies  to  the  ad- 
dress below.  Membership  and  subscription  information:  Write 
to  address  below  or  call  (SOO)  234-5252  if  urgent.  Postmaster: 
Send  address  changes  to  Notumf  History,  Post  Office  Box 
5000,  Harlan  lA  5 1537-5000. 

Primed  in  the  USA 


Stinking  Birds  and 
Burning  Books 

Want  to  make  new  discoveries  in  cliemical  ecology? 
Talli  with  a  tribal  liunter 


by  Jared  Diamond 

Most  scientists  think  of  the  golden  age 
of  iield  biology,  when  explorers  could 
travel  to  any  part  of  the  globe  and  count  on 
returning  with  amazing  discoveries  and 
undescribed  species,  as  a  bygone  era.  The 
dwindling  number  of  biologists  who  still 
journey  to  remote  lands  are  suspected  of 
doing  it  for  the  adventure.  Other  scientists 
would  have  us  believe  that  biology's  real 
discoveries  today  are  being  made  in  the 
laboratory,  where  molecular  biologists  are 
supposedly  closing  in  on  the  secrets  of  life. 
Attention  has  also  shifted  to  extraterres- 
trial space,  whence  some  astronomers 
continue  to  await  radio  signals  from  intel- 
hgent  beings  on  other  planets. 

Actually,  the  vast  majority  of  this 
planet's  species  are  still  undescribed  and 
unknown.  In  addition,  remarkable  new 
knowledge  has  only  recently  been  gained 
about  many  previously  described  spe- 
cies— such  as  the  mouse  that  sheds  its 
skin,  the  frog  that  broods  its  young  in  its 
stomach,  the  naked  rat  that  Uves  under- 
ground in  colonies,  the  African  monkeys 
that  use  different,  gruntlike  "words"  to 
warn  one  another  of  particular  species  of 
predators,  and  the  chimpanzees  that  use 
stone  tools  and  wage  genocidal  wars. 

To  scientists,  these  are  exciting  discov- 
eries. But  they  are  not  really  discoveries, 
because  much  of  this  was  already  known 
to  indigenous  peoples.  Technologically 
"primitive"  peoples,  who  still  depend 
heavily  on  hunting  and  gathering  for  their 
subsistence,  routinely  distinguish  and 
name  hundreds  of  species  of  local  plants 
and  animals  and  can  recite  the  species'  in- 
dividual life  histories.  The  New  Guineans 
who  guide  me  in  the  jungle,  for  example. 


often  point  out  plants  that  they  use  as  con- 
traceptives, antimalarials,  wound-healers, 
and  abortion-inducing  agents. 

Much  of  this  knowledge  would  be  com- 
mercially valuable  in  the  outside  world. 
As  a  result,  drug  companies  hire  ethnobi- 
ologists — biologists  who  study  the  folk 
knowledge  of  natural  phenomena — to  col- 
lect plants  and  animals  for  testing  as 
sources  of  new  drugs.  Tribespeople  tell 
ethnobiologists  which  species  to  collect 
and  what  to  test  each  species  for.  The  sci- 
entific study  of  the  chemicals  produced  by 
Uving  plants  and  animals  is  called  chemi- 
cal ecology.  A  promising  trend  in  conser- 
vation biology  is  for  drug  and  chemical 
companies  to  buy  "chemical  prospecting 
hcenses"  in  remnants  of  the  world's  belea- 
guered tropical  rain  forests. 

The  encyclopedic  knowledge  of  the  nat- 
ural world  possessed  by  New  Guineans 
(see  "This-Fellow  Frog,  Name  Belong- 
him  Dakwo,"  April  1989,  and  "The  Eth- 
nobiologist's  Dilemma,"  June  1989)  is  on 
my  mind  now,  as  I  have  just  returned  from 
a  month  studying  birds  among  the  Keteng- 
ban  people  of  Indonesian  New  Guinea. 
Showing  the  voluminous  knowledge  typi- 
cal of  New  Guineans,  my  Ketengban 
guides  described  the  habits  of  165  local 
bird  species.  They  did  not,  of  course,  use 
English  or  Latin  names  but  names  in  their 
own  language,  such  as  toktokpani,  biila- 
biila,  and  amkeri-tololop.  Much  of  what 
my  guides  told  me  I  knew  to  be  scientifi- 
cally correct;  other  things  were  new  to  me, 
but  they  sounded  plausible.  Some  of  them 
must  have  taken  great  acuity  to  observe. 

For  example,  one  morning  my  one- 
eyed  guide,  Robert  Uropka,  claimed  that 


4    Natural  History  2/94 


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he  had  just  glimpsed,  high  above  our 
heads  in  the  jungle,  a  small  bird  known  lo- 
cally as  mawe.  Looking  through  my 
binoculars,  I  identified  it  as  Lorentz's 
whistler  and  objected  that  Robert  had  al- 
ready applied  that  name  to  another  bird, 
which  I  knew  as  the  regent  whistler. 
Robert  then  gave  me  a  short  lecture  (in  the 
Indonesian  language  that  we  shared)  on 
the  distinctions.  "Yes,  we  use  the  name 
'mawe'  for  two  different  birds.  This  one 
lives  high  on  the  mountain,  and  the  male 
and  female  have  identical  plumage.  The 
other  one  lives  lower  on  the  mountain,  has 
a  different  song,  and  the  male  differs  in  its 
black  crown  and  yellow  nape."  I  was  flab- 
bergasted, because  both  sexes  of  Lorentz's 
whistler  are  so  similar  to  female  regent 
whistlers  that  even  ornithologists  poring 
over  stuffed  specimens  didn't  recognize 
them  as  distinct  species  until  1939. 

While  Robert  was  demonstrably  right 
about  the  whistlers,  he  also  described  to 
me  some  bird  lore  that  sounded  wildly  im- 
plausible— stories  of  birds  that  stink  and 
birds  that  act  as  living  flytraps.  But  those 
stories,  too,  may  be  true;  an  equally  wild 
tale,  told  by  other  New  Guineans  about 
supposedly  poisonous  birds,  has  just  been 
confirmed  by  scientists.  Such  confirma- 
tion illustrates  that  major  scientific  discov- 
eries, perhaps  of  great  economic  value, 
await  teams  of  chemical  ecologists  and 
ethnobiologists.  The  stories  also  carry  a 
larger  message  about  the  tragedy  of 
shrinking  human  knowledge. 

The  recent  "Case  of  the  Poisonous 
Birds"  has  to  do  with  three  common,  con- 


spicuous, and  very  noisy  species  of  jay- 
sized  New  Guinea  birds  called  pitohuis, 
which  have  been  known  to  scientists  since 
1827.  Thousands  of  specimens  are  in  the 
world's  museums,  and  hundreds  of  tourists 
visiting  New  Guinea  observe  them  in  the 
jungle  every  year.  I  have  caught  hundreds 
of  pitohuis  in  nets,  watched  and  tape- 
recorded  thousands,  and  published  two  pa- 
pers on  their  behavior.  None  of  us  "profes- 
sional" scientists  suspected  poison.  The 
sole  hint  was  a  single  sentence  in  a  long 
book  published  in  1977  by  the  Kalam  vil- 
lager Ian  Saem  Majnep,  in  collaboration 
with  New  Zealand  ethnobiologist  Ralph 
Bulmer.  Detailing  what  Kalam  villagers 
knew  about  each  of  137  bird  species  living 
in  their  valley,  Majnep  wrote  of  the 
hooded  pitohui,  "Some  men  say  that  the 
skin  is  bitter  and  puckers  the  mouth." 

Pitohuis  in  general,  and  that  sentence  in 
particular,  were  far  from  the  mind  of 
American  graduate  student  Jack  Dum- 
bacher  in  1989,  when  he  set  up  nets  in  the 
New  Guinea  jungle  to  trap  birds  of  par- 
adise. Hooded  pitohuis  got  caught  in  the 
nets  and  had  to  be  removed.  In  the  process, 
the  birds  scratched  Dumbacher's  hands 
with  their  claws  and  bills,  and  he  noticed 
that  the  birds  had  a  strong,  sour  smell. 
When  he  licked  off  his  wounds,  his  lips 
and  mouth  began  to  tingle  and  bum  and 
then  went  numb  for  several  hours.  His 
New  Guinea  field  assistants  later  told  him 
that  the  hooded  pitohui  was  "good  for 
nothing,  a  rubbish  bird"  and  was  not  to  be 
eaten  unless  carefully  skinned. 

The  explanation  began  to  emerge  when 


New  Guinea's  rusty  pitohui:  common,  noisy — and  poisonous. 

Brian  J.  Coates;  Bruce  Coleman,  Inc. 


Dumbacher  sent  dead  specimens  of 
hooded  pitohuis  to  National  Institutes  of 
Health  scientists  for  chemical  testing.  In- 
jection of  pitohui  skin  or  feather  extracts 
into  mice  caused  the  mice  to  develop  hind- 
leg  prostration  and  paralysis,  leading  to 
convulsions  and  death  in  as  Uttle  as  fifteen 
minutes.  Dumbacher's  belated  discovery 
came  as  a  real  surprise.  Although  many 
other  animals,  such  as  monarch  butterflies, 
were  known  to  accumulate  or  synthesize 
poisons  to  make  themselves  unappetizing 
to  predators,  this  was  the  first  well-docu- 
mented example  among  birds.  Presumably 
such  would-be  predators  as  snakes  and 
possums  would  be  driven  off  after  one  bit- 
ter, mouth-puckering  lick  of  the  pitohui's 
feathers,  and  the  bird's  sour  smell  and 
bold,  orange-and-black  coloration  would 
help  them  remember  the  experience. 

Another  surprise  emerged  when  the 
hooded  pitohui's  poison  was  extracted,  pu- 
rified, and  chemically  identified.  It  proved 
to  be  the  nerve  and  muscle  poison  homo- 
batrachotoxin — a  substance  otherwise 
known  only  from  a  different  continent  and 
different  vertebrate  class — in  South  and 
Central  American  poison-dart  frogs,  so 
called  because  Indians  use  the  animals' 
skins  to  poison  blowgun  darts.  Homoba- 
trachotoxin  is  one  of  the  most  poisonous 
substances  known,  hundreds  of  times 
more  powerful  than  strychnine.  One 
hooded  pitohui  contains  enough  of  the 
poison  to  kill  more  than  500  mice.  How 
the  pitohui's  nerves  and  muscles  resist  its 
own  poison  is  not  known. 

The  appearance  of  the  same  toxin  in 
frogs  and  birds  exemplifies,  astonishingly, 
the  phenomenon  of  convergent  evolution 
at  the  molecular  level.  Just  as  birds,  bats, 
and  pterodactyls  independently  evolved 
wings,  pitohuis  and  poison-dart  frogs  have 
converged  on  each  other  by  evolving  ho- 
mobatrachotoxin.  The  poison  itself  has  no 
odor,  so  pitohuis  seem  also  to  have 
evolved  some  as-yet-unidentified,  sour- 
smelling  chemical  to  warn  off  predators 
before  they  can  take  a  bite. 

Dumbacher  and  his  colleagues  identi- 
fied homobatrachotoxin  not  only  in 
hooded  pitohuis  but  also  (albeit  at  lower 
concentrations)  in  two  related  species,  the 
variable  pitohui  and  the  rusty  pitohui.  As 
its  name  implies,  the  variable  pitohui 
shows  far  greater  geographic  variation  in 
plumage  than  any  other  New  Guinea  bird 
species.  Until  now,  no  ornithologist  had 
the  faintest  idea  why  two  populations  of 
variable  pitohui,  from  opposite  ends  of 
New  Guinea,  are  orange  and  black  like 
hooded  pitohuis;  why  some  are  uniformly 


6    Natural  History  2/94 


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D34F1 


94-GY 


rusty,  like  rusty  pitohuis;  and  why  some 
have  color  patterns  that  differ  from  those 
of  the  first  two. 

Now  we  have  a  clue:  "Miillerian  mim- 
icry," the  phenomenon,  well  known  in 
tropical  butterflies,  whereby  several  poi- 
sonous species  share  the  same  bold  pat- 
tern. As  a  result  of  this  mutual  mimicry, 
each  species  benefits  by  the  other's  poi- 
son, because  a  predator  that  tastes  and 
spits  out  one  species  thereby  learns  to 
avoid  the  other  species  as  well.  In  the  two 
parts  of  New  Guinea  where  I  collected 
pitohuis,  however,  not  only  did  I  smell  and 
taste  nothing  after  handling  the  birds  my- 
self, but  the  local  New  Guinea  tribesmen 
working  with  me  also  stuffed  and  ate  them 
with  no  ill  effect  and  volunteered  no  sto- 
ries about  their  being  "rubbish  birds."  Per- 
haps the  presence  of  poison  varies  geo- 
graphically in  New  Guinea  pitohuis,  and 
the  variable  pitohuis  resemble  the  hooded 
pitohui,  rusty  pitohui,  or  neither,  depend- 
ing on  which  species  is  locally  poisonous. 

But  the  pitohui  story  has  still  bigger  im- 
plications. All  three  pitohui  species  are 
leaders  of  wandering  flocks,  composed  of 
several  dozen  different  species  belonging 
to  at  least  seven  different  families.  All 
members  of  the  flocks  are  various  shades 
and  combinations  of  rust  and  black.  And 
several  flock  members  also  mimic  other 
member  species'  calls.  Why? 

When  I  published  an  article  on  the 
flocks  six  years  ago,  I  advanced  the  usual 
two  explanations  that  ornithologists  have 
invoked  to  explain  convergence  in  oflier 
flocks  of  unrelated  species:  the  mimicry 
may  make  it  hard  for  a  would-be  predator 
to  concentrate  on  foUowing  any  single  po- 
tential victim  and  easy  for  each  flock 
member  to  stay  with  die  group.  Now,  as  a 
result  of  the  discoveries  by  Dumbacher 
and  his  colleagues,  I  have  to  wonder 
whether  the  flock  members  are  also  simul- 
taneously signaling  or  pretending  to  be 
poisonous. 

And  yet  another  big  question  arises.  In 
the  rusty-and-black  flocks  are  individuals 
(mostly  females)  of  at  least  fifteen  species 
of  New  Guinea's  most  famous  birds,  the 
birds  of  paradise.  Male  birds  of  paradise 
have  attracted  much  scientific  attention 
because  they  evolved  through  sexual  se- 
lection to  have  the  world's  most  bizarre 
plumage.  Females  have  drawn  much  less 
interest,  their  rusty-and-black  plumage 
being  much  more  conservative.  But  note  a 
comment  of  feather  collector  A.  E.  Pratt, 
reduced  by  starvation  nearly  a  century  ago 
to  eating  a  bird  of  paradise.  He  wrote  of 
his  dinner:  "The  most  shocking  flesh  I 


have  ever  eaten. .  .as  bitter  as  gall. .  .it  was 
truly  abominable,  and  after  the  first  spoon- 
ful we  got  no  further."  While  ornitholo- 
gists have  been  concentrating  on  the 
gaudy  bird  of  paradise  males  and  ignoring 
the  females,  could  they  have  been  missing 
another  story  of  poison  and  Miillerian 
mimicry  on  a  grand  scale? 

Thus,  behind  one  sentence  in  the  ethno- 
biological  literature  lurked  a  cascade  of 
major  discoveries  and  questions:  the  first 
proven  examples  of  poisonous  birds;  a 
case  of  convergent  evolution  at  the  molec- 
ular level;  a  case  of  Miillerian  mimicry;  a 
possible  explanation  for  geographic  varia- 
tion in  plumage;  a  force  behind  mixed- 
species  flocking;  and  a  major  selective 
force  on  birds  of  paradise.  In  retrospect, 
one  might  ask  why  none  of  the  biologists 
who  had  read  Majnep's  and  Bulmer's 
book  beat  Dumbacher  to  his  discovery  of 
poisonous  birds.  Undoubtedly,  the  main 
reason  is  that  Majnep's  clue  was  no  more 
than  a  single,  qualified  sentence  in  a  long 
book.  Dumbacher  discovered  the  bitter 
skin  for  himself  and  came  across  Majnep's 
sentence  afterward.  But  there  is  also  an- 
other reason:  chemists  aren't  yet  accus- 
tomed to  asking  New  Guinea  villagers  for 
suggestions  about  promising  research  pro- 
jects. Here's  one  hint  to  chemists  who  may 
now  be  starting  to  regret  their  past  over- 
sight: also  buried  in  Majnep's  book  is  a 
paragraph  about  the  bitter,  mouth-pucker- 
ing taste  of  the  blue-capped  ifrita,  a  New 
Guinea  bird  quite  unlike  pitohuis. 

In  the  case  of  the  pitohuis,  we  now 
know  that  local  folk  knowledge  was  scien- 
tifically valid.  Next,  let's  consider  the 
"Case  of  the  Stinking  Birds." 

The  case  began  one  morning  in  July 
1967,  when  a  group  of  New  Guineans  and 
I  were  sitting  in  a  tent  in  the  jungle,  skin- 
ning some  bird  specimens  that  we  had  just 
caught.  A  Fore  tribesman  named  Esa  was 
working  on  a  mound  builder,  a  large  bird 
famous  for  incubating  its  eggs  with  the 
heat  of  scraped-together  mounds  of  rotting 
vegetation.  Esa  complained  of  feeling  sick 
from  the  carcass's  stink;  then  he  abruptly 
vomited.  This  surprised  me  because  the 
bird  had  been  shot  only  that  morning,  it 
had  had  little  time  to  rot,  and  the  tempera- 
ture was  cool.  None  of  my  field  assistants 
had  vomited  over  a  carcass  before,  and,  in 
fact,  they  had  struck  me  as  notably  unfas- 
tidious  in  their  wilUngness  to  eat  birds  that 
had  been  kiUed  the  day  before. 

Another  New  Guinean  present,  who 
was  more  famiUar  with  mound  builders 
than  Esa  or  I,  explained  that  they  were  dis- 
tinctive in  stinking  much  sooner  after 


death  than  other  bird  species.  When  I  later 
traveled  to  the  Solomon  Islands,  where 
mound  builders  are  abundant,  I  was  given 
the  same  information.  My  Solomon  Island 
friend  Alisasa  Bisili  told  me  the  following 
traditional  story  of  how  his  people  hunt 
mound  builders  (called  e-yo  in  Alisasa's 
Roviana  language): 

If  you  want  to  eat  an  e-yo,  here's  what  you 
have  to  do  to  cook  it  before  it  can  start  stink- 
ing. During  the  day,  go  into  the  jungle  and 
look  for  a  low  branch  with  a  white  stain  on 
it.  That  stain  is  the  e-yo's  droppings.  The 
stain  tells  you  that  that's  the  branch  on 
which  an  e-yo  roosts  at  night.  Then  go  back 
there  after  sunset  with  a  pot  of  water  and  a 
bow  and  arrow.  When  you  spot  the  e-yo 
sleeping  on  the  branch,  light  a  small  fire  on 
the  ground  directly  under  it,  and  set  the  pot 
on  the  fire.  When  the  water  reaches  boiling, 
shoot  the  e-yo  with  your  bow  and  arrow,  so 
that  it  falls  straight  into  the  pot  of  boiling 
water.  That's  the  only  way  that  we  can  kill 
an  e-yo  and  cook  it  soon  enough  that  it 
won't  start  to  stink! 

Mound  builders  aren't  the  only  stinking 
New  Guinea  bird,  as  I  learned  in  1966 
when  I  took  the  Tudawe  fiibesman  Omwai 
to  Utai  village  in  the  Sepik  Basin.  An  Utai 
villager  named  Uteno  had  earned 
Omwai's  dislike  by  threatening  to  poison 
him  and  by  nevertheless  coming  to  our  hut 
every  morning  to  cadge  bu-d  carcasses  and 
tobacco.  On  this  particular  occasion,  I  saw 
Omwai  give  Uteno  the  skinned  carcass  of 
a  giant  cuckoo  known  as  Menbek's  cou- 
cal,  and  named  pini  in  Omwai's  Tudawhe 
language.  I  asked  Omwai  with  surprise 
why  he  had  given  so  much  meat  to  a  man 
whom  he  despised.  Omwai  explained — 
and  I  confirmed  with  my  own  nose  the 
next  time  we  shot  a  pini — that  the  pini  is 
the  only  other  bird  that  starts  to  stink  as 
quickly  as  does  a  mound  builder  The  gift 
of  the  pini  was  Omwai's  revenge  against 
Uteno. 

We  all  know  that  dead  animals  smell 
bad,  but  we  rarely  pause  to  reflect  on  the 
smell's  possible  function.  Think  of  any 
dead  body  as  a  potential  battleground  be- 
tween hyenas,  beeties,  other  animal  scav- 
engers, and  many  species  of  microbes,  all 
seeking  to  digest  the  carcass  for  them- 
selves. If  a  hyena  swallows  the  carcass,  it 
thereby  becomes  unavailable  to  bacteria. 
Biologically  synthesized  poisons,  bad- 
tasting  substances,  and  evil-smelling 
gases  are  weapons  of  chemical  warfare  by 
which  a  microbe  attempts  to  drive  other 
microbe  species  and  scavenging  animals 
off  the  battlefield.  The  best-known  such 
weapon  is  peniciUin,  a  potent  chemical  se- 
creted by  a  mold  to  kill  bacteria  (and  now 


8    Natural  History  2/94 


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one  of  the  most  valuable  natural  products 
ever  appropriated  by  humans). 

For  a  microbe,  a  stinky  chemical  repre- 
sents a  flag  of  possession.  For  a  hyena,  it's 
a  deterrent.  But  what  about  the  dead  bird 
itself?  If  the  bird  had  wanted  to  deter  po- 
tential predators  by  a  stink,  shouldn't  it 
have  had  to  stink  while  it  was  still  alive? 
Perhaps  the  post-mortem  stink  should  be 
viewed  as  just  a  chemical  weapon  evolved 
by  a  microbe  without  any  cooperation 
from  the  dead  bird. 

Nevertheless,  I'm  suspicious  because 
the  only  two  New  Guinea  bird  species  that 
I've  known  to  stink  so  quickly  are  both 
big,  clumsy,  noisy,  slow-moving  species 
that  represent  lots  of  meat  for  a  potential 
predator,  and  that  seem  otherwise  ill- 


equipped  to  deter  predators.  If  you  fill 
yourself  with  a  stinking  poisonous  chemi- 
cal while  you're  still  alive,  you  have  to  de- 
velop resistance  to  the  chemical  yourself 
You  might  find  it  much  better  to  harbor 
potentially  stinky  microbes  and  keep  them 
suppressed  while  you're  alive,  but  ready 
to  stink  as  soon  as  you  die.  Or  you  could 
design  your  tissue  chemistry  to  attract  a 
stinky  microbe  after  you  die.  If  a  predator 
then  makes  the  mistake  of  killing  and  eat- 
ing you,  it  will  get  sick  and  learn  to  avoid 
killing  your  relatives  in  the  future.  In  the 
language  of  population  genetics,  that's 
called  "increasing  your  inclusive  fitness," 
or  passing  on  your  genes  by  aiding  the  sur- 
vival of  relatives  sharing  your  genes,  even 
though  you  yourself  don't  survive.  That's 


A  female  crested  bird  of  paradise:  does  her  plain  plumage 
encode  an  untold  evolutionary  story? 


why  animal  parents  risk  their  lives  to  de- 
fend their  young,  and  why  worker  ants  in 
an  ant  colony  forgo  reproduction. 

Naturally,  all  that  I  can  offer  at  present 
to  explain  stinking  birds  is  this  speculation 
without  evidence.  It  might  prove  to  be 
nothing  more  than  one  of  those  "just-so 
stories"  that  biologists  are  often  accused  of 
dreaming  up  to  provide  a  functional  expla- 
nation where  there  really  is  none.  But  I 
have  a  clearly  formulated,  testable  hypoth- 
esis. I  propose  that  an  ambitious  chemical 
ecologist  with  a  weak  nose  and  strong 
stomach  (1)  measure  the  rates  at  which  e- 
yos  and  pinis  stink  after  death,  compared 
with  other  birds,  (2)  identify  the  stinking 
chemical,  (3)  identify  the  microbe  or  en- 
zyme synthesizing  the  stinking  chemical, 
(4)  test  the  stinking  chemical  or  other 
chemicals  in  a  dead  e-yo  or  pini  carcass  on 
various  microbe  and  scavenger  species, 
and  (5)  do  feeding  trials  to  see  if  experi- 
enced New  Guinea  predators  avoid  e-yos 
and  pinis  when  given  a  choice  of  non- 
stinking,  similar-sized  birds.  Might  stink- 
ing birds  prove  to  harbor  another  drug  like 
penicillin? 

The  "Case  of  the  Living  Hytrap"  is  my 
other  speculative  example,  designed  to 
tantalize  chemical  ecology  graduate  stu- 
dents still  searching  for  a  thesis  project. 
This  case  began  one  afternoon  in  August 
1965,  when  the  Fore  tribesman  Paran 
brought  in  a  Papuan  frogmouth  (yasa  in 
the  Fore  language)  that  he  had  shot.  As  its 
name  implies,  this  raven-sized  bird  has  a 
very  wide  mouth  reminiscent  of  a  frog's. 
Supposedly,  the  bird  is  stiictly  nocturnal, 
catches  large  prey  like  mice,  lizards,  and 
large  beetles,  and  sleeps  during  the  day. 
Paran  insisted  that  this  yasa,  which  he  had 
just  shot  that  afternoon,  had  been  sitting 
motionless  on  a  branch  of  a  tree,  with  its 
mouth  wide  open.  He  explained  that  he 
had  often  seen  yasas  in  that  posture  during 
daylight  hours,  and  that  insects  flew  into 
the  bird's  cavernous  maw,  attracted  by  a 
smelly,  sticky  paste  on  its  palate. 

My  first  thought  was,  nonsense!  If  so, 
frogmouths  would  have  achieved  every 
species'  evolutionary  dream — getting 
food  without  work  or  cost.  Then  I  reflected 
that  there  was  indeed  a  cost,  that  of  syn- 
thesizing the  sticky  chemical  bait.  On  the 
other  hand,  a  raven-sized  bird  would  have 
to  attract  a  lot  of  flying  insects  before  its 
strategy  of  setting  itself  up  as  a  living  fly- 
trap could  rate  as  successful.  Then  again, 
Paran  was  a  cautious  observer  who  had 
been  right  about  everything  else  that  he  re- 
ported to  me.  My  confidence  in  Paran  in- 
creased when  I  read  a  note  by  an  Aus- 


Frithfoto;  Bruce  Coleman,  Inc. 


10    Natural  History  2/94 


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tralian  birdwatcher  who  had  a  pet  frog- 
mouth,  and  who  saw  it  sit  during  the  day 
with  its  mouth  open,  snapping  its  mouth 
shut  when  an  insect  flew  in.  Since  no  fiir- 
ther  information  came  to  my  attention,  all 
I  could  do  was  to  mention  the  behavior 
briefly  in  a  book  on  New  Guinea  highland 
birds  that  I  published  in  1972. 

There  the  matter  rested  until  last  month, 
when  my  Ketengban  guide,  Robert 
Uropka.  was  lecturing  me  on  the  habits  of 
birds.  He  eventually  described  a  big,  noc- 
turnal bird  with  a  large  mouth,  convinc- 
ingly imitated  the  call  of  the  Papuan  frog- 
mouth,  and  called  it  sume  in  the 
Ketengban  language.  "And  by  the  way," 
he  said,  "the  sume  sits  during  the  day  with 
its  mouth  wide  open  and" — 1  held  my 
breath — "Binatang  masuk  sendiri!"  he 
concluded  in  Indonesian  ("insects  fly  in  of 
their  own  accord!"). 

Does  flie  Papuan  frogmouth  really  se- 
crete a  chemical  insect  attractant  and  fly- 
catching  paste  on  its  palate?  If  so,  I'd  in- 
vest my  pension  in  the  stock  of  the 
chemical  company  that  isolates  and  manu- 
factures the  attractant  and  paste.  Or  did 
Paran  and  Robert  and  the  Australian  bird- 
watcher all  misinterpret  the  frogmouth 's 
behavior?  And  did  Paran  misinterpret  the 
paste  on  its  palate?  I've  done  what  I  can  as 
an  ethnobiologist;  it's  now  up  to  a  chemi- 
cal ecologist  to  confirm  or  explode  the 
"Case  of  the  Living  Flytrap." 

We  think  of  human  knowledge  today  as 
undergoing  explosive  growth.  In  many  re- 
spects, that's  true.  Laboratory  biologists, 
for  instance,  are  learning  more  about  a  few 
species  that  are  superabundant — lab  rats. 


lab  mice,  fruit  flies,  the  bacterium  Es- 
cherichia coli.  and  Homo  sapiens. 

In  other  respects,  though,  our  knowl- 
edge is  shrinking.  Over  the  course  of  mil- 
lions of  years,  humans  throughout  the 
world  have  built  up  a  knowledge  of  their 
local  natural  environment  so  extensive 
that  not  even  professional  biologists  can 
hope  to  capture  more  than  a  small  fraction 
of  it,  and  other  members  of  urban  and  in- 
dustrialized societies  can  scarcely  imagine 
it.  At  the  end  of  the  twenty-four  days  that  I 
spent  with  the  Ketengban  people,  I  felt 
like  a  Philistine  because  I  had  so  often 
nudged  the  subject  back  to  birds  when 
they  began  to  talk  of  anything  else.  Even 
for  very  rare  bird  species,  such  as  New 
Guinea's  leaden  honey-eater  and  garnet 
robin,  they  rattled  off  the  altitudes  at 
which  the  birds  lived,  the  other  species 
with  which  they  associated,  the  height 
above  the  ground  at  which  they  foraged, 
their  diet,  adult  call,  juvenile  call,  seasonal 
movements,  and  so  on.  Only  by  cutting 
short  the  Ketengbans'  attempts  to  share 
with  me  their  equally  detailed  knowledge 
of  local  plant,  rat,  and  frog  species  could  I 
record  even  fragments  of  their  knowledge 
of  birds  in  twenty-four  days. 

Traditionally,  the  Ketengbans  acquired 
this  knowledge  by  spending  much  of  flieir 
time  in  the  forest,  from  childhood  on. 
When  I  asked  Robert  Uropka  how,  lacking 
binoculars  and  the  sight  oif  one  eye,  he  had 
come  to  know  so  much  about  a  tiny,  dull- 
plumed  warbler  species  that  lives  in  the 
treetops,  he  told  me  that  as  children  he  and 
his  playmates  used  to  climb  trees,  build 
blinds  in  the  canopy,  and  observe  and  hunt 


FROZEN  NO\j'ELTIE.£ 


.3^/1  ^tS\    )<|p 


up  there.  But  all  that  is  changing,  he  ex- 
plained, as  he  pointed  to  his  eight-year-old 
son.  Children  go  to  school  now,  and  only 
at  vacation  times  can  they  live  in  the  for- 
est. The  results,  as  I  have  seen  elsewhere 
in  New  Guinea,  are  adult  New  Guineans 
who  know  scarcely  more  about  birds  than 
do  most  American  inner-city  dwellers. 
Within  a  decade  or  two,  drug  companies 
carrying  out  chemical  prospecting  will 
have  to  go  in  blind,  lacking  guidance  as  to 
which  of  tens  of  thousands  of  species  to 
collect  or  what  to  test  each  species  for. 

Compounding  this  problem,  education 
throughout  Indonesian  New  Guinea  is  in 
the  national  language,  not  in  Ketengban 
and  the  300  other  indigenous  languages. 
Radio,  TV,  newspapers,  commerce,  and 
government  also  use  the  Indonesian  lan- 
guage. While  the  reasoning  behind  such 
decisions  is,  of  course,  understandable,  the 
outcome  is  that  all  but  about  200  of  the 
modem  world's  6,000  languages  are  likely 
to  be  extinct  or  moribund  by  the  end  of  the 
next  century.  As  humanity's  linguistic  her- 
itage disintegrates,  much  of  our  tradi- 
tional, mostly  unrecorded  knowledge  base 
vanishes  with  it. 

The  analogy  that  occurs  to  me  is  the 
final  destruction,  in  a.d.  391,  of  the  largest 
library  of  the  ancient  world,  at  Alexandria. 
That  library  housed  all  the  literature  of 
Greece,  plus  much  literature  of  other  cul- 
tures. As  a  result  of  that  library's  burning, 
later  generations  lost  all  but  the  Iliad  and 
Odyssey  among  Greek  epics,  most  of  the 
poetry  of  Pindar  and  Sappho,  and  dozens 
of  plays  by  Aeschylus  and  Euripides — to 
mention  just  a  few  examples. 

The  ongoing  loss  today  that  draws  most 
public  attention  is  the  loss  of  biodiversity. 
In  that  loss,  nature  is  viewed  as  the  victim, 
humans  as  the  villains.  But  there  is  also  a 
parallel  loss  in  which  humans  are  both  vic- 
tims and  unwitting  villains.  Not  only  are 
species  going  extinct,  but  so  is  much  of 
our  information  about  fliose  species  that 
survive.  In  the  future,  no  children  will 
grow  up  in  the  forest,  where  they  could  re- 
ceive or  rediscover  that  knowledge.  Cer- 
tainly, professional  biologists  don't  have 
the  necessary  time — I  count  myself  lucky 
if  I  can  spend  one  month  every  year  or  two 
in  New  Guinea.  It  is  as  if  we  are  burning 
most  of  our  books,  while  the  languages  of 
those  books  that  remain  become  as  lost  to 
us  as  the  undeciphered  Linear  A  of  ancient 
Crete. 

Jared  Diamond  is  an  evohttionary  biolo- 
gist and  physiologist  at  UCLA  Medical 
School. 


12    Natural  History  2/94 


NPG  Statement  on  Population 

We  Believe  that  the  Optimum  Rate  of  Population  Growth  is  Negative 


We  believe  that  the  optimum  rate  of  population 
growth  for  the  United  States  (and  for  the  world)  is 
negative  until  such  time  as  the  scale  of  economic  ac- 
tivity, and  its  environmental  effects,  are  reduced  to  a 
level  that  would  be  sustainable  indefinitely. 

We  are  convinced  that  if  present  rates  of  popula- 
tion and  economic  growth  are  allowed  to  continue,  the 
end  result,  within  the  lifetimes  of  many  of  us,  would 
inevitably  be  near  universal  poverty  in  a  hopelessly 
polluted  nation  and  world. 

We  agree  with  Professor  Herman  Daly  who  has 
pointed  out  that  the  human  economy  is  a  subset  of  the 
biosphere,  and  that  the  current  scale  of  economic  ac- 
tivity relative  to  the  biosphere  is  already  far  too 
large  to  be  sustainable  indefinitely. 

Stabilization  Is  Not  Enough 

We  believe  that  calls  for  merely  slowing  down  rapid 
population  growth,  or  for  stabilizing  population  at 
present  or  even  higher  levels,  are  totally  inadequate. 

Such  proposals,  while  presented  as  a  solution,  fail 
to  address  the  central  issue:  how  to  create  a  national 
(and  world)  economy  that  will  be  sustainable  indefi- 
nitely. 

At  present  or  at  even  higher  levels  of  population, 
neither  the  application  of  science  and  technology,  nor 
simplifying  life-styles,  nor  any  combination  of  the  two, 
can  offer  any  hope  of  reducing  our  impact  on  the  en- 
vironment to  a  sustainable  level. 

We  Need  a  Smaller  Population 

We  recognize  that  our  impact  on  the  environment 
in  terms  of  pollution  and  resource  depletion  is  the  prod- 
uct of  our  numbers  times  our  per  capita  consumption 
of  energy  and  materials.  Thus,  there  are  only  three 
ways  by  which  that  impact  can  be  reduced: 

•    By  reducing  the  size  of  our  population  by  a  nega- 
tive rate  of  population  growth. 


•  By  reducing  over  consumption  (in  the  United  States 
and  other  developed  countries)  by  simplifying  life- 
styles. 

•  By  reducing  resource  depletion  and  pollution  per 
unit  of  consumption  through  more  efficient  use  of 
energy  and  materials. 

Population  size  is  by  far  the  most  critical  of  those 
three  variables.  Nevertheless,  our  present  scale  of 
economic  activity  is  so  large  relative  to  the  biosphere 
that  all  three  measures  are  needed  in  order  to  re- 
duce it  to  a  sustainable  level. 

An  Urgent  Need 

Over  20  years  ago,  when  our  U.S.  population  was 
far  smaller,  (about  202  million,  rather  than  our  present 
260  million),  Professor  John  Holdren  correctly  saw  the 
urgent  need  for  a  negative  rate  of  population  growth. 
At  that  time  he  wrote, 

"...What  is  surprising... is  that  there  is  not  more 
agreement  concerning  what  the  rate  of  change  of  popu- 
lation size  should  be.  For  given  the  uncertain,  but  pos- 
sibly grave,  risks  associated  with  substantially  increas- 
ing our  impact  on  the  environment,  and  given  that 
population  growth  aggravates  or  impedes  the  solution 
of  a  wide  variety  of  other  problems... it  should  be  ob- 
vious that  the  optimum  rate  of  population  growth  is 
zero  or  negative  until  such  time  as  the  uncertainties 
have  been  removed  and  the  problems  solved." 

A  Population  Goal  for  Our  Country 

We  must  have,  first  of  all,  a  nationally-determined 
population  goal  for  our  country,  accompanied  by  effec- 
tive policies  to  achieve  it. 

We  urge  Congress  and  President  Clinton  to  set,  as 
a  top  priority  national  goal,  the  achievement  of  a  nega- 
tive rate  of  population  growth  for  the  United  States 
until  such  time  as  the  scale  of  our  economic  activ- 
ity is  reduced  to  a  sustainable  level. 

We  also  call  on  our  political  leaders  to  urge  other 
nations  to  pursue  a  similar  goal. 


Please  help  us  build  broad  public  support  for 
a  national  policy  to  achieve  a  negative  rate  of 
population  growth. 

NPG  is  a  nonprofit,  national  membership  orga- 
nization established  in  1972.  We  are  the  only  orga- 
nization that  calls  for  a  smaller  U.S.  and  world 
population,  and  recommends  specific,  realistic 
measures  to  achieve  those  goals. 

Contributions  to  NPG  are  tax  deductible  to  the 
extent  the  law  allows.  As  reported  to  the  IRS  on  our 
most  recent  Form  990,  our  fundraising  and  admin- 
istrative expense  was  only  13.3  percent  of  our  total 
income. 

YES!  I  want  to  become  a  member  of  NPG,  and  help 
you  work  toward  a  smaller  U.S.  and  world  population. 
I  am  enclosing  my  check  for  annual  membership  dues. 

S30                 $50               SI  00              Other 

Name 

Address 

Citv                                    State              Zip 

Mail  to:  Negative  Population  Growth,  Inc. 
210  The  Plaza,  P.O.  Box  1206,  Teaneck,  NJ  07666 

NH-294 

Tffls  View  of  Liff 


In  the  Mind  of  the  Beholder 

For  one  observer,  the  fossil  record  reveals  "a  world  stunning  and  fascinating 
in  its  chaotic  complexity  and  historical  genesis  " 


by  Stephen  Jay  Gould 

A  variety  of  ancient  mottoes  proclaims 
thiat  no  principle  of  aesthetics  can  specify 
the  gorgeous  and  the  ugly  to  everyone's 
satisfaction.  "Beauty,"  we  are  told,  "is  in 
the  eye  of  the  beholder";  "There  is  no  ac- 
counting for  tastes" — an  observation  old 
enough  to  have  a  classical  Latin  original, 
De  gustibus  non  disputandum,  and  suffi- 
ciently universal  to  boast  a  trendier  ver- 
sion in  our  current  vernacular,  "Different 
strokes  for  different  folks." 

Science,  by  contrast,  is  supposed  to  be 
an  objective  enterprise,  with  common  cri- 
teria of  procedure  and  standards  of  evi- 
dence that  should  lead  all  people  of  good 
will  to  accept  a  documented  conclusion.  I 
do  not,  of  course,  deny  a  genuine  differ- 
ence between  aesthetics  and  science  on 
this  score:  we  have  truly  discovered — as  a 
fact  of  the  external  world,  not  a  preference 
of  our  psyches — that  the  earth  revolves 
around  the  sun  and  that  evolution  happens; 
but  we  will  never  reach  consensus  on 
whether  Bach  or  Brahms  was  the  greater 
composer  (nor  would  scholars  in  the  field 
of  aesthetics  ask  so  foolish  a  question). 

But  I  would  also  reject  any  claim  that 
personal  preference,  the  root  of  aesthetic 
judgment,  does  not  play  a  key  role  in  sci- 
ence. True,  the  world  is  indifferent  to  our 
hopes — and  fire  bums  whether  we  like  it 
or  not.  But  our  ways  of  learning  about  the 
world  are  strongly  influenced  by  the  social 
preconceptions  and  biased  modes  of 
thinking  that  each  scientist  must  apply  to 
any  problem.  The  stereotype  of  a  fully  ra- 
tional and  objective  "scientific  method," 
with  individual  scientists  as  logical  (and 
interchangeable)  robots,  is  self-serving 
mythology. 

Historians  and  philosophers  of  science 
often  make  a  distinction  between  the  logic 
and  psychologic  of  a  scientific  conclu- 


sion— or  "context  of  justification"  and 
"context  of  discovery"  in  the  jargon.  After 
conclusions  are  firmly  in  place,  a  logical 
pathway  can  be  traced  from  data  through 
principles  of  reasoning  to  results  and  new 
theories — context  of  justification.  But  sci- 
entists who  make  the  discovery  rarely  fol- 
low the  optimal  pathway  of  subsequent 
logical  reconstruction.  Scientists  reach 
conclusions  for  the  damnedest  of  reasons: 
intuitions,  guesses,  redirections  after  wild 
goose  chases,  all  combined  with  a  dollop 
of  rigorous  obsei"vation  and  logical  rea- 
soning to  be  sure — context  of  discovery. 

This  messy  and  personal  side  of  science 
should  not  be  disparaged  or  covered  up  by 
scientists  for  two  major  reasons.  First,  sci- 
entists should  proudly  show  this  human 
face  to  display  their  kinship  with  all  other 
modes  of  creative  human  thought.  (The 
myth  of  a  separate  mode  based  on  rigorous 
objectivity  and  arcane,  largely  mathema- 
tical knowledge,  vouchsafed  only  to  the 
initiated,  may  provide  some  immediate 
benefits  in  bamboozling  a  public  to  regard 
us  as  a  new  priesthood,  but  must  ulti- 
mately prove  harmful  in  erecting  barriers 
to  truly  friendly  understanding  and  in 
falsely  persuading  so  many  students  that 
science  lies  beyond  their  capabilities.) 
Second,  while  biases  and  preferences 
often  impede  understanding,  these  mental 
idiosyncrasies  may  also  serve  as  powerful, 
if  quirky  and  personal,  guides  to  solutions. 
C.  S.  Peirce  (1839-1914),  America's 
greatest  philosopher  of  science,  even 
coined  a  word  to  express  the  imaginative 
mode  of  reasoning  involved  in  such  men- 
tal leaping:  abduction,  or  leading  from 
(one  place  to  another),  to  confi-ast  with  the 
more  sedate  and  classical  modes  of  deduc- 
tion, or  logical  sequencing,  and  induction, 
or  generahzation  from  accumulated  par- 


ticulars (all  from  the  Latin  ducere,  to  lead). 

This  general  theme  leapt  (or  crept)  into 
my  mind  as  I  contemplated  the  three 
hottest  paleontological  news  items  of  1993 
(I  am  purposely  excluding  Jurassic  Park, 
and  anything  else  with  the  slightest  odor 
of  dinosaur,  for  personal  reasons  of  over- 
saturation  to  the  point  of  brontosaurian 
boredom;  if  someone  could  grant  me  a 
two-year's  sabbatical  from  all  contact  with 
them,  I  might  even  like  dinosaurs  again.) 
In  particular,  I  noted  a  discordance,  com- 
mon to  all  three  items,  between  their  cov- 
erage in  the  press  and  my  personal  reac- 
tion to  the  claims.  All  three  were  described 
as  particularly  surprising  (they  would  not 
have  ranked  as  "hot"  items  otherwise) — 
whereas  I  found  each  claim  intensely  in- 
teresting but  entirely  expected.  This  led 
me,  naturally,  to  wonder  why  these  (to  me) 
perfectiy  reasonable  claims  seemed  so  un- 
usual to  others. 

One  might  posit  that  my  lack  of  surprise 
only  recorded  the  professional  knowledge 
of  all  practicing  paleontologists — and  tiiat 
the  discordance  therefore  lies  between 
public  and  professional  perception  (thus 
reinforcing  the  myth  of  an  arcane  and  en- 
lightened priesthood  of  scientists).  But 
many,  probably  most,  of  my  professional 
colleagues  were  surprised  as  well — so  the 
reasons  for  my  expectations  must  be 
sought  elsewhere. 

I  then  recognized  an  abstract  linkage 
among  the  three  news  items  and  finally 
understood  the  coordinated  source  of  my 
complacency  and  the  surprise  of  others. 
On  an  overt  level,  the  three  items  could  not 
be  more  different — for  they  span  a  maxi- 
mal range  of  time  and  subject  in  the  evolu- 
tionary history  of  multicellular  animals 
(and  this  disparity  provides  an  added  ben- 
efit in  making  their  conjunction  a  good 


14    Natural  History  2/94 


i6 


9f 


Every  company  we  invest  in  lias 

two  tilings  in  common: 
liard  worli  and  tiigti  standards.' 

The  truth  is  that  a  mutual  fund's  performance  will  only  be  as  good  as  the  companies  mailing  up 
its  portfolio.  We  believe  the  key  to  success  is  to  invest  in  a  mutual  fund  which  owns  companies  whose  hard 
work  produces  a  stream  of  growing  earnings. 

Our  performance  pays  off  with  high  marks.  The  Fortune""  1994  Investors'  Guide  reported  the  annual  rate 
of  return  of  both  growth  and  growth  and  income  funds,  after  any  sales  loads  and  taxes,*  for  the  three-year  period 
ending  August  31, 1993.  The  Berger  100  Fund,  with  a  32.7%  rate  of  return,  ranked  second  out  of  193  growth  funds, 
and  the  Berger  101  Fund,  with  a  23.3%  return,  ranked  first  out  of  114  growth  and  income  funds.  Naturally,  past 
performance  shows  the  funds'  history  and  does  not  guarantee  future  results. 

If  our  thinking  complements  your  own,  the  next  step  is  to  see  which 
Berger  Fund  is  right  for  you. 


ANNUALIZED    PERFORMANCE 

For  the  period  ending  9/30/93 

i$crger  100 
Fund 

1  ^ear 

41.0% 

3  deal's 

4o:i% 

[>  >ears 
27.6% 

10  ^eai« 

15.4% 

15  Years 
16.4% 

1!)  Years'* 

16.2% 

Berger  101 
Fund 

1  Year 

26.5% 

3  \ears 

29.4% 

5  Years 

16.6% 

10  Years 

12.6% 

15  Years 

13.2% 

19  Years*» 

14.3% 

Hill  licrgtT 

lias  33  years 

ijf  experience 

iii.iii:iging 

iiiiiliial 

mills. 


Source:  Lipper  Analytical  Services,  inc. 

The  Berger  100  is  a  growth  fund  and  offers  an  ideal  vehicle  to  invest 
in  what  we  think  are  the  best  of  the  current  faster-growing  companies. 

The  Berger  101  is  a  growth  and  income  fund  which  tends  to  own 
larger  companies  whose  growth  is  often  confirmed  by  a  record 
of  paying  dividends. 

You  can  open  an  account  with  as  little  as  $250. 
All  it  takes  to  add  to  an  existing  account  is  $50.  If  you  prefer, 
you  can  even  choose  an  automatic  monthly  investment  plan 
(for  as  little  as  $50  a  month).  Of  course,  periodic  investment 
plans  do  not  assure  a  profit  and  do  not  protect  against  loss 
in  declining  markets. 

Please  call  (800)  333-1001 

for  a  prospectus  containing  more 

complete  information  including 

management  fees,  charges  and  expenses. 

Read  it  carefully  before  investing. 


Together  we  can  move  mountains. 


The  figures  include  changes  in  share  price  and  reinvestment  of  dividends 
and  capital  gains,  which  will  fluctuate  so  that  shares,  when  redeemed,  may  be 
worth  more  or  less  than  their  original  cost.  The  figures  include  the  deduction  of 
12b-1  fees  beginning  in  June,  1990.  "Annual  rates  of  return  were  calculated  by 
Morningstar  in  each  category  net  of  taxes,  assuming  a  28%  rate  on  capital  gains 
and  income  distributions.  **Berger  Associates  assumed  management  of  the  fund 
9/30/74.  Source:  Lipper  Analytical  Services,  Inc. 

©1994  The  Berger  Funds  9.29 


theme  for  an  essay — so  my  literary  thanks 
go  out  to  them  as  well).  The  first  item 
comes  from  the  very  beginning,  the  sec- 
ond from  the  middle,  and  the  third  from 
the  latest  moment  in  the  history  of  animal 
life.  The  three  seem  just  as  different  in  sub- 
ject— for  the  first  examines  evolutionary 
rate;  the  second,  interaction  among  organ- 
isms; and  the  third,  biogeography,  or  place 
of  origin  for  a  key  species. 

But  the  three  stories  are  linked  at  a  level 
sufficiently  abstract  to  evoke  the  underly- 
ing attitudes  so  basic  to  one's  particular 
being  that  popular  culture  speaks  of  a  per- 
son's "philosophy  of  life,"  or  "worldview." 
Scholars  have  also  struggled  with  this  no- 
tion of  a  personal  or  social  model  so  per- 
vasive that  all  particulars  are  judged  in  its 
light.  Being  scholars,  they  may  use  a  fancy 
German  term  like  Weltanschauung,  which 
sounds  complex  but  only  means  "outlook 
upon  the  world."  In  the  most  celebrated 
use  in  a  social  sense,  T.  S.  Kuhn  referred 
to  the  shared  worldview  of  scientists  as  a 
paradigm  (see  his  classic  1962  book.  The 
Structure  of  Scientific  Revolutions).  Such 


paradigms,  in  Kuhn's  view,  are  so  con- 
straining, and  so  unbreakable  in  their  own 
terms,  that  fundamentally  new  theories 
must  be  imported  from  elsewhere  (in- 
sights of  other  discipUnes,  conscious  radi- 
calism of  young  rebels  within  a  field)  and 
must  then  triumph  by  rapid  replacement 
(scientific  revolution),  rather  than  by  in- 
cremental advance.  But  the  most  eloquent 
testimony  to  the  power  and  pervasiveness 
of  worldviews  was  surely  provided  by 
Gilbert  and  Sullivan's  Private  Willis  (in 
lolanthe),  as  he  mused  on  guard  duty  out- 
side the  Victorian  House  of  Commons: 

I  often  think  it's  comical 

How  Nature  always  does  contrive 

That  every  boy  and  every  gal 

That's  bom  into  the  world  alive 

is  either  a  Uttle  Liberal 

Or  else  a  little  Conservative! 

Nothing  is  more  dangerous  than  a  dog- 
matic worldview — nothing  more  con- 
straining, more  blinding  to  innovation, 
more  destructive  of  openness  to  novelty. 
But  on  the  other  hand,  a  fruitful  worldview 


Soaxu 
'Si 


'There  they  go  on  their  annual  migration,  the 
wildebeests  and  Professor  Lippincott. ..." 


is  the  greatest  shortcut  to  insight  and  the 
finest  prod  for  making  connections — in 
short,  the  best  possible  agent  for  a 
Peircean  abduction.  So  much  in  our  mate- 
rial culture  is  both  alluring  and  dangerous 
at  the  same  time — try  fast  cars  and  high- 
stakes  poker  for  starters.  Why  shouldn't  a 
fundamental  issue  in  our  intellectual  lives 
have  the  same  property? 

In  short,  I  realized  that  my  linkage  of 
the  three  issues,  and  my  lack  of  surprise  at 
claims  reported  in  newspapers  as  startling, 
emanated  from  a  worldview,  or  model  of 
reality,  different  in  some  crucial  respects 
from  the  expectations  held  by  many  scien- 
tific colleagues  and  by  the  general  public.  I 
do  not  know  that  my  view  is  more  correct; 
I  do  not  even  think  that  "right"  and 
"wrong"  are  good  categories  for  assessing 
complex  mental  models  of  external  real- 
ity— for  models  in  science  are  judged  as 
useful  or  detrimental,  not  as  true  or  false. 

I  do  know  that  chosen  models  dictate 
our  parsing  of  namre  and  either  channel 
our  thoughts  toward  novel  insight  or  blind 
us  to  evident  and  important  aspects  of  re- 
ality. Beauty  must  be  in  the  eye  of  the  be- 
holder— and  our  minds  are  as  varied  as 
our  hairstyles.  "For  great  is  truth,  and  shall 
prevail" — but  we  only  get  there  along 
pathways  of  our  own  mental  construction. 
Science  is  as  resolutely  personal  an  enter- 
prise as  art,  even  if  the  chief  prize  be  truth 
rather  than  beauty  (although  artists  also 
seek  truth,  and  good  science  is  profoundly 
beautiful). 

1.  Timing  the  Cambrian  explosion: 
How  fast  is  fast?  Paleontologists  have  long 
known,  and  puzzled  over,  the  rapid  ap- 
pearance of  nearly  all  major  animal  phyla 
during  a  short  interval  at  the  beginning  of 
the  Cambrian  period  (a  subject  frequently 
treated  in  these  essays  and  in  my  book 
Wondetful  Life).  The  earth's  fossil  record 
extends  back  3.5  billion  years  to  the  earli- 
est rock  sufficiently  unaltered  by  later  heat 
and  pressure  to  preserve  traces  of  ancient 
organisms.  But  with  the  exception  of  some 
multicellular  algae  that  play  no  role  in  the 
genealogy  of  animals,  all  life,  including 
the  ancestors  of  animals,  remained  unicel- 
lular for  five-sixths  of  subsequent  history, 
until  about  550  million  years  ago,  when  an 
evolutionary  explosion  introduced  all  the 
major  groups  of  animals  in  just  a  few  mil- 
lion years. 

When  geologists  use  die  word  explo- 
sion, you  must  take  this  expression  with  a 
grain  of  salt  and  recognize  that,  in  our 
world,  explosions  have  very  long  fuses. 
No  one  has  ever  doubted  that  the  Cam- 
brian explosion  must  be  measured  in  mil- 


16    Natural  History  2/94 


lions  of  years — a  long  time  for  anyone 
who  has  ever  set  a  dynamite  charge,  but 
awfully  quick  relative  to  a  history  of  life 
measured  in  billions  (remember  that  one 
thousand  millions  make  a  billion).  But 
how  many  millions? 

Paleontologists  have  always  hedged  on 
this  crucial  question  because  we  had  no 
precise  dates  for  the  inception  of  the  Cam- 
brian period.  The  Cambrian  ended  some 
505  to  510  million  years  ago,  but  we  had 
no  good  fix  on  the  beginning  until  last 
September,  when  several  of  my  colleagues 
in  the  Cambridge  mafia  (Harvard  plus 
MIT)  joined  with  Russian  geologists  in  fi- 
nally nailing  the  early  Cambrian,  based  on 
data  "so  beautiful  you  could  cry,"  to  quote 
my  grandmother,  who  would  have  under- 
stood (S.  A.  Bowring,  J.  P.  Grotzinger, 
C.  E.  Isachsen,  A.  H.  Knoll,  S.  M. 
Pelechaty,  and  P.  Kolosov,  "Calibrating 
Rates  of  Early  Cambrian  Evolution,"  Sci- 
ence, Septembers,  1993,  pp.  1293-98). 

Previous  estimates  for  the  Cambrian's 
beginning  ranged  from  nearly  600  to  530 
milfion  years  ago  (I  have  been  using  590 
in  my  introductory  course  for  years,  but 
must  change  the  date  this  time  around). 
The  older  dates  (favored  by  most)  permit- 
ted quite  a  good  stretch  for  the  Cambrian 
explosion,  perhaps  30  million  years  or  so 
(still  a  moment  among  billions,  but  at  least 
a  relaxed  moment).  My  colleagues  have 
now  pinpointed  the  explosion  by  caUbrat- 
ing  the  radioactive  decay  of  uranium  to 
lead  within  zircon  crystals  obtained  from 
volcanic  rocks  interbedded  with  Siberian 
sediments  containing  earliest  Cambrian 
fossils. 

The  earliest  Cambrian,  like  Caesar's 
Gaul,  is  divided  into  three  parts  called, 
from  oldest  to  youngest,  Manakayan, 
Tommotian,  and  Atdabanian.  (The  names 
are  all  derived  from  Russian  localities 
where  early  Cambrian  rocks  are  particu- 
larly well  exposed.)  The  Manakayan  con- 
tains many  fossihzed  bits  and  pieces  of 
cousins  and  precursors,  but  not  the  re- 
mains of  major  modem  phyla.  The  Man- 
akayan therefore  predates  the  Cambrian 
explosion.  By  the  end  of  the  Atdabanian, 
virtually  all  modem  phyla  had  made  their 
appearance.  The  Cambrian  explosion 
therefore  spans  the  Tommotian  and  Atda- 
banian stages. 

My  colleagues  have  dated  the  base  of 
the  Manakayan  at  544  milfion  years  ago 
(with  potential  error  of  only  a  few  hundred 
thousand  years)  and  have  determined  that 
this  initial  stage  lasted  some  14  million 
years.  The  Tommotian  began  about  530 
million  years  ago  and — get  this,  for  now 


the  intellectual  impact  occurs — the  subse- 
quent Atdabanian  stage  ended  only  5  to  6 
(at  the  very  most,  10)  million  years  later 
Thus,  the  entire  Cambrian  explosion,  pre- 
viously allowed  30  or  even  40  million 
years,  must  now  fit  into  5  to  10  (and  al- 
most surely  nearer  the  lower  limit),  from 
the  base  of  the  Tommotian  to  the  end  of 
the  Atdabanian.  In  other  words,  fast  is 
much,  much  faster  than  we  ever  thought. 

This  story  rocked  the  airwaves  (insofar 
as  any  scientific  tale  merits  the  cliche). 
The  New  York  Times  awarded  front-page 
billing  in  its  weekly  science  section;  Na- 
tional Public  Radio  featured  my  col- 
leagues on  its  weekly  science  talk  show. 
The  primary  theme  was  intense  surprise: 
evolution  means  slow;  how  could  so  much 
happen  so  fast?  Was  the  entire  conceptual 
world  of  evolutionary  theory  about  to  be 


undermined?  I  was  absolutely  delighted 
by  my  colleagues'  result,  but  I  was  not  sur- 
prised. I  have  believed  for  many  years  that 
fast  was  at  least  this  fast.  (1  had  regarded 
the  old  limits  of  30  to  40  million  years 
merely  as  an  upper  bound,  and  had  as- 
sumed that  the  Cambrian  explosion  only 
occupied  a  small  segment  at  the  beginning 
of  this  full  interval.)  Why  such  a  differ- 
ence between  public  perception  and  my 
personal  reaction? 

2.  bisects  and  flowers.  Nothing  displays 
human  hubris  more  than  the  old  textbook 
designation  of  recent  geological  times  as 
the  "age  of  man."  First  of  all,  if  we  must 
use  an  eponymous  designation,  we  live 
today,  and  have  always  lived,  in  the  "age 
of  bacteria."  Second,  if  we  insist  on  multi- 
cellular parochialism,  modem  times  must 
surely  be  called  the  "age  of  insects." 


c-i,,  ■    / 


y'  n 


"We're  out  of  electricity." 


17 


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Homo  sapiens  is  one  species,  mammals  a 
few  thousand.  By  contrast,  nearly  a  mil- 
lion species  of  insects  have  been  described 
(and  several  millions  more  remain  undis- 
covered and  uncataloged).  Insects  repre- 
sent more  than  70  percent  of  all  named  an- 
imal species. 

So  why  are  insects  so  diverse?  Many 
answers  have  been  offered,  and  the  solu- 
tion will  be  some  complex  combination  of 
the  good  arguments.  Small  size,  great  eco- 
logical diversity,  rapid  geographic  disper- 
sal, have  all  been  mentioned  and  are  prob- 
ably valid  as  partial  explanations,  but  one 
other  factor  always  stands  out  in  the  con- 
ventional list  of  reasons:  coevolution  with 
flowering  plants.  The  angiosperms,  or 
flowering  plants,  are  by  far  the  most  di- 
verse group  in  their  kingdom.  Many  spe- 
cies are  fertilized  by  insects  in  a  mutually 
beneficial  arrangement  that  supplies  food 
to  the  insects  while  transporting  pollen 
from  flower  to  flower. 

So  intricate,  and  so  mutually  adapted, 
are  the  features  of  both  flower  and  insect  in 
many  cases — special  colors  and  odors  to 
attract  the  insects,  exquisitely  fashioned 


mouthparts  to  extract  flie  nectar,  for  ex- 
ample— that  this  pairing  has  become  our 
classic  example  of  coevolution,  or  promo- 
tion of  adaptation  and  diversity  by  interac- 
tion among  organisms  during  their  evolu- 
tion. (Darwin  wrote  an  entire  book  on  the 
subject,  using  the  classic  case  of  intri- 
cately coadapted  orchids  and  their  insect 
pollinators.)  Thus,  a  received  truth  of  evo- 
lutionary biology  has  proclaimed  that  in- 
sects are  so  diverse,  in  no  small  part,  be- 
cause flowering  plants  are  so  varied — and 
each  plant  evolves  its  pollinator  (and  vice 
versa). 

Sounds  good,  but  is  it  true?  The  fossil 
record  suggests  an  obvious  test,  but  curi- 
ously, no  one  had  ever  carried  out  the  pro- 
tocol until  my  colleagues  Conrad  Laban- 
deira  and  Jack  Sepkoski  published  a  paper 
last  July  ("Insect  Diversity  in  the  Fossil 
Record,"  Science,  July  16,  1993,  pp.  310- 
15).  Insects  arose  in  the  Devonian  period, 
but  began  a  major  radiation  in  diversity 
during  subsequent  Carboniferous  times, 
some  325  million  years  ago.  An- 
giosperms, by  contrast,  arose  much  later. 
Their  first  fossils  are  found  in  early  Creta- 


1 8    Natural  History  2/94 


ceous  strata,  some  140  million  years  ago 
(if  they  arose  earlier,  as  some  scientists 
speculate,  they  could  not  have  been  very 
abundant).  But  angiosperms  didn't  really 
flower  (pardon  the  irresistible,  if  unorigi- 
nal, pun)  until  the  Albian  and  Cenomanian 
stages  of  the  middle  Cretaceous,  some  100 
milhon  years  ago,  where  their  explosive 
evolutionary  radiation  stands  out  as  one  of 
the  great  events  of  our  fossil  record. 

If  insect  diversity  is  tied  to  the  radiation 
of  flowering  plants,  as  haditional  views 
proclaim,  then  this  burst  of  angiosperms 
should  be  matched  by  a  similar  explosion 
of  insects  in  the  fossil  record.  Why  has 
such  an  obvious  test  of  an  important  evo- 
lutionary hypothesis  not  been  made  be- 
fore? The  reason  may  he  ui  a  common 
misconception  about  the  fossil  record  of 
insects.  Many  people  suppose  that  this 
record  is  exceptionally  poor,  with  so  few 
insects  preserved  as  fossils  that  we  would 
never  be  able  to  get  a  good  enough  count 
to  assess  the  hypothesis  of  a  sharp  increase 
during  the  Cretaceous  when  the  an- 
giosperms radiated. 

To  be  sure,  insects  do  not  fossilize  as 
readily  as  clams  or  trilobites,  but  theh 
record  is  by  no  means  so  sparse  as  com- 
mon impressions  hold.  Jack  Sepkoski  has 
spent  most  of  his  twenty-year  career  (he 
was  my  graduate  student  just  before  then, 
so  I  confess  my  familial  bias  toward  his 
work)  engaged  in  an  enterprise  that  some 
traditional  paleontologists  dismiss  with 
the  epithet  of  "taxon  counting" — fliat  is, 
he  sits  in  the  library  (which  he  describes  as 
his  "field  area")  and  tabulates  the  ranges 
of  all  fossil  genera  and  famihes  in  all  the 
world's  literature  in  all  languages.  (This  is 
neither  so  simple  nor  so  automatic  a  pro- 
cedure as  the  uninitiated  might  imagine. 
First  of  all,  you  need  to  know  where  to 
find,  and  how  to  recognize,  obscure 
sources  in  publications  with  non-Roman 
alphabets.  Second,  you  do  not  merely  list 
what  you  find,  but  must  make  judgments 
about  the  numerous  taxonomic  and  geo- 
logic errors  in  such  publications.  I  have 
never  understood  why  some  traditionalists 
disparage  this  work.  They,  after  all,  have 
published  the  literature  that  Sepkoski  uses; 
don't  they  want  their  work  so  honored  and 
well  employed?  Through  Sepkoski's 
painstaking  effort  in  full  and  standardized 
tabulation,  we  have,  for  the  first  time,  a  us- 
able compendium  of  changing  diversity 
throughout  the  history  of  life,  and  for  all 
groups.) 

Labandeira  and  Sepkoski  found  that  the 
insect  record  is  better  than  anyone  thought 
(once  you  add  up  all  the  Russian  and  Chi- 


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nese  publications).  In  fact,  insects  are 
more  cJiverse  than  that  other  famous  ter- 
restrial group,  for  which  no  one  has  ever 
been  shy  about  offering  conclusions — the 
tetrapods,  or  terrestrial  vertebrates  (am- 
phibians, reptiles,  birds,  and  mammals 
combined).  The  fossil  record  of  insects  in- 
cludes 1,263  families,  that  of  tetrapods, 
825  families.  Moreover,  except  for  the  lat- 
est Devonian,  when  insects  were  young 
and  hadn't  yet  taken  off  on  an  evolutionary 
radiation,  insect  diversity  has  always  ex- 
ceeded tetrapod  diversity  in  every  geolog- 
ical epoch. 

Looking  at  the  taxonomic  level  of  insect 
families,  Labandeira  and  Sepkoski  could 
find  no  evidence  for  any  positive  impact  of 
the  angiosperm  radiation  upon  insect  di- 
versity. The  insect  radiation  began  in  the 
early  Carboniferous,  some  325  million 
years  ago,  got  derailed  once  in  the  greatest 
of  all  mass  extinctions  at  the  end  of  the 
Permian  (when  eight  of  twenty-seven  in- 
sect orders  died),  began  again  in  the  sub- 
sequent Triassic  period,  and  has  never 
stopped  since.  In  fact,  and  if  anything,  in- 
crease in  number  of  families  actually 
seems  to  slow  down  somewhat  during  the 
Cretaceous  as  the  angiosperms  flowered! 

Labandeira  and  Sepkoski  then  tried  a 
different  approach  and  also  found  no  rela- 


tionship with  angiosperms.  Instead  of  tax- 
onomic diversity,  they  tabulated  ecologi- 
cal variety  by  dividing  insects  into  thirty- 
four  "mouthpart"  categories — that  is, 
different  ways  of  making  an  ecological  Uv- 
ing  based  on  modes  of  feeding.  (Many  of 
these  categories  include  insects  from  sev- 
eral different  taxonomic  lineages,  so  my 
colleagues  are  measuring  ecological  dis- 
parity, not  just  numerical  abundance.) 
They  found  that  65  to  88  percent  of  these 
categories  were  already  filled  by  the  mid- 
dle Jurassic,  the  period  before  an- 
giosperms arose.  Only  one  to  seven  new 
categories  arose  after  the  angiosperms 
evolved,  but  most  of  these  have  especially 
poor  fossil  records,  and  may  well  have 
originated  earlier.  Of  these,  only  one  cate- 
gory is  plausibly  linked  to  life  with  flower- 
ing plants.  Thus,  angiosperms  are  also  not 
responsible  for  the  morphological  variety 
of  insect  feeding  mechanisms. 

Again,  the  news  wires  buzzed  (more 
punning  apologies)  with  this  story,  and  the 
New  York  Times  again  awarded  front-page 
billing.  Again,  expressions  of  profound 
surprise  were  the  order  of  the  day.  Insects 
evolved  independently  of  the  flowering 
plants  to  which  many  are  now  so  strongly 
tied?  How  can  this  be?  Doesn't  Darwinism 
proclaim  that  organisms  change  within 


-7} "y 


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20    Natural  History  2/94 


webs  of  competition  and  interaction  to- 
ward mutually  beneficial  states?  And 
again,  I  was  pleased  but  not  at  all  sur- 
prised. For  I  have  long  felt  that  images  of 
balance  and  optimizing  competition  have 
been  greatly  oversold,  that  major  and  ef- 
fectively random  forces  buffet  the  history 
of  life,  that  most  groups  of  organisms 
make  their  own  way  according  to  their 
own  attributes,  and  that  interactions 
among  most  groups  are,  on  the  broad  scale 
of  time  in  milUons,  more  like  Longfel- 
low's "Ships  that  pass  in  the  night"  than 
the  Book  of  Ruth's  "Whither  thou  goest,  I 
will  go." 

3.  Where  did  Homo  sapiens  originate? 
My  last  issue  is  a  carryover  from  previous 
years.  Nothing  decisive  happened  in  1993 
to  resolve  this  hot  debate  of  the  last  decade 
or  so.  Rather,  I  am  amazed  that  the  story 
has  such  fantastic  "legs,"  and  remains 
both  the  hottest  item  on  the  paleoanthro- 
pological  news  wire  and  a  source  of  di- 
chotomization  that  has  forced  a  more  com- 
plex issue  into  two  warring  camps  (at  least 
in  pubhc  perception). 

One  position  has  been  dubbed  the 
"multiregionahst  model,"  or  the  "cande- 
labra" or  "menorah"  theory  (depending  on 
your  ethnic  preferences)  of  recent  human 
evolution.  Everyone  agrees  that  our  im- 
mediate ancestral  species.  Homo  erectus, 
moved  out  of  Africa  into  Europe  and  Asia 
more  than  a  million  years  ago  (where  they 
became  Java  Man  and  Peking  Man  of  the 
old  textbooks).  Multiregionahsts  argue 
that  Homo  sapiens  evolved  simultane- 
ously from  Homx)  erectus  populations  on 
all  three  continents  (with  necessary  main- 
tenance of  some  gene  flow  among  popula- 
tions, for  they  could  not  otherwise  have 
evolved  in  such  a  coordinated  way). 

The  other  side  has  been  called  the  "out 
of  Africa"  or  "Noah's  ark"  school  of 
human  evolution.  They  argue  that  Homo 
sapiens  arose  in  one  place  as  a  small  pop- 
ulation and  then  spread  throughout  the 
world  to  produce  all  our  modem  diversity. 
If  Africa  was  the  single  place,  then  Euro- 
pean and  Asian  Homo  erectus,  and  the 
later  European  Neanderthals  as  well, 
played  little  or  no  role  in  our  origin  but 
were  replaced  by  later  invaders  in  a  sec- 
ond and  much  more  recent  wave  of  human 
migration. 

The  most  famous  version  of  "Noah's 
ark"  theory,  the  poorly  named  "mitochon- 
drial Eve"  hypothesis  of  modem  human 
origins  in  Africa,  suffered  a  blow  in  1993, 
when  discovery  of  an  important  technical 
fallacy  in  the  computer  program  used  to 
generate  and  assess  evolutionary  trees  de- 


bunked the  supposed  evidence  for  an 
African  source.  But  in  so  disproving  the 
original  claim,  correction  only  dictated  ag- 
nosticism, not  a  contrary  conclusion — that 
is,  the  new  trees  are  consistent  with  origin 
in  a  single  place,  but  Africa  cannot  be  af- 
firmed as  the  clearly  preferred  spot,  al- 
though Africa  remains  as  plausible  as  any 
other  place  by  this  criterion.  Other  inde- 
pendent sources  of  evidence — especially 
the  greater  genetic  diversity  measured 
among  African  peoples — continue,  in  my 
view,  to  favor  an  African  origin.  (A  thor- 
ough and  fair  review  by  a  partisan  of  the 
out-of-Africa  school  may  be  found  in 


"DNA  and  Recent  Human  Evolution,"  by 
Mark  Stoneking,  Evolutionary  Anthropol- 
ogy, wol  2,  ]993,  pp.  60-13.)' 

As  a  student  of  snails,  I  have  no  great 
personal  stake  in  this  argument,  although  I 
would  be  willing  to  wager  that  this  new- 
fangled Noah's  ark  will  one  day  find  its 
Ararat  (although  I  won't  be  shocked  if  the 
boat  sinks  and  multiregionalism  tri- 
umphs). But  I  am  intrigued  by  joumalists' 
representations  of  this  debate — particu- 
larly in  their  attribution  of  surprise  to  one 
side  and  expectation  to  the  other  (thus 
linking  this  tale,  through  the  theme  of  mis- 
placed surprise,  to  my  previous  two  sto- 


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ries).  Newspaper  and  science  magazines 
invariably  present  multiregionalism  as  the 
orthodox,  or  expected,  view,  and  out  of 
Africa  (or  any  other  single  place)  as  the 
surprising  new  kid  on  the  block. 

But  this  assessment  is  ass-backwards  by 
any  standard  rendering  of  evolutionary 
theory  (divorced  from  the  distortions  that 
intrude  upon  us  whenever  we  consider 
something  so  close  to  us  as  human  ances- 
try). Origin  in  a  single  place  is  the  expec- 
tation of  ordinary  evolutionary  theory,  and 
utterly  unsurprising.  Species  are  unitary 
populations  of  organisms  that  split  off 
from  their  ancestral  populations  in  a  hm- 
ited  part  of  the  parental  range.  Species 
arise  as  historical  entities  in  particular 
places  and  then  spread,  if  successful,  as  far 
as  their  adaptations  and  ecological  propen- 
sities allow.  Rats  and  pigeons  live  all  over 
ihe  world,  just  as  humans  do.  Yet  we  are 
not  tempted  to  argue  that  rats  evolved  in 
parallel  on  all  continents  simultaneously. 
We  suppose  that,  like  most  species,  they 
arose  in  a  single  region  and  then  spread 
out.  Why,  then,  does  origin  in  a  single 
place  surprise  us  when  we,  rather  than  pi- 
geons, represent  the  subject?  Why  do  we 
devise  an  entirely  idiosyncratic  and  un- 
usual multiregional  hypothesis,  and  then 
proclaim  it  orthodox  and  expected? 

I  can  only  suppose  that  we  want  to  seg- 
regate humans  off  as  something  special. 
We  wish  to  see  our  evolution,  particularly 
the  late  expansion  of  our  brain  to  current 
size,  as  an  event  of  more  than  merely  local 
significance.  We  do  not  wish  to  view  our 
global  triumph  as  so  fortuitously  depen- 
dent upon  the  contingent  history  of  a  small 
African  population;  we  would  rather  con- 
ceive our  exalted  intellect  as  so  generally 
advantageous  that  all  populations,  in  all 
places,  must  move  in  adaptive  unison  to- 
ward the  same  desired  state. 

I  must  try  to  understand  the  contrast  of 
public  surprise  with  my  personal  expecta- 
tion for  these  three  disparate  stories  by 
seeking  a  difference  in  worldviews,  or 
general  models  of  reaUty,  between  me  and 
most  of  thee.  Under  what  common  para- 
digm, rejected  by  me,  does  a  shorter  Cam- 
brian explosion,  a  lack  of  lockstep  evolu- 
tion between  flowering  plants  and  insects, 
and  a  single  place  of  origin  for  Homo  sapi- 
ens, seem  so  surprising?  I  can  only  ob- 
serve that  all  three  contraries — a  more 
leisurely  origin  for  anatomical  designs,  a 
coordinated  evolution  of  coadapted 
groups,  and  an  intercontinental  origin  of 
our  most  valued  features — fit  well  with  a 
more  stately,  predictable,  and  comforting 
view  of  life's  history  than  I  can  see  in  the 


22    Natural  History  2/94 


fossil  record.  Traditional  concepts  of  evo- 
lution, at  least  in  their  translation  to  popu- 
lar culture,  favor  a  slow  and  stately  proc- 
ess, ruled  by  sensible  adaptation  along  its 
pathways  and  expanding  out  toward  both 
greater  complexity  of  the  highest  forms 
and  more  bountiful  diversity  throughout. 
Such  a  view  would  coordinate  all  three 
surprises  in  my  three  stories — for  the 
newly  shortened  Cambrian  explosion  is 
decidedly  unstately;  the  independence  of 
insects  and  flowers  seems  chaotically  un- 
coordinated; and  the  emergence  of  Homo 
sapiens,  if  viewed  as  a  historical  event  in  a 
single  place,  becomes  quirky  and  chancy. 
But  my  worldview  accommodated  and 
anticipated  all  these  phenomena  of  rate, 
interaction,  and  place.  1  have  come  to  see 
stability  as  the  norm  for  most  times,  and 
evolutionary  change  as  a  relatively  rapid 
event  punctuating  the  stillness  and  bring- 
ing systems  to  new  states.  A  faster  Cam- 
brian explosion  feeds  this  expectation.  I 
view  lineages  as  evolving  largely  indepen- 
dently of  one  another.  I  do  not  deny,  of 
course,  that  species  interact  in  adaptively 
intricate  ways.  But  each  lineage  is  a 
unique  entity  with  its  own  idiosyncrasies; 
and  each  evolutionary  trajectory  through  a 


temporal  series  of  environments  encoun- 
ters so  many  random  effects  of  great  mag- 
nitude that  1  expect  historical  individuality 
to  overwhelm  coordination.  Grand  scale 
independence  of  insects  and  flowers  (de- 
spite the  tight  linkage  of  so  many  species 
pairs  today)  conforms  to  this  view.  Finally, 
I  regard  each  species  as  a  contingent  item 
of  history  with  an  unpredictable  future.  1 
anticipate  that  a  species  will  arise  in  a  sin- 
gle place  and  then  move  along  an  unex- 
pected pathway.  In  short,  all  my  nonsur- 
prises  are  coordinated  by  a  worldview  that 
celebrates  quick  and  unpredictable 
changes  in  a  fossil  record  featuring  lin- 
eages construed  as  largely  independent 
historical  entities.  I  should  also  add  that  I 
find  such  a  world  stunning  and  fascinating 
in  its  chaotic  complexity  and  historical 
genesis — and  I  happily  trade  the  comforts 
of  the  older  view  for  the  joys  of  contem- 
plating and  struggling  with  such  multifari- 
ous intrigue. 

I've  put  myself  in  a  tough  spot.  This 
essay  has  veered  dangerously  close  to  un- 
seemly self-congratulation.  But  I  do  not 
write  to  claim  that  1  have  a  "better"  world- 
view  more  attuned  to  solving  the  outstand- 
ing problems  of  life's  history.  Nor  do  I  as- 


sert the  correctness  of  my  position  on  the 
three  stories,  for  truth  is  the  daughter  of 
time,  and  1  may  be  proved  wrong  about  all 
of  them.  1  developed  this  topic  because  I 
regard  the  subject  of  worldviews,  or  para- 
digms, as  so  important  for  the  unification 
of  all  creative  human  thought,  and  I  wrote 
of  my  own  experience  because  personal 
testimony  has  been  an  accepted  staple  of 
the  essay  ever  since  Montaigne  invented 
the  genre.  (And  now  1  must  halt,  lest  you 
parry  with  Shakespeare's  observation  that 
the  author  "dost  protest  too  much,  me- 
thinks.") 

Maybe  my  worldview,  shared  by  many 
scholars  these  days  (for  1  came  to  it  by  as- 
similation, not  invention),  has  power  as  a 
more  fruitful  outlook  upon  reality  than 
previous  paradigms  provided.  Maybe  my 
horse  is  coming  in.  But  maybe  I  am  only 
riding  a  gelding  named  "fashion,"  a  nag 
destined  to  stumble  at  the  gate  next  season 
at  Hialeah  as  the  Seabiscuit  or  Secretariat 
of  deterministic  gradualism  comes  thun- 
dering down  the  homestretch. 

Stephen  Jay  Gould  teaches  biology,  geol- 
ogy, and  the  history  of  science  at  Harvard 
University. 


Enjoy  arternoon  tea.  Witn  ice. 


Notning's  more  reiieshing.  Expioie  Alaska's 
great  pristine  territory  aDoara  tne 
Cunaru  Crown  E)ynasly  iram 
May  tnrougn  September 
ror  7  to  12  awe-uispiiing 
days.  On  ixjara,  witness  eagles 
soaring  and  wnales  at  play  irom 
spacious  decks.  As  you  sail  irom  quaint 


Seward  to  metropolitan  \4ncouvei;  you  11  ne 
treated  to  the  special  amtiience  larger 
snips  can't  anord  you.  Like 
personalized  service  and  a 
camaraderie  among  Mow 
guests.  We  look  rorward 
to  welcoming  you  aboard.  And 
Imow  you'll  enjoy  leaving  tne  crowds  nenind. 


7  to  12  day  fares  witn  early  Booking  savings  {4  montns  in  advance  oi  sailing)  range  trom  $1,185  to  $3,633  and 
are  per  person,  doucle  occupancy,  subject  to  availability  and  dependent  on  departure  date.  Port  and  handling 
cnargcs  arc  $135  to  $180  per  person  extra.  Cunard  Crown  Dynasty  is  registered  in  Panama.  ©1994  Cunard. 


ALASKA 


7  DAYS 


FROM 


Including  free  roundlrip  economy  air 
from  96  U.S.  gateway  cities. 

Call  your  travel  agent.  For  a  iree  brocnure  call: 

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not  in  tne  crowd. 


50B 


23 


ScffiNCE  Lite 


1 


AstrophysEd 

Do  you  know  what  famous  critical  mass  was  assembled  in  Cleveland! 


by  Roger  L.  Welsch 

A  few  years  ago,  physicist  Stephen 
Hawldng  amazed  the  world  of  publishing 
by  producing  a  runaway  best  seller, 
putting  him  right  up  there  with  literary  gi- 
ants like  Norm  Schwarzkopf  and  Howard 
Stem.  A  couple  of  weeks  ago  I  finally  got 
around  to  buying  a  paperback  copy  of 
Hawking 's  A  Brief  History  of  Time:  From 
the  Big  Bang  to  Black  Holes,  a  primer  in 
astrophysics  for  the  popular  market.  I  am 
now  ready  to  talk  with  you  about  the  book, 
even  though  I  haven't  quite  finished  it, 
putting  me  right  up  there  with  millions  of 
other  book  buyers. 

To  begin  with,  you  should  know  that  the 
word  astrophysics  is  a  combination  of  as- 
tronomy and  physics,  NOT  astrology  and 
physics.  Astrology  is  a  belief  system  based 
on  mystic  mumbo  jumbo  with  no  demon- 
strable, substantiating  basis  in  observable 
phenomena,  whereas  astronomy  has  an  n 
instead  of  an  /  and  an  m  instead  of  a  g. 
(There  is  an  even  bigger  difference  be- 
tween physic  and  physics.  Briefly,  physics 


can  be  the  plural  of  physic,  but  physic  is 
not  the  singular  of  physics,  a  confusion 
Hawking  promises  to  explain  in  a  later 
book.) 

Hawking's  lesson  for  us  in  A  Brief  His- 
tory of  Time  is  that  while  we  once  thought 
all  matter  was  composed  of  indivisible  el- 
ements, and  then  indivisible  atoms,  and 
then  indivisible  neutrons,  all  matter  is  ac- 
tually made  up  of  indivisible  quarks 
(meant  to  rhyme,  sort  of,  with  "quart,"  but 
which,  for  reasons  that  physicists  who  ex- 
plain the  universe  cannot  explain,  has 
wound  up  rhyming,  sort  of,  with  "smart"). 

These  quarks  come  in  several  "col- 
ors"— red,  green,  and  blue — even  though 
quarks  have  no  color  in  reality,  if  they  have 
a  reahty.  Quarks  are  further  classified  into 
six  "flavor"  groupings — up,  down, 
strange,  charmed  (which  may  explain  why 
no  one  ever  goes  to  a  dinner  party  thrown 
by  an  astrophysicist),  Szechuan,  and 
cherry-pistachio — even  though  cherry- 
pistachio  has  no  flavor  in  reality  and 


ir^i-r'i.^""" 


Szechuan  has  more  than  enough  to  make 
up  for  both  of  them.  These  taxonomic  sys- 
tems have  been  constructed  by  astrophysi- 
cists, famous  for  their  quirky  (rhymes  with 
"quarky")  sense  of  humor. 

The  important  thing  to  remember  is  that 
astrophysics  operates  (or  operate)  primar- 
ily within  scientists'  minds,  each  step  de- 
pending on  the  theoretical  soundness  of 
the  theses  leading  up  to  it,  a  kind  of  intel- 
lectiial  pyramid  scheme,  illegal  in  most 
states  of  the  Union  but  still  permitted  in 
astrophysics.  The  point  is,  no  one  is  more 
surprised  than  physicists  when  a  couple  of 
centuries  of  theory  are  suddenly  mani- 
fested in  some  actual,  observable,  physical 
event — for  example.  Silly  Putty  or  the 
atomic  bomb. 

As  you  can  imagine,  everybody  in 
physics  circles  was  considerably  relieved 
when  SUly  Putty  resulted  from  the  critical 
mass  assembled  in  Cleveland  and  the  A- 
bomb  popped  up,  so  to  speak,  at  Alamo- 
gordo.  Except  maybe  for  Edward  Teller, 
who  still  seems  disappointed  by  one  or  the 
other  of  these  outcomes. 

At  any  rate,  almost  everything  in 
Hawking's  book  is  based  on  his  fertile 
imagination  and  logical  speculation,  with 
almost  no  visible  evidence  or  proof.  This 
appears  to  differentiate  his  work  from  fic- 
tion, which  is  almost  always  based  on  ob- 
vious, demonstrable  fact.  In  another  way, 
however,  physics  is  a  lot  Uke  fiction  or  in- 
come tax  calculating,  in  that  when  there  is 
a  conflict  between  the  world  and  an  intel- 
lectual construct,  the  author  adjusts  the 
world  to  fit  an  imagined  plot. 

Take  black  matter,  for  example.  As  fate 
would  have  it,  the  most  recent  and  popular 
theories  in  physics  just  don't  work.  It's  not 
as  if  there  are  some  loose  tiireads  around 
the  edges;  the  theories  don't  work  at  all.  If 
they  did,  the  universe  would  instanta- 
neously fall  in  on  itself  or  fly  apart.  Now 


24    Natural  History  2/94 


those  of  us  who  are  not  astrophysicists 
would  probably  do  something  like  discard 
the  theories.  Not  astrophysicists.  They 
readjust  the  uncooperative  universe  to  fit 
their  theories,  postulating  a  gigantic  quan- 
tity of  invisible  gravity-producing  stuff 
they  call  black  matter,  even  though  it's  not 
black  and  maybe  not  even  matter.  And 
there  you  are.  Just  like  that,  the  modem, 
popular  theories  are  back  in  business. 

I  can  imagine  that  readers  new  to 
physics  and  its  way  of  doing  things  might 
be  skeptical,  but  those  of  us  who  are 
higher  up  in  the  world  of  science  feel  noth- 
ing but  anticipation  in  all  this  theorizing.  It 
could,  after  all,  be  a  step  toward  a  newer 
and  even  sillier  putty. 

So  that  is  how  this  book  proceeds.  For 
instance,  everyone — from  little  kids  to  re- 
tired plumbers — who  has  heard  rumors  of 
theories  about  an  expanding  universe  is 
haunted  by  the  same  question:  If  the  uni- 
verse is  indeed  expanding,  what  is  it  ex- 
panding into?  Isn't  the  universe  every- 
thing? I  mean,  what  isn't  universe,  just 
isn't.  Right?  Wrong?  (Remember:  You 
have  a  theory  that  doesn't  fit  logic  and  re- 
ality? Simple  enough — change  logic  and 
reality.)  As  I  understand  Hawking's  book; 
time  began  at  the  big  bang.  What  was  be- 
fore the  big  bang  doesn't  count  (in  physics 
you  can  do  that;  all  you  have  to  say  is, 
"That  isn't  permitted").  In  sum,  the  uni- 
verse is  expanding  into  timelessness,  fill- 
ing it  with  matter.  And  time.  A  lot  like  a 
dental  appointment. 

Speaking  of  time,  there's  something  in 
Hawking's  book  about  a  theory  that  the 
farther  you  are  away  from  the  world,  the 
slower  you  get  old — which  sounds  darned 
promising  for  those  of  us  who  live  in  Ne- 
braska. 

Folklorist  Roger  L.  Welsch  lives  on  a  tree 
farm  in  Dannebrog,  Nebraska. 


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25 


During  a  skirmish  near  Kuril  Lake  in  Russia 's  Kamchatka 
Peninsula,  a  huge  subadult  Steller's  sea  eagle  has  the  advantage 
over  a  white-tailed  eagle  (bottom). 


*fyh 


Fire,  Ice,  and  Eagles 

In  a  land  shaped  by  volcanoes  and  glaciers, 
birds  of  prey  batten  on  a  winter  bounty  of  salmon 

Text  and  photographs  by  Alexander  Ladigin 

Winter  nights  are  long  on  Russia's  far 
eastern  Kamchatka  Peninsula,  but  moon- 
light brightens  the  landscape  when  it  re- 
flects off  snow  some  six  feet  deep.  I  leave 
my  log  cabin  before  dawn  and  ski  toward 
Kuril  Lake,  hoping  to  elude  detection  by 
crows,  ravens,  and  eagles,  the  better  to  ob- 
serve their  natural  habits.  The  temperature 
is  barely  0°  F,  and  steam  rises  from  the 
lake.  From  the  "window"  of  my  second 
cabin,  one  that  I  have  built  of  snow,  I  see 
eagles  that  have  left  their  nighttime  com- 
munal roost  and  are  soaring  over  the  lake 
in  search  of  a  breakfast  of  salmon.  The  ea- 
gles are  the  reason  I  spend  winters  in 
southern  Kamchatka,  sitting  all  day  in  an 
igloo,  brushing  snow  from  my  notebook, 
and  hoping  my  camera  will  still  work  de- 
spite the  frigid  temperatures.  Although 
cramped  and  uncomfortable,  my  snow 
cabin,  one  of  many  I  have  built  on  the  very 
edge  of  the  lake,  gives  me  a  view  of  a 
teeming  oasis  in  the  midst  of  a  white 
desert. 

Kuril  Lake,  near  the  southern  tip  of  the 
peninsula,  is  the  largest  sockeye  salmon 
spawning  ground  in  Asia.  Traveling  from 
the  Pacific  Ocean,  through  the  Sea  of 
Okhotsk,  and  upriver  to  Kuril  Lake,  some 
eight  million  salmon  arrive  annually  near 
the  place  where  they  hatched  some  four  or 
five  years  earlier.  Even  though  the  spawn- 
ing season  is  unusually  long — from  July  to 
March — at  peak  times  the  huge  numbers 
of  fish  pack  not  only  the  feeder  streams 
but  also  the  shallow  edges  of  the  lake  it- 
self. Spawning,  the  laying  and  fertilization 
of  eggs,  takes  place  over  and  over  again  at 
the  same  sites.  The  pileup  of  eggs  and  the 
abundant  bodies  of  adult  salmon,  which 
die  after  reproducing,  are  the  foundation 
of  the  winter  life  of  Kuril  Lake. 

My  study  area  is  within  the  Kronotskiy 
State  Biosphere  Reserve,  about  2.5  mil- 
lion acres  in  area  and  one  of  the  largest  in 
Russia.  Kamchatka  itself  is  a  land  of  glac- 
iers and  active  volcanoes.  Some  thousand 
feet  deep,  Kuril  Lake  is  of  volcanic  origin 
and  is  fed  by  creeks  and  springs.  The  sheer 
volume  of  water  and  the  influx  of  rela- 
tively warm  spring  water  keeps  the  lake 
from  freezing  over  completely  in  winter. 


27 


> 


Sr- 


1^ 


V 


Until  they  begin  to  hibernate  in  late  De- 
cember, bears  are  active  fishers  of  salmon, 
and  the  resident  foxes,  wolverines,  otters, 
and  even  shrews  take  advantage  of  the 
spawning  frenzy. 

Thousands  of  birds  of  various  species 
are  also  able  to  remain  all  winter  because 
the  lake  is  ice-free.  Gulls  feed  on  decom- 
posed salmon  carcasses  and  caviar;  com- 
mon goldeneye  ducks  and  mallards  gather 
dead  eggs  from  the  bottom  of  the 
lakeshore;  mergansers  capture  young 
smolts  (salmon  hatchlings);  and  swans  and 
mergansers  dig  up  salmon  nests  and  de- 
vour the  eggs.  Even  perching  birds  not 


usually  associated  with  fish,  such  as  wood- 
peckers and  willow  tits,  can  be  seen  mak- 
ing a  meal  of  washed-up  remains  of 
salmon  and  eggs.  Crows,  ravens,  golden 
eagles,  and  white-tailed  eagles  also  vie  for 
a  living  on  the  lake — scavenging  car- 
casses and  pirating  fish  from  other  birds. 

The  most  impressive  of  the  birds  that 
take  advantage  of  this  winter  bounty,  and 
the  subject  that  I  have  studied  for  more 
than  ten  years,  is  the  Steller's  sea  eagle. 
True  fishing  eagles,  closely  related  to 
North  American  bald  eagles,  these  birds 
are  named  after  Georg  Steller,  the  eight- 
eenth-century Russian  naturalist  who  ex- 


plored Kamchatka,  Alaska,  and  the  Aleut- 
ian Islands.  Steller's  sea  eagles  are  charac- 
terized by  their  bright  white  foreheads, 
shoulders,  and  tails,  which  contrast  with 
their  brownish  black  bodies.  Their  beaks 
are  massive,  deep,  and  strongly  arched. 
But  the  most  remarkable  aspect  of  these 
eagles  is  their  size;  Steller's  sea  eagles  can 
weigh  up  to  twenty  pounds,  about  twice  as 
much  as  a  bald  eagle,  and  can  have  a 
wingspan  of  some  seven  feet.  Also  known 
as  the  white-shouldered  eagle,  this  bird 
breeds  only  in  Russia;  of  the  total  world 
population  of  4,200  breeding  pairs,  1,200 
pairs  nest  on  the  Kamchatka  Peninsula.  In 


28    Natural  History  2/94 


the  winter,  some  of  the  birds  migrate  to 
Japan  and  Korea,  but  about  1,000  individ- 
uals, or  one-eighth  of  the  world's  popula- 
tion of  Steller's  eagles,  remain  at  Kuril 
Lake  to  feed  on  its  riches. 

Unlike  bald  eagles  of  North  America, 
which  have  attracted  the  attention  of  biol- 
ogists, conservationists,  and  ecotourists, 
Steller's  sea  eagles  are  little  known  and  are 
studied  today  by  only  a  handful  of  scien- 
tists. The  haunts  of  the  bird  are  remote, 
and  this  may  account  for  its  extreme  shy- 
ness with  humans.  No  roads  lead  to  Kuril 
Lake,  and  the  nearest  village  lies  some 
sixty  miles  away.  A  scientific  station  has 


Spawning  sockeye  salmon,  below,  choke  the  feeder  streams  of 
Kuril  Lake  and  sustain  a  wealth  of  bird  life  all  winter.  White- 
tailed  and  golden  eagles,  ducks,  swans,  ravens,  crows,  and  some 
small  songbirds,  as  well  as  Steller's  eagles,  left,  partake  of  the 
spoils  of  salmon  eggs  and  carcasses. 


an  outpost  on  the  one  river  that  flows  from 
the  lake  to  the  sea.  The  limited  access  to 
the  region  and  the  bitter  weather  make  for 
hard  living  conditions  for  scientists  in 
winter.  But  like  other  visitors  to  this  area, 
we  enjoy  plenty  of  fresh  salmon  and 
caviar. 

Among  themselves,  Steller's  sea  eagles 
are  extremely  gregarious.  Even  in  the 
breeding  season,  when  many  species  of 
birds  forgo  flocks  for  family  groups  and 
hunt  singly  or  in  pairs,  Steller's  eagles 
tend  to  feed  communally.  This  habit  is  re- 
lated to  their  specialization  as  fish  eaters; 
fish,  their  main  food  year-round,  tends  to 
be  concentrated  in  lakes  and  streams. 
Most  Steller's  sea  eagles  in  Kamchatka 
breed  along  the  more  northerly  coasts  of 
the  peninsula.  Beginning  in  late  March, 
the  eagles  begin  to  refiirbish  their  huge 
nests,  which  they  use  year  after  year.  The 
usual  clutch  consists  of  two  eggs,  and  the 
parent  birds  raise  the  eaglets  on  chunks  of 
freshly  caught  fish  until  the  young  birds 
fledge  by  summer's  end.  As  early  as  Sep- 


tember, the  leaves  fall,  the  icy  winds  of 
winter  begin,  and  the  eagles'  lives  change 
dramatically.  The  lakes  in  northern  Kam- 
chatka freeze  over,  locking  up  their  food 
supply.  Adults,  subadults  (eagles  less  than 
five  years  old),  and  the  young  of  the  year 
wander  southward  and  congregate  in  large 
groups,  becoming  even  more  social  than 
in  summer.  Of  the  thousand  or  so  eagles 
that  take  up  winter  residence  on  Kuril 
Lake,  I  have  seen  more  than  four  hundred 
gather  on  one  feeder  stream  choked  with 
salmon.  As  soon  as  one  eagle  finds  a  car- 
cass, other  eagles  quickly  gather  The  evo- 
lution of  this  intensely  social  foraging  sys- 
tem, and  the  central  role  it  plays  in  the 
birds'  general  ecology,  is  the  focus  of 
much  of  my  winter  work. 

I  beheve  that  the  size  of  then-  prey  ex- 
plains why  feeding  Steller's  eagles  attract 
one  another  and,  indeed,  rarely  feed  inde- 
pendently, even  when  food  abounds.  It 
certainly  contributes  to  the  varied  interac- 
tions of  Steller's  and  other  species  of  ea- 
gles. Adult  sockeye  salmon  average  about 


29 


[i^'l'"j?-''"'-!^^'J'U-v,^^Si^v'7  .'>7^ ' 


iMi 


m'^n 


.Vv«J 


In  the  midst  of  glaciers  and  volcanoes, 
Kuril  Lake,  below,  remains  ice-free  all 
winter  An  adult  S teller's  eagle,  left, 
reveals  its  fully  mature  plumage  as  it 
hoists  a  scrap  of  salmon  aloft.  At  six  or 
more  pounds,  whole  salmon  are  too  hefty 
to  allow  even  the  mighty  Steller's  to 
become  airborne. 


six  pounds  and  are  sheathed  in  tough  skin. 
Unless  a  salmon  is  dead  and  decomposing, 
this  hide  is  difficult  for  birds  other  than 
Steller's  eagles  to  penetrate.  The  golden 
and  white-tailed  eagles  that  live  at  Kuril 
Lake  may  take  hours  to  pry  an  opening 
around  a  salmon's  gills,  front  fin,  or  anus, 
and  for  the  most  part,  they  depend  on  the 
massive-billed  Steller's  eagles  to  open  a 
fish  carcass.  Salmon  is  unusual  prey  for 
white-tailed  and  golden  eagles,  which  in 
most  of  their  range,  and  in  summer  in 
Kamchatka,  prey  on  other  birds  and  on 
mammals.  They  have  no  specific  adapta- 
tions for  capturing  large  live  salmon  and 
tend  instead  to  scavenge  dead  fish  on  the 
gravel  bars  of  the  lake  or  feed  on  the  left- 
overs when  the  Steller's  eagles  have  had 
their  fill.  The  existence  of  the  golden  and 
white-tailed  eagles  on  the  salmon  spawn- 
ing ground  is  attributable  to  the  presence 
of  the  more  brawny,  fish-eating  special- 
ists, the  Steller's  sea  eagles. 

In  contrast,  Steller's  sea  eagles  are  ac- 
tive predators  on  the  spawning  ground. 
They  can  catch  and  pull  live  salmon  from 
the  water,  but  sockeye  salmon  carcasses 
are  simply  too  heavy  for  even  Steller's  ea- 
gles to  carry  away,  and  they  more  often 


feed  on  dead  fish  deposited  on  the  gravel 
bars  and  icy  edges  of  the  lake.  One  salmon 
is  more  than  enough  to  satiate  several  ea- 
gles. The  birds  seldom  bother  with  rotting 
fish  being  picked  apart  by  other  species  of 
raptors.  While  golden  eagles  form  small 
feeding  groups  of  three  or  four  members, 
and  white-tailed  eagles  tend  to  hunt  alone, 
wintering  Steller's  eagles  are  attracted  in 
great  numbers  to  other  Steller's  eagles. 
The  degree  of  attraction  and  interaction 
reaches  a  peak  when  dozens  of  birds  con- 
verge on  a  mound  of  dead  salmon — often 
ignoring  other  carcasses — and  harass  and 
fight  one  another  in  an  attempt  to  steal  the 
spoils. 

From  my  snow  cabin,  I  have  witnessed 
some  impressive  squabbling  from  just  ten 
to  twenty  yards  away.  Although  physical 
injury,  or  even  contact,  is  rare,  the  eagles 
use  a  number  of  ritualized  displays  to  con- 
vey dominance,  submission,  and  a  variety 
of  moods.  Wing,  tail,  and  head  displays 
are  most  common.  Sometimes  one  or 
more  eagles  will  stretch  out  their  wings 
and  wave  their  tails  to  signal  their  determi- 
nation to  feed  on  a  particular  fish.  Steller's 
eagles  and  their  cousins  the  bald  eagles 
regularly  force  other  birds  to  give  up  prey, 
as  when  a  bald  eagle  harasses  an  osprey 
into  dropping  its  catch.  Because  of  their 
penchant  for  feeding  together,  Steller's  ea- 
gles also  often  engage  in  piracy  and  steal 
fish  from  one  another  on  the  lakeshore. 
Piracy  takes  place  only  when  the  fish  is 
sizable;  small  fish  are  not  worth  the  energy 
expended  in  a  fight  or  are  simply  con- 
sumed too  quickly  to  allow  piracy  to 
occur  Moreover,  even  though  its  massive 
beak  enables  a  Steller's  eagle  to  snatch 
and  swallow  large  chunks  of  fish,  eating  a 
salmon  takes  a  long  time;  before  it  has  fin- 
ished eating,  any  eagle  partaking  of  such  a 
banquet  is  likely  to  be  seen  by  another 
hungry  eagle. 

For  a  long  time  I  wondered  why  the  ea- 
gles preferred  robbing  one  another  to  feed- 
ing independently,  especially  when  the 
lakeshore  teemed  with  living  and  dead 
sahnon.  1  now  beUeve  that  even  for  such  a 
mighty  bird  as  the  Steller's  sea  eagle, 
opening  large,  tough-skinned  carcasses  is 


31 


One  feeding  eagle  invariably  attracts  a  crowd,  below. 
Displays,  fights,  and  piracy  ensue  as  the  birds  vie  for  salmon. 
The  Steller's  eagle,  with  its  deep,  massive  beak,  opposite  page, 
is  the  only  species  of  eagle  on  Kuril  Lake  able  to  penetrate  the 
thick  skin  ofsockeyes  with  relative  ease. 


a  challenge.  Cashing  in  on  another  eagle's 
work  is  quicker  and  easier  than  ripping 
open  a  fresh  carcass  and  is  even  worth  the 
energy  lost  in  displaying  and  squabbling. 
Subadults,  which  are  not  yet  adept  at  ma- 
nipulating salmon,  must  either  steal  part  of 
another  bird's  fish  or  resort  to  eating  soft, 
rotting  carcasses. 

The  dynamics  of  the  Steller's  eagles' 
strategy  are  not  those  of  classic  piracy,  in 
which  an  entire  prey  is  appropriated. 
Rather,  piracy  and  scavenging  are  com- 
bined. Because  a  typical  salmon  provides 
more  than  enough  food  to  satiate  a  single 
eagle,  intruding  birds  do  not  so  much  steal 
as  use  the  valuable,  surplus  salmon.  Group 
feeding  may  be  beneficial  to  the  species 
because  large,  unwieldy  windfalls  of  food 
are  ultimately  shared  by  many  eagles. 

I  was  surprised  to  find  that  conflicts 
reached  their  peak  in  frequency  and  inten- 
sity when  food  was  most  abundant.  Con- 
flicts between  two  individuals  were  rare, 
but  when  group  size  increased  to  five,  the 
number  of  conflicts  rose  exponentially.  A 


major  factor  affecting  the  makeup  of  feed- 
ing groups  is  the  age  of  its  members.  Adult 
eagles  more  often  attacked  feeding  birds 
and  were  more  successful  at  piracy  than 
subadults. 

As  has  been  suggested  for  herons, 
storks,  and  gulls,  the  color  of  plumage 
may  play  a  role  in  the  formation  of 
Steller's  eagles'  feeding  groups.  Subadults 
must  wait  five  full  years  before  they  attain 
fully  mature  plumage,  with  the  striking 
white  head,  tail,  and  shoulders.  Younger 
birds  are  dark  brown  with  a  few  white 
spots,  and  their  beaks  are  pale,  lacking  the 
bright  orange  of  their  elders'.  The  contrast 
between  white  and  deep  brown  in  the 
adults  makes  them  easy  to  spot  at  a  feed- 
ing site  and,  I  believe,  gives  other  eagles  a 
powerful  visual  signal  of  a  particular 
bird's  place  in  the  feeding  hierarchy — in 
which  adults  take  precedence.  I  think  this 
holds  true  not  just  on  the  wintering 
grounds  but  also  on  the  breeding  grounds, 
where  Steller's  eagles  tend  to  nest  near 
one  another  along  salmon  rivers  and 


where  several  nesting  pairs  may  share  a 
common  hunting  area. 

According  to  my  best  estimates,  each 
Steller's  eagle  consumes  about  fifty  fish  a 
season  at  Kuril  Lake.  In  oflier  parts  of  the 
Kronotskiy  Reserve  where  no  spawning 
grounds  exist,  eagles  may  die  in  winter. 
But  on  Kuril  Lake  they  tend  to  gain 
weight.  I  was  even  able  to  catch  some  by 
hand  on  fire  ground  because,  after  gorging 
on  several  pounds  of  salmon,  the  eagles 
were  unable  to  fly  away.  Of  tiie  seven  win- 
ters I  have  spent  on  the  lake,  flie  one  ex- 
ceptional season  was  the  winter  of  1992- 
93.  During  weather  that  was  unusually 
harsh,  even  for  Kamchatka,  ice  covered 
tire  spawning  grounds,  making  fish  inac- 
cessible to  the  eagles  and  aU  the  other 
birds  that  rely  on  salmon  for  their  winter 
livelihood.  Far  fewer  eagles  congregated 
on  the  lake.  Perhaps  the  next  couple  of 
winters  will  reveal  whether  this  is  a  short- 
lived phenomenon  or  a  climatic  trend  with 
greater,  and  grimmer,  implications  for  the 
wildlife  of  the  area. 

As  the  spawning  season  winds  down 
and  March  approaches,  most  adult  salmon 
have  reproduced  and  died.  Food  now  be- 
comes scarce.  During  this  time,  the  com- 
munal roost  of  the  Steller's  sea  eagles, 
which  is  located  in  stands  of  birch  trees 
some  three  to  six  miles  from  the  lake,  be- 
comes particularly  important  as  an  area 
where  eagles  exchange  information  re- 
garding the  location  of  food.  When  one 
scouting  eagle  finds  a  spot  with  a  few 
salmon  left,  its  soaring  confreres  wiU  read- 
ily find  and  join  it.  Eagles  flapping  in  a 
particular  direction  will  soon  catch  the  at- 
tention of  the  birds  still  in  the  roost,  and 
the  "word"  will  spread.  This  continues 
until  the  lack  of  salmon  and  the  hint  of 
spring  send  the  eagles  north  to  nest  again. 

In  the  middle  of  March,  when  the  ea- 
gles begin  to  return  to  the  northern  coasts, 
I  too  leave  Kuril  Lake.  I  board  an  orange 
polar  helicopter  and  rise  above  the  deep, 
bright  water.  From  the  air  I  can  see  the  sin- 
gle river  that  connects  the  lake  to  the  sea, 
the  one  artery  that  brings  life  to  Kuril  Lake 
in  the  form  of  millions  of  spawning 
salmon.  D 


32    Natural  History  2/94 


An  Unshaggy  Dog  Story 

A  bizarre  canine  is  living  evidence  of  prehistoric  contact  between  Mexico  and  Peru 
by  Alana  Cordy-Collins 


When  the  Spaniards  came  to  the  Amer- 
icas in  the  early  sixteenth  century,  among 
the  novel  animals  they  encountered  in 
both  Mexico  and  Peru  was  the  hairless 
dog.  "It  is  a  dog  with  no  hair  at  all;  it  goes 
about  completely  naked.  It  sleeps  upon  a 
cape  which  covers  it,"  wrote  the  mission- 
ary-ethnographer Bernardo  de  Sahagun, 
who  observed  that  the  animal  was  raised 
by  peoples  throughout  the  warmer  parts  of 
Mexico  and  was  frequently  sold  in  the 
bustling  markets.  The  Aztecs  called  the 
hairless  dog  xoloitzcuintli,  a  name  com- 
posed of  the  word  for  dog,  escuintli,  and 
the  name  of  a  monstrous,  doglike  deity, 
Xolotl.  Similar  dogs  existed  in  China, 
Africa,  and  the  Middle  East,  but  these 
were  unknown  to  the  Spaniards,  who  con- 
sidered the  creature  one  of  the  extreme 
oddities  to  be  found  in  the  Americas.  Four 
hundred  years  later,  the  descendants  of 
those  animals  seem  no  less  bizarre,  with 
the  wrinkles  and  warts  of  their  bare  and 
often  mottled  skin  unrelieved  by  hair  ex- 
cept for  some  on  the  crown  of  the  head,  the 
feet,  and  tip  of  the  tail. 

The  animal's  presence  in  the  New 
World  can  be  traced  at  least  as  far  back  as 
the  Colima  culture,  which  flourished  in 
western  Mexico  between  250  B.C.  and  a.d. 
450.  Colima  artists  created  hundreds  of 
pottery  vessels  in  the  shape  of  dogs,  usu- 
ally in  a  highly  burnished  redware,  and 
buried  them  along  with  other  pottery 
forms  (human,  animal,  plant)  in  the  deep 
shaft-tombs  of  their  deceased.  Many 
scholars  believe  Colima  society  was 
shamanistic.  Although  the  culture  is  long 
extinct  and  left  no  written  records,  repre- 
sentations of  the  hallucinogenic  peyote 
cactus,  homed  warriors,  even  the  occa- 
sional homed  or  masked  dog,  all  give  rise 
to  this  interpretation.  In  fact,  my  initial  in- 
terest in  Colima  ceramics  was  sparked  by 
the  possibility  that  they  carried  a  meaning 
deeper  than  met  the  eye. 

Most  of  the  Colima  dog  vessels  are 
modeled  into  squat,  rotund  little  animals 
that  probably  represent  dogs  with  coats. 
But  not  every  Colima  dog  is  a  sleek,  round 
creature — some  are  unequivocally  bald, 
displaying  the  wrinkled  skin,  warts,  and 

34    Natural  History  2/94 


Incised  lines  on  a  dog-shaped  pottery  vessel  portray  wrinkles 
in  the  skin,  showing  that  the  animal  lacked  a  normal  coat  of  hair 
The  vessel  was  unearthed  from  a  tomb  of  the  Colima  culture 
of  western  Mexico,  250  b.c.-a.d.  450. 

Perros  en  las  Tumbas  de  Colima;  Universidad  de  Colima 


:* 


_*6; 


.** 


Los  Angeles  County  Museum  of  Art 


Two  hairless  puppies  at  play,  right,  were  immortalized  by  a 
Colima  artist.  The  earliest  Mexican  sculptures  of  the  hairless 
dog  precede  by  a  thousand  years  the  first  such  portrayals 
in  Peru.  Ecuadorean  sea  traders,  such  as  the  Salangone  or 
their  predecessors,  map  below,  may  have  introduced  the 
breed  into  South  America. 


Joe  LeMonnier 


boniness  normally  concealed  by  fur.  Other 
Colima  pots  show  dogs  whose  teeth  are 
abnormal  or  even  misssing  entirely,  a  typ- 
ical trait  of  the  hairless  breed  {see  "A 
Lethal  Gene,"  page  39). 

Early  chroniclers  do  not  mention  en- 
countering hairless  dogs  in  Peru,  although 
the  animals  are  amply  represented  in  the 
region's  art.  Nineteenth-century  reports  in- 
dicate that  the  animals  were  confined 
mainly  to  the  coast,  as  they  are  today.  The 
cold  Andean  highlands  offered  no  haven 
for  such  bare  creatures.  The  explorer-car- ' 
tographer  J.  J.  von  Tschudi  mentions  that 
in  the  1840s  hakless  dogs  were  found  in 
the  higher  altitudes,  but  only  in  warm  val- 
leys, in  carefully  protected  circumstances. 
The  Inca,  who  ruled  Peru  when  the 
Spaniards  arrived,  probably  were  unable 
to  maintain  the  dog  in  their  12,000-foot- 
high  capital  city  (today's  Cuzco).  But  the 
animal  does  appear  in  the  art  of  coastal 
peoples  within  the  Inca  empire. 

In  Peru,  the  earUest-known  representa- 


tions of  hairless  dogs  date  to  about  a.d. 
750.  One  is  a  ceramic  bottle  made  by  the 
Moche  people,  who  lived  in  the  coastal 
river  valleys  of  the  north,  from  Piura  south 
to  Huarmey.  Modeled  on  the  bottle  are  two 
spotted,  hairless  dogs.  Moche  pottery  was 
cream  and  brick  red,  allowing  the  artist  to 
show  the  dogs'  spotted  markings.  (The 
skin  of  today's  hairless  dogs  ranges  widely 
in  color,  from  sohd  black  or  elephant  gray 
to  mottled  or  spotted  combinations  of 
pink,  brown,  black,  and  white,  and  even  all 
white.)  Another  vessel,  in  cream  and 
black,  shows  a  wrinkled,  bony,  black  dog. 
Its  shape  and  style  suggest  that  it  is  about 
as  old  as  the  Moche  bottle,  but  it  cannot  be 
attributed  to  a  particular  culture,  in  part  be- 
cause, like  many  ceramics,  it  was  not  un- 
earthed by  archeologists. 

Mexico's  Colima  artists  seem  to  have 
modeled  hairless  dogs  fully  one  thousand 
years  before  their  Peruvian  counterparts 
began  to  do  so.  Could  the  animals  have  ex- 
isted in  Peru  and  have  simply  been  ig- 


36    Natural  History  2/94 


38    Natural  History  2/94 


A  Moche  vessel  with  a  pair  of  hairless  dogs,  dating  to  about 
A.D.  750,  is  one  of  the  earliest  in  Peru.  Why  the  dogs  were  prized 
in  prehistoric  times  is  uncertain.  People  may  have  believed  the 
warmth  of  the  dog's  naked  skin  could  relieve  some  ailments. 

Raul  Apesteguia  Collection.  Lima;  Photograph  by  Christopher  B.  Donnan 


nored  by  earlier  artists?  That  seems  un- 
likely, since  they  did  portray  coated  dogs, 
with  sleek  rather  than  wrinkled  skin.  In  ad- 
dition, dozens  of  mummified  dogs  from 
the  thousand  years  before  a.d.  750  have 
been  found  in  Peru  and  Chile,  and  none 
appear  to  be  of  the  hairless  type. 

Could  the  hairless  dogs  have  suddenly 
appeared  in  Peru  as  a  result  of  an  indepen- 
dent genetic  mutation?  Since  hairless 
breeds  exist  elsewhere  in  the  world,  this  is 
a  possibility.  But  some  or  all  of  these 
breeds  may  tum  out  to  be  related.  So  far, 
the  genetic  and  osteological  studies  that 
would  determine  the  relationships  have 
not  been  carried  out. 

A  third  explanation  is  that  hairless  dogs 
were  brought  to  South  America  from 
Mexico  sometime  in  the  eighth  century. 
Early  contact  between  the  two  regions  has 
long  been  suspected,  but  proof  has  been 
elusive  until  recently.  In  1 990,  anthropolo- 
gists Dorothy  Hosier,  Heather  Lechtman, 
and  Olaf  Holm  published  a  comparative 
metallurgical  analysis  of  ancient  artifacts 
from  the  two  regions,  demonstrating  that 
the  craft  of  metalsmithing  was  introduced 
into  western  Mexico  about  700  years  be- 
fore Columbus  arived  in  the  New  World. 
Techniques  of  alloying  copper  and  ar- 
senic, for  instance,  have  a  long  history  in 
South  America  but  appear  quite  abruptly 
in  western  Mexico. 

Current  evidence  points  to  the  contact 
having  taken  place  by  sea,  rather  than  by 
land.  At  the  time  the  Spaniards  arrived,  the 
Salangone  kingdom  on  the  coast  of 
Ecuador  controlled  a  lively  Pacific  coast 
trade.  The  Salangone  traders  plied  the  wa- 
ters at  least  from  Colima  in  Mexico  to 
Chincha  in  southern  Peru.  Their  vessels 
were  large  sailing  rafts  made  of  balsa  logs, 
often  with  a  cabin  on  deck.  Francisco 
Pizarro,  the  Spanish  conqueror  of  Peru, 
encountered  one  such  vessel  on  his  south- 
ward journey  into  the  Inca  Empire.  His 
written  account  indicates  that  it  was  carry- 
ing numerous  people,  animals,  textiles, 
and  precious  items. 

Whether  the  Salangone  kingdom 
stretched  back  to  the  eighth  century  is  un- 
certain, but  my  own  studies  have  shown 


A  Lethal  Gene 


The  Inca  hairless  dog 

Donna  McClelland 


Dog  fanciers  recognize  two  breeds  of 
hairless  dogs  that  ai'e  descended  from  an- 
cient New  World  forebears.  Both  breeds 
are  uncommon,  even  in  their  homelands. 
The  Mexican  breed,  called  xoloitzcuintli,  is 
classified  in  three  sizes:  standard,  minia- 
ture, and  toy  (the  popular  name  "Mexican 
hairless"  generally  refers  to  the  toy).  A  sim- 
ilar Peruvian  breed  is  called  the  Inca  hair- 
less dog  or  the  Peruvian  Inca  orchid  dog. 
Some  writers  claim  that  to  protect  the  ani- 
mals from  excessive  exposure  to  the  sun  the 
Inca  kept  them  in  orchid-filled  rooms  dur- 
ing the  day  and  allowed  them  to  ran  free  at 
night  (giving  rise  to  another  nickname, 
"moonflower  dog").  This  colorful  story  ap- 
pears to  be  a  modem  invention;  it  is  not 
supported  by  any  of  the  early  Spanish 
chronicles. 

The  hairless  trait  is  hereditary  and  dom- 
inant— a  puppy  that  inherits  the  gene  for 
hairlessness  from  just  one  parent  will  be 
bom  hairless.  If  genes  for  hairlessness  are 
received  from  both  parents,  the  combina- 
tion is  lethal,  and  the  embryo  is  resorbed  or 
stillborn.  Because  of  this,  every  hairless 
dog  carries  the  gene  for  hair  from  one  par- 


ent. When  two  hairless  dogs  mate  and  have 
a  litter,  on  average  one-third  of  their  surviv- 
ing offspring  have  hair  (breeders  call  them 
"powderpuffs").  When  a  powderpuff  and  a 
hairless  are  bred — a  routine  pairing  done  to 
maintain  the  breed — the  litter  averages  half 
coated  and  half  hairless. 

Hairless  breeds  have  another  abnormal- 
ity— an  incomplete  set  of  teeth.  While  dogs 
with  coats  have  ten  molars  and  sixteen  pre- 
molars, modern  hairless  dogs  usually  lack 
or  lose  their  premolars  and  may  even  be 
nearly  toothless.  The  teeth  they  do  have  are 
often  set  at  peculiar  angles.  Because  hair- 
lessness and  faulty  dentition  regularly  ap- 
pear together,  they  may  both  be  caused  by 
the  same  gene. 

Otlier  hairiess  breeds,  such  as  the  Chi- 
nese crested,  may  be  related  to  the  New 
World's  bald  canines.  Some  breeders  spec- 
ulate that  the  hairless  tait  originated  in  one 
locale  and  was  then  spread  as  a  result  of 
human  trade  or  migration.  But  the  dogs" 
distribution  at  widely  separated  locations 
suggests  that  the  trait  could  have  arisen 
more  than  once  as  a  result  of  similar  genetic 
mutations.— A.  C.-C. 


39 


Victor  Perez  de  Lara 


A  dog  protected  by  a  blanket,  below,  was  sculpted  by  an  artist  of 
the  Chancay  people,  inhabitants  of  the  Peruvian  coast  in  the 
fourteenth  century.  A  less  whimsical  hairless  dog,  right,  is  a 
member  of  the  Mexican  breed  known  as  xoloitzcuintli. 


Raul  Apesteguia  Collection,  Lima:  Photography  by  Alana  Cordy-Ccllins 


that  at  least  one  Ecuadorean  sea-trading 
society  existed  by  that  time.  Hairless  dogs 
may  have  originally  been  brought  along 
on  voyages  as  food,  perhaps  as  a  welcome 
diversion  from  a  diet  of  fish  and  seabirds. 
In  ancient  Mexico,  dogs  appear  to  have 
been  deliberately  fattened  for  human  con- 
sumption, at  least  for  ritual  feasts.  And  the 
Andean  chronicler  Guaman  Poma  de 
Ayala  mentions  that  coastal  people  living 
in  northern  Peru  had  a  custom  of  eating 
dogs  (although  he  does  not  mention 
whether  the  animals  were  hairless). 

But  hairless  dogs  may  have  been  valued 
for  different  or  additional  reasons.  In  Mex- 
ico and  Peru,  there  is  a  parallel  folklore 
concerning  their  medicinal  properties: 
some  people  believe  that  the  dogs'  warmth 
alleviates  rheumatism  and  associated  dis- 
orders. Thus  they  may  have  been  used 
much  as  we  use  hot- water  bottles  (a  com- 
mon misconception  is  that  hairless  dogs 
have  a  higher  body  temperature  than  other 
dogs  do;  actually,  they  seem  warmer  to  the 


touch  only  because  of  the  lack  of  hair). 
Furthermore,  at  least  one  report  indicates 
that  in  the  Tlaxcala  region  of  Mexico, 
hairless  dogs  were  sacrificed  in  times  of 
drought.  Such  a  practice  could  have  been 
exported  to  inhabitants  of  the  arid  coast  of 
Peru.  Finally,  the  dogs  could  have  been  in- 
troduced simply  as  an  exotic  item. 

Some  other  clues  reinforce  the  conclu- 
sion that  Ecuadorean  traders  introduced 
the  hairless  dogs  from  Mexico  into  Peru. 
Archeologist  Leon  Doyon,  while  excavat- 
ing a  fourth-  to  fifth-century  site  on  the 
outskirts  of  Quito,  found  what  might  be  a 
partial  mandible  of  a  hairless  dog — the 
teeth  seem  to  have  been  incompletely  de- 
veloped. The  chronicler  Juan  Velasco  re- 
ported the  dogs"  presence  in  Ecuador  dur- 
ing the  eighteenth  century,  referring  to 
them  by  the  local  name,  viringo.  And 
nineteenth-century  travelers  to  Peru  no- 
ticed them  in  the  northern  port  town  of 
Paita,  close  to  the  Ecuadorean  border. 
(Even  now,  fanciers  of  the  breed  in  Peru 


travel  to  the  north  coast  in  search  of  new 
animals  to  improve  their  stock.) 

After  the  eighth  century,  numerous  Pe- 
ruvian peoples  depicted  the  hairless  dog  in 
their  art.  The  Lambayeque  people,  directly 
descended  from  the  Moche  and  known  to 
have  traded  with  Ecuador,  left  us  the 
greatest  number  of  representations.  One 
piece  was  crafted  in  silver  with  gold  de- 
tails: a  double  vessel  with  the  dog  on  one 
side  and  a  drinking  cup  on  the  other. 

Among  the  later  Peruvian  artists  to  por- 
tray the  dog  were  the  Chancay,  who  occu- 
pied the  south-central  coast  in  the  four- 
teenth century,  before  the  rise  of  the  Inca 
empire.  They  sometimes  used  their  black- 
and-cream  pottery  to  depict  the  spotted 
skin  of  the  hairless  dog.  One  of  the  Chan- 
cay dog  figures  also  appears  to  be  wearing 
a  blanket,  as  indicated  by  the  rectangular 
motif  with  geometric  designs  painted 
across  the  animal's  back.  Perhaps  the  artist 
knew  a  hairless  dog  that  suff'ered  from  ex- 
posure even  on  the  temperate  coast.      D 


40    Natural  History  2/94 


Frithjof  Skibbe;  Oxford  Scientific  Films 


Some  Like  It  Cold 

While  most  moths  are  summertime  creatures, 
a  few  find  that  flying  in  winter  is  safer 


by  Bemd  Heinrich 

In  this  world  of  infinite  moments,  most 
are  soon  forgotten.  But  some,  because  of 
the  startling  images  they  produce,  are  kept 
forever.  I  will  never  forget  one  that  oc- 
curred in  the  woods  of  western  Maine  on 
an  early  November  evening  ten  years  ago. 
The  leaves  had  fallen  from  the  trees,  the 
last  purple  New  England  asters  had  fin- 
ished blooming,  and  even  the  witch 
hazel's  yellow  flowers  were  finally  near 
their  end  on  leafless  branches.  The  mi- 
grant birds  had  left,  and  the  little  brown 
bats  no  longer  fluttered  about  the  forest 
clearings.  A  first  snow  flurry  had  already 
matted  the  brown  leaves,  but  a  melt  had 
uncovered  them. 

I  was  sitting  on  the  trunk  of  a  large, 
wind-felled  sugar  maple  in  a  hardwood 
forest,  hoping  to  see  a  deer  in  the  ap- 
proaching dusk.  The  sun  was  going  down 


in  a  blaze  of  color,  and  frost  was  starting  its 
bite.  But  what  I  saw  wasn't  stalking  among 
flie  slowly  darkening  tree  trunks.  It  was  sit- 
ting right  beside  me  on  the  log,  shaking  vi- 
olently. No  more  than  an  inch  long  and 
covered  in  sienna-brown  fur,  it  was  a  shiv- 
ering owlet  moth. 

The  Uttle  moth's  antennae  were  partly 
extended,  no  longer  tucked  neatly  along  its 
sides  under  the  wings,  as  they  normally 
are  when  the  insect  is  at  rest.  Its  legs 
braced  it  against  die  bark,  and  its  wings  vi- 
brated so  rapidly  that  they  were  a  blur. 
After  shivering  for  two  or  three  minutes 
more,  the  moth  quickly  wiped  its  antennae 
with  its  front  legs  and  launched  itself  into 
the  air,  fluttering  off  into  the  night. 

But  why  was  an  owlet  moth  still  active 
at  the  threshold  of  winter?  Until  then,  I  had 
only  seen  moths  in  summer.  The  warmer 


On  wann  wintei  days  in  Men  England  Lithophane  patefacta  ?noths  emerge 
from  under  leaf  litter,  above,  where  they  hibernate  during  the  coldest  weather. 
Right:  The  thick  coat  of  fur  covering  the  thorax  of  the  Old  World  winter  moth 
Eupsilia  transversa  Itelps  it  conserve  heat  inflight 


Bernd  Heinrich 


42    Natural  History  2/94 


.<  ^|P¥».;  ui 


■*/' 


■'.'^ 


f^rl-X^- 


■-,.  '^.'3\r       f   I    y 


y.  -y 


/' 


:^." 


«.■( 


*< 


M  " 


.M5>i 


v^-.->i:':  ^k?^; 


^^ii?:'<^-';j*  '^:- 


•-ft*-.^ 


and  balmier  the  weather,  the  greater  the 
number  of  moths  that  would  flutter  around 
my  porch  light.  And  these  numbers  paled 
when  compared  with  the  hordes  of  moths  I 
have  seen  attracted  to  lights  in  the  equato- 
rial jungle. 

I  later  learned  that  this  owlet  moth  is 
one  of  about  fifty  species  of  North  Ameri- 
can moths  that  are  active  throughout  the 
winter.  Dale  D.  Schweitzer,  an  entomolo- 
gist now  with  the  Nature  Conservancy  in 
southern  New  Jersey,  has  long  studied  the 
Ufe  cycles  of  these  winter  moths,  which 
are  also  found  in  temperate  Europe  and 


Asia.  He  has  found  that  they  spend  the 
summer  as  larvae  in  a  state  of  suspended 
animation,  or  estivation — the  warm- 
weather  equivalent  of  hibernation. 

I  learned  that  the  best  way  to  catch  win- 
ter moths  was  to  lure  them  in  with  sweet 
bait.  From  John  G.  Franklemont,  a  Cornell 
University  entomologist  who  is  a  world 
authority  on  winter  moths,  I  learned  a  sim- 
ple method:  make  a  concoction  of  one  can 
of  beer,  three-quarters  of  a  pound  of  sugar, 
some  molasses,  and  a  little  mashed  fruit. 
(Adding  a  little  brandy  is  said  to  help.)  In 
the  evening,  smear  brushfuls  of  this  mix- 


ture on  tree  trunks.  With  a  little  luck,  the 
moths  wiU  appear  within  minutes  and  be- 
come so  bloated  on  this  sweet  ambrosia 
that  they  cannot  fly  off  and  will  drop  to  the 
ground  if  disturbed.  Maple  syrup  works 
equally  well.  In  early  spring  these  moths 
make  a  nuisance  of  themselves  when 
droves  of  them  drown  in  sap  buckets. 

I  was  elated  when  I  caught  my  first  win- 
ter moths,  and  I  lost  no  time  trying  to  find 
out  how  "winterized"  they  were.  I  put  sev- 
eral of  them  in  a  vial  of  water  and  froze  it 
into  a  block  of  ice  in  the  freezer  compart- 
ment of  the  refrigerator.  A  little  while 


44    Natural  History  2/94 


Bernd  Heinrich 


m 


■^■*'^r 


"^A' » 


later,  I  took  the  block  out  and  let  it  thaw. 
Once  released  from  the  grip  of  the  ice,  the 
moths  righted  themselves,  shivered  for  a 
few  minutes,  and  then  flew  off.  They  had 
me  hooked. 

Winter  moths  turned  out  to  be  much 
easier  to  work  with  than  many  other  moths 
I  had  studied.  I  found  I  could  catch  large 
numbers  of  them  with  stale  beer,  put  them 
into  a  jar  with  moist  leaves  or  tissue,  and 
keep  them  healthy  for  months  by  storing 
them  in  the  refrigerator  at  about  32°  F. 
And  I  could  catch  them  (usually  the  spe- 
cies Eupsilia  morrisoni)  during  any  month 


Photographed  at  night,  two  winter  moths,  Lithophane  hemina,  left,  and 
EupsiUa  morrisoni  {far  left)  lap  up  a  mixture  of  beer,  sugar,  and 
mashed  fruit  that  the  author  applied  to  a  tree  trunk.  Below:  Resting  in 
the  late  fall  sunlight,  Eupsilia  transversa  will  be  active  in  warm 
winter  weather  and  reproduce  in  the  early  spring. 


of  the  winter,  provided  there  was  a  thaw  of 
a  day  or  so  and  the  snow  cover  was  not  too 
deep.  I  caught  many  more  species  in  late 
winter  to  early  spring.  They  had  emerged 
after  passing  the  coldest  months  totally  de- 
veloped within  the  pupae.  In  March  and 
April,  when  the  woodcock  had  returned 
and  was  doing  its  mating  dance  on  the  first 
bare  patches  of  ground,  I  would  paint 
swaths  of  moth  lure  on  the  trees  Uning  my 
driveway  and  watch  as  these  insects — 
with  their  beautifully  subtle  and  muted 
colors — gorged  themselves  before  disap- 
pearing with  the  next  snowstorm.  By  late 
April  the  trees  were  about  ready  to  burst 
into  leaf,  the  first  bats  were  flying  again, 
and  tire  warblers  were  returning.  The  win- 
ter moths  were  near  their  end. 

The  disappearance  of  winter  moths  just 
as  the  birds  are  returning  is  no  coinci- 
dence; these  predators  have  been  a  major 
force  in  shaping  the  moths'  behavior  and 
appearance.  Early  in  their  evolutionary 
history,  moths  probably  escaped  most  bird 
predation  by  becoming  nocturnal.  But  by 
the  Eocene,  some  45  miUion  years  ago, 
echolocating  bats  evolved,  and  moths 
were  again  vulnerable  at  night.  The  late 
Kenneth  Roeder,  of  Tufts  University,  con- 


ducted experiments  showing  that  some 
motiis,  in  turn,  have  evolved  ear  structures 
that  allow  them  to  hear  the  bats'  sonar, 
usually  in  time  to  take  evasive  action. 

Most  moths,  cryptically  colored  to 
blend  into  bark  or  other  specific  back- 
grounds on  which  they  perch,  rest  motion- 
less during  the  day.  Some  go  beyond  mere 
pattern  mimicry  and  resemble  sticks,  dry 
leaves,  and  even  bird  droppings.  Because 
birds  hunt  by  sight,  detecting  prey  by 
movement  and  contrast,  they  may  fail  to 
detect  a  resting  mofli.  But  as  Alan  Kamil, 
a  psychologist  now  at  the  University  of 
Nebraska,  has  demonstrated,  blue  jays  can 
learn  to  detect  even  the  most  well-camou- 
flaged moth.  Many  moths  have  therefore 
evolved  other  defenses  to  protect  them- 
selves during  the  day.  Underwing  moths 
startle  predators  by  flashing  brilUant  red, 
yellow,  or  white  underwings  if  they  are 
touched  or  otherwise  disturbed  while  rest- 
ing. Thus  they  get  a  second  chance  to  es- 
cape, usually  by  dropping  to  die  ground. 
Some  large  moths  have  amazingly  lifelike 
eye  patterns  on  their  underwings,  and  still 
others,  such  as  many  of  the  diurnal  tiger 
moths,  are  brightly  colored  to  advertise 
that  they  are  poisonous. 


45 


Adapting  to  extremes  of  temperature  is 
another  way  for  an  insect  to  escape  preda- 
tion.  In  the  deserts  of  the  American  South- 
west, for  example,  the  grasshopper  Tri- 
merotropis  palladipennis  tolerates  body 
temperatures  near  122°  F,  so  it  can  escape 
to  hot  sand  where  lizards  cannot  venture. 
Near  Phoenix,  the  desert  cicada  is  active  in 
the  suinmer,  singing  on  the  hottest  days  at 
noon,  when  birds  are  forced  to  retreat. 
(The  cicadas  are  able  to  do  so  because 
their  enlarged  dermal  glands  "leak"  water, 
which  evaporates  and  cools  them;  they  re- 
place the  lost  fluid  by  tapping  into  the 
phloem  of  mesquite  bushes.)  Winter 
moths  operate  on  the  same  principle,  but  at 
the  other  end  of  the  temperature  scale. 

Winter  moths  undoubtedly  escape 


much  predation  by  being  active  when  po- 
tential predators  are  either  hibernating  or 
several  thousands  of  miles  away.  But  this 
stratagem,  like  other  defenses,  is  not  with- 
out its  costs  or  problems.  To  pull  it  off,  the 
adult  moths  must  find  food  in  the  dead  of 
winter,  and  the  larvae  must  feed  quickly 
on  early  spring  leaves  and  go  into  estiva- 
tion before  returning  predators  can  eat 
them.  Perhaps  the  greatest  challenge,  how- 
ever, is  the  cold  itself. 

Most  overwintering  insects — whether 
adult,  larva,  pupa,  or  egg — are  laced  with 
antifreeze  compounds,  but  investigations 
by  biologist  John  G.  Duman,  of  Notre 
Dame  University,  and  me  failed  to  detect 
any  antifreeze  in  winter  moths.  Their 
blood  freezes  at  30°  to  28°  F,  as  does  that 


of  summer  insects.  Furthermore,  they 
don't  "supercool"  to  temperatures  very 
much  lower  than  those  of  summer-active 
insects.  (Had  my  freezer  been  much  colder 
than  32°  F,  the  moths  would  have  died 
when  they  were  frozen  in  the  ice.)  Why 
they  are  not  protected  from  freezing  isn't 
clear,  but  I  suspect  that  the  moths  need  to 
retain  their  ability  to  become  active  at  a 
moment's  notice  on  a  warm  winter  day  (by 
"warm"  day  I  mean  one  with  evening  tem- 
peratures not  lower  than  32°  F).  Insects 
"embalmed"  with  a  concentrated  solution 
of  alcohols  may  be  protected  from  freez- 
ing, but  the  chemicals  infringe  on  an  ac- 
tive and  coordinated  life  style. 

To  maintain  high  temperatures  in  their 
thorax,  where  the  muscles  for  flight  are  lo- 


46    Natural  History  2/94 


A  Lithophane  amanda  caterpillar  feeds  on  beaked  willow  leaves,  left.  Having 
emerged  in  early  spring,  it  is  ready  to  form  a  cocoon  by  early  June,  when 
many  summer  caterpillars  are  just  hatching  from  their  eggs.  Some  cold- 
weather  moths,  such  as  the  pair  of  Japanese  Erannis  obliquaria  below,  do  not 
overwinter  as  adults.  They  emerge  from  their  cocoons  in  November  to 
reproduce,  but  die  soon  after  The  female,  which  mates  and  lays  her  eggs  on 
the  same  tree  on  which  she  hatched,  has  only  small,  vestigial  wings. 


Fukuo  lloh;  Nature  Production 


cated,  the  moths  have  evolved  two  special 
adaptations.  First,  their  thoraxes  are  cov- 
ered with  dense  fur  that  cuts  their  rate  of 
heat  loss  in  half.  The  fur  is  formed  from 
greatly  elongated  scales,  similar  to  those 
that  color  butterfly  and  moth  wings.  Like 
other  lepidopteran  scales,  the  fur  rubs  off 
easily,  making  the  moths  slippery  in  one's 
fingers  and  possibly  also  in  the  grip  of  a 
potential  predator.  (Winter  moths  retain 
the  tympanic  air  sacs  used  by  their  ances- 
tors for  listening  for  bat  sonar,  but  whether 
or  not  they  still  work  is  uncertain.  Never- 
theless, these  air  sacs  thermally  insulate 
the  thorax  from  the  abdomen.) 

Winter  moths  have  also  evolved  a  circu- 
latory system  that  reduces  heat  loss  from 
the  muscles  in  the  thorax  to  both  the  head 


and  the  abdomen.  As  blood  flows  out  of 
the  thorax,  it  gives  up  its  heat  to  blood 
flowing  back  in.  The  system  conserves  the 
heat  in  their  thorax  so  efficiently  that  win- 
ter moths  have  lost  the  ability  to  use  their 
abdomen  as  a  radiator  for  dissipating  ex- 
cess heat,  which  is  a  necessity  for  summer 
moths  that  would  otherwise  overheat. 
Thus,  although  winter  moths  fly  at  temper- 
atures of  32°  F,  they  fly  with  thoracic  tem- 
peratures similar  to  those  of  their  summer 
relatives  (about  86°-95°  F). 

Most  insects  spend  the  whole  winter  in 
a  state  of  toqjor;  because  the  cold  greatly 
reduces  their  metaboUc  rate,  they  do  not 
need  to  eat.  Winter  moths  also  spend  most 
of  their  time  in  toipor.  But  when  they  do 
warm  up  and  fly,  they  use  up  their  energy 
reserves  very  rapidly.  Consider  a  moth  at 
rest  at  27°  F.  Its  metabolic  rate  is  so  slow 
that  a  full  stomach  of  maple  sap  contain- 
ing 6  percent  sugar  would  provide  it  with 
enough  fuel  to  last  the  whole  winter.  A 
moth  in  flight,  however,  must  maintain  a 
body  temperature  of  about  86°  F.  In  cold 
weather,  this  means  raising  its  metabolic 
rate  to  8,(XX)  times  the  resting  rate,  which 
would  exhaust  the  fuel  reserves  in  the 
maple  sap  in  little  more  than  a  half  hour. 


To  meet  their  prodigious  energy  de- 
mands in  late  fall,  cold-adapted  adult 
moths  can  still  tank  up  on  the  few  late- 
blooming  flowers  such  as  the  witch  hazel. 
After  that,  however,  nectar  is  not  available 
again  until  the  pussy  willows  bloom  in 
April.  In  the  interim,  the  moths  must  feed 
exclusively  on  sweet  sap  oozing  from 
wounds  in,  or  broken  branches  of,  birches 
and  sugar  maples  or  on  the  maple  syrup 
that  runs  from  cuts  made  by  red  squirrels 
{see  "Nutcracker  Sweets,"  Natural  His- 
tory, February  1991).  With  this  source  of 
sugar,  they  nearly  double  their  weight  in 
one  feeding. 

Sap  solves  the  food  problem  for  the 
adults,  and  the  reversed  winter-for-sum- 
mer  life  style  protects  them  from  preda- 
tion,  but  the  switch  creates  a  different  food 
problem  for  larvae,  which  normally  feed 
on  summer  foliage.  The  caterpillars  sur- 
vive because  winter  moths  lay  their  eggs 
before  the  tree  buds  open,  allowing  their 
larvae  to  hatch  and  start  feeding  the 
minute  the  new  leaves  appear.  By  this  time 
the  first  migrant  warblers  have  returned, 
and  some,  no  doubt,  are  feeding  on  these 
caterpillars.  But  the  caterpillars  continue 
to  race  through  their  development  cycle, 


47 


The  winter  moth  Scoliopteryx  libatrix 
is  found  in  the  northern  latitudes  of  North 
America,  Europe,  and  Asia.  Sometimes 
called  "the  herald"  because  it  is  seen  in 
the  spring  before  other  insects,  the 
moth  has  been  found  hibernating  in  deep 
crevices  in  the  rock. 

Frithjof  Skibbe;  Oxford  Scientific  Films 


completing  both  the  larval  and  pupal 
stages  before  all  the  birds  return.  Then 
they  drop  to  the  ground,  bury  themselves, 
and  go  into  suspended  animation  through- 
out the  summer. 

These  moths'  predilection  for  cold- 
weather  activity  seems  to  have  evolved 
fairly  recently,  because  their  coloration — 
ranging  from  charcoal  gray  to  chocolate 
brown,  sierma,  white,  yellow,  and  tan — 
still  carries  the  imprint  of  a  long  history  of 
bird  predation.  I  wondered  if  winter  moths 
would  seek  the  "right"  color  bark  to  rest 
and  remain  hidden  on,  as  the  summer 
moths  do.  To  find  out,  I  placed  twelve  sec- 
tions of  birch,  cherry,  pine,  maple,  black 
locust,  and  elm  trunks  in  a  large  outdoor 
cage,  and  in  the  evening  I  released  173 
winter  moths  into  the  enclosure.  The  next 
morning  not  a  single  moth  could  be  found 
on  a  tree  trunk.  I  searched  for  six  hours 
among  the  leaves  on  the  ground  and  found 
twenty  of  them.  Because  they  could  not 
escape  the  enclosure,  I  presumed  that  the 
rest  were  hiding  in  the  leaves  as  well.  This 
explained  why  I  had  only  seen  winter 
moths  on  days  when  the  snow  cover  had 
partly  melted;  they  had  been  trapped  be- 
neath the  snow-covered  leaves.  Dale 
Schweitzer  has  measured  temperatures 
beneath  the  leaves  on  the  ground  during 
the  winter  and  found  that  at  night  (espe- 
cially when  the  ground  is  snow  covered) 
the  temperatures  rarely  fall  below  37°  F.  If 
the  winter  moths  in  northern  New  England 
rested  on  tree  trunks  (as  their  summer  an- 
cestors undoubtedly  did),  they  would 
often  be  exposed  to  temperatures  low 
enough  to  kill  them  instantly.  Camouflage 
has  become  irrelevant  beneath  the  carpet 
of  leaves,  where  the  moths  now  rest  in  rel- 
ative warmth.  Their  colors,  which  have 
probably  changed  little  since  they 
switched  to  a  winter  life  style,  are  now 
"fossil"  adaptations  to  a  previous  stage  in 
their  evolutionary  history. 

When  I  saw  my  first  shivering  winter 
moth  on  a  maple  log  that  November 
evening  years  ago,  the  moth  seemed  mag- 
ical. It  had  traveled  a  different  evolution- 
ary path  than  the  summertime  moths,  and 
that  had  made  all  the  difference.  D 


48    Natural  History  2/94 


i.',V% 


•.>^^^- 


The 


Not  far  from  its  den,  a  Hawaiian  spiny  lobster  forages  on  a  coral  reef. 

Mike  Sevefns 


!ase  of  the  Missing  Lobsters 

What  does  a  low-pressure  system  over  the  North  Pacific  have  to  do 
with  the  complaints  of  disgruntled  lohstermen? 


'      '    %* 


by  Jeffrey  Polovina 

From  the  main  islands  of  Hawaii, 
countless  small  islands,  atolls,  and  sub- 
merged banks  stretch  northwestward  a 
thousand  miles  to  Midway  Island.  The  is- 
lands are  part  of  a  wildlife  refuge,  and  ex- 
cept for  a  few  biologists  camped  out  at  re- 
search stations,  they  are  uninhabited.  The 
archipelago  supports  a  wealth  of  marine 
life,  including  a  large  population  of 
seabirds  and  a  small  population  (1,600)  of 
Hawaiian  monk  seals,  an  endangered  spe- 
cies. This  is  where,  in  recent  years,  loh- 
stermen have  begun  to  harvest  Pacific 
spiny  lobsters. 

As  a  marine  biologist  with  the  National 
Marine  Fisheries  Service  in  Honolulu 
since  1979,  my  job  has  been  to  provide 
lobstermen  and  managers  of  the  fisheries 
in  the  northwestern  Hawaiian  Islands  with 
biological  advice.  Thus,  I  am  no  stranger 
to  phone  calls  from  unhappy  or  even  irate 
lobstermen.  I  still  remember  a  call  I  re- 
ceived in  September  1989.  The  caller  was 
not  angry  despite  his  recent  return  from  a 
sixty-day  fishing  trip  that  had  yielded  a 
very  poor  lobster  catch.  He  was  puzzled, 
however,  because  on  a  trip  to  the  same 
areas  a  few  months  before,  the  catch  had 
been  excellent.  I  told  him  the  reason  for 
the  drop  was  obvious;  he  had  fished  out  all 
the  lobsters!  He  was  not  amused.  So  I  sug- 
gested that  the  low  catch  was  just  a  tempo- 
rary aberration.  I  reminded  him  that  in 
1987,  colder  water  seemed  to  have  re- 
stricted spiny  lobsters'  movements,  mak- 
ing them  harder  to  trap,  and  that  by  1988, 
more  favorable  conditions — and  good 
catches — had  returned.  I  even  went  as  far 
as  telling  him  that  he  should  look  forward 
to  a  good  year  in  1990. 

That  was  a  mistake.  By  the  summer  of 
1990,  lobster  catches  had  not  improved, 
and  my  advice  was  proving  to  be  an  em- 
barrassment. With  fishermen  grumbling 
and  managers  becoming  nervous,  I  was 
under  pressure  to  find  the  real  reason  for 
the  persistent  decline  in  lobsters. 

Although  my  first  reaction  had  been  to 
blame  the  lobster  decline  on  the  usual  sus- 
pect, overfishing,  I  had  a  number  of  rea- 
sons to  doubt  that  this  was  the  cause.  First, 
the  proportion  of  the  lobster  population 


51 


Bill  Curtslnger 


A  red-tailed  tropic  bird,  left,  soars  through  the  air  above  the 
northwestern  Hawaiian  islands.  An  unattended  red-tailed  tropic 
bird  hatchling,  below,  waits  for  its  parents  to  return  with  a  meal. 


Erwin  and  Peggy  Bauer;  Bruce  Coleman,  Inc. 


I 

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ir.V.    ■        ^ 

being  trapped  in  the  islands  was  relatively 
low  compared  with  other  spiny  lobster 
fisheries.  Second,  sizable  areas  of  the 
wildUfe  refuge  were  closed  to  lobster  fish- 
ing. And  third,  size  limits  allowed  lobsters 
to  mature  and  spawn  at  least  once  before" 
reaching  harvest  size,  which  should  have 
been  giving  the  population  a  chance  to 
renew  itself.  Furthermore,  I  had  heard  ru- 
mors of  declining  numbers  of  seabirds  and 
monk  seals  in  the  area.  These  two  species 
are  often  good  indicators  of  changes  in  the 
ocean;  the  number  of  offspring  they  raise 
each  year  can  be  strongly  affected  by  the 
abundance  of  food  in  the  sea. 

Hoping  that  other  parts  of  the  ecosys- 
tem would  provide  clues  to  the  declining 
lobster  catches,  I  paid  a  visit  to  Beth  Flint, 
a  seabird  biologist  working  for  the  U.  S. 
Fish  and  Wildlife  Service.  I  was  fortunate 
to  find  Flint  in  Honolulu;  usually,  she  is 
out  on  the  islands  monitoring  seabirds. 
When  I  told  her  my  story,  she  was  very  in- 
terested and  told  me  that  since  1985,  the 
reproductive  success  of  the  red-tailed 
tropic  bird  and  the  red-footed  booby  had 
dropped  to  half  of  what  had  been  observed 
in  the  early  1980s.  She  explained  that  the 
birds'  reproductive  success  is  defined  as 
the  fraction  of  eggs  that  ultimately  hatch 
and  become  fledgling  chicks  strong 


enough  to  fly.  The  number  of  eggs  laid 
hadn't  changed,  but  the  fraction  of  hatch- 
lings  that  survived  to  become  fledglings 
had  fallen.  Although  she  didn't  know  the 
reason  for  the  decline,  she  was  able  to  rule 
out  factors  such  as  predators,  diseases,  and 
habitat  loss  and  suggested  that  a  scarcity 
of  food  would  force  the  adult  birds  to 
abandon  their  nests  for  longer  periods 
while  foraging.  This  would  increase  the 
chances  that  their  exposed  eggs  and  chicks 
would  perish  in  the  hot,  subtropical  sun. 

I  spent  the  rest  of  the  day  poring  over 
dusty  files  of  seabird  records  dating  back 
to  the  early  1980s.  I  found  that  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  decade,  about  70  percent  of 
the  eggs  laid  produced  fledghngs,  but  the 
success  ratio  decUned  steadily  through  the 
mid-1980s,  so  that  by  the  end  of  the  dec- 
ade, this  fraction  dropped  to  about  40  per- 
cent, where  it  has  remained.  I  also  learned 
that  red-footed  boobies  and  red-tailed 
tropic  birds  feed  almost  exclusively  on 
squid  and  flying  fish.  I  wondered  if  these 
marine  creatures  had  been  reduced  in 
number  by  some  environmental  change 
that  had  also  affected  the  lobsters.  If  so, 
why  did  the  decUne  in  seabird  reproduc- 
tive success  precede  the  decline  in  lobster 
catches  by  three  or  four  years? 

Maybe  monk  seal  statistics  had  some- 


53 


^ 


jiim'9'^-^^ 


Ed  Robinson;  Pacific  Stock 


Searching  the  reef  for  lobsters,  fish,  and 
other  creatures  on  which  to  dine,  a 
Hawaiian  monk  seal,  left,  rolls  beneath 
the  surf.  A  monk  seal,  below,  basks  on  an 
atoll  in  northwestern  Hawaii. 


Erwin  and  Peggy  Bauer;  Bruce  Coleman,  Inc. 


thing  to  tell  me.  I  turned  to  Tim  Ragen,  a 
colleague  at  the  National  Marine  Fisheries 
Service,  who  monitors  the  endangered  an- 
imals. Ragen  had  worked  as  a  carpenter 
before  becoming  a  marine  biologist.  Now 
he  builds  models  of  marine  mammal  pop- 
ulations instead  of  furniture.  Ragen  ex- 
plained that  the  records  on  monk  seal  pups 
only  went  back  to  1986,  but  the  data  did 
show  a  decline  in  first-year  survival  rates 
from  about  85  percent  in  the  mid-1980s  to 
about  45  percent  in  the  early  1990s.  Like 
Flint,  Ragen  didn't  know  the  reason  for  the 
decline,  but  after  eliminating  possible 
causes  such  as  disease,  he  felt  that  the 
most  likely  cause  was  a  scarcity  of  reef 
fishes  and  lobsters,  which  make  up  a  sig- 
nificant part  of  a  monk  seal's  diet. 

With  lobsters,  seabirds,  and  seals  all 
showing  strong  evidence  of  decline,  I  be- 
came fairiy  certain  that  something  had  af- 
fected the  entire  marine  ecosystem.  To  test 
my  hypothesis,  I  looked  to  the  reef  fishes. 
In  the  early  1980s,  their  numbers  had  been 
surveyed  at  selected  sites  throughout  the 
northwestern  Hawaiian  Islands.  Because 
fishing  is  prohibited  near  these  shallow 
reefs,  any  decline  a  decade  later  by  a  sec- 
ond survey  of  the  same  sites  would  be  fur- 
ther evidence  of  environmental  change.  To 
coordinate  a  field  survey  to  estimate  reef 
fish  densities  at  nine  of  the  original  sites,  I 
enlisted  the  help  of  Ed  DeMartini,  a  coral 
reef  ecologist. 

The  last  biological  data  would  come 
from  a  satellite  and  would  indicate  how  the 
marine  life  at  the  base  of  the  food  chain 
was  faring.  Either  directly  or  indirectly, 
phytoplankton,  the  microscopic  plant  life 
that  thrives  near  the  ocean  surface,  pro- 
vides almost  all  the  food  for  the  ocean's 
animal  life.  From  space,  the  Coastal  Zone 
Color  Scanner,  a  special  sensor  mounted 
on  a  satellite,  could  measure  an  index  of 
phytoplankton  abundance.  Unfortunately, 
the  sensor,  which  was  especially  designed 
to  pick  up  the  light  reflected  from  the 
chlorophyll  in  the  phytoplankton,  was 
only  operational  from  1979  to  1986,  but  it 
did  record  data  during  the  crucial  period  of 
the  early  to  mid-1980s. 

While  the  reef  surveys  were  being  con- 


ducted, and  Mei  Zhou,  a  computer  wizard, 
was  computing  phytoplankton  estimates 
from  satellite  data  retrieved  from  a  giant 
NASA  data  base,  I  traveled  to  Victoria, 
British  Columbia,  to  attend  a  conference 
on  climate  change  and  northern  fish  popu- 
lations. I  learned  that  weather  patterns 
over  the  North  Pacific  had  changed  signif- 
icantly since  the  last  decade.  Every  year, 
the  Aleutian  low-pressure  system  is  re- 
sponsible for  Hawaii's  winter  rainy  season 
and  the  strong  winds  that  blow  from  Janu- 
ary to  March,  generating  rough  seas  and 
the  huge  waves  that  surfers  love.  For  about 
a  decade,  from  1977  to  1988,  the  Aleutian 
low  was  more  intense  and  farther  eastward 
than  it  had  been  at  any  period  since  the 
1940s,  causing  unusually  strong  winds  in 
the  northwestern  Hawaiian  Islands.  The 
cUmate  change  was  not  abrupt.  There  was 
a  gradual  increase  in  the  intensity  of  the 
Aleutian  low,  and  the  winds  that  accompa- 
nied it,  from  1977  to  the  early  1980s,  fol- 
lowed by  a  gradual  decline,  so  by  1988  the 
chmate  was  back  to  long-term  pre- 1977 


55 


,«&; 


T^^sr. 


^"'"!^ 


Jack  Jeffrey:  Photo  Resource  Hawaii 


A  red-footed  booby,  left,  perches  in  a  tree  on  Kure  Atoll  In  Hawaii.  Below. 
False-color  satellite  images  show  the  changing  distribution  of  microscopic 
plant  life,  or  phytoplankton,  in  the  northern  Pacific.  Green  indicates  a  high 
phytoplankton  concentration;  blue,  a  low  one.  The  white  patches  are  the  main 
Hawaiian  Islands,  and  the  black  patches  are  clouds.  A  drop  in  productivity  to 
the  north  of  the  main  Hawaiian  Islands  is  evident  between  the  first  quarter 
of  1982.  below  left,  and  the  same  period  in  1986,  below  right. 


levels  characterized  by  a  weak  Aleutian 
low  and  weak  winds. 

I  left  the  conference  with  a  new  insight 
into  the  changes  in  the  marine  community 
of  the  northwestern  Hawaiian  Islands. 
Since  I  had  no  biological  data  prior  to  the 
1980s,  I  had  assumed  that  the  level  of  pro- 
ductivity in  the  early  1980s  was  the  norm 
and  that  the  recent  drop  signaled  some- 
thing unusual — a  reasonable  assumption 
given  that  the  commercial  lobster  fishery 
had  only  been  in  operation  since  1980, 
when  lobsters  were  plentiful.  Having 
leamed  that  the  early  1980s  were  charac- 
terized by  abnormal  climate  pattems,  I  re- 
alized that  the  opposite  was  more  likely. 
What  originally  looked  like  an  ecological 
disaster,  might  be  only  a  return  to  the  usual 
population  levels.  The  challenge  that  re- 
mained, however,  was  to  determine  if  the 
atmospheric  changes  across  the  northern 
Pacific  were  reflected  by  equally  dramatic 
changes  in  the  ocean — changes  that  could 
effect  an  entire  ecosystem. 

Back  in  Hawaii,  I  went  to  see  Gary 
Mitchum,  a  physical  oceanographer  at  the 
University  of  Hawaii.  A  year  before, 
Mitchum  had  shown  me  how  a  shift  in  cur- 
rent could  have  caused  a  change  in  lobster 
distribution,  and  he  thought  that  his  help 
entitled  him  to  some  of  the  lobsters  caught 
on  our  research  cruises.  When  I  entered 
his,  office,  he  reminded  me  that  he  not  re- 


ceived a  single  lobster  for  his  trouble. 
Once  I  explained  the  reason  for  my  visit, 
however,  Mitchum  forgot  about  free  lob- 
sters and  became  intrigued  with  the  idea 
that  a  decade  of  unusually  strong  Aleutian 
lows  could  alter  the  ocean  enough  to  have 
drastic  effects  on  marine  life.  He  agreed  to 
sift  through  the  oceanographic  data  to  see 
if  he  could  find  any  evidence  of  such  a 
connection. 

Several  weeks  later,  Mitchum  came  to 
see  me  and  was  quite  pleased  with  what  he 
had  found:  several  large-scale  features  of 
the  ocean  reflected  the  changing  intensity 
and  position  of  the  Aleutian  low.  The 
match  was  good  enough  to  convince  him 
that  the  link  between  atmosphere  and 
ocean  was  real.  During  the  last  decade, 
tide  gauges  recorded  exceptionally  high 
sea  levels  over  the  central  and  eastern 
North  Pacific  during  the  winter  months. 
The  increase,  which  reached  about  four 
inches,  was  probably  caused  by  an  east- 
ward shift  in  ocean  waters  due  to  the 
change  in  wind  strength  and  pattern  result- 
ing from  the  change  in  the  low-pressure 
system.  At  the  same  time,  Mitchum  found 
that  water-temperature  readings  taken 
from  ships  showed  that  from  1977  to 
1988,  the  warm  surface  layer  extended 
much  farther  down  than  it  did  from  1960 
to  1976  or  since  1988.  This  is  evidence 
that  from  1977  to  1988,  there  was  an  in- 


crease in  the  mixing  of  deep,  nutrient-rich 
waters  with  nutrient-poor  surface  waters. 
Mitchum  and  I  estimated  that  during  this 
eleven-year  period,  the  deeper  mixing 
brought  five  times  more  nutrients  into  the 
surface  waters  than  during  the  period  from 
1960  to  1976  or  since  1988. 

As  a  biologist,  I  was  more  excited  by 
Mitchum 's  second  finding,  because  it  had 
great  consequences  for  the  marine  life 
near  the  surface.  Sun-warmed  surface 
water  is  less  dense  and  "floats"  atop  the 
colder  water  below.  Usually  there  is  very 
little  mixing  between  the  two  layers.  With- 
out an  influx  of  nutrients  from  deeper  wa- 
ters, the  growth  of  phytoplankton  near  the 
surface — where  the  sunlight  is — is  se- 
verely limited.  The  problem  is  particularly 
acute  in  midoceanic  regions,  such  as  the 
waters  around  Hawaii,  where  the  sea  is 
often  described  as  a  desert.  Whenever  the 
deeper,  nutrient-rich  waters  are  brought  to 
the  surface,  as  in  an  upwelling  system, 
phytoplankton  production  soars.  This  is 
apparently  what  happened  from  1977  to 
1988,  when  more  nutrients  from  deep  wa- 
ters were  mixed  into  surface  waters. 

By  early  1993,  the  pieces  were  all  com- 
ing together.  Ed  DeMartini  had  the  results 
of  the  reef  fish  survey,  which  confirmed 
that  the  numbers  of  most  species  have 
dropped  30  percent  from  what  they  were 
in  the  early  1980s.  Mei  Zhou's  analyses  of 


57 


Andrew  G.  Wood;  Photo  Researchers.  Inc. 


In  the  northwestern  Hawaiian  Islands,  pyramid  butterfly 
fish,  below,  school  above  a  reef.  A  small  bassletfish, 
right,  hugs  the  reef,  looking  for  food. 


Nikolas  Konstantinou:  Photo  Resource  Hawaii 


the  satellite  data  were  also  ready  and 
showed  that  phytoplankton  production 
around  Hawaii  was  highest  during  the  first 
quarter  of  each  year  when  the  Aleutian 
low  was  strongest.  Mean  chlorophyll  den- 
sity estimated  from  the  satellite  was  about 
40  percent  higher  during  the  first  quarter 
of  each  year  from  1981  to  1983  than  dur- 
ing the  same  period  in  the  years  immedi- 
ately before  1981  and  after  1983. 

From  the  bottom  to  the  top,  all  four 
major  levels  of  the  nearshore  marine 
ecosystem  in  the  northwestern  Hawaiian 
Islands  reflected  the  changing  atmos- 
pheric conditions.  As  the  Aleutian  low 
reached  its  greatest  intensity  and  eastward 
position  in  the  early  1980s,  the  westerhes 
blowing  across  northwestern  Hawaii  gath- 
ered strength.  The  resultant  wind-driven 
currents  and  rough  seas  increased  the 
amount  of  vertical  mixing  of  ocean  wa- 
ters, so  that  nutrients  were  transported 
from  deep  waters  to  the  surface,  thus  in- 
creasing  phytoplankton   production. 


Higher  phytoplankton  densities  observed 
in  the  early  1980s,  translated  into  more 
zooplankton,  which  in  turn  supports  a 
greater  abundance  of  flying  fishes  and 
squid,  which  are  prey  for  seabirds.  Abun- 
dant plankton  could  increase  the  survival 
of  reef  fishes  and  lobsters,  which  eat 
plankton  during  their  long  larval  phase. 
And  expanded  populations  of  reef  fishes 
and  lobsters  would  provide  more  food  for 
monk  seal  pups. 

The  first  quarter  of  each  year  seems  to 
be  a  critical  time  for  many  animals,  so 
when  the  Aleutian  low  began  to  wane  in 
the  mid-1980s,  it  would  have  had  an  im- 
mediate effect.  As  juvenile  flying  fish  and 
squid  declined  in  number,  seabirds  would 
spend  more  time  away  from  their  nests 
looking  for  food,  leaving  their  eggs  or 
chicks  exposed  to  the  sun.  An  immediate 
decline  in  the  survival  of  lobster  larvae 
would  have  occurred,  but  because  lobsters 
trapped  by  the  lobstermen  are  three  to  four 
years  old,  the  decline  wouldn't  be  ob- 


served until  the  very  late  1980s  and  early 
1990s.  Because  monk  seal  pups  will  only 
eat  lobsters  and  reef  fishes  that  are  at  least 
several  years  old,  a  decline  of  monk  seal 
pup  survival  would  not  have  been  evident 
until  the  late  1980s  as  well.  Thus  the  time 
lag  between  declines  beginning  in  the 
mid-1980s  for  seabirds  but  late  1980s  for 
monk  seals  and  lobsters  is  explained. 

I  went  back  to  the  lobster  fishermen  and 
told  them  I  had  good  news  and  bad  news: 
the  good  news  was  that  the  decUne  in  lob- 
ster catches  wasn't  due  to  overfishing;  the 
bad  news  was  that,  unless  the  Aleutian  low 
strengthened  again,  they  were  stuck  with 
the  current  low  marine  productivity  and 
poor  lobster  catches  for  a  long  time. 

While  the  case  of  the  vanishing  lobster 
appears  solved,  I've  learned  from  years  of 
experience  that  ecosystems  are  compli- 
cated characters.  We  should  not  always 
count  on  nature  to  provide  the  same  har- 
vest; natural  changes  in  cUmate  can  work 
for  or  against  us.  D 


58    Natural  History  2/94 


Celestial  Events 


Bagging  the 
Little  Green  Man 


by  Gail  S.  Cleere 

The  magnificent  winter  constellations 
are  perhaps  the  easiest  ones  of  the  year  to 
recognize.  This  is  especially  true  in  Febru- 
ary, when  the  evening  sky  is  devoid  of 
planets  that  might  otherwise  confuse  us. 
Mercury  is  low  in  the  west  at  dusk  early  in 
the  month,  and  brillant  Jupiter  rises  in  the 
late  night  hours.  By  sunset,  Orion  the 
Hunter  is  high  in  the  southeast.  Four  bright 
stars  mark  his  extremities,  and  three  more 
in  a  row  form  his  belt,  making  Orion  an 
easy  target,  even  for  the  most  amateur  ob- 
server. The  Hunter  is  flanked  by  the 
brightest  of  all  the  visible  stars,  Sirius,  to 
the  lower  left,  and  the  prettiest  of  all  open 
clusters,  the  Pleiades,  to  the  upper  right 
just  beyond  the  V-shaped  open  cluster 
called  the  Hyades. 

But  while  we  can  admire  the  beautiful 
stars  of  the  winter  season  as  soon  as  it  gets 
dark,  we  can  also  catch  sight  of  some 
spring  stars  that  are  beginning  to  appear  in 
the  east.  Leo  the  Lion,  whose  stars  form  a 
distinctive  "sickle"  or  backward  question 
mark,  can  be  seen  emerging  out  of  the 
east-northeast  horizon  just  as  Orion 
crosses  the  meridian.  After  midnight,  as 
Leo  crosses  the  meridian,  Jupiter  rises  in 
the  claws  of  Scorpius.  At  the  same  time, 
Hercules  is  rising  in  the  east-northeast. 
Hercules  is  marked  by  the  four  brightest 
stars,  which  form  a  pattern  called  the  Key- 
stone. 

In  the  faO  of  1974,  Hercules  was  the 
constellation  to  which  we  directed  our  first 
intentional  interstellar  space  message. 
Using  the  Arecibo  radiotelescope  in 
Puerto  Rico — the  world's  largest — as- 
tronomers transmitted  a  three-minute  table 
of  binary  digits  toward  M-13,  a  closely 
packed  star  cluster  in  Hercules.  The  mod- 
em search  for  extraterrestrial  intelligence 


had  begun  in  1960,  however,  when  a  radio 
dish  at  the  National  Radio  Astronomy  Ob- 
servatory in  West  Virginia  was  "tuned"  to 
Hsten  to  two  sunlike  stars  located  a  rela- 
tively close  twelve  light-years  from  us 
(Tau  Ceti  and  Epsilon  Eridani)  on  the 
chance  that  a  civihzation  capable  of  radio 
broadcasts  might  inhabit  a  planet  orbiting 
one  of  the  stars. 

Are  we  alone?  Our  chances  of  finding 
out  any  time  soon  seem  to  be  fading.  After 
years  of  intermittent  studies  and  short- 
Uved  programs,  NASA  formally  inaugu- 
rated its  Search  for  Extraterrestrial  Intelh- 
gence  (SETI)  and  began  listening  for 
suspect  radio  signals  in  October  1992 — 
the  500th  anniversary  of  Columbus's  land- 
fall in  the  New  World.  But  exactly  one 
year  later,  a  House-Senate  conference 
committee  voted  to  kill  funding  for  the 
program.  According  to  Senator  Richard 
Bryan  of  Nevada,  "Millions  have  been 
spent  and  we  have  yet  to  bag  a  single  little 
green  fellow."  Bryan  derided  the  program 
as  "the  great  Martian  chase....  Not  a  sin- 
gle Martian  has  said  'take  me  to  your 
leader.'  Not  a  single  flying  saucer  has  ap- 
phed  for  FAA  approval." 

Serious  scientists  using  radio  astron- 
omy to  search  for  nonrandom  signals  in 
space  have  battled  that  kind  of  rhetoric  for 
years.  The  search  for  life  on  other  planets 
has  always  been  viewed  as  a  somewhat 
suspect  endeavor.  Early  science  fiction 
was  one  problem.  Science  historian  Trudy 
Bell  wrote  that  "heroes  swashing  their 
buckles  in  steaming  Venusian  swamps  or 
on  the  shifting  sands  of  Mars,  rescuing 
voluptuous  damsels  from  the  clutches  of 
green  and  drooUng  monsters"  didn't  help 
the  more  serious  scientists.  Bell  suspects 
that  this  notion,  coupled  with  flying  saucer 


cuhs,  not  only  shelved  the  idea  of  extrater- 
restrial Ufe  for  many  years  but  also  caused 
it  to  "fall  off  the  shelf  mto  bad  company." 
This  "giggle  factor,"  some  experts  claim, 
is  what  killed  the  SETI  program. 

Perhaps  to  avoid  being  associated  with 
the  supermarket-tabloid  brand  of  interest 
in  extraterrestrial  life,  in  1992  NASA  re- 
named the  SETI  program  the  High  Reso- 
lution Microwave  Survey  (HRMS). 
HRMS  was  the  culmination  of  a  twenty- 
year  project  to  develop  sophisticated  digi- 
tal radio  receivers  capable  of  tunmg  in  tens 
of  millions  of  frequencies  at  a  time,  Usten- 
ing  for  signals  of  artificial  origin  against  a 
busy  background  of  interference  from  ter- 
restrial and  astrophysical  sources. 

Two  approaches  were  being  used.  One 
employed  the  Arecibo  radiotelescope  to 
scan  a  thousand  stars  within  100  light- 
years  of  the  sun.  The  second  used  the 
Deep  Space  Network's  radiotelescope  m 
the  Mojave  Desert  to  scan  the  remaining 
sky  with  a  less  sensitive,  broader-band 
coverage.  Later,  telescopes  in  the  Southern 
Hemisphere  were  to  be  used  to  cover  that 
half  of  the  sky. 

NASA  administrator  Daniel  Goldin  is 
disappointed.  "SETI,"  he  says,"is  a  pro- 
gram that  pays  for  itself  [in  useful  technol- 
ogy] and  is  inspirational."  Project  scientist 
Jill  Tarter  of  NASA's  Ames  Research  Cen- 
ter says  that  private  funding  will  be  so- 
hcited  for  HRMS,  which,  she  claims,  "is 
intrinsically  international."  Dr.  Steven 
Dick,  NASA's  SETI  project  historian, 
commented,  "It's  basic  human  curiosity, 
and  even  Congress  can't  stifle  that.  One 
way  or  another,  SETI  will  be  back."  As  it 
now  stands,  E.  T.  might  try  to  phone 
home,  but  we  have  voted  to  take  the  re- 
ceiver off  the  hook. 


60    Natxiral  History  2/94 


The  Planets  in  February 

Mercury  will  put  in  a  good  evening  ap- 
pearance early  this  month.  On  the  1st,  ap- 
proximately one  hour  after  sunset,  look  for 
Mercury  as  a  bright,  starlike  object  very 
near  to  the  western  horizon.  That  night 
you  can  also  use  Mercury  as  a  guide  to 
find  Saturn.  The  two  planets  will  be  in 
conjunction,  with  the  fainter  Saturn  posi- 
tioned on  a  line  below  and  to  the  left  of 
Mercury.  You  may  need  binoculars  to  lo- 
cate Saturn  in  the  evening  twihght.  Mer- 
cury will  be  at  its  greatest  elongation — its 
greatest  angular  distance  east  of  the  sun 
( 1 8°)  on  the  4th,  and  should  remain  visible 
for  at  least  another  week  before  becoming 
deeply  immersed  in  the  solar  glare.  Mer- 
cury will  arrive  at  inferior  conjunction 
with  the  sun  on  the  20th. 

Venus  emerges  from  behind  the  sun  late 
this  month  to  become  an  evening  object, 
but  it  remains  too  near  the  sun  to  be  seen. 

Mars  is  a  morning  object  but,  like 
Venus,  is  too  near  the  sun  to  be  visible  this 
month.  Recent  studies  of  the  red  planet's 
southern  hemisphere  give  further  support 
to  the  theory  that  water  once  flowed  on 
Mars.  Two  astronomers  in  California  have 
been  studying  Viking  images  of  a  large 
crater  called  Argyle  Planitia.  A  network  of 
channels  on  both  the  north  and  south  sides 
of  the  crater  could  easily  have  been  carved 
by  running  water.  Sediments  deposited  in 
this  impact  basin  indicate  that  it  once  con- 
tained a  large  body  of  water. 

Jupiter  rises  about  12:30  a.m.  local 
time  on  the  1st,  and  about  two  hours  ear- 
lier at  the  end  of  the  month.  The  planet  is 
unmistakable,  appearing  as  a  brilliant,  sil- 
very-white object  in  the  south-southeast 
sky  at  dawn.  During  the  morning  hours  of 
the  3d,  look  for  Jupiter  hovering  well 


above  and  to  the  left  of  the  last-quarter 
moon.  Use  Jupiter  to  locate  the  star 
Zubenelgenubi,  whose  Arabic  name 
means  "southern  claw  of  the  scorpion." 
Look  just  above  Zubenelgenubi  for  an- 
other star  of  similar  magnitude,  and  you 
will  have  found  Zubeneschamali,  the 
"northern  claw  of  the  scorpion."  With 
these  two  stars  located,  the  curved  body  of 
Scorpius,  just  below  them,  is  easy  to  find. 

Saturn  may  be  glimpsed  at  the  very  be- 
ginning of  the  month  shortly  after  sunset 
by  using  the  brighter  Mercury  as  a  guide. 
But  within  a  few  days.  Mercury  moves  up 
and  away  from  Saturn,  while  the  ringed 
planet  drops  toward  the  westem  horizon 
and  gets  lost  in  the  glow  of  the  evening 
twilight.  Saturn  will  reach  conjunction 
with  the  sun  on  the  21st. 

Uranus  and  Neptune  are  theoretically 
far  enough  west  of  the  sun  to  be  seen  in 
predawn  skies,  although  their  altitude 
along  the  southeastern  horizon  is  low. 
Both  of  these  blue-green  orbs  (visible  in 
very  dark  skies  as  fuzzy  patches  of  light  in 
binoculars)  will  remain  in  Sagittarius  all 
year.  On  the  8th,  a  waning  crescent  moon 
passes  just  above  them  at  sunrise,  marking 
their  position  in  the  sky. 

Pluto  is  just  northeast  of  Jupiter,  not  far 
from  the  star  the  Arabs  call  Zed  Prior  in 
the  constellation  Ophiuchus  the  Serpent 
Bearer.  This  distant  planet  is  only  visible 
with  a  fairly  large  telescope. 

The  Moon  reaches  last  quarter  on  the 
3rd  at  3:06  a.m.,  EST;  is  new  on  the  10th  at 
9:30  A.M.,  EST;  reaches  first  quarter  on  the 
18th  at  12:47  p.m.,  EST;  and  is  full  on  the 
25th  at  8:15  P.M.,  EST 

Gail  S.  Cleere  lives  in  Washington,  D.C., 
and  writes  on  popular  astronomy. 


You'll  board  a  Time  Machine,  tailed  Ihe 
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quiet.  Just  the  sound  of  the  sea  on  lour  miles 
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tropical  plants.  200  varieties  of  shells.  100 
species  offish.  Rich  Florida  history.  Tennis 
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Time  travel  to  the  Florida  resort  experience 
of  50  years  ago  .Tciday.  Call. 
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61 


Reviews 


Reflections  on  Slime 


by  Steven  Austad 

In  his  essay  Possible  Worlds,  the  late 
British  geneticist  J.B.S.  Haldane  imagines 
the  moral  and  religious  sense  we  might 
find  in  dogs,  honeybees,  and  barnacles  and 
concludes:  "My  own  suspicion  is  that  the 
universe  is  not  only  queerer  than  we  sup- 
pose, but  queerer  than  we  can  suppose."  It 
is  difficult  not  to  be  reminded  of  Haldane's 
remark  when  entering  the  believe-it-or-not 
world  of  microscopic  invertebrates,  where 
John  Tyler  Bonner  has  spent  his  scientific 
life. 

In  Bonner's  world,  the  rules  that  our 
five  senses  have  taught  us  govern  animal 
life  simply  do  not  apply.  When  an  amoeba 
reproduces  by  splitting  in  two,  is  it  then 
both  parent  and  offspring  of  the  same  age, 
or  two  offspring  and  no  parent?  What  do 


Life  Cycles:  Reflections  of  an  Evo- 
lutionary Biologist,  by  John  Tyler 
Bonner.  Princeton  University  Press, 
$19.95;  206 pp. 


gender  and  age  mean?  What  constitutes  an 
individual?  For  instance,  we  normally 
think  of  individuals  as  large,  multicellular 
animals,  such  as  ourselves,  that  arise  from 
repeated  cell  divisions  of  a  single  fertilized 
egg.  But  some  organisms  become  large 
without  becoming  multicellular.  The 
"true"  slime  molds,  such  as  those  bright, 
slimy  orange  gobs  we  see  on  rotten  logs, 
can,  under  good  condiUons,  grow  to  the 
size  of  a  human  hand,  yet  still  consist  of  a 
single  cell. 

Other  organisms  become  multicellular 
by  aggregating  rather  than  repeatedly  di- 
viding. In  this  category  are  the  "cellular" 
slime  molds,  the  organisms  to  which,  says 
Bonner,  in  his  new  book's  opening  sen- 
tence, he  has  devoted  his  life.  They  can 
exist  as  self-sufficient,  single-celled 
"amoebas"  or  as  multicelled  "slugs." 


Ubiquitous  in  soil  and  decaying  wood, 
these  creatures  emerge  from  spores  and 
assume  a  solitary  existence,  slithering 
about,  eating  (by  engulfing  bacteria),  and 
reproducing  (by  simply  splitting). 

When  the  going  gets  tough,  however, 
slime  molds  stick  together — literally.  That 
is,  food  shortages  cause  certain  amoebas 
to  begin  secreting  attraction  chemicals, 
thus  drawing  surrounding  individuals  to- 
ward them.  The  resultant  social  aggrega- 
tion of  these  previously  independent  cells 
forms  the  sausage-shaped  "slug."  This 
new  individual  develops  distinctive  cell 
types  at  its  front  and  back,  migrates  toward 
light,  and  upon  finding  a  suitable  spot, 
forms  an  erect  fruifing  body  crowned  by 
spores  from  some  of  the  original  amoebas. 
These  spores  depend,  however,  on  the  al- 
truism of  many  other  amoebas  that  died  in 
forming  the  fruiting  body's  sturdy  sup- 
porting stalk. 

We  could  delve  deeper  into  what  an  in- 
dividual slime  mold  is,  but  this  book  isn't 
about  slime  molds.  It  is  about  the  unusual 
perspective  that  a  lifetime  study  of  shme 
molds  can  give  to  large  biological  ques- 
tions. Bonner  says  he  has  "an  inordinate 
fondness  for  grand  ideas."  This  isn't  sur- 
prising. Generally,  the  smaller  and  less 
charismatic  the  study  animal,  the  more  we 
focus  on  grand  ideas.  And  because  our 
ideas  are  as  heavily  influenced  by  the  par- 
ticular organisms  we  study  as  by  the  envi- 
ronment in  which  we  were  raised,  thinking 
about  these  bizarre  creatures  has  led  Bon- 
ner to  a  succession  of  unusually  absorbing 
ideas  and  trenchant  observations. 

For  instance,  he  argues  that  biologists 
generally  are  overly  fixated  on  adult  or- 
ganisms, probably  because  humans  spend 
so  much  of  their  existence  as  adults.  When 
we  think  of  a  dog,  we  immediately  picture 
some  generic  adult  dog.  But  a  puppy  is  just 
as  much  of  a  dog  as  an  adult  dog — so  is 
the  fetus,  embryo,  and  even  the  fertilized 


egg.  "Organisms  are  not  just  adults — they 
are  life  cycles,"  Bonner  says.  Focusing  on 
the  period  of  the  life  cycle  between  fertil- 
ization and  first  production  of  offspring  al- 
lowed Bonner  to  realize  that  generation 
length  will,  to  a  certain  extent,  be  limited 
by  how  much  growth  an  organism  requires 
before  reproducing.  To  demonstrate  this, 
he  gathered  data,  now  reproduced  in  virtu- 
ally all  introductory  biology  texts,  show- 
ing that  body  size  and  generation  length 
have  a  consistent  relationship  whether  the 
organism  is  a  bacterium  or  a  sequoia.  He 
also  emphasizes  that  an  adult  cannot  be  al- 
tered without  altering  the  process  by 
which  adults  are  created. 

Bonner's  focus  on  size  and  the  various 
routes  to  multicellularity  have  led  him  to 
additional  insights.  He  notes  that  increas- 
ing cell  number  is  intimately  related  to  in- 
creasing division  of  labor,  a  theory  appli- 
cable to  microscopic  organisms  or  the 
workings  of  a  modem  city  or  corporation. 
A  simple  division  of  labor  is  seen  even  in 
filament-shaped  colonies  of  primitive 
cyanobacteria,  which  may  have  some 
sporelike  cells  speciahzed  for  surviving 
hard  times,  other  cells  specialized  for  pho- 
tosynthesis, and  still  others  specialized  for 
chemically  processing  nitrogen.  In  case 
we  hadn't  thought  to  ask,  he  also  points 
out  that  the  multicellularity  produced  by 
successive  cell  divisions  is  a  phenomenon 
of  aquatic  organisms,  whereas  multicellu- 
larity by  aggregation  is  primarily  a  terres- 
trial phenomenon,  thus  reassuring  us  that 
we  did  have  an  aquatic  ancestry. 

In  the  latter  half  of  the  book,  Bonner 
tackles,  in  his  understated  way,  the  nature 
of  sociality,  consciousness,  and  culture. 
He  considers  many  animal  societies  in 
light  of  the  twin  forces  holding  shme  mold 
societies  together,  namely,  division  of 
labor  and  communication  among  the 
parts.  If  the  terrain  covered  in  this  section 
is  less  compelling,  it  is  because  other  pop- 


62    Natural  History  2/94 


ularizers  such  as  evolutionist  Richard 
Dawkins  and  sociobiologist  E.  O.  Wilson 
have  shown  us  the  same  landscape.  Never- 
theless, I  very  much  enjoyed  Bonner's  ap- 
preciation of  a  clever  experiment — that  of 
biologist  Gustav  Kramer,  who,  in  experi- 
ments with  starlings  and  migration,  used 
mirrors  and  hght  bulbs  in  an  indoor  enclo- 
sure to  alter  the  apparent  position  and 
movement  of  the  sun. 

The  book  is  leavened  throughout  with 
Bonner's  own  personal  history  and  charm- 
ing asides.  He  recalls  how  his  early  inter- 
est in  birds  was  cleverly  deflected  by  his 
father,  who  was  afraid  ornithologists  could 
not  make  a  living.  And  during  a  sabbatical 
leave  in  France,  he  notices  how  the  French 
mix  their  protozoan  culture  medium  rather 
informally.  Instead  of  the  American  (or 
German)  technique  of  meticulously  mea- 
suring ingredients  according  to  a  standard 
recipe,  the  French  mix  together  a  handful 
of  this,  a  dash  of  that,  a  pinch  of  something 
else  until  the  mixture  seems  right.  He  im- 
mediately reaUzes  that  the  French  labora- 
tory tradition  comes  straight  from  the 
French  kitchen,  and  who  would  presume 
to  dampen  the  spontaneity  of  a  French 
chef? 

To  be  compared  with  Haldane  isn't  re- 
ally fair  to  Bonner — or  anyone  else  for 
that  matter — as  Haldane  was  possibly  the 
best  popular  biological  writer  we've  had. 
As  veteran  baseball  manager  Sparky  An- 
derson once  said  of  the  Cincinnati  Reds' 
nonpareil  baseball  catcher  Johnny  Bench, 
"Don't  compare  nobody  to  Johnny  Bench, 
you'll  just  embarrass  that  guy."  However 
much  one  might  want  to  avoid  the  com- 
parison, Bonner's  prose  is  nonetheless  like 
Haldane's — wonderfully  clear  and  direct. 
Like  Haldane's,  Bonner's  popular  writing 
is  more  than  a  repetition  of  his  scientific 
work,  glitzed  and  gussied  up  for  a  general 
audience.  He  develops  original  ideas  and 
from  his  unusual  vantage  considers  topics 


outside  the  domain  of  pure  science. 

Bonner  also  has  a  gift  for  recognizing 
apt  and  unexpected  examples.  When  he 
dismisses  evolutionist  Jean-Baptiste  La- 
marck's idea  of  how  we  might  pass  on 
traits  acquired  during  our  lifetime,  he 
chooses  not  to  use  the  well-known  tail- 
cutting  experiments  that  German  evolu- 
tionist August  Weismann  performed  on 
twenty  generations  of  mice.  Instead  he 
uses  Weismann's  more  obscure  argument 
that  if  Lamarck  were  correct,  Jews  should 
no  longer  require  circumcision.  Using  an- 
other original  image,  Bonner  points  out 
how  size  affects  every  aspect  of  an  organ- 
ism's biology — if  watermelons  grew  on 
trees,  their  weight  would  require  a  stalk  as 
thick  as  the  melon  itself. 

Unlike  Haldane,  however,  Bonner  laces 
his  ideas  and  arguments  with  self-depre- 
cating and  humorous  personal  anecdotes. 
My  favorite  one  concerns  Haldane  him- 
self, whom  a  diffident  young  Bonner  en- 
countered in  the  lavatory  after  lecturing  at 
University  College  in  London.  "Bonner, 
we  don't  make  jokes  in  lectures  in  this 
country,"  boomed  the  always  intimidating 
Haldane. 

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the  garden.  In  one  of  Saul  Bellow's  novels, 
a  character  offers  an  opinion  that  aptly  de- 
scribes Bonner's  perspective — "Nothing 
is  too  rum  to  be  true."  Indeed! 

Former  lion  trainer  Steven  Austad  is  now 
an  associate  professor  in  the  Department 
of  Biological  Sciences  at  the  University  of 
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and  the  biology  of  aging,  and  combines 
laboratory  research  on  opossums  with 
fieldwork  on  the  arboreal  nmrsupials  of 
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FINE  ART  depicting  over  25  ancient  civilizations. 
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VETERINARY  ASSISTANT/Animal  care  careers. 
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A1  JOBS.    To  $1 ,000  daily!    Overseas.     Stateside. 
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ENVIRONMENTAL  OPPORTUNITIES— Monthly  bul- 
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U.S.  Free  details.  EOV,  PO.  Box  788.  Walpole,  NH 
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GET  PAID  FOR  READING  BOOKS!  $100  per  book. 
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ing Herd  Buffalo  Products,  RO.  Box  1051.  Dept.  NH- 
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MAINE  -  Secluded  lakefront  log  cabin.  $275  weekly. 
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Tours/Trips 


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1            COSTARICA            1 

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i 

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Inca  Floats    510-420-1550 
131 1-N  63rd  St.,  Emeryville  CA  94608 


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IMMENSE.  DIVERSE, 
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DANCE  with  the  WOLVES'! 


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1-(800) 
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GALAPAGOS  ISLANDS  tours  since  1979.  tVlainland 
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(4081  659-5807 

Intersea  Research,  Inc.  smre  1976 


QUALITY  TOURS  FOR  QUALITY  PEOPLE.  Person- 
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NATLIRE  EXPEDITION 


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RAINFORESTS  OF  THE  AMAZON.  Visit  the  oil 
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in  a  jungle  school  alongside  Ecuadorian  guides;  dis- 
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(800)484-7422,  ext.  1184. 

SOUTH  &  CENTRAL  AMERICA;  Overland  &  natural 
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Free  color  catalog.  Himalayan  Travel.  (800)225-2380. 

THE  GREAT  SOLAR  ECLIPSE/NOVEMBER  94. 
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tails, contact  Voyagers,  1-800-633-0299. 


ALASKA  •  GALAPAGOS 
ARCTIC 'RUSSIA 'BAJA 
AUSTRALIA  •  PATAGONI/ 


Quality  Natural  History  &  Photography 
Trips  -  20  Years  Experience 

BIOLOGICAL  JOURNEYS 

1696N  Ocean  Dr..  McKinleyville.  CA  95521 
800-548-7555  or  707-839-0178 


TREAD  LIGHTLY  to  the  Amazon,  Belize,  Mongolia 
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YEMEN,  SYRIA,  JORDAN,  TURKEY  Greece,  Egypt, 
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group  holidays  for  all  ages.  Call  for  brochure  and  itiner- 
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Rates  and  Style  Information 

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URAL HISTORY'S  discretion.  Send  check/money 
order  to;  The  Market/NATURAL  HISTORY  Maga- 
zine. Central  Park  West  at  79th  St.,  New  York,  NY 
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address  and  telephone  number,  issue  preferred,  and 
suggested  category.  Deadline — 1st  of  the  month, 
two  months  prior  to  cover  date  (the  January  issue 
closes  Nov.  1). 


65 


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The  Accelerating  Global  Crisis 

Tfie  final  two  lectures  of  the  free  series 
"The  Accelerating  Global  Crisis:  Meeting 
the  Challenges"  will  take  place  in  Febru- 
ary. On  Tuesday,  February  15,  Benjamin 
R.  Barber,  Whitman  Professor  of  Political 
Science  at  Rutgers  University  and  author 
of  The  Congress  of  Politics,  will  discuss 
the  ways  in  which  globalization  and  tribal- 
ism conflict  and  counter  democracy.  A 
panel  discussion  will  follow.  Philosophical 
and  spiritual  solutions  to  global  crises  will 
be  the  subject  of  the  series'  concluding 
talk  on  Tuesday,  February  22,  by  Ameri- 
can novelist  Hortense  CaUsher,  who  will 
explore  the  complexity  of  human  experi- 
ence in  today's  world.  Both  lectures  begin 
at  7:30  p.m.  in  the  Main  Auditorium  and 
are  part  of  the  Education  Department's 
year-long  program  "Global  Cultures  in  a 
Changing  World."  For  information  and 
free  tickets,  call  (212)  769-5315. 

Shamanic  Rituals 

A  two-day  conference,  sponsored  by 
the  Museum  in  association  with  the  Asia 
Society,  will  explore  the  Korean  shaman's 
world  through  traditional  and  contempo- 
rary music,  drama,  dance,  visual  arts,  and 
film.  Sessions  will  be  held  in  the  Mu- 
seum's Hall  of  Ocean  Life  and  the  Kauf- 
mann  Theater  on  Saturday,  February  26, 
and  at  the  Asia  Society  on  Sunday,  Febru- 
ary 27.  Both  programs  begin  at  1:00  p.m. 
Call  (212)  769-5315  for  ticket  prices  and 
further  information. 

BoLSON  Tortoise  Reserve 

A  45,000-acre  reserve  in  northern  Mex- 
ico has  been  established  to  protect  the 
dwindling  population  of  North  America's 
largest  land  turtle,  the  Bolson  tortoise. 
Through  the  initiative  of  the  Turtle  Recov- 
ery Program,  a  project  of  the  American 
Museum  of  Natural  History's  Center  for 
Biodiversity  and  Conservation,  scientists 
and  ranchers  have  cooperated  to  conserve 
one  of  the  last  intact  tracts  of  Chihuahuan 
desert  grassland,  the  ecosystem  upon 
which  the  tortoise,  as  well  as  many  other 
animals  and  plants,  depends. 

Evolution  of  Dwarf  Galaxies 

Studies  of  the  formation  and  evolution 
of  the  Milky  Way's  nine  companion  dwarf 
galaxies  will  be  discussed  by  Kenneth 
Mighell,  of  Columbia  University's  astron- 
omy department,  on  Tuesday,  February  8. 
The  lecture,  part  of  the  "Frontiers  in  As- 


66    Natural  History  2/94 


At  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History 


tronomy  and  Astrophysics"  series,  will 
begin  at  7:30  p.m.  in  the  Sky  Theater.  Tick- 
ets are  $8  ($6  for  members).  For  Planetar- 
ium information,  call  (212)  769-5900. 

Shark!  Fact  and  Fantasy 

The  habitat,  anatomy,  behavior,  and 
evolution  of  sharks  will  be  the  focus  of  an 
exhibit  in  Gallery  3,  opening  Friday,  Feb- 
ruary 4.  Models  and  interactive  exhibits 
will  demonstrate  how  sharks  perceive 
their  environment  and  prey  through  highly 
specialized  senses  of  sight,  hearing,  and 
smell.  Some  of  the  many  scientific  and 
medical  uses  of  sharks  wOl  also  be  shown. 

Search  for  the  Great  Sharks 

Sharks  have  lived  in  the  world's  oceans 
for  more  than  350  million  years,  and  the 
new  IMAX  film,  opening  in  the  Nature- 
max  Theater  on  Saturday,  February  5,  will 
document  scientists'  underwater  research 
on  these  creatures.  Featured  are  a  view  of 
the  largest  and  most  rarely  seen  species, 
the  whale  shark,  and  the  birth  of  a  baby 
shark.  Daily  showtimes  for  Search  for  the 
Great  Sharks  are  10:30  and  11:30  a.m., 
and  1:30  and  3:30  p.m.  To  the  Limit,  an 
IMAX  film  exploring  the  body's  ability  to 
adapt  to  the  demands  of  intense  physical 
action,  will  be  shown  at  12:30,  2:30,  and 
4:30  RM.  daily. 

Chinese  Shadow  Theater 

The  ancient  Chinese  folk  art  of  shadow 
theater  was  brought  to  this  country  in  the 
1850s   by   Chinese   immigrants   who 


worked  on  the  railroads  and  in  the  gold 
fields.  In  this  art  form,  figures  constructed 
from  colored  and  perforated  translucent 
animal  hides  are  manipulated  behind  a 
backlighted  screen.  On  Tuesday,  February 
1,  at  7:00  p.m.  in  the  Kaufmann  Theater, 
the  Yueh  Lung  Shadow  Theater  will  enact 
folk  tales  and  epics  from  Chinese  litera- 
ture using  exact  Peking-style  puppet  repli- 
cas from  the  Museum's  collections.  Call 
(212)  769-5606  for  ticket  availabihty. 

Saving  Grace  at  Angkor  Wat 

Up  until  the  last  twenty  years  of  war  and 
civil  strife,  Cambodia's  Angkor  Wat  had 
survived  threats  from  humans  and  nature 
for  more  than  a  thousand  years.  On  Tues- 
day, February  8,  at  7:00  p.m.,  Bonnie 
Bumham,  executive  director  of  the  World 
Monuments  Fund,  will  describe  the  efforts 
to  conserve  and  restore  Angkor's  temples 
and  monasteries.  This  talk  takes  place  in 
the  Kaufmann  Theater  For  more  informa- 
tion, call  (212)  769-5606. 

A  Society  of  Wolves 

By  the  1950s,  wolves  in  the  United 
States  had  been  shot,  trapped,  and  poi- 
soned to  near-extinction.  Rick  Mclntyre,  a 
photographer,  author,  and  naturaUst  who 
has  spent  sixteen  years  observing  wild 
wolves  in  Alaska  and  Montana,  will  talk 
about  the  battle  for  the  wolf's  survival,  at- 
titudes toward  wolves  throughout 
recorded  history,  and  the  controversial 
issue  of  reintroducing  wolves  to  Yellow- 
stone and  areas  in  the  Southwest  and 


A  Bolson  tortoise  in  llie  Chihuahuan  desert  grassland 

Michael  Klemens 


Northeast.  This  slide-illustrated  lecture 
will  be  given  on  Thursday,  February  17,  at 
7:00  RM.  in  the  Kaufmann  Theater.  Call 
(212)  769-5606  for  information. 

The  Search  for  our  Human  Origins 

Paleoanthropologist  Donald  Johanson, 
author  of  Lucy:  The  Beginnings  of  Hu- 
mankind and  adviser  to  NOVA's  television 
series  Ancestors:  The  Search  for  Our 
Human  Origins,  will  give  a  talk  on  Mon- 
day, February  14,  at  7:00  rm.  in  the  Main 
Auditorium.  Among  the  topics  he  will 
cover  are  the  discovery  of  the  newest  fos- 
sils of  Australopithecus  afarensis  and 
whether  Homo  survived  as  a  noble  hunter 
or  a  cunning  scavenger.  Tickets  are  $25. 
Call  (212)  769-5310  for  ticket  availability. 

The  Language  and  Meaning  of  DNA 
The  semiotic  analysis  of  languages  and 
texts  as  sets  of  signs  and  symbols  offers  a 
new  way  of  looking  at  DNA.  On  Thurs- 
day, February  24,  at  7:00  rm.,  Robert  Pol- 
lack, biologist  and  former  dean  of  Colum- 
bia College,  will  talk  about  how  DNA 
affects  our  understanding  of  common 
chemistry.  Tickets  are  $25.  Call  (212) 
769-5310  for  more  infoiTnation. 

Spring  Lecture  Series 

Native  American  life  in  New  York 
City — from  prehistoric  times,  through  the 
colonial  period  and  into  the  modem  era — 
will  be  the  subject  of  four  consecutive 
Monday  evening  lectures  beginning  Feb- 
ruary 28.  Tickets  for  the  series  are  $35. 

The  forests  of  North  America,  from  the 
temperate  rain  forest  of  the  Pacific  North- 
west to  the  deciduous  woodlands  of  the 
East,  will  be  discussed  in  a  series  of  five 
slide-illustrated  lectures.  The  series  will 
be  given  twice:  On  five  consecutive 
Thursday  evenings,  starting  February  24, 
the  talks  will  begin  at  7:00  rm.;  and  on 
five  consecutive  Monday  afternoons, 
starting  February  28,  the  talks  will  begin 
at  2:30  rm. 

Call  (212)  769-5305  for  a  full  schedule 
of  lectures  and  field  trips. 

These  events  take  place  at  the  American 
Museum  of  Natural  History,  Central  Park 
West  at  79th  Street  in  New  York  City.  The 
Kaufmann  Theater  is  located  in  the 
Charles  A.  Dana  Education  Wing.  The 
Museum  has  a  pay-what-you-wish  admis- 
sion policy.  For  more  information  about 
the  Museum,  call  (212)  769-5100. 


67 


This  Land 


Traverse  Creek,  California 


by  Robert  H.  Mohlenbrock 

Originating  in  the  foothills  of  Califor- 
nia's Sierra  Nevada  Mountains,  rocky-bot- 
tomed Traverse  Creek  descends  south  for 
more  than  a  inile  through  a  tree-covered 
canyon  and  then  passes  gently  through  the 
middle  of  a  shallow  basin.  The  basin, 
carved  out  by  the  creek  in  ages  past,  is 
only  slightly  lower  than  the  neighboring, 
flat  terrain,  but  it  is  easily  distinguished  by 
what  grows  there.  Surrounded  by  a  dense, 
green  forest  of  ponderosa  pine,  Douglas 
fir,  and  incense  cedar,  the  basin  itself  con- 
tains only  shrubs  and  a  scattering  of  digger 
pines — often  multitrunked  trees  with 
large,  heavy  cones  and  long,  pendulous, 
gray-green  needles.  Because  of  its  unusual 
vegetation,  the  basin's  200  acres  are  man- 
aged as  a  botanical  special  interest  area  by 
the  Eldorado  National  Forest. 

As  I  learned  from  forest  botanists  Mike 
Foster  and  Mark  Williams,  digger  pine 
grows  in  the  basin,  and  ponderosa  pine, 
Douglas  fir,  and  incense  cedar  do  not  be- 
cause Traverse  Creek  is  adjacent  to  de- 
posits and  rock  outcrops  made  of  the  min- 
eral serpentine.  Geologists  believe  that 
serpentine  rock,  or  serpentinite  (named  for 


Pine  cones  rest  at  the  base  of  a  digger 
pine,  above.  Right:  Bitterroot  grows 
in  arid  liabitats. 

Thomas  Hallstein:  Outsight 

68    Natural  History  2/94 


its  undulating,  layered  texture  and  mottled 
coloring),  was  first  exposed  in  California 
about  150  million  years  ago.  Today  it  is 
common  enough  to  be  California's  state 
rock,  covering  many  discontinuous  areas 
for  a  total  of  about  1 , 1 00  square  miles.  It  is 
most  common  in  the  South  Coast  Range, 
the  North  Coast  Range,  the  Bay  area,  and 
the  western  foothills  of  the  Sierras. 

The  soil  that  forms  when  serpentine 
rock  weathers  is  so  low  in  some  of  the  ele- 
ments plants  depend  on — calcium,  potas- 
sium, and  even  the  molybdenum  needed  in 
trace  amounts — that  most  plants  can't  sur- 
vive in  it.  In  addition,  the  soil  is  unusually 
high  in  nickel,  cobalt,  chromium,  and 
magnesium,  which  are  toxic  to  most 
plants.  As  a  result,  serpentine  soils  usually 
have  a  sparse  cover  of  plants  that  can  ex- 
tract the  minerals  they  need  while  coping 
with  the  toxic  chemicals.  For  example,  a 
wild  mustard  known  as  milkwort  jew- 
elflower,  which  grows  only  near  Traverse 
Creek,  can  take  up  nickel  in  excess  of 
1,000  parts  per  million  without  any  appar- 
ent harm.  Other  serpentine  species  of  jew- 
elflower  and  many  other  serpentine-toler- 
ant plants  take  up  nickel  in  modest 
amounts  or  exclude  it  altogether.  Plants 
not  found  on  serpentine  soil,  including 
some  species  of  jewelflower,  may  die  in 
soils  containing  only  a  few  parts  per  mil- 
lion of  nickel. 

Arthur  Kruckeberg,  an  authority  on  the 
botany  of  serpentine  areas,  notes  that  the 
vegetation  in  such  relatively  arid  locales  as 
Traverse  Creek  is  made  up  of  chaparral 
with  a  sprinkling  of  digger  pines.  In  the 
Traverse  Creek  basin,  the  chaparral  con- 
sists of  four-  to  eight-foot-tall  bushy 
shrubs,  including  four  species  in  the  buck- 
thorn family — buckbrush,  deerbrush,  Cal- 
ifornia coffeebush,  and  red  inkberry — as 
well  as  leather  oak  and  white  manzanita. 
Most  of  these  shrubs  bloom  in  May.  The 
manzanita  is  notable  for  bearing  its  littie, 
white,  bell-shaped  flowers  at  the  tips  of 
very  sticky  stalks.  The  stalks  impede  ants 
that  might  crawl  to  the  flower  in  search  of 
a  pollen  meal:  instead,  the  pollen  is  re- 
served for  the  flying  insects  that  pollinate 
the  plants. 


Edward  S.  Ross 


Joe  LeMonnier 


Los 

PACIFIC 

OCEAN 


200  Miles 

I 


Shrubs  and  digger  pines  grow  near  Traverse  Creek. 

Thomas  Hallstein;  Outsight 


Traverse  Creek 

For  visitor  information  write: 
Forest  Supervisor 
Eldorado  National  Forest 
100  Fomi  Road 
Placerville,  California  95667 
(916)622-5062 


Since  chaparral  plants  are  adapted  to 
arid  terrain,  all  these  shrubs  have  water- 
saving  adaptations,  such  as  small  leaves, 
leathery  leaves,  or  leaves  with  a  whitish, 
waxy  coating  or  hairy  surface.  Sometimes 
the  microscopic  openings,  or  stomata,  in 
the  leaves  are  sunk  deep  in  the  leaf  tissue 
to  further  reduce  evaporation.  The  leaves 
of  the  white  manzanita,  which  are  rela- 
tively broad,  stand  upright  so  that  the  rays 
of  the  midday  sun  fall  obUquely  on  their 
surface. 

Between  April  and  June,  many  wild- 
flowers  bloom  in  scattered  openings  in  the 
Traverse  Creek  chaparral.  These  colorful 
"serpentine  flower  fields"  consist  of  low- 
growing  species  that  are  tolerant  of  ser- 
pentine soil,  although  many  grow  else- 
where as  well.  Most  of  these  wildflowers 
are  also  drought-tolerant;  among  them  are 
a  dwarf  sedum  with  succulent  leaves,  a 
wiry  buckwheat  with  a  three-pronged 
flowering  cluster,  Sanborn's  wild  onion, 
Congdon's  lomatium,  and  the  brilliant, 
rose-pink  bitterroot.  One  species  found 
only  at  Traverse  Creek  is  the  rare  Layne's 
groundsel. 

Some  moisture-loving  plants  inhabit 
shallow  depressions  that  accumulate  water 
when  it  rains.  Among  them  are  yellow 
monkey  flower,  which  has  five  bright-yel- 
low petals;  bicolored  monkey  flower,  with 
two  white  petals  and  three  yellow  petals; 
pink-flowered  whisker  brush,  with  five 
pink  petals  and  a  rosy  center  above  a  tuft 
of  short,  slender,  green  leaves;  a  yellow  vi- 
olet; a  two-inch-tall  wild  white  clover;  and 
an  equally  small  native  plantain. 

Seeming  anomalies  at  Traverse  Creek, 
not  far  from  the  visitors'  parking  area,  are 
a  few  large  ponderosa  pines  and  an  in- 
cense cedar.  According  to  the  forest 
botanists,  enough  nonserpentine  soil  has 
washed  down  from  higher  terrain  to  create 
a  foothold  for  these  conifers. 

Robert  H.  Mohlenbrock,  professor  emeri- 
tus of  plant  biology  at  Southern  Illinois 
University,  Carbondale,  explores  the  bio- 
logical and  geological  highlights  of  the 
156  U.S.  national  forests. 


70    Natural  History  2/94 


february  calendar 


s 

M 

T 

W 

TH 

F 

S 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

16 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

IS 

23 

17 

IS 

19 

20 

21 

22 

23 

24 

25 

26 

27 

28 

1        TUESDAY 

Traditional  Sliadow  neater  u 
PERFORMANCE,  7:00  p.m. 
Kaufmann  Theater,$7.00 
members,  $10.00  nonmembers 

3  THURSDAY 

Sharlc!  Fact  and  Fantasy  m 
MEMBERS'  PREVIEW:  Exhibit- 
ion Viewing  (Participating  and 
Higlner  Members),  4:00,  free, 
and  Naturemax  screening  (all 
members),  7:30  p.m.,  $6.00 

4  FRIDAY 

Sharl<!  Fact  and  Fantasy 
SPECIAL  EXHIBITION, 
Public  opening 

Searcti  for  the  Great  Sharl<s  ▲ 
IMAX  FILM,  public  opening, 
Naturemax  Theater 

5  SATURDAY 

Wonderful  Sicy  • 
SKY  SHOW  FOR  CHILDREN, 
1 0:30  and  1 1 :45  a.m.,  Hayden 
Planetarium,  $7.00  adults, 
$4,00  children 

8       TUESDAY 

"The  Formation  and  Evolution 
of  Dwarf  Galaxies"  • 
LECTURE,  7:30  p.m.,  Hayden 
Planetarium,  $6.00  members, 
$8.00  nonmembers 

"Saving  Grace  atAngl<or  Wat"  ■ 
LECTURE,  7:00  p.m.,  Kaufmann 
Theater,  $6.00  members, 
$9.00  nonmembers 


13  SUNDAY 

Afro-Dominican  Music 
and  Dance  + 
PERFORMANCE,  2:00  and 
4:00  p.m.,  Kaufmann  Theater 

14  MONDAY 

"Ancestors:  The  Search  For 
Our  Human  Origins"  * 
LECTURE,  7:00  p.m..  Main 
Auditorium,  $25.00 

15  TUESDAY 

Understanding  the  Global 
Crisis:  The  Role  of  Ethnicity, 
Religion,  and  Nationalism  + 
PANEL  DISCUSSION,  7:30  p.m.. 
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A  Matter  of  Taste 


Through  a  Mill,  Coarsely 

The  laborious  art  of  hand- grinding  flour  is  not  entirely  lost 


by  Raymond  Sokolov 

When  people  say  that  wheat  and  rice 
are  grains,  they  think  they  have  said  some- 
thing simple  and  obvious.  But  as  a 
Supreme  Court  Justice  once  remarked 
about  obscenity,  he  knew  it  when  he  saw 
it,  but  defining  it  was  the  hard  part. 

The  etymologist  will  tell  you  that  our 
word  grain  comes  from  the  Latin  gramim, 
meaning  "seed,"  as  in  cum  grano  sails, 
"with  a  grain  of  salt."  Which  is  what  you 
have  to  take  that  definition  with,  because 
by  no  means  are  all  seeds  grains.  Think  of 
potato  seeds  or  sesame  and  poppy  seeds. 
Nevertheless,  the  etymological  approach 
has  its  grain  of  truth.  Let's  try  saying  that 
grains  contain  the  seeds  of  grasses. 


At  least,  they  start  that  way.  The  major 
grains  are,  in  a  botanical  sense,  the  fruits 
of  true  grasses  from  the  Gramineae  family. 
There,  however,  the  universality  of  the  de- 
finition comes  to  an  end.  Ears  of  com  and 
drooping  green  rice  plants  do  not  seem  to 
have  much  in  common,  but  that  has  more 
to  do  with  their  history  under  cultivation 
than  with  any  underlying  botanical  dis- 
similarities. The  grain,  or  useful  part  of 
these  plants  in  terms  of  human  consump- 
tion, is  the  endosperm,  the  httle  packet  of 
starch,  protein,  and  other  nutriments 
meant  by  nature  to  nourish  the  true  seed 
(the  germ,  or  embryo,  it  encloses). 

This  starchy  packet  is  many  times 


larger  than  the  seed  it  accompanies.  Like 
some  bloated  commissary  of  carbohy- 
drate, it  is  properly  referted  to  as  the  fruit 
of  the  grass  plant,  just  as  the  orange,  fleshy 
globe  surrounding  the  seed-containing  pit 
of  the  peach  is  its  fruit.  Both  organs  are 
primarily  food  sources  (for  the  seed  or  for 
ambulatory  and  flying  animals  that  will 
eat  the  seed  along  with  the  delicious  fruit 
and  then  spread  the  seeds  around  the  land- 
scape in  their  dung). 

Each  major  grain  is  slightly  different 
from  the  others,  but  they  all  share  two  fea- 
tures: a  dry,  fibrous  outer  layer  and  an 
inner  kernel  of  useful  starch.  The  whole  of 
grain  technology  after  harvest  aims  at  min- 


A  Navajo  woman  in  Arizona  grinds  com  for  tortillas 

John  Running 

72    Natural  History  2/94 


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imizing  or  removing  the  outer  layer  and  at 
making  tlie  inner  starch  packet  available 
for  human  consumption. 

Grain  hai-vests  ai^e  generally  the  equiva- 
lent of  mass  mowings.  Then  comes  a 
threshing  stage,  which  separates  the  grain 
from  the  chaff,  the  grassy  part  of  the  plant 
that  ends  up,  when  dried,  as  straw.  Of  the 
major  cereal  grains,  three — rice,  barley, 
and  oats — come  wrapped  in  hard  husks 
formed  from  leaflike  structures.  Corn, 
wheat,  and  rye' are,  as  Harold  McGee  re- 
minds us,  "naked,"  or  huskless,  fruits.  But 
even  they  are  not  ready  to  eat  after  harvest. 

At  this  point,  the  wheat  farmer  finds 
himself  with  millions  of  grains  covered 
with  a  fibrous  "skin"  known  as  bran. 
These  so-called  wheat  berries  can  be  eaten 
as  they  emerge  from  the  threshing  floor. 
Indeed,  modern  health  food  stores  sell 
them  and  some  restaurants  do  an  inventive 
job  of  cooking  them.  But  the  brownish, 
unpolished  wheat  beiry  takes  a  long  time 
to  cook  and  is  an  indelicate  food,  although 
not  without  appeal  as  an  occasional  item 
in  a  modem  diet. 

The  bran  layer  spoils  easily,  however. 
And  in  the  dawn  of  grain  agriculture,  stor- 
age and  convenience  had  to  have  been 
paramount  goals.  We  cannot  prove  it,  but 
it  seems  overwhelmingly  plausible  that  a 
desire  to  keep  the  haivest  safe  led  early 
men  and  women  to  exhaust  themselves  by 
grinding  their  wheat  or  rice  between  two 
stones.  This  loosened  the  bran  and,  inci- 
dentally, turned  the  interior  starch  into  an 
appeahng  powder  we  call  flour  or  meal. 


Of  course,  it  is  possible,  when  milling, 
to  stop  short  of  pulverization.  White  rice  is 
the  leading  example  of  that.  After  its  bran 
has  been  rubbed  off,  it  can  easily  be 
steamed  or  boiled  to  a  wonderful  tender- 
ness. Rice  can  also  be  pulverized  into 
flour,  and  often  is,  with  rice  cakes  and  noo- 
dles the  result. 

Wheat  is  most  often  milled  into  flour,  as 
is  rye.  But  oats  and  barley  are  usually  not, 
in  our  day,  because  their  flours  lack  gluten 
and  can't  compete  with  wheat  in  elasticity 
for  baking  pastry,  and,  most  important, 
they  don't  rise. 

Corn  is  sui  generis.  Its  kernels  can  be 
eaten  whole  (steamed  on  the  cob  or  gently 
heated  in  almost  any  way).  On  the  other 
hand,  the  bran  or  hulls  can  be  removed 
when  exposed  to  an  alkali  such  as  wood 
ash,  yielding  a  beneficially  altered  starch, 
hominy,  that  needs  no  milling.  (Alkaliza- 
tion  makes  the  corn's  natural  niacin  avail- 
able to  human  digestion  and  it  also  re- 
aligns the  corn's  amino  acids  so  that  they 
offer  the  human  consumer  a  better  balance 
of  useful  nutriments.)  Or  untreated  com 
can  be  ground  into  meal.  Early  Americans 
prepared  com  in  all  three  ways. 

Hand-milling  techniques  have  persisted 
in  isolated  pockets  of  traditional  American 
culture  right  up  to  the  present.  Primitive 
millers  grind  one  rock,  or  quem,  against 
another  One  of  these  rocks  tends  to  be 
concave,  the  other  convex.  The  mortar  and 
pestle  are  slightly  more  efficient  tools  de- 
rived from  these  primordial  hand  mills. 
Such  laborious  techniques  eventually 


gave  way  in  many  places  to  a  tme  mill,  a 
fixed  machine  run  by  animal  or  water 
power  In  industrial  societies,  electrical 
power  runs  giant  roller  miUs,  and  stone 
grinding  has  survived  only  sporadically. 
But  educated  opinion  has  set  its  face 
against  roller-milled,  pure  white  flour 

In  her  authoritative  English  Bread  and 
Yeast  Cooker}'  (1977),  Elizabeth  David 
campaigned  for  the  preservation  of  Eng- 
land's historic  stone  mills.  She  rhap- 
sodized about  the  hard  emery  stones  with 
their  carefully  cut  grooves.  She  printed  a 
detailed  schematic  diagram  of  a  working 
mill,  with  its  quants  and  shoes  and 
damsels  all  neatly  labeled.  In  the  end,  like 
proselytizers  for  stone-ground  com  and 
rice  meals,  David  was  making  a  case  for 
imperfectly  pulverized  and  sieved  (the 
technical  term  is  bolted)  flour. 

The  big  machines  work  so  well,  she  ar- 
gued, that  they  remove  virtually  all  the 
bran  and  germ — and  with  them  the  tradi- 
tional flavor  of  bread  flour.  Gone,  too,  was 
the  appealing  texture  of  less  completely 
milled  wheat. 

The  Chinese  food  expert  Florence  Lin 
does  not  say  whether  the  advent  of  ma- 
chine grinding  of  fresh  water-ground  rice 
flour  yields  an  inferior  product.  And  even 
though  the  hand  grinding  and  stone 
wheels  of  her  childhood  are  gone,  modem 
methods  (themselves  now  obsolescent)  as 
she  describes  them  in  her  Complete  Book 
of  Chinese  Noodles,  Dumplings  and 
Breads  (1986)  offer  an  eloquent  testimo- 
nial to  the  importance  of  specific  milling 


Nian  Gao 

(Plain  Rice  Cake) 


As  Florence  Lin  explains  in  her  Com- 
plete Book  of  Chinese  Noodles,  Dump- 
lings and  Breads  (1986),  this  apparently 
simple,  pure  dish,  eaten  at  Chinese  New 
Year  as  a  symbol  of  prosperity,  has  quite 
special  flour  requirements.  The  two 
kinds  of  rice  flour  should  ideally  be 
water-ground  shortly  before  use  (the 
moist  flours  spoil  easily  even  under  re- 
frigeration, and  the  ratio  of  long-grain 
flour  to  sticky-rice  flour  determines  the 
ultimate  consistency.  For  a  softer  cake, 
use  slightly  more  long-grain.  For  a 
harder  one,  more  sticky-rice.  For  a 
chewier  cake,  use  Japanese  rice,  as  Ko- 
reans do.  Since  most  U.  S.  cities  now 
have  thriving  Asian  markets,  there  is  no 
need  for  most  of  us  to  grind  whole  rice 
grains  with  water  in  a  blender  and  then 
press  out  the  moisture.  Commercial, 


dried,  water-ground  rice  flour  is,  there- 
fore, the  ingredient  anticipated  in  this 
recipe.  If  you  want  to  start  from  scratch, 
presoak  whole  rice  for  four  hours,  then 
blend,  water  and  all,  to  a  fine  wet  powder. 
Tie  up  in  a  muslin  bag  and  press  out  mois- 
ture by  weighting  with  a  heavy  object,  a 
big  iron  skillet  or  a  large  pot  of  water,  for 
several  hours,  until  the  water  stops  com- 
ing out  of  the  bag.  The  flour  will  have  the 
consistency  of  a  damp  dough. 

2  cups  long-grain  rice  flour 
1  cup  sticky- rice  flour 

1 .  Put  rice  in  a  processor  fitted  with  the 
steel  blade.  Turn  on  the  motor  and 
pour  M  cup  cold  water  through  the  feed 
tube.  The  flour  will  soon  look  like 
granulated  sugar.  If  it  gathers  into  a 
dough,  there  is  too  much  water  Add  a 
little  flour  so  it  separates  again. 

2.  Line  the  basket  of  a  steamer  with  alu- 
minum foil.  Shake  the  flour  loosely 


and  evenly  into  the  steamer.  Steam  over 
high  heat  for  20  minutes. 

3.  Rinse  but  do  not  dry  the  processor  bowl 
and  the  steel  blade.  Reattach  the  bowl 
and  replace  the  steel  blade  in  it. 

4.  When  the  flour  has  been  steamed,  return 
it  immediately  to  the  processor  and 
process  for  30  seconds  or  just  long 
enough  to  produce  a  smooth  dough  that 
does  not  stick  to  the  bowl.  Oil  fingers 
and  remove  the  dough  to  an  oiled  sur- 
face. Knead  while  still  hot.  until  very 
smooth.  This  takes  about  a  minute. 

5.  Roll  the  dough  into  a  sausage  shape 
about  an  inch  in  diameter  Cut  the  tube 
into  four  equal  lengths.  Flatten  them  to  a 
thickness  of  M  inch.  Cover  and  let  cool 
to  room  temperature.  Then  they  are 
ready  to  eat.  They  wiD  keep  for  a  week 
submerged  in  water  in  the  refrigerator  or 

.  frozen  in  small  pieces  (IM  inches  long 
by  !4  inch  thick)  sealed  in  right  plastic. 

Yield:  4  cakes 


74    Natural  History  2/94 


methods  to  the  ultimate  food  on  the  table: 

In  New  York's  Chinatown  there  is  a  factory 
still  making  fresh  old-fashioned  plain  rice 
cakes.  It  does  use  machines  to  speed  the 
process,  however.  Electric-driven  grinders 
grind  the  presoaked  rice.  Then  the  ground 
rice,  including  the  water,  is  put  in  a  muslin 
bag  and  the  water  is  pressed  out  by  ma- 
chine. The  result  is  fresh  water-ground  rice 
flour.  A  powerful  steamer  then  steams  the 
wet  ground  flour,  which  is  immediately 
kneaded  by  machine  into  a  soft  dough.  The 
cakes  are  formed  by  hand.  The  only  cook- 
ing in  the  process  is  the  steaming  of  the 
flour.  No  seasoning  is  added. 

It  was  difficult  for  me  to  read  that  as  an 
account  of  a  degraded,  industrialized  proc- 
ess. After  all,  I  normally  buy  anonymous 
wheat  flour  in  five-pound  bags  in  a  super- 
market. But  that  passage  got  me  thinking. 
I  remembered  visiting  the  Hopi  villages  in 
Arizona,  distant  mesas  with  captive  eagles 
flapping  from  adobe  rooftops.  There  I 
bought  blue  commeal  from  a  woman  who 
had  ground  it  by  hand  at  home.  It  was  su- 
perbly fresh  tasting  and  finer  than  any 
flour  I  had  ever  seen  before. 

Why  not  try  this  with  wheat?  I  could 
buy  wheat  berries  at  a  health  food  store. 
True,  I  wouldn't  know  what  kind  of  wheat 
it  was  or  where  it  came  from  or  when  it 
had  been  harvested.  But  I  could  mill  the 
wheat  berries  myself,  with  one  of  the 
hand-powered  European  mills  now  on  the 
market  in  this  country.  I  could  grind  them 
to  an  appealing  coarseness.  I  could  sift  out 
only  as  much  of  the  bran  as  pleased  me. 

I  was  unable  to  find  the  hand-operated 
French  stone  mill  that  David  described, 
but  I  did  find  an  Italian  metal  model.  Since 
I  would  not  be  operating  it  at  high  speed, 
perhaps  its  metal  rollers  would  crush  the 
wheat  berries  just  like  a  stone  mill,  instead 
of  shearing  them  to  dust.  As  a  control,  I 
decided  to  grind  some  wheat  berries  with  a 
mortar  and  pestle. 

The  results  by  both  methods  were 
greatly  different  from  supermarket  flour. 
The  "grain"  of  my  flour  was  appealingly 
unfine.  I  also  found  that  bolting  flour  is  an 
exacting  task.  I  did  not  have  the  right 
cloth;  so  I  ended  up  with  a  product  flecked 
with  brown  specks.  Both  methods  yielded 
flour  fiill  of  personality  and  excellent,  rus- 
tic bread.  Fortunately,  I  have  ready  access 
to  commercial  stone-ground  bread  flour  at 
a  nearby  water-powered  country  mill. 
Hand  milling  is  a  fine  thing,  but  I  akeady 
have  a  full-time  career. 

Raymond  Sokolov  is  a  writer  whose  spe- 
cial interests  are  the  history  and  prepara- 
tion of  food. 


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75 


The  Natural  Moment 


The  Quick  and  the  Dead 


"Its  highways  are  mighty  limbs  of  the 
best  big  evergreens,"  wrote  naturahst 
Ernest  Thompson  Seton.  "Of  all  the  Weasel 
tribe,  the  Marten  most  is  at  home  in  the 
trees.  He  dehghts  in  climbing  from  crotch 
to  crotch,  leaping  from  tree  to  tree,  or 
scampering  up  and  down  the  long  branches 
with  endless  power  and  vivacity."  These 
solitary  predators  of  northern  forests  bring 
the  same  exuberance  to  the  hunt.  Two 
pounds  of  unbridled  ferocity,  a  marten  will 
ambush  and  devour  red  squirrels,  marmots, 
voles,  mice,  and  birds. 

In  southeastern  Idaho's  Targhee  National 
Forest,  this  American  marten  left  plenty  of 
tracks  in  the  deep  snow,  giving 
photographer  Michael  Quinton  a  clue  to  its 
whereabouts  in  a  lodgepole  pine.  By 
climbing  an  adjacent  tree,  Quinton  was 
able  to  focus  on  the  marten  (inset).  Only 
then  did  he  see  the  carnivore's  prize,  a 
ruffed  grouse  that  appeared  to  have  been 
cached  in  the  conifer  a  day  or  so  earlier 
(right).  Martens  are  usually  extremely  wary 
of  humans;  this  animal  was  aware  of  its 
observer  but  not  alarmed.  It  proceeded  to 
pluck  the  feathers  from  the  grouse  and  then 
began  to  feast  on  the  bird's  head. 

Despite  the  bitter  temperatures  and 
heavy  snows  in  this  mountainous  region, 
neither  martens  nor  ruffed  grouse  migrate 
or  hibernate.  When  the  snow  is  deep, 
grouse  will  sometimes  roost  in  trees,  but 
often  they  will  burrow — or  even  fly — 
directly  into  the  snow  and  roost  there. 
Martens,  which  can  move  easily  both  in  the 
trees  and  atop  the  snow,  quickly  dispatch 
any  such  prey  they  may 
detect.  On  days  when 
hunting  fails,  a  vole  or 
grouse  safely  stashed  in  a 
pine  will  insure  the  marten 
of  a  meal. — J.  R. 


Photographs  by 
Michael  S.  Quinton 


76    Natural  History  2/94 


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p). 


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CROSSROADS  OF  CONTINENTS 

Remote  Alaska  &  the  Russian  Far  East 

Above  the  Arctic  Circle 

July  20 -30, 1994 


The  remote  islands  of  the 
Bering  Sea  lead  like  stepping 
stones  from  Alaska  to  the  vast 
frontier  of  the  Russian  Arctic. 
This  summer,  a  team  of  Ameri- 
can Museum  and  guest  lecturers 
will  lead  an  exciting  voyage  of 
exploration  in  this  rarely-vis- 
ited area  of  the  world. 

Aboard  the  World  Discov- 
erer, we  will  follow  comfort- 
ably in  the  pathways  of  famed 
18th-  and  19th-century  Arctic 
explorers.  We  will  cross  the 
Bering  Strait,  which  long  ago 
formed  the  land  bridge  that  pre- 
cipitated the  migration  of  Asians 
to  the  Americas,  visiting  along 
the  way  such  extraordinary 
places  as  the  Arakamchechen 
Archipelago.  We  will  also  cross 
the  Arctic  Circle  in  search  of 
polar  bears  traveling  on  the  drift- 
ing pack  ice. 


Our  journey  will  allow  us 
to  meet  with  people  from  both 
continents  who  are  historically 
and  ethnically  related  and  enjoy 
the  spectacular  Arctic  land- 
scapes. These  nutrient-rich  wa- 
ters and  remote  rocky  islands 
support  some  of  the  largest  colo- 
nies of  seabirds  in  the  Western 
Hemisphere,  as  well  as  marine 
mammals,  sea  lions  and  seals. 
Join  us  for  the  voyage  of  a  Hfe- 
time. 


American 
Museum  of 
Natural 
History 
Discovery  Cruises 

Central  Park  West  at  79th  St. 

New  York,  NY   10024-5192 

Toll-free  (800)  462-8687  or 

(212)  769-5700  in  NYS 


AUTHORS 


"Watching  Steller's  eagles  wintering  on 
Kuril  Lake  in  Russia  is  not  IDce  watching 
bald  eagles  in  the  United  States,"  says 
Alexander  Ladigin  (page  26).  "At  Kuril 
Lake,  there  are  no  roads,  cars,  or  human 
inhabitants  for  many  miles  around.  It  is 
not  possible  to  drive  by  the  river  in  a  car 


After  observing  modem  hairless  dogs 
kept  as  pets  and  show  dogs  in  Peru,  Alana 
Cordy-CoUins  (page  34)  committed  the 
gaffe  of  mistaking  a  dog  in  San  Diego  to 
be  of  the  same  breed.  The  indignant  owner 
informed  her  that  it  was  Mexican,  not  Pe- 
ruvian. Intrigued  by  the  similarity  of  the 
two  breeds,  she  has  traced  their  possible 
prehistoric  connection.  Cordy-Collins  is  a 
professor  of  anthropology  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  San  Diego  and  curator  of  Latin 
American  archeology  at  the  San  Diego 
Museum  of  Man.  She  has  done  archeolog- 
ical  fieldwork  in  Ecuador  and  Chile,  as 
well  as  Peru.  For  additional  reading,  she 
recommends  Atlas  of  Dog  Breeds  of  the 
World,  by  Bonnie  Wilcox  and  Chris 
Walkowicz  (Neptune  City:  T  F.  H.  Publi- 
cations, 1989);  "Axe-Monies  and  Their 
Relatives,"  by  Dorothy  Hosier,  Heather 
Lechtman,  and  Olaf  Holm,  Studies  in  Pre- 
Columbian  Art  and  Archeology,  no.  30 


78    Natural  History  2/94 


and  observe  eagles  from  a  window."  Ladi- 
gin,  a  native  of  Moscow  who  has  lived  on 
the  Kamchatka  Peninsula  in  the  far  east  of 
Russia  for  seven  years,  watches  eagles  the 
hard  way.  He  spends  his  days  in  igloolike 
snow  cabins  on  the  edge  of  the  lake  for  an 
up-close  view  of  the  hundreds  of  eagles 


(Washington,  D.C.:  Dumbarton  Oaks, 
1990);  and  "Ancient  Cultural  Contacts 
Between  Ecuador,  West  Mexico,  and  the 


that  congregate  there  in  the  winter.  His 
permanent  residence,  in  a  village  on  the 
Bering  Sea  coast,  is  a  log  cabin,  which  he 
shares  with  his  anthropologist  wife  and 
their  four-year-old  daughter.  A  graduate  of 
Moscow  State  University,  Ladigin,  cur- 
rently on  the  staff  of  Kronotskiy  State 
Biosphere  Reserve  in  Kamchatka,  is  com- 
pleting his  doctoral  dissertation  on  adap- 
tive radiation  in  birds  of  prey.  In  addition 
to  observing  Steller's  eagles,  he  has  stud- 
ied their  cousins,  bald  eagles,  in  the  Pacific 
Northwest.  Future  projects  include  more 
studies  of  the  winter  ecology  of  sea  eagles. 
Emulating  his  favorite  study  subjects,  he 
plans  to  raise  his  offspring  far  from  the 
press  of  civilization.  More  on  bii'ds  of  prey 
can  be  found  in  Vanishing  Eagles,  by 
Phihp  Burton,  with  paintings  and  draw- 
ings by  Trevor  Boyer  (Secaucus:  Chart- 
well  Books,  Inc.,  1987).  The  natural  his- 
tory of  bald  eagles  is  the  subject  of  Mark 
V.  Stalmaster's  The  Bald  Eagle  (New 
York:  Universe,  1987)  and  Jon  Gerrard 
and  Gary  R.  Bortollotti's  The  Bald  Eagle: 
Haunts  and  Habitats  of  a  Wilderness 
Monarch  (Washington,  D.C.:  Smithson- 
ian, 1988). 


American  Southwest,"  by  Patricia  R. 
Anawalt,  in  Latin  American  Antiquity,  vol. 
3,no.2,pp.  114-29, 1992. 


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800-368-0077 


79 


Jeffrey  Polovina  (page  50)  has  been  in- 
terested in  Pacific  marine  life  since  1974, 
when  he  was  twenty-six  years  old.  Fresh 
out  of  the  University  of  California  at 
Berkeley  with  a  Ph.D.  in  mathematical 
statistics,  Polovina  decided  to  spend  nine 


months  island  hopping  across  the  western 
Pacific,  often  making  the  jumps  by  small 
boat.  His  travels  ultimately  brought  him  to 
Hawaii,  where,  in  1979,  he  joined  the  Na- 
tional Marine  Fisheries  Service,  and  was 
immediately  sent  on  a  research  cruise  to 
the  northwestern  islands.  With  his  statisti- 
cal background,  Polovina  was  well  pre- 
pared to  study  the  population  dynamics  of 
the  archipelago.  He  also  recognized  that 
the  widely  separated  atolls  and  reefs  of- 
fered an  excellent  opporfianity  to  investi- 
gate the  mechanisms  that  create  biological 
variation.  Polovina  has  also  done  research 
on  coral  reefs  around  the  Pacific,  including 
a  five-year  study  in  the  Marianas.  In  1993, 
he  was  awarded  a  Fulbright  Research 
Award  to  study  lobster  population  dynam- 
ics off  the  coast  of  Kenya,  and  in  1994  he 
will  be  heading  off  to  the  Antarctic  for  fur- 
ther marine  studies.  He  is  currentiy  chief 
of  insular  resource  investigations  at  the 
Fisheries  Service.  For  further  reading,  the 
author  recommends  D.  H.  Cushing's  book 
Climate  and  Fisheries  (London:  Acade- 
mic Press,  1982). 


Living  in  southeastern  Idaho  on  the 
edge  of  Yellowstone  Park,  Michael  Quin- 

ton  (page  76)  doesn't  have  to  go  far  to  find 
subjects  for  wildlife  photography.  A  full- 
time  photographer  for  the  past  fifteen 
years,  Quinton  particularly  enjoys  taking 
pictures  in  winter.  While  Quinton  sees 
marten  tracks,  like  the  ones  that  led  him  to 
this  month's  "Natural  Moment,"  just  about 
every  day  in  winter,  he  actually  spots  the 
animals  only  once  or  twice  a  year.  For 
these  photos,  he  used  a  Nikon  F3  and  a 
400mm  lens  with  tele-extender.  Quinton 


has  produced  several  wildlife  books,  in- 
cluding The  Ghost  'of  the  Forest:  The 
Great  Gray  Owl  (Flagstaff:  Northland 
Publishing,  1988),  and  is  currently  at  work 
on  a  project  on  grizzlies.  Quinton,  his 
wife,  and  their  two  small  children  enjoy 
living  in  the  wilderness;  for  most  of  the 
winter  they  get  around  on  skis  and  snow- 
shoes,  and  by  snowmobiles.  Although 
Yellowstone  has  provided  them  with  wild- 
life and  winter  on  a  grand  scale,  the  Quin- 
tons  have  been  thinking  of  moving  on  to 
Alaska. 


Bernd  Heinrich  (page  42),  shown  here 
with  his  son,  Stuart,  is  a  frequent  contribu- 
tor to  Natural  History.  Heinrich 's  interest 
in  entomology  began  at  the  age  of  seven, 
when  he  started  keeping  bees  and  collect- 
ing insects.  He  earned  his  B.S.  and  M.S. 
from  the  University  of  Maine  at  Orono 
and  his  Ph.D.  from  the  University  of  Cali- 
fornia at  Los  Angeles  in  1970.  Although 
his  subjects  have  ranged  from  squirrels  to 
birds,  Heinrich  has  specialized  in  studying 
thermoregulation  in  insects.  Some  of  his 
earliest  work  in  this  area  was  on  moths,  the 
subject  of  this  month's  article.  Heinrich 
has  done  fieldwork  in  Africa  and  various 
ttopical  and  arctic  locations,  but  Maine, 
where  he  has  a  cabin  in  the  woods,  is  his 
favorite  locality.  Heinrich  has  been  a  pro- 
fessor of  entomology  at  the  University  of 
California  at  Berkeley  and  is  currently  a 
professor  of  zoology  at  the  University  of 
Vermont,  where  he  is  studying  the  sociobi- 
ology  of  ravens.  Further  reading  on  ther- 
moregulation in  moths  and  other  insects 
can  be  found  in  his  book  The  Hot-blooded 
Insects  (Cambridge:  Harvard  University 
Press,  1993). 


80    Natural  History  2/94 


AMERICAN  MUSEUM  OF  NATURAL  HISTORY 

FAMILY  ADVENTURES 


MEXICO'S 
COPPER  CANYON 
By  Train 
July  9-16,  1994 

A  rail  journey  through 
Mexico's  mammoth  and 
scenic  Copper  Canyon, 
or  Barranca  del  Cobre, 
is  one  of  the  most  breath- 
talcing  journeys  in  the 
world.  Over  four  times 
the  size  of  the  Grand 
Canyon,  Barranca  del 
Cobre  is  a  natural  mar- 
vel best  experienced 
along  a  rail  route  itself 
considered  a  marvel  of 
engineering.  Explore  a 
remarkable  region  that 
has  long  been  home  to 
the  Tarahumara,  an  iso- 
lated people  whose  abil- 
ity to  traverse  rugged 
terrain  on  foot  is  leg- 
endary. 


KENYA 
SAFARI 
August  8-21, 1994 

An  African  safari  is  an  extraordinary  experience  and 
Kenya  possesses  some  of  Africa's  best  attractions:  the 
famous  herds  of  game  in  Masai  Mara  are  spectacular 
and  accessible;  the  views  from  escarpments  embracing 
the  Great  Rift  Valley  are  sublime;  the  semi-arid  North- 
em  Frontier  District  shimmers  with  magical  light  at 
dusk;  and  the  morning  air  in  the  Aberdare  Mountains  is 
incomparably  invigorating.  August  is  a  glorious  time  to 
enjoy  the  African  bush  and  the  abundance  of  wildlife 
found  there.  Join  us  for  this  special  safari  and  discover 
the  wonders  and  tremendous  diversity  of  Kenya's  finest 
game  parks. 

American 
Museum  of 
Natural 
i-^j'MR  History 

Discovery  Tours 


Join  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History 
this  summer  on  an  exciting  travel  adventure 
designed  for  the  whole  family.  Discovery  Tours 
has  developed  four  travel  opportunities,  taking 
into  consideration  the  diversity  of  interests  and 
special  needs  of  family  travel.  Lecture  pro- 
grams for  both  children  and  adults  will  be  held 
in  tandem  with  Museum  and  guest  lecturers 
who  will  help  us  explore  and  experience  the 
natural  wonders  and  traditional  cultures  of  four 
spectacular  destinations. 


GALAPAGOS 
WILDLIFE 
AND  ANDEAN 
HIGHLANDS 
July  14-25,  1994 
One  of  the  greatest  liv- 
ing laboratories  of  natu- 
ral history,  the  Galapa- 
gos Islands  are  unsur- 
passed in  their  primeval 
beauty,  Sea  lions,  pen- 
guins, marine  and  land 
iguanas,  seabirds  and 
many  other  species  of 
plants  and  animals, 
some  of  them  unique  to 
these  islands,  can  be 
found  here.  Discover 
these  remarkable  islands 
as  well  as  the  magnifi- 
cent Andean  highlands 
and  the  city  of  Quito  in 
Ecuador,  an  ancient 
capital  of  the  great  Inca 
Empire. 


CIVILIZATIONS 
OF  THE 
MEDITERRANEAN 

June  30  -  July  13, 1994 

From  classical  Greek  and  Roman  times  through  the 
Byzantine  Empire,  the  eastern  Mediterranean  region 
has  exerted  an  enormous  influence  on  world  history,  art 
and  culture.  With  exotic  cities,  magnificent  landscapes 
and  innumerable  remnants  of  glorious  ancient  civiHza- 
tions,  this  region  is  one  of  the  most  exciting  destinations 
in  the  world.  Join  us  aboard  the  1 74-cabin  Daphne  this 
summer  as  we  explore  such  sites  as  Ephesus  in  Turkey, 
Knossos  on  the  island  of  Crete,  Greece's  Olympia, 
Akrotiri  on  Santorini  and  the  acropolis  on  Rhodes,  as 
well  as  the  historic  cities  of  Istanbul  and  Athens. 


Central  Park  West  at  79th  St, 

New  York,  NY   10024-5192 

Toll-free  (800)  462-8687  or 

(212)  769-5700  in  NYS 


Natural  history  ^_,  ,  ^ „,..„„ 
AM.  MUS.  NAT.  HIST.  LIBRARY 

Received  on:  02-04-94 

Ref  5.06(74.7)M1 


Some  of  our  biggest  attractions  cover  a  wide  range. 


At  night  up  here  you  can  hear  the 
Wolves  howhng.  Some  of  the  last  big 
packs  anywhere  on  earth. 

You  can  snap  Moose  grazing  in 
the  wetlands  and  catch  Muskoxen 
ambling  past  almost  within  reach. 
Up  here  herds  of  Caribou 
still  stretch  to  the  horizon.  And  Polar  Bears  patrol 
the  coastline. 


NorthWinds  Arctic  Adventures 

Box  849  Dept.  WNH 

Iqaluit,  NT  XOA  OHO 

Phone:  819-979-0551  Fax:  819-979-0573 

Largest  selection  of  winter  and 

summer  programs  in  Baffin  Island. 

Dog  sledding,  hiking,  rational  and 

historic  parks,  Inuit  culture.  Brochure. 

Qullikkut  Guides  and  Outfitters 

Box  27  Dept.  WNH 

Clyde  River,  NT  XOA  OEO 

Phone:  819-924-6268  Fax:  819-924-6362 

Outfitted  tours  the  Inuit  way. 

Specialize  in  wildlife  observation,  Inuit 

cultural  awareness,  wilderness 

camping. 


Canoe  Arctic  Inc. 
Box  130  Dept.  WNH 
Fort  Smith,  NT  XOE  OPO 
Phone:  403-872-2308 
Remote  fly-in  canoe  trips. 
Unparalleled  arctic  wildlife 
concentrations.  Wildlife  biologist 
guide.  Operating  20  years.  Brochure. 

Whilewolf  Adventure  Expeditions 

#41  - 1355  Citadel  Drive  Dept.  WNH 
Port  Coquitlam,  BC  V3C  5X6 
Phone:  1-800-669-6659 
Fax:  604-944-3131 

See  Muskoxen,  Wolves  or  Caribou! 
Natural  history/photo  expeditions  by 
canoe  or  raft  on  the  Nahanni,  Bumside 
or  Coppermine  Rivers. 


And  beneath  the  waves  are  Belugas  and  Bowheads, 
Narwhals  and  Walruses,  Ringed  and  Bearded  Seals. 

High  overhead  soar  Gyrfalcons,  Golden  Eagles, 
Sandhill  Cranes,  White  Pelicans,  Snow  Geese,  Old  Squaw 
Ducks.  The  list  is  as  endless  as  the  land. 
1.3  million  square  miles  of  virtually 
untouched  wilderness.  When  you  come 
up  here,  bring  a  camera. 

And  be  ready  for  a  howl. 


Frontiers  North 

774  Bronx  Ave.  Dept.  WNH 

Winnipeg,  MB  R2K  4E9 

Phone:  204-949-2050  Fax:  204-663-6375 

Polar  Bear,  Caribou,  Arctic  Wolves, 

Peregrine  and  Gyrfalcons  at  Sila 

Lodge.  Baker  Lake  -  live  in  a 

traditional  igloo.  View  Muskox. 

Subarctic  Wilderness  Adventures 

Box  685  Dept.  WNH 

Fort  Smith,  NT  XOE  OPO 

Phone:  403-872-2467  Fax:  403-872-2126 

Guide-interpreted  overland,  water. 

Fortnights.  Wood  Buffalo  Park.  Peace/ 

Athabasca  Delta:  migratory  flyways. 

Inuit.  Caribou,  Muskoxen,  flora. 


Bathurst  Inlet  Lodge 

Box  820  Dept.  WNH 

Yellowknife,  NT  XIA  2N6 

Phone:  403-873-2595  Fax:  403-920-4263 

Central  Arctic.  Scenery,  wildlife 

.(caribou,  muskox),  flowers,  Inuit 

culture,  history.  Teacher's  course. 

Canoe  outfitting.  Brochure. 

For  information  on  other  NWT 
adventures  and  your  copy  of  the 
Explorers'  Guide,  call  1-800-661-0788, 
or  write:  Department  of  Economic 
Development  and  Tourism,  Suite  26, 
Government  of  the  Northwest 
Territories,  Box  1320, 
Yellowknife,  NT, 
Canada  XIA  2L9. 


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CANADA'S  Northwest  Territories 

Within  reach,  yet  beyond  belief 


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32-vaIve,  295-horsepower  V8.  As 
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AND  SATURDAY,  MARCH  19  •8PMET/PT 


Sponsored  in  port  by 


EXPLORE  YOUR  WORLD^"" 


NATURAL 
HISTORY 


Vol.  103,  No.  3,  March  1994 


Cover:  a  feral  Soay  ram  in  winter  fleece  mounts  the  crest  of  a  hill  in  Scotland's 
Saint  Kilda  archipelago,  where  70  percent  of  the  sheep  die  off  every  three  to  four  years. 
Story  on  page  28.  Photograph  by  Laurie  Campbell. 

4   A  Naturalist  at  Large  /  whitfieid  Gibbons 

How  to  Catch  a  Gator 

8   Macaque  See,  Macaque  Do  Meredith  f.  Small 

An  island  paradise  for  tourists  is  marred  by  monkey  muggings. 

1 2    This  View  of  Life  Stephen  Jay  Gould 
The  Persistently  Flat  Earth 

20    This  Land  Roben  H.  Mohlenbrock 

Summerby  Swatnp,  Michigan 

24   Science  Lite  Roger  l  weisch 

The  Hyphenated  American 

26   Celestial  Events  GaU  s.  cieere 

Getting  Through  the  Night 

28   Counting  Sheep  Tim  ciutton-Brock 

Wiy  do  feral  animals  on  a  remote  Scottish  island  behave  like  lemmings? 

36   Tropical  Liaisons 
ON  A  Beetle's  Back 

Jeanne  A.  Zeh  and  David  W.  Zeh 

For  some  arthropods,  large  harlequin  beetles  are  convenient  Love  Boats. 

46   Judas  Transformed  June  Nash 

During  Holy  Week  in  the  troubled  Chiapas  region  of  Mexico,  Indians  have  been  pointing 
out  their  enemies  for  decades. 

54   Britain's  Magpie  Parliament  Tim  Birkhead 

Darwin  thought  they  discussed  sex, 
but  the  birds  probably  meet  to  argue 
about  real  estate. 

60  North  America's  Magpies 
62   Reviews  /  Worth  Estes 

A  Quixotic  Search  for  New  Drugs 

76   A  Matter  of  Taste 

Raymond  Sokolov 
Breaking  Bread,  Tradition, 
atid  a  Long  Run 

82   At  the  American  Museum 
OF  Natural  History 

84   The  Natural  Moment 

Photograph  by  Robert  Caputo 
The  Eggs  and  I 

86   Authors 


NATURAL 
HISTORY 

A  monthly  magaziiie  of  the  American 
Museum  of  Natural  Hislorv 


A  Naturalist  at  Large 


Ellen  Goldensohn  Managing  Editor 

Thomas  Page  Designer 

Board  of  Editors 

RoBEK  T  B.  Anderson,  Florence  G.  Edelstein, 
Rebecca  B.  Finnell,  Jenny  Lawrence, 
ViTTORio  Maestro,  Richard  Milner,  Judy  Rice, 
Kay  Zakariasen  (Pictures) 

Contributing  Editors 

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Lisa  Stillman  Copy  Editor 

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David  Ortiz  Picture  Asst. 

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How  to  Catch  a  Gator 


AMBKtCfN:._„ 

OF  Natural  His  lu-.- 

A  125-ye<u--old  inritituiion  dediciUcd  to 
tinderstiinding  and  pre.ser>,'ing 
bioteieal  a,tid.cuUuisl  <livei-siiy 


William  T,  Golden 
Chairman.  Board  of  Trustees 

Ellen  V,  Futter 
President  and  Chief  Executive 


Natural  Histurf  (ISSN  0028-07 12)  is  publi.diixl  monlMy  by 
the  American  Museum  of  Naliind  History,  Central  Parle  Wcsl 
at  79lh  Street,  New  York,  N.Y.  10O24.  Subscriptions:  ,428.00 
a  year.  In  Canada  and  all  other  countries:  $37.00  a  year.  Sec- 
ond-class postage  pjtid  at  New  York,  N.Y.  and  at  additional 
maihng  oljiccs.  Copyright  0  1994  by  American  Museum  of 
Natural  History.  All  righls  reserved.  No  part  of  this  periodica] 
may  be  reproduced  without  written  consent  oi' Natural  History. 
Send  subscription  orders  and  undeliverable  copies  to  the  ad- 
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5000.  Harlan  lA  5i.i37.5000. 

Primed  on  recycled  paper  in  the  USA 


Or,  the  limits  of  professional  ecology 

by  J.  Whitfield  Gibbons 

Several  years  ago,  I  had  the  opportunity 
to  conduct  ecological  research  and,  at  the 
same  time,  make  what  I  thought  would  be 
a  modest  personal  contribution  to  environ- 
mental preservation.  All  I  needed  to  do 
was  catch  a  mother  alligator  and  her 
young.  The  management  of  a  South  Car- 
ohna  coastal  resort  had  told  me  that  a  large 
alligator  had  been  pestering  golfers,  and 
that  they  intended  to  notify  the  state, 
which  meant  the  animal  could  be  legally 
killed  as  a  nuisance.  I  asked  if,  instead,  we 
could  catch  it  and  remove  it  to  the  Savan- 
nah River  Ecology  Laboratory  (SREL)  for 
behavioral  study.  Both  the  resort  owners 
and  wildlife  officials  agreed. 

But  why  did  we  want  a  large,  pesky  fe- 
male alhgator  at  the  lab?  My  research  in- 
terest in  alligators  had  begun  twenty-six 
years  ago  when  I  caught  my  first  one  while 
doing  a  project  on  freshwater  turtles.  Be- 
cause they  are  coldblooded,  alligators  re- 
flect environmental  conditions  more  di- 
rectly than  mammals  and  birds,  whose 
body  temperatures  are  regulated  inter- 
nally. But  crocodilians  are  linked  closely 
to  birds — indeed,  they  are  possibly  the 
avians'  closest  living  relatives.  I  wanted  to 
continue  investigating  the  evolutionary 
and  ecological  mysteries  of  these  reptiles. 

Nest  building  and  protection  of  the 
young  are  distinctive  behaviors  of  the 
American  alhgator.  All  crocodilians  lay 
eggs  on  land  near  the  fresh  to  slightly 
brackish  water  of  coastal  marshes, 
swamps,  rivers,  and  lakes.  In  early  sum- 
mer, the  female  alligator  builds  a  large 
nest — about  three  and  a  half  feet  high  and 
up  to  seven  feet  in  diameter — of  mud  and 
vegetation  along  the  shore  and  deposits 
twenty  to  sixty  white  eggs  before  sealing 
the  nest  with  more  mud  and  vegetation. 
(The  decomposition  of  the  nesting  mater- 
ial produces  heat,  which  incubates  the 


eggs  at  a  relatively  constant  temperature.) 

Because  of  a  powerful  protective  in- 
stinct, however,  the  mother  often  remains 
in  the  vicinity  of  the  nest  until  the  late 
summer  when  the  young  hatch.  Thus  any- 
body inadvertently  approaching  the  nest 
area  may  suddenly  find  an  enormous,  hiss- 
ing reptile  charging  overland.  If  one  stands 
one's  ground  and  does  not  molest  the  nest 
or  pick  up  a  baby,  the  mother  alligator  usu- 
ally retreats.  Or  she  may  not.  If  the  mother 
hears  the  babies  hatching,  she  may  remove 
the  vegetation  and  even  help  the  eight- 
inch-long  hatchlings  to  the  water  by  carry- 
ing them  in  her  mouth. 

Indeed,  this  strong  parental  care  in  alli- 
gators indeed  seems  more  closely  allied  to 
birds  than  to  other  groups  of  reptiles.  A  fe- 
male turtle,  for  example,  digs  a  nest,  de- 
posits her  eggs,  and  returns  to  the  water, 
leaving  the  eggs  behind.  Prior  to  egg  lay- 
ing, she  stores  energy  and  nutrients  in  her 
fatty  tissues.  These  resources  are  allocated 
to  each  egg  in  the  form  of  a  large  yolk  re- 
serve and  provide  all  of  the  nourishment 
needed  both  for  embryonic  growth  in  the 
egg  and  for  early  growth  and  maintenance 
of  the  hatchling  turtle. 

Some  years  ago,  Justin  Congdon,  my 
colleague  at  SREL,  and  I  discovered  that 
in  alligator  eggs  the  proportion  of  original 
egg  Upids  that  remained  in  the  hatchling 
was  actually  higher  than  that  in  turtles. 
Thus,  the  newborn  alhgator  entered  the 
aquatic  habitat  with  more  fat  reserves  than 
any  species  of  turtle  we  had  studied.  In 
capturing  the  alligator  and  her  babies,  I 
hoped  to  find  out  more  about  alhgators 
and  their  young. 

This  particular  mother  alligator  didn't 
intend  to  be  a  pest,  but  people  kept  hitting 
Uttle  white  balls  close  to  the  lake  where 
she  and  her  babies  lived.  She  would 
emerge  firom  the  lake,  chase  the  golfers 


4    Natural  History  3/94 


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Natural  History  3/94 


2-EBS 


away,  and  occasionally  eat  a  golf  ball.  Al- 
ligators are  known  to  ingest  stones,  pine 
cones,  and  other  nonfood  items  that  are  re- 
tained in  a  part  of  the  stomach  equivalent 
to  a  bird's  gizzard.  Such  materials  may 
help  grind  food  that  is  swallowed  whole. 

One  preeminent  question  a  person 
should  ask  when  wading  through  swamps 
and  along  lake  margins  in  search  of  North 
America's  largest  reptile  is  whether  alliga- 
tors attack  hunians.  After  all,  male  Ameri- 
can alligators  often  grow  to  more  than  thir- 
teen feet  and  females  to  nine  feet.  This 
particular  six-foot  animal  was  impressive, 
too;  and  enough  rare  and  spectacular  re- 
ports of  seemingly  unprovoked  attacks  on 
humans  had  made  me  aware  that  alligators 
can  be  highly  dangerous.  Plus,  this  alliga- 
tor was  a  mother,  and  the  good  behavior 
record  of  mother  alligators  had  been  tar- 
nished before,  especially  in  situations 
when  maternal  instinct  overrode  a  pre- 
sumably innate  fear  of  humans. 

Alligators  have  a  problem  faced  by  a  lot 
of  us — you  can  pick  your  friends  but  not 
your  relatives.  Not  that  alligators  have 
many  friends,  but  as  one  of  almost  two 
dozen  crocodilian  species,  they  do  have 
some  notorious  Old  World  kin.  Instances 
of  crocodiles  eating  humans  in  Africa  and 
Indonesia  mean  that  New  World  crocodil- 
ians  will  never  be  completely  above  suspi- 
cion. Yet  American  alligators,  if  unmo- 
lested, are  shy  and  peaceful  and,  based  on 
the  evidence,  do  not  consider  humans  a 
standard  menu  item.  They  unfortunately 
exemplify  how  a  species  can  have  its  nat- 
ural rights  violated  because  of  public  mis- 
understanding. 

I  took  two  students,  Jeff  Lovich  and 
Tony  Mills,  out  at  night  to  make  the  cap- 
ture. Night  is  usually  the  best  time  to  find 
alligators,  both  big  and  small,  because  of 
the  reflective  eyeshine  that  ranges  from 
red  to  yellow.  This  particular  September 
night  was  absolutely  gorgeous,  the  perfect 
setting  for  a  Gothic  novel.  The  light  from 
the  recently  risen  flill  moon  was  sphntered 
by  pine  and  palmettos  and  turned  the  fair- 
way into  slivers  of  white,  black,  and 
shades  of  gray.  Scattered  ground  fog  and 
mist  gave  the  surroundings  an  eerie  ap- 
pearance, and  the  only  sounds  were  a  dis- 
tant chorus  of  green  tree  frogs  and  the 
hooting  of  a  faraway  barred  owl.  We 
peered  ahead  searching  for  the  pond 
where  the  alligators  lived. 

With  Tony  being  six  four  and  Jeff  six 
two,  I  anticipated  no  problem  in  handling 
this  six-foot  mother  alligator.  I  even 
brought  along  my  twelve-year-old  son 
Michael  to  watch  the  show.  When  we  got 


to  the  lake,  our  flashlights  revealed  the  re- 
flected red  eyeshine  of  a  pair  of  gator  eyes. 
The  big,  gleaming  eyes  were  surrounded 
by  what  seemed  like  a  swarm  of  fireflies 
on  the  water's  surface — two  dozen  pairs  of 
little  yellow  eyes,  those  of  the  babies. 

Our  plan:  We  had  a  noose  attached  to  a 
cable  on  a  bamboo  pole.  When  the  mother 
came  near  shore,  we  planned  to  slip  the 
noose  over  her  head  and  pull  it  tightly 
around  her  neck.  We  would  then  put  big 
rubber  bands  on  her  snout  to  keep  the 
mouth  closed  while  we  carried  her  back  to 
the  jeep.  Her  plan:  Swim  around  in  the 
middle  of  the  lake  with  the  babies.  And  so 
she  did.  Our  revised  plan:  Catch  one  of  the 
babies.  Since  baby  alligators  in  distress 
make  a  distinctive  grunting  sound,  the 
mother  should  come  close  to  shore  to  in- 
vestigate. When  she  got  close  enough,  we 
could  snare  her  with  the  noose,  and  that 
would  be  it. 

Most  of  the  babies  were  with  the 
mother,  but  a  few  adventurous  ones  were 
in  the  vegetation  along  the  shore,  perhaps 
foraging  for  crustaceans  and  insects.  (Alli- 
gators more  than  five  feet  long  will  eat  any 
creature  inhabiting  the  land  or  water  that 
they  can  catch  and  swallow,  including 
muskrats,  cottonmouths,  fish,  turtles,  rac- 
coons, and  waterfowl.)  We  walked  around 
the  edge  of  the  lake  and  caught  one  of  the 
babies.  It  immediately  started  making  the 
sound  of  a  frightened  baby  aUigator  and, 
to  our  satisfaction,  along  came  the  mother. 
The  two  crimson  eyes  headed  straight  to- 
ward the  shore,  fast.  I  handed  the  baby  al- 
ligator to  Michael;  the  rest  of  us  hid  be- 
hind two  big  pine  trees. 

As  the  mother  reached  the  shoreline, 
Tony  got  ready  to  jump  down  and  use  the 
noose.  Only  she  didn't  slow  down  at  the 
water's  edge.  The  next  thing  we  knew,  she 
was  up  on  land  with  a  startlingly  loud  hiss, 
lumbering  toward  Michael  as  fast  as  her 
chunky  legs  could  carry  her.  Her  heavy 
tail  swished  against  the  sweet  myrtle 
bushes  along  the  shoreline.  The  crushed 
leaves  filled  the  air  with  a  pleasant,  per- 
fumy  scent  incongruous  with  the  charging, 
hissing  reptile. 

Michael  was  holding  the  baby  up  in  the 
air  and  saying,  "Dad,  Dad,  what  do  you 
want  me  to  do  now?"  Being  trained  pro- 
fessionals, we  each  offered  expert  advice. 
Jeff  said,  "Climb  a  tree!"  Tony  said, 
"Throw  the  baby  in  the  lake!"  I  said, 
"Run!"  Responding  to  my  attempt  at 
parental  care,  Michael  turned  and  disap- 
peared into  the  woods,  still  holding  this 
squeaking  toy  of  an  alligator.  With  a  slight 
head  start,  a  scared  twelve-year-old  can 


run  a  lot  faster  than  an  angry  alligator,  but 
the  mother  was  still  in  pursuit. 

She  was  moving  pretty  fast  when  she 
passed  the  three  of  us,  but  Tony  managed 
to  slip  the  noose  over  her  head,  and  Jeff 
and  I  grabbed  the  bamboo  pole.  We  braced 
ourselves,  ready  for  the  cable  to  tighten. 
But  instead  of  continuing  forward,  she 
abruptly  reversed  her  direction,  catching 
the  three  of  us  completely  by  surprise.  She 
turned  back  toward  the  lake,  dived  into  the 
water,  and  plunged  to  the  bottom. 

Unfortunately,  we  all  had  good  grips  on 
the  pole.  The  three  of  us  were  yanked 
down  the  slippery  bank  into  the  lake.  The 
noose  had  slipped  off,  and  the  thought  of 
being  in  the  water  with  an  irate,  unfettered 
mother  alligator  impelled  us  to  scramble 
out  almost  as  fast  as  we  had  gone  in. 
Michael  emerged  from  the  woods  and  re- 
turned the  baby  to  the  water.  With  some 
discussion  about  safer  and  more  success- 
ful previous  collecting  expeditions,  we 
slunk  home  in  defeat. 

Catching  an  alligator  should  have  been 
no  problem  for  trained  professionals  from 
an  ecology  lab,  but  this  encounter  left  me 
with  some  questions  about  how  well 
trained  we  were  and  whether  we  should 
really  be  classified  as  professionals.  Re- 
search ecologists  must  be  reminded  occa- 
sionally that  they  do  not  know  everything 
about  animals,  plants,  and  the  environ- 
ment. Alligators  have  effectively  brought 
this  to  my  attention  more  than  once.  They 
also  serve  as  a  strong  reminder  that  biolo- 
gists still  have  much  to  learn  about  the  be- 
havior, ecology,  and  evolutionary  relation- 
ships of  even  the  most  familiar  species. 

One  of  our  current  questions  is  whether 
female  American  aUigators,  like  birds,  di- 
rectly or  indirectly  provide  food  to  their 
young  in  some  situations.  This  seems  like 
a  reasonable  extension  of  their  demonstra- 
bly complex  parental  care  and  was  one 
reason  we  wanted  a  mother  alUgator  with 
recenfly  bom  young.  I  still  have  not  ob- 
served a  mother  alligator  feeding  her 
young.  However,  after  seeing  the  intense 
interest  at  least  one  mother  had  for  taking 
care  of  her  oiTspring,  I  feel  certain  that  if 
parental  feeding  by  alUgators  does  not  al- 
ready exist,  evolutionarily  it  may  be  only  a 
baby  step  away. 

J.  Whitfield  Gibbons  is  a  University  of 
Georgia  professor  of  ecology  at  the  Sa- 
vannah River  Ecology  Laboratory.  This 
article  is  adapted  from  his  new  book, 
Keeping  All  the  Pieces:  Perspectives  on 
Natural  History  and  the  Environment 
(Smithsonian  Institution  Press,  1993). 


6    Natural  History  3/94 


To  err  is  human. 
To  guarantee,  divine. 

That  misplaced  apostrophe  in  our  name  is  a  boo-boo 
from  the  early  days,  when  our  quality  control  was  (obviously) 
a  little  skimpy. 

Lots  of  people,  especially  English  teachers,  have  taken  us 
to  task  for  it.  It  makes  us  cringe  today.  But  in  a  funny  way,  that 
out- of- place  apostrophe  has  served  our  customers  very  well. 

You  see,  every  time  we  think  about  it  it  reminds  us  that 
we're  only  human.  And  that  we  can't  ever  be  too  careful  about 
what  we  sell  or  how  we  deal  with  the  good  folks  who  favor 
us  with  their  business. 

Truth  is,  we  depend  on  their  trust  As  direct  merchants,  we 
sell  by  catalog- classic  clothing,  soft  luggage,  home  furnishings. 
Folks  have  to  feel  that  anything  they  see  in  our  catalog  will 
deliver  as  promised. 

Still,  we  know  that  occasionally  we  will  goof.  So,  we  add 
one  more  feature  to  our  product  line,  the  Lands'  End  guarantee: 

We  accept  any  return,  for  any  reason,  at  any  time. 
Without  any  conditions. 

We  want  no  mistakes  about  that. 

Guaranteed.  Period! 


m994  I^ndsEitd.lKC. 


r, 


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Or  mail  this  coupon  to:  1  Lands'  End  Lane,  DeptHJ ,  Dodgeville,  Wl  53595 


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Macaque  See,  Macaque  Do 

At  tourist  sites  in  Bali,  hwnans  are  teaching  their  fellow  primates  some  bad  habits 
by  Meredith  F.  Small 


Early  last  July,  I  boarded  a  plane  for  a 
thirty-six-hour  journey  to  Bali,  the  tropical 
island  vacation  spot.  Contrary  to  what 
most  of  my  friends  thought,  this  eight- 
week  trip  to  hidonesia  was  not  really  in- 
tended as  a  hohday  of  sun,  surf,  and  shop- 
ping— my  assignment  was  to  evaluate  the 
effect  of  tourism  on  the  native  Balinese 
monkey,  the  long-tailed  macaque. 

My  last  research  project  on  monkey  be- 
havior had  taken  place  five  years  earlier, 
and  I  felt  a  surge  of  excitement  when  I 
reached  my  primary  research  site,  the 
Sangeh  Monkey  Forest  in  the  center  of 
Bali.  As  I  walked  down  a  winding  cement 
path  through  a  lovely  patch  of  nutmeg  for- 
est to  Sangeh 's  central  temple,  Pura  Bukit 
Sari,  I  suddenly  saw  them,  scampering 
among  the  tourists,  leaping  over  temple 
walls,  and  generally  acting  like  mon- 
keys— curious,  social,  and  full  of  energy. 

Watching  them,  I  felt  the  old  observa- 
tion skills  chck  back  into  gear:  That  one 
with  a  bent  tail  wiU  be  easy  to  identify 
again.  The  female  over  there  is  in  heat. 
Two  babies  are  less  than  three  months  old. 
I  see  at  least  four  young  infants.  This 
group  has  few  subadult  males. 

Lost  in  this  primatological  reverie,  I 
failed  to  see  an  adult  female  approaching 
to  my  left.  Suddenly  she  streaked  past  me, 
a  blur  of  green-gray  fur  so  close  I  could 
smell  the  familiar  monkey  odor.  In  mid- 
leap,  her  tiny  fingers  gripped  the  earpiece 
of  my  brand-new  sunglasses.  She  uncere- 
moniously yanked  them  off  my  face  and 
sped  into  the  forest. 

I  was  stunned.  The  swiftness  of  her  cal- 
culated thievery  was  breathtaking.  (More 
important,  how  could  I  spend  day  after  day 
recording  the  minute  details  of  monkey 
behavior  without  a  decent  pair  of  shades?) 
Accompanied  by  a  temple  guard,  I  tracked 
my  assailant  deep  into  the  woods.  She  fi- 
nally stopped  running,  only  to  sit  and 
chew  contemplatively  on  my  glasses,  her 
brown  eyes  shifting  back  and  forth  be- 
tween her  pursuers.  The  guard  tossed  her  a 

Aiticle  adapted  from  "The  Monkey  Bandits  of  Bali,"  by  Meredith  F,  Small. 
Repiimcd  h)j  arrangement  widi  ComeU  Magazine, 


few  bags  of  peanuts.  Needing  both  hands 
to  collect  this  booty,  she  dropped  the 
glasses  in  favor  of  something  more  di- 
gestible and  sped  away. 

"You  must  not  wear  glasses  near  the 
monkeys,"  instructed  the  guard.  "They 
also  steal  wallets,  money,  hair  ribbons,  and 
handkerchiefs.  And  don't  try  to  hide  any- 
thing in  your  pockets,  because  they  will 
find  it."  His  description  sounded  more  ap- 
plicable to  big-city  pickpockets  than  to 
monkeys  on  their  home  turf.  As  I  returned 
to  the  main  area,  I  noticed  tourists  holding 
on  to  their  possessions  for  dear  life,  and 
monkeys  clearly  poised  for  thievery.  Ani- 
mals stood  up  on  two  legs  and  yanked  on 
clothes.  They  jumped  on  people,  pulled 
hair,  and  rifled  pockets.  These  normally 
gentle  and  friendly  animals  had  turned 
into  beggars  and  thieves.  Something  had 
gone  terribly  wrong  at  Sangeh. 

As  my  study  progressed,  I  reaUzed  that 
I  had  been  a  victim  of  a  monkey  mugging 
only  because  the  monkeys  were  victims 
themselves.  Bad  management  of  a  tourist 
site,  coupled  with  uneducated  visitors  with 
no  appreciation  of  macaques  as  fellow  pri- 
mates, had  resulted  in  a  twisted  relation- 
ship between  the  visitors  and  the  very  ani- 
mals they  had  come  to  see. 

All  monkeys  have  a  special  place  in 
Hindu  religion.  This  reverence  stems 
partly  from  the  role  of  the  monkey  god, 
Hanuman,  in  the  classic  Hindu  epic  Ra- 
mayana.  According  to  the  story,  Prince 
Rama's  beloved  wife,  Sita,  was  kidnapped 
by  the  evil  giant  King  Rawana.  The  mon- 
key king,  Sugriva,  had  once  aided  Prince 
Rama,  so  Sugriva's  general,  Hanuman, 
was  enlisted  to  gather  an  army,  wreak 
havoc,  and  rescue  the  princess. 

Sangeh  itself  also  features  importantly 
in  the  Balinese  version  of  the  Ramayana 
story.  Clever  Hanuman  and  his  monkey 
battalions  capture  Mount  Mahameru  and 
use  the  two  halves  of  the  holy  mountain  to 
crush  the  giant.  Part  of  the  mountain  falls 
to  earth  and  lands  at  Sangeh  with  a  troop 
of  monkeys  hanging  tight. 

Monkeys  thus  retain  the  status  of  privi- 


leged visitors,  especially  on  temple 
grounds,  where  they  are  treated  with  great 
tolerance.  Like  aU  living  objects,  monkeys 
also  embody  the  spirits  of  Hindu  gods, 
both  good  and  evil.  When  a  monkey  leaps 
onto  a  temple  altar,  destroying  carefully 
placed  palm  baskets  of  sacred  offerings 
and  gorging  on  the  fruit  and  rice  intended 
for  higher  powers,  the  Balinese  ignore  the 
vandalism — after  aU,  a  spirit  might  now 
reside  in  that  monkey  and  might  need  the 
food. 

Macaques  are  highly  adaptable  mon- 
keys that  live  in  deep  forests,  on  high 
mountains,  or  along  the  seaside.  About 
five  million  years  ago,  the  genus  Macaca, 
of  which  longtails  are  one  of  nineteen  spe- 
cies, radiated  out  of  North  Africa  into  Eu- 
rope and  east  into  Asia.  Macaques  now  in- 
habit Morocco  and  Algeria,  India, 
Pakistan,  China,  most  of  Southeast  Asia, 
and  Japan;  and  long-tailed  macaques 
{Macaca  fascicularis)  have  lived  on  Bah 
longer  than  humans.  Although  they  eat 
just  about  anything,  they  prefer  fruits  and 
vegetables.  In  a  sense,  they  are  the  cock- 
roaches of  the  primate  world,  able  to  adapt 
well  to  changes,  move  into  new  environ- 
ments, and  scrounge  when  food  gets 
scarce. 

Their  humanhke  sociality  makes  these 
monkeys  tourist  attractions.  We  aren't  as 
genetically  related  to  macaqueS  as  we  are 
to  the  apes,  such  as  chimpanzees,  but  we 
see  ourselves  in  their  behavior — the  con- 
stant social  interactions,  the  jostling  for  hi- 
erarchical position,  the  bickering  and 
making  up  are  all  similar  to  the  daily 
machinations  of  human  society.  This  con- 
nection between  humans  and  the 
macaques  either  fascinates  or  repels 
tourists,  and  I  saw  both  types  of  visitors  in 
Bali. 

During  my  weeks  at  Sangeh,  I  watched 
monkeys  eat  409  peanuts,  67  bits  of  bread, 
49  chunks  of  fruit,  and  endless  quantities 
of  crackers,  cookies,  and  candy.  I  saw 
them  chew  on  cigarettes,  suck  on  match- 
sticks,  rip  apart  film  boxes,  and  play  with 
discarded  plastic  bags.  Feeding  the  ani- 


8    Natural  History  3/94 


f 


YOUR  SEARCH 
FOR  A  PERFECT  CUP  OF  COFFEE 
^  ENDED  IN  G^kT^E^WEDEN 
I  MORE  THAN  100  YEARS  AGO 


A  great  cup  of  coffee  is  a  revelation.  Once 
you've  tasted  it,  you've  experienced  one  of 
life's  true  pleasures.  But  hard  as  you 
search,  you  can't  seem  to  find  that  superb 
taste  again — even  in  gourmet  shops. 
Fortunately  for  coffee  lovers,  a  Swede 
named  Victor  Theodor  Engvirall  had  the 
Victor  Th.  Engwaii  ggjug  passion  for  quality  Over  a  century 
ago,  he  started  a  company  in  the  small  seaport  of  Gavle, 
and  a  family  obsession  was  born. 

Down  tk'ough  the  years,  generations  of  Engwalls 
roasted,  tested  and  tasted.  Even  today,  they  continue  their 
endeavor  to  blend  a  coffee  that  reaches  perfection.  A  cof- 
fee that  is  rich,  and  full-bodied,  without  bitterness.  One  as 
satisfying  in  the  cup  as  fine  coffee  smells  at  the  moment 
of  grinding. 

They  say  that  one  chilly  day  King  Gustav  V  sailed  into 
Gavle  and  tasted  it.  So  impressed  was  he  that  he  awarded 
Gevalia*  Kaffe  the  Royal  Seal  of  Approval. 

Today,  Gevalia  is  Sweden's  most  popular  coffee.  That's 
quite  an  achievement  since  Swedes  feel  as  passionately 
about  coffee  as  the  French  do  fine  wine.  They  know  how 

crucial  each  bean  is  to  the 
delicate  balance  of  flavors. 
Kenyan  AA,  Costa  Rican, 
Guatemalan— it  takes  up  to 
6  varieties  of  the  rarest 
arabica  beans  to  create  the 
high  flavor  notes,  the  deli- 


cate nuances,  the  fine  aromatics  in  Gevalia. 

There's  yet  another  secret  to  Gevalia's  flavor:  its  impec- 
cable freshness.  Roasted  quickly,  it's  then  vacuum  sealed  to 
ensure  freshness.  Because  even  the  finest  whole  beans  rap- 
idly grow  stale  when  exposed  to  air,  as  in  gourmet  shop  bins. 

REGULAR  &  NATURALLY  DECAFFEINATED 

Gevalia  Kaffe  comes  whole  bean  or 
ground  in  a  variety  of  full-bodied  roasts. 
But  perhaps  the  biggest  revelation  is 
Gevalia  Decaffeinated.  Caffeine  is 
removed  naturally  with  the  same  ele- 
ments that  put  the  effervescence  in 
sparkling  water  The  result  is  a  full 
flavored  decaffeinated  that  is  no  longer 
a  compromise. 


Whole  Beaa 


.!^ 


Ground. 


A  REGAL  BRIBE 


GEVALIA  KAFFE  A  SWEDISH  obsession 


©  1994  VctTh  Engwall  &  Co.  If  reply  (ofm  js  missng,  fof  oelails  wrtle  lo  Gevalia  Kaffe  Impon  Service,  P  O  Box  1 1 424,  Des  Moinos.  lA  50336,  Or  call  1-80(M78-2687. 
Now  available  in  Canada. 


As  beans  of  Gevalia's  quality  are  extremely 
expensive  and  not  available  in  mass  market 
quantities,  the  only  way  to  obtain  a  trial  supply 
of  Gevalia  Kaffe  is  directly  from  our  Import  Ser- 
vice. Just  fill  out  the  attached  reply  form.  We 
will  also  send  you  the  gift  shown  there,  free. 

Now,  at  last,  your  search  for 
a  great  cup  of  coffee  has 
ended  here  in  Gavle. 
The  Swedes  have 
known  that  for  years. 


mals  was  encouraged  by  locals  outside  the 
forest;  at  dozens  of  stalls,  men  and  women 
relentlessly  hawked  both  monkey  food 
and  souvenirs.  Huge  buses  and  smaller 
minivans  disgorged  more  than  a  thousand 
people  a  day  to  view  the  monkeys.  Al- 
though many  of  the  tourists  were  Asian, 
Australian,  or  European,  by  far  the  great- 
est number  of  visitors  were  from  other  In- 
donesian islands,  such  as  Java. 

After  a  few  days  of  observation,  I  un- 
derstood why  the  monkeys  were  so  badly 
behaved — they  have  been  taught  to  be  ob- 
noxious. At  the  entrance  to  the  temple  at 
the  Sangeh  Monkey  Forest,  about  thirty 
men  who  call  themselves  "guides"  sit  and 
wait  for  the  tourists.  Although  dressed  in 
appropriate  temple  garb — a  sarong  and 
scarf  wound  at  the  waist — they  are  not  of- 
ficials of  the  temple;  this  is  a  business. 
Each  man  owns  a  Polai'oid  camera,  and  his 
job  is  to  manipulate  the  tourist  into  buying 
a  photograph.  The  method  is  simple:  As  a 
tourist  enters,  a  guide  tags  along  offering 
tidbits  of  information  (mostly  incoirect) 
about  monkey  behavior.  At  the  first  sight 
of  a  monkey,  the  guide  pulls  bits  of  food 
out  of  his  pack  and  puts  it  on  the  tourist's 
shoulder.  The  monkey,  of  course,  leaps  up. 
The  animal  quietly  munches  away,  and  the 
Polaroid  camera  flashes.  The  monkey  is 
then  shooed  off,  often  hit,  and  the  guide 
demands  6,000  rupia  (about  $4). 

In  most  cases,  people  are  amused  and 
give  the  money.  But  sometimes  the 
clammy  toes  of  a  monkey  on  an  unsus- 
pecting neck  cause  real  terror.  The  tourist 
will  twist  and  turn,  while  the  monkey, 
tossed  about  and  confused,  becomes  agi- 
tated and  bites.  These  protest  bites  never 
break  the  skin,  but  they  do  hurt  and 
bruise — I  know  from  personal  experience 
(about  thirty  bites). 

The  guides — I  called  them  the  Polaroid 
gang — also  foster  mass  thievery  among 
the  monkeys.  When  a  monkey  steals  a 
nonfood  item,  such  as  a  pair  of  glasses,  it 
gets  rewarded  with  a  bunch  of  bananas  or 
a  bag  of  peanuts  from  the  guide.  The  pur- 
pose is  to  distract  the  thief  and  grab  the 
goods  back.  From  the  monkey's  point  of 
view,  stealing  translates  into  an  edible  re- 
ward. This  destructive  cycle  instigated  by 
the  Polaroid  gang  guides,  who  are  just  try- 
ing to  make  a  living  in  a  poor  country,  has 
been  going  on  for  over  a  decade. 

The  scene  at  Sangeh  brings  out  the 
worst  in  both  human  and  monkey  behav- 
ior— stealing,  screaming,  injury,  and  in- 
timidation. The  day  I  was  attacked  by  a 
large  subadult  male  who  gnawed  on  my 
neck  to  get  my  glasses,  I  decided  it  was 


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On  an  obliging  tourist's  shoulder,  a  monkey  takes  time  to  eat  a  banana. 

Meredith  F.  Small 


time  to  leave.  I  was  beginning  to  hate  my 
subjects — the  tourists  and  the  monkeys. 

I  expected  the  situation  at  Sangeh  to  be 
repeated  all  across  Bali  because  of  the 
pressure  of  tourism.  The  island  is  the  start- 
ing point  for  most  tours  of  Indonesia.  It  is 
easily  accessible  from  Asia  and  Australia 
and  has  been  known  for  decades  to  Euro- 
pean tourists  as  the  land  of  perfect 
beaches.  Bali  also  has  cultural  allure,  re- 
volving around  its  own  brand  of  Hin- 
duism. To  visit  Bali  is  to  see  a  delicate  bal- 
let accompanied  by  a  mystical  gamelan 
orchestra,  watch  women  with  huge  loads 
of  fruit  balanced  on  their  heads  move  in  an 
undulating  line  toward  a  temple,  or  bar- 
gain with  fine  craftsmen  for  carved 
wooden  masks  or  intricately  cut  shadow 
puppets.  Until  now,  the  Balinese  have 
been  able  to  retain  their  culture,  despite 
the  onslaught  of  two  million  tourists  annu- 
ally. But  as  the  monkeys  of  Sangeh 
demonstrate,  the  relationship  between 
Bali  and  its  tourists  is  wearing  thin. 

I  left  Sangeh  and  headed  south  to  one  of 
the  more  remote  temples,  Pura  Uluwatu. 
Perched  on  the  southwestern  tip  of  the  is- 
land, the  temple  looks  like  the  prow  of  a 
ship  thrust  into  the  sea.  A  troop  of  about 
fifty  longtails  come  and  go  here,  wander- 
ing through  the  low  scrub  and  out  on  the 
cliffs.  "I  feed  them  whenever  I  see  them," 
the  guard  told  me,  "but  that  isn't  every 
day."  He  pointed  out  that  there  are  mon- 
keys living  along  the  edge  of  the  sea  on  the 
cliffs,  undisturbed  by  the  surfers  who 
come  from  all  comers  of  the  world  to  work 
the  waves  of  Uluwatu  Beach. 


My  time  at  Uluwatu  was  spent  in  peace- 
ful reflection.  The  monkeys  came  around, 
checked  me  out,  took  a  few  peanuts  from 
the  hundred  or  so  tourists  that  passed  by 
daily,  and  left.  They  only  became  aggres- 
sive when  they  spied  a  plastic  water  bottle. 
To  these  inhabitants  of  the  dry  Bukit 
Peninsula,  water — not  food — was  the  lim- 
iting resource.  Monkeys  would  sneak  up 
to  tourists,  grab  bottles  right  from  their 
hands,  and  empty  them.  Monkeys  only  sat 
on  people — myself  included — to  get  a 
good  view  of  other  group  members  or 
maybe  to  groom  their  hosts,  systemati- 
cally flicking  through  hair  in  search  of  dry 
flakes  of  skin. 

Uluwatu  is  the  opposite  of  Sangeh.  The 
wheels  of  tourism  have  not  yet  been  set 
into  motion  at  Uluwatu.  Consequently, 
fewer  tourists  are  around  to  lure  the  mon- 
keys with  food,  and  there  are  fewer  hawk- 
ers and  no  Polaroid  camera  guides. 

Evidence  of  a  peaceful  monkey-human 
interaction  made  me  wonder  how  an  area 
could  develop  from  the  low-key  situation 
at  Uluwatu  to  the  intense  arena  at  Sangeh. 
I  began  hearing  about  another  temple, 
Alas  Kedaton  where,  according  to  many 
travelers,  "the  monkeys  are  nice."  This  I 
had  to  see — a  highly  visible  tourist  site 
with  "nice"  monkeys? 

Alas  Kedaton  is  a  tiny  scrap  of  forest 
near  the  city  of  Tabanan,  west  of  Sangeh. 
In  addition  to  two  troops  of  monkeys,  sev- 
eral hundred  flying  foxes,  or  fruit  bats,  in- 
habit the  trees.  The  site  doesn't  yet  have 
the  constant  influx  of  tourists  that  Sangeh 
has,  but  a  visit  to  Alas  Kedaton  now  ap- 


10    Natural  History  3/94 


pears  on  many  day-tour  packages.  The 
major  difference  between  Sangeh  and 
Alas  Kedaton,  however,  is  the  attitude  of 
the  people  in  charge.  The  neaity  village  of 
Kukuh  has  taken  an  active  interest  in  the 
welfare  of  both  the  tourists  and  the  mon- 
keys. As  a  result,  this  site  offers  the  most 
pleasant  interaction  between  humans  and 
their  primate  cousins. 

Like  Sangeh,  the  approach  to  Alas 
Kedaton  is  flanked  by  rows  of  souvenir 
shops.  But  no  one  harasses  the  traveler 
into  buying  food  for  monkeys,  a  cold 
drink,  or  yet  another  sarong.  Instead,  the 
community  has  installed  a  system  to  tone 
down  the  pressure  on  tourists.  A  desig- 
nated guide,  usually  a  woman,  accompa- 
nies each  group  of  tourists  into  the  forest. 
She  encourages  the  tourists  to  buy  only 
potatoes  for  the  monkeys  from  one  ven- 
dor. ("It's  better  for  the  monkeys,"  she  will 
say,  and  this  is  true.)  The  guide  then  puts 
tourists  through  explicit  monkey-feeding 
paces.  "Bend  down,  open  your  hand,  give 
only  one  piece  at  a  time." 

Although  no  tourist  could  possibly  imi- 
tate the  graceful  genuflection  of  a  Balinese 


woman,  the  action  does  put  the  giver  on 
the  same  level  as  the  monkey.  As  a  result, 
monkeys  never  jump  on  anyone.  In  addi- 
tion, the  guides  are  constantly  on  the  alert 
for  actions  that  might  harm  the  animals. 
They  seem  to  know  how  to  say  "Don't 
touch  the  monkeys"  in  about  five  lan- 
guages. When  the  guide  has  taken  the  vis- 
itors on  a  short  stroll  to  see  the  flying 
foxes,  and  once  around  its  small  temple, 
she  requests  a  visit  to  her  shop.  If  the 
tourists  say  no,  they  are  free  to  head  for  the 
parking  lot. 

Nyoman  Oka,  nicknamed  Juli,  is  the 
principal  monkey-food  seller.  Her  hus- 
band is  responsible  for  the  organization 
and  growth  of  Alas  Kedaton  as  a  tourist  at- 
traction. She  explained  to  me,  over  a  lunch 
of  hot  Balinese  chicken  and  rice:  "If  any 
shop  owner  bothers  a  tourist,  they  are 
fined  25,000  rupia  [about  $12].  It  isn't  nice 
for  tourists  to  always  have  someone  ask- 
ing them  to  buy  things."  When  I  inquired 
about  the  rows  and  rows  of  new  shops  ap- 
pearing near  the  gate,  thinking  only  of  the 
pressure  of  more  human  traffic  on  the 
monkeys,  she  laughed.  "Those  aren't  new 


A  statue  of  a  Hindu  deity  at  Sangeh  Temple  serves  as  a 
look-out  for  a  long-tailed  macaque. 

Hutchinson  Library 


shops.  We  are  moving  the  ones  here  out 
there,  and  we  will  build  more  forest  or  per- 
haps a  garden  here."  In  their  ambition  to 
increase  the  flow  of  tourists  through  the 
area,  the  people  of  Kukuh  have  taken  into 
consideration  not  only  what  the  visit  will 
be  like  for  tourists,  but  also  what  will  be 
best  for  the  monkeys.  With  the  appropriate 
controls,  monkeys  and  tourists  can  have  a 
reasonable  experience. 

A  comparison  of  the  three  temples  gave 
me  the  data  I  needed  as  an  academic,  but 
my  memories  of  the  summer  were  of  more 
than  maps  of  forests  and  counts  of  peanuts 
snatched  from  pockets.  Most  of  all,  I  re- 
member time  spent  with  the  animals,  deep 
in  the  forest  away  from  the  intrusive  gaze 
of  tourists.  I  often  sat  quietly  with  a  group 
of  females  as  they  groomed  one  another, 
and  smiled  as  babies  made  their  first  wob- 
bly steps  away  from  mom.  Sometimes  I 
ran  after  screaming  males  as  they  fought 
out  a  hierarchical  disagreement. 

I  also  remember  moments  with  my 
other  subjects,  the  tourists.  At  all  three 
sites,  I  was  repeatedly  asked  about  my  re- 
search. I  always  responded  with  my  most 
used  Indonesian  sentence,  "Saya  menyed- 
lidiki  monyet"  (I  study  monkeys),  fol- 
lowed by  a  quick  natural  history  of 
macaques.  I  emphasized  the  macaque's  at- 
tachment to  family  and  friends  and  ex- 
plained specific  behaviors  as  they  un- 
folded right  in  front  of  us.  Balinese  tour 
guides  often  sat  with  me  and  watched  me 
watch  monkeys  while  their  human  charges 
wandered  through  the  temple  grounds.  We 
talked  together  about  the  long  history  of 
macaques  on  Bali  and  compared  notes  on 
the  different  sites  ai^ound  the  the  island.  I 
soon  realized  that  educating  an  eager  pub- 
lic was  as  much  my  job  as  collecting  data 
for  analysis.  Obviously,  the  best  way  to 
save  the  monkeys  from  exploitation  and 
extinction  is  to  create  a  mutually  respect- 
ful alliance  between  the  tourists  and  the 
animals. 

Back  home,  a  carving  of  the  monkey 
god,  Hanuman,  hangs  over  my  desk  and 
watches  as  I  enter  endless  columns  of 
numbers  into  my  computer.  Hanuman 
laughs  because  he  knows  that  these  data 
mean  little  in  the  real  world  of  his  monkey 
armies.  Once  more,  he  is  needed  to  battle 
an  evil  foe,  but  this  time,  the  monkeys 
themselves  need  Hanuman's  protection. 

Meredith  F.  Small  is  an  associate  profes- 
sor of  anthropology  at  Coniell.  Her  book 
Female  Choices:  Sexual  Behavior  of  Fe- 
male Primates  was  published  last  year  by 
Cornell  University  Press. 


11 


This  View  of  Life 


The  Persistently  Rat  Earth 

Irrationality  and  dogmatism  are  foes  of  both  science  and  religion 


by  Stephen  Jay  Gould 

The  mortal  remains  of  the  Venerable 
Bede  (673-735)  lie  in  Durham  Cathedral, 
under  a  tombstone  with  an  epitaph  that 
must  win  all  prizes  for  a  "no  nonsense"  ap- 
proach to  death.  In  rhyming  Latin  dog- 
gerel, the  vault  proclaims:  Hac  sunt  in 
fossa,  Baedae  venerabilis  ossa — "the 
bones  of  the  Venerable  Bede  lie  in  this 
grave"  (fossa  is,  literally,  a  "ditch"  or  a 
"trough,"  but  we  will  let  this  gentler  read- 
ing stand). 

In  the  taxonomy  of  Western  history  that 
I  learned  as  a  child,  Bede  shone  as  a  rare 
light  in  the  Dark  Ages  between  Roman 
grandeur  and  a  slow  medieval  recovery 
culminating  in  the  renewed  glory  of  the 
Renaissance.  Bede's  fame  rests  upon  his 
scriptural  commentaries  and  his  Historia 
ecclesiastica  gentis  Anglorum  (Ecclesias- 
tical History  of  the  English  People),  com- 
pleted in  732.  Chronology  sets  the  basis  of 
good  history,  and  Bede  preceded  his  great 
work  with  two  treatises  on  the  reckoning 
and  sequencing  of  time — De  temporibus 
(On  Times)  in  703,  and  De  temponim  ra- 
tione  (On  the  Measurement  of  Times)  in 
725. 

Bede's  chronologies  had  their  greatest 
influence  in  popularizing  our  inconvenient 
system  of  dividing  recent  time  into  B.C. 
and  A.D.  on  opposite  sides  of  Christ's  sup- 
posed nativity  (almost  surely  incorrectly 
determined,  as  Herod  had  died  by  this 
time  of  transition  and  could  not  have  seen 
the  Wise  Men  or  slaughtered  the  innocent 
at  the  onset  of  year  one).  In  his  chronolo- 
gies, Bede  sought  to  order  the  events  of 
Christian  history,  but  the  primary  motive 
and  purpose  of  his  calculations  centered 
on  a  different,  and  persistently  vexatious, 
problem  in  ecclesiastical  timing — the 
reckoning  of  Easter.  The  complex  defini- 
tion of  this  holiday — the  first  Sunday  fol- 
lowing the  first  full  moon  that  occurs  on  or 
after  the  vernal  equinox — requires  consid- 


erable astronomical  sophistication,  for 
both  lunar  and  seasonal  cycles  must  be 
known  with  precision. 

Such  computations  entail  a  theory  of 
the  heavens,  and  Bede  clearly  presented 
his  classical  conception  of  the  earth  as  a 
sphere  at  the  hub  of  the  cosmos — orbis  in 
medio  totius  mundi  positus  (an  orb  placed 
in  the  center  of  the  universe).  Lest  anyone 
misconstrue  his  intent,  Bede  then  explic- 
itly stated  that  he  meant  a  three-dimen- 
sional sphere,  not  a  flat  plate.  Moreover,  he 
added,  our  planetary  sphere  may  be  con- 
sidered as  perfect  because  even  the  highest 
mountains  produce  no  more  than  an  im- 
perceptible ripple  on  a  globe  of  such  great 
diameter. 

I  also  once  learned  that  most  other  ec- 
clesiastical scholars  of  the  benighted  Dark 
Ages  had  refuted  Aristotle's  notion  of  a 
spherical  earth  and  had  depicted  our  home 
as  a  flat,  or  at  most  a  gently  curved,  plate. 
Didn't  we  all  hear  the  legend  of  Columbus 
at  Salamanca,  trying  to  convince  the 
learned  clerics  that  he  would  reach  the  In- 
dies and  not  fall  off  an  ultimate  edge? 

The  human  mind  seems  to  work  as  a 
categorizing  device  (perhaps  even,  as 
many  French  structuralists  argue,  as  a  di- 
chotomizing machine,  constantly  parti- 
tioning the  world  into  dualities  of  raw  and 
cooked  [nature  versus  culmre],  male  and 
female,  material  and  spiritual,  and  so 
forth).  This  deeply  (perhaps  innately)  in- 
grained habit  of  thought  causes  us  particu- 
lar trouble  when  we  need  to  analyze  the 
many  continua  that  form  so  conspicuous  a 
part  of  our  surrounding  world.  Continua 
are  rarely  so  smooth  and  gradual  in  their 
flux  that  we  cannot  specify  certain  points 
or  episodes  as  decidedly  more  interesting, 
or  more  tumultuous  in  their  rates  of 
change,  than  the  vast  majority  of  moments 
along  the  sequence.  We  therefore  falsely 
choose  these  crucial  episodes  as  bound- 


aries for  fixed  categories,  and  we  veil  na- 
mre's  continuity  in  the  wrappings  of  our 
mental  habits.  (If  I  may  venture  into  a 
"hot"  area  mentioned  before  in  these 
columns,  the  abortion  debate  in  contempo- 
rary America  suffers  greatly  under  this 
ertor  when  partisans  try  to  find  a  moment, 
usually  construed  as  fertihzation,  for  the 
unambiguous  origin  of  a  human  being. 
But  no  such  moment  exists  in  this  true 
continuum;  fertilization  may  be  a  more  in- 
teresting episode  than  most,  but  so  is  the 
initiation  of  quickening,  or  the  first  per- 
ceived motion  of  the  fetus  in  the  womb — 
and  quickening  set  the  favored  criterion  of 
personhood  through  most  of  classical  and 
ecclesiastical  history.) 

We  must  also  remember  anoflier  insidi- 
ous aspect  of  our  tendency  to  divide  con- 
tinua into  fixed  categories.  These  divisions 
are  not  neutral;  they  are  established  for 
definite  purposes  by  partisans  of  particular 
viewpoints.  Moreover,  since  many  con- 
tinua are  temporal,  and  since  we  have  a 
lamentable  tendency  to  view  our  own  age 
as  best,  our  divisions  often  saddle  the  past 
with  pejorative  names,  while  designating 
successively  more  modem  epochs  with 
words  of  light  and  progress.  As  an  obvious 
example,  many  people  (including  yours 
truly)  view  die  great  medieval  cathedrals 
of  Europe  as  the  most  awesome  of  all 
human  constructions.  (For  me — and  I  say 
this  as  a  humanist  and  nontheist — 
Chartres  is  off-scale,  a  place  of  mystery 
and  magic,  not  truly  of  this  world. 
Chartres  is  not  just  better  than  Amiens  or 
Rheims  or  Notre  Dame  de  Paris.)  Yet  we 
designate  the  style  of  these  buildings  as 
"Gothic" — originally  a  pejorative  term 
(traced  to  seventeenth-century  origin  in 
the  Oxford  English  Dictionary)  apphed  by 
self-styled  sophisticates  who  viewed  me- 
dieval times  as  a  barbaric  interlude  be- 
tween the  classical  forms  of  Greece  and 


12    Natural  History  3/94 


AMERICAN  MUSEUM  OF  NATURAL  HISTORY 


TRAIN  JOURNEYS 


BEIJING  TO  MOSCOW 
September  15-30, 1994 

The  legendary  Trans-Siberian  is  undoubtedly  the  greatest  railway  in  the 
world.  Join  a  team  of  American  Museum  lecturers  this  September  for  an 
extraordinary  5,300-mile  journey  from  Beijing  to  Moscow  aboard  the 
celebrated  Orient  Express.  Tracing  the  ancient  route  of  the  tea  caravans, 
we  will  travel  through  the  vast,  remote  Gobi,  the  Mongolian  steppe,  the 
expansive  and  pristine  Siberian  taiga  and  along  magnificent  Lake 
Baikal.  We  will  also  explore  numerous  Siberian  cities,  frontier  towns 
and  traditional  Mongolian  ger  encampments,  as  well  as  the  great  cities 
of  Beijing  and  Moscow. 


BEIJING  TO  HANOI 

with  an  optional  extension  to  Angkor  Wat 

October  25  -  November  12, 1994 


Since  the  time  of  Marco  Polo,  the  cultural  riches  and 
natural  wonders  of  China  have  intrigued  visitors. 
Lesser  known  are  the  many  treasures  of  neighboring 
northern  Vietnam.  This  October,  enjoy  the  spectacular 
landscapes  of  rural  China  and  Vietnam  and  a  rare  look 
at  some  lesser-known  cultures  traveling  with  a  team  of 
experts  from  Beijing  to  Hanoi.  During  our  journey,  we 
will  see  the  life-sized  terracotta  soldiers  near  Xi'an, 
the  Stone  Forest  of  Kunming,  the  lovely  Li  River  and 
the  Red  River  Valley  of  Vietnam,  enjoying  along  the 
way  some  of  the  most  magnificent  scenery  in  the 
world. 


lk..»kJ 

-     - ■—«■.-«                                  ■      iSS^gg^^^                ,:             . 

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History 


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Central  Park  West  at  79th  Street 
New  York,  NY  10024-5192 


Toll-free  (800)  462-8687 
(212)  769-5700  in  NYS 


Rome  and  their  revival  in  Renaissance  and 
later  times.  These  cathedrals,  after  all, 
were  not  built  by  German  tribes  who  had 
their  heyday  in  the  third  to  fifth  centuries. 
The  names  of  several  peoples  who  con- 
quered the  waning  classical  world — Goths 
and  Vandals  in  particular — became  pejo- 
rative terms  for  anything  considered  nide 
or  mean.  For  that  matter,  the  word  barbar- 
ian comes  from  the  Latin  term  for  for- 
eigner. 

Our  conventional  divisions  of  Western 
history  are  mired  in  these  twinned  errors 
of  false  categorization  and  pejorative  des- 
ignation. I  know  that  professional  histori- 
ans no  longer  use  such  a  taxonomy,  but 
popular  impression  still  supports  a  divi- 
sion into  classical  times  (glory  of  Greece 
and  grandeur  of  Rome),  followed  by  the 
pall  of  the  Dark  Ages,  some  improvement 
in  the  Middle  Ages,  and  an  eclat  of  cul- 
ture's rediscovery  in  the  Renaissance.  But 
consider  the  origin  of  the  two  pejorative 
terms  in  this  sequence — and  the  relation- 
ship of  taxonomy  to  prejudiced  theories  of 
progress  becomes  clear. 

According  to  historian  J.  B.  Russell,  Pe- 
trarch devised  the  term  Dark  Ages  in  about 
1340  to  designate  a  period  between  classi- 
cal times  and  his  own  form  of  modernism. 
The  term  Middle  Ages  for  the  interval  be- 
tween classical  fall  and  Renaissance  re- 
vival originated  in  the  fifteenth  century  but 
only  gained  popularity  in  the  seventeenth 
century.  Some  people  consider  everything 


from  the  fall  of  Rome  to  the  Renaissance 
as  Dark,  others  as  Middle.  Still  others 
make  a  sequential  division  into  an  earlier 
dark  and  later  middle,  separated  by 
Charlemagne  or  the  arbitrary  millennial 
transition  of  1000.  Such  uncertainty  only 
shows  the  foolishness  of  attempting  to  de- 
fine fixed  categories  within  continua.  In 
any  case,  the  intent  of  darks  and  middles 
could  not  be  more  clear — to  view  Western 
history  as  possessing  a  Greek  and  Roman 
acme,  with  supposed  loss  as  tragic,  fol- 
lowed by  the  beginning  of  salvation  in  Re- 
naissance rediscovery. 

Such  prejudicial  tales  of  redemption  re- 
quire a  set  of  stories  to  support  their  narra- 
tive. Most  of  these  legends  feature  art,  lit- 
erature, or  architecture,  but  science  has 
also  contributed.  I  write  this  essay  to  point 
out  that  the  most  prominent  of  all  scientific 
stories  in  this  mode — the  supposed  dark 
and  medieval  consensus  for  a  flat  earth — 
is  entirely  mythological.  Moreover,  when 
we  trace  the  invenfion  of  this  fable  in  the 
nineteenth  century,  we  receive  a  double 
lesson  in  the  dangers  of  false  tax- 
onomies— the  second  and  larger  purpose 
of  this  essay.  For  the  myth  itself  only 
makes  sense  under  a  prejudicial  view  of 
Western  history  as  an  era  of  darkness  be- 
tween lighted  beacons  of  classical  learn- 
ing and  Renaissance  revival,  while  the 
nineteenth-century  invention  of  the  myth, 
as  we  shall  see,  occurred  to  support  an- 
other dubious  and  harmful  separation 


"Capistrano — every  year  Capistrano — Can 't  we  ever  go  anywhere  else  ? 


wedded  to  another  legend  of  historical 
progress — the  supposed  warfare  between 
science  and  religion. 

Classical  scholars,  of  course,  had  no 
doubt  about  the  earth's  sphericity.  Our 
planet's  roundness  was  central  to  Aristo- 
tle's cosmology  and  assumed  in  Eratos- 
thenes's  measurement  of  the  earth's  cir- 
cumference in  the  third  century  B.C.  The 
flat  earth  myth  argues  that  this  knowledge 
was  then  lost  when  ecclesiastical  darkness 
settled  over  Europe.  For  a  thousand  years 
of  middle  time,  almost  all  scholars  held 
that  the  earth  must  be  flat — Uke  the  floor 
of  a  tent,  held  up  by  the  canopy  of  the  sky, 
to  cite  a  biblical  metaphor  read  literally. 
The  Renaissance  rediscovered  classical 
notions  of  sphericity,  but  proof  required 
the  braveness  of  Columbus  and  other  great 
explorers  who  should  have  sailed  off  the 
edge  but,  beginning  with  Magellan's  expe- 
dition, returned  home  from  the  opposite 
direction  after  going  all  the  way  around. 

The  inspirational,  schoolchild  version 
of  the  myth  centers  on  Columbus,  who 
supposedly  overcame  the  calumny  of  as- 
sembled clerics  at  Salamanca  to  win  a 
chance  from  Ferdinand  and  Isabella.  Con- 
sider this  version  of  the  legend,  cited  by 
Russell  from  a  book  for  primary-school 
children  written  in  1887,  soon  after  the 
myth's  invention  (but  little  different  from 
accounts  that  I  read  as  a  child  in  the 
1950s): 

"But  if  the  world  is  round,"  said  Columbus, 
"it  is  not  hell  that  lies  beyond  that  stormy 
sea.  Over  there  must  lie  the  eastern  strand  of 
Asia,  the  Cathay  of  Marco  Polo."...  In  the 
hall  of  the  convent  there  was  assembled  the 
imposing  company — shaved  monks  in 
gowns... cardinals  in  scarlet  robes....  "You 
think  the  earth  is  round....  Are  you  not 
aware  that  the  holy  fathers  of  the  church 
have  condemned  this  belief. . . .  This  theory 
of  yours  looks  heretical."  Columbus  might 
well  quake  in  his  boots  at  the  mention  of 
heresy;  for  there  was  that  new  Inquisition 
just  in  fine  running  order,  with  its  elaborate 
bone-breaking,  flesh-pinching,  thumb- 
screwing,  hanging,  burning,  mangling  sys- 
tem for  heretics. 

Dramatic  to  be  sure,  but  entirely  ficti- 
tious. There  never  was  a  period  of  "flat 
earth  darkness"  among  scholars  (regard- 
less of  how  many  uneducated  people  may 
have  thus  conceptualized  our  planet  both 
then  and  now).  Greek  knowledge  of 
sphericity  was  never  lost,  and  all  major 
medieval  scholars  accepted  the  earth's 
roundness  as  an  established  fact  of  cos- 
mology. Ferdinand  and  Isabella  did  refer 
Columbus's  plans  to  a  royal  commission 
headed  by  Hernando  de  Talavera,  Is- 


14    Natural  History  3/94 


abella's  confessor  and,  following  defeat  of 
the  Moors,  Archbishop  of  Granada.  This 
commission,  composed  of  both  clerical 
and  lay  advisors,  did  meet  at  Salamanca, 
among  other  places.  They  did  pose  some 
sharp  intellectual  objections  to  Columbus, 
but  all  assumed  the  earth's  roundness.  As  a 
major  critique,  they  argued  that  Columbus 
could  not  reach  the  Indies  in  his  own  allot- 
ted time  because  the  earth's  circumference 
was  too  great.  Moreover,  his  critics  were 
entirely  right.  Columbus  had  "cooked"  his 
figures  to  favor  a  much  smaller  earth  and 
an  attainable  Indies.  Needless  to  say,  he 
did  not  and  could  not  reach  Asia,  and  our 
Native  Americans  are  still  called  Indians 
as  a  legacy  of  his  error. 

Virtually  all  major  medieval  scholars 
affirmed  the  earth's  roundness.  I  intro- 
duced this  essay  with  the  eighth-century 
view  of  the  Venerable  Bede.  The  twelfth- 
century  translations  into  Latin  of  many 
Greek  and  Arabic  works  greatly  expanded 
general  appreciation  of  natural  sciences, 
particularly  astronomy,  among  scholars — 
and  convictions  about  the  earth's  spheric- 
ity both  spread  and  strengthened.  Roger 
Bacon  (1214-1292)  and  Thomas  Aquinas 
(1225-1274)  affirmed  roundness  via  Aris- 
totle and  his  Arabic  commentators,  as  did 
the  greatest  scientists  of  later  medieval 
times,  including  Jean  Buriden  (1300- 
1358)  and  Nichole  Oresme  (1320-1382). 

So  who,  then,  was  arguing  for  a  flat 
earth  if  all  the  chief  honchos  believed  in 
roundness?  Villains  must  be  found  for  any 
malfeasance,  and  Russell  shows  that  the 
great  English  philosopher  of  science 
William  Whewell  first  identified  major 
culprits  in  his  Histoiy  of  the  Inductive  Sci- 
ences, published  in  1837 — two  otherwise 
entirely  insignificant  characters  named 
Lactantius  (245-325)  and  Cosmas  Indi- 
copleustes,  who  wrote  his  Christian 
Topography  in  547-549.  Russell  com- 
ments: "Whewell  pointed  to  the  cul- 
prits. .  .as  evidence  of  a  medieval  belief  in 
a  flat  earth,  and  virtually  every  subsequent 
historian  imitated  him — they  could  find 
few  other  examples." 

Lactantius  did  raise  the  old  saw  of  ab- 
surdity in  believing  that  people  at  the  an- 
tipodes might  walk  with  their  feet  above 
their  heads  in  a  land  where  crops  grow 
down  and  rain  falls  up.  And  Cosmas  did 
champion  a  literal  view  of  a  biblical 
metaphor — that  the  earth  is  a  flat  floor  for 
the  rectangular,  vaulted  arch  of  the  heav- 
ens above.  But  both  men  were  minor  and 
largely  ignored  figures  in  medieval  schol- 
arship. Only  three  reasonably  complete 
medieval  manuscripts  of  Cosmas  are 


known  (with  five  or  six  additional  frag- 
ments), and  all  in  Greek.  The  first  Latin 
translation  dates  from  1706 — so  Cosmas 
was  invisible  to  medieval  readers  in  their 
own  lingua  franca. 

Purveyors  of  the  flat  earth  myth  could 
never  deny  this  plain  testimony  of  Bede, 
Bacon,  Aquinas,  and  others — so  they  ar- 
gued that  these  men  were  rare  beacons  of 
brave  light  in  pervasive  darkness.  But  con- 
sider the  absurdity  of  such  a  position.  Who 
formed  the  orthodoxy  representing  this 
consensus  of  ignorance?  Two  pipsqueaks 
named  Lactantius  and  Cosmas  Idi- 
copleustes,  known  to  practically  nobody? 
Bede,  Bacon,  Aquinas,  and  theu^  ilk  were 
not  brave  iconoclasts.  They  were  the  es- 
tablishment, and  their  convictions  about 
the  earth's  roundness  were  canonical, 
while  Lactantius  and  his  colleagues  re- 


mained entirely  marginal.  To  call  Aquinas 
a  courageous  revolutionary  because  he 
promoted  a  spherical  earth  would  be  akin 
to  labeling  Fisher,  Haldane,  Wright, 
Dobzhansky,  Mayr,  Simpson,  and  all  the 
other  great  twentieth-century  evolutionists 
as  radical  reformers  because  a  peripheral 
creationist  named  Duane  Gish  wrote  a 
pitiful  book  during  the  same  years  called 
Evolution:  The  Fossils  Say  No. 

Where,  then,  and  why,  did  the  myth  of 
medieval  belief  in  a  flat  earth  arise?  Rus- 
sell's historiographic  work  gives  us  a  good 
fix  on  both  times  and  people.  None  of  the 
great  eighteenth-century  anticlerical  ra- 
tionalists— not  Condillac,  Condorcet, 
Diderot,  Gibbon,  Hume,  or  our  own  Ben- 
jamin Franklin — accused  the  scholastics 
of  believing  in  a  flat  earth,  although  these 
men  were  all  unsparing  in  their  contempt 


FLOWERS  COUIAIMTTHE 


15 


for  medieval  versions  of  Cfiristianity. 
Washington  Irving  gave  the  fiat  earth  story 
a  good  boost  in  his  largely  fictional  history 
of  Columbus,  published  in  1828 — but  his 
version  did  not  take  hold.  The  legend  grew 
during  the  nineteenth  century  but  did  not 
enter  the  crucial  domains  of  schoolboy 
pap  or  tour  guide  lingo.  Russell  did  an  in- 
teresting survey  of  nineteenth-century  his- 
tory texts  for  secondary  schools  and  found 
that  very  few  mentioned  the  flat  earth 
myth  before  1 870,  but  that  almost  all  texts 
after  1880  featured  the  legend.  We  can 
therefore  pinpoint  the  invasion  of  general 
culture  by  the  flat  earth  myth  to  the  period 
between  1860  and  1890. 

These  years  also  featured  the  spread  of 
an  intellectual  movement  based  on  the 
second  error  of  taxonomic  categories  ex- 
plored in  this  essay — the  portrayal  of 
Western  history  as  a  perpetual  struggle,  if 
not  an  outright  "war,"  between  science 
and  reUgion,  with  progress  linked  to  the 
victory  of  science  and  the  consequent  re- 
treat of  theology.  Such  movements  always 
need  whipping  boys  and  legends  to  ad- 
vance their  claims.  Russell  argues  that  the 
flat  earth  myth  achieved  its  canonical  sta- 
tus as  a  primary  homily  for  the  triumph  of 
science  under  this  false  dichotomization  of 
Western  history.  How  could  a  better  story 
for  the  army  of  science  ever  be  concocted? 
Religious  darkness  destroys  Greek  knowl- 
edge and  weaves  us  into  a  web  of  fears 
based  on  dogma  and  opposed  to  both  ra- 
tionality and  experience.  Our  ancestors 
therefore  lived  in  anxiety,  restricted  by  of- 


ficial irrationality,  afraid  that  any  chal- 
lenge could  only  lead  to  a  fall  off  the  edge 
of  the  earth  into  eternal  damnation.  A  fit 
tale  for  its  intended  purpose,  but  entirely 
false  because  few  medieval  scholars  ever 
doubted  the  earth's  sphericity. 

I  was  especially  drawn  to  this  topic  be- 
cause the  myth  of  dichotomy  and  warfare 
between  science  and  religion — an  impor- 
tant nineteenth-century  theme  with  major, 
and  largely  unfortunate,  repercussions  ex- 
tending to  our  fimes — received  its  greatest 
boost  in  two  books  that  I  own  and  treasure 
for  their  firm  commitment  to  rationality 
(however  wrong  and  ultimately  harmful 
their  dichotomizing  model  of  history)  and 
for  an  interesting  Darwinian  connection 
with  each  author  (I  have  often  said  that  I 
write  these  essays  as  a  tradesman,  not  a 
polymath,  and  that  my  business  is  evolu- 
tionary theory).  Russell  identifies  these 
same  two  books  as  the  primary  codifiers  of 
the  flat  earth  myth:  John  W.  Draper's  His- 
tory of  the  Conflict  between  Religion  and 
Science,  first  published  in  1874;  and  An- 
drew Dickson  White's  A  History  of  the 
Warfare  of  Science  with  Theology  in 
Christendom,  published  in  1896  (a  great 
expansion  of  a  small  book  first  written  in 
1876  and  called  The  Warfare  of  Science). 

Draper  (1811-1882)  was  bom  in  Eng- 
land but  emigrated  to  the  United  States  in 
1 832,  where  he  evenhially  became  head  of 
the  medical  school  at  New  York  Univer- 
sity. His  1874  book  ranks  among  the  great 
publishing  successes  of  the  late  nineteenth 
century — fifty  printings  in  fifty  years  as 


the  best-selling  volume  of  the  Interna- 
tional Scientific  Series,  the  most  presti- 
gious and  popular  of  nineteenth-century 
publishing  projects  in  science.  Draper 
states  his  thesis  in  the  preface: 

The  history  of  Science  is  not  a  mere  record 
of  isolated  discoveries;  it  is  a  narrative  of  the 
conflict  of  two  contending  powers,  the  ex- 
pansive force  of  the  human  intellect  on  one 
side,  and  the  compressing  arising  from  tra- 
ditionary faith  and  human  interests  on  the 
other. . . .  Faith  is  in  its  nature  unchangeable, 
stationary;  Science  is  in  its  nature  progres- 
sive; and  eventually  a  divergence  between 
them,  impossible  to  conceal,  must  take 
place. 

Draper  extolled  the  flat  earth  myth  as  a 
primary  example  of  reUgion's  constraint 
and  science's  progressive  power: 

The  circular  visible  horizon  and  its  dip  at 
sea,  the  gradual  appearance  and  disappear- 
ance of  ships  in  the  offing,  cannot  fail  to  in- 
cline intelligent  sailors  to  a  beUef  in  the 
globular  figure  of  the  earth.  The  writings  of 
the  Mohammedan  astronomers  and  philoso- 
phers had  given  currency  to  that  doctrine 
throughout  Western  Europe,  but,  as  might 
be  expected,  it  was  received  with  disfavor 
by  theologians.. . .  Traditions  and  policy  for- 
bade [the  papal  government]  to  admit  any 
other  than  the  flat  figure  of  the  earth,  as  re- 
vealed in  the  Scriptures. 

Russell  comments  on  the  success  of 
Draper's  work: 

The  History  of  the  Conflict  is  of  immense 
importance,  because  it  was  the  first  instance 
that  an  influential  figure  had  expUciUy  de- 
clared that  science  and  reUgion  were  at  war, 
and  it  succeeded  as  few  books  ever  do.  It 
fixed  in  the  educated  mind  the  idea  that  "sci- 
ence" stood  for  freedom  and  progress 
against  the  superstition  and  repression  of 
"religion."  Its  viewpoint  became  conven- 
tional wisdom. 

Andrew  Dickson  White  (1832-1918) 
grew  up  in  Syracuse,  New  York,  and 
founded  Cornell  University  in  1865  as  one 
of  tiie  first  avowedly  secular  institutions  of 
higher  learning  in  America.  He  wrote  of 
file  goals  he  shared  with  his  main  benefac- 
tor, Ezra  Cornell: 

Our  purpose  was  to  establish  in  the  State 
of  New  York  an  institution  for  advanced  in- 
struction and  research,  in  which  science, 
pure  and  applied,  should  have  an  equal 
place  with  literature;  in  which  the  study  of 
literature,  ancient  and  modem,  should  be 
emancipated  as  much  as  possible  from 
pedantry....  We  had  especially  determined 
that  the  institution  should  be  under  the  con- 
trol of  no  political  party  and  of  no  single  re- 
ligious sect. 

White  avowed  that  his  decision  to 
found  a  secular  university  reflected  no 


16    Natural  History  3/94 


hostility  to  theology,  but  only  recorded  his 
desire  to  foster  an  ecumenical  religious 
spirit: 

It  had  certainly  never  entered  into  the  mind 
of  either  of  us  that  in  all  this  we  were  doing 
anything  irreligious  or  unchristian....  I  had 
been  bred  a  churchman,  and  had  recently 
been  elected  a  trustee  of  one  church  college. 
and  a  professor  in  another... my  greatest 
sources  of  enjoyment  were  ecclesiastical  ar- 
chitecture, religious  music,  and  the  more 
devout  forms  of  poetry.  So  far  from  wishing 
to  injure  Christianity,  we  both  hoped  to  pro- 
mote it;  but  we  did  not  confound  religion 
with  sectarianism. 

But  the  calumnies  of  conservative  cler- 
gymen dismayed  him  profoundly  and  en- 
ergized his  fighting  spirit: 

Opposition  began  at  once... from  the  good 
Protestant  bishop  who  proclaimed  that  all 
professors  should  be  in  holy  orders,  since  to 
the  Church  alone  was  given  the  command 
"Go,  teach  all  the  nations,"  to  the  zealous 
priest  who  pubUshed  a  charge  that... a  pro- 
foundly Christian  scholar  had  come  to  Cor- 
nell in  order  to  inculcate  infidelity... from 
the  eminent  divine  who  went  from  city  to 
city  denouncing  the  "atheistic  and  pantheis- 
tic tendencies'"  of  the  proposed  education, 
to  the  perfervid  minister  who  informed  a  de- 
nominational synod  that  Agassiz,  the  last 
great  opponent  of  Darwin,  and  a  devout  the- 
ist,  was  "preaching  Darwinism  and  athe- 
ism" in  the  new  institudon. 

These  searing  personal  experiences  led 
White  to  a  different  interpretation  of  the 
"warfare  of  science  with  theology." 
Draper  was  a  genuine  antitheist,  but  he 
confined  his  hostility  almost  entirely  to  the 
Catholic  church,  as  he  felt  that  science 
could  coexist  with  more  liberal  forms  of 
Protestantism.  White,  on  the  other  hand, 
professed  no  hostility  to  religion,  but  only 
to  dogmatism  of  any  stripe — while  his 
own  struggles  had  taught  him  that  Protes- 
tants could  be  as  obstructionist  as  anyone 
else.  He  wrote: 

Much  as  I  admired  Draper's  treatment  of  the 
questions  involved,  his  point  of  view  and 
mode  of  looking  at  history  were  different 
from  mine.  He  regarded  the  struggle  as  one 
between  Science  and  Religion.  I  believed 
then,  and  am  convinced  now,  that  it  was  a 
struggle  between  Science  and  Dogmatic 
Theology. 

White  therefore  argued  that  the  triumph 
of  science  in  its  warfare  with  dogmatism 
would  benefit  true  religion  as  much  as  sci- 
ence. He  expressed  his  credo  as  a  para- 
graph in  italics  in  the  introduction  to  his 
book: 

In  all  modem  history,  interference  with  sci- 
ence in  the  supposed  interest  of  religion,  no 


matter  how  conscientious  such  interference 
may  have  been,  has  resulted  in  the  direst 
evils  both  to  religion  and  to  science,  and  in- 
variably; and,  on  the  other  hand,  all  untram- 
melled scientific  investigation,  no  matter 
how  dangerous  to  religion  some  of  its  stages 
may  have  seemed  for  the  time  to  be,  has  in- 
variably resulted  in  the  highest  good  both  of 
religion  and  of  science. 

Despite  these  stated  disagreements  with 
Draper,  their  accounts  of  the  actual  inter- 
action between  science  and  religion  in 
Western  history  do  not  differ  greatly.  Both 
essentially  tell  a  tale  of  bright  progress 
continually  sparked  by  science.  And  both 
develop  and  utilize  the  same  myths  to  sup- 
port their  narrative,  the  flat  earth  legend 
prominently  among  them.  Of  Cosmas  In- 
dicopleustes's  flat  earth  theory,  for  ex- 
ample. White  wrote: 

Some  of  the  foremost  men  in  the  Church  de- 
voted themselves  to  buttressing  it  with  new 
texts  and  throwing  about  it  new  outworks  of 
theological  reasoning;  the  great  body  of  the 
faithful  considered  it  a  direct  gift  from  the 
Almighty. 

As  another  interesting  similarity,  both 
men  developed  their  basic  model  of  sci- 
ence versus  theology  in  the  context  of  a 
seminal  and  contemporary  struggle  all  too 
easily  viewed  in  this  light — the  battle  for 
evolution,  specificaUy  for  Darwin's  secu- 
lar version  based  on  natural  selection.  No 
issue,  certainly  since  Galileo,  had  so  chal- 
lenged traditional  views  of  the  deepest 
meaning  of  human  life,  and  therefore  so 
contacted  a  domain  of  religious  inquiry  as 
well.  It  would  not  be  an  exaggeration  to 
say  that  the  Darwinian  revolution  directly 
triggered  this  influential  nineteenth-cen- 
tury conceptualization  of  Western  history 


as  a  war  between  two  taxonomic  cate- 
gories labeled  science  and  religion.  White 
made  an  explicit  connection  in  his  state- 
ment about  Agassiz  (the  founder  of  the 
museum  where  I  now  work  and  a  visiting 
lecturer  at  Cornell).  Moreover,  the  first 
chapter  of  his  book  treats  the  battle  over 
evolution,  while  the  second  begins  with 
the  flat  earth  myth. 

Draper  wraps  himself  even  more  fully 
in  a  Darwinian  mantie.  The  end  of  his 
preface  designates  five  great  episodes  in 
the  history  of  science's  battle  with  reli- 
gion— the  debasement  of  classical  knowl- 
edge and  the  descent  of  the  Dark  Ages,  the 
flowering  of  science  under  early  Islam,  the 
battle  of  Galileo  with  the  Catholic  church, 
the  Reformation  (a  plus  for  an  anti- 
Catholic  like  Draper),  and  the  struggle  for 
Darwinism.  No  one  in  the  world  had  a 
more  compelling  personal  license  for  such 
a  view,  for  Draper  had  been  an  unwilling 
witness — one  might  even  say  an  instiga- 
tor— of  the  single  most  celebrated  incident 
in  the  overt  struggle  between  Darwin  and 
divinity.  We  all  have  heard  the  famous 
story  of  Bishop  Wilberforce  and  T.  H. 
Huxley  duking  it  out  at  the  British  Associ- 
ation meeting  in  1860.  But  how  many  peo- 
ple know  that  their  verbal  pyrotechnics  did 
not  form  the  avowed  agenda  of  this  meet- 
ing, but  only  arose  during  free  discussion 
following  the  formal  paper  officially  set 
for  this  session — an  address  by  the  same 
Dr.  Draper  on  the  "intellectual  develop- 
ment of  Europe  considered  with  reference 
to  the  views  of  Mr.  Darwin."  (I  do  love  co- 
incidences of  this  sort.  Sociologists  tell  us 
that  we  can  touch  anyone  through  no  more 
than  six  degrees  of  separation,  given  the 


■  tCS- .^cfr 


^,\WWl 


17 


CROSSROADS  OF  CONTINENTS 

Remote  Alaska  &  the  Russian  Far  East 

Above  the  Arctic  Circle 

July  20 -30, 1994 


The  remote  islands  of  the 
Bering  Sea  lead  like  stepping 
stones  from  Alaska  to  the  vast 
frontier  of  the  Russian  Arctic. 
This  summer,  a  team  of  Ameri- 
can Museum  and  guest  lecturers 
will  lead  an  exciting  voyage  of 
exploration  in  this  rarely-vis- 
ited area  of  the  world. 

Aboard  the  World  Discov- 
erer, we  will  follow  comfort- 
ably in  the  pathways  of  famed 
18th-  and  19th-century  Arctic 
explorers.  We  will  cross  the 
Bering  Strait,  which  long  ago 
formed  the  land  bridge  that  pre- 
cipitated the  migration  of  Asians 
to  the  Americas,  visiting  along 
the  way  such  extraordinary 
places  as  the  Arakamchechen 
Archipelago.  We  will  also  cross 
the  Arctic  Circle  in  search  of 
polar  bears  traveling  on  the  drift- 
ing pack  ice. 


Our  journey  will  allow  us 
to  meet  with  people  from  both 
continents  who  are  historically 
and  ethnically  related  and  enjoy 
the  spectacular  Arctic  land- 
scapes. These  nutrient-rich  wa- 
ters and  remote  rocky  islands 
support  some  of  the  largest  colo- 
nies of  seabirds  in  the  Western 
Hemisphere,  as  well  as  marine 
mammals,  sea  lions  and  seals. 
Join  us  for  the  voyage  of  a  life- 
time. 


American 
Museum  of 
Natural 
History 

Discovery  Cruises 

Central  Park  West  at  79th  St. 

New  York,  NY   10024-5192 

Toll-free  (800)  462-8687  or 

(212)  769-5700  in  NYS 


density  of  networks  in  human  contact.  But 
to  think  of  Draper,  taking  the  first  degree 
just  inches  from  Huxley  and  Wilberforce, 
can  only  be  viewed  as  God's  gift  to  an  es- 
sayist who  traffics  in  connections.) 

This  essay  has  discussed  a  double  myth 
in  the  annals  of  our  bad  habits  in  false  cat- 
egorization: (I)  the  flat  earth  legend  as 
support  for  a  biased  ordering  of  Western 
history  as  a  story  in  redemption  from  clas- 
sical to  dark  to  medieval  to  Renaissance; 
and  (2)  the  invention  of  the  flat  earth  myth 
to  support  a  false  dichotomization  of 
Western  history  as  another  story  of 
progress,  a  war  of  victorious  science  over 
religion. 

I  would  not  be  agitated  by  these  errors  if 
they  led  only  to  an  inadequate  view  of  the 
past  without  practical  consequence  for  our 
modem  world.  But  the  myth  of  a  war  be- 
tween science  and  religion  remains  all  too 
current  and  continues  to  impede  a  proper 
bonding  and  conciliation  between  these 
two  utterly  different  and  powerfully  im- 
portant institutions  of  human  life.  How 
can  a  war  exist  between  two  vital  subjects 
with  such  different  appropriate  turfs — sci- 
ence as  an  enterprise  dedicated  to  discov- 
ering and  explaining  the  factual  basis  of 
the  empirical  world,  and  religion  as  an  ex- 
amination of  ethics  and  values? 

I  do  understand,  of  course,  that  this  ter- 
ritorial separation  is  a  modem  decision — 
and  that  differing  past  divisions  did  entail 
conflict  in  subsequent  adjustment  of 
boundaries.  After  all,  when  science  was 
weak  to  nonexistent,  religion's  umbreUa 
did  cover  regions  now  properly  viewed  as 
domains  of  natural  knowledge.  But  shall 
we  blame  religion  for  these  overexten- 
sions? As  thinking  beings,  we  have  no  op- 
tion not  to  ponder  the  great  issues  of 
human  origins  and  our  relationship  with 
die  earth  and  oflier  creatures.  If  science 
once  had  no  clue  about  these  subjects, 
then  they  fell,  albeit  uncomfortably  and  in- 
appropriately, into  the  domain  of  reUgion 
by  default.  No  one  gives  up  turf  voluntar- 
ily, and  the  later  expansion  of  science  into 
rightful  territory  temporarily  occupied  by 
religion  did  evoke  some  lively  skirmishes 
and  portentous  battles.  These  tensions 
were  also  exacerbated  by  particular  cir- 
cumstances of  contingent  history — in- 
cluding the  resolute  and  courageous  mate- 
rialism of  Darwin's  personal  theory  and 
the  occupation  (at  the  same  time)  of  the 
Holy  See  by  one  of  the  most  fascinating 
and  enigmatic  figures  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  the  strong,  embittered,  and  in- 
creasingly conservative  pope  Pio  Nono 
(Pius  K). 


18    Natural  History  3/94 


But  these  adjustments,  however  painful, 
do  not  justify  a  simplistic  picture  of  his- 
tory as  continual  warfare  between  science 
and  theology.  Exposure  of  the  flat  earth 
myth  should  teach  us  the  fallacy  of  such  a 
view  and  help  us  to  recognize  the  com- 
plexity of  interaction  between  these  insti- 
tutions. Irrationality  and  dogmatism  are 
always  the  enemies  of  science,  but  they 
are  no  true  friends  of  rehgion  either.  Sci- 
entific knowledge  has  always  been  helpful 
to  more  generous  views  of  rehgion — as 
preservation,  by  ecclesiastical  scholars,  of 
classical  knowledge  about  the  earth's 
shape  aided  rehgion's  need  for  accurate 
calendars,  for  example. 

I  began  this  essay  with  a  story  about  the 
Venerable  Bede's  use  of  cosmology  to  set 
a  chronology  for  the  determination  of 
Easter.  Let  me  end  with  another  story  in 
the  same  mold — and  another  illustration 
of  science's  interesting  and  complex  po- 
tential bond  with  rehgion.  Two  days  be- 
fore my  visit  to  the  Venerable  Bede's  tomb 
in  Durham,  I  marveled  at  an  intricate  as- 
tronomical device  prominendy  displayed 
in  the  Church  of  Saint  Sulpice  in  Paris. 
Each  day,  precisely  at  noon  the  sun's  light 
shines  through  a  tiny  hole  in  a  window 
high  in  the  south  transept  and  illuminates  a 
copper  meridian  laid  into  the  floor  of  the 
transept  and  ending  at  an  obelisk  sur- 
mounted by  a  globe  at  the  north  wall. 

The  line  and  obelisk  are  appropriately 
marked  so  that  the  days  of  solstices  and 
equinoxes  can  be  determined  with  preci- 
sion by  the  position  of  noon  light.  Why 
should  such  a  scientific  instrument  be  con- 
tained within  a  church?  The  inscription  on 
the  obehsk  gives  the  answer — ad  certam 
paschalis  (for  the  determination  of 
Easter),  a  calculation  that  requires  precise 
reckoning  of  the  vernal  equinox.  Interest- 
ingly, to  further  spin  out  the  complexities 
of  relationship  between  science  and  reh- 
gion. Saint  Sulpice  became  a  temple  to  hu- 
manism during  the  French  Revolution, 
and  most  of  the  religious  glass  and  statu- 
ary was  smashed.  The  names  of  kings  and 
princes  carved  on  the  obehsk  were  thor- 
oughly obliterated,  but  the  beautiful  blue 
marble  balustrade  of  the  choir  was  pre- 
served because  the  copper  meridian  passes 
through  it,  and  the  revolution  did  not  wish 
to  disrupt  a  scientific  instrument. 

I  would  not  choose  to  live  in  any  age  but 
my  own;  advances  in  medicine  alone,  and 
the  consequent  survival  of  children  with 
access  to  these  benefits,  should  preclude 
any  temptation  to  trade  for  the  past.  But 
we  cannot  understand  history  if  we  saddle 
the  past  with  pejorative  categories  based 


on  our  bad  habits  for  dividing  continua 
into  compartments  of  increasing  worth  to- 
ward the  present.  These  errors  apply  to  the 
vast  paleontological  history  of  life  as 
much  as  to  the  temporally  trivial  chronicle 
of  human  beings.  I  cringe  every  time  I 
read  that  this  failed  business  or  that  de- 
feated team  has  become  a  dinosaur  in  suc- 
cumbing to  progress.  Dinosaur  should  be 
a  term  of  praise,  not  of  opprobrium.  They 
reigned  for  100  million  years  and  died 
through  no  fault  of  their  own;  Homo  sapi- 
ens is  nowhere  near  a  million  years  old  and 
has  limited  prospects,  entirely  self-im- 
posed, for  extended  geological  longevity. 
Honor  the  past  at  its  face  value.  The  city 


of  York  houses  the  next  great  cathedral 
south  of  Durham.  As  Durham  displays  an 
amusing  Latin  rhyme  to  honor  the  Venera- 
ble Bede,  so  does  York  feature  a  verse  to 
illustrate  this  principle  of  respect  for  the 
past  in  the  service  of  understanding.  On 
the  wall  of  the  chapter  house,  we  read: 

Ut  rasa  flos  florum 

Sic  est  domus  ista  domorum. 

As  the  rose  is  the  flower  of  flowers,  so  is 
this  the  house  of  houses. 

Stephen  Jay  Gould  teaches  biology,  geol- 
ogy, and  the  history  of  science  at  Harvard 
University. 


Isokinetics. 

The  most  effective  w  to  at 
from  "before"  to  "after.' 


DonW. 
Before 

Body  weight; 
194  lbs. 

%  Body  fal: 
11.5% 

Waist: 
33  inches 

Arms: 
12.5  inches 

Chest: 
40.5  inches 


-  Age  27 
After* 

Body  weight: 
175  lbs. 

%  Body  fat: 
6% 

Waist: 
31  inches 

Arms: 
15.5  inches 

Chest: 
44.5  inches 


Jody  Z.  —  Age  28 


Before 

Body  weight: 
119  lbs. 

%  Body  fat: 
17.5% 

Waist: 
27  inches 

Hips: 
37  inches 

Thighs: 
20.5  inches 

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Class"  model  stiown  is  priced  at  $  1,299.9S  with  38  standard  exercises. 

©1994  NordicTrack,  Inc,  A  GUI.  Company 
All  rights  reserved. 


After* 

Body  weight: 
111  lbs. 

%  Body  fat: 
11.5% 

Waist: 
24.5  inches 

Hips: 
35  inches 

Thighs: 
19.5  inches 

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L^^ 


19 


TfflSLAND 


Summerby  Swamp,  Michigan 


by  Robert  Mohlenbrock 

Summerby  Swamp,  in  Hiawatha  Na- 
tional Forest,  is  among  the  countless  wet- 
lands that  dot  northern  Michigan,  northern 
Minnesota,  and  adjoining  parts  of  Canada. 
Bisected  by  Michigan  Highway  No.  123, 
the  swamp  covers  about  three  square 
miles.  On  one  side  of  the  road,  the  swamp 
is  rather  soupy  looking,  with  hummocks 
of  vegetation  forming  hundreds  of  tiny  is- 
lands in  shallow,  standing  water.  On  the 
other  side  it  is  forested  with  northern  white 
cedar  trees.  The  contrast  in  vegetation  is 
related  to  differences  in  soil  chemistry  and 
drainage.  This  type  of  variation  in  wet- 
lands is  also  a  clue  to  how  these  habitats 
gradually  change  from  one  type  to  an- 
other, or  even  into  a  dry  habitat,  as  a  result 
of  plant  growth. 


Bird's-eye  primrose,  above,  grows  in 
Summerby  Swamp,  but  is  more  commonly 
found  farther  north.  Right:  Cattails  and 
flowering  asters  border  the  swamp. 


Rod  Planck;  Photo  Researchers,  Inc. 


20    Natural  History  3/94 


Terms  such  as  bog,  fen,  marsh,  and 
swamp  are  often  used  interchangeably, 
even  by  professional  botanists.  But  biolo- 
gist Howard  Crum,  in  his  book  A  Focus  on 
Peatlands  and  Peat  Mosses  (1988),  pro- 
poses a  more  precise  terminology.  One  of 
the  differences  he  emphasizes  is  between 
peatlands,  where  sphagnum  (peat  moss) 
grows  and  accumulates,  and  nonpeatlands. 
Peatlands  develop  where  the  ground  is 
water-soaked  throughout  the  growing  sea- 
son, causing  the  sphagnum  to  grow  faster 
than  its  dead  remains  can  decompose.  The 
built-up  deposit  is  known  as  peat. 

Peatlands  vary  depending  on  the  degree 
of  acidity.  Fens,  according  to  Crum,  are 
peatlands  that  are  rich  in  minerals  and  low 
in  acidity  or  even  sUghtly  alkaline.  They 
develop  where  water  near  the  surface  of 
the  wetland  is  well  aerated  and  suppUed 
with  minerals  such  as  calcium.  Northern 
Michigan  has  "rich  fens"  that  have  abun- 
dant calcium  and  a  pH  value  between  6.0 
and  7.5.  (On  the  pH  scale,  7  is  neutral,  val- 
ues from  7  to  14  indicate  increasing  alka- 
linity, and  values  from  7  down  to  0  indi- 
cate increasing  acidity.)  Where  the 
calcium  is  low,  a  sedge-dominated  "inter- 
mediate fen"  will  develop,  with  a  ten- 
dency to  become  increasingly  acidic. 
Crum  designates  a  wetland  a  "poor  fen" 
when  the  pH  is  between  4  and  6  and  the 
vegetation,  dominated  by  sphagnum,  is 
still  in  contact  with  groundwater.  If  the  pH 
falls  to  3  or  less,  it  is  a  "bog." 

Crum  notes  that  peatlands  form  in  low- 
lands that  have  a  constant  water  supply 
and  may  even  encroach  on  open  water.  In 
a  fen,  where  the  water  is  well  aerated  and 
not  too  acidic,  the  habitat  will  support  a 
diversity  of  plants,  often  dominated  by 
sedges.  But  sphagnum  mosses  are  the  key 
to  the  peatiand  ecosystem:  usually  several 
species  are  present,  and  they  may  come  to 
dominate,  depending  on  conditions. 

In  some  calcium-rich  fens  in  Michigan, 
spring  flooding  or  other  changes  in  water 
level  may  restrict  the  growth  of  sphagnum, 
which  is  a  perennial.  Such  locales  may  be 
invaded  by  white  cedars  to  become  cedar 
swamps.  But  in  fens  where  peat  accumu- 
lates rapidly,  the  water  flow  is  restricted. 


JackW.  Dykinga 


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MryipBHPilPi^JBWP^^p 

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trapping  nutrients  so  that  they  are  no 
longer  recycled.  Such  fens  end  up  as  bogs, 
as  the  waterlogged  peat  slows  down  oxy- 
gen movement  and  reduces  the  rate  of  de- 
composition. Fewer  and  fewer  plant  spe- 
cies other  than  sphagnum  are  able  to 
survive  in  the  habitat.  Some,  perched  on 
the  peat,  must  obtain  their  water  and  nutri- 
ents strictly  from  rain,  absorbing  these  ne- 
cessities mostly  through  above-ground  tis- 
sues rather  than  through  roots. 

As  a  bog  matures,  more  and  more 
shrubs  invade  it,  most  of  them  members  of 
the  heath  family.  In  northern  Michigan, 
bogs  eventually  become  dominated  by 
black  spruces,  forming  a  type  of  swamp 
referred  to  as  a  muskeg.  This  process  may 
take  several  thousand  years. 

Unlike  peatlands,  marshes  and  swamps 
are  flooded  at  least  part  of  the  year,  so 
sphagnum  has  little  chance  to  become  es- 
tablished and  to  accumulate.  Their  soils 
are  well  aerated  and  rich  in  minerals. 
Marshes  are  dominated  by  grasses,  with 
few  woody  plants.  Similar  habitats,  when 
dominated  by  sedges,  are  called  sedge 
meadows,  and  when  forested,  they  are 
called  swamps. 

In  Crum's  terms,  Summerby  Swamp 
consists  of  both  rich  fen  and  cedar  swamp 
zones.  (Another  type  of  wetland  found  in 
Hiawatha  National  Forest  will  be  explored 
in  next  month's  article  on  Shingleton 
Bog.)  I  toured  the  area  in  early  July,  ac- 


companied by  botanist  Donald  Henson. 
The  fen,  on  the  north  side  of  Michigan 
Highway  No.  123,  was  dotted  with  sphag- 
num hummocks.  Although  the  fen's  sur- 
face water  and  groundwater  are  charged 
with  magnesium  and  calcium,  these 
sphagnum  hummocks  are  acidic  enough 
to  accommodate  the  growth  of  acid-loving 
plants,  including  wintergreen,  leatherleaf, 
cranberry,  and  Labrador  tea,  all  members 
of  the  heath  family.  Scattered  throughout 
were  thickets  of  stunted  tamarack,  white 
cedar,  and  black  spruce. 

The  fen  was  colorful  with  the  orange 
flowers  of  wood  lily,  the  yellow  and  or- 
ange blossoms  of  Indian  paintbrush,  and 
the  purplish  pitchers  of  pitcher  plants. 
Closer  observation  revealed  the  much 
smaller  flowers  of  arrowgrass  (not  a  true 
grass)  and  a  diversity  of  sedges  and 
rushes. 

After  surveying  the  fen,  we  crossed  to 
the  south  side  of  the  road.  Here  we  ob- 
served a  mature  white  cedar  swamp  with 
occasional  stands  of  black  spruce.  Beneath 
the  trees  grew  royal  fern  and  many  species 
of  flowering  plants  that  had  bloomed  ear- 
lier in  the  year,  including  starflower, 
goldthread,  and  bunchberry  (a  dwarf  type 
of  dogwood).  Henson  speculates  that  the 
construction  of  the  road  has  restricted  the 
draining  of  water  from  the  north  to  the 
south  side,  speeding  the  establishment  of 
the  swamp  zone. 


Summerby  Swamp 

For  visitor  information  write: 
Forest  Supervisor 
Hiawatha  National  Forest 
2727  N.  Lincoln  Road 
Escanaba,  Michigan  49829 
(906)  786-4062 


Joe  LeMonnier 


Wood  lily 


Rod  Planck;  Photo  Researchers,  Inc. 


While  most  of  the  plants  in  the  fen  and 
cedar  swamp  are  common  throughout 
northern  Michigan,  several  are  rare  for  the 
region.  Black  crowberry,  bird's-eye  prim- 
rose, butterwort,  and  the  hyssop-leaved 
fleabane  (which  looks  like  a  small  daisy), 
all  more  common  much  farther  to  the 
north,  have  found  the  right  conditions  to 
thrive  in  Summerby  Swamp. 

Worldwide,  peatlands  are  often  found 
in  cool  temperate  zones  near  oceans.  This 
is  because  mild  winters  and  long  growing 
seasons  with  cool,  humid,  foggy  condi- 
tions favor  the  growth  of  sphagnum  moss. 
Peatlands  also  arise  in  poorly  drained 
topography  sculpted  by  glacial  action. 
This  is  true  of  the  Great  Lakes  area,  where 
the  poor  drainage  of  the  shallow  soil,  com- 
bined with  an  even  distribution  of  rainfall 
throughout  most  of  the  year,  allows  peat- 
lands to  form  despite  short  growing  sea- 
sons, low  humidity,  and  long,  cold  winters. 

Robert  H.  Mohlenbrock,  professor  emeri- 
tus of  plant  biology  at  Southern  Illinois 
University,  Carbondale,  explores  the  bio- 
logical and  geological  highlights  of  the 
156  U.S.  national  forests. 


22    Natural  History  3/94 


Fold  Them,  And  You  Can 
Take  Them  Anywhere. 


Unfold  Them,  And  They  Can 
Take  You  Anywhere. 


You've  come  to  Mauna  Loa,  perhaps  the  world's  most  spectacular  active  volcano.  Your  guide 
points  out  a  faint  plume  of  smoke  off  in  the  distance.  Your  group  is  much  too  far  away  to  make 
out  any  detail.  You,  however,  have  in  your  pocket,  DesignSelection  Binoculars  from  Zeiss. 
Powerful,  yet  so  compact,  they  always  travel  with  you.  And  right  now,  they're  makingyour  entire 
trip  worthwhile  as  you  witness  firsthand  what  others  can  only  imagine.  The  DesignSelection 
FT  fiom  Zeiss.  You  transport  them  and  they'll  transport  you.  For  a 

Zeiss  dealer  near  you,  call  1-800-^^8-2^84. 


A 


Symbol  for 
Zeiss  Quality 


ZEISS 


looTH  Anniversary  Zeiss  Binoculars  1893-1993 


Science  Lite 


The  Hyphenated  American 

What  did  Catherine  the  Great,  Attila  the  Hun,  andJabba  the  Hutt  have  in  common? 


by  Roger  L.  Welsch 

It  was  a  remarkable  moment  in  my  life: 
(1)  my  mother  agreed  with  me,  and  (2)  she 
agreed  with  me  that  my  name — Roger  Lee 
Welsch — was  dumb.  "Roger"  has  no 
meaning  in  our  family  (or  in  all  history,  so 
far  as  I  can  determine),  and  neither  does 
"Lee."  Heaven  knows,  the  combination 
was  not  chosen  for  euphony,  since  it 
sounds  like  the  sloshing  of  a  bucket  of 
slops.  "Yes,  Roger"  my  mother  confessed 
tearfully.  "I  wish  I  had  given  you  a  name 
Like  your  cousin  RoseMary's." 

"Who  was  RoseMary  named  after?"  I 
asked. 

"Well,  no  one,  but  her  middle  name  is 
her  mother's  maiden  name,  Welsch." 

Naming  a  human  being  is  a  ferocious 
responsibility  and  should  be  done  with  at 
least  as  much  consideration  as  naming  a 
pickup  truck.  My  children's  names  are 
heavy  with  family  and  cultural  history.  My 
youngest  daughter  is  Antonia  (after  two 
ancestors  and  Gather's  fictional  peasant 
heroine)  Emily  (after  two  other  ancestors) 
Celestine  (after  a  grandmother)  Welsch 
(representing  two  millennia  of  endless 
German  migration). 

These  days  people  want  their  children 
to  have  cuddly  names,  apparendy  content 
that  they  will  never  amount  to  much. 
Some  people — a  lot  of  people — work  hard 
at  finding  names  for  their  children  that  are 
without  substance,  evocation,  or  poetry. 
One  of  my  own  grandchildren  has  a  set  of 
labels  so  hopelessly  trendy  (and  which 
will  be  as  silly  as  a  Nehru  jacket  by  the 
time  the  kid  graduates  irom  high  school) 
that  I  cannot  bring  myself  to  refer  to  him 
as  anything  but  C.  B. 

Of  course,  one  can  go  too  far,  loading  a 
kid  down  with  a  meaning-drenched  name. 
I  recently  met  a  woman,  for  example,  who 
proudly  told  me  she  had  named  her  son 
after  her  favorite  place  in  the  world.  Rocky 
Mountain  National  Park.  "You  named  him 
■Rocky?'  "  I  asked. 


"No,"  she  smiled.  "  'Rocky  Mountain 
National  Park.'  " 

So  what  are  these  kids  going  to  do  when 
they  are  older  and  embarrassed  by  their 
names?  Until  recently  a  woman  cursed 
with  a  goofy  last  name  could  hope  to 
marry  a  man  with  a  heroic  family  name, 
take  it  as  her  own,  and  cut  her  losses.  I 
think  of  the  child  whose  mother  was  in  the 
hospital  bed  next  to  my  wife's  at  the  birth 
of  our  son  Chris  (for  his  grandfather)  Ed- 
ward (for  his  uncle,  on  whose  birthday  he 
was  bom).  This  lady  named  her  daughter 
Michelle  Renee.  Michelle  Renee  Bier- 
schluckenhausen.  I  am  sure  that  Michelle 
Renee,  and  probably  her  mother,  lived 
their  lives  anticipating  a  minister  saying, 
"I  now  pronounce  you  husband  and  wife. 
You  may  kiss  the  bride,  Mr.  DuPont." 

She  probably  married  a  guy  named 
Lukosolowicz,  because  that's  the  way  the 
gods  work.  Or  she  got  liberated  and  hy- 
phenated: Michelle  Renee  Bierschlucken- 
hausen-Lukosolowicz.  Don't  get  me 
wrong:  I  have  trouble  only  with  the 
Michelle  Renee  part.  Bierschlucken- 
hausen-Lukosolowicz  rolls  off  this  Ger- 
man tongue  like  a  poem  by  Goethe. 

My  father  is  Christian  Welsch.  That's  it. 
No  middle  name.  He  says  his  family  was 
too  busy  having  other  children  and  work- 
ing like  slaves  to  think  up  middle  names. 
And  there's  Marky  Mark  (of  padded  un- 
derwear fame)  and  Dougie  Doug  (televi- 
sion "personality").  I  think  of  them  as 
nominally  challenged.  Not  to  mention 
United  Nations  Secretary  General  Boutros 
Boutros-Ghali.  Or  Cher  and  Madonna, 
who  have  not  exacdy  distinguished  the 
mononominal  system. 

The  customary  Nordic  system  was  to 
base  the  second  name  on  the  first  name  of 
the  father  or  mother — so  you  got  names 
like  Eric  Ericson  and  Sigrid  Egilsdottir. 
This  procedure  makes  sense  to  me  be- 
cause, even  though  it  can  raise  all  sorts  of 


hell  with  a  telephone  book,  it  provides  tra- 
dition-rich names  and  plenty  of  conversa- 
tional material. 

As  a  fat  old  man,  I  have  great  fondness 
for  George  Foreman,  another  fat  old  man 
and — not  incidentally — a  formidable 
prizefighter.  It  takes  ego  to  step  into  a  box- 
ing ring,  which  probably  explains  why 
George  named  all  of  his  sons  George. 
George  Foreman,  George  Foreman, 
George  Foreman,  and  George  Foreman. 
Consistency  like  that  may  result  from  the 
fuss  Cassius  Clay  raised  when  he  changed 
his  name  to  Muhammad  Ali,  annoying  the 
mainstream  not  only  because  it  conftised 
heavyweight  boxing  records  but  also  be- 
cause this  guy  sounds  like  he's  from  Qatar 
or  something.  The  world  of  boxing,  of 
which  I  have  been  a  modest  part  myself 
now  and  then,  is  not  noted  for  its  social 
progressiveness. 

As  usual,  my  Omaha  Indian  friends 
have,  over  the  years,  arrived  at  a  resolution 
to  the  problems  of  naming.  Traditionally, 
the  Omahas  bestowed  tribal  names  that 
carried  great  meaning,  but  a  person's  name 
could  be  changed  now  and  then  to  suit  im- 
portant developments  in  his  or  her  life. 
Moreover,  new  names  were  occasionally 
brought  into  the  tribal  inventory.  When  the 
French  began  to  ply  the  Missouri  and 
make  themselves  comfortable  among  the 
Omaha,  French  names  found  their  way 
into  the  tribe — LaFlesche,  Saunsoci, 
Fontenelle.  (Sometimes  even  those  names 
seem  eerily  appropriate:  Frances 
LaFlesche,  for  example,  an  ethnologist  of 
Omaha  and  Ponca  parentage,  had  as  her 
mentor  the  non-Indian  ethnologist  Alice 
Fletcher.  La  fleche  is  French  for  "the 
arrow,"  while  fletcher  is  English  for 
"arrow  maker.") 

Things  got  nasty  for  the  Omaha  when 
the  next  wave  of  non-Indians — missionar- 
ies and  soldiers — came  across  the  Plains. 
Missionaries  unwilling  to  learn  the  Omaha 


24    Natural  History  3/94 


language  and  determined  to  crush  Omaha 
traditions  assigned  new  names  to  their 
young  charges — Grant,  Canby,  Sheridan, 
Phillips,  Stabler — names  of  America's 
great  mihtary  leaders,  the  very  men  who 
were  wiping  out  the  Omahas'  Native 
American  kin.  It  was  a  cruel  process,  com- 
parable to  naming  a  Republican  conserva- 
tive's children  Eleanor,  JFK,  or  Jane  (as  in 
Fonda)  or  a  left-winger's  offspring  Rush 
or  Orrin.  The  elegant  Omaha  solution  is  to 
have  two  names,  an  Omaha  name  for  use 
within  Omaha  culture  and  an  "Enghsh" 
name  for  use  within  non-Native  American 
contexts. 

In  1967,  when  my  Omaha  brother  Al- 
fred Gilpin,  Jr.,  was  preparing  to  give  me 
an  Omaha  name,  he  flew  in  the  face  of  an 
Omaha  taboo  and  gave  me  his  own  name, 
Tenuga  Gahi,  or  Bull  Buffalo  Chief.  I  sat 
uncomfortably  in  his  yard  one  September 
afternoon  and  hstened  to  a  heated  debate 
as  his  brothers  argued  with  him  that  giving 
away  his  own  name  was  bad  luck.  They 
felt  he  should  follow  tradition  by  present- 
ing me  with  a  choice  of  four  or  nine 
names,  from  which  I  could  choose  one, 
thus  leaving  the  name  to  chance  and  ab- 
solving him  of  any  responsibility.  (Gilpin 
persisted,  my  name  is  Tenuga  Gahi,  and 
Gilpin  spent  much  of  the  next  year  in  the 
reservation  hospital — for  reasons,  his 
family  told  me,  that  were  unclear  to  med- 
ical experts.) 

So  I  have  been  spared  the  usual  con- 
fines of  our  naming  system.  The  spit- 
sloshing  Roger  Lee  Welsch  may  be  there 
on  my  birth  certificate,  but  in  my  mind  I 
am  also  the  considerably  more  splendid 
Bull  Buffalo  Chief. 

I  have  been  concerned  about  names  for 
a  long  time — and  concerned  about  being 
concerned,  since  a  preoccupation  with 
names  can  be  a  symptom  of  Huntington's 
chorea.  Woody  Guthrie's  fatal  disease 
(thus  his  songs  "All  they  will  call  them 


will  be  'deportees,'  "  or  "What  were  their 
names,  the  men  who  went  down  on  the 
good  Reuben  JamesT  and  others  com- 
posed in  large  part  of  the  names  of  rivers 
and  dams).  Thirty  years  ago,  before  I  was 
graced  by  the  Omahas,  I  was  discussing 
the  subject  of  names  in  a  class  and  ob- 
served that  I  admired  names  of  grandeur 
and  poetry,  especially  when  they  included 
hyphens  (hyphenation  was  not  so  common 
then).  "One  of  the  regrets  of  my  life,"  I 
said,  "is  that  I  will  never  have  a  name  with 
a  hyphen  in  it." 

A  young  man  who  had  been  sitting  in 
the  back  row  all  semester  without  saying  a 
word  slowly  raised  his  hand,  a  look  of  dis- 
covery on  his  face.  Surprised,  I  called  on 
him.  "But,  uh.  Professor  Welsch,"  he  said, 
"doesn't  'son-of-a-bitch'  have  hyphens  in 
it?"  (Actually,  it  doesn't.) 

Well,  what  do  we  do  when  a  shoe 
doesn't  fit?  We  change  it.  Aren't  our 
names  even  more  our  personal  posses- 
sions than  our  shoes?  We  could  argue  that 
a  name  belongs  not  only  to  the  recipient 
but  also  to  the  donor,  but  my  mother  was 
just  as  uncomfortable  as  I  was  with  this 
name  of  mine  that  sounded  suitable  for 
that  fat  baby  more  than  a  half  century  ago. 
So  this  year,  as  a  birthday  present  for  my 
mother  and  a  long  overdue  relief  to  my- 
self, I  decided  to  change  my  name — just  a 
httle,  but  enough  to  make  both  of  us  a 
good  deal  happier. 

I  am  now  Roger  Lee-Flack  Welsch.  I 
have  my  longed-for  hyphen.  Mom's 
maiden  name  (Flack)  is  preserved  in  mine, 
and  there's  a  nice  staccato  punctuation  in 
the  middle  of  all  those  ruminating  sounds. 
So  what  if  now,  maybe,  I  will  never  wear 
the  heavyweight  boxing  belt? 

(Solution  to  the  riddle  in  the  subtitle: 
They  all  have  the  same  middle  name.) 

Folklorist  R.  Lee-Flack  Welsch  lives  on  a 
tree  farm  in  Dannebrog,  Nebraska. 


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25 


Celestial  Events 


Getting  Through  the  Night 


by  Gail  S.  Cleere 

The  vernal  equinox  occurs  at  3:28  p.m., 
EST,  on  March  20,  marking  the  beginning 
of  spring  in  the  Northern  Hemisphere.  The 
vernal  equinox  also  marks  a  place  in  the 
sky  where  the  celestial  equator  (the  earth's 
equator  stretched  into  space)  and  the  eclip- 
tic (the  path  of  the  sun  across  the  sky)  in- 
tersect. These  imaginary  lines  also  inter- 
sect at  the  autumnal  equinox,  but  the 
vernal  equinox  is  special;  it  is  used  as  the 
standard  reckoning  point  for  determining 
the  position  of  every  object  in  the  sky.  On 
the  vernal  equinox,  the  sun's  right  ascen- 
sion and  declination  (the  celestial  equiva- 
lents of  longitude  and  latitude)  are  both 
zero.  This  position  is  also  called  the  First 
Point  of  Aries  (even  though  over  the  years 
it  has  drifted  into  neighboring  Pisces). 

Most  astronomical  outsiders  are  less 
than  thrilled  with  this  dry,  mathematical 
definition  of  spring,  the  season  that  brings 
us  warmer  days,  flowers,  and  green  buds. 
Since  ancient  times,  however,  people  have 
used  the  vernal  equinox  to  mark  the  pas- 
sage of  the  seasons.  On  the  equinox, 
which  means  "equal  night,"  the  days  and 
nights  are  roughly  twelve  hours  long 
everywhere  on  the  planet.  Also  on  the 
equinox,  the  sun  rises  precisely  in  the  east; 
and  at  local  noon,  it  reaches  an  altitude 
that  is  halfway  to  the  highest  point  it 
reaches  in  the  sky  all  year.  This  event  sig- 
nals that  the  harsh  days  of  winter  are  fi- 
nally over  Because  of  the  unseen  tilting  of 
the  earth  to  the  sun,  spring  finally  arrives. 

We  no  longer  depend  on  the  sky  to  mark 
the  seasons,  so  most  of  us  are  not  in  the 
habit  of  keeping  track  of  the  shifting  con- 
stellations and  the  whereabouts  of  the 
moon  and  planets  each  night.  But  for  those 
who  wish  to  give  it  a  ti^y,  help  is  now  as 
close  as  the  nearest  telephone.  Every  state 
in  the  Union  has  at  least  one  astronomy 
club  that  can  provide  information  on  ce- 


lestial highlights.  One  directory  is  pub- 
lished every  March  by  Astronomy  maga- 
zine. An  even  better  source  of  information 
is  the  Astronomical  Directory  in  Sky  and 
Telescope  magazine's  September  1992 
issue,  in  which  twenty-nine  phone  num- 
bers are  listed  as  "telephone  hotlines"  for 
astronomical  information  and  notes  about 
the  current  night  sky.  Some  of  these  hot- 
lines are  provided  by  museums  and  plane- 
tariums,  such  as  the  Smithsonian's  Air  and 
Space  Museum  in  Washington,  D.C.,  and 
the  Hansen  Planetarium  in  Salt  Lake  City, 
Utah.  Some  are  run  by  astronomy  clubs, 
but  these  have  mostly  news  about  club 
events  and  members. 

If  taped  messages  go  by  too  fast  for  you 
(most  have  a  three-minute  limit  in  which 
the  announcer  must  describe  the  night  sky 
from  horizon  to  horizon),  a  better  solution 
is  a  computer  bulletin  board  (SIcy  and  Tele- 
scope's September  1992  issue  lists  fifty- 
one  of  them).  If  you  have  a  computer  and 
a  modem,  you  can  gain  access  to  them. 
Some  give  the  same  text  given  on  the  as- 
tronomy telephone  hotUnes,  and  some  are 
entirely  different.  Now,  armed  with  your 
computer  printout  or  your  notes  from  the 
telephone  hotiine  message,  you  are  ready 
to  brave  the  night. 

As  the  sky  darkens  on  clear  March 
evenings,  and  the  lovely  Pleiades  and 
Hyades  pull  Orion  from  the  southern  skies 
to  the  western  horizon,  watch  as  Leo  the 
Lion  lumbers  up  over  the  eastern  edge  of 
the  sky  with  his  signature  star,  Regulus,  in 
the  lead.  Leo  is  easy  to  find  if  skies  are 
dark,  for  it  is  one  of  the  few  constellations 
to  actually  look  like  what  it's  supposed  to 
be.  Spica  in  faint  Virgo  is  the  next  bright 
star  to  come  up  over  the  eastern  horizon. 
Just  about  midnight,  watch  as  the  two  stars 
that  mark  the  claws  of  the  Scorpion  reach 
out  toward  Spica.  These  are  Zubenel- 


genubi  and  Zubeneneschamali,  now  des- 
ignated as  part  of  the  constellation  Libra. 

And  that  mysterious  bright  object  near 
the  Scorpion's  southern  claw?  A  quick  call 
to  a  hotline  will  reveal  that  it's  Jupiter,  the 
planet  that  will  Unger  in  the  same  area  for 
the  rest  of  1994. 

The  Planets  in  March 

Mercury  remains  a  difficult  planet  to 
spot  this  month,  although  it  is  up  in  the 
morning  skies.  The  sun's  closest  neighbor 
reaches  greatest  elongation  west  (28°)  on 
the  19th,  but  despite  the  large  separation 
from  the  sun,  this  is  an  unfavorable  elon- 
gation for  Northern  Hemisphere  sky- 
watchers  because  of  the  low  angle  of  the 
ecliptic.  Perhaps  the  best  time  to  try  to 
spot  Mercury  this  month  will  be  within  a 
few  days  of  March  10,  when  you  might 
spy  it  looking  like  a  bright  zero-magnitude 
"star"  very  low  above  the  east-southeast 
horizon  about  an  hour  before  sunrise.  On 
the  morning  of  the  24th,  Mercury  will 
stand  less  than  half  a  degree  (about  the 
width  of  a  full  moon)  south  of  Saturn. 

Venus  slowly  emerges  from  the  glare  of 
the  evening  twilight  this  month,  as  the 
time  of  its  setting  after  sundown  increases 
from  about  forty-five  minutes  on  the  1st  to 
ninety  minutes  on  the  3 1  st.  On  the  evening 
of  the  13th,  look  to  the  west  shortly  after 
sunset  and  you  should  find  a  very  young 
crescent  moon.  Below  and  shghtiy  to  the 
left  of  this  delicate  crescent,  just  above  the 
western  horizon,  you  should  find  brilliant 
Venus. 

Mars  rises  only  one-half  to  one  hour 
before  the  sun  this  month.  Shining  at  mag- 
nitude -1-1.2,  the  red  planet  wiU  be  ex- 
tremely difficult  to  see  in  the  bright  morn- 
ing twilight.  Mars  passes  Saturn  on  the 
mornings  of  the  13th  and  14th,  but  be- 
cause of  their  low  altitude  and  proximity  to 


26    Natural  History  3/94 


the  sun,  you  probably  won't  see  them. 

Jupiter  is  in  Libra,  to  the  west  of  the 
curved  body  of  Scorpius.  This  gas  giant 
rises  before  midnight  and  is  in  the  south- 
west sky  by  sunrise.  The  waning  gibbous 
moon  pays  Jupiter  a  visit  twice  this  month: 
during  the  predawn  hours  of  the  2d,  you'll 
find  it  below  and  to  the  right  of  Jupiter  and 
on  the  night  of  the  29th-30th,  the  moon 
lies  below  and  to  the  left. 

Saturn  might  be  seen  by  month's  end, 
low  in  the  southeast  and  rising  just  over  an 
hour  after  the  sun.  Because  of  the  low 
angle  of  the  planet's  orbital  path  relative  to 
our  horizon,  Saturn  will  probably  not  be 
visible  when  it  is  passed  by  Mars  on  the 
13th- 14th.  You  might  catch  a  glimpse  of 
Saturn  near  Mercury  on  the  24th. 

Uranus  and  Neptune  remain  in  eastern 
Sagittarius,  inching  their  way  toward 
Capricomus,  until  late  April  and  early 
May,  when  the  two  of  them  become  "sta- 
tionary" as  they  begin  their  retrograde  mo- 
tion across  the  sky  as  seen  from  the  earth's 
perspective.  Binoculars,  dark  skies,  and 
sky  charts  are  essential  for  spotting  these 
two  blue-green  planets.  The  waning  moon 
points  the  way  on  the  7th,  when  both  plan- 
ets are  4°  and  5°,  respectively,  below  it. 

Pluto  hugs  the  northeast  comer  of  the 
constellation  Libra  this  month  and  re- 
mains there  all  year  long,  not  far  from 
Jupiter.  Only  the  largest  telescopes,  steady 
atmospheric  conditions,  dark  skies,  and 
good  star  charts  permit  a  view  of  Pluto. 

The  Moon  reaches  last  quarter  on  the 
4th  at  1 1 :53  a.m.,  EST,  is  new  on  the  12th 
at  2:05  a.m.,  EST,  and  reaches  first  quarter 
at  7:14  a.m.,  EST,  on  the  20th.  The  full 
moon  occurs  on  the  27th  at  6:09  a.m., 
EST 

Gail  S.  Cleere  lives  in  Washington,  D.C., 
and  writes  on  popular  astronomy. 


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27 


;,.   ■     ,»    _tp».>,.^ 


Three  Soay  ewes  and  three  young  rams  graze  on  Hirta.  Feral  for 
at  least  a  thousand  years,  the  breed  is  the  most  primitive  of 
Europe 's  domestic  sheep.  Both  sexes  usually  have  horns. 


Tim  Clutton-Brock 


Counting  Sheep 

Every  few  years,  most  of  the  feral  sheep  on  a  Scottish  island 
perish — yet  the  flock  survives 


by  Tim  Clutton-Brock 

In  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  off  the  northwest 
coast  of  Scotland,  lie  the  Outer  Hebrides. 
Forty  miles  farther  out,  the  shattered  rim 
of  an  extinct  volcano  forms  another  archi- 
pelago known  as  Saint  Kilda.  Its  rugged, 
rocky  islands  are  home  to  huge  colonies  of 
puffins,  gannets,  fulmars,  and  shearwaters. 
The  archipelago  also  contains  its  own  sub- 
species of  mouse  and  a  wren  whose  songs 
are  strikingly  different  from  those  of  its 
mainland  cousins.  But  the  most  unusual 
inhabitants  of  Saint  Kilda  are  the  small, 
feral  Soay  sheep,  named  for  a  small  island 
in  the  archipelago  on  which  they  have 
grazed  since  ancient  times.  Precisely  when 
they  were  introduced  to  Soay  is  unknown, 
but  it  may  have  been  as  early  as  3,000 
years  ago;  even  the  most  conservative  es- 
timates place  them  on  the  island  for  at 
least  a  thousand  years.  Soays  are  the  most 
primitive  breed  of  domestic  sheep  in  Eu- 
rope; their  skeletons  closely  resemble  the 
remains  of  sheep  from  early  Neolithic 
sites.  Although  their  fleece  is  generally 
brown,  it  can  range  in  color  from  cream  to 
black.  Both  sexes  usually  have  horns,  and 
their  partly  woolly  fleece  also  sports  long, 
straight  hairs. 

Hirta,  the  largest  of  Saint  Kilda's  is- 
lands, supported  a  population  of  crofters 
that  dwindled  until  1930,  when  the  thirty 
remaining  villagers  were  relocated  to  the 
mainland.  In  1932,  107  feral  sheep  from 
Soay  were  introduced  to  Hirta  by  the  is- 
land's owner,  the  Marquis  of  Bute.  They 
quickly  increased  to  colonize  the  whole  is- 
land, reaching  500  in  less  than  ten  years. 
When  the  first  organized  census  was  taken 
in  1952,  there  were  1,114  sheep  on  the  is- 
land. To  a  zoologist,  however,  the  striking 
feahire  of  Hirta's  Soay  sheep  population  is 


that  it  appears  to  rise  and  fall  in  cycles. 
Every  third  or  fourth  winter,  after  numbers 
have  passed  the  1,400  mark,  the  sheep  on 
the  island  begin  to  starve.  In  their  weak- 
ened condition,  many  seek  the  sanctuary 
of  the  oblong  dry-stone  shelters,  or  cleits, 
that  the  islanders  once  used  to  dry  seabirds 
harvested  for  their  meat  and  feathers.  Sev- 
enty percent  of  the  sheep  succumb,  mostly 
in  February  or  March.  Their  bodies  pile 
up,  and  by  April,  many  of  the  cleits  are 
choked  with  rotting  carcasses. 

Until  recently,  zoologists  thought  that 
regular  population  cycles  were  confined  to 
small-bodied  mammals  in  the  Arctic  and 
sub-Antarctic  {see  "The  Lemming  Phe- 
nomenon," Natural  History,  December 
1989).  At  intervals  of  between  two  and 
nine  years,  populations  of  voles,  lem- 
mings, and  snowshoe  hares  commonly 
rise  and  fall,  with  populations  sometimes 
falling  to  less  than  one-tenth  of  peak  num- 
bers. Cycles  may  have  dramatic  effects 
both  on  these  animals'  food  supply  and  on 
the  prosperity  of  their  predators,  whose 
populations  may  decrease  rapidly  as  their 
own  food  supply  disappears.  We  are  not 
accustomed  to  thinking  of  such  dramatic 
cycles  in  larger  mammals.  Imagine,  for 
example,  a  tenfold  increase  in  American 
white-tailed  deer  populations  over  three 
years,  or  a  sudden  90  percent  reduction  in 
their  numbers. 

But  population  cycles  may  not  be  con- 
fined to  small  mammals  after  all.  Ten 
years  ago,  Rolf  Peterson  and  his  col- 
leagues at  Michigan  Technological  Uni- 
versity showed  that,  across  species,  the 
length  of  cycles  increased  with  the  body 
size  of  animals.  The  most  rapid  cycles — 
two  to  three  years — are  found  among  mice 


tiJiii; 


29 


'30' 


Stac  an  An 
SAINT  KILDA       Stacl 


57°  50' 


Joe  LeMonnier 

30    Natural  History  3/94 


and  voles.  Lemmings,  which  are  larger, 
sometimes  show  cycles  of  three  to  four 
years.  Muskrats  may  peak  every  seven 
years  and  snowshoe  hares  at  nine  years. 
Peterson's  group  suggested  that  the  cycle 
length  depends  on  the  rate  at  which  the 
population  can  expand,  which,  in  turn,  de- 
pends on  generation  length.  Because  large 
mammals  mature  more  slowly  and  breed 
less  frequently  than  small  ones,  they  have 
longer  generation  times  and  lower  rates  of 
increase  and  therefore  may  show  longer 
cycles.  Using  the  known  relationship  be- 
tween body  size  and  cycle  periodicity  in 
smaller  animals,  Peterson  scaled  up  the 
figures  and  predicted  that  cycles  might 
occur  every  thirty  years  in  moose  and 
every  seventy  years  in  elephants.  We  do 
not  yet  have  data  spanning  many  decades. 


but  Peterson  expects  that  the  occasional 
oscillations  we  see  in  some  larger  ungu- 
lates may  eventually  turn  out  to  be  part  of 
such  long-term  cycles. 

My  colleagues  and  I  have  followed  the 
Soay  sheep  on  Hirta  through  three  cycles, 
but  we  weren't  the  first  to  observe  the  phe- 
nomenon. Previous  studies  of  the  island 
sheep  by  Morton  Boyd,  of  the  British  Na- 
ture Conservancy  Council,  and  by  zoolo- 
gists Peter  Jewell  and  Peter  Grubb,  of  the 
University  of  London,  show  that  similar 
die-offs  occurred  every  third  or  fourth 
year  during  the  1960s.  Regular  oscilla- 
tions have  not  been  reported  in  any  wild 
sheep  populations  in  North  America  or 
Asia,  nor  do  other  ungulates  on  Scottish 
islands  show  similar  peaks  and  crashes. 
The  number  of  red  deer  on  the  island  of 


Although  sheep  graze  all  over  Hirta,  in  winter  they  spend  most  of 
their  time  on  low  ground,  especially  in  the  abandoned  fields  of 
Village  Bay,  left.  The  dry-stone  shelters,  or  cleits,  that  dot  the 
lower  slopes  were  buih  to  dry  and  store  seahirds.  A  yearling 
ram,  below,  is  already  sexually  mature.  During  rut,  rams  wander 
widely  in  search  of  ewes  in  estrus. 

Laurie  Campbell 


Rum,  for  instance,  where  zoologist  Fiona 
Guinness  and  I  have  studied  them  for 
more  than  twenty  years,  remains  remark- 
ably stable,  declining  slightly  after  hard 
winters  and  increasing  after  good  ones. 
Then  why  should  Soay  sheep  behave  like 
voles  or  lemmings? 

Over  the  last  three  years,  Steve  Albon, 
Josephine  Pemberton,  and  I,  together  with 
other  biologists  from  Cambridge  and  Ed- 
inburgh, have  begun  to  glimpse  an  answer. 
After  a  population  crash,  sheep  numbers 
increase  rapidly.  Unlike  North  American 
wild  sheep,  Soay  ewes  first  conceive  when 
they  are  less  than  a  year  old,  birthing  their 
first  lambs  in  April,  soon  after  their  first 
birthday.  Up  to  20  percent  of  the  pregnant 
females  bear  twins.  Since  Hirta  has  no  car- 
nivores, more  than  80  percent  of  the  spring 
newborns  usually  survive  to  the  beginning 
of  winter,  and  animals  obviously  cannot 
disperse  from  the  island.  When  the  popu- 
lation is  small,  winter  mortality  of  lambs  is 
less  than  10  percent,  so  that  by  the  end  of 
the  first  year  following  a  crash,  total  num- 
bers usually  have  risen  by  50  percent  or 
more.  Fecundity  and  lamb  survival  remain 
high  through  the  following  year,  when  the 
sheep  increase  by  40  to  50  percent  again. 
In  the  summer  of  the  third  season,  they  in- 
crease by  another  40  percent.  At  this  stage. 


there  are  more  than  three  times  as  many 
sheep  on  Hirta  as  there  were  immediately 
after  the  crash,  but  they  still  begin  the  win- 
ter in  good  health. 

In  late  September  or  October,  however, 
grass  growth  ceases  at  this  latitude,  and  the 
sheep  must  winter  on  the  remnants  of 
summer's  vegetation.  When  sheep  num- 
bers are  high,  little  food  remains  by  Janu- 
ary or  early  February,  and  the  animals 
begin  to  lose  weight  rapidly.  Rams,  which 
bum  much  of  their  fat  in  the  November 
rut,  are  the  first  to  die,  followed  by  lambs, 
which  suffer  more  heat  loss  than  ewes  be- 
cause of  their  smaller  size.  During  Febru- 
ary and  March  (the  last  two  months  of  ges- 
tation), the  energy  costs  of  supporting 
growing  fetuses  increase  sharply,  and 
pregnant  ewes  (especially  those  carrying 
twins)  are  the  final  casualties. 

At  least  two  other  factors  may  con- 
tribute to  the  crash.  First,  the  sheep  suffer 
from  infestations  of  nematode  worms  in 
their  gastrointestinal  tracts.  As  the  flock 
increases,  more  worms  are  passed  out  in 
their  dung,  so  the  density  of  worms  in  the 
pasture  also  rises.  Second,  as  Dawn 
Bazely  and  Mark  Vicari  of  Canada's  Uni- 
versity of  York  have  shown,  heavy  grazing 
may  reduce  the  production  of  summer 
grasses  immediately  before  a  crash,  fur- 


31 


Glyn  Satterley  Book;  National  Tajst  for  Scotland 


Houses  on  a  village  street,  below,  abandoned  by  the  islanders  after 
1930,  have  been  restored  and  are  used  to  accommodate  work 
parties  and  visiting  scientists.  Right:  Sheep  graze  among  the  dry- 
stone  cleits.  When  their  numbers  peak,  the  animals  closely  crop 
abandoned  fields  and  lower  slopes,  even  devouring  rushes. 


Tim  Clutton  Brock 


ther  depressing  the  autumn  food  supply. 
These  factors  help  to  answer  the  immedi- 
ate question  of  why  the  population  shows 
periodic,  dramatic  die-offs.  They  do  not 
tell  us,  however,  why  Soay  sheep  popula- 
tions should  oscillate  while  those  of  other 
ungulates  are  stabihzed  by  the  effects  of 
increasing  density  on  reproduction  or 
mortality.  Do  similar  processes  not  occur 
in  Soays — and,  if  not,  why  not? 

We  have  found  that  rising  population 
density  has  little  effect  either  on  the  fecun- 
dity of  the  ewes  or  on  neonatal  mortality  in 
the  sheep  through  the  first  two  years  of  the 
cycle.  Even  in  the  third  year,  90  percent  of 
the  flock's  adult  ewes  become  pregnant. 
Why  increasing  numbers  have  so  little  ef- 
fect on  neonatal  survival  is  easy  to  see: 
food  is  plentiful  on  Hirta,  even  in  the  third 
year  of  the  cycle.  On  Hirta,  which  is  about 
as  far  north  as  southern  Alaska,  days  are 
long  and  nights  are  short  in  early  summer, 
and  there  is  a  burst  of  plant  production. 
Growing  lambs  have  plenty  of  food  during 
their  first  months  of  life,  even  when  sum- 
mer population  is  highest,  so  that  popula- 
tion density  itself  has  little  or  no  effect  on 
lamb  survival.  The  relatively  high  lamb 
mortality  during  the  summer  following  a 
crash — when  population  size  is  low  but 
food  is  plentiful — occurs  because  light. 


weak  lambs  have  been  produced  by  ewes 
that  have  barely  survived  the  winter. 

The  same  burst  of  plant  growth  in  early 
summer  helps  to  explain  why  the  sheep 
can  remain  fecund  as  their  population  den- 
sity increases.  After  the  middle  of  June, 
lambs  suckle  infrequently,  and  their  moth- 
ers then  have  several  months  to  recover 
the  condition  lost  during  lactation.  As  a  re- 
sult, they  can  reach  the  necessary  weight 
to  conceive  by  the  time  of  the  late  October 
rut,  and  summer  numbers  have  little  effect 
on  the  proportion  that  conceive. 

This  situation  differs  from  the  breeding 
cycle  of  most  other  ungulates,  which  wean 
their  offspring  much  later  in  the  year.  For 
example,  red  deer  on  Rum  bear  their 
calves  in  June  and  continue  to  suckle  them 
until  November  or  December,  after  the  an- 
nual rut  in  October.  During  lactation,  espe- 
cially in  the  weeks  when  their  milk  pro- 
duction is  highest,  the  daily  energy 
requirements  of  females  increase  as  much 
as  fourfold,  and  mothers  typically  lose  a 
substantial  proportion  of  their  body 
weight. 

Unlike  Soay  sheep,  female  red  deer 
cannot  begin  to  regain  this  lost  weight 
until  the  latter  months  of  lactation  in  late 
summer,  when  the  demands  of  suckling 
calves  have  dropped.  By  this  time,  days 


are  shortening,  plant  growth  has  dropped 
back,  and  food  is  no  longer  superabun- 
dant. High  numbers  of  red  deer  deplete  the 
food  supply  in  late  summer.  Consequently, 
many  mothers  cannot  regain  body  weight 
before  October  and  fail  to  conceive  during 
the  rut.  As  a  result,  when  deer  density  is 
high,  the  majority  of  mothers  breed  every 
other  year,  substantially  lowering  the 
growth  rate  of  the  deer  population. 

To  explain  the  apparent  lack  of  relation- 
ship between  population  density  and  fe- 
cundity in  Saint  Kilda's  sheep,  we  needed 
to  compare  the  weights  of  mothers  that 
had  raised  lambs  during  late  summer  with 
the  weights  of  those  that  had  not.  But  to 
weigh  a  sample  of  ewes,  one  must  first 
catch  them — and  these  animals  are  unac- 
customed to  humans.  Unfortunately, 
sheepdogs  are  of  no  use,  for  the  sheep 
scatter,  rather  than  bunch,  when  they  are 


32    Natural  History  3/94 


chased.  We  initially  tried  a  number  of  dif- 
ferent roundup  methods,  and  one  of  the 
simplest  proved  the  most  effective.  On 
rainy  nights,  the  sheep  take  shelter  in  the 
cleits;  by  moving  very  quietly,  we  were 
able  to  block  the  entrance  before  any  could 
escape.  Then  one  of  our  team  would  crawl 
through  the  low  entrance  into  the  cleit  with 
a  flashlight,  grab  a  sheep,  and  drag  it  out  to 
the  open,  where  it  could  be  weighed,  mea- 
sured, and  have  its  blood  sampled.  Some- 
times after  crawling  down  the  low,  muddy 
entrance  into  pitch  blackness  and  switch- 
ing on  his  helmet  lamp,  a  catcher  would 
confront  a  ram  with  its  head  down,  ready 
to  charge  directly  at  the  Ught. 

We  found  that  the  least  painful  method 
of  capture  was  a  large-scale  netting  opera- 
tion. With  volunteers  from  the  Mammal 
Conservation  Trust,  who  are  experienced 
in  netting  deer,  we  learned  to  build  corrals 


of  netting,  well  hidden  behind  the  dereUct 
cottages  of  the  village  street;  to  erect  hun- 
dreds of  feet  of  side  nets  around  the  mead- 
ows where  the  sheep  collect;  and  then  to 
slowly  ease  the  sheep  up  the  tunnels  of 
netting  into  the  corral,  where  they  could  be 
caught  and  weighed.  This  way,  we  eventu- 
ally trapped  enough  sheep  to  allow  us  to 
compare  the  weights  of  mothers  that  had 
raised  no  lambs  with  those  that  had  raised 
singletons  or  twins.  As  predicted,  all  three 
categories  of  mothers  proved  to  be  of  sim- 
ilar weight  in  August — two  full  months 
before  the  rut — showing  that  mothers  are 
able  to  regain  weight  lost  during  lactation 
in  the  two  months  following  the  weaning 
of  their  lambs.  This  contrasts  strongly 
with  red  deer  on  Rum,  where  mothers  that 
have  raised  calves  are  still  in  poor  condi- 
tion in  September. 
So  what  does  our  understanding  of 


sheep  cycles  on  Saint  Kilda  tell  us  about 
cycling  in  other  ungulates?  The  features  of 
the  Soay  sheep  population  that  create  cy- 
cles are  the  high  rate  of  population  in- 
crease (caused  by  first-year  breeding,  low 
juvenile  mortality,  and  no  dispersal)  and 
the  absence  of  any  strong  effect  of  popula- 
tion density  on  fecundity  and  lamb  mortal- 
ity (fostered  by  the  superabundance  of 
food  in  early  summer  and  by  early  wean- 
ing). This  combination  of  factors  is  not 
common  in  ungulates.  Most  ungulate  fe- 
males do  not  conceive  until  their  second, 
third,  or  fourth  year  of  hfe;  twinning  is 
rare;  and  neonatal  mortahty  is  high.  As  a 
result,  unlike  Soay  sheep,  populations  of 
other  ungulates  carmot  exceed  by  a  large 
margin  the  number  of  animals  that  the 
winter  food  supply  can  support. 

Some  wild  ungulates  do  parallel  the 
sheep's  situation,  however.  The  Saiga  an- 


33 


A  hornless  ewe  suckles  her  lamb,  below.  Between  10  and  20 
percent  of  mothers  produce  twins,  which  weigh  less  at  birth  and 
are  somewhat  less  likely  to  sun>ive  than  are  singletons.  Bearing 
the  remains  of  winter  fleece,  a  two-year-old  ewe,  right,  licks  her 
newborn  lamb. 


Tim  Clutton-Brock 


i^l^Jffi 


telopes  of  the  Asian  steppes,  for  instance, 
conceive  in  their  first  year  of  life  and  usu- 
ally produce  twins;  their  numbers,  like  the 
sheep's,  can  increase  very  rapidly.  Their 
populations  are  unstable,  but  we  don't  yet 
know  whether  they  oscillate  regularly. 
White-tailed  deer,  too,  commonly  con- 
ceive in  their  first  autumn  of  life,  and  ma- 
ture females  often  produce  twins.  But 
here,  natural  predators  and  human  hunters 
constrain  population  growth,  usually  pre- 
venting local  populations  from  exceeding 
their  food  resources. 

One  other  ungulate  population  that  ap- 
pears to  cycle  is  the  Corsican  mouflon 
sheep,  which  was  introduced  to  the  sub- 
antarctic  Kerguelen  Islands  in  the  1950s. 
As  on  Hirta,  there  are  no  effective  mam- 
malian predators,  and  mouflon  numbers 
have  increased  rapidly.  Unlike  the  Soays, 
however,  Kerguelen  mouflon  do  not  con- 
ceive until  their  second  year.  But  twins  are 
common  and  neonatal  mortality  is  low. 
Patrick  Bousses,  of  the  French  National 
Museum  of  Natural  History,  has  recently 
shown  that  population  crashes  comparable 
to  those  we  have  observed  on  Hirta  occur 
every  fourth  year  among  the  mouflons.  I 
am  not  surprised  that  the  periodicity  of 
these  cycles  is  rather  longer  than  in  Soay 
sheep,  for  the  mouflon  are  larger  animals 


and  their  delayed  age  of  first  breeding 
slows  the  population's  growth  rate.  (Simi- 
larly, as  Peterson  has  suggested,  the  rela- 
tionship between  small  body  size,  high  fe- 
cundity, and  rapid  population  growth 
probably  explains  why  smaller  rodents  re- 
cover from  crashes  more  quickly  than 
larger  ones,  generating  shorter  cycles.) 

So  might  population  cycles  be  a  much 
commoner  phenomenon  than  we  imagine? 
Can  we  expect  to  find  thirty-year  moose 
cycles  and  seventy-year  elephant  cycles, 
as  Peterson  and  his  colleagues  suggest? 
That  is  not  inconceivable,  but  I'm  skepti- 
cal. As  body  size  increases  and  fecundity 
falls,  we  see  a  decline  in  a  population's  ca- 
pacity to  exceed  winter  food  suppUes  by 
multiplying  during  the  boom  months  of 
early  summer.  Weaning  occurs  later,  limit- 
ing mothers'  ability  to  regain  condition  be- 
fore the  autumn  rut.  Populations  increase 
more  slowly,  providing  more  opportunities 
for  density-dependent  changes  in  preda- 
tion  or  starvation  to  depress  further  in- 
creases in  numbers.  Although  moose  and 
elephant  populations  may  oscillate,  and 
crashes  may  occur  when  winter  or  dry- 
season  food  supplies  are  suddenly  re- 
stricted, I  doubt  that  future  generations  of 
wildlife  biologists  will  discover  that  they 
show  regular  cycles.  D 


34    Natural  History  3/94 


35 


Tropical  Liaisons  on  a  Beetle's 

In  the  rainforests  of  Central  and  South  America,  pseudoscorpions  and  harlequin 
beetles  are  more  than  fellow  travelers 

by  Jeanne  A.  Zeh  and  David  W.  Zeh 


The  forest  of  Panama's  Soberania  Na- 
tional Park  felt  almost  cool  after  a  torren- 
tial afternoon  downpour.  It  was  early  May 
1988,  and  the  wet  season  had  just  arrived. 
The  forest,  parched  after  four  months 
without  rain,  was  springing  back  to  life. 
Near  dusk,  a  shaft  of  pale  light  still  pene- 
trated the  dense  canopy.  After  a  long  day, 
we  were  tired,  drenched,  and  mud  spat- 
tered. We  took  a  compass  reading  and 
headed  back  toward  a  trail.  Suddenly,  we 
spotted  what  we  had  been  searching  for. 
Lying  amidst  the  tangled  green  wreckage 
of  a  newly  opened  forest  gap  was  the  trunk 
of  a  huge,  fallen  fig  tree.  Struggling 
through  the  chaos  of  twisted  Uanas  and 
splintered  black  palms,  we  hacked  a  path 
to  the  tree.  Pungent,  milky  sap  still  oozed 
from  the  fig's  broken  limbs.  We  could 
hardly  beUeve  our  luck  at  finding  a  fig  tree 
that  must  have  fallen  only  a  day  or  two  be- 
fore. We  had  previously  come  across  a  few 
fallen  fig  trees,  but  they  had  all  been  well 
along  in  the  decay  process. 

A  recently  fallen  fig,  we  knew,  was  sure 
to  attract  the  most  sfiiking  of  all  the  long- 
homed  beetles,  the  harlequin,  named  for 
the  pattern  of  swirling  crimson,  black,  and 
greenish  yellow  that  decorates  its  body.  As 
arachnologists,  our  main  interest  was  not 
in  this  magnificent  beetle  itself,  but  in  its 
tiny  passengers,  pseudoscorpions  belong- 
ing to  the  species  Cordylochemes  scorpi- 
oides.  The  false  scorpions  lack  a  tail 
tipped  with  poisonous  stingers,  but  they 
can  immobilize  prey  with  poison  pro- 
duced by  a  gland  in  their  pincers.  If  you 
were  to  prize  open  a  harlequin's  wing  cov- 
ers, you  would  almost  certainly  find  at 
least  one  pseudoscorpion,  maybe  more. 
The  record  stands  at  fifty-four,  all  cUnging 
tenaciously  to  the  abdomen  of  a  single, 
large  male  beetle.  Naturalists  have  been 
aware  of  this  curious  association  ever 
since  Linnaeus  described  it  in  1758,  but 
why  the  pseudoscorpions  engage  in  this 
beetle-riding  behavior  has  been  a  mystery. 
Do  they  climb  on  board  to  feed  on  the 
mites  that  infest  the  beetles?  Do  they 
spend  their  entire  lives  on  the  beedes?  Or 
are  they  simply  catching  a  ride,  with  the 
harlequins  providing  jumbo  jet  service  be- 

36    Natural  History  3/94 


iack 


A  harlequin  beetle  rests  on  a  fallen  rainforest  tree. 
Female  beetles  use  their  powerful  mandibles  to  cut  holes 
in  the  wood  where  they  will  deposit  their  eg^s. 

George  D  Dodge;  Bruce  Coleman,  Inc 


tween  one  habitat  and  the  next?  Having  lo- 
cated the  harlequin's  prime  habitat,  per- 
haps we  could  unravel  this  mystery. 

As  night  closed  in,  we  checked  our 
headlamps.  Equipped  with  red  filters,  the 
lights  would  be  invisible  to  insect  eyes 
while  providing  us  with  a  little  illumina- 
tion on  this  moonless  night.  We  waited 
silently,  hoping  that  we  would  not  en- 
counter a  deadly  fer-de-lance  coiled  be- 
neath the  tree  trunk  (as  we  had  on  two  pre- 
vious occasions).  Within  moments,  our 
apprehension  was  forgotten  as  a  large 
male  harlequin  descended  from  the 
canopy.  The  size  of  a  small  bird,  it  flew  in 
slow  motion,  its  enormously  elongated 
forelegs  outstretched  and  its  body  held 
vertically.  Minutes  later,  the  buzzing  of 
large  wings  signaled  the  arrival  of  a  sec- 
ond big  male. 

The  scene  was  set  for  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  displays  of  male  combat  in  the 


insect  world,  a  struggle  to  gain  control  of 
prime  egg-laying  sites  on  the  tree.  In  a 
coleopteran  version  of  jujitsu,  each  male 
repeatedly  reared  up  on  his  hind  legs, 
lunged  forward,  and  using  his  forelegs  as 
hooked  levers,  tried  to  overturn  the  other 
and  toss  him  from  the  tree.  Victory  usually 
goes  to  the  male  with  the  longest  forelegs, 
but  these  combatants  were  closely 
matched,  and  all  attempts  at  tossing  failed. 
Not  the  hard-wired  robots  insects  are  often 
thought  to  be,  the  beetles  abandoned  their 
standard  tactics  as  the  contest  escalated, 
and  their  attacks  and  counterattacks  grew 
more  complex  and  less  predictable.  Fi- 
nally, after  a  frenzied  ten  minutes  of  vi- 
cious bites,  flailing  forelegs,  and  wildly 
waving  antennae,  one  contestant  retreated, 
part  of  his  left  antenna  amputated  by  his 
opponent's  powerful  mandibles.  The  vic- 
tor then  took  up  the  task  of  guarding  his 
mating  territory.  Within  an  hour  a  female 


arrived,  and  the  pair  began  to  copulate. 

For  harlequin  beetles,  mating  is  a  pro- 
tracted affair.  After  copulation,  the  male 
guards  the  site  as  his  mate  chews  a  hole  in 
the  half-inch-thick  bark,  an  arduous  task 
that  may  take  her  an  hour.  Excavation 
completed,  the  female  injects  a  single  egg 
into  the  pit  and  again  copulates  with  the 
male.  She  may  continue  this  sequence 
through  the  night  until  she  has  left  a  tell- 
tale line  of  five  to  ten  holes  in  the  bark. 

As  the  pair  we  watched  began  to  copu- 
late a  second  time,  we  crept  a  little  closer, 
confident  that  the  harlequins  were  too  pre- 
occupied to  notice.  To  couple  with  the  fe- 
male, the  male  arched  his  abdomen  down- 
ward, leaving  the  space  beneath  his  wing 
covers  exposed.  Straining  to  see  in  the  dim 
red  light,  we  spotted  a  pseudoscorpion 
moving  down  the  male's  abdomen.  Climb- 
ing onto  the  female  beetle's  ovipositor,  it 
paused  and  raised  its  pincers.  Apparently 


38    Natural  History  3/94 


Two  male  harlequins  butt  heads  in  a  battle  over  prime 
mating  territory  on  a  fallen  fig  tree.  When  the 
combatants  are  equally  matched  in  size,  as  these  are, 
the  fight  may  last  as  long  as  half  an  hour. 


Dauid  W.  Zeh 


irritated  by  the  probing  claws,  the  female 
harlequin  flexed  her  abdomen  and  the 
pseudoscorpion  crawled  aboard,  disap- 
pearing beneath  her  wing  covers. 

Just  from  the  size  and  bulbous  appear- 
ance of  its  claws,  we  could  tell  that  this 
pseudoscorpion  was  a  big  male.  This 
marked  external  difference  between  the 
sexes — known  as  sexual  dimorphism — 
suggested  that  strong  sexual  selection  (ei- 
ther through  female  choice  or  male  com- 
petition) had  exerted  its  force  on  this 
species.  Darwin  was  the  first  to  recognize 
that  sexual  selection  might  exaggerate  and 
perpetuate  certain  male  traits,  but  more 
than  a  century  after  he  first  drew  attention 
to  this  phenomenon,  an  unresolved  prob- 
lem still  puzzles  evolutionary  biologists: 
If,  over  long  spans  of  evolutionary  time, 
champions  of  male  combat  or  the  flam- 
boyant beaus  preferred  by  females  consis- 
tently sire  more  offspring  than  do  their 


smaller  or  less  showy  rivals,  the  "lesser" 
males  should  eventually  disappear  from 
populations.  But  they  don't.  Indeed,  the 
enormous  variability  in  the  size  of  C.  scor- 
pioides  males  in  museum  collections 
prompted  Austrian  taxonomist  Max  Beier 
to  describe  it  as  the  most  variable  pseu- 
doscorpion known. 

We  realized  that  the  beetle-riding  pseu- 
doscorpion was  an  ideal  species  for  study- 
ing how  male  variability  is  maintained,  but 
finding  pseudoscorpions  and  the  beetle 
hosts  in  their  natural  habitat  had  always 
been  difficult. 

When  we  first  began  our  research  in 
1987,  we  searched  the  Panamanian  forests 
for  two  months  without  finding  a  single 
dead  fig  tree.  Then,  one  morning  in  early 
December,  we  decided  to  combine  field- 
work  with  sightseeing  and  hiked  Las 
Cruces  Trail.  Cut  through  the  forest  by 
slaves,  this  pathway  was  once  the  conquis- 
tadors' major  route  across  the  isthmus. 
Our  only  companion  was  a  giant  Morpho 
butterfly  fluttering  erratically  down  the 
path  ahead  of  us,  its  metallic  blue  wings 
flashing  against  a  background  of  lush 
green.  Following  our  lepidopteran  scout 
around  a  bend,  we  came  upon  a  dead,  but 
still  standing,  fig  tree,  a  mere  twenty  yards 
from  the  infamous  trail. 

The  roots  that  buttressed  the  130-foot- 
tall  tree  were  surrounded  by  fallen  bark 
and  mounds  of  pale  yellow  sawdust,  con- 
spicuous evidence  of  harlequin  beetle  lar- 
vae tunneling  within  its  trunk.  The  tree 
was  pockmarked  with  dozens  of  elliptical 
holes,  tunnel  entrances  leading  deep  into 
the  heartwood.  Most  striking  was  the  rip- 
pled appearance  of  the  exposed  outer  sap- 
wood,  where  the  beetle  larvae  had  gouged 
large,  curving  tunnels  just  beneath  the  sur- 
face. The  decaying  tree  was  an  oasis  in  an 
otherwise  hostile  environment.  The  wood 
of  fig  trees  is  very  soft  compared  with 
most  other  tropical  species,  and  the  copi- 
ous, nutrient-laden  sap  supports  thriving 
colonies  of  bacteria  and  yeast,  the  basis  of 
the  rotting  tree's  food  web. 

The  dead  tree  itself  seemed  strangely 
alive,  with  loud  gurgling  noises  emanating 
from  the  trunk.  (These  sounds,  we  learned 


later,  were  produced  by  the  wood-boring 
larvae  of  pantophthalmid  flies,  feeding 
ravenously  as  they  cut  perfecdy  cylindri- 
cal holes.  One  of  the  largest  flies  in  the 
world,  it  has  its  own  species  of  pseu- 
doscorpion hitchhiker)  The  rotting  wood 
was  an  entomologist's  paradise,  buzzing 
with  anvil-headed  fruit  flies;  stilt-legged 
flies;  blue-bodied,  yellow-headed  stra- 
tiomyid  flies;  weevils;  giant  orange  click 
beetles;  rove  and  bark  beetles;  and  four- 
inch-long  cockroaches.  And  there  were 
predators:  female  parasitic  wasps,  tailless 
whipscorpions,  ambush  bugs  disguised  as 
miniature  garbage  heaps,  and  raiding 
hordes  of  ants.  All  were  feeding,  fighting, 
mating,  or  depositing  their  eggs. 

In  the  sawdust  and  under  the  bark,  we 
found  C.  scorpioides  by  the  dozen — large 
males,  small  males,  females  carrying 
brood  sacs,  nymphs.  This  was  the  primary 
habitat  of  the  beetle-riding  pseudoscor- 
pion. (The  trees  provide  an  ideal  nursery 
for  developing  young,  and  fly  and  beede 
larvae  growing  in  the  wood  provide  the 
adult  pseudoscorpions  with  an  abundant 
food  supply.)  To  exploit  such  a  rich,  but 
ephemeral,  resource,  a  small,  flightless 
arthropod  first  faces  the  daunting  chal- 
lenge of  dispersal.  Traveling  between 
these  patchily  distributed  habitats  is  well 
beyond  its  own  abilities.  While  other  pseu- 
doscorpions hitch  rides  by  hanging  on  to 
the  legs  of  various  flying  insects,  C.  scor- 
pioides has  evolved  behaviors  that  allow  it 
to  travel  in  relative  luxury  aboard  the  ab- 
domens of  harlequin  beetles,  a  far  less 
hazardous  method  of  dispersal. 

Four  to  twelve  months  after  the  female 
harlequin  deposits  her  eggs,  her  offspring 
develop  into  five-inch-long  larvae  and  are 
ready  to  pupate.  But  first  the  larvae  pre- 
pare for  their  emergence  as  adults  by  cut- 
ting a  disk  eight  inches  in  diameter  in  the 
bark  covering  their  tunnel  entrances.  By 
the  time  the  adult  beetles  begin  to  emerge 
from  their  pupal  chambers,  the  resources 
of  the  decaying  fig  tree  have  become  se- 
verely depleted,  and  its  population  of  sev- 
eral hundred  pseudoscorpions  is  ready  to 
disperse.  Attracted  by  chemical  cues  and 
surface  vibrations,  the  pseudoscorpions 


39 


Beneath  the  open  wing  covers  of  a  harlequin  beetle,  below,  two 
closely  matched  male  pseudoscorpions  are  locked  in  battle. 
More  than  a  dozen  pseudoscorpions.  right,  hitch  a  ride  on  a 
small  male  harlequin  that  has  just  emerged  from  its  pupal 
chamber  in  a  rotting  fig  tree.  When  the  beetle  takes  flight  to 
search  for  another  tree,  it  will  transport  the  false  scorpions  and 
a  number  of  much  smaller  mites. 

Photographs  by  Jeanne  A.  Zeh 


converge  on  adult  beetles.  Equipped  only 
with  a  pair  of  poorly  developed  eyespots, 
the  pseudoscorpions  unerringly  head 
straight  for  the  "boarding  gate,"  the  rear 
end  of  a  beetle's  abdomen.  One  by  one, 
males  and  females  raise  their  claws,  pinch 
the  beetle's  rear,  and  as  the  harlequin  re- 
acts by  flinching  its  abdomen,  the  pseu- 
doscorpions quickly  clamber  on  board. 

Heavily  laden  with  the  stowaways,  the 
harlequin  climbs  to  the  highest  available 
point  on  die  trunk  and  launches  itself  into 
the  air  in  search  of  another  fig  tree  on 
which  to  mate. 

We  have  found  that  the  female  harle- 
quins are  extremely  fastidious  in  their 
choice  of  trees.  Our  survey  of  a  150-acre 
tract  of  forest  showed  that  80  percent  of 
the  beetles  we  located  were  on  newly 
fallen  trees.  Depending  on  their  size,  the 
trees  attracted  adult  harlequins  for  only  a 
brief  period  of  from  four  to  twenty-six 
days.  We  found  the  remaining  20  percent 
of  the  beetles  on  standing  dead  trees. 

While  a  harlequin  flies  in  search  of  a 
fallen  tree,  the  pseudoscorpions  must 
avoid  falling  off  the  vertically  held  ab- 
domen of  their  host.  Instead  of  simply 
clinging  to  the  segments  of  the  beetle's  ab- 
domen, they  attach  themselves  with  a 
safety  harness  of  silk,  produced  by  a  gland 


in  their  pincers.  When  the  harlequin  finds 
a  suitable  fig  tree,  the  pseudoscorpions  use 
silk  again.  They  cannot  fly  or  jump,  but, 
undaunted,  they  spin  a  silken  thread  and 
rappel  down  to  their  new  habitat. 

Our  field  observations  confirmed  that 
the  pseudoscorpions  use  the  beeties  to  dis- 
perse from  old,  exhausted  trees  to  newly 
fallen  ones,  hi  examining  more  than  150 
beetles,  we  have  found  only  adult  pseu- 
doscorpions. Because  mature  pseudoscor- 
pions are  voracious  and  opportunistic 
predators  not  averse  to  cannibalism,  the 
crowded  beetle  abdomens  are  no  place  for 
the  weak  and  vulnerable.  (We  have  often 
seen  adults  in  trees  feeding  on  nymphs,  as 
well  as  older  nymphs  feeding  on  younger 
ones.)  What  was  unexpected  was  the  large 
number  of  beetles  carrying  just  one  pseu- 
doscorpion,  always  a  male.  Of  the  fifty- 
eight  harlequins  we  examined  on  recently 
fallen  trees,  fifty-three  were  occupied  by 
lone  males.  Their  pincers,  used  for  fight- 
ing, were  markedly  larger  than  those  of  the 
average  males  collected  from  the  trees. 
These  big  males  remained  on  board  even 
when  their  host  beetles  stayed  on  the  trees 
for  several  days. 

To  investigate  this  perplexing  finding, 
we  marked  136  virgin  male  and  female 
pseudoscorpions  and  allowed  them  to 


mount  beetles  in  the  laboratory.  Then  we 
released  the  harlequins  on  a  newly  fallen 
fig  tree.  Recapturing  the  beetles  a  few 
hours  later,  we  identified  the  remaining 
pseudoscorpions  and  found  that  the  fe- 
males and  small  males  had  disembarked 
rapidly,  but  the  bigger  males  had  stayed 
aboard.  Only  when  there  were  no  females 
aboard  did  large  male  pseudoscorpions 
show  any  inclination  to  abandon  their 
hosts,  and  in  such  cases  they  often  simply 
transferred  to  another  beetle.  In  a  few 
cases,  we  recaptured  marked  beetles  for  a 
second  and  a  third  census.  On  one,  a  male 
pseudoscorpion  was  still  present  after 
fourteen  days,  and  in  the  interim,  two  fe- 
males had  come  aboard.  Because  female 
pseudoscorpions  disembark  rapidly,  we 
were  only  able  to  recapture  ten  on  flieir 
original  beetles.  Of  these  originally  virgin 
females,  eight  subsequently  produced 
brood  sacs  and  nymphs  in  the  lab,  indicat- 


40    Natural  History  3/94 


ing  that  the  pseudoscorpions  had  almost 
certainly  mated  on  board  their  host. 

With  the  discovery  that  the  beetles 
served  as  mobile  mating  territories,  our 
previous  observations  began  to  make 
sense.  For  several  generations,  pseu- 
doscorpion  populations  thrive  within  the 
decaying  fig  trees,  until  the  trees'  re- 
sources are  exhausted  (about  a  year).  As 
new  harlequin  beetle  adults  emerge  from 
the  rotting  wood,  large  numbers  of  pseu- 
doscorpions climb  on  board.  A  high  pro- 
portion of  the  female  stowaways  are  sexu- 
ally receptive.  Males  therefore  compete 
intensely  to  establish  a  mating  territory  on 
a  beetle's  abdomen.  When  a  harlequin  lo- 
cates a  recently  fallen  fig  tree,  inseminated 
female  pseudoscorpions  disembark  to  col- 
onize the  tree,  and  smaller  males  are 
forced  off  by  larger  rivals.  After  the  bee- 
tle's maiden  flight,  it  continues  to  search 
the  forest  for  suitable  trees  and  mates,  typ- 


ically carrying  a  single,  large,  male  pseu- 
doscorpion  under  its  wing  covers.  Females 
or  challenging  males  may  come  aboard 
when  the  harlequin  visits  dead  trees  that 
are  mosaics  of  old  and  new  decay.  The  res- 
ident male  may  disembark  to  reconnoiter 
other  beeties  as  its  host  beetle  copulates, 
but  in  the  meantime  he  may  be  supplanted 
by  a  larger  intruder. 

In  this  cycle  of  population  growth  and 
dispersal,  we  saw  how  sexual  selection 
could  act  to  maintain  the  striking  size  vari- 
ability among  C.  scorpioides  males.  In 
essence,  variabiUty  persists  because  of  the 
two  very  different  habitats  in  which  male 
pseudoscorpions  must  compete:  on  the 
backs  of  beetles  and  within  decaying  trees. 
During  the  pseudoscorpion's  brief  disper- 
sal episodes  on  beetles,  it  pays  to  be  large, 
but  during  the  several  generations  spent 
living  within  the  trees,  big  males  seem  to 
have  no  advantage.  In  laboratory  experi- 


ments, we  found  that  big  males  were  able 
to  monopolize  matings  only  under 
crowded  conditions.  In  trees,  where  mates 
are  spread  out,  siring  more  offspring  may 
depend  more  on  a  male  pseudoscorpion's 
mobility  and  his  ability  to  find  mates 
quickly.  Selection  may  therefore  favor 
small  size  and  rapid  maturation.  Thus, 
rather  than  leading  toward  a  single  ideal 
male,  oscillating  sexual  selection  alter- 
nately favors  small  and  then  large  males. 

Simply  tallying  the  number  of  females 
with  which  a  male  mated  was  not  enough 
to  prove  this  hypothesis,  however.  Mating 
itself  does  not  guarantee  the  siring  of  off- 
spring. As  British  biologist  Geoffrey 
Parker  pointed  out  more  than  twenty  years 
ago,  sexual  selection  does  not  necessarily 
end  with  copulation.  Female  pseudoscor- 
pions are  able  to  store  sperm.  If  a  female 
opts  to  mate  with  more  than  one  male,  the 
sperm  from  each  male  may  have  to  com- 


41 


Stephen  Dalton;  NHPA 


Beneath  the  bark  of  a  rotting  tree,  below,  a  female 
pseudoscorpion  carries  developing  embryos  in  an 
external  brood  sac.  Despite  its  vivid  colors, 
a  harlequin  beetle,  right,  blends  into  the  bark  of 
a  tree  in  a  Venezuelan  rainforest 

Edward  S.  Ross 


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pete  to  fertilize  her  eggs.  Female  promis- 
cuity makes  paternity  hard  to  establish. 

Fortunately,  DNA  fingerprinting  now 
offers  a  direct  way  to  measure  a  male's 
success  in  fertilizing  the  eggs  of  his  mate. 
By  cloning  DNA  from  the  beede-riding 
pseudoscorpions,  we  were  able  to  identify 
two  regions  of  DNA  that  were  particularly 
useful  for  tracing  relationships  between 
individuals.  These  probes  enabled  us  to 
test  our  oscillating-selection  hypothesis. 
We  needed  beetles  from  recently  fallen 
trees,  but  few  fig  trees  fell  in  Soberania 
Park  that  season.  We  traveled  to  French 
Guiana,  where,  we  were  told,  we  might 
find  sufficient  numbers  of  harlequins  to 
complete  the  study.  In  the  Kaw  Mountains 
southeast  of  Cayenne,  we  found  harle- 
quins in  abundance,  collected  breeding 
pseudoscorpions  from  beneath  the  beetles' 
wing  covers,  and  reared  their  offspring. 

Back  in  Panama,  we  found  that  DNA 
fingerprints  of  these  families  demon- 
strated that  in  the  beetle  environment  sex- 
ual selection  does  favor  large  male  size. 
Only  very  large  males  are  able  to  monop- 
olize beetles.  Yet  even  within  this  elite,  the 
DNA  fingerprints  revealed  a  strong,  posi- 
tive relafionship  between  size  and  fertil- 

42    Natural  History  3/94 


ization  success.  To  study  the  relafionship 
between  male  size  and  reproductive  suc- 
cess in  trees,  we  now  need  to  develop  ad- 
ditional DNA  probes  that  will  allow  us  to 
determine  paternity  among  large  numbers 
of  putative  sires. 

Taking  a  break  from  the  long  hours  in 
the  molecular  lab,  we  spent  a  day  in  the 
forest,  returning  to  the  tree  where  we  had 
seen  the  two  harlequins  fight  a  year  before. 
A  small  male  beetle,  newly  emerged  from 
his  pupal  chamber,  was  resting  on  the 
trunk.  All  around  him,  pseudoscorpions 
were  emerging  from  beneath  the  bark. 
One  by  one,  they  pinched  his  abdomen 
and  disappeared  on  board.  That  night,  we 
knew,  the  beetie  would  abandon  the  old 
tree  and  set  out  on  his  maiden  flight.  Al- 
ready overgrown  with  saplings,  the  re- 
mains of  the  fig  tree  would  soon  rot  away 
completely,  returning  its  precious  nutri- 
ents to  the  soil. 

Somewhere  in  Soberania  Park  another 
old  fig  ti^ee  will  crash  to  the  forest  floor,  but 
for  the  harlequin,  for  the  beetle-riding 
pseudoscorpion,  for  an  entire  community 
of  arthropod  species,  the  death  of  this 
magnificent  tree  will  present  an  indispens- 
able ecological  opportunity.  O 


I  got 


take 
home 


size. 


iiSlERRA 


No  compromise  in  a  GMC  Truck. 
Industrial  strength  or  the  handy 
take  home  size,  you'll  get  full 
measure,  full  strength.  Call  it 
breeding  or  lineage  or  good  family 
values,  the  simple  truth  is  we  have 


^^  I  H  K  K  f\     ^°  °^^  '-'^^'^^'-  "^^"^ly  3  century  of 
.THE STpNGTHOF EXPERIENCE    delivering  -  exclusively,  single- 


mindedly  -  the  strengths  of  trucks. 
What  have  we  done  for  you  lately? 
The  1994  GMC  Sierra.  It  has  some- 
thing you  didn't  expect  from  a 
truck  -  manners.  Ride  character. 
What  the  English  call  "good  form." 
You  may  be  skeptical  of  a  fuU-size 
pickup  truck  that  promises  luxury 


xaNic^ 


and  handling.  We  understand. 
But  check  your  doubts  at  the 
dealership  door.  A  vibration- 
eating  balance  shaft  and  glass- 
filled  polymer  rocker  covers  quiet 
your  fears.  Independent  front 
suspension,  a  shock-mounted 
cab,  and  throne-like  seating  do 


the  rest.  And  finally  the  coups  de 
grace  -  Sierra's  available  V8  power 
and  commanding  view  of  the 
road  make  it  decidely  uncar-like. 
When  you  look  into  y  ur  next 
truck,  or  maybe  your  first  truck, 
don't  compromise.  Get  the  strength 
only  GMC  Truck  can  deliver.  And 


get  the  road  manners  that,  until 
now.  have  eluded  you.  To  learn 
more  about  the  GMC  Sierra  call 
1-800-GMC-TRUCK. 


WorldCupUSm 


GM.  GMC.  GMC  Truck.  Sierra  and  the  GMC  Truck  logo 


B1993GMCorp.  All  Rights  Re 
Buckle  up.  All 


An  effigy  of  Judas  is  venerated  in  Zunil,  Guatemala,  where 
the  Maya  have  infused  Christianity 's  villain  with 
a  combination  of  ancient  and  modem  attributes. 


Tom  Owen  Edmunds 


Judas  Transformed 

During  Holy  Week,  the  Maya  confront  the  man  they,  love  to  hate 


by  June  Nash 

When  I  saw  Judas  last  year  in  Gua- 
temala, he  was  wearing  a  sport  shirt,  jog- 
ging pants,  running  shoes,  and  a  blue  hard 
hat — at  least  that  was  how  some  Maya 
portrayed  this  reviled  figure.  The  conquer- 
ing Spaniards  had  introduced  him  as  the 
betrayer  of  Jesus,  a  personage  in  the  drama 
of  the  Crucifixion.  But  in  the  dehcate  op- 
eration of  imposing  and  maintaining  the 
Cathohc  religion  in  Mexico  and  Central 
America,  the  priests  could  not  prevent 
Judas  from  slipping  away  and  taking  on  a 
life,  and  meaning,  of  his  own. 

I  first  encountered  a  Maya  Judas  forty 
years  ago,  when  I  began  anthropological 
fieldwork  in  Cantel,  a  township  in  the 
western  highlands  of  Guatemala.  Inhab- 
ited by  Quiche-speaking  Maya,  Cantel 
was  a  farming  center  with  a  large  textile 
factory.  The  settlement  clustered  around 
the  large  colonial  church  that  stood  atop  a 
high  hill.  Below  flowed  the  Samala  River, 
which  had  run  red  with  the  blood  of  the 
slain  in  1 524,  when  the  Maya  king  Tecum- 
Uman  fought  and  died  in  battle  with  the 
conqueror  Pedro  de  Alvarado. 

The  Maya  still  spoke  of  that  battle,  and 
during  Carnival  they  subtly  reenacted  it. 
The  conquerors  had  introduced  a  dance 
commemorating  the  Spaniards'  struggle 
with  the  Moors,  which  the  Maya  contin- 
ued to  perform.  The  dancers  dressed  in 
costumes  of  both  roles  but,  embracing  the 
enemy  of  the  Spaniards  as  their  own  race, 
they  mingled  brown  masks  of  Tecum- 
Uman  with  the  black  masks  of  the  Moors. 
In  everyday  life  as  well,  the  Maya  re- 
mained hostile  to  those  they  called  Ladi- 
nos,  those  of  mixed  Indian  and  Spanish 
descent  who  identified  with  the  foreign 
culture.  Their  attitude  was  a  result  of  a 
long  history  of  exploitation  and  oppres- 
sion by  Ladinos,  who  controlled  the  plan- 


tations, markets,  and  institutions  of  gov- 
ernment. 

Judas  was  one  of  the  effigies  paraded 
about  during  Holy  Week  each  year,  when 
the  priest  and  the  catechists  (loyal  follow- 
ers of  orthodox  CathoUcism)  stage-man- 
aged the  Passion  of  Christ.  In  1954  the 
priest  was  a  young  Franciscan,  newly  ar- 
rived in  Guatemala  after  previous  service 
in  China.  His  goal  was  to  rescue  CathoU- 
cism Irom  the  folk  traditions  that  had  been 
shaping  religious  practices  during  the  pre- 
vious decades,  when  communities  like 
Cantel  did  not  have  resident  priests.  His 
major  adversaries  were  the  groups  of 
devotees,  known  as  brotherhoods,  that  had 
arisen  around  various  saints.  Particularly 
resistant  were  the  mayordomos,  or  care- 
takers of  the  brotherhood  houses,  who 
were  responsible  for  the  saints'  figures. 
Even  Judas  had  his  own  brotherhood, 
being  granted  a  far  less  negative  role  in  the 
folk  tradition  than  by  the  church. 

At  times  during  Holy  Week,  the  two  re- 
ligious factions  came  into  conflict  over  the 
ceremonial  use  of  public  space.  For  ex- 
ample, on  Holy  Saturday,  those  upholding 
the  folk  traditions  took  the  figure  of  the 
body  of  Christ,  recumbent  in  its  bower  of 
flowers  and  pine  needles,  on  a  slow  march 
through  the  town,  accompanied  by  the 
mournful  tune  of  trumpets  and  wooden 
ratchet  noisemakers.  The  priest  tried  to  get 
them  to  return  the  figure  while  it  was  still 
daylight,  but  the  mayordomos  insisted  on 
a  very  slow  pace,  out  of  respect.  The  sac- 
ristan was  obliged  to  allow  the  mayordo- 
mos to  reenter  the  church  after  midnight. 

Generally,  however,  the  two  groups  co- 
ordinated their  activities,  the  catechists  ex- 
erting their  control  in  the  church  while  the 
mayordomos  held  sway  in  the  plaza  and 
the  brotherhood  houses.  For  example,  on 


Holy  Thursday,  in  dramatizing  the  biblical 
scenario,  the  catechists  set  the  image  of 
Christ  bearing  the  cross  in  the  center  of  the 
nave.  But  outside  the  church  that  evening, 
under  the  direction  of  the  mayordomos, 
the  folk-traditionalists  played  the  role  of 
"the  killers  of  Christ."  The  streets  filled 
with  the  spectators'  raucous  cries  of  "the 
Jews!"  as  participants  ran  through  the 
town  seeking  the  one  who  played  the  role 
of  Jesus.  Often  pausing  to  rekindle  their 
energies  in  the  liquor  shops,  they  contin- 
ued their  search  until  they  discovered 
"Jesus"  and  dragged  him  to  an  improvised 
jail  in  the  comer  of  the  plaza. 

Judas,  a  straw  figure  with  a  wooden 
mask,  belonged  to  one  of  the  brotherhoods 
and  was  entirely  defined  by  folk  tradition. 
Costumed  in  a  black  wool  suit,  felt  hat, 
and  laced  shoes,  he  was  a  caricature  of  a 
Ladino  (in  those  days,  Indians  typically 
went  barefoot  or  wore  sandals  and  had 
straw  hats  and  cotton  clothing).  Among 
his  devotees  were  those  who  wished  to 
gain  commercial  success  or  who  profited 
from  Indian  labor.  Some  were  Ladinos 
from  outside  Cantel;  most  were  de  vestido 
Indians  (Indians  "of  clothing"),  those  in 
transition  from  their  Maya  culture. 

On  Saturday,  the  brotherhood  dedicated 
to  Judas,  who  was  also  caUed  San  Simon, 
removed  his  effigy  ft"om  the  brotherhood 
house,  mounted  it  on  a  donkey,  and  led  it 
around  town  to  visit  all  the  shops,  includ- 
ing fire  liquor  stores  in  the  town  center. 
Each  shop  owner  gave  Judas  a  five-doUar 
donation  to  insure  luck  in  business.  Many 
also  plied  him  with  drinks,  ^ownngposh,  a 
distilled  cane  liquor,  through  a  funnel  into 
his  open  mouth.  The  drinks,  collected 
through  a  tube  that  extended  into  a  rubber 
"stomach"  bag,  were  later  consumed  by 
his  followers. 


47 


In  the  house  of  a  brotherhood  devoted  to  Judas,  his  figure  gets 
a  morning  kiss  from  the  caretaker's  wife.  The  choice  of  a  coffin  for 
Judas 's  resting  place  may  be  unique  to  this  brotherhood  in  a 
Maya  village  near  Santiago  Atitldn. 


Jim  Pieper 


These  offerings  were  considered  an  im- 
portant part  of  bfusiness  management.  I  re- 
call the  great  anxiety  of  the  druggist,  a  de 
vestido  Indian,  when  she  learned  that  the 
image  had  passed  her  shop  while  she  was 
out,  and  how  she  ran  to  catch  up  with  the 
entourage  to  make  her  offering.  Although 
presumably  introduced  into  the  local  cul- 
ture as  a  villain,  Judas  was  welcomed  in 
his  peregrination,  at  least  by  those  en- 
gaged in  commerce.  Perhaps  they  recog- 
nized, in  his  transaction  for  thirty  pieces  of 
silver,  Judas's  commitment  to  commerce 
at  any  cost. 

The  priest  frowned  on  the  whole  Judas 
cult  and  had  even  ordered  the  catechists  to 
raid  the  brotherhood  house  and  destroy  the 
figure.  But  although  the  catechists  had  ap- 
parently succeeded  on  several  occasions 
in  burning  the  straw  body  and  wooden 
mask,  the  brotherhood  always  secreted  the 
"true"  mask,  tying  it  to  a  new  straw  effigy 
each  year.  Except  for  his  appearance  dur- 
ing Holy  Week,  Judas  remained  safe  in  an 
altar  in  the  brotherhood  house. 

I  met  Judas  in  another  guise  in  1957, 
when  I  was  assigned  to  do  fieldwork  in  the 
Tzeltal-speaking  Maya  community  of 
Amatenango  del  Valle.  A  pottery-making 
town  in  the  highlands  of  Chiapas,  Mexico, 
Amatenango  was  known  to  outsiders  as 
one  of  the  most  hostile  of  nineteen  indige- 
nous communities  surrounding  the  Span- 
ish "royal  city"  of  San  Cristobal  de  las 
Casas.  Early  in  my  fieldwork,  I  learned 
that  the  homicide  rate  was  high  and  rising. 
I  also  learned  that  two  anthropologists  had 
been  ordered  to  leave  there  because  the 
community  did  not  appreciate  their  pres- 
ence. I  found  it  difficult  to  start  a  conversa- 
tion with  any  of  the  Indians.  The  area 
priest  who  served  the  community  con- 
firmed my  impression,  adding  that  the 
hostility  of  the  inhabitants  to  outsiders 
made  his  work  easier  because  it  kept  away 
the  Protestant  missionaries.  Despite  the 
proximity  of  the  (as  yet  unpaved)  Pan- 
American  highway,  the  only  Ladino  living 
in  town  was  the  schoolteacher,  who  barri- 
caded himself  with  his  family  in  the  large 
adobe  schoolhouse  on  the  plaza,  with  an 
arsenal  of  rifles  for  protection. 


IP^  ■^^. 


As  might  be  expected,  folk  behefs  had 
made  severe  inroads  on  whatever  Catholic 
orthodoxy  the  community  had  absorbed. 
Mariano  Lopez  Shunton,  one  of  the  town 
elders,  gave  me  a  vivid  example  of  this 
when  he  told  me  the  story  of  "How  Jesus 
Gained  Control  over  the  World."  In  an- 
cient times,  Mariano  said,  Judas  prevented 
the  com  plants  from  growing  by  making 
them  come  out  with  one  "arm"  and  one 
"leg,"  so  that  they  fell  over.  Jesus  and 
Mary  outwitted  him  by  enticing  Judas, 
whom  Mariano  called  "the  leader  of  the 
Jews,"  to  a  fiesta.  Mary  danced  with  Judas 
and  plied  him  with  liquor  so  that  he  forgot 
the  fields.  Meanwhile,  Jesus  guarded  the 
fields  of  corn  so  that  the  plants  grew 
straight  and  tall.  In  this  role,  Jesus  was 
identified  with  the  preconquest  deity 
Cananlum,  "caretaker  of  the  earth,"  while 
Mary  was  identified  with  Me'tikchik,  "our 
grandmother  the  moon,"  who  was  also  in 
charge  of  crops. 

While  in  this  story  Christ  appeared  in  a 
positive  light,  images  of  Christ — espe- 
cially the  figure  of  Christ  on  the  Cross — 
were  regarded  with  ambivalence.  In  Ama- 
tenango, men  who  claimed  extraordinary 
powers  over  life  and  death  without  valida- 
tion as  folk  healers  were  killed  as  witches. 
Saint  Peter  the  Martyr,  whose  image  in 


Amatenango  showed  him  with  a  cleaver 
imbedded  in  his  skull,  was  taken  to  have 
been  a  powerful  witch,  later  redeemed  by 
his  role  as  the  protector  against  Ughtoing. 
Similarly,  the  crucified  Christ  could  have 
been  viewed  as  a  punished  witch,  evoking 
little  sympathy. 

I  spent  varying  amounts  of  time  in  Am- 
atenango over  the  next  decade.  During  the 
Holy  Week  rituals,  the  Crucifixion  was 
reenacted  in  the  church  under  the  supervi- 
sion of  the  Ladino  priest,  with  the  assis- 
tance of  the  mayordomos,  who  manipu- 
lated the  images  like  puppets.  The 
participation  of  the  mayordomos  in  the  of- 
ficial drama  was  welcomed,  in  contrast  to 
the  situation  in  Cantel,  where  members  of 
the  religious  brotherhoods  were  in  conflict 
with  the  priest. 

Although  Judas  enjoyed  some  popular- 
ity as  a  cult  figure  in  Cantel,  in  Amate- 
nango he  was  almost  universally  reviled. 
The  priest  referred  to  him  as  the  King  of 
the  Jews  and  identified  him  as  flie  "killer 
of  Christ."  And  on  Good  Friday,  following 
die  enactment  of  the  Crucifixion,  tiie  may- 
ordomos hauled  the  effigy  of  Judas  up  the 
belfry  "to  show  the  world  that  he  killed 
Christ."  They  jabbed  him  with  long  poles, 
laughing  when  one  well-directed  blow 
landed  and  someone  yelled,  "Eunuch!" 


48    Natural  History  3/94 


As  I  had  observed  in  Cantel,  however, 
Judas  was  something  more  than  the  be- 
trayer of  Christ.  In  the  1960s,  when  men  of 
the  town  universally  wore  white  cotton 
shirts  and  large-waisted  trousers  tied  with 
a  red  sash,  the  effigy  was  costumed  in  the 
canvas  pants,  black  jacket,  boots,  and 
cowboy  hat  of  a  Ladino  rancher.  And 
Judas's  ride  around  town  on  Saturday, 
reminiscent  of  the  one  carried  out  in  Can- 
tel, further  identified  him  as  a  Ladino, 
since  riding  a  horse  was  a  prerogative  of 
Ladinos  during  colonial  times.  As  I 
watched  his  image,  tied  to  the  saddle  and 
with  a  cigarette  in  his  mouth,  I  realized 
that  under  cover  of  the  role  of  Christians 
outraged  by  the  killing  of  Christ,  the  Indi- 
ans were  acting  out  their  own  hatred  of 
Ladinos. 

The  priest  did  not  acknowledge  this 
performance,  calling  it  a  "pagan"  practice, 
but  as  soon  as  his  Volkswagen  left  the 


churchyard,  the  entourage  set  out.  Al- 
though in  Cantel  the  merchants  had  show- 
ered Judas  with  donations,  in  Amatenango 
only  the  folk  healers  gave  money.  Perhaps 
they  felt  an  obligation  toward  Judas  as  one 
source  of  their  power  over  illnesses  caused 
by  witchcraft  (I  could  only  speculate, 
since  none  of  them  confirmed  this).  Fol- 
lowing Judas's  ride  around  town,  the  effigy 
was  dismembered  and  later  burned,  the 
wooden  mask  being  saved  to  be  used  the 
following  year.  The  money  that  had  been 
collected  was  used  to  buy  liquor — associ- 
ated with  the  water  used  to  bathe  the  body 
of  Christ — that  was  served  to  the  mayor- 
domos  and  their  assistants. 

Another  variation  on  the  theme  of  Judas 
was  described  in  a  1965  monograph,  Los 
Escdndalos  de  Maximon  (The  Scandals  of 
Maximon),  by  anthropologist  E.  Michael 
Mendelson.  Mendelson  reported  that 
among  the  Atitec-speaking  Maya  of  Santi- 


Jim  Pieper 

As  part  of  Holy  Week  in  Santiago  Atllldn, 
left,  Judas  is  hanged  on  a  rack  beside  the 
church.  In  that  town  he  Is  commonly 
called  Maximon  and  Incorporates  the 
role  of  a  Maya  fertility  spirit.  The  Maya 
area,  below,  where  cults  devoted  to  Judas 
flourish,  crosses  the  frontier  between 
Guatemala  and  Mexico. 

Joe  LeMonnier 


ago  Atitlan,  one  of  Guatemala's  beautiful 
lake  towns,  the  figure  wore  a  shirt,  pants, 
and  belt  similar  to  those  worn  by  the  Indi- 
ans, but  along  with  them  he  wore  a 
Ladino-style  blue  jacket,  boots,  and  a 
broad-brimmed  hat.  He  had  a  large  cigar 
placed  firmly  in  his  mouth.  Despite  his 
role  in  the  Christian  Holy  Week  enact- 
ment, everyone  (except  for  the  clerics) 
called  him  Maximon.  The  Indians  told 
Mendelson  that  Maximon  was  the  oldest 
of  the  animal  spirits;  he  was  also  called  the 
Black  Magician,  patron  of  those  "prayer 
makers"  who,  like  the  curers  of  Amate- 
nango, divine  the  cause  of  illness. 
-  To  Mendelson,  Maximon  seemed  to  be 
the  incarnation  of  a  traditional  fertility 
spirit.  This  association  was  evident  in  the 
fruit  offerings  displayed  on  his  altar  and 
the  corncobs  hung  on  the  image  during  the 
cult  celebrations  of  Holy  Week.  Christ 
might  have  redeemed  humanity  from  orig- 
inal sin,  but  in  the  eyes  of  the  Indians — 
given  the  Catholic  church's  identification 
of  sexuality  with  sin  and  portrayal  of  Jesus 
as  an  ascetic — he  exposed  the  world  to 
sterility.  In  one  of  the  myths  they  re- 
counted to  Mendelson,  "God  cooperated 
with  the  ancient  kings  to  sow  the  worid 
with  good  things,  but  something  happened 
and  the  world  has  died."  Through  Max- 


49 


imon,  the  Maya  restored  the  positive  as- 
pects of  sex  and  fertihty. 

According  to  one  myth  of  Maximon's 
origin,  the  ancient  authorities  decided  to 
make  a  talking  figure  to  scare  men  away 
from  other  men's  wives,  who  would  other- 
wise be  seduced  during  their  husbands' 
trips  to  the  plantations  or  the  capital  city. 
Created  as  a  guardian  of  sexual  morality, 
however,  Maximon  became  the  principal 
transgressor.  He  would  impregnate 
women,  whose  children  would  then  re- 
semble him  or  perhaps  show  some  defor- 
mity. Or  he  would  transform  himself  into  a 
woman  and  lure  men  into  sexual  relations, 
after  which  they  would  die  in  three  days. 

Thirty  years  later,  anthropologists 
Nathaniel  Tarn  and  Martin  Prechtel  report 
that  the  cult  of  Maximon  is  still  ahve  and 
well  in  Santiago  Atitlan.  In  their  research, 
they  identify  Maximon  with  Mam,  the 


50    Natural  History  3/94 


A 

m 

\  ifl 

B^^x^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^l 

1 

E.  Michael  Mendelson 


With  a  cigar  planted  in  his  mouth,  Judas,  left,  departs  with  the  figures 
of  the  Virgin  Mary  and  Our  Lady  of  the  Rosary  for  a  procession 
through  Santiago  Atitldn  on  Easter  Sunday  of  1953.  Clothed  in  a  hard 
hat,  sweatpants,  and  jogging  shoes  (opposite  page,  bottom),  a  more 
contemporary  Judas  is  paraded  through  Amatenango  del  Valle  in 
1993.  In  the  same  year,  dressed  as  a  Ladino  rancher,  Judas  hangs 
over  the  entrance  of  the  church  in  Zinacantdn,  below. 


Maya  god  of  the  underworld,  and  describe 
him  as  "the  changing  power  who  main- 
tains the  world  in  movement  while  chang- 
ing people's  sexual  partners." 

They  point  out  that  Judas-Maximon 
represents  negative,  as  well  as  positive,  as- 
pects of  sexuality.  Young  men  ask  the 
prayer  makers  to  intercede  for  them  with 
Maximon,  viewed  as  the  patron  of  roman- 
tic love.  But  the  Maya  of  Santiago  Atitlan 
also  regard  romantic  love  itself  as  destabi- 
lizing, posing  a  threat  as  it  does  to  parental 
control  over  the  selection  of  mates.  As  the 
deity  of  unbridled  sexuality,  according  to 
Tarn  and  Prechtel,  Maximon  stimulates 
both  desire  and  its  aftermath,  disorder 

Cantel,  Amatenango  del  Valle,  Santi- 
ago Atitlan,  and  other  Maya  communities 
have  all  placed  their  own  peculiar  stamp 
on  Judas,  using  the  figure  to  embody  dif- 
ferent local  concerns.  (In  the  1980s,  one 


anthropologist  even  found  a  Judas  figure 
in  a  guerrilla  camp  in  Guatemala,  where 
Maya  were  counterattacking  the  genocidal 
forces  of  Gen.  Efrain  Rios  Montt.)  Judas 
has  also  responded  to  change  over  time. 
The  Judas  I  saw  in  Amatenango  in  the 
1960s  had  changed  by  1992,  as  the  com- 
munity itself  became  more  engaged  in 
commerce  with  the  outside  world.  That 
year  I  arrived  on  Holy  Saturday,  as  the 
new  young  priest  directed  the  drama  in  the 
church.  The  effigy  of  Judas  was  already 
hanging  over  the  entrance.  Instead  of  his 
predecessor's  gloomy  rancher's  clothing, 
he  was  dressed  in  a  jogging  suit  with  his 
feet  stuffed  into  Nike  sneakers. 

On  Sunday  a  boisterous  and  jocular 
group  of  mayordomos  bore  the  hanged 
body  of  Judas  on  muleback,  greeting  the 
householders  and  asking  for  offerings. 
Now,  all  the  people — not  just  the  curers — 


offered  money.  Also  carried  in  the  proces- 
sion by  the  women  prayer  makers  was  the 
church's  statue  of  Our  Lady  of  the  Rosary 
weeping  over  the  recumbent  body  of  the 
crucified  Christ.  When  I  lived  in  the  vil- 
lage in  1965,  the  priest  had  not  permitted 
the  removal  of  saints'  statues  from  the 
church  for  fiestas,  because  of  the  conflicts 
that  often  arose  between  villagers  and  vis- 
iting Ladinos,  and  women  did  not  play  any 
public  role  in  ceremonies. 

The  sporty  Judas  of  1992  was  greeted 
more  peacefiiUy  than  in  the  past.  While 
before,  Ladinos  were  perceived  as  domi- 
nating the  commercial  world  as  marketers 
and  plantation  bosses,  more  Indians  now 
had  gained,  or  hoped  to  gain,  a  piece  of  the 
action.  Many  of  them  owned  trucks,  and 
dozens  of  television  aerials  poked  up  from 
the  cement  block  houses  that  had  replaced 
many    of    the    old    wattle-and-daub 


51 


Elsewhere,  his  effigy  is  often  burned,  but  in  Cuajimalpa,  a  papier- 
mache  figure  of  Judas,  below  and  right,  is  exploded.  The  town,  on 
the  outskirts  of  Mexico  City,  holds  elaborate  festivities  that  include 
individuals  who  dress  as  Judas  and  whip  people  in  the  crowd. 

Photographs  by  Tom  Owen  Edmunds 


dwellings.  The  women  who  were  active  in 
the  saints'  associations,  and  who  bore  the 
statue  of  Our  Lady  of  the  Rosary,  were 
full-time  potters,  some  who  had  good 
trade  networks  with  national  museums 
and  tourist  shops. 

Holy  Week  was  celebrated  more  lav- 
ishly than  ever,  with  eating  and  drinking  in 
most  of  the  houses.  Even  the  Judas  figure 
had  proliferated,  with  several  families 
hanging  effigies  in  their  own  courtyards. 
As  before,  the  mayordomos  cheerfully  im- 
bibed the  drinks  that  were  their  reward  for 
carrying  out  the  fiesta.  Most  of  them  pre- 
ferred the  soft  drinks  that  were  rapidly  re- 
placing the  strong,  home-brewed  liquor. 

In  the  nearby  city  of  San  Cristobal,  the 
custom  of  hanging  Judas  in  effigy  had  de- 
veloped into  a  competition  of  Holy  Week 
figures,  promoted  by  the  municipal  au- 
thorities. The  offer  of  a  cash  prize  had  gen- 
erated some  lively  dioramas,  which  were 
displayed  under  bright  fights  in  the  garden 
of  the  newly  painted  gray-and-white  mu- 
nicipal building.  Drawing  from  a  variety 
of  themes,  the  tableaux  departed  widely 
from  the  Passion  Play.  First  prize,  appro- 
priately in  the  quincentennial  year  of 
Columbus's  arrival,  went  to  a  local  sculp- 
tor's depiction  of  a  Spanish  conquistador 
beating  an  emaciated.  Christlike  Indian 
with  a  sword. 

One  contestant  mounted  a  multitiered 
tableau  of  the  class  system,  showing  the 
rich  landlords  on  top,  stamping  out  the  fife 
of  the  gasping  peasants.  Another  depicted 
the  poUce  evicting  famifies  from  the  San 
Juan  Chamula  barrio  (this  dispute  re- 
flected religious  differences  within  the  In- 
dian community  and  a  land  grab  by  local 
elites).  Yet  another  tableau  sought  to  raise 
people's  consciousness  about  sexual  ha- 
rassment and  violence  toward  women  by 
dramatizing  the  American  prizefighter 
Mike  Tyson's  jailing  for  rape.  These  new 
conflicts  cut  across  the  division  between 
Indians  and  Ladinos,  which  was  no  longer 
so  keenly  felt. 

Last  year  I  again  made  my  pilgrimage 
to  Amatenango  on  Holy  Saturday.  As  the 
time  came  on  Sunday  for  Judas's  ride 
around  town,  at  ten  in  the  morning,  his 


hanged  effigy  was  unceremoniously  cut 
down  from  the  belfry  and  hoisted  on  the 
back  of  a  horse.  He  was  still  garbed  in  a 
gaily  colored  sport  shirt  and  jogging  pants 
as  he  had  been  the  year  before,  but  fliis 
time,  strapped  above  his  flaming  pink  face 
was  a  blue  hard  hat.  When  I  asked  his 
caretaker  what  he  represented,  he  said,  "A 
government  agent,"  and  his  assistant 
added,  "Yes,  a  forestry  agent!"  and  they 
both  laughed.  Judas's  identity  now  cen- 
tered on  a  specific  Maya  conflict  with  the 
government.  New  laws  limited  the  cutting 
of  trees;  in  addition,  I  was  told,  the  forestry 
agents  would  sometimes  solicit  bribes 
from  violators  or  even  confiscate  the  cut 


wood  and  sell  it  for  their  own  profit. 
As  the  Maya  gain  greater  entry  into  flie 
Ladino  world,  die  animosity  is  still  there, 
but  now  it  is  focused  on  particular  adver- 
saries instead  of  on  the  generalized 
Ladino.  This  January,  a  local  rebellion 
gained  international  attention  as  a  group  of 
indigenous  people  calling  themselves  the 
Zapatista  Army  of  National  Liberation  at- 
tacked the  military  barracks  near  San 
Cristobal  and  seized  nearby  towns.  They 
specifically  rejected  the  North  American 
Free  Trade  Agreement  and  the  reform  act 
permitting  the  sale  of  communal  lands. 
Perhaps  this  year,  Judas  wiU  be  dressed  as 
a  Mexican  soldier.  D 


52    Natural  History  3/94 


N 


w  .  \ 


^n^jf- 


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'S 


gVtt^r"*^ 


.i^Wte-: 


-r^ 


Its  black  head  and  blue-green  flight  feathers  are  among  the 
many  traits  that  suggest  the  magpie 's  family  relationship  with  crows 
and  jays.  The  wear  and  tear  on  this  bird's  black  wingtips  indicates 
that  it  is  an  adult,  in  at  least  its  second  year  of  life. 

Manfred  Danegger 


Britain's  Magpie  Parliament 

These  crowlike  birds  hold  boisterous  sessions  every  year  in  early  spring 

by  Tim  Birkhead 


On  the  outskirts  of  Sheffield,  one  of 
Britain's  largest  industrial  cities,  lies  the 
Rivelin  Valley,  a  microcosm  of  traditional 
rural  England.  Woodland  borders  the 
stream  that  flows  through  the  valley  floor, 
and  cattle  and  horses  graze  in  the  tree-dot- 
ted fields  of  the  valley  and  surrounding 
hillsides.  This  region  has  long  been  home 
to  a  thriving  population  of  black-billed 
magpies,  a  species  that  farmers  and  game- 
keepers invariably  regard  as  pests.  The 
British  naturalist  Charles  Dixon  wrote  in 
1900  that  "nowhere  else  in  our  experience 
have  the  magpies  been  allowed  to  live  in 
such  peace  as  they  enjoyed  in  this  roman- 
tic valley." 

Magpies  still  inhabit  the  Rivelin  Valley, 
where  I  have  studied  their  breeding  behav- 
ior for  the  past  fifteen  years.  These  color- 
ful, long-tailed  relatives  of  crows  first  cap- 
tured my  attention  when  I  was  a  schoolboy 
birder.  Magpies  are  hard  to  miss.  Beauti- 
fully plumaged,  large,  loud,  and  social, 
they  are  renowned  for  flieir  noisy  "cere- 
monial gatherings."  More  than  a  hundred 
years  ago,  these  aggregations  were 
brought  to  Darwin's  attention  by  his 
cousin  WilUam  Darwin  Fox,  the  rector  of 
Delamere,  who  referred  to  them  as  "the 
great  magpie  marriage."  Darwin  later  used 
this  information  in  The  Descent  of  Man 
and  Selection  in  Relation  to  Sex: 

They  [the  magpies]  had  the  habit  very  early 
in  the  spring  of  assembling  at  particular 
spots,  where  they  could  be  seen  in  flocks, 
chattering,  sometimes  fighting,  bustling  and 
flying  about  the  trees.  The  whole  affair  was 
evidently  considered  by  the  birds  as  of  the 
highest  importance.  Shortly  after  the  meet- 
ing they  all  separated,  and  were  then  ob- 
served by  Mr.  Fox  and  others  to  be  paired 
for  the  season. 

I  had  long  been  intrigued  by  these  cere- 
monial gatherings,  but  I  had  a  gut  feeling 
that  Darwin  was  wrong  in  thinking  them 
to  be  mating  ceremonies.  By  marking  sev- 
eral hundred  birds  witii  unique  combina- 
tions of  color  bands  and  following  them 
through  the  course  of  flieir  fives,  I  was  able 
to  discover  the  true  function  of  the  yearly 
gatherings. 

Black-billed  magpies  are  found  in  a  va- 
riety of  habitats  across  much  of  the  North- 


55 


E.  A.  Janes;  NHPA 


Between  bouts  of  chasing  and  calling,  a  moment  of  peace 
prevails  among  a  small  congregation  of  magpies,  right,  in 
Hertfordshire,  near  London.  Such  ceremonial  gatherings 
precede  the  breeding  season,  typically  occurring  in  early 
spring  before  the  trees  are  in  leaf.  Below:  Two  magpies  vie  for 
dominance  in  a  heads-up  display  that  often  takes  place  when 
opponents  are  evenly  matched. 


^.'*-<-^ 


L 


ern  Hemisphere.  They  are  basically 
monogamous:  a  male  and  female  usually 
work  together  to  rear  offspring.  In  my 
study  area,  pairs  defend  an  all-purpose  ter- 
ritory of  about  twelve  and  a  half  acres.  All 
activities — wintering,  feeding,  roosting, 
breeding,  nesting,  and  chick  rearing — take 
place  here,  and  some  birds  spend  their  en- 
tire life  within  the  boundaries  of  their  terri- 
tory. In  rural  England,  an  ideal  magpie  ter- 
ritory contains  areas  of  close-cropped 
grass  suitable  for  foraging  for  adult  and 
larval  insects  (the  birds  may  also  eat  grain, 
berries,  and  carrion)  and  has  either  thorny 
bushes  or  tall  trees  for  nesting.  Although 
territories  are  occupied  throughout  the 
year,  they  are  actively  defended  only  in 
March  and  April — the  early  part  of  the 
breeding  season. 

The  domed  nest  is  bulky  and  conspicu- 
ous. Birds  will  sometimes  reuse  a  nest 
from  the  previous  year,  but  more  often 
they  build  a  new  one.  If  good  nest  sites  are 


in  short  supply,  the  new  nest  is  often  con- 
structed directly  on  top  of  the  old  one,  and 
stacks  of  four  or  five  nests  are  not  uncom- 
mon. Of  the  normal  six-egg  clutch,  usu- 
ally only  three  or  four  of  the  chicks  fledge. 
The  young  birds  are  fed  by  their  parents 
for  six  weeks  after  fledging — a  long  time 
by  songbird  standards. 

As  young  magpies  become  indepen- 
dent, sibling  groups  start  to  coalesce  into 
loose  flocks  that  remain  close  to  home. 
One  of  the  most  unusual  aspects  of  magpie 
behavior  is  this  tendency  of  young  birds  to 
remain  within  a  few  hundred  yards  of  their 
natal  nest.  A  nonbreeding  flock  is  a 
weakly  structured  group  of  from  ten  to 
fifty  birds  that  share  a  common  home 
range  of  about  thirty-seven  acres.  Flock 
members  fly  and  forage  alone  or  in  bands 
of  three  or  four  birds,  coming  together 
only  at  common  food  sources,  such  as  a 
small  carcass,  or  when  roosting  for  the 
evening.  Within  a  flock  a  hierarchy  soon 


becomes  established.  Males,  perhaps  be- 
cause they  are  slightly  larger,  dominate  fe- 
males, but  a  hierarchy  exists  for  each  sex. 
About  80  percent  of  the  birds  within  a 
flock  are  in  their  first  year  of  life,  most  of 
the  rest  are  in  their  second,  and  even  fewer 
are  in  their  third  or  fourth  year.  Although 
less  numerous,  older  birds  generally  dom- 
inate the  younger  ones. 

Magpies  express  their  social  rank  most 
commonly  around  food:  dominant  indi- 
viduals drive  away  subordinates,  and 
males  displace  females.  Rank  is  vitally 
important  because  it  ultimately  determines 
who  wiU  and  will  not  get  to  breed. 


56    Natural  History  3/94 


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Although  magpies  usually  pair  off  in 
their  first  spring  after  hatching  and  may  re- 
main together  for  years,  they  need  a  terri- 
tory to  breed.  In  the  Rivelin  Valley,  almost 
all  of  the  suitable  habitat  is  carved  up  into 
magpie  territories,  and  with  more  than 
seventy-five  breeding  pairs  per  square 
mile,  the  breeding  density  here  is  among 
the  highest  ever  recorded  for  these  birds. 
Territories,  and  hence  actual  opportunities 
for  reproduction,  are  hard  to  come  by. 
Magpies  may  breed  in  their  first  spring 
after  hatching,  but  do  so  more  usually  in 
their  second.  In  contrast  to  most  other 
birds,  they  do  not  wait  for  a  territory  va- 


cancy to  occur  naturally,  but  go  out  as  a 
pair  and  actively  try  to  create  one.  This 
driving  need  for  space,  the  prerequisite  for 
breeding,  proved  to  be  the  key  to  the  mag- 
pie congregations. 

On  bright,  crisp  mornings  in  late  winter 
and  early  spring,  a  high-ranking  pair  of 
magpies  from  the  nonbreeding  flock  may 
leave  their  normal  home  range  and  fly  de- 
liberately into  the  heart  of  an  occupied  ter- 
ritory. The  territory  owners'  response  is 
immediate — they  fly  out  to  threaten  and 
chase  the  intruders.  The  raucous  chatter- 
ing that  accompanies  these  encounters 
rapidly  attracts  other  magpies,  both  breed- 


ers and  nonbreeders.  Within  a  minute  after 
the  two  dominant  birds  invade  a  territory, 
up  to  twenty  magpies  will  be  flitting  about 
in  the  treetops,  calling  noisily.  After  care- 
fully observing  my  banded  birds,  I  real- 
ized that  most  of  the  action  was  between 
the  intruders  and  the  territory  owners;  the 
other  birds  were  merely  noisy  spectators, 
drawn  into  the  melee  only  when  they  got 
in  the  way  of  the  protagonists. 

The  usual  outcome  of  such  a  gathering 
was  the  eviction  of  the  intruders  within  a 
few  minutes.  When  this  occurred,  all  the 
participants  quickly  dispersed  and  re- 
sumed whatever  they  had  previously  been 


57 


doing.  If  the  initiators  of  the  invasion,  and 
indirectly  of  the  gathering,  were  particu- 
larly highly  motivated,  they  might  fly  off 
to  another  territory  and  start  the  process 
again.  I  once  watched  one  such  pair  start 
no  fewer  than  seven  gatherings,  one  after 
the  other  over  a  thirty-minute  period, 
being  evicted  each  time. 

Once  in  a  while  the  outcome  is  differ- 
ent. If  the  territory  owners  are  less  than 
forceful,  the  rituaUzed  threats  of  the  two 
parties  can  end  up  as  a  serious  fight.  Dur- 
ing such  a  battle,  male  grapples  with  male, 
and  female  with  female,  with  both  sets  of 
birds  on  the  ground  with  their  feet  firmly 
interlocked.  Eventually  one  will  gain  the 
upper  hand  and  begin  to  rain  heavy  blows 
with  its  beak  on  its  opponent's  head.  In 
several  cases  I  witnessed,  the  intruders  de- 
feated the  owners  and  drove  them  from  the 
territory.  The  vanquished  pair  usually  dis- 
appeared (and  were  presumed  dead),  but 
in  one  case,  they  were  forced  to  swap 
places  with  the  invaders  and  had  to  hve 
out  the  rest  of  their  lives  in  the  nonbreed- 
ing  flock,  while  the  intruders  settled  into 
the  territory. 

What  is  going  on  is  that  just  prior  to  the 
breeding  season,  the  dominant  members 
of  the  nonbreeding  flock  visit  established 
territories  to  assess  how  well  they  are  de- 
fended. In  the  majority  of  cases,  territories 
are  under  adequate  guard  and  the  intruders 
retreat  gracefully,  albeit  after  a  brief  burst 
of  aggression.  But  territory  tenure  is  lim- 
ited—owners eventually  age  or  become 
sick  and  are  less  able  to  defend  their  patch. 
These  are  just  the  opportunities  intruders 
are  looking  for,  and  once  they  find  a  weak- 
ness, they  are  relentless  in  pressing  home 
their  attack. 

Why  does  this  territorial  probing  by 
dominant  nonbreeders  provoke  the  rapid 
and  dramatic  gathering  of  so  many  other 
magpies?  What  is  the  advantage  to  those 
that  turn  up  as  spectators?  I  believe  that 
these  other  birds  can  benefit  by  knowing 
the  outcome  of  a  gathering.  For  example, 
if  the  gathering  results  in  a  change  of  terri- 
tory ownership,  this  sometimes  precipi- 
tates several  other  shifts  in  territory  in  a 
domino  effect,  creating  new  breeding  op- 


portunities for  both  estabUshed  breeders 
(hoping  to  move  up  market)  and  non- 
breeders  (hoping  to  obtain  some  space). 

Over  the  duration  of  my  study,  I  found 
that  about  one  third  of  all  territories  were 
acquired  during  a  ceremonial  gathering, 
while  another  third  were  obtained  simply 
as  one  magpie  replaced  another  that  had 
died  in  an  occupied  territory.  The  last  third 
were  won  by  pairs  squeezing  themselves 
in  between  the  boundaries  of  existing  ter- 
ritories late  in  the  season.  The  last  strategy 
was  successful  because  it  was  undertaken 
only  after  most  other  birds  had  started  to 
breed  and  when  their  territoriality  was 
waning.  It  was,  however,  the  least  produc- 
tive strategy,  because  by  the  time  latecom- 
ers had  estabUshed  sufficient  space  to  call 
a  territory,  the  breeding  season  was  over. 
Like  other  perching  birds  of  similar  body 
size,  30  to  40  percent  of  breeding  magpies 
die  between  one  year  and  the  next,  so  only 
a  few  individuals  using  the  "squeezing" 


strategy  will  survive  to  see  their  tactic  pay 
off  in  terms  of  producing  chicks  during  the 
next  year's  breeding  season. 

The  only  other  bird  species  known  to 
similarly  acquire  territory  through  cere- 
monial gatherings  are  the  Eurasian  carrion 
crow  and  the  acorn  woodpecker  in  Califor- 
nia, whose  gatherings  are  referred  to  as 
"power  struggles."  (Other  bird  species 
form  noisy  aggregations,  but  for  different 
reasons;  the  ubiquitous  house  sparrow,  for 
example,  performs  communal  sexual 
chases.)  More  attention  has  been  paid  to 
magpie  gatherings  than  to  the  congrega- 
tions of  other  species,  perhaps  because  of 
the  magpie's  striking  plumage,  brash  man- 
ner, and  dramatic  interactions,  which  have 
earned  it  a  place  not  only  in  the  scientific 
literature  but  also  in  local  folklore. 

The  acquisition  of  territory  is  only  one 
of  several  hurdles  a  magpie  has  to  over- 
come if  it  is  to  leave  any  descendants. 
Once  a  pair  have  secured  a  territory,  the 


58    Natural  History  3/94 


serious  business  of  breeding  ensues,  and 
here,  too,  competition  is  rife  and  vigilance 
necessary  on  the  part  of  the  male.  Al- 
though Darwin  knew  about  the  magpies' 
gatherings  and  recognized  the  general  sig- 
nificance of  reproductive  competition,  he 
assumed  that  the  females  of  monogamous 
species — in  which  a  mated  pair  raise 
young — were  strictly  monogamous.  As  in 
many  species  of  birds  long  considered 
faithful  within  pairs,  the  truth  is  more 
complex,  as  revealed  by  a  particular  inci- 
dent I  witnessed  one  day  at  the  beginning 
of  the  breeding  season. 

The  pair  I  was  observing  had  laid  part 
of  their  clutch,  and  the  female  was  still  fer- 
tile. As  she  searched  for  insects  in  a  field, 
her  mate  sat  on  a  nearby  stone  wall  eyeing 
her  every  move.  To  my  surprise,  the 
male's  head  gradually  sank  onto  his  chest, 
and  he  fell  asleep  in  the  spring  sunshine. 
No  sooner  had  he  stopped  observing  his 
partner  than  the  male  from  the  neighbor- 


ing territory  flew  over  and,  without  any  of 
the  usual  precopulatory  niceties,  mounted 
the  female.  Although  receptive,  she 
chanced  to  utter  a  cry  and  awake  her 
spouse.  He  swooped  down  to  attack  the  in- 
truder, who  coolly  retreated  to  his  own 
partner  and  territory.  Calling  noisily,  the 
wronged  male  then  chased  the  female 
back  to  their  nest  tree,  and  the  two  birds 
disappeared  into  the  dense  vegetation.  A 
day  or  two  later,  I  noticed  the  male  build- 
ing a  new  nest  in  a  tree  near  the  one  that 
housed  their  original  nest.  This  action 
would  have  been  normal  if  the  first  clutch 
had  been  taken  by  a  predator,  but  on 
checking,  I  found  the  partly  completed 
clutch  intact.  The  male  appeared  to  be 
starting  over  and  siring  a  new  clutch  of 
eggs  in  order  to  avoid  the  risk  of  rearing 
one  or  more  of  his  neighbor's  offspring. 

This  incident  was  unusual  only  in  that 
the  male  fell  asleep.  Male  magpies  are  es- 
pecially keen  to  obtain  sneaky  matings 


Like  their  crow  relatives,  magpies  will 
harass  hawks  that  approach  the  nest  or 
otherwise  threaten  their  livelihood.  In  this 
case,  a  magpie  unsuccessfully  attempted 
to  divert  a  buzzard  from  feeding  on  a 
dead  rabbit. 


with  breeding  females,  but  must  also 
guard  their  own  mates  to  prevent  being 
cuckolded.  Males  do  not  take  this  threat — 
known  as  extra-pair  copulation — lightly. 
During  the  time  that  his  female  can  be  fer- 
tilized, a  period  of  about  one  week,  the 
male  stays  within  a  few  yards  of  her  from 
dawn  until  dusk,  following  her  every 
move.  He  remains  close  enough  to  inter- 
cept any  males  trying  to  sneak  a  mating. 

Only  already  mated  males,  rather  than 
single  males,  sneak  matings,  and  they  do 
so  when  their  own  females  are  just  past  the 
fertile  stage  and  the  pressure  of  guarding 
her  is  relieved.  Females  accept  the  atten- 
tions of  interiopers  and  readily  mate  with 
them,  but  conversely,  do  not  appear  to 
condone  the  extra-pair  activities  of  their 
own  males.  Each  member  of  a  magpie  pair 
appears  to  attempt  to  optimize  its  own 
chances  of  copulating  with  more  than  one 
partner,  while  retaining  a  mate  with  which 
to  rear  chicks.  On  several  occasions,  I 
placed  a  caged  female  bird  in  an  occupied 
territory.  If  the  male  territory  owner  ap- 
proached this  decoy  bird  alone,  he  invari- 
ably started  to  court  her,  singing  and  try- 
ing to  mount  her  by  placing  his  foot  on  her 
back  through  the  bars  of  the  cage.  If,  how- 
ever, he  was  caught  in  such  behavior  by 
his  partner,  he  instantly  switched  from 
courting  the  decoy  to  displaying  aggres- 
sion toward  her. 

The  black-billed  magpie  was  one  of  the 
first  bird  species  in  which  mate  guarding 
was  described.  Subsequent  studies  over 
the  past  fifteen  years  have  shown  that  such 
behavior  by  males  during  their  partners' 
fertile  period  is  standard  in  many  birds. 
However,  guarding  does  not  guarantee  pa- 
ternity. In  many  so-called  monogamous 
species,  such  as  the  reed  bunting  in  Eura- 
sia and  the  splendid  fairy  wren  in  Aus- 
tralia, more  than  a  third  of  aU  the  offspring 
in  a  population  are  fathered  through  extra- 
pair  copulations,  and  some  males  help  to 
rear  young  that  are  not  genetically  their 
own.  We  suspect  that  the  same  may  be  true 
for  magpies  and  hope  to  ascertain  this  by 
testing  for  paternity  through  DNA  finger- 
printing. 

Over  the  course  of  the  study,  I  have  fol- 


59 


Magpies  are  notorious  egg  predators,  but  this  bird 
mistakenly  attempted  to  make  a  meal  of  a  golf  ball. 


Maurice  Tibbies;  Survival  Anglia 


North  America's  Magpies 


A  magpie  feeds  on  an  elk  carcass  in  Yellowstone  National  Park,  Wyoming. 

Rod  Planck:  Photo  Researchers,  Inc. 


The  black-billed  magpies  of  Eurasia, 
Africa,  and  North  America  belong  to  the 
same  species.  Pica  pica.  They  are  nearly 
identical  in  physical  appearance,  but  the 
North  American  subspecies  (P.p.  hudso- 
nia)  has  a  higher-pitched  voice  and  is 
somewhat  smaller  than  its  Old  World  coun- 
terparts. The  ecology  of  these  Old  and  New 
World  magpies  also  differs.  Ceremonial 
gatherings  and  much  of  the  associated  com- 
petitive behavior  do  not  exist  in  North 
America,  probably  because  the  magpies' 
food,  invertebrates,  is  patchily  distributed. 


American  black-billed  magpies  nest  wher- 
ever suitable  habitat  is  found,  often  in  prox- 
imity to  one  another,  but  they  forage  away 
from  the  nests  on  communal  feeding 
grounds.  With  no  need  to  secure  a  year- 
round  nesting  and  feeding  territory,  compe- 
tition for  space  and  breeding  opportunities 
is  much  reduced.  Interestingly,  in  its  behav- 
ior, America's  black-billed  magpie  more 
closely  resembles  the  yellow-billed  magpie 
of  Cahfomia,  which  is  considered  a  sepa- 
rate species  (P.  nuttali),  than  it  does  other 
black-billed  magpies.— Z  B. 


lowed  many  magpies  from  hatching  to 
death.  For  every  hundred  chicks  that 
fledge,  only  ten  survive  to  rear  young,  and 
only  one  or  two  of  these  produce  offspring 
that  survive  to  breed.  Longevity  is  the  key 
to  success.  The  longer  an  individual  lives 
and  the  more  seasons  it  attempts  to  breed, 
the  greater  the  likelihood  of  its  producing 
offspring.  Our  most  successful  female 
bred  for  six  seasons  and  had  seven  young 
that  survived  to  breed.  Our  most  success- 
ful male  lived  eight  years,  but  as  far  as  we 
could  tell,  produced  only  three  breeding 
offspring.  However,  this  figure  does  not 
take  into  account  any  young  he  may  have 


fathered  with  females  other  than  his  mate 
or,  indeed,  any  paternity  he  may  have  lost 
to  other  males  in  the  race  to  get  genes  into 
subsequent  generations. 

The  first  step  in  this  race,  beyond  sur- 
viving the  first  year  or  two  of  life,  is  to 
stake  out  a  territory.  By  becoming  an  ini- 
tiator of,  or  simply  a  spectator  at,  a  gather- 
ing, a  nonbreeding  magpie  can  assess  the 
competition  and  potentially  learn  enough 
to  wrest  a  territory  from  the  owners.  The 
gatherings  are  neither  great  magpie  mar- 
riages nor  mating  celebrations,  but  arenas 
in  which  the  competitive  business  of 
breeding  begins.  □ 


60    Natural  History  3/94 


N  V' 


Reviews 


A  Quixotic  Search  for 
New  Drugs 


by  J.  Worth  Estes 

According  to  Mark  J.  Plotkin,  ethno- 
botanists  have  three  major  goals.  The  first 
is  "to  record  and  preserve  the  plant  knowl- 
edge of  forest  peoples";  the  second  is  to 
use  their  expertise  to  "benefit  the  tribes  in 
their  dealings  with  the  outside  world"; 
and,  third,  to  possibly  "uncover  new,  po- 
tentially useful  plant-based  medicines."  In 
an  engaging  book,  Plotkin  recounts  his  ad- 
ventures among  tribes  in  Suriname, 
Guyana,  French  Guiana,  and  Venezuela, 
where  for  the  first  ten  years  of  his  career  he 
worked  toward  fulfilling  these  goals.  The 
third  goal,  finding  plant-based  medicines, 
remains  as  elusive  today  as  it  was  to  the 
first  explorers  of  the  Americas. 

The  typical  shaman  of  the  Amazonian 
rain  forest  is  the  village  physician,  phar- 
macist, and  psychiatrist,  as  well  as  media- 
tor with  the  spirit  world — at  least  in  cul- 
tural enclaves  that  have  not  been  affected 


A  Tirio  Indian  treats  a  child's  ear 
problem  with  a  medicinal  plant. 

Mark  J.  Plotkin;  Conservation  International 

62    Natural  History  3/94 


by  the  advent  of  outsiders,  such  as  mis- 
sionaries or  gold  miners.  In  these  commu- 
nities, the  young  graduate  student  Plotkin 
followed  the  pioneering  footsteps  of  his 
mentor,  ethnobotanist  and  Harvard  Uni- 
versity professor  Richard  Evans  Schultes, 
and  earned  the  trust  of  several  shamans. 

Tales  of  a  Shaman's  Apprentice:  An 
Ethnobotanist  Searches  for  New  Med- 
icines IN  the  Amazon  Rain  Forest,  by 
Mark  J.  Plotkin,  Ph.D.,  Viking,  $22.00, 
318  pp.,  illus. 

who  willingly  passed  on  detailed  knowl- 
edge of  the  plants  they  used  in  healing  or 
in  communicating  with  the  spirits  of  the 
forests. 

Plotkin's  tales  permit  the  reader  who 
has  never  ventured  into  any  rain  forest, 
much  less  eaten  the  rodent  meats  or  taste- 
less fruits  that  are  part  of  the  conventional 
human  diet  there,  to  experience  almost  at 
firsthand  the  hazards,  as  well  as  the  plea- 
sures, of  studies  with  witch  doctors.  His 
accounts  of  hacking  his  way  through 
Uanas  thick  and  thin,  of  being  soaked  in 
sweat  and  rain,  of  avoiding  large  crocodil- 
ians,  and  of  being  bitten  by  vampire  bats 
are  the  stuff  of  adventure  movies.  His  ac- 
counts of  how  shamans  strip  tree  bark  and 
make  arrow  poisons  are  the  stuff  of  eth- 
nobotany — as  is  Plotkin's  quasi-mystical 
story  of  how  a  Wayana  shaman  in  French 
Guiana  treated  his  sore  elbow.  However, 
one  does  wonder  how  Plotkin  managed  to 
carry  in  his  backpack  all  the  newspapers 
he  needed  for  pressing  his  hundreds  of 
botanical  specimens. 

The  visions  he  experienced  under  the 
influence  of  the  Yanomamo  tribe's  hallu- 
cinogenic snuff  called  epena  illustrate 
how  a  shaman  can  control  the  minds  and, 
therefore,  the  forest  spirits  of  his  village  or 
tribe.  In  this  case,  the  shaman's  control 


was  total,  because  he  blew  the  snuff 
through  a  long  tube  into  the  communer's 
nostrils — one  puff  at  a  time — until  the  de- 
sired effect  was  achieved. 

During  stays  among  several  tribes, 
Plotkin  observed  that  their  shamans'  learn- 
ing was  not  being  transmitted  to  a  new 
generation.  Young  men  were  more  inter- 
ested in  maintaining  their  gardens  or  their 
families  than  in  the  work  of  healing.  Thus, 
Plotkin  realized  that  shamans  were  in  dan- 
ger of  disappearing,  even  without  the  cul- 
tural disintegration  that  accompanies  the 
appearance  of  missionaries  or  miners  who 
actively  oppose  retaining  the  old  ways  of 
tile  forest. 

The  denouement  of  Plotkin's  adven- 
tures occurred  when  he  returned  to  the  vil- 
lage of  Kwamala,  in  Suriname,  after  an 
absence  of  several  years.  He  brought  with 
him  a  book-length  typescript  of  his  notes 
on  how  the  tribe  used  its  local  plants  and 
presented  it  to  the  local  headman.  Without 
consulting  Plotkin,  the  headman  and  vil- 
lagers decided  to  use  it  for  teaching  new 
generations  of  shamans.  Shamans'  learn- 
ing would  be  passed  on  to  "apprentices," 
using  the  American  scientist's  notes  as 
their  textbook. 

Plotkin  has  achieved,  in  part  at  least,  his 
second  goal — insuring  that  Amazonian 
tribes  will  share  in  financial  profits  from 
remedies  discovered  in  their  territories. 
Early  on,  he  had  decided  that  he  would  not 
submit  his  botanical  specimens  for  labora- 
tory analysis  until  one  or  more  drug  com- 
panies had  shown  definite  interest — and 
until  a  mechanism  for  charmeling  some  of 
the  profits  back  to  the  Indians  had  been  de- 
veloped. His  efforts  prompted  tire  estab- 
lishment of  both  the  nonprofit  Healing 
Forest  Conservancy,  whose  goal  is  to  re- 
turn a  percentage  of  the  profits  on  any 
remedies  identified  in  Amazonian  flora  to 
tiie  peoples  of  the  forest,  and  a  firm  called 
Shaman  Pharmaceuticals,  which  is  cur- 


rently  developing  potential  antiviral  drags 
from  shamans'  remedies;  several  major 
drag  houses  appear  to  be  following  suit. 
Plotkin  himself  is  now  vice-president  for 
plant  conservation  at  a  Washington-based 
environmental  organization,  Conservation 
International. 

His  third  goal — to  discover  important 
new  botanical  remedies — is  unfortunately 
likely  to  remain  elusive.  Although  he  is 
certain  that  there  is  "no  shortage  of  'won- 
der drags'  waiting  to  be  found  in  the  rain 
forests,"  there  is  httle  evidence  from  any 
quarter  to  vaUdate  this  hypothesis. 

Columbus  and  other  early  explorers 
also  sought  drags  in  the  Americas.  My 
own  research  shows  that  a  few  dozen  did 
appear  in  European  markets  between  1492 
and  1632,  but  only  four  drags  of  enduring 
value — cinchona  (the  source  of  quinine, 
used  for  malaria),  ipecac  (used  to  make 
people  vomit  certain  poisons),  curare 
(used  to  relax  patients  undergoing 
surgery),  and  coca  (the  source  of  cocaine, 
the  prototype  of  the  local  anesthetics  used 
today  in  dentistry  and  surgery) — have 
come  from  plants  that  are  indigenous  to 
the  Americas,  and  then  only  after  1632; 
curare  was  put  to  clinical  use  only  in  1942. 

Plotkin  cites  the  more  recent  examples 
of  the  anticancer  alkaloids  derived  from 
the  pink  periwinkle,  and  of  taxol,  found  in 
the  Pacific  yew.  As  he  describes  it,  how- 
ever, the  discovery  of  the  effect  of  the  an- 
ticancer alkaloids  on  malignant  white  cells 
was  the  result  of  a  purely  serendipitous 
laboratory  observation.  Moreover,  even  if 
the  periwinkle  had  been  employed  in  some 
folk  healing  traditions,  its  active  principles 
had  to  be  highly  concentrated  in  order  to 
treat  cancer.  And  although  taxol  does  help 
in  the  management  of  some  cancers,  its 
usefulness  has  proved  to  be  limited  (al- 
though more  promising  analogues  are 
under  development). 

We  would  be  unrealistic  if  we  expected 


American  Museum  of  Natural  History 

France 


Cruising  through  Provence 

June  23  -  July  3, 1994 


The  Rhone  River  wends 
its  way  through  Provence, 
one  of  France's  most  pic- 
turesque regions.  Lov- 
ingly captured  on  canvas 
by  Van  Gogh,  Gauguin, 
Cezanne  and  others,  it  is  a 
beguiling  region  that 
blends  history,  culture 
and  natural  beauty  to  per- 
fection. 


A  team  of  Museum  ex- 
perts accompany  us  as  we  cruise  up  the  Rhone  aboard  the  5-star  m.s. 
Cezanne  from  Martigue  to  Viviers.  We  will  discover  the  splendor  of 
ancient  Rome  as  exemplified  by  the  ruins  in  Aries,  Viviers,  Nimes  and 
St.  Remy's  environs.  Cities  and  towns  rife  with  medieval  remnants,  such 
St.  Gilles,  Aigues-Mortes,  Avignon,  Les  Baux-de-Provence  and  Aix-en- 

Provence,  add  to  the  his- 
toric atmosphere  of  our  itin- 
erary. Not  to  be  forgotten, 
we  will  also  enjoy  the  sub- 
lime beauty  of  the  country- 
side, including  the  magnifi- 
cent Luberon  range  and  the 
isolated  marshes  and  sand 
dunes  of  the  Camargue.  Join 
us  for  this  special  jour- 
ney through  southern 
France. 


American 
Museum  of 
Natural 
History 

Discovery  Cruises 

Central  Park  West  at  79th  St. 

New  York,  NY   10024-5192 

Toll-free  (800)  462-8687  or 

(212)  769-5700  in  NYS 


mm 

PII9 

I? 

'  L 

_B-  .^  --^ 

aJt^ 

ME 

M~--^W^*-§'-  ^B^^^Bfrj 

aMj^m'^   f  ^g0 

L        ^i 

I^B^^H^^^B  '''-'-- J^^^^^l 

63 


the  forest  peoples  of  the  Amazon  to  have 
employed  the  negatively  controlled  stud- 
ies that  we  deem  an  absolute  necessity  for 
evaluating  putative  new  remedies  ade- 
quately. Such  methods  did  not  become 
standard  even  in  the  United  States  until  the 
1960s.  Nevertheless,  Plotkin  takes  it  as  ax- 
iomatic that  "if  a  plant  is  used  [by  sha- 
mans] to  treat  a  number  of  afflictions,  it 
likely  contains  an  active  chemical  com- 
pound and  merits  investigation  in  the 
laboratory." 

This  astonishingly  quixotic  statement 
seems  to  arise  from  his  assumption  that  a 
purported  remedy  causes  reUef  of  one  or 


more  symptoms  if  they  disappear  follow- 
ing administration  of  the  remedy.  My  own 
studies  of  the  drugs  doctors  prescribed  be- 
tween 1700  and  1850  suggest  that  in  the 
absence  of  a  virulent  epidemic,  about 
nineteen  out  of  twenty  adult  patients  re- 
covered regardless  of  how  they  were 
treated,  with  a  wide  variety  of  agents  that 
are  now  recognized  as  incapable  of  any 
truly  beneficial  pharmacological  effect. 
These  recoveries  can  best  be  attributed  to 
what  was  even  then  called  the  healing 
power  of  nature — today  we  recognize  that 
that  power  lies  chiefly  in  the  body's  ability 
to  heal  itself  via  the  immune  and  inflam- 


An  unforgettable  odyssey  through 
the  Amazon  rain  forest 


For  12  years  leading  ethnobotanist 
Mark  Plotkin  studied  with  the 
shamans  of  Amazon  rain  forest. 
To  learn  about  the  area's  plant  life 
and  its  medicinal  resources — 
before  these  tribal  medicine  men 
and  their  invaluable  knowledge 
disappear  along  with  the  rainforest 
itself.   "Every  time  a  shaman  dies," 
says  Plotkin  "its  as  if  a  library  has 
burned  to  the  ground." 

Now  Plotkin  takes  you  along  on 
a  wild  odyssey — in  which  he 
participates  in  healing  rituals;  discovers  the  secret  of  the 
poison  curare;  tries  hallucinogenic  snuff;  and  earns  the 
respect  of  the  mysterious  shamans  as  he  proves  that  he 
shares  their  endurance  and  reverence  for  the  rain  forest. 


'More  than  ethnobotany...it's  also  an  adventure 
story  and  something  of  a  corker." 

— Men's  Journal 

'Reads  like  a  travel  adventure.   Plotkin  has  a  gift 
for  evoking  a  sense  of  place;  the  characters  he 
meets  come  alive  on  the  page." 

— Los  Angeles  Times  Book  Review 


TALES  OF  A 
SHAMAN'S 
APPRENTICE 

MARK  J.  PLDTKIN.  PH  D, 


At  bookstores  now  from  Viking 


matory  responses  to  microorganisms  and 
tissue  injury. 

Many  argue  that  the  world's  rain  forests 
should  be  preserved  for  their  traditional 
human  inhabitants  and  for  the  nearly  infi- 
nite variety  of  plants  and  animals  that  live 
there.  (By  contrast,  the  arguments  with 
which  missionaries  and  gold  miners,  who 
are  Plotkin's  villains,  support  their  claims 
to  the  same  land  and  its  dwellers  are  per- 
suasive only  to  themselves.)  But  so  far,  I 
have  found  no  convincing  evidence  that 
untold  numbers  of  valuable  medicines 
await  us  in  the  Amazon  basin,  although 
they  may  be  there.  Plotkin  seems  to  won- 
der why  the  headman  of  Kwamala  re- 
garded the  white  man's  medicine  as  supe- 
rior to  that  of  his  own  tribe;  perhaps  the 
village  leader  was  more  reaUstic  than  flie 
ethnobotanist. 

Almost  no  other  errors  mar  these  splen- 
did tales  (although  Linnaeus  was  Swedish, 
not  Swiss).  Unfortunately,  however,  Plot- 
kin does  not  explain  the  shamans'  reasons 
for  choosing,  from  among  the  array  of 
plant  remedies  available  to  them,  those 
they  administer  for  a  given  condition.  Do 
the  Amazonian  witch  doctors  have  a  no- 
tion of  body  balances  analogous  to  the 
four  humors  we  inherited  from  the  Greeks 
or  to  the  more  complex  system  of  balances 
envisioned  by  the  Chinese?  Do  they  have 
a  more  static  view  of  the  body  in  health 
and  disease?  Or  do  the  shamans  that 
Plotkin  studied  simply  choose  their  reme- 
dies on  the  basis  of  the  tradition  that  plant 
X  will  cure  symptom  Y?  Do  other  kinds  of 
reasoning  associate  specific  symptoms 
with  specific  plants? 

The  elucidation  of  comparable  ratio- 
nales for  prescribing  remedies  in  Western 
medicine's  Hippocratic-Galenic  tradition 
has  helped  us  understand  the  use  of  histor- 
ical remedies,  such  as  emetics,  strong 
cathartics,  bleeding,  and  blisters,  that 
would  otherwise  seem  bizarre  today.  A 
multitude  of  written  texts  helps  explain 
these  ancient  European  treatments;  per- 
haps the  shamans,  who  rely  only  on  orally 
transmitted  traditions,  simply  did  not  tell 
Plotkin  why  they  did  what  they  did. 

Nevertheless,  as  he  demonstrates  so 
well,  ethnobotanical  research  is  an  inher- 
enfly  interesting  and  exciting  pursuit  of 
knowledge  about  the  world  around  us.  But 
we  should  not  expect  more  of  the  shamans 
or  their  forests  than  they  can  dehver. 

J.  Worth  Estes  teaches  pharmacology  at 
the  Boston  University  School  of  Medicine. 
He  is  the  author  of  many  books,  including 
The  Medical  Skills  of  Ancient  Egypt. 


64    Natural  History  3/94 


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By    Andrew    Bill 


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WHY  FLY  WHEN 
YOU  CAN  CRUISE? 

EUROPE  &  THE  FAR  NORTH 

Trace  the  Voyages  of  the  Vikings  with 
the  modern  comforts  of  the  expedition 
cruise  ship  Columbus  Caravelle.  - 
Experience  the  chronicles  of  legend, 
wildlife  and  landscapes  of  the  British 
and  Scottish  Isles,  Iceland,  Greenland 
and  the  Canadian  Maritimes. 

Reserve  before  April  ISth  for  up  to  SSOO  snuings 
pip.  Departures  8/3/94  -  9/17/94.  Inclusive 
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a  free  brochure  call 

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Alaska! 

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A  slice  of  Alaska's  very  best,  from 
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INTERNATIONAL 

PO  Box  1 637C,  Voshon,  WA  98070 

800-368-0077 


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ESTTNATION^ 


Broadly  speaking,  today's  vacationers  fall  neatly  into  two  groups — passive 
tourists  and  active  travelers.  The  first  go  in  search  of  familiarity,  albeit 
spiced  with  sun  and  sea,  while  the  second  group  travels  primarily  to  ex- 
plore and  learn.  Not  content  with  pre-packaged  culture,  travelers  prefer  to 
dig  down  through  the  thin  crust  of  modern  civilization  to  their  destina- ' 
tion's  ancient  core;  unexcited  by  nature  that  has  been  brought  to  heel,  they 
want  it  without  fences,  untamed  and  pristine.  Instead  of  resorts,  they  visit 
exotic  destinations. 

Discovering  these  destinations  is  part  of  the  game — often  requiring  sev- 
eral detours  off  the  thruway  of  mass  tourism.  To  indicate  some  of  the  sign- 
posts, we  present  nine  recommendations,  all  suitable  for  a  week-long  trips 
and  all  guaranteed  to  uncover  the  traveler  in  you. 


Houseboat  and  sailboat,  on  Great  Slave  Lake,  in  Yellowknife. 


A-2 


Life  looks  different  on  top  of  the  world. 


Up  here,  our  days  last  for  months. 
Our  land  is  unspoiled.  Most  of  it, 
untouched. 

Towering  icebergs  drift  through  the 
Arctic  water.  Rivers  churn  as  they  have 
for  eons,  and  green  vistas  beckon.  Pick  a 
trail  and  see  where  it  takes  you. 


Explore  life  as  never  before.  Great  herds  of  Buffalo, 
Muskox  and  Caribou.  Beluga  and  Narwhal  pods. 

And  when  you  walk,  you  walk  with  the  Inuit  and  Dene 
people,  who  have  been  here  for  over  ten  thousand  years. 

"We  have  no  word  in  our  language  that  means 
'wilderness',  as  anywhere  we  go  is  our  home." 

Come,  spend  a  day  with  us. 


Mackenzie  River  Expeditions  Ltd. 

2  Rycon  Drive,  Dept.  ANH 
Ye]]owknife,NTXlA2V8 
Piione  and  Fax:  403-873-2699 
Luxury  cruises  under  tiie  midniglit 
sun  -  Mackenzie  River  and  Great  Slave 
Lake. 

Canada  North  Outfitting,  Inc. 

Box  3100,  87  Mill  St.,  Dept.  ANH 
Almonte,  ON  KOAIAO 
Phone:  613-256-4057  Fax:  613-256-4512 
Tours  to  the  Baffin  region  including 
Inuit  villages,  dog  sledding  and  the 
ultimate  -  the  North  Pole! 

NorthWinds  Arctic  Adventures 

Box  849,  Dept.  ANH 

Iqaluit,  NT  XOA  OHO 

Phone:  819-979-0551  Fax:  819-979-0573 

Largest  selection  of  winter  and 

summer  programs  in  Baffin  Island. 

Write  for  brochure. 


Arctic  Odysseys 

Box  37B,  Dept.  ANH 

Medina,  WA  USA  98039 

Phone:  206-455-1960  Fax:  206-453-6903 

Pioneered  Arctic  group  travel.  North 

Pole,  dog  sled,  culture  and  v/ildlife. 

Hudson  Bay  Tour  Company 

Attn:  Tamara  K.  Waite 

Box  328,  Dept.  ANH 

Rankin  Inlet,  NT  XOC  OGO 

Phone:  819-645-2618  Fax:  819-645-2320 

Serving  Arctic  Canada's  Keewatin 

region.  Complete  tour  packages. 

2-10  persons. 

Blachford  Lake  Lodge 

Box  1568,  Dept.  ANH 
Yellowknife,  NT  XIA  2P2 
Phone:  403-873-3303  Fax:  403-920-4013 
Remote  fly-in  log  lodge,  cross  country 
skiing,  Aurora  Borealis,  Caribou, 
hiking,  canoeing. 


Baker  Lake  Lodge 

Box  239,  Dept.  ANH 

Baker  Lake,  NT  XOC  OAO 

Phone:  819-793-2905  Fax:  819-793-2965 

Individually  suited  adventures  to 

explore  Inuit  history,  tundra,  wildhfe 

and  fishing. 

Alliak  Tours 

Box  114,  Dept.  ANH 
Cambridge  Bay,  NT  XOE  OCO 
Phone:  403-983-2622  Fax:  403-983-2385 
Travel,  camp,  experience  the  Arctic! 
Vast  unexplored  landscapes; 
untouched  wilderness. 


NWT  Marine  Group 

17  England  Crescent,  Dept.  ANH 
Yellowknife,  NT  XIA  3N5 
Phone  and  Fax:  403-873-2489 
Cruise  the  Mackenzie  River  and  Great 
Slave  Lake.  103'  ship. 

For  information  on  other  NWT 
adventures  and  your  copy  of  the 
Explorers'  Guide,  call  1-800-661-0788, 
or  write:  Department  of  Economic 
Development  and  Tourism,  Suite  26, 
Government  of  the  Northwest 
Territories,  P.O.  Box  1320,  Yellowknife, 
NT,  Canada  XIA  2L9. 


(^ 


CANADA'S  Northwest  Territories 

Within  reach,  yet  beyond  belief 


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Ma  nine 


&   X   p    e    a  1   /  i   o 


Norway  &  The  Arctic 

from  $2295 
including  airfare 

London's  Tower  Bridge 

to  The  Fjords  of  Norway 

and  Spitsbergen 

Lecturers  and  Naturalists 
Zodiac  Excursions 

(800)  263-9147 


Antarctica 


Expedition  cruising 
to  Antarctica, 
the  Ross  Sea  Region 
and  the 
Subantarctic 
islands  of 
Ne'v^  Zealand 
^  &  Australia 


See  and  photograph 

rare  species  of  seabirds, 
^'^  ^*^       penguins,  albatross 
^p  ^J      and  sealion  rookeries. 
^4  ^»^       Shore  excursions  by 
zodiac  itk 

^     Qualified  historians  and 
naturalists  accompany  cruises. 
Lectures  and  library  on  board. 
Voyage  log  included. 


10-29  day  expeditions, 

priced  ft-om  $2945  pp. 

Special  group  rates  available 


SOUTHERN  HERITAGE 
EXPEDITIONS 

(800)  351-2317  (CA) 
(800)  351-2323  (USA) 


A  view  of  Hobart,  Australia's  second  oldest  city,  as  seen  from  Mount  Nelson 


TASMANIA, 
AUSTRALIA 

With  a  gamut  of  ecosystems,  from 
dust  deserts  to  dripping  rainfor- 
est, and  a  collection  of  fauna  that 
looks  like  the  output  of  evolu- 
tion's test  laboratory,  Australia  presents  a 
dilemma  —  where  to  start?  One  option  is  Tas- 
mania, historical  and  scenic,  a  bite-size  version 
of  its  mother  continent. 

As  is  often  the  way  with  islands,  time  has 
moved  more  slowly  here,  making  the  past  eas- 
ier to  catch.  A  rosy  picture  of  early  British  set- 


Hikers'  "Cradle  Hut"  with  a  view  of  Cradle 
Mountain,  Tasmania 


tlement  is  conjured  up  by  the  historic  center 
of  Hobart,  Battery  Park,  the  city's  early  ware- 
houses at  Salamanca  Palace  and  small  country 
towns  like  Stanley,  ancient  and  atmospheric. 
The  rolling,  grassy  pastures  of  the  midland  re- 
gion combine  with  enduring  habits  like  after- 
noon tea  serv,ed  with  scones  to  complete  the 
colonial  connection.  But  its  harsher  realities 
are  visible  at  Port  Arthur  in  the  southwest, 
where  ruins  of  the  old  penal  settlement  are 
said  to  be  overrun  by  the  ghosts  of  ill-treated 
prisoners. 

Tasmania's  other  allure  is  one  noticeably  unaf- 
fected by  the  course  of  time  —  a  range  of  spec- 
tacular wilderness  areas  and  coasdines.  One  of 
the  most  dramatic  hikes  in  the  world  runs 
through  50  miles  of  rugged  mountains  and 
alpine  moorlands  from  Lake  St.  Clair  to  Cradle 
Mountain.  Another  park  on  the  Freycinet 
Peninsular  has  a  17-mile  loop  around  travel- 
poster  country.  And  wherever  you  go,  you  will 
be  met  by  Australia's  Alice-ln-Wonderland  cast 
of  animals  and  birds  —  from  the  shy  platypus 
and  friendly  wallaby  to  the  Tasmanian  devil  and 
screeching  cockatoo. 

NORTHWEST  TERRITORIES, 
CANADA 

There  are  national  parks  and  there  are 
wilderness  areas,  but  few  come  close  to 
the  immense  region  of  the  Northwest 
Territories  sandwiched  between  the 
Yukon  and  Hudson  Bay,  on  the  roof  of  Canada. 


A-4 


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Home  to  only  60,000  people,  it's  one  of  those 
rare  places  where  manidnd  is  dwarfed  by  natures 
sheer  scale  and  majesty. 

The  gateway  for  most  travelers  is  Yel- 
lowknife,  the  capital  and  main  jumping-ofif 
point  for  the  many  activity  options.  To  get 
your  bearings,  both  historical  and  visual, 
climb  up  to  Old  Town  where  the  Bush  Pilot's 
Monument  recalls  your  pioneer  predecessors. 
Below,  the  city  spreads  out  to  the  scalloped 
bays  of  Great  Slave  Lake.  Then,  after  a  lunch 
of  caribou  steak  at  the  nearby  Wildcat  Cafe, 
it's  time  for  a  cultural  immersion  course  at  the 
Prince  of  Wales  Northern  Heritage  Centre 
where  local  carvings  and  dioramas  capture 
local  life.  If  you  still  have  time,  take  the  four- 
hour  barbecue  trip  to  Great  Slave  Island 
aboard  the  MV  Naocha,  drive  the  six  miles 
north  to  the  Takhini  Hot  Springs  for  a  sooth- 
ing dip,  or  drop  by  the  Book  Cellar  to  load  up 
on  Jack  Londons  for  the  next  part  of  the  trip. 

Nobody  travels  to  the  top  of  the  world  just  to 
tour  Yellowknife.  Instead  they  come  to  indulge 
their  passion,  whether  it  be  hiking  into  virgin 
territory  —  especially  the  national  parks  of 
Auyuittuq  and  Nahanni  —  and  camping  by 
lakes  as  reflective  as  mirrors,  or  canoeing 
through  the  lace-work  of  tributaries  that  filter 
out  from  the  Mackenzie  River.  The  biggest 
draw,  however,  is  to  stay  in  the  wilderness  lodges 
like  Blachford  Lake,  Drum  Lake,  or  Sitidgi  Lake 
and  test  your  skill  against  lake  trout,  char,  arid 
grayling  so  big  they  stretch  even  a  fisherman's 
imagination. 

CAYMAN  ISLANDS, 
THE  CARIBBEAN 

I  ost  people  think  of  the  Caribbean 
IH  in  terms  of  developed  pleasures 
where  local  culture  is  something 
you  see  on  the  cabaret  stage  and 
"getting  away  from  it  all"  means  going  back  to 
your  hotel  room.  The  Caymans,  however,  offer 
another  perspective  —  three  islands  each  with 
its  own  unique  slant  on  the  sun,  sand  and  sea 
experience. 

There  is  the  modern  allure,  a  pleasure 
ground,  centered  around  Seven  Mile  Beach  on 
the  western  end  of  the  biggest  island.  Grand 
Cayman.  This  is  the  place  to  lie  on  the  beach 


REGENCY'S  ALASKA  &  FRENCH  CANADA 


"Choosing  To 

Cruise  Regency 

This  Summer 

Was  Easy. 


The  Bakers  made  it 
easy  on  them- 
selves this  vaca- 
tion. They  chose 
Regency.  The  wonderful  destina- 
tions, unique  itineraries,  fabulous 
ships  with  fine  food  and  service 
and  terrific  prices  were  all  they 
needed  to  hear. 

So  if  that  sounds  good  to  you, 
choose  to  sail  either  the 
Northeast  Passage  where  you'll 
experience  unique  history,  quaint 
villages  and  exciting  cities 
between  New  York  and 
Montreal. 

Or,  choose  Alaska  where  you'U  sail 

across  the  dramatic  Gulf  of 

Alaska  to  Columbia  Glacier, 

CoUege  Fjord,  the  Inside 

Passage  and  four 

g 
f 


Choosing 
Between  Alaska 

And  French 
Canada  Was  The 

Hard  Part" 


Eriwit  &  Harriet  Baker 
Cleveland,  Ohio 


Either  way,  you'll  "^^'~^"  save  up 
to  40%  guaranteed.  So  if  you've 
had  your  eye  on  a  7  or  14-day 
cruise  vacation,  take  it  from  the 
Bakers,  take  Regency!  For  reser- 
vations, see  your  travel  agent.  For 
a  free  brochure,  caU: 

1-800-753-1234 

ASK  FOR  BROCHURE  B9A 

Ships'  Registry:  Bahamas 


A-5 


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THE    OFFICIAL    GUIDE    TO 

tREK  NEW  ZEALAND 


Fly  the  award  winning  service  of 
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the  environmental  destination  of 
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criss-crossed  with  a  network  of 
walking  trails  and  readily  avail- 
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through  pristine  valleys,  bush 
clad  hillsides  and  above  treelined 
tundra.  The  Routeburn;  The 
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Abel  Tasman  and  the  world 
famous  Milford  Track. 

Free  of  poisonous  reptiles  or  any 
carnivorous  animals  New  Zealand 
is  the  ideal  setting  for  those  who 
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Whether  it's  the  Coastal  Abel 
Tasman  Walk,  the  mellow  river 
banks  of  the  Greenstone,  or  the 
deep  lush  native  forest  of  the 
World  Famous  Milford  Track, 
you'll  find  a  walk  to  satisfy  your 
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^^OUNT  COOK  LINE 

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^  air  neiu  zeaiann 

the  pride  of  the  pacific 


I960  East  Grand  Avenue,  Suite  910, 
El  Segundo,  CA  90245 


A  red-eyed  leaf  frog  in  the  tropical  rain  forest  of  Costa  Rica 

(it's  almost  as  long  as  it  says  it  is),  sit  sandy- 
footed  at  any  of  the  outdoor  bars  of  the  luxu- 
rious hotels,  and  crack  lobsters  by  candlelight. 
If  your  hotel  doesn't  have  in-house  facilities, 
this  is  also  the  place  to  arrange  diving  excur- 
sions, exploring  the  crystalline  waters  and 
bright  marine  gardens  for  which  the  Caymans 
are  justifiably  renowned.  Then,  when  you're 
ready  to  duck  into  the  shade,  wander  around 
the  streets  of  Georgetown,  the  capital  at  the 
beach's  southern  end,  where  the  old  wraps 
around  the  new. 

The  islands'  colorful  past  is  brought  to  light 
in  their  two  museums  —  the  Maritime  and 
Treasure  Museum  and  the  McKee's  Treasure 
Museum  —  filled  with  precious  salvage  from 
Spanish  galleons  which  met  their  undoing  by 
offshore  reefs.  Modern  bounty,  meanwhile, 
beckons  from  the  boutique  windows  of  Car- 
dinal Avenue  and  the  Kirk  Freeport  Plaza. 
Walking  away  from  downtown,  the  modernity 
falls  away  in  favor  of  simple  wooden  cottages 
dressed  with  fading  gingerbread  details  and 
the  occasional  cemetery,  their  "A"  frame  "pi- 
rate" graves. 

Cayman  Brae,  the  second  in  size  of  the 
three  Cayman  sisters,  lies  like  a  beached  whale 
with  a  prominent  backbone  89  miles  to  the 
east.  Many  people  fly  over  for  the  day  to  ex- 
plore the  caves  and  wilderness  areas.  Little 
Cayman,  meanwhile,  with  its  population  of 
50  and  three  small  lodges  is  the  iJtimate  place 
to  shrug  off  the  20th  Century. 


CENTRAL  VALLEY, 
COSTARICA 

When  asked  for  reasons  for  travel- 
ing to  Costa  Rica,  devotees  cite 
the  sincerity  of  the  locals  and 
their  commitment  to  preserving 
a  natural  splendor  rich  in  ecosystems  and 
thronged  with  tropical  flora  and  fauna.  They 
also  speak  of  convenience,  of  how  all  the  attrac- 
tions are  within  striking  distance  of  the  capital, 
San  Jose. 

The  city  itself  is  busding,  endearingly  chaotic. 
Among  its  many  sites,  dotted  around  its  geometric 
grid,  your  first  stop  should  be  the  Museo  Nacional 
(National  Museum)  to  delve  through  the  nooks  of 
Costa  Rica's  evolution,  to  see  how  the  heavy  hand 
of  Spanish  colonialism  overturned  the  pre- 
Columbian  tranquillity.  The  Gold  Museum  ex- 
plains, through  dazzling  showcases  of  early  jew- 
elry, the  reason  why.  Then  stroll  through  the 
shaded  alleys  of  the  Mercado  Central  (Central 
Market),  the  air  heavy  with  herbs,  the  stalls  loaded 
with  a  gaudy  array  of  unrecognizable  fruits  and 
vegetables.  The  features  on  upturned  feces  reflect, 
in  varying  degrees,  the  successfiJ  merger  between 
the  "new"  and  "old"  worlds. 

After  a  few  days  of  drinking  in  the  atmos- 
phere and  sampling  the  local  cuisine  —  such  as 
the  hearty  stew  ollci  del  came  and  spicy  cerviche, 
it's  time  for  day  trips  into  the  Central  Valley.  Just 
over  an  hour's  drive  takes  you  through  farmland 
to  the  bleak,  black,  and  sulphurous  mouth  of 


A-6 


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Irazii  Volcano,  the  highest  of  the  country's  many 
active  craters.  The  havoc  they  have  wreaked  over 
the  centuries  is  most  visible  in  Cartago,  once  the 
country's  cultural  heart,  now  known  for  its  ruins 
and  aura  of  "once  was."  Slightly  further  south- 
east lies  the  Tapanti  Wildlife  Refuge,  a  small 
taste  of  rainforest  where  glimpses  of  the  endan- 
gered quetzal,  cheeky  howler  monkeys,  and  even 
a  jaguar  reward  the  patient. 

GUATEMALA 

From  a  historical  and  cultural  perspec- 
tive, Guatemala  is  one  of  the  Latin 
American  leaders.  Like  a  well-ordered 
museum,  it's  divided  into  chronological 
galleries,  each  region  separate  from  the  others 
and  condensed  in  its  focus. 

A  short  drive  from  the  modern  gallery  — 
the  capital,  Guatemala  City  —  takes  you  to 
the  colonial  one.  From  1543  to  1773  the  an- 
cient capital,  Antigua,  ranked  third  behind 
Lima  and  Mexico  City  in  Latin  American  im- 
portance. Finally  undone  by  a  series  of  vol- 
canic tremors  and  mud-slides,  it  was  by-passed 
by  the  last  two  centuries  of  progress.  Today 
you  can  walk  its  cobbled  streets  and  catch 
glimpses,  through  heavy  gates  left  ajar,  of  cool, 
shaded  courtyards.  You  can  wander  through 
the  broken  convent  of  Las  Capuchinas,  now 
containing  a  museum  and  garden,  and  visit 
the  church  of  San  Francisco  which  rises  like 
the  proverbial  Phoenix  from  the  ruins  of  its 
former  grandeur.  Comfortable  hotels  and  cafes 
are  woven  seamlessly  into  the  ancient  fabric. 

To  see  the  gallery  of  native  cultures,  drive 
north  on  the  Interamerican  Highway  until  the 
terrain  shifts  into  the  Western  Highlands. 
Glinting  cooly  at  the  foot  of  three  volcanoes 
lies  Lake  Atitlan,  a  natural  wonder  that  has  left 
everyone  from  the  first  conquistadors  to  writer 
Aldous  Huxley  short  of  words.  On  market 
days  (Thursdays  and  Sundays)  in  nearby 
Chichicastenango,  hundreds  of  locals  in  tradi- 
tional garb  materialize  from  surrounding  vil- 
lages to  hawk  their  handicrafts. 

But  Guatemala's  oldest  and  most  renowned 
galley  is  surely  Tikal,  the  massive  and  mysteri- 
ous city  of  the  Mayas  that  has  been  wrestled 
from  the  jungle  in  the  north.  Reaching  the 
site  by  plane  from  the  capital,  you  are  awed  by 


Discover  It  All... 
Downunder. 

Join  us  for  Australia's  "1994  Year  of  the  Great  Outdoors." 

Take  a  sailing  trip  with  a  school  of  dolphins, 
ride  a  camel  to  dinner,  see  ancient  Aboriginal 
art,  admire  one  of  the  300  species  of  bird  life, 
hop  aboard  a  4-wheel  drive  Outback  safari 
or  dive  the  Great  Barrier  Reef — one  of  the 
eight  wonders  of  the  world.  Prices  range 
from  $227  per  person. 

Special  fares  available  on  Ansett  Australian 
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spectacular  days.  Rates  range  from  $2,856  to  $8,305  and  include  free 
air.  For  reservations  call  your  travel  agent.  For  a  free  brochure  call 
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Rates  reflect  early  Ixxiking  savinps  (4  months  in  advance  of  sailing)  anci  are  per  person,  double  occupanc\',  subject 

to  availability  and  dependent  on  departure  date.  Port  and  handling  charges  are  $200  per  penion  extra.  Prices  include 

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10  to  14  days  range  from  $2,120  to 
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Sailings  start  NovemDer  1993.  Bxes  reflect  cany  nralon^  savings 
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Y04 


AUSIMJAI 

FEELTHE  WONDER  I 


^^:^. 


^      Jt      *?? 


W^:-«fc;, 


Effigies  of  dead  ancestors  "guard"  a  grave  site  at  Tar<ualand,  Sulawesi. 

the  scale  of  temples,  the  network  of  houses,  rewarded  for  their  efforts  with  an  introduction 

and  the  sophistication  of  the  city  where  to  one  of  the  last  truly  unspoilt  places  on  earth. 

100,000  once  lived,  at  its  zenith  in  600  A.D., 

with  greater  sophistication  than  their  counter-  KAonlVIIK, 

parts  in  Europe.  INUIA 


THE  OUTER  ISLANDS, 
INDONESIA 

,  ertainly  the  spiritual  beauty  of  Bali  has 
always  played  a  part  on  the  stage  of  in- 
[ternational  tourism,  with  the  larger  is- 
lands of  Java  and  Sumatra  playing 
supporting  roles.  But  Indonesia's  outlying  is- 
lands —  like  Sulawesi  and  the  Moluccas  —  have 
stayed  out  of  the  glare,  retaining  a  shy  innocence 
so  rare  in  this  age  of  go-anywhere  jet  travel. 

It's  apparent  in  their  range  of  wildlife,  from 
the  submarine  variety  (visible  in  some  of  the 
world's  best  diving  waters)  to  land-based  fauna 
—  like  the  pygmy  buf&lo  and  the  pig-deer  with 
its  idiosyncratic  tusks.  The  human  interest  is  no 
less  rewarding.  In  Sulawesi,  formerly  called  the 
Celebes,  a  one-day  drive  from  the  capital,  Ujung 
Padang,  brings  you  to  the  land  of  the  Taraja, 
where  the  once  warlike  tribe  keeps  500  years  of 
tradition  intact  while  being  welcoming  to  mod- 
ern travelers  at  the  same  time. 

Even  more  isolated,  the  Moluccas  (also 
known  as  the  Spice  Islands)  are  rimmed  with 
reefs  and  untrodden  beaches,  topped  with  volca- 
noes rising  out  of  a  carpet  of  jungle.  Visitors, 
most  of  them  traveling  by  small  cruise  ship,  are 


India  is  such  a  colorful  tossed-salad  of  cul- 
tures that  it's  nearly  impossible  to  recom- 
mend one  week-long  bite  over  another.  Yet 
there  is  one  region,  high  in  the  shadow  of  the 
Himalayas  in  the  north,  that  offers  the  intense 
taste  of  the  country  mixed  with  a  scenery  and 
climate  that  is  truly  unforgettable  —  Kashmir. 

Although  most  visitors  fly  into  the  region's 
capital,  Srinigar,  the  options  from  there  are  nu- 
merous. Start  by  marinating  yourself  in  the  fla- 
vor of  northern  India,  browsing  through  the  al- 
leys and  carpet  shops  of  the  ciry,  famous  as  a 
center  of  the  arts.  And,  when  it's  time  to  escape 
the  frenetic  pace  of  the  streets,  you  could  duck 
into  the  cool  interiors  of  the  many  splendid 
mosques  or  head  out  to  the  lake-side  baghs  or 
gardens,  formal  reminders  of  the  different 
moghuls  who  took  refuge  here  from  the  heat  of 
the  plains.  Looking  for  accommodations  with  a 
difference?  Try  staying  on  one  of  the  houseboats 
clustered  at  the  southern  end  of  Dal  Lake,  the 
Indian  version  of  Venice,  where  multi-hued 
shikaras  take  the  place  of  gondolas. 

But  the  real  flavor  of  Kashmir  becomes  appar- 
ent when  you  leave  the  urban  center  for  one  of 
the  hill  stations,  like  Pahalgam.  Here,  in  a  town 
surrounded  by  fir  woods  and  snow-capped 


A-8 


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peaks,  the  major  attraction  is  hiking  through  the 
mountains  to  Kolahoi  Glacier,  or  taking  a  rod 
and  line  out  to  a  trout  stream,  originally  stocked 
by  the  British  as  a  diversion  from  serving  the 
Empire. 

THE  WESTERN  ROAD,  SOUTH  ISLAND, 
NEW  ZEALAND 

New  Zealand's  unique  charm  is  that  it's 
so  comfortable  to  visit  and  yet  so  un- 
tamed at  the  same  time.  English- 
speaking,  it  has  a  sound  and  intrigu- 
ing tourist  infrastructure  and  yet  has  only  three 
million  people  (most  in  the  major  cities)  scat- 
tered around  a  stunningly-beautiful  country 
that's  green,  pristine,  and  untrammeled  by  the 
20th  Century. 

Just  a  short  but  dramatic  ferry  crossing  from 
the  capital  city  of  Wellington  brings  you  to  Pic- 
ton,  the  top  of  the  South  Island  and  the  begin- 
ning of  the  700-mile  drive  down  the  west  coast. 
It  winds  first  through  towns  like  Nelson,  with  its 
Bishop  Surer  Art  Gallery  and  even  the  odd  win- 
ery, before  the  towns  thin  out,  separated  by  long 
expanses  of  coast  torn  by  bleached-white  break- 
ers, lonely  moorland,  snow-capped  mountains, 
and  stands  of  deciduous  woods.  Distractions 
along  the  way  include  national  parks  —  Abel 
Tasman  and  Mount  Cook  among  others  — 


INDONESIA 

If  you  are  looking  for  a  great  adventure 
to  one  of  the  most  exotic  destinations 
in  the  world  -  let  us  take  you  to  the 
Spice  Islands  of  Indonesia. 

Travelers  enjoy  air-conditioned 
comfort  with  35  like-minded  passengers 
aboard  P  &.  O's  Island  Explorer  or  the 
Spice  Islander.  Your  choice  of  programs 
is  as  diverse  as  the  islands  you'll  visit. 
You  can  cruise  from  Bali  on  an  8  day 
east-bound  trip  to  Kupang,  or  a  west- 
bound 7  day  cruise  from  Kupang  to 
Bali.  Or  do  both.  Or  you  can  cruise 
from  Jakarta  to  see  the  remains  of  the 
Krakatau  Volcano  and  the  equatorial 
rainforests  of  the  Ujung  Kulon  National 
Park.  Prices  start  from  $1,962. 

You  can  still  enjoy  a  30%  discount  on 
spring  '94  departures  of  Krakatau  & 
Rainforests  Expedition. 

For  more  information  contact  U.S. 
General  Sales  Agent: 

ESPLANADE  TOURS 

581  Boylston  St.  N 

Boston,  MA  02116 

(617)266-7465  (800)426-5492 


You'll  board  a  Time  Machine,  called  the 
Kokomis.  Travel  only  a  few  hundred  yards, 
and  50  years.  You  step  off  onto  a  private 
island,  it's  1935.  Today's  hectic  world 
disappears.  There  are  lU)  crowds.  No  cars.  It's 
quiet.  Just  the  sound  of  the  sea  on  four  miles 
of  secluded  beach.  You  can  actually  think. 
There  are  over  150  species  of  birds.  150 
tropical  plants.  200  varieties  of  shells.  100 
species  of  t~ish.  Rich  Florida  history.  Tennis 
and  sailing.  All  for  you  and  your  family  to 
discover.  Enjoy  tasteful  olde  Florida 
accommodations.  Superb  dining  and  .service. 

Time  travel  to  the  Florida  resort  experience 
~-^  jA  of  50  years  ago  .Today.  Call. 

""         'm       <■         1-800-688-1935 
-     %      r  or  813-262-4149 

'*!      *  for  a  brochure. 

I        S        L       A  /  N        D 

261)    Hay    Ruad,    Naples.    Florida    3  3  940 


The  Earnslaw  on  Lake  Wakatipu  with  the 
Remarkable  Mountains  in  the  background 


Sop.  breezes 
on  tropicaUn^hts, 
redolent  with, the  perfume^ 
of  exotic  blooms  ■ 


T/iK  (5  Costa  Rica. 

Nature  that  captivates 

your  senses. 

Nature's  Museum 


..-      CALL  YOUR 
'    TRAVEL  AGENT- 
'PHONE:  1.800-fe7-7033\ 


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CRUISE  THE 
MEDITERRANEAN 
AND  BLACK  SEA! 

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cu  ture  aboard  the  Regent 
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Scientifically-planned  itineraries  to 

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and  Bolivia  offer  the  highest  diversity 

and  density  of  rain  forest  wildlife  in 

the  world,  including  spectacular 
congregations  of  macaws  and  parrots. 

(See  National  Geographic  Jan.  '94.) 

Monthly  Departures,  Year-round 
Free  1994  Travel  Planner! 

WILDLAND 
ADVENTURES 

1-800-345-4453 

(206)365-0686 


"'TV-'llP 


Milford  Sound,  on  New  Zealand's  South  Island,  is  unspoiled  by  tourism. 


hardly  necessary  among  this  wilderness,  and  a 
helicopter  ride  high  up  to  the  snow  fields  atop 
the  mighty  Fox  Glacier.  By  night  you  can  choose 
between  rustic  inns  serving  piping  bowls  of  lamb 
stew,  or  more  sophisticated  inns  and  hotels  in 
the  farm  towns  that  intermittently  dot  the  route. 
Your  final  destination  is  Queenstown,  the 
outdoor  activity  center  of  New  Zealand.  Tum- 
bling down  the  hill  to  Lake  Wakatipu,  the  town 
is  buzzing  with  options  from  hiking  down  the 
now-legendary  trails  like  the  Routeburn  and 
Milford  Sound  and  rafting  or  jet-boating  down 
the  Shotover  River  to  the  more  extreme  thrills  of 
bungee-jumping  and  para-gliding  in  the  Re- 
markables,  rhe  local  moimtain  range. 

THE  PAN-AMERICAN  HIGHWAY, 
PANAMA 

Its  position  as  the  land  bridge  between  North 
and  South  America  has  given  Panama  two 
distinct  pluses  in  the  modern  travel  depart- 
ment. It  has  attracted  the  advances  (always 
unwelcome)  of  the  major  powers  since  the  days 
of  Columbus  and  it  has  become  home  to  an 
enormous  wealth  of  wildlife.  Passing  through 
over  millennia  of  migration,  hundreds  of  species 
liked  it  and  stayed. 

The  first  plus  is  easily  appreciated  upon  land- 
ing in  the  capital  of  Panama  City,  one  of  the 
more  exciting  Latin  Ametican  cities.  Strolling 
the  narrow  streets  of  the  old  quarter,  you  will 
find  solid  colonial  facades  ornate  with  ironwork, 
the  baroque  affluence  of  the  Church  of  San  Jose, 


and  the  rree-shaded  French  Plaza.  The  Prome- 
nade of  the  Dungeons,  along  the  top  of  the  civy 
walls,  hints  at  a  darker  past.  But  probably  the 
best  place  to  soak  up  the  tales  of  Spain's  gun- 
powdei  and  attack-dog  diplomacy  is  the  nearby 
former  capital,  Viejo  Panama,  founded  in  1513 
by  the  dubiously  named  Pedrarias  the  Cruel  and 
once  the  Fort  Knox  of  Pissaro's  looring  of  the 
Inca  Empire.  Crumbling  walls,  torn  down  by 
marauding  buccaneers  under  fienry  Morgan, 
have  survived  to  mock  colonial  conceit. 

The  other  plus  is  best  uncovered  by  taking 
the  350-mile  stretch  of  the  Pan-American 
Highway  that  runs  from  the  Canal  up  to  the 
Costa  Rican  border.  This  is  the  quieter  side  of 
Panama,  where  traditional  ways  of  life  have 
flourished  far  from  world  affairs.  The  plea- 
sures here  are  long  beaches  empty  of  people, 
wilderness  areas  filled  with  over  800  species  of 
native  birds  (nor  including  the  200  seasonal 
visitors),  and  volcanoes,  stark  against  the  sky. 
Here  you  can  find  Guaymi  Indian  culture  un- 
changed since  the  days  of  the  conquistadors 
and  small  towns  like  Los  Cantos  and  El  Valle 
that  come  alive  in  the  Sunday  morning  mar- 
kets and  folkloric  celebrations. 


Andrew  Bill  is  a  fi-ee-lance  journalist  based  in 
New  York  and  specializing  in  travel  and  design. 

For  Advertising  information,  contact 
TedDokn  at  212-599-5555. 


ravel  Marketplace 


roiriiiiD  un. 

THE  SOURCE  FOR  ECO-ADVENTURETOAVEL  WEARE 

[HE  Adventure  Travel  Alliance,  a  worldwide  association  ofj 

OUimitRS  AND  GUIDES. 

Access  our  free  consumer  information  service 
AT  I-80O836-4675. 


a  F 


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20800  Kiltredge.  Saratoga,  CA  95070/800-527-5330 


Tibet  &  Bhutan 

Travel  to  mysterious  Tibet  and  exotic  Bhutan,  where 
Buddhists  revere  the  Himalayas  as  the '  'abode  of  gods." ' 
Visit  ■"Shangri-La"  in  Bhutan's  beautiful  alpine  l<ingdom. 

TILLER  INTERNATIONAL  TOURS 

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Papua  New  Guinea 

An  intricate  tapestry  of  stoneage  cultures  with  diverse  legends 
and  art  forms.  Experience  ttie  mystery  of  iungle  fringed  rivers, 
witness  the  colorful  Highlands  people.  Dive  in  a  spectacular 
underwater  paradise.  Enjoy  5  star  wilderness  lodges,  a  touch 
of  luxury  off  the  beaten  path.  Sail  on  the  mysterious  Sepik 
River,  known  for  primitive  art  and  isolated  villages. 
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A  Matter  of  Taste 


Breaking  Bread,  Tradition, 
and  a  Long  Run 

After  two  decades  of  columns,  our  food  writer  pushes  back  from  the  table 


by  Raymond  Sokolov 

Exactly  twenty  years  ago,  I  began  writ- 
ing this  column  without  the  slightest  idea 
of  what  it  should  be.  All  I  knew  was  that  it 
should  be  about  food  and  "reflect  the  in- 
terests of  the  Museum."  Since  my  main 
experience  at  the  American  Museum  of 
Natural  History  before  1974  had  been  ac- 
companying young  children  excited  by  the 
simulacrum  of  the  giant  whale  and  various 
stuffed  large  mammals,  I  briefly  consid- 
ered printing  recipes  for  blubber  and  har- 
tebeest  steak. 

Sensing  that  this  was  not  the  correct  ap- 
proach, I  made  a  solo  pilgrimage  to  the 
Museum,  passing  through  gallery  after 
gallery  devoted  to  artifacts  of  daily  life 
among  peoples  from  hot  and  cold  lands 
with  distinctive  solutions  for  survival. 
There  were  baskets  and  masks  and 
weapons  and  costumes;  totems  and  pad- 
dles and  canoes.  You  could  stand  there  and 
imagine  culture  after  culture  from  the  ma- 
terials in  those  cases.  Yes,  but  what  did 
they  eat?  That  was  what  I  needed  to  know 
to  write  a  column  for  Natural  History. 

I  ascended  to  the  hbrary,  the  old  hbrary 
with  the  leaky  roof.  And  I  found. .  .almost 
nothing.  The  ethnography  of  food  was  not 
a  Uvely  field,  never  has  been.  There  were, 
of  course,  brilliant — and  brilliantly  er- 
ratic— exceptions.  But  by  and  large,  one 
had  to  make  one's  way  as  best  one  could. 

I  learned  to  squeeze  the  anthropological 
Uterature  for  tidbits  dropped  among  the 
exhaustive  studies  of  kinship,  geomancy, 
and  body  decorations.  While  slogging 
through  this  swamp  of  data,  I  learned  a 
new  word,  or  thought  I  had:  balanophagy, 
"eating  acorns."  A  Uttle  learning  is  a  dan- 
gerous thing.  I  dropped  that  mouthful  in  a 
column,  only  to  get  a  hooting  letter  from  a 
medical  student  in  Boston  pointing  out 
that  the  Greek  word  balanos  was  an  alter- 
nate anatomical  term  for  glans.  He  asked 
for  further  information. 

After  a  column  on  cannibalism,  for 


which  I  scoured  the  literature  to  determine 
what  adepts  considered  the  best  cuts,  I  was 
encouraged  to  shift  my  focus  from  anthro- 
pology to  botany.  Now  the  documentation 
was  vast.  Edible  plants  had  been  studied 
from  every  angle,  and  the  cookbook  hter- 
ature  of  the  post-World  War  11  period  of- 
fered rehable  accounts  of  food  preparation 
in  most  major  cultures.  So  I  embarked  on 
a  series  of  monographs  on  com  and  pota- 
toes and  coriander  and  on  and  on,  until  the 
editor  encouraged  me  to  get  out  of  the  h- 
brary  and  hit  the  road. 

First  I  pursued  endangered  American 
regional  dishes  among  hostile  Indians  and 
wary  heartland  farmers.  In  southern  Indi- 
ana, outside  the  hamlet  of  Gnaw  Bone,  a 
dog  bit  me  while  I  gathered  native  persim- 
mons from  a  field  next  to  a  dilapidated 
house.  The  reward  was  that  back  home  in 
New  York  County  (a  k  a  Manhattan)  at  a 
Museum  event,  the  distinguished  anthro- 
pologist Marvin  Harris  dignified  my  hap- 
less forays  by  calling  them  fieldwork. 

Well,  I  was  spending  a  lot  of  time  in 
fields.  But  soon  my  travels  extended  to 
South  America  and  even  the  Phihppines, 
in  search  of  the  colonial  heritage  of 
cuisines  created  by  the  collision  of  cul- 
tures in  the  Spanish  empire  after  1492. 
Most  recently,  I  have  been  getting  back  to 
basics,  thinking  about  grain.  At  the  same 
time,  I  have  been  trying  out  a  new  diet  that 
treats  grains  almost  like  poison. 

I'm  speaking  of  the  much-ballyhooed 
diet  of  Michel  Montignac,  the  self-pro- 
claimed Descartes  of  weight  loss  and  au- 
thor of  ye  Mange,  Done  Je  Maigris  (I  eat, 
therefore  I  reduce).  In  America,  he  has  a 
book  called  Dine  Out  and  Lose  Weight, 
but  the  idea  is  the  same  and  just  as  radical: 
Avoid  consuming  carbohydrates  when 
eating  fat. 

The  theory,  roughly  speaking,  is  that 
sugars  and  starches  have  the  effect  of  pro- 
voking a  sudden  increase  of  insuUn  in  the 


blood.  And  when  that  insulin  butts  up 
against  fat,  it  wraps  its  arms  around  the  fat 
and  stores  it.  If  there  isn't  any  carbohy- 
drate, there  isn't  any  insulin;  so  the  fat 
does  not  get  stored. 

Ergo,  peel  the  bread  off  that  ham  sand- 
wich. Throw  out  your  pasta  and  Frosted 
Flakes.  Kiss  potatoes  goodbye.  Eschew 
coffee,  which  also  stimulates  insulin  pro- 
duction. And  tell  your  friends  who  have 
followed  current  nutritional  orthodoxy  and 
filled  their  larders  with  bulgur,  quinoa, 
amaranth,  and  other  grains  that  they  are  in- 
dulging in  glycemic  folly.  You  can  also 
stop  counting  calories.  Montignac  is  with- 
ering on  calories  as  well  as  exercise. 

It  isn't  hard  to  see  why  this  diet  would 
have  a  certain  appeal  to  people  who  don't 
want  to  give  up  animal  fat  and  who  hate 
going  to  the  gym.  But  does  it  have  any  sci- 
entific validity?  Since  in  some  ways  it  re- 
sembles diets  prescribed  by  conventional 
doctors  for  diabetes,  the  Montignac  diet 
makes  theoretical  sense  (in  its  own  terms) 
only  if  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  over- 
weight people  are  quasidiabetic,  that  is,  if 
their  sugar-insulin  metabolism  is  out  of 
whack. 

Some  researchers  believe  this  may  be 
so.  I  am  certainly  unqualified  to  pronounce 
on  any  of  this,  but  I  have  been  impressed 
by  dramatic  weight  loss  experienced  by 
several  former  fatties  of  my  acquaintance 
who  have  been  following  Montignac.  See- 
ing them,  I  thought  I  should  try  Montignac 
too,  even  if  there  was  nothing  to  his  hy- 
pothesis. Results  were  what  mattered, 
after  all. 

Well,  it  didn't  work  for  me  because  I 
simply  could  not  deal  with  the  bizarre 
mayhem  the  Montignac  diet  does  to  cuU- 
nary  tradition.  My  friend  Jeffrey  Stein- 
garten,  the  Vogue  columnist,  reveled  in  the 
freedom  Montignac  offered  him  to  have 
eggs  and  (lots  of)  bacon  for  breakfast.  I 
found  it  almost  impossible  to  enjoy  the 


76    Natural  History  3/94 


r 


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same  breakfast  without  toast,  which  Mon- 
tignac  will  not  countenance  in  tandem 
with  fatty  bacon. 

As  a  person  who  has  been  unhappily 
heeding  medical  warnings  about  choles- 
terol intake,  I  ought  to  have  been  over- 
joyed since  Montignac  made  it  sound  as 
though  I  had  the  chance  to  eat  as  much 
cheese  as  I  wanted,  but  again  the  bread 
prohibition  made  me  very  uncomfortable. 
I  wanted  rice  with  fish,  and  potatoes  with 
steak.  Naked  salmon  and  sirloin  on  a  plate 
looked  mournful.  Adding  broccoli  or  fen- 
nel, so  as  to  have  a  permissible  vegetable, 
which  also  served  as  a  substitute  for  the 
bulk  that  starch  normally  provides,  did  not 
satisfy  me. 

In  the  end,  I  just  found  Montignac  too 
heterodox,  too  unplugged  from  the  seman- 
tics of  engrained  culinary  combinations. 
At  first,  this  realization  made  me  sorry  I 
was  such  a  slave  to  traditional  habits  and 
biases.  But  then  I  remembered  how  often  I 
had  written  in  these  pages  about  the 
predicament  we  all  face,  having  inherited 
foodways  that  evolved  in  the  strenuous, 
farm-based  past  and  that  do  not  suit  mod- 
em life.  Why  should  I  find  it  easier  than 
anyone  else  to  unplug  myself  from  the 
pegboard  of  culinary  assumptions? 


Sfincione 

(Sicilian  Pizza) 

Adapted  from  Anna  Tasca  Lanza's  The 
Heart  of  Sicily:  Recipes  and  Reminis- 
cences of  Regaleali,  a  Country  Estate 
(Clarkson  Potter,  $40,  255  pages) 

2  medium  onions,  sliced 
'A  cup  olive  oil 
2  cups  all-purpose  flour 
1  cup  semolina  flour 
1  teaspoon  salt 

1  package  diy  active  yeast 

i  egg 

2  tablespoons  butter,  diced 

4  anchovy  fillets,  cut  into  4  pieces 
%  pound  fresh  mozzarella,  sliced 
'A  pound  Emmentaler,  julienned 
'A  pound  Gouda,  julienned 
'A  cup  grated  Parmesan 
'A  cup  grated  caciocavallo  or 
pecorino 
2-3  tablespoons  dried  oregano 
Vi  cup  bread  crumbs 

1 .  Saute  the  onions  in  M  cup  of  olive  oil 
over  medium  heat  until  golden,  15  to 
20  minutes.  Set  aside. 

2.  Combine  flours  with  salt  in  a  bowl. 
Make  a  well  in  the  center  and  add 
yeast,  1  cup  warm  water,  egg,  and 
butter.  Work  the  dough  until  it  makes 


Indeed,  I  should  have  more  trouble  than 
most  people  since  I  have  spent  the  past 
twenty  years  cataloging  and  analyzing  the 
logic  of  cuisines  for  this  magazine.  You 
could  say,  in  fact,  that  that  was  the  unify- 
ing theme  of  all  my  columns:  traditional 
diets  and  how  they  have  evolved,  slowly, 
organically.  These  natural  cuisines  are  all 
systems  of  tastes  that  have  been  selected 
by  societies  because  they  harmonized  with 
natural  possibilities  and  collective  prefer- 
ences. Of  course,  these  preferences  are  to 
a  large  extent  arbitrary,  but  once  the  basic 
outlines  are  set,  it  takes  a  major  effort  for 
people  raised  eating  in  a  particular  cuisine 
to  alter  them.  Change  does  occur,  but  al- 
ways within  the  preexisting  frame.  At  any 
given  moment,  a  cuisine  makes  sense  of 
the  world  (while  a  radical,  dadaist  reshuf- 
fling of  a  cuisine,  a  la  Montignac,  creates 
chaos,  mental  indigestion). 

The  truth  of  this  emerges  on  every  page 
of  Anna  Tasca  Lanza's  The  Heart  of 
Sicily:  Recipes  and  Reminiscerices  of  Re- 
galeali, a  Country  Estate.  Lanza  lovingly 
describes  the  food  year  on  her  family's  big 
farm.  Regaleali  is  so  old-fashioned  it  even 
has  a  Frenchified  chef,  a  monzii  (dialect 
for  monsieur):  Mario  is  Italian,  the  last  in  a 
line  of  Gallic-style  chefs  that  goes  back  to 


a  ball,  and  turn  it  out  onto  a  work  sur- 
face. The  dough  will  be  wet  initially 
but  will  become  smooth  after  you 
work  it  for  3  to  4  minutes.  Continue 
to  knead  the  dough  for  10  to  15  min- 
utes, until  it  is  smooth  and  elastic. 

3.  Oil  a  9  by  13  baking  sheet.  Roll  out 
the  dough  and  shape  it  to  fit.  Place 
the  anchovy  pieces  on  the  dough  in 
rows,  cover  with  mozzarella,  sprin-^ 
kle  with  the  Emmentaler  and  Gouda, 
and  spread  the  onions  on  top.  Mix 
the  Parmesan  and  caciocavallo  or 
pecorino  together  and  spread  over 
the  onions.  Sprinkle  with  oregano. 
Spread  the  bread  crumbs  evenly  on 
top.  Press  all  the  ingredients  into  the 
dough,  using  the  palms  of  your 
hands.  Drizzle  the  remaining  olive 
oil  on  top  and  cover  with  a  kitchen 
towel.  Place  in  a  warm  spot,  and 
allow  the  dough  to  rise  until  it  dou- 
bles in  volume,  about  45  minutes. 

4.  Preheat  oven  to  400  degrees. 

5.  Bake  the  sfincione  until  the  crust  is 
browned  underneath  and  the  cheese 
has  melted,  about  40  to  50  minutes. 
Let  it  stand  for  15  minutes,  then  cut  it 
into  squares  and  serve. 

Yield:  12  servings  as  a  snack, 
6  as  a  first  course 


78    Natural  History  3/94 


the  eighteenth  century  in  Sicily.  He  makes 
pasta  with  truffles  and  cream  and  does 
fancy  saucing. 

But  most  of  the  food  at  Regaleali  is 
countrified  and  springs  from  the  earth. 
There  is  pasta  con  le  sarde  (noodles  with 
fresh  sardines  and  wild  fennel),  the  signa- 
ture dish  of  the  island.  Tomatoes,  assimi- 
lated long  ago,  now  provide  the  ground 
bass  of  the  kitchen.  Dependable  sun  and 
bumper  crops  make  the  laborious  job  of 
drying  tomatoes  and  extracting  their 
essence  an  almost  mythic  adaptation  of  a 
New  World  ingredient  to  local  conditions. 

The  century,  even  the  millennium,  is  the 
time  frame  here.  From  ancient  days,  Sicily 
was  the  wheat-growing  center  of  the 
Greeks  and  then  the  Romans.  Recently, 
wine  grapes  replaced  wheat  in  the  fields. 
Lanza  is  too  polite,  perhaps,  in  a  book 
aimed  at  Americans,  to  say  the  reason  for 
the  change  is  unbeatable  competition  from 
North  American  flour. 

In  Lanza's  amiable,  confident  text,  the 
engine  of  progress  roars  dully  offstage,  but 
it  is  there,  threatening  the  old  way  of  life. 
Her  sense  of  her  cuisine  is  what  gives  this 
drama  of  devolution  its  point.  The  knowl- 
edge of  how  to  make  the  intricate  sweets 
invented  by  gifted  nuns  is  dying  out,  but 
the  local  ricotta  continues  to  be  made  as  it 
always  has,  from  the  whey  of  Regaleali's 
hundreds  of  ewes: 

One  dish  that  is  absolutely  unforgettable 
when  Mario  makes  it  with  our  ricotta  is 
Guastelle  (Spleen  Sandwiches).  Guastella 
is  actually  the  name  for  a  certain  kind  of  soft 
roll  with  sesame  seeds  on  top;  it  resembles  a 
hamburger  bun.  You  cut  it  in  half  and  fill  it 
with  wanned  ricotta,  caciocavallo  [a  hard 
cheese  made  from  cow's  milk],  and  beef 
spleen,  an  organ  meat  that  is  much  appreci- 
ated in  Sicily.  The  spleen  is  sliced  and 
cooked  literally  swimming  in  lard.  Since 
spleen  is  not  available  in  the  United  States, 
you  will  have  to  have  schiette  (spinster) 
guastelle,  as  we  say  at  Regaleali.  Maritate 
(married)  would  be  with  spleen.  (Elsewhere 
in  Sicily  these  terms  refer  to  the  absence  or 
presence  of  ricotta.)  Guastelle  are  really 
street  food,  and  there  is  a  focacceria  in  the 
Piazza  San  Francesco  in  Palermo  where 
they  still  make  them. 

Perhaps  soon  no  one  will  make 
guastelle  any  more.  Myself,  I  am  trying  to 
imagine  their  taste.  I  have  no  idea  if  I 
would  like  them,  but  I  am  sure,  pace  Mon- 
tignac,  neither  Lanza  nor  I  would  feel 
comfortable  eating  one  without  the  bun. 

This  is  the  final  column  of  writer  Raymond 
Sokolov,  who  will  be  pursuing  less-fatten- 
ing endeavors  {see  page  88). 


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nomads,  tribal  peoples,  festivals,  wildlife. 

AFRICA,  INDONESIA,  INDIA,  SOUTH  AMERICA 

TURTLE  TOURS,  INC. 

Box  #1147/  Dept  NH,  Carefree,  AZ  85377 
Tel:  (602)  488-3688     Fax:  (602)  488-3406 


RAFT  THE  ZAMBEZI  RAPIDS,  Balloon  across  the 
Serengeti,  ride  elephants  in  the  Okavango,  lunch  with 
lions,  call  Africatours  (800)23-KENYA  or  (212)  563- 
3685. 


GALAPAGOS 


You,  9  other  adventurers  and  our  licensed 
naturalist  will  sail  by  yacht  to  explore  more  islands 
than  any  other  Galapagos  expedition.  60  trip 
dates.  Machu  Picchu  option.  Free  brochure, 

Inca  Floats    510-420-1550 
1 31 1  -N  63rd  St.,  Emeryville  CA  94608 


RAINFORESTS  OF  THE  WORLD.  Shamanism, 
Bhutan:  Culture  and  Crafts.  Archaeology  and  the 
Andes.  Explore  the  world's  special  places  with  our 
small  groups  or  on  a  customized  trip.  Galapagos, 
Ecuador,  Nepal,  Tibet,  Thailand,  and  more.  Myths 
and  Mountains.  251  Cheswold  Lane,  Haverford,  PA 
19041.  (800)484-7422,  ext  1184. 

SIBERIA,  POLAND.  Natural  history  tours  with  em- 
phasis on  birding.  Remote  eastern  Siberia  June  5-26 
(Relict  Gull)  and  Northeastern  Poland  September  18- 
27  (European  Bison,  Birding).  Write:  World  Nature 
Tours,  Box  693N,  Silver  Spring,  MD  20901. 


Galapagos  &  Costa  Rica  Cruises 


Islaads,  Ralntomsts,  Beaches  FORUM 

&  Vanishing  mime  —  Enlay  TRAVEL  INT'L 

Exotic  Destinations  on  AFFORDABLE  510-671-2900 

Temptress  Cruise/Land  Adventures.  FAX  510  671  2993 

Explore,  Hike,  Snorkel,  Kayak,  Dive,  91  Gregory  Ln.«21 

Relax.  Individuals,  Groups,  Families.  Pleasant  Hill,  CA 
Other  Sensational  Destinations.  9  4  5  2  3     ^ 


SOUTH  &  CENTRAL  AMERICA:  Overland  &  natural 
history  tours,  Amazon,  Galapagos,  Andean  trekking. 
Free  color  catalog.  Himalayan  Travel.  (800)225- 
2380. 

THE  GREAT  SOLAR  ECLIPSE/NOVEMBER  94. 
Don't  miss  the  spectacular  total  eclipse  in  Chile  on  No- 
vember 3.  Plus  visits  to  Bolivia  and  Argentina.  For  de- 
tails, contact  Voyagers,  1-800-633-0299. 

WILDERNESS  ALASKA  —  Small  groups  in  remote 
wilderness  unfolding  the  unique  natural  history  of  the 
Brooks  Range,,  Arctic  National  Wildlife  Refuge  and 
Prince  William  Sound,  Custom  and  scheduled  back- 
packing, rafting  and  sea  kayaking  trips.  Write  Wilder- 
ness Alaska,  POB  113063  NH,  Anchorage,  AK  99511 
(907)  345-3567. 


ALASKA  •  GALAPAGOS 

ARCTIC  •  RUSSIA  •  ANTARCTICA 

AUSTRALIA 'PATAGONIA 


Quality  Natural  History  &  Photography 
Trips  -  20  Years  Experience 

BIOLOGICAL  JOURNEYS 

1696N  Ocean  Dr.,  McKinleyville,  CA  95521 
800-548-7555  or  707-839-0178 


YEMEN,  SYRIA,  JORDAN,  TURKEY,  Greece,  Egypt, 
Morocco,  Iceland,  Madagascar  and  much  more. 
Small  group  holidays  for  all  ages.  Call  for  brochure 
and  itineraries.  Adventures  Abroad  1  (800)  665-3998, 
24  Hours. 


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at  the  above  address.  Please  include  your  personal 
address  and  telephone  number,  issue  preferred,  and 
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closes  November  1). 


81 


At  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History 


A  Night  Out  with  the  Neanderthals 
European  and  Near  Eastern  Neanderthals 
are  the  best  known  of  premodem  humans. 
Erik  Trinkaus,  chairman  of  the  Department 
of  Anthropology  at  the  University  of  New 
Mexico,  will  talk  about  fossil  clues  and 
archeological  remains  that  are  helping  to 
clarify  the  relationship  of  Neanderthals  to 
modem  humans.  The  lecaire  will  be  given 
on  Thursday,  March  10,  at  7:00  p.m.  in  the 
Main  Auditorium.  Call  (212)  769-5606  for 
ticket  information. 

Rain  Forest  Conservation  in 
Madagascar 

The  creation  of  the  Ranomafana  National 
Park  in  southeastern  Madagascar  will  be  the 
subject  of  a  slide-illustrated  lecture  by  Patri- 
cia C.  Wright,  associate  professor  in  the  an- 
thropology department  of  the  State  Univer- 
sity of  New  York  at  Stony  Brook.  She  will 
also  discuss  her  work  with  lemurs  and  her 
discovery  of  a  previously  unknown  lemur 
species,  Japalemur  aureus.  This  event  takes 
place  on  Thursday,  March  3,  at  7:00  p.m.  in 
the  Kaufmarm  Theater.  Tickets  are  $15.  Call 
(212)  769-5310  for  information. 

The  Kingdom  of  Mustang 

Mustang,  formerly  part  of  Tibet,  is  one  of 
the  last  semiautonomous  pnncipalities  m 


Neandeithal  scene  depicted  in  an  1873  issue  of  Harper's  Weekly 


Nepal.  Mountaineer  and  scholar  Edwin 
Bembaum  will  talk  about  this  remote  sanc- 
tuary of  Tibetan  culture,  which  has  been 
spared  the  ravages  of  modernization  and  the 
Chinese  occupation  of  Tibet.  The  program 
will  be  held  on  Monday,  March  7,  in  the 
Kaufmann  Theater  at  7:00  p.m.,  and  tickets 
are  $15.  Call  (212)  769-5310  for  additional 
information. 

Volcanoes 

Volcanic  origins,  types  of  eruptions,  and 
their  effects  on  life  and  the  evolution  of  the 
atmosphere  will  be  discussed  by  Sidney 
Horenstein,  coordinator  of  environmental 
programs  at  the  Museum,  on  two  Monday 
evenings,  March  7  and  14,  at  7:00  p.m.  in  the 
Kaufmann  Theater.  Slides  and  videotapes 
will  accompany  the  presentation.  Tickets 
for  the  two  lectures  are  $25.  For  more  infor- 
mation, call  (212)  769-5310. 

Vanishing  Jewish  Communities 

The  rituals  and  life  styles  of  a  Middle 
Eastern  and  an  Indian  population  of  Jews 
has  been  documented  in  two  films.  The 
Samaritans  and  Jews  of  India.  Filmmaker 
Johanna  Spector  will  introduce  and  com- 
ment on  the  documentaries  before  they  are 
presented  on  Wednesday,  March  30,  at  7:00 
PM  m  the  Mam  Auditorium.  Call  (212) 
769-5606  for  more  in- 
formation and  ticket 
availability. 


Planet  Pluto 

On  Monday,  March 
14,  Dale  Cruikshank, 
of  NASA's  Ames  Re- 
search Center,  will 
discuss  "The  Icy  Edge 
of  Our  Solar  System: 
Pluto  and  Beyond." 
This  lecture,  part  of 
the  series  "Frontiers  in 
Astronomy  and  Astro- 
physics" will  take 
place  at  7:30  p.m.  in 
the  Sky  Theater.  For 
all  events  at  the  Plane- 
tarium, including  the 
Sky  Show,  "Orion 
Rendezvous:  A  Star 
Trek  Voyage  of  Dis- 
covery," call  (212) 
769-5900. 

Food  as  Medicine 
In  China,  foods  are 


divided  into  two  categories,  yin  and  yang, 
depending  on  the  energy  they  release  in  the 
body.  Ym  foods  (such  as  fruits,  vegetables, 
crab,  and  fish)  are  beUeved  to  reduce  the 
heat  in  the  body;  while  yang  foods  (such  as 
eggs  or  fatty  meats)  are  thought  to  heat  the 
system.  Li  Lian  Xing,  an  herbalist  and  tradi- 
tional Chinese  doctor,  will  talk  about  the 
medicinal  properties  of  Chinese  food  and 
offer  possible  individual  diagnoses.  In  addi- 
tion, gold-medal  master  chefs  Shi  Lian 
Yong  and  Bian  Jian  Nian  will  demonstrate 
the  art  of  vegetable  carving  and  offer  sam- 
ples of  healthful  teas  and  foods.  This  pre- 
sentation will  take  place  on  Sunday,  March 
6,  at  2:00  and  at  4:00  rm.  in  the  Museum's 
Auxiliary  Dining  Room.  Tickets  are  $5.  For 
information,  call  (212)  769-5315. 

Traditional  Healing  in  Senegal 

Healing  ceremonies  of  Lebou  women  in 
the  Senegambia  region  of  West  Africa  will 
be  presented  by  the  Sabar  Ak  Ru  Afriq  En- 
semble on  Sunday,  March  13,  at  2:00  and 
4:(X)  p.m.  The  free  program,  which  is  part  of 
the  Woman's  Month  celebration  at  the  Mu- 
seum, will  take  place  in  the  Kaufmann  The- 
ater. Call  (212)  769-5315  for  information. 

All  About  Sharks 

Eugenie  Clark,  a  professor  of  zoology  at 
the  University  of  Maryland  and  coauthor  of 
the  children's  book  The  Desert  Beneath  the 
Sea,  will  recount  her  adventures  swimming 
with  and  studying  sharks.  The  program,  for 
children  from  preschool  through  grade  6, 
will  be  given  in  the  Kaufmann  Theater  at 
10:30  a.m.  on  Saturday,  March  12. 

John  Maisey,  a  curator  in  the  Museum's 
Department  of  Vertebrate  Paleontology,  will 
talk  about  shark  evolution  and  fossils  on 
Friday,  March  18,  at  7:00  rm.  in  the  Hall  of 
Ocean  Life.  The  program  will  also  include  a 
discussion  of  shark  adaptation  and  biology 
by  painter  and  author  Richard  EUis. 

These  programs  are  being  presented  in 
conjunction  with  the  exhibition  Shark!  Fact 
and  Fantasy  showing  in  Gallery  3  until 
Sunday,  May  1.  Call  (212)  769-5310  for 
ticket  information. 

These  events  take  place  at  the  American 
Museum  of  Natural  History,  Central  Park 
West  at  79th  Street  in  New  York  City.  The 
Kaufmann  Theater  is  located  in  the  Charles 
A.  Dana  Education  Wing.  The  Museum  has 
a  pay-what-you-wish  admission  policy.  For 
more  information  about  the  Museum,  call 
(212)769-5100. 


Enk  Trmkaus 


82    Natural  History  3/94^. 


march  calendar 


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7 

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10 

11 

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13 

14 

15 

23 

17 

18 

19 

20 

21 

22 

23 

24 

25 

26 

27 

28 

29 

30 

31 

3         THURSDAY 

"Tropical  Rainforest 
Conservation  in  Madagascar: 
The  Making  of  a  National 
Park"  -S-  LECTURE,  7:00  p.m., 
Kaufmann  Theater,  $15.00 


)         SATURDAY 

"The  World  of  Animals"  ■ 
LECTURE  &  DEMONSTRATION 
for  ages  5  and  up,  11:30  a.m. 
&  1:30  p.m.,  Kaufmann 
Theater,  $5.00  members, 
$8.00  nonmembers 


SUNDAY 

"Food  as  Medicine" 
LECTURE  &  DEMONSTRATION, 
2:00  &  4:00  p.m..  Auxiliary 
Dining  Room,  $5.00 


MONDAY 

"Mustang:  The  Opening 
of  a  Forbidden  Himalayan 
Kingdom" 
LECTURE,  7:00  p.m., 
Kaufmann  Theater,  $15.00 

"Volcanoes:  Their  Origins 
and  Distribution" 
LECTURE,  7:00  p.m., 
People  Center,  $15,00 


10  THURSDAY 
"A  NightOut  with  the 
Neandertals"  ■ 
LECTURE,  7:00  p.m..  Main 
Auditorium,  $10.00  members, 
$15.00  nonmembers 

11  FRIDAY 

"Artistic  Expression  in  an 
Amazonian  Culture"  ■ 
LECTURE,  7:00  p.m., 
Kaufmann  Theater,  $7.00 
members,  $10.00  nonmembers 

12  SATURDAY 

Shark  Tales  + 
CHILDREN'S  PROGRAM, 
10:30  a.m.,  Kaufmann 
Theater,  $10.00 

13  SUNDAY 

NDEPP:  A  Traditional  Lebou 
Healing  Ceremony  + 
PERFORMANCE,  2:00  &  4:00 
p.m.,  Kaufmann  Theater 

14  MONDAY 

"Volcanoes:  Their  Eruptions 
and  Emanations"  + 
LECTURE,  7:00  p.m.. 
People  Center,  $15.00 

"The  Icy  Edge  of  Our  Solar 
System:  Pluto  and  Beyond"  • 
LECTURE,  7:30  p.m., 
Hayden  Planetarium,  $8.00 

18        FRIDAY 
"Sharks:  Ancient  Stories 
and  Current  Affairs"  * 
LECTURE,  7:00  p.m.. 
Hall  of  Ocean  Life,  $10.00 


20         SUNDAY 

Ladyfingers  + 

PERFORMANCE,  2:00  &  4:00 
p.m.,  Kaufmann  Theater 

30         WEDNESDAY 

The  Samaritans  and  The  Jews 
of  India  m 

FILM  SCREENINGS,  7:00  p.m.. 
Main  Auditorium,  $7.00  mem- 
bers, $10.00  nonmembers 


THROUGHOUT   MARCH 

Sharks!  Fact  and  Fantasy 
SPECIAL  EXHIBITION, 
Gallery  3 

Search  for  the  Great  Sharks  A 

IMAXfilm, 

Natliremax  Theater 

Space  Places: 

A  Photographic  Art  Exhibit 

SPECIAL  EXHIBITION;  with 
Orion  Rendezvous:  A  Star 
Trek  Voyage  of  Discovery  • 
SKY  SHOW,  Daily  Showings, 
Hayden  Planetarium,  $5.00 
adults,  $2.50  children 

Waura:  Drawings  of  the 
Waura  Indians 

SPECIAL  EXHIBITION, 
Akeley  Gallery 

Global  Cultures  in  a  Changing 
World:  A  Series  Exploring 
Cultural  Diversity  + 
LECTURES,  FILMS,  &  PERFOR- 
MANCES celebrating  Women's 
History  Month,  every  weekend 


Membership,  769-5506        Natureniax  Theater,  769-5650   +  Education,  769-5310   •  Hayden  Planetarium,  769-5900 


Huseum  of  Natural  History 


Central  Park  West  at  79th  Street,  New  York  City  -  For  information,  call  212-769-5100 


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85 


Authors 


Tim  Clutton-Brock  (page  28)  has 
earned  two  doctorates  in  zoology  from 
Cambridge  University,  where  he  teaches 
animal  ecology  and  heads  the  Large  Ani- 
mal Research  Group.  Ten  years  ago,  while 
attending  a  scientific  meeting  about  ani- 
mal demography,  Clutton-Brock  became 
interested  in  studying  the  population  cy- 
cles of  large  mammals.  Searching  for  "a 
cyclical  population  where  large  numbers 
of  individuals  could  be  marked  and  their 
behavior,  survival,  and  breeding  success 
monitored,"  he  remembered  reports  about 
the  Soay  sheep  on  Hirta,  an  island  in  the 
Saint  Kilda  archipelago  off  the  northwest 
coast  of  Scotland,  owned  and  managed  by 
the  National  Trust  for  Scotland  and  Scot- 
tish Natural  Heritage.  When  Clutton- 
Brock  and  his  colleague  Steve  Albon  vis- 
ited there,  they  were  "astonished  by  the 
ease  with  which  information  could  be  col- 
lected." With  funding  from  the  Natural 


Environment  Council  and  assistance  from 
the  Royal  Artillery  on  Saint  Kilda,  Clut- 
ton-Brock returned  the  next  year  to  begin  a 
systematic  saidy.  For  more  information, 
he  recommends  Island  Survivors:  The 
Ecology  of  the  Soay  Sheep  of  St.  Kilda,  by 
R  A.  Jewell,  C.  Miber,  and  J.  M.  Boyd 
(London:  Athlone  Press,  1974). 

86    Natural  History  3/94 


In  the  Panamanian  rain  forest,  Jeanne 
A.  Zeh  (page  36)  stands  on  a  fallen  fig 
tree.  Ten  years  ago  Zeh  moved  from  Eng- 
land to  Arizona  to  pursue  a  career  in  pho- 
tojournalism. Falling  in  love  with  the 
Sonoran  Desert,  she  changed  direction  and 
in  1986  received  an  undergraduate  degree 
in  ecology  and  evolutionary  biology  from 
the  University  of  Arizona.  There  she  met 
her  husband,  David  W.  Zeh  (pictured  here 
with  their  son,  Adrian),  who  was  just  fin- 
ishing his  Ph.D.  at  the  time.  Their  lives — 
and  their  work — have  been  closely  en- 
twined ever  since.  Staying  at  the 
university,  David  began  studies  of  desert 
pseudoscorpions,  which  travel  from  one 
rotting  giant  saguaro  to  another  on  the  legs 


A  veteran  field  researcher  in  Guatemala 
and  Mexico,  June  Nasli  (page  46)  has 
long  followed  the  career  of  Judas  among 
the  Maya.  Other  themes  that  intrigue  her 
are  the  organization  of  work  and  the  per- 
sistence of  cultural  traditions  in  peasant 
and  industrial  societies,  as  well  as  in  the 
cosmopolitan  settings  of  the  "post- 
indusfiial"  era.  Nash,  a  Distinguished  Pro- 
fessor of  Anthropology  at  the  City  College 
and  the  Graduate  Center  of  the  City  Uni- 
versity of  New  York,  has  written  In  the 
Eyes  of  the  Ancestors:  Belief  and  Behav- 
ior in  a  Maya  Community  (New  Haven: 
Yale  University  Press,  1970).  She  recom- 
mends The  Indian  Christ,  The  Indian 
King:  The  Historical  Substrate  of  Maya 
Myth  and  Ritual,  by  Victoria  R.  Bricker 
(Austin:  University  of  Texas  Press,  1981) 
and  Comiendose  la  Fruta:  metafores  sexu- 
ales  e  iniciaciones  en  Santiago  Atitldn,  by 
Nathaniel  Tarn  and  Martin  Prechtel,  in 
Mesoamerica,  vol.  19,  pp.  73-82. 


of  cactus  flies — the  insects  whose  mating 
strategies  were  the  subjects  of  Jeanne's 
graduate  research.  For  the  past  six  years, 
the  Zehs  have  been  with  the  Smithsonian 
Tropical  Research  Institute  in  Panama, 
where  their  sfiidies  of  the  pseudoscorpion 
that  rides  harlequin  beetles  have  led  them 
from  fieldwork  on  sexual  selection  to 
DNA  research  on  speciation  and  the  ge- 
netic causes  of  promiscuous  behavior  in 
female  arthropods.  They  recentiy  returned 
to  the  United  States,  where  Jeanne  is  com- 
pleting her  graduate  studies  at  Rice  Uni- 
versity and  David  is  an  assistant  professor 
in  the  biology  department  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Houston.  In  their  spare  time,  they 
enjoy  hiking,  playing  tennis,  and  snorkel- 
ing  in  the  Caribbean. 


AMERICAN  MUSEUM  OF  NATURAL  HISTORY 


Exploring  the  world  with  expert  lecturers 


CRUISES 

FRAnCE:  CRUISIPIQ 
THROUGH  PROVEnCE 

June  21  -July  3,  1994 

VOYAGE  TO  LAriDS 
or  GODS  AMD  HEROS 

Italy,  the  Greek  Isles  and  Turkey 
June  30 -July  13,  1994 

ICEBREAKER  EXPEDITION 
TO  THE  nORTH  POLE 

July  12-31,  1994 

ALASKA'S 
iriSIDE  PASSAGE 

July  13-22,  1994 

CROSSROADS  OF  THE 

coriTiriEPiTS 

Alaska  &  the  Russian  Far  East 
July  20-30,  1994 

BEYOHD  THE  HORTH  CAPE 

Spitsbergen  to  Bergen 
August  6-21,  1994 

VOYAGE  TO  AHTIQUITY 

Turkey  and  the  Greek  Isles 

Aboard  the  Sea  Cloud 

August  28  -  September  13,  1994 

IHTO  THE  KALEIDOSCOPE: 
ISLANDS  OF  IHDOriESIA 

September  17  -  October  1,  1994 

CROSSROADS  OF 
CIVILIZATIONS 

Israel,  Syria,  Greece  and  Turkey 
November  17  -  December  1,  1994 


DISCOVERY 

CRUISES  AND 

TOURS 


The  American  Museum  of  Natural  His- 
tory has  been  conducting  travel  programs 
to  remote  and  magnificent  areas  since 
1953.  Working  closely  with  the  finest 
tour  operators,  we  cai^elfully  design  in- 
novative and  distinctive  travel  opportu- 
nities. We  select  lecturers  from  the 
Museum's  extensive  staff  of  scientists 
and  fi'om  other  renowned  institutions  to 
provide  a  comprehensive  and  stimulat- 
ing enrichment  program.  Our  programs 
attract  seasoned  and  discerning  travelers 
who  want  to  satisfy  their  intellectual 
curiosity  while  enjoying  comfortable 
cruise  and  land  facilities. 


TRAIN  TRIPS 

BERLIN  TO  ISTANBUL 

May  23 -June  4,  1994 

ANCIENT  TURKEY 

By  Private  Steam  Train 
May  31  -June  12,  1994 

BEIJING  TO  MOSCOW 

September  15-30,  1994 

BEIJING  TO  HANOI 

October  25  -  November  12,  1994 


LAND 
PROGRAMS 

BRITAIN  LAKE 
DISTRICT  WALK 

June  6-16,  1994 

MOROCCO:  THE  ROAD  OF 
A  THOUSAND  KASBAHS 

September  24  -  October  8,  1994 

TIBETAN  JOURNEY 

September  1994 

AROUND  THE  WORLD 
BY  PRIVATE  JET 

January  19  -  February  21,  1995 


FAMILY 
ADVENTURES 

VOYAGE  TO  LANDS 
OF  GODS  AND  HEROS 

Italy,  the  Greek  Isles  and  Turkey 

Aboard  the  Daphne 

June  30 -July  13,  1994 

MEXICO'S  COPPER  CANYON 

July  9-16,  1994 

GALAPAGOS  WILDLIFE  AND 

ANDEAN  HIGHLANDS 

July  14-25,  1994 

KENYA  SAFARI 

August  8-21,  1994 


American  Museum  of  Natural  History/Discovery  Cruises  and  Tours 
Central  Park  West  at  79th  St.  New  York,  NY  10024-5192 


(212)  769-5700  in  New  York  or 
Toll-free  (800)  462-8687 


With  this  issue,  Raymond  Sokolov 

(page  76)  retires  as  the  writer  of  "A  Matter 
of  Taste,"  having  completed  a  stint  of  ex- 
actly twenty  years  as  an  analyst  of  cultural 
foodways  in  these  pages.  Sokolov's  other 
labors  are  not  winding  down,  however.  He 
continues  as  editor  of  the  Leisure  and  Arts 
section  for  the  Wall  Street  Journal,  where 
his  responsibilities  have  recently  been  ex- 
panded to  include  the  creation  of  a  culture 
page  for  the  European  edition.  Time-con- 
suming travel  to  Europe  (and  occasionally 
to  Asia,  where  the  Wall  Street  Journal  has 
another  edition)  is  one  of  the  reasons 
Sokolov  has  decided  to  round  off  his  Nat- 
ural History  career  after  meeting  229 
deadlines.  He  is  also  finishing  off  a  book 
on  grain  and  claims  to  be  "incubating  an- 
other secret  project." 


Because  magpies  are  "common,  extro- 
verted, and  conspicuous,"  writes  Tim 
Birkhead  (page  54),  he  remembers  being 
aware  of  them  even  as  a  small  child  in 
Yorkshire.  Later,  as  a  schoolboy  birder,  he 
used  to  watch  magpies  and  try  to  count 
them  as  they  flocked  at  their  large  winter 
roosts.  Birkhead  went  on  to  study  zoology 
at  the  University  of  Newcastle  upon  Tyne 
and  eventually  discovered  that  next  to 
nothing  was  known  about  magpie  breed- 


ing biology.  Nonetheless,  he  didn't  start 
his  formal  research  on  the  species  until 
after  he  earned  his  D.  Phil,  from  Oxford's 
Edward  Grey  Institute  in  1976.  Mean- 
while, other  birds  have  drawn  Birkhead 
far  afield.  He  has  studied  marine  species  in 
Arctic  Canada,  zebra  finches  in  Australia, 
buffalo  weavers  in  Africa,  and  yellow- 
billed  magpies  in  California.  Along  the 
way  he  earned  a  D.Sc.  from  Newcastle 
and  is  now  a  professor  of  behavioral  ecol- 


ogy at  the  University  of  Sheffield.  Mar- 
ried, with  three  children  and  two  dogs,  he 
likes  to  paint,  play  the  guitar,  and  write 
about  birds.  His  book  The  Magpies:  The 
Ecology  and  Behaviour  of  Black-billed 
and  Yellow-billed  Magpies  (London:  T  & 
A.  D.  Poyser,  1991)  is  available  in  book- 
shops, and  he  recommends  going  to  the  li- 
brary to  find  the  out-of-print  Natural  His- 
tory of  Magpies,  by  J.  Linsdale  (Berkeley: 
Pacific  Coast  Avifauna  25,  1937). 


Robert  Caputo  (page  84),  who  pho- 
tographed this  month's  "Natural  Mo- 
ment," is  pictured  here,  showing  his 


equipment  to  a  group  of  Kenyans.  After 
graduating  from  college  in  1976,  he  went 
to  Africa  as  a  tourist.  "I  was  so  taken  with 


what  I  saw  that  I  wanted  to  show  it  to  my 
friends — and,  of  course,  I  wanted  to  con- 
tinue seeing  more  of  it  myself.  Photogra- 
phy accomplished  both."  Caputo  was  sur- 
prised to  find  that  jobs  were  relatively  easy 
to  find  in  Africa;  he  started  his  photogra- 
phy career  working  for  Jane  Goodall, 
shooting  movies  of  the  chimpanzees  she 
studied.  Later,  he  became  a  Nairobi-based 
stringer  for  Time,  Life,  and  other  maga- 
zines. After  his  years  in  the  bush,  Caputo 
attended  New  York  University's  film 
school,  where  he  earned  his  B.F.A.  He  is 
now  based  in  Washington,  D.C.,  but  fre- 
quently travels  back  to  Africa.  He  has 
completed  a  number  of  wildlife  books  for 
children  and  adults,  all  displaying  his 
work  his  work  on  that  continent.  Caputo 
says  he  was  surprised  that  the  bird  he  pho- 
tographed for  this  issue  allowed  him  to  get 
so  close,  because  "ostriches  are  shy  and 
usually  run  away  before  you  can  get 
within  about  twenty  yards  of  them."  This 
nest-sitting  male  stayed  put  as  Caputo  ap- 
proached to  within  ten  yards.  The  photo- 
graph was  taken  with  a  Nikon  F3  camera 
and  a  Nikkor  300mm  f  2.8  lens. 


Natural  History  3/94 


O  DESERT 


MONUMENT 


PHOENIX 


I 


POWDEP  mV  FACE 
WITH  SUNSHINE. 

Sprinkle  your  spirit  with  magic. 
Wear  your  exuberance  as  easily  as  the  high  flying  eagle. 

Do  everything  you've  dreamed,  at  least  once  in  your  life. 

Come  to  Arizona,  where  sunny  and  warm  describes  more  than  the  weather. 
And  a  smile  describes  more  than  a  moment. 


Would  Improve  His  Studi 


Natural  history 

AW.    MUS.    MAT,    HIST.    LIBRARY 

Received   on:    07-29-94 

Ref    5. 06(74.  7) Ml 


Drexel  Sammons  uses  a  variety  of  games  to  reinforce  specifi( 
learning  objectives  in  his  sixth  grade  Social  Studies  class. 

From  Mock  Sessions  of  Congress  to  Colonial  School    / 
Days,  his  classes  foster  participation  by  making  the  subject 
matter  come  alive. 

In  Colonial  School  Days  he  attires  himself  and  his 

students  in  period  garb.  j 

/ 
They  sit  on  wooden  benches,  read  material 

written  in  18th  century  style,  and  discover  first-hand 

how  hard  it  was  to  write  with  a  soapstone  and  slate. 

It's  no  wonder  Drexel  Sammons'  students  have  a 

superior  grasp  of  their  subject  matter.  They've  lived  it. 

The  result  has  been  their  record  of  consistently  earning 

in  both  county  and  state  Social  Studies  competitions. 

For  consistently  maintaining  an  atmosphere  that  encourages  learning,  even  if  he  has  to 

set  teaching  back  200  years,  State  Farm  is  proud  to  award  him  the 

Good  Neighbor  Award,  along  with  $5,000  to  the  Crescent 

Elementary  School  of  Beckley,  West  Virginia. 


INSURANCE 


Good 

Neighbor 

Award 

STATE  FARM  INSURANCE  COMPANIES 
Home  Oftices:  Blcomtngton.  Illinois 


V-t 


The  Good  Neighbor  Award  was  developed  in  cooperation  with  the  National  Council  for  the  Social  Studies. 


NATURAL 
HISTORY 


■f 

l.N346# 

103 
.    4 
ril   1994 


I 


"Nice  plac^ 


you  got  here! 

With  amenities  like  concert-hall  CD  sound,  leather-trimmed  seating  areas,  and  dual-zone  climate  control  for  driver  and 


mt-seat  passenger,  the  Eighty  Eight"  ISS  Special  Edition  is  the  perfect  place  to  entertain 


ends.Just  don 't  blame  us  when  they  refuse  to  leave.  Call  1-800-442-OLDS. 


Demand  Better.  Eighty  Eight  LSS  ByOdsmoloilei 


NATURAL 
HISTORY 


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Natural  Hislori  (ISSN  0028-071 2)  is  published  monlhly  by 
the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History,  Central  Park  West 
at  79th  Street,  .Mew  York,  N.Y.  10024.  Subscriptions:  $28.00 
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Printed  on  recycled  paper  in  the  USA 


In  a  Class  by  Themselves 

This  month,  in  conjunction  with  the  opening  of  the  American  Museum's 
Halls  of  Fossil  Mammals  and  Their  Extinct  Relatives,  Natural  History 
celebrates  the  class  Mammalia.  Sixteen  articles  offer  a  sampling  of  the 
diversity  of  these  beasts  and  discuss  the  ways  in  which  paleontologists 
continue  to  learn  about  mammalian  evolution  and  natural  history. 

Although  we  include  no  articles  on  human  ancestors,  no  snub  is  intended: 
Human  evolution  commanded  special  sections  in  last  year's  April  and  May 
issues,  and  an  article  containing  an  elegant  theory  of  the  evolution  of 
bipedalism  ("Human  Ancestors  Walked  Tall,  Stayed  Cool")  appeared  in 
August  1993.  But  perhaps  most  memorable  was  Roger  L.  Welsch's 
September  column,  "For  Immediate  Release,"  which  finally  explained  the 
Ice  Age  origins  of  snoring. 


2    Natural  History  4/94 


Contents 


Vol.  103,  No.  4,  April  1994 


The  Marvelous  Mammalian  Parade 

40  A  Pocketful  of  Fossils  byMkhaeU.  Novacek 

44  World  Furry-weight  Champions  by  Michael  Archer 

48  Mammals  Eggstraordinaire  fey  Mfc/iae/ Archer 

50  Suooessful  in  Spite  of  Themselves  by  s.  David  Webb 

52  The  Great  American  Interchange 

56  Early  Relatives  of  Flopsy  Mopsy  and  Cottontail 

by  Malcolm  C.  McKenna 

59  The  Devil's  Corkscrew  by  Lany  d.  Martin 

61    D\s]ari\lUun6er  by  Bryn  J.  Mader 

63  The  Heyday  of  Horses  by  Bruce  J.  MacFadden 

66  Why  Antlers  Branched  Out  by  Valerius  Geist 

70  Green  in  Tooth  and  Claw  by  Margery  C.  Coombs 

72  West  Indian  Tuskers  by  Daryi  Domning 

lA  Key  to  the  Carnivores  by  Richard  h.  Tedfard 

78  The  Sobertooth's  Repeat  Performances  by  Christine  Janis 

84  Tough  Times  in  the  Tor  Pits  byBlalre  Van  Valkenburgh 

86  The  Whales  of  Tethys  by  PhiUp  d.  Gingerich 

90  Caught  in  Time  by  Richard  H.  Tedford 


Departments 

Cover:  a  pair  o/Smilodon,  saber- 
toothed  cats,  yawn  and  stretch  on 
a  wann  rock.  Painting  b\  Marianne 
Collins;  ©  1993  by  W.  W.  Noiton 
and  Company.  Stories  on  pages 
74.  78.  and  84. 

4  This  View  OF  Life 

by  Stephen  Jay  Gould 
Dousing  Diminutive  Dennis 's 
Debate 

14  Science  Lite 

by  Roger  L  Welsch 
Socket  to  Me 

20  This  Land 

by  Robert  H.  Mohlenbrock 
Shingleton  Bog.  Michigan 

92  At  THE  American  Museum 
OF  Natural  History 

96  Celestial  Events 

by  Gail  S.  Cleere 
Moonstruck 

100  The  Natural  Moment 
Photographs  by  Esther  Beaton 
Bumper  to  Bumper 

102  Authors 


Tras  View  of  Life 


Dousing  Diminutive 
Dennis's  Debate 


(DDDD  =  2000) 

by  Stephen  Jay  Gould 

In  1697,  on  the  day  appointed  for  re- 
penting mistakes  in  judgment  at  Salem, 
Samuel  Sewall  of  Boston  stood  silently  in 
Old  South  Church,  Boston,  while  his  con- 
fession of  error  was  read  aloud.  He  alone 
among  judges  of  the  falsely  accused  (and 
truly  executed)  "witches"  of  Salem  had 
the  courage  to  undergo  such  public  chas- 
tisement. Four  years  later,  the  same 
Samuel  Sewall  made  a  most  joyful  noise 
unto  the  Lord — and  at  a  particularly  auspi- 
cious moment.  He  hired  four  trumpeters  to 
herald,  as  he  wrote,  the  "entrance  of  the 
18th  century"  by  sounding  a  blast  on 
Boston  Common  at  daybreak.  He  also 
paid  the  town  crier  to  read  out  his  "verses 
upon  the  New  Century."  The  opening 
stanzas  seem  especially  poignant  today, 
the  first  for  its  relevance  (I  am  writing  this 
essay  on  a  January  night  in  Boston,  and 
the  temperature  outside  is  -2°  F),  and  the 
second  for  a  superannuated  paternalism 
that  highlights  both  the  admirable  and  the 
reprehensible  in  our  history: 

Once  more!  Our  God  vouchsafe  to 

shine: 
Correct  the  coldness  of  our  clime. 
Make  haste  with  thy  impartial  light, 
and  terminate  this  long  dark  night. 

Give  the  Indians  eyes  to  see 
The  fight  of  life,  and  set  them  free. 
So  men  shall  God  in  Christ  adore. 
And  worship  idols  vain,  no  more. 

I  do  not  raise  this  issue  either  to  embar- 
rass the  good  judge  for  his  tragic  error  or 
to  praise  his  commendable  courage,  but 
for  an  aspect  of  the  tale  that  may  seem  pe- 
ripheral to  Sewall's  intent,  but  that  never- 
theless looms  large  as  we  approach  the 
millennium  destined  to  climax  our  current 
decade.  Sewall  hired  his  trumpeters  for 
January  1,  1701,  not  January  1,  1700 — 
and  he  therefore  made  an  explicit  decision 


in  a  debate  that  the  cusp  of  his  new  century 
had  kindled  and  that  has  increased  might- 
ily at  every  similar  transition  since  (see 
my  main  source  for  much  of  this  essay,  the 
marvelously  meticulous  history  of  fins  de 
siecles,  by  Hillel  Schwartz — Century's 
End,  Doubleday,  1990).  When  do  cen- 
turies end?  At  the  termination  of  years 
marked  '99  (as  common  sensibility  sug- 
gests) or  at  the  close  of  years  marked  '00 
(as  the  narrow  logic  of  a  peculiar  system 
dictates)? 

The  debate  is  already  more  intense  than 
ever,  six  (or  is  it  seven?)  years  from  our 
own  forthcoming  transition,  and  for  two 
obvious  reasons.  First — O  cursed  spite — 
our  disjointed  times  and  our  burgeoning 
press  provide  enhanced  opportunity  for  re- 
hearsal of  such  narrishkeit  ad  nauseam;  do 
we  not  feast  upon  tiiviafities  to  divert  at- 
tention from  the  truly  portentous  issues 
that  engulf  us?  Second,  this  time  around 
really  does  count  as  the  ultimate  block- 
buster, for  this  is  the  millennium,*  the 
great  and  indubitable  unicum  for  any 
human  observer  (although  a  few  trees  and 
maybe  a  fungus  or  two,  but  not  a  single  an- 
imal, have  been  through  it  before). 

I  had  originally  intended  to  treat  this 
subject  in  my  last  essay  of  this  series — to 
be  written  for  January  2001.  But  the  cas- 
cade of  preemptive  discussion  has  given 


*In  this  essay's  spirit  of  dispelling  a  standard  set  of  con- 
fusions that  have  already  surrounded  the  forthcoming 
millennium,  may  I  at  least  devote  a  footnote  to  the  most 
trivial,  but  also  the  most  unambiguously  resolvable? 
Millennium  has  two  n's — honest  to  God,  it  really  does, 
despite  all  the  misspellings,  even  in  most  of  the  books 
and  product  names  already  dedicated  to  the  event.  The 
adjective  millennial  also  has  two,  but  the  alternative 
millenarian  has  only  one.  The  etymologies  are  different. 
Millennium  is  from  Latin  mille,  "one  thousand,"  and 
annus,  "year" — hence  the  two  n's.  Millenarian  is  fi:om 
the  Latin  millenarius,  "containing  a  thousand  (of  any- 
thing)," hence  no  annus  and  no  two  /I's. 


me  a  strong  case  of  anticipatory  seven — or 
is  it  six? — year  itch.  For  a  man  who  really 
does  yearn  to  lead  a  usefiil  life  and  who 
glimpses  a  little  strategy  for  steering  fel- 
low human  sufferers  away  from  embit- 
tered discussion  about  essentially  mean- 
ingless and  formally  unresolvable 
questions,  the  time  can  only  be  now — or 
never.  (How  I  wish  I  had  better  clues  about 
answers  to  such  truly  resolvable  and  des- 
perately important  issues  as  hunger, 
poverty,  xenophobia,  and  environmental 
degradation!)  The  dominant  force  of  com- 
mercial culture  has  already  honed  in,  and 
scholars  can  no  longer  afford  the  rnceties 
of  delay. 

On  December  26,  1993,  the  New  York 
Times  ran  a  piece  to  bury  the  Christmas 
buying  orgy  and  welcome  the  new  year. 
This  article,  on  commercial  gear-up  for  the 
century's  end,  began  by  noting:  "There  is 
money  to  be  made  on  the  millennium. .  .in 
999  feelings  of  gloom  ran  rampant.  What 
the  doomsayers  may  have  lacked  was  an 
instinct  for  mass  marketing."  The  com- 
mercial cascade  of  this  millennium  is  al- 
ready in  full  swing — in  journals,  date 
books,  the  inevitable  coffee  mugs  and  T- 
shirts,  and  a  thousand  other  products  being 
flogged  by  a  full  gamut,  from  New  Age 
"fruitcakes"  of  the  counterculture  to  hard- 
fine  apocalyptic  visionaries  at  the  Christ- 
ian fringe  to  a  bunch  of  ordinary  guys  out 
to  make  an  honest  buck.  The  article  even 
tells  of  a  consulting  firm  expficitiy  estab- 
fished  to  help  others  market  the  millen- 
nium— so  we  are  already  witnessing  the 
fractal  recursion  that  might  be  called 
metaprofiteering,  or  growing  clams  of  ad- 
vice in  the  clam  beds  of  your  advisee's  po- 
tential profits. 

I  am  truly  sorry  that  I  cannot,  in  cmrent 
parlance,  "get  with  the  program."  I  feel 
compeUed  to  mention  two  tiny  difficulties 


4    Natural  History  4/94 


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(pterosaur); 
Solnhofen 
Limestone;  Late 
Jurassic;  Germany 


k  Stauranderaster  coronatus 
(Forbes)  (starfish);  Lower 
Clialk;  Late  Cretaceous;  UK 


A  $77.85 

Value 


Undetermined  Nautilus;  ► 
Inferior  Oolite 
Formation;  Middle 
Jurassic;  UK 


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that  could  act  as  dampers  upon  the  univer- 
sal ballyhoo.  First — although  I  will  not 
make  a  big  deal  of  this  technicality — mil- 
lenniums are  not  transitions  at  the  ends  of 
thousand-year  periods,  but  particular  peri- 
ods lasting  one  thousand  years;  so  I'm  not 
convinced  that  we  even  have  the  name 
right.  Second,  if  we  insist  on  a  celebration 
(as  we  should)  no  matter  what  name  be 
given,  we  had  better  decide  when  to  cele- 
brate. I  devote  this  essay  to  explaining 
why  the  second  issue  cannot  be  re- 
solved— a  situation  that  should  not  be 
viewed  as  depressing,  but  enlightening. 
For  just  as  Tennyson  taught  us  to  prefer 
love  lost  over  love  unexperienced,  it  is  bet- 
ter to  not  know,  and  know  why  one  can't 
know,  than  to  be  clueless  about  why  so 
many  people  are  so  agitated  about  1999 
versus  2000  for  the  great  divide.  At  least 
when  you  grasp  the  conflicting,  legitimate, 
and  unresolvable  claims  of  both  sides,  you 
can  then  celebrate  both  alternatives  with 
equanimity — or  neither  (with  informed 
self-righteousness)  if  your  persona  be 
sour  or  smug. 

Rightful  names:  Millennium  does 
mean,  by  etymology,  a  period  of  one  thou- 
sand years.  However,  the  concept  did  not 
arise  within  the  field  of  practical  calen- 
drics,  or  the  measurement  of  time,  but  in 
the  domain  of  eschatology,  or  futuristic  vi- 
sions about  a  blessed  end  of  time.  Millen- 
nial thinking  is  embedded  in  the  two  apoc- 
alyptic books  of  the  Bible — Daniel  in  the 
Old  Testament  and  Revelation  in  the  New. 
In  particular,  the  traditional  Christian  mil- 
lennium is  a  blessed  fuUire  epoch  that  will 
last  for  1,000  years  and  end  with  a  final 
battle  and  Last  Judgment  of  all  the  dead, 
as  described  by  Saint  John  in  one  of  his 
oracular  visions: 


And  I  saw  an  angel  come  down  from 
heaven,  having  the  key  of  the  bottomless 
pit....  And  he  laid  hold  on. ..Satan,  and 
bound  him  a  thousand  years. 

And  cast  him  into  the  bottomless  pit,  and 
shut  him  up,  and  set  a  seal  upon  him,  that  he 
should  deceive  the  nations  no  more,  till  the 
thousand  years  should  be  fulfilled.... and  I 
saw  the  souls  of  them  that  were  beheaded 
for  the  witness  of  Jesus. .  .and  they  lived  and 
reigned  with  Christ  a  thousand  years.. . . 

And  when  the  thousand  years  are  expired, 
Satan  shall  be  loosed  out  of  his  prison. 

And  shall  go  out  to  deceive  the  nations 
which  are  in  the  four  quarters  of  the  earth, 
Gog  and  Magog,  to  gather  them  together  to 
battle... and  fire  came  down  from  God  out 
of  heaven,  and  devoured  them. 

And  the  devil  that  deceived  them  was  cast 
into  the  lake  of  fire  and  brimstone,  where 
the  beast  and  the  false  prophet  are,  and  shall 
be  tormented  day  and  night  for  ever  and 
ever.... 

And  I  saw  the  dead,  small  and  great, 
stand  before  God,  and  the  books  were 
opened.... 

And  whosoever  was  not  found  written  in 
the  book  of  life  was  cast  into  the  lake  of  fire 
[Revelation  20: 1-15]. 

How,  then,  did  this  original  concept  of  a 
forthcoming  reign  of  Christ  become  trans- 
mogrified in  popular  speech  into  a  word 
for  calendric  transitions  at  multiples  of 
one  thousand?  The  main  reason  must  be 
simple  confusion  and  loss  of  knowledge 
about  the  original  meaning,  as  apocalyptic 
versions  of  Christianity,  not  to  mention 
Bible  reading  in  general,  decline  in  popu- 
larity (despite,  to  say  the  least,  vigorous, 
continuing  support  in  some  circles!).  But  a 
rationale  of  sorts  for  the  transfer  of  mean- 
ing does  exist  within  the  history  of  escha- 
tology, particularly  in  its  intersection  with 
my  profession  of  geology  in  attempts  to 
ascertain  the  age  of  the  earth. 


Many  biblical  passages  state  that  God's 
day  may  be  compared  with  a  thousand 
human  years:  "Be  not  ignorant  of  this  one 
thing,  that  one  day  is  with  the  Lord  as  a 
thousand  years,  and  a  thousand  years  as 
one  day"  (2  Peter  3:8:  see  also  Psalm  90). 
This  comparison,  read  literally,  led  many 
interpreters  to  conclude  that  the  seven 
days  of  Creation  must  correspond  with  a 
maximal  duration  of  7,000  years  for  the 
earth  from  Creation  to  final  destruction  at 
the  Last  Judgment.  In  this  scheme,  the 
seventh  or  last  cosmic  epoch,  correspond- 
ing to  God's  day  of  rest  after  six  days  of 
furiously  creative  activity,  would  be  a 
thousand-year  period  of  bhss,  the  grand 
sabbath  of  the  traditional  millennium.  If 
either  science  or  hermeneutics  could  then 
determine  the  time  of  the  earth's  origin,  we 
might  know  the  moment  of  inception  for 
this  last  happy  age. 

Most  calculations  of  the  earth's  age,  if 
done  Uterally  from  bibUcal  life  spans  and 
other  ancient  sources,  place  the  Creation 
somewhere  between  3761  B.C.  (the  Jewish 
calendar)  and  more  than  5500  B.C.  (the 
Septuagint,  or  Greek  Bible).  Therefore,  a 
transition  into  the  millennial  age  might 
well  be  on  the  horizon — or  should  have 
occurred  just  a  while  ago,  according  to 
your  favored  calculation.  True,  none  of  the 
suggested  times  of  Creation  give  any  rea- 
son to  redefine  a  millennium  as  a  transi- 
tion around  a  date  with  three  zeros  in  its 
written  form,  but  at'  least  we  may  under- 
stand why  people  might  conflate  a  future 
period  of  millennial  bhss  with  some  sys- 
tem for  counting  historical  time  in  periods 
of  one  thousand  years. 

Rightful  times:  As  a  man  of  below  aver- 
age stature  myself,  I  am  dehghted  to  report 
that  the  source  of  all  our  infernal  trouble 
about  the  ends  of  centuries  may  be  laid  on 
the  doorstep  of  a  sixth-century  monk 
named  Dionysius  Exiguus,  or  (literally) 
Dennis  the  Short.  Instructed  to  prepare  a 
chronology  for  Pope  Saint  John  I,  Little 
Dennis  decided  to  begin  countable  years 
with  the  foundation  of  Rome.  But,  neatly 
balancing  his  secular  and  sacred  alle- 
giances, Dionysius  then  divided  rime 
again  at  Christ's  appearance.  He  reckoned 
Jesus'  birth  at  December  25,  near  the  end 
of  the  year  753  a.u.c.  (standing  for  ab 
iirbe  condita.  or  "from  the  foundation  of 
the  city,"  that  is,  of  Rome).  Dionysius  then 
restarted  time  just  a  few  days  later  on  Jan- 
uary 1,  754  A.u.c. — not  Christ's  birth,  but 
the  feast  of  the  circumcision  on  his  eighth 
day  of  life,  and  also,  not  coincidentally, 
New  Year's  Day  in  Roman  and  Latin 
Christian  calendars. 


6    Natural  History  4/94 


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Dionysius's  legacy  has  provided  little 
but  trouble.  First  of  all,  he  didn't  even  get 
the  date  right,  for  Herod  died  in  750  a.u.c. 
Therefore,  if  Jesus  and  Herod  overlapped 
(and  the  Gospels  will  have  to  be  drasti- 
cally revised  if  they  did  not),  then  Jesus 
must  have  been  bom  in  4  B.C.  or  earlier — 
thus  granting  the  bearer  of  time's  title  sev- 
eral years  of  life  before  the  inception  of  his 
own  era! 

But  Dennis's, misdate  of  Jesus  counts  as 
a  mere  peccadillo  compared  with  the  con- 
sequences of  his  second  bad  decision.  He 
started  time  again  on  the  eighth  day  of 
Jesus'  life,  January  1, 754  A.u.c. — and,  get 
this,  he  called  the  date  January  1  of  a.d.  1 
(Anno  Domini,  or,  "yeai"  of  the  Lord"). 

In  short,  Dennis  neglected  to  begin  his 
new  time  with  year  zero,  thus  discombob- 
ulating  all  our  usual  notions  of  counting. 
During  the  year  that  Jesus  was  one  year 
old  (by  Dennis's  state  of  reckoning),  the 
time  system  that  supposedly  started  with 
his  birth  was  two  years  old.  (Babies  are 
zero  years  old  until  their  first  birthday; 
modem  time  was  already  one  year  old  at 
its  inception.)  The  absence  of  a  year  zero 
also  means  that  we  cannot  calculate  alge- 
braically (without  making  a  correction) 
through  the  b.c.-a.d.  transition.  The  time 
from  1.5  B.C.  to  a.d.  1.5  is  one  year,  not 
three  year's. 

The  problem  of  centuries  also  arises 
from  this  peculiarity — and  for  no  other 
reason.  If  we  insist  that  all  decades  must 
have  ten  years,  and  all  centuries  one  hun- 
dred years,  then  year  10  belongs  to  the  first 
decade — and,  sad  to  say,  year  100  must  re- 
main in  the  first  century.  Thenceforward, 
the  issue  never  goes  away.  Every  year  with 
a  '00  must  count  as  the  hundredth  and 
final  year  of  its  century — no  matter  what 
common  sensibility  might  prefer.  The  year 
2000  must  complete  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury— and  not  launch  the  next  millennium. 
Or  so  the  pure  logic  of  Dennis's  system 
dictates.  If  our  shortsighted  monk  had 
only  begun  with  a  year  zero,  then  logic  and 
sensibility  would  coincide,  and  the  wild 
millennial  bells  could  ring  forth  but  once 
and  resoundingly  at  the  beginning  of  Jan- 
uary 1,  2000.  But  he  didn't. 

Since  logic  and  sensibility  both  have  le- 
gitimate claims  upon  our  decision,  the 
great  and  recurring  debate  about  century 
boundaries  simply  cannot  be  resolved. 
The  logic  of  Dionysius's  arbitrary  system 
dictates  one  result — that  centuries  change 
between  '00  and  "01  years.  Common  sen- 
sibility leads  us  to  the  opposite  conclu- 
sion: we  want  to  match  transitions  with  the 
extent  or  intensity  of  apparent  sensual 


change,  and  1999  to  2000  just  looks  more 
definitive  than  2000  to  2001 ,  so  we  set  our 
millennial  boundary  at  the  change  in  all 
four  positions,  rather  than  the  mere  incre- 
ment of  one  to  the  last  position.  (I  refer  to 
this  position  as  "common  sensibility" 
rather  than  "common  sense"  because  sup- 
port invokes  issues  of  aesthetics  and  feel- 
ing rather  than  logical  reasoning.) 

One  might  argue  that  humans,  as  crea- 
tures of  reason,  should  be  willing  to  subju- 
gate sensibility  for  logic;  but  we  are,  just 
as  much,  creatures  of  feeling.  And  so  the 
debate  has  progressed  at  every  go-round. 
Hillel  Schwaitz,  for  example,  cites  two  let- 
ters to  newspapers,  written  from  the  camp 
of  common  sensibility  in  1900:  "I  defy  the 
most  bigoted  precisian  to  work  up  an  en- 
thusiasm over  the  year  1901,  when  we  will 
already  have  had  twelve  month's  experi- 
ence of  the  1900s."  "The  centurial  figures 
are  the  symbol,  and  the  only  symbol,  of  the 
centuries.  Once  every  hundred  years  there 
is  a  change  in  the  symbol,  and  this  great 
secular  event  is  of  startling  prominence. 
What  more  natural  than  to  bring  the  cen- 
tury into  harmony  with  its  only  visible 
mark?" 

I  do  so  love  human  foibles;  what  else 
can  keep  us  laughing  (as  we  must)  in  this 
vale  of  tears.  The  more  trivial  an  issue,  and 
the  more  unresolvable,  so  does  the  heat  of 
debate  and  the  assurance  of  absolute  right- 
eousness intensify  on  each  side  (just  con- 
sider professorial  arguments  over  parking 
places  at  university  lots).  The  same  clamor 
arises  every  hundred  years.  An  English 
participant  in  the  debate  of  1800  versus 
1801  wrote  of  "the  idle  controversy,  which 
has  of  late  convulsed  so  many  brains,  re- 
specting the  commencement  of  the  current 
century."  On  January  1,  1801,  a  poem  in 
the  Connecticut  Courant  pronounced  a 
plague  on  both  houses  (but  sided  with 
Dionysius): 

Precisely  twelve  o'clock  last  night. 
The  Eighteenth  Century  took  its  flight. 
Full  many  a  calculating  head 
Has  rack'd  its  brain,  its  ink  has  shed. 
To  prove  by  metaphysics  fine 
A  hundred  means  by  ninety-nine; 
While  at  their  wisdom  others  wonder'd 
But  took  one  more  to  make  a  hundred. 

The  same  smugness  reappeared  a  cen- 
tury later.  The  New  York  Tunes,  with  antic- 
ipatory diplomacy,  wrote  in  1 896: 

As  the  present  century  draws  to  its  close  we 
see  looming  not  very  far  ahead  the  vener- 
able dispute  which  reappears  every  hundred 
years — viz:  When  does  the  next  century 
begin?...  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  one 


person  may  hold  that  the  next  century  be- 
gins on  the  Istof  Januaiy,  1900,  and  another 
that  it  begins  on  the  1st  of  January,  1901, 
and  yet  both  of  them  be  in  full  possession  of 
their  faculties. 

But  a  German  commentator  remarked: 

In  my  life  I  have  seen  many  people  do  battle 
over  many  things,  but  over  few  things  with 
such  fanaticism  as  over  the  academic  ques- 
tion of  when  the  century  would  end. . . .  Each 
of  the  two  parties  produced  for  its  side  the 
trickiest  of  calculations  and  maintained  at 
the  same  time  that  it  was  the  simplest  matter 
in  the  world,  one  that  any  child  should  un- 
derstand. 

You  ask  where  I  stand?  Well,  publicly 
of  course  I  take  no  position  because,  as  I 
have  just  stated,  the  issue  is  unresolv- 
able— for  each  side  has  a  fully  consistent 
argument  within  the  confines  of  different 
but  equally  defensible  systems.  But  pri- 
vately, just  between  you  and  me,  well,  let's 
put  it  this  way:  I  know  a  young  man  with 
severe  cognitive  limits  as  a  result  of  inborn 
mental  handicaps,  but  who  happens  to  be  a 
prodigy  in  day-date  calculation  (he  can  in- 
stantaneously give  the  day  of  the  week  for 
any  date,  thousands  of  years  past  or  future; 
we  used  to  call  such  people  idiot  savants,  a 
term  now  happily  fading  from  use,  al- 
though I  have  no  love  for  its  euphemistic 
substitute,  "savant  syndrome").  I  asked 
him  recently  whether  the  millennium 
comes  in  2000  or  2001 — and  he  re- 
sponded unhesitatingly,  "In  2000.  The  first 
decade  had  only  nine  years." 

What  an  elegant  solution,  and  why  not? 
After  all,  no  one  then  living  had  any  idea 
whether  they  were  toiling  in  year  zero  or 
year  one — or  whether  their  first  decade 
had  nine  or  ten  years,  their  first  century 
ninety-nine  or  a  hundred.  The  system 
wasn't  invented  until  the  sixth  century  and 
wasn't  generally  accepted  in  Europe  until 
the  eleventh  century.  So  why  don't  we  just 
proclaim  that  the  first  century  had  ninety- 
nine  years?  Centuries  can  then  turn  when 
common  sensibility  desires,  and  we  under- 
score Dionysius's  blessed  arbitrariness 
with  a  caprice,  a  device  of  our  own  that 
marries  the  warring  camps.  Neat,  except 
that  I  think  people  want  to  argue  passion- 
ately about  trivial  unresolvabilities — lest 
they  be  compelled  to  invest  such  rambunc- 
tious energy  in  real  battles  that  might  kill 
somebody.  So  be  it. 

What  else  might  we  salvage  from  re- 
heai'sing  the  history  of  a  debate  without  an 
answer?  Ironically,  such  arguments  con- 
tain the  possibility  for  a  precious  sociolog- 
ical insight:  since  no  answer  can  arise 
from  the  "externalities"  of  nature  or  logic, 


Natural  History  4/94 


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changing  viewpoints  provide  "pure"  tra- 
jectories of  evolving  human  attitudes — 
and  we  can  therefore  map  societal  trends 
without  impediments  of  such  confusing 
factors  as  discovered  truth. 

I  had  intended  to  spend  only  a  few 
hours  in  research  for  this  essay,  but  as  I 
looked  up  documents  from  century  transi- 
tions, I  noticed  something  interesting  in 
this  sociological  realm.  The  two  posi- 
tions— I  have  called  them  "logical"  and 
"common  sensible"  so  far  in  this  essay — 
also  have  clear  social  correlations  that  I 
would  not  have  anticipated.  The  logical 
position — that  centuries  must  have  a  hun- 
dred years,  and  transitions  must  therefore 
occur,  because  Dionysius  included  no  year 
zero,  between  '00  and  '01  years — has  al- 
ways been  overwhelmingly  favored  by 
scholars,  and  by  people  in  power  (press 
and  business  in  particular),  representing 
what  we  may  call  "high  culture."  The 
common  sensible  position — that  we  must 
honor  the  appearance  of  maximal  changes 
between  '99  and  '00  years  and  not  fret 
overly  about  Dionysius's  unfortunate  lack 
of  foresight — has  been  the  perpetual  fa- 
vorite of  that  mythical  composite  once 
designated  as  John  Q.  Public,  or  "man  in 
the  street,"  and  now  usually  called  vernac- 
ular, or  "pop,"  culture. 

The  distinction  goes  back  to  the  very 
beginning  of  this  perpetually  recurring  de- 
bate about  century  transitions.  Hillel 
Schwartz  traces  the  first  major  hassle  to 
the  1699-1701  passage  (place  the  moment 
where  you  wish),  the  incarnation  that 
prompted  Samuel  Sewall's  trumpeting  in 
Boston.  Interestingly,  part  of  the  discus- 


sion then  focused  upon  an  issue  that  has 
been  persistently  vexatious  ever  since: 
namely,  did  the  first  millennial  transition 
of  999-1001  induce  a  period  of  fear  about 
an  imminent  apocalyptical  ending  of  the 
world — called  "the  great  terror"  by  sup- 
porters of  this  position.  Opinions  range 
from  the  luridly  supportive  (see  the  re- 
markably uncritical  book  by  Richard  Er- 
does,  who  elevates  every  hint  of  rumor 
into  a  dramatic  assertion — A.D.  WOO, 
Harper  and  Row,  1988),  to  the  fully  de- 
bunking (see  Hillel  Schwartz,  previously 
cited,  and  scores  of  references  cited  in 
chapter  one  therein). 

I  will,  in  my  ignorance,  take  refuge  in 
the  balanced  position  of  the  French  histo- 
rian Henri  Focillon  {The  Year  1000,  Fred- 
erick Ungar,  1969).  Focillon  allows  that 
apocalyptic  stirring  certainly  occurred — at 
least  locally  in  France,  Lorraine,  and 
Thuringia — toward  the  middle  of  the  tenth 
century.  But  he  finds  strikingly  little  evi- 
dence for  any  general  fear  surrounding  the 
year  1000  itself — nothing  in  any  papal 
bull,  nothing  from  any  ruler. 

On  the  plus  side,  one  prolific  monk 
named  Raoul  Glaber  certainly  spoke  of 
millennial  terrors,  stating  that  "Satan  will 
soon  be  unleashed  because  the  thousand 
years  have  been  completed."  He  also 
claimed,  although  no  documentary  or 
archeological  support  has  been  forthcom- 
ing, that  a  wave  of  church  building  began 
soon  after  1000,  when  folks  finally  real- 
ized that  Armageddon  had  apparently 
been  postponed:  "About  three  years  after 
the  year  1000,"  wrote  Glaber,  "the  world 
put  on  the  pure  white  robe  of  churches." 


^^^'^'i^i::> 


Glaber's  tale  provides  a  striking  lesson 
in  the  dangers  of  an  idee  fixe.  He  was  still 
alive  in  1033,  still  trumpeting  the  forth- 
coming millennium — although  he  admit- 
ted that  he  must  have  been  wrong  about 
Christ's  nativity  for  the  beginning  of  a 
countdown,  and  now  proclaimed  that  the 
apocalypse  would  surely  arrive  instead  at 
the  millennium  of  Christ's  Passion  in 
1033.  He  read  a  famine  of  that  year  as  a 
sure  sign:  "Men  believed  that  the  orderly 
procession  of  the  seasons  and  the  laws  of 
nature,  which  until  then  had  ruled  the 
world,  had  relapsed  into  the  eternal  chaos; 
and  they  feared  that  mankind  would  end." 

I  doubt  that  we  should  grant  much  criti- 
cal acclaim  to  Fra  Glaber  (who,  according 
to  other  sources,  was  quite  a  wild  charac- 
ter, having  been  expelled  from  several 
monasteries  during  his  checkered  career). 
I  do  tend  to  side  with  critics  of  the  great 
terror.  Why,  after  all,  should  the  year  1(X)0 
have  provoked  any  great  reaction  at  the 
time — especially  since  Dionysius's  sys- 
tem had  not  been  generally  accepted,  and 
different  cultures  hadn't  even  agreed  on  a 
date  for  the  inception  of  a  new  year.  I  sus- 
pect that  the  notion  of  a  great  terror  must 
arise  largely  as  an  anachronistic  backread- 
ing,  combined  with  clutching  at  a  few  le- 
gitimate straws. 

As  another  reason  for  doubting  a  great 
terror  in  999-1001,  the  legend  of  such  an 
episode  begins  with  only  a  brief  mention 
in  a  late  sixteenth  century  work  by  the  Vat- 
ican librarian  Cardinal  Cesare  Baronio. 
Once  the  debate  on  century  endings  got 
started  in  the  1690s,  however,  backreading 
into  the  first  millennium  became  in- 
evitable. Did  the  legendary  terror  occur  at 
the  end  of  999  or  1000?  Interestingly,  the 
high-culture  versus  pop-culture  distinc- 
tion can  be  traced  even  to  this  anachronis- 
tic reconstruction,  with  scholars  favoring 
1000,  and  popular  legends  999.  Hillel 
Schwartz  writes: 

Sarcastic,  bitter,  sometimes  passionate  de- 
bates in  re  a  terminus  on  New  Year's  Eve 
'99  vis-a-vis  New  Year's  Eve  '00,  have 
been  prosecuted  since  the  1690s  and  confu- 
sion has  spread  to  the  mathematics  of  the 
millennial  year.  For  Baronio  and  his 
(sparse)  medieval  sources,  the  excitements 
of  the  millennium  were  centered  upon  the 
end  of  the  year  1000,  while  the  end  of  999 
has  figured  more  prominently  in  the  legend 
of  the  panic  terror. 

The  pattern  has  held  ever  since,  as  the 
debate  bloomed  in  the  1690s,  spread  in  the 
1790s  with  major  centers  in  newspapers  of 
Philadelphia  and  London  (and  added 
poignancy  as  America  mourned  the  death 
of  George  Washington  at  the  very  end  of 


10    Natural  History  4/94 


Shown  smalleT  than 
actual  size  of  5"  in  height 


©1994  MBI 


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ENC97 


1799),  and  burst  out  all  over  the  world  in  a 
frenzy  of  discussion  during  the  1890s. 

The  1890s  version  displays  the  clearest 
division  of  high  versus  vernacular  culture. 
A  few  high-culture  sources  did  line  up  be- 
hind the  pop  favorite  of  1899-1900. 
Kaiser  Wilhelm  II  of  Germany  officially 
stated  that  the  twentieth  century  had 
begun  on  January  1,  1900.  A  few  barons 
of  scholarship,  including  such  unlikely 
bedfellows  as  Sigmund  Freud  and  Lord 
Kelvin,  agreed.  But  high  culture  over- 
whelmingly preferred  the  Dionysian  im- 
perative of  1900-1901.  An  assiduous  sur- 
vey showed  that  the  presidents  of  Harvard, 
Yale,  Princeton,  Cornell,  Columbia,  Dart- 
mouth, Brown,  and  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania  all  favored  1900-1901 — 
and  with  the  entire  Ivy  League  so  firmly 
behind  Dionysius,  why  worry  about  a 
mere  Kaiser  (even  though  the  king  of 
Sweden  rallied  to  Wilhelm's  defense). 

In  any  case,  1900-1901  won  decisively 
in  the  two  forums  that  really  matter  Virtu- 
ally every  important  public  celebration  of 
the  new  century  throughout  the  world  (and 
even  in  Germany)  occurred  from  Decem- 
ber 31,  1900,  into  January  1,  1901.  More- 
over, essentially  every  major  newspaper 
and  magazine  officially  welcomed  the 
new  century  with  their  first  issue  of  Janu- 
ary 1901.  I  made  a  survey  of  principal 
sources  and  could  find  no  exceptions.  The 
Nineteenth  Century,  a  leading  British  peri- 
odical, changed  its  name  to  The  Nine- 
teenth Century  and  After,  but  only  with  the 
January  1901  issue,  which  also  featured  a 
new  logo  of  bifaced  Janus,  with  an  old, 
bearded  man  looking  down  and  left  into 


the  nineteenth  century,  and  a  bright  youth 
looking  right  up  into  the  twentieth.  Such 
reliable  standards  as  the  Farmer's  Al- 
manack and  the  Tribune  Almanac  de- 
clared their  volumes  for  1901  as  "first 
number  of  the  twentieth  century."  On  De- 
cember 31,  1899,  the  New  York  Times 
began  a  story  on  The  Nineteenth  Century 
by  noting:  'Tomorrow  we  enter  upon  the 
last  year  of  a  century  that  is  marked  by 
greater  progress  in  all  that  pertains  to  the 
material  well-being  and  enlightenment  of 
mankind  than  all  the  previous  history  of 
the  race."  On  January  1,  1901,  the  lead 
headline  proclaimed  "Twentieth  Century's 
Triumphant  Entry"  and  described  the  fes- 
tivities in  New  York  City:  "The  lights 
flashed,  the  crowds  sang,  the  sirens  of  craft 
in  the  harbor  screeched  and  roared,  bells 
pealed,  bombs  thundered,  rockets  blasted 
skyward,  and  the  new  century  made  its  tri- 
umphant entry."  Meanwhile,  poor  Carry 
Nation  never  got  to  watch  the  fireworks,  or 
even  to  raise  a  glass,  for  a  small  story  on 
the  same  first  page  announced  "Mrs.  Na- 
tion Quarantined — smallpox  in  jail  where 
Kansas  saloon  wrecker  is  held — says  she 
can  stand  it." 

So  high  culture  still  held  the  reins  of 
opinion  last  time  around — even  in  such 
organs  of  pop  culture  as  the  Farmer's  Al- 
manack, no  doubt  pubUshed  by  men  who 
considered  themselves  among  the  elite. 
But  consider  the  difference  as  we  ap- 
proach this  millennium — for  who  can 
doubt  that  pop  culture  will  win  decisively 
on  this  most  important  replay.  Arthur  C. 
Clarke  and  Stanley  Kubrick  stood  by 
Dionysius  in  book  and  film  versions  of 


7.C.VE) 


2001,  but  I  can  hardly  think  of  another 
source  that  does  not  specify  the  inception 
of  2000  as  the  great  moment  of  transition. 
All  book  titles  of  our  burgeoning  Uterature 
honor  pop  culture's  version  of  maximal 
numerical  shift — including  Ben  Bova's 
Millennium:  A  Novel  about  People  and 
Politics  in  the  Year  1999;  J.  G.  de  Beus's 
Shall  We  Make  the  Year  2000;  Raymond 
Williams's  The  Year  2000;  and  even 
Richard  Nixon's  7999.-  Victory  Without 
War.  Prince's  album  and  lead  song  "1999" 
cite  the  same  date  from  this  ne  plus  ultra 
of  pop  sources. 

Cultural  historians  have  often  remarked 
that  expansion  of  pop  culture,  including 
both  respect  for  its  ways  and  means  and 
diffusion  of  its  influence,  marks  a  major 
trend  of  the  twentieth  century.  Musicians 
from  Benny  Goodman  to  Wynton  Mar- 
salis  play  their  instruments  in  jazz  bands 
and  classical  orchestras.  The  MetropoUtan 
Opera  has  finally  performed  Porgy  and 
Bess — and  bravo  for  them.  Scholars  write 
the  most  damnedly  learned  articles  about 
Mickey  Mouse. 

This  remarkable  change  has  been  weU 
documented  and  much  discussed,  but 
commentary  has  so  far  missed  the  impor- 
tance of  this  example  for  the  great  century 
debate.  This  distinction  stiU  mattered  in 
1900,  and  high  culture  won  decisively  by 
imposing  January  1, 1901,  as  the  inception 
of  the  twentieth  century.  Pop  culture  (or 
the  amalgam  of  its  diffusion  into  courts  of 
decision  makers)  may  already  declare 
clear  victory  for  the  miUennium,  which 
win  occur  at  the  beginning  of  the  year 
2000  because  most  people  so  feel  it  in 
their  bones,  Dionysius  notwithstanding — 
and  again  I  say  bravo.  My  young  friend 
wanted  to  resolve  the  debate  by  granting 
the  first  century  only  ninety-nine  years; 
now  ordinary  humanity  has  spoken  for  the 
other  end — and  the  transition  from  high- 
culture  dominance  to  pop-culture  diffu- 
sion may  resolve  this  issue  of  the  ages  by 
granting  the  twentieth  century  but  ninety- 
nine  years! 

How  lovely — for  eternal  debates  about 
the  unresolvable  really  do  waste  a  great 
deal  of  time,  put  us  in  bad  humor,  and  sap 
our  energy  from  truly  important  pursuits. 
Let  us,  instead,  save  our  mental  fight — not 
to  establish  the  blessed  millennium  (for  I 
doubt  that  humans  are  capable  of  such  per- 
fection), but  at  least  to  build  Jerusalem 
upon  our  planet's  green  and  pleasant  land. 

Stephen  Jay  Gould  teaches  biology,  geol- 
ogy, and  the  history  of  science  at  Harvard 
University. 


12    Natural  History  4/94 


m  TVy  us  for 


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CARL    HIAASEN  |     HE     WAS 

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t\ 


Science  Lite 


Socket  to  Me 

It  all  started  with  that  jerk  Phillips... 
by  Roger  L.  Welsch 


Thomas  Carlyle,  Scottish  essayist  and 
historian,  wrote  in  the  early  nineteenth 
century,  "Man  is  a  tool-using  animal.... 
Without  tools  he  is  nothing,  with  tools  he 
is  all."  French  philosopher  Henri  Bergson 
wrote  in  the  early  years  of  this  century, 
"Intelligence. .  .is  the  faculty  of  making  ar- 
tificial objects,  especially  tools  to  make 
tools."  American  anthropologist  and  ulti- 
mate toolman  Tim  Allen  said  a  few 
months  ago,  "Man  is  the  only  animal  to 
borrow  tools." 

Tve  already  covered  borrowing  tools  in 
a  previous  column.  Now  I  am  interested  in 
the  nature  of  tools  themselves,  the  quintes- 
sential artifact  (from  the  Latin,  "made  by 


skill").  Now  comes  Welsch's  corollary: 
Man  (or  Woman)  is  not  simply  a  tool- 
using  animal,  or  a  tool-making-tool-using 
animal,  or  even  a  tool-borrowing  animal, 
but  a  tool-loving  animal.  The  team  of  six 
accountants  at  Sears  who  handle  my 
Craftsman  tool  account  will  verify  that. 

I'm  kidding,  of  course.  I  have  a  set  of 
tools  I  use  for  working  on  old  tractors — a 
modest  set  of  tools.  Well,  maybe  it  isn't 
really  a  modest  set  of  tools.  Lots  of  tools. 
Okay,  most  of  my  estate  is  tied  up  in 
socket  wrenches. 

More  tools  than  I  need?  Well,  actually  I 
don't  need  any  tools  at  all.  I  could  take  my 
tractors  up  to  town  and  let  a  real  mechanic 


'Wo,  no,  no!. . .  That  regular  rock.  Me  need  Phillips! " 

'The  Far  Side."  ©  1 991 .  FarWorks,  Inc  Dist-  by  Universal  Press  Syndicated.  Reprinted  with  permission.  All  rights  reserved. 

14    Natural  History  4/94 


work  on  them.  I  don't  even  need  the  trac- 
tors, since  my  farm  isn't  much  in  the  way 
of  a  farm.  And  my  taste  in  tractors  leans 
toward  tractors  that  aren't  much  in  the  way 
of  tractors.  In  fact,  I  make  more  money 
writing  about  tractors  than  sitting  on  them. 
But  I  like  working  on  tractors  and  I  like 
tools,  so  I  have  tools.  Lots  of  tools. 

I  don't  really  need  many  tools  to  work 
on  these  tractors,  which  are  each  and 
every  one  of  them  an  Allis  Chalmers  WC 
tractor,  made  between  1935  and  1942. 
Frankly,  about  all  you  need  to  work  on  a 
1937  Allis  Chalmers  WC  is  a  medium- 
size  crescent  wrench,  a  claw  hammer,  and 
a  screwdriver  Two  of  each  would  be  nice, 
but  I  suppose  I  could  jam  the  bolt  of  a 
stuck  nut  with  any  old  piece  of  yard  iron  if 
I  had  to. 

The  old  maintenance  and  service  manu- 
als for  WCs  do  call  for  some  fancy  tools 
such  as  torque  wrenches,  bushing  pullers, 
and  feeler  gauges,  but  most  of  these  old 
machines,  if  they  could  talk,  would  tell 
you  that  they  never  in  their  sixty  years  of 
life  felt  a  torque  wrench,  bushing  puller,  or 
feeler  gauge. 

Most  old  mechanics  I  know  never  use 
phrases  like  "foot-pounds  torque"  or  ".019 
tolerance."  They  tell  me  to  turn  down  the 
oil  pan  bolts  until  the  gasket  puckers  out  a 
trifle,  and  to  be  sure  the  cyhnder  sleeve 
doesn't  sit  above  the  block  more  than  will 
catch  on  a  fingernail.  "Tighten  the  nut  fin- 
ger tight,"  they  say,  "and  then  turn  it  an- 
other quarter  of  a  turn."  Or,  "Use  an  eight- 
inch  crescent  to  tighten  it  just  enough  that 
your  eyes  pooch  out  a  little." 

Oh,  but  you  should  see  how  pretty  that 
set  of  sockets  looks,  all  in  a  row  on  that 
pegboard.  Here,  try  the  heft  on  this  three- 
quarter-inch  ratchet.  And  listen  to  the  mu- 
sical click  it  makes  on  the  return  pull.  Take 
a  look  at  this  two-ton  engine  hoist;  isn't 
that  pretty?  And  when  I  put  the  load-lev- 


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The  1948  Chrysler 
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I    The  Danbury  Mint 
!    47  Richards  Avenue 
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eler  on  it,  pulling  an  engine  is  as  easy  as 
sucking  the  pimento  out  of  a  cocktail 
olive. 

I  love  tools,  but  I  have  my  limits,  and  I 
suspect  that  humanity  does  too.  Two 
things  in  my  life  have  generated  and  agi- 
tated (in  that  order)  those  suspicions  dur- 
ing the  past  couple  of  weeks.  First,  I  sent  a 
note  to  our  household  insurance  carrier  re- 
questing coverage  for  my  shop  and  mod- 
est set  of  tools.  The  woman  who  handles 
our  account  wrote  back,  telling  me  I  would 
have  to  list  all  my  tools  and  the  value  of 
each  one.  I  want  you  to  imagine  for  a  mo- 
ment going  to  your  agent  to  get  collision 
coverage  on  your  new  Taurus  and  having 
that  person  say  to  you,  "I'll  need  a  list  of 
all  its  parts  and  their  value."  You  could  get 
a  second  job  and  earn  enough  to  buy  an- 
other Taurus  before  you  could  put  together 
an  inventory  like  that! 

I  went  out  to  my  shop  and  looked 
around.  Where  would  I  start  an  inventory? 
Socket  wrenches?  Metric  sockets? 
Crow's-foot  metric  sockets?  Three- 
eighths-inch  drive  crow's-foot  metric 
sockets?  Wobble-mount,  three-eighths- 
inch  drive,  crow's-foot  metric  sockets? 
The  good  set  from  Sears  that  I  don't  like  to 
get  dirty,  or  the  cheap  set  from  Taiwan  that 
is  missing  the  9/16-inch  socket  (which 
doesn't  really  matter,  I  guess,  because  for 
some  reason  it  never  tit  a  9/16-inch  bolt 
anyway)? 

Inventory  my  tools?  Lady,  you  must  be 
crazy! 

The  second  life-crisis  that  focused  my 
attention  on  tools  was  when  Lovely  Linda 
asked  me  to  install  a  window  air  condi- 
tioner in  her  studio.  Easy  enough.  I 
grabbed  a  hammer,  a  screwdriver,  a  tool 
knife  (to  cut  plastic  sealers),  and  a  crescent 
wrench  and  headed  up  the  stairs.  I  pulled 
the  machine  out  of  its  box,  pried  loose  the 
window  I  had  painted  shut  last  summer, 
and  got  to  work.  As  is  her  custom,  instead 
of  letting  me  get  on  with  the  job,  Linda 
made  a  nuisance  of  herself  and  insisted 
that  I  waste  even  more  time  by  reading  the 
instructions. 

That  done,  I  proceeded  to  do  what  I 
would  have  done  anyway.  But  when  it 
came  time  to  adjust  the  side  curtains 
(never  mind  what  side  curtains  are;  just 
take  my  word  for  it  that  the  time  did  come 
when  I  needed  to  adjust  them),  I  found  that 
the  screws  were  not  the  good,  old-fash- 
ioned slotted  kind,  so  I  had  to  go  down  two 
flights  of  stairs  and  out  to  my  shop  to  get  a 
Phillips  screwdriver.  When  I  got  back  up- 
stairs, I  found  that  the  screws  weren't  even 
Phillips  screws  (the  ones  with  the  little 


cross  on  the  top);  these  were  something- 
else-head  screws  with  a  little  star  on  the 
top.  I  don't  know  what  they're  called  and  I 
don't  have  a  driver  for  them.  I  took  a  hack- 
saw and  cut  a  groove  across  each  one  so  I 
could  use  a  regular  screwdriver.  (Early  in 
this  process  Linda  took  our  daughter  An- 
tonia  and  fled  to  a  safe  house  in  a  city  not 
far  from  here.) 

It's  the  same  thing  these  days  with  nails, 
bolts,  brackets,  zippers,  staples,  knife 
blades,  nuts,  washers,  whatevers.  A  bolt  is 
no  longer  a  bolt.  There  are  Torx  drivers, 
Allen  wrenches,  Pitman  pullers,  bastard 
files.  I  can't  say  for  sure,  but  I  think  it  all 
started  with  that  jerk  Phillips  who  in- 
vented the  aberrant  screwdriver.  I  was 
ready  to  tell  him  off,  but  when  I  checked 
my  dictionary  I  found  that  Henry  F. 
PhiUips  died  in  1958.  Just  as  well:  if  I  had 
done  something  that  stupid,  I  wouldn't 
want  to  be  around  when  Roger  L.  Welsch 
found  out  either. 

As  soon  as  Mr.  Philhps  worked  his  evil, 
every  nut-case  in  the  world  wanted  a 
screwdriver  named  after  him,  and  there 
went  the  pure  and  beautiful  principle  of  a 
toolbox  that  could  be  carried  by  something 
less  than  dump  truck.  Moreover,  different 
groups  use  different  terms  for  tools.  Take 
men  and  women,  for  example.  My  daugh- 
ter Joyce  is  painting  our  kitchen  cabinets 
and  not  ten  minutes  ago  she  came  into  my 
office  and  asked  where  she  could  find  "a 
teeny-weensy  sharp-end  screwdriver"  and 
"squinch-nose  pliers." 

Someone  somewhere  along  the  fine  has 
taken  my  modest  fetish  and  degraded  it 
into  an  obsession.  A  perversion.  Even 
though  my  tractors  don't  need  all  those 
tools,  all  those  tools  need  me.  Now,  when  I 
cast  about  for  the  only  9/32-inch  box-end 
crescent  wrench  I  own,  I  can't  find  it.  I 
can't  find  it  because  it  is  buried  some- 
where under  all  those  other  tools  I  need  for 
installing  dumb  things  like  window  air 
conditioners.  The  only  solution  is  to  buy 
another  9/32-inch  box-end  wrench,  or 
maybe  two,  so  when  I  can't  find  the  second 
one,  I  can  maybe  find  the  third.  And  then 
maybe  a  spare  I  can  keep  in  my  last-resort 
drawer. 

The  natural  consequence  of  that  process 
is  that  on  my  next  project  I  can't  find  my 
7/16-inch  ratchet  wrench  because  it  sud- 
denly seems  that  all  I  can  find  is  a  9/32- 
inch  box-end  wrench.  Maybe  I  need  a  cou- 
ple more  7/16-inch  ratchets.  And  so  it 
goes. 

Folklorist  Roger  L.  Welsch  lives  on  a  tree 
farm  in  Dannebrog,  Nebraska. 


1 6    Natural  History  4/94 


^  With  only  a  $250  minimum  investment 
you  don^t  have  to  compromise  your 
present  to  start  saving  for  your  future^ 


pij 


Vice  President 


We  don't  feel  that  your  plans  for  tomorrow  should  interfere  with  your  plans  for  today.  So,  we've 
kept  our  minimum  investment  low  to  make  it  easier  for  you  to  start  saving  for  college,  retirement  or  anything  else  you 
want  in  your  future.  You  can  open  a  Berger  account  with  as  little  as  $250  and  add  to  an  existing  one  with  $50.  And 
while  periodic  investments  do  not  assure  a  profit  nor  protect  against  loss  in  declining  markets,  our  low  minimums 
can  help  you  build  toward  your  goals ...  at  your  own  pace. 

If  our  thinking  complements  your  own,  the  next  step  is  to  see  which 
Berger  Fund  is  right  for  you. 

The  Berger  100  Fund  is  a  growth  fund  which  invests  in  what  we  think  are 
the  best  of  the  current  faster-growing  companies. 

The  Berger  101  Fund  is  a  growth  and  income  fund  which  tends  to  own 
larger,  established  companies  whose  growth  is  often  confirmed  by  a  record  of 
paying  dividends. 


ANNUALIZED     PERFORMANCE 
&     MORNINGSTAR     RATINGS 

Berger 
100 
Fund 

1  Year 
21.2% 

3  Years 

•**•• t 
35.4% 

5  Years 

•  •••• 
28.3% 

10  Years 

••••• 
17.3% 

15  Years 

17.6% 

19  Years" 

16.1% 

Berger 

101 
Fund 

1  Year 
23.6% 

3  Years 

•••••t 
27.8% 

5  Years 

••••• 
18.2% 

10  Years 

•••• 
13.4% 

15  Years 
14.6% 

19  Years ++ 

14.4% 

For  the  period  ending  12/31/93.  Source:  Upper  Analytical  Services,  Inc.  'Morningstar  proprietary  ratings 
reflect  historical  risk-adjusted  performance  as  of  1/31/94,  The  ratings  are  subject  to  change  every  month 
Morningstar  ratings  are  calculated  from  the  funds'  three-,  five-  and  ten-year  average  annual  returns  with 
appropriate  fee  adjustments  and  a  risk  factor  that  reflects  fund  performance  relative  to  three-month 
Treasury  bill  monthly  returns.  Ten  percent  of  the  funds  in  an  investment  category  receive  five  stars  and 
22,5%  receive  four  stars.  "Berger  Associates  assumed  management  of  the  Funds  9/30/74, 

Our  performance  has  paid  off  with  five  stars. 

Morningstar,  an  independent  evaluator  of  mutual  funds, 
publishes  a  monthly  rating  of  mutual  funds  based  on 
average  annual  returns,  fees  and  a  risk  factor.  For  the 
period  ending  1/31/94,  both  the  Berger  100  and 
Berger  101  Funds  earned  Morningstar's  highest 
possible  five-star  overall  rating. 

Please  call  (800)  3334001 

for  a  prospectus  containing  more  complete  information 

including  management  fees,  charges  and  expenses. 

Read  it  carefully  before  investing. 


Together  we  can  move  mountains/'" 

The  figures  in  the  chart  represent  past  perfornnance  and  do  not  guarantee  future  results. 
These  perfornnance  figures  include  changes  in  share  price  and  reinvestment  of  dividends 
and  capital  gains,  which  will  fluctuate  so  tiat  shares,  when  redeemed  may  be  worth  more 
or  less  than  their  original  cost.  The  figures  include  the  deduction  of  12b-1  fees  beqinninq 
in  June,  1990.  a        a 

©  1994  Berger  Associates.  Inc.  6,494 


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Shingleton  Bog,  Michigan 


by  Robert  H.Mohlenbrock 


In  Hiawatha  National  Forest,  in  Michi- 
gan's Upper  Peninsula,  a  five-square-mile 
wetland  is  known  locally  as  Shingleton 
Bog.  But  because  most  of  the  area  is  not 
very  acidic,  the  term  bog  is  inappropriate 
under  the  definitions  developed  by  Michi- 
gan botanist  Howard  Crum  {see  "This 
Land,"  March  1994).  Since  it  contains 
ample  sphagnum,  or  peat  moss,  it  is  a 
peatland.  Its  various  open  areas,  which  are 
best  termed  "fens,"  are  interspersed  with 
tree-studded  patches  known  as  white 
cedar  swamps  and  black  spruce  muskegs. 


Among  its  habitats,  Shingleton  Bog  has 
a  "poor"  fen  and  a  "patterned"  fen.  To  see 
them,  I  followed  Hiawatha  National  Forest 
ecologist  Jan  Schultz,  regional  forest 
botanist  Lawrence  Stritch,  and  research 
natural  area  coordinator  Lucy  Tyrrell 
through  a  rather  impenetrable  white  cedar 
swamp  adjacent  to  Forest  Highway  225 1 . 
The  white  cedar  swamp  is  a  natural  com- 
munity that  gradually  arose  following  the 
retreat  of  the  great  glaciers  that  covered 
the  region  some  12,000  years  ago.  At  that 
time,  heavy,  waterlogged  soil  began  to 


Jack  W.  Dykinga 

20    Natural  History  4/94 


build  over  the  limestone  bedrock.  Sphag- 
num mosses  eventually  covered  much  of 
the  soil,  and  their  decomposed  remains 
began  to  accumulate  as  peat. 

The  considerable  calcium  in  the  under- 
lying limestone  kept  the  peatland  from  be- 
coming acidic,  so  that  the  fen  maintained 
itself  until  white  cedar  seedlings  began  to 
invade.  As  more  and  more  trees  became 
established  and  grew  to  maturity,  their 
dense  cover  promoted  the  growth  of 
shade-tolerant  plants. 

The  white  cedar  swamp  was  difficult  to 
walk  through  because  of  the  low-hanging 
branches,  which  often  reach  the  ground.  In 
addition,  there  were  weak  areas  in  the  mat 
of  sphagnum  beneath  the  trees  where  one 
could  easily  step  through  and  twist  an 
ankle.  Filling  the  understory  were  shoul- 
der-high clumps  of  royal  fern  and  cinna- 
mon fern.  Here  and  there,  occasional  pink 
lady's-slipper  orchids  and  bluebead  lihes 
grew  among  thick  patches  of  low-grow- 
ing, evergreen  club  mosses. 

The  ground  sloped  down  imperceptibly 
as  we  made  our  way  through  the  cedar 
swamp.  Even  though  I  could  not  detect  the 
difference,  the  plants  responded  to  the 
slight  change  in  soil  and  moisture.  Almost 
abruptly,  the  crowded,  large  white  cedars 
gave  way  to  open  habitat  containing  few 
woody  plants,  all  of  them  dwarfed  and 
gnarled.  Apart  from  cedars,  there  was  an 
occasional  tamarack,  a  few  red  maples, 
and  a  scattering  of  shrubs — red  choke- 
berry,  mountain  holly,  and  raisin  tree.  As 
we  proceeded,  the  ground  became  wetter, 
and  water  rose  above  the  toes  of  our  boots 
with  every  step. 

Crum  describes  this  type  of  community 
as  a  poor  fen  because  of  its  greater  degree 
of  acidity,  not  because  it  lacks  a  diversity 
of  plants.  Dozens  of  low-growing  wild- 


Tamaracks  and  cattails,  left,  grow  in 
Shingleton  Bog's  "poor"  fen. 
Right:  Pink  lady's-slipper  orchid. 

John  Gerlach;  Dembinsky  Photo  Associates 


^'^^■<S 


Joe  LeMonnier 


0        VlOOMiJ.es      175) 

•ILUNOIS        .1      '      '  r :,      "^  '■ 


flowers  grow  on  the  sphagnum-dominated 
soil,  all  species  adapted  to  saturated  soils, 
cool  summers,  and  frigid  winters  with 
long  durations  of  snow  cover.  They  in- 
clude bushy-branched  horsetail,  winter- 
green,  starflower,  and  bunchberry  (a  four- 
inch-tall,  nonwoody  type  of  dogwood). 
Carnivorous  sundews  and  pitcher  plants, 
as  well  as  a  wide  variety  of  slender,  deh- 
cate  sedges,  are  also  common. 

After  making  our  way  for  a  few  hun- 
dred feet  through  this  fragile,  watery  ter- 
rain— being  careful  not  to  step  on  the 
flowering  plants — we  left  behind  most  of 
the  scraggly  trees  and  faced  a  meadowlike 
area  with  small  rivulets  of  water  running 
between  ridges  covered  by  sphagnum 
moss  and  other  vegetation.  This  was  the 
patterned  fen,  although  the  pattern  was  not 
immediately  visible.  If  we  could  have 
looked  down  from  above,  however,  we 
would  have  seen  that  the  ridges  and 
rivulets  were  all  more  or  less  parallel  to 
one  another,  oriented  east-west  at  right 
angles  to  the  sUght  slope  of  the  terrain. 

Peatlands  all  across  the  more  northerly 
regions  may  contain  patterned  fens.  Scien- 
tists in  Europe  recognized  them  many 
years  ago,  calling  them  aapamires.  The 
rivulets  are  referred  to  as  flarks,  while  the 
adjacent  ridges  of  soil  and  vegetation  are 
called  strings.  Biologists  have  come  up 
with  several  hypotheses  concerning  the 
origin  of  patterned  fens.  One  suggestion  is 
that  the  alternate  freezing  and  thawing  of 
the  soil  over  a  long  period  of  time  eventu- 


Bunchberry  is  a  nonwoody  type  of 
dogwood. 

Doug  Locke:  Dembinsky  Photo  Associates 


ally  gives  rise  to  the  altemating  flarks  and 
strings. 

While  freezing  and  thawing  may  play  a 
role  in  creating  patterned  fens,  there  may 
be  a  more  important  factor.  Patterned  fens 
usually  arise  where  the  terrain  has  a  grad- 
ual, nearly  imperceptible  grade  of  about  2 
percent.  Through  time,  soil  slides  down 
this  small  gradient.  When  one  edge  of  the 
slipping  soil  hooks  onto  something,  such 
as  a  small  tree  or  even  a  rock,  flie  soil 
tears,  forming  a  flark  along  the  tear  hne. 
After  many  years  of  constant  sliding  and 
tearing,  a  distinct  pattern  of  altemating 
flarks  and  strings  becomes  evident. 

At  Shingleton  Bog,  the  strings  and 
flarks  may  be  as  narrow  as  one  foot  or  as 


Shingleton  Bog 

For  visitor  information  write: 
Forest  Supervisor 
Hiawatha  National  Forest 
2727  N.  Lincoln  Road 
Escanaba,  Michigan  49829 
(906)  786-4062 


much  as  thirty  feet  wide  and  are  usually 
from  ten  to  one  hundred  or  more  feet  long. 
The  strings  may  stand  as  much  as  three 
feet  higher  than  the  flarks,  but  usually  the 
contrast  is  more  subtle.  The  amount  of 
water  in  the  flarks  varies  with  rainfall, 
ranging  from  inconspicuous  amounts  up 
to  pools  six  inches  deep.  The  water  is 
nearly  neutral,  with  a  pH  of  about  6. 

Several  plants  seem  confined  to  the 
flarks:  a  tufted  httle  sedge  known  as  Carex 
exilis,  the  intermediate  sundew,  one  kind 
of  bladderwort,  and  the  white  beaked  rush. 
The  strings,  on  die  other  hand,  provide 
habitat  for  Kalm's  lobeha,  bog  rosemary, 
shrubby  cinquefoil,  a  wild  Uly,  and  several 
flowering  plants  exceptionally  rare  for  the 
region.  Most  of  the  rarities,  including  a 
sedge,  an  orchid,  a  sundew,  a  tiny  rasp- 
berry, and  a  willow  herb,  are  arctic  species 
that  were  left  behind  when  the  great  glaci- 
ers of  the  Ice  Age  receded  northward. 

Robert  H.  Mohlenbrock,  professor  emeri- 
tus of  plant  biology  at  Southern  Illinois 
University,  Carbondale,  explores  the  bio- 
logical and  geological  highlights  of  the 
156  U.S.  national  forests. 


22    Natural  History  4/94 


The 

Inka  Empire 

And 

Its  Andean  Origins 


Trace  the  story  of  the  Andean  peoples  with  this  beautifully  produced  new  appraisal  of  the  ancient  Inka  and  the 
remarkable  cultures  that  preceded  them. 

Written  by  Dr.  Craig  Morris,  American  Museum  of  Natural  History  Curator  of  Anthropology,  and  noted  journahst 
Adrianna  von  Hagen,  this  comprehensive  study  describes  their  agricultural  methods,  social  organizations,  pohtical 
structure,  religious  beliefs,  ceremonial  practices,  technologies,  and  artistic  expression.  The  text  resonates  wdth  more 
than  one  hundred  exquisite  color  photographs  of  objects  from  the  Museum's  rich  collection  of  artifacts  and  offers 
compelling  panoramas  of  the  spectacular  and  diverse  Andean  landscape. 

252  pages,  9  7/8"  x  9  7/8",  200  illustrations,  cloth 

To  order  send  check  or  money  order  for  $50.00  including  shipping  and  handling  within  the  U.S.  to  Meml>ers'  Choice,  American  Museum  of 

Natural  History,  Central  Park  West  at  79th  Street,  New  York,  NY  10024  or  call  toll-free  I -800-43 7-003 3  for  Mastercard  and  Visa  ordei-s. 


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with  an  optional  extension  to  Angkor  Wat 

October  25  -  November  12, 1994 


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A  Rediscover 
MERICA 


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A-2 


ALABAMA 

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"V 


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In  a  tew  years  sne  could  turn 
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Now  while  this  contribution  won't  change  the  course  of 
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SeaWfrld 

A  pledge  and  a  promise  from  tke  AnLeuser-Busck  Companies. 


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ARIZONA 

Canyon  Country-the  name  alone  conjures  up 
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on  the  Georgia  coast.  The  six-mile  long,  three- 
mile-wide  retreat  is  an  ideal  nature  preserve 
with  rare  flora  and  fauna  inhabiting  Its  pro- 
tected sandy  beaches,  salt  marshes,  tidal  flats, 
and  pine  forests. 

Little  Saint  Simons  is  a  private  island  with  a 
handsome  rustic  pine  lodge  owned  by  the 
Berolzheimer  family  dating  to  the  turn-of-the 
century.  Accommodating  a  scant  two-dozen 
guests,  it's  known  for  its  Southern  "home- 
cooked"  cuisine  featuring  such  regional  dishes 
as  oyster  stew  and  fried  chicken. 

The  island  is  accessible  by  boat  from  its  sib- 
ling, the  larger  Saint  Simons  Island,  whose 
charms  include  horseback  riding,  salt  water 
fishing  for  red  fish  and  flounder,  or  fly  fishing 


Wading  bird,  St.  Simons  Island,  Georgia 


A-4 


Show  me 
square  andri 
show  you 
a  soul. 


Architect  Robert 
Parker  Adams 
considers  Mississippi's 
courthouse  squares. 


iut  on  the 
bypass  and  the 
edge  of  town 
you'll  always  find  the 
discount  stores  and  burger  bams, 
symbols  of  growth  and  what  some  would 
call  progress.  But  if  you're  searching  for 
the  elusive  Southern  soul,  set  your  watch 
back  a  generation  or  two  and  head 
straight  for  a  courthouse  square. 

The  old  men  are  still  there  on  the 
magnoha-shaded  benches,  whittling 
and  talking  hke  their  fathers  before 
them.  The  day's  topic  may  be  poHtics 
or  the  upcoming  flea  market  or  crafts 
show.  Or  Friday  night's  showdown 
against  the  gridiron  warriors  from  a 
county  away. 

The  shopkeepers  still  sweep  the 
sidewalks  in  front  of  the  stores  where 
business  is  done  on  a  personal  level. 
The  dark  drama  of  misdeeds  and  justice 
is  played  out  in  the  Greek  Revival 
courthouse,  the  focus  of  the  community. 

The  scale  of  Mississippi's  courthouse 
squares  isn't  architectural.  It's  human. 

For  your  copy  of  our  free  Mississippi 
Vacation  Planner,  simply  call  us  toll-free 
at  1-800- WABMEST. 

The  South's  Warmest  Welcome 


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It's  natural  fun.  The  kind  that  only 
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^■^//^ 


1VIARATI 


IN  THE  HEART  CT  THE  FIORIDAKEYS 


Maker's  Mark  Distillery,  Loretto,  Kentucky 

for  trout.  There's  canoeing  and  boating  on  tidal 
creeks,  bicycling,  hiking,  and  bird  watching  for 
painted  buntings,  great  blue  herons,  and  os- 
prey.  Naturalists  on  staff  bring  guest  and 
wilderness  together  in  compatible  harmony. 

KENTUCKY 

The  Bluegrass  State  has  some  remarkable  mu- 
seums and  historic  sites  dedicated  both  to  its 
natural  and  manmade  wonders. 

Among  Kentucky's  natural  wonders  is  Mam- 
moth Cave  National  Park,  whose  explored  pas- 
sages extend  330  miles  through  five  levels  of 
subterranean  limestone  chambers.  Rangers 
lead  visitors  to  such  sites  as  Frozen  Niagara,  Fat 
Man's  Misery,  and  the  Bottomless  Pit. 

Here  in  mint  julep  land,  the  running  of  the 
Kentucky  Derby,  on  the  first  Saturday  in  May  at 
Churchill  Downs,  is  a  tribute  to  the  state's  great 
horse  farms.  The  local  museum  has  a  multi- 
image  show  highlighting  the  Derby,  past  and 
present,  with  hands-on  exhibits. 

Bourbon  was  a  drink  created  by  a  Baptist 
minister  in  Bourbon  County  in  1798.  The  Getz 
Museum  in  Bardstown  has  a  unique  collection 
of  whiskey  memorabilia,  including  a  license  is- 
sued to  Kentucky-born  Abraham  Lincoln  in 
1 833  to  operate  a  tavern  with  the  proviso  that 
"said  Lincoln  shall  be  of  good  behavior  and  ob- 
serve the  laws  of  Illinois."  Among  the  museum's 
nonpotable  artifacts  are  Jenny  Lind's  velvet 
cape  and  tools  used  by  Trappist  Monks  in  the 
nearby  monastery  where  Thomas  Merton  lived 
and  prayed. 

A  noted  National  Historic  Landmark  is 
Maker's  Mark,  one  of  the  oldest  working  distil- 


leries in  the  United  States.  Dating  to  1805,  it  is 
located  in  Loretto  and  has  regular  tours. 

MISSISSIPPI 

Mississippi  is  more  than  just  a  river.  This  state 
was  once  the  secluded  domaine  of  the 
Choctaw,  Chickasaw,  and  Natchez  Indians- 
until  the  French  arrived  in  1 699.  Before  the 
Civil  War,  when  cotton  was  king,  it  was  one  of 
the  nation's  wealthiest  states. 

The  era  of  affluence,  splendour,  and  grace  is 
preserved  in  more  than  500  antebellum  prop- 
erties throughout  Mississippi,  still  standing 
amid  lush  gardens.  Possibly  the  finest  are  cen- 
tered in  Natchez.  The  city  survived  the  Civil 
War,  as  did  its  opulent  plantation  homes,  some 
of  which  are  open  year-round.  Others  are  only 
open  during  Natchez  Pilgrimage  weeks,  which 
were,  started  in  1 932  by  the  women  of  the  city 
to  raise  money  for  preservation.  These  tours 
are  given  twice  a  year:  three  weeks  in  October 
and  four  weeks  in  March  and  April. 

Civil  War  memories  come  alive  at  Vicksburg 
National  Military  Park,  where  the  fall  of  the 
"Gibraltar  of  the  Confederacy"  to  Ulysses  S. 
Grant  on  July  4, 1 863,  is  remembered  by  mon- 
uments and  battle  markers. 

The  8,000-year-old  Natchez  Trace,  now  a 
scenic  autoroute  without  billboards,  winds  400 
miles  through  the  state  to  Nashville.  A  re- 
minder of  the  ancient  trading  trail  of  Native 
Americans,  it's  home  to  protected  wildlife. 

Mississippi  also  has  more  tree  farms  than 
any  other  state  and  the  world's  only  cactus 
plantation,  with  more  than  3,000  varieties,  is 
located  near  Edwards,  Mississippi. 


A-6 


A  world  of  benefits 
for  AMNH  members. 


(A)t  Hertz,  iVMNII  members  enjoy  a 
world  of  benefits!  Our  time-saving 
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(t)o  receive  your  AMNH  member- 
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Hertz  CDP#  25940  (printed  on 
your  membership  card)  when 
making  your  reservation.  Then 
present  your  membership  card  at 
the  time  of  rental.  For  additional 
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upgrade  coupon  inserted  into  this 
issue  or  the  weekend  coupon  below! 
(f)oT  reservations,  call  Hertz  at 
1-800-654-2200  and  we'll  open  the 
doors  to  a  world  of  car  rental 
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AMERICAN  MUSEUM 
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CDP#  25940  Must  appear  on  rental  record 

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or  Leisure  Weekend  Rates.  When  you  arrive, 

present  this  coupon  and  your  membership  card 

for  identification. 

For  Resen'ations  and  Coupon  Details, 

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IMPORT^VNT  RENTAL  INFORMATION 

Weekend  rates  are  ;i\ailable  from  noon  Thursday 

throut;h  noon  Sunday.  The  car  must  be  returned 

by  11:5*^  pm  Monday.  Thursday  weekend  rentals 

must  be  for  a  minimum  of  three  days. 

This  offer  is  available  at  participating  locations  in 

the  U.S.  (except  Manhattan,  N.Y.).  Advance 

reservations  are  required  as  blackout  periods 

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surrendered  on  rental  and  may  not  be  used  with 
any  other  CDP#,  coupon,  discount,  rate  or 
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merits  the  educated 
traveler  s  attention. 

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Venezuelan  traveler,  1783 


Visit  Tryon  Palace 

Historic  Sites  and  Gardens 

in  New  Bern,  Nortn  Carolina, 

and  see  wnat  many  considered  to 

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Longwood  Plantation,  Natchez,  Mississippi 

NEW  HAMPSHIRE 

Ecotourlsm  could  well  have  its  roots  in  the 
Granite  State,  which  holds  nearly  two  million 
acres  of  parkland  and  forest  as  a  public  trust. 
Half  of  the  narrow  coastline  is  public  parkland. 

The  White  Mountains  have  attracted  nature 
lovers  and  ordinary  tourists  ever  since  the  area 
was  first  settled  in  the  1 600s.  Although  heavily 
deforested  in  colonial  days,  the  mountains  are 
now  almost  completely  wooded,  with  white 
birch  and  maple  replacing  green  fir  and  spruce. 

Julia  Ward  Howe  wrote:  "If  there  is  any  kin- 
ship with  nature  in  you,  here  is  this  place  the  at- 
tractions of  society  pale  before  the  quietness, 
the  simplicity,  the  freshness  of  nature." 

The  exemplar  of  that  freshness  is  arboreal 
Franconia  Notch,  a  pass  through  the  moun- 
tains. Its  most  noted  feature  is  the  "Old  Man  of 


Franconia  Notch  State  Park,  New  Hampshire 


the  Mountain,"  an  incredible  rock  formation 
once  said  to  resemble  the  profile  of  either  God 
or  President  Jefferson. 

Mount  Washington,  the  tallest  peak  in  New 
England,  has  attracted  hikers  for  centuries.  As- 
cent takes  about  five  hours  along  a  challenging 
ravine  trail  edged  with  waterfalls  and  ponds.  If 
you're  a  railroad  buff,  ride  the  famed  Cog  Rail- 
way dating  to  1 869,  which  once  carried  Presi- 
dent Grant  to  the  summit.  A  vintage  coal-pow- 
ered steam  engine  pulls  the  train  up  the  steep 
grade.  A  third  choice  is  a  highway  to  the  top, 
where  a  souvenir  shop  sells  bumper  stickers 
proclaiming  "I  climbed  Mt. Washington." 

NEW  MEXICO 

The  unoffical  name  of  New  Mexico  is  "Land  of 
Enchantment"  which  the  state  lives  up  to  hap- 
pily. Its  potpourri  of  activities  that  include 
spring  festivals  colorfully  marked  by  blooming 
of  yuccas  (candles  of  the  Lord),  summer 
mountain  climbing,  rodeos,  fall  aspen  leaf 
watching,  and  winter  skiing. 

The  state's  forty-eight  parks  range  from  high 
mountain  lakes  and  forests  in  the  north  to  the 
Chihuahua  desert  lowlands  in  the  south.  The 
popular  Carisbad  Caverns'  "Big  Room"  is  large 
enough  to  hold  a  dozen  football  stadiums. 

Albuquerque  (easier  to  find  than  to  spell)  is 
dominated  by  the  Sandia  Mountains  ("water- 
melon" in  Spanish)-a  paradise  for  hiking  and 
horseback  riding,  with  miles  of  nature  trails, 
streams,  canyons  and  picnic  sites.  The  city. 


A-8 


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founded  in  1706,  is  vibrant  with  theatre,  opera, 
and  ballet.  Its  "Old  Town"  has  been  restored, 
and  is  now  filled  with  trendy  shops,  galleries 
and  ethnic  restaurants. 

Santa  Fe  and  Taos  are  paradise  for  painters, 
poets,  writers  and  artists.  In  celebration  of  their 
Native  American  heritage,  publeos  near  Santa 
Fe  (noted  for  their  traditional  polychrome  pot- 
tery handicrafts)  have  ceremonial  dances  on 
feast  days  to  which  visitors  are  welcome. 

New  Mexico's  official  state  flower  is  the 
yucca  (a  lily  that  grows  to  tree-like  heights);  the 
state  bird  is  the  roadoinner;  the  state  tree,  the 
pinus  edulis,  or  Rocky  Mountain  nut  pine;  the 
state  vegetables,  pinto  bean  and  chili  peppers. 

NEW  YORK  STATE 

The  sheer  breadth  of  the  Empire  State  tends  to 
obscure  the  curious  fact  that  nearly  20  percent 
of  it  lies  within  the  Blue  Line  of  the  Adirondack 
State  Park.  In  this  region,  such  magnificos  as 
Morgan  and  Vanderbiit  created  grand  estates 
and  contributed  to  preserving  much  of  the 
mountain  wilderness.  The  park,  a  patchwork  of 
private  and  public  lands,  is  more  accurately 


REGENCY'S  ALASKA  &  FRENCH  CANADA 


Autumn  on  East  Branch,  Ausable  River,  New  York 

called  a  preserve.  It  includes  an  astonishing  six 
million  acres  of  forest  (or  an  area  more  than 
twice  the  size  of  Yellowstone)  with  an  estimated 
2,000  lakes  and  40  mountain  peaks. 

The  revolutionary  Fort  Ticonderoga  complex 
on  Lake  Champlain,  open  to  visitors  since  the 
1 820s,  was  one  of  the  first  historic  sites  to  be 
preserved  for  the  public.  As  a  major  tourist  at- 


"Choosing  To 

Cruise  Regency 

This  Summer 

Was  Easy. 


The  Bakers  made  it 
easy  on  them- 
selves this  vaca- 
tion. They  chose 
Regency.  The  wonderful  destina- 
tions, unique  itineraries,  fabulous 
ships  with  fine  food  and  service 
and  terrific  prices  were  all  they 
needed  to  hear. 

So  if  that  sounds  good  to  you, 
choose  to  sail  either  the 
Northeast  Passage  where  you'll 
experience  unique  history,  quaint 
illages  and  exciting  cities 
etween  New  York  and 
Montreal. 

Or,  choose  Alaska  where  you'll  sail 

across  the  dramatic  Gulf  of 

Alaska  to  Columbia  Glacier, 

College  Fjord,  the  Inside 


Choosing 
Between  Alaska 

And  French 
Canada  Was  The 

Hard  Part" 


Ernest  &  Harriet  Baker 
Cleveland,  Ohio 


Either  way,  you'll  ""^■^^'  save  up 
to  40%  guaranteed.  So  if  you've 
had  your  eye  on  a  7  or  14-day 
cruise  vacation,  take  it  from  the 
Bakers,  take  Regency!  For  reser- 
vations, see  your  travel  agent.  For 
a  free  brochure,  call: 

1-800-753-1234 

ASK  FOR  BROCHURE  B9B 

Ships'  Registry;  Bahamas 


A-9 


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Enter  the 
Wilderness 

Enter  a  1 0>000  acre  private  island. . . 
maintained  in  it's  natural  state... 
with  a  peaceful  country  inn...  7  miles  of  secluded  beaches., 
miles  of  trails  through  ancient  forests... 
wildUfe...  over  200  species  of  birds... 
canoeing...  boating...  fishing...  horseback  riding... 
interpretive  guides...  tours...  hiking- 
rocking  chairs  on  the  porches... 

delicious  seafood  &  home  cooking... 

a  mere  24  guests  for  a  relaxing  get-away. 


X  X 


LITTLE 

ST.  SIMONS 

ISLAND 


Enjoy  the  wilderness 

with  the  comforts  of  home. 

912-638-7472  •  P.O.  Box  21078NH 
St.  Simons  Island,  Georgia  31522  USA 


boUou'Liiij  a  liuiciMui  trait  through  ijigaiitic  Inndckrj,  hv 
cnterecl  DLuntiLi  Canyon  alonqjidc  the  thunderuu]  u'aterj  of 
I  Rainbow  FalU.  We  found  oiuveL'ej  in  a 
hidden  moMy-green  and  pearl-grey  world 
filled  with  fenu  and  giant  tree^u  The  canyon  cajl  iL'  ,'/'<■//. 
Within  two  monthj  we  were  the  lucky  ownem  of  the  DLmiaL, 
a  jpecial place  in  ALibama  where  time  jtandj  Jtill,  life  beatd 
jlower,  and  all  the  world  jeenu  .    stars  Fell  On 

to  reJt  and  heal.  A       ^    J  A 

Cluit  ojlil  Bi:i'erly  Friviktin, 
Oii'nerj  ofDitinaL  Canyon, 
Pbil  Cajnpl>ett,  ALibaitui 


y(f- 


Call  for  your  free  1994  Alnbnma  Travel  Guide,  or  write;  Alabama  Bureau  of  Tourism  and 
S=    Travel,  Dept.  NH0494,  401  Adams  Avenue,  P.O.  Box  4309,  Montgomery,  AL  36103-4309 


Taos  Pueblo,  New  Mexico 

traction,  it  lias  a  museum  and  a  fife-and-drum 
corps  that  performs  in  summer. 

The  Erie  Canal,  the  longest  linear  park  in  the 
country,  stretches  363  miles  from  Buffalo  to 
Albany,  connecting  the  Great  Lakes  with  the 
Atlantic  Ocean.  In  the  words  of  an  old  chanty, 
mules  toiled  along  a  tow  path  hauling  lumber, 
coal,  and  hay.  Passengers  "got  to  know  every 
inch  of  the  way"  at  an  average  speed  of  four 
miles  an  hour  Today's  voyagers  may  travel  at 
about  the  same  rate  but  can  also  tarry  at  nine 
lock  parks,  twenty  historical  sites,  and  at  such 
inns  as  Richardson's  Tavern  in  Bushmill  Basin, 
the  oldest  on  the  canal. 

WISCONSIN 

Wisconsin  has  developed  a  unique  series  of 
twenty-three  heritage  road  adventures.  They 
range  from  an  annotated  trip  along  the  Missis- 
sippi "road"  to  a  Lake  Michigan  Circle  tour  and 
a  Frank  Lloyd  Wright  routing  that  marks  the 
legacy  of  this  native  son  who  designed  struc- 
tures at  forty-two  sites  in  the  state. 

Typcially,  the  Lake  Michigan  Shoreline  Tour 
#1  starts  at  Kenosha  (named  by  the 
Potawatomi  Indians  for  the  resident  pickerel) 
just  north  of  the  Wisconsin/Illinois  border  on 
the  lake.  A  recommended  stop  here  is  the 
Kemper  Center,  a  complex  of  mid-1 800s  his- 
toric buildings  in  a  county  park. 

At  Racine  motorists  can  visit  the  Wind  Point 
Lighthouse,  built  in  1 880.  It's  one  of  the  tallest 
still  standing  on  the  lake.  Port  Washington, 
once  a  major  commercial  fishing  port,  is  now  a 


A-10 


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centerfor  "biggame"  fishing,  where  deepwater 
charter  boats  take  anglers  after  chinook,  coho 
salmon,  or  lake  trout. 

In  and  around  Sheboygan,  where  Jack 
Benny  learned  to  play  the  violin,  the  Indian 
Mound  Park  contains  1 8  original  effigy  burial 
grounds  of  the  early  Woodland  Indians  which 
are  listed  on  the  National  Register  of  Historic 
Places. 

In  nearby  Kohler,  the  American  Club  is 
(quixotically)  also  on  the  Register.  It  was  built  in 
1918  as  a  dormitory  for  immigrant  factory 
workers  who  were  taught  English  in  night 
school  at  company  expense  and  who  were 
provided  these  "hygienic  surroundings."  Today, 
the  American  Club  is  a  five-star  country  inn; 
the  workers'  "plain  washroom"  is  now  a 
gourmet  dining  room. 

WYOMING 

Among  the  many  protected  natural  environ- 
ments in  Wyoming,  Yellowstone  is  the  star  It  is 
not  only  the  world's  first  national  park  but  also 
the  largest.  Sprawling  across  volcanic  plateaus 
in  the  northwest  corner  of  the  state,  Yellow- 
stone contains  more  than  two  million  acres  of 
steaming  geysers,  crystalline  lakes,  thundering 
waterfalls,  and  panoramic  vistas. 

Its  companion  park  is  Grand  Teton,  called 
Teewinot  (Many  Pinnacles)  by  the  Indians.  The 
French  trappers  more  graphically  and  romanti- 
cally referred  to  the  area  -  Grands  Tetons 
means  "large  breasts"  in  French. 

Just  south  is  Jackson  Hole,  a  stunning  48- 


SAGAFJORD'S  ALASKA  CRUISES 


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Whether  they  were  enormous,  hke  the 

leaf-eating  Indricotherium  on  the  left  (the 

largest  land  mammals  ever)  or  tiny,  most  of 

the  marchers  in  Earth's  marvelous 

mammahan  parade  have  fallen. .  .are  extinct. 

The  animals  that  remain  today  (ourselves 

included)  pale  in  comparison  with  the 

melange  of  mammals  of  the  past.  But  the 

survivors  have  overcome  countless  trials  and 

accidents  and  squeezed  through  many 
keyholes  over  the  last  200  million  years.  And 

they  contain  traces  of  their  lost  ancestors' 

many  fascinating  experiments  in  adaptation. 

The  fossil  record  is  litde  more  than  a  few 

torn  and  scattered  pages  from  the  immense 

history  book  of  mammals.  But  even  these 

bits  tell  wondrous  tales. 

And,  as  shown  in  the  articles  and  artistic 

reconstructions  that  follow,  paleontologists 

continue  to  dig  up  new  clues  and 

to  reinterpret  the  story  of  life  on  Earth. 


This  special  section  oi  Natural  History  was  prepared  by 

consulting  editor  Judy  A.  Rice. 

Scientific  consultant:  Richard  H.  Tedford,  chairman  and 

curator,  Department  of  Vertebrate  Paleontology,  American 

Museum  of  Natural  History 


Painting  by  Ely  Kish 


39 


40    Natural  History  4/94 


A  Pocketful  o' 
-ossils 

by  Michael  J.  Novacek 


Tugrugeen  Shireh,  a  line  of  cliffs  near 
an  alkaline  lake  in  the  Gobi  Desert  of 
Mongolia,  is  not  marked  on  any  road  map. 
Indeed,  there  are  virtually  no  maps  for  this 
poorly  charted  region  of  the  world.  But 
over  the  past  four  summers,  "Tugrug"  has 
become  a  paleontological  mecca  for  our 
joint  team  from  the  American  Museum  of 
Natural  History  in  New  York  and  the 
Mongolian  Academy  of  Sciences.  Not 
only  have  we  found  exquisitely  preserved 
theropod  dinosaurs,  such  as  the  agile 
flesh-eater  Velocirapton  and  the  dinosaur- 
like bird  Mononykus  (see  "New  Limb  on 
the  Avian  Family  Tree,"  Natural  History, 
September  1993),  but  we  have  also  uncov- 
ered a  wealth  of  tiny  fossil  skulls  and 
skeletons,  remains  of  mammals  that  lived 
in  the  shadows  of  the  dinosaurs. 

These  mammal  bones  are  preserved  in 
Brazil-nut-sized  concretions  of  hard,  dark 
sandstone  and  iron-bearing  minerals. 
These  concretions  continually  erode  from 
the  soft,  white  sandstone  that  makes  up  the 
bulk  of  the  Tugrug  cliffs  as  they  are  bat- 
tered by  high  winds  and  seasonal  rain- 
storms, but  they  still  provide  a  durable 
coating  that  protects  the  more  fragile  fossil 
bone  underneath.  Such  conditions  practi- 
cally guarantee  our  discovery  of  more 
mammals  every  season,  even  on  slopes  we 
have  crawled  across  many  times  before. 

These  fossils  represent  mammal  com- 
munities that  lived  about  eighty  million 
years  ago,  near  the  end  of  the  Mesozoic 
era,  the  Age  of  Dinosaurs.  Although  the 
following  period,  the  Tertiary,  is  consid- 
ered the  Age  of  Mammals,  the  iirst  two- 
thirds  of  the  entire  history  of  mammals 
was  played  out  in  the  Mesozoic.  Unlike 
most  Mesozoic  localities,  which  yield 


only  isolated  teeth  or  bits  of  jaws  with 
teeth,  Tugrug  and  other  Gobi  sites  have 
given  us  fine  skulls  and  entire  skeletons. 
The  fossils  have  provided  critical  clues  to 
the  evolutionary  steps  linking  Mesozoic 
with  modem  mammals,  as  well  as  with 
their  primitive  vertebrate  relatives.  The 
more  complete  fossils  have  also  revealed 
secrets  of  locomotion,  feeding,  sensory 
systems,  and  possible  life  styles  of  these 
ancient  creatures. 

The  earliest  mammals  were  the  tricon- 
odonts,  shrewlike  creatures  that  appeared 
some  200  million  years  ago,  during  the 
Triassic  period.  They  were  tiny;  an  adult 
could  snooze  comfortably  curled  up  in  a 
teaspoon.  Most  likely,  triconodonts  laid 
eggs,  as  do  the  living  duck-billed  platypus 
and  echidna.  During  the  succeeding  Juras- 
sic and  Cretaceous  periods,  the  tricon- 
odonts were  joined  by  other  mammalian 
lineages.  Although  many  of  these  Meso- 
zoic "experiments"  waned  and  died  out 
before  or  at  the  time  of  dinosaur  extinc- 
tion, sixty-five  million  years  ago,  some 
survived  and  diversified  into  the  modem 
mammals — animals  as  different  as  kanga- 
roos, koalas,  primates,  bats,  whales,  ele- 
phants, and  aardvarks. 

Thus,  mammals  from  Mesozoic  sites 
reveal  a  biological  empire  in  transition, 
with  archaic  creamres  destined  to  go  ex- 
tinct before  the  Age  of  Mammals  had  even 
begun,  living  nose  to  nose  (or  fang  to 
claw)  with  the  precursors  of  modem  mam- 
mals. Tugrug  preserves  a  pastiche  of 
mammal  species.  These  cliffs  do  not  con- 
tain the  generally  older  triconodonts,  but 
they  have  yielded  abundant  remains  of  a 
group  known  as  the  multituberculates. 
With  their  long,  gnawing  incisors;  blade- 


Some  eighty  million  years  ago,  in  the  arid  regions  of  central  Asia,  a 

family  o/Protoceratops  sleeps  while  rat-sized  mammals  known  as 

Deltatheridium/orage  by  night.  Deltatheridium,  which  may  have  been  a 

marsupial,  or  pouched  mammal,  may  also  have  used  its  acute  sense  of 

hearing  and  smell  to  detect  live  prey  such  as  insects  or  tiny  lizards. 

Painting  by  Ely  Kish 

41 


Diagrams  by  Joe  LeMonnier 


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llions  of  years  ago 


like,  nut-cracking  premolars;  and  broad, 
many-cusped  molars,  "multis"  filled  the 
role  later  taken  over  by  rodents.  They 
thrived  in  the  Mesozoic  and  even  persisted 
in  respectable  numbers  for  some  fifteen 
million  years  after  the  demise  of  the  di- 
nosaurs. Their  subsequent  decrease  in  di- 
versity and  eventual  extinction  coincides 
with  the  rise  of  the  mouselike  and  squirrel- 
like early  rodents  that  were  their  main 
competitors. 

While  the  most  abundant  skulls  and 
skeletons  at  Tugrug  are  those  of  the  pos- 
sibly egg-laying  multis,  a  few  fossils  from 
this  site  may  belong  to  marsupials,  or 
pouched  mammals.  The  rat-sized  Delta- 
theridiiim,  for  instance,  had  triangular- 
shaped  molars  much  like  those  of  living 
opossums.  Deltatheridium  and  its  close 
relatives  are  known  only  from  the  Creta- 
ceous of  central  Asia.  A  great  variety  of 
Cretaceous  marsupials  inhabited  North 
America,  but  their  record  is  largely  one  of 
isolated  teeth  and  partial  jaws.  Delta- 
theridium is  known  from  some  excellent 
skeletons;  a  nearly  complete  skeleton 
found  at  Tugrug  in  1 993  by  American  Mu- 
seum preparator  Amy  Davidson  may  also 
prove  to  be  Deltatheridium. 

Of  all  the  Mesozoic  mammals  from  the 
Gobi,  ihe.  piece  de  resistance  is  the  placen- 
tal group.  These  were  among  the  prizes  of 
Roy  Chapman  Andrews's  expeditions  to 
the  Gobi  for  the  Museum  in  the  1920s.  In 
the  1960s,  joint  Mongolian-Polish  teams, 
and  later  Mongolian-Soviet  teams,  re- 
trieved an  impressive  suite  of  placental 
skulls  from  new  Gobi  sites,  including  the 
Tugrug  beds.  These  rare  skulls  are  among 
the  tiniest  of  Gobi  fossils.  They  range 
from  less  than  an  inch  to  two  inches  long. 

On  the  last  day  of  our  fieldwork  at 
Tugrug  in  1991,  Museum  postdoctoral 
research  associate  James  Clark  strolled 
into  camp;  from  his  pocket  he  extracted  a 
small  collecting  bag  containing  a  nodule 
carefully  wrapped  in  toilet  paper.  He  un- 

42    Natural  History  4/94 


raveled  the  paper  to  reveal  a  small  skull, 
crudely  outlined  in  the  matrix.  The  snout 
region,  however,  was  clearly  delineated 
and  was  that  of  a  placental  animal.  Months 
later,  laboratory  preparation  confirmed  our 
impression  in  the  field  that  this  nearly  per- 
fect skull  belonged  to  Zalambdcdestes,  a 
species  whose  relationship  with  more 
modem  placental  orders  greatly  interests 
us.  Zalamhdalestes  has  long  front  incisors, 
a  gap  between  the  incisors  and  the  anterior 
premolars,  and  long  hind  limbs,  a  combi- 
nation of  features  reminiscent  of  rabbits. 
Indeed,  my  colleague  Malcolm  McKenna 
had  a  long-term  hunch  that  Zalamh- 
dalestes was  a  granddaddy  rabbit — a 
rather  dramatic  connection,  since  the  first 
undoubted  lagomorphs  (the  order  to  which 
rabbits  and  pikas  belong)  appear  in  the 
fossil  record  some  twenty  million  years 
later  (see  "Early  Relatives  of  Flopsy, 
Mopsy,  and  Cottontail,"  page  56).  I  was 
skeptical  about  Malcolm's  idea,  and  we 
had  a  running  debate  on  the  matter.  The 
Tugnig  skull  might  determine  the  answer; 
it  is  certainly  the  finest  known  skull  of  Za- 
lamhdalestes,  or  indeed  of  any  Mesozoic 
mammal  from  Mongolia.  At  this  early 
stage  of  study,  we  have  not  resolved  the 
rabbit  origin  problem,  but  we  have  already 
turned  up  some  intriguing  clues. 

In  collaboration  with  Tim  Rose,  of  the 
University  of  Texas,  we  put  our  rat-sized 
Zalamhdalestes  skull  under  an  industrial 
strength  CAT-scan.  The  machine  made 
1 ,600  high-resolution  "slices"  in  cross  sec- 
tion, from  which  a  computer  program  gen- 
erated an  animated  sequence.  Of  course, 
fossils  do  not  preserve  soft  tissue  such  as 
nerves  and  blood  vessels,  but  various 
holes  and  canals  in  the  skull  indicate  the 
pathways  of  these  structures.  From  the 
CAT-scanned  images,  we  could  tell  that 
the  main  pathway  of  the  carotid  artery  ran 
in  two  branches  on  either  side  of  the  mid- 
line of  the  skull.  This  is  a  striking  depar- 
ture from  the  usual  situation  in  placental 


mammals,  in  which  the  carotid  crosses  the 
base  of  the  skull  away  from  the  midline 
and  through  the  middle  ear  cavity.  The 
artery's  position  in  Zalamhdalestes  may 
reflect  the  problem  of  packing  a  great  deal 
of  equipment — in  the  form  of  nerves, 
blood  vessels,  small  ear  muscles,  and  mid- 
dle ear  bones — into  the  diminutive  skulls 
of  these  mammals. 

The  carotid  arteries  are  also  known  to 
take  this  middle  route  in  some  rabbits  and 
rodents.  Could  this  indicate  affinity?  At 
this  stage  the  answer  is  not  clear.  The  mid- 
line route  could  be  a  very  primitive  condi- 
tion merely  retained  in  rabbits  and  some 
rodents,  but  modified  in  most  other  mod- 
em placentals.  It  might  also  occur  in  other 
Mongolian  species.  We  are  eager  to  re- 
solve this  dilemma  by  casting  a  broader 
net  of  comparisons  over  fossil  and  living 
mammals  and  by  CAT-scanning  skulls  of 
other  Mongolian  animals,  such  as  Ken- 
nalestes  and  Asiorytes.  These  shrewlike 
forms  are  even  smaller  than  Zalamh- 
dalestes, but  we  should  be  able  to  study 
details  of  their  skulls  with  the  high-inten- 
sity scanner. 

Anatomical  data  on  Zalamhdalestes 
and  other  Mesozoic  creatures  dispel  some 
myths  about  the  roles  of  the  earliest  mam- 
mals. The  popular  scenario  depicts  a 
swarm  of  stealthy,  sharp-toothed  shrews 
puncturing  and  consuming  dinosaur  eggs. 
Doubtless  some  of  these  creatures  were 
capable  of  such  habits,  but  a  wide  range  of 
feeding  preferences  existed,  as  demon- 
strated by  the  seed-eating,  nut-cracking 
multis  or  the  larger  and  possibly  camivo- 
rous  beasts  like  Deltatheridium,  which 
could  have  devoured  tiny  Asiorytes  or  the 
abundant  lizards  known  from  the  Gobi's 
Cretaceous  period.  The  portrait  of  a  shrew 
that  lived  on  and  walked  across  the  ground 
also  fails  to  describe  adequately  the  vari- 
ety of  movements  that  different  species 
used  in  getting  around  their  Mesozoic 
habitats.  Highly  mobile  ankle  joints  and 


MESOZOIC 


JURASSIC 


TRIASSIC 


144 


213 


248 


grasping  digits  suggest  that  some  multis 
were  adept  at  climbing  trees.  Long-limbed 
animals  like  Zalambdalestes  were  capable 
runners  and  leapers  and  might  have 
dashed  about  like  rabbits  or  jumping  mice. 
Yet  what  we  know  of  the  anatomy  of 
Mesozoic  mammals  suggests  they  had  a 
narrower  adaptive  range  than  their  modem 
counterparts.  Our  Mesozoic  antecedents 
are  all  small;  certain  triconodonts  are  com- 
parable to  the  tiniest  living  shrews,  and 
even  the  largest  of  the  multis  only  reach 
the  size  of  opossums.  (Size  itself  puts  lim- 
itations on  adaptive  virtuosity.  An  animal 
had  to  be  sizable  to  eat  the  fishes  and  large 
lizards  that  survived  beyond  the  end  of  the 
Cretaceous.  In  addition,  larger  mammals 
are  capable  of  behaviors  such  as  long-dis- 
tance migration.)  Mesozoic  mammals 


were  constrained  not  only  by  small  size 
but  also  by  a  rather  standardized  and  prim- 
itive sensory  system.  This  observation  is 
based  on  the  study  of  endocasts,  casts  of 
the  brain  formed  by  the  infilling  of  sandy 
matrix  in  fossil  skulls.  Endocasts  of  multis 
and  other  Mesozoic  creatures  show  a  rela- 
tively small  cortical  area  with  few,  if  any, 
folds,  or  sulci,  suggesting  limited  intelli- 
gence. (In  contrast,  think  of  the  intricate 
folding  of  the  human  brain,  which  greatly 
increases  the  cortical  surface.) 

By  and  large,  Mesozoic  mammals  are 
all  noses  and  ears.  Their  olfactory  lobes,  or 
smelling  centers,  are  well  developed  in 
contrast  to  their  optic  regions,  or  vision 
centers.  Lobes  near  the  back  of  the  brain 
that  represent  hearing  centers  are  also  well 
developed.  Most  of  these  mammals  would 


seem  to  have  had  a  keen  sense  of  smell 
and  acute,  high-frequency  hearing,  but 
rather  poor  vision,  like  living  shrews  and 
hedgehogs.  Presumably  they  were  most 
active  at  night,  a  time  when  the  senses  of 
hearing  and  smell,  as  opposed  to  vision, 
are  critical. 

Our  team  will  continue  to  crawl  com- 
pulsively along  the  Tugrug  slopes  in  order 
to  piece  together  a  more  complete  picture 
of  the  evolution  and  natural  history  of 
Mesozoic  mammals.  We  are  elated  that  an 
assortment  of  skeletons  that  can  fit  com- 
fortably in  a  shoe  box  has  helped  illumi- 
nate the  first  two-thirds  of  mammal  evolu- 
tion. And  this  summer  we  hope  to 
experience  once  again  the  elation  of 
trundling  down  the  cliffs  of  Tugrug  with  a 
pocketful  of  fossil  skulls. 


EYE  SOCKETS 
NEAR  SNOUT 
aETHYTHERES) 


SYNAPSID  OPENING 
(SYNAPSIDS) 


WATERTIGHT  EGG 
(AMNIOTES) 


HOOFS 
(UNGULATES) 


ANIMAL 
CLASSIFICATION 

Kingdom 
Phylum 
Class 
Order 
Family 
Genus 
Species 


43 


World 
urry-weight 


by  Michael  Archer 


Of  the  many  kinds  of  extraordinary 
mammals  that  have  come  and  gone,  only 
three  subclasses  sui"vive  today:  the  egg- 
laying  monotremes  (platypuses  and  echid- 
nas); the  usually  pouched  marsupials  (for 
example,  opossums,  honey  possums, 
wombats,  koalas,  kangaroos,  and  bandi- 
coots); and  the  unpouched  placentals 
(such  as  rats,  bats,  elephants,  and  hu- 
mans). Although  not  all  marsupials  have  a 
pouch,  this  external  nursery  is  one  of  the 
most  commonly  recognized  features  of  the 
group.  To  anatomists,  details  of  the  repro- 
ductive system  and  remarkably  early 
births  (some  only  eleven  days  after  fertil- 
ization) are  even  more  distinctive  features. 
Early  births  and  an  accessible  pouch  have 
given  marsupials  more  control  over  the 
business  of  raising  offspring.  If  times  are 
tough,  as  they  frequendy  are  in  the  unpre- 
dictable deserts  of  Australia,  a  mother  can 
decide  whether  or  not  to  continue  to  invest 
precious  energy  in  a  pouched  young.  If  the 
decision  is  against,  she  can  "diapause"  the 
young  developing  in  the  uterus,  or  if  an 
offspring  is  suckling,  she  may  reach  into 
the  pouch,  remove  the  young  from  the  nip- 
ple, and  discard  it —  increasing  the 
chances  that  she  will  live  to  breed  again 
when  conditions  are  better.  This  and  other 
reproductive  differences  have  probably 
distinguished  marsupials  from  placentals 
for  more  than  ninety  million  years,  dating 
from  the  time  when  marsupials  and  pla- 


centals diverged  from  a  coirmion  ancestor, 
probably  somewhere  in  the  dinosaur-rid- 
den forests  of  North  America. 

Because  many  of  Australia's  marsupi- 
als, such  as  the  koala,  are  cute  and  cuddly, 
as  well  as  biologically  different  from  our 
own  group,  they  have  attracted  a  lot  of  at- 
tention since  their  discovery  in  the 
1700s — unfortunately,  not  all  of  it  mag- 
nanimous. Most  of  us  who  have  fallen  in 
love  with  the  marsupials  of  this  continent 
have  at  one  time  or  another  suffered  a  con- 
descending smile  from  a  North  American 
or  English  colleague.  Some  of  these 
Northern  Hemispherites  think  of  marsupi- 
als as  evolutionary  casualties  that  should 
be  shoe-homed  into  a  single  order — rather 
than  the  eleven  in  which  they  are  currently 
placed.  Placentals  are  dignified  as  Eutheria 
(meaning  "good"  mammals — because  we 
are  one  of  them),  while  marsupials  are  hu- 
miliated taxonomically  as  Metatheria 
(which  means  "between"  mammals). 

I've  often  wondered  if  marsupials  were 
described  in  this  way  because  they  in- 
spired feelings  of  subclass  inadequacy  in 
their  pouchless  placental  classifiers — 
"pouch  envy,"  to  give  the  embarrassing 
condition  a  name.  Placental  males,  how- 
ever, have  even  more  to  worry  about.  As  if 
nifty  female  pouches  weren't  threatening 
enough,  the  pendulous  scrota  of  some 
male  marsupials,  such  as  the  honey  pos- 
sum's, contain  testicles  that  weigh  in  at  4 


A  rhino-sized  marsupial  Diprotodon  emerges  from  the  undergrowth  at  far 

right,  startling  a  threesome  of  giant  "kangaroos."  This  painting  from  the 

1920s  was  originally  intended  by  artist  Charles  Knight  to  highlight 

Palorchestes,  an  animal  hiown  at  the  time  from  just  a  few  bones.  The  beast 

was  later  found  to  be,  not  a  kangaroo,  but  a  vastly  different,  quadrupedal 

Australian  herbivore.  Although  the  depiction  arose  from  a  misconception, 

the  magnificent  Pleistocene  bounders  featured  here  still  convey  a 
sense  of  the  strange  kangaroos  that  once  dominated  the  island  continent. 

Painting  by  Ctnaries  R.  Knighl;  courtesy  of  the  Field  Ivluseum  of  Naturai  History,  Neg.  No.  CK27T 

44    Natural  History  4/94 


'te'-:\i/ 


mstg-^mm-^mfKi 


:~i/!^^i''<»'asmr:-^i 


'sas& 


^iU 


'^^^^^^■■■^^^^ 


45 


percent  of  their  body  weight  (human  testes 
account  for  a  mere  0.04  percent  of  the  av- 
erage male's  weight).  Honey  possum  sper- 
matozoa, at  360  \xm  long,  are  also  the 
largest  in  the  whole  class  Mammalia.  To 
further  prick  placental  inadequacy,  mem- 
bers of  one  subfamily  of  dasyurid  marsu- 
pials have  two  decidedly  impressive  erec- 
tile organs,  one  in  front  of  the  other. 

True,  the  less  spectacularly  equipped 
placentals  do  tend  to  dominate  the  North- 
ern Hemisphere' — today.  But  this  was  not 
always  the  case.  In  the  last  days  of  the  di- 
nosaurs, more  kinds  of  marsupials  than 
placentals  existed,  even  in  the  Northern 
Hemisphere.  Long  after  T.  rex  gasped  its 
last,  marsupials  persisted  in  showing  off 
their  pouches  and  dangly  bits  in  North 
America  until  about  fifteen  million  years 
ago.  Then  after  a  brief  period  of  inexplica- 
ble absence,  they  reinvaded  this  placental 
bastion  from  South  America  about  one 
million  years  ago,  strong-arming  placen- 
tals all  the  way  to  Canada.  In  fact,  marsu- 
pials have  left  their  bones  on  every  conti- 
nent. Ice  probably  forced  them  out  of 
Antarctica,  but  the  reasons  for  their  disap- 
pearances from  Europe  (by  ten  million 
years  ago)  and  Asia  and  Africa  (by  thirty 
million  years  ago)  remain  a  mystery. 

Over  the  last  hundred  million  years  or 
so,  the  world's  placentals  have  indeed  pro- 
duced an  impressive  array  of  pouchless  or- 
ders. But  on  the  single  continent  of  Aus- 
tralia, some  of  the  world's  most  distinctive 
mammals  make  their  home,  among  them 
noolbengers,  wambengers,  and  wombats. 
If  we  dip  into  Australia's  fossil  record, 
such  as  that  tumbling  out  of  the  middle 
Tertiary  sediments  of  Riversleigh, 
Queensland,  even  more  distinctive  groups 
abound,  with  50  percent  greater  diversity 
at  the  family  level  than  survives  today.  Re- 
markable marsupials  have  similarly 
emerged  from  the  fossil  record  of  South 
America,  once  home  to  the  parrot-faced 
groeberiids,  leaping  argyrolagids,  tusked 
bonapartheriids,  and  grizzly-sized  bor- 
hyaenids  that  every  edible  placental  in  the 


Twenty  million  years  ago,  the 

dense,  warm  rainforests  of 

what  is  now  Queensland 

were  home  to  a  strange 

menagerie  of  furry,  pouched, 

feathered,  and  scaly  beasts, 

among  them,  marsupial 
lions,  giant  snakes,  and  flesh- 
eating  kangaroos. 

Painting  by  Jim  Reece 


place  called  "Sir."  While  confined  for  the 
most  part  to  the  Southern  Hemisphere 
today,  marsupials  still  exhibit  a  range  of 
diversity  nearly  as  spectacular'  as  that  of 
the  world's  placentals. 

The  curious  events  of  South  America 
are  further  humbling  to  the  placental  ego. 
Although  both  marsupials  and  placentals 
arrived  there  from  North  America  some- 
time between  seventy  and  sixty-three  mil- 
lion years  ago,  the  placentals  became  the 
highly  edible  mammalian  herbivores  of 
that  land.  In  contrast,  the  marsupials  be- 
came the  small-  to  giant-sized  carnivores, 
roles  they  held  against  almost  all  comers 
until  they  were  shouldered  a  bit  to  one  side 
by  giant,  meat-sucking  phorusrhacid  birds 


(some  of  which  had  skulls  nearly  three 
feet  in  length).  Admittedly,  one  group  of 
placental  carnivores  did  manage  to  sneak 
in  about  eight  million  years  ago — the  rac- 
coon family,  which  persists  today  as 
kinkajous,  olingos,  and  coatis.  The  marsu- 
pial saber-toothed  "lions"  may  also  have 
lost  out  in  competition  with  invading  pla- 
cental saber-toothed  lions  about  two  mil- 
lion years  ago.  But  overall,  placental  chau- 
vinists can  take  little  solace  from  the 
history  of  South  America. 

For  centuries  after  the  discovery  of 
Australian  marsupials,  biogeographers  as- 
sumed that  the  failure  of  placentals  to 
dominate  this  island  continent  must  have 
had  to  do  with  Australia's  history  of  isola- 


46    Natural  History  4/94 


Mr.    1 


tion:  Somehow  marsupials  reached  Aus- 
traha  from  South  America  and  only  man- 
aged to  hold  the  territory  because  Aus- 
tralia broke  free  from  east  Antarctica  (to 
which  it  had  been  attached  as  part  of 
Gondwana),  presumably  moments  before 
the  hordes  of  competitively  superior  pla- 
centals  came  to  a  screeching  halt  at  the 
new,  still-crumbhng  continental  edge. 

Unfortunately,  recent  discoveries  pro- 
vide little  support  for  this  view.  In  1983, 
Henk  Godthelp  and  I  filled  three  gunny 
sacks  with  fifty-five-million-year-old  clay 
from  the  town  of  Murgon  in  Queensland. 
When  this  clay  was  mud,  Australia  was 
still  part  of  Gondwana  with  land  connec- 
tions, via  Antarctica  and  South  America, 


to  the  Northern  Hemisphere.  After  drying 
and  washing  the  clay  in  the  lab,  we  found 
to  our  delight  Australia's  oldest — by 
twenty-five  million  years — marsupial,  bat. 
snake,  frog,  and  bird  bones.  But  the 
biggest  shock  was  a  distinctive  tooth  that 
resembled  those  of  placental  condylarths, 
the  group  that  gave  rise  to  a  wide  variety 
of  placental  orders  on  other  continents  in- 
cluding South  America. 

We  concluded  that  marsupials  and  pla- 
centals  were  both  present  in  Australia  be- 
tween seventy  and  fifty-five  million  years 
ago.  But  then,  contrary  to  the  expectations 
of  some  paleontologists,  the  marsupials 
ran  the  placentals  out  of  town. 

We  placentals  should  also  recall  that 


doe-eyed  Australian  kangaroos,  intro- 
duced last  century  to  the  remaining  wild 
places  of  England  and  Germany,  have 
since  toughed  out  ferocious  placental 
competition  and  Europe's  worst  winters  to 
hoist  the  flag  of  "pouched  and  pendulous" 
on  those  lands.  Like  eucalyptus  and  wattle 
trees,  these  rampaging  Australians  have 
done  much  to  di.spel  the  myth  that  Aus- 
tralia is  a  sanctuary  of  competitively  infe- 
rior bits  of  biological  history.  Marsupials 
may  seem  unlikely  contenders  in  the 
world  furry-weight  title,  but  when  it 
comes  to  their  going  a  round  or  two  with 
placentals,  you  should  probably  put  at 
least  half  your  money  in  the  pouch  for 
safekeeping. 


s 
aasiraoranaire 


by  Michael  Archer 


The  first  duck-billed  platypus  to  set 
webbed  foot  in  Europe  arrived  in  1798  at 
the  Literary  and  Philosophical  Society  of 
Newcastle  on  Tyne,  England — pickled  in 
a  wooden  cask.  It  had  been  sent  by  the 
governor  of  New  South  Wales,  His  Excel- 
lency Mr.  John  Hunter,  who  had  watched  a 
"native"  spear  this  "animal  of  the  mole 
kind"  in  the  Hawkesbury  River.  Unfortu- 
nately, the  courier  who  carried  the  cask 
into  the  Society's  rooms  on  her  head  was 
nearly  suffocated  when  the  bottom  of  the 
crate  caved  in,  and  the  cask  and  its  con- 
tents dropped  over  her  head.  An  English 
historian,  commenting  later  about  the 
event  and  the  wretched  woman,  mused 
that  "apart  from  her  physical  nausea  one 
can  picmre  her  mental  horror  on  seeing  a 
strange  creature,  half  bird,  half  beast,  lying 
at  her  feet." 

The  unfortunate  accident,  however,  had 
an  instructive  aspect;  like  the  defunct  cask, 
the  platypus  exhibited  to  the  gentlemen  of 
the  Society  a  most  unexpected  opening. 
The  animal's  cloaca  not  only  voids  refuse 
from  the  intestinal  tract  and  bladder  but 
also  ushers  into  the  world  the  most  re- 
markable production  of  the  platypus — 
eggs.  In  contrast,  placental  mammals  have 
up  to  three  external  openings,  two  used  for 
excretion  and  one  (in  females)  dedicated 
to  reproduction.  The  members  of  the  order 
Monotremata — platypuses  and  echidnas, 
or  spiny  anteaters — are  the  only  living 
mammals  that  reproduce  by  laying  eggs. 
This  distinction,  in  combination  with  such 
seemingly  archaic  features  as  the  unusual 
structure  of  the  shoulder  girdle,  has  led  to 
a  common  and  not  unfair  view  that 
monotremes  are  the  most  "primitive" 
order  of  living  mammals.  But  add  to  these 
so-called  primitive  features  the  electric 
sensors  in  the  bill  that  can  detect  the  mus- 
cular activity  of  fleeing  prey,  and  you  have 
a  very  odd  blend  of  archaic  and  super- 
specialized  structures. 

Arguments  about  the  evolutionary  rela- 
tionships of  monotremes  have  run  the 
gamut  from  the  bizarre  (cousins  of  turtles) 
to  the  implausible  (degenerate  marsupials) 

48    Natural  History  4/94 


to  the  possible  (direct  descendants  of 
Mesozoic  eupantotheres)  and  the  tantaliz- 
ing (surviving  mammallike  reptiles).  The 
best  bets  at  the  moment  are  the  last  two: 
monotremes  may  be  either  long-lasting 
descendants  of  eupantotheres  (tiny  mam- 
mals common  in  Europe  and  in  the  Amer- 
icas during  Mesozoic  times)  or  mam- 
mallike reptiles  that  have  independently 
acquired  mammalian  hallmarks,  such  as 
three  middle  ear  bones. 

Part  of  the  difficulty  in  working  out  the 
relationships  of  monotremes  has  been 
their  lack  of  well-formed  teeth.  Platypuses 
gum  their  food  to  death,  their  grossly  de- 
generate teeth  being  lost  early  in  life. 
Echidnas,  having  lost  all  trace  of  teeth, 
tongue-slurp  worms,  ants,  and  termites. 
Thus,  comparisons  with  extinct  mammals, 
which  are  often  known  only  from  fossil 
teeth,  are  difficult  to  make.  After  a  brave 
attempt  to  make  sense  of  the  structure  of 
the  platypuses'  vestigial  teeth,  mammalo- 
gist  George  Gaylord  Simpson  concluded 
in  1929  that  whatever  monotremes  were, 
they  were  something  "quite  distinct"  from 
all  other  groups  of  mammals. 

Little  further  light  was  shed  on  the  ori- 
gins of  monotremes  until  1971,  when  two 
discoveries  were  made  in  South  Australia. 
In  the  Tirari  Desert,  Mike  Woodbume,  of 
the  University  of  California  at  Riverside, 
and  I  found  a  fully  formed  fossil  tooth  of 
an  early  Miocene  platypus  (later  named 
Obdurodon  insignis — "significant  lasting 
tooth").  That  same  year,  Dick  Tedford,  of 
the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History, 
and  his  colleagues  unearthed  another 
platypus  tooth  in  a  fossil  deposit  near  Lake 
Frome.  But  it  was  not  until  1984,  when  our 
research  group  at  the  University  of  New 
South  Wales  found  a  whole  skull  and  most 
of  the  teeth  of  a  fossil  platypus  some  fif- 
teen million  years  old  at  Riversleigh, 
Queensland,  that  we  at  last  had  the  first 
complete  and  well-formed  dentition  of  an 
adult  monotreme. 

Hot  on  the  heels  of  this  discovery  came 
another.  Fossil  fish  expert  Alex  Ritchie,  of 
the  Australian  Museum  in  Sydney,  was 


mulling  over  a  collection  of  opalized  early 
Cretaceous  fossils  (about  120  million 
years  old)  gathered  from  Lightning  Ridge, 
New  South  Wales,  by  the  Caiman  broth- 
ers, two  amateur  collectors.  Among  the 
brilliantly  flashing  specimens,  he  spotted  a 
little  jaw  fragment  sporting  three  gemlike 
teeth.  Suspecting  that  it  belonged  to  a 
mammal  but  not  sure  what  kind,  he  sug- 
gested that  I  have  a  look.  In  their  basic 
structure,  the  three  molars  in  this  jaw  were 
so  similar  to  the  teeth  we  were  examining 
from  Riversleigh  that  we  had  no  doubt  that 
this,  Australia's  earUest  known  Mesozoic 
manunal,  was  a  monotreme.  We  named 
the  creature  Steropodon  galmani,  "Gal- 
man's  lightning  tooth."  Not  only  was  this 
the  oldest  mammal  so  far  found  in  Aus- 
tralia but  its  discovery  sextupled  the 
known  age  of  monoti"emes. 

The  surprises  continued.  In  1991 
Rosendo  Pascual,  of  the  Museo  de  La 
Plata  in  Argentina,  wrote  to  Mike  Augee, 
who  was  organizing  a  symposium  on  the 
biology  of  monotremes,  telling  of  a 
strange  tooth  he  and  his  team  had  col- 
lected from  Patagonia,  in  southern  Ar- 
gentina, at  a  site  that  was  sixty-one  to 
sixty-three  million  years  old.  Although 
much  older,  it  resembled  the  teeth  that  had 
been  described  from  the  Tirari  Desert. 
After  Rosendo  sent  a  photograph,  the  Aus- 
tiralian  Geographic  Society,  the  Royal  Zo- 
ological Society  of  New  South  Wales,  the 
Riversleigh  Society,  and  the  University  of 
New  South  Wales  quickly  offered  to  fly 
him  and  his  tantalizing  tooth  to  Sydney. 
When  he  arrived  and  we  set  his  find  along- 
side die  teeth  from  Riversleigh,  the  only 
comments  were  gasps.  The  two  forms 
were  abnost  identical  despite  a  separation 
of  nearly  forty  million  years  and  three 
continents. 

The  Patagonian  platypus,  which  could 
be  called  nothing  else  in  view  of  its  stiik- 
ing  similarity  to  Australian  fossil  platy- 
puses, was  named  Monotrematum  sud- 
americanum,  "the  South  American 
monotreme."  The  next  year,  supported  by 
the  Australian  Geographic  Society  and 


In  1984,  the  fifteen-million-year- 
old  skull  and  teeth  of  a  platypus 
came  to  light  in  the  rich  fossil  beds 

of  Riversleigh  in  Queensland, 

Australia.  In  this  reconstruction, 

the  ancient  platypus  Obdurodon 

dicksoni  basks  on  a  mossy  rock  in 

its  lush  rainforest  home. 

Painting  by  Jeanette  Muirhead 


Paddy  Pallins  of  Sydney,  we  joined 
Rosendo's  team  in  an  effort  to  find  more  of 
this  expatriate  platypus  and,  delightfully, 
unearthed  two  more  teeth  in  the  same 
windswept  area  as  the  first.  Although  a  bit 
of  a  blow  to  Australian  pride,  we  now  have 
to  allow  that  platypuses,  those  biological 
paradigms  of  the  island  continent,  once 
waddled,  swam,  and  probably  electrolo- 
cated  their  way  across  the  then-united 


lands  of  South  America,  Antarctica,  and 
Australia. 

What  light  do  these  spectacular  fossils 
shed  on  the  mystery  of  monotreme  rela- 
tionships? Unfortunately  and  intriguingly, 
not  as  much  as  we  would  like.  If  by  1 20 
million  years  ago  (the  age  of  the  Lightning 
Ridge  platypus),  monotremes  were  al- 
ready distinct  as  a  group,  we  should  be 
searching  the  stream  deposits  of  Jurassic 


Park,  looking  for  older,  more  "primitive" 
members  of  this  group.  But  where?  Con- 
sidering the  antiquity  of  monotremes  in 
Australia  and  the  intermittent  connections 
between  South  and  North  America,  could 
a  monotreme  bill  or  beak  be  jutting  out  of 
a  Jurassic  cliff  somewhere  in  the  United 
States?  Considering  the  rush  of  unex- 
pected monotreme  discoveries  in  the  last 
decade,  we  might  be  wise  to  wait  and  see. 


49 


f 


essru  in 


Themselves 


by  S,  David  Webb 


Our  team  of  scuba  divers  had  been 
working  the  Withlacoochee  River  in  cen- 
tral Florida  for  two  weeks  when  I  spotted 
the  hand-sized  jaw  with  its  strange, 
warped  teeth  in  a  dark  depression  below 


the  main  channel.  Other  fossils  gathered 
from  this  rich  green  clay  pocket  thirty  feet 
below  the  surface  indicated  a  deposition 
date  of  about  seven  million  years  ago.  The 
identity  of  the  animal  to  which  the  teeth 


belonged  was  unmistakable:  the  last  of  the 
four  teeth  in  the  jaw  had  a  long  figure- 
eight  crown  and  very  tall  sides,  diagnostic 
features  of  a  mylodont  sloth.  An  hour  later, 
nearing  the  end  of  my  air  supply,  I  fanned 
the  clay  away  from  a  mandible  about  the 
size  of  a  human's.  It  contained  the  nearly 
square-crowned  teeth  and  elongate  chin 
"spout"  of  a  small  megalonychid  sloth. 
These  finds  astonished  me.  Two  kinds  of 
sloths  had  apparendy  lived  in  Florida  in 
the  mid-Miocene. 

While  plenty  of  sloth  remains  had  been 
found  at  La  Brea  and  other  Pleistocene 
sites,  the  Horida  fossils  were  at  least  three 
times  as  old  as  the  earliest  Pleistocene 
sloths.  Two  million  years  ago,  many  South 
American  groups  had  already  entered 
North  America  via  the  Panamanian  land 
bridge  in  a  mass  movement  known  as  the 
Great  American  Interchange  {see  page 


50    Natural  History  4/94 


52).  These  two  sloths  had  reached  Florida 
at  least  five  million  years  ahead  of  this 
pack,  a  finding  now  confirmed  from  fos- 
sils at  other  rare  sites  in  Oklahoma,  New 
Mexico,  and  California.  I  like  to  think  of 
the  Withlacoochee  sloths  as  the  "heralds," 
in  contrast  to  the  "legions,"  of  animals  that 
later  immigrated  to  North  America. 

The  megalonychid  sloth  I  found  in  the 
Withlacoochee  River  was  an  unusually 
small  species,  but  a  later  member  of  the 
family  was  the  ox-sized  Megalonyx, 
which  pushed  north  and  eventually 
reached  Alaska.  The  real  giant  of  the  sloth 
tribe  was  the  elephant-sized  Eremothe- 
riiim,  whose  remains  are  found  most 
abundantly  at  Daytona  Beach,  Florida,  but 
which  has  also  been  discovered  north  to 
New  Jersey.  These  animals'  long,  curved 
claws  were  at  first  thought  to  be  evidence 
that  they  were  lionlike  carnivores.  But  in 


1853,  Joseph  Leidy,  the  father  of  verte- 
brate paleontology  in  North  America,  real- 
ized that  both  species  had  used  their  claws 
to  gather  edible  leaves,  twigs,  and 
branches.  This  was  reinforced  by  his 
recognition  that  the  extinct  ground  sloths 
were  related  to  the  living  tree  sloths  of 
South  America.  Recent  studies  have 
shown  that  modem  three-toed  tree  sloths 
are  more  closely  related  to  Eremotherium, 
and  that  living  two-toed  tree  sloths  share 
their  ancestry  with  Megalonyx.  Through- 
out its  long,  successful  history,  the  sloth 
family  tree  has  produced  both  small  arbo- 
real and  large  terrestrial  branches. 

Sloths,  armadillos,  and  anteaters,  along 
with  the  extinct  glyptodonts — armored 
creatures  superficially  resembling  tor- 
toises more  than  other  mammals — make 
up  the  most  peculiar  and  the  most  primi- 
tive group  of  placental  mammals,  the 


edentates,  also  known  as  the  xenarthrans. 
The  latter  name,  meaning  "strange  joint," 
refers  to  their  unusual  backbones.  In  most 
mammals,  the  paired  overiapping  surfaces 
that  prevent  dislocation  between  vertebrae 
are  flat  or  faintly  curved,  but  in  these  ani- 
mals, the  surfaces  are  scrolled  into  an  elab- 
orate set  of  interlocking  ridges  and  val- 
leys. In  glyptodonts,  as  well  as  in  modem 
armadillos,  such  infrastructure  supported 
the  heavy  carapace  above  the  hindquarters 
(in  full-grown  glyptodonts,  the  shell 
weighed  up  to  200  pounds).  In  sloths  and 
anteaters,  the  trait  has  no  obvious  utility, 
but  suggests  that  the  animals  are  de- 
scended from  shell-bearing  ancestors.  A 
shelled  ancestry  is  also  supported  by  the 
presence  of  a  sheet  of  small,  overlapping 
bony  scales,  a  kind  of  chain  mail,  in  the 
skin  of  many  mylodont  and  some  mega- 
theriid  sloths. 

Edentates,  the  ordinal  name  of  this  curi- 
ous assemblage  of  animals,  is  a  misnomer, 
implying  that  they  lack  teeth.  However, 
only  anteaters,  with  their  long,  tubular 
snouts  and  sticky  tongues,  are  truly  tooth- 
less. The  other  groups  of  edentates  have 
teeth  but  lack  enamel,  distinguishing  them 
from  other  orders  of  mammals,  in  which 
enamel-crowned  teeth  are  a  hallmark.  The 
exception  that  proves  the  rule  is  the  oldest 
armadillo  jaw,  which  bears  ten  peglike 
teeth,  typical  of  many  later,  insect-grub- 
bing armadillos,  except  that  each  tooth  re- 
tains a  thin  enamel  coat  on  its  sides.  (The 
oldest-known  edentates  are  armadillos  and 
glyptodonts  found  near  the  Rio  de  Janeiro 
airport,  in  a  sinkhole  filled  with  sediments 
about  sixty  million  years  old.) 

If  a  scale-covered  carapace  were  not 
unmammalian  enough,  modem  (and  pre- 
sumably extinct)  edentates  have  less  abil- 
ity to  thermoregulate  than  any  other  order 
of  warm-blooded  vertebrates.  In  addition, 
armadillos  have  a  "dumbbell  bone"  near 


Herbivorous  edentates 

reached  giant  proportions  in 

their  native  South  America; 

ground  sloths,  such  as  the 

t\venty-t\vo-foot-long 

Megatherium,  browsed 

placidly  fivm  trees  by  rising 

to  a  tripod  stance  with  their 

tails  as  buttresses.  Tiieir 

fellow  edentates,  the 
tanklike  glyptodonts,  had 
200-pound  carapaces  that 
were  sixty  feet  in  diameter 

Painling  by  Charles  R.  Knight;  AMNH 


51 


!SR-«i3»: 


The  Great  American  Interchange 


More  than  twenty  million  years  ago, 
huge  pieces  of  the  earth's  crust,  moving  to 
the  slow  rhythms  of  continental  drift,  en- 
croached upon  the  western  margins  of  the 
American  continents,  pushing  up  the 
mountain  ranges  that  still  form  the  "back- 
bone of  the  Americas"  from  Alaska  to 
Tierra  del  Fuego.  These  global  forces  were 
also  responsible  for  forging,  two  to  three 
million  years  ago,  a  land  bridge  in  Panama 
between  North  and  South  America.  To 
creatures  that  could  not  swim  or  fly,  the 
bridge  opened  continent-sized  new  realms 
and  unleashed  hordes  of  competitors  and 
predators. 

In  a  movement  known  as  the  Great 
American  Interchange,  land  animals  ex- 
panded their  ranges  north  and  south  in  one 
of  the  greatest-known  minghngs  of  distinct 
continental  faunas  in  the  earth's  history.  A 
dozen  land  mammal  families  from  South 
America  ranged  northward  through  the 
tropics  into  temperate  North  America. 
Nearly  half  were  edentates — mainly  sloths, 
but  also  armadillos,  glyptodonts,  and 
anteaters.  Other  kinds  of  animals  that  made 
the  trek  north  included  porcupines,  the 
giant  aquatic  capybaras,  opossums,  and  the 
now-extinct,  rhino-sized  plant  eaters 
known  as  toxodonts. 

North  America's  emigrants  were  even 


more  varied.  South  America  had  previ- 
ously hosted  no  carnivores.  The  indigenous 
hoofed  animals  and  rodents  had  been 
nearly  free  of  predation.  During  the  Inter- 
change, raccoons,  weasels,  dogs,  bears  and 
cats,  including  sabertooths,  entered  the 
continent.  The  hoofed  contingent  included 
mastodonts,  tapirs,  horses,  peccaries,  lla- 
mas, and  deer.  Rabbits  and  various  rodent 
families  also  seized  new  opportunities  in 
the  vast  lands  south  of  the  equator.  Most  of 
the  newcomers  spread  and  diversified, 
many  traversing  the  tropics  and  following 
the  high  Andean  route  before  reaching 
south  temperate  lands. 

The  most  successful  of  the  northerners 
by  any  measure  were  the  cricetid  rodents, 
or  New  World  mice.  Within  two  million 
years,  they  produced  some  fifty  new  gen- 
era, bursting  into  arboreal  and  terrestrial 
settings,  sylvan  and  pastoral  habitats,  low- 
lands and  uplands,  and  even  producing  one 
offshoot  that  specializes  in  fishing  in  An- 
dean streams. 

Fully  half  of  the  land  mammal  genera 
that  now  live  in  South  America  came  by 
way  of  the  Panama  land  bridge  during  the 
Interchange.  In  contrast,  only  three  genera 
from  South  America  still  survive  in  temper- 
ate North  America — the  porcupine,  opos- 
sum, and  armadillo. — S.  D.  W. 


Thefonnation  of  the  Panama  land  bridge  opened  the  way  for  two-way  traffic 

between  the  American  continents.  In  this  scene  of  Florida  some  two  and  a  half 

million  years  ago,  a  sloth  known  as  Glossotherium;  an  armadillo;  a  large, 

flightless  ground  bird;  and  aquatic  capybaras — all  immigrants — share  a 

cypress  swamp  with  native  North  American  beavers. 


Painting  by  Eiy  Kisll 


the  tip  of  their  nose.  Useful  in  burrowing 
for  food  and  shelter,  this  extra  bone,  called 
a  prevomer,  is  retained  from  the  ancient 
mammallike  reptiles.  These  traits,  as  well 
as  molecular  comparisons,  indicate  that 
the  edentates  were  the  first  branch  from 
the  base  of  the  placental  mammal  tree. 

Sloths  arose  from  armadillo  stock,  but 
starting  more  than  thirty  million  years  ago, 
they  made  an  extraordinary  switch  in 
adaptive  strategy,  becoming  plant-eating 
giants.  They  played  as  important  a  role  as 
the  native  South  American  ungulates,  ri- 
valing these  other  large  herbivores,  such 
as  the  now-extinct  toxodonts,  in  abun- 
dance and  diversity.  Their  success  as  her- 


bivores is  quite  remarkable  when  one  con- 
siders their  descent  from  short-legged, 
armor-encased  burrowers,  with  shallow, 
feebly  muscled  jaws  and  peglike  teeth 
with  no  enamel.  How  could  sloths  even 
begin  to  compete  with  fleet  ungulates 
whose  deep  jaws  and  elaborately  enam- 
eled teeth  were  already  well  adapted  to 
processing  coarse  vegetation? 

Perhaps  part  of  the  explanation  for  the 
improbable  success  of  herbivorous  eden- 
tates was  that  South  America  had  no  effi- 
cient carnivores  to  take  advantage  of  the 
sloths'  lack  of  speed.  Evolution  does  not 
produce  perfection  in  all  departments; 
rather,  like  politics,  it  is  the  art  of  the  pos- 


sible. South  America,  with  its  great  tropi- 
cal girth,  offered  vast  opportunities  for 
beasts  that  could  feed  readily  and  live  well 
on  low-grade  fodder.  With  no  need  for 
speed,  sloths  had  the  advantage  of  low  me- 
taboMsm,  and  they  easily  converted  their 
powerful  digging  claws  and  feet  into  leaf- 
and  branch-stripping  devices.  Their  hind 
feet  became  twisted,  so  that  the  claws 
faced  inward,  while  the  outer  side  faced 
the  ground.  This  allowed  the  smaller  sloths 
to  climb  trees  and  the  bigger  ones  to  clear 
their  claws  from  the  ground.  With  the  aid 
of  a  powerful  tail,  they  rose  up  on  a  solid 
tripod  base  to  feed  from  trees.  A  set  of  fos- 
silized sloth  tracks  found  in  the  prison 


52    Natural  History  4/94 


yard  of  the  Nevada  State  Penitentiary  in 
Carson  City  shows  just  how  sloths  ambu- 
lated on  huge,  splayed-out  feet. 

By  making  just  a  few  modifications  in 
their  unimpressive  teeth,  sloths  were  able 
to  chew  vast  quantities  of  leaves.  (Glyp- 
todonts,  too,  with  some  orthodontia,  be- 
came efficient  large  herbivores.)  Despite 
their  lack  of  enamel,  sloths  developed  tall- 
crowned,  elaborately  folded  teeth  with 
tracts  of  a  hard  substance  called  vitroden- 
tine  to  supplement  the  soft  dentine.  Al- 
though sloth  teeth  wore  down  faster  than 
enameled  teeth,  they  compensated  by 
growing  continuously  throughout  the  ani- 
mal's life.  The  jaws  deepened,  and  the 


cheek  bones  expanded  to  support  a  com- 
plex set  of  chewing  muscles.  In  short, 
sloths  cobbled  together  the  necessary  bio- 
logical machinery  to  overcome  the  inade- 
quacies of  their  armadilloid  heritage. 

All  of  the  ground  sloths,  and  the 
glyptodonts  as  well,  slid  into  extinction 
just  over  10,000  years  ago  in  North  and 
South  America.  The  climate  had  changed, 
and  bands  of  human  hunters  had  swept 
across  the  Bering  Strait  and  throughout  the 
New  World.  At  about  the  same  time,  most 
of  the  hemisphere's  other  large  herbivores 
disappeared.  When  the  first  Megalonyx 
was  unearthed  at  Big  Bone  Lick  on  the 
Kentucky  frontier  some  1 80  years  ago,  its 


dense,  iron-stained  bones  were  brought  to 
the  White  House,  where  President  Jeffer- 
son, an  avid  amateur  paleontologist,  stud- 
ied them.  When  Jefferson  commissioned 
Lewis  and  Clark  to  explore  the  western 
territories,  he  also  asked  them  to  make  a 
careful  search  for  living  Megalonyx.  If  not 
for  the  deadly  combination  of  climate 
change  and  overhunting  of  the  creatures 
by  Paleo-Indians  a  few  thousand  years 
earlier,  Lewis  and  Clark  might  have  been 
successful.  Instead,  sloths  are  now  discov- 
ered and  studied  mainly  by  paleontolo- 
gists. Today  only  two  kinds  of  tree  sloths 
exist,  diminutive  tropical  sur\'ivors  of  their 
big,  far-ranging,  extinct  brothers. 


53 


FORD  TAURUS 

AMERICA'S 

BEST-SELLING  CAR. 

AGAIN. 


Most  people  would  look  at  build- 
ing America's  best-selling  car*  as 
the  ultimate  achievement.  Our 
engineers  looked  at  it  as  a  good 
start.  Instead  of  putting  Ford 
Taurus  on  a  pedestal,  they  put 
it  under  a  magnifying  glass,  and 


found  over  50  ways  to  make  it 
even  better.  Their  improvements 
include  "an  additional  supplemen- 
tal restraint  system^'  "enlarged 
rotors"  and  "revised  spring/stabilizer 
bars"— engineer  talk  that  trans- 
lates with  the  turn  of  a  key  into 


"new  standard 
passenger  air 
bag,"**  "better 
braking  perfor- 
mance" and  "more  responsive  ride 
and  handling."  Everyone  can  appre- 
ciate refinements  like  that. 


EVERY  1994  FORD  COMES 
WITH  OUR  ROADSIDE 
ASSISTANCE  PROGRAM.t 

We've  also  engineered  a  better 
way  to  keep  you  on  the  road.  Help 
is  only  a  toll-free  call  away  if  you 
should  have  a  flat  tire,  run  out  of 
gas  or  lock  your  keys  in  the  car. 


HAVE  YOU  DRIVEN 
AFORDUTELY? 


•Based  on  1993  CY  manufacturer's  reported  retail  deliveries. 
"Always  wear  your  safety  belt. 
T3  years/36.000  miles.  See  dealer  for  details. 


bory  ^eoTives 


o 


r 


ana 


onia 


by  Malcolm  C.  McKenna 


Paleontology  is  a  combination  of  good 
science  and  good  luck.  Most  of  the  time, 
we  paleontologists  work  at  determining 
the  meaning  of  what  has  already  been 
brought  to  a  museum's  storage  cases.  As  a 
new  field  season  approaches,  however,  we 
head  for  distant  parts  of  the  planet  in  hopes 
of  finding  something  important  that  will 
improve  our  understanding  of  geological 
history  and  biological  evolution.  Thus,  in 
June  of  1991,  ajoint  Mongolian-American 
expedition,  including  two  Mongohan  pale- 
ontologists and  six  of  us  from  the  Ameri- 
can Museum  of  Natural  History,  headed 
for  Naran  Bulak  ("Sunny  Spring"),  a  re- 
mote oasis  in  the  otherwise  sere  Gobi 
Desert  of  southwestern  Mongolia. 

Due  to  Naran  Bulak's  coveted  water — 
and  because  many  eighty-million-year-old 
dinosaurs  have  been  found  in  late  Creta- 
ceous sediments  nearby — it  has  become 
an  important  base  for  deeper  paleontologi- 
cal  exploration  of  the  Gobi.  The  area's 
Mesozoic  dinosaurs  are  about  the  same 
age  as  those  at  Mongolia's  famous  Flam- 
ing Cliffs — where,  in  the  1920s,  the 
American  Museum's  own  Mongolian  ex- 
peditions first  found  dinosaur  eggs,  di- 
nosaur skeletons  such  as  those  of  Proto- 
ceratops  and  Velociraptor  (of  cinematic 
fame),  and  skulls  and  jaws  of  early  mam- 
mals such  as  Zalambdalestes  {see  "A 
Pocketful  of  Fossils,"  page  40). 

Since  the  late  1940s,  many  expeditions 
from  scientific  institutions  in  Russia, 
Poland,  and  Mongoha,  as  well  as  our  own 
from  New  York,  have  used  Naran  Bulak  as 
a  center  from  which  to  radiate  in  search  of 
extinct  remains  of  late  Cretaceous  di- 
nosaurs, lizards,  birds,  crocodiles,  turtles, 
and  mammals.  Our  main  interest  in  1991, 
like  that  of  most  of  our  predecessors,  was 
to  explore  the  Cretaceous  outcrops  reach- 
able from  Naran  Bulak.  But  equally  im- 
portant was  the  presence  of  younger  fos- 


sils in  the  multicolored  Cenozoic  sands 
and  clays  overlying  the  dinosaur  beds, 
where  we  unexpectedly  had  a  stroke  of 
good  luck,  practically  within  shouting  dis- 
tance of  camp,  that  set  us  off  on  a  new  path 
of  discovery. 

One  day,  research  fellow  James  Clark 
decided  to  prospect  for  fossils  by  follow- 
ing a  fifty-five-million-year-old  Eocene 
band  of  red  early  Cenozoic  sediments  that 
extended  southeast  and  east  of  camp.  The 
red  layer  rested  on  slightly  older  white- 
colored  sands,  so  we  could  easily  trace  the 
boundary  through  the  badland  exposures. 
Clark  was  almost  immediately  rewarded 
by  a  hard  nodule  of  stone  that  he  found  a 
few  feet  above  the  base  of  the  red  layer.  It 
contained  a  complete  skull  and  jaws  of 
what  at  first  appeared  to  be  some  sort  of 
rodent.  The  fossil  was  mostly  encased  in- 
side a  limey  nodule  with  only  a  couple  of 
front  teeth  protruding,  but  the  nodule  was 
vaguely  skull-shaped,  which  was  what 
had  attracted  Clark's  attention.  Being  an 
expert  anatomist,  he  could  almost  see  the 
rest  of  the  specimen  through  its  coating  of 
limey  silt. 

When  a  paleontologist  finds  and  col- 
lects a  fossil,  the  next  thing  he  or  she  does 
(after  wrapping  it  up  and  recording  the  de- 
tails of  its  location  on  a  map  and  its  posi- 
tion in  the  rocks)  is  to  follow  the  same 
layer  of  rock  that  produced  it  wherever  the 
layer  can  be  seen.  We  often  do  this  on  our 
hands  and  knees.  Jim  was  not  lucky  again 
that  day,  but  in  the  ensuing  days  Priscilla 
McKenna  and  I  dihgently  continued  the 
search  several  miles  to  the  east.  We  knew 
where  to  look:  just  a  few  feet  above  the 
base  of  the  Eocene  red  layer.  We  had  only 
to  follow  the  red  and  white  boundary 
wherever  it  went  and  then  prospect  a  few 
feet  above  it.  We  also  knew  what  to  look 
for:  not  so  much  for  actual  bones  but 
rather  for  limey  rock  nodules  that  looked 


vaguely  skull-  or  bone-shaped,  distributed 
in  the  red  beds  Uke  raisins  in  raisin  bread. 
After  much  effort  in  these  areas  both  east 
.  and  west  of  Naran  Bulak,  we  eventually 
found  about  fifty  nodules  with  skulls  or 
other  bones  inside.  Most  of  the  specimens 
were  skulls  and  jaws  of  adult  animals,  but 
juveniles  with  milk  teeth  were  also  pre- 
sent. We  even  have  a  curled-up,  articu- 
lated partial  skeleton  that  looks  as  if  the 
animal  had  died  in  a  burrow.  All  these 
specimens  in  their  stony  coatings  had  been 
completely  overlooked  by  our  many  pre- 
decessors who  had  not  had  our  expedi- 
tion's brand  of  educated  luck. 

Our  first  impression — that  the  speci- 
mens belonged  to  some  unknown  member 
of  the  Rodentia,  the  varied  order  that  in- 
cludes mice,  rats,  beavers,  and  porcu- 
pines— was  based  on  what  we  could  see  of 
the  front  teeth,  often  the  only  part  visible 
at  the  surface  of  our  rock  nodules.  They 
looked  like  rodent  incisors. 

When  we  returned  to  New  York,  our  at- 
tention was  riveted  by  the  dinosaurs,  birds, 
and  lizards  that  we  had  found  in  the  late 
Cretaceous  sediments  far  older  than  the 
Eocene  red  beds.  But  finally,  we  found 
time  to  begin  removing  some  of  the  rock 
from  our  red  bed  "rodents."  We  have  been 
able  to  dissolve  some  of  the  rock  nodules 
in  weak  acetic  acid,  leaving  the  specimens 
inside  more  or  less  intact.  We  also  have 
used  sharp  needles  and  other  tools  to  get  at 
the  specimens.  Gradually,  some  skulls  and 
jaws  have  emerged.  However,  behind  the 
gnawing  front  pair  of  theii"  rodentlike  in- 
cisors were  some  surprises. 

A  second  pair  of  incisors  bolstered  the 
front  ones,  not  only  in  the  upper  teeth  but 
also  in  the  lower  jaw.  Rabbits,  hares,  and 
their  short-eared  relatives  the  pikas,  col- 
lectively known  as  lagomorphs,  have  a 
second  upper  incisor  pair,  just  behind  the 
main  pair — but  rodents  do  not.  Modem 
lagomorphs,  as  well  as  all  known  rodents, 
have  only  one  incisor  in  each  lower  jaw; 
because  our  Naran  Bulak  specimens  still 
had  two  on  each  side,  they  are  more  prim- 
itive. (Still  more  primitive  mammals  have 
even  more  sets  of  incisors.)  Thus,  in  the 
early  Eocene  red  beds  at  Naran  Bulak,  we 
had  found,  not  rodents,  but  early  and  prim- 
itive Asian  fossil  lagomorph  skulls  and 
bones,  about  twenty  million  years  older 
than  any  previously  well-known  lago- 
morph skulls. 

Members  of  the  mammalian  order 
Lagomorpha  are  well  known  from  many 
fine  specimens,  including  complete  skulls 
and  skeletons  of  Palaeolagus,  dating  back 
to  about  thirty-five  milhon  years  or  so  ago. 


56    Natural  History  4/94 


But  since  then,  they  haven't  changed  much 
compared  with  the  evolutionary  changes 
that  must  have  occurred  earher.  Paleontol- 
ogists have  had  only  a  few  glimpses  of  the 
jaws  and  teeth,  often  of  just  a  few  isolated 
teeth,  of  earlier  specimens.  Thus  we  have 
had  no  clear  picture  of  what  whole  skulls 
or  whole  skeletons  looked  like  in  those 
early  days  of  lagomorph  history.  Palaeo- 
lagiis  is  much  more  like  modern  lago- 
morphs  than  like  the  animals  we  began  to 
find  in  1991  near  Naran  Bulak.  For  ex- 
ample, since  about  thirty-five  million 
years  ago,  rabbits,  hares,  and  pikas  have 
had  high,  prismatic,  rootless  cheek-teeth, 
used  for  grinding  up  vegetation  with  a 
side-to-side  motion  quite  different  from 
that  of  primitive  mammals  or  rodents. 

The  lagomorph  pattern  of  folded 
enamel  and  dentine  on  the  tops  of  the  high 
cheek-tooth  crowns  is  unique,  and  its  ori- 
gin has  puzzled  generations  of  paleontolo- 
gists. Although  theories  abound,  no  one 
has  been  able  to  figure  out  exactly  how  the 
lagomorphs'  pattern  of  cusps  and  valleys 
originated  from  the  simpler  triangular 
cusp  pattern  of  more  primitive  mammals. 
But  the  teeth  of  our  Naran  Bulak  speci- 
mens are  not  high-crowned,  folded,  or 
rootless  like  the  cheek-teeth  of  advanced 
lagomorphs.  Rather,  the  Naran  Bulak  ani- 
mals have  cheek-teeth  that  are  rooted  and 
low-crowned,  with  a  triangular  cusp  pat- 
tern that  is  little  modified,  even  though  the 
enamel  on  the  inner  side  of  the  upper  teeth 
sometimes  enters  partway  into  a  tooth 
socket.  Their  low  enamel  crowns  have  a 


clear  dental  pattern  that  can  be  related  to 
that  of  many  primitive  mammals,  as  well 
as  to  the  highly  modified  design  of  ad- 
vanced lagomorphs.  We  now  know  how 
the  dentition  of  lagomorphs  has  changed 
from  a  structure  like  that  of  primitive 
mammals  to  the  unique  pattern  shown  by 
modem  representatives. 

Other  lagomorph  features  are  shared  by 
our  Naran  Bulak  finds.  For  instance,  the 
joint  between  the  jaw  and  the  skull  is  high 
on  the  side  of  the  skull,  as  in  later  lago- 
morphs. Another  feature  shared  with  later 
lagomorphs  is  the  projection  of  a  sliver  of 
the  frontal  bone  of  the  skull  roof  forward 
onto  the  side  of  the  snout,  between  the 
main  bones  on  the  face  (maxillary)  and 
snout  (premaxillary).  The  incisive  foram- 
ina, the  holes  in  the  front  of  the  palate  be- 
hind the  two  pairs  of  upper  incisors,  are 
very  elongated,  another  telltale  clue  of 
linkage  with  more  modem  lagomorphs.  In 
still  another  traditionally  lucky  feature,  the 
rabbit's  foot,  the  anatomy  of  the  ankle  in 
our  specimens  is  far  more  lagomorphlike 
than  rodentlike,  although  we  don't  know 
whether  the  Naran  Bulak  animals  hopped. 

Other  characteristics  of  our  Naran 
Bulak  fossil  lagomorphs  are  primitive,  not 
yet  modified  from  features  shared  with 
other  (nonlagomorph)  mammals  of  the 
time.  The  typical  flexure  of  the  snout  and 
the  shortening  of  the  palate  of  modem 
lagomorphs'  skulls  are  not  present  in  our 
specimens,  nor  are  certain  changes  in  the 
bony  parts  of  the  ear  region  that  took  place 
closer  to  thirty-five  miUion  years  ago.  The 


lacy  filigree  of  bone  on  the  sides  of  the 
snout  in  modern  rabbits  is  only  faintly 
suggested  by  .some  tiny  openings  in  the 
Naran  Bulak  lagomorphs.  The  upper 
cheek-teeth  in  our  creatures  still  had  fairly 
large  roots  but  these  are  much  reduced  in 
size  in  some  and  wholly  lost  by  other,  later 
lagomorphs.  These  technical  anatomical 
details  help  to  establish  our  Naran  Bulak 
fossils  as  primitive  members  of  the  mam- 
malian order  Lagomorpha,  and  they  also 
show  that  different  parts  of  organisms  can 
evolve  at  different  rates.  Thus  the  long  in- 
cisive foramina  and  upper  incisor  distribu- 
tion evolved  long  before  the  palate  short- 
ened or  the  molars  became  prismatic. 

But  the  evolutionary  trail  does  not  end 
here.  The  teeth  in  our  Naran  Bulak  skulls 
are  closely  similar  to  those  of  the  Mimo- 
tonidae,  an  extinct  family  of  lagomorph- 
like mammals  known  from  snouts  and 
jaws  but  not  from  well-preserved  com- 
plete skulls.  Mimotonids  occur  mostly  in 
southem  China  in  rocks  about  sixty  mil- 
lion years  old.  Our  colleague  Li  Chuan- 
kuei  in  Beijing  has  been  amassing  a  large 
and  important  collection  of  mimotonids 
for  years  and  has  recognized  their  affini- 
ties with  Lagomorpha.  His  fossils,  as  well 
as  our  more  completely  preserved  ones 
from  Naran  Bulak,  suggest  to  me  that  a 
Mongolian  late  Cretaceous  mammal 
known  as  Banmlestes  may  also  be  related 
to  lagomorphs.  Their  teeth  share  some  fea- 
tures: an  enlarged  pair  of  anterior  incisors 
accompanied  by  other,  smaller  rear  in- 
cisors, a  developing  gap  between  the  in- 
cisors and  the  cheek-teeth,  and  inner 
enamel  of  the  upper  cheek-teeth  that 
sometimes  enters  the  tooth  sockets.  The 
lower  incisor  of  Banmlestes  extends  far 
back  in  the  jaw,  beneath  the  anterior  mo- 
lars, and  its  enamel  is  restricted  to  an  outer 
U-shaped  band  of  single-layered  enamel, 
like  that  of  later  lagomorphs.  However,  the 
creature  does  not  have  the  pecuhar  lago- 
morphlike forward-extending  sliver  of 
frontal  bone  that  our  Naran  Bulak  speci- 
mens share  with  lagomorphs. 

Banmlestes,  in  tum,  is  closely  related  to 
the  enigmatic  Zalambdalestes,  one  of  the 
Mongohan  late  Cretaceous  mammals  first 
collected  by  the  American  Museum's 
Central  Asiatic  Expeditions  in  the  1920s 


An  anist  's  inteifretation  of 

Palaeolagus,  an  early  rabbit  that 

lived  in  Nonh  America  some  thirt}'- 

five  million  years  ago 

Drawing  by  Frank  Ippolito 


57 


Frontal  projection 
No  filigree 


First  incisor 


Low-crowned,  rooted  teetti 


Long  incisive  foromino 


Incisors 


Frontal  projection 


Bony  swelling  for  cheek-feeft^ 


Prismatic  teeth  witti  folded  enamel  pattern 
Incisive  foramina 
Incisors 


Fine  details  of  the  skull  show  that  the 

fifty-five-million-year-old  Naran  Bulak 

animal  was  starting  to  become  more 

like  a  modem  lagomorph.  A  side  view 

(h)  of  the  skull  reveals  two  pairs  of 

incisors  (blue),  and  a  frontal  bone 

(purple)  that  juts  foi-ward;  but  no 

network  of  openings  on  the  snout.  (The 

diagonal  stripes  indicate  rocky 

matrix.)  A  view  of  the  upper  jaw  and 

palate  (B)  shows  this  animal's 

rodentlike,  low-crowned  teeth  and 

relatively  long  palate;  but  unlike  a 

rodent's,  its  incisive  foramina 

openings  are  long. 


and  by  later  expeditions  (including  our 
own  in  tiie  1990s).  Now  Zalambdalestes. 
too,  seems  to  me  to  be  a  distant  relative  of 
lagomorphs — closer  to  them  than  to  many 
other  kinds  of  mammals  because  it  seems 
to  share  at  least  a  few  derived  features 
with  them,  the  rest  of  its  features  being  ei- 
ther primitive  characteristics  that  were  not 
later  modified  or  peculiarities  unique  to  it. 
This  conclusion  may  be  proved  wrong  by 
study  of  further  evidence,  but  perhaps  the 
relationships  of  lagomorphs  to  other  mam- 
mals have  been  available  to  us  all  along, 
right  in  museum  collections,  unappreci- 
ated. That  is  why  museums  need  to  keep 
and  augment  large  collections  for  future 
researchers.  Someday,  someone  may  see  a 
specimen  in  our  collections  that  has  fea- 
tures currently  unknown  to  paleontolo- 
gists, or  someone  may  be  able,  through 
new  insight,  to  reinterpret  prevailing  ideas 
in  a  new  and  interesting  way. 


A  Palaeolagus  species  from  thirty- 
five-million-year-old  North 
American  rocks  reveals  a  much 
more  rabbitlike  creature.  Visible 
from  the  side  (C)  is  the  frontal  bone 
projection  (purple),  as  well  as  a 
rabbitlike  lacy  filigree  on  the  snout 

and  a  swelling  that  housed  the 

cheek-teeth.  The  palatal  view  (D) 

shows  that  the  incisive  foramina 

are  still  long,  but  the  palate  is 

short,  the  first  incisors  are  grooved, 

the  second  incisors  small  (blue), 

and  the  cheek-teeth  are  prismatic, 

with  enamel  patterning,  more 

appropriate  for  a  lagomorph 's  diet 

than  a  primitive  manmial's. 

Illustrations  by  Ed  Heck 


58    Natural  History  4/94 


The  Devi  Is 
Corkscrew 

by  Larry  D.  Martin 


Geologist  Erwin  Hinkley  Barbour  knew 
that  he  was  looking  at  a  spectacular  new 
fossil,  but  he  couldn't  figure  out  what  it 
was.  In  1891,  when  he  made  his  first  expe- 
dition to  the  fossil-rich  White  River  Bad- 
lands of  Nebraska,  the  local  ranchers  had 


called  his  attention  to  the  nine-foot-long, 
sand-filled  tubes,  enclosed  within  white  fi- 
brous material,  that  spiraled  down  into 
what  was  thought  to  be  the  remains  of  an 
ancient  lake  bed.  Barbour  was  at  no  loss, 
however,  for  a  scientific  name  for  the 


weird  spirals;  he  called  them  Daimonelix, 
the  classical  language  equivalent  of  their 
local  name,  devil's  corkscrews. 

Soon  after,  Barbour  proposed  that  his 
Daimonelix  were  the  remains  of  giant 
freshwater  sponges.  He  also  noted  that  at 
least  one  sponge  had  become  entangled 
with  the  bones  of  an  extinct  rodent.  When 
further  research  revealed  that  the  deposits 
had  never  been  associated  with  a  lake  but 
more  likely  with  a  semiarid  grassland 
some  twenty-two  million  years  ago,  Bar- 
bour recovered  grandly  by  suggesting  that 
the  spirals  were  a  new  order  of  gigantic 
fossil  plants.  Again,  a  few  rodent  bones 
had  turned  up  with  the  Daimonelix.  While 
Barbour  never  gave  up  his  fossil  plant  sce- 
nario, his  fellow  paleontologists  had  some 


A  herd  of  slender  three-toed  horses  bypass  mounds  of  dirt  encircling  beaver 

burrows.  In  the  American  West,  twenty-two  million  year  ago,  these  burrowing 

rodents  constructed  colonies  analogous  to  those  of  today 's  prairie  dogs. 

Detail  ol  painting  by  Jay  Matternes;  courtesy  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution 


59 


ideas  about  the  presence  of  the  rodents. 

In  1893,  Edward  Drinker  Cope  and 
Theodor  Fuchs  independently  suggested 
that  the  Daimonelix  were  not  remains  of 
organisms  themselves,  but  were  trace  fos- 
sils of  structures  excavated  by  the  rodents. 
In  1905,  Olaf  A.  Peterson,  of  the  Carnegie 
Museum,  examined  the  fossils  and  deter- 
mined that  the  bones  were  the  remains  of 
beavers  and  that  the  spirals  were  burrows. 
Like  old  sewer,  lines,  the  burrows  were 
lined  with  roots  (Barbour  had  been  right 
about  the  plant  tissue).  The  surrounding 
sediments  were  so  rich  in  volcanic  glass 
that  the  groundwater  was  charged  with  sil- 
ica, and  plant  roots  became  embedded  in  a 
glassy  matrix  (the  hard,  white  exterior  of 
the  burrows).  This  "cast"  led  to  the  preser- 
vation of  the  Daimonelix. 

The  burrowing  beavers  were  about  the 
size  of  woodchucks  or  smaller.  Like  other 
digging  vertebrates,  they  had  short  tails 
and  small  ears  and  eyes.  They  also  had 
long  claws  and  superlong  front  teeth,  or  in- 
cisors, that  grew  rapidly  to  counteract  the 
wear  that  results  from  digging.  Three  spe- 
cies are  known,  the  large  Palaeocastor 
magnus,  middle-sized  P.  fossor,  and  the 
small  Pseudopalaeocastor  barbouri.  The 
burrows  of  each  species  can  be  distin- 
guished by  the  diameter  within  the  spiral 
and  the  width  of  the  dig  marks.  (North 
America  was  also  home  to  aquatic  beavers 
that  Uved  at  the  same  time  as  Palaeocas- 
tor, and  the  oldest-known  beaver,  Agnoto- 
castor,  was  aquatic.  However,  the  modem 
North  American  species.  Castor  canaden- 
sis, is  descended  from  neither  the  burrow- 
ers  nor  Agnotocastor;  it  is  an  immigrant 
from  Eurasia  that  arrived  here  some  five 
milUon  years  ago.) 

Not  long  after  coming  to  the  University 
of  Kansas  in  1970, 1  began  a  detailed  ex- 
amination of  more  than  one  thousand 
devil's  corkscrews.  By  bringing  casts  and 
actual  specimens  of  corkscrews  back  to 
my  laboratory,  I  discovered  that  the  an- 
cient beavers  had  left  clues  to  their  engi- 
neering strategy  in  the  form  of  twenty- 
two-million-year-old  dig  marks  in  the 
burrow  walls. 


Devil's  corkscrews  spiraled 
some  nine  feet  into  the  ground. 
Equipped  with  chambers  and 
side  passages,  they  provided 
beavers  with  safe,  cool  living 
quarters  and  possibly  latrines 
and  water  "sinks." 

Drawing  by  Ed  Heck 


Instead  of  the  narrow  claw  marks  that  I 
had  expected,  the  walls  were  covered  with 
broad  grooves  that  I  could  match  by  scrap- 
ing the  incisors  of  the  fossilized  beaver 
skulls  into  wet  sand.  The  beavers  had  used 
their  teeth  to  scrape  dirt  off  the  walls.  The 
very  regular  spirals  were  constructed  by  a 
continuous  series  of  either  right-  or  left- 
handed  incisor  strokes,  and  the  burrows 
are  divided  almost  fifty-fifty  into  right- 
and  left-handed  spirals.  A  burrowing 
beaver  must  have  fixed  its  hind  feet  on  the 
axis  of  the  spiral  and  literally  screwed  it- 
self straight  down  into  the  ground.  Two  or 
three  yards  underground,  the  burrow  ex- 
tended into  a  straight  chamber  slightly  in- 
clined upward  where  right-  and  left- 
handed  incisor  strokes  alternate.  These  are 
the  living  chambers;  some  have  low  pock- 
ets that  may  have  served  as  sinks  for  water 
or  as  latrines  and  side  passages.  This  is 
where  the  skeletons  of  beavers  and  their 


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cubs  are  usually  found.  Some  burrows  also 
contain  highly  inclined  (about  45°)  living 
chambers,  which  may  have  been  esfiva- 
tion  chambers,  where  the  beavers  stayed 
cool  during  hot,  dry  summers. 

As  they  dug,  the  beavers  had  to  dispose 
of  the  loose  dirt  they  had  scraped  away 
with  their  front  teeth.  My  investigations 
showed  that  the  beavers  scooped  up  the 
dirt  with  their  paws  and  thrust  it  behind 
them.  1  think  too  that  every  so  often  the  ro- 
dent must  have  used  its  remarkably  flat 
head  to  push  the  accumulations  out  of  the 
burrow.  Burrow  entrances  would  have 
been  marked  by  high  mounds  of  exca- 
vated soil. 

I  once  mapped  more  than  two  hundred 
separate  burrows  that  all  seemed  to  be  part 
of  one  colony.  Like  modem  prairie  dogs, 
these  beavers  may  well  have  had  extensive 
networks  of  colonies,  towns  covering 
acres.  The  existence  of  more  complex  so- 
cial behaviors  is  easy  to  imagine  but  hard 
to  prove.  Did  rodent  guards  stand  on  look- 
out on  the  mounds  to  give  waming  whis- 
fles  of  danger  to  other  colony  members? 
We  do  know  that  the  beavers  had  enemies. 
An  ancient  raccoon  relative,  Zodiolestes 
daimonelixensis,  as  its  name  suggests,  was 
found  curled  up  in  a  Daimonelix  looking 
completely  at  home.  It  may  have  lived 
within  the  colony  and  preyed  predomi- 
nantly on  the  resident  beavers,  much  as  the 
black-footed  ferret  does  today  in  prairie 
dog  colonies.  When  pursued  on  the  sur- 
face, a  Palaeocastor  could  attempt  to  es- 
cape by  plunging  headfirst  into  its  burrow. 
The  tops  of  burrows  reveal  expanded  areas 
that  would  have  allowed  a  fleeing  beaver 
to  turn  around  and  then  pop  its  head  over 
the  mound  or  to  back  down  the  hole,  only 
a  little  broader  than  its  body,  then  face  the 
predator  with  strong  jaws  and  formidable 
teeth. 

The  fossil  record  is  full  of  examples  of 
evolutionary  developments,  such  as  the 
beavers'  colonies  of  spirals,  which  have 
now  disappeared.  The  magic  is  in  the  reap- 
pearance of  many  of  these  developments 
at  different  times.  Long  before  Palaeocas- 
tor, and  for  that  matter,  before  any  tme 
mammals  existed,  some  members  of  a 
group  called  mammallike  reptiles,  the  di- 
cynodonts,  took  to  burrowing  and  created 
spiral  burrows  so  remarkably  like  those  of 
Palaeocastor  that  they  should  probably  be 
included  in  the  same  trace-fossil  genus, 
Daimonelix.  And  today,  while  modem 
beavers  have  undertaken  new  engineering 
feats,  the  spirit  of  burrowing  Palaeocastor 
echoes  in  the  subterranean  labyrinths  of 
prairie  dog  towns. 


60    Natural  History  4/94 


Diston 
Thunder 

by  Bryn  J.  Mader 


Long  before  people  of  European  de- 
scent came  to  the  Great  Plains  of  North 
America,  the  remains  of  extinct  creatures 
that  would  later  be  called  titanotheres  were 
known  to  the  native  inhabitants  of  this  re- 
gion. Many  fossil  bones  of  these  mysteri- 
ous "titan  beasts"  had  weathered  out  in  the 
Badlands,  and  over  time,  the  bones  were 
woven  into  legend.  According  to  the 
Sioux,  the  bones  were  those  of  the  great 
"thunder  horse,"  a  gigantic  creature  that 
would  occasionally  descend  to  earth  to 
hunt  buffalo. 

Western  science  first  learned  of  titan- 
otheres in  1 846,  when  a  fur  trader  brought 
an  unusual  fossil  to  Hiram  Prout,  a  med- 
ical doctor  living  in  Saint  Louis.  The  fos- 
sil, a  section  of  a  massive  lower  jaw,  had 
been  found  in  the  Badlands,  along  the 
White  River  in  what  is  now  South  Dakota. 
Front's  specimen,  which  is  still  preserved 
in  the  collections  of  the  Smithsonian  Insti- 
tution, has  a  double  significance  because  it 
was  also  the  first  fossil  land  vertebrate  to 


be  collected  from  the  western  territories  of 
the  United  States.  The  strange  fossil 
caused  much  excitement  in  scientific  cir- 
cles and  was  largely  responsible  for  the 
geological  exploration  of  the  territories  in 
the  decades  that  followed.  All  of  the  spec- 
tacular discoveries  of  dinosaurs  and  giant 
mammals  in  the  American  West  owe 
much  to  the  finding  of  this  first,  fragmen- 
tary fossil. 

After  the  discovery  of  the  first  titano- 
there  specimen,  more  than  a  quarter  cen- 
tury passed  before  scientists  began  to 
piece  together  an  accurate  picture  of  what 
titanotheres  were  truly  like.  Not  surpris- 
ingly, the  image  that  emerged  was  quite 
different  from  the  fabulous  creatures  of 
Sioux  legend;  nevertheless,  titanotheres 
turned  out  to  be  extraordinary  animals. 

Titanotheres  belong  to  the  mammalian 
order  Perissodactyla,  which  includes  mod- 
em-day horses,  tapirs,  and  rhinoceroses, 
and  are  members  of  a  distinct  perisso- 
dactyl  family  known  as  brontotheres 


(which  means  "thunder  beasts").  Al- 
though many  titanotheres  were  superfi- 
cially rhinoceroslike  in  appearance,  they 
were  a  distinct  lineage  and  left  no  descen- 
dants in  our  modern  world. 

Titanotheres  appeared  in  western  North 
America  in  the  early  Eocene,  approxi- 
mately fifty-one  million  years  ago,  and 
soon  spread  across  the  Bering  land  bridge 
into  eastern  Asia.  The  earliest  titanothere, 
Eotitanops  borealis,  was  a  relatively  small 
creature,  no  bigger  than  a  large  dog.  Over 
the  course  of  their  twenty-million-year 
history,  however,  fitanotheres  evolved  into 
giants  such  as  Megacerops  platyceras, 
more  than  seven  feet  high  at  the  shoulder. 

The  titanothere  was  massive  and  pow- 
erfully built.  It  had  four  hooflike  toes  on  its 
front  feet  and  three  on  the  hind  feet.  The 
head  was  oddly  proportioned,  with  an  ex- 
tremely short  face  on  an  otherwise  elon- 
gated skull.  Both  eyesight  and  smell  were 
pooriy  developed,  and  the  brain  was  extra- 
ordinarily small.  In  a  giant  skull  more  than 
three  feet  long,  the  brain  was  only  slightly 
larger  than  a  human  fist. 

Like  all  perissodactyls,  titanotheres 
were  herbivores.  Their  very  low-crowned 
teeth  suggest  that  they  fed  primarily  on 
soft  leaves.  On  occasion,  they  may  have 
eaten  grass,  but  it  does  not  seem  to  have 
constituted  a  large  part  of  their  diet.  Grass 
is  a  highly  abrasive  substance  that  wears 
teeth  down  very  quickly.  If  titanotheres 
subsisted  primarily  on  grass,  their  teeth 
would  have  been  worn  to  stubs  in  a  very 
short  period. 

Perhaps  the  most  conspicuous  feature 
of  many  titanothere  species  were  the  horns 
located  on  the  front  of  the  skull.  Titanoth- 
ere horns  differed  from  those  of  modem- 
day  antelope  and  cattle  in  that  they  were 
blunt  and  covered  with  tough  hide  rather 
than  with  a  homy  sheath.  They  were  pre- 
sent in  both  sexes,  and  in  primitive  homed 
species,  the  horns  of  males  and  females 
were  about  the  same  size.  In  the  gigantic 
forms  of  later  eras,  however,  the  homs  of 
males  were  larger  than  those  of  females. 


On  exhibit  at  the  American 

Museum,  a  skeleton  of  the 

titanothere  Brontops 

reveals  a  broken  and 

subsequently  healed  rib 

(fourth  rib  visible  from 

front).  Such  an  injwy  could 

have  resulted fivm  rivalry 

between  herd  members. 

Photograph  by  Denis  Finnin;  AMNH 


61 


Titanothere  homs  had  a  vaiiety  of  shapes 
and  probably  served  a  number  of  pur- 
poses: for  species  recognition,  as  displays 
in  courtship,  and  as  weapons  during  com- 
bat with  other  titanotheres. 

When  titanotheres  fought  with  their 
horns,  they  probably  did  so  in  one  of  two 
different  ways.  Most  titanotheres  had 
homs  that  were  directed  to  the  side,  sug- 
gesting that  the  combatants  might  have 
circled  one  an'other  while  delivering  lat- 
eral blows  to  the  unprotected  flank  of  the 
opponent.  In  other  titanotheres,  however, 
the  homs  were  directed  forward,  indicat- 


In  the  late  1920s,  artist 
Charles  Knight  depicted  a 

magnificent  bull 

titanothere,  of  the  genus 

Megacerops,  intimidating  a 

would-be  predator  the 

carnivore  Hyaenodon,  at 

the  edge  of  a  watering  hole. 

The  rest  of  the  titanothere 

herd  dust-bathes  and  feeds 

in  the  background. 

Charles  R.  Knight:  courtesy  of  the  Field 
Museum  of  Natural  History,  Neg  No,  121T 


ing  that  these  species  probably  fought 
head  to  head,  locking  homs  with  those  of 
their  adversaiy.  much  as  deer  and  cattle  do 
today.  Although  these  head-to-head  con- 
tests were  primarily  wrestling  matches, 
the  focus  of  the  attack  probably  remained 
the  opponent's  flank,  which  would  be 
rammed  with  the  homs  if  the  opportunity 
arose.  The  American  Museum's  new  fos- 
sil mammal  exhibition  includes  a  remark- 
able titanothere  skeleton  belonging  to  the 
genus  Brontops  in  which  one  rib  had  been 
broken  during  the  life  of  the  animal,  prob- 
ably during  a  sparring  match  with  another 
titanothere. 

At  the  end  of  the  Eocene  epoch,  ap- 
proximately thirty-two  million  years  ago, 
all  titanothere  species  suddenly  became 
extinct.  Despite  their  abmpt  disappearance 
from  the  fossil  record,  titanotheres  were 
not  casualties  of  a  sudden  cataclysmic 
event.  Instead,  their  disappearance  can 
probably  be  explained  by  a  simple  change 
in  the  earth's  climate. 

The  classical  explanation  for  the  extinc- 
tion of  these  huge  browsers  holds  that  as 
the  Eocene  passed  into  the  Oligocene,  the 
environment  became  cooler  and  drier, 
transfomiing  the  open  woodland  habitat 
inhabited  by  the  last  titanotheres  into  rela- 


tively open  grassland.  Many  of  the  trees 
and  shmbs  that  had  fumished  titanotheres 
with  their  primary  source  of  food  disap- 
peared over  time,  leaving  only  the  expand- 
ing fields  of  grass  to  provide  sustenance. 
Other  perissodactyls,  such  as  horses  and 
rhinoceroses,  developed  higher-crowned 
teeth  in  response  to  this  ecological  chal- 
lenge, but  titanotheres  never  evolved  a 
tmly  high-crowned  tooth.  With  their  fee- 
ble teeth  basically  unmodified,  titano- 
theres were  not  able  to  efficiently  utilize 
the  primary  source  of  food,  and  were 
doomed  to  extinction. 

In  the  grand  scheme  of  things,  titano- 
theres did  not  survive  on  this  planet  for 
long,  but  while  they  were  here  they  were 
one  of  the  dominant  herbivores  and 
thrived  in  great  numbers.  The  last  titano- 
theres were  among  the  largest  land  mam- 
mals of  their  time  and  reigned  virtually 
unchallenged  for  six  million  years.  Like 
all  creatures,  however,  they  were  subject 
to  nature's  great  dictum:  Adapt  to  the 
changing  world  or  pass  into  obhvion.  Ti- 
tanotheres could  not  adapt  to  the  rigors  of 
the  new  environment  and  passed  from  the 
scene,  leaving  only  their  fossil  bones  to  in- 
trigue Homo  sapiens,  the  dominant  crea- 
ture of  the  present  era. 


62    NATimAL  History  4/94 


Heyday 


Horses 


by  Bruce  J.  MacFadden 

North  America  is  the  ancestral  home  of 
horses,  and  many  fossil  sites  across  the 
continent  contain  abundant  remains  of  an- 
cient members  of  the  family.  During  the 
past  fifteen  years,  my  colleagues  and  I 
have  excavated  fossil  horses  at  Thomas 
Farm,  a  site  in  Florida  that  some  eighteen 
million  years  ago  was  a  sinkhole  and  per- 
fect trap  for  animal  remains.  In  addition  to 
such  long-vanished  creatures  as  extinct 
rhinoceroses  and  bear-dogs,  we  have  un- 
earthed thousands  of  teeth  and  bones  of 
fossil  horses. 

Three  different  kinds  of  fossil  horses  are 
found  at  Thomas  Farm,  but  by  far  the  most 
common  we  have  encountered  is  Parahip- 
pus — "side-toed  horse,"  so  named  be- 
cause of  the  toes  flanking  either  side  of  the 
central  digit.  About  the  size  of  a  small 
white-tailed  deer  or  pronghom,  Parahip- 
pus  probably  lived  in  small  bands,  or 
harems  (as  do  many  modem  horses  in  the 
wild),  consisting  of  a  dominant  male,  sev- 
eral females,  and  juveniles.  It  may  have 
inhabited  both  woodlands  and  grasslands 
and  fed  on  leaves  from  trees  and  shrubs,  as 
well  as  on  grasses.  Thus,  in  its  social  struc- 
ture, habitats,  and  diet,  this  early  horse 
combined  characteristics  of  primitive,  an- 
cestral horses  with  more  modem  traits. 
With  its  hoof — and  toes — in  two  worlds, 
Parahippus  stood  on  the  verge  of  the  great 
heyday  of  horses  during  the  Miocene. 

At  any  given  fossil  locality  in  North 
America  from  about  fifty-five  to  twenty- 
five  million  years  ago,  we  usually  can  find 
two  to  four  species  of  horses  that  presum- 
ably lived  side  by  side.  Thereafter,  from 
about  twenty  to  ten  million  years  ago, 
horses  evolved  rapidly  and  adapted  to  var- 
ious environments  and  ways  of  life.  Horse 
diversity  increased  so  dramatically  that  at 
some  fossil  sites  from  fifteen  million  years 


ago  as  many  as  a  dozen  species  can  be 
found.  Today,  the  world's  horses  (and  their 
relatives  the  zebras,  asses,  and  onagers) 
are  reduced  to  the  single  genus  Eqmis, 
whose  wild  members  live  only  in  parts  of 
Asia  and  Africa.  All  are  powerful  runners 
and  feed  predominantly  on  grass.  Such 
uniformity  contrasts  starkly  with  fossil 
horses,  a  group  with  a  rich  fifty-five-mil- 
lion-year-old history,  represented  by  some 
three  dozen  extinct  genera. 

The  coexistence  of  so  many  species  of 
similar  ancestry  and  general  adaptive 
traits  in  the  same  ecosystems  suggests 
that,  as  in  modern-day  communities, 
horses  divided  up  the  niches  and  resources 
available  to  them.  Before  about  twenty 
million  years  ago,  most  horses  were  pre- 
dominantly browsers,  feeding  on  leaves  of 
trees,  bushes,  and  low-lying  shrubs  and 
supplementing  this  diet  with  whatever  soft 
vegetation  formed  the  local  ground  cover. 
This  appears  to  have  been  the  main  feed- 
ing strategy  not  only  of  primitive  horses 
but  also  of  most  other  herbivorous  mam- 
mals of  the  time.  With  rapid  diversifica- 
tion, however,  this  feeding  strategy 
changed.  We  know  this  because  about 
twenty  million  years  ago,  fossil  horse 
teeth  changed  dramatically. 

Today,  for  example,  many  browsers, 
such  as  giraffes  and  camels  in  Africa,  have 
relatively  short-crowned  teeth;  in  contrast, 
all  grazers,  or  mammals  whose  diet  con- 
sists predominantly  of  grasses,  have  tall 
teeth.  These  high-crowned  teeth  evolved 
to  crop  and  process  grasses,  an  adaptation 
that  has  immediate  and  long-term  "costs." 
Grasses  contain  abrasive  compounds 
called  phytoliths  (microscopic,  elongated 
structures  with  the  same  chemical  compo- 
sition as  glass,  SiOj).  When  grazers  eat 
grasses,  they  acquire  nutrients,  but  the 
phytoliths  cause  much  more  wear  on  the 
grinding  teeth  than  do  grit-free  leaves  and 
the  softer  vegetation  favored  by  browsers. 

During  the  Miocene,  several  groups  of 
horses  throughout  the  Northern  Hemi- 
sphere evolved  high-crowned  teeth  at 
about  the  same  time.  Based  on  our  knowl- 
edge of  modem  herbivores  and  the  nature 
of  grasses,  the  acquisition  of  these  new, 
taller  teeth  suggests  that  Miocene  horses 
were  becoming  predominantly  grazers. 
Recent  chemical  analyses  of  Miocene 
horse  teeth  indicate  that  during  that  time 
most  grasses  were  primitive,  photosynthe- 
sizing  carbon  in  the  manner  of  trees  and 
shrubs  rather  than  the  way  modem  tem- 
perate and  tropical  grasses  do.  Thus,  coex- 
isting horse  species  of  the  Miocene  not 
only  divided  up  the  available  browse  more 


narrowly  but  also  began  to  exploit  the 
grasslands  and  savannas  that  were  becom- 
ing more  widespread. 

The  addition  of  grass  to  ancient  horses' 
diets,  and  the  possibility  of  grazing  rather 
than  browsing  as  a  way  of  life,  are  re- 
flected in  horse  biology.  Fossil  horses  have 
been  thought  to  exemplify  Cope's  Rule  (in 
which  an  increase  in  body  size  over  time 
results  in  descendant  species  being  larger, 
on  average,  than  their  ancestors).  The  dog- 
sized  eohippus  (the  dawn  horse  more 
properly  known  as  Hymcotherium),  the 
smallest  and  oldest  member  of  the  horse 
family,  lived  at  the  far  end  of  the  spectrum, 
fifty-five  million  years  ago.  The  large 
modem-day  Eqiius  species  is  at  the  other 
end,  with  a  gradual  continuum  of  horses  of 
increasing  size  between  the  extremes.  Re- 
cent work  has  shown  this  evolutionary  pat- 
tem  to  be  grossly  oversimplified,  if  not  in- 
correct, for  fossil  horses.  In  the  first  half  of 
their  evolutionary  history,  horses  changed 
very  little  in  body  size.  Then,  during  the 
Miocene,  they  diversified  rapidly  to  in- 
clude large  species  and  even  a  few  dwarf 
lineages.  Browsing  and  grazing  species  of 
this  period  ran  the  size  gamut.  Thus, 
Miocene  horses  appear  to  have  minimized 
competition  for  the  available  food  and 
space  by  occupying  slightly  different 
niches. 

During  the  Miocene,  a  major  adaptive 
shift  in  horse  locomotion  occuned.  In  gen- 
eral, fossil  horse  limbs  lengthened,  and 
side  toes  were  reduced  and  ultimately  lost. 
While  the  evolutionary  advantages  of  hav- 
ing a  foot  with  one  rather  than  three  toes 
are  not  clear,  the  classic  interpretation  for 
limb  elongation  holds  that  it  allowed 
horses  to  better  escape  fast-mnning  preda- 
tors. Another  factor  may  also  have  favored 
longer  limbs.  The  late  Miocene,  from 
about  ten  to  five  million  years  ago,  was  a 
time  of  great  climate  shifts  and  increased 
seasonality — more  defined  dry  versus 
rainy  and  warm  versus  cold  cycles.  The 
ability  to  travel  longer  distances  may  have 
enabled  horses  to  migrate  hundreds  of 
miles  to  take  advantage  of  local  plant 
foods  available  at  certain  times  of  the  year, 
as  do  zebras  and  wildebeests  in  Africa 
today.  About  five  million  years  ago,  horses 
also  evolved  functional  locking  mecha- 
nisms of  the  forelimbs  and  hind  limbs,  al- 
lowing them  to  stand  for  long  periods 
without  great  fatigue  (modem  horses  can 
stand  for  about  eighteen  to  twenty  hours  a 
day).  These  physiological  changes  en- 
dowed some  groups  of  Miocene  horses 
with  great  speed  and  stamina. 

While  behavior  does  not  fossUize,  body 


63 


size,  teeth  (which  give  clues  to  diet),  local 
climate  conditions,  and  vegetation,  as  well 
as  comparisons  with  some  kinds  of  mod- 
em mammals,  can  help  us  reconstruct  the 
social  systems  of  fossil  horses.  During  the 
Eocene,  the  small,  forest-dwelling  brows- 
ers, such  as  Hyracotherium,  were  prob- 
ably solitary  or  lived  in  small  bands  within 
small  home  ranges,  as  do  modem  forest- 
dwelling  tapirs  and  Chinese  water  deer.  In 
contrast,  more  open  landscapes  and  mixed 
forest  and  grassland  habitats  of  the 
Miocene  enabled  early  horses  to  broaden 
their  range  of  behaviors.  Both  the  kind  of 
territoriality  observed  today  in  Grevy's 
zebra  and  the  more  nomadic  life  in  bands, 
or  harems,  seen  in  Burchell's  zebra,  have 
probably  existed  in  horses  since  the 
Miocene. 

Fossils  from  individual  quarries  some- 
times represent  particular  populations  of 
extinct  horses.  They  also  provide  insight 
into  the  longevity  and  reproductive  biol- 
ogy of  various  species.  Little  Hyra- 
cotherium probably  had  a  potential  life 
span  of  three  or  four  years.  Females  would 
have  given  birth  to  at  least  one  foal  a  year, 
although,  based  on  local  climate  recon- 
stmctions,  breeding  cycles  in  the  Eocene 
were  not  synchronized  or  concentrated  at 
any  particular  season.  During  the  Mio- 
cene, however,  the  average  life  span  of 
horses  increased  to  about  nine  to  fourteen 
years,  depending  upon  the  species.  Within 
local  populations,  many  of  these  horses 
gave  birth  during  the  season  when  food 
was  most  abundant. 

Starting  about  eight  million  years  ago, 
horse  diversity  dropped  drastically,  retum- 
ing  to  pre-Miocene  levels  of  only  three  to 
five  species  at  any  given  fossil  locality  in 
the  Northern  Hemisphere.  Studies  of  an- 


In  a  panorama  depicting  life  ten  to 
fifteen  million  years  ago  on  the 
Great  Plains,  three-toed  open- 
country  grazers  dominate  the 
foreground;  one,  detecting  the 
furtive  cat  in  the  ground  cover, 
neighs  a  warning  to  herd 
members.  Other  three-toed  grazers 
and  one-toed  Pliohippus,  near  the 
elm  tree,  gather  in  small  bands,  or 

harems.  At  the  far  right,  a 

contingent  of  three-toed  browsers 

barely  emerge  from  their  forest 

home.  Crocodiles,  rhinos,  and 

shovel-tusked  elephants  share  the 

valley  stream. 

Painting  by  Marianne  Collins 


cient  climate  indicate  increased  global 
aridity.  This,  in  tum,  seems  to  have  led  to 
less  productive  land  ecosystems.  The  hey- 
day of  horses  ended.  In  addition,  competi- 
tion with  cud-chewing,  hoofed  herbivores 
such  as  deer  and  bison  may  also  have  af- 
fected horse  diversity.  By  two  million 
years  ago,  only  the  single  horse  genus 


Equus,  consisting  of  a  few  species,  re- 
mained in  the  Northem  Hemisphere. 

About  three  million  years  ago,  during 
the  Pliocene,  Equus  emigrated  from  North 
America  across  the  Bering  land  bridge 
into  the  Old  World  and,  after  the  formation 
of  another  dry-land  connection  to  the 
south,  crossed  the  isthmus  of  Panama 


64    Natural  History  4/94 


from  North  to  South  America.  Dramatic 
climatic  fluctuations  within  the  past  mil- 
Uon  years  and  the  arrival  of  humans  in  the 
New  World  during  the  late  Pleistocene 
contributed  to  the  extinction  of  Equus  in 
the  Americas.  In  the  Old  World,  the  range 
of  Equus  became  restricted  to  portions  of 
Africa,  where  it  gave  rise  to  modem  ze- 


bras and  their  relatives,  and  to  the  dry 
steppes  of  central  Asia.  The  Asian  equids, 
including  the  now-endangered  Przewal- 
skii's  horse,  apparently  provided  the  stock 
from  which  the  horse  was  domesticated 
five  to  six  thousand  years  ago. 

Over  the  past  several  million  years,  spe- 
cies of  Equus,  both  extinct  and  extant, 


adapted  to  a  wide  variety  of  ecological  sit- 
uations and  successfully  spread  through- 
out the  Old  and  the  New  Worlds.  Yet  the 
familiar  horses,  zebras,  asses,  and  onagers 
that  share  our  modern  world  represent  but 
a  single  surviving  branch  on  a  once  luxuri- 
ant equid  family  tree  that  reached  its  full 
glory  during  the  Miocene. 


■-3^&I/^. 


'^ 


65 


Why  Antlers 
Branched  Ou 


by  Valerius  Geist 


Every  large  museum  of  natural  history 
has  its  collection  of  ungulate  heads,  horns, 
and  antlers — mostly  donated  by  nine- 
teenth-century sportsmen  obsessed  by 
such  trophies  of  the  hunt.  These  same  in- 
stitutions amassed  fossilized  Irish  elk 
antlers  and  skulls  of  extinct  giant  moose 
and  bison.  Hoofed  mammals  have  evolved 
many  types  of  horns:  the  antlers  of  deer; 
the  true  horns  of  cattle,  sheep,  and  an- 
telopes; the  false  horns  of  North  America's 
pronghorns;  and  the  hairy,  skin-covered 
horns  of  giraffes.  Several  extinct  species 
sported  horns  of  odd  architecture.  But  of 
what  scientific  value  is  this  jumble  of  di- 
verse heads  and  horns,  ancient  and  mod- 
em? What  might  they  tell  us  about  the 
evolution  of  hoofed  mammals? 

Observing  living  animals  may  help  an- 
swer such  a  question.  In  December  1961, 
during  a  three-year  field  study  of  moun- 
tain goats  in  the  Cassiar  Mountains  of 
northern  British  Columbia,  I  watched  a 
typical  territorial  dispute  near  my  cabin.  A 
female  mountain  goat,  her  short,  sharp 
horns  lowered,  rushed  a  much  larger  male. 
The  big  billy  jumped  aside,  turned  away, 
and  hastened  down  the  hill,  with  the  fe- 
male in  pursuit.  As  he  looked  back  over 
his  shoulder,  she  jerked  her  head  up 
sharply,  prompting  the  male  to  accelerate 
his  departure.  I  did  not  see  him  for  the  rest 
of  the  winter. 

The  female  had  a  more  difficult  time 


with  a  young  billy  that  was  about  two  or 
three  years  old  and  about  her  size.  When 
she  advanced  menacingly,  he  arched  his 
back  into  a  dominance  display,  but  the  fe- 
male charged  nevertheless.  A  brief,  vio- 
lent fight  erupted  on  the  snowy  slope  as  the 
goats  whirled  about,  thrusting  their  sharp 
horns  into  each  other  Finally,  the  younger 
billy,  too,  took  flight  and  never  returned. 

Such  dramas,  which  follow  the  mating 
season  in  early  winter,  are  part  of  the 
mountain  goat's  biology:  dominant  fe- 
males with  kids  clear  out  other  goats  (in- 
cluding the  largest  males)  from  chosen 
areas  of  superior  habitat,  known  to  scien- 
tists as  "resource  territories."  The  steep, 
jagged  chff  near  my  cabin  was  regularly 
swept  of  snow  by  strong,  warm  chinook 
winds,  making  it  a  good  place  for  goats  to 
forage,  even  after  a  blizzard.  The  female's 
relentless  aggression,  enforced  by  her 
horns,  insured  that  she  and  her  offspring — 
one  by  her  side,  one  growing  in  her 
uterus — had  the  food  they  needed  to  sur- 
vive and  thrive. 

Mountain  goats'  short,  shghtly  curved, 
needle-sharp  horns  make  ugly  wounds 
that  hemorrhage  beneath  the  skin. 
Wounded  goats  hobble  about  for  a  long 
time  after  a  fight  and  give  every  indication 
of  being  hurt.  The  species'  horns  seem  to 
have  evolved  to  cause  a  maximum  of  pain 
and  to  enable  them  to  be  quickly  with- 
drawn from  the  victim's  body  before  they 


Living  New  World  deer  are  arranged,  front  to  back, 
from  tropical  dwarfs  with  short  spikes  to  caribou  and  moose  that 

evolved  giant  antlers  during  the  ice  ages.  The  species  are  (a) 

Andean  deer,  or  guemal,  (b)  pampas  deerfivm  South  America, 

(c)  mazama,  one  of  the  brocket  deer,  (d)pudu,  the  smallest 

living  deerfivm  the  Andes,  (e)  white-tailed  deer  of  the 

tropics,  (f)  marsh  deer  from  South  America,  (g)  mule  deer  of 

western  North  America,  (h)  white-tailed  deer  of  northern 

temperate  zones,  (i)  caribou,  or  reindeer,  which  live  in 

arctic  and  alpine  areas  of  both  the  New  and  Old  World,  and  {']) 

moose  from  the  subarctic  and  subalpine  regions  of  the 

Old  and  New  World. 


can  become  caught  and  snap  the  neck  of 
the  aggressor.  The  short,  spiky  shape  of 
the  horns  proclaims  the  species  to  be  one 
that  aggressively  defends  resource  territo- 
ries— although  in  this  case  only  the  fe- 
males do  the  defending. 

Other  living  animals  with  similar  homs 
and  territorial  behavior  include  the  duikers 
of  Africa,  dwarf  antelopes  that  inhabit 
scrub  and  forest;  the  httle  brocket  deer  that 
range  from  Argentina  to  Central  Mexico; 
and  the  Indian  nilgai,  Asia's  largest  ante- 
lope. Fossil  antelopes  going  back  to  the 
late  Oligocene  or  early  Miocene  periods, 
some  twenty-five  million  years  ago,  in- 
clude several  duikerlike  forms  from  Eu- 
rope, Asia,  and  North  America.  In  most 
cases,  the  evolution  of  antlers  went  along 
with  the  diminution  of  large  canines,  al- 
though some  modem  species  (such  as  the 
muntjac  of  Southeast  Asia)  retain  large  ca- 
nines as  well  as  homs. 

Stabbing  homs  represent  the  earliest 
and  simplest  type  of  armament  among  a 
great  diversity  of  hom  shapes  and  sizes. 
But  very  soon  after  this  type  of  antler  ap- 
peared in  the  late  Oligocene,  many  large, 
gregarious  antelopes  with  antlerlike  homs 
were  beginning  to  populate  the  newly 
spreading  grasslands  of  the  Northern 
Hemisphere.  In  open  landscapes,  the  ani- 
mals banded  together  to  avoid  predators, 
for  the  larger  the  herd,  the  less  likely  that 
any  particular  individual  at  its  periphery 
would  be  caught.  Those  in  the  center  were 
the  safest  of  all.  Zoologists  call  such  ag- 
gregations "selfish  herds"  because  indi- 
viduals do  not  cooperate  but  stay  together 
strictly  in  their  own  self-interest. 

In  closely  packed  herds,  a  wounded  an- 


Drawing  by  Valerius  Geist 


66    Natural  History  4/94 


imal  quickly  attracts  predators,  putting  all 
at  risk.  Thus,  disputes  over  mating  or  for- 
aging are  best  resolved  by  wrestling  or 
other  forms  of  bloodless  combat.  Some 
deer  and  antelopes  evolved  antlers  and 
horns  that  functioned  as  shields  to  parry  an 
opponent's  attack  and  as  grappling  hooks 
to  wrestle  with  rivals.  Simultaneously, 
antlers  became  the  focus  of  mate  selection 
by  females,  since  they  advertised  a  male's 
superior  health  and  strength.  As  with  the 
peacock's  tail,  sexual  selection  helped 
make  antlers  increasingly  complex. 

Both  stabbing  and  wrestling  horns 
evolved  not  only  among  males  but  also  in 
the  females  of  some  species.  In  every  case, 
the  female's  horns  mimic  those  of  the  age- 
class  of  males  that  she  must  confront  and 
defeat.  In  reindeer,  for  instance,  females 
most  often  clash  with  two-year-old  males, 
which — unlike  older  males — retain  their 
antlers  long  after  the  rut.  When  females 
dig  deep  craters  in  the  snow  to  reach 
buried  lichens,  they  must  frequently  de- 
fend their  cosdy  efforts  from  young  males 
that  try  to  steal  the  food.  In  woodland  cari- 
bou, however,  which  feed  mainly  on  arbo- 
real lichens,  females  rarely  grow  antlers. 

Because  we  have  a  fairly  complete  fos- 
sil record  of  Old  World  deer  irom  the  mid- 
Tertiary  onward,  this  group  best  illustrates 
the  evolutionary  sequence  of  ander  forms. 
And  for  each  type,  one  also  finds  a 
palmated  version  (as  in  moose)  and  one 


with  extra  "twigs"  branching  off  the  main 
tines.  Moreover,  virtually  every  type  of 
antler  that  has  ever  evolved  is  still  repre- 
sented in  living  species. 

The  first  true  deer  resembled  the  small, 
antlerless  ruminants  from  which  they 
evolved.  The  water  deer  of  Korea  and 
China,  with  its  long,  tusklike  canines,  rep- 
resents this  stage  today.  Deer  with  both 
long,  sharp  upper  canines  and  small 
antlers  represent  the  second  stage.  A 
plethora  of  muntjac  species  in  Asia's  trop- 
ical and  subtropical  forests  are  similar  to 
this  ancient  type,  which  goes  back  about 
twenty  million  years.  Muntjacs  hold  down 
territories,  and  males  use  both  antlers  and 
teeth  in  combat.  Three-pronged  antlers 
arose  within  the  deer  lineage  during  the 
Pliocene  in  southern  Eurasia.  Upper  ca- 
nines regressed  or  disappeared  in  adults. 
Today,  such  deer  species  remain  in  tropi- 
cal southern  Asia  and  fill  many  ecological 
niches.  They  range  from  the  very  large 
sambar,  a  coarse-grass  feeder,  to  the  small 
hog  deer  and  its  island  relatives.  None  are 
territorial. 

Sociality  increased  in  tandem  with  four- 
pronged  antlers,  which  evolved  during  the 
late  Pliocene  in  wann  temperate  climates 
at  the  beginning  of  some  two  dozen 
100,000-year  cooling  cycles.  Modem  rep- 
resentatives of  this  group  include  the  gre- 
garious sika  and  fallow  deer,  both  from 
temperate  zones.  Five-pronged  antlers  ap- 


peared in  cool  climates  in  the  early  ice 
ages.  These  gregarious  ungulates  are  ex- 
emplified today  by  the  red  deer  and  its 
many  subspecies.  Also  during  the  ice 
ages,  the  closely  related  six-pronged 
North  American  elk  appeared. 

On  the  vast  expanses  of  open  terrain 
during  the  ice  ages,  a  number  of  very  large 
deer  appeared:  the  large-antlered  giants, 
such  as  the  Irish  elk  and  its  relatives;  the 
"brush-antlered"  deer;  and — in  the  New 
World — the  large-antlered  moose  and 
caribou.  In  the  Southern  Hemisphere, 
antlers  reached  their  largest  size  in  the  ex- 
tinct deer  from  the  Patagonian  steppes. 

At  high  latitudes,  the  deer  enjoy  a  "va- 
cation from  want"  in  early  summer,  when 
plant  food  abounds  and  antlers  can  grow 
large  without  much  risk  or  effort  on  the  an- 
imal's part.  Tropical  deer  have  no  such 
seasonal  riches.  Beyond  sixty-five  degrees 
north  latitude,  however,  the  summer  boom 
in  vegetation  is  much  too  brief  to  offset  the 
long  winter's  scarcity  of  food.  Antler  size 
generally  increases  with  latitude  and  alti- 
tude, with  the  trend  reversing  in  the  high- 
est latitudes.  Thus,  the  Tibetan  white- 
lipped  deer  from  the  subalpine  above 
timberline  carries  very  large,  elklike 
antlers.  The  sambar  from  the  tropics,  its 
rival  in  body  size,  does  not. 

Even  when  rich  habitat  permits  the  lux- 
ury of  large  antlers  and  horns,  vigorous 
males  take  risks — sometimes  skirting 
predators — to  get  the  very  best  food  for  in- 
creasing antler  and  body  size.  Large,  sym- 
metrical horns  are  visible  proof  of  superior 
ability  at  foraging  and  efficiency  in  main- 
tenance metabolism,  and  they  proclaim 
the  bearer's  skill  at  avoiding  predators  {see 
"A  Consequence  of  Togetherness,"  Nat- 
ural Histoiy,  October  1967). 

Large  horns  among  males  also  appear 
in  other  species  that  live  in  open  habitats, 
where  the  deer  are  under  threat  from  pre- 
dation.  Here  the  young  run  with  the  fe- 
male, so  they  must  be  well  developed  at 
birth  and  grow  rapidly.  A  mother  needs  to 
be  a  fast  runner  and  to  excel  at  obtaining 
nutrients  and  converting  them  to  rich, 
plentiful  milk.  Today's  caribou,  which 
have  the  largest  relative  antler  mass  of  any 
living  deer,  also  have  a  very  showy  ander 
display  during  courtship,  the  richest  milk, 
and  the  most  highly  developed  young  at 
birth  among  the  whole  deer  family.  When 
a  female  picks  a  mate  with  large  antlers 
under  these  conditions,  she  is  choosing  an 
individual  that  may  pass  on  to  her  daugh- 
ter the  traits  necessary  for  superior  lacta- 
tion and  for  protecting  young. 

Everyone  curious  about  horns  has  mar- 


67 


veled  at  the  immense  antlers  of  the  extinct 
Irish  elk,  which  appeared  half  a  million 
years  ago  and  persisted  in  Europe  until 
about  1 1,000  years  ago.  Neither  an  elk  nor 
restricted  to  Ireland,  the  Irish  elk  had  huge 
antlers — twice  the  weight  of  those  of  a  big 
Alaskan  moose — which  indicate  that  the 
species  was  an  open  plains  dweller.  Its 
bodily  proportions  suggest  that  it  was  also 
the  most  highly  evolved  mnner  among  all 
deer.  It  had  a  huge  chest  to  hold  a  big  heart 
and  lungs,  large  shoulder  blades,  and 
light-boned  legs  of  nearly  equal  length, 
enabling  it  to  run  very  fast  over  flat  or  even 
ground  (see  "The  Paradox  of  the  Great 
Irish  Stags,"  Natural  History,  March 
1986). 

Like  today's  diminutive  fallow  deer 
(close  relatives  of  the  Irish  elk),  which 
carry  the  largest  relative  antler  mass 
among  Old  World  deer,  Irish  elk  bulls  may 
have  gathered  in  small  groups  on  the  open 
plains,  then  marked  out  individual 
courtship  territories,  or  leks.  In  the  slant- 
ing rays  of  the  morning  and  evening  sun, 
their  enormous  but  relatively  Ughtweight 
antlers  could  have  been  seen  for  miles  by 
interested  females. 

Another  fantastic  antler  shape  evolved 
in  the  extinct  GaUic  moose,  the  earliest- 
known  member  of  a  family  that  appeared 
2.6  million  years  ago  in  Europe.  Two  ex- 
cellent skeletons  are  preserved  in  France. 
Their  antlers  carried  tiny  palmate 
branches  on  the  ends  of  very  long  beams. 
A  small  moose  by  today's  standards. 


barely  as  large  as  a  yeaiiing  elk,  it  was. 
judging  by  its  proportions,  also  a  speedy 
runner  that  evolved  in  open  plains.  (One 
can  imagine  the  problems  it  would  have 
had  navigating  through  forests.) 

Over  time,  the  deer  family  elaborated 
their  antlers,  but  not  all  ungulates  devel- 
oped large  horns  as  they  evolved  from  for- 
est dwellers  to  plains  dwellers.  Some 
plains  species,  such  as  camels  and  their 
relatives,  retained  teiritories  and  contin- 
ued to  defend  them  with  sharp  teeth.  Oth- 
ers, such  as  horses,  lost  their  "fighting 
teeth"  as  evolution  emphasized  their  kick- 
ing and  neck  wrestling  equipment.  When 
bison  came  to  North  America  from  Siberia 
in  the  middle  of  the  Pleistocene,  they  first 
evolved  into  giants  with  huge  homs  but 
later  shifted  to  developing  a  luxuriant  dis- 
play coat  and  smaller  homs.  Like  antlers 
in  deer,  the  bull  bison's  coat  advertises 
both  its  competence  at  foraging  and  its 
general  state  of  vitality. 

When  the  stag  moose  came  here,  it  too 
developed  antlers  much  larger  and  more 
complex  than  did  either  its  ancestors  or  de- 
scendants. Body  measurements  confirm 
that  these  animals  not  only  had  laige  homs 
but  were  also  specialized  for  fast  locomo- 
tion with  generally  larger  hoofs  and  long, 
slim  legs  of  equal  length. 

During  the  Pleistocene,  many  large- 
bodied  predators  roamed  North  America. 
Several  species  were  specialized  as  fast 
mnners,  including  the  huge,  short-faced 
bear,  a  large  American  Hon,  and  two  spe- 


A  forerunner  of  modem  species,  the  Gallic  moose,  top  of  page,  lived  in 

Europe  about  2.6  million  years  ago.  Straight  beams  that  ended  in  small, 

palmate  branches  stuck  out  three  to  four  feet  on  each  side  of  its  head. 

Right:  An  Irish  elk  stag,  the  largest-antlered  deer  that  ever  lived,  was 

depicted  by  painter  Charles  R.  Knight  about  seventy  years  ago.  Knight 

apparently  based  its  facial  features,  neck  ruff,  and  coloration  on  those  of 

modern  red  deer.  Current  phylogenetic  studies  and  Ice  Age  cave 

drawings  indicate  that  the  extinct  ungulate 's  markings  and  coat 

resembled  those  of  the  fallow  deer,  its  closest  living  relative. 

Drawing  by  Valerius  Geist/Painting  by  Charles  R.  Knight:  courtesy  of  the  FielcJ  Museum,  Chicago,  Neg,  No.  CK1T 


68 


cies  of  saber-toothed  cats.  They  had  a 
tough  time  making  a  Hving  by  huding 
themselves  against  America's  giant  ungu- 
lates; the  predators  show  an  unexpectedly 
high  percentage  of  fractured  teeth  and 
partly  healed  breaks  in  bones. 

These  giant,  ever-hungry  predators 
would  have  made  short  shrift  of  any  hunter 
so  bold  or  foolish  as  to  confront  them  with 
the  puny  weapons  of  the  time.  My  guess  is 
that  humans  could  only  colonize  North 
America  late  in  the  Pleistocene  because 


the  ungulate-hunting  predators  formed  a 
barrier  until  relatively  recently.  We  don't 
know  why,  but  by  12,000  years  ago,  the 
largest  of  these  predators,  the  giant  short- 
faced  bear,  had  died  out. 

According  to  recent  studies  by  paleon- 
tologist Jerry  McDonald,  who  examined 
remains  of  North  American  hoofed  ani- 
mals going  back  to  20,000  years  ago,  the 
number  of  ungulate  fossils  dramatically 
increases  after  the  bear's  extinction,  sug- 
gesting a  much  greater  abundance  of  large 


herbivores  after  about  12,000  years  ago. 
That  is  also  the  date  of  the  Folsom  stone 
tools,  the  first  major  evidence  of  humans 
in  North  America.  Perhaps  only  with  the 
disappearance  of  the  short-faced  bear — 
humankind's  .single  most  ferocious  preda- 
tor— could  New  World  hunters  live  off  un- 
gulates like  the  proverbial  mice  in  cheese. 
Eventually,  human  dependence  on  the  un- 
gulates that  sustained  them  may  well  have 
contributed  to  the  extinction  of  the  great 
Pleistocene  herds. 


een  in  Tooth 
and  Clow 


by  Margery  C.  Coombs, 


In  the  early  1 800s,  the  French  anatomist 
Baron  Georges  Cuvier  noted  that  claws 
are  usually  associated  with  sharp  teeth  and 
carnivorous  habits,  while  hoofs  are  associ- 
ated with  grinding  teeth  and  a  plant  diet. 


Using  this  rule,  he  could  reconstruct  much 
of  the  morphology  of  an  animal  from  a 
small  part  of  the  skeleton.  A  few  excep- 
tions to  this  generalization  have  existed: 
clawed  animals  such  as  extinct  ground 


sloths  and  sauropod  dinosaurs,  which  de- 
spite their  simply  shaped  teeth  are  thought 
to  have  been  herbivores.  (Only  one  large 
clawed  herbivore  exists  today,  the  endan- 
gered giant  panda.)  Another  successful 
group  of  large  clawed  plant-eaters,  the 
chalicotheres,  appeared  first  in  the 
Eocene,  about  forty-five  million  years 
ago,  in  Eurasia  and  North  America.  The 
last  of  their  Une  lingered  in  Africa  and 
Asia  until  the  early  Pleistocene. 

Because  of  their  oddity,  chalicotheres 
posed  some  problems  for  paleontologists. 
In  the  1820s  through  the  1840s,  chali- 
cothere  claws  from  some  European  quar- 
ries were  attributed  to  a  "gigantic  pan- 
golin" or  "colossal  edentate,"  perhaps  a 


70    Natural  History  4/94 


giant  sloth.  Teeth  found  in  the  same  de- 
posits were  assigned  to  the  Perissodactyla, 
the  order  that  includes  horses,  tapirs,  and 
rhinoceroses.  Not  until  1890  did  the 
French  paleontologist  Henri  Filhol  realize 
that  the  horselike  animals  never  seemed  to 
have  feet  nor  the  slothlike  animals  a  head. 
He  concluded  that  the  claws  and  teeth  be- 
longed to  a  single  beast.  Instead  of  having 
toes  like  their  horse  and  rhino  relatives, 
chalicotheres  had  hooklike  claws. 

I  first  became  interested  in  chali- 
cotheres as  a  graduate  student  some 
twenty  years  ago,  and  my  work  involved 
not  only  their  morphology  but  also  their 
habits  and  natural  history.  Most  early 
speculations  about  how  chalicotheres  used 


their  claws  came  down  on  the  side  of  dig- 
ging; chalicotheres  were  envisioned  claw- 
ing through  earth  in  search  of  water  or  ed- 
ible roots.  As  more  fossils  came  to  light, 
thought  shifted,  and  chalicotheres  were 
seen  as  browsers  of  leaves.  I  spent  a  lot  of 
time  comparing  chalicothere  skeletons 
with  those  of  possibly  analogous  diggers 
and  browsers,  both  living  and  fossil.  Dig- 
gers generally  have  strong  forelimb  mus- 
cles and  short,  forceful  forearms  and 
hands,  enabling  the  animal  to  move  earth 
easily.  Chalicotheres  have  long  forelimbs 
that  are  not  particularly  muscular.  They 
also  lack  vertebral,  pelvic,  and  hind  limb 
modifications  usually  found  in  habitual 
diggers,  and  their  teeth  are  relatively  low 
crowned,  with  no  signs  of  the  heavy  wear 
they  would  sustain  if  chalicotheres  had 
chewed  on  a  diet  of  coarse,  gritty  roots.  In- 
stead, the  teeth  are  like  those  of  animals 
that  feed  on  leaves  and  twigs.  I  concluded 
that  chalicotheres  were  not  diggers,  or  at 
least  that  digging  was  not  the  major  func- 
tion of  their  claws,  and  that  they  browsed 
rather  than  grazed  or  grubbed  for  a  hving. 
Two  basic  designs  of  chalicotheres  ex- 
isted. One,  exemplified  by  the  Old  World 
genus  Chalicotherium,  had  gorillalike 
proportions  and  may  have  engaged  in 
something  like  knuckle  walking.  The 
other,  exemplified  by  Moropus,  which  in- 
habited North  America  in  the  Miocene, 
some  twenty-four  to  eight  million  years 
ago,  had  a  longish  neck  and  was  shaped 
rather  like  an  okapi  (a  giraffe  relative  that 
today  lives  in  African  rain  forests).  Moro- 
pus could  extend  and  lift  its  claws  clear  of 
the  ground  to  keep  from  blunting  them 
when  it  walked.  The  hind  limbs  of  both 
creatures  were  shorter  than  the  forelimbs 
and  had  weight-bearing  adaptations  not 
found  in  the  forelimbs.  Both  groups  of 
chaUcotheres  could  probably  stand  up  on 
their  hind  limbs  as  they  browsed.  The 
clawed  digits  on  the  hands  may  have  func- 
tioned like  hooks,  helping  the  animal  to 
support  itself  against  tree  trunks  or  to  pull 
branches  down  to  mouth  level.  Possibly 
the  claws  served  as  occasional  weapons 
for  defense  or,  in  the  case  of  breeding 
males,  for  intimidation  of  competitors. 


Chalicothere  fossils  are  relatively  rare, 
and  the  animals  were  probably  never  par- 
ticularly numerous.  The  evidence  suggests 
that  Chalicotherium  may  have  lived  in 
forests,  while  Moropus  inhabited  more 
open  environments,  perhaps  tree-lined 
areas  around  streams  or  water  holes.  Large 
concentrations  of  chalicothere  fossils  are 
found  in  only  three  places  worldwide — in 
the  Czech  Republic,  in  Kazakhstan,  and  in 
northwest  Nebraska.  In  the  1920s,  the 
American  Museum  of  Natural  History 
collected  eighteen  skeletons  of  Moropus 
from  what  is  now  Agate  National  Monu- 
ment in  Nebraska.  In  the  1970s,  I  exca- 
vated fossils  from  a  nearby  quarry  in 
which  more  than  50  percent  of  the  total 
specimens  belonged  to  Moropus.  This 
creature  was  the  largest  animal  living  in 
the  early  Miocene  assemblage  in  the 
Agate  area.  It  shared  its  habitat  with 
medium-sized  and  small  rhinos,  three- 
toed  horses,  and  large  piglike  beasts 
known  as  entelodonts.  Preying  on  all  of 
these  were  "bear-dogs"  and  early  canids. 
Small  camels  and  a  sheeplike  group  called 
oreodonts  roamed  nearby. 

The  Agate  fossils  shed  some  new  light 
on  chalicothere  life  style.  When  I  exam- 
ined the  specimens  of  Moropus  at  the 
American  Museum,  I  found  two  size 
groups:  the  larger  ones  probably  repre- 
senting males;  the  smaller,  females.  Such 
sexual  dimorphism,  which  is  also  found  in 
chalicotheres  from  Eurasia  and  Africa,  is 
common  when  animals  breed  in  a  group. 
The  bony  dome  on  the  skull  of  another 
North  American  chalicothere,  known  as 
Tylocephalonyx,  may  have  been  used  in 
low  impact  butting,  a  behavior  common 
today  in  male  giraffes  and  many  other 
hoofed  animals  when  they  compete  for  fe- 
males. Thus,  chalicotheres  may  have  gath- 
ered in  at  least  seasonal  groupings. 

Reconstructing  the  lives  of  chali- 
cotheres expands  our  knowledge  of  mam- 
mal evolution  and  of  the  variety  of  ecosys- 
tems during  the  Age  of  Mammals.  The 
existence  of  a  clawed,  herbivorous  chali- 
cothere, for  which  there  are  now  no  exact 
biological  equivalents,  opens  a  window  on 
a  world  that  is  not  quite  like  our  own. 


The  chalicothere  Moropus  easily  fends  off  two  snarling 

Dapheonodon  bear-dogs  by  simply  raising  its  long  front  limb 

equipped  with  six-inch  claws.  Its  mate  grooms  their  offspring 

nearby.  Other  fauna  of  this  North  American  Miocene 

environment  are  camels,  three-toed  horses,  sheeplike 

oreodonts  (far  left),  and  piglike  entelodonts  (upper  right). 

Detail  of  painting  by  Jay  lulatternes;  courtesy  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution 


71 


'est  Indian 
Tuskers 


by  Daryl  R  Domning 


Amid  the  contemporary  traffic  of  the 
Horida  and  Caribbean  coasts,  the  rotund 
marine  mammals  loiown  as  West  Indian 
manatees  attempt  to  live  the  slow,  deliber- 
ate life  of  aquatic  grazers.  Found  in  both 
tropical  salt  water  and  the  fresh  waters  of 
inland  springs,  these  sirenians,  or  sea 
cows,  placidly  paddle  through  warm  wa- 
ters, grazing  on  a  wide  assortment  of  fi- 
brous-leaved water  plants,  including  the 
introduced  water  hyacinth.  Intermittently, 
a  manatee  snout  breaks  the  surface;  after  a 
breath  of  air,  the  animal  closes  its  nostrils 
and  silently  submerges.  Half  a  world 
away,  the  manatees'  look-alike  but  strictly 
saltwater  cousins,  the  dugongs,  quietly  ply 
warm  shallows  of  the  Indian  and  south- 
western Pacific  oceans.  While  manatees 
have  an  ever-growing  series  of  teeth 
adapted  to  the  abrasive  grasses  that  grow 
in  fresh  water,  dugongs  specialize  in  eat- 


ing softer,  less  abrasive  sea  grasses  that 
they  uproot  with  a  pair  of  tusks  in  their 
upper  jaws. 

Sirenians  have  a  long  history,  first  ap- 
pearing on  earth  some  fifty  million  years 
ago,  and  their  family  tree  has  included 
denizens  of  cold  as  well  as  warm  waters. 
The  huge  Steller's  sea  cow,  for  example, 
inhabited  the  waters  of  the  North  Pacific 
and  Bering  Sea,  until  it  was  hunted  to  ex- 
tinction in  1768,  just  twenty-seven  years 
after  its  discovery  {see  "A  Sea  Cow  Fam- 
ily Reunion,"  Natural  History,  April 
1987).  Nor  have  dugongs  and  manatees 
always  so  neatly  divided  their  tropical 
realms  between  the  Atlantic  and  Indopa- 
cific  oceans.  West  Indian  manatees  are,  ge- 
ologically speaking,  relative  newcomers  to 
the  Caribbean;  for  millions  of  years,  their 
cousins  the  dugongs  dominated  the  tropi- 
cal Western  Hemisphere.  Not  only  were 


these  ancient  dugongs  abundant,  they 
were  diverse.  From  the  Oligocene  to  the 
Pliocene — that  is,  from  more  than  thirty  to 
less  than  five  million  years  ago — at  least 
three,  probably  more,  kinds  of  dugongs 
lived  together  in  the  Caribbean. 

This  newly  discovered  diversity  raises 
the  question  of  how  these  different  spe- 
cies, which  had  such  similar  diets,  could 
have  coexisted  in  the  same  environment. 
Today,  no  place  in  the  world  supports 
more  than  a  single  species  of  sirenian. 
What,  if  anything,  was  different  about  the 
Caribbean  during  much  of  the  Age  of 
Mammals  that  promoted  a  degree  of  sea 
cow  diversity  unknown  today?  And  what 
caused  these  animals  to  later  die  out? 
Much  of  my  work  with  fossil  sirenians  has 
focused  on  how  various  combinations  of 
anatomy  and  behavior  might  have  allowed 
these  separate  species  to  share  the  avail- 
able marine  plant  foods. 

Most  of  the  extinct  Caribbean  dugongs, 
like  their  living  Indopacific  relatives, 
wielded  impressive  tusks.  Some  were 
more  than  a  foot  long  and  were  shaped  like 
knives  or  chisels,  with  self-sharpening 
enamel  edges.  These  were  not  carried  for 
show;  lodged  solidly  in  deep  sockets  in  the 
upper  jaw,  with  only  a  few  inches  of  tip 
exposed,  they  were  powerful  tools  that 
could  have  been  used  in  combat,  as  are  the 
tusks  of  modem  male  dugongs.  But  while 


72    Natural  History  4/94 


in  the  living  species  males  have  the  larger 
tusks,  we  have  no  evidence  for  a  differ- 
ence in  tusk  size  between  the  sexes  in  an- 
cient dugongs.  I  believe  that  these  big, 
bladelike  tusks  were  used  by  both  males 
and  females  to  dig  up  and  consume  the 
large,  woody  rhizomes,  or  underground 
stems,  of  the  largest  sea  grasses,  for  ex- 
ample, those  of  turtle  grass  (Thalassia), 
which  are  inaccessible  to  tuskless  sireni- 
ans  such  as  manatees.  (Dugongs  eat  the 
whole  plant,  half  of  which  is  the  nutritious 
rhizome.  Manatees  can  chew  gritty  grass 
but  can't  get  at  the  rhizomes.) 

Another  dugong  that  inhabited  the  an- 
cient Caribbean  at  the  same  time  as  the 
great  tuskers  was  Metaxytherium.  Some 
ten  feet  long,  this  creature  also  sported  a 
pair  of  tusks  at  the  front  of  its  upper  jaw, 
but  these  appendages  were  so  tiny,  with 
conical  crowns  only  about  half  an  inch 
long,  that  they  appear  useless  compared 
with  the  daggers  and  hoes  of  other  du- 
gongs. Metaxytherium  was  probably  a  rel- 
atively unspecialized  feeder.  It  most  likely 
grazed  on  the  leaves  of  various  sea  grasses 
and  on  the  nutritious  rhizomes  of  the 
smaller  sea  grasses,  which  would  not  have 
been  hard  to  uproot.  This  is  the  strategy 
that  the  completely  tuskless  Horida  mana- 
tee uses  in  salt  water  today. 

Was  the  ancient  Caribbean  full  of  big 
sea  grasses  with  tough  rhizomes  that  filled 


the  bill  for  an  array  of  sea  cows?  Evidence 
in  the  form  of  fossil  sea  grasses  is  rare.  At 
one  Florida  site,  however,  fossil  sea  grass 
some  forty-five  million  years  old  was 
found,  giving  us  a  window  on  the  past 
plant  life  of  the  Caribbean.  These  fossils 
reveal  that,  while  sea-grass  beds  must 
have  looked  much  the  same  for  as  long  as 
sea  cows  have  been  on  earth,  at  one  time, 
sea-grass  communities  in  the  Caribbean 
were  somewhat  more  diverse  than  those  of 
today,  which  comprise  a  mere  four  genera. 
Did  the  abundance  of  robust  sea  grasses 
permit  the  evolution  of  several  kinds  of 
large-tusked  dugongs?  Did  the  plants  sur- 
vive throughout  the  dugongs'  twenty-mil- 
lion-year heyday?  We  have  only  clues,  but 
after  studying  them,  I  find  the  following 
scenario  to  be  a  plausible  one.  I  suspect 
that  sea-grass  beds  supported  diverse  spe- 
cies of  plants  until  about  two  to  three  mil- 
lion years  ago,  and  that  these  sea  grasses  in 
turn  supported  a  contingent  of  large- 
tusked  rhizome  eaters.  Turtle  grass,  for  ex- 
ample, is  considered  a  climax  species  and 
characterizes  the  stable  composition  to- 
ward which  sea-grass  communities  tend  if 
left  to  themselves.  Suppose,  however, 
these  grasses  were  not  left  alone,  but  were 
periodically  ripped  up  by  mammaUan  dig- 
ging machines  in  the  form  of  dugongs? 
Rather  than  maintain  a  static  climax  com- 
munity, this  would  enhance  plant  diversity 


and  productivity  and  maintain  ecological 
niches  that  could  have  supported  other, 
less  capable  diggers  such  as  tiny-tusked 
Metaxytherium.  The  large-tusked  dugongs 
would  have  acted  as  keystone  species  in 
the  ecosystem,  keeping  both  sea-cow  and 
sea-grass  diversity  at  higher  levels  than 
they  would  otherwise  have  attained. 

Two  to  three  million  years  ago,  in  the 
grip  of  a  major  ecological  upheaval,  the 
Caribbean  saw  the  extinction  of  many 
shallow-water  mollusks  and  other  inverte- 
brates and  most  likely  some  of  the  marine 
plant  life.  This  upheaval,  like  most  in  the 
earth's  history,  stemmed  from  the  move- 
ments of  crustal  plates  and  the  building  of 
mountains.  The  isthmus  of  Central  Amer- 
ica was  completed,  joining  North  and 
South  America  but  also  separating  the 
Caribbean  and  Pacific  and  disrupting  cur- 
rents that  had  flowed  between  them.  The 
changes  in  water  circulation  and  salinity 
that  produced  the  mass  extinction  of  Car- 
ibbean invertebrates  could  explain  the  dis- 
appearance of  dugongs  from  the  area  at 
roughly  the  same  time. 

At  this  time  too,  manatees  made  their 
first  appearance  in  the  Caribbean  and  in 
southern  North  America.  They  had 
evolved  in  the  rivers  of  South  America 
(see  "Marching  Teeth  of  the  Manatee," 
Natural  History,  May  1983)  and  only  now 
spread  northward  into  marine  waters.  Per- 
haps then-  constantly  replenished,  wear-re- 
sistant batteries  of  grinding  teeth,  which 
were  superior  to  those  of  dugongs,  gave 
them  a  competitive  edge;  or  maybe  the  de- 
cline of  the  dugongs  simply  created  an 
ecological  vacuum  into  which  the  mana- 
tees expanded.  Surviving  sea  grasses  with 
the  biggest  rhizomes — such  as  turtle 
grass — could  now  live  happily  ever  after, 
their  manatee-proof  root  systems  undis- 
turbed by  hungry  plowers  of  the  sea. 


An  underwater  panorarrux  depicts, 

from  left,  the  ancient  whale 
Basilosaurus,  two  dugongs,  and  a 
variety  of  other  marine  mammals 
and  fishes.  Metaxytherium,  a  tiny- 
tusked  dugong,  and  her  calf  feed  on 
Caribbean  sea  grasses.  Before  three 
million  years  ago,  the  Caribbean 
was  a  garden  of  sea  grasses  with 
large,  nutritious  roots  that  were 
plowed  up  and  savored  by  resident 
dugongs,  many  with  long  tusks. 
Today  only  tuskless  manatees 
inhabit  these  waters. 

Mural  by  Ely  Kish;  courtesy  of  the  Smittisonian  Institution 


73 


ey  to  the 
nivores 


by  Richard  H.  Tedford 


At  dawn  in  Tanzania's  Serengeti  Na- 
tional Park,  a  lioness  creeps  close  to  the 
ground,  stalking  a  young  wildebeest  that 
has  drifted  from  the  herd.  She  must  narrow 
the  distance  to  her  prey  as  much  as  pos- 
sible because  her  powerfully  built  body 
cannot  sustain  a  lengthy  run.  Her  eyes 
fixed  on  the  wildebeest's  neck,  she  judges 
the  distance  to  be  proper  and  lunges  at  full 
speed.  The  wildebeest  realizes  something 
is  wrong  only  a  fraction  of  a  second  before 
it  feels  the  crash  of  the  lioness's  body  and 
the  suffocating  grasp  of  her  jaws  upon  its 
throat.  The  force  of  the  attack  topples  the 
wildebeest;  the  lioness  holds  on  until  the 
thrashing  ends. 

A  mile  or  so  away,  a  pack  of  hunting 
dogs  have  harassed  a  herd  of  zebras  for 
many  minutes,  looking  for  prey.  Their 
teamwork  has  isolated  an  old  mare,  and 
they  close  in  for  the  kill.  Although  small 
and  slender,  the  dogs  have  broad  muzzles 
and  powerful  jaws.  They  nip  and  bite  the 
zebra's  flanks  and  hind  legs.  A  dog  seizes 
the  soft  muzzle  with  its  large  incisors  and 


holds  on  with  a  viselike  grip;  the  rest  of  the 
pack  begins  to  eat  the  immobihzed  zebra 
as  it  stands. 

Across  the  plain,  a  jackal  is  hunting 
springhase,  rabbitlike  rodents  whose  agile 
jumping  poses  a  challenge  to  any  predator. 
The  jackal  pirouettes  and  leaps  as  it  fol- 
lows the  evasive  action,  finally  securing  its 
prey  using  the  quick  snapping  action  of  its 
long  jaws. 

These  killing  techniques  are  examples 
of  the  special  behavior  that  carnivorous 
mammals  painstakingly  learn.  Killing  is  a 
function  of  the  front  part  of  their  mouths. 
Nipping  incisors,  piercing  canines,  and 
tight-gripping,  bladelike  premolars  are 
strategically  set  in  skulls  of  different 
length  and  width  to  take  advantage  of  the 
muscular  force  of  the  bite.  Yet  the  teeth 
that  lions,  dogs,  and  jackals  use  for  killing 
are  not  radically  different  from  those 
found  in  many  noncamivorous  mammals. 
Farther  back  in  their  mouths  lie  some  spe- 
cial teetii  known  as  the  camassials.  These 
are  the  haUmark  of  the  true  carnivores,  or 


camivorans — members  of  a  great  order  of 
placental  mammals,  the  Camivora.  Useful 
for  shearing  meat,  these  teeth  are  funda- 
mental to  feeding  as  opposed  to  killing. 

In  an  adult  animal,  the  camassials  con- 
sist of  the  upper  last  premolar  and  lower 
first  molar  on  both  sides  of  tiie  jaws.  These 
bladelike  teeth,  which  oppose  each  other, 
can  scissor  through  flesh  and  slice  off 
morsels  of  meat.  Each  camassial  has  two 
narrow  cusps,  separated  by  a  notch  that 
holds  the  piece  of  meat  in  place  as  it  is 
being  cut.  Even  newborn  carnivores  are 
equipped  with  camassiallike  baby  teeth 
that  function  this  way.  Young  carnivores 
are  introduced  to  meat  before  they  are 
weaned,  and  these  baby  camassials  are 
important  to  their  nutrition  and  survival. 
The  baby  camassials,  however,  consist  of 
the  third  upper  premolar  and  last  lower 
premolar  (the  permanent  premolars  that 
eventiially  replace  them  are  much  simpler 
in  form). 

The  camassials  in  all  tme  carnivores, 
large  and  small,  always  fall  about  halfway 
between  the  jaw  joint  near  the  ear  and  the 
front  end  of  the  jaw.  This  corresponds  with 
the  position  of  maximum  bite  force  deliv- 
ered by  the  great  temporalis  muscles, 
which  originate  on  the  side  of  the  skuU 
and,  in  large  camivores,  often  extend  from 
the  flanks  of  a  prominent  crest  of  bone,  the 
sagittal  crest,  at  the  top  of  the  skull. 

Although  the  muscles  on  both  sides  of 
the  head  operate  together,  a  carnivore 
chews  off  pieces  of  meat  using  the  camas- 
sials on  only  one  side  at  a  time.  Asmte 


74    Natural  History  4/94 


analysis  and  electric  stimulation  of  spe- 
cific jaw  muscles  have  established  that  the 
fulcrum  of  the  jaw-skull  lever  is  the  jaw 
joint  on  the  side  of  the  mouth  opposite  the 
camassial  pair  in  use.  The  maximum  bite 
force  is  transmitted  across  the  head  and  fo- 
cused on  the  midpoint  of  the  opposite  jaw, 
where  the  camassials  are  situated. 

Since  camassials  are  so  distinctive  and 
since  teeth  in  general  are  the  most  endur- 
ing fossils,  their  presence  in  the  fossil 
record  enables  us  to  estimate  the  antiquity 
of  the  order  Carnivora.  The  earliest- 
known  camassials  date  from  at  least  sixty- 
five  million  years  ago,  the  time  when  di- 
nosaurs became  extinct  and  mammals 
began  to  gain  ascendancy.  There  are  hints 
of  camassial  development  in  even  earlier 
mammalian  predators,  perhaps  seventy 
million  years  old. 

The  development  of  camassials  was 
such  a  pivotal  adaptation  that  it  governed 
all  subsequent  carnivore  evolution.  The 
system  has  been  fine-mned  within  limits 
for  various  species,  and  in  some  cases  the 
original  shearing  function  of  the  camas- 
sials has  been  lost.  But  the  teeth  them- 
selves have  never  been  lost  in  the  course 
of  evolution  of  any  of  the  camivore  lines. 

The  teeth  of  dogs  and  cats  exemplify 
the  differences  in  skeletal  stracture  that 
separate  the  two  major  divisions  within 
the  order  Camivora — the  suborders  Cani- 
formia  and  Feliformia.  Among  hving  car- 
nivores, those  whose  camassials  are  least 
modified  from  the  original  type  include 
the  members  of  the  dog,  wolf,  and  fox 
family — the  Canidae.  In  canids  the  lower 
camassial  retains  a  broad  shelf  (talonid)  at 
its  back  end  that  occludes  with  the  upper 
first  molar  (the  tooth  that  lies  immediately 
behind  the  upper  camassial).  The  lower 
camassial  thus  has  a  dual  function,  shear- 
ing at  the  front  and  cmshing  behind.  Far- 
ther back  in  the  jaw,  the  second  molars 
above  and  below  have  several  cusps  and 
continue  this  cmshing  function. 

Like  many  other  mammals,  therefore, 
dogs  and  their  close  relafives  use  molars 
for  chewing,  mixing  their  food  with  saliva 
so  that  digestion  begins  in  the  mouth.  As  a 
result,  dogs  can  process  a  variety  of  foods, 


including  meat,  bone,  sinew,  inverte- 
brates, and  plants.  This  has  great  survival 
value  because  the  wider  the  range  of  food, 
the  greater  the  animal's  ability  to  shift 
from  resource  to  resource  as  local  condi- 
tions dictate. 

Cats,  on  the  other  hand,  lack  the  talonid 
"heel"  on  the  lower  camassial  and  have 
also  lost  all  the  other  lower  molars.  Their 
only  upper  molar  is  a  tiny  bladelike  tooth 
lying  directly  behind  the  large  upper  car- 
nassial.  In  some  cats,  the  upper  camassial 
has  an  extra  cusp  in  front  that  may  be  en- 
larged, extending  the  camassial  blade  for- 
ward. Thus,  cats  have  become  specialized 
for  a  purely  meat-eating  life  style:  they  are 
"hypercamivores."  Their  teeth  slice  meat 
and  deliver  the  chunks  whole  to  the  stom- 
ach, with  little  digestion  in  the  mouth. 

The  dog  family,  Canidae,  originated 
early  in  the  evolution  of  the  caniforms. 
Another  early  group  to  appear  was  the 
family  of  giant  bear-dogs,  the  Amphicy- 
onidae.  Members  of  this  lineage — now  ex- 
tinct— retained  three  upper  molars,  as  did 
the  most  primitive  canids.  But  in  the  evo- 
lutionary line  leading  to  all  other  caniform 
families — which  include  bears,  sea  lions, 
weasels,  and  raccoons — the  last  upper 
molar  was  lost  at  least  thirty-five  million 
years  ago.  Eventually,  raccoons,  weasels, 
and  their  relatives  also  lost  the  last  lower 
molar.  These  modifications  do  not  signal 
greater  specialization  for  eating  flesh  be- 
cause the  remaining  molars,  including  the 
lower  camassial,  retain  their  crushing 
function. 

Early  in  the  evolution  of  the  bear  lin- 
eage, the  camassials  themselves  began  to 
take  on  a  greater  cmshing  function.  The 
upper  camassial  became  smaller,  and  its 
inner  cusp  became  prominent,  approxi- 
mating an  upper  molar  in  form.  In  the 
lower  camassial  the  shearing  cusps  be- 
came blunted  and  lowered,  while  the 
cmshing  talonid  "heel"  enlarged  to  make 
up  half  or  more  of  the  tooth  crown.  The 
upper  and  lower  molars  behind  the  camas- 
sials also  grew  larger  as  their  low,  broad 
cusps  formed  effective  cmshing  surfaces. 
These  transformations,  accomplished  by 
twenty-five  million  years  ago,  were  stmc- 


In  a  scene  set  in  the  Great  Plains  six  million  years  ago, 

distant  relatives  of  modem  dogs  {lower  right)  feed 

on  a  camel  carcass.  These  extinct  carnivores,  known  as 

Osteoboms,  sheared  meat  and  crushed  bone 

with  their  camassials — the  teeth  that  are  the 

hallmark  of  the  order  Camivora. 

Detail  of  mural  by  Jay  H.  Matternes;  National  Museum  of  Natural  History,  Smittisonian  Institution 


tural  responses  to  omnivorous  and  herbiv- 
orous diets,  resembling  those  of  living 
bears. 

This  adaptation  away  from  camivory  is 
called  hypocamivory.  It  is  not  confined  to 
the  bear  lineage  but  also  appears  in 
roughly  similar  form  among  raccoons, 
badgers,  and  even  some  fossil  canids.  It  is 
most  spectacularly  developed  in  the  denti- 
tion of  the  giant  panda,  an  herbivorous 
member  of  the  bear  lineage  that  feeds  ex- 
clusively on  bamboo  in  the  mountains  of 
southeastem  Asia. 

Among  the  pinnipeds — sea  lions,  wal- 
mses,  and  seals — ail  the  teeth  behind  the 
canines  have  the  same  simple  shape.  How 
the  camassials  evolved  to  this  form  can  be 
traced  through  a  succession  of  fossils.  An 
extinct,  twenty-four-million-year-old  spe- 
cies of  the  genus  Enaliarctos,  whose 
skeleton  indicates  it  was  fairly  well 
adapted  for  open-ocean  swimming,  still 
retained  camassials  and  molars.  Succes- 
sive species  of  this  genus  possessed  pro- 
gressively modified  camassials  that  even- 
tually came  to  resemble  the  premolars  in 
front  of  them.  This  transformation  may 
have  followed  a  shift  from  larger  prey, 
eaten  in  shallow  water  or  on  land,  to  small 
fish,  swallowed  whole  in  the  manner  of 
hving  pinnipeds. 

The  feliform  group  also  has  evolved 
striking  modifications  of  the  camassials 
and  succeeding  molars.  The  hypercamivo- 
rous  cats  occupy  an  extreme  branch  of  the 
feliform  evolutionary  tree.  Other  feliform 
families,  including  those  containing  the 
civets,  mongooses,  and  hyenas,  eat  a 
wider  range  of  food.  Still,  all  feliforms 
have  reduced  the  molar  teeth  involved  in 
mastication.  Living  hyenas,  which  cmsh 
bone  with  their  robust  premolars,  have 
gone  as  far  as  cats  in  the  loss  of  all  lower 
molars  behind  the  camassial,  and  their 
only  upper  molar  is  a  small  blade. 

Only  a  few  feliform  species  have  be- 
come adapted  to  an  otterlike  life  in 
streams.  None  have  evolved  that  are  com- 
parable to  seals  or  walmses.  But  two  spe- 
cies, the  aardwolf  of  Africa  (an  ant-eating 
hyena)  and  the  falanouc  of  Madagascar  (a 
civet),  have  become  specialists  in  feeding 
on  insects,  especially  ants  and  termites,  an 
abundant  tropical  protein  resource.  As  in 
other  ant-eating  mammals,  whose  prey 
need  little  mastication,  their  teeth  are  very 
small  and  simple.  The  aardwoLf's  camas- 
sials no  longer  have  a  sheanng  function. 

Within  the  order  Camivora,  certain  dis- 
tinct groups  have  come  to  resemble  one 
another  in  details  of  their  teeth.  For  ex- 
ample, the  hunting  dog  and  the  Asian 


75 


Joe  LeMonnier 


Suborder 


Family   Tree    of   the    Order   Carnivora 

F  e  I  i  f  o  r  m  i  a  Caniformia 


Family      FELIDAE 
Common  name       (Cats) 


HYAENIDAE         VIVERRIDAE 
(Hyenas)  (Civets) 


CANIDAE        AlVIPHiCYONIDAE         URSIDAE 

(Dogs)  (Bear-dogs)  (Bears) 

Extinct 


■PINNIPEDS'  PI50CY0NIDAE         MUSTELIDAE 

(Sea  lions,  (Raccoons)      (Weasels,  Skunks, 

Walruses,  Otters) 
Seals) 


dhole,  the  most  hypercamivorous  living 
canids,  have  the  most  catlike  teeth.  Similar 
teeth  are  found  in  some  extinct  amphicy- 
onids  and  several  groups  of  fossil  canids. 
This  phenomenon,  called  paiallel  evolu- 
tion, is  widespread  among  mammals  in 


Lion 


general.  It  occurs  when  closely  related 
groups  of  mammals  follow  similar  adap- 
tive paths. 

A  related  phenomenon  is  convergent 
evolution,  in  which  distantly  related  spe- 
cies achieve  similar  adaptations  and  come 


Carnassial  (Premoiar) 
Premolars 


hcisor 


Carnassial  (Malar) 

Premolars 


Carbines 


Wolf 


Molars 

Carnassial  (Premolar) 
Premolars 

Incisors 


Molars  - 
Talonid  • 
Carnassial  (Molar)' 

Premolars 


Canines 
Incisor 


to  resemble  each  other  superficially.  For 
example,  different  skeletal  parts  of  the 
forelimb  were  modified  in  bats,  birds,  and 
pterosaurs  to  produce  the  same  adaptation, 
flight.  Similarly,  some  mammals  outside 
the  order  Carnivora  have  evolved  teeth 
that  resemble  camassials.  These  include 
the  Tasmanian  devil,  which  is  a  primarily 
carnivorous  marsupial,  and  the  extinct  cre- 
odonts,  placental  mammals  usually  re- 
garded as  distant  relatives  of  the  Car- 
nivora. In  these  relatively  primitive 
animals,  all  the  molars  have  a  camassial- 
like  form,  functioning  together  like  pink- 
ing shears.  Similar  teeth  also  characterize 
early  members  of  the  order  Insectivora.  In 
one  insectivore.  the  hedgehog,  the  same 
teeth  as  in  true  camivores  have  become 
specialized  camassials — the  upper  last 
premolar  and  lower  first  molar.  This  ap- 
pears to  be  an  unusual  case  of  convergent 
evolution,  in  which  the  same  structures  are 
involved  among  animals  only  distantly  re- 
lated to  the  Carnivora. 


A  comparison  of  the  skulls  of  a  lion 

and  a  wolf  reveals  the  cat  family's 

extreme  adaptation  to  carnivory. 

The  lion  lacks  crushing  teeth;  its 

only  lower  molar  is  the  meat- 
shearing  carnassial.  Its  sole  upper 
molar  is  a  tiny,  hladelike  tooth,  here 
hidden  behind  the  upper  carnassial. 
The  wolf  retains  molars  for 
crushing,  and  even  its  lower 
carnassial  has  a  shelflike  section, 
the  talonid.  In  this  view  of  both 
skulls,  the  canines  and  larger 
incisors  hide  the  smaller  incisors. 

Illustration  by  Ed  Heck 


76    Natural  History  4/94 


AMERICAN  MUSEUM  OF  NATURAL  HISTORY 

ST" 


Exploring  the  world  with  expert  lecturers 


CRUISES 

France:  Cruising 
Through  Provence 

June  21  -  July  3,  1994 

Voyage  to  Lands  of 
Gods  and  Heroes 

Italy,  Greek  Isles,  Turkey 
June  30 -July  13,  1994 

Icebreaker  Expedition 
TO  THE  North  Pole 

July  12-31,  1994 

Alaska's  Inside  Passage 

July  13-22,  1994 

Crossroads  of 
THE  Continents 

Alaska  &  the  Russian 

Far  East 

July  20-30,  1994 

Beyond  the  North  Cape 

Spitsbergen  to  Bergen 
August  6-21,  1994 

Voyage  to  Antiquity 

Turkey  and  the  Greek  Isles 

Aboard  the  Sea  Cloud 
August  30  -  Sept.  11,  1994 

Into  the  Kaleidoscope: 
Islands  of  Indonesia 

Sept.  17  -  Oct.  1,  1994 

Crossroads  of  Civilization 

Israel,  Syria,  Greece,  Turkey 
Nov.  17 -Dec.  1,  1994 


DISCOVERY  CRUISES 
AND  TOURS 

The  American  Museum  of  Natural 
History  has  been  conducting  travel 
programs  to  remote  and  magnifi- 
cent areas  since  1953.  Working 
closely  with  the  finest  tour  opera- 
tors, each  program  is  carefully 
developed  to  offer  an  innovative 
and  distinctive  travel  opportunity. 
We  select  a  team  of  lecturers  from 
the  Museum's  extensive  staff  of 
scientists  and  from  other  renowned 
instituions  to  provide  a  compre- 
hensive and  stimulating  enrich- 
ment program.  Our  programs 
attract  seasoned  and  discerning 
travelers  who  want  to  satisfy  their 
intellectual  curiosity  while  enjoy- 
ing comfortable  cruise  and  land 
facihtites. 


FAMILY 
ADVENTURES 

Voyage  to  Lands  of 
Gods  and  Heroes 

Italy,  Greek  Isles,  Turkey 

Aboard  the  Daphne 
June  30 -July  13,  1994 

Mexico's  Copper  Canyon 

July  9-16,  1994 

Galapagos  Wildlife  and 
Andean  Highlands 

July  14-25,  1994 

Kenya  Safari 

August  8-21,  1994 


American  Museum  of  Natural  History/Discovery  Cruises  and  Tours 
Central  Park  West  at  79th  St.  New  York,  NY  10024-5192 


TRAIN  TRIPS 

Berlin  to  Istanbul 

May  23 -June  4,  1994 

Ancient  Turkey 

May  31  -June  12,  1994 

Beijing  to  Moscow 

September  15-30,  1994 

Beijing  to  Hanoi 

Oct.  25  -  Nov.  12,  1994 


LAND  PROGRAMS 

Britain  Lake 
District  Walk 

June  6-16,  1994 

Tibet:  Journey  to  the 
Roof  of  the  world 

September  2-21,  1994 

Morocco:  The  Road  of 
A  Thousand  Kasbahs 

Sept.  24  -  October  8,  1994 

Botswana:  Desert  &  Delta 

Sept.  30  -  October  15,  1994 

Himalayan  Wildlife 

India  and  Nepal 
November  3-21,  1994 

Kenya  Holiday  Safari 

December  1994 

Around  the  World 
BY  Private  Jet 

January  19  -  Feb.  21,  1995 


(212)  769-5700  in  New  York  or 
Toll-free  (800)  462-8687 


The  Sabertootlns 

Repeat 
Performances 


by  Christine  Janis 


The  immense  diversity  of  mammals  liv- 
ing today  is  the  legacy  of  historical  events. 
One  was  the  Cretaceous  extinction  of  the 
dinosaurs,  which  had  monopoUzed  most 
of  the  earth's  Uving  space  for  millions  of 
years.  With  the  dinosaurs  gone,  a  major 
constraint  on  mammalian  evolution  and 
radiation  was  removed.  But  perhaps  even 
more  important  was  the  breaking  up  of  the 
supercontinent  Pangaea,  which  began 
some  130  million  years  ago  and  was  still 
going  on  in  the  early  Cenozoic,  about  65 
million  years  ago,  when  the  modem  radia- 
tion of  mammals  began. 

As  the  continents  went  their  separate 
ways,  they  carried  their  mammals  with 
them.  Separated  from  other  populations  of 
their  kind,  these  "seed  faunas"  of  small, 
early  mammals  were  free  to  evolve  in  iso- 
lation. Each  continental  block  developed 
its  own  group  of  mammals.  Placental 
mammals,  for  example,  probably  origi- 
nated in  Asia,  in  the  early  Cretaceous. 
Monotremes  (the  egg-laying  platypus  and 
echidnas)  were  almost  certainly  native  to 
Australia.  Other  animals  endemic  to  that 
continent  today — the  marsupials — came 
somewhat  later,  their  ancestors  crossing 
over  Antarctica  from  South  America  in  the 
early  Cenozoic,  before  the  final  separation 
of  the  southern  continents. 

Sometimes  continental  blocks  gained 
mammals  from  ancestors  that  dispersed, 
by  chance,  across  the  still-widening 
oceans.  In  some  cases,  chance  dispersal 
added  to  an  already  existing  fauna.  In  oth- 
ers, however,  it  was  the  sole  source.  Mada- 
gascar and  New  Zealand,  for  instance,  ap- 
parently broke  away  too  early  to  have  their 
own  mammal  conringents,  but  while 
Madagascar  developed  a  rich  mammalian 
fauna  by  waves  of  dispersal.  New  Zealand 
has  no  native  mammals  other  than  bats. 

The  results  of  all  this  mammalian  radia- 
tion were  widely  diverse,  but  certain  simi- 
larities can  be  found  among  mammals  that 


are  only  distantly  related.  Some  of  the  sim- 
ilarities— such  as  the  production  of  milk  to 
feed  the  young — are  attributable  to  the 
shared  ancestry  of  all  mammals,  but  others 
came  about  as  long-separated  types  of 
mammals  independently  discovered  simi- 
lar "solutions"  to  the  "problems"  posed  by 
similar  environments.  Examples  of  such 
convergence  can  often  be  seen  in  the  body 
forms  of  mammals  from  different  conti- 
nents. Such  forms  are  referred  to  as  con- 
vergent ecomorphological  types.  The  term 
ecomorph  refers  to  the  impact  of  behavior 
and  ecology  on  the  evolution  of  an  ani- 
mal's anatomy. 

The  most  familiar  examples  of  conver- 
gence today  are  those  of  Australian  marsu- 
pials and  placental  mammals  that  evolved 
elsewhere  in  the  world:  the  thylacine,  or 
Tasmanian  "wolf  (believed  by  most  peo- 
ple to  have  gone  extinct  earlier  this  cen- 
tury, although  tantalizing  reports  of  its 
continued  survival  appear  now  and  then), 
and  the  wolf  of  the  Northern  Hemisphere, 
for  instance.  A  striking  amount  of  conver- 
gence can  also  be  seen  in  the  "flying" — 
actually  gliding — possums  of  Australia 
and  the  two  separate  groups  of  placental 
"flying"  squirrels  (one  in  the  Northern 
Hemisphere  and  one  in  Africa),  as  well  as 
Asia's  so-called  flying  lemurs  (not  only  do 
fliey  glide,  they  are  also  not  true  lemurs). 

Australia  is  a  fruitful  place  to  look  for 
examples  of  convergence  because  of  its 
long  history  of  isolation.  Madagascar,  too, 
has  produced  many  native  mammals  con- 
vergent with  mammals  elsewhere:  the 
fossa  (a  giant  civet),  almost  indistinguish- 
able from  a  cat;  tenrecs,  some  of  which  re- 
semble Northern  Hemisphere  hedgehogs 
and  moles;  and  lemurs,  primates  that  radi- 
ated into  a  wide  variety  of  forms.  Some 
extinct  giant  lemurs  appear  to  have  been 
ecomorphs  of  such  animals  as  the  marsu- 
pial koala,  the  placental  orangutan,  and  the 
extinct  placental  ground  sloths. 


In  many  other  parts  of  the  world,  the 
continuing  shifting  of  the  continents  and 
the  migrations  that  follow  the  periodic 
lowering  of  sea  levels  have  blurred  much 
of  the  originally  distinct  character  of  the 
various  continental  faunas  and  aimihilated 
many  unique  forms.  Africa  was  the  first  to 
suffer,  when  it  docked  with  Eurasia  in  the 
late  Oligocene  or  early  Miocene,  between 
twenty  and  thirty  million  years  ago.  The 
little  rock  hyrax,  or  coney,  for  example,  is 
the  sole  survivor  of  a  great  diversity  of 
hyraxes  that  once  included  piglike,  hippo- 
like, and  antelopelike  forms. 

North  and  South  America  have  lost 
much  of  their  early  mammalian  diversity 
as  well.  Hippolike  rhinos  and  giraffelike 
camels  no  longer  roam  the  savannas  of 
North  America,  and  five  entire  orders  of 
native  ungulates — which  evolved  into 
forms  paralleling  rhinos,  horses,  and 
camels  living  elsewhere  in  the  world — are 
now  extinct  in  South  America.  Enough 
species  remain  to  bear  witness  to  each 
continent's  period  of  isolation,  and  plenty 
of  examples  of  convergence  can  still  be 
found — the  South  American  armadillos 
and  African  pangolins,  for  example — but 
the  faunal  blending  that  has  occurred  over 
time  has  reduced  the  opportunities  to  ob- 
serve the  phenomenon  in  living  animals. 

The  fossil  record  offers  a  chance  to  dis- 
cover more  instances  of  convergence.  It 
also  provides  an  example  of  an  evolution- 
ary phenomenon  that  resembles  classic 
convergence,  but  that  takes  place  over 
time  ratiier  than  over  space.  "Iterative" 
evolution  involves  the  appearance,  extinc- 
tion, and  reappearance  of  the  same  eco- 
morphological type,  sometimes  (but  not 
always)  in  die  same  taxonomic  group.  The 
best-known  and  most  dramatic  examples 
of  iterative  evolution  are  the  saber-toothed 
carnivores.  The  saber-toothed  eco- 
morph— a  predator  with  elongated  ca- 
nines and  a  powerful  body — has  existed 
several  times  in  the  past,  which  raises  the 
question  of  what  factors  may  dispose  cer- 
tain types  of  animals  to  extinction. 

The  most  familiar  of  the  sabertooths  is 
the  Pleistocene  saber-toothed  tiger  (Smilo- 
don)  of  the  La  Brea  tar  pits  in  Cahfomia. 
This  animal  was  a  true  cat  (family  Felidae) 
but  was  only  distantiy  related  to  the  animal 
we  call  tiger  today.  Saber-toothed  cats  first 
appeared  in  the  Old  World  in  the  later 
Cenozoic,  but  the  earliest  version  of  a 
saber-toothed  mammalian  predator, 
Machaeroides,  had  evolved  some  fifty 
million  years  before,  in  the  Eocene,  and 
belonged  to  the  extinct  carnivorous  order 
Creodonta.  Marsupial  versions  of  saber- 


78    Natural  History  4/94 


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FACES  explores  the  lives  and  cultures  of 
people  around  the  world  with  exciting 
articles,  tales,  legends,  puzzles,  and 
activities. 

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Please  send  check  or  money  order  payable  to 
FACES,  American  Museum  of  Natural  His- 
tory, Central  Park  West  at  79th  Street,  New 
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Tlie  most  familiar  of  all 

sabertooths,  Smilodon 

belonged  to  the  family  Felidae, 

although  it  was  not  in  the  same 

genus  as  present-day  big  cats. 

As  recently  as  12,000  years 

ago,  this  predator  roamed 

North  America,  perhaps  using 

its  long,  daggerlike  canines  to 

slice  open  it  victims '  bellies. 

Illustration  by  Pat  Ortega 


toothed  predators  also  existed  in  South 
America,  with  the  extinct  borhyaenid  car- 
nivorous marsupials  (distantly  related  to 
opossums)  producing  the  leopard-sized 
Thylacosmilus  in  the  Pliocene-Pleis- 
tocene. (Another  interesting  case  is  pre- 
sented by  the  thylacoleonids,  an  Aus- 
trahan  lineage  possibly  related  to  koalas 
and  wombats.  Descended  from  an  ances- 
tor that  had  lost  its  canines,  they  developed 
caninelike  incisors.  Thylacoleonid 
anatomy  indicates  that  they,  like  true 
saber-toothed  ecomorphs,  were  heavy-set 
predators.) 

But  the  real  stars  in  the  saber-toothed 
predator  game  were  the  nimravids,  an  ex- 
tinct family  of  placental  mammals  that  be- 
longed to  the  extant  order  Camivora.  De- 
spite their  remarkable  resemblance  to  true 
cats,  nimravids  were  only  distantly  related 
to  the  family  Felidae.  Sometimes  known 
as  "false  sabertooths,"  nimravids  were  es- 
pecially diverse  in  Eurasia  and  North 
America  during  the  Oligocene,  about 
thirty-four  to  twenty-three  million  years 
ago. 

Bobcat  to  jaguar  sized,  nimravids  were 
in  general  smaller  than  the  Pleistocene 
saber-toothed  true  cats,  but  like  the  true 
cats,  they  also  developed  two  ecomorpho- 
logical  types  within  the  broader  role:  a 
more  lightly  built,  "scimitar-toothed" 
form  with  somewhat  elongated,  bladelike 
canines;  and  a  more  powerful,  shorter- 
legged,  "dirk-toothed"  form  with  very 
long,  daggerlike  canines,  in  some  cases 
supported  by  a  corresponding  flange  on 
the  lower  jaw.  (The  placental  creodonts 
and  the  South  American  marsupials 
mostly  resembled  the  dirk-toothed  type.) 
How  these  teeth  were  used  to  kill  prey  is  a 
subject  of  debate.  A  normal,  catlike  bite  to 
the  top  of  the  neck  might  snap  the  flattish 
blades,  so  the  saberlike  teeth  were  prob- 
ably used  to  slice  open  the  victim's  belly 
or  the  underside  of  its  neck. 

Larry  Martin,  of  the  University  of 
Kansas,  has  traced  the  iterative  evolution 


80    Natural  History  4/94 


t 


of  the  dirk-toothed  type  of  saber-toothed 
carnivores  in  the  Great  Plains  of  North 
America.  He  found  that  following  the  ex- 
tinction of  the  creodont  Machaeroides,  the 
role  was  empty  until  the  appearance  in  the 
late  Eocene,  some  five  million  years  later, 
of  the  nimravids,  probably  representing 
immigration  from  Asia.  Several  different 
types  of  jaguar-sized  nimravids  alternated 
as  "top  cat"  in  this  role  during  the  Oligo- 
cene,  but  all  nimravids  went  extinct  in 
North  America  about  twenty-three  million 
years  ago. 

There  was  another  saber-toothed  "cat 
gap"  for  the  next  twelve  milUon  years  or 
so,  until  the  immigration,  probably  via 
Asia,  of  Barbourofelis,  a  lion-sized  nim- 
ravid.  Barbourofelis  lasted  until  near  the 
end  of  the  Miocene,  becoming  extinct 
about  seven  million  years  ago.  Shortly 


after  the  extinction  of  Barbourofelis,  an- 
other dirk-toothed  predator — Megan- 
tereon — immigrated  from  Asia.  A  true 
felid,  Megantereon  was  an  ancestor  of 
Smilodon,  which  thrived  as  recently  as 
12,000  years  ago,  during  the  late  Pleis- 
tocene. 

Why  has  the  saber-toothed  ecomorph 
been  so  vulnerable  to  extinction,  and  why 
is  it  not  present  today?  Large  carnivores 
are,  in  general,  highly  susceptible  to  ex- 
tinction. The  skeletons  of  all  sabertooths 
suggest  predators  built  for  power,  not 
speed  (the  dirk-tooths  were  more  power- 
fully built  than  present-day  lions  or  tigers). 
That,  in  turn,  implies  a  hunting  style  that 
relies  on  ambush  rather  than  the  long 
chase,  a  style  associated  in  carnivores 
today  with  a  more-or-less  solitary  life  style 
and  large  individual  home  ranges.  If  the 


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81 


American  Museum  of  Natural  History 

France 

IP      Cruising  through  Provence 

June  23  -  July  3, 1994 


The  Rhone  River  wends 
its  way  through  Provence, 
one  of  France's  most  pic- 
turesque regions.  Lov- 
ingly captured  on  canvas 
by  Van  Gogh,  Gauguin, 
Cezanne  and  others,  it  is  a 
beguiling  region  that 
blends  history,  culture 
and  natural  beauty  to  per- 
fection. 


A  team  of  Museum  ex- 
perts accompany  us  as  we  cruise  up  the  Rhone  aboard  the  5-star  m.s. 
Cezanne  from  Martigue  to  Viviers.  We  will  discover  the  splendor  of 
ancient  Rome  as  exemplified  by  the  ruins  in  Aries,  Viviers,  Nimes  and 
St.  Remy's  environs.  Cities  and  towns  rife  with  medieval  remnants,  such 
St.  Gilles,  Aigues-Mortes,  Avignon,  Les  Baux-de-Provence  and  Aix-en- 

Provence,  add  to  the  his- 
toric atmosphere  of  our  itin- 
erary. Not  to  be  forgotten, 
we  will  also  enjoy  the  sub- 
lime beauty  of  the  country- 
side, including  the  magnifi- 
cent Luberon  range  and  the 
isolated  marshes  and  sand 
dunes  of  the  Camargue.  Join 
us  for  this  special  jour- 
ney through  southern 
France. 


American 
Museum  of 
Natural 
History 

Discovery  Cruises 

Central  Park  West  at  79th  St. 

New  York,  NY   10024-5192 

Toll-free  (800)  462-8687  or 

(212)  769-5700  in  NYS 


density  of  prey  decreases,  perhaps  because 
of  environmental  changes,  the  home  range 
of  such  a  predator  has  to  increase  to  insure 
enough  food  for  survival. 

Sabertooths  faced  with  a  scenario  of  de- 
clining prey  and,  thus,  increasing  home- 
range  size  would  also  be  less  and  less 
likely  to  encounter  potential  mates.  Even- 
tually, the  chances  of  a  sabertooth  finding 
a  mate  in  a  neighboring  territory  would 
become  remote,  and  the  population  would 
decline,  with  extinction  inevitable  unless 
environmental  circumstances  improved 
and  prey  increased.  Lending  some  support 
to  this  idea  is  evidence  that  some  of  the 
North  American  sabertooth  extinctions 
overlap  with  turnovers  and  extinctions  in 
the  ungulate  faunas,  particularly  in  the  late 
Miocene.  The  megafaunal  extinctions  of 
large  herbivores  that  took  place  at  the  end 
of  the  Pleistocene  may  have  sounded  the 
death  knell  for  the  saber-toothed  eco- 
morph  worldwide. 

Will  there  ever  be  another  saber- 
toothed  ecomorph?  We  cannot  know,  of 
course.  But  one  candidate  for  a  saber- 
toothed  ancestor  might  be  the  Asian 
clouded  leopard,  Neofelis  nebulosa,  a  for- 
est-living, jaguar-sized  cat  with  the 
longest  canines  of  any  extant  felid. 

Some  mammalian  traits  appear  to  have 
evolved  only  once,  with  no  evidence  of 
convergence  over  time  or  space.  For  ex- 
ample, although  a  variety  of  famiUes  con- 
tain gliding  mammals,  all  true  flying 
mammals — bats — belong  to  a  single 
order,  the  Chiroptera.  (The  only  other  ver- 
tebrates to  have  evolved  powered  flight  are 
birds  and  the  extinct  pterosaurs.) 

Our  own  mode  of  bipedalism,  with  an 
upright  torso  and  a  striding  gait,  is  also 
unique.  Many  mammals  (such  as  kanga- 
roos and  many  types  of  rodents)  have  a 
hopping  mode  of  bipedal  locomotion  in 


Pogonodon  platycopis  (once 
regarded  as  being  in  the  genus 
Dinictisj  was  one  of  the  nim- 
ravids,  an  extinct  family  of 
carnivorous  mammals  only 
distantly  related  to  true  cats. 
Pogonodon  had  scimitarlike 
canines  shorter  than  those  of 
Smilodon;  it  was  also  smaller 
and  more  lightly  built  and— as 
this  artist's  rendition  sug- 
gests— may  have  had  body 
markings  like  an  ocelot  (far 
right,  bottom). 

Illustration  by  Pat  Ortega 


82    Natural  History  4/94 


which  the  trunk  is  held  horizontally  and  a 
long  tail  is  used  as  a  counterbalance. 
Bipedal  dinosaurs  walked  with  a  similar 
body  posture,  and  their  descendants,  the 
birds,  still  maintain  a  horizontal  torso 
(penguins  are  the  only  exception),  com- 
pensating for  the  loss  of  the  bony  tail  by 
pivoting  the  body  over  the  knees.  But  hu- 
mans, evolving  as  we  did  from  African 
apes  that  had  aheady  lost  the  tail  and  de- 
veloped an  upright  torso,  inherited  a 
unique  set  of  design  constraints  and  adap- 
tations that  made  the  "normal"  mode  of 
vertebrate  bipedality  impossible. 

The  great  South  American  radiation  of 
primates  produced  no  upright  ape,  which 
is  surprising  since  a  remarkable  example 
of  convergence  exists  between  the  Asian 
gibbon,  the  most  primitive  of  the  living 


apes,  and  the  South  American  brachiating 
spider  monkey,  although  the  latter  differs 
in  possessing  a  long,  prehensile  tail.  I  sus- 
pect that  the  South  American  monkeys 
never  experienced  an  apelike  radiation  be- 
cause the  role  of  a  terrestrial,  at  least  par- 
tially bipedal  herbivore  was  already  taken 
up  by  the  endemic  ground  sloths. 

The  uniqueness  of  the  human  ecomorph 
is  often  a  source  of  pride.  However,  with 
all  the  problems  facing  the  planet  today — 
so  many  seemingly  a  result  of  the  spread 
of  civilization — we  might  perhaps  be  wise 
to  hope  that  if  the  human  species  ever  does 
succeed  in  doing  itself  in,  our  particular 
ecomorphological  type  will  not  reemerge 
any  time  soon.  The  worid  might  survive  a 
reappearance  of  the  sabertooths,  but  could 
it  take  another  round  of  us? 


'^:n-^i^m^-^ 


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THE  ALIOSAURUS  TOTEBAG 

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83 


Tough  Times  in 
the  Tar  Pits 

by  Bloire  Van  Volkenburgh 


The  camel  had  been  a  quick  kill.  Its 
struggles  at  the  stream's  edge,  where  it  had 
been  trapped  in  quicksand  saturated  with 
asphalt,  had  attracted  a  pack  of  dire 
wolves.  They  dispatched  the  huge  beast 
quickly  with  multiple,  ripping  bites  to  its 
abdomen. 

Now  the  feeding  wolves  rapidly  pull 
muscle  and  viscera  from  the  carcass,  stop- 
ping occasionally  to  scan  their  surround- 
ings. Condors  circle  above  and  a  coyote 
paces  nearby,  eager  to  clean  up  any  scraps. 
At  the  sound  of  a  warning  growl,  all  the 
wolves  stop  feeding  and  turn  toward  the 
sound;  the  fur  on  the  back  of  their  necks 


stands  erect,  and  their  lips  pull  back  to  re- 
veal their  upper  canines.  Two  saber- 
toothed  cats  approach,  each  twice  the 
mass  of  a  dire  wolf.  The  cats  display  their 
canines — long,  slightly  curved  daggers 
that  extend  well  below  their  lower  jaw.  Al- 
though only  two  sabertooths  are  challeng- 
ing the  pack  of  eight  wolves,  the  wolves 
are  unwilhng  to  engage  the  big  cats  in  bat- 
tle. The  sabertooths  move  closer,  lunging 
and  swiping  at  the  wolves,  paws  spread 
wide  and  claws  extended.  All  the  wolves 
move  away  from  the  camel  and  watch  as 
the  sabertooths  feed  on  the  catch. 

After  the  big  cats  have  left,  the  hungry 


wolves  will  return  to  eat  what  remains  of 
the  carcass.  By  the  following  day,  little  ev- 
idence will  be  left  of  the  camel's  death  on 
the  sand's  surface;  all  exposed  bones  will 
have  been  carried  off  and  chewed  by  scav- 
engers such  as  the  coyote.  Those  bones 
mired  in  the  sticky  sand  will  be  entombed 
and  preserved — and  will  emerge  as  fossils 
from  the  tar  pits  of  Rancho  La  Brea  some 
20,000  years  later. 

The  array  of  fossil  mammals  from  this 
Los  Angeles  site,  which  began  to  accumu- 
late 36,000  years  ago,  reveals  the  diversity 
of  large  animals  that  inhabited  North 
America  until  the  late  Pleistocene,  only 
about  10,000  years  ago.  Today  only  eleven 
species  of  hoofed  mammals  the  size  of  a 
peccary  or  larger  exist  in  North  America; 
in  the  past,  fifty-six  Mved  on  this  continent. 
They  included  giant  camels,  horses,  bison, 
mastodons,  and  mammoths.  These  herbi- 
vores were  preyed  upon  by  a  rich  array  of 
carnivores:  fifteen  species  the  size  of  a 
coyote  or  larger,  as  opposed  to  just  seven 
today.  In  addition  to  sabertooths,  dire 
wolves,  and  coyotes.  North  America  was 
home  to  black,  grizzly,  and  short-faced 


84    Natural  History  4/94 


bears,  gray  wolves,  pumas,  and  American 
lions  that  were  nearly  twice  the  size  of 
their  African  cousins. 

Recently,  with  the  help  of  graduate  stu- 
dent Fritz  Hertel,  of  the  University  of  Cal- 
ifornia at  Los  Angeles,  I  conducted  studies 
that  provided  some  unexpected  findings 
about  the  intensity  of  competition  for  food 
among  late  Pleistocene  carnivores.  After 
studying  the  frequency  of  broken  teeth  in 
modem  lions,  wolves,  and  hyenas,  we 
found  that,  on  average,  one  out  of  four 
adults  had  suffered  at  least  one  broken 
tooth  during  its  lifetime.  However,  the 
spotted  hyena,  a  habitual  bone-crusher, 
had  a  higher  frequency  of  broken  teeth, 
approaching  40  percent.  In  all  species,  the 
most  commonly  broken  teeth  were  ca- 
nines (fangs,  or  eye  teeth),  followed  by  in- 
cisors and  premolars  toward  the  front  of 
the  mouth  and  camassials  (shearing  teeth) 
and  molars  along  the  sides.  The  increased 
fracture  frequency  in  hyenas  probably  re- 
flects their  tendency  to  consume  carcasses 
more  fully,  sometimes  breaking  teeth  as 
they  crunch  bones. 

These  data  suggested  that  tooth  break- 


age could  be  used  as  an  index  to  reflect  the 
level  of  competition  for  food  in  extinct 
predators — the  hungrier  the  predators,  the 
more  fully  a  carcass  would  be  devoured, 
down  to  and  including  the  marrow-rich 
bones.  To  obtain  a  good  estimate  of  frac- 
ture frequency  in  extinct  carnivores,  we 
had  to  look  at  a  lot  of  teeth.  While  most 
fossil  sites  yield  few  carnivore  teeth,  the 
tar  pits  of  Rancho  La  Brea  are  an  excep- 
tion. Here,  approximately  ten  carnivores 
were  lured  to  their  death  by  each  herbivore 
that  was  trapped.  We  were  able  to  examine 
more  than  4,(X)0  teeth  of  Rancho  La  Brea 
carnivores  and  550  teeth  of  dire  wolves 
from  two  other  late  Pleistocene  sites.  AU 
of  the  teeth  were  attached  to  skuUs  or  jaws, 
and  we  considered  teeth  to  have  been  bro- 
ken only  if  they  showed  distinct  signs  of 
wear  after  the  break  occurred.  To  our  sur- 
prise, the  frequency  of  broken  teeth  in  dire 
wolves,  sabertooths  (Smilodon),  American 
lions,  and  coyotes  was  three  to  five  times 
that  observed  for  modem  carnivores,  in- 
cluding hyenas.  This  held  true  for  dire 
wolves  at  all  three  sites  and,  since  we  ac- 
counted for  age,  was  not  the  result  of  age 


differences  in  individuals  in  the  ancient 
and  modern  samples.  (Bobcats  and  pumas 
left  few  fossil  teeth,  having  been  only  oc- 
casional visitors  to  the  tar  pits,  but  none  of 
their  teeth  were  broken.) 

The  fossil  record  of  carnivores  (teeth 
included)  before  40,000  years  ago  is  mea- 
ger compared  with  that  of  the  late  Pleis- 
tocene. Our  studies  do  suggest,  however, 
that  for  predators  such  as  sabertooths, 
tooth  breakage  increased  over  time;  that  is, 
sabertooths  that  hunted  40,000  years  ago 
had  relatively  fewer  broken  teeth  than 
sabertooths  that  lived  10,000  years  ago. 

What  could  account  for  tough  times  in 
the  late  Pleistocene  that  made  broken  teeth 
more  frequent  than  seems  to  have  been  the 
case  before  and  since?  One  possibility  is 
that  the  tar  pits  attracted  injured  or  old — 
and  weak-toothed — predators  because 
prey  were  so  vulnerable  when  mired. 
Based  on  their  relatively  slight  tooth  wear, 
however,  most  of  the  Uons,  dire  wolves, 
sabertooths,  and  coyotes  that  died  at  Ran- 
cho La  Brea  were  young  adults  seemingly 
in  the  prime  of  life.  A  single  broken  canine 
or  premolar  is  unlikely  to  have  severely  af- 
fected their  ability  to  hunt. 

I  believe  the  increased  tooth  breakage 
in  late  Pleistocene  large  predators  suggests 
that  at  that  time,  competition  for  food  was 
more  intense  than  it  had  been  previously 
and  much  fiercer  than  it  is  today.  Having 
secured  a  carcass,  a  carnivore  needed  to 
extract  as  much  nourishment  from  it  as 
possible,  a  process  that  led  to  broken  teeth. 
The  extinction  of  the  huge  and  once  abun- 
dant prey  species — American  camels, 
giant  sloths,  mammoths,  and  others — 
could  have  been  the  late  Pleistocene  film- 
ing point,  subjecting  the  predators  to  a 
fight  for  life  that  most  of  them  lost. 

Of  the  four  La  Brea  species  we  studied 
that  had  broken  teeth,  only  the  most  om- 
nivorous survived  and  is  today  one  of  the 
most  adaptable  of  carnivores.  The  coyote 
continues  to  thrive  today  in  habitats  as  dif- 
ferent as  the  wilds  of  Yellowstone  and  the 
backyards  of  Beverly  Hills. 


In  a  detail  of  a  scene  at  La  Brea 
some  20,000  years  ago,  saber- 
toothed  cats  drive  dire  wolves  away 
from  the  carcass  of  a  horse.  Tlie 

asphalt  in  which  so  many 

Pleistocene  animals  became  mired 

rarely  formed  lakes;  it  usually 

collected  in  shallow  seeps, 

sometimes  camouflaged  by  debris. 

Painting  by  Mark  Halietl 


85 


he  Who 
T< 


les 


by  Philip  D.  Gingerich 


In  Greek  mythology,  Tethys  is  the  wife 
of  Oceanus  and  a  sea  goddess  in  her  own 
right.  About  a  hundred  years  ago,  geolo- 
gists appropriated  her  name  for  the  ancient 
sea  that  once  divided  the  earth's  great 
northern  and  southern  continents.  Today 
the  Mediterranean  is  a  mere  suggestion  of 
what  Tethys  must  have  been  in  its  time. 
Stretching  from  what  is  now  Spain  to  In- 
donesia, Tethys  was  an  ocean  when  trilo- 
bites  and  other  early  forms  of  life  flour- 
ished, and  it  lasted  more  than  500  million 
years,  through  the  Age  of  Dinosaurs  and 
into  the  Age  of  Mammals.  The  inexorable 
drift  of  continental  plates  finally  obliter- 
ated Tethys.  India  and  central  Asia  con- 
verged and  raised  the  Himalayas;  Arabia 
pushed  into  western  Asia  and  uplifted  the 
Zagros;  Africa  encroached  on  Europe  and 
raised  the  Alps.  Tethyan  sea  sediments 
now  lie  dry  and  exposed  in  the  Sahara 
Desert  and  in  the  folded  foothills  of  the 
Himalayas  and  the  Alps. 

Extensive  and  relatively  shallow,  the 
waters  of  Tethys  would  have  been  warm 
and  well  stocked  with  fish  and  moUusks.  It 
must  also  have  been  inviting  to  mammals 
that  lived  at  its  edge.  Three  hundred  mil- 
lion years  after  vertebrates  first  colonized 
land,  some  mammals  reversed  their  pat- 
tern and  returned  to  Tethys.  Today,  the  de- 
scendants of  those  seagoing  pioneers — 
toothed  porpoises  and  dolphins  and  the 
toothed  and  baleen  whales  that  make  up 
the  order  Cetacea — have  adapted  fully  to 
life  in  water.  All  have  a  streamlined  body, 
a  blowhole  or  pair  of  holes  on  the  top  of 
the  skull  for  breathing,  simplified  teeth 


(replaced  in  some  by  keratinous  baleen),  a 
specialized  system  for  underwater  hear- 
ing, and  locomotion  powered  by  a  fluked 
tail  instead  of  by  limbs  or  flippers.  These 
advanced  cetacean  features  were  acquired 
in  steps  over  time,  but  the  prototype  was  a 
land  mammal  living  on  the  shores  of 
Tethys. 

The  oldest-known  fossil  whales  come 
from  the  Kuldana  Formation,  a  stratum  of 
rocks  in  northern  Pakistan  deposited  by 
ancient  rivers  and  sandwiched  between 
Tethyan  marine  formations.  In  the  Eocene, 
some  fifty  million  years  ago,  Tethys  could 
not  have  been  far  downriver  from  this  site. 
In  1979, 1  led  an  international  team  from 
the  United  States,  France,  and  Pakistan  to 
search  the  Kuldana  Formation  for  fossils 
of  early  land  mammals.  One  December 
day,  Jean-Louis  Hartenberger,  a  rodent 
specialist,  hammered  open  a  rock  with 
what  looked  like  a  small  bone  on  its  sur- 
face; the  bone  turned  out  to  be  a  crest  on 
the  back  of  a  beautifuUy  complete  fossil 
skull.  Because  the  skull  was  relatively 
large  but  the  braincase  was  small,  we 
began  to  suspect  that  he  had  found  an  ar- 
chaeocete,  a  member  of  an  ancient  family 
of  whales.  These  now-extinct  relatives  of 
today's  toothed  and  baleen  whales  had 
some  modem  features,  such  as  a  dense 
tympanic  bone  for  hearing,  but  lacked 
many  ofliers,  including  a  blowhole  on  the 
top  of  the  skull. 

When  I  returned  to  my  lab  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Michigan,  my  coUeagues  and  I 
removed  the  remaining  rock  from  the  new 
skull.  The  configuration  of  bones  in  the 


Basilosaurus,  an  ancient  whale  that  lived  some  forty 

million  years  ago,  had  front  flippers  and  tiny 

but  functional  hind  limbs,  complete  with  thigh,  femur, 

and  three  toes.  It  may  have  used  its  feet  to  guide 

its  fifty  foot-long  body  during  copulation.  A  fossil 

of  the  whale  was  unearthed  in  1989  in  what  is 

now  the  Egyptian  Sahara. 

Painting  by  Marianne  Collins;  ©  1993,  W.  W.  Norton  and  Company 


skull  base  confirmed  that  it  was  indeed  an 
archaeocete;  we  named  it  Pakicetus  in- 
achus.  We  later  speculated  that  this  dog- 
sized  whale  first  entered  Tethys  from  its 
riverside  home  to  take  advantage  of  easy 
fishing  in  the  warm  waters. 

Pakicetus,  which  lived  about  fifty  mil- 
lion years  ago,  had  not  evolved  the  ability 
to  hear  directionally,  or  perhaps  to  hear 
well  at  all,  in  water,  a  hallmark  of  modem 
whales.  Archaic  features  such  as  this, 
along  with  its  discovery  among  remains  of 
land  animals,  makes  Pakicetus  a  very 
primitive  whale  indeed.  In  time  and  in  its 
morphology,  Pakicetus  is  perfectly  inter- 
mediate, a  missing  link  between  earlier 
land  mammals  and  later,  full-fledged 
whales. 

Our  unexpected  discovery  and  our  sub- 
sequent investigation  of  Pakicetus  made 
me  realize  how  little  was  known  about  the 


^^j»£^KWfta^B«^ 


l-yT^^^aiS'-t:- 


86    Natural  History  4/94 


transition  of  whales  from  land  to  sea.  I  also 
reasoned  that  we  need  not  remain  in  the 
dark.  After  all,  whales  live  and  die  in 
water,  where  they  are  easily  buried  and 
fossilized,  and  their  fossils  are  large  and 
relatively  easy  to  find.  Furthermore,  ma- 
rine rocks  of  Eocene  age  cover  vast  areas 
of  the  earth's  surface.  Since  finding  Pa- 
kicetus,  my  colleagues  and  I  have  been  ex- 
ploring whenever  possible  the  deserts  of 
Pakistan  and  Egypt  for  whales  to  fill  the 
gaps  in  our  knowledge.  Our  results  have 
been  gratifying. 

In  1989, 1  was  working  with  paleontolo- 
gists Elwyn  Simons  and  Holly  Smith  in 
Tethyan  sediments  of  the  Egyptian  Sahara, 
where  we  found  another  archaeocete.  In 
addition  to  a  hefty,  four-foot-long  skull 
and  huge  ribs,  we  found  a  thigh  bone,  then 
lower  leg  bones,  then  an  ankle.  Finally,  we 
also  unearthed,  one  by  one,  three  tiny  toes. 


These,  the  first  complete  hind  limbs  and 
feet  of  an  archaeocete  to  be  discovered, 
belonged  to  the  forty-million-year-old 
Basilosaums  isis,  a  large  early  whale  that 
must  have  been  one  of  the  most  ferocious 
marine  carnivores  of  its  time.  Because  the 
hind  limbs  (about  eighteen  inches  long) 
were  not  connected  to  a  sacrum  in  the 
spinal  column  as  are  the  hind  limbs  of  land 
mammals,  Basilosaums  could  not  possi- 
bly have  used  its  feet  to  lift  or  support  its 
eellike,  fifty-foot-long  body.  Yet  the  bones 
and  joints  are  so  well  formed,  with  strong 
processes  for  the  attachment  of  muscles, 
that  the  Umbs  appear  to  have  been  func- 
tional. I  suspect  that  Basilosaums  used  its 
legs  and  feet  as  guides  during  copulation. 
Basilosaums  exhibits  not  only  an  un- 
usually elongated  shape  but  also  oddly 
proportioned  vertebrae  that  lead  me  to  be- 
lieve that  it  was  on  a  side  line,  rather  than 


on  the  main  path  to  the  evolution  of  mod- 
em whales.  Another  cetacean  from  the 
same  era,  found  in  Egypt  and  known  as 
Prozeuglodon  atrox,  combines  normally 
proportioned  vertebrae  with  hind  limbs 
much  like  those  of  Basilosaums  and  is  a 
better  candidate  for  a  direct  ancestor  of 
modem  whales. 

Paleontologists  have  long  believed  that 
because  whales  evolved  from  land  mam- 
mals, they  must  have  had  hind  limbs  and 
feet  early  in  their  history.  What  surprised 
me  most  about  finding  hind  limbs  on 
Basilosaums  and  Prozeuglodon  was  that 
these  archaeocetes  lived  ten  million  years 
after  Pakicetus  and  the  origin  of  whales. 
Ten  million  years  is  a  long  time,  even  to  a 
geologist,  and  finding  hind  limbs  on  such 
"late"  whales  means  that  the  transition 
from  land  to  sea  took  time — time  enough 
to  allow  us  to  study  the  intermediate  stages 


87 


in  the  fossil  record.  Evolution  is  dynamic, 
but  change  doesn't  happen  in  a  flash. 
Thus,  we  can  expect  to  unearth  many 
more  missing  links. 

Further  rungs  in  the  cetacean  evolution- 
ary ladder  have  already  come  to  hght.  Re- 
cently, paleontologists  Hans  Thewissen, 
Taseer  Hussain,  and  Muhammad  Arif 
were  working  in  Pakistan  when  they  found 
a  partial  skeleton  of  a  brand-new  species 
of  a  forty-nine-million-year-old  Tethyan 
archaeocete,  with  important  parts  of  both 
front  and  hind  limbs.  The  femur,  or  thigh 
bone,  is  large,  hke  that  of  a  land  mammal, 
but  the  feet  are  long,  like  those  of  a  seal. 
The  scientists  named  the  animal  Ambulo- 


cetus  natans,  "the  walking  whale  that 
swam,"  in  recognition  of  its  amphibious 
nature.  Ambulocetiis  was  possibly  like  an 
otter  or  seal  in  its  behavior.  It  most  likely 
came  ashore  to  breed  and  give  birth.  Using 
its  flipperlike  front  limbs,  it  may  have 
moved  about  on  land  by  hitching  itself  for- 
ward, siinilar  to  the  way  a  sea  Hon  moves 
on  land.  Its  hind  legs  and  feet  evidently 
propelled  it  through  the  water  when  it  re- 
turned to  Tethys  to  feed  on  marine  fare. 

The  Tethyan  sediments  of  Pakistan  con- 
tinue to  be  a  mine  of  ancient  whale  re- 
mains. In  December  of  1992,  University 
of  Michigan  graduate  student  Xiaoyuan 
Zhou  found  an  archaeocete  about  forty- 


eight  million  years  old  in  sediments  that 
were  deposited  in  deeper  water  tiian  all 
older  finds.  It  has  a  nearly  complete  verte- 
bral column,  a  small  femur,  and  short  neck 
vertebrae,  indicating  some  streamlining  of 
the  head  and  body.  Land  mammals  and 
some  early  fossil  whales  have  fused  sacral 
vertebrae  and  therefore  rather  stiff  hips 
and  tails,  but  this  creature's  sacral  verte- 
brae were  not  fused,  giving  its  back  and 
tail  a  flexibility  approaching  that  of  later 
whales.  It  is  thus  an  important  link  in  the 
transition  to  fully  whalelike  swimming,  in 
which  the  animals  undulate  their  body  and 
move  their  fluke  up  and  down. 

In  the  same  month,  Muhammad  Arif 
and  I  were  again  scouring  the  shallow 
Tethyan  sediments  of  Pakistan  when  he 
found  two  forty-seven-million-year-old 
partial  skulls  and  skeletons  of  a  previously 
poorly  known  whale  ca&tA  Indocetus.  The 
new  fossils  showed  that  the  animal  was 
long  necked  and  still  had  long  hind  limbs, 
a  rigid  sacrum,  and  a  robust  tail.  As  in  our 
earher  Pakicetus,  we  saw  many  similari- 
ties between  this  primitive  animal  and 
land  mammals  known  as  mesonychids.  A 
varied  group  ranging  from  cat  size  to  bear 
size,  mesonychids  lived  between  sixty  and 
thirty-seven  miUion  years  ago.  They  were 
principally  carnivorous  scavengers. 

Was  the  first  land  mammal  to  return  to 
the  sea  and  start  the  wheels  of  whale  evo- 
lution a  mesonychid?  This  theory — origi- 
nally put  forth  in  the  1960s  by  Leigh  Van 
Valen,  an  American  Museum  graduate 
student  at  the  time — is  based  on  similari- 
ties in  tooth  structure.  Subsequent  discov- 
eries, particularly  of  similarities  in  whale 
and  mesonychid  skeletal  structure,  have 
upheld  this  view. 

As  the  fossil  record  of  early  whales  con- 
tinues to  grow,  our  knowledge  of  tiie  evo- 
lution of  advanced  cetacean  traits  be- 
comes clearer  and  more  complete.  Fossils 
contradict  the  notion  that  whales  suddenly 
appeared  full-blown,  without  intermediate 
forms.  I  am  a  skeptical  soul,  but  I  have 
seen  a  lot  of  Tethys  and  excavated  a  lot  of 
whales  in  the  past  fifteen  years.  Intermedi- 
ates, missing  links,  are  everywhere. 


Along  the  coast  of  Tethys,  an 

ancient  warm  ocean  that 

stretched  from  Spain  to 

Indonesia,  an  undulating 

Basilosaurus  catches  fish  with 

its  four-foot-long  jaws  and 

battery  of  sharp  teeth. 

Painting  by  F.  Heimberg;  coiiection  of  G.  Pilleri 


Natural  History  4/94 


AdvcrliMTiK-nl 


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and  the  sun  is  still  shining? 

Brinkmann's  advanced  solar-panel  technology  captures  the  sun's 
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INDUSTRIES 

2820  Waterford  Lake  Drive  Suite  106 
Midloth'ran,  Virginia  23113 


Cauaht  in  Time 


by  Richard  H,  Tedford 


The  scene — a  chase — is  one  that  has 
been  enacted,  throughout  the  history  of 
mammals.  The  time  is  some  fourteen  and 
a  half  milUon  years  ago,  and  the  place  is  a 
mud  flat  in  what  is  today  northeastern  Col- 
orado. In  a  burst  of  power,  a  huge  carni- 
vore known  as  a  bear-dog  lunges  at  a  tiny 
pronghom  antelope,  which  leaps  in  an  at- 
tempt to  elude  its  pursuer  In  an  evolution- 
ary sense,  the  two  main  players  are  at  op- 
posite ends  of  their  destiny — the  bear-dog 
being  on  the  verge  of  extinction,  the 
pronghom  near  the  beginning  of  its  kind's 
history.  The  scene,  presented  in  the  Amer- 
ican Museum's  new  Hall  of  Mammals, 
with  mounted  skeletons  of  predator  and 
prey,  has  a  timeless  quality.  While  the 
scene  is  red  in  tooth  and  claw,  the  predator 
and  prey  are  caught,  like  the  figures  on 
Keats's  Grecian  urn,  in  an  action  just  be- 
fore closure. 

This  depiction  for  the  new  exhibition 
came  about  as  a  result  of  serendipitous 
discoveries  of  bones  in  Colorado  and  a 
dramatic  set  of  fossihzed  tracks  in  Califor- 
nia. It  is  not  an  exact  reconstruction;  the 
predator  and  prey  did  not  drop  dead  and 
fossilize  in  tandem,  but  we  have  good  rea- 
son to  beheve  the  scene  is  plausible.  Both 
the  bear-dog  and  the  pronghom  skeletons 
were  discovered  in  northeastern  Colorado 
in  successive  fossil  deposits  laid  down  a 
few  hundred  thousand  years  apart.  Be- 
cause this  is  a  short  span  by  geological 
standards,  we  believe  that  the  two  kinds  of 
animals  very  likely  coexisted  for  a  time  in 
this  part  of  North  America. 

The  bear-dog  skeleton,  the  most  com- 
plete recovered  in  North  America,  was 
collected  in  the  1930s  by  a  team  from  the 
University  of  California  at  Berkeley.  The 
new  mount  consists  of  a  cast  of  this  mate- 
rial, combined  with  a  more  complete  skull. 


jaws,  and  a  few  limb  bones  from  the 
American  Museum's  collection,  which 
were  found  in  western  Nebraska.  The 
pronghom  mount  is  the  actual  skeleton  of 
a  single  individual  collected  by  the  Amer- 
ican Museum  in  1901.  A  third  element  in 
the  scene,  a  cast  of  the  trackway  that  we 
have  placed  beneath  the  bear-dog,  was 
collected  in  the  early  1960s  from  the  Mo- 
have Desert  by  Raymond  Alf  and  his  stu- 
dents at  die  Webb  School  of  Califomia.  It 
coincides  with  the  age  of  the  bear-dog 
skeleton.  The  bear-dog  was  the  largest  ter- 
restrial predator  of  its  time,  and  the  paw 
prints  on  the  trackway  fit  those  of  the  large 
male  animal  represented  by  the  skeleton. 

The  bear-dog,  Amphicyon  ingens,  was 
neither  a  bear  nor  a  dog,  but  a  member  of 
a  separate,  now  extinct  family  of  carni- 
vores, the  Amphicyonidae.  The  evolution- 
ary position  of  this  family  lies  between 
that  of  dogs,  the  Canidae,  and  bears,  the 
Ursidae,  but  is  not  ancestral  to  either  of 
them.  Between  about  thirty-seven  million 
and  nine  million  years  ago,  bear-dogs  in- 
habited Eurasia  and  North  America.  A 
species  closely  related  to  A.  ingens  has 
been  found  in  contemporaneous  French 
deposits,  indicating  that  the  geographic 
range  of  the  giant  species  of  Amphicyon 
was  comparable  to  those  of  present-day 
brown  and  grizzly  bears. 

Not  counting  its  long,  doglike  tail,  A.  in- 
gens was  the  size  of  a  northern  brown 
bear,  and  the  relative  length  of  its  hmbs 
and  feet  was  comparable  to  that  of  a  griz- 
zly. However,  its  body  was  more  slenderly 
buih,  suggesting  that  Amphicyon,  weigh- 
ing a  httle  less  than  the  560  pounds  of  the 
average  grizzly,  could  mn  faster  than  the 
grizzly's  thirty  miles  per  hour.  The  track- 
way shows  a  stride  length  about  equal  to 
the  total  length  of  the  body  (less  the  tail) 


and  also  indicates  that  as  it  moved  at  this 
clip,  Amphicyon  was  pacing — moving  the 
two  left  legs  and  the  two  right  alternately, 
as  bears  are  known  to  do  at  a  slower  stride. 
Still,  an  animal  the  size  and  weight  of  a 
bear-dog  would  not  have  been  capable  of 
sustained  pursuit.  It  was  built  for  explosive 
power  rather  than  stamina.  Like  a  hon,  it 
would  have  ambushed  prey,  pressing  its 
attack  with  a  short  burst  of  speed. 

The  pronghom  Ramoceros  osbomi  was 
a  member  of  the  earliest  group  of  prong- 
homs,  known  as  the  merycodonts.  These 
homed  animals  appear  to  have  Uved  only 
in  North  America,  as  do  their  descendants, 
the  antilocaprines,  the  group  to  which  the 
living  pronghom  antelope  of  the  Ameri- 
can West  belongs.  In  both  groups,  the 


Leaving  its  tracks  in  the  impressionable  mud,  a  bear-dog 
(Amphicyon),  in  one  burst  of  ferocity,  isolates  a  pronghom 

(Ramoceros) /ram  its  herd  and  lunges  in  pursuit.  The 

pronghom  veers  in  an  attempt  to  evade  the  predator's  teeth 

and  claws.  In  the  background,  two  members  of  the  pronghom 

herd  dash  across  the  mud  flat  to  safety. 

Painting  by  Marianne  Collins 


90    Natural  History  4/94 


horns  grow  directly  over  the  eye  sockets. 
In  merycodonts,  however,  the  horns  have 
multiple  branches  and  often  have  encir- 
cling rings  of  bone,  or  burrs,  on  the  shaft 
of  the  horn.  In  contrast,  antilocaprine 
horns  are  burrless  and  branch  just  once 
from  a  common  shaft. 

More  remarkable  is  the  asymmetry  of 
Ramoceros  horns.  Each  side  of  the  horns 
has  three  branches,  but  the  branches  on  the 
left  are  twice  as  large  as  those  on  the  right. 
When  horns  like  these  were  first  described 
scientifically,  the  unevenness  was  re- 
garded as  the  result  of  injury.  But  many 
specimens  have  now  been  found  and  stud- 
ied, and  all  show  such  unequal  horns.  (The 
smaller,  more  horizontal  branch  may  be 
on  either  the  right  or  left,  the  incidence 


being  about  fifty-fifty.)  Such  striking 
asymmetry  is  rare  in  mammals,  although 
perfect  bilateral  symmetry  is  also  rare. 

In  large  museum  collections  of  some 
species  of  merycodonts,  somewhat  less 
than  50  percent  of  the  adults  are  hornless 
and  most  likely  represent  females.  We  do 
not  yet  have  a  large  enough  sample  of 
Ramoceros  species  to  measure  the  inci- 
dence of  homlessness,  but  we  assume  that 
these  merycodonts,  too,  will  eventually 
show  such  sexual  dimorphism.  Both  sexes 
of  living  pronghoms  have  horns,  although 
the  females'  are  smaller  Reproduction  is 
strongly  seasonal  in  pronghorns,  with 
males  vigorously  competing  for  females 
in  the  fall.  With  even  more  striking  differ- 
ences between  the  sexes,  merycodonts,  in- 


cluding Ramoceros,  probably  also  came 
together  in  herds  and  reproduced  season- 
ally. The  males'  di.splay  of  horns  may  have 
been  important  in  attracting  and  compet- 
ing for  females. 

In  the  Museum's  mount,  ntxHntr  Amph- 
icyon  nor  Ramoceros  wins  out;  the  preda- 
tor is  always  pursuing,  the  prey  ever  evad- 
ing the  attack.  We  have  no  way  of 
knowing  which  creature  won  more  often 
in  actual  chases  those  millions  of  years 
ago.  In  the  evolutionary  stakes,  however, 
Ramoceros  was  the  victor.  The  last  Amph- 
icyon  died  out  some  fourteen  million  years 
ago.  The  family  to  which  Ramoceros  be- 
longed flourished  for  twenty  million  years 
and  gave  rise  to  modern  pronghorns, 
which  carry  on  the  lineage  today. 


||^^Pii*5Ki«ii/*BfeWi;:<.-e  ;5  :-i?^,  i,  «,  ;• 

n,^^^ 

■k^ 

v^-       .          .              ^ 

^fitSi^t^r       ^.  .    . 

,«*».~»-u  - 

-i 


91 


At  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History 


Biodiversity  and  Conservation 

The  American  Museum's  Center  for  Bio- 
diversity and  Conservation  is  sponsoring  a 
series  of  five  evening  lectures.  On  Tuesday, 
April  19,  and  Tuesday,  April  26,  Niles  El- 
dredge,  curator  in  the  Museum's  Depart- 
ment of  Invertebrates,  will  review  patterns 
of  biological  evolution  and  extinction  across 
geological  time  and  show  how  changing 
patterns  of  human  culture  have  affected 
other  species  and  their  habitats.  On  Tues- 
day, May  3,  and  Thursday,  May  12,  Joel  L. 
Cracraft,  curator  in  the  Department  of  Or- 
nithology and  acting  director  of  the  Center, 
will  explore  the  biodiversity  crisis,  its 
causes  and  solutions.  On  Tuesday,  May  17, 
Michael  J.  Novacek,  vice-president  and 
dean  of  science  at  the  Museum,  will  talk 
about  understanding  and  saving  the  world's 
species  and  the  importance  of  biodiversity. 
Tickets  for  the  series  are  $40,  and  the  lec- 
tures begin  at  7:00  p.m.  Call  (212)  769-5310 
for  information. 

An  Evening  with 
Jean-Michel  Cousteau 

Son  of  underwater  explorer  Jacques  Yves 
Cousteau  and  founder  of  the  Cousteau  Soci- 
ety, Jean-Michel  Cousteau  will  examine  the 
relationship  between  humans  and  the  ocean 
environment  and  illustrate  his  points  with 
film  footage.  The  program,  presented  in 
conjunction  with  the  exhibition  Sharks! 
Fact  and  Fantasy  in  Gallery  3,  will  take 
place  on  Monday,  April  18,  at  7:00  p.m.  in 
the  Main  Auditorium.  For  more  informa- 
tion, call  (212)  769-5606. 

Food  as  Medicine 

In  China,  foods  are  divided  into  two  cate- 
gories, yin  and  yang.  depending  on  the  en- 


ergy they  are  believed  to  release  in  the  body. 
Tin  foods  (such  as  fruits,  vegetables,  crabs, 
and  fish)  are  said  to  cool  the  body;  while 
yang  foods  (such  as  eggs  or  fatty  meats)  are 
thought  to  heat  the  system.  Li  Lian  Xing,  an 
herbalist  and  traditional  Chinese  doctor, 
will  talk  about  the  medicinal  properties  of 
Chinese  food  and  offer  possible  individual 
diagnoses.  In  addition,  gold-medal  master 
chefs  Shi  Lian  Yong  and  Bian  Jian  Nian  will 
demonstrate  the  art  of  vegetable  carving  and 
offer  samples  of  healthful  teas  and  foods. 
This  presentation  win  take  place  on  Sunday, 
April  10,  at  2:00  and  at  4:00  p.m.  in  the  Mu- 
seum's Auxiliary  Dining  Room.  Tickets  are 
$5.  For  information,  call  (212)  769-5315. 

Evolution  Follies 

An  unorthodox  view  of  nineteenth-cen- 
tury Victorian  natural  history  will  be  pre- 
sented by  Richard  Milner  (a  senior  editor  of 
Natural  History)  and  a  small  musical  cast. 
The  program  will  feature  anecdotes  and 
slides,  as  well  as  songs  about  Charles  Dar- 
win, Thomas  Huxley,  and  creationism.  It 
will  take  place  on  Thursday,  April  7,  at  7:00 
P.M.  in  the  Kaufmarm  Theater.  Tickets  are 
$15.  Call  (212)  769-5310  for  information. 

A  Historic  Look  at  Building  Stones 

Geologist  Sidney  Horenstein,  the  Mu- 
seum's coordinator  of  environmental  public 
programs,  will  discuss  stone  architecture 
from  the  time  of  the  ancient  Egyptians  and 
the  Inca  Empire  until  today.  The  shde-illus- 
trated  presentation  will  take  place  on  Thurs- 
day, April  21,  at  7:00  p.m.  in  the  Kaufmann 
Theater.  Call  (212)  769-5606  for  tickets. 

When  Worlds  Collide 
The  ultimate  disaster  movie,   When 


A  great  white  shark  cruises  in  the  waters  ojf  Australia. 

®1991  Chuck  Davis 


Worlds  Collide  was  first  released  in  1951 
and  included  such  calamities  as  a  tidal  wave 
that  crashed  through  Times  Square.  The 
film  will  be  shown  on  Saturday,  April  30,  at 
3:00  P.M.  in  the  Kaufmann  Theater.  Brian 
Sullivan,  the  Hayden  Planetarium's  produc- 
tion designer,  will  introduce  the  program. 
Call  (212)  769-5606  for  information. 

Central  African  Art  and  Dance 

The  tango,  capoeira  angola,  and  other 
New  World  dances  have  their  roots  in  Cen- 
tral Africa.  Robert  Farris  Thompson,  pro- 
fessor of  art,  African  studies,  and  African- 
American  studies  at  Yale  University,  will 
talk  about  Congo-Atlantic  traditions  in 
dance  and  art  on  Wednesday,  April  6,  at 
7:00  P.M.  in  the  Main  Auditorium.  Tickets 
are  $5.00.  For  a  complete  schedule  of  events 
in  the  Education  Department's  year-long 
program  "Global  Cultures  in  a  Changing 
World"  caU  (212)  769-5315. 

Burroughs  Awards 

Founded  in  1921,  the  John  Burroughs  As- 
sociation owns  and  maintains  Burroughs's 
rustic  cabin,  Slabsides,  which  is  in  West 
Park,  New  York.  The  association,  headquar- 
tered at  the  Museum,  will  hold  its  annual 
meeting  on  Monday,  April  4,  at  10:30  a.m. 
Its  annual  award  for  nature  writing  (the 
sixty-eighth)  will  be  presented  to  David  G. 
Campbell,  author  of  The  Crystal  Desert. 
Natural  history  books  for  children  and  a 
natural  history  essay  will  also  receive 
awards.  The  meeting  is  free  and  will  be  fol- 
lowed by  the  award  luncheon  in  the 
Audubon  Gallery.  Tickets  are  $30.  Call 
(212)  769-5169  for  information. 

Cosmic  Background  Exploration 

Observations  from  NASA's  Cosmic 
Background  Explorer  satellite  have  con- 
tributed to  an  understanding  of  the  uni- 
verse's creation  and  evolution.  As  part  of 
the  series  "Frontiers  in  Astronomy  and  As- 
trophysics," George  Smoot,  a  research 
physicist  at  the  University  of  California's 
Lawrence  Berkeley  Laboratory,  will  give  an 
illustrated  talk  on  Monday,  April  1 1,  at  7:30 
P.M.  Tickets  are  $8  ($6  for  members).  For  all 
events  at  the  Planetarium,  including  the  Sky 
Show,  "Orion  Rendezvous:  A  Star  Trek 
Voyage  of  Discovery,"  call  (212)  769-5100. 

These  events  take  place  at  the  American 
Museum  of  Natural  History,  Central  Park 
West  at  79th  Street  in  New  York  City.  The 
Kaufmann  Theater  is  located  in  the  Charles 
A.  Dana  Education  Wmg.  The  Museum  has 
a  pay-what-you-wish  admission  policy.  For 
more  information  about  the  Museum,  call 
(212)769-5100. 


92    Natural  History  4/94 


NPG  Statement  on  Population 

We  Believe  that  the  Optimum  Rate  of  Population  Growth  is  Negative 


We  believe  that  the  optimum  rate  of  population 
growth  for  the  United  States  (and  for  the  world)  is 
negative  until  such  time  as  the  scale  of  economic  ac- 
tivity, and  its  environmental  effects,  are  reduced  to  a 
level  that  would  be  sustainable  indefinitely. 

We  are  convinced  that  if  present  rates  of  popula- 
tion and  economic  growth  are  allowed  to  continue,  the 
end  result,  within  the  lifetimes  of  many  of  us,  would 
inevitably  be  near  universal  poverty  in  a  hopelessly 
polluted  nation  and  world. 

We  agree  with  Professor  Herman  Daly  who  has 
pointed  out  that  the  human  economy  is  a  subset  of  the 
biosphere,  and  that  the  current  scale  of  economic  ac- 
tivity relative  to  the  biosphere  is  already  far  too 
large  to  be  sustainable  indefinitely. 

Stabilization  Is  Not  Enough 

We  believe  that  calls  for  merely  slowing  down  rapid 
population  growth,  or  for  stabilizing  population  at 
present  or  even  higher  levels,  are  totally  inadequate. 

Such  proposals,  while  presented  as  a  solution,  fail 
to  address  the  central  issue:  how  to  create  a  national 
(and  world)  economy  that  will  be  sustainable  indefi- 
nitely. 

At  present  or  at  even  higher  levels  of  population, 
neither  the  application  of  science  and  technology,  nor 
simplifying  life-styles,  nor  any  combination  of  the  two, 
can  offer  any  hope  of  reducing  our  impact  on  the  en- 
vironment to  a  sustainable  level. 

We  Need  a  Smaller  Population 

We  recognize  that  our  impact  on  the  environment 
in  terms  of  pollution  and  resource  depletion  is  the  prod- 
uct of  our  numbers  times  our  per  capita  consumption 
of  energy  and  materials.  Thus,  there  are  only  three 
ways  by  which  that  impact  can  be  reduced; 

•    By  reducing  the  size  of  our  population  by  a  nega- 
tive rate  of  population  growth. 


•  By  reducing  over  consumption  (in  the  United  States 
and  other  developed  countries)  by  simplifying  life- 
styles. 

•  By  reducing  resource  depletion  and  pollution  per 
unit  of  consumption  through  more  efficient  use  of 
energy  and  materials. 

Population  size  is  by  far  the  most  critical  of  those 
three  variables.  Nevertheless,  our  present  scale  of 
economic  activity  is  so  large  relative  to  the  biosphere 
that  all  three  measures  are  needed  in  order  to  re- 
duce it  to  a  sustainable  level. 

An  Urgent  Need 

Over  20  years  ago,  when  our  U.S.  population  was 
far  smaller,  (about  202  million,  rather  than  our  present 
260  million).  Professor  John  Holdren  correctly  saw  the 
urgent  need  for  a  negative  rate  of  population  growth. 
At  that  time  he  wrote, 

"...What  is  surprising... is  that  there  is  not  more 
agreement  concerning  what  the  rate  of  change  of  popu- 
lation size  should  be.  For  given  the  uncertain,  but  pos- 
sibly grave,  risks  associated  with  substantially  increas- 
ing our  impact  on  the  environment,  and  given  that 
population  growth  aggravates  or  impedes  the  solution 
of  a  wide  variety  of  other  problems. ..it  should  be  ob- 
vious that  the  optimum  rate  of  population  growth  is 
zero  or  negative  until  such  time  as  the  uncertainties 
have  been  removed  and  the  problems  solved." 

A  Population  Goal  for  Our  Country 

We  must  have,  first  of  all,  a  nationally-determined 
population  goal  for  our  country,  accompanied  by  effec- 
tive policies  to  achieve  it. 

We  urge  Congress  and  President  Clinton  to  set,  as 
a  top  priority  national  goal,  the  achievement  of  a  nega- 
tive rate  of  population  growth  for  the  United  States 
until  such  time  as  the  scale  of  our  economic  activ- 
ity is  reduced  to  a  sustainable  level. 

We  also  call  on  our  political  leaders  to  urge  other 
nations  to  pursue  a  similar  goal. 


Please  help  us  build  broad  public  support  for 
a  national  policy  to  achieve  a  negative  rate  of 
population  growth. 

NPG  is  a  nonprofit,  national  membership  orga- 
nization established  in  1972.  We  are  the  only  orga- 
nization that  calls  for  a  smaller  U.S.  and  world 
population,  and  recommends  specific,  realistic 
measures  to  achieve  those  goals. 

Contributions  to  NPG  are  tax  deductible  to  the 
extent  the  law  allows.  As  reported  to  the  IRS  on  our 
most  recent  Form  990,  our  fundraising  and  admin- 
istrative expense  was  only  13.3  percent  of  our  total 
income. 

YES!  I  want  to  become  a  member  of  NPG,  and  help 
you  work  toward  a  smaller  U.S.  and  world  population. 
I  am  enclosing  my  check  for  annual  membership  dues. 

$30                 $50               $100              Other 

Name 

Address 

Citv                                    State              Zip 

Mail  to:  Negative  Population  Growth,  Inc. 
210  The  Plaza,  P.O.  Box  1206,  Teaneck,  NJ  07666 

NH-594 

ITie  Marli^t 


Art/Cratts 


Education 


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friendships.  Send  age,  interests.  Free  reply!  Cur- 
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BINOCULAR  SALES  AND  SERVICE.  Repairing 
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Resorts 


BELIZE— PELICAN  BEACH  RESORT.  Nature-based 
full  service  resort  near  jaguar  resen/e,  manatees  and 
reef.  Cottages  on  island  atop  the  barrier  reef.  Individ- 
uals and  groups  welcome.  Contact;  Rath,  Box  14, 
Dangriga,  Belize.  Tel:  501-5-22044;  Fax:  501-5- 
22570. 


Tours/Trips 


ADVENTURE  CALLING!  Outstanding  wildlife  safaris 
in  Kenya,  Tanzania,  Botswana,  Rwanda,  Zimbabwe  & 
South  Africa.  Low  cost  camping  or  deluxe.  Amazon! 
Cruise,  camp,  hike  or  paddle  the  jungle  wilderness. 
Fantastic  flora  &  fauna.  Galapagos!  Swim,  sail  and 
snorkel  Darwin's  "Enchanted  Isles."  Choice  yachts, 
Machu  Picchu  option.  Costa  Rica!  Rainforest  expedi- 
tions alive  with  dazzling  birds  and  tropical  wildlife. 
Small  groups,  expert  guides,  guaranteed  departures. 
Free  Brochures!  Special  Interest  Tours.  Call  (800) 
525-6772. 

ADVENTURES  IN  AFRICA  &  EGYPT  Economical 
camping  safaris  in  Kenya,  Tanzania,  Uganda,  Zim- 
babwe, Botswana,  Namibia.  Kilimanjaro  climbs,  go- 
rilla tracking,  more.  Also,  unique  tours  in  Egypt,  Is- 
rael, Turkey,  Jordan,  Syria.  Free  color  catalogs. 
Himalayan  Travel,  (800)  225-2380,  24  hours. 

AFFORDABLE  AFRICAN  ADVENTURES: 
wildlife/gorilla  safaris  to  East,  Southern  Africa.  Also, 
Egypt,  India,  Nepal,  SE  Asia.  Call  Wanderlust  Adven- 
tures in  Denver  at  (800)  572-1592  or  (303)  777-5846. 


UNIQUE  DESTINATIONS 

30  adventure  and  naturalist  itineraries: 
nomads,  tribal  peoples,  festivals,  wildlife. 

AFRICA,  INDONESIA.  INDIA,  SOUTH  AMERICA 

TURTLE  TOURS,  INC. 

Box  #1147/  Dept  NH,  Carefree,  AZ  85377 
Tel;  (6Q2)  488-3688 Fan;  (602)  488-3406 


AFRICA;  Personalized  safaris  in  East  and  Southern 
Africa  featuring  Ranch/Private  Home  Safaris,  Box  49, 
Mt.  Tremper,  NY  12457  1-800-724-1221. 

ALASKA!  Small  group  camping  and  adventure  travel 
including  the  Inside  Passage,  Arctic  and  Aleutians. 
Adventures  include  bicycle,  raft,  kayak  and  mountain 
bike  trips.  CampAlaska  Tours;  Box  872247,  Wasilla, 
AK  99687  (800)376-9438. 


GALA    P    A    G     O    S 


COSTA   RICA 


AFRICA 

First  Class  Cruises  with  Naturalist  Guides. 

Naural  History  Adventures  to  Costa  Rica 

Tented  Safaris  to  Kenya,  Tanzania,  Rwanda  & 

Botswana 

10  years  of  Quality  Natural  History  Trips 
Worldwide 


94    Natural  History  4/94 


;\riiJO\J 


In-depih  eroup  &  private  safaris.  Excellent  Guides. 

East  Africa.  Botswana.  Namibia. 

^t^^  -'-     VOYAGERS,  DeptNH,  Box  915, 

flP^T^  mftk     .^  Ithaca.  NY  14851. 


lA 


1-800-633-0299 


ALLAGASH  CANOE  TRIPS.  Maine  and  Canada. 
Wilderness,  wildlife.  Guided  adventures  for  adults, 
families,  teens  Box  71 3H.  Greenville,  ME  04441 
(207)  695-3668. 

AMAZON  RAINFOREST  EXPLORATION  with  natu- 
ralist guide.  Stay  at  beautiful  lodge/deep  jungle  camp. 
Affordable  rates,  small  groups/independent  travelers. 
Free  broctiure  (800)  765-5657  Sol  International, 
13780S.W.56tfi  St.  107,  Miami   FL  33175 

AUSTRALIA/NEW  ZEALAND  WALKABOUTS: 
Nature,  Hiking  and  tfie  Outdoors.  Enjoying  hiking  and 
camping  safaris,  lodge  stays,  and  island  resorts  in 
New  Zealand's  scenic  National  Parks  and  Milford 
Track;  Australia's  Outback.  Tropical  North,  and  Great 
Barrier  Reef.  Pacific  Exploration  Co.,  Box  3042-N. 
Santa  Barbara,  CA  93130  (805)  687-7282 


IN'DONeSIX  NVlUDLipe 


Natural  History.  Culture  and  Wildlife. 
Orangutans,  Dragons,  Rhinos,  El- 
ephants, and  more.  Borneo,  Komodo, 
Sumatra.  Java,  Sulawesi.  Sumba. 
800-  642- ASIA 

Cdllfor  a  Fi-fC  CaluUii^ 

^oVAcT-   AjJ.\'er>z:u.i-es 


BHUTAN:  "Kingdom  in  the  Sky"  exotic  Shangh-La  — 
untouched  nature,  abundant  wildlife,  dazzling  peaks, 
ancient  cultures.  Journey  into  an  enchanted  realm. 
Forum  Travel,  91  Gregory  (#21),  Pleasant  Hill,  CA 
94523.   (510)671-2900. 

COSTA  RICA  &  Central  America.  National  Parks, 
wildlife,  birdwatching,  rafting,  beaches.  Weekly  de- 
partures. Free  brochures.  Terra  Adventures,  70-15 
Nansen  St.,  Forest  Hills.  NY  11375.  (800)  53- 
TERRA. 


DINOSAUR  DIGS.  Be  part  of  a  team  that  excavates 
dinosaur  fossils  for  the  Royal  Tyrrell  Museum.  Unfor- 
gettable one-day  adventure  in  palaeontology  in  the  Al- 
berta badlands.  July  1  -  Sept.  5  Adults  $75.  Youth 
$50.  Reservations  recommended.  Contact:  Bookings 
Officer.  Royal  Tyrrell  Museum.  Box  7500  Drumhelier, 
AB.  Canada  TOJ  OYO  (403)  823-7707. 

DISCOVER  MEXICO'S  COPPER  CANYON.  Costa 
Rica,  more  with  The  California  Native.  Call  1-800- 
926- 1 1 40  for  free  newsletter. 


BELIZE 

Unrivaled  experience,  exceptional  guides,  superior 
itineraries^,  since  1980  ie.  has  been  the  world's  best 
source  for  high  quality  travel  to  belize! 
Call  for  detailed 
information 
and  brochure, 


800-633-4734 

One  Environs  Park  Helena  Al  35080 


ExcaVacation  '94!  Dig  Dinosaurs  at  the  Dragon's 
Grave  in  Wyoming  this  July  For  information:  Metro- 
politan College,  University  of  New  Orleans,  New  Or- 
leans. U\  70148.   (504)286-7100. 

GALAPAGOS  -  AMAZON.  Best  choice  of  cruises: 
Luxury  to  Economy.  Combine  with  Indian  markets  or 
Amazon  jungle  Free  brochures.  Terra  Adventures 
70-15  Nansen  St.,  Forest  Hills,  NY  11375.  (800)  53- 
TERRA. 

GALAPAGOS  ISLANDS  tours  since  1979.  Mainland 
Ecuador/Peru/Bolivia  options.  Joseph  Colley  LAST 
Inc.  43  Millstone,  Randallstown,  MD  21133  (410) 
922-3116 


p:>jK\'j.i;i.iV  j'-3s;': 


FAMILY  EXPLORATIONS,  INC. 

MATURE  AND  CULTURAL  TOURISM  FOR  FAMILIES  WITH  CHILDREN 

full  children's  program,  small  groups,  lodges  &  inns 

COSTA  RICA        ECUADOR 
BELIZE 

call  for  brochure:  610-543-6200  fax:  610-543-6262 

343  Dartmouth  Avenue.  Svvarthmore.  PA  19081 


GALAPAGOS.  Specializing  in  comprehensive,  profes- 
sionally-led, natural  history  and  photo  tours  of  the 
Galapagos  Islands.  Monthly  departures/12  passen- 
ger yachts.  Galapagos  Travel,  RO.  Box  1220,  San 
Juan  Bautista.  CA  95045.  (800)969-9014. 


GALAPAGOS 


You,  9  other  adventurers  and  our  licensed 
naturalist  will  sail  by  yacht  to  explore  more  islands 
than  any  other  Galapagos  expedition.  60  trip 
dates.  Machu  Picchu  option.  Free  brochure. 

Inca  Floats    510-420-1550 
1 31 1-N  63rd  St.,  Emeryville  CA  94608 


GUATEMALA,  BALI-INDONESIA  CRAFT  TOURS  — 
Explore  key  cultural  arts  centers  with  expert  folk  art 
collector/photographer  Gordon  Frost.  Twenty  years 
experience.  Small  groups.  Contact:  Gordon  Frost, 
PO  Box  721 -NH.  Point  Reyes  Station.  California 
94956(415)663-1919. 


ALASKA  •  GALAPAGOS 

ARCTIC  •  RUSSIA  •  ANTARCTICA 

AUSTRALIA 'PATAGONIA 


Quality  Natural  History  &  Photography 
Trips  -  20  Years  Experience 

BIOLOGICALJOURNEYS 

1696N  Ocean  Dr.  tvlcKinleyville.  CA  95521 
800-548-7555  or  707-839-0178 


HIMALAYA!  Month-long  treks  in  the  mountains  of  India. 
Unbeatable  experiences,  unbeatable  prices.  Hit  the  trail 
to  adventure!  Free  brochure.  Tenzing  Travel  P.O.  Box 
61,  New  York,  NY  10009  (212)  491-4437 


ALASKA  WHALES 


As  featured  on  NBC,  ABC,  Notional  Geogropliic , . . 
Explore  Alaska  ond  work  with  whales  on  an  extra- 
ordino^  10  day  expedition  aboard  a  classic  126' 

yacht.  RO.  Box  1106E,  Camel  Valley,  CA  93924 
(4081659-5807 

inlersea  Research,  Inc.  since  1976 


INDIA.  NEPAL.  TIBET  THAILAND.  BORNEO,  In- 
donesia, Vietnam.  Tours,  treks,  safaris,  overland  ad- 
ventures. Huge  selection.  Affordable  rates.  Free 
color  catalogs.  Himalayan  Travel.  112  Prospect  St., 
Stamford,  Ct  06901.  (800)225-2380,  24  hours. 


ipyMZON 


EXPLORE 
THE  CANOPY 

Join  International  Expeditions  - 
creator  of  the  ACEER  Canopy 
Walkway  -  and  experience  the 
tree-top  level  of  the  rainforest. 
Witness  nature's  greatest 
spectacle  on  her  mightiest 
river.  Call  for  details  &  brochure. 


international 
Iexpeditions'nc 


1-«0(W334734 


INDONESIA!  Off-the-touhst-track  travel  highlighting 
the  cultures  and  arts  of  this  beautiful  archipelago.  Ex- 
plore the  "real  Indonesia"  on  one  of  our  small-group 
adventures.  We  also  offer  custom  itinerary  planning 
services.  Brochure:  Passport  to  Indonesia,  Inc.  2731 
Tucker.  Los  Alamitos.  CA  90720  (800)  303-9646. 

IRELAND!  Discover  the  magical,  emerald  green 
world  of  Ireland.  Over  40  holidays  -  walking,  cycling, 
horseriding,  sailing,  natural  history,  archaeology  -  fea- 
tuhng  cozy  B&Bs,  home-cooked  meals,  small  villages, 
traditional  culture,  and  the  friendliest  people  in  the 
world!  Celtic  Nature  Connections,  Cliddaun-4,  Dingle, 
Co.  Kerry,  Ireland.  Phone/fax  011-353-66-59882. 

MACHU  PICCHU  &  South  America.  Trekking  the  Inca 
Trail.  Amazon.  Patagonia.  Guaranteed  departures  / 
customized  itineraries.  Free  brochures.  Terra  Adven- 
tures, 70-15  Nansen  St.,  Forest  Hills,  NY  11375. 
(800)53-TERRA. 


Excellent  boats.  Plus  Amazon  &  Andes. 


COSTA  RICA! 


In-depth  natural  history  adventures.  Small  groups.)' 
Voyagers,  Oept.  NG,  Box'915,  llhoto,  NY  14851. 1-800-633-0299 


SOUTH  &  CENTRAL  AMERICA:  Overland  &  natural 
history  tours,  Amazon,  Galapagos,  Andean  trekking. 
Free  color  catalog.  Himalayan  Travel.  (800)225- 
2380. 


THE  GREAT  SOLAR  ECLIPSE/NOVEMBER  '94. 
Enjoy  the  spectacular  total  eclipse  in  Chile  on  Novem- 
ber 3.  Plus  visits  to  Bolivia  and  Argentina.  Call  Voy- 
agers:  1-800-633-0299. 

YEMEN,  SYRIA,  JORDAN,  TURKEY,  Greece,  Egypt, 
Morocco,  Iceland,  Madagascar  and  much  more.  Small 
group  holidays  for  all  ages.  Call  for  brochure  and  itiner- 
aries. Adventures  Abroad  1  (800)  665-3998. 24  hours. 


Rates  and  Style  Information 

$3.90  per  word:  16  word  minimum.  Display  classified 
is  $425  per  inch.  All  advertisements  must  be  prepaid. 
Rates  are  not  structured  for  agency  or  cash  dis- 
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URAL HISTORY'S  discretion.  Send  check/money 
order  to:  The  Market/NATURAL  HISTORY  Maga- 
zine. Central  Park  West  at  79th  St..  New  York.  NY 
10024.  Direct  any  written  inquiries  to  Eileen  O'Keefe 
at  the  above  address.  Please  include  your  personal 
address  and  telephone  number,  issue  preferred,  and 
suggested  category.  Deadline — 1st  of  the  month, 
two  months  prior  to  cover  date. 


95 


CRUISE  THE 
MEDITERRANEAN 
AND  BLACK  SEA! 

^$1134 

Explore  a  world  of  historic 
cu  ture  aboard  the  Regent 
Jewel  -  an  intimate  cruise  ship 
with  an.attentive  European- 
trained  staff.  Cruise  7-days  or 
combine  two  itineraries  for  14 
days  of  incredible  cruising. 

JEWELS  OF  THE 
ANCIENT  WORLD 

Istanbul  to  Dikili  (Turkey), 
Israel,  Cyprus,  Rhodes,  Crete, 
Santorini  &  Athens. 
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Celestial  Events 


Moonstruck 


by  Gail  S.  Cleere 

On  April  11,  the  moon  will  reach 
apogee,  its  farthest  distance  from  the  earth 
all  year— 252,574  miles.  On  the  25th,  the 
moon  will  reach  perigee,  its  closest  dis- 
tance to  the  earth  this  year — 221,790 
miles — and  because  this  is  also  the  date  of 
the  full  moon,  the  full  power  of  the  moon's 
gravitational  pull  will  be  exerted  upon  us. 
Although  only  one  ten-millionth  the 
earth's  own  gravitational  attraction,  the 
moon's  pull  is  enough  to  drag  our  oceans 
over  their  normal  boundaries. 

Perigee  and  the  full  moon  coincide  in- 
frequently because  the  two  cycles  are  not 
equal.  (Full  moons  occur  every  29.53 
days,  while  perigees  come  every  27.55 
days.)  This  month,  the  two  events  occur 
within  three  hours  of  each  other,  and  we 
should  expect  the  highest  and  lowest  tides 
of  the  year  on  the  25th.  Such  events,  al- 
though they  are  predicted  and  well-publi- 
cized, never  fail  to  take  the  vast  majority 
of  seaside  inhabitants  by  surprise. 

"No  more  of  the  Universe  is  visible  to 
our  unaided  eyes  than  to  the  eyes  of  our 
Neanderthal  ancestors.  But  science,  the 
product  of  our  imagination,  has  im- 
mensely extended  the  range  of  our  imagi- 
nation," wrote  astronomer  Chet  Raymo. 
Most  of  us,  however,  know  even  less  about 
the  moon  than  our  ancestors  did.  We  may 
know  the  moon's  phases  but  still  consider 
its  monthly  and  annual  motions  a  mystery. 
The  tides,  the  most  visible  result  of  the 
earth's  interaction  with  the  heavens,  were 
known  to  our  ancestors,  but  began  to  be 
understood  only  after  Isaac  Newton  pub- 
lished his  Principia  Mathematica  in  1687. 

Tidal  swelling  occurs  twice  a  day  on 
both  sides  of  the  earth,  once  when  the 
moon  passes  overhead,  and  once  when  the 
moon  is  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  earth. 
Tidal  forces  have  an  appreciable  affect 


only  on  large  bodies — such  as  oceans — 
and  this  explains  why  soup  doesn't  spill 
over  the  sides  of  the  bowl  when  the  moon 
is  full.  The  sun's  gravitational  pull  on  the 
earth  is  roughly  half  that  of  the  moon's,  but 
when  the  sun,  the  earth,  and  the  moon  are 
in  a  line  (during  full  or  new  moon  phase) 
the  combined  force  produces  the  higher 
than  normal  "spring"  tides  in  certain  areas. 
The  effects  are  even  more  amplified  when 
the  moon  is  at  perigee,  as  it  will  be  this 
month.  (Although  the  moon's  distance 
from  apogee  to  perigee  varies  only  from  9 
to  14  percent,  tidal  influences  can  be  30  to 
48  percent  greater.  The  resulting  high  tides 
(which  usually  peak  one  or  two  days  after 
perigee  because  of  "gravitation  lag")  can 
cause  coastal  flooding,  and  some  scientists 
have  suggested  that  the  chances  of  earth- 
quakes and  volcanic  eruptions  may  also  be 
slightly  increased. 

The  actual  speed  and  height  of  tides  are 
affected  not  only  by  the  moon  but  also  by 
land  masses,  water  depth,  winds,  and 
barometric  pressure.  Tides  typically  range 
from  three  to  six  feet,  but  some  areas  show 
no  tides  at  all,  and  others,  such  as  the  Bay 
of  Fundy,  have  tides  of  more  than  thirty 
feet.  If  the  barometer  drops  by  one  inch, 
the  seas  can  rise  by  a  foot.  A  storm  can 
have  an  even  larger  eifect;  when  strong 
winds  are  blowing  ashore,  water  can  pile 
up  against  the  coast,  turning  a  high- 
tide-perigee  coincidence  into  a  disaster. 

The  tides  do  more  than  merely  cause 
our  coastal  area  authorities  to  post  notices 
on  the  beaches.  They  also  keep  our 
earth-moon  system  evolving.  Long  ago, 
when  the  moon  and  earth  were  closer,  the 
earth's  powerful  tidal  effects  gradually 
brought  the  moon's  rotation  into  agree- 
ment with  its  orbital  period,  so  that  we 
never  see  its  far  side.  Partly  because  of 


96    Natural  History  4/94 


tidal  action,  the  rotation  of  the  earth  is 
gradually  slowing  down — by  about  one 
second  every  50,000  years.  This  causes 
the  moon  to  speed  up  its  revolution  about 
our  planet,  which,  in  turn,  causes  the 
moon  to  spiral  slowly  away  from  the 
earth — at  a  rate  of  about  one  and  a  half 
inches  a  year. 

Someday,  total  solar  eclipses  will  be  cu- 
riosities of  the  past — only  annular  echpses 
(the  sun's  edge  seen  in  a  ring  around  the 
moon)  wiU  be  possible  At  the  same  time, 
tidal  effects  are  driving  the  earth-moon 
system  slowly  toward  a  state  in  which  both 
bodies  will  each  eventually  revolve  about 
their  common  center  of  gravity  in  a  period 
equal  to  forty-seven  of  our  present  days, 
each  always  keeping  the  same  side  toward 
the  other.  But  on  this  very  distant  day,  the 
moon  will  stop  spiraling  away  from  us, 
and  begin  its  slow  journey  back  toward  us. 

The  Planets  in  April 

Mercury  is  all  but  invisible  in  the 
morning  sky  this  month.  Although  it  will 
shine  as  bright  as  -1  magnitude,  it  is  too 
close  to  the  glare  of  the  sun  to  be  seen.  On 
the  30th,  Mercury  reaches  superior  con- 
junction. 

Venus  dazzles  us  at  -3.9  magnitude,  the 
brightest  object  in  the  evening  skies  ex- 
cept when  the  moon  is  visible.  At  sunset,  it 
perches  approximately  20°  above  the 
western  horizon.  The  celestial  highlight  of 
the  month  is  the  striking  conjunction  of 
Venus  and  the  waxing  crescent  moon, 
which  takes  place  on  the  evening  of  the 
12th.  Seen  from  northern  Greenland  and 
the  Canadian  Arctic,  the  moon  will  actu- 
ally pass  directly  in  front  of  Venus  (called 
an  "occultation"),  but  for  the  rest  of  North 
America,  it  will  appear  as  a  relatively 
close  approach.  The  best  view  will  be 


The  Shortest  U.S.  Dollar  Series  since  1795 

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Now  you  can  own  the  complete 
six  coin  set  of  Susan  B.  Anthony 
Dollar  Coins  absolutely  risk-free  as 
part  of  this  special  introductory 
offer  to  new  customers. 

For  a  very  limited  time,  you  can 
get  all  6  coins  at  their  original  face 
value!  The  set  includes  Uncirculated 
1979  &  1980  coins  from  each  U.S. 
Mint  (Philadelphia,  Denver  and  San 
Francisco).  Six  $1  coins  for  $6  -  so 
the  actual  cost  to  you  is  nothing! 

Issued  in  1979-80,  the  Anthony 
Dollars  make  up  the  shortest  U.S. 
Dollar  series  since  1795!   You  won't 
find  these  coins  in  change.   You  can 
get  them  directly  from  the  IWint  at  a 
price  of  $10  per  set.   Or  as  part  of 
this  limited  time  offer  to  attract  new 
customers,  you  can  buy  yours  today 
from  Littleton  at  the  original  face 
value  of  just  $6.  You'll  also  receive 
a  free  fully-illustrated  catalog  plus 
other  offers  on  approval.  ©LCC 


Please  order  before:  May  31st,  1994 

45  Day  Money-Back  Guarantee  of  Satisfaction 


Complete  and  return  to: 
Littleton  Coin  Co.,    Dept.  LHP104, 
253  Union  St.,  Littleton,  NH  03561 


YES 


Please  send  me  the  Susan  B, 
Anthony  Dollar  Coins  at  the 
original  face  value  price  of  just  $1  each,  six 
coins  at  $6  per  set.  I  understand  that  this  is 
a  special  risk-free  introductory  offer  to  new 
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tor  a  full  refund  if  not  completely  satisfied. 


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97 


American  Museum  of  Natural  History 


BEYOND  THE 
NORTH  CAPE 

Spitsbergen  to 

Bergen,  Noru/aq 

August  6-21,  1994 


The  Norwegian  Arctic  is  a 
spectacular  area  renowned  for 
its  breathtaking  landscapes.  This 
summer,  a  team  of  American 
Museum  experts,  sailing  aboard 
the  comfortable  Polaris,  will 
explore  a  region  characterized 
by  fjords,  glaciers,  mountains, 
icebergs  and  ice  floes 


We  will  begin  at  Spitsbergen,  a  spectacular  group  of  ice-covered 
islands  just  625  miles  from  the  North  Pole.  From  there  we  will 
sail  south  along  the  coast  of  Norway,  visiting  mist-shrouded 
Bear  Island,  the  mountainous  Lofoten  Islands  and  spectacular 
Geirangerfjord.  Join  us  as  we  search  for  polar  bear,  walrus,  seal, 
reindeer,  arctic  fox,  orca,  sperm  whale  and  numerous  species  of 
birds  beyond  the  North  Cape. 


American 
Museum  of 
Natural 
History 

Discovery  Cruises 


Central  Park  West  at  79th  Street 

New  York,  NY  10024-5192 

Toll-free  (800)  462-8687  or 

in  NYS  (212)  769-5700 


Rediscover  Your  World 

98    Natural  History  4/94 


from  the  eastern  seaboard,  with  Venus  ap- 
pearing only  about  a  moon's  width  below 
and  to  the  left  of  the  crescent  within  a  few 
minutes  of  8:30  p.m.,  local  daylight  time. 
By  the  time  darkness  falls  on  the  West 
Coast,  the  configuration  will  have 
changed  noticeably  with  the  moon  stand- 
ing about  three  moon  diameters  directly 
above  Venus.  The  Magellan  spacecraft, 
meanwhile,  is  exploring  Venus,  making  its 
nearly  circular  orbit  around  the  planet  to 
give  us  a  better  understanding  of  Venus's 
gravity  and  interior. 

Mars  may  be  visible  by  the  end  of  the 
month,  though  even  then  it  rises  barely  an 
hour  before  sunrise,  very  low  in  the 
east-southeast. 

Jupiter  rises  about  two  and  a  half  hours 
after  sunset  at  the  start  of  the  month,  our 
only  night-sky  planet  this  month.  It 
reaches  opposition  (opposite  the  sun  in  our 
360°  sky)  on  the  30th,  which  means  it  is 
up  all  night — rising  as  the  sun  sets,  setting 
as  the  sun  rises.  On  the  24th,  watch  as  the 
nearly  full  moon  passes  the  bright  star 
Spica  in  Virgo,  and  then  heads  toward 
Jupiter,  creating  a  wonderfiil  spectacle  on 
the  nights  of  April  25  and  26  in  the  con- 
stellation Libra.  Jupiter  at  opposition  pre- 
sents a  face  to  us  that  is  "ornate  with  dark 
belts,  light  zones,  and  a  possible  assort- 
ment of  spots  and  ovals,  festoons  and  gar- 
lands, knots  and  rifts  in  its  clouds,"  ac- 
cording to  astronomer  Fred  Schaaf.  Find  a 
telescope  and  enjoy  the  show.  Meanwhile, 
Jupiter  awaits  the  arrival  of  the  Galileo 
spacecraft,  due  to  arrive  at  the  planet  in 
1995.  Recently,  Galileo,  in  its  race  toward 
Jupiter,  successfully  detected  the  experi- 
mental laser  beams  sent  to  it  simultane- 
ously from  Table  Mountain  Observatory 
in  California  and  the  Air  Force's  Starfire 
Optical  Range  in  New  Mexico — a  dis- 
tance of  1.3  million  miles.  The  success  of 
this  experiment  shows  that  future  deep- 
space  missions  can  use  laser  beams  to 
send  larger  volumes  of  data  back  to  the 
earth  than  is  currently  possible  with  radio 
signals. 

Saturn  rises  just  an  hour  before  sunrise 
on  the  1st  and  can  be  seen  very  low  in 
Aquarius  in  the  southeast  before  dawn  this 
month.  The  ringed  planet  is  a  difficult  ob- 
ject to  spot,  especially  since  it  also  dims  in 
brightness  as  its  rings  slowly  tighten  the 
angle  they  present  toward  us  (they  will 
present  an  edge-on  appearance  next  year). 
On  the  moming  of  the  7th,  use  the  thin, 
waning  crescent  moon  to  guide  you  to  Sat- 
um,  which  is  well  below  and  to  the  right  of 
the  moon.  As  the  month  progresses,  Sat- 
urn becomes  increasingly  visible  as  it 


climbs  higher  in  predawn  skies.  Mean- 
while, work  continues  on  the  development 
and  construction  of  instruments  that  will 
fly  on  the  Cassini  spacecraft  mission  to 
Saturn.  Cassini,  a  joint  project  of  NASA 
and  the  European  Space  Agency  (ESA), 
will  carry  twelve  scientific  instruments 
and  a  probe  that  will  detach  from  the  main 
craft  and  parachute  to  the  surface  of  Titan, 
Saturn's  largest  moon. 

Uranus  and  Neptune  together  hug  the 
eastern  comer  of  Sagittarius,  high  in  the 
southern  skies  as  dawn  approaches.  On  the 
night  of  April  3^,  the  waning  last-quarter 
moon  passes  by  them  both.  Neptune  is  sta- 
tionary on  April  25,  and  Uranus  on  April 
30.  Both  will  now  begin  their  apparent  ret- 
rograde (westerly)  motion  across  the  sky 
as  the  earth  overtakes  them  in  orbital 
speed.  They  will  not  resume  their  proper 
easterly  motions  until  October.  Comet 
Halley,  outward  bound,  crosses  the  orbital 
path  of  Uranus  just  about  the  time  your 
taxes  are  due — April  15.  Halley  is  on  its 
way  to  aphelion — its  farthest  distance 
from  the  sun — a  point  between  the  orbital 
paths  of  Neptune  and  Pluto.  The  comet 
will  take  another  twelve  years  to  reach 
Neptune. 

Pluto  braces  for  its  big  day  next  month, 
when  it  reaches  opposition  in  our  night- 
time skies — the  best  time  for  serious  as- 
tronomers to  try  observing  it.  This  tiny 
planet  appears  close  to  Jupiter  and  the  star 
Zubeneshemali,  which  is  visible  with  the 
naked  eye  in  Libra. 

The  Moon  reaches  last  quarter  on  the 
2d  at  9:55  p.m.,  EST;  is  new  on  the  10th  at 
8:17  P.M.,  EDT;  and  reaches  first  quarter  at 
10:34  P.M.,  EDT,  on  the  18th.  Full  moon 
occurs  on  the  25th  at  3:45  p.m.,  EDT. 

The  Lyrid  meteor  showers  peak  just  be- 
fore dawn  on  the  22d.  The  full  moon  sets  a 
few  hours  before,  so  the  best  times  to  ob- 
serve these  meteors  are  after  moonset  and 
before  dawn.  The  Lyrids  are  remnants  of 
Comet  Thatcher,  last  seen  in  1861,  which 
has  an  orbital  period  of  415  years.  The 
Chinese  recorded  the  Lyrids  in  687  B.C., 
and  the  Koreans  noted  it  a.d.  1 1 36.  On  av- 
erage, the  Lyrids  produce  about  fifteen  to 
twenty  swift,  bright  meteors  per  hour, 
many  leaving  streaks.  Some  years  have 
produced  tremendous  displays  of  seventy- 
five  meteors  or  more  per  hour,  the  last 
being  in  1981. 

Daylight  saving  time  begins  at  2:00 
A.M.  on  Sunday,  April  3.  "Spring  ahead" 
and  add  one  hour  to  clocks  and  watches. 

Gail  S.  Cleere  lives  in  Washington,  D.C., 
and  writes  on  popular  astronomy. 


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August  30  -  September  11,  1994 


VOYAGE       TO 
ANTIQUITY 

Aboard  Sea  Cloud 


From  classical  Greek  and  Roman  times  through  the  Byzantine 
Empire  to  the  present,  the  eastern  Mediterranean  region  has  exerted 
an  enormous  influence  on  world  history,  art  and  culture. 

This  September,  the  American  Museum  invites  you  to  explore  this 
area's  exotic  cities,  magnificent  landscapes  and  innumerable  rem- 
nants of  its  glorious  ancient  civilizations  with  physical  anthropologist 
Dr.  Ian  Tattersall  and  archeologist  Dr.  David  Soren. 

Beginning  and  ending  with  the  fabled  city  of  Istanbul,  we  will 
explore  western  Turkey's 
incredible  ancient  ruins  and 
thriving  towns,  including 
Ephesus,  Pergamon,  Termessos, 
Troy  and  Antalya,  as  well  as  the 
Greek  island  of  Rhodes  and  its 
superb  acropolis.  Join  us  aboard 
the  Sea  Cloud  for  an  extraordi- 
nary journey  back  in  time. 

American 
Museum  of 
Natural 
History 

Discovery  Tours 

Central  Park  West  at  79th  St. 

New  York,  NY   10024-5192 

Toll-free  (800)  462-8687  or 

(212)  769-5700  in  NYS 


Authors 


As  a  vice  president  and  dean  of  science 
of  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  His- 
tory in  New  York,  Michael  Novacek 
(page  40)  must  at- 
tend to  the  admin- 
istrative demands 
of  a  huge  institu- 
tion. But  as  a  verte- 
brate paleontolo- 
gist, he  is  still  in- 
volved in  the 
hands-on  work  of 
finding  fossils.  In 
this  instance  that 
means  spending 
each  summer  with 
the  rest  of  a  Mu- 
seum team  that  is 
navigating  the  Gobi  Desert  of  Mongolia 
in  jeeps,  living  in  a  yurt,  and  crawling 
over  dry  cliffs  in  search  of  fossils,  from 
Velociraptor  to  mouse-sized  extinct  mam- 
mals. Novacek  has  also  done  fieldwork  in 
other  dry,  but  fossil-rich  regions  such  as 
the  Rockies,  Baja  California,  Yemen,  and 
the  Chilean  Andes.  He  plans  to  return  to 
Chile  to  look  for  more  evidence  of  mam- 
mal life  during  the  Age  of  Dinosaurs. 

as8fa^^ii|iiiMi|ij!ii|i|iiilliM|iiiiiiiimiBlllM^^ 

Champion  of  the  pouched,  Michael 
Archer  (pages  44  and  48)  is  a  professor 
of  biological  sci- 
ence at  the  Uni- 
versity of  New 
South  Wales, 
where  he  has 
worked  since 
1978.  A  citizen  of 
both  Australia  and 
the  United  States, 
Archer  went  to  Australia  on  a  Fulbright 
fellowship  after  completing  a  bachelor's 
degree  in  geology  and  biology  at  Prince- 
ton University.  He  chose  to  remain  in 
Australia  because  of  its  fascinating  ani- 
mals and  paleontological  challenges.  He 
has  excavated  fossil  vertebrates  not  only 
in  the  Riversleigh  deposits,  but  through- 
out the  continent.  Archer  writes  a  column 
for  Australian  Natural  History  and  is  ac- 
tively involved  in  combating  creationism. 


102    Natural  History  4/94 


"As  a  kid."  says  Malcolm  McKenna 
(page  56),  "I  read  Roy  Chapman  An- 
drews's books  and  promptly  caught  'Cen- 
tral Asia  fever."  I  haven't  recovered  yet 
and  don't  plan  to."  The  American  Mu- 
seum's Gobi  expeditions  give  him  and  his 
wife,  Priscilla,  the  opportunity  each  sum- 
mer to  build  on  the  work  started  by  An- 
drews in  the  1920s.  Frick  Curator  of 
Vertebrate  Paleontology  at  the  American 
Museum  and  a  professor  of  geology  at 
Columbia  University,  McKenna  is  also 
the  president  of  the  scientific  senate  of  the 
Museum.  His  current  research  focuses  on 
the  family  tree  of  living  and  extinct  mam- 
mals. McKenna  started  to  collect  fossils 
in  North  America  as  a  teen-ager,  and 


S.  David  Webb  (page  50)  first  started 
paying  attention  to  fossils  when,  as  a 
young  cowboy,  he  observed  fossil  out- 
crops on  the  range  in  Nevada.  Later,  at 
Cornell  University  and  at  the  University 
of  California  at  Berkeley,  he  became  in- 
terested in  evolutionary  questions.  A  cu- 
rator of  fossil  vertebrates  at  the  Florida 
Museum  of  Natural  History  and  a  profes- 
sor of  zoology  at  the  University  of 
Florida,  Webb  notes  that  "it  took  me  a 
while  to  realize  that  in  Florida  the  best 
fossil  sites  are  underwater."  Since  1965, 
he  has  been  diving  for  fossils.  Webb's  re- 
search includes  the  Great  American  Inter- 
change, late  Pleistocene  extinctions,  and 
the  origin  of  deer  and  other  ruminants.  He 
and  his  wife  raise  horses  on  their  farm 
near  Gainesville,  Florida. 


0 


some  forty-five  years  later,  he  has  done 
fieldwork  worldwide.  His  future  plans  in- 
clude studying  mammal  faunas  of  the 
Arctic,  South  America,  and  Mongolia; 
"Wyoming,  Colorado,  and  Montana  also 
beckon." 


A  native  of  Nebraska,  Larry  Martin 

(page  59)  has  spent  most  of  his  life  on  the 
(3reat  Plains.  Now  a  curator  of  vertebrate 
paleontology  at  the  Kansas  Museum  of 
Natural  History  and  a  professor  in  the 
Department  of  Systematics  and  Ecology 
at  the  University  of  Kansas,  he  has  done 
extensive  fieldwork  in  those  states,  as 
well  as  in  South  Dakota,  Wyoming,  Col- 
orado, and  Montana.  Maitin  first  saw 
devil's  corkscrews  in  1964  when,  during 
an  investigation  of  a  fossil  mammal  find 
near  Harrison,  Nebraska,  a  local  land- 
owner, Lorena  Ellicott,  showed  him  the 
corkscrews  in  the  neighborhood.  Martin 
is  the  author,  with  Bruce  Rothschild,  of 
the  recent  book  Paleopathology:  Disease 
in  the  Fossil 
Record  (Boca 
Raton:  CRC 
Press,  1993). 
His  future 
plans  include 
analyzing  the 
skeleton  of 
Archaeop- 
teryx  and  con- 
tinuing work 
on  the  fossil 
burrow  com- 
munities of 
early  Miocene 
■."^'^^:*-  ■--'  ,«*.;''",":  ''^gi     Nebraska. 


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MOROCCO 

The  Road  of  the 
Thousand  Kasbahs 

September  24  - 
October  8, 1994 


Few  places  evoke  images  of  such  exotic  splendor  as  the  North  African  coun- 
try of  Morocco.  With  opulent  cities  replete  with  minarets,  mosques,  palaces 
and  souks,  ancient  kasbahs  filled  with  colorfully  robed  Berbers  and  starkly 
beautiful  landscapes,  Morocco  is  a  feast  for  the  senses. 

This  September,  an  American  Museum  guest  specialist  in  Islamic  studies  will 
lead  an  exciting  trip  to  the  exotic  cities,  towns  and  desert  villages  of  Morocco. 
We  will  visit  such  fabled  and  exotic  cities  as  Marrakesh,  Fes  and  Meknes, 
while  also  seeing  a  very  different  Morocco  as  we  explore  the  Sahara  Desert, 
the  Atlas  Mountains  and  the  walled  adobe  villages  of  the  renowned  Road  of 
the  Thousand  Kasbahs. 

American 
Museum  of 
Natural 
History 

Discovery  Tours 


Central  Park  West  at  79th  St. 

New  York,  NY   10024-5192 

Toll-free  (800)  462-8687  or 

(212)  769-5700  in  NYS 


Discover  Natural  History! 


DETACH  AND  MAIL  ORDER  FORM  TODAY 

MAIL  Members'  Book  Program 

^°-     American  Museum  of  Natural  History 

Central  Park  West  at  79th  Street 
NewYork,  NY  10024 

OR     1-800-437-0033 

CALL: 

Please  rush  me  the  1991  Telly  Award  Winning 
Videocassette  of  the  American  Museum  of 
Natural  History  for  only  $1 7.95  (U.S.  &  CANADA) 
plus  $4.00  postage  &  handling.  CT  residents  add 
6%  state  sales  tax.  Available  in  VHS  only. 
Approx.  30  Min. 

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Valerius  Geist  (page  66),  a  Russian- 
bom  Canadian  of  German  extraction,  is 
director  of  the  Environmental  Science 
Program  at  the  University  of  Calgary  in 
Alberta.  Since  the  late  1950s  he  has  con- 
ducted zoological  fieldwork  in  various 
parts  of  British  Columbia  and  Alberta,  in 
the  Yukon  Territory,  in  Texas,  and  at  the 
Bandipur  Sanc- 
tuary in  India. 
He  first  became 

interested  in  SiRSIfe'5'  -»»$' 

horns  and  ant- 
lers during  his 
first-year  stud- 
ies in  zoology 
at  the  Univer- 
sity of  British 
Columbia, 
from  which  he 
received  a  bachelor's  degree  in  science 
and  a  doctorate  in  zoology.  In  1971,  he 
broadened  his  focus  to  include  a  new 
task:  developing  programs  to  train  young 
scientists  to  effectively  apply  new  knowl- 
edge in  the  larger  social  arena.  In  addition 
to  ungulates,  his  present  interests  include 
game  ranching.  Ice  Age  mammals,  the  bi- 
ology of  health,  and  human  evolution. 


.»yWf»w^:'srv-a-n'gy.'.-v 


Having  grown  up  on  a  New  Hampshire 
dairy  farm,  Margery  Coombs  (page  70) 
was  well  acquainted  with  herbivores  of 
the  hoofed  variety.  But  not  until  she  was  a 
doctoral  candidate  at  Columbia  Univer- 
sity in  the  1970s  did  she  meet  the  clawed 
kind,  chalicotheres:  "The  American  Mu- 
seum of  Natural  History  has  the  best 

overall  collec- 
tion of  chali- 
cotheres in  the 
world,  and  after 
being  intro- 
duced to  them, 
I  found  them  to 
be  fascinating." 
i^^B      asKm  '•       ■     Her  interest  in 
the  systematics, 
anatomy,  and 
ecology  of 
these  unusual, 
extinct  beasts 
continues  unabated.  An  associate  profes- 
sor of  biology  at  the  University  of  Massa- 
chusetts at  Amherst,  Coombs  is  also 
working  on  an  undergraduate  textbook  of 
vertebrate  paleontology.  For  the  future, 
she  has  her  eye  on  some  international  co- 
operative projects,  involving  chali- 
cotheres in  Kazakhstan,  India,  and  China. 


104    Natural  History  4/94 


A  native  of  Queens,  New  York,  Bryn 
J.  Mader  (page  61 )  knew  from  a  very 
early  age  that  he  wanted  to  be  a  vertebrate 
paleontologist.  His  professional  interest  in 
titanotheres,  however,  began  as  a  gradu- 
ate student  in  vertebrate  zoology  at  the 
University  of  Massachusetts  at  Amherst, 
when  he  recalled  having  seen  a  series  of 
massive,  homed  titanothere  skulls  in  the 
American  Museum's  Osbom  Hall  of 
Mammals.  When  he  found  that  titano- 
theres had  been  neglected  since  Henry 
Fairfield  Osbom  published  his  mono- 
graph on  them  in  1929,  he  was  hooked  on 
studying  the  extinct  beasts.  After  receiv- 
ing his  Ph.D.  from  the  University  of 
Massachusetts  in  1991,  Mader  moved  to 
the  American  Museum,  where  he  started 
in  the  Department  of  Vertebrate  Paleon- 
tology as  an  assistant  collections  manager 
working  with  fossil  mammals.  Now  col- 


As  a  graduate  student  at  Columbia 
University  in  the  1970s,  Bruce  MacFad- 
den  (page  63)  had  the  opportunity  to 
study  the  extensive  fossil  horse  collection 


A  professor  of  anatomy  at  Howard 
University  in  Washington,  D.C.,  Daryl 
Domning  (page  72)  has  written  several 
articles  on  fossil  sirenians,  or  sea  cows, 
for  Natural  History.  Much  of  his  field- 
work  takes  place  in  such  warm  parts  of 
the  world  as  Puerto  Rico,  Mexico,  and 
Brazil,  where  sea  cows  and  their  fossil 
ancestors  can  be  found.  His  interest  in  the 
Caribbean  dugongs  was  sparked  by  some 
surprising  fossil  discoveries  over  the  past 
fifteen  years,  which  raised  questions 
about  ancient  ecology:  "The  world  is  al- 
ways stranger  than  we  imagined,"  notes 
Domning,  "and  life  in  the  past  was  more 
different  from  the  present  than  we  know." 
In  addition  to  piecing  together  the  evolu- 


lections  registrar  in  the  Department  of 
Mammalogy,  Mader  has  traveled  to  the 
Badlands  of  South  Dakota  to  look  for 
more  North  American  titanotheres  and 
hopes  to  extend  his  research  to  Mongolia, 
where  large  numbers  of  titanotheres  have 
been  found. 


at  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  His- 
tory with  the  encouragement  of  Morris 
Skinner,  the  world's  foremost  horse  ex- 
pert at  that  time.  Since  then,  MacFadden 
has  focused  his  studies  on  the  paleobiol- 
ogy and  evolution  of  horses.  Now  a  cura- 
tor of  vertebrate  paleontology  at  the 
Florida  Museum  of  Natural  History,  he 
continues  to  excavate  fossil  horses  and 
conduct  geochemical  studies  of  their  teeth 
to  determine  ancient  diets  and  ecology. 
His  book  Fossil  Horses  was  published  by 
Cambridge  University  Press  in  1992. 
Also  a  professor  of  geology,  zoology,  and 
Latin  American  studies  at  the  University 
of  Florida  in  Gainesville,  MacFadden  is 
currentiy  on  a  Fulbright  fellowship  in  Bo- 
livia, studying  the  geology  and  paleontol- 
ogy of  the  Andes. 


tion  and  natural  history  of  extinct  sireni- 
ans, Domning  is  deeply  involved  in  pro- 
tecting living  dugongs  and  manatees. 


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Every  chance  he  can  get,  Philip  Gin- 
gerich  (page  86)  travels  to  the  sandy 
Fayum  region  of  Egypt  or  to  northern 
Pakistan,  sites  that  are  the  world's  most 
productive  whale  graveyards.  His  1989 
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and  toes.  On  his  field  trips,  Gingerich  is 
often  accompanied  by  his  wife.  Holly 
Smith,  a  physical  anthropologist  and  ex- 
perienced paleontologist.  Gingerich  grew 
up  in  a  rural  Mennonite  community  in 
Iowa,  where  geological  time  and  evolu- 
tion were  as  distant  as  Egypt  and  Pak- 
istan. He  jumped  at  the  opportunity  to 
study  geology  in  college.  Now  a  professor 
of  geological  sciences  and  director  of  the 
Museum  of  Paleontology  at  the  Univer- 


Esther  Beaton  (page  100),  was  bom  in 
Budapest,  Hungary,  and  grew  up  in  Cali- 
fornia. Having  Uved  on  two  continents, 
she  was  attracted  to  a  third  and  moved  to 
Australia  in  1973.  Fascinated  by  the 
beauty  of  the  animals  around  her,  particu- 
larly the  brilliantly  colored  parrots,  she 
began  her  career  in  wildlife  photography. 


seum  of  Natural  History,  Richard  H. 
Tedford  (pages  74  and  90)  began  his 
studies  of  the  order  Camivora  while  a 
graduate  student  at  the  University  of  Cali- 
fornia, Berkeley.  He  has  concentrated  on 
the  Caniformia,  the  suborder  that  includes 
dogs,  bears,  sea  lions,  raccoons,  weasels, 
and  their  relatives.  "For  me,"  he  says, 
"one  of  the  thrills  of  the  Museum's  new 
exhibition  halls  is  the  opportunity  to  place 
the  skeleton  of  the  extinct  bear-dog  Am- 
phicyon  in  an  active  pose  corresponding 
to  its  fossil  tracks."  A  veteran  of  field- 
work  in  the  United  States,  AustraUa,  and 
China,  he  has  documented  the  changing 
composition  of  fauna  in  these  regions  and 
used  these  events  to  measure  geologic 
time  and  to  mark  past  ecological  changes. 


sity  of  Michigan  in  Ann  Arbor,  he  is  par- 
ticularly interested  in  quantifying  rates  of 
evolution  and  using  these  as  guides  to  un- 
derstanding the  process  of  evolution. 


For  six  years  Beaton  photographed  wild- 
life and  landscapes  for  the  Parks  and 
Conservation  Service.  Then  she  decided 
to  risk  self-employment,  and  with  another 
photographer,  founded  the  well-known 
stock  library  Auscape  International.  Cur- 
rendy,  she  is  free-lancing  and  living  near 
Sydney.  She  came  across  the  procession- 
ary  caterpillars  featured  in  this  month's 
"Natural  Moment"  while  leading  a  nature 
tour  near  Alice  Springs.  "I  had  heard  dri- 
vers and  station  heads  tell  how  they  had 
mistakenly  ridden  into  masses  of  the  'bag 
moths'  or  'itchy  grubs'  and  been  covered 
by  millions  of  fiery  stings,  and  I  had 
come  across  them  hanging  in  their  bags 
from  acacia  trees.  But  this  was  the  first 
time  I  had  actually  witnessed  this  little- 
seen  event."  Beaton  took  the  photograph 
using  a  Nikon  N8008  with  an  autofocus 
12.8  Micro  lens. 


106    Natural  History  4/94 


Christine 
Janis's  interest 
in  paleontology 
was  sparked  at 
age  seven  by 
the  movie  Fan- 
tasia. She  cred- 
its her  choice 
of  career  to  an 
inability  to  out- 
grow a  child- 
hood love  of 
dinosaurs  and 
horses.  Now  an 
associate  professor  of  biology  at  Brown 
University,  Janis  (page  78)  has  numerous 
research  interests,  including  the  correla- 
tion between  morphology  and  behavioral 
ecology  in  living  and  extinct  mammals. 
Her  prime  interest  is  in  fossil  ungulates, 
although  with  a  horse  bam  in  her  back- 
yard and,  in  years  past,  hyraxes  in  her 
house,  she  can  claim  a  healthy  interest  in 
hving  ungulates  as  well.  Janis  is  shown 
here  with  a  puppet  of  her  favorite  fossil 
mammal,  Sindairomeryx  (in  truth,  it's  a 
moose  transformed). 


In  the  mid-1980s,  Blaire  Van  Valken- 
burgh  (page  84)  was  in  the  process  of  ex- 
amining carnivore  skulls  for  her  doctoral 
dissertation  when  she  noticed  that  many 
of  the  predators  had  unusually  high  num- 
bers of  broken  teeth.  She  decided  that  this 
finding  deserved  to  be  investigated  in 
more  detail,  and  after  receiving  her  de- 
gree from  Johns  Hopkins  University,  she 
continued  to  study  tooth  breakage,  and 
feeding  behavior  in  general,  in  Hving  and 
extinct  large  carnivores.  Now  an  associate 
professor  of  biology  at  UCLA,  Van 
Valkenburgh  has  a  laboratory  a  few  miles 
from  the  downtown  Los  Angeles  site  of 
La  Brea,  the  tar  pits  where  so  many  Pleis- 
tocene herbi- 
vores met  a 
sticky  end  and 
so  many  carni- 
vores broke 
their  teeth.  She 
has  done  field- 
work  in  East 
Africa  and 
Chile  and  plans 
to  study  the 
evolution  of 
canids — mem- 
bers of  the  dog 
family — in 
South  America. 


VOYAGE 
TO  THE 
LANDS 

OF 
GODS& 
HEROES 


June30- July  11,1994 


ITALY 
GREECE 
TURKEY 

ABOARD 

THE 
DAPHNE 


The  eastern  Mediterranean,  steeped  in  history,  culture  and  mythology,  is  one 
of  the  world's  great  treasure  troves  of  ancient  sites  and  magnificent  cities. 
The  American  Museum  has  designed  a  special  family  cruise  for  this  coming 
summer  -  a  program  suited  to  adults  and  the  children  they  want  to  introduce 
to  the  treasures  of  the  Mediterranean. 

Accompanied  by  American  Museum  President  Ellen  Putter  and  a  team  of  lec- 
turers and  educators,  participants  will  visit  historic  places  in  Italy,  Greece  and 
Turkey  such  as  the  Adriatic  port  of  Bari,  spectacular  Santorini,  Crete's 
famous  Minoan  town  of  Knossos,  the  acropolis  at  Lindos  on  Rhodes,  the 
magnificent  ancient  cities  of  Ephesus,  Olympia,  site  of  the  ancient  Olympic 
Games,  and  the  great  cities  of  Athens  and  Istanbul.  Join  us  for  an  enjoyable 
and  educational  family  adventure  among  the  treasures  of  the  Mediterranean! 

Central  Park  West  at  79th  St. 


American 
Museum  of 
Natural 
y^wrmm  History 

Discovery  Tours 


New  York,  NY  10024-5192 

Toll-free  (800)  462-8687  or 

(212)  769-5700  in  NYS 


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achieve  wellness  of  body  and  mind! 


There'.?  no  question  about  it.  According  to 
medical  and  fitness  experts,  regular  aerobic 
exercise  is  vital  for  achieving  all-around 
wellness.  Aerobic  exercise  helps  you  prevent 
illness,  feel  better  physically  and  mentally,  boost 
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your  life  expectancy. 

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107 


The  Vfald's  Firet  4x4  With  MTS 


It  would  be  difficult,  if  not 
impossible,  to  talk  about  Jeep 
Grand  Cherokee  Limited  with- 
out discussing  its  remarkable 
strength  and  capability. 

After  all.  Grand  Cherokee 
offers  an  available  5.2  litre  220 
horsepower  V8  engine,  plus 


tandard  four-wheel  anti-lock 
)rakes,  an  advanced  all-the- 
ime  four-wheel  drive  system, 
IS  well  as  side-guard  door 
)  earns.  But  perhaps  the 
nost  remarkable  feature  of 
eep  Grand  Cherokee  is  the 
)ne  that  we  hope  you  never 

Uways  wear  your  seat  belt. 


have  to  use— a  driver's  side  air 
bag;^  Grand  Cherokee  is  the 
world's  first  4x4  to  come 
equipped  with  a  driver's  side 
air  bag— and  it's  standard  on 
every  Grand  Cherokee  model. 
With  such  a  wide  array 
of  standard  features,  it's  quite 

Jeep 


easy  to  see  why  Jeep  Grand 
Cherokee  is  at  the  top  of  its 
class.  But  then,  getting  to  the 
top  is  nothing  new  to  Jeep. 
For  more  information, 
please  call  1-800-JEEP-EAGLE. 

There's  Only  One  Jeep!.^ 

A  Division  of  the  Chrysler  Corporation.    ES3 
is  a  registered  trademark  of  Chrysler  Corporation. 


Natural  history 
AM.  MUS.  NAT.  HIST.  LIBRARY 
Received  on:  04-08-94 
Ref  5. 06(74. 7) Ml 


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^.FOR  GIFT  DELIVERY  OF  ABSOLUT  VODKA  ANYWHERE,  CALL  1-800-CHEER-UP  (EXCEPT  WHERE  PROHIBITED  BY  LAW). 
80  AND  100  PROOF  VODKA/100%  GRAIN  NEUTRAL  SPIRITS  (ABSOLUT  COUNTRY  OF  SWEDEN'")  ©1988  CARILLON  IMPORTERS  LTD;  TEANECK,  NJ. 


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nccause  1  love 


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wliere  trout  are  Iround; 


necause 


trout  do  not  lie  qaycnesa^ 


t,ut  respd: 

ouly  tb  enaless  patience; 
necause  tnere  are  no  telfepnones 
on  ti-out  waters;   because 


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because  maybe  someday 
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V-'kevrolet  is  proud  to  kelp  tke  National  Fisk  and  Wildlife  Foundation  in  its  efforts  to  restore  natural  hakitats  so 
tkat  eveiytking  living  tkere  can  Le  kealtky  once  more,  Tkis  is  the  latest  way  we  skow  our  commitment  to  our  environment. 

For  years,  we  kave  supported  B.A.S.S"'  Operation  Bass,  Tke  WATER  Foundation  and  urban  forestry  groups  tkat  kave  planted  over 
200,000  trees.  We've  also  worked  kard  to  provide  cars  and  trucks  tkat  are  more  fuel- efficient  and  environmentally  responsible. 

We  believe  strongly  tkat  revitalizing  our  environment  is  one  of  tke  most  important  goals  on  eartk.  If  you  would  also  like  to  kelp 
tke  National  Fisk  and  Wldlife  Foundation,  please  call  1-800-873-3436. 

'Seicctiona  Irom  qiiotalion  courtesy  VoelRer  Collection  at  Nortliern  Michigan  University. 

ClievrolcL  antl   tke  Ckevrolet   EmMem  arc  registered  Iratlcmarks  of  tke  GM   Corp.  ©1994  GM  Corp.  All   Rigkts   Reserved.  BucMe  up,  America! 


Genlmne    Chevrolet" 


We  took  40  Brown  Pelicans 
under  our  w^in^  so  tney  could  rly  a^ain. 

Last  year  a  po-werful  summer  monsoon  blew  40  endangered 
Brown  Pelicans  off  their  normal  migration  path. 

Leaving  them  far  from  known  territory.  Far  from  home. 
Most  of  them  so  malnourished,  they  were  too  weak  to  fly.  So  we 
sent  a  team  from  our  Research  and  Conservation  Program  to 


Arizona  to  rescue  the  stranded  birds.  And  once  they  were  strong 


enough,  we  released  them  to  the  wild,  to  continue  on  their  way. 


With  future  efforts  like  these,  and  maybe  a  little  luck,  the 


Bro-wn  Pelican  population  should  take  off. 


SeaWS'ld 


A  pledge  and  a  promise  irom  tne  Anneuser-Busch  Companies. 


©1994Sea  World,  Inc. 


NATURAL 
HISTORY 


68 
73 
76 
80 


Vol.  103,  No.  5,  May  1994 

Cover:  Poppies  bloom  in  the  Judean  desert,  where  red  flowers  compete  for  the 
attentions  of  beetles.  Story  on  page  52.  Photograph  by  Allen  Rokach. 

Letters 

This  View  of  Life  Stephen  Jay  Gould 
Hooking  Leviathan  by  Its  Past 

Nature's  Infinite  Book 

Jared  Diamond 

Spacious  Skies  and  Tilted  Axes 

Science  Lite  Roger  l  weisch 

Life  Styles  of  the  Rich  and  Famous 

Tales  from  a  Peruvian  Crypt 

Walter  Alva  and  Christopher  B.  Donnan 

Only  a  step  ahead  of  looters,  archeologists  find  the 

richest  grave  ever  excavated  scientifically  in  our  hemisphere. 

"Dear  Enemy"  Notes  Renee  Godard  and  Haven  Wiley 

Why  does  the  hooded  warbler  spend  more  than  half  of  the  moming  singing? 

Night  Watch  on  the  Amazon  Patricia  ciwppie  Wright 

South  America 's  owl  monkey  is  a  bit  of  a  moonlighter 

Of  Bedouins,  Beetles,  and  Blooms  BemdHeinrich 

Both  insects  and  people  see  red  in  a  desert  near  Jerusalem, 
but  not  for  the  reasons  you  might  suspect. 

At  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History 
The  Living  Museum  Edwin  h.  Coiben 

Four  Giants  of  Paleontology 

This  Land  Robert  H.  Mohlenbrock 
Bonaventure  Island,  Quebec 

Celestial  Events  Gaiis.  cieere 

Ring  of  Fire 


Reviews  Joim  r.  Aiden 

Old  Foods  in  the  New  World 

The  Natural  Moment 

Photograph  by  Barrie  Wilkins 
A  Prickly  Encounter 


36 


82  Authors 


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AlanP.Ternes  Editor 

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Nalnral  History  (ISSN  0028-07 1 2)  is  published  monlhly  by 
the  American  Mu.scum  ofNatural  History.  Ccntrtil  Park  West 
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The  Bats  of  Winter 

Thanks  for  Bemd  Heinrich's  fine  article 
and  accompanying  photographs  on  winter 
moths  ("Some  Liice  It  Cold,"  February 
1994).  Being  active  in  winter  certainly 
helps  moths  avoid  bats  in  cold  cUmates 
such  as  that  of  Vermont.  In  southern  New 
Jersey  where  I  study  winter  moths,  how- 
ever, temperatures  are  often  well  above 
freezing  on  winter  evenings  at  dusk,  and 
big  brown  bats  are  virtually  always  forag- 
ing when  these  moths  are  flying.  Since 
very  few  insects  besides  smaU  flies  are  ac- 
tive here  between  December  and  Febru- 
ary, the  calorie-rich  winter  moths  may  be 
at  even  greater  risk  from  bats  in  January 
than  they  are  in  July. 

Another  note:  the  critical  need  to  have 
larval  hatching  timed  to  coincide  with 
budbreak,  rather  than  avoidance  of  birds, 
probably  affected  the  evolution  of  early- 
spring  egg-laying  in  these  and  many  other 
moth  species. 

Dale  Schweitzer 
Port  Norris,  New  Jersey 

Still  Looking 

Regarding  the  article  "Bagging  the  Lit- 
tle Green  Men"  ("Celestial  Events,"  Feb- 
ruary 1994),  I  am  happy  to  report  that 
SETI  (Search  for  Extraterrestrial  Intelli- 
gence) is  very  much  alive  and  weU.  While 
it  is  true  that  Congress  has  directed  NASA 
to  abandon  its  attempts  to  detect  radio 
transmissions  from  other  solar  systems, 
the  SETI  Institute's  efforts  to  raise  private 
money  to  keep  the  search  alive  have  met 
with  success — we  are  more  than  halfway 
to  our  goal  of  $7.3  million.  These  funds 
will  enable  us  first  to  modify  and  improve 
the  digital  receivers  lent  to  us  by  NASA 
and  then  to  deploy  this  equipment  at  the 
Parkes  radio  observatory  in  New  South 
Wales,  Australia,  for  Southern  Hemi- 
sphere observations  in  1995.  We  then  plan 
to  move  the  receiving  equipment  to  the 
Northern  Hemisphere,  beginning  with  the 
1,000-foot-diameter  radiotelescope  at 
Arecibo,  Puerto  Rico.  We  expect  observa- 


tions to  continue  into  the  next  millennium. 
I  look  forward  to  a  day,  perhaps  not  far  off, 
when  we  hear  the  first  evidence  that  we 
are  not  alone  in  the  universe. 

Frank  D.  Drake 

President,  SETI  Institute 

Mountain  View,  California 

Convergent  Chenocal  Evolution? 

In  "Stinking  Birds  and  Burning  Books" 
("Nature's  Infinite  Book,"  January  1994), 
Jared  Diamond  discusses  the  recent  recog- 
nition that  certain  jay-sized  New  Guinea 
birds  called  pitohuis  share  a  potent  defen- 
sive toxin  (homobatrachotoxin)  with 
Colombian  poison-dart  frogs.  He  goes  on 
to  suggest  diat  this  is  a  remarkable  case  of 
"convergent  evolution  at  the  molecular 
level." 

An  analogous  case  suggests  that  the 
convergent  evolution  may  rather  be  the 
ability  of  both  organisms  to  safely  culture 
toxin-producing  bacteria.  The  infamous 
tetrodotoxin,  which  almost  dispatched 
James  Bond  in  From  Russia  with  Love,  is 
an  example  of  this  latter  convergence. 
Tetrodotoxin  got  its  name  from  the  puffer- 
fish  (of  the  family  Tetradontidae),  which  is 
used  in  fugu,  die  Japanese  culinary  deU- 
cacy.  But  it  has  subsequently  been  found 
in  many  other  animals,  including  unre- 
lated fishes,  frogs  and  salamanders,  gas- 
tropods, crabs,  starfish,  and  the  beautiful 
blue-ringed  octopuses  of  southern  oceans. 
These  animals  can  harbor  bacteria  that 
produce  the  toxin,  and  indeed  one  can  rear 
toxin-free  pufferfish  with  appropriate  pre- 
cautions. The  pitohuis  and  the  poison-dart 
frogs  may  well  share  an  ability  to  culture 
toxin-producing  bacteria  on  their  skins, 
and  the  presence  or  absence  of  such  bacte- 
ria would  explain  the  range  of  toxicities 
noted  by  Diamond  in  different  parts  of  the 
birds'  range. 

An  important  corollary  of  such  sym- 
bioses  is  that  the  hosts  must  be  immune  to 
the  bacterial  poisons.  Both  homobatra- 
chotoxin and  tetrodotoxin  bind  to  sodium 
channels  in  the  membranes  of  susceptible 


4    Natural  History  5/94 


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exceeded  the  national  average  rates  calculated  by  Bank  Rate 
Monitor.  And  at  least  one  GoldCertificate®  CD  term  has  been 
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AMERICAN  MUSEUM 
OF  NATURAL  HISTORY 


AMERICAN  MUSEUM 
OF  NATURAL  HISTORY 


•December  7,  1993  issue, 

MBNA  AmericzC  GoldPonfolio,  GoldSavers*  and  GoldCertificate* 

are  federally  registered  service  marks  of  MBNA  America  Bank,  N,A, 


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Member  FDIC 


Flying  squirrels:  nvo  ghosts  in  a  snowstorm 

Seiichi  Meguro;  Nature  Production 


animal  cells;  perhaps  changes  in  the  pro- 
teins that  confer  resistance  demonstrate 
"convergent  evolution  at  the  molecular 
level." 

Roger  Prince 
Pittstown,  New  Jersey 

Inconsistent  Sexual  Politics 

I  have  just  belatedly  received  the  No- 
vember 1993  issue  of  Natural  History  and 
cannot  fathom  how  you  managed  to  pub- 
lish Stephen  Jay  Gould's  "The  Sexual  Pol- 
itics of  Classification"  and  "A  Goddess 
Unveiled,"  by  Harry  Y.  McSween,  Jn,  in 
the  same  issue.  Gould's  article  is  almost 
comically  sensitive  to  gender  stereotyping 
in  the  nature  writings  of  past  centuries.  Yet 
a  few  pages  farther  on,  readers  are  ex- 
pected to  accept  a  contemporary  author's 
use  of  a  metaphor  in  which  the  planet 


Venus  is  a  seemingly  beautiful  goddess 
who,  when  stripped  naked  by  science,  is 
revealed  as  an  "old  floozy"  with  pimples, 
wrinkles,  blemishes,  blisters,  and  sores 
that  suggest  an  interesting  past.  The  latter 
is  far  more  vicious  an  image  than  anything 
quoted  by  Gould. 

Eileen  Fielding 
Chesterton,  Indiana 

Evolution  of  Cakes 

In  her  sidebar,  "The  Twelfth  Cake"  (in 
"The  Rise  of  the  British  Wedding  Cake," 
December  1993),  Bridget  Ann  Henisch 
laments  the  collapse  of  the  Christmastime 
and  Epiphany  celebrations  by  the  end  of 
the  last  century.  Actually,  such  obser- 
vances continued  in  southern  Louisiana. 
Today,  the  traditions  and  games  linger  in 
the  form  of  King  Cakes,  which  begin  to 


appear  with  the  Twelfth  Night  parties  that 
launch  the  Mardi  Gras  season. 

Frederick  Stielow 
New  Orleans,  Louisiana 

Simon  Charsley's  article  on  wedding 
cakes  brought  to  mind  the  words  of  The 
Woman's  Home  Companion  Cookbook, 
published  in  New  York  by  Colliers  in 
1943. 

On  page  750  we  are  advised: 

The  true  wedding  cake  is  a  rich  fruit  cake.  It 
may  be  decorated  and  placed  on  a  reception 
table  or  it  may  be  packed  in  small  boxes  to 
hand  to  the  guests  as  they  leave.  In  the  latter 
case,  a  bride's  cake  may  be  used  on  the 
table.  The  bride's  cake  is  usually  a  white 
cake,  pound  cake,  sponge  cake,  or  light  fruit 
cake.  Frequently  the  true  wedding  cake  is 
dispensed  with  and  only  the  bride's  cake  is 
used. 

Decorate  with  lilies  of  the  valley.. .  .an  at- 
tractive addition  is  a  series  of  streamers  of 
lilies  of  the  valley  running  from  top  to  bot- 
tom. Surround  the  cake  with  real  flowers.. . . 

As  the  baker  on  the  vessel  Inspiration,  I 
use  this  cookbook  a  lot,  but  I  am  not  going 
to  make  such  a  cake. 

William  F.  Steagall,  Sr. 
La  Paz,  Mexico 

An  Extra  Ghost 

January's  "Natural  Moment"  photo 
("Ghost  in  a  Snowstorm")  by  Seiichi  Me- 
guro was  a  deUght,  and  tiie  patience  of  the 
photographer  seems  to  have  been  weU  re- 
warded. However,  you  may  have  inissed  a 
second  tiny  ghost  in  the  snowy  scene — an- 
other wide-eyed  flying  squirrel  attached  to 
the  trunk  of  a  tree,  below  and  to  the 
viewer's  left  of  flie  feahired  performer.  I 
feel  this  apparition  should  have  been  given 
equal  billing. 

James  Randi 
Plantation,  Florida 

Errata:  In  the  April  1994  issue,  the 
article  on  Caribbean  dugongs,  "West 
Indian  Tuskers,"  states  that  modern 
dugongs  uproot  sea  grasses  with  their 
tusks.  This,  an  editorial  extrapolation,  is 
in  error.  According  to  author  Daryl 
Domning,  dugongs  (like  manatees)  can 
uproot  small  rhizomes  of  sea  grasses  with 
their  snouts;  the  tusks  are  used  in  combat. 
We  apologize  for  the  mistake. 

Clear  Creek,  shown  on  page  42  in  our  No- 
vember 1993  issue  ("Damming  the  Past"), 
flows  into  die  Arkansas  River,  not  the  Col- 
orado. Natural  History  regrets  the  editor- 
ial error,  which  several  readers  brought  to 
our  attention. 


6    Natural  History  5/94 


Sculptures  (clockwise):  Blue  Jay,  Hummingbird,  Chickadee,  Kinglet,  Oriole. 


own  smaller  than  actual  sizes  of  3  Vie"  to  4 Vie"  high. 


Pre-eminent  porcelain  masterworks,  eight  years  in  the  making. 

The  award-winning  collection  of  bird  sculptures, 
renowned  for  its  realism  and  precisely  handcrafted  beauty. 


The  color,  the  grace,  the  varied  beauty 
of  birds  have  never  been  more  ex- 
quisitely portrayed  than  in  The  Lenox 


Display  cabinet  (29"  high,  21"  wide) 
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Garden  Bird  Sculpture  Collection.  This 
pre-eminent  collection  of  hand-painted 
sculptures — eight  years  in  the  making 
— marks  a  major  achievement  in 
porcelain  bird  art.  The  collection  has 
been  acclaimed  for  its  realism  and 
awarded  for  its  artistry. 

From  the  radiant  Magnificent 
Hummingbird,  to  the  dramatic,  vibrant 
Blue  Jay,  the  striking  Chickadee,  and 
more,  each  is  crafted  to  quality  stan- 


dards matching  sculpture  that  costs 
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Signature  

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1994 


Please  enter  my  subscription  for  The  Lenox 
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.J 


Tffls  View  of  Life 


Hooking  Leviathan  by  Its  Past 

Two  tales  of  tails  confirm  the  theory  of  the  whale's  return  to  the  sea 
by  Stephen  Jay  Gould 


The  landscape  of  every  career  contains 
at  least  a  few  crevasses,  and  usually  a 
more  extensive  valley  or  two — for  every 
Ruth's  bat,  a  Buckner's  legs;  for  every  lop- 
sided victory  at  Agincourt,  a  bloodbath  at 
Antietam.  Darwin's  first  edition  of  Origin 
of  Species  contains  some  wonderful  in- 
sights and  magnificent  lines,  but  this  mas- 
terpiece also  includes  a  few  notable  clink- 
ers. Darwin  became  most  embarrassed 
about  the  following  passage,  curtailed  and 
largely  expunged  from  following  editions 
of  his  book: 

In  North  America  the  black  bear  was  seen 
by  Heame  swimming  for  hours  with  widely 
open  mouth,  thus  catching,  like  a  whale,  in- 
sects in  the  water.  Even  in  so  extreme  a  case 
as  this,  if  the  supply  of  insects  were  con- 
stant, and  if  better  adapted  competitors  did 
not  already  exist  in  the  counUry,  I  can  see  no 
difficulty  in  a  race  of  bears  being  rendered, 
by  natural  selection,  more  aquatic  in  their 
structure  and  habits,  with  larger  and  larger 
mouths,  till  a  creature  was  produced  as 
monstrous  as  a  whale. 

Why  did  Darwin  become  so  chagrined 
about  this  passage?  His  hypothetical  tale 
may  be  pure  speculation  and  conjecture, 
but  the  scenario  is  not  entirely  absurd. 
Darwin's  discomfort  arose,  I  think,  from 
his  failure  to  follow  a  scientific  norm  of  a 
more  sociocultural  nature.  Scientific  con- 
clusions supposedly  rest  upon  facts  and  in- 
formation. Speculation  is  not  entirely 
taboo,  and  may  sometimes  be  necessary 
faute  de  mieux.  But  when  scientists  pro- 
pose truly  novel  and  comprehensive  theo- 
ries— as  Darwin  tried  to  do  in  advancing 
natural  selection  as  the  primary  mecha- 
nism of  evolution — they  need  particularly 
good  support,  and  invented  hypothetical 
cases  just  don't  supply  sufficient  oomph 
for  crucial  conclusions. 

Natural  selection  (or  the  human  ana- 


logue of  differential  breeding)  clearly 
worked  at  small  scale — in  the  production 
of  dog  breeds  and  strains  of  wheat,  for  ex- 
ample. But  could  such  a  process  account 
for  the  transitions  of  greater  scope  that  set 
our  concept  of  evolution  in  the  fiillness  of 
fime:  the  passage  of  reptilian  lineages  to 
birds  and  mammals;  the  origin  of  humans 
from  an  ancestral  stock  of  apes?  For  these 
larger  changes,  Darwin  could  provide  little 
direct  evidence,  for  a  set  of  well-known 
and  much  lamented  reasons  based  on  the 
extreme  spottiness  of  the  fossil  record. 

Some  splendid  cases  began  to  accumu- 
late in  years  following  the  Origin  of  Spe- 
cies, most  notably  the  discovery  in  1861  of 
Archaeopteryx,  an  initial  bird  chock-full 
of  reptiUan  features,  and  the  first  findings 
of  human  fossils  late  in  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. But  Darwin  had  little  to  present  in  his 
first  edition  of  1 859,  and  he  tried  to  fill  this 
factual  gap  with  hypothetical  fables  about 
swimming  bears  eventually  turning  into 
whales — a  fancy  that  yielded  far  more 
trouble  in  easy  ridicule  than  aid  in  useful 
illustration.  Just  two  years  after  penning 
his  bear-to-whale  tale,  Darwin  lamented  in 
a  letter  to  a  friend  (James  Lamont,  Febru- 
ary 25,  1861),  "It  is  laughable  how  often  1 
have  been  attacked  and  misrepresented 
about  this  bear." 

The  supposed  lack  of  intermediary 
forms  in  the  fossil  record  remains  the  fun- 
damental canard  of  current  antievolution- 
ism.  Such  transitional  forms  are  scarce,  to 
be  sure,  and  for  two  sets  of  good  rea- 
sons— geological  (the  gappiness  of  the 
fossil  record)  and  biological  (the  episodic 
nature  of  evolutionary  change,  including 
patterns  of  punctuated  equilibrium  and 
transition  within  small  populations  of  lim- 
ited geographic  extent).  But  paleontolo- 
gists have  discovered  several  superb  ex- 
amples  of  intermediary   forms   and 


sequences,  more  than  enough  to  convince 
any  fair-minded  skeptic  about  the  reality 
of  life's  physical  genealogy. 

The  first  "terrestrial"  vertebrates  re- 
tained six  to  eight  digits  on  each  limb 
(more  like  a  fish  paddle  than  a  hand),  a 
persistent  tail  fin,  and  a  lateral  Une  system 
for  sensing  sound  vibrations  underwater. 
The  anatomical  transition  from  reptiles  to 
mammals  is  particularly  well  documented 
in  the  key  anatomical  change  of  jaw  artic- 
ulation to  hearing  bones.  Only  one  bone, 
called  the  dentary,  builds  the  mammalian 
jaw,  while  reptiles  retain  several  small 
bones  in  the  rear  part  of  the  jaw.  We  can 
trace,  through  a  lovely  sequence  of  inter- 
mediates, the  reduction  of  these  small  rep- 
tilian bones  and  their  eventual  disappear- 
ance or  exclusion  from  the  jaw,  including 
the  remarkable  passage  of  the  reptilian  ar- 
ticulation bones  into  the  mammalian  mid- 
dle ear  (where  they  become  our  malleus 
and  incus,  or  hanmier  and  anvil).  We  have 
even  found  the  ti"ansitional  form  that  cre- 
ationists often  proclaim  inconceivable  in 
theory — for  how  can  jawbones  become 
ear  bones  if  intermediaries  must  have  un- 
hinged jaws  before  the  new  joint  forms? 
The  fi-ansitional  species  maintains  a  dou- 
ble jaw  joint,  with  both  the  old  articulation 
of  reptiles  (quadrate  to  articular  bones) 
and  the  new  connection  of  mammals 
(squamosal  to  dentary)  already  in  place! 
Thus,  one  joint  could  be  lost,  with  passage 
of  its  bones  into  the  ear,  while  the  other  ar- 
ticulation continued  to  guarantee  a  prop- 
erly hinged  jaw. 

Still,  our  creationist  incubi,  who  would 
never  let  facts  spoil  a  favorite  argument, 
refuse  to  yield,  and  continue  to  assert  \ht 
absence  of  all  transitional  forms  by  ignor- 
ing those  that  have  been  found  and  contin- 
uing to  taunt  us  with  admittedly  frequent 
examples  of  absence.  Darwin's  difficulty 


8    Natural  History  5/94 


"Vbu'll  find  our  Mesh  Knit  has 
more  of  nearly  everything- 
except  flies,  slubs  and  crocking. 


If  you  make  a  cotton  Mesh  Knit 
shirt  -  and  you're  as  finicky 
as  Lands'  End  -  there  are  a 
zillion  things  to  watch  for. 

Cotton  comes  from 
the  field,  after  all.  You 
can  card  it,  and  comb 
it,  and  still  have  stuff 
left  in  it  When  thaf  s 
knit  into  the  cloth,  the 
result  is  flies  and  slubs 
-  tiny  bumps  and  imper- 
fections, like  hiccups  in 
the  fabric. They're 
unsightly  and  weaken 
the  Mesh. 

So,  we  do  our  darndest 
to  weed  out  flies  and  slubs. 
Matter  of  fact,  we  have  seventy 
fly- and  slub- inspectors. 

A  fine  Mesh 
we're  getting  you  into. 

Our  Mesh  Knit  is  made  of 
100%  American  grown  cotton.  If  s 
spun  into  an  18  singles  yarn:  a 
yarn  so  fine  that  it  takes  4.3  miles 
of  it  to  make  one  Lands'  End  Mesh. 

Now  obviously,  what  makes  a 
Mesh  so  comfy  is  that  it  is  a 
Mesh.  If  s  "ventilated"  with  thou- 
sands of  tiny  air  holes  that  let  it 
breathe.  (Don't  ask  us  how  many 
thousands,  please  -  we  gave  up 
counting 'em!) 

But  to  make  our  Mesh  Knit 
even  comfier,  we  add  thoughtful 
litde  details.  For  example,  side 
vents.  So,  you  can  wear  the  shirt 
outside  your  pants,  without  its 
catching  around  the  hips. 

We  also  tape  the  neck  band  to 
keep  the  edges  from  chafing  and 


rubbing  you  the  wrong  way. 

And  speaking  of  rubbing,  we 
hate  when  a  shirf  s  color  rubs  off 
-  on  other  clothing,  for  instance. 
TTiaf  s  called  crocking.  We  fry 
and  avoid  it  by  using  reactive 
dyes.  Tliese  get  chemically  "mar- 
ried" to  the  yarn  -  the  two 
become  nearly  inseparable  till 
death  do  them  part 

The  price  clinches  it 

Our  Mesh  is  only  $19.50. 
(A  little  more  for  Tall,  Men's  XXL, 
or  with  a  pocket  or  stripes.)  And 
thaf  s  not  much  for  such  quality. 

Of  course,  the  Lands' End 
catalog  has  lots  more  -  from 
classic  dress  and  casual 
clothing,  to  our  original  soft 
luggage,  children's  things  and 
home  furnishings.  It's  aU 
fairly  and  honestly  priced. 

And  it  all  comes  with  our 
unconditional  guarantee.  In  two 


words-"Guaranteed.  Period." 
Send  for  our  catalog.  Better 

yet,  phone  us  -  24  hours  a  day, 

any  day  or  night. 

You'll  find  no  flies  in  our 

service.  No  slubs,  either 

mi994  Lands' End,  Inc. 


For  our  free  catalog, 
call  any  time 

1-800-356-4444 

( In  Canada,  too.) 


Name. 


Address  _ 


.  Apt. . 


City_ 


State - 


.  Zip- 


) 


Day /Night 
(circle  one) 


Phone  .L 

Or  mail:  1  Lands' End  Lane.Dodgeville.Wl  53595 


with  the  origin  of  whales  remains  a  peren- 
nial favorite.  God's  taunt  to  Job  might  be 
sounded  again:  "canst  thou  draw  out 
leviathan  with  an  hook?"  (The  biblical 
leviathan  is  usually  interpreted  as  a  croco- 
dile, but  many  alternative  readings  favor 
whales.) 

Every  creationist  book  on  my  shelf 
cites  the  actual  absence  and  inherent  in- 
conceivability of  transitional  forms  be- 
tween terrestrial  mammals  and  whales. 
Alan  Haywood,  for  example,  writes  {Cre- 
ation and  Evolution,  Triangle  Books, 
1985): 

Darwinists  rarely  mention  the  whale  be- 
cause it  presents  them  with  one  of  their  most 
insoluble  problems.  They  believe  that  some- 
how a  whale  must  have  evolved  from  an  or- 
dinary land-dwelling  animal,  which  took  to 
the  sea  and  lost  its  legs.. . .  A  land  mammal 
that  was  in  process  of  becoming  a  whale 
would  fall  between  two  stools — it  would  not 
be  fitted  for  life  on  land  or  at  sea,  and  would 
have  no  hope  of  survival. 

Duane  Gish,  creationism's  most  ardent 
debater,  makes  the  same  argument  in  his 
more  colorful  style  {Evolution:  The  Chal- 
lenge of  the  Fossil  Record,  Creation  Life 
Publishers,  1985): 

There  simply  are  no  transitional  forms  in 
the  fossil  record  between  the  marine  mam- 
mals and  their  supposed  land  mammal  an- 
cestors.... It  is  quite  entertaining,  starting 
with  cows,  pigs,  or  buffaloes,  to  attempt  to 
visualize  what  the  intermediates  may  have 
looked  like.  Starting  with  a  cow,  one  could 
even  imagine  one  line  of  descent  which  pre- 
maturely became  extinct,  due  to  what  might 
be  called  an  "udder  failure." 


n->  '^ 


^-'^X^ 


The  most  "sophisticated"  (I  should  re- 
ally say  "glossy")  of  creationist  texts,  Of 
Pandas  and  People,  by  P.  Davis,  D.  H. 
Kenyon,  and  C.  B.  Thaxton  (Haughton 
Publishing,  1989),  says  much  the  same, 
but  more  in  the  lingo  of  academese: 

The  absence  of  unambiguous  transitional 
fossils  is  strikingly  illustrated  by  the  fossil 
record  of  whales.. . .  If  whales  did  have  land 
mammal  ancestors,  we  should  expect  to  find 
some  transitional  fossils.  Why?  Because  the 
anatomical  differences  between  whales  and 
terrestrial  mammals  are  so  great  that  innu- 
merable in-between  stages  must  have  pad- 
dled and  swam  the  ancient  seas  before  a 
whale  as  we  know  it  appeared.  So  far  these 
transitional  forms  have  not  been  found. 

Three  major  groups  of  mammals  have 
returned  to  the  ways  of  distant  ancestors  in 
their  seafaring  modes  of  life  (while 
smaller  lineages  within  several  other 
mammalian  orders  have  become  at  least 
semiaquatic,  often  to  a  remarkable  degree, 
as  in  river  and  sea  otters):  the  suborder 
Pinnipedia  (seals,  sea  lions,  and  walruses) 
within  the  order  Camivora  (dogs,  cats,  and 
Darwin's  bears  among  others);  and  two 
entire  orders — the  Sirenia  (dugongs  and 
manatees)  and  Cetacea  (whales  and  dol- 
phins). I  confess  that  I  have  never  quite 
grasped  the  creationists's  point  about  in- 
conceivability of  transition — for  a  good 
structural  (although  admittedly  not  a  phy- 
logenetic)  series  of  intermediate  anat- 
omies may  be  extracted  from  these  groups. 
Otters  have  remarkable  aquatic  abilities, 
but  retain  fully  functional  limbs  for  land. 
Sea  lions  are  clearly  adapted  for  water,  but 
can  still  flop  about  on  land  with  sufficient 


^^^^C^ 


"/  love  my  kids,  but  these  Mother's  Day  visits  do  have  their  drawbacks. 


dexterity  for  ice  floes,  breeding  grounds, 
and  circus  rings. 

But  I  admit,  of  course,  that  the  transi- 
tion to  manatees  and  whales  represents  no 
trivial  extension,  for  these  fully  aquatic 
mammals  propel  themselves  by  powerful, 
horizontal  tail  flukes  and  have  no  visible 
hind  limbs  at  all — and  how  can  a  lineage 
both  develop  a  flat  propulsive  tail  from  the 
standard  mammalian  length  of  rope  and 
then  forfeit  the  usual  equipment  of  back 
feet  so  completely?  (Sirenians  have  lost 
every  vestige  of  back  legs;  whales  often 
retain  tiny,  splintlike  pelvic  and  leg  bones, 
but  no  foot  or  finger  bones,  embedded  in 
musculature  of  the  body  wall,  but  with  no 
visible  expression  in  external  anatomy.) 

The  loss  of  back  legs  and  the  develop- 
ment of  flukes,  fins,  and  flippers  by  whales 
therefore  stands  as  a  classic  case  of  a  sup- 
posed cardinal  problem  in  evolutionary 
theory — the  failure  to  find  intermediary 
fossils  for  major  anatomical  transitions  or 
even  to  imagine  how  such  a  bridging  form 
might  look  or  work.  Darwin  acknowl- 
edged the  issue  by  constructing  a  much 
criticized  fable  about  swimming  bears,  in- 
stead of  presenting  any  evidence  at  all, 
when  he  tried  to  conceptualize  the  evolu- 
tion of  whales.  Modem  creationists  con- 
tinue to  use  this  example  and  stress  the  ab- 
sence of  intermediary  forms  in  this 
supposed  (they  would  say  impossible) 
transition  from  land  to  sea. 

Goethe  told  us  to  "love  those  who  yearn 
for  the  impossible."  But  Pliny  the  Elder, 
before  dying  of  curiosity  by  straying  too 
close  to  Vesuvius  at  the  worst  of  aU  pos- 
sible moments,  urged  us  to  treat  impossi- 
bility as  a  relative  claim:  "How  many 
things,  too,  are  looked  upon  as  quite  im- 
possible until  they  have  been  actually  ef- 
fected." Armed  with  such  wisdom  of 
human  ages,  1  am  absolutely  delighted  to 
report  fliat  our  usually  recalcitrant  fossil 
record  has  come  through  in  exemplary 
fashion.  During  the  past  fifteen  years,  new 
discoveries  in  Africa  and  Pakistan  have 
added  greatly  to  our  paleontological 
knowledge  of  the  earliest  history  of 
whales.  The  embarrassment  of  past  ab- 
sence has  been  replaced  by  a  bounty  of 
new  evidence — and  by  the  sweetest  series 
of  transitional  fossils  an  evolutionist  could 
ever  hope  to  find.  Truly,  we  have  met  the 
enemy  and  he  is  now  ours.  Moreover,  to 
add  blessed  insult  to  the  creationists's  in- 
jury, diese  discoveries  have  arrived  in  a 
gradual  and  sequential  fashion — a  little  bit 
at  a  time,  step  by  step,  from  a  tentative  hint 
fifteen  years  ago  to  a  remarkable  smoking 
gun  early  in  1994.  Intellectual  history  has 


10    Natural  History  5/94 


The 

Inka  Empire 

And 

Its  Andean  Origins 


Trace  the  story  of  the  Andean  peoples  with  this  beautifully  produced  new  appraisal  of  the  ancient  Inka  and  the 
remarkable  cultures  that  preceded  them. 

Written  by  Dr.  Craig  Morris,  American  Museum  of  Natural  History  Curator  of  Anthropology,  and  noted  journalist 
Adrianna  von  Hagen,  this  comprehensive  study  describes  their  agricultural  methods,  social  organizations,  political 
structure,  religious  beliefs,  ceremonial  practices,  technologies,  and  artistic  expression.  The  text  resonates  with  more 
than  one  hundred  exquisite  color  photographs  of  objects  from  the  Museum's  rich  collection  of  artifacts  and  offers 
compelling  panoramas  of  the  spectacular  and  diverse  Andean  landscape. 

252  pages,  9  7/8"  x  9  7/8",  200  illustrations,  cloth 

To  order  send  check  or  money  order  for  $50.00  including  shipping  and  handling  within  the  U.S.  to  Members'  Choice,  American  Museum  of 

Natural  History,  Central  Park  West  at  79th  Street,  New  York,  NY  10024  or  call  toll-free  1-800-437-0033  for  Mastercard  and  Visa  orders. 


A  fifty-foot  Eocene  whale,  Basilosaurus  isis,/ram  the  Zeuglodon  Valley 
of  Egypt,  Itad  tiny  hind  limbs,  shown  in  detail  above. 

Adapted  from  Science,  vol.  249,  13  July  1990 

matched  life's  genealogy  by  spanning  the 
gaps  in  sequential  steps.  Consider  the  four 
main  events  in  chronological  order. 

Case  One:  Discovery  of  the  oldest 
whale.  Paleontologists  have  been  fairly 
confident,  since  Leigh  Van  Valen's 
demonstration  in  1966,  that  whales  de- 
scended from  mesonychids,  an  early 
group  of  primarily  carnivorous  running 
mammals  that  spanned  a  great  range  of 
sizes  and  habits  from  eating  fishes  at  river 
edges  to  crushing  bones  of  carrion. 
Whales  must  have  evolved  during  the 
Eocene  epoch,  some  fifty  million  years 
ago,  because  late  Eocene  and  Oligocene 
rocks  already  contain  cetaceans  so  fully 
marine  that  we  must  judge  them  as  past 
any  point  of  intermediacy. 

In  1983,  my  colleague  Phil  Gingerich, 
of  the  University  of  Michigan,  along  with 
N.  A.  Wells,  D.  E.  Russell,  and  S.  M. 
Ibrahim  Shah  ("Origin  of  Whales  in  Epi- 
continental Remnant  Seas,"  Science,  vol. 
220,  pp.  403^06),  reported  their  discov- 
ery of  the  oldest  whale,  named  Pakicetus 
to  honor  its  country  of  present  residence, 
from  Middle  Eocene  sediments  some  fifty- 
two  million  years  old  in  Pakistan.  In  terms 
of  intermediacy,  one  could  hardly  have 
hoped  for  more  from  the  limited  material 
available,  for  only  the  skull  of  Pakicetus 
has  been  found.  The  teeth  strongly  resem- 
ble those  of  terrestrial  mesonychids,  as  an- 
ticipated, but  the  skull,  in  feature  after  fea- 
ture, clearly  belongs  to  the  developing 
lineage  of  whales. 

Both  the  anatomy  of  the  skull,  particu- 
larly in  the  ear  region,  and  its  environment 
of  deposition  testify  to  transitional  status. 
The  ears  of  modem  whales  contain  modi- 


fied bones  and  passageways  that  permit  di- 
rectional hearing  in  the  dense  medium  of 
water.  They  have  also  evolved  enlarged  si- 
nuses that  can  be  filled  with  blood  to  main- 
tain pressure  during  diving.  The  skull  of 
Pakicetus  lacks  both  these  featiu^es,  and 
this  first  whale  could  neither  dive  deeply 
nor  hear  directionally  with  any  efficiency 
in  water. 

hi  1993,  J.  G.  M.  Thewissen  and  S.  T 
Hussain  ("Origin  of  Underwater  Hearing 
in  Whales,"  Nature,  vol.  361,  pp.  444-45) 
affirmed  these  conclusions  and  added 
more  details  on  the  intermediacy  of  skull 
architecfiire  in  Pakicetus.  Modem  whales 
do  much  of  their  hearing  through  their 
jaws,  as  sound  vibrations  pass  through  the 
jaw  to  a  "fat  pad"  (the  technical  literature, 
for  once,  invents  no  jargon  and  employs 
the  good  old  English  vernacular  in  naming 
this  structure)  and  thence  to  the  middle 
ear.  Terrestrial  mammals,  by  contrast,  de- 
tect most  sound  through  the  ear  hole 
(called  the  "external  auditory  meatus,"  in 
more  refined  language).  Since  Pakicetus 
lacked  the  enlarged  jaw  hole  that  holds  the 
fat  pad,  this  first  whale  probably  continued 
to  hear  through  the  pathways  of  its  terres- 
trial ancestors.  Gingerich  concluded  that 
"the  auditory  mechanism  oi  Pakicetus  ap- 
pears more  similar  to  that  of  land  mam- 
mals than  it  is  to  any  group  of  extant  ma- 
rine mammals." 

As  for  place  of  discovery,  Gingerich 
and  colleagues  found  Pakicetus  in  river 
sediments  bordering  an  ancient  sea  {see 
"The  Whales  of  Tethys,"  Natural  History, 
April  1994) — an  ideal  place  for  the  first 
stages  of  such  an  evolutionary  transition 
(and  a  good  explanation  for  lack  of  diving 


specializations  if  Pakicetus  inhabited  the 
mouths  of  rivers  and  adjacent  shallow 
seas).  They  judged  Pakicetus  as  "an  am- 
phibious stage  in  the  gradual  evolutionary 
transition  of  primitive  whales  irom  land  to 
sea....  Pakicetus  was  well  equipped  to 
feed  on  fishes  in  the  surface  waters  of  shal- 
low seas,  but  it  lacked  auditory  adapta- 
tions necessary  for  fully  marine  exis- 
tence." 

Verdict:  In  terms  of  intermediacy,  one 
could  hardly  hope  for  more  from  the  lim- 
ited material  of  skuU  bones  only.  But  the 
limit  remains  severe,  and  the  results  there- 
fore inconclusive.  We  know  nothing  of  the 
limbs,  tail,  or  body  form  of  Pakicetus,  and 
therefore  cannot  judge  its  transitional  sta- 
tus in  these  key  features  of  anyone's  ordi- 
nary conception  of  a  whale. 

Case  Two:  Discovery  of  the  first  com- 
plete hind  limb  in  a  fossil  whale.  In  the 
most  famous  mistake  of  early  American 
paleontology,  Thomas  Jefferson,  while  not 
engaged  in  other  pursuits  usually  judged 
more  important,  misidentified  the  claw  of 
a  fossil  ground  sloth  as  that  of  a  lion.  My 
prize  for  second  worst  error  must  go  to  R. 
Harlan  who,  in  1834,  named  a  marine  fos- 
sil vertebrate  Basilosaurus  in  the  Transac- 
tions of  the  American  Philosophical  Soci- 
ety. Basilosaurus  means  "king  lizard,"  but 
Harlan's  creature  is  an  early  whale. 
Richard  Owen,  England's  greatest 
anatomist,  corrected  Mr.  Harlan  before  the 
decade's  end,  but  the  name  sticks — and 
must  be  retained  by  the  official  rules  of  zo- 
ological nomenclature.  (Remember  that 
the  Linnaean  naming  system  is  a  device 
for  information  retrieval,  not  a  guarantor 
of  appropriateness.  The  rules  require  that 
each  species  have  a  distincfive  name,  so 
that  data  can  be  associated  unambiguously 
with  a  stable  tag.  Often,  and  inevitably,  the 
names  originally  given  become  literally 
inappropriate  for  the  unsurprising  reason 
that  scientists  make  frequent  mistakes,  and 
that  new  discoveries  modify  old  concep- 
tions. If  we  had  to  change  names  every 
time  our  ideas  about  a  species  altered,  tax- 
onomy would  devolve  into  chaos.  So 
Basilosaurus  will  always  be  Basilosaurus 
because  Harlan  followed  the  rules  when  he 
gave  the  name.  And  we  do  not  change  our- 
selves to  Homo  horribilis  after  Auschwitz, 
or  to  Homo  ridiculosis  after  Tonya  Hard- 
ing— but  remain,  however  dubiously. 
Homo  sapiens,  now  and  into  whatever  for- 
ever we  allow  ourselves.) 

Basilosaurus,  represented  by  two  spe- 
cies, one  from  the  United  States  and  the 
other  from  Egypt,  is  the  "standard"  and 
best-known  early  whale.  A  few  fragments 


12    Natural  History  5/94 


of  pelvic  and  leg  bones  had  been  found  be- 
fore, but  not  enough  to  know  whether 
Basilosauriis  bore  working  hind  legs — the 
crucial  feature  for  our  usual  concept  of  a 
satisfying  intermediate  form  in  both 
anatomical  and  flinctional  senses. 

In  1990,  Phil  Gingerich,  B.  H.  Smith, 
and  E.  L.  Simons  reported  their  excava- 
tion and  study  of  several  hundred  partial 
skeletons  of  the  Egyptian  species  B.  isis. 
which  hved  some  five  to  ten  million  years 
after  Pakicetus.  In  an  exciting  discovery, 
they  reported  the  first  complete  hind  limb 
skeleton  found  in  any  whale — a  lovely  and 
elegant  structure  (put  together  from  sev- 
eral partial  specimens),  including  all 
pelvic  bones,  all  leg  bones  (femur,  tibia, 
fibula,  and  even  the  patella,  or  knee  cap), 
and  nearly  all  foot  and  finger  bones,  right 
down  to  the  phalanges  (the  finger  bones) 
of  the  three  preserved  digits  ("Hind  Limbs 
of  Eocene  Basilosaums:  Evidence  of  Feet 
in  Whales,"  Science,  vol.  249,  pp. 
154-57). 

This  remarkable  find  might  seem  to 
clinch  our  proof  of  intermediacy,  but  for 
one  small  problem.  The  limbs  are  elegant, 
but  tiny  (see  accompanying  figure  of  B. 
isis  on  page  12),  a  mere  3  percent  of  the 
animal  "s  total  length.  They  are  anatomi- 
cally complete,  and  they  did  project  from 
the  body  wall  (unlike  the  truly  vestigial 
hind  limbs  of  modem  whales),  but  they 
could  not  have  made  any  important  contri- 
bution to  locomotion — the  real  functional 
test  of  intermediacy.  Gingerich  and  his 
coauthors  write:  "Hind  limbs  of 
Basilosaurus  appear  to  have  been  too 
small  relative  to  body  size  to  have  assisted 
in  swimming,  and  they  could  not  possibly 
have  supported  the  body  on  land."  The  au- 
thors strive  bravely  to  invent  some  poten- 


tial function  for  these  minuscule  limbs  and 
end  up  speculating  that  they  may  have 
served  as  "guides  during  copulation, 
which  may  otherwise  have  been  difficult 
in  a  serpentine  aquatic  mammal."  (I  regard 
such  guesswork  as  unnecessary,  if  not  ill- 
conceived.  We  need  not  justify  the  exis- 
tence of  a  structure  by  inventing  some  pu- 
tative Darwinian  function.  All  bodies 
contain  vestigial  features  of  little,  if  any, 
utility.  Structures  of  lost  usefulness  in  ge- 
nealogical transitions  do  not  disappear  in 
an  evolutionary  overnight.) 

Verdict:  Terrific  and  exciting,  but  no 
cigar,  and  no  bag-packer  for  creationists. 
The  limbs,  although  complete,  are  too 
small  to  work  as  true  intermediates  must 
(if  these  particular  limbs  worked  at  all) — 
that  is,  for  locomotion  on  both  land  and 
sea.  I  intend  no  criticism  of  Basilosaurus, 
but  merely  point  out  that  this  creature  had 
akeady  crossed  the  bridge  (while  retaining 
a  most  informative  remnant  of  the  other 
side).  We  must  search  for  an  earlier  inhab- 
itant of  the  bridge  itself. 

Case  Three:  Hind  limb  bones  of  appro- 
priate size.  Indocetus  ramani  is  an  early 
whale,  found  in  shallow-water  marine  de- 
posits of  India  and  Pakistan,  and  interme- 
diate in  age  between  the  Pakicetus  skull 
and  the  Basilosaurus  hind  legs  (cases  one 
and  two  above).  In  1993,  Gingerich,  S.  M. 
Raza,  M.  Afif,  M.  Anwar,  and  X.  Zhou  re- 
ported the  discovery  of  leg  bones  of  sub- 
stantial size  from  this  species  ("Partial 
Skeletons  of  Indocetus  ramani  [Mam- 
malia, Cetacea]  from  the  Lower  Middle 
Eocene  Domanda  Shale  in  the  Sulaiman 
Range  of  Punjab  [Pakistan],"  Contribu- 
tions from  the  Museum  of  Paleontology  of 
the  University  of  Michigan,  vol.  28,  pp. 
393-416). 


2  Feet 


Two  reconstructions  show  Ambulocetus,  a  fossil  whale  from  Pakistan,  standing,  top, 
and  at  the  end  of  a  swimming  stroke,  bottom. 


Adapted  Irom  Science,  vol.  263.  14  January  1994 


Gingerich  and  colleagues  found  pelvic 
bones,  and  the  ends  of  both  femur  and 
tibia,  but  no  foot  bones,  and  insufficient 
evidence  for  reconstructing  the  full  limb 
and  its  articulations.  The  leg  bones  are 
large  and  presumably  functional  on  both 
land  and  sea  (the  tibia,  in  particular,  differs 
little  in  size  and  complexity  from  that  of 
the  related  and  fully  terrestrial  mesony- 
chid  Pachyaena  ossifraga).  The  authors 
conclude: 

The  pelvis  has  a  large  and  deep  acetabulum 
[the  socket  for  articulation  of  the  femur,  or 
thighbone],  the  proximal  femur  is  robust, 
the  tibia  is  long....  All  these  features,  taken 
together,  indicate  the  Indocetus  was  prob- 
ably able  to  support  its  weight  on  land,  and 
it  was  almost  certainly  amphibious,  as  early 
Eocene  Pakicetus  is  interpreted  to  have 
been....  We  speculate  that  Indocetus,  like 
Pakicetus,  entered  the  sea  to  feed  on  fish, 
but  returned  to  land  to  rest  and  to  birth  and 
raise  its  young. 

Verdict:  Almost  there,  but  not  quite 
enough.  We  need  more  material.  All  the 
right  features  are  now  in  place — primarily 
leg  bones  of  sufficient  size  and  complex- 
ity— but  we  need  a  better  sense  of  connec- 
tion and  function. 

Case  Four:  Large,  complete,  and  func- 
tional hind  legs  for  land  and  sea — finding 
the  smoking  gun.  The  first  three  cases,  aU 
discovered  within  ten  years,  surely  indi- 
cate an  increasingly  successful  paleonto- 
logical  assault  upon  an  old  classic  prob- 
lem. Once  you  know  where  to  look,  and 
once  high  interest  spurs  great  attention, 
full  satisfaction  often  follows  in  short 
order  I  was  therefore  delighted  to  read  an 
article  by  J.  G.  M.  Thewissen,  S.  T.  Hus- 
sain,  and  M.  Arif  in  the  January  14,  1994 
issue  of  Science  ("Fossil  Evidence  for  the 
Origin  of  Aquatic  Locomotion  in  Ar- 
chaeocete  Whales,"  vol.  263,  pp.  210-12). 

In  Pakistan,  in  sediments  almost  400 
feet  above  the  beds  that  yielded  Pakicetus 
(and  therefore  a  bit  younger  in  age), 
Thewissen  and  colleagues  collected  a  re- 
markable skeleton  of  a  new  whale — not 
complete,  but  far  better  preserved  than 
anything  previously  found  of  this  age,  and 
with  crucial  parts  in  place  to  illustrate  a 
truly  transitional  status  between  land  and 
sea.  The  chosen  name  Ambulocetus 
natans  (literally,  the  swimming  walking- 
whale)  advertises  the  excitement  of  this 
discovery. 

A.  natans  weighed  some  650  pounds, 
the  size  of  a  hefty  sea  Uon.  The  preserved 
tail  vertebra  is  elongated,  indicating  that 
Ambulocetus  still  retained  the  long,  thin 
mammalian  tail  and  had  not  yet  trans- 


13 


muted  this  structure  to  a  locomotory  blade 
(as  modem  whales  do  in  shortening  the 
tail  and  evolving  a  prominent  horizontal 
fluke  as  the  animal's  major  means  of 
propulsion).  Unfortunately,  no  pelvic 
bones  have  been  found,  but  most  elements 
of  a  large,  powerful  hind  leg  were  recov- 
ered— including  a  complete  femur,  parts 
of  the  tibia  and  fibula,  an  astragalus  (ankle 
bone),  three  metatarsal  (foot)  bones,  and 
several  phalanges.  To  quote  the  authors: 
"The  feet  are  enormous."  The  fourth 
metatarsal,  for  example,  is  nearly  six 
inches  long,  and  the  associated  toe  almost 
seven  inches  in  length.  Interestingly,  the 
last  phalanx  of  each  toe  ends  in  a  small 
hoof,  as  in  terrestrial  mesonychid  ances- 
tors. 

This  new  bounty  of  information  allows 
us  to  infer  not  only  the  form  of  this  transi- 
tional whale  but  also,  with  good  confi- 
dence, its  intermediary  style  of  locomo- 
tion and  mode  of  life  (an  impossibility 
with  the  first  three  cases,  for  Pakicetus  is 
only  a  skull,  Basilosaurus  had  already 
crossed  the  bridge,  and  Indocetus  is  too 
fragmentary).  The  forelimbs,  smaller  than 
the  hind  and  limited  in  motion,  were 
"probably  used  in  maneuvering  and  steer- 
ing while  swimming,  as  in  extant 
cetaceans  ["modem  whales"  in  ordinary 
language],  and  they  lacked  a  major 
propulsive  force  in  water." 

Modem  whales  move  through  the  water 
by  powerful  beats  of  their  horizontal  tail 
fluke — a  motion  made  possible  by  strong 
undulation  of  a  flexible  rear  spinal  col- 
umn. Ambulocetus  had  not  yet  evolved  a 
tail  fluke,  but  the  spine  had  requisite  flexi- 
bility. Thewissen  and  colleagues  write: 
''Ambulocetus  swam  by  means  of 
dorsoventral  [back-to-belly]  undulations 


of  its  vertebral  column,  as  evidenced  by 
the  shape  of  the  lumbar  [lower  back]  ver- 
tebra." These  undulations  then  functioned 
with  (and  powered)  the  paddling  oiAmbu- 
locetus's  large  feet,  which  provided  the 
major  propulsive  force  in  swimming. 
Thewissen  et  al.  conclude  their  article: 

Like  modern  cetaceans — it  swam  by  mov- 
ing its  spine  up  and  down,  but  like  seals,  the 
main  propulsive  surface  was  provided  by  its 
feet.  As  such,  Ambulocetus  represents  a  crit- 
ical intermediate  between  land  mammals 
and  marine  cetaceans. 

Ambulocetus  was  no  ballet  dancer  on 
land,  but  we  have  no  reason  to  judge  this 
creature  as  any  less  efficient  than  modem 
sea  lions,  which  do  manage,  however  inel- 
egantly. Forelimbs  may  have  been  held 
out  to  the  sides,  largely  for  stability,  with 
forward  motion  supplied  primarily  by  ex- 
tension of  the  back  and  consequent  flexing 
of  the  hind  limbs — again,  rather  like  sea 
hons. 

Verdict:  Greedy  paleontologists,  used  to 
working  with  fragments  in  reconstmcting 
wholes,  always  want  more  (some  pelvic 
bones  would  be  nice,  for  starters),  but  if 
you  had  given  me  both  a  blank  piece  of 
paper  and  a  blank  check,  I  could  not  have 
drawn  you  a  theoretical  intermediate  any 
better  or  more  convincing  than  Ambuloce- 
tus. Those  dogmatists  who  by  verbal  trick- 
ery can  make  white  black,  and  black 
white,  will  never  be  convinced  of  any- 
thing, but  Ambulocetus  is  the  very  animal 
that  they  proclaimed  impossible  in  theory. 

Some  discoveries  in  science  are  excit- 
ing because  they  revise  or  reverse  previ- 
ous expectations;  others  because  they  af- 
firm with  elegance  something  well 
suspected,  but  previously  undocumented. 
Our  four-case  story,  culminating  in  Ambu- 


r  NATIONAL  RODENTS  BANK 


~iVl    I l-^il         ) 


locetus,  falls  into  this  second  category. 
This  sequential  discovery  of  picture-per- 
fect intermediacy  in  the  evolution  of 
whales  stands  as  a  triumph  in  the  history 
of  paleontology.  I  cannot  imagine  a  better 
tale  for  popular  presentation  of  science  or 
a  more  satisfying,  and  intellectually  based, 
political  victory  over  lingering  creationist 
opposition. 

Still,  I  must  confess  that  tiiis  part  of  the 
tale  does  not  intrigue  me  most  as  a  scien- 
tist and  evolutionary  biologist.  I  don't 
mean  to  sound  jaded  or  dogmatic,  but  Am- 
bulocetus  is  so  close  to  our  expectation  for 
a  transitional  form  that  its  discovery  could 
not  provide  a  professional  paleontologist 
with  the  greatest  of  all  pleasures  in  sci- 
ence— surprise.  As  a  public  illustration, 
and  as  a  sociopolitical  victory,  transitional 
whales  may  be  the  story  of  the  decade,  but 
paleontologists  didn't  doubt  their  exis- 
tence or  feel  that  a  central  theory  would 
collapse  if  their  absence  continued.  We 
love  to  place  flesh  upon  our  expectations 
(or  put  bones  under  them,  to  be  more  hter- 
ally  correct),  but  this  kind  of  delight  takes 
second  place  to  the  inteUectual  jolting  of 
surprise. 

I  therefore  find  myself  far  more  in- 
trigued by  another  aspect  of  Ambulocetus 
that  has  not  received  much  attention,  ei- 
ther in  technical  or  popular  reports.  For  the 
anatomy  of  this  transitional  form  illus- 
trates a  different  and  vital  principle  in  evo- 
lutionary theory — one  rarely  discussed  or 
even  explicitly  formulated,  but  central  to 
any  understanding  of  nature's  fascinating 
historical  complexity. 

hi  our  Darwinian  traditions,  we  focus 
too  narrowly  on  the  adaptive  nature  of  or- 
ganic form,  and  too  little  on  the  quirks  and 
oddities  encoded  into  every  animal  by  his- 
tory. We  are  so  overwhelmed — as  well  we 
should  be — by  the  intticacy  in  aerody- 
namic optmiality  of  a  bird's  wing  or  by  the 
uncannily  precise  protective  resemblance 
evolved  by  certain  butterflies  that  mimic 
dead  leaves.  We  do  not  ask  often  enough 
why  natural  selection  has  honed  in  upon 
this  particular  optimum — and  not  another 
among  a  set  of  unrealized  alternatives.  In 
other  words,  we  are  dazzled  by  good  de- 
sign and  therefore  stop  our  inquiry  too 
soon  when  we  have  answered  "how  does 
this  work  so  well?" — when  we  should  also 
be  asking  the  historian's  questions:  "why 
this  and  not  thatT  or  "why  this  over  here 
and  that  in  a  related  creature  Uving  else- 
where?" 

To  give  the  cardinal  example  from 
seagoing  mammals:  the  two  fully  marine 
orders  Sirenia  and  Cetacea  swim  by  beat- 


14    Natural  History  5/94 


ing  horizontal  tail  flukes  up  and  down. 
Since  these  two  orders  arose  separately 
from  terrestrial  ancestors,  the  horizontal 
tail  fluke  evolved  twice  independently. 
Many  hydrodynamic  studies  have  docu- 
mented both  the  mode  and  the  excellence 
of  such  underwater  locomotion,  but  they 
too  often  stop  at  an  expression  of  engi- 
neering wonder  and  do  not  ask  the  equally 
intriguing  historian's  question.  Fishes 
swim  in  a  truly  orthogonal  manner — also 
by  propulsion  from  the  rear,  but  with  ver- 
tical tail  flukes  that  beat  from  side  to  side 
(seals  also  hold  their  rear  feet  vertically 
and  move  them  from  side  to  side  while 
swimming).  The  word  orthogonal  is  par- 
ticularly appropriate  here — meaning,  liter- 
ally, "at  right  angles,"  but  also,  in  technical 
scientific  parlance,  "entirely  indepen- 
dent." 

Both  systems  work  well;  both  may  be 
"optimal."  But  why  should  ancestral  fishes 
favor  one  system,  and  returning  mammals 
the  orthogonal  alternative?  We  do  not 
wish  to  throw  up  our  hands  and  simply 
say,  "six  of  one,  half  a  dozen  of  \he  other; 
either  way  will  do,  and  the  one  chosen  is 
effecdvely  random  in  any  individual 
case."  "Random"  is  a  deep  and  profound 
concept  of  great  positive  utihty  and  value, 
but  some  vernacular  meanings  amount  to 
pure  cop-out,  as  in  this  case.  It  may  not 
matter  in  the  "great  scheme  of  things" 
whether  optimaUty  be  achieved  vertically 
or  horizontally,  but  one  or  the  other  solu- 
tion occurs  for  a  reason  in  any  particular 
case.  The  reasons  may  be  unique  to  an  in- 
dividual lineage,  and  historically  bound — 
that  is,  not  related  to  any  grand  concept  of 
pattern  or  predictability  in  the  overall  his- 
tory of  life — but  local  reasons  do  exist  and 
should  be  ascertainable. 

This  subject,  when  discussed  at  all  in 
evolutionary  theory,  goes  by  the  name  of 
"multiple  adaptive  peaks."  We  have  some 
standard  examples,  but  few  with  any  real 
documentation;  most  are  hypothetical, 
with  no  paleontological  backup.  (For  ex- 
ample, my  colleague  Dick  Lewontin  loves 
to  present  the  following  case  in  our  joint 
introductory  course  in  evolutionary  biol- 
ogy. Some  rhinoceros  species  have  two 
horns;  others  one  horn.  Either  result  is 
probably  just  as  good  for  whatever  rhinos 
do  with  their  horns,  and  the  pathway  cho- 
sen may  not  matter.  Two  and  one  are  equal 
solutions,  or  multiple  adaptive  peaks.  He 
then  points  out  that  a  reason  must  exist  for 
two  or  one  in  any  case,  but  that  the  expla- 
nation probably  resides  in  happenstances 
of  history,  rather  than  abstract  predictions 
based  on  universal  optimality.  So  far  so 


good.  History's  quirkiness,  by  its  role  in 
populating  the  earth  with  a  variety  of  un- 
predictable, but  sensible  and  well-work- 
ing, anatomical  designs  does  constitute  the 
main  fascination  of  this  theme  in  evolution 
theory.  But  we  can  go  no  further  with  rhi- 
nos, for  we  have  no  data  for  understanding 
the  particular  pathway  chosen  in  any 
case.) 

1  love  the  story  of  Ambulocetus  because 
it  has  provided  hard  data  on  reasons  for  a 
chosen  pathway  in  a  classical  case  of  mul- 
tiple adaptive  peaks.  Why  did  both  orders 
of  fully  marine  mammals  choose  the  or- 
thogonal solution  of  horizontal  tail  flukes? 
Previous  discussions  have  made  the  plau- 
sible argument  that  definite  legacies  of  ter- 
restrial mammalian  ancestry  established 
the  anatomical  predisposition.  In  particu- 
lar, many  mammals  (but  not  other  terres- 
trial vertebrates),  especially  among  agile 
and  fast-moving  carnivores,  run  by  flexing 
the  spinal  column  up  and  down  (conjure 
up  a  sprinting  tiger  in  your  mind,  and  pic- 
mre  the  undulation  of  the  back).  Mammals 
that  are  not  particularly  comfortable  in 
water — dogs  dog-paddhng  for  instance — 
may  keep  their  backs  rigid  and  move  only 
by  flailing  their  legs.  But  semiaquatic 
mammals  that  swim  for  a  hving — notably 
the  river  otter  (Lutra)  and  the  sea  otter 
(Enhydra) — move  in  water  by  powerful 
vertical  bending  of  the  spinal  column  in 
the  rear  part  of  the  body.  This  vertical 
bending  propels  the  body  forward  both  by 
itself  (and  by  driving  the  tail  up  and  down) 
and  by  sweeping  the  hind  limbs  back  and 
forth  in  paddling  as  flie  body  undulates. 

Thus,  horizontal  tail  flukes  may  evolve 
in  fuUy  marine  mammals  because  inher- 
ited spinal  flexibihty  for  movement  up  and 
down  (rather  than  side  to  side)  directed 
this  pathway  from  a  terrestrial  past.  This 
scenario  has  only  been  a  good  story  up  to 
now,  with  limited  symbohc  support  from 


living  otters,  but  no  direct  evidence  from 
the  ancestry  of  whales  or  sirenians.  Ambu- 
locetus provides  this  direct  evidence  in  an 
elegant  manner — ^for  all  pieces  of  the  puz- 
zle lie  within  its  recovered  skeleton. 

We  may  infer  from  a  tail  vertebra  that 
Ambulocetus  retained  a  long  and  thin 
mammalian  tail,  and  had  not  yet  evolved 
the  horizontal  fluke.  We  know  from  the 
spinal  column  that  this  transitional  whale 
retained  its  mammalian  .signature  of  flexi- 
bility for  up-and-down  movement — and 
from  the  large  hind  legs  that  undulation  of 
the  back  must  have  propelled  the  power- 
ful, paddling  feet,  as  in  modem  otters. 

Thewissen  and  colleagues  draw  the 
proper  evolutionary  conclusion  from  these 
facts,  thus  supplying  beautiful  evidence  to 
nail  down  a  classical  case  of  multiple 
peaks  with  paleontological  data:  ''Ambulo- 
cetus shows  that  spinal  undulation  evolved 
before  the  tail  fluke....  Cetaceans  have 
gone  through  a  stage  that  combined  hind 
limb  paddling  and  spinal  undulation,  re- 
sembling the  aquatic  locomotion  of  fast 
swimming  otters."  The  horizontal  tail 
fluke,  in  other  words,  evolved  because 
whales  carried  their  terrestrial  system  of 
spinal  motion  to  the  water. 

History  channels  a  pathway  among  nu- 
merous theoretical  altematives.  In  his  last 
play,  Shakespeare  noted  that  "what's  past 
is  prologue;  what  to  come,  in  yours  and 
my  discharge."  But  present  moments  build 
no  such  wall  of  separation  between  a  past 
that  molds  us  and  a  future  under  our  con- 
trol. The  hand  of  the  past  reaches  forward 
right  through  us  and  into  an  uncertain  fu- 
ture that  we  cannot  fuUy  specify.  History 
has  you  and  me,  brother  and  sister — the 
whole  world — in  her  hands. 

Stephen  Jay  Gould  teaches  biology,  geol- 
ogy, and  the  history  of  science  at  Har\>ard 
University. 


"I  guess  the  hardest  thing  for  me  growing  up  was  when  I  realized 
I  wasn  't  going  to  be  an  eagle. " 


15 


Nature's  Infinite  Book 


Spacious  Skies  and  Tilted  Axes 

Why  were  plants  domesticated  so  early  in  the  Fertile  Crescent? 
And  why  did  those  crops  then  spread  so  far  and  so  fast? 


by  Tared  Diamond 


On  the  map  of  the  world,  compare  the 
shapes  and  orientations  of  the  continents. 
You'll  immediately  be  struck  by  an  obvi- 
ous difference.  The  Americas  span  a  much 
greater  distance  north  to  south  (9,000 
miles)  than  east  to  west  (only  3,000  miles 
at  the  widest,  narrowing  to  a  mere  40  miles 
at  the  Isthmus  of  Panama).  That  is,  the 
major  axis  of  the  Americas  is  north-south. 
That's  also  true,  although  to  a  lesser  de- 
gree, for  Africa.  In  contrast,  the  major  axis 
of  Eurasia  is  east-west.  What  effect,  if  any, 
did  those  different  orientations  of  the  con- 
tinents' axes  have  on  human  history? 

Merely  posing  this  question  may  raise 
some  people's  hackles.  It  seems  to  invite 
the  label  "environmental  determinism" — 
a  concept  that  is  sometimes  lampooned  as 
implying  that  human  creativity  counts  for 
nothing,  and  that  cUmate  irresistibly  pro- 


grams us  like  computers.  Naturally,  geo- 
graphic interpretations  can  be  wrong  or 
carried  to  an  extreme.  But  denying  that  ge- 
ography influences  the  broad  course  of 
history  is  equally  extreme. 

Human  societies  have  evolved  at  differ- 
ent average  rates  on  different  continents 
for  at  least  the  past  ten  thousand  years. 
Specifically,  developments  such  as  agri- 
culture, metallurgy,  writing,  and  empires 
arose  earliest  in  parts  of  Eurasia,  arose 
later  in  the  Americas  and  sub-Saharan 
Africa,  and  did  not  arise  indigenously  in 
Australia.  Such  persistent  patterns  can 
hardly  be  dismissed  as  accidents  reflecting 
where  a  few  geniuses  happened  to  be 
bom.  Bigots  prefer  to  invoke  supposed 
differences  in  I.Q.  among  populations,  but 
have  conspicuously  failed  to  demonstrate 
such  differences.  Instead,  these  broadest 


The  World's  Five  Regions  with  Mediterranean  Climate 


South  Afmca 


Australia 


Mediterranean  climate — mild,  wet  winters  and  hot,  dry  summers— favored  the 
evolution  of  big-seeded,  annual  plants.  Such  plant  species,  including  the  wild 
ancestors  of  barley  and  wheat,  were  especially  abundant  in  the  Fertile  Crescent  (light 
green).  Arrows  indicate  the  major  axes  of  continents. 


patterns  of  history  seem  likely  to  have 
arisen  from  influences  of  differing  geo- 
graphic factors.  I  believe  fliat  the  enor- 
mous, sometimes  tragic,  consequences  of 
those  differences  in  the  continents'  axes 
contributed  greatly  to  tiie  very  different 
treatment  tiiat  history  has  meted  out  to  Na- 
tive Americans,  Africans,  and  Eurasians 
in  the  last  500  years. 

My  interest  in  this  question  has  been 
restimulated  by  a  recently  pubUshed,  re- 
vised edition  of  a  wonderful  book.  Domes- 
tication of  Plants  in  the  Old  World,  by  Is- 
raeli geneticist  Daniel  Zohary  and 
German  botanist  Maria  Hopf.  The  book 
concerns  the  early  importance  of  that  part 
of  Southwest  Asia  variously  known  as  the 
Fertile  Crescent,  or  the  Near  East.  This 
area  was  the  earUest  site  for  a  whole  string 
of  developments,  including  towns,  writ- 
ing, empires,  and  what  we  term  (for  better 
or  worse)  civilization.  All  those  develop- 
ments sprang,  in  turn,  from  the  advent  of 
dense  human  populations  and  the  rise  of 
food  production — in  the  form  of  agricul- 
ture and  animal  husbandry — that  made  it 
possible  to  store  food  surpluses  and  feed 
nonfarming  speciaUsts. 

Since  food  production  was  the  first  of 
the  major  innovations  that  arose  in  the  Fer- 
tile Crescent,  anyone  attempting  to  under- 
stand the  broad  pattern  of  human  history 
must  begin  by  trying  to  understand  why 
domestication  started  so  early  there.  Why, 
too,  did  it  spread  from  there  so  fast  and  so 
far?  Zohary  and  Hopf  are  illuminating  on 
both  points. 

The  early  start  in  the  Fertile  Crescent, 
according  to  Zohary  and  Hopf,  was  due  to 
a  combination  of  geographic,  climatic, 
and  biotic  factors.  Western  Eurasia  (Eu- 
rope plus  Southwest  Asia)  includes  die 
world's  largest  zone  of  so-called  Mediter- 


16    Natural  History  5/94 


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1 8    Natural  History  5/94 


ranean  climate,  characterized  by  mild,  wet 
winters  and  hot,  dry  summers.  The  world's 
other  Mediterranean  zones  are  the  Cape  of 
South  Africa,  the  central  coast  of  Chile, 
parts  of  southern  Australia,  and  my  home- 
land of  coastal  California.  Among  those 
Mediterranean  zones,  western  Eurasia's  is 
not  only  the  largest  but  may  also  experi- 
ence the  greatest  climatic  variation  be- 
tween seasons  and  years.  That  climate  fa- 
vored the  evolution  of  annual  plants  that 
survived  the  long,  dry  summer  by  putting 
much  of  their  energy  into  big,  edible 
seeds,  while  leaving  the  inedible  remain- 
der of  the  plant  to  die  back  and  regrow 
each  year.  Because  of  the  Fertile  Cres- 
cent's extreme  Mediterranean  climate,  its 
plants  provided  hungry  humans  with  an 
exceptionally  high  percentage  of  annuals. 

The  region  also  has  a  high  percentage 
of  hermaphroditic,  predominantly  self- 
pollinating  annuals — that  is,  ones  that  usu- 
ally pollinate  themselves  but  are  occasion- 
ally cross-polhnated.  As  Zohary  and  Hopf 
explain,  that  feature  was  also  good  for  the 
first  farmers.  Occasional  cross-pollination 
generated  several  strains  to  choose  from, 
while  the  predominant  self-pollination  in- 
sured that  varieties  selected  as  superior 
usually  perpetuated  themselves  un- 
changed and  were  not  immediately  lost  by 
hybridization  with  less  desirable  strains. 

Some  of  those  big-seeded,  self-pollinat- 
ing annuals,  such  as  the  wild  ancestors  of 
barley  and  wheats,  were  so  abundant  as 
wild  stands  in  the  Fertile  Crescent  that 
they  were  already  being  collected  by 
hunter-gatherers  before  the  emergence  of 
farming.  Eventually,  people  began  to  in- 
crease their  yields  of  those  wild  plants  by 
tilling  soil,  intentionally  sowing  seeds. 


harvesting,  and  threshing.  That  new  sys- 
tem unintentionally  transformed  the  wild 
plants  into  cultivated  varieties  because 
people  naturally  preferred  to  sow,  grow, 
eat,  and  resow  seeds  of  those  particular 
plant  varieties  with  desirable  features.  De- 
pending on  the  plant  species,  those  fea- 
tures might  include  larger  seeds,  a  less  bit- 
ter taste,  more  uniform  germination,  and 
seeds  that  remain  on  the  parent  plant. 

The  Fertile  Crescent  also  oiTered  other 
advantages  to  incipient  farmers.  Its  range 
of  elevations,  from  the  lowest  spot  on 
earth  (the  Dead  Sea)  to  mountains  nearly 
17,000  feet  high,  meant  that  within  a  short 
distance  there  was  a  corresponding  range 
of  environments,  hence  a  great  diversity  of 
wild  plants  available  for  potential  domes- 
tication. These  varied  environments  also 
harbored  many  species  of  large  wild  mam- 
mals, some  of  which  were  the  ancestors  of 
our  most  important  domesticated  mam- 
mals today.  Southwest  Asia's  few  large 
rivers  and  short  coastline  provided  scant 
aquatic  resources  to  make  the  hunter-gath- 
erer life  style  competitive  with  incipient 
farming.  Climatic  changes  about  ten  thou- 
sand years  ago  at  the  end  of  the  Pleis- 
tocene— changes  that -exterminated  some 
large  mammal  species  and  expanded  habi- 
tats rich  in  annual  plants  ancestral  to 
crops — quickly  tipped  the  balance  from 
hunting  and  gathering  to  domestication. 

By  about  8000  B.C.,  the  peoples  of  the 
Fertile  Crescent  were  domesticating  nu- 
merous valuable  plants.  Most  of  the  calo- 
ries consumed  by  those  first  farmers  came 
from  high-carbohydrate  cereals  such  as 
wheat  and  barley,  the  most  useful  of  the 
dozens  of  wild  cereal  species  in  the  area 
by  virtue  of  their  large  seeds,  abundance, 


and  annual  growth.  Unlike  protein-poor 
com  and  rice,  which  became  the  leading 
cereals  of  the  Americas  and  eastern  Asia 
respectively,  the  wheats  of  the  Fertile 
Crescent  had  a  substantial  protein  content 
of  8  to  14  percent. 

During  or  soon  after  the  onset  of  farm- 
ing in  Mesopotamia,  these  starchy  cereals 
were  complemented  by  two  types  of  food 
with  an  even  higher  protein  content: 
legumes,  especially  peas  and  lentils, 
which  have  20  to  25  percent  protein,  and 
domestic  animals  (sheep,  goats,  cattle,  and 
pigs).  The  animals  yielded  wool  and 
leather  as  well.  One  other  crop,  flax,  not 
only  filled  out  the  dietary  trinity  of  carbo- 
hydrate, protein,  and  fat  with  its  very  oily 
seeds  but  also  provided  the  oldest  culti- 
vated source  of  plant  fiber  for  making 
clothes.  Linen  from  flax  reigned  supreme 
as  Europe's  preferred  plant  textile  material 
until  it  was  finally  replaced  by  cotton  and 
synthetics  during  and  after  the  Industrial 
Revolution.  Thus,  the  Fertile  Crescent's 
first  farmers  assembled  a  balanced  pack- 
age for  intensive  food  production,  based 
on  eight  main  crops  and  four  animals  that 
filled  humanity's  basic  economic  needs: 
carbohydrate,  protein,  fat,  clothing,  and, 
eventually,  milk  products  and  animal 
transport. 

Soon  after  food  production  arose  in  the 
Fertile  Crescent,  it  radiated  into  other  parts 
of  western  Eurasia  and  North  Africa, 
spreading  progressively  farther  west  and 
east.  In  a  striking  map,  Zohary  and  Hopf 
illustrate  how  agriculture  reached  Greece 
and  Cyprus  by  7000  B.C.,  Egypt  and  India 
soon  after  6000  B.C.,  central  Europe  by 
5400  B.C.,  and  Britain  about  4000  B.C. 
(These  are  so-called  caUbrated  radiocar- 
bon dates — dates  based  on  the  regular 
decay  of  the  radioactive  isotope  carbon- 14 
and  corrected  for  slight  fluctuations  in  at- 
mospheric isotope  with  time.)  Food  pro- 
duction in  the  new  areas  was  launched  by 
the  crucial  package  of  the  same  domesti- 
cated plant  and  animal  species  that 
launched  it  in  the  Fertile  Crescent. 

Of  course,  not  all  pieces  of  the  package 
spread  to  all  those  outlying  areas:  for  ex- 
ample, Egypt  was  too  warm  for  einkom 
wheat  to  become  established.  Some  inhab- 
itants of  outlying  areas  went  on  to  domes- 
ticate a  few  local  crops  of  their  own,  such 
as  poppies  in  western  Europe.  But  most 
food  production  in  these  regions  depended 
at  first  on  the  same  group  of  Fertile  Cres- 
cent domesticates.  Their  spread  was  soon 
followed  by  the  spread  of  other  innova- 
tions originating  in  or  near  Mesopotamia, 
including  the  wheel,  writing,  metalwork- 


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frjiiiAW 


ing  techniques,  milking,  fruit  trees,  and 
beer  and  wine  production. 

Why  did  the  same  plant  package  launch 
food  production  throughout  western  Eura- 
sia? Was  the  same  set  of  wild  plants  found 
useful  in  many  areas  and  independently 
domesticated?  No,  that's  not  the  case. 
Many  of  the  Fertile  Crescent's  "founder 
crops"  (to  use  Zohary's  and  Hopf's  term) 
don't  even  occur  in  the  wild  outside  South- 
west Asia.  In  Egypt,  for  instance,  of  the 


eight  main  founder  crops,  only  barley 
grows  wild.  Egypt's  NUe  Valley  provides 
an  environment  similar  to  that  of  the  Tigris 
and  Euphrates  Valley,  so  the  package  that 
worked  well  in  Mesopotamia  also  worked 
well  enough  in  the  Nile  Valley  to  trigger 
the  spectacular  rise  of  indigenous  Egyp- 
tian civihzation.  The  Sphinx  and  the  pyra- 
mids, then,  were  built  by  people  fed  on 
crops  originating  in  the  Fertile  Crescent, 
not  in  Egypt. 


Wild  ancestors  of  crops  that  were  first 
domesticated  in  Southwest  Asia  also  ex- 
isted in  Europe,  Asia,  and  India,  but  we 
can  be  confident  that  the  crops  first  pro- 
duced there  were  mostly  obtained  from 
Southwest  Asia  and  were  not  local  domes- 
ticates. All  modem  cultivated  varieties  of 
most  of  the  Fertile  Crescent's  founding 
crops  either  share  only  one  arrangement  of 
chromosomes  out  of  multiple  arrange- 
ments found  in  the  wild  ancestor,  or  else 
they  share  only  a  single  mutation  (out  of 
many  possible  mutations)  by  which  the 
cultivated  varieties  differ  from  the  wild  an- 
cestor in  characteristics  desirable  to  hu- 
mans. For  instance,  all  cultivated  peas 
share  the  same  recessive  gene  that  pre- 
vents ripe  pods  from  spontaneously  pop- 
ping open  and  spilUng  their  peas,  as  wild 
pea  pods  do.  Evidently,  most  of  the  Fertile 
Crescent's  founder  crops  were  never  do- 
mesticated again  elsewhere  after  their  ini- 
tial domestication.  Had  they  been  repeat- 
edly domesticated  independently,  they 
would  exhibit  legacies  of  those  multiple 
origins  in  the  form  of  varied  chromosomal 
arrangements  or  varied  mutations. 

The  ancestors  of  most  of  the  founder 
crops  have  multiple  wild  relatives,  in  the 
Fertile  Crescent  and  elsewhere,  that  would 
also  have  been  suitable  for  domestication. 


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©  1993  CIBA  Consumer  Pharmaceuticals 
20    Natural  History  5/94 


For  example,  peas  belong  to  the  genus 
Pisiim,  which  consists  of  two  wild  species: 
P.  sativum,  the  one  that  became  domesti- 
cated to  yield  our  garden  peas,  and  the 
common  and  widespread  P.fiilvum.  which 
was  never  domesticated.  Yet  the  latter 
taste  good,  either  fresh  or  dried.  Similarly, 
domesticated  wheat,  barley,  lentils,  chick- 
peas, beans,  and  flax  all  have  numerous 
wild  relatives.  Some  of  those  related  beans 
and  barleys  were  indeed  domesticated  in- 
dependently in  the  Americas  or  China,  but 
in  the  Near  East  only  one  of  several  poten- 
tially useful  wild  species  of  a  given  plant 
was  domesticated — probably  because  it 
spread  so  quickly  that  people  soon 
stopped  gathering  the  other  wild  relatives 
and  ate  only  the  crop.  As  Zohary  and  Hopf 
emphasize,  the  crop's  rapid  spread  pre- 
empted any  possible  further  attempts  to 
domesticate  its  relatives  or  to  redomesti- 
cate  its  ancestor. 

Why  was  the  spread  of  crops  from  the 
Fertile  Crescent  so  rapid?  The  answer  has 
to  do  with  that  east-west  axis  of  Eurasia. 
Localities  east  and  west  of  one  another  at 
the  same  latitude  share  exactly  the  same 
seasonal  variations  in  day  length.  To  a 
lesser  extent,  they  also  tend  to  share  simi- 
lar diseases,  temperature,  and  rainfall.  For 
example,  southern  Italy,  northem  fran,  and 


Japan,  all  located  at  about  the  same  lati- 
tude but  lying  thousands  of  miles  apart, 
are  more  similai^  to  one  another  in  climate 
than  each  is  to  a  location  lying  a  mere 
1,000  miles  due  south.  And  the  germina- 
tion, growth,  and  disease  resistance  of 
plants  there  are  adapted  to  precisely  those 
features  of  climate.  As  a  consequence, 
most  of  the  Fertile  Crescent  crops  grow 
well  in  southern  Europe  and  Japan,  but 
grow  poorly  at  the  equator. 

In  other  words.  Fertile  Crescent  domes- 
ticates spread  west  and  east  so  rapidly  be- 
cause they  were  already  well  adapted  to 
the  climates  of  the  regions  to  which  they 
were  spreading.  Once  farming  crossed 
from  the  plains  of  Hungary  into  central 
Europe  about  5400  B.C.,  it  spread  so 
quickly  that  the  sites  of  the  first  farmers  in 
the  vast  areas  from  Poland  west  to  Holland 
(marked  by  their  characteristic  pottery 
with  linear  decorations)  were  nearly  con- 
temporary. By  the  time  of  Christ,  cereals 
of  Fertile  Crescent  origin  were  growing 
over  the  10,000-mile  expanse  from  the  At- 
lantic coast  of  Ireland  to  the  Pacific  coast 
of  Japan.  That  west-east  expanse  of  Eura- 
sia is  the  largest  land  distance  on  earth. 

Thus,  Eurasia's  west-east  axis  allowed 
Fertile  Crecent  agriculture  to  spread  over 
the  band  of  temperate  latitudes  from  Ire- 


land to  the  Indus  Valley  and  to  enrich  the 
agriculture  that  arose  independently  in 
eastern  Asia.  Conversely,  Eurasian  crops 
that  were  first  domesticated  far  from  the 
Fertile  Crescent  but  at  the  same  latitudes 
were  able  to  spread  back  to  the  Near  East. 
Today,  when  seeds  are  transported  over 
the  whole  globe  by  ship  and  plane,  we  take 
for  granted  that  our  meals  are  a  geographic 
mishmash.  A  typical  American  fast-food 
restaurant  meal  would  include  chicken 
(first  domesticated  in  Southeast  Asia)  and 
potatoes  (from  the  Andes)  or  com  (from 
Mexico),  seasoned  with  pepper  (from 
India),  and  washed  down  with  a  cup  of 
coffee  (of  Ethiopian  origin).  But  2,000 
years  ago,  Romans  were  already  nourish- 
ing themselves  with  a  range  of  foods  that 
Zohary  and  Hopf  show  to  have  mostly 
originated  elsewhere.  Of  Roman  crops, 
only  oats  and  poppies  were  native  to  Italy. 
Roman  staples  were  still  the  Fertile  Cres- 
cent founder  package,  supplemented  by 
quince  (originating  from  the  Caucasus); 
millet  and  cumin  (domesticated  in  central 
Asia);  cucumber,  sesame,  and  citrus  fruit 
(from  India);  and  chicken,  rice,  apricots, 
peaches,  and  foxtail  millet  (originally 
from  China). 

Contrast  this  easy  east-west  diffusion  in 
Eurasia  with  the  difficulties  of  diffusion 


Now  you  can  help  prevent 
motion  sickness  wjth 
TRANSDERM  SCOP" 

(scopolamine  1.5  mg. 


5^ 


Q^^un,  /s^^ 


^ 


Your  body  goes  one  way,  your  stomach  goes  the 
other  Your  eyes  say  you're  going  up,  the  rest  of 
you  says  you're  going  down.  That's  how  motion 
sicl<ness  feels.  That's  how  an  enjoyable  boat  ride, 
ocean  cruise  or  flight  turns  into  pure  misery  That's 
when  Transderm  Scop  can  help. 

Nothing  else  works  like 
the  Transderm  Scop  Patch. 

The  Transderm  Scop  medicated  patch  is  a 
totally  unique  motion  sickness 
prevention  system.  You  wear  if 
behind  your  ear  to  get  continuous, 
effective  protection  from  motion 
sickness.  Advanced  transdermal 
technology  provides  medication  at 


TRANSDERM  SCOP 


a  controlled,  steady  rate.  Simply  apply  at  least  four 
hours  before  needed. 

Each  patch  works  for  up  to  three  days,  so  you 
never  have  to  worry  about  the  protection  wearing 
off  at  just  the  wrong  time.  When  you  no  longer  need 
protection,  just  remove  it  and  its  effects  wear  off. 

Transderm  Scop  is  a  prescription  product  that 
should  not  be  used  by  children  or  those  with  the 
following  conditions:  glaucoma;  difficulty  in 
urinating;  or  an  allergy  to  scopolamine. 

Transderm  Scop  has  been  clinically  tested. 
During  the  studies  some  side  effects  were  noted, 
including  blurred  vision,  dryness  of  the  mouth  (in 
two-thirds  of  users)  and  drowsiness  (reported 
incidence  less  than  1  in  6).  While  using  this  product, 
you  should  not  drive,  operate  dangerous  machinery 
or  do  other  things  that  require  alertness.  You  should 
avoid  using  alcohol.  If  you  are  elderly  your  physician 
should  exercise  special  care  in  prescribing  this 
product. 

See  adjoining  page  for  additional  information 
on  adverse  reactions  or  side  effects. 

Call  your  doctor  about 
Transderm  Scop. 

Doctors  know  that  Transderm  Scop  has  been 
clinically  tested  for  effectiveness.  That's  why 
doctors  have  prescribed  Transderm  Scop  millions 
of  times.  So,  to  avoid  all  that  misery  and  enjoy  your 
next  trip,  just  ask  your  doctor  about 
getting  the  Transderm  Scop  patch. 
Because  when  that  boat  starts  to  roll, 
when  that  plane  starts  to  pitch— well, 
you'll  be  glad  you  discovered 
Transderm  Scop. 


Proven  protection  from  motion  sickness. 


21 


TRANSDERM  SCOP^  (scopolamine  1.5  mg.) 
MOTION  SICKNESS  PREVENTION  PATCHES. 
INDICATIONS  AND  USAGE 

Transdeim  Scop  is  indicated  lof  prevenlion  ol  nausea  and  vomilmg  asso- 
cialed  with  motion  sickness  in  adults  The  patch  should  be  applied  only 
to  skin  in  Ihe  postauticular  atea. 

CONTRAINDICATIONS 

Transderm  Scop  should  not  be  used  in  palienis  wilh  known  hyper- 
sensitivily  to  scopolamine  or  any  ol  Ihe  components  ol  Ihe  adhesive 
matrix  making  up  Ihe  therapeutic  system,  or  in  patients  wilh  glaucoma. 
WARNINGS 

Transderm  Scop  should  not  be  used  in  children  and  should  be  used  with 
special  caulion  in  the  elderly  See  PRECAUTIONS. 
Since  drowsiness,  disorientalion,  and  contusion  may  occur  with  the  use 
ol  scopolamine,  patients  should  be  warned  ol  the  possibility  and  cau- 
tioned against  engaging  in  activities  that  require  mental  alerlness.  such 
as  driving  a  motor  vehicle  or  operating  dangerous  machinery 
Potentially  alarming  idiosyncratic  reactions  may  occur  with  ordinary 
therapeutic  doses  ol  scopolamine 
PRECAUTIONS 

General.  Scopolamine  should  be  used  wilh  caulion  in  patients  wilh 
pyloric  obstruction,  or  urinary  bladder  neck  obstruction. 

Caution  should  be  exercised  when  administering  an  antiemetic  ot  anli- 
muscarinic  drug  to  patienis  suspected  ol  having  intestinal  obstruction 
Transderm  Scop  should  be  used  wilh  special  caution  in  the  elderly  or  in 
individuals  with  impaired  metabolic,  liver  or  kidney  tunclions,  because  ol 
the  increased  likelihood  ot  CNS  elfects 

Infoimatlon  for  Patients.  Since  scopolamine  can  cause  temporary 
dilation  of  Ihe  pupils  and  blurred  vision  it  il  comes  in  contact  with  the 
eyes,  patients  should  be  strongly  advised  to  wash  their  hands  thoroughly 
with  soap  and  water  immediately  atter  handling  the  patch 

Patienis  should  be  advised  lo  remove  the  patch  immediately  and  contact 
a  physician  in  the  unlikely  event  that  they  experience  symptoms  ot  acute 
narrow-angle  glaucoma  (pain  in  and  reddening  ol  Ihe  eyes  accompanied 
by  dilated  pupils) 

Patienis  should  be  warned  against  driving  a  molor  vehicle  or  operating 

dangerous  machinery  A  patient  brochure  is  available. 

Drug  Interactions.  Scopolamine  should  be  used  with  care  in  patients 
taking  drugs,  including  alcohol,  capable  ot  causing  CNS  ellects  Special 
attention  should  be  given  to  drugs  having  anticholinergic  properties, 
eg ,  belladonna  alkaloids,  antihistamines  (including  meclizine),  and 

antidepressants. 

Carcinogenesis,  Mutagenesis,  Impairment  of  Fertility.  No  long- 
term  studies  in  animals  have  been  performed  to  evaluate  carcinogenic 
potential.  Fertility  studies  were  performed  in  lemale  rals  and  revealed  no 
evidence  ol  impaired  lertility  or  harm  to  the  lelus  due  to  scopolamine 
hydrobromide  administered  by  daily  subcutaneous  injection  In  the  high- 
est dose  group  (plasma  level  approximately  500  limes  the  level  achieved 
in  humans  using  a  transdermal  system),  reduced  maternal  body  weights 
were  observed 

Pregnancy  Category  C.  Teratogenic  studies  were  performed  in  preg- 
nant rats  and  rabbits  with  scopolamine  hydrobromide  administered  by 
daily  intravenous  injection  No  adverse  ellects  were  recorded  in  the  rals. 
In  the  rabbits,  the  highest  dose  (plasma  level  approximately  100  times  the 
level  achieved  m  humans  using  a  transdermal  system)  ot  drug  adminis- 
tered had  a  marginal  embryotoxic  effect  Transderm  Scop  should  be  used 
during  pregnancy  only  if  the  anticipated  benelil  luslilies  the  potenlial  risk 
to  the  fetus. 

Nursing  Mothers.  It  is  nol  known  whether  scopolamine  is  excreted  in 
human  milk.  Because  many  drugs  are  excreted  in  human  milk,  caution 
should  be  exercised  when  Transderm  Scop  is  administered  to  a  nursing 
woman 

Pediatric  Use.  Children  are  particularly  susceptible  to  Ihe  side  eftects 

ol  belladonna  alkaloids.  Transderm  Scop  should  not  be  used  in  children 
because  it  is  not  known  whether  this  system  will  release  an  amount  ol 
scopolamine  that  could  produce  serious  adverse  ellects  in  children. 
ADVERSE  REACTIONS 

The  most  IrequenI  adverse  reaction  lo  Transderm  Scop  is  dryness  ol  Ihe 
mouth.  This  occurs  in  about  two  thirds  ol  the  people.  A  less  Irequent 
adverse  reaclion  is  drowsiness,  which  occurs  in  less  than  one  sixth  ol  Ihe 
people.  Transient  impairment  of  eye  accommodation,  including  blurred 
vision  and  dilation  ol  the  pupils,  is  also  observed 
Ttie  loilowing  adverse  reaclions  have  also  been  reported  on  inlrequent 
occasions  during  the  use  ol  Transderm  Scop-  disonenlalion,  memory 
disturbances,  dizziness,  restlessness,  hallucinalions;  contusion,  dirticulty 
urinating,  rashes  and  erythema,  acute  narrow-angle  glaucoma:  and  dry 
itchy,  or  red  eyes 

Drug  Withdrawal:  Symptoms  including  dizziness,  nausea,  vomiting, 
headache  and  disturbances  ot  equilibrium  have  been  reported  in  a  tew 
patients  toflowmg  discontinuation  of  the  use  ol  the  Transderm  Scop  sys- 
tem These  symptoms  have  occurred  most  often  in  patients  who  have 
used  the  systems  tor  more  than  three  days 

Dist. by CIBA Consumer        r^,  2/88  -^.^^.   , 

Ptiarmaceuticals  ■  I     IR^V  1 

Division  ol  CIBA-GEIGY  Corp  m.^  ■  ^rAj 
Summit.  New  Jersey  0?901 


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along  Africa's  north-soutti  axis.  Most  of 
the  Fertile  Crescent  founder  crops  reached 
Egypt  very  quickly  and  then  spread  as  far 
south  as  the  cool  highlands  of  Ethiopia, 
beyond  which  they  spread  no  farther. 
South  Africa's  Mediterranean  climate 
would  have  been  ideal  for  them,  but  the 
2,000  miles  of  tropical  conditions  between 
Ethiopia  and  South  Africa  posed  an  insu- 
perable barrier.  Instead,  African  agricul- 
mre  south  of  the  Sahara  was  launched  by 
the  domestication  of  such  wild  plants  as 
sorghum  and  African  yams,  which  are  in- 
digenous to  the  Sahel  and  tropical  West 
Africa  and  are  adapted  to  the  warmth, 
summer  rains,  and  relatively  constant  day- 
lengths  of  those  low  latitudes. 

Similarly,  the  southward  spread  of  Fer- 
tile Crescent  domestic  animals  through 
Africa  was  stopped  or  slowed  by  climate 
and  disease,  especially  by  trypanosome 
diseases  carried  by  tsetse  flies.  The  horse 
never  made  it  farther  south  than  West 
Africa's  kingdoms  north  of  the  equator. 
Cattle  remained  stuck  for  2,000  years  at 
the  northern  edge  of  the  Serengeti  Plain, 
while  new  types  of  human  economies  and 
livestock  breeds  were  being  developed. 
Not  until  about  the  time  of  Christ,  some 
7,000  years  after  they  were  domesticated 
in  the  Fertile  Crescent,  did  they  finally 
straggle  into  South  Africa  along  with 
sheep  and  goats.  Tropical  African  crops 
had  their  own  difficulties  spreading  south 
in  Africa,  reaching  South  Africa  with 
black  African  farmers  (the  Bantu)  just 
after  the  arrival  of  those  Fertile  Crescent 
livestock.  However,  those  tropical  African 
crops  were  never  able  to  go  beyond  South 
Africa's  Fish  River,  stopped  by  Mediter- 
ranean conditions  to  which  they  were  not 
adapted. 

Because  of  this.  South  Africa's  indige- 
nous Khoisan  peoples  (otherwise  known 
as  Hottentots  and  Bushmen)  acquired  Uve- 
stock  but  remained  without  agriculture. 
They  became  outnumbered  and  were  re- 
placed northeast  of  the  Fish  River  by  black 
African  farmers,  whose  southward  spread 
halted  there.  Only  when  European  settlers 
arrived  by  sea  in  1652,  bringing  with  them 
their  Fertile  Crescent  crop  package,  did 
agriculture  thrive  in  South  Africa's 
Mediterranean  zone.  The  collisions  of  all 
those  elements  produced  the  tragedies  of 
modem  South  Africa:  the  quick  decima- 
tion of  the  Khoisan  by  European  germs 
and  guns;  a  century  of  wars  between  Euro- 
peans and  blacks;  another  century  of  racial 
oppression;  and  now,  efforts  by  Europeans 
and  blacks  to  seek  a  new  mode  of  coexis- 
tence in  the  former  Khoisan  lands. 


22    Natural  History  5/94 


Contrast  also  the  ease  of  east-west  dif- 
fusion in  Eurasia  with  the  difficulties  of 
diffusion  along  the  Americas'  north-south 
axis.  The  cool  highlands  of  Mexico  would 
have  provided  ideal  conditions  for  raising 
llamas,  guinea  pigs,  and  potatoes,  all  do- 
mesticated in  the  cool  highlands  of  South 
America.  But  the  northward  spread  of 
those  Andean  species  was  stopped  com- 
pletely by  the  hot  intervening  lowlands  of 
Central  America.  As  a  result,  the  Olmec, 
Maya,  Aztec,  and  all  other  native  civiliza- 
tions of  Mexico  remained  without  pack 
animals  and  without  any  edible  domesti- 
cated mammals  except  for  dogs. 

Similarly,  domesticated  turkeys  or  sun- 
flowers of  North  America  might  have 
thrived  in  the  Andes,  but  their  southward 
spread  was  also  stopped  at  the  tropics.  For 
thousands  of  years  after  com  was  domesti- 
cated in  Mexico,  it  was  unable  to  spread 
farther  north  because  of  the  relatively  cool 
climates  and  shorter  growing  season. 
About  the  time  of  Christ,  com  finally  took 
root  in  what  is  now  the  eastern  United 
States,  but  initially  only  as  a  very  minor 
crop.  Not  until  a.d.  800,  when  a  hardy  va- 
riety of  com  adapted  to  northern  climates 
was  developed,  did  this  grain  finally  trig- 
ger the  flowering  of  the  most  complex  Na- 
tive American  society  of  North  America, 
the  Mississippian  culture — just  in  time  for 
it  to  be  decimated  by  European-introduced 
germs. 

In  contrast  to  the  single  Fertile  Crescent 
origin  that  Zohary  and  Hopf  trace  for  most 
widespread  Eurasian  crops,  many  appar- 
ently widespread  Native  American  crops 
prove,  on  closer  examination,  to  consist  of 
distinct  varieties  or  related  species,  inde- 
pendently domesticated  in  Mesoamerica 
and  South  America.  That's  tme,  for  ex- 
ample, of  American  cotton,  beans,  lima 
beans,  chili  peppers,  and  squashes.  While 
Fertile  Crescent  crops  spread  rapidly  and 
preempted  other  incipient  developments 
of  domestication,  slow  diffusion  and  many 
independent  domestications  were  the  mle 
in  the  Americas. 

Slower  development  of  Native  Ameri- 
can agriculture  (compared  with  Old  Worid 
agriculture)  contributed  to  the  slower  de- 
velopment of  Native  American  writing, 
metallurgy,  technology,  shipping,  and  em- 
pires. Those  differences  helped  seal  the 
outcome  of  the  collision  between  Native 
Americans  and  European  settlers  that 
began  with  Columbus.  Yes,  I  acknowledge 
other  geographic  and  biological  contribut- 
ing factors  as  well.  Humans  colonized 
Eurasia  long  before  they  colonized  the 
Americas.  In  addition,  the  Americas  had 


few  domesticable  large  wild  animal  spe- 
cies, while  in  Europe  many  such  animals 
were  used  to  pull  plows  or  make  cavalry 
charges.  Those  domesticates  harbored  the 
animal  pathogens  from  which  Eurasia's 
most  lethal  weapon,  human  pathogens 
such  as  the  smallpox  and  measles  vimses, 
evolved.  But  the  different  orientations  of 
the  continents'  axes  remain  an  immensely 
important  factor. 

In  the  United  States,  the  patriotic  song 
"America  the  Beautiful"  invokes  our  spa- 
cious skies,  our  amber  waves  of  grain. 
Alas,  that  song  reverses  geographic  reali- 
ties. No  waves  of  native  grain  ever 
reached  the  Pacific  coast  of  North  Amer- 


ica, just  as  none  ever  stretched  from  Egypt 
to  South  Africa,  while  amber  waves  of 
wheat  and  barley  did  come  to  stretch 
across  the  spacious  skies  of  Eurasia.  These 
differences  don't  prove  that  widely  distrib- 
uted crops  are  admirable,  nor  do  they  tes- 
tify to  the  superior  ingenuity  of  early 
Eurasian  farmers.  They  reflect  instead  the 
orientation  of  Eurasia's  axis  compared 
with  that  of  the  Americas  or  of  Africa. 
Around  those  axes  turned  the  fortunes  of 
history. 

Jared  Diamond  is  a  physiologist  and  evo- 
lutionary biologist  at  the  University  of 
California  Medical  School,  Los  Angeles. 


f  rom  the  chateau  s  topmost  turret  , 
to  the  quaysiae  cales,  time  stands       * 
still  here,  linperinff  behina  stone 
walls  ana  along  lazy  lanes . 


'-  that  "will 


J  or  an  expenence  I 
lone  endure  in  your  memory, 
see  our  tree  vacation  euide 
or  consult  your  travel  asf 


tyour 


agent. 


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23 


Science  Lite 


Life  Styles  of  the  Rich  and  Famou; 


Beauty  meets  the  Beast 

by  Roger  L.  Welsch 

I  was  on  tour  last  fall,  peddling  my  lat- 
est book,  and  was  about  to  appear  on  a  talk 
show  on  a  Kansas  City  television  station. 
The  producer  led  me  to  the  studio's  "green 
room,"  the  dressing  room  where  guests 
brace  themselves.  I  got  the  distinct  feeling 
that  I'd  been  there  before — not  deja  vu,  or 
presque  vu,  but  vraiment  vu. 

"Yes,"  the  producer  said  to  my  wonder- 
ment. "You  were  here  four  years  ago  to 
talk  about  another  book." 

"Y-e-e-s,"  I  said,  the  memory  becoming 
clearer.  "I  shared  this  dressing  room  with 
some  tall,  sort  of  attractive  young  woman 
who  had  just  appeared  on  the  cover  of 
some  fashion  magazine  or  another,  right?" 

''Some  tall,  sort  of  attractive  young 
woman,"  the  producer  sputtered.  "That 
was  Cindy  Crawford!" 

Good  grief.  I  shared  a  dressing  room 
with  Cindy  Crawford,  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  women  in  the  world.  I  should 
have  given  her  a  copy  of  my  book.  I 
should  have  gotten  her  autograph  on  her 
magazine  cover.  I  should  have  had  her 
scratch  her  initials  on  my  forehead  with  a 
piece  of  broken  glass. 

Weeks  later,  when  I  told  all  my  buddies 
this  story  up  at  Slick's  Tavern,  they  ex- 
pressed so  much  doubt  and  ridicule  (not 
that  I  had  shared  the  room  with  Ms.  Craw- 
ford, but  that  I  had  not  taken  advantage  of 
the  occasion,  having  mSiedA  forgotten  it), 
that  in  order  to  restore  my  male  credentials 
I  found  myself  also  remembering  that  as  I 
left  the  dressing  room,  Cindy  said  huskily, 
"Hey,  you  in  the  overalls — nice  keister." 
(Although,  now  that  I  think  of  it  and  as  I 
have  made  clear  to  Lovely  Linda,  she 
might  actually  have  said,  "Nice  to  meet 
you,  sir.") 

The  point  is — and  I  suppose  you  are 
wondering  by  now  what  the  point  is — 
beauty  is  not  something  immediately  and 
inherently  evident  to  all  observers.  In  the 
case  of  Ms.  Crawford,  she  was  to  my  eye 
simply  a  nice-looking  young  woman  until 
I  was  instructed  by  magazines,  newspa- 


pers, comedians,  television,  calendars,  and 
male  friends  that  she  is  a  ravishing  beauty. 
Of  course,  Cindy  might  have  been  having 
a  particularly  bad  day  or  I  might  have  been 
preoccupied  with  my  own  coif,  but  the  fact 
remains,  physical  beauty  is  cultural,  not 
natural.  What  is  considered  beautiful  in 
one  culture  or  era  is  not  necessarily  beau- 
tiful in  another. 

If  there  is  a  universal  rule  of  beauty,  it  is 
that  we  consider  those  physical  character- 
istics that  reflect  wealth  to  be  beautiful.  In 
classic  EngUsh  ballads,  which  exemplify 
medieval  and  Renaissance  times  and  cus- 
toms, a  good  deal  of  plot  development  re- 
volves around  the  tensions  between  char- 
acters like  "fair  Eleanor"  and  "the 
nut-brown  maiden."  Fair  Eleanor  is  attrac- 
tive, by  virtue  of  her  being  fair,  while  the 
nut-brown  maiden — well,  you  know,  as 
we  used  to  say  in  college,  "She  plays  the 
piano  and  all  the  girls  like  hen"  If  you 
were  poor,  you  had  to  work,  and  work  was 
almost  inevitably  outside.  If  you  were 
rich,  you  sat  around  the  castle  all  day, 
never  venturing  into  the  glare  of  the  sun 
and  dangers  of  the  countryside.  Pale  skin 
therefore  reflected  wealth  and  came  to  rep- 
resent beauty. 

So  English  women  went  to  extremes  to 
have  translucently  white  skin.  They  car- 
ried parasols,  swaddled  their  arms,  shaded 
their  faces,  and  powdered  and  bleached 
their  skins,  right  on  up  to  fairly  recent 
times.  But  these  days  working  women  are 
indoors — sitting  behind  desks  in  corporate 
offices,  standing  before  classrooms,  diag- 
nosing patients,  checking  out  books,  tak- 
ing care  of  kids.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
idle  rich  are  outdoors — playing  tennis, 
skiing,  and  traveling  to  sunnier  climes. 
Today,  the  nut-brown  English  maiden  is 
the  wealthy  one,  and  therefore  desirable, 
and  the  only  resort  for  pasty  Fair  Eleanor 
is  a  tanning  salon. 

Same  with  men.  Fabio?  Marky  Mark? 
Schwarzenegger?  Obviously,  these  guys 
have  enough  money  to  spend  their  lives 


lounging  around  beaches,  working  out  in 
salons,  building  their  pecs,  shaving  their 
chests.  Working  lugs  get  their  exercise 
pounding  on  computer  keyboards,  check- 
ing mortality  tables,  taking  motivation 
workshops. 

In  societies  where  famine  is  a  constant 
threat,  fat  is  a  sign  of  wealth  and,  ergo, 
beautiful.  That  has  historically  been  true 
even  of  European  and  American  culture. 
Until  recently.  Now,  when  plenty  is  the 
rule  rather  than  the  exception,  fat  is  easy  to 
come  by.  Fat  is  no  longer  a  sign  of  wealth. 
Just  ask  me. 

These  days,  models  like  Kate  Moss  de- 
clare through  their  physiques  (or  non- 
physiques),  "Me  worry  about  famine?  You 
must  be  kidding."  Wow,  our  greedy  little 
psyches  gush:  "She's  absolutely  skeletal. 
She  must  be  stinking  rich  and  is  therefore 
ravishingly  beautiful." 

Body  mutilation,  from  tattooing  to  ex- 
treme manicure,  requires  time  to  achieve 
and  is  visible  evidence  of  extended  leisure 
and  undemanding  physical  exertion.  Elab- 
orate coiffures — shaved  patterns  or  corn- 
rows — take  time,  money,  and  the  expen- 
sive attention  of  others.  Same  with  ornate 
costuming,  from  lip  rings  and  neckties  to 
high  heels  and  body  paint.  Squandered  en- 
ergy, self-imposed  physical  restriction, 
idle  time,  and,  even  better,  the  consump- 
tion of  other  people's  time  require  and  in- 
dicate wealth  and  have  come  to  represent 
beauty. 

The  fliesis  extends  beyond  human  body 
presentation,  of  course.  The  less  arable  a 
piece  of  land  is,  the  more  scenic  it  be- 
comes. So  tourists  speed  past  acres  of  com 
and  wheat,  bored  to  tears,  to  gasp  at  the 
sterile  emptiness  of  the  Grand  Canyon  or 
Disneyland.  The  evident  utiUty  of  the  sta- 
tion wagon  makes  it  hopelessly  drab  while 
the  total  inefficiency  of  a  Lamborghini 
makes  it  the  stuff  of  dreams. 

But  you  don't  want  to  know  what  has 
determined  beauty  in  the  past.  You  want  to 
be  a  step  ahead  for  the  future,  right?  What 


24    Natural  History  5/94 


will  constitute  wealth  and  therefore  sym- 
bolize beauty  tomorrow?  Not  voting  or 
owning  a  firearm,  for  one  thing.  These 
days  there's  no  rich  like  felon  rich,  so  a 
sure  sign  of  wealth  is  a  solid  prison  record 
and  all  the  nonperks  of  conviction.  The 
only  way  you  can  afford  a  million-dollar 
fine,  after  all,  is  to  steal  ten  miUion. 

Similarly,  a  sure  sign  of  wealth  is 
spending  $6  million  being  elected  to  a  po- 
Utical  job  that  pays  only  $213  a  month. 
Everyone  knows  that  if  it  costs  that  much 
to  get  there,  something's  going  on  to  make 
it  well  worth  the  bucks. 

I'm  not  as  certain  about  marital  records 
as  wealth  indicators:  will  those  who  have 
never  loved  and  lost  be  seen  as  wealthy,  or 
those  who  have  loved  and  could  afford  to 
lose?  A  nice  combination  would  be  a  felon 
entitled  to  conjugal  visits. 

And  to  my  knowledge,  only  a  handful 
of  people  left  in  America  can  survive  fi- 
nancially without  having  written  a  book, 
so  a  limited  bibliography  will,  I  predict, 
soon  be  accepted  as  important  evidence  of 
beauty:  "I  have  so  much  money,  I  didn't 
need  to  reveal  how  my  parents  mistreated 
me  when  I  was  a  kid." 

The  most  remarkable  direction  for  the 
future,  however,  will  be  homeliness. 
Beauty  has  become  such  an  issue  in  Amer- 
ica today,  such  a  factor  in  social  and  finan- 
cial success,  that  the  real  extravagance  of 
the  future  will  be  being  ugly.  Anyone 
wealthy  enough  not  to  care  about  being  at- 
tractive will  be  viewed  as  attractive  for 
that  very  reason.  I  know  this  sounds  pretty 
convoluted,  but  take  a  look  at  the  latest 
fashion  magazines.  1  think  I  may  even  be 
late  in  my  prediction.  Homely  is  in  vogue, 
pretty  is  passe. 

Sorry,  Cindy.  Looks  like  you're  out  and 
I'm  in!  By  this  time  next  year  you'll  be 
telling  your  boss  down  at  the  laundry  how 
you  once  shared  a  dressing  room  with  me. 

Folklorist  Roger  L  Welsch  lives  on  a  tree 
farm  in  Dannebrog,  Nebraska. 


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25 


Tales  from  a  Peruvian  Crypt 

The  looting  of  a  prehistoric  pyramid  stimulates  an  operation  in  salvage  archeology, 
with  unexpected  scientific  dividends 

by  Walter  Alva  and  Christopher  B.  Donnan 


In  the  fertile  river  valleys  that  relieve 
Peru's  arid  coastal  plain,  mud-brick  pyra- 
mids stand  as  the  most  visible  evidence  of 
the  prehistoric  Moche  civilization,  which 
flourished  between  the  first  and  eighth 
centuries  a.d.  Rising  out  of  agricultural 
fields  in  the  Moche  River  valley,  the  mas- 
sive Pyramid  of  the  Sun  was  the  largest 
structure  ever  built  in  South  America. 
With  a  ramp  that  led  up  to  small  buildings 
on  its  flat  summit,  it  stood  about  135  feet 
high  and  sprawled  over  12.5  acres  at  its 
base.  It  once  contained  more  than  130  mil- 
lion sun-dried  bricks.  Some  of  it  has 
eroded  away  naturally,  while  part  was  de- 
molished in  die  seventeenth  century  by 
Spanish  entrepreneurs  in  search  of  rich 
burials  or  other  treasures. 

About  ninety-five  miles  north  of  the 
Pyramid  of  the  Sun,  in  the  Lambayeque 
River  valley,  the  Moche  cemeteries  and 
three  pyramids  near  the  village  of  Sipan 
have  long  been  the  target  of  looters.  Over 
the  years  they  have  dug  many  deep  holes 
wifli  picks  and  shovels  in  hopes  of  locating 
intact  tombs  containing  ceramic  vessels, 
shell  and  stone  beads,  and  rarer  ornaments 
of  silver  and  gold.  By  November  of  1986, 
they  had  nearly  exhausted  the  cemeteries, 
and  one  group  of  treasure  seekers  decided 
to  focus  on  the  smallest  pyramid.  Working 
at  night  to  avoid  police  detection,  they  dug 
a  series  of  holes,  but  found  little  of  value. 
Then,  on  the  night  of  February  16, 1987,  at 
a  depth  of  about  twenty-three  feet,  they 
suddenly  broke  into  one  of  the  richest  fu- 
nerary chambers  ever  looted,  the  tomb  of 
an  ancient  Moche  ruler. 

The  looters  removed  several  sacks  of 
gold,  silver,  and  gilded  copper  artifacts. 
They  also  took  some  ceramic  vessels,  but 
they  broke  and  scattered  many  others  in 
their  haste.  Almost  immediately,  the  loot- 
ers quarreled  over  the  division  of  the 
spoils,  and  one  of  them  tipped  off  the  po- 
lice. The  authorities  were  able  to  seize 
some  of  the  plundered  artifacts,  but  only  a 
pitiful  amount  was  salvaged  from  the  find. 
The  rest  disappeared  into  the  hands  of  Pe- 

Adapted  from  Royal  Tombs  of  Sipdn,  by  Walter  Alva  and 
Cliristopher  B.  Donnan  (Los  Angeles:  Fowler  Museum  of  Cul- 
tural History,  University  of  California,  1993). 

26    N.'^TURAL  History  5/94 


■^¥-^, 


A  two-inch,  hollow  gold  head,  one  often 
matching  Ijeads  that  fanned  a  necklace, 
was  pan  of  the  finery  buried  with  a 
Moche  lord  about  A.D.  150.  The  find  came 
from  the  third  intact  tomb  excavated  by 
archeologists  at  Sipdn. 

Nathan  Benn  ©  Narional  Geographic  Society 


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ruvian  collectors  or  was  illegally  exported 
for  sale  in  Europe,  Japan,  and  the  United 
States. 

Building  on  civilizations  that  preceded 
them  in  coastal  Peru,  the  Moche  devel- 
oped their  own  elaborate  society,  based  on 
the  cultivation  of  such  crops  as  com  and 
beans,  the  harvesting  of  fish  and  shellfish, 
and  the  exploitation  of  other  wild  and  do- 
mestic resources.  They  had  a  dense,  so- 
cially stratified  population,  with  large 
numbers  of  workers  devoted  to  the  con- 
struction and  maintenance  of  irrigation 
canals,  pyramids,  palaces,  and  temples. 
Their  lords  apparently  received  food  and 
commodities  from  their  subjects  and  dis- 
tributed them  to  lesser  nobles  and  to  the 
potters,  weavers,  metalworkers,  and  other 
artisans  who  created  luxury  objects  for  the 
elite.  In  sculptures,  decorated  ceramics, 
and  murals,  archeologists  have  glimpsed 
many  complex  scenes  of  Moche  life,  in- 
cluding hunting,  combat,  and  ceremonial 
practices. 

The  luxury  items  from  Sipan  that  were 
confiscated  by  the  police,  including  hollow 
gold  beads  of  various  shapes  and  sizes, 
hinted  at  the  magnificence  of  the  plun- 
dered burial,  which  must  have  belonged  to 
one  of  the  Moche  elite.  More  fortune- 
hunters  descended  on  the  site  in  search  of 
overlooked  valuables.  They  hacked  at  the 
tomb  walls  and  sifted  through  the  exca- 
vated dirt.  By  the  time  the  police  secured 
the  area,  little  was  left  except  a  boot- 
shaped  hole.  Nevertheless,  with  armed 
guards  stationed  around  the  clock,  we 
hastily  organized  an  archeological  survey 
to  learn  everything  possible  of  scientific 
value  (author  Walter  Alva  directed  the 
project;  coauthor  Chistopher  B.  Donnan 
was  one  of  the  many  participants). 

We  began  by  making  a  contour  map  of 
the  three  pyramids  and  what  remained  of 
their  ramps  and  adjacent  plazas.  The  small 
pyramid,  where  the  tomb  had  been  found, 
was  riddled  with  looters'  tunnels,  but  in 
some  places,  the  piles  of  dirt  they  had  ex- 
cavated helped  preserve  the  original  con- 
tours. The  tunnels  also  enabled  us  to  ex- 
amine the  internal  construction.  The 
pyramid  and  the  rest  of  the  complex  evi- 


The  Moche  of 
Coastal  Peru 

A    Archeological   site 


100  Miles 

I  ■  I 


dently  had  been  built  and  rebuilt  over  a 
long  period  of  time,  undergoing  many 
changes  as  the  various  parts  were  en- 
larged. The  small  pyramid  seems  to  have 
gone  through  six  phases,  beginning  in  the 
first  century  a.d.  and  ending  about  300. 

Although  the  burial  chamber  had  been 
gouged  out  of  shape,  we  were  able  to  de- 
termine that  it  had  originally  been  roofed 
with  large  wood  beams,  which  had  de- 
composed. To  our  great  surprise,  we  were 
able  to  uncover  some  of  the  tomb's  con- 
tents that  had  been  missed  by  the  original 
looters  and  the  subsequent  gleaners. 
Clearing  along  one  side  of  the  chamber, 
we  found  the  remains  of  a  large,  gilded 
copper  crown  decorated  with  metal  disks; 
four  ceramic  jars  modeled  in  the  shape  of 
human  figures;  and  a  copper  mask  with  in- 
laid turquoise  eyes.  In  excavating  these, 
we  also  discovered  a  heavy  copper  scepter 


forty  inches  long,  pointed  at  one  end  and 
bearing  a  three-dimensional  architectural 
model  on  the  other.  The  model  depicted  a 
platform  with  a  balustrade,  surrounding  an 
open-front  building  with  one  back  wall 
and  a  peaked  roof  supported  by  posts. 
Seventeen  double-faced  human  heads 
decorated  the  roof  ridge,  while  depicted  in 
relief  on  the  wall  was  a  supernatural  crea- 
ture, half  feline  and  half  reptile,  copulating 
with  a  woman  on  a  crescent  moon. 

Knowing  that  the  pyramid  would  be 
further  plundered  once  we  left,  we  decided 
to  open  up  a  new  section  to  methodical  ex- 
cavation, choosing  a  ten-by-ten-meter 
(1,076-square-foot)  area  near  the  summit. 
Here  we  came  upon  a  place  where  the 
mud  brick  had  been  carved  out  and  refilled 
in  ancient  times.  Digging  down,  we  found 
eight  decomposed  wood  beams,  similar  to 
those  that  had  roofed  the  looted  burial 


28    Natural  History  5/94 


Between  the  first  and  eighth  centuries 
A.D.,  the  Moche  occupied  a  series  of 
river  valleys,  map  left,  along  the 
otherwise  arid  coast  of  northern  Peru. 
At  Sipdn.  below,  the  Moche  built  three 
mud-brick  pyramids,  now  much 
eroded.  Excavations  continue  at  the 
smallest  of  these  (foreground),  which 
concealed  at  least  four  royal  tombs. 

Bill  Ballenberg 


chamber.  Buried  beneath  these,  in  the  de- 
bris of  what  had  been  a  small  rectagular 
chamber,  we  found  1,137  ceramic  bowls, 
jars,  and  bottles.  They  portrayed  a  variety 
of  human  figures:  warriors  holding  war 
clubs  and  shields,  nude  prisoners  with 
leashlike  ropes  around  their  necks,  musi- 
cians with  drums,  and  seated  figures  wear- 
ing beaded  pectorals  (biblike  coverings). 
Some  were  arranged  in  symbolic  tableaux, 
for  example,  musicians  and  prisoners  ring- 
ing and  facing  noble  personages. 

As  we  removed  the  ceramics,  we  found 
several  pieces  of  copper  and,  finally,  a 
man's  skeleton  lying  jackknifed  on  its 
back,  with  chin,  knees,  and  arms  pulled  in 
toward  the  torso.  Since  the  Moche  custom- 
arily buried  their  dead  in  a  fully  extended 
position,  we  interpreted  this  individual  to 
be  a  sacrificial  victim,  whose  body  had 
been  shoved  into  the  small  chamber  as 
part  of  the  ritual  offering. 

Even  as  these  offerings  were  being  ex- 
cavated, we  discovered  a  second,  larger 
rectangular  area  that  appeared  to  have 
been  carved  into  the  pyramid  and  refilled. 
As  we  carefully  excavated  this,  we  found, 
about  thirteen  feet  below  the  original  sur- 
face of  the  pyramid,  the  skeleton  of  a  man 
wrapped  in  a  cotton  shroud.  He  lay 


stretched  out  on  his  back  and  wore  a 
gilded  copper  helmet.  Over  his  right  fore- 
arm, which  rested  on  his  chest,  was  a 
round  copper  shield.  A  little  below  we 
found  the  remains  of  seventeen  parallel 
beams  that,  we  dared  hope,  lay  over  a 
major,  undisturbed  burial  chamber. 

The  discoveries  that  subsequently 
emerged  surpassed  our  dreams.  Buried  in 
the  chamber  were  the  remains  of  a  wood 
coffin  that  contained  the  richest  grave  of- 
ferings ever  to  be  excavated  scientifically 
in  the  Western  Hemisphere.  The  body  of  a 
man  between  thirty-five  and  forty-five 
years  of  age  had  been  laid  to  rest  with  a 
feathered  headdress,  banners  of  cloth  with 
gilded  copper  decorations,  beaded  pec- 
torals, nose  ornaments  and  necklaces  of 
gold  and  silver,  ear  ornaments  of  gold  and 
turquoise,  face  coverings  of  gold,  a  gold 
backflap  and  a  silver  backflap  that  would 
have  been  hung  from  the  belt,  and  count- 
less other  precious  objects.  In  his  right 
hand  the  deceased  had  held  a  gold  and  sil- 
ver scepter  topped  with  a  large  rattle,  and 
in  his  left  hand,  a  smaller  scepter  of  cast 
silver.  In  relief  on  the  rattle,  which  was 
shaped  like  an  inverted  pyramid,  were 
scenes  of  an  elaborately  dressed  warrior 
subjugating  a  vanquished  opponent.  The 


sculpted  head  of  the  smaller  scepter 
echoed  this  theme. 

Working  six  days  a  week,  it  took  us  four 
months  to  document  and  safely  empty  the 
delicate  contents  of  the  tomb.  As  our  orig- 
inal budget  became  exhausted,  we  re- 
ceived some  partial  funding  from  a  brew- 
ery and  a  truckload  of  noodles  donated  by 
a  pasta  manufacturer.  At  one  point  we 
were  paying  the  fieldworkers  with  a  com- 
bination of  cash  and  noodles.  We  eventu- 
ally secured  new  support  from  the  Re- 
search Committee  of  the  National 
Geographic  Society  and  were  able  to  pro- 
ceed with  further  excavation. 

All  the  while  we  had  been  working  and 
moving  equipment  around  the  coffin  bur- 
ial, we  had  been  walking  only  inches 
above  hundreds  of  ceramic  vessels,  two 
sacrificed  llamas,  a  dog,  and  the  burials  of 
two  men,  three  women,  and  a  child  of  nine 
or  ten.  Although  we  do  not  know  this  for 
sure,  the  men  and  the  child  might  have 
been  buried  as  sacrifices  to  accompany  the 
principal  figure.  The  remains  of  the  fe- 
males, however,  were  partly  decomposed 
at  the  time  they  were  placed  in  the  tomb, 
as  evident  from  the  way  the  bones  were 
somewhat  jumbled.  They  had  probably 
died  years  earlier  and  their  remains  main- 
tained elsewhere  until  this  final  interment. 

As  we  excavated  the  tomb  and  cata- 
loged its  contents,  we  couldn't  help  won- 
dering who  was  the  important  personage 
buried  there.  The  key  to  the  answer  was  a 
major  photographic  archive  of  Moche 
sculpture  and  drawings  at  the  University 
of  California  at  Los  Angeles.  As  the  tomb 
was  being  excavated,  photographs  of  die 
objects  were  sent  to  UCLA  for  compara- 
tive study. 

Many  of  the  objects  in  the  coffin  sug- 
gested the  man  buried  there  was  a  warrior. 
The  archive  of  Moche  art  contains  hun- 
dreds of  depictions  from  which  we  can  re- 
construct a  sequence  of  Moche  militarism 
and  ceremonial  activity.  We  can  see  pro- 
cessions of  warriors  carrying  war  clubs, 
spears,  and  spear  throwers,  perhaps  on 
their  way  to  battle.  We  can  see  warriors  in 
combat,  apparently  away  from  settled 
ai-eas.  The  essence  of  Moche  combat  ap- 


29 


A  gold  and  silver  necklace  of  peanut- 
shaped  beads  belonged  to  the  warrior 
priest  buried  in  the  first  royal  tomb  to  be 
scientifically  excavated.  The  Moche 
probably  associated  gold  with  the  right 
side  and  masculinity,  and  silver  with  the 
left  side  and  femininity. 

Susan  Einstern 


Looted  from  an  unhiown  grave,  a  Moche 
vessel  depicts  a  warrior  seizing  his 
adversary'  by  the  hair  and  subduing  him 
with  his  club.  Moche  engaged  in  combat 
to  obtain  prisoners  for  ritual  sacrifice. 

Nathan  Benn  ©  National  Geograptiic  Society 


pears  to  have  been  the  expression  of  indi- 
vidual valor,  in  which  warriors  engaged  in 
one-on-one  combat,  seeldng  to  vanquish, 
rather  than  kill,  an  opponent.  The  victor  is 
often  shown  hitting  his  opponent  on  the 
head  or  upper  body  with  the  war  club, 
while  the  defeated  individual  is  depicted 
bleeding  from  his  nose  or  losing  his  head- 
dress or  other  parts  of  his  attire.  Some- 
times the  victor  grasps  his  adversary  by 
the  hair  and  removes  his  nose  ornament  or 
slaps  his  face. 

As  far  as  we  can  tell,  the  Moche  war- 
riors fought  with  one  another,  not  against 
some  foreign  enemy.  Once  an  opponent 
was  defeated,  he  was  stripped  of  some  or 


all  of  his  clothing  and  a  rope  was  placed 
around  his  neck.  The  victor  made  a  bundle 
of  the  prisoner's  clothing  and  weapons  and 
tied  it  to  his  own  war  club  as  a  trophy. 
After  a  public  parading  of  the  spoils,  the 
prisoners  were  arraigned  before  a  high- 
status  individual  and  finally  brought  back 
to  the  Moche  settlements  or  ceremonial 
precincts.  There  the  priests  and  their  atten- 
dants sacrificed  them,  cutting  their  throats 
and  drinking  the  blood  from  tall  goblets. 
The  bodies  were  then  dismembered  and 
the  heads,  hands,  and  feet  tied  individually 
with  ropes  to  create  trophies. 

Many  representations  of  the  sacrifice 
ceremony  exist  in  Moche  art.  Although 


iSil 


30    Natural  History  5/94 


Only  three  and  three-quarters  inches  in 
diameter,  one  of  the  warrior  priest's  ear 
ornaments  portrays  a  warrior  complete 
with  a  war  club,  shield,  headdress  with  its 
crescent-shaped  decoration,  and  ear 
ornaments  of  his  own. 


Susan  Einstein 


A  design  from  a  Moche  ceramic  bottle 
depicts  the  Moche  sacrifice  ceremony. 
The  conical  helmet  with  a  crescent- 
shaped  ornament  on  one  of  the  larger 
figures  (left)  helps  identify  him  as  a 
warrior  priest.  He  holds  a  goblet  of  blood 
taken  from  sacrificed  prisoners,  who  are 
shown  beneath  having  their  throats  cut. 


Donna  McCleliand 


they  vary,  not  always  depicting  all  person- 
ages in  the  ceremony,  apparently  three 
principal  priests  and  one  priestess  were  in- 
volved, each  associated  with  specific  gar- 
ments and  ritual  paraphemaha.  The  most 
important  was  the  "wamor  priest,"  gener- 
ally depicted  with  a  crescent-shaped  nose 
ornament,  large  circular  ear  ornaments,  a 
warrior  backflap,  a  scepter,  and  a  conical 
helmet  with  a  crescent-shaped  ornament  at 
its  peak.  A  comparison  of  these  and  other 
details  with  the  contents  of  the  tomb  con- 
vinced us  that  the  individual  buried  there 
was  just  such  a  warrior  priest. 

When  the  sacrifice  ceremony  was  first 
identified  in  Moche  art,  in  1974,  no  one 
could  be  sure  it  was  a  real  practice,  as  op- 
posed to  a  mythical  event.  Now  we  had 
archeological  evidence  that  this  was  an  ac- 
tual part  of  Moche  life.  Here  was  one  of 
the  individuals  who  presided  over  the  sac- 
rifices. Further,  because  the  limited  num- 
ber of  objects  salvaged  from  the  looted 
tomb  were  similar  to  some  of  those  we  had 
excavated,  we  could  conclude  that  the 
looted  tomb  also  must  have  belonged  to  a 
warrior  priest. 

As  if  this  were  not  enough,  during  the 
excavation  of  the  warrior  priest's  tomb,  we 
located  another  suspected  tomb  elsewhere 
on  the  pyramid.  We  held  off  excavation 
until  work  on  the  earlier  find  was  nearly 
complete.  The  knowledge  we  gained 
made  it  easier  to  anticipate  the  sequence  of 
excavation.  Again  we  found  the  residue  of 
a  plank  coffin  containing  the  rich  burial  of 
a  man  between  thirty-five  and  forty-five 
years  old.  Among  his  grave  goods  was  a 
spectacular  headdress  ornament  of  gilded 


copper,  in  the  form  of  the  head  and  body 
of  an  owl  from  which  arched  long  bands 
with  suspended  bangles,  representing  the 
feathered  wings.  Nearby  we  found  the  re- 
mains of  four  other  individuals:  a  male  be- 
tween fourteen  and  seventeen  years  of 
age,  two  females  in  their  late  teens  or  early 
twenties,  and  an  eight-  to  ten-year-old 
child.  Buried  with  the  child  were  a  dog 
and  a  snake. 

The  contents  of  this  tomb  were  only  a 
little  less  lavish  than  those  of  the  warrior 
priest.  They  suggest  that  the  principal  indi- 
vidual was  another  of  the  priests  depicted 
in  the  sacrifice  ceremony — one  we  call  the 
"bird  priest."  The  major  clue  was  the  large 
owl  headdress.  He  was  also  buried  with  a 
copper  cup  near  his  right  hand,  similar  in 
proportion  to  the  cups  portrayed  in  pic- 
tures of  the  sacrifice  ceremony. 

Having  identified  these  individuals  as 
participants  in  the  sacrifice  ceremony,  we 
began  to  wonder  if  such  ceremonies  took 
place  in  Sipan  itself.  The  answer  was  soon 
revealed  when,  about  eleven  yards  fi"om 
the  bird  priest's  tomb,  we  found  several 
small  rooms  that  contained  hundreds  of 
ceramic  vessels,  human  and  llama  bones, 
and  miniature  ornaments  and  implements, 
mixed  with  ash  and  organic  residues. 
Among  the  human  remains  were  hands 
and  feet,  quite  possibly  the  trophies  taken 
from  dismembered  sacrificial  victims.  Al- 
together these  looked  to  be  the  residue  of 
sacrifice  ceremonies,  which  the  Moche  ap- 
parently carried  out  at  Sipan,  as  no  doubt 
they  did  at  their  other  centers. 

The  looted  tomb,  the  two  excavated 
tombs,  and  the  sacrificial  offerings  all 


33 


Crafted  of  gold,  a  spider  with  a  body 
in  thefonn  of  a  human  head  sits  in 
the  middle  of  its  web.  This  intricate 
bead  contains  three  small  gold 
balls,  here  hidden  from  view,  that 
gave  it  a  rattling  sound. 


Susan  Einstein 


seem  to  date  to  about  a.d.  290.  While  ex- 
cavating the  offerings,  we  found  a  fourth, 
somewhat  earUer  tomb  containing  the  re- 
mains of  a  man  between  forty-five  and 
fifty-five  years  old,  also  richly  endowed 
with  grave  goods,  including  a  necklace  of 
gold  beads  in  the  form  of  spiders  on  their 
webs,  anthropomorphic  figures  of  a  crab 
and  a  feline,  scepters,  an  octopus  pectoral 
with  gilded  copper  tentacles,  and  numer- 
ous other  ornaments  and  objects.  Nearby 
we  found  the  body  of  a  young,  sixteen-  to 
eighteen-year-old  woman  next  to  a  sacri- 
ficed llama.  This  tomb  may  also  have  be- 
longed to  a  warrior  priest,  but  not  all  the 
identifying  elements  are  there.  Possibly, 
this  is  simply  because  it  dates  to  an  earlier 
period  than  the  depictions  we  have  of  the 
sacrifice  ceremony,  which  are  all  from 
after  a.d.  300. 

Moche  civihzation  collapsed  suddenly, 
probably  as  a  result  of  one  or  more  of  the 
natural  cataclysms  that  periodically  devas- 
tate coastal  Peru — earthquake,  flooding, 
or  drought.  The  Moche  had  no  writing 
system,  so  they  left  no  records  we  can 
hope  to  decipher  They  disappeared  before 
Europeans  reached  the  New  World  and 
could  leave  us  eyewitness  accounts.  Yet 
with  the  scientific  excavation  of  these 
royal  tombs,  we  have  gained  an  intimate 
portrait  of  some  of  their  most  powerful 
lords.  Work  at  Sipan  continues,  now  at  a 
promising  location  near  the  tomb  of  the 
bird  priest.  As  we  dig  more  deeply,  we 
look  forward  to  our  next  encounter        D 

34    Natural  History  5/94 


Royal  Tombs  of  Sipan,  a  special  exhibition  detailing  the  1,700- 
year-old  burials  excavated  from  a  Moche  pyramid,  will  appear  at 
the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History  from  June  24  until  the 
end  of  the  year.  Organized  by  the  Fowler  Museum  of  Cultural 
History  at  the  University  of  California  at  Los  Angeles,  the  exhibi- 
tion features  115  artifacts  of  gold,  silver,  turquoise,  and  other  pre- 
cious materials  on  loan  from  Peru's  Briining  Museum. 


a# 


A  necklace  of  gold  spider  beads  was  one 
of  the  last  objects  placed  over  the 
principal  burial  in  the  third  intact  tomb. 
Many  other  gilded  copper  ornaments 
have  turned  green  with  corrosion. 

Nathan  Benn  ©  National  Geograpttic  Society 


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"Dear  Enemy"  Notes 

A  neighbor's  song  means  more  than  music  to  a  hooded  warbler's  ears 
by  Renee  Godard  and  Haven  Wiley 


On  a  balmy.  April  morning,  the  bottom- 
land hardwood  forests  near  Chapel  Hill  in 
central  North  Carolina  are  deceptively 
peaceful.  As  we  stand  in  the  dense  under- 
story  of  arrowwood,  with  its  pale  new  fo- 
liage, two  black-and-yellow  sprites  fly  fu- 
riously back  and  forth  across  an  invisible 
boundary.  They  are  so  oblivious  to  our 
presence  that  they  almost  brush  our  legs  in 
passing.  After  about  ten  minutes  of  this 
twisting  through  the  arrowwood,  the  tiny 
birds  separate  by  some  fifty  yards.  Each 
takes  a  station  just  below  the  crowns  of  the 
oaks  and  hickories  and  begins  to  belt  out 
its  own  version  of  a  ringing  song.  The 
black  cowls  over  yellow  faces  reveal  that 
these  rivals  are  male  hooded  warblers. 
They  have  come  to  the  forest  to  begin  the 
breeding  season. 

One  of  the  birds  wears  two  lightweight, 
red  plastic  bands  on  each  leg.  He  was  one 
of  the  first  males  we  banded  for  identifica- 
tion here  at  our  study  site,  the  Mason  Farm 
Biological  Reserve,  and  he  has  returned  to 
exactly  the  same  location  in  this  370-acre 
woodland  for  the  fourth  consecutive  year, 
an  exceptional  record.  His  rival,  as  yet  un- 
handed, is  probably  less  than  one  year  old 
and  is  staking  a  territorial  claim  for  the 
first  time. 

Like  many  migrating  songbirds, 
hooded  warblers  spend  the  winter  in 
warmer  cUmes.  They  winter  from  Mexico 
to  Panama  and  begin  to  make  their  way 
north  in  March.  By  April,  they  have 
reached  their  summer  quarters,  which  ex- 
tend from  the  Gulf  coast  north  to  southern 
Michigan  and  east  to  Connecticut.  The 
birds  we  have  been  observing  have  each 
just  returned  from  their  Mexican  and  Cen- 
tral American  retreats  and  are  now  in  seri- 
ous competition  for  real  estate.  Their  fe- 
male counterparts  will  arrive  in  about  five 
to  ten  days.  To  attract  a  mate  and  eventu- 
ally raise  healthy  young,  each  male  needs 
a  territory  of  some  twelve  to  twenty-five 
acres  of  forest  with  a  luxurious  understory 
of  shrubs  like  arrowwood.  The  old-growth 
bottomland  forests  in  the  Reserve  are  an 
ideal  habitat;  each  year  five  to  ten  hooded 
warbler  pairs  nest  here.  Only  about  half  of 
these  birds,  however,  survive  the  winter 

36    Natural  History  5/94 


and  round-trip  migration  from  one  year  to 
the  next.  The  color-banded  old-timers  are 
among  the  first  to  return,  and  each  quickly 
reclaims  his  former  territory.  In  contrast, 
newcomers  ready  to  breed  for  the  first 
time  must  find  an  opening  vacated  by  a 
male  that  failed  to  return.  This  precise 
"site-faithfulness"  of  returning  males  is 
one  of  the  remarkable  features  of  migra- 
tion for  many  songbirds.  Why  should 
males  not  move  from  one  year  to  the  next? 
After  all,  they  might  have  settled  for  an  in- 
ferior territory  the  first  year  they  bred; 
surely  some  of  them  could  upgrade  their 
location  in  a  subsequent  year. 

Part  of  the  answer  lies  in  the  relation- 
ships of  neighbors.  Male  hooded  warblers, 
like  many  other  male  songbirds,  have  a 
number  of  ways  of  dealing  with  rivals  in 
adjoining  territories.  The  simplest  interac- 
tion of  neighboring  males  is  simply 
singing  within  earshot  of  one  another  Our 
systematic  observations  have  shown  that 
the  average  male  hooded  warbler  spends 
55  percent  of  each  early  spring  morning 
just  singing.  When,  on  occasion,  a  male 
meets  a  neighbor  at  a  disputed  boundary, 
singing  ceases  and  chasing  begins,  some- 
times escalating  to  fighting.  When  the  fe- 
males arrive,  aggression  intensifies.  Inter- 
mittent chasing  can  last  for  two  days 
before  both  parties  tentatively  accept  a 
boundary.  But  once  boundaries  are  estab- 
lished, neighbors  quickly  develop  a  re- 
spect for  them.  Males  can  then  sing  close 
to  the  edge  of  their  territory  without  pro- 
voking an  attack  from  a  neighbor  Such 
apparent  amicability  does  not,  we  have 
noticed,  prevent  them  from  occasionally 
venturing  surreptitiously  into  one  an- 
other's territories. 

The  birds  have  become  what  evolution- 
ary biologists  have  termed  dear  enemies. 
Instead  of  constantly  battling,  two  individ- 
uals appear  to  call  a  truce;  while  not  be- 
coming alUes,  they  can  at  least  avoid  con- 
tinual contests.  Our  studies  suggest  that  an 
important  factor  of  this  detente  is  the 
hooded  warbler's  ability  to  recognize  a 
neighbor's  songs.  Each  male's  repertoire 
consists  of  five  to  ten  stereotypical  pat- 
terns of  notes.  Each  song  is  recognizable 


A  male  hooded  warbler  refreshes  himself  in  a  Texas  stream. 


Barth  Schorre;  Bruce  Coleman.  Inc. 


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A  female  hooded  warbler,  left,  arrives  at  the  species'  breeding 
grounds  about  a  week  later  than  the  first  males.  For  an  early  spring 
male  migrant,  below,  a  still-bare  branch  in  New  York  City 's  Central 
Park  provides  a  perch  fi^om  which  to  dart  out  and  catch  insects.  If 
males  return  too  early,  cold  and  scarcity  of  insects  can  be  deadly.  But 
if  they  arrive  too  late,  all  the  best  territories  will  be  taken. 


as  a  hooded  warbler's — although  some  do 
not  come  very  close  to  the  descriptions  in 
standard  field  guides — yet  each  has  at 
least  a  few  details  that  make  it  characteris- 
tic also  of  the  individual. 

The  ability  of  male  songbirds  to  dis- 
criminate the  fine,  individual  differences 
in  the  songs  of  rivals,  both  known  and 
new,  was  established  through  experiments 
several  decades  ago.  Our  experiments 
with  hooded  warblers  in  the  Mason  Re- 
serve since  1987  have  demonstrated  that 
these  birds  are  even  more  discerning.  A 
male  hooded  warbler  can  recognize  the 
songs  of  each  one  of  his  neighbors  and  can 
also  learn  their  usual  locations  in  relation 
to  his  territory.  To  demonstrate  this  abiUty, 
we  chose  twelve  hooded  warblers  from  the 
Mason  Reserve  and  adjoining  woodlands 
as  study  subjects.  First,  we  played  a  tape 
recording  of  a  neighboring  warbler's 
songs  just  inside  a  subject's  territory  near 
the  boundary  shared  with  that  neighbor 
Then  we  broadcast  the  same  tape,  also  just 
inside  but  now  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
subject's  territory,  near  a  boundary  shared 
with  a  different  neighbor  (Because  in  an 
experiment  of  this  sort,  the  order  of  pre- 
senting the  two  playbacks  might  influence 


the  results,  we  played  neighbors'  songs  to 
half  of  the  subjects  in  reverse  order)  Sub- 
jects often  quickly  approached  the  speaker 
and  searched  frantically  for  the  apparent 
invader  However,  our  subjects  responded 
much  less  vigorously  to  neighbors'  songs 
coming  from  the  expected  direction  than 
to  the  same  songs  emanating  from  the  op- 
posite direction.  Hooded  warblers,  then, 
know  each  neighbor's  songs,  and  know 
just  where  they  should  come  from.  To  our 
subjects,  a  playback  of  a  neighbor  singing 
on  the  wrong  boundary  signaled  a  serious 
territorial  invasion. 

Many  ornithologists  have  noticed  that 
former  neighbors  returning  from  winter 
quarters  act  like  dear  enemies  right  from 
the  start.  As  with  our  red-banded  male  that 
early  spring  morning,  returning  males  are 
more  likely  to  dispute  boundaries  with 
new  birds.  Do  returning  neighbors  just  re- 
member old  boundaries,  or  are  they  ca- 
pable of  remembering  one  another's 
songs?  The  latter  feat  would  be  remark- 
able: the  birds  have  had  no  chance  to  hear 
the  songs  for  more  than  six  months.  They 
do  not  sing  for  most  of  the  winter  We  also 
know  that  hooded  warblers  from  the 
Mason  Reserve  do  not  migrate  together 


because  they  do  not  arrive  at  the  breeding 
grounds  together  Nor,  presumably,  do 
they  winter  together  in  Mexico  and  Cen- 
tral America. 

To  test  song  memory,  we  duplicated  the 
experiments  just  described,  with  an  added 
element.  We  started  our  tests  on  the  very 
day  a  male  appeared  in  April  on  his  previ- 
ously occupied  territory.  Familiar  songs  of 
neighbors  from  the  year  before,  played 
near  the  old  boundary,  elicited  little  re- 
sponse; to  our  subjects  they  must  have 
sounded  like  an  old  friend  back  in  his 
usual  place.  In  contrast,  the  same  songs 
played  near  the  "wrong"  boundary  evoked 
a  strong  response — a  quick  approach  and 
frenetic  searching.  Male  hooded  warblers 
do,  in  fact,  remember  each  neighbor's 
songs  from  one  year  to  the  next.  These 
birds  provide  one  of  the  few  demonstrated 
cases  of  long-term  memory  in  a  nonhu- 
man  vertebrate.  This  abiUty  has  important 
practical  consequences  for  a  hooded  war- 
bler By  returning  to  precisely  the  same 
territory  year  after  year,  a  male  can  expect 
to  avoid  "bargaining"  for  boundaries  with 
about  half  of  its  neighbors.  The  time  and 
energy  thus  saved  can  be  used  to  deal  with 
other  neighbors  and  to  attract  and  court  a 
female. 

A  male  reacts  strongly  to  a  trespass  into 
its  territory,  a  transgression  that  amounts 
to  an  abrogation  of  a  mutually  accepted 
treaty.  Does  such  a  trespass  have  conse- 
quences beyond  a  chase  by  the  subject 
male?  Evolutionary  theory  predicts  that  it 
should.  A  dear  enemy  relationship  in- 
volves reciprocal  respect  for  an  arbitrary 
boundary.  Such  reciprocity  in  a  potentially 
exploitative  relationship  can  persist  when 
rivals  play  tit-for-tat.  Rivals  must  recog- 
nize each  other  individually,  so  they  can 
keep  track  of  each  other  They  also  must 
interact  repeatedly  over  an  indefinite  pe- 
riod of  time,  so  neither  can  take  advantage 
of  the  other  on  their  last  interaction.  Fi- 
nally, each  must  retaliate  whenever  the 
pact  is  broken.  Our  warblers  met  the  first 
two  conditions,  and  we  devised  another 
test  to  determine  if  trespass  provoked  re- 
taliation by  the  offended  male. 

We  first  presented  a  neighbor's  songs 


39 


Russ  Kinne;  Comstock 


Hooded  warblers  frequent  the  understory  of  woodlands.  A 
male  in  Point  Pelee,  Ontario,  near  the  extreme  northern  edge 
of  the  hooded  warbler's  range,  peers  at  sprigs  of  poison  ivy, 
right.  Below:  A  pair  share  in  the  care  and  feeding  of  their 
young,  which  are  within  two  days  of  fledging. 

George  K.  Peck 


near  the  "correct"  boundary  of  a  subject's 
territory.  As  expected  from  our  previous 
experiments,  the  subject's  response  was 
weak,  the  normal  result  for  a  dear  enemy. 
Then  this  same  neighbor's  songs  were 
broadcast  from  two  locations  deep  inside 
the  subject's  territory  (we  stopped  the 
playbacks  as  soon  as  the  subject  arrived 
nearby,  so  it  would  not  learn  that  the 
neighbor  was  not  actually  present).  Fol- 
lowing this  simulated  trespass,  we  once 
again  presented  the  same  neighbor's  songs 
near  the  correct  boundary.  The  result  was 
clear:  a  subject  responded  much  more 
strongly  to  a  neighbor's  songs  following 
an  apparent  trespass.  When  we  staged 
trespasses  with  a  stranger's  songs,  retaUa- 
tion  toward  a  neighbor  did  not  occur.  Re- 
taliation was  therefore  restricted  to  the 
trespassing  individual,  just  as  predicted 
for  rivals  playing  tit-for-tat. 

Over  the  years,  we  have  come  to  appre- 
ciate the  intricate  lives  led  by  hooded  war- 
blers. They  know  their  neighbors  and 
work  out  mutually  advantageous  relation- 
ships with  them.  The  trust  required  for 
these  relationships,  however,  is  not 
"naive."  While  not  demanding  "an  eye  for 
an  eye"  following  trespass,  they  do  be- 
come antagonistic  toward  wayward  neigh- 
bors. We  have  also  noticed  that  in  the  days 
following  a  simulated  trespass,  our  sub- 


jects' behavior  returned  to  normal.  Given 
a  httle  time,  warblers  appear  to  "forgive" 
their  trespassers. 

What  we  have  found  could  well  apply 
to  other  migratory  songbirds  that  defend 
territories  during  the  breeding  season.  If 
so,  our  studies  suggest  another  way  in 
which  habitat  destruction  can  have  devas- 
tating effects  on  populations  of  migrating 
birds.  For  a  surviving  male  hooded  war- 
bler headed  north  for  the  summer,  not  all 
habitat,  not  even  habitat  suitable  in  general 
for  the  species,  is  optimal.  Each  individual 
seeks  out  the  one  specific  place  where  it 
has  an  advantage — its  territory  from  the 
previous  year,  where  it  will  meet  some  of 
its  old  neighbors.  If  a  particular  stretch  of 
forest  has  disappeared,  oiu^  individual  mi- 
grant must  start  over. 

April  is  a  time  of  blossoming  opportuni- 
ties. For  the  hooded  warblers  arriving  on 
each  southerly  wind,  it  is  also  a  time  of  es- 
tablishing and  renewing  relationships,  in- 
cluding those  with  their  neighbors.  By 
mid-May,  most  males  in  the  Mason  Farm 
Biological  Reserve  will  have  mates  incu- 
bating three  or  four  eggs  in  nests  cradled 
on  stems  of  arrowwood.  Those  nests  that 
escape  predators  and  cowbirds  (about  half 
of  the  total  built)  will  produce  a  new  gen- 
eration of  hooded  warblers  to  carry  on  the 
tradition  of  dear  enemies.  D 


40    Natural  History  5/94 


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Owl  monkey's  have  evolved  big  eyes  to  help  them  get  around  after 
dark.  Not  as  well  adapted  to  the  nighttime  as  many  nocturnal 
mammals,  they  are  most  active  on  bright  moonlit  nights. 

Tom  McHugh;  Photo  Researchers,  Inc..  Monkey  Jungle.  Miami 


Night  Watch 
on  the  Amazon 

When  dusk  falls  in  the  Peruvian  rainforest,  the  world's  only  nocturnal 
monkey  gears  up  for  a  noisy  night  of  feeding  in  the  canopy 


by  Patricia  Chappie  Wright 

The  full  moon  loomed  above  the  Peru- 
vian rain  forest  canopy,  illuminating  even 
the  forest  floor  where  I  sat  with  my  field 
notebook  in  hand.  On  this  chilly  and  quiet 
night,  I  strained  my  ears  to  catch  every 
sound.  Suddenly,  coming  from  some  one 
hundred  feet  up  in  the  canopy,  I  heard 
what  I  was  waiting  for:  the  low,  mournful 
hoot  of  an  owl  monkey,  Aotus  trivirgatus. 
Three  notes,  a  pause,  and  then  a  lower 
note.  Taking  a  compass  direction,  I  wrote 
down  the  time.  The  caU  was  repeated  for 
the  next  ten  minutes,  then  stopped.  From  a 
distance  came  the  answering  call:  five 
gruff  hoots,  a  pause,  and  two  lower  hoots. 

I  had  been  hstening  to  calls  like  this  on 
bright,  moonht  nights  for  almost  a  year 
and  had  begun  to  piece  together  certain  as- 
pects of  owl  monkey  life.  I  knew,  for  ex- 
ample, that  these  owllike  calls  are  given 
by  a  monkey  when  it  is  alone,  usually  near 
the  borders  of  its  family's  territory.  Calling 
sessions  are  restricted  to  once  or  twice  a 
month  and  may  be  given  by  an  adult  male, 
an  adult  female,  or  a  subadult.  The  calls, 
which  can  be  heard  1,500  feet  away,  con- 
sist of  a  series  of  ten  to  thirty  short,  low- 
pitched  hoots  a  minute.  The  session  lasts 
one  to  two  hours,  as  the  caller  moves  a  few 
hundred  feet  along  its  border  The  calls  al- 
most always  evoke  responses  from  neigh- 
boring territories.  At  the  end  of  this  territo- 
rial calling  session,  a  calling  monkey 
usually  returns  to  its  family,  which  may  be 
resting  in  the  center  of  the  territory.  When 
a  young  monkey  leaves  its  natal  group, 
however,  it  may  travel  long  distances  in 
the  forest,  calling  continually,  perhaps  ad- 
vertising for  a  mate. 

As  glad  as  1  was  to  begin  deciphering 


owl  monkey  calls,  no  call  could  tell  me 
what  I  had  come  to  Peru  to  find  out — why 
this  species  is  active  at  night.  Found  in 
forested  regions  from  Panama  to  northern 
Argentina,  it  is  the  world's  only  nocturnal 
monkey.  All  other  nocturnal  primates — 
including  mouse  lemurs  and  aye-ayes  in 
Madagascar,  tarsiers  and  Ions  in  Asia,  and 
bushbabies  and  pottos  in  Africa — are 
prosimians,  a  more  primitive  group  that 
lacks  the  monkeys'  relatively  large  brain, 
enclosed  eye  sockets,  dry  rhinarium 
(nose),  and  impressive  manual  dexterity. 
And  unlike  the  eyes  of  most  nocturnal 
mammals,  the  owl  monkey's  eyes  have 
cones  for  color  vision  and  lack  a  reflective 
shield  on  the  retina  (the  tapetum  lucidum), 
which  suggests  that  its  ancestor  was  active 
in  the  daytime  only.  A  question  that  had 
long  intrigued  scientists  was  why  a  day 
monkey  had  evolved  into  a  night  monkey. 
Since  studying  monkeys  in  captivity  or 
skins  in  a  museum  could  not  give  satisfac- 
tory answers,  I  decided  to  go  to  the  Cocha 
Cashu  research  station,  situated  in  a  pris- 
tine rain  forest  in  southeastern  Peru's 
Manu  National  Park,  where  I  could  ob- 
serve owl  monkeys  in  the  wild. 

The  owl  monkey  shares  its  rain  forest 
home  with  eleven  other  monkey  species, 
including  Callicebus  moloch,  the  dusky 
titi.  The  diurnal  titi  and  the  owl  monkey — 
both  about  squirrel  size — have  similar  so- 
cial systems.  I  decided  to  compare  the  life 
styles  of  the  two  species — their  diet,  sleep- 
ing habits,  movement  patterns — in  the 
hope  of  gaining  insight  into  the  owl  mon- 
key's nocturnal  life  style. 

I  first  needed  to  survey  the  area  for  both 
species  of  monkey  and  to  select  four 


groups  (two  of  each  species)  to  focus  on.  1 
chose  one  group  of  owl  monkeys  whose 
territory  bordered  on  the  Manu  River  and 
another  whose  territory  bordered  on  Lake 
Cocha  Cashu.  Then  I  identified  titi  territo- 
ries that  overlapped  with  the  chosen  Aotus 
groups.  With  my  study  animals  targeted,  I 
then  began  the  lengthy  process  of  getting 
them  used  to  my  presence  and  learning 
how  to  follow  them  through  the  forest. 

Owl  monkeys  are  often  habituated  to 
one  sleeping  tree.  Charies  Janson,  a  prima- 
tologist  studying  capuchin  monkeys  at 
Cocha  Cashu,  was  the  first  to  find  an  Aotus 
sleeping  free  there.  I  began  my  real  data 


Owl  monkey's  often  sleep  and  seek  shelter 
in  tree  holes  and  vine  tangles. 


Arthur  W,  Ambler;  Photo  Researchers.  Inc. 


45 


¥/-^- 


y 


collection  sitting  under  this  tree  with  my 
binoculars  and  notebook.  Just  as  dusk  fell, 
the  first  owl  monkey — a  male — emerged 
from  his  secluded  den  in  the  center  of  the 
tree  and  began  to  scratch  himself.  Seconds 
later,  three  other  owl  monkeys  appeared. 
From  their  size,  I  presumed  these  three 
were  his  mate,  an  adolescent,  and  a  half- 
sized  juvenile.  They  spotted  me  immedi- 
ately and  began  to  give  an  alarm  call,  but 
they  didn't  flee.  After  ten  minutes,  they 
began  to  move  on  through  the  canopy.  I 
followed,  but  by  this  time  it  was  dark. 
They  were  moving  quickly  and  soon  dis- 
appeared from  my  view. 

Dusk  after  dusk,  I  returned  to  the  tree 
and  followed  the  group  as  far  as  I  could. 
Each  night,  I  went  a  little  farther  I  cut  nar- 
row trails  under  their  arboreal  pathways.  I 
listened  carefully  as  group  members  ex- 


ff%.^**^. 


€ 


changed  contact  calls.  I  was  grateful  that 
they  dashed  carelessly  through  the  trees, 
making  abundant  noise  as  tihey  jumped 
from  branch  to  branch.  Still,  several 
months  passed  before  I  could  follow  them 
all  night  long. 

During  the  day,  I  began  tracking  the 
dusky  titis.  I  had  a  different  problem  with 
them.  Although  they  moved  much  lower 
in  the  trees  than  the  owl  monkeys  (an  av- 
erage of  thirty  feet  above  the  ground),  they 
were  dark  and  blended  into  the  foUage. 
They  were  also  cautious  in  their  move- 
ments, nearly  impossible  to  hear  as  they 
jumped  from  branch  to  branch,  and  they 
often  rested,  hidden  in  tangles  of  vines.  I 
had  hoped  that  the  titis  would  be  the  easy 
part  of  my  fieldwork,  but  I  was  often  frus- 
trated during  the  first  two  months  of  my 
effort  to  keep  track  of  them. 


■x^-r^ 


.^ 


Eventually,  however,  I  could  follow 
both  day-  and  night-monkey  groups.  I 
couldn't,  of  course,  keep  going  twenty- 
four  hours  a  day,  so  I  developed  a  routine. 
First,  I  would  spend  five  days  with  the  owl 
monkeys  in  Group  One,  following  them 
from  dusk  to  dawn.  Then  I  would  switch 
to  five  days  with  dusky  titi  Group  One, 
this  time  from  dawn  to  dusk.  After  iJiat,  I'd 
move  on  to  owl  monkey  Group  Two  for 
five  days  and  finish  up  with  a  round  of  five 
days  with  titi  Group  Two.  With  such  con- 
stant disruption  to  my  circadian  rhythm,  I 
felt  as  if  I  had  jet  lag  for  the  entire  year. 

The  work  proceeded  well,  but  since  I 
was  not  using  radio  collars,  I  was  continu- 
ally plagued  with  the  problem  of  losing 
track  of  the  owl  monkeys.  One  night,  for 
instance,  they  quietly  left  a  large  fig  tree 
without  my  detecting  them.  When  I  real- 


46    Natural  History  5/94 


Carol  Farneti,  Natural  Science  Photos 


ized  they  were  gone,  I  reasoned  that  they 
had  journeyed  to  the  next  fig  tree,  which  I 
knew  was  about  a  thousand  feet  along  the 
river  trail.  I  moved  quickly  along  the  trail, 
making  little  noise  since  the  leaves  be- 
neath my  feet  were  wet  from  rain  that  had 
fallen  earlier  in  the  day. 

But  I  wasn't  the  only  one  walking 
quickly  and  silently  along  the  river  trail. 
As  I  rounded  a  bend,  I  suddenly  stood  face 
to  face  with  a  large  male  jaguar.  We  were 
less  than  three  feet  apart.  My  headlamp 
temporarily  blinded  him,  and  he  blinked 
five  times.  I  moved  slightly  off  the  trail  to 
give  him  the  right  of  way.  At  the  sound  of 
my  movement,  the  jaguar  bounded  into 
action,  but — I  noticed  in  a  daze — away 
from  me,  back  into  the  jungle.  I  listened  as 
he  continued  to  move  into  the  distance. 
Suddenly,  I  was  afraid.  My  heart  raced, 


Common  in  the  open  Chaco  forests  of  Paraguay,  nocturnal  great 
homed  owls,  left,  are  capable  of  carrying  off  small  monkeys.  There, 
the  otherwise  noisy  owl  monkey,  below,  moves  more  cautiously  and 
quietly  than  in  the  rainforest. 


Ctiarles  Janson 


and  I  decided  to  give  up  monkey  watching 
for  the  evening.  Instead,  I  visited  each  tent 
of  sleeping  researchers,  warning  them  that 
a  jaguar  was  in  the  neighborhood.  The 
next  day,  we  were  impressed  by  the  large 
size  of  the  footprints,  but  we  never  saw  the 
jaguar  again.  He  had  apparently  moved  on 
to  another  part  of  his  large  territory. 

Most  of  my  evenings  were  less  event- 
ful, and  after  a  year,  I  had  accumulated 
basic  data  about  the  two  species.  In  both, 
territory  size  ranged  from  seventeen  to 
thirty-four  acres.  The  distance  the  owl 


monkeys  traveled  in  one  day  was  2,100 
feet  on  average;  the  titis  moved  an  average 
of  1,950  feet.  The  average  group  size  of 
both — five  animals — was  also  similar  and 
included  an  adult  male  and  female,  one 
adolescent,  a  juvenile,  and  an  infant.  The 
adults  are  monogamous,  and  their  off- 
spring remain  with  the  group  until  they  are 
three,  at  which  time  they  disperse,  usually 
in  the  rainy  season.  Finally,  as  with  most 
primates,  both  species  ate  a  combination 
of  fruits,  leaves,  flowers,  and  insects. 
But  the  two  species  also  differed  in 


47 


Luiz  Claudio  Marigo 


Like  the  owl  monkey,  the  dusky  titi,  facing  page,  is  monogamous  and  lives 
in  small  family  groups.  It  forages  in  the  daytime,  however,  and  is  forced 
to  compete — often  unsuccessfully — with  squirrel  monkeys,  below,  and 
other  monkeys  living  in  Peru's  Amazonian  rainforest. 

Luiz  Claudio  Marigo 


many  ways.  One  of  the  dusky  titi  families, 
for  example,  slept  in  a  total  of  forty-three 
different  trees  over  the  course  of  the  year, 
while  owl  monkey  families  used  no  more 
than  five.  As  they  slept  on  open  branches, 
the  titis  were  visible  from  below,  whereas 
the  owl  monkeys  were  always  hidden 
from  sight  as  they  slept  in  a  tangle  of  vines 
or  in  a  tree  hole.  Callicebus  was  quiet,  vig- 
ilant, and  cautious  as  it  foraged  low  in  the 
trees  during  the  day;  Aotus  was  noisy  and 
careless  as  it  went  about  its  business  high 
in  the  canopy  at  night. 

1  began  to  suspect  that  the  daytime  pre- 
sented some  dangers  that  the  nighttime  did 
not.  Circumstantial  evidence  soon  imph- 
cated  birds  of  prey  as  a  probable  daytime 
threat.  From  studies  conducted  by  or- 
nithologist N.  Rettig  of  remains  under  the 
nest  of  a  harpy  eagle  in  Guyana,  we  knew 
that  monkeys  were  the  main  item  in  this 
eagle's  diet.  Manu  National  Park  is  home 
to  six  species  of  hawks  and  eagles,  includ- 
ing the  harpy,  that  are  big  enough  to  eat 
owl  monkeys  and  dusky  titis.  During  the 
third  month  of  my  research,  a  harpy  eagle 
was  sighted  carrying  a  squirrel  monkey  in 
its  talons.  A  few  weeks  later,  a  crested 
eagle  attacked  a  group  of  capuchin  mon- 
keys. And  one  of  the  young  titis  bom  the 
year  I  started  my  study  was  last  seen  in 
October  of  his  second  year  in  the  talons  of 
a  crested  eagle. 

Also  suggesting  that  the  monkeys  were 
responding — although  in  different  ways — 
to  the  threat  of  predation  were  the  times 
monkeys  entered  and  left  their  sleeping 
trees.  The  titis  were  irregular.  Between 
October  and  May,  when  it  was  warm  and 
fruit  was  abundant,  they  would  get  up  at 
about  dawn,  but  when  the  weather  grew 
colder,  they  would  stay  in  their  roost  until 
noon.  This  flexibility  fit  in  with  my  theory 
that  while  escaping  predators  was  crucial 
for  these  diurnal  monkeys,  it  was  how  they 
foraged — quietly,  low  down — that  was 
important;  when  they  foraged  was  not. 

The  owl  monkeys  couldn't  have  been 
more  different.  They  regularly  left  the 
sleeping  tree  a  few  minutes  after  sunset 
(after  hawks  and  eagles  would  have  gone 


to  their  roosts)  and  returned  to  it  a  few 
minutes  before  the  sun  rose  (and  diurnal 
birds  of  prey  awoke).  This  precision,  too, 
fit  my  theory,  with  the  monkeys  behav- 
ing— I  fancied — as  if  they  were  afraid  that 
if  they  got  up  too  early  or  stayed  out  too 
long,  they  might  wind  up  as  a  meal  for 
some  hawk  or  eagle. 

But  what  about  nocturnal  predators? 
Owls  were  of  no  concern,  as  my  ornithol- 
ogist colleagues  explained  to  me,  for  large 
species,  such  as  the  great  homed  owl,  are 
scarce  in  tropical  forests  of  South  Amer- 
ica, and  none  of  the  other  owls  in  the 
Amazon  rain  forest  were  big  enough  to  eat 
a  squirrel-sized  monkey.  Other  noctumal 
predators,  such  as  cats  and  snakes,  were 
primarily  terrestrial  and  no  match  for  an 
agile  monkey  in  the  trees. 


Foraging  at  night  may  do  more  for  owl 
monkeys  than  reduce  the  risk  of  being 
killed  by  a  predator.  Different  monkey 
species  compete  strongly  for  fruit  trees, 
particularly  in  the  season  of  fmit  scarcity. 
My  data  showed  that  spider  monkeys,  ca- 
puchins, and  even  squirrel  monkeys — all 
species  that  are  either  bigger  than  the  titis 
or  travel  in  larger  groups — are  able  to 
chase  the  titis  away  from  large  fig  trees. 
This  forced  the  titis  to  subsist  at  this  time 
of  year  almost  exclusively  on  leaves, 
which  are  difficult  to  digest.  The  owl  mon- 
keys, in  contrast,  fed  in  the  large  fig  trees 
without  harassment.  Their  only  noctumal 
competitors  were  opossums  and  kinka- 
jous.  I  once  observed  an  owl  monkey  ap- 
proach an  opossum  feeding  in  a  tree;  to  es- 
cape, the  small  opossum  dropped  sixty 


49 


Luiz  Claudio  Marigo 


'l^i 


A 


Hai-py  eagles,  below,  regularly  prey  on 
small  monkeys  of  the  Peruvian  rainforest. 
The  heftier  red  howler,  right,  weighing 
several  times  as  much  as  a  titi  or  squirrel 
monkey,  rarely  winds  up  as  a  meal  for 
one  of  the  forest's  diurnal  birds  of  prey. 


Ken  Lucas;  Planet  Earth  Pictures 


feet  out  of  the  tree,  landing  at  my  feet. 
Kinkajous,  at  five  pounds  nearly  twice  the 
size  of  an  owl  monkey,  are  not  so  easily 
dominated.  However,  kinkajous  are  soli- 
tary and  thus  would  be  no  match  for  a 
group  of  four  to  five  owl  monkeys;  when 
these  two  species  meet,  they  usually  move 
apart  to  feed  in  different  parts  of  the  tree. 

To  test  my  theories  about  the  owl  mon- 
key's nocturnal  life  style,  I  decided  to  ob- 
serve the  species  in  a  different  sort  of  habi- 
tat. After  my  year  in  the  ram  forests  of 
Peru,  I  visited  the  dry,  open  forests  of  the 
Paraguayan  Chaco.  Few  diurnal  monkey 
species  live  in  the  Chaco,  and  none  of  the 
species  that  had  attacked  Callicebus  in 
Peru.  Diurnal  raptors  are  also  rare,  but 
great  homed  owls  are  common.  One  pair 
raised  two  young  in  a  nest  near  my  camp- 
site during  my  time  there. 

Interestingly,  I  found  that  owl  monkeys 
in  the  Chaco  had  reverted  partly  to  day- 
time activity.  I  watched  in  amazement  as 
the  monkeys  browsed  on  flowers  and  fruits 
at  the  top  of  the  canopy  in  bright  sunhght. 
They  foraged  at  night  as  well,  but  now 
they  moved  quietly  and  avoided  the  upper 
canopy,  where  they  would  be  exposed  to 
the  owls.  On  average,  the  owl  monkeys 
traveled  and  foraged  one  to  three  hours  in 
daylight  and  some  nine  hours  at  night.  In 

50    Natural  History  5/94 


the  cold  Chaco  winter,  during  the  times  of 
the  month  when  there  was  no  moonhght, 
the  monkeys  increased  their  daytime  ac- 
tivity, traveling  nearly  as  far  in  the  daytime 
(850  feet)  as  in  the  night  (about  1,000 
feet).  The  monkeys'  sleeping  patterns 
changed  in  the  Chaco,  too.  They  slept  on 
open  branches,  not  in  hidden  vine  tangles, 
and  used  many  different  sites;  one  group 
slept  in  forty-two  different  trees  in  five 
months.  Moreover,  they  were  never 
chased  from  a  fruit  tree,  day  or  night,  with 
their  only  possible  food  competitor  being 
Alouatta,  the  howler  monkey.  Overall,  the 
behavior  of  the  Chaco  owl  monkeys 
seemed  to  support  the  idea  that  avoidance 
of  predators  and  food  competitors  may 
have  played  a  role  in  the  evolution  of  a 
nocturnal  life  style  in  the  Peruvian  rain 
forest. 

If  being  active  at  night  can,  under  the 
right  circumstances,  confer  so  many  ad- 
vantages, why  haven't  more  monkeys 
adopted  it?  Most  nocturnal  mammals,  in- 
cluding the  nochrmal  primates  in  Asia  and 
Africa,  have  the  tapetum  lucidum,  which 
allows  them  to  see  in  the  dark.  Monkeys, 
apes,  and  humans  have  lost  the  tapetum 
and  thus  are  relatively  helpless  at  very  low 
hght  levels.  A  short  walk  at  night  without 
the  aid  of  a  flashlight  wiU  show  just  how 
serious  a  loss  this  is. 

How,  then,  does  Actus  manage?  Over 
the  course  of  its  evolution,  the  aptly 
named  owl  monkey  evolved  very  large 
eyes,  which  assist  it  greatly  as  it  searches 
for  food  in  the  dark  and  jumps  from 
branch  to  branch  high  up  in  the  canopy. 
Some  of  my  findings,  however,  indicated 
that  the  monkeys'  movements  were  re- 
stricted by  low  light  levels.  On  totally  dark 
nights,  the  owl  monkeys  I  followed  in  Peru 
traveled  nearly  a  thousand  feet  less  than 
on  clear  moonlit  nights;  they  also  tended 
to  stick  to  the  most  famiUar  paths.  Certain 
activities — such  as  playing,  territorial 
fighting,  and  calling — are  engaged  in  only 
when  the  moon  is  bright.  I  gradually  real- 
ized that  I  was  not  alone  in  my  nightly 
stumbles  through  the  rain  forest;  even  for 
the  successful  owl  monkeys,  night  life  had 
its  disadvantages.  □ 


-  AY  J 


t 


w  ''*■>' 


^  i^: 


mi 


Of  Bedouins,  Beetles,  and  Blooms 

//;  the  Judean  desert,  wildflowers  roll  out  the  red  carpet  to  attract  pollinators 
by  Bemd  Heinrich 


The  winter  had  been  an  unusual  one.  A 
tenth  of  an  inch  of  snow  and  rain — two 
and  a  half  times  the  average  precipita- 
tion— had  fallen  on  the  Judean  desert.  In 
late  March,  two  months  of  springtime 
weather  remained.  The  nights  were  pleas- 
antly cool,  the  days  warm,  and  the  land  re- 
freshed with  rains.  Rain  means  life  in  this 
small  desert,  which  stretches  from  1,200 
feet  below  sea  level  in  the  east,  where  it 
borders  the  Dead  Sea,  to  2,400  feet  at  the 
water  divide  about  twelve  miles  to  the 
west.  Along  this  transect  of  bare  and  rocky 
hills  are  such  well-known  biblical  sites  as 
Jerusalem  and  Bethlehem,  as  well  as 
lesser-known  towns  such  as  Beit  Fajjar, 
Abu  Dis,  Ramallah,  and  Bir  Zeit. 

Average  precipitation  is,  however,  not 
what  this  land  sees.  Rainstorms  are  erratic 
events,  and  despite  this  year's  winter  "ex- 
cess," the  desert  would  soon  be  dusty  and 
parched  again.  The  eastern  slopes  of  the 
north-south-ranging  hills  lie  in  the  rain 
shadow  of  the  moisture-laden  winds  com- 
ing from  the  Mediterranean,  another 
twenty  to  twenty-five  miles  to  the  west. 
Maps  show  numerous  blue  lines  going 
down  to  the  Jordan  River  and  the  Dead 
Sea.  But  they  are  not  rivers.  At  least  not 
now.  They  are  wadis,  or  washes.  Most  are 
flood  channels  that  this  spring  were  dry 
beds  filled  with  rounded  limestones. 

It  was  cool,  but  the  sun  shone  through 
the  cloudy  sky  as  my  friend  botanist 
Avishai  Shmida,  of  the  Hebrew  University 
of  Jerusalem,  and  I  swung  onto  the  paved 
road  in  Jerusalem  and  started  our  rapid  de- 
scent east,  down  to  the  valley  of  the  Jor- 
dan. In  the  Mediterranean  environment 
near  Jerusalem,  Avi  and  his  colleagues 
have  cataloged  1,586  species  of  wild 
plants.  Another  586  species  were  found  in 
the  desert. 

Looking  over  the  bare  hills,  I  could 
scarcely  conceive  that  such  diversity  ex- 
isted in  a  land  that  was  already  being  in- 
tensively used  by  humans  thousands  of 
years  before  Christ.  The  rounded  lime- 
stone hills,  terraced  into  horizontal  strips 
of  soil  a  few  yards  wide,  were  yielding 
grapes,  olives,  and  vegetables  in  Roman 
times  and  long  before. 

52    Natural  History  5/94 


Poppies  dominate  a  patch  ofwildflowers  in  the  hills  near 
Jerusalem.  Like  many  of  the  flowers  in  this  heavily 
grazed  land,  they  have  evolved  chemical  defenses  that 
make  them  toxic  to  livestock. 


■J/c 


A  lone  poppy,  right,  blooms  among  unopened  buds  and 
seed  capsules.  Below:  Buttercups  in  the  Judean  hills  have 
bright  scarlet  petals.  Although  most  species  of  buttercups 
and  wild  tulips  are  yellow,  those  growing  in  Mediterranean 
climate  zones  are  commonly  red. 


Bernd  Heinrich 


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Some  of  the  terraces  lay  fallow  now,  or 
seemed  to.  But  the  olive  trees  in  their  gray- 
green  foliage  and  the  small  almond  trees, 
bare  of  leaves  but  covered  with  sprays  of 
pink  flowers,  were  obviously  there  as  a  re- 
sult of  human  effort.  So  was  the  stonework 
that  held  up  the  terraced  strips  themselves. 
Plants  here  grow  in  wild  proflision,  with  a 
mean  density  of  forty  species  per  square 
yard.  Yet  only  certain  types  can  survive 
and  prosper  under  the  exacting  conditions 
imposed  by  the  environment  and  humans. 
Wild  trees,  obviously,  could  not.  And  that 
exclusion  opened  a  niche  for  others. 

I  had  just  visited  the  Western  Wall,  the 
remnant  of  the  Third  Temple  built  by  King 
Herod  (or  rather,  his  slaves),  where  the 
cracks  between  the  giant,  symmetrical 
blocks  of  limestone  are  stuffed  with  notes 
written  by  the  devout.  Seeing  what  people 
rest  then-  hopes  on  had  left  me  strangely 
depressed.  But  seeing  these  humble  stone 
walls,  holding  up  earth  terraces  at  least  as 
old  as  the  walls  and  decorated  with  gor- 
geous pink  cyclamen  sprouting  in  the 
cracks,  was  uplifting.  I  felt  the  "cosmic  op- 
timism" of  the  naturalist — someone  who, 
according  to  the  definition  of  writer  and 
entomologist  Robert  Michael  Pyle,  does 
not  have  an  anthropocentric  view  of  life. 
Pyle  has  pointed  out  that  no  matter  what 
we  humans  can  dish  out,  species  that 


"know  adversity  and  eat  it  up  will  endure." 
These  flowers  have  survived  the  impossi- 
ble, not  so  much  in  spite  of  us  but  perhaps 
because  of  us. 

Deep  blue  grape  hyacinths  and  bright 
red  tulips  grew  "wild"  along  the  hps  and 
crannies  of  these  ancient  terrace  walls. 
These,  and  others,  were  perennials,  but  at 
least  half  of  the  terrace  plants  were  annu- 
als— tiny  herbs  that  thrived  through  time, 
not  just  because  of  the  modest  space  they 
occupied  but  through  their  ability  to  lie 
dormant  through  long  periods  of  drought, 
to  be  resurrected  and  to  spring  up  again 
when  sprinkled  by  rain. 

In  the  valley  of  the  Jordan,  where  pas- 
toraUsts,  rather  than  farmers,  held  sway, 
not  a  wild  tree  is  left  standing,  and  there 
probably  have  not  been  any  since  before 
the  time  of  Christ.  Sheep  and  goats  and  the 
inexorable  human  hand  had  seen  to  that. 
Now — as  they  have  done  for  centuries — 
Bedouins  tend  flocks  of  sheep  and  goats 
that  mow  broad  swaths  over  the  land,  nip- 
ping everything  to  the  root.  Indeed,  the 
Bedouin  is  said  to  be  not  so  much  the  son 
of  the  desert,  as  its  father 

Nothing  green  or  succulent  has  a 
chance  to  survive  for  long,  unless  it  can  re- 
treat again  into  the  ground  in  bulbs  or  tu- 
bers or  unless  it  is  poisonous  or  prickly. 
Such  defenses  are  a  competitive  advan- 


tage against  plants  that  don't  have  them 
(since  grazers  exercise  choice  in  what  they 
eat).  But  none  is  absolute.  Perhaps  the 
plants'  most  obvious  and  effective  strategy 
against  the  grazers  and  the  elements  is  to 
grow  jnd  flower  quickly  after  the  rare 
rains  do  come  and  then  to  revert  quickly  to 
dormant,  drought-resistant  seeds  before 
the  herbivores  eat  them.  In  short,  the 
plants  are  often  annuals. 

Annuals  are  necessarily  of  small  size.  If 
conditions  are  right,  then  many  individu- 
als can  exist  side  by  side.  But  which  ones? 
Why  not  all  of  one  species,  rather  than 
many  species?  Avi  tells  me,  "If  it  were  not 
for  the  grazing,  then  the  grasses  would 


54    Natural  History  5/94 


Wr% 


quickly  take  over.  They  would  crowd  out 
many  of  the  flowers."  And  it  is  not  the 
grazing  alone.  The  drastic  fluctuation  of 
rain  within  the  winter  period  and  from 
year  to  year  reduces  competition  between 
species,  so  that  no  one  species  can  take 
over  and  occupy  every  niche.  What  we 
might  generally  consider  unfavorable  con- 
ditions for  plants  are  precisely  those  that 
have  produced  tremendous  diversity. 

As  we  descend  farther  into  the  valley, 
we  can  see  the  hills  of  the  desert  greening 
from  the  winter  rains.  From  the  window  of 
our  car,  I  see  patches  of  yellow  composite 
flowers,  patches  of  light  purple  crucifers, 
and  some  white  umbellifers.  Above  the 


background  of  yellow,  white,  and  pale 
blue,  there  are  also  thick  dots  of  red  flow- 
ers, like  flecks  of  shiny  red  blood  upon  the 
green. 

A  pleasing  wash  of  colors  from  a  bird's- 
eye  view  became  a  gorgeous  mosaic  when 
we  parked  and  I  saw  it  from  a  bee's  eye 
level.  But  the  beauty  that  was  so  striking  to 
the  eye  was  even  more  fantastic  to  the 
mind  because  behind  the  show  lay  a  logic. 
That  logic — that  competition  among  polli- 
nators that  had  helped  to  arrange  the  floral 
display — had  first  excited  me  two  decades 
ago  and  a  continent  away.  Here  in  the 
Judean  desert  was  the  same  play,  but  all 
the  players  were  different. 


One  step  into  this  garden,  which  nature 
had  been  busily  arranging  for  thousands  of 
years  (out  of  parts  created  over  millions  of 
years),  I  found  much  to  admire.  I  saw  a 
plant  whose  blue  flowers  had  at  their  cen- 
ter tiny  dabs  of  either  white  or  pink.  The 
dots  were  what  Konrad  Sprengler,  the  fa- 
ther of  pollination  ecology,  called  Saftmale 
(nectar  guides).  When  white,  they  indicate 
(to  experienced  nectar  shoppers)  that  the 
flowers  are  likely  unvisited  and  contain 
nectar;  when  pink,  they  signal  that  the 
flowers  are  already  drained  (and  hence 
pollinated). 

I  saw  a  small  umbeUifer  whose  white 
inflorescence  with  showy  fringe  florets 


55 


■    ■H^—'-;.'^           ■■     S;-Jj 

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M?fe 


tf'WK--. . 


^.iM:>^^.:^ 


^^^m 


^V^  -^^ 


^Xfc 


f  «:.t,.-.  *■ 


r/je  various  red-flowered  plants  of  the 
Judean  desert,  above,  stagger  their  peak 
flowering  periods.  Anemones  bloom  first, 
followed  by  tulips,  buttercups,  and 
poppies.  Below:  A  crowned  anemone  is 
pollinated  by  three  Amphiocoma  beetles. 


.^'  .  •'  =^.>w'«' 


Bernd  Heinrich 

56    Natural  History  5/94 


had  an  uncanny  resemblance  to  that  of 
hobblebush,  a  viburnum  I  knew  from  the 
Maine  woods. 

There  was,  in  this  plant  community  as 
in  any  other,  a  demand  for  flowers  that 
were  best  suited  to  the  specific  tastes  and 
physical  requirements  of  the  various  polli- 
nators. A  broad,  economic  analogy  ap- 
plies. If  there  is  a  market  in  Israel  for 
pizza,  and  there  are  no  Italians  around  to 
make  it,  then  even  some  Israelis  might  be 
induced  to  become  pizza  makers.  The  ven- 
ture could  be  a  risky  one,  but  high  risks 
can  yield  high  rewards  as  well  as  extinc- 
tion. In  other  words,  beyond  the  plants' 
struggle  for  existence  in  the  physical  envi- 
ronment is  a  second  fierce  struggle  among 
themselves  to  be  serviced  by  the  pollina- 
tors. Each  gets  pollinated  by  practicing  a 
specific  "line"  or  profession.  As  in  Adam 


1     '  .v   ' 

m 

Mi 

RM 

Smith's  ideahzed  free-market  economy, 
specialization  and  "perfection"  are  the  re- 
sult of  fierce  competition. 

In  the  vast  sea  of  varied  flowers  stretch- 
ing before  me,  not  many  "shoppers" — 
bees,  flies,  butterflies — were  to  be  seen. 
Therefore,  at  least  at  this  time,  the  plants 
were  competing  to  attract  pollinators.  I  ca- 
sually followed  one  honeybee  whose  tho- 
rax was  dusted  with  yellow  pollen.  It  flew 
slowly  without  landing  among  the  sea  of 
yellow  composites,  blue-and-yellow 
mints,  and  pink  stork's  bills,  passing  also 
red  anemones  and  white  stars-of-Bethle- 
hem.  After  several  yards  of  carefiil  search, 
it  landed  on  an  almost-hidden  plant,  a  par- 
asitic figwort  with  blue  flowers  and  white 
nectar-guides  on  its  lips.  After  a  second  or 
two,  the  bee  came  out  of  the  deep  flower, 
scraped  pollen  from  its  thorax,  and  then 


k'^l'-  Mr^:^r 


"■.?^'^:^./..•  />.:^■ 


:'-Y    r~ 


■.:   V.    ,  ■      ■  ■■■■■■       ;•     tl  1 


patiently  resumed  its  search  for  another 
flower  of  the  same  kind.  The  figwort, 
blooming  close  to  the  ground  and  isolated 
from  others  of  its  kind,  was  undoubtedly 
not  visited  by  many  shoppers.  But  those 
that  found  it — probably  randomly  at 
first — became  flower  constant,  hooked  on 
the  good  bargain  because  of  its  good  crop 
of  nectar.  In  the  flower  supermarket,  the 
choices  faced  by  bees  are  like  those  facing 
a  human  shopper — dozens  of  brands,  all 
with  different,  showy  labels. 

Flowers  must  provide  a  good  reward  to 
insure  repeat  visits  from  a  pollinator  In  a 
meadow,  as  in  a  supermarket,  competing 
product  displays  lure  the  buyer  But  in  the 
meadow,  shoppers  (pollinators)  going 
down  the  "aisles"  are  free  to  snack.  In 
order  to  keep  them  constant  to  any  one 
brand,  the  manufacturer  (the  plant)  not 


only  has  to  advertise  but  also  has  to  try  to 
keep  thievery  (taking  nectar  without  pay- 
ing the  plant  with  with  pollen  transfer)  to  a 
minimum.  One  way  to  do  that  is  to  limit 
access  to  the  flowers.  (Loyalty,  or  flower 
constancy,  is  important  because  each 
flower  "wants"  its  pollen  to  be  deposited  in 
the  stigma  of  its  own  kind,  not  that  of  an- 
other kind).  Complex  flowers  are  like  puz- 
zles, solvable  only  by  those  pollinators 
able  to  gain  information  denied  others. 

Perhaps  no  competitors  are  more 
bizarre  than  the  Mediterranean  Ophiys  or- 
chids. I  had  read  about  this  group  of  a 
dozen  or  so  species,  each  catering  to  a  dif- 
ferent, winged  pollinator.  Nevertheless,  I 
was  startled  to  have  one  pointed  out  to  me 
at  my  feet.  Barely  six  inches  tall,  its  solid 
green  stalk  supported  two  exquisite,  tiny 
flowers  and  three  to  four  unopened  buds. 


The  flowers,  about  half  an  inch  long,  could 
be  easily  missed  by  the  human  eye,  unless 
one  knew  what  to  look  for  The  two  tiny 
flowers  resembled  bees.  It  didn't  take  great 
leaps  of  the  imagination  to  see  a  small, 
bulbous,  buzzy  "abdomen"  and  even 
"wings"  at  each  side.  We  have  no  idea 
what  a  bee  or  wasp  sees,  but  the  mimicry 
is  undoubtedly  much  greater  to  the  insect 
than  it  is  to  us.  In  mounting  these  flowers, 
male  insects  are  probably  attracted  by  the 
perfume,  which  in  this  case  mimics  the  sex 
scent  of  the  intended  mate,  but  then  orient 
themselves  to  the  flower  fonii. 

I  gently  inserted  the  end  of  a  twig  to 
where  I  presumed  the  head  of  a  copulating 
bee  might  reach,  and  when  I  withdrew  it,  it 
held  a  yellow  packet  of  pollen  such  as  a 
male  might  transfer  to  the  next  Ophiys  it 
finds  of  that  species. 


57 


Hll^^L  ^1 

^    < 

■^'  ■       -''^^id^BHl^^^l 

BE 

\/.A 

J- 1 

Persian  buttercup 

Avi  Hirschfield;  ASAP 

But  in  the  end,  the  wild  tuhps  (and  other 
flowers  like  them)  were  what  surprised  me 
the  most.  Tulips  had,  before  this,  occa- 
sionally caught  my  interest,  but  only  be- 
cause of  their  shock  value,  their  superflu- 
ous show.  But  these  tulips  were  organisms 
in  an  ecological  context  where  everything 
about  them  held  meaning.  If  there  was 
show,  then  that  show  was  important  be- 
yond mere  appearance,  in  the  same  way 
that  a  Hebraic  text  has  significance;  it  is 
not  just  a  page  of  attractive  markings. 

The  bright  red  tuUp  stuck  out  like  the 
proverbial  sore  thumb  from  the  yellows, 
whites,  and  blues  of  the  crowd.  It  offered 
only  pollen,  not  nectar.  The  pollen-bearing 
anthers  were  almost  black,  as  were  the 
bases  of  the  petals  in  the  center  of  the  cup- 
shaped  flower. 

This  color  pattern  excited  me  because  I 
had  in  the  previous  hour  admired  very 
similarly  sized,  shaped,  and  colored  flow- 
ers of  a  quite  different  plant  family.  They 
had  belonged  to  a  poppy.  The  resemblance 
seemed  too  close  to  be  accidental. 

With  my  interest  aroused,  I  examined 
red  flowers  more  closely  in  the  large 
patches  that  were  everywhere.  I  found 
other  red  flowers  with  petals  of  a  red  so 
pure  and  brilliant  they  almost  made  me 
squint.  As  it  turned  out,  they  were  butter- 
cups. Ranunculus  asiaticus,  also  known  as 
Persian  buttercups  or  scarlet  crowfoot.  I 
knew  only  the  yellow-stamened,  small 
waxy  yellow  R.  acris  flowers  from  back 
home,  and  these  took  me  by  surprise.  I 
found  still  other  flowers  that  seemed  al- 
most identical  to  those  of  the  tulips,  pop- 
pies, and  buttercups — also  large  and  bowl- 
shaped,  with  black  stamens,  and  brilliant 


scarlet  petals.  These,  Avi  told  me,  were 
crowned  anemones.  What  a  contrast  to  the 
small,  delicate,  white-petaled  anemones 
with  yellow  stamens  in  a  Maine  spring 
woodland! 

A  phenomenon  so  striking  as  these  red 
flowers — all  apparently  mimicking  one 
another — had  not  escaped  the  attention  of 
local  botanists,  especially  Avi.  By  1981  he 
had  already  systematically  studied  and  de- 
scribed the  convergent  evolution  of  the 
"poppy  guild"  of  red  flowers  in  the 


Wild  nilip 

Allen  Rokach 


Mediterranean  region  of  Israel.  The  group 
includes  about  fifteen  species  of  large,  red, 
bowl-shaped  flowers  of  six  genera  from 
three  plant  families,  and  is  dominated  by 
poppies  of  two  genera.  The  convergence  is 
most  striking  when  one  considers  how 
some  of  these  flowers  differ  from  their 
likely  ancestors.  Ranunculus,  the  butter- 
cup, for  example,  has  about  400  species 
worldwide.  Only  three,  all  in  the  Mediter- 
ranean region,  are  red.  And  all  of  these 
have  cup-shaped  flowers  at  least  twice  as 
broad  as  those  of  the  predominantly  yel- 
low or  white  species.  Wild  tulips  in  Eu- 
rope are  also  predominantly  yellow,  but  in 
the  Mediterranean  region,  red  predomi- 
nates. All  poppy  guild  flowers  provide 
only  pollen,  and  no  nectar,  whereas  some 
of  their  presumed  progenitors  also  pro- 
vided nectar.  The  various  species  do  not, 
however,  bloom  simultaneously.  Anem- 
ones are  usually  first,  followed  by  tulips, 
buttercups,  and  finally,  poppies. 

Why  did  this  very  distinctive,  red, 
bowl-shaped  pollen  flower  evolve  in  so 
many  different  kinds  of  plants  in  one  geo- 


graphical area?  From  behavioral  studies  of 
bees,  I  had  speculated  that  once  a  pollina- 
tor becomes  "hooked"  on  one  commodity 
of  the  market — such  as  red  flowers — it 
could  then  be  more  easily  exploited  by 
other  plants,  provided  they  are  rare  or 
bloom  slightly  out  of  phase  with  their 
models.  It  is  as  if  A  has  developed  a  market 
for  pizza,  but  is  unable  to  continue  pro- 
duction after,  say,  April.  In  May,  B  can 
step  in,  utilizing  an  already-established 
market.  If  a  product  is  a  success,  it  will  be 
widely  copied  as  closely  as  possible 
(given  the  absence  of  patent  laws). 

But  these  red  flowers  are  rarely  polli- 
nated by  bees.  Instead,  they  are  primarily 
serviced  by  a  group  of  scarab  beetles  of 
the  genus  Amphiocoma.  Beetles  had  been 
thought  to  pollinate  only  flowers  that  smell 
foul  and  are  white  or  greenish.  But  in  an 
elegant  and  classical  series  of  field  experi- 
ments, Amots  Dafni,  of  the  University  of 
Haifa,  and  six  colleagues  from  other  insti- 
tutions reported  in  1990  that  these  beetles 
have  a  relatively  weak  response  to  shape 
or  scent,  but  exhibit  a  strong  attraction  to 


Crowned  anemone 

Bernd  Helnrich 


the  color  red.  Dafni  and  colleagues  distrib- 
uted unscented,  flower-shaped  plastic  cups 
of  vaiious  colors  (red,  blue,  yellow,  green, 
brown,  white)  in  the  field  to  serve  as  bee- 
tle traps.  Of  the  146  beedes  captured,  127 
were  caught  in  red  flower  models.  The  re- 
mainder, eighteen  beetles,  were  evenly 
distributed  among  the  other  colors.  The  re- 
searchers were  also  able  to  confirm  their 
predicdon  that  the  beedes  would  be  found 
in  all  of  die  red  flowers  of  the  poppy  guild. 
Amphiocoma  likely  do  most  of  the  polli- 


58    Natural  History  5/94 


nating  of  these  red  flowers,  since  a  visiting 
beetle  carries  away  nearly  2,000  pollen 
grains  (as  opposed  to  a  Lasioglossum  bee, 
for  instance,  which  carries,  on  average, 
only  110  poUen  grains). 

Red  flowers  probably  have  more  to 
offer  than  food.  Red  color  also  advertises 
sex.  Dafni  and  colleagues  noted  that  the 
female  beetles  remained,  on  average,  six- 
teen minutes  in  each  flower  they  visited, 
whereas  the  males  kept  moving  from 
flower  to  flower  every  three  and  a  third 
minutes  or  until  they  found  a  female. 
Upon  finding  one,  they  immediately 
stayed  to  mate.  Are  the  males  searching 
for  females  in  flowers? 

The  fuzzy,  little,  dark  brown  beetles 
with  greenish  or  purplish  thoraces  are  not 
always  common.  In  one  area  near  Jeru- 
salem, I  examined  1,548  Anemone  coro- 
naria  flowers  and  found  twenty-two  that 
contained  one  beetle  and  eleven  with  more 
than  one  (primarily  copulating  pairs). 
Thus,  only  one  in  seventy  flowers  had  a 
single  beetle,  whereas  every  flower  with 
one  beetle  had  a  50  percent  chance  of  hav- 
ing another  beetle.  Put  another  way,  a 
flower's  chances  of  being  visited  again 
were  thirty-five  times  greater  if  it  already 
had  a  beetle  in  it. 


I  also  noted  numerous  solitary  bee 
males  in  the  genus  Eiicera  apparently 
sleeping  in  flowers.  Indeed,  under  overcast 
skies,  all  of  these  bees  stopped  foraging 
and  I  saw  up  to  six  in  a  single  flower.  How- 
ever, 1  never  saw  them  copulating  there. 
Their  long  antennae — almost  as  long  as 
their  entire  body — attest  that  scent  plays  a 
large  role  in  mate  finding.  In  contrast,  the 
antennae  of  the  Amphiocoma  beetles  are 
microscopic  in  size.  Although  the  beetles 
are  nearly  three-eighths  of  an  inch  long, 
the  lamellae  of  their  antennae  are  no  larger 
than  the  dot  a  sharp  pencil  makes  on  paper 
Their  scent-organs  seem  almost  atrophied, 
but  their  eyes  are  not:  their  attraction  to  red 
flowers  finds  them  mates. 

The  sexes  must  meet  somewhere.  Why 
not  while  lounging  at  conspicuous,  well- 
advertised  places?  And  a  female  must  lay 
up  large  protein  stores  to  make  eggs.  For 
that  she  needs  to  eat  pollen.  Indeed,  on  two 
occasions  during  my  brief  survey,  I  saw 
male  beetles  land  on  flowers  containing  a 
beefle  I  was  photographing,  and  in  both  in- 
stances the  new  beetle  instantly  attempted 
to  mate  with  the  beetle  in  the  flower.  Food 
rewards  were  apparently  of  only  sec- 
ondary concern  for  the  males. 

Thanks  to  fieldwork  by  Dafni  and  elec- 


trophysiological experiments  by  Randolf 
Menzel,  of  the  Free  University  of  Beriin, 
we  know  that  these  beetles  (unlike  most 
other  insects,  but  like  birds)  evolved  the 
capacity  to  see  the  color  red.  Once  that  oc- 
curred, the  beetles  could  exploit  the  very 
conspicuous  red  signal  of  the  flowers,  re- 
sulting in  enhanced  mating  success  for 
them  and  for  the  plants  they  visited.  Al- 
though we  don't  know  for  sure  how  the  red 
flower  guild  serviced  by  beetles  evolved,  a 
likely  scenario  is  that  the  plants  imitated 
one  another,  and  that  many  new  prod- 
ucts— like  so  many  knockoffs  of  Swiss 
Army  knives — entered  the  market,  using 
the  same  distincive  red  signal  in  their  ad- 
vertising campaigns.  In  this  case,  the  prod- 
uct being  advertised  was  sex  with  break- 
fast in  bed — a  winning  combination.  And 
now  the  Amphiocoma  beetles  in  the 
Judean  desert  enjoy  the  red  carpet  treat- 
ment, while  we  enjoy  the  show.  D 


The  tremendous  diversity  of  flowering 
plants  in  the  Judean  desert  is  partly 
the  result  of  the  region 's  drastic 
fluctuations  in  rainfall.  In  spring,  the 
lush  growth  of  flowering  plants 
contrasts  starkly  with  the  treeless  hills. 

Allen  Rokach 


"WOF^SqiKq^fVC,^^-! 


'# 


At  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History 


Opening  of  the  Fossil  Mammal  Halls 
The  American  Museum  of  Natural  His- 
tory launches  its  125th-anniversary  celebra- 
tion with  the  opening  of  two  of  six  new  fos- 
sil halls  on  Saturday,  May  14.  Specimens  in 
the  Lila  Acheson  Wallace  Wing  of  Mam- 
mals and  Their  Extinct  Relatives  include  the 
mummified  remains  of  a  baby  mammoth 
that  lived  25,000  years  ago,  whose  head, 
trunk,  and  leg  were  found  "freeze-dried"  in 
the  Alaskan  mndra;  the  ferocious  beai'-dog 
Amphicyon,  shown  running  at  full  speed  in 
pursuit  of  its  prey,  the  antelopelike  Ramo- 
ceros;  a  twelve-million-year-old  early 
horse.  Protohippits,  which  may  have  died 
trying  to  give  birth;  and  a  Palaeocastor,  an 
early  relative  of  beavers,  shown  where  it 
was  found  at  the  bottom  of  an  eight-foot- 
long  spiral  burrow. 

Three  Charles  R.  Knight  murals  and 
dozens  of  his  smaller  paintings  have  been 
restored  and  are  displayed  in  the  fossil 
mammal  halls.  In  addition,  for  each  of  six 
extinct  species,  contemporary  artist  Jay 
Mattemes  has  contributed  three  drawings 
depicting  the  fossil  skeleton,  the  muscles 
and  tendons,  and  how  the  animal  might 
have  looked  in  life.  At  interactive  computer 
stations,  visitors  may  take  tours  of  evolu- 
tionary history  with  Museum  scientists  and 
see  reconstructions  of  the  fossil  animals  in 
their  original  habitats. 

The  new  fossil  mammal  halls  and  the 
Museum's  new  library  are  part  of  a  vast  ren- 
ovation plan  still  in  progress.  Two  new  di- 


Martyn  Colbeck  's  prize-winning  photograph 

©  British  Gas  Wildlife  Photographer  of  the  Year  Competition 


nosaur  halls  on  the  fourth  floor  will  open  in 
1995.  The  project  will  be  finished  in  1996 
with  the  opening  of  the  Hall  of  Primitive 
Vertebrates  and  an  Orientation  Center. 

The  Biodiversity  Crisis 

The  last  three  lectures  in  a  series  spon- 
sored by  the  Museum's  Center  for  Biodiver- 
sity and  Conservation  will  be  held  this 
month.  On  Tuesday,  May  3,  and  Thursday, 
May  12,  Joel  L.  Cracraft,  a  curator  in  the 
Department  of  Ornithology  and  acting  di- 
rector of  the  Center,  will  discuss  the  scien- 
tific basis  of  current  mass  extinctions  in  the 
earth's  species.  On  Tuesday,  May  17, 
Michael  J.  Novacek,  a  Museum  vice-presi- 
dent and  dean  of  science,  will  talk  about  the 
challenges  in  dealing  with  the  biodiversity 
crisis  and  the  relationship  of  science  to  pub- 
lic policy.  The  lectures  begin  at  7:00  p.m. 
Call  (212)  769-53 10  for  information. 

Conservation  in  the  Twenty-first 
Century 

Richard  Leakey,  paleontologist  and  direc- 
tor of  Kenya's  Wildlife  Service,  will  talk 
about  environmental  dangers  that  threaten 
us  with  extinction.  He  will  draw  upon  mate- 
rial from  his  new  book.  Origins  Reconsid- 
ered: In  Search  of  What  Makes  Us  Human. 
The  talk  will  be  given  on  Wednesday,  May 
18,  at  7:00  pm.  in  the  Main  Auditorium. 
Tickets  are  $29  ($19  for  Museum  and 
Learning  Annex  members).  Call  (212)  769- 
5310  for  information. 

Thar'  She  Blows 

Kenneth  A.  Chambers,  a  retired  Museum 
educator  and  lecturer  in  zoology  and  explo- 
ration, will  discuss  the  turbulent  history  of 
whaling  in  a  slide-illustrated  talk  on  Tues- 
day, May  3,  at  7:00  rm.  in  the  Kaufmann 
Theater.  Tickets  are  $15.  For  additional  in- 
formation, call  (212)  769-5310. 

Asian  and  Pacific-American 
Celebration 

This  month,  Asian  and  Pacific- American 
cultures  are  the  focus  of  the  Education  De- 
partment's year-long  series  on  cultural  di- 
versity. On  Sunday,  May  22,  choreographer 
Yoshiko  Chuma  and  the  School  of  Hard 
Knocks  will  present  A  Night  at  the  Million- 
aire's Club,  a  contemporary  work  based  on 
traditional  Japanese  concepts  of  space  and 
time.  On  Sunday,  May  29,  the  Pan-Asian 
Repertory  Theatre  will  present  scenes  from 
Wilderness,  the  final  play  in  a  trilogy  by  . 
Chinese  playwright  Cao  Yu.  The  programs, 


at  2:00  and  4:00  rm.  in  the  Kaufmann  The- 
ater, are  free  with  admission  to  the  Museum. 
For  a  complete  brochure  of  events,  call 
(212)769-5315. 

An  Upcoming  Eclipse  and  a  ,. 

Comet  Collision  ti 

Weather  permitting,  the  solar  eclipse  on  ' 
Tuesday,  May  10,  can  be  observed  safely 
through  telescopes  at  the  Planetarium.  On 
Thursday,  May  5,  meteorologist  Joe  Rao 
will  give  a  slide-illustrated  lecture  about 
this  upcoming  eclipse.  In  late  July,  Comet 
Shoemaker-Levy  9  is  due  to  hit  Jupiter. 
David  Levy,  a  scientist  at  the  Lunar  and 
Planetary  Laboratory  of  the  University  of 
Aiizona  and  codiscoverer  of  the  comet,  will 
talk  about  the  comet's  collision  course  on 
Monday,  May  23.  Both  talks  will  begin  at 
7:30  rm.  in  the  Sky  Theater.  For  tickets  and 
information  about  all  Planetarium  events, 
call  (212)  769-5900. 

Restoration  of  the  Knight  Murals 

Charles  R.  Knight  was  one  of  the  first 
painters  to  re-create  prehistoric  animals 
based  on  the  study  of  fossils.  In  1911,  the 
Museum  commissioned  him  to  create  a  se- 
ries of  murals  that  portrayed  saber-toothed 
cats,  giant  beavers,  mammoths,  mastodons, 
and  other  extinct  creatures.  The  restoration 
of  these  murals,  under  the  direction  of  paint- 
ings conservator  Fehcity  Campbell,  will  be 
the  subject  of  a  talk  on  Friday,  May  6,  in  the 
Kaufmann  Theater  at  7:00  rm.  Call  (212) 
769-5606  for  information. 

Photographer  of  the  Year 
Exhibition 

A  closeup  of  an  elephant  taking  a  dust 
bath  won  British  photographer  Martyn  Col- 
beck first  place  in  the  British  Gas  Wildlife 
Photographer  of  the  Year  Competition.  Or- 
ganized by  BBC  Wildlife  magazine  and  the 
Museum  of  Natural  History  in  London,  the 
competition  is  in  its  tenth  year,  and  includes 
11,500  entries  from  forty-two  countries. 
Thirty-nine  winning  photographs  will  be  » 
exhibited  in  the  Akeley  Gallery  from  Fri-  | 
day.  May  20,  to  Sunday,  July  31. 

These  events  take  place  at  the  American  I 
Museum  of  Natural  History,  Central  Park  f 
West  at  79th  Street  in  New  York  City.  The 
Kaufmann  Theater  is  located  in  the  Charles 
A.  Dana  Education  Wing.  The  Museum  has 
a  pay-what-you-wish  admission  policy.  For 
more  information  about  the  Museum,  call 
(212)769-5100. 


60    Natural  History  5/94 


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calendar 


3        TUESDAY 

"The  Biodiversity  Crisis  and  Its 

Causes"* 

LECTURE  (five-part  lecture 

series  exploring  biodiversity 

and  conservation),  7:00  p.m., 

Main  Auditorium,  $15.00  for 

single  lecture,  $40.00  for  series 

5  THURSDAY 

"The  Solar  Eclipse  of  1994"» 
LECTURE,  7:30  p.m.,  Hayden 
Planetarium,  $6.00  members, 
$8.00  nonmembers 

6  FRIDAY 

"Restoration  of  the  Charles 
Knight  Murals"  ■ 
LECTURE,  7:00  p.m., 
Kauf  mann  Theater,  $6.00 
members,  $9.00  nonmembers 

10        TUESDAY 

Solar  Eclipse  Day  • 
SPECIAL  EVENT  (viewing 
of  solar  eclipse,  weather 
permitting),  1 1 :30  a.m., 
Hayden  Planetarium  9 

12        THURSDAY 

"The  Biodiversity  Crisis  and  Its 

Solutions"* 

LECTURE  (five-part  lecture 

series  exploring  biodiversity 

and  conservation),  7:00  p.m., 

Main  Auditorium,  $15.00  for 

single  lecture,  $40.00  for  series 


14        SATURDAY 

Lila  Acheson  Wallace  Wing  of 
Mammals  and  Their  Extinct 
Relatives 

NEW  PERMANENT  EXHIBITION 
HALLS  displaying  the  world's 
greatest  collection  of  fossil 
mammals.  Public  Opening 

17  TUESDAY 

"Why  Biodiversity  is  Important: 
Understanding  and  Saving  the 
World's  Species"* 
LECTURE  (five-part  lecture 
series  exploring  biodiversity 
and  conservation),  7:00  p.m.. 
Main  Auditorium,  $15.00  for 
single  lecture,  $40.00  for  series 

18  WEDNESDAY 

"Conservation  in  the  21st 
Century:  An  Evening  with 
Richard  Leakey"* 
LECTURE,  7:00  p.m..  Main 
Auditorium,  $19.00  members, 
$29.00  nonmembers 

21        SATURDAY 

The  Ice  Age  and  Its  Mammoth 
Hunters  ■ 

PERFORMANCE  FOR  CHILDREN, 
10:30  a.m.,  Kaufmann  Theater, 
$6.00  members,  $9.00  non- 
members 

23        MONDAY 

"The  Great  Jupiter-Comet 
Crash  of  1994"« 
LECTURE,  7:30  p.m.,  Hayden 
Planetarium,  $6.00  members, 
$8.00  nonmembers 

29        SUNDAY 

Wilderness:  A  Performance  by 
the  Pan  Asian  Repertory 
Theatre  * 

PERFORMANCE,  2:00  &  4:00 
p.m.,  Kaufmann  Theater 


THROUGHOUT  MAY 

1 25th-Anniversary 
Celebration  of  the  American 
Museum  of  Natural  History 

The  Museum  launches  a  20- 
month  celebration  of  125  years 
as  one  of  the  world's  preemi- 
nent science  and  research 
institutions. 

Global  Cultures  in  a  Changing 
World:  A  Series  Exploring 
Cultural  Diversity  * 
LECTURES,  FILMS,  &  PERFOR- 
MANCES in  May  celebrate 
Asia/Pacific  American  Heritage 
Month.  Leonhardt  People 
Center,  1 :00  to  4:30  p.m.,  every 
weekend  (except  May  7  &  8) 

Search  for  the  Great  Sharks  ▲ 
IMAX  FILM;  daily  showings, 
Naturemax  Theater,  $5.00 
adults,  $2.50  children 

Space  Places: 

A  Photographic  Exhibition 

SPECIAL  EXHIBITION, 
through  May  15;  and 
Orion  Rendezvous:  A  Star 
Trek  Voyage  of  Discovery  • 
SKY  SHOW,  daily  showings. 
Both  at  the  Hayden 
Planetarium,  $5.00  adults, 
$2.50  children 


Photo:  a  300-million-year-old 
mammal  relative  in  the  new 
fossil  mammal  halls. 


E 


■  Membership,  769-5606   ▲  Naturemax  Theater,  769-5650   +  Education,  769-5310   •  Hayden  Planetarium,  769-5900 

American  Museum  of  Natural  History 

Central  Park  West  at  79th  Street,  New  York  City  -  For  information,  call  212-769-5100 


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The  Living  Museum 


Four  Giants  of 
Paleontology 


by  Edwin  H.  Colbert 

In  1859,  the  year  that  The  Origin  of 
Species,  by  Charles  Darwin,  appeared, 
changing  forever  the  way  in  which  we 
think  about  ourselves,  our  origins,  and  our 
world,  Henry  Fairfield  Osbom  was  just 
two  years  of  age.  This  son  of  wealthy  and 
loving  parents,  who  was  supposed  to  be- 
come an  influential  figure  in  the  world  of 
railroads  and  high  finance  (or  so  his  father 
thought),  was  destined  to  become  instead  a 
leading  authority  on  the  evolution  of  back- 
boned animals. 

For  many  years  Osbom  was  a  dean  and 
professor  of  zoology  at  Columbia  Univer- 
sity and,  simultaneously,  a  prime  driving 
force  in  the  growth  of  an  institution  that 
has  been  at  the  forefront  of  evolufionary 

On  May  14,  1994,  the  American  Mu- 
seum of  Natural  History  launches  its 
125th-anniversary  celebration  by  opening 
the  LiLA  AcHESON  Wallace  Wing  of 
Mammals  and  Their  Extinct  Rela- 
tives. Mastodonts,  giant  ground  sloths, 
and  other  mammalian  fossils  from  the 
Museum's  collection  will  be  on  view. 

studies  since  the  1880s — the  American 
Museum  of  Natural  History.  Osbom  was 
appointed  president  of  the  Museum  in 
1908  and  served  for  twenty-five  years. 

In  1871,  twelve  years  after  Darwin's 
epochal  publication,  William  Diller 
Matthew  was  bom  in  Saint  John,  New 
Brunswick.  Later,  as  a  young  man, 
Matthew  gravitated  to  Columbia,  where 
he  came  under  the  influence  of  Osbom, 
then  presiding  over  the  Department  of  Zo- 
ology. Osbom's  passion  for  the  study  of 
vertebrate  evolution  was  contagious.  So  at 
the  age  of  twenty-four,  Matthew,  who  had 
come  to  Columbia  seeking  a  career  in 
mining  geology,  headed  instead  for  a  pale- 
ontologist's life  at  the  American  Museum 
as  a  colleague  of  Osbom's. 


Seventeen  years  after  that  fateful  year 
of  1859,  William  King  Gregory  was  bom 
in  Greenwich  Village,  New  York  City. 
Eventually  he  also  attended  Columbia.  In 
1899  he  became  Osborn's  assistant, 
thereby  initiating  his  own  long  and  distin- 
guished career  at  Columbia  and  at  the 
American  Museum,  where  he  was  one  of 
those  rare  individuals  on  the  curatorial 
staff — a  native  New  Yorker. 

For  more  than  three  decades  the  three 
men — the  mentor  and  his  two  students — 
worked  together  at  the  Museum  cataloging 
and  trying  to  make  sense  of  its  rapidly  ex- 
panding collection  of  fossil  vertebrates. 
Each  year,  the  Museum's  famous  bone 
collectors,  such  as  Bamum  Brown,  would 
bring  in  thousands  of  specimens,  newly 
freed  from  tons  of  rock.  Osbom  was  inter- 
ested in  extinct  reptiles  and  mammals,  par- 
ticularly mammals.  Matthew  was  an  inter- 
nationally respected  authority  on 
mammalian  evolution,  and  Gregory  was 


Henry  Fairfield  Osbom 


62    Natural  History  5/94 


justly  famous  for  his  encyclopedic  knowl- 
edge of  all  the  vertebrates. 

These  three  quite  naturally  developed 
different  approaches  to  their  evolutionary 
studies.  Osbom  was  by  training  a  biolo- 
gist, so  his  interpretation  of  the  evolution 
of  extinct  animals  was  dominated  by  his 
knowledge  of  related  modem  animals.  In 
contrast,  Matthew's  view  of  evolution, 
particularly  mammalian  evolution,  was 
based  upon  his  broad  background  in  geol- 
ogy and  especially  stratigraphy — the  se- 
quence of  rock  strata  in  which  fossils  are 
found.  (Matthew's  father,  George  Frederic 
Matthew,  was  a  distinguished  Canadian 
geologist,  and  young  Matthew  became 
further  steeped  in  geology  under  another 
Columbia  mentor,  James  Furman  Kemp.) 
Gregory  was  primarily  a  comparative 
anatomist  who  extended  his  comparisons 
to  vertebrates  of  all  geologic  ages.  His 
scholarship  was  indeed  comprehensive, 
for  his  view  of  the  world  reached  across 
time,  space,  and  phytogeny. 

The  three  men— Osbom,  Matthew,  and 
Gregory-— brought  to  the  enormously 
complex  subject  of  vertebrate  evolution  a 
powerful  combination  of  different  talents 
and  outlooks  that  helped  shape  the  disci- 
pline for  decades  to  come. 

They  worked  both  separately  and  to- 
gether, and  their  collaborative  studies  de- 
scribing previously  unknown  fossil  spe- 
cies led  to  the  revelation  of  many  new 
evolutionary  facts.  Important  assemblages 
of  extinct  creatures  were  worked  up  for 
publication  under  the  joint  authorships  of 
Osbom  and  Matthew,  Osbom  and  Gre- 
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Osbom,  a  large  and  forceful  man,  liked 
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63 


haps  he  fancied  himself  as  a  sort  of  evolu- 
tionai-y  Jove,  issuing  edicts  for  the  guid- 
ance of  his  followers.  In  his  later  years, 
Osbom  became  remarkably  pompous  and 
vain — a  result  of  having  occupied  high 
positions  in  the  scientific  world,  as  well  as 
in  the  social  milieu  of  New  York.  But  as 
Gregory  pointed  out,  "Osbom  himself  was 
under  no  delusion  as  to  the  lack  of  enthu- 
siasm with  which  his  writings  on  the  the- 
ory of  evolution  were  received  in  many 
quarters."  Osbom  had  a  strong  predilec- 
tion for  the  concept  of  orthogenesis — the 
idea  that  organisms  evolved  inexorably  in 
determined  directions,  like  soldiers 
marching  toward  a  defined  objective.  Fur- 
thermore, Osbom  became  obsessed  with 
the  idea  of  evolutionary  parallehsm — for 
him,  animals  separated  at  very  early  stages 
in  their  histories  to  evolve  side  by  side 
along  discrete,  but  similar,  lines. 

Osborn's  view  of  evolution  through 
time  is  nicely  exemplified  in  his  huge,  two- 
volume  monograph  on  the  proboscideans 
(the  mastodonts  and  elephants)  in  which 
the  Unes  of  all  families  are  traced  back  to 
presumably  ancient,  unknown  origins,  and 
nothing  seems  to  be  ancestral  to  anything 
else.  This  concept  of  straight-fine  evolu- 
tion prevailed  in  his  earlier  works,  includ- 
ing his  researches  on  fossil  horses. 

A  similar  story  is  seen  in  Osbom's  stud- 
ies of  human  evolution — in  this  case  with 
Gregory  doing  much  of  the  detailed  re- 
search. In  the  end,  Osbom  wished  to  carry 
the  origins  of  mankind  far  back  in  time, 
beyond  anything  justified  by  geologic  evi- 
dence. Gregory  claimed  Osbom  was  "af- 
flicted with  pithecophobia — the  dread  of 
apes  as  relatives  or  ancestors."  Although 
their  views  became  irreconcilably  diver- 
gent over  this  issue,  they  remained  friends. 

Despite  several  of  his  stubbomly  held 
premises  in  approaching  the  material,  Os- 
bom made  many  outstanding  contribu- 
tions to  vertebrate  evolution,  notably  his 
work  on  the  basic  evolutionary  relation- 
ships of  reptiles,  on  the  origin  of  mammals 
from  mammallike  reptiles,  on  the  origins 
of  mammalian  molar  teeth,  and  on  the 
evolutionary  histories  of  the  perisso- 
dactyls,  or  odd-toed  hoofed  mammals — 
the  titanotheres,  rhinoceroses,  and  horses. 
While  writing  his  massive  monograph  on 
the  elephants,  Osbom  liked  to  revise  his 
drafts  after  the  work  was  set  in  type. 

A  personality  such  as  Osbom's — over- 
bearing, pompous,  and  vain — is  apt  to  col- 
lide with  the  real  world  now  and  then. 
Once  Osborn,  accompanied  by  Fred 
Smythe,  of  the  Museum's  finance  office, 
went  to  City  Hall  in  New  York,  to  see 


William  Diller  Matthew 

AMNH 

Joseph  McKee,  president  of  the  Borough 
of  Manhattan.  Osbom  announced  to  the 
receptionist  that  "President  Osbom  is  here 
to  see  Mr.  McKee."  Soon  a  flunky  ap- 
peared to  inform  the  visitors  (much  to  the 
delight  of  Smythe)  that  "President  McKee 
will  now  see  Mr.  Osbom." 

Osbom  was  a  typologist  and  a  "split- 
ter"; he  thought  that  comparisons  among 
specimens  should  be  taken  right  back  to 
the  types  on  which  the  original  descrip- 
tions of  species  were  made.  Matthew,  al- 
lowing for  variation  within  species,  was  a 
"lumper,"  who  viewed  population  sam- 
ples as  a  tmer  basis  for  determining  spe- 
cies relationships.  These  divergent  ap- 
proaches, together  with  Osborn's 
orthogenetic  ("straight  line")  concept  of 
evolution,  led  to  the  abandonment  by 
Matthew  of  their  joint  authorship  of  a 
massive  monograph  on  fossil  horses  to 
which  Matthew  had  devoted  many  years 
of  research. 

Far  from  being  overpoweringly  forceful 
in  the  Osbomian  sense,  Matthew  was  none 
the  less  a  man  of  sohd  convictions,  based 
upon  the  facts  as  he  saw  them  in  the  fossil 
record.  As  Gregory  wrote  of  his  longtime 
friend, 

It  may  be  said  in  brief  that  Evolution  was 
the  one  theme  about  which  he  was  always 
writing....  He  never  wearied  of  insisting 
upon  the  value  of  facts  as  compared  with 
theories....  Scrupulous  intellectual  honesty 
was  one  of  his  outstanding  characteristics. 

Matthew  was  a  firm  believer  in  the 
close  relationship  between  environments 
and  the  evolution  of  animals,  a  belief  that 
found  expression  in  his  1915  publication 
Climate  and  Evolution.  This  work,  a  mile- 


stone in  Matthew's  evolutionary  studies, 
attracted  universal  attention  and  has  been 
a  point  of  reference,  and  a  subject  of  de- 
bate, during  the  many  years  since  its  pub- 
lication. 

One  of  his  first  projects  at  the  American 
Museum  was  a  comprehensive  synthesis 
of  the  Cenozoic  strata  in  North  America 
within  which  fossil  mammals  are  to  be 
found.  With  his  background  of  geologic 
knowledge,  Matthew  saw  the  evolution  of 
horses,  for  example,  differently  than  did 
Osbom.  Realizing  that  primitive  horses 
were  closely  related  to  primitive  rhinocer- 
oses and  tapirs,  all  of  which  are  found 
within  strata  of  the  Eocene  age  (some  fifty 
million  years  ago),  Matthew  studied  the 
Cenozoic  mammals  as  they  were  spread 
out  in  space,  as  well  as  over  time.  He  was 
as  concemed  with  the  worldwide  distribu- 
tion of  mammaUan  faunas  as  he  was  with 
the  lines  of  descent  of  particular  species. 

Consequently  much  of  Matthew's  re- 
search was  based  upon  the  geologic  for- 
mations of  the  westem  United  States,  with 
which  he  became  thoroughly  acquainted 
during  successive  seasons  of  fieldwork. 
His  analysis  of  the  fossils  resulted  in  his 
early  great  monograph  on  the  ancient  car- 
nivorous and  insectivorous  mammals  of 
the  Bridger  Basin  of  Wyoming.  His 
crowning  work — a  huge  monograph  on 
primitive  mammals  from  the  Paleocene 
strata  of  the  San  Juan  Basin  of  New  Mex- 
ico— was  also  based  on  assiduous  field- 
work  as  well  as  Museum  study. 

Matthew  was  a  witty  person,  who  rev- 
eled in  the  world's  absiu^dities.  He  was  a 
great  versifier,  and  wrote  many  ditties  for 
the  amusement  of  his  colleagues,  such  as: 

Darwinian  Thoughts  on  Viewing  a 
Skeleton  of  Eryops 

From  Palaeozoic  slime  he  rose. 

Your  ancestor  and  mine. 

With  webby  toes, 

Retrousse  nose 

And,  I  suppose,  a  lateral  line. 

Gregory's  characterization  of  Matthew 
as  a  man  of  "scmpulous  intellectual  hon- 
esty" could  well  be  appUed  to  Gregory  I  \ 
himself.  Although  he  was  an  assistant  to 
Osbom  for  many  years,  and  although  in 
1910  he  took  over  Osbom's  position  as 
professor  at  Columbia  (in  addition  to  his 
curatorial  duties  at  the  Museum),  he  did 
not  submit  to  Osbom's  overwhelming  per- 
sonality. He  expressed  his  own  opinions, 
particularly  with  regard  to  evolution,  but 
he  had  the  knack  of  doing  so  in  a  way  that 
did  not  mffle  the  Osbomian  feathers.  He 
would  address  a  memo  to  Osbom  "to  our 


64    Natural  History  5/94 


own  imperial  mammoth"  or  "to  our  great 
sulphur-bottomed  whale."  and  Osborn 
loved  it.  Even  in  later  years,  when  the  two 
had  their  fundamental  disagreements 
about  the  evolution  of  humankind,  Osborn 
harbored  no  hostility  toward  Gregory.  The 
same  could  not  be  said  about  the  Os- 
bom-Matthew  relationship,  however. 

Gregory  was  a  gentle  and  in  many  re- 
spects an  unworldly  soul.  Aside  from  his 
anatomical  studies,  he  never  worked  with 
his  hands.  I  cannot  picture  him,  for  in- 
stance, using  a  hammer,  saw,  or  screw- 
driver to  fashion  some  useful  object  for  his 
study.  One  day  he  was  coming  back  to  the 
American  Museum  from  lunch  (he  lived 
nearby)  thinking  his  thoughts,  when  sud- 
denly he  stumbled  into  a  coal-hole  in  the 
sidewalk.  Such  apertures  for  delivering 
coal  to  the  brownstone  houses  were  com- 
mon features  on  the  old  slate  sidewalks  of 
Manhattan.  In  this  instance  the  workmen, 
after  having  delivered  a  load  of  coal,  had 
failed  to  put  the  heavy  cast  iron  cover  back 
in  place.  Gregory  scrambled  out  of  the 
hole  a  bit  soiled,  and  indignantly  rang  the 
doorbell  of  the  nearby  dwelling,  planning 
to  give  the  owner  what  for.  But  when  a 
sweet  old  lady  came  to  the  door,  Gregory 
forgot  his  wrath  and  wound  up  the  situa- 
tion by  manfully  replacing  the  dusty  iron 
cover  with  his  own  hands. 

In  addition  to  his  detailed,  comprehen- 
sive knowledge  of  all  the  land  vertebrates, 
or  backboned  animals,  Gregory  was  a  uni- 
versally recognized  authority  on  the  evo- 
lution of  fishes.  He  knew  not  only  the 
primitive  fishes  as  seen  in  the  fossil  record 
but  also  the  myriad  modem  bony  fishes. 
He  was  an  authority  on  the  mammallike 
reptiles,  so  abundantly  represented  in  the 
fossil  record  of  South  Africa,  as  well  as  on 
the  evolution  and  relationships  of  marsu- 


William  King  Gregory 

AMNH 


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pials,  the  pouched  mammals  so  abundant 
in  Australia's  modem  fauna.  He  had  also 
devoted  many  years  of  research  to  the  evo- 
lution of  the  primates,  including  humans, 
and  his  book  The  Origin  and  Evolution  of 
the  Human  Dentition  remains  a  classic. 
Alfred  Sherwood  Romer,  one  of  Gregory's 
students  who  became  a  leading  vertebrate 
paleontologist,  once  remarked  to  me  that 
in  his  opinion,  no  one  on  earth  had  such  in- 
timate knowledge  of  the  vertebrate  skull 
as  did  William  King  Gregory. 

In  1927  Matthew  moved  to  California 
to  assume  the  chairmanship  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Paleontology  at  the  University  of 
California  at  Berkeley.  His  chosen  succes- 
sor at  the  American  Museum  was  George 
Gaylord  Simpson,  bom  in  1902,  who  had 
recendy  eamed  his  doctorate  from  Yale 
and  who  had  spent  a  postdoctoral  year  at 
the  British  Museum  (Natural  History)  in 
London.  He  was  a  worthy  successor  to 
Matthew,  who  by  1927  had  established  a 
towering  reputation  as  a  student  of  mam- 
malian evolution.  Paleontologist  Stephen 
Jay  Gould  has  written  that  "George  Gay- 
lord  Simpson,  in  the  impact  of  his  ideas 
and  by  the  power  of  his  writing,  both  in 
style  and  substance,  was  the  most  impor- 
tant paleontologist  since  Georges  Cuvier." 
This  is  not  excessive  praise;  the  man  was  a 
paleontological  genius.  One  of  Shake- 
speare's Elizabethan  contemporaries  said 
of  the  bard,  "his  mind  and  hand  went  to- 
gether; and  what  he  thought,  he  uttered 
with  that  easiness,  that  we  scarce  received 
from  him  a  blot  in  his  papers."  So  it  was 
with  Simpson;  the  massive  output  of  his 
papers,  monographs,  and  books  began  as 
flowing  handwritten  manuscripts,  with 
scarcely  a  rewrite  on  their  pages. 

A  small  and  unprepossessing  figure, 
Simpson  was  not  easy  to  know.  On  the 
surface,  he  was  shy;  undemeath  he  was 
determined,  even  belligerent,  as  befits  a 
person  who  is  in  complete  command  of  his 
field.  During  the  Second  World  War, 
Simpson  was  attached  to  Gen.  George  Pat- 
ton's  staff  as  a  major.  One  day  an  order 
came  down  from  the  imperious  general  for 
Major  Simpson  to  shave  off  his  beard  im- 
mediately. Simpson  sent  his  respects  and 
firmly  pointed  out  that  as  long  as  he  could 
get  a  gas  mask  on  over  his  beard,  there  was 
no  regulation  that  required  him  to  shave. 
The  general  may  have  fumed  in  private, 
but  Simpson  kept  his  beard. 

His  work  focused  on  the  study  and  elu- 
cidation of  mammalian  evolution  along 
the  Unes  that  Matthew  had  followed.  Thus, 
Simpson  was  very  much  involved  with  ex- 
tinct mammalian  faunas,  with  their  evolu- 


tionary relationships,  and  with  the  distrib- 
utions of  mammals  through  geologic  time. 
He  was,  like  Matthew,  essentially  a  geo- 
logic paleontologist,  but  with  a  strong  bio- 
logical understanding  of  the  fossils  to 
which  he  devoted  his  attention. 

Also  like  Matthew,  he  was  a  firm  be- 
liever in  the  permanence  of  the  continents. 
After  the  Second  World  War,  however, 
when  the  geologic  evidence  for  plate  tec- 
tonics (the  "drifting"  of  continents  through 
time)  became  overwhelming,  he  finally 
gave  in,  but  with  great  reluctance.  He  will 
be  best  remembered  for  his  beautifully 
written  and  closely  argued  books,  such  as 
The  Meaning  of  Evolution,  Tempo  and 
Mode  in  Evolution,  and  The  Major  Fea- 
tures of  Evolution.  Also  of  enduring  inter- 
est is  a  book  he  wrote  early  in  his  career. 
Attending  Marvels,  a  superb  account  of  his 
first  expedition  to  Patagonia,  the  land 
where  Darwin  himself  had  excavated  fos- 
sils of  a  giant  ground  sloth. 

Simpson  was  a  leader,  along  with  Emst 
Mayr  (who  was  for  many  years  at  the 
American  Museum  and  is  now  at  Har- 
vard), in  the  movement  known  as  evolu- 
tionary synthesis.  During  the  late  1940s, 
this  new  interpretation  of  Darwinism  at- 
tempted to  combine  the  findings  of  mod- 
em paleontology,  systematics,  animal  be- 
havior, and  population  genetics  into  an 
integrated,  or  "synthetic,"  discipline. 

Although  he  was  a  deeply  contempla- 
tive thinker  and  a  superb  theorist,  Simpson 
did  not  dwell  in  an  ivory  tower.  He  was 
very  much  a  field  man  who  spent  many 
seasons  in  the  fossiliferous  badlands  of 
North  and  South  America,  collecting  the 


George  Gaylord  Simpson 

AMNH 


66    Natural  History  5/94 


fossils  on  which  he  based  his  descriptive 
research  and  his  paleontological  conclu- 
sions. Afterward,  he  spent  untold  hours  in 
the  laboratory,  carefully  smdying  the  fos- 
sils that  he  and  other  paleontologists  had 
collected. 

Like  Osbom  and  Matthew,  Simpson 
wrote  about  the  evolution  of  horses.  But  in 
contrast  to  Osbom's  sweeping  and  rela- 
tively simple  (unilineal)  view  of  equid 
evolution,  he  dehneated  a  complex  history 
that  involved  several  evolutionary  Unes, 
progressing  from  woodland  browsers  to 
high-plains  grazers.  As  Simpson  put  it, 
'TEvolution  doesn't  move  in  straight  lines, 
but  the  minds  of  some  scientists  do."  In 
developing  these  studies,  he  was  in  many 
respects  following  the  path  that  Matthew 
had  taken  some  decades  earUer. 

Two  lines  of  research  by  Sunpson  de- 
serve particular  mention.  One  was  exem- 
plified in  his  two  thorough  monographs 
about  all  the  Mesozoic  mammals  known 
at  the  time  he  was  entering  upon  his  re- 
markable paleontological  career.  His  other 
research  was  his  detailed  study  of  the  clas- 
sification of  all  mammals — both  living 
and  extinct — a  long-term  project  that  es- 
tabhshed  him  as  an  authority  on  the  rather 
legahstic  subject  of  animal  taxonomy. 

Most  of  his  scientific  career  was  spent  at 
the  American  Museum,  but  in  1959  he 
moved  to  Harvard.  His  final  years  were 
spent  in  Tucson,  Arizona,  where  he  was 
associated  with  the  University  of  Arizona. 

Today  the  study  of  organic  evolution  at 
the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History 
is  in  its  second  century  of  research  and  the 
four  men  are  now  historical  figures.  The 
contemporary  effort,  involving  modem, 
expanded  techniques  at  paleontological 
sites  around  the  world  and  modem  sophis- 
ticated studies  in  the  laboratory,  is  a  pro- 
jection of  the  seminal  research  by  Osbom, 
Matthew,  Gregory,  and  Simpson,  who 
through  three-quarters  of  a  century  estab- 
lished the  Museum  as  a  world  center  for 
evolutionary  fact  and  theory.  Theirs  were 
lasting  contributions  to  our  knowledge  of 
the  history  of  life. 

Edwin  H.  Colbert,  for  many  years  chair- 
man of  the  American  Museum's  Depart- 
ment of  Vertebrate  Paleontology,  knew 
and  worked  with  the  great  paleontologists 
he  writes  about.  (He  began  his  career  in 
J  930  as  an  assistant  to  Henry  Fairfield 
Osbom.)  Now  curator  of  vertebrate  pale- 
ontology at  the  Museum  of  Northern  Ari- 
zona, he  lives  in  Flagstaff  with  his  wife, 
Margaret — the  daughter  of  paleontologist 
William  Diller  Matthew. 


MOROCCO 

The  Road  of  the 
Thousand  Kasbahs 

September  24  - 
October  8, 1994 


Few  places  evoke  images  of  such  exotic  splendor  as  the  North  African  coun- 
try of  Morocco.  With  opulent  cities  replete  with  minarets,  mosques,  palaces 
and  souks,  ancient  kasbahs  filled  with  colorfully  robed  Berbers  and  starkly 
beautiful  landscapes,  Morocco  is  a  feast  for  the  senses. 

This  September,  an  American  Museum  guest  specialist  in  Islamic  studies  will 
lead  an  exciting  trip  to  the  exotic  cities,  towns  and  desert  villages  of  Morocco. 
We  will  visit  such  fabled  and  exotic  cities  as  Marrakesh,  Fes  and  Meknes, 
while  also  seeing  a  very  different  Morocco  as  we  explore  the  Sahara  Desert, 
the  Atlas  Mountains  and  the  walled  adobe  villages  of  the  renowned  Road  of 
the  Thousand  Kasbahs. 

American 
Museum  of 
Natural 
History 

Discovery  Tours 


Central  Park  West  at  79th  St. 

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Toll-free  (800)  462-8687  or 

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67 


This  Land 


Bonaventure  Island, 
Quebec 


by  Robert  H.  Mohlenbrock 


Flat-topped,  sheer-sided  Perce  Rock 
protrudes  into  tiie  Gulf  of  Saint  Lawrence 
on  the  eastern  edge  of  Quebec's  Gaspe 
Peninsula.  During  high  tide,  it  stands  iso- 
lated from  the  mainland,  but  at  low  tide, 
one  can  reach  it  by  walking  across  a  400- 
yard  stretch  of  exposed,  slippery  rocks. 
Looming  out  of  the  water  three  miles  east 
of  Perce  Rock  is  another  landmass.  This  is 
Bonaventure  Island,  internationally 
known  for  its  colony  of  nesting  gannets. 


Perce  Rock  lies  off  the  eastern  shore  of 
the  Gaspe  Peninsula.  Above,  right:  A 
gannet  uses  seaweed  to  build  its  nest  on 
Bonaventure  Island. 

Victoria  Hurst;  First  Ligtit 

68    Natural  History  5/94 


Along  with  Perce  Rock,  it  was  designated 
a  provincial  conservation  park  in  1985 
under  the  management  of  the  Quebec  De- 
partment of  Recreation,  Game,  and  Fish. 

According  to  geologist  H.  W.  McGer- 
rigle,  Perce  Rock  consists  of  layers  of 
hmestone  deposited  by  the  sea  about  375 
million  years  ago.  Its  seaward  side  ends  in 
a  low,  wide  arch  that  creates  a  huge  win- 
dow through  the  rock.  Two  hundred  feet 
beyond  is  a  separate  pillar  of  rock,  or  "sea- 
stack."  This  pillar  was  also  once  con- 
nected to  Perce  Rock  by  an  arch,  but  the 
arch  collapsed  in  1845.  According  to 
sailors'  reports  from  about  1600,  there 
once  was  a  series  of  four  arches.  The  one 
that  remains  should  last  a  few  hundred 
more  years,  according  to  McGerrigle. 

Bonaventure  Island  is  reached  by  ferry 
from  the  village  of  Perce,  nestled  beneath 
nearby  mainland  chffs.  Because  of  the  se- 
vere winters  and  persistence  of  ice  in  the 
gulf  long  into  spring,  the  ferry  operates 
only  from  mid- June  to  mid-September. 
Traveling  there  in  August,  I  was  fortunate 
to  visit  Bonaventure  Island  accompanied 
by  naturalist  Lucie  Lagueux,  author  of  a 
popular  booklet  about  the  gannets.  In  a 
half-hour  ride,  the  ferry  crossed  the  three 
miles  of  open  water  from  the  mainland 
and  then  slowly  circled  the  island  in  a 
clockwise  direction  before  docking  on  the 
west  side,  facing  Perce. 

As  the  ferry  passed  the  cliffs  on  the 
north  and  northeast  sides  of  the  island, 
countiess  seabirds  filled  the  air  above  and 
in  front  of  the  rock.  Most  were  gannets  out 
for  their  morning  fishing  expedition,  but 
we  also  saw  black-legged  kittiwakes, 
black  guillemots,  double-breasted  cor- 
morants, great  black-backed  gulls,  herring 
gulls,  razorbills,  and  common  murres.  A 


very  small  colony  of  common  puffins  also 
nests  on  the  island,  but  we  saw  none  on  the 
day  I  was  there.  From  the  ferry  we  could 
see  that  every  possible  surface  on  the  is- 
land's upper  rocky  terraces  was  covered 
by  white,  nesting  birds.  Lucie  Lagueux  es- 
timated that  there  were  about  21,000  gan- 
net pairs,  roughly  20  percent  of  the  known 
world  population  of  this  species. 

The  ferry  docks  on  the  western  side  of 
the  island,  where  the  slope  to  the  water  is 
gentle  enough  for  passengers  to  disem- 
bark. A  fishing  community  was  estab- 
Ushed  here  during  the  seventeenth  century. 
A  few  abandoned  buildings  and  other  evi- 
dence of  this  settlement  remain.  Most  of 


the  area  around  the  landing  site  has  been 
cleared,  and  the  vegetation  consists  of 
weedy  plants  introduced  through  human 
disturbance — milfoil,  wild  parsnip,  bur- 
dock, vetch,  and  timothy  grass. 

All  around  the  island  is  a  narrow  strip  of 
open,  rocky  terrain  with  primarily  arctic 
flora,  known  locally  as  the  natural  prairie. 
Most  likely,  these  arctic  species  were  dri- 
ven southward  during  the  last  Ice  Age  and 
were  left  behind  after  the  glaciers  receded, 
about  10,000  years  ago.  They  include  a 
tiny  whitlow  grass  mustard,  three-toothed 
cinquefoil,  the  live-forever  saxifrage,  bis- 
tort, and  a  wild  iris.  While  most  of  the  is- 
land is  covered  by  a  boreal  coniferous  for- 


est, the  natural  prairie  survives  because  it 
is  undisturbed  and  because  there  is  not 
enough  soil  for  forest  trees  to  gain  a 
foothold. 

Several  trails  lead  from  the  dock  up 
through  the  moist,  cathedrallike  forest  to 
the  north-facing  cliffs  where  the  gannets 
nest.  Balsam  fir  and  white  spruce  ars  the 
dominant  conifers,  and  they  grow  so 
densely  that  sunlight  rarely  reaches  the 
moss-covered  forest  floor.  Many  kinds  of 
wildflowers,  all  adapted  to  living  in  a 
poorly  lighted  and  very  moist  environ- 
ment, grow  up  through  the  carpet  of 
mosses.  Among  them  are  goldthread,  pur- 
ple wood  sorrel,  twinflower,  one-flowered 


Geny  Ellis 

wintergreen,  bunchbeiry,  and  lady-slipper. 
Most  have  green  leaves  and  use  the  sun's 
energy  in  photosynthesis.  Some  of  the 
plants,  however,  such  as  Indian  pipe  and 
coralroot  orchid,  lack  chlorophyll  and  live 
entirely  off  the  rich  organic  matter  that  ac- 
cumulates on  the  forest  floor. 

As  we  cUmbed  the  trail  upward  through 
the  firs  and  spruces,  the  great  commotion 
of  nesting  gannets  became  louder  and 
louder.  Suddenly  the  forest  ended,  and  we 
were  standing  on  a  fifty-foot-wide  grassy 
strip  that  was  all  that  separated  us  from  the 
rocky  terrace  at  the  edge  of  the  cliff.  On 
this  terrace  were  the  most  birds  I  had  ever 
seen  in  one  place,  with  scarcely  any  rock 


69 


Joe  LeMonnier 


Bonaventure  Island 

For  visitor  information  write: 

Bonaventure  Island  Park 

Quebec  Department  of  Recreation, 

Game,  and  Fish 

C.  P.  310,  Perce,  Quebec  GOC  2L0  Canada 

(418)  782-2240 


showing  between  adjacent  nests.  The  park 
service  permits  visitors  to  come  to  a  fence 
not  more  than  six  feet  from  the  nearest 
nesting  birds.  There  is  also  a  sturdy,  forty- 
foot-tall  observation  platform  that  pro- 
vides an  overall  view  of  the  spectacle. 

Gannets  are  large,  soft-looking  birds 
with  dark  bills  and  legs.  A  patch  of  yellow- 
brown  on  the  back  of  the  head  is  all  that 
marks  the  otherwise  white,  downy 
plumage.  An  adult  gannet  weighs  about 
seven  pounds.  When  spread,  its  wings 
span  a  little  more  than  five  feet.  The  birds 
I  saw  nesting  were  at  least  five  or  six  years 
old,  the  age  of  sexual  maturity  for  a  gan- 
net. Younger  gannets  congregate  on  the 
rocks  at  the  base  of  the  cliffs,  practicing 
their  diving  and  fishing  skills  and  learning 
the  techniques  of  social  behavior  that  they 
will  need  when  they  are  sexually  mature. 

The  adults,  which  pair  for  life,  arrive  in 
early  April  from  their  wintering  grounds 
in  Florida  and  Mexico.  They  soon  begin 


Pointe-Saint-Pierre 


Cap-d'Espoir 


Perce  Rock 


Bonaventure 
Island 


5  Miles 
1 


Unlike  most  flowering  plants,  Indian  pipe 
lacks  green  leaves  for  photosynthesis. 


building  their  nests  of  grass  on  the  bare 
rock.  Each  site  is  about  twenty-nine  and  a 
half  inches  in  diameter,  separated  from  ad- 
jacent nests  by  no  more  than  two  inches. 
Mid- April  is  the  mating  season,  and  it  be- 
gins with  the  art  of  fencing,  in  which  a 
male  and  female  carry  out  a  ritual  of  cross- 
ing beaks. 

The  female  lays  a  single  white  egg  in 
early  May,  and  incubation  lasts  for  forty- 
three  days,  with  the  female  and  the  male 
alternating  shifts  every  thirty  to  thirty-six 
hours.  When  the  parent  that  is  incubating 
the  egg  wants  to  leave  the  nest,  it  signals 
its  partner  to  return  by  pointing  its  beak 
straight  up. 

The  egg  hatches  about  the  third  week  in 
June.  The  hatchling  is  black,  naked,  and 
blind,  but  within  three  weeks,  it  weighs 
two-thirds  as  much  as  the  adult.  At  seven 
weeks,  the  chick  actually  outweighs  the 
adult  by  two  pounds.  After  exercising  its 
wings,  it  takes  its  first  flight  from  the  cUff, 
landing  in  the  sea.  This  action  is  so  ex- 
hausting, and  the  young  bird  is  so  heavy, 
that  it  is  unable  to  take  off  again  for  a  few 
days.  Instead,  it  swims  away  from  the  is- 
land, surviving  on  its  excess  fat  and  some 
fish.  During  this  time  some  60  percent  of 
the  fledglings  perish. 

Young  gannets  that  survive  the  fledg- 
Ung  stage  usually  start  on  their  migration 
south  in  September,  before  stormy 
weather  sets  in.  Adults  stay  longer,  feed- 
ing on  the  abundant  fish  and  perhaps  lin- 
gering over  the  late-hatching  chicks  (most 
of  which  are  doomed  to  perish).  The  adults 
begin  the  long  journey  southward  about 
the  middle  of  October,  and  the  last  ones 
are  gone  a  few  weeks  later.  Interestingly, 
the  adults  leave  Bonaventure  Island  as 


Thomas  A.  Schneider 


pairs,  but  the  males  overwinter  on  the  Gulf 
Coast  of  Mexico,  while  the  females  gener- 
ally go  to  the  Atlantic  coast  of  Florida. 

The  gannets'  breeding  cycle  meshes 
with  the  seasonal  distribution  of  the  fish 
on  which  the  birds  feed.  Gannets  arrive  at 
Bonaventure  Island  in  the  spring,  pre- 
cisely when  large  numbers  of  herring  are 
spawning  in  the  nearby  waters.  The  hatch- 
ing of  the  gannet  eggs  coincides  with  the 
spawning  of  another  fish,  the  capulin. 
Adult  gannets  feed  upon  the  capulin,  then 
regurgitate  some  of  the  food  for  their 
young.  They  continue  by  feeding  them  on 
mackerel,  which  subsequently  appear  in 
abundance.  Then,  just  as  the  young  are 
fledging,  a  second  large  population  of  her- 
ring arrives. 

During  the  late  1960s,  the  hatching  suc- 
cess rate  for  gannets,  normally  75  percent, 
fell  to  half  that.  Scientists  from  the  Cana- 
dian Wildlife  Service  discovered  that 
DDT,  ingested  by  birds  from  contami- 
nated fish,  was  being  stored  in  the  bird's 
fat  and  ultimately  causing  a  calcium  defi- 
ciency in  the  eggshells.  Thus  weakened, 
many  of  the  shells  would  break.  When 
DDT  was  eventually  eliminated,  the 
hatching  rate  returned  to  normal.  Nonethe- 
less, the  large  gannet  colony  at  Bonaven- 
ture Island  must  always  be  monitored  for 
oil  spills,  PCB  contamination,  and  other 
environmental  pollutants.  A  major  disaster 
here  could  wipe  out  up  to  one-fifth  of  the 
birds'  total  population. 

This  month,  Robert  H.  Mohlenbrock,  pro- 
fessor emeritus  of  plant  biology  at  South- 
em  Illinois  University,  Carbondale,  takes 
a  northern  holiday  from  his  usual  beat,  the 
156  U.S.  national  forests. 


70    Natural  History  5/94 


The  Marl^t 


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order)  to  Cygnus  Graphic,  Box  32461 -N,  Phoenix,  AZ 
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FOR  DISCERNING  DINOSAUR  ENTHUSIASTS: 
Fossil  Dust  Notecards,  10  cards/envelopes  expertly 
designed.  $8,95/$2,00  S&H,  1042  15th  Ave.  Long- 
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L  I'ahuloii.s  Wooden 

fir' Jigsaw  Puzzles 

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you.  Exceptional  gifts!  $120  and  up 
Send  for  free  literature 

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RFD#1,Box501-NH4. 


(802)  436-3006 
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NATURAL  GEMSTONES.  Pricelists  $3,00  refundable 
with  first  order.  Carat  Patch.  Box  1799,  College  Sta- 
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NEW!  FLUTTERBY  BUTTERFLY  FEEDER.  Put 
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Miscellaneous 


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friendships.  Send  age,  interests.  Fre 
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Rentals 


FRANCE  LES  EYZIES,  Dordogne  15th  century  stone 
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HEAVEN:  secluded,  modern,  lakeside  cottage; 
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Maine  04984  (207)778-6961 


Tours/Trips 


Mask  sellers  model  their  wares  in  India. 

Doranne  Jacobson 


ADVENTURE  CALLING!  Outstanding  wildlife  safaris 
in  Kenya.  Tanzania,  Botswana,  Rwanda.  Zimbabwe  & 
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AFFORDABLE  AFRICAN  ADVENTURES: 
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71 


Hie  Marl^t 


£icf}ior£  ^cunAors 


Hike  deep  into  the  Amazon  rainforest  on  a 
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Dept.  NH.  Box  915,  Ithaca,  NY  14851.  (607)  257- 
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AFRICA:  Personalized  safaris  in  East  and  Southern 
Africa  featuring  Ranch/Private  Home  Safaris.  Box  49, 
Mt.  Tremper.  NY  12457  1-800-724-1221. 

ALLAGASH  CANOE  TRIPS.  Maine  and  Canada. 
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families,  teens.  Box  71 3H.  Greenville,  ME  04441 
(207)  695-3668. 


GALAPAGOS 


You,  9  other  adventurers  and  our  licensed 
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Inca  Floats    510-420-1550 
1 311  -N  63rd  St.,  Emeryville  CA  94608 


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AMAZON  RAINFOREST  EXPLORATION  with  natu- 
ralist guide.  Stay  at  beautiful  lodge/deep  jungle  camp. 
Affordable  rates,  small  groups/independent  travelers. 
Free  brochure  (800)  765-5657  Sol  International, 
13780  S.W.  56th  St.  107.  Miami  FL  33175 

ARCTIC,  EAST  ASIAN  RUSSIA.  Fnendly.  safe,  un- 
usual. Native  peoples,  wildlife,  beauty.  Local  guides. 
Summer  cruises  from  Nome.  Alaska.  Information. 
Chukotka-Alaska  Inc..  Box  990,  Nome,  Alaska  99762, 
(8001-416-4128. 


ALASKA  •  GALAPAGOS 

ARCTIC  •  RUSSIA  •  ANTARCTICA 

AUSTRALIA  •  PATAGONIA 


Quality  Natural  History  6  Photography 
Trips  -  20  Years  Experience 

BIOLOGICAL  JOURNEYS 

1696N  Ocean  Dr..  McKinleyville,  CA  95521 
800-548-7555  or  707-839-0178 


AUSTRALIA/NEW  ZEALAND  WALKABOUTS: 
Nature,  Hiking  and  the  Outdoors.  Enjoying  hiking  and 
camping  safaris,  lodge  stays,  and  island  resorts  in 
New  Zealand's  scenic  National  Parks  and  Milford 
Track;  Australia's  Outback,  Tropical  North,  and  Great 
Barrier  Reef.  Pacific  Exploration  Co.,  Box  3042-N, 
Santa  Barbara,  CA  93130  (805)  687-7282 

BHUTAN:  "Kingdom  in  the  Sky,"  exotic  Shangri-La  — 
untouched  nature,  abundant  wildlife,  dazzling  peaks, 
ancient  cultures.  Journey  into  an  enchanted  realm. 
Forum  Travel,  91  Gregory  (#21),  Pleasant  Hill,  CA 
94523.   (510)671-2900. 

COSTA  RICA  &  Central  America.  National  Parks,  wild- 
life, birdwatching,  rafting,  beaches.  Weekly  departures. 
Free  brochures.  Terra  Adventures.  70-15  Nansen  St., 
Forest  Hills.  NY  11375.  (800)  53-TERRA. 

DINOSAUR  DIGS.  Be  part  of  a  team  that  excavates 
dinosaur  fossils  for  the  Royal  Tyrrell  Museum.  Unfor- 
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berta badlands.  July  1  -  Sept.  5.  Adults  $75.  Youth 
$50.  Reservations  recommended.  Contact:  Bookings 
Officer.  Royal  Tyrrell  Museum,  Box  7500  Drumheller, 
AB,  Canada  TOJ  OYO  (403)  823-7707. 


DISCOVER  MEXICO'S  COPPER  CANYON.  Costa 
Rica,  more  with  The  California  Native.  Call  1-800- 
926-1 1 40  for  free  newsletter. 

GALAPAGOS  -  AMAZON.  Best  choice  of  cruises: 
Luxury  to  Economy.  Weekly  departures.  Free 
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est Hills.  NY   11375.  (800)  53-TERRA. 


ALASKA  WHALES 


As  featured  on  NBC,  ABC,  Notional  Geographic , . . 
Explore  Alosko  and  work  with  whales  on  on  exlro- 
ordinary  10  day  expedition  aboard  a  classic  126' 
yacht.  P.O.  Box  1106E,  Camiel  Valley,  CA  93924 
(408)  659-580Z 

Intersea  Research,  Inc.  since  1976 


GALAPAGOSI  —  Excellent  boats,  small  groups,  natu- 
ralist guides.  In-depth  natural  history  and  photo  tnps 
include  mainland  Ecuador  and  optional  Amazon  Basin 
extension.  Voyagers,  Dept.  NG,  Box  915,  Ithaca,  NY 
14851.   (607)257-3091 

GALAPAGOS.  Specializing  in  comprehensive,  pro- 
fessionally-led. natural  history  and  photo  tours  of  the 
Galapagos  Islands.  Monthly  departures/12  passen- 
ger yachts.  Galapagos  Travel,  P.O.  Box  1220.  San 
Juan  Baulista.  CA  95045.  (800)969-9014. 


IRIAN  JAYA 

VENTURE  INTO  THE  STONE  AGE  ! 

Visit  the  Asmat  and  Dani  tribes 
witti  renowned  adventurer 

Magnus  Andersson 

WILDERNESS  TRAVEL   1-800-368-2784 


GALAPAGOS  ISLANDS  tours  since  1979.  Mainland 
Ecuador/Peru/Bolivia  options.  Joseph  Colley,  LAST 
Inc.  43  Millstone.  Randallstown.  MD  21133  (410) 
922-3116 

GREEK  ISLES,  TURKEY  COSTA  RICA,  Guatemala, 
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Syria,  Egypt,  Scotland,  England,  Ecuador,  Galapagos, 
Australia,  New  Zealand  and  many  more.  Small  group 
holidays  for  all  ages.  Call  for  brochure  and  itineraries. 
Adventures  Abroad  1-800-665-3998,  24  hours. 

HIMAL.AYA!  Month-long  treks  in  the  mountains  of  India. 
Unbeatable  experiences,  unbeatable  prices.  Hit  the  trail 
to  adventure!  Free  brochure.  Tenzing  Travel  P.O.  Box 
61 ,  New  York,  NY  1 0009  (212)  491  -4437 

INDIA,  NEPAL,  TIBET  THAILAND,  BORNEO,  In- 
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color  catalogs.  Himalayan  Travel,  112  Prospect  St.. 
Stamford,  Ct  06901 .  (800)225-2380.  24  hours. 


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LAOS*  BU/ZniA 


BaLder- 

Natural  Hislnrw 


Wildlife 


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INDONESIA!  Off-the-touhst-track  travel  highlighting 
the  cultures  and  arts  of  this  beautiful  archipelago. 
Explore  the  "real  Indonesia"  on  one  of  our  small- 
group  adventures.  We  also  offer  custom  itinerary 
planning  services.  Brochure:  Passport  to  Indonesia, 
Inc.  2731  Tucker.  Los  Alamitos,  CA  90720  (800) 
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MACHU  PICCHU  &  South  America.  Trekking  the  Inca 
Trail.  Amazon.  Patagonia.  Guaranteed  departures  / 
customized  itineraries.  Free  brochures.  Terra  Adven- 
tures, 70-15  Nansen  St.,  Forest  Hills,  NY  11375. 
(800)53-TERRA. 


UNIQUE  DESTINATIONS 

30  adventure  and  naturalist  itineraries: 
nomads,  tribal  peoples,  festivals,  wildlife. 

AFRICA,  INDONESIA.  INDIA,  SOUTH  AMERICA 

TURTLE  TOURS,  INC. 

Box  #1147/  Dept  NH,  Carefree,  AZ  85377 
Tel:  (602)  488-3688     Fax:  (602)  488-3406 


NEW  ACTIVE  TRAVEL  RESOURCE  GUIDE.  Con- 
tains all  trips  (Biking.  Hiking,  Rafting,  Paddling,  Pho- 
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$12.95  to  Ultimate  Ventures,  PO  Box  243-NH,  Hills- 
dale, NY  12529 

SOLAR  ECLIPSE  November  3.  Camping  in  southern 
Peru,  best  view  point.  Continue  with  trekking  the  Inca 
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Nansen  St.,  Forest  Hills  NY  11375.  (800)53- 
TERRA. 


DIG  FOR  DINOSAURS 


ExcaVacation:  1,  2,  or  3  weeks 
in  July  at  Dragon's  Grave,  WY. 
Expert  instruction  andthechance 
to  do  serious  field  work. 
University  of  New  Orleans 
504-286-7100 


SOUTH  &  CENTRAL  AMERICA:  Overland  &  natural 
history  tours,  Amazon,  Galapagos,  Andean  trekking. 
Free  color  catalog.  Himalayan  Travel.  (800)225- 
2380. 

TREAD  LIGHTLY  to  the  Amazon,  Belize,  Mongolia 
and  more.  Our  wholesale  airfares  are  light  on  your 
wallet  too.  1-800-643-0060  (203)868-1710 


Rates  and  Style  Information 

$3.90  per  word:  1 6  word  minimum.  Display  classified 
is  $425  per  inch.  All  advertisements  must  be  prepaid. 
Rates  are  not  structured  for  agency  or  cash  dis- 
counts. All  advertisements  are  accepted  at  NAT- 
URAL HISTORY'S  discretion.  Send  check/money 
order  to:  The  Market/NATURAL  HISTORY  Maga- 
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at  the  above  address.  Please  include  your  personal 
address  and  telephone  number,  issue  preferred,  and 
suggested  category.  Deadline — 1st  of  the  month, 
two  months  prior  to  cover  date. 


72    Natural  History  5/93 


Celestial  Events 


Ring  of  Fire 


by  Gail  S.  Cleere 

A  total  solar  eclipse  is  perhaps  the  most 
spectacular  celestial  event,  but  unfortu- 
nately, at  any  given  location,  it  is  very  rare: 
the  next  one  visible  in  the  continental 
United  States  will  occur  on  August  21, 
2017.  (In  all  of  recorded  history,  the  sun 
has  never  been  totally  echpsed  over  Wash- 
ington, D.C.,  where  I  write.)  On  May  10, 
however,  the  next  best  thing,  an  annular 
solar  eclipse,  will  occur  as  the  moon 
passes  in  front  of  the  sun  without  com- 
pletely covering  it.  The  result  wiU  be  a 
brilliant  ring  of  sunlight  surrounding  the 


black  disk  of  the  moon.  Starting  in  the  Pa- 
cific Ocean,  south  of  the  Hawaiian  Islands, 
the  annularity  will  be  visible  along  a  150- 
mile-wide  swath,  extending  across  the 
United  States,  from  New  Mexico  to 
Maine,  before  it  crosses  the  Atlantic  and 
ends  in  Morocco. 

Solar  eclipses  can  occur  only  during  the 
new  moon,  the  only  time  of  the  month  that 
the  moon  and  the  sun  are  in  the  same  part 
of  the  sky.  Solar  eclipses  do  not  occur 
every  month  because  the  orbits  of  the 
earth,  moon,  and  sun  are  not  in  the  same 


plane.  The  moon's  orbit  is  tilted  by  5°  in 
relation  to  the  earth's  orbit  around  the  sun, 
so  during  the  new  moon  phase,  the  moon 
is  usually  slightly  above  or  below  the  sun. 
Only  rarely  does  it  pass  directly  in  front  of 
the  sun.  A  minimum  of  two  solar  eclipses 
(total,  annular,  or  partial)  occur  every 
year;  the  maximum  is  five. 

A  further  complication  is  that  the 
moon's  orbit  is  not  perfectly  round.  When 
the  moon  is  near  perigee,  its  closest  dis- 
tance to  the  earth,  its  disk  is  just  large 
enough  to  cover  the  entire  sun.  (By  coinci- 


The  times  given  represent  the  moment  of  maximum  eclipse  and  are  shown  in  eastern  daylight  time  (adjust  for  local  time). 


73 


Roy  Chapman 
Andrews  would 
be  proud  of  our 
new  Museum 
Expedition  Hat" 


For  125  years,  scientists 
from  the  American  Museum 
of  Natural  History  have 
braved  harsh  elements, 
rugged  terrain,  and  the  blaz- 
ing sun  in  their  quest  to 
unlock  the  earth's  mysteries. 
In  their  explorations  around 
the  globe,  they  would  don 
this  distinctive,  wide- 
brimmed  canvas  hat  for  pro- 
tection and  comfort.  Now, 
for  the  explorer  in  all  of  us, 
this  classic  Museum  head- 
gear can  be  yours. 


Worn  by  such 
legendary  Museum 
explorers  as  Roy 
Chapman  Andrews 
—  said  to  be  the 
inspiration  for 
Hollywood's 
"Indiana  Jones"— 
on  his  expeditions 
to  China  and 
Mongolia  in  the 
1920s,  the  rugged 
American  Museum  of  Natural 
History  Expedition  Hat  goes 
anywhere.  It's  made  of  100% 
natural,  double-thick,  pre- 
shrunk  cotton  canvas, 
and  features  a 
3-1/2"  brim, 
brass  grom- 
mets,  and 


a  chin  strap  with  adjustable 
Nexus  cordlock.  It  crushes 
for  easy  travel.  Best  of  all, 
each  purchase  benefits  the 
Museum  and  the  new  expe- 
ditions launched  each  year. 

The  American  Museum 
of  Natural  History 
Expedition  Hat,  $29. 
Add  a  bandanna  or  leather 
hatband  for  $4  each. 
To  order,  call  toll-free: 
1-800-852-0925.  Major 
credit  cards  accepted. 
Sizes  S  -  XXL  available. 
Satisfaction  guaranteed  or 
return  within  30 
days  for  full 
refund. 


American  Museum  of  Nsjtural  History 

Central  Park  West  at  79th  Street,  NY,  NY,  Mli    1-800-852-0925 


dence,  the  sun  is  400  times  farther  away 
from  us  than  the  moon,  but  it  is  also  400 
times  larger  than  the  moon,  so  that  in  the 
sky  the  two  appear  to  have  roughly  the 
same  diameter  This  is  what  makes  solar 
eclipses  so  spectacular.)  During  apogee, 
however,  when  the  moon  is  farthest  from 
us,  its  disk  is  not  large  enough  to  cover  the 
sun  completely,  so  a  ring,  or  annulus,  of 
sunlight  escapes  around  the  edges.  Along 
one  side,  the  ring  is  often  broken  up  into 
bright  points  of  light  by  mountains  on  the 
moon's  surface. 

During  May's  annular  eclipse,  the 
moon's  disk  will  cover  88  percent  of  the 
sun.  Even  12  percent  of  sunshine  in  the 
ring  of  annularity  is  still  a  lot  of  hght,  how- 
ever, and  although  the  sky  will  become 
darker,  it  won't  be  spectacularly  so.  At  the 
height  of  the  eclipse,  the  lighting  will  be 
equivalent  to  that  of  a  heavily  overcast 
day.  What  will  be  striking  is  that  the  edges 
of  shadows  will  get  sharper  (because  Ught 
is  coming  from  a  smaller  source),  and 
hundreds  of  pinhole  images  of  the  sun  will 
be  seen  under  trees  as  the  image  of  the  sun 
is  filtered  through  the  leaves. 

This  effect  can  be  simulated  by  making 
a  pinhole  in  a  card  and  projecting  the 
image  of  the  sun  through  it  onto  a  sheet  of 
paper  This  method  is  one  way  of  viewing 
eclipses  safely.  To  look  at  the  sun  during 
eclipses,  you  need  special  filters  to  protect 
your  eyes  from  its  direct  rays,  which  can 
quickly  cause  permanent  damage.  Be- 
cause all  the  bright  photosphere  of  the  sun 
is  hidden  by  the  moon  in  a  total  solar 
eclipse,  during  totality,  observers  can 
safely  look  directly  at  the  eclipse  with  the 
naked  eye.  Annular  and  partial  ecUpses, 
however,  can  never  be  viewed  safely  be- 
cause some  of  the  solar  surface  remains 
exposed.  If  you  must  look  directly  at  the 
sun,  use  a  rectangular  welder's  glass  of 
shade  number  14,  which  can  be  purchased 
at  hardware  stores  and  welding  supply 
firms.  Welder's  glass  of  lower  shade  num- 
bers are  not  safe  for  solar  viewing.  Nor  do 
gelatin  filters,  color  film,  photographic  fil- 
ters, smoked  glass,  or  sunglasses  offer  any 
protection. 

Viewers  near  the  center  of  the  eclipse 
path  will  see  a  symmetrical  ring  of  sun- 
light around  the  moon,  while  those  near 
the  edges  of  the  track  will  see  the  moon  off 
center  in  the  solar  disk.  At  its  best  near 
Toledo,  Ohio,  the  annular  phase  of  the 
echpse  will  last  six  minutes  and  thirteen 
seconds.  The  rest  of  the  United  States,  as 
well  as  Canada,  Mexico,  Central  America, 
Greenland,  Iceland,  the  Arctic,  and  por- 
tions of  Europe  and  Africa,  will  witness  a 


74    Natural  History  5/94 


partial  solar  eclipse.  In  Hawaii,  the  sun 
will  rise  partially  eclipsed.  For  most  of  Eu- 
rope, the  sun  will  set  eclipsed. 

The  Planets  in  May 

Mercury  is  in  the  evening  skies  during 
the  second  half  of  the  month  and  is  in  a 
good  position  for  Northern  Hemisphere 
observers  just  after  sunset.  On  the  15th, 
Mercury  is  8°  above  the  red  star  Alde- 
baran  in  Taurus.  On  the  30th,  Mercury 
reaches  its  greatest  distance  east  of  the  sun 
for  the  year — a  whopping  23°  east  of  the 
sun.  Now  is  the  time  to  look  for  Mercury 
in  the  western  twihght. 

Venus  shines  at  -3.9  magnitude  just 
after  sunset  in  the  west.  On  the  4th,  it  will 
pass  6°  north  of  the  reddish  star  Alde- 
baran.  On  the  12th  and  13th.  look  for 
Venus  just  above  the  very  young  moon. 
Those  lucky  enough  to  be  in  the  path  of 
annularity  during  the  eclipse  on  the  10th 
should  look  for  Venus  about  30°  to  the  left 
(east)  of  the  sun  as  the  sky  darkens. 

Mars  remains  difficult  to  spot,  low  in 
the  southeast  as  the  sun  rises.  On  the  7th 
and  8th  the  waning  moon  passes  nearby. 

Jupiter  continues  to  dominate  the  night 
sky.  It  rises  a  couple  of  hours  before  sunset 
in  the  southeast  and  travels  across  the 
southern  sky,  setting  just  before  sunrise. 
On  the  nights  of  the  22d  and  23d,  the  gib- 
bous moon  passes  near  Jupiter.  All  month 
long  Jupiter  vies  for  our  attention  with  the 
bright  star  Spica,  which  is  nearby  in  the 
constellation  Virgo. 

Saturn  rises  in  the  east  several  hours 
before  sunrise.  The  planet  is  in  the  constel- 
lation Aquarius.  Look  in  Pisces  for  the 
bright  star  Fomalhaut — from  the  Arabic, 
meaning  "the  fish's  mouth" — ^just  below 
Saturn,  nearly  matching  the  ringed  planet 
in  magnitude.  On  the  5th,  look  for  Saturn 
near  the  waning  crescent  moon  in  the 
predawn  skies. 

Uranus  and  Neptune  remain  in  eastern 
Sagittarius.  Both  are  now  in  their  apparent 
westward  motion  through  the  constella- 
tion— a  function  of  the  earth  overtaking 
them  in  orbital  speed  (all  the  planets  move 
in  an  easterly  direction  through  the  con- 
stellations in  the  sky).  In  dark,  predawn 
skies,  both  planets  can  be  found  with 
binoculars  and  a  detailed  sky  chart,  just 
east  of  the  dense  river  of  stars  forming  the 
Milky  Way.  Facing  Uranus  and  Neptune, 
you  are  looking  toward  the  center  of  the 
galaxy. 

Pluto's  biggest  day  of  the  year  occurs 
this  month,  at  opposition  in  our  nighttime 
skies  on  the  !  7th  in  Libra.  It  is  as  far  from 
the  sun  as  it  can  get  for  the  year,  so  this  is 


the  best  time  for  serious  astronomers  to 
try  observing  Pluto — the  faintest  planet  in 
the  solar  system. 

The  Moon  reaches  last  quarter  on  the 
2d  at  10:32  a.m.,  EDT;  is  new  on  the  10th 
at  1 :07  P.M.,  EDT;  and  reaches  first  quarter 
at  8:50  a.m.,  EDT,  on  the  18th.  The  moon 
is  fiall  on  the  24th  at  1 1 :39  p.m.,  EDT,  and 
will  produce  the  second  eclipse  of  the 
month.  This  partial  lunar  eclipse  begins  at 
10:38  P.M.,  EDT,  when  the  moon  enters 
the  dark  umbral  shadow  of  the  earth. 
Maximum  eclipse  will  come  at  1 1 :30  P.M., 
EDT,  when  the  lower  quarter  of  the 
moon's  disk  is  covered.  The  moon  will 
leave  the  umbra  at  12:23  a.m.,  EDT. 


The  Eta  Aquarid  meteors,  a  stream  of 
frozen  particles  left  behind  in  the  path  of 
Halley's  comet,  are  best  during  the  hours 
just  after  midnight  on  May  5.  Unfortu- 
nately, moonlight  will  interfere.  They  are 
named  not  for  the  comet  but  for  the  place 
in  the  sky  where  they  seem  to  originate  (a 
dim  star  in  the  faint  constellation  Aquar- 
ius). We  can  expect  to  see  twenty  bright 
meteors  per  hour:  some  bright  yellow; 
some  leaving  long,  glowing  trails.  These 
meteors  were  first  recorded  by  the  Chinese 
in  A.D.  401. 

Gail  S.  Cleere  lives  in  Washington,  D.C., 
and  writes  on  popular  astronomy. 


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75 


Reviews 


Old  Foods  in  the  New  World 


by  John  R.  Alden 


Until  a  decade  or  so  ago,  no  one  thought 
about  ancient  societies  as  having  cuisines. 
Cuisines  were  high  culture,  like  haute  cou- 
ture and  symphony  orchestras.  France  had 
a  cuisine;  so  did  China.  But  that  was  about 
it.  In  the  United  States  people  hved  on 
food  like  barbecue,  baked  beans,  and  com 
on  the  cob,  and  certainly  none  of  that  qual- 
ified as  cuisine.  As  for  the  ancient  world, 
most  of  us  figured  those  folks  were  just 
happy  to  have  a  mess  of  pottage. 

Our  perceptions  have  changed. 
Cuisines  no  longer  follow  formal  reper- 
toires of  ingredients,  recipes,  and  tech- 
niques. They  are  simply  coherent  styles  of 
selecting,  preparing,  flavoring,  presenting, 
and  consuming  food,  and  every  culture, 
region,  social  stratum,  and  ethnic  group  is 


recognized  as  having  a  cuisine  of  its  own. 
Fast-food  is  an  element  of  modem  Ameri- 
can cuisine;  so  are  com  flakes  and,  in  parts 
of  the  country,  com  dogs.  Futhermore,  an- 
cient societies  had  cuisines  too. 

America's  First  Cuisines  describes 
what  three  of  the  New  World's  most  im- 
portant aboriginal  societies — the  Aztecs, 
the  Maya,  and  the  Inca — ate  and  how  they 
went  about  eating  it.  Sophie  Coe,  an  an- 
thropologist and  food  historian  specializ- 
ing in  Latin  America,  chose  these  groups 
for  two  practical  reasons.  First,  of  all  the 
New  World's  disparate  cultures,  these 
three  made  the  greatest  contribution  to  the 
cornucopia  spilling  from  the  shelves  of 
today's  supermarkets  and  filling  the  pages 
of  today's  cookbooks  and  restaurant 


Prehistoric  Mexicans  made  a  protein-fortified  bread  by  soaking 
and  cooking  maize,  a  process  known  as  nixtamalization. 


menus.  Second,  says  Coe,  "that  is  where 
the  information  is."  These  societies  are 
simply  better  known  than  other  New 
World  groups.  Through  contact  period 
chronicles,  Coe  has  reconstmcted  a  fasci- 


America's  First  Cuisines,  by  Sophie  D. 
Coe.  University  of  Texas  Press,  $35.00 
($14.95  paper);  276pp.,  illus. 


nating  picture  of  how  these  prehistoric 
Americans  ate. 

Coe  begins  with  a  summary  of  the  in- 
gredients available  to  each  of  her  three 
groups.  The  list  of  domesticated  animals  is 
surprisingly  short.  In  Mesoamerica  it  in- 
cluded only  dogs,  turkeys,  honeybees,  and 
Muscovy  ducks.  South  America  had  dogs 
and  Muscovy  ducks,  llama  and  alpaca, 
and  the  guinea  pig.  Wild  animals  were  ex- 
tensively utiUzed  by  all  three  New  World 
cultures  (game,  remember,  was  also  im- 
portant in  the  cuisine  of  fifteenth-  and  six- 
teenth-century Europe),  but  in  terms  of 
foods  they  produced,  these  societies  were 
mainly  dependent  on  things  that  grew  in 
the  ground. 

The  New  World's  staple  grain,  grown 
from  southem  Canada  all  the  way  down  to 
the  southem  reaches  of  the  Inca  empire  in 
central  Chile,  was  maize.  Maize  is  just  an- 
other name  for  what  people  in  flie  United 
States  call  com,  but  because  com  is  some- 
times used  to  describe  otiier  cereal  grains, 
the  stuff  that  grows  as  high  as  an  ele- 
phant's eye  in  the  fields  of  Oklahoma  is  in 
Coe's  book  called  maize.  Whatever  its 
name,  this  was  the  most  important  item  in 
Aztec,  Maya,  and  Inca  diets.  Infants  were 
weaned  on  maize,  and  many  aboriginal 


76    Natural  History  5/94 


Americans  ate  it  virtually  every  day  of 
their  lives. 

Maize  was  not  the  New  World's  only 
staple  food.  In  the  humid  tropics,  manioc 
(cassava  root)  was  processed  into  starch 
and  then  made  into  a  sort  of  bread.  It  was 
an  everyday  food  in  a  good  part  of  the 
Central  and  South  American  lowlands,  al- 
though the  Spanish  were  unimpressed 
with  the  product.  ("He  had  a  bit  and  gave 
it  to  us  to  try,"  wrote  one  chronicler,  "and 
we  thought  it  was  terrible.")  Potatoes  and 
siinilar  root  crops — sweet  potatoes,  yams, 
oca,  ullucu,  maka,  and  llakhum — were 
staples  in  the  highland  Andes,  particularly 
at  elevations  where  maize  didn't  grow 
well.  In  all  these  regions,  however,  maize 
was  the  staple  of  choice. 

An  impressive  variety  of  fruits,  greens, 
seeds,  and  vegetables  supplemented  maize 
and  root  crops.  Beans,  squash,  and  toma- 
toes are  the  most  famous  of  these  New 
World  products,  but  the  original  Ameri- 
cans also  domesticated  pineapple,  passion 
fruit,  avocado,  jicama,  peanuts,  quinoa, 
and  a  host  of  less  familiar  foodstuffs.  In 
addition,  New  World  cuisines  were  the 
source  of  three  of  the  modem  world's  most 
important  flavorings:  chocolate,  vanilla, 
and  chili  peppers. 

Although  these  pre-Columbian  peoples 
produced  the  bulk  of  what  they  ate,  they 
were  also  energetic  gatherers.  The  Aztecs 
ate  cactus  fruits  and  the  young  pads  of  the 
nopal,  or  prickly  pear  cactus.  They  col- 
lected water  bugs  and  their  eggs,  maguey 
worms,  freshwater  algae,  and  the  maize 
smut  fungus,  huitlacoche,  which  despite 
its  unappetizing  name  in  English  is  actu- 
ally quite  tasty.  According  to  one  chroni- 
cler, the  Maya  would  eat  anything  that 
didn't  smell  bad  to  them.  The  Inca  were 


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The  Incas  used  llamas  to  transport  maize 
and  potatoes  to  state  warehouses. 


also  adventurous  eaters:  seaweed,  toads, 
lupine  leaves  and  seeds,  caterpillars,  nas- 
turtium blossoms  and  roots,  mayfly  larvae, 
dried  lizards,  and  so  many  kinds  of  greens 
that  the  chronicler  Garcilasco  de  la  Vega 
(1539-1616)  declined  to  even  list  them. 

Coe  supplies  fact  or  anecdote  about 
many  of  the  ingredients.  "Columbus  was 
the  first  European  to  eat  a  pineapple, 
which  he  did  on  November  4, 1493."  "The 
word  tomatl  in  Nahuatl,  the  language  of 
the  Aztecs,  means  something  round  and 
plump."  Drinking  cups  have  been  found  in 
Maya  burials  with  the  glyphs  for  "choco- 
late" written  on  the  vessels'  rims.  During 
one  of  their  festivals,  the  Aztecs  spread 
turkey  eggshells  on  the  streets,  celebrating 
"the  goodness  of  the  god  who  had  given 
them  that  fowl." 

The  book  is  most  interesting,  however, 
when  the  author  goes  beyond  the  ingredi- 
ents and  talks  about  cuisines.  She  focuses 
her  discussion  on  the  features  of  pre- 
Columbian  cuisines  that  are  most  unfamil- 
iar to  us.  First,  because  the  notion  of  a  sta- 
ple food  has  disappeared  from  our  own 
cuisine,  she  repeatedly  emphasizes  the  de- 
gree to  which  the  Aztec,  Maya,  and  Inca 
societies  buUt  their  menus  around  maize. 
Maize  was  eaten  green,  ripe,  and  dried.  It 
was  soaked,  crushed,  ground,  and  fer- 
mented; baked,  boiled,  roasted,  steamed, 
and  popped.  It  may  not  Uterally  have  been 
used  in  every  dish,  but  when  it  was  avail- 
able maize  seems  to  have  appeared  in 
every  meal. 


A  second  characteristic  of  these 
cuisines  is  that  almost  everything  was  fla- 
vored with  chili  peppers.  Readers  who 
have  traveled  in  Mexico  or  Peru  will  be 
aware  of  how  important  hot  peppers  are  in 
these  countries,  but  until  you  have 
watched  people  shake  ground  chile  on  co- 
conut and  pineapple,  eat  chicken  or  turkey 
in  chocolate  and  chili  pepper  sauce,  and 
chew  up  whole  peppers  that  are  too  hot  for 
you  to  even  touch,  you  may  have  difficulty 
appreciating  that  simple  truth.  Even  the 
statement  that  prehistoric  Native  Ameri- 
cans "ate  nothing  without  them"  seems  in- 
adequate. But  Coe  makes  this  point  mem- 
orably by  reporting  that  for  the  original 
inhabitants  of  highland  Mexico  "the  sim- 
plest fast.. .was  to  abstain  from  salt  and 
chili."  The  Spanish  may  have  viewed 
chiles  "as  a  mere  condiment,"  but  to  pre- 
Columbians  they  were  "a  dietary  comer- 
stone,  without  which  food  was  a 
penance." 

America's  first  cuisines,  in  contrast  to 
the  cuisines  of  Europe  and  to  modern 
cuisines  in  general,  were  low  in  fats.  Pre- 
Columbian  diets  included  little  meat  (in 
the  case  of  the  Maya,  so  httle  that  Euro- 
pean observers  "described  Maya  life  as 
perpetual  Lent"),  and  what  meat  the  peo- 
ple got  tended  to  be  lean.  Squash  seeds, 
cacao  beans,  peanuts,  and  avocados  are  all 
good  sources  of  vegetable  oils,  but  these 
were  dietary  supplements  rather  than  sta- 
ples, and  no  pre-Columbian  society  seems 
to  have  extracted  edible  oils  from  such 
sources.  In  addition,  the  diets  of  con- 
quered and  conqueror  alike  were  different 
from  our  diets  today  in  that  the  conquest- 
era  cuisines  regularly  included  starchy  liq- 
uids. 

A  "class  of  foodstuff  that  is  extinct  in 
our  lives  today,"  writes  Coe  about  the 
starch-based  drinks  that  the  Aztecs  called 
atolli,  was  "sold  from  shops  full  of  jars 
large  and  small,  on  the  street  comers  as 
well  as  in  the  market."  She  lists  more  than 
a  dozen  variants  of  this  beverage,  differen- 
tiated by  how  the  basic  maize  was  pre- 
pared and  what  kinds  of  flavorings  or  for- 
tifiers were  added.  The  Maya  mixed 
soured  maize  dough  with  water  to  make 
posolli,  and  also  made  as  many  kinds  of 
atolli  as  their  highland  neighbors.  Andean 
peoples  made  maize-based  drinks  called 
chicha  and  drank  such  hquids  almost  ex- 
clusively. Of  pure  water,  a  seventeenth- 
century  historian  of  the  Inca  Empire, 
Bemabe  Cobo,  commented  that  "there  is 
no  greater  torture  for  [Andean  Indians] 
than  to  make  them  drink  it,  a  punishment 
which  the  Spaniards  inflict  on  them  occa- 


78    Natural  History  5/94 


sionally,  and  which  they  feel  more  than 
blows." 

Two  other  features  of  Aztec  cuisines  de- 
serve to  be  mentioned  here — cacao-based 
drinks  and  cannibalism.  Coe  argues  per- 
suasively that  both  were  more  important 
in  ritual  contexts  than  as  regular  dietary 
items.  The  case  she  makes  is  too  wide- 
ranging  to  recapitulate  in  a  few  sentences, 
but  two  features  of  their  preparation  and 
use  are  striking.  Among  the  Aztecs,  only 
the  men  were  allowed  to  drink  chocolate. 
And  tlacatlaolli,  or  human  stew,  was  one 
of  the  only  Aztec  dishes  not  flavored  with 
chili.  This  feature,  Coe  comments, 
"should  signal  to  us  that  this  was  not  an  or- 
dinary meal  but  a  reUgious  rite." 

Coe  does  not  use  modem  ethnographic 
or  cuhnary  studies  in  her  reconstruction  of 
the  cuisines  that  existed  in  late  fifteenth 
and  early  sixteenth  century  New  World 
societies.  This  is  a  wise  decision.  Much 
can  be  learned  from  such  sources,  but  dis- 
tinguishing introduced  patterns  from  in- 
digenous ones  is  a  difficult  business.  Ln- 
portant  elements  of  the  aboriginal  cuisines 
have  disappeared  (chocolate  drinks  in  the 
Aztec  and  Maya  regions  and  wild  greens 
in  all  three  regions  are  the  most  obvious 
examples),  and  European  ingredients  and 
cooking  techniques  have  spread  into  every 
cuisine  in  Latin  America. 

StUl,  I  wish  she  had  touched  more  upon 
the  archeological  evidence.  Pictures  of  the 
more  obscure  fruits  and  vegetables  and  an 
appendix  summarizing  Latin,  common, 
Spanish,  and  hidian  names  for  the  various 
foods  and  plants  discussed  in  the  text 
would  have  also  been  helpful. 

The  strengths  of  America's  First 
Cuisines,  however,  far  outweigh  any  such 
complaints.  This  book  is  full  of  significant 
insights  and  interesting  asides  about  the 
cuisines  and  cultures  of  the  New  World's 
three  major  indigenous  civilizations,  and  it 
is  as  entertaining  as  it  is  informative.  The 
European  conquest  of  the  New  World  was 
a  catastrophe  for  the  societies  Coe  dis- 
cusses, a  cataclysm  so  fundamental  that  it 
even  changed  the  way  they  ate.  But  the 
changes  went  both  ways.  The  barbecue, 
baked  beans,  and  com  on  the  cob  in  our 
own  cuisine  were  adopted  or  adapted  from 
the  cuisines  of  America's  indigenous  peo- 
ples, and  understanding  where  these  foods 
came  from  makes  them  even  more  enjoy- 
able to  eat. 

A  freelance  book  critic  and  enthusiastic 
eater,  John  R.  Alden  has  done  archeologi- 
cal research  in  Mexico,  Panama,  Peru, 
and  Chile. 


August  30  -  September  11,  1994 


VOYAGE       TO 
ANTIQUITY 

Aboard  Sea  Cloud 


From  classical  Greek  and  Roman  times  through  the  Byzantine 
Empire  to  the  present,  the  eastern  Mediterranean  region  has  exerted 
an  enormous  influence  on  world  history,  art  and  culture. 

This  September,  the  American  Museum  invites  you  to  explore  this 
area's  exotic  cities,  magnificent  landscapes  and  innumerable  rem- 
nants of  its  glorious  ancient  civilizations  with  physical  anthropologist 
Dr.  Ian  Tattersall  and  archeologist  Dr.  David  Soren. 

Beginning  and  ending  with  the  fabled  city  of  Istanbul,  we  will 
explore  western  Turkey's 
incredible  ancient  ruins  and 
thriving  towns,  including 
Ephesus,  Pergamon,  Termessos, 
Troy  and  Antalya,  as  well  as  the 
Greek  island  of  Rhodes  and  its 
superb  acropolis.  Join  us  aboard 
the  Sea  Cloud  for  an  extraordi- 
nary journey  back  in  time. 

American 
Museum  of 
Natural 
History 

Discovery  Tours 

Central  Park  West  at  79th  St. 

New  York,  NY  10024-5192 

Toll-free  (800)  462-8687  or 

(212)  769-5700  in  NYS 


79 


The  Natural  Moment 


A  Prickly 
Encounter 

Photograph  by  Barrie  Wilkins 


On  one  of  his  early  morning  drives 
through  South  Africa's  Kalahari 
Gemsbok  Park,  photographer  Barrie 
Wilkins  encountered  two  adolescent  lions 
worrying  an  African  porcupine  and  her 
youngster  in  the  dry  bed  of  the  Nossob 
River.  Realizing  that  these  burrow- 
dwelling  porcupines  are  rarely  active  in 
the  daytime,  Wilkins  concluded  that  the 


lions  must  have  detained  the  pair  all 
night,  trying  to  get  past  the  sharp,  barbed 
quills  to  a  tasty  meal.  He  also  noticed 
numerous  tracks  that  had  been  made 
during  scuffles  and  near-escapes.  After 
observing  and  photographing  the 
confrontation,  he  returned  to  camp. 
There,  members  of  a  research  team 
confirmed  that  they  had  seen  the  animals 


.■';     \.\\'L:RM,  HisroRY  5/94 


in  the  same  place  the  previous  night. 

During  the  two  hours  Wilkins  spent 
photographing  them  from  his  van,  one  of 
the  young  Uons  Icept  trying  to  flip  the 
smaller  porcupine  so  as  to  reach  its 
unprotected  belly.  The  porcupines, 
however,  always  managed  to  keep  a  row 
of  quills  pointed  at  the  inexperienced 
lions,  no  matter  which  way  they  circled. 


(An  older  lion  might  have  been  able  to 
distract  one  so  that  his  partner  could  flip 
the  other  over.)  Suddenly,  the  mother 
porcupine  charged  one  of  the  cats,  which 
jumped  out  of  the  way  to  avoid  being 
stabbed.  Then  the  standoff  resumed. 

The  lions  occasionally  lost  interest  and 
strolled  away,  but  whenever  the  predators 
had  walked  a  few  yards,  the  porcupines 


tried  to  escape  across  the  river  bed,  and 
the  lions  charged  back  to  reengage  them. 
This  game  continued  until  midmoming, 
accompanied  by  roaring  on  the  part  of  the 
lions,  and  grunting,  hissing,  and  rattling 
of  quills  by  the  porcupines.  Finally,  with 
the  lions  tiring,  the  porcupines  suddenly 
made  a  successful  break  and  reached  a 
safe  burrow  in  the  dunes. — R.  M. 


Authors 


South  African  photographer  Barrie 
Wilkins  (page  80)  has  spent  many  years 
taking  pictures  in  the  Kalahari  Gemsbok 
Park,  which  is  renowned  for  its  lions.  He 
has  exhibited  his  work  worldwide  and  has 
twice  garnered  the  Photographic  Society 
of  America's  Medbury  Award.  The  photo 
in  this  month's  "Natural  Moment"  is  itself 
a  prizewinner,  having  taken  a  first  place  in 
the  British  Gas  Wildlife  Photographer  of 
the  Year  Competition,  organized  by  BBC 
Wildlife  magazine  and  the  Natural  History 
Museum  in  London.  Because  the  South 
African  National  Parks  Board  prohibits 
photographers  in  nature  reserves  from 
stalking  their  quarry  on  foot,  Wilkins 
prowls  the  Gemsbok  Park  in  a  four-wheel- 
drive  van,  with  special  mobile  camera 
brackets  mounted  on  the  window  frame. 
"The  vehicle  acts  as  a  blind,  allowing  rela- 
tively close  access  without  disturbing  the 
creatures,"  he  writes.  Although  his  first 
love  is  the  Kalahari,  Wilkins  has  traveled 
extensively  throughout  southern  Africa 
and  has  also  photographed  Alaska's  bears 
and  Yellowstone's  winter  wildlife.  In 
1986,  he  coauthored  Kalahari  Safari,  a 
photographic  book  on  Kalahari  wildlife. 
He  continues  to  evaluate  and  record  the  in- 
fluence of  the  seasons  on  the  park's  ani- 
mals. The  picture  was  taken  using  a  Canon 
EOS  with  a  600  f4  EF  L  autofocus  lens. 


As  a  teen-ager,  Patricia  Chappie 

Wright  (page  44)  read  Gerald  Durrell's 
books  about  his  adventures  with  animals, 
and  after  graduating  from  coUege  in  the 
late  sixties,  she  acquired  an  owl  monkey 
as  a  pet.  Intrigued  by  its  behavior,  she  was 
inspired  to  go  to  South  America  to  have  a 
look  at  owl  monkeys  in  the  wild.  After  that 
experience,  primatologist  Warren  Kinzey 
convinced  her  to  go  to  graduate  school. 
Now  an  associate  professor  of  anthropol- 
ogy at  the  State  University  of  New  York  at 
Stony  Brook,  Wright  is  a  MacArthur  Fel- 
low and  international  coordinator  of  a  pro- 
ject to  conserve  the  tropical  rain  forest  in 
Madagascar's  Ranomafana  National  Park. 
Her  own  fieldwork  in  Madagascar  has  in- 
cluded studies  of  three  species  of  bamboo 
lemurs  {see  "Lemurs  Lost  and  Found," 
Natural  Histoty,  July  1988)  and,  for  the 
past  eight  years,  the  ecology  and  behavior 
of  diademed  sifakas.  For  more  on  rain 
forests,  she  recommends  John  Terborgh's 
Diversity  and  the  Tropical  Rain  Forest 
(New  York:  Scientific  American  Library, 
1992).  Terborgh  has  also  written  a  book 
specifically  about  Peru's  Cocha  Cashu  Bi- 
ological Station:  Five  New  World  Pri- 
mates (Princeton:  Princeton  University 
Press,  1984). 


"You  try  to  uncover  the  logic  of  nature, 
and  that  logic  is  always  the  same,  wher- 
ever you  find  yourself,"  writes  Bernd 
Heinrich  (page  52),  referring  to  the  effect 
of  insects  on  flower  evolution.  The  idea 
that  bees  and  other  pollinators  shaped  the 
appearance  and  diversity  of  flowers  first 
excited  him  when  he  was  a  graduate  stu- 
dent researching  insects  in  a  Maine  bog. 
Twenty  years  later,  he  releamed  the  evolu- 
tionary lesson  when  he  saw  the  array  of 
similar-looking  red  flowers — including  a 
large  red  buttercup — blooming  in  the 
Judean  desert  near  Jerusalem.  A  professor 
of  zoology  at  the  University  of  Vermont, 
Heinrich  is  a  frequent  contributor  to  Nat- 
ural History.  His  latest  book,  In  the  Maine 
Woods,  will  be  published  by  Addison- 
Wesley  this  fall. 


82    Natural  History  5/94 


AMERICAN  MUSEUM  OF  NATURAL  fflSTORY 


Exploring  the  world  with  expert  lecturers 


CRUISES 

France:  Cruising 
Through  Provence 

June  21  -Julys,  1994 

Voyage  to  Lands  of 
Gods  and  Heroes 

Italy,  Greek  Isles,  Turkey 
June  30  -  July  13,  1994 

Icebreaker  Expedition 
to  the  North  Pole 

July  12-31,  1994 

Alaska's  Inside  Passage 

July  13-22,  1994 

Crossroads  of 
THE  Continents 

Alaska  &  the  Russian 

Far  East 

July  20-30,  1994 

Beyond  the  North  Cape 

Spitsbergen  to  Bergen 
August  6-21,  1994 

Voyage  to  Antiquity 

Turkey  and  the  Greek  Isles 

Aboard  the  Sea  Cloud 
August  30  -  Sept.  11,  1994 

Into  the  Kaleidoscope: 
Islands  of  Indonesia 

Sept.  17 -Oct.  1,  1994 

Crossroads  of  Civilization 

Israel,  Syria,  Greece,  Turkey 
Nov.  17 -Dec.  1,  1994 


DISCOVERY  CRUISES 
AND  TOURS 

The  American  Museum  of  Natural 
History,  a  world  leader  in  scientif- 
ic exploration  throughout  its  125- 
year  history,  created  the  first  muse- 
um educational  travel  program  in 
the  country  in  1953.  Reflecting 
American  Museum  exhibition  and 
research  interests.  Discovery 
Cruises  and  Tours  give  partici- 
pants an  opportunity  to  explore 
some  of  the  world's  greatest 
wildlife  areas,  archeological  sites 
and  exotic  cultural  centers  in  the 
company  of  distinguished  scien- 
tists and  educators.  Each  tour 
reflects  our  commitment  to  further 
the  educational  experience  through 
a  first-hand  understanding  and 
appreciation  of  the  natural  world. 


FAMILY 
ADVENTURES 

Voyage  to  Lands  of 
Gods  and  Heroes 

Italy,  Greek  Isles,  Turkey 

Aboard  the  Daphne 
June  30 -July  13,  1994 

Mexico's  Copper  Canyon 

July  9-16,  1994 

Galapagos  Wildlife  and 

Andean  Highlands 

July  14-25,  1994 

Kenya  Safari 

August  8-21,  1994 


American  Museum  of  Natural  History/Discovery  Cruises  and  Tours 
Central  Park  West  at  79th  St.  New  York,  NY  10024-5192 


TRAIN  TRIPS 

Berlin  to  Istanbul 

May  23  -  June  4,  1994 

Ancient  Turkey 
May  31  -June  12,  1994 

Beijing  to  Moscow 

September  15-30,  1994 

Beijing  to  Hanoi 

Oct.  25  -  Nov.  12,  1994 


LAND  PROGRAMS 

Britain  Lake 
District  Walk 

June  6-16,  1994 

Tibet:  Journey  to  the 
Roof  of  the  world 

September  2-21,  1994 

Morocco:  The  Road  of 
A  Thousand  Kasbahs 

Sept.  24  -  October  8,  1994 

Botswana:  Desert  &  Delta 

Sept.  30  -  October  15,  1994 

Himalayan  Wildlife 

India  and  Nepal 
November  3-21,  1994 

Kenya  Holiday  Safari 

December  1994 

Around  the  World 
by  Private  Jet 

January  19 -Feb.  21,  1995 


(212)  769-5700  in  Nfew  York  or 
Toll-free  (80b)  462-8687 


When  Peruvian  police  seized  some  trea- 
sures plundered  from  a  prehistoric  pyra- 
mid at  Sipan,  archeologist  Walter  Alva 
(page  26)  was  called  in  to  evaluate  them. 
Recognizing  that  a  major  tomb  had  been 
looted,  he  organized  the  subsequent  scien- 
tific excavations  that  have  so  far  revealed 
three  intact  tombs.  A  native  of  Peru,  Alva, 
left,  has  participated  in  numerous  excava- 
tions on  that  country's  north  coast  and  is 
the  director  of  the  Museo  Briining  at  Lam- 
bayeque.  Coauthor  Christopher  B.  Don- 
nan  is  a  professor  of  anthropology  and  di- 
rector of  the  Fowler  Museum  of  Cultural 
History  at  the  University  of  California, 
Los  Angeles.  A  specialist  in  Moche  ico- 
nography, he  participated  in  the  Sipan  ex- 
cavations and  worked  to  identify  the 
priestly  ranks  of  the  tombs'  principal  oc- 
cupants. Alva  and  Donnan  described  the 
discovery  of  the  tombs  and  the  nature  of 
Moche  culture  in  several  articles  that  ap- 
peared in  the  October  1988  and  June  1990 
issues  of  National  Geographic.  They  are 
the  coauthors  of  Royal  Tombs  of  Sipan 
(Los  Angeles:  Fowler  Museum  of  Cultural 
History,  University  of  California,  1993). 


"I've  always  enjoyed  spending  time 
outside,  so  pursuit  of  a  graduate  degree  in 
field  biology  seemed  a  logical  way  to  com- 
bine my  avocation  with  a  possible  voca- 
tion," says  Renee  Godard  (page  36). 
Soon  to  be  assistant  professor  of  biology  at 
Hollins  College  in  Roanoke,  Virginia,  Go- 
dard became  interested  in  the  evolution  of 
communication  as  a  doctoral  student  at  the 
University  of  North  Carolina  at  Chapel 
Hill.  By  studying  one  species,  the  hooded 


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warbler,  in  the  field,  she  began  to  reaUze 
the  intricate  role  song  played  in  the  bird's 
biology.  Most  recently  Godard  has  been 
studying  a  small  population  of  Caribbean 
flamingos  in  the  Galapagos  Islands.  Coau- 
thor Haven  Wiley  earned  his  doctorate  in 
animal  behavior  from  The  Rockefeller 
University  in  New  York.  A  professor  of 
biology  and  ecology  at  the  University  of 
North  Carolina  at  Chapel  Hill,  Wiley  has 
done  extensive  fieldwork  in  South  Amer- 
ica, particularly  in  Venezuela.  But,  he 
says,  "In  the  1980s,  with  a  growing  family, 
I  decided  to  shift  my  field  research  closer 
to  home — and  discovered  that  hooded 


warblers  were  among  the  commonest 
songbirds  in  the  bottomland  forest  near  the 
university."  This  species  proved  to  be  an 
enlightening  one  in  his  study  of  animal 
communication.  Readers  can  find  further 
information  on  the  behavior  and  nesting  of 
warblers  in  Douglass  H.  Morse's  Ameri- 
can Warblers  (Cambridge:  Harvard  Uni- 
versity Press,  1989)  and  Hal  H.  Harrison's 
Wood  Warbler's  World  (New  York:  Simon 
and  Schuster,  1984).  The  Selfish  Gene,  by 
Richard  Dawkins  (Oxford:  Oxford  Uni- 
versity Press,  1990)  introduces  some  of 
the  evolutionary  problems  associated  with 
reciprocity. 


84    Natural  History  5/94 


"I  got 


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take 
home 


size." 

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^^fl^^^H^^I^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^P^^^^^ 

No  compromise  in  a  GMC  Truck.  Industrial  strength  or 
handy  take-home  size,  you  get  full  strength.  As  it  has 
been  through  nearly  a  century:  GMC  Truck,  delivering 
the  strengths  of  trucks. 

What  have  we  done  for  you  lately?  The  1994  GMC 
Sierra,  It's  got  something  you  probably  don 'f  expect 
from  a  truck- refined  road  manners. 


A  vibration-eating  balance  shaft  in  Sierra's  standard 
engine  quiets  your  fears. 

Independent  front  suspension  smothers  road  shock 
before  it  can  reach  you.  While  a  commanding  view  of  the 
road  makes  Sierra  decidedly  uncar-like. 
When  you  look  into  your  next  truck,  look  into  luxuri- 
ous, take-home-sized  industrial  strength.  To  learn  more 


Skeptical?  Understood.  But  put  Sierra  through  its  paces.       about  GMC  Sierra,  call  1-800-GMC  TRUCK. 


WorldCupUSk'Q^ . 

All  Rights  Reserved,  Buckle  up,  America!  1     J«L 


..SIERRA 

-.    ,THE  STRENGTH  OF  EXPERIENCE 


II W  GM  Corp..  GM.  GMC.  GMC  Truck  Sierra  and  ihc  GMC  Truck  logo  .ire  reeislered  tr.idcmarks  or  General  Molors  Corporallc 


""^   o4  "■  1  Oil"  Z  -s*^  ^^o^» 


Textbooks  aren't  all  you'll  find 

in  Dorothy  Dobson's  fourth  grade  social  studies  class. 

There's  also  a  well-chosen 

collection  of  historical  novels  and  all 

the  space  her  young  students  need  to 

bring  history  to  life. 

For  Dorothy,  "memorizing  a  lot  of  dates"  isn't  what's  important.  Instead,  her  students  read 

novels  that  relate  to  the  period  of  history  they're  studying.  After  that,  anything  can  happen.  From 

staged  reenactments  of  important  chapters  to  creating  room-length  murals  that  depict  historic 

times  and  places.  In  short,  any  activity  that  helps  them  "experience"  histQry. 

For  her  creative  approach  to  teaching  social  studies, 
State  Farm  is  honored  to  present  Dorothy  with  our        i^^  =c   ' 
Good  Neighbor  Award,  along  w 
contribution  of  $5,000  in  her  name 
Edith  Bowen  School  on  the  campus 
of  Utah  State  University. 


STATE    FARM 


INSURANCE 


Good 

Neighbor 

Award 

STATE  FARM  INSURANCE  COMPAN 
Home  Offices:  Bloomington,  Illinois 


The  Good  Neighbor  Award  was  developed 
in  cooperation  with  the  National  Council 
for  the  Social  Studies. 


N 

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itti 

^^^^^^/'^^^XH 

J^S^ 


THE  OZONE  LAYER 
HAS  PROTECTED  US 
FOR  1.5  BILLION  YEARS. 

IT'S  TIME  WE 

RETURNED  THE  FAVOR. 

All  V^krysier  l^orporation  venicles  made 


1994  ^ 


since  January,  iqq4  have  air  conditioners 


clitic 


tnat  use  V^r  L--Iree  relrigerants.  i  nanks  to 


saler  substitutes  and  system  redesigns,  we  are 


years  atiead  ol  government  guidelines.  It  s 


all 


just  one  small  step  to  solving  a  problem 


Ivir 


.Ue 


tnat  s    been   nanging   over   all   our   beads. 


CHRYSLER      ^ 
CORPORATION 

Chrysler  •  Plymouth  •  Dodge  •  Dodge  Trucks  •  Jeep*  •  Eagle 


A[  AN  P  Ternes  Editor 

Ellen  Goldensohn  Managing  Editor 

Thomas  Page  Designer 

Board  of  Editors 

Robert  B  Anderson,  Florence  G.  Edelstein, 
Rebecca  B  Finnell,  Jenny  Lawrence. 
ViTTORio  Maestro,  Richard  Milner,  Judy  Rice, 
Kay  Zakariasen  (Pictures) 

Contributing  Editors 

Les  Line,  Samuel  M.  Wilson 

Lisa  Stillman  Copy  Editor 

Peggy  Conversano  Asst.  Designer 

Ellen  Louise  Smith  Editorial  Asst. 

David  Ortiz  Picture  Asst. 

Carol  Barnette  Tevi  Processor 

John  Jeffers 

L  Thomas  Kelly  Publisher 
Bari  S.  Edwards  General  Manager 
Ernestine  Weindorf  A.w/.  to  the  Publisher 
Edward  R.  Buller  Business  Manager 
Gary  Castle  Consumer  Marketing  Director 
Ramon  E.  Alvarez  Direct  Mail  Manager 
Judy  Lee  Asst.  Circulation  Manager 
Brunilda  Ortiz  Asst.  Fulfillment  Manager 
Mark  Abraham  Production  Director 
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John  Matthew  Ravida  Advg.  Prod.  Coordinator 

Advertising  Sales  (212)  ."igQ-SSSS 

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John  Moncure  Advertising  Sales  Director 

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Account  Managers 

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Natural  Hukiry  (ISSN  0028-07 12)  is  published  monlhly  by 
Ihe  American  [Museum  of  Natural  History,  Central  Park  West 
al  79th  Street,  New  York,  N.Y.  10024.  Subscriptions:  $28.00 
a  year.  In  Canada  and  at)  other  countries:  .$37.00  a  year.  Sec- 
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Send  subscription  orders  and  nndeliverablc  copies  to  Ihe  ad- 
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Printed  on  recycled  paper  in  the  USA 


Cover;  A  false-color  electron 
micrograph  of  a  single-celled 
cyanobacterium  (magnified  31,000  times) 
shows  the  laminar  membranes  {wavy, 
parallel  lines)  in  which  photosynthesis 
takes  place.  These  tiny  organisms  began 
releasing  oxygen  billions  of  years  ago, 
thus  kicking  off  the  oxygen  revolution. 
Story  on  page  14.  Photograph  by  A.  B. 
Dowsett;  Science  Photo  Library;  Photo 
Researchers,  Inc. 

4 

The  Cutting  Edge  of 

Evolution 

WouW  Charles  Darwin,  if  he  were  alive 
today,  be  a  geneticist?  an  entomologist?  a 
paleontologist?  a  field  biologist?... or  even 
a  humorist?  The  answer  could  well  be 
"all  of  the  above."  The  authors  of  the 
eighteen  articles  in  this  special  issue  on 
evolution  come  from  diverse  fields.  They 
are,  to  varying  degrees,  all  descendants 
of  Darwin. 

6  The  Power  of  This  View 

of  Life  Stephen  Jay  Gould 

10  The  Origin  of  Life 

Anthony  Mellersh 

14  Life's  Expanding  Reabn 

Andrew  Knoll 


^-^1^^^^^^ 

iy.il    ■:     ■  \i   -/^  '       1  .:;-^'^v-i^\-' 1 

22  One  Giant  Step  for  Life 

KarlJ.Niklas 

26  A  Spinal  Column 

Roger  L.  Welscli 


31 


The  Games  Species  Play 

You  don't  have  to  go  the  Galapagos 
Islands  to  witness  the  working  of 


evolution.  It's  happening  everywhere: 
inside  and  outside  of  organisms, 
between  enemies,  and  among  friends. 

32  Feminist  Bacteria  of 
Ladybird  Beetles  Gregory 

Hurst  and  Michael  Majerus 

36  Genetic  Invasion  of  the 
Insect  Body  Snatchers 

Jack  Werren 

39  Bacteria  Break  the 
Antibiotic  Bank 

John  Maynard  Smith 


2    Natural  History  6/94 


Volume  103,  Number  6,  June  1994 


42  On  Darwin,  Snow,  and 
Deadly  Diseases 

Paul  W.  Ewald 

46  Behind-the-Scenes  Role 
of  Parasites 

John  Jaenike 

49  Overhearing  Cricket 
Love  Songs 

Daniel  Robert  and  Ronald  R.  Hoy 


55 


The  Hard  Evidence 

The  fossil  record  is  fragmented  and 
incomplete,  but  scientists  are  uncovering 
solid  proof  that  the  jerky  process  of 
evolution  by  natural  selection  has  been 
going  on  for  billions  of  years. 

56  On  the  Importance  of 
Nothing  Doing 

Jeremy  Jackson  and  Alan  Cheetham 


60  Survival  of  the  Smallest 

Adrian  M.  Lister 

63  The  Turtle's  Long-Lost 
Relatives 

Michael  Lee 

66  A  Tale  of  Two  Seas 

Nancy  Knowlton 


70 

The  Naked  Ape's  Bit  Part 

Perhaps  a  species  that  has  been  around 
for  such  a  relatively  brief  time  should  not 
be  mentioned  in  this  special  issue,  but  it's 
hard  not  to  look  in  the  mirror. 


72  A  Brave,  New,  Healthy 
World? 

Steve  Jones 

78  Best  Size  and  Number 
of  Human  Body  Parts 

Jared  Diamond 


■•    82  Putting  Human  Genes 
'         on  the  Map 

.m^mmJ  Christopher  Wills 


125  Years  of  Q&  A 
About  Life's  Story 

The  American  Museum  of 
Natural  History,  a  major  center 
for  research  and  public 
education  in  New  York  City,  is 
celebrating  its  125th 
anniversary  this  year  The 
Museum  shelters  some  thirty 
million  specimens,  forty-two 
display  halls,  a  planetarium, 
two  hundred  research  scientists, 
an  active  education  department, 
and  this  magazine.  The 
anniversary  is  being  celebrated 
in  many  ways,  including  the 
publication  of  this  special  issue 
on  evolution — a  subject  long 
and  deeply  pondered  in  the  halls 
of  the  Museum. 


Departments 

86  Celestial  Events  Gail  s.  cieere 

Making  Time 

92  This  Land 

Robert  H.  Mohlenbrock 
Chincoteague  Refuge,  Virginia 

96  At  the  American  Museum 
of  Natural  History 

98  The  Natural  Moment 

Photograph  by  John  K.  B.  Ford 
Terror  in  the  Tide 

100  Authors 


o 


o 
> 


ClyWord  Slill,  Untitled:  Private  Colleclion.  Courtesy  C  S  M  Arts.  New  York 


4    Natural  History  6/94 


The  Cutting  Edge  of 

Evolution 


A  century  and  a  half  ago,  Charles  Darwin  forged  possibly  the  most 

powerful  weapon  ever  handed  to  science:  his  theory  of  evolution.  With  this 

hard-edged  sword,  scientists  cut  away  bonds  of  ignorance,  superstition,  and 

arrogance  that  had  shackled  human  understanding  of  life  for  thousands  of 

years.  The  sword  has  become  sharper  with  use.  Today,  we  better 

understand  life's  beginnings  and  its  changes  and  expansion  over  millions  of 

years.  Biologists  now  appreciate  the  dynamic  relationships  organisms  have 

with  one  another  and  with  the  ever  changing  environment.  They  are 

beginning  to  fathom  the  roles  of  molecules  and  the  intricacies  of  the 

genetic  code.  The  Darwinian  perspective  is  changing  medical  research.  It  is 

also  illuminating  our  place — and  our  fate — in  the  glorious  venture  called 

life.  This  special  issue  is  a  sampler  of  evolutionary  insights  and  research  in 

progress.  It  commemorates  the  125th  anniversary  of  the  American 

Museum  of  Natural  History,  the  magazine's  soul  and  home  in  New  York 

City.  Since  its  founding,  the  Museum  has  been  a  beacon  for  public 

education  and  research  on  evolution. — A.  P.  T. 


m 


o 
3 


The  Power 

of  This 

View  of 

Life 


•^        "  We  should  never  have  sought 
^     either  solace  or  moral  instruction 
»— I  in  Nature" 

o 

Pjj      by  Stephen  Jay  Gould 

In  the  last  sentence  of  The  Origin  of 
Species,  Charles  Darwin  attributed  mul- 
tiple powers  to  life  itself,  but  chose  to  des- 
ignate the  evolutionary  perspective  ("this 
view  of  hfe")  as  imbued  with  grandeur: 

There  is  grandeur  in  this  view  of  life,  with 
its  several  powers,  having  been  originally 
breathed  into  a  few  forms  or  into  one;  and 
that,  whilst  this  planet  has  gone  cycling  on 
according  to  the  fixed  law  of  gravity,  from 
so  simple  a  beginning  endless  forms  most 
beautiful  and  most  wonderful  have  been, 
and  are  being,  evolved. 

Darwin  thus  located  evolutionary 
grandeur  in  a  contrast  between  the  repeti- 
tive motion  of  our  planet's  circuit  about 
the  sun  and  the  fascinating  narrative  of 
life's  history — a  tale  with  a  mysterious  be- 
girming,  an  enthralling  unfolding,  and  an 
unpredictable  end.  The  grandeur,  in  short, 
lies  in  the  contrast  between  a  well-oiled 
machine  and  an  edifying  story. 

"This  view  of  life"  also  emits  power,  for 
evolution  represents  the  fundamental  fact 
and  central  organizing  concept  of  biologi- 
cal science,  and  Bacon  proclaimed  long 
ago  that  knowledge  is  power.  Darwin 
clearly  saw  that  his  revolution  included 
two  distinct  and  separable  components — 
establishing  the  fact  of  evolution  (ge- 
nealogical connections  among  all  organ- 
isms, with  life's  history  as  a  tale  of 
physical  "descent  with  modification,"  to 
cite  Darwin's  words)  and  proposing  a  the- 
ory (natural  selection)  for  the  cause  of 
change.  Darwin  wrote  in  the  The  Descent 
of  Man: 

I  had  two  distinct  objects  in  view;  firstly  to 
show  that  species  had  not  been  separately 
created,  and  secondly,  that  natural  selection 
had  been  the  chief  agent  of  change. .  .hence 
if  I  have  erred  in  giving  to  natural  selection 


[too]  great  power. .  .1  have  at  least,  as  I  hope, 
done  good  service  in  aiding  to  overthrow 
the  dogma  of  separate  creations. 

(Darwin's  distinction  was  not  only  logi- 
cally correct  but  also  politically  sound. 
The  intellechjal  world  had  been  ready  for 
evolution's  factuality,  and  had  eagerly  em- 
braced Darwin's  evidence,  but  his  radical 
theory  of  natural  selection  found  few  tak- 
ers during  his  lifetime  and  did  not  become 
a  majority  view  until  the  1930s.  Darwin  is 
buried  in  Westminster  Abbey,  literally  at 
the  feet  of  Isaac  Newton,  but  he  lies  in  hal- 
lowed ground  for  establishing  the  fact  of 
evolution,  not  for  proposing  a  theory 
about  causes.) 

Evolution  surely  stands  first  among  the 
"outrages  upon  our  naive  self  love"  that 
Freud  identified  as  the  cachet  of  all  truly 
great  scientific  revolutions.  I  don't  mean  to 
downplay  the  mental  adjustment  required 
by  the  two  other  revolutions  that  Freud 
specified  as  paramount:  changing  our 
abode  from  the  immobile  center  of  a  hm- 
ited  universe  to  a  small  peripheral  hunk  of 
rock  subordinate  to  one  star  among  bil- 
lions, and  altering  our  view  of  mind  from  a 
logical  and  moral  instrument  to  a  largely 
nonrational  device  buffeted  or  controlled 
by  an  "unconscious."  Still,  no  demotion  of 
hope  can  quite  match  the  cancellation  of 
our  "particular  privilege  of  having  been 
specially  created"  (in  God's  image,  no 
less)  and  our  consequent  "relegation  to  de- 
scent from  the  animal  world." 

Evolution  therefore  entered  Western 
consciousness  as  the  most  threatening  of 
all  new  ideas  to  our  most  fiindamental  so- 
cial assumption  and  psychological  hope 
for  human  uniqueness  and  centrahty.  Evo- 
lution in  any  guise  had  to  pose  a  challenge 
and  initiate  a  crisis.  But  many  versions 
could  have  buffered  the  shock  and  sani- 
tized the  transition.  The  two  components 
that  Darwin  identified — fact  and  theory — 
might  have  been  formulated  in  a 
"friendly"  fashion  that  challenged  a  mini- 
mal number  of  cherished  assumptions.  An 
instigator  other  than  Darwin  might,  for  ex- 
ample, have  portrayed  the  pathway  (the 
"fact")  of  evolution  as  inherently  progres- 
sive and  predictably  leading  to  Homo 
sapiens  as  a  pinnacle — the  necessary  re- 
sult of  a  mechanism  (the  "theory")  that 
conceptualized  advancing  neurological 
complexity  as  an  ineluctable,  internally 
driven  property  of  living  matter.  In  fact, 
most  non-Darwinian  theories  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  did  portray  evolution  in  this 
more  conventional  and  less  threatening 
mode.  (Our  name  for  the  process  is  a  ves- 
tige of  this  search  for  comfort.  Evolution 


comes  to  us,  largely  via  Herbert  Spencer, 
from  an  English  vernacular  usage  mean- 
ing "progress."  Darwin  did  not  like  the 
word  and  preferred  "descent  with  modifi- 
cation." But  most  evolutionists  did  equate 
biological  change  with  necessary 
progress,  and  Spencer's  favored  term 
stuck.) 

Charles  Darwin  was  a  complex  and 
contradictory  man — an  intellectual  radi- 
cal, a  political  Uberal,  and  a  social  conser- 
vative. His  personal  wealth  and  his  loving, 
protective  home  life  allowed  him  to  range 
freely  (and  dangerously)  in  the  realm  of 
ideas.  Evolution,  as  argued  above,  would 
have  been  challenging  enough  to  consti- 
tute Freud's  greatest  revolution  in  any 
guise.  But  Darwin's  version  cut  right 
through  the  keystone  of  social  convention 
and  provided  an  ideologically  radical  ac- 
count in  the  domains  of  both  theory  and 
fact.  Auspicious  beginnings  often  cascade 
to  full  achievements  (and  rolling  stones 
gather  no  moss).  Darwin  started  us  well, 
but  the  transformation  continues,  and  the 
surprises  do  not  diminish.  Perhaps  we  can 
only  agree  with  the  Enghsh  biologist  and 
writer  J.  B.  S.  Haldane  that  the  universe  is 
not  only  pecuhar  but  "queerer  than  we  can 
suppose." 

The  Radical  Theory:  Natural  selection, 
as  a  theory  about  diiferential  reproductive 
success  and  its  consequences,  could 
scarcely  be  less  available  for  any  hope  that 
evolution  might  be  either  cosmically  ra- 
tional or  just  parochially  directed  toward 
the  appearance  of  Homo  sapiens.  Natural 
selection  is,  first  of  all,  a  theory  about 
adaptation  to  changing  local  environ- 
ments, not  a  statement  about  "improve- 
ment" or  "progress"  in  any  global  sense. 
Since  environments  alter  in  a  meandering 
and  unpredictable  way  through  time,  nat- 
ural selection  should  not  lead  to  any  path- 
way of  stately  unfolding.  (Darwin,  as  an 
eminent  Victorian  in  a  culture  maximally 
committed  to  progress,  did  manage  to 
smuggle  predictable  advance  back  into 
evolution  via  an  ecological  argument 
about  competition  in  biologically  crowded 
environments,  but  he  remained  committed 
to  his  radical  proposal  that  the  "bare 
bones"  mechanics  of  natural  selection  per- 
mits no  statement  about  favored  directions 
for  long-term  change.) 

Moreover,  natural  selection,  expressed 
in  inappropriate  human  terms,  is  a  remark- 
ably inefficient,  even  cruel  process.  Selec- 
rion  carves  adaptarion  by  eliminating 
masses  of  the  less  fit — imposing 
hecatombs  of  death  as  preconditions  for 
hmited  increments  of  change.  Natural  se- 


6    Natural  History  6/94 


Don't  you  wish 

we  could  just  do  this  to  acid  rain. 


In  a  way  we  can— if 
more  industrial  and  power  plants 
switch  to  natural  gas. 

Natural  gas  is  playing  a  key 
role  in  industry's  compliance 
with  the  Clean  Air  Act  Amendments 
and  our  government's  plans 
for  a  cleaner  future.  It  should 
play  a  key  role  in  your  company's 
future,  too. 

Natural  gas  power  plants  can 
produce  99%  less  sulfur  dioxide 
and  90%  less  nitrogen  oxide 
than  oil  or  coal-fired  plants. 

And  paired  with  the 
advances  in  equipment  technology 
in  most  cases,  natural  gas 
is  the  most  efficient,  cost-effective 
energy  around. 

Plus,  there's  a  secure  and 
steady  supply  of  gas;  over  99% 
of  the  gas  we  use  comes  from 
North  America,  and  more  than 
a  million  miles  of  pipeline  coast 
to  coast  delivers  it  easily 

If  more  industrial  and 
power  plants  switch  to  natural 
gas,  we'll  help  wipe  away  acid 
rain,  instead  of  wiping  away 
our  environment. 


>ii> 


1994  AMERICAN  GAS  ASSOC 


Clean,  economical  natural  gas.  Think  what  well  save. 


lection  is  a  theory  of  "trial  and  error  exter- 
nalism" — organisms  propose  via  their 
storehouse  of  variation,  and  environments 
dispose  of  nearly  all — not  an  efficient  and 
human  "goal-directed  intemalism"  (which 
would  be  fast  and  lovely,  but  nature  does 
not  know  the  way).  Darwin  certainly 
grasped  this  central  irony  of  our  being 
when  he  wrote  to  his  best  friend  Joseph 
Hooker  in  1 856:  "What  a  book  a  devil's 
G     chaplain  might  write  on  the  clumsy, 
O     wasteful,  blundering,  low,  and  horribly 
•  i-H     cruel  works  of  naUire." 
"*^         The  Peculiar  Pathway:  We  look  at  the 
^     paleontological  pattern  of  life's  unfolding, 
-^     and  we  try  to  extract  a  story  that  suits  our 
^     prejudices.  We  speak  of  an  "age  of  inver- 
>^     tebrates"  followed  by  an  "age  of  fishes, 
pL^     reptiles,  and  mammals,"  all  capped  by  an 
"age  of  man."  We  draw  our  sequences  of 
pictures  and  arrange  our  chapters  in  text- 
books, so  that  trilobites  come  first  and 
people  last.  But  invertebrates  have  always 
dominated  the  world  of  multicellulai"  ani- 
mal life  in  numbers  of  species  and 
prospects  for  long-term  success,  while 
Homo  sapiens  is  one  tiny  twig  on  life's  ex- 
uberantly branching  bush.  (I  do  not  deny 
the  unparalleled  impact  of  our  species 
upon  the  planet,  but  magnitude  of  result 
bears  no  relationship  whatever  to  pre- 
dictability of  origin.) 

This  is  not  the  "age  of  man";  it  is  not 
even  the  "age  of  insects" — a  proper  desig- 
nation if  we  wish  to  honor  multicellular 
animal  life.  As  it  was  in  the  beginning,  is 
now,  and  ever  shall  be  until  the  sun  ex- 
plodes, this  is  the  "age  of  bacteria."  Bacte- 
ria began  the  story  3.5  billion  years  ago,  as 
life  arose  near  the  lower  limits  of  its 


preservable  complexity.  The  bacterial 
mode  has  never  altered;  the  most  common 
and  successful  forms  of  life  have  been 
constant.  Bacteria  span  a  broader  range  of 
biochemistries  and  live  in  a  wider  range  of 
environments;  they  cannot  be  nuked  into 
oblivion;  they  overwhelm  all  else  in  fre- 
quency and  variety;  the  number  of  E.  coli 
cells  in  the  gut  of  any  human  exceeds  the 
count  of  all  humans  that  have  Uved  since 
our  African  dawn. 

No  trend  of  complexity  or  progress  ex- 
ists in  the  usual  sense;  the  history  of  life 
features  no  upward  thrust  as  a  central  ten- 
dency of  evolution;  the  bacterial  mode  has 
persisted  for  more  than  three  billion  years. 
At  most,  every  once  in  a  while,  a  lineage 
or  two  tumbles  into  a  domain  of  enhanced 
complexity,  for  this  is  the  only  open  direc- 
tion available  (the  numerous  forms  that 
evolve  greater  simplicity  fall  into  a  do- 
main of  overlap  with  creatures  already  ex- 
isting). We  focus  upon  this  tiny  tail  in  the 
distribution  of  complexity  only  because 
we  reside  there  ourselves. 

Moreover,  the  pattern  of  occupation  for 
this  small  tail  of  complexity  departs  maxi- 
mally from  any  notion  of  a  predictably 
steady  unfolding.  With  the  exception  of 
simple  algae  (a  pathway  unrelated  to  the 
genealogical  story  of  animals),  life  re- 
mained unicellular  for  five-sixths  of  his- 
tory. All  but  one  phylum  arose  in  a  single 
geological  whoosh,  within  some  five  mil- 
lion years  or  so,  at  the  dawn  of  Cambrian 
times,  530  million  years  ago  (the  "lowly" 
Bryozoa,  not  our  exalted  chordate  selves, 
form  the  single  exception  of  slightly  later 
origin). 

In  a  basic  anatomical  sense,  the  history 


of  life  since  then  has  been  a  tale  of  many 
variations  on  a  few  underlying  themes.  (I 
do  not  deny  the  unusual  interest  of  some  of 
these  variations,  including  human  con- 
sciousness.) The  earth  doesn't  even  permit 
exclusive  evolution  by  the  already  messy 
and  contingent  rules  of  competitive  nat- 
ural selection.  Mass  extinctions  punctuate 
the  history  of  life,  imposing  regimes  of 
death  for  reasons  unrelated  to  Darwinian 
struggles  of  normal  times.  If  a  large  ex- 
traterrestrial body  had  not  struck  the  earth 
65.3  million  years  ago,  dinosaurs  would 
probably  still  be  dominating  mammals, 
and  no  conscious  being  would  have  the 
privilege  of  pondering  a  world  queerer 
than  we  can  suppose. 

How  can  Darwinism  be  exalting,  and 
"this  view  of  life"  grand,  if  all  our  com- 
forts be  thus  stripped  away  in  favor  of 
such  messiness,  contingency,  and  caprice 
in  the  details  that  matter  (like  the  probabil- 
ity of  our  own  evolution),  with  generalities 
confined  to  broad  domains  that  offer  so  lit- 
tle solace  (mass  extinction  as  a  recurring 
phenomenon;  natural  selection  as  a  gov- 
erning principle;  invariance  of  the  bacter- 
ial mode  as  a  result).  First,  do  not  doubt 
the  salutary  effects  of  such  a  cold  bath.  We 
never  should  have  sought  either  solace  or 
moral  instruction  in  Nature,  who  was  not 
made  for  us,  or  even  with  us  in  mind,  and 
who  existed  by  her  own  rules  for  billions 
of  years  before  we  arrived.  Better  to  learn 
a  stem  truth  about  marvelous  multifarious- 
ness (and  cosmic  indifference  to  us)  than 
to  persist  in  a  myth  of  warm  cuddliness  or 
intrinsic  harmony  that  might  channel 
proper  attention  from  our  own  bodies  and 
minds  (true  humanism)  as  the  source  of 
ethics  and  value. 

Second,  a  world  queerer  than  we  can 
suppose  must  be,  to  anyone  with  a  mod- 
icum of  curiosity,  so  much  more  interest- 
ing a  place  than  a  planet  crafted  to  feed  our 
bovine  complacency.  Darwin's  revolution 
remains  incomplete,  in  Freud's  crucial 
sense,  until  we  face  the  cosmic  insignifi- 
cance that  our  own  evolution  truly  im- 
plies— thus  liberating  us  to  grasp  the 
deeply  human  meaning  of  our  lives  and 
most  curious  brainpower.  We  shall  soon 
celebrate  the  two-thousandth  birthday  of  a 
most  interesting  man  who  not  only  told  us 
that  the  truth  would  make  us  free  but  who 
also  spoke  for  all  kinds  of  enlightenment 
in  saying:  "I  am  not  come  to  destroy,  but  to 
fulfill." 

Stephen  Jay  Gould  teaches  biology,  geol- 
ogy, and  the  history  of  science  at  Harvard 
University. 


8    N.ATURAL  History  6/94 


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The  Origin 
of  Life 


Which  came  first ,  proteins 
orRNA? 

^     by  Anthony  Mellersh 

O 

.  ,_H        The  origin  of  life  remains  one  of  the 

^— >     Great  Questions.  The  presence  of  fossil 
^     bacteria  in  rocks  3.8  billion  years  old  sug- 

^~~*  gests  that  very  soon  after  the  earth  cooled, 
O  life  arose  from  the  simple  organic  chemi- 
J>     cals  present  in  the  primordial  soup.  But 

["tI  how  did  small  molecules  organize  and 
begin  to  replicate,  transforming  a  sterile 
planet  into  a  hving  world?  By  necessity, 
the  answers  so  far  have  been  speculative, 
but  we  can  make  some  educated  guesses 
about  certain  steps  in  the  early  chemical 
evolution  of  hfe. 

Underlying  all  living  systems  is  a  com- 
plex web  of  chemical  reactions  orches- 
trated by  enzymes.  These  biological  cata- 
lysts, almost  all  of  which  are  proteins, 
deliver  the  right  chemicals  at  the  right  time 
and  at  the  right  place,  insuring  that  the  en- 
ergy and  building  blocks  are  brought  to- 
gether for  each  cellular  function.  These  re- 
actions, essential  to  life,  would  be  unlikely 
to  occur  in  the  absence  of  enzymes.  If  we 
are  to  explain  how  the  earliest  organisms 
arose,  we  must  figure  out  how  these  and 
other  proteins  can  be  made  from  scratch. 

Proteins  are  long,  unbranched  mole- 
cules made  up  of  subunits  called  amino 
acids.  Amino  acids  and  other  small  or- 
ganic chemicals  almost  certainly  came 
from  a  variety  of  sources,  hi  1953  Stanley 
L.  Miller,  a  graduate  student  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Chicago,  found  that  by  passing 
electric  sparks  through  gases,  he  could 
create  amino  acids,  but  the  conditions 
found  around  thermal  vents  at  the  bottom 
of  the  ocean  could  also  have  produced 
them.  These  simple  chemicals  are  also 
present  in  many  of  the  meteorites  that  fall 
to  the  earth's  surface. 

But  getting  irom  amino  acids  to  pro- 
teins is  another  story,  and  one  fraught  with 
problems.  Amino  acids  aren't  likely  to  link 
up  with  one  another — a  problem  related  to 
their  chemical  construction.  All  are 
formed  from  a  few  elements  and  have  the 
same  central  structure,  a  chain  of  three 
atoms.  The  first  is  a  nitrogen  (N),  holding 
three  hydrogens  (H);  the  middle  is  a  car- 
bon (C),  with  one  hydrogen  and  one  vari- 

10    Natural  History  6/94 


able  side  chain  attached;  the  third  is  a  car- 
bon bound  to  two  oxygens  (O). 

With  a  sideways  squint,  and  a  lot  of 
imagination,  we  can  see  the  molecule  as  a 
fish,  an  analogy  that  is  useful  for  explain- 
ing how  hard  it  must  have  been  for  amino 
acids  to  form  proteins.  To  make  a  protein, 


many  "fish"  must  link  up  with  one  another 
in  long  chains.  To  do  so,  each  must  lose  a 
molecule  of  water  before  the  positively 
charged  nitrogen  atom  at  its  head  can  at- 
tach to  the  negatively  charged  carbon-oxy- 
gen at  another's  tail.  If  the  head  (N)  con- 
tributes two  hydrogens  and  the  tail  an 


Another  likely  outcome  is  that  the  side 
chain  will  react  with  nearby  molecules, 
producing  a  branched  molecule  (bottom, 
right).  Neither  of  these  reactions  would  be 
very  helpful  in  the  formation  of  proteins, 
which  are  long  and  unbranched. 

The  number  of  other,  unwanted  mole- 
cules that  can  react  with  a  growing  chain 
of  amino  acids  further  complicates  the 
problem  of  protein  synthesis.  Just  as  there 
are  a  lot  of  different  fish  in  the  sea,  there 
would  have  been  lots  of  different  amino 
acids  in  the  primordial  soup.  Some  may 
have  had  longer  central  chains  or  any  of 
hundreds  of  possible  side  chains.  And  if 
that  isn't  complicated  enough,  most  amino 
acids  can  exist  in  two  forms,  left-handed 
and  right-handed;  but  only  the  left-handed 
one  is  used  for  building  proteins.  All  in  all, 
thousands  of  possibilities.  Yet  all  proteins 
are  made  from  only  twenty  kinds  of  amino 
acids.  Add  to  the  confusion  any  number  of 
headless  or  tailless  fish — miscellaneous, 
highly  reactive  molecules — that  would 


oxygen,  water  (H2O)  is  released,  the  tails 
are  shed,  and  the  fish  are  linked  together. 

Amino  acids  aren't  very  likely  to  form 
such  chains  on  their  own.  The  hydrogen 
and  oxygen  needed  to  create  the  water  are 
fairly  tightly  bound,  so  the  reaction  rarely 
happens  spontaneously.  If  conditions  are 
hot  and  dry  enough,  however,  the  water 
molecule  is  lost  and  amino  acids  can  join 
together;  but,  following  the  path  of  least 
resistance,  as  soon  as  they  join,  the  head  of 
the  first  is  most  likely  to  bond  with  the  tail 
of  the  second,  forming  a  circle  (below). 


have  readily  reacted  with  a  free  head  or 
tail,  preempting  the  chain  formation  re- 
quired for  protein  synthesis. 

Even  if  by  some  enormous  stroke  of 
luck,  all  these  hurdles  were  overcome,  and 
a  single  copy  of  an  effective  protein  spon- 
taneously arose,  it  would  be  a  dead  end.  It 
could  pass  on  this  fortunate  accident  to 
posterity  only  if  it  could  replicate  itself, 
but  proteins  cannot. 


Illustrations  by  Joe  LeMonnier.  after  Anthony  Mellersti 


Discover 

the  events  and  people  behind  the  1 994  Collection 


Adventure 

The  1994  Silver  Aviation 
Cameo  Coins  - 
The  Flying  Boats 

1.  The  Curtiss  HS-2L 

This  coin  designed  by  artist  John 
Mardon  depicts  the  Curtiss  HS-2L 
designed  for  Atlantic  patrol  in  the 
First  World  War.  Used  as  bush  planes 
and  fire  spotters  until  the  late  1930s. 
Cameo:  Stuart  Graham, 
the  world's  first  bush  pilot. 

2.  The  Canadian  Vickers  Vedette 

This  coin  designed  by  artist  Robert 
R.  Carmichael  honours  the  plane 
designed  and  built  in  the  1920s  for 
forestry  patrols  and  aerial  photography 
in  Canada's  remote  bush. 
Cameo:  Wilfred  T.  Reid, 
aircraft  designer  during  the  1920s. 
Each  coin  is  encapsulated  and 
presented  in  a  special  aluminum  case 
widi  a  Certificate  of  Authenticity. 
Content:  92,5%  silver  with  a 
24-icarat  gold-covered  cameo. 
Edge:  Interrupted  serrations. 
Weight:  31.103  g. 
Diameter:  38.0  mm. 
Mintage:  50,000  coins  worldwide. 


1.  Item  #62408 
Curtiss  HS.2L 


$46.95 


2.  Item  #62409 

Canadian  Vickers  Vedette  $46.95 


1.  Curtiss  HS-2L 


3.  1994  14-Karat  Gold  Coin 
The  Home  Front 


2.  Canadian  Vickers  Vedette 


4.  1994  Proof  Dollar 

The  Last  RCMP  Northern 

Dog  Team  Patrol 


Courage 

3.  Taken  from  a  1945  painting 
entitled  "Maintenance  Jobs  in  the 
Hangar"  by  Canadian  war  artist 
Paraskeva  Clark,  this  stunning  coin 
is  a  tfibute  to  all  the  men  and  women 
who  contributed  to  efforts  on  the  home 
front  during  d:ie  Second  World  War. 
Encapsulated  and  ptesented  in  a  blown 
leather  case  adorned  with  a  gold- 
toned  maple  leaf  Accompanied  by  a 
numbered  Certificate  of  Authenticity. 
A  moving  way  to  remember  the 
courage  of  a  generation. 

Content:  58.33%  gold,  41.67%  silver. 

Weight:  13.338  g. 

Diameter:  27.0  mm. 

Mintage;  35,000  coins  worldwide. 

The  lowest  mintage  ever  in  this  series. 


Item  #621504 
14-Karat  Gold  Coin 


$210.00 


404750 


Place  your  order  toll-free: 

1-800-268-6468 

When  you  call,  ask  about  our 

1994  Annual  Coin  Sets,  tool 


Discover  the  Art  of  the  Coin 

^y|y^    Royal  Canadian      Monnaie  royale 
Mint  canadienne 


Passages 

4.  This  sterling  silver  dollar  by  artist 
Ian  D.  Sparks  celebrates  the  25th 
anniversaty  of  the  last  RCMP 
Northern  Dog  Team  Patrol.  For  over 
100  years  these  patrols  brought 
law  &  order  to  Canada's  far  north. 
Encapsulated  and  presented  in  a 
black  display  case  lined  with  red  flock. 
Perfect  for  the  collector  or  as  a  gift. 

Content:  92.5%  silver. 
Weight:  25.175  g. 
Diameter:  36.07  mm. 


Item  #624004 
1994  Proof  Dollar 


$20.95 


o 


o 
> 


All  this  should  be  very  disappointing  to 
those  who  hold  that  proteins  arose  sponta- 
neously, but  proteins  are  so  fundamental 
to  life  that  the  idea  still  has  a  few  support- 
ers. Another  theory,  superficially  attrac- 
tive, holds  that  life  arose  somewhere  else 
in  the  universe — reaching  this  planet  via 
comets  or  dust  grains.  This  doesn't  really 
solve  the  problem,  however;  it  just  shifts  it 
elsewhere  and  creates  new  dilemmas.  Any 
cometary  debris  that  might  have  borne  the 
seeds  of  life  would  have  been  subjected  to 
extremes  of  temperature,  and  the  all-im- 
portant enzymes  are  very  temperature  sen- 
sitive, only  working  in  a  narrow  tempera- 
ture range  from  about  -14°  F  to  212°  F 
and  being  irreversibly  destroyed  at  higher 
temperatures.  Proponents  of  this  theory 
must  explain  not  only  how  life  arose  but 
also  how  it  operated  at  the  extremes  of 
temperature  found  in  space.  And  how  did 
it  then  adapt  to  the  earth,  where  the  major- 
ity of  proteins  function  most  efficiently  at 
about  80°  F?  The  more  ambitious  theorists 
would  have  life  arising  around  other  plan- 
ets or  even  stars.  But  to  escape,  the  primi- 
tive organism  would  have  had  to  over- 
come a  gravitational  force  so  strong  that 
only  the  fiery  impact  of  a  large  comet  or 
asteroid  could  blast  it  into  space — an 
event  also  likely  to  desfiroy  it.  Scientists 
proposing  that  life  arose  either  on  other 
planets  or  in  other  solar  systems  must  ex- 
plain not  only  how  the  chemistry  to  form 
life  happened  but  also  how  it  got  here. 

Back  with  our  feet  firmly  on  the  ground, 
we  need  to  look  again  at  the  origin-of-life 
problem.  The  "protein  first"  argument 
fails  primarily  because  even  if  proteins  did 
manage  to  assemble  themselves  success- 
fully, they  had  no  way  of  copying  them- 
selves so  that  their  success  could  be 
recorded  and  amplified.  (The  order  in 
which  the  amino  acids  are  strung  together 
is  crucial  because  it  determines  how  the 
chains  will  fold  and  twist  into  the  three-di- 
mensional shapes  of  individual  proteins.) 
Only  one  group  of  biological  molecules 
can  copy  themselves.  These  are  the  two 
slightly  different  nucleic  acids,  ribonucleic 
acid  (RNA)  and  deoxyribonucleic  acid 
(DNA).  Like  enzymatic  protein  mole- 
cules, nucleic  acids  are  long  and  un- 
branched,  formed  from  subunits.  The 
building  blocks  are  called  nucleotides  and, 
like  amino  acids,  can  be  assembled  fairly 
easily  from  simple,  inorganic  molecules. 
The  nucleotides  also  have  side  chains,  or 
"bases,"  but  there  are  only  four  common 
ones  and  they  are  divided  into  two  pairs, 
each  of  which  has  a  special  affinity  for  the 
other.  As  the  bases  in  a  chain  of  RNA  at- 


tract then-  partners  from  solution,  a  com- 
plementary chain  is  built  that  separates 
from  the  original  (A).  When  this  comple- 
mentary chain  attracts  its  own  comple- 
ment, a  copy  of  the  original  RNA  se- 
quence emerges  (B).  The  really  exciting 
thing  that  points  to  RNA  as  the  first  "living 
molecule"  is  that  not  only  does  it  replicate 
but  it  can  also  act  as  a  catalyst. 

The  majority  of  scientists  working  on 
the  origin  of  life  now  believe  that  there 
was  a  time  when  RNA  was  the  only  bio- 
logical molecule.  But  the  range  of  reac- 
tions that  RNA  can  accelerate  is  small  and 
usually  involves  only  the  joining  or  split- 
ting apart  of  RNA  molecules.  Such  a  "liv- 
ing" system  is  extremely  limited.  It  has  not 
overcome  the  hurdle  of  protein  produc- 
tion, which  would  extend  the  range  of 
RNA  so  that  a  much  broader  range  of  re- 
actions can  occur.  The  solution  offered  by 
the  "RNA  world"  proponents  is  that  small 
segments  of  RNA — called  adapter  mole- 
cules— go  off  and  find  the  correct  amino 
acid  and  bring  it  back  to  the  parent  RNA 
for  assembly  into  a  protein.  This  is  really 
an  enormous  logistical  exercise,  and  one 
that  introduces  a  lot  of  problems.  How,  for 
example,  do  the  little  RNA  molecules  rec- 
ognize an  amino  acid?  How  do  they  join  to 
it?  Why  do  they  come  back  "full"  and  not 
"empty"?  How  do  they  give  up  the  amino 
acid  to  growing  protein  chains?  But  the  so- 
lutions to  these  questions  make  the  system 
more  and  more  complicated. 

One  of  the  guiding  principles  of  science 
is  Occam's  razor,  which  suggests  that  the 
most  likely  explanation  is  the  simplest. 
Making  functioning  proteins  requires  both 
the  information  that  specifies  the  sequence 
of  amino  acids  and  the  amino  acids  them- 
selves. The  information  is  encoded  on 
RNA  (there  is  no  other  plausible  candi- 
date) and  is  carried  in  sequences  of  three 
bases.  The  simplest  theory  would  be  that 


three  bases  on  the  RNA  recognize  the 
amino  acids.  This  was  investigated  by 
some  biologists  in  the  1960s.  The  re- 
searchers put  short  segments  of  RNA  of 
known  base  sequence  in  solution  to  see  if 
they  could  capture  specific  amino  acids. 
The  results  were  negative,  so  the  theory 
gained  little  support,  and  the  more  com- 
plex theories  became  popular. 

But  did  those  early  experiments  give  the 
simplest  theory  a  fair  shake?  Let's  go  back 
to  the  fish  analogy.  If  you  wanted  to  catch 
fish,  you  could  use  a  net.  But  if  you  just 
throw  a  piece  of  loose  netting  into  the  sea, 
you  will  probably  fail.  Similarly,  free- 
floating  RNA  molecules  cannot  capture 
the  amino  acids  in  a  solution,  because  the 
RNA  will  be  buffeted  by  all  sorts  offerees 
and  will  drift  about  wrapping  itself  up  ran- 
domly, just  as  loose  netting  would.  To  suc- 
ceed in  catching  the  fish,  the  net  needs  to 
have  a  rigid  support. 

In  the  past  forty  years,  the  nucleic  acids 
have  been  studied  intensively.  One  of  the 
most  exciting  techniques  has  been  "gene 
probing,"  which  involves  extracting  nu- 
cleic acids  and  attaching  them  to  a  variety 
of  solids  by  their  backbone,  so  that  the 


cj:-r>\-<'^^w^s1i^ 


12    Natural  History  6/94 


bases  are  pointing  away  from  the  surface 
and  can  be  recognized  by  a  complemen- 
tary sequence,  in  a  similar  manner  to  the 
RNA  (left).  The  technology  for  determin- 
ing the  exact  shape  the  nucleic  acid  would 
take  on  the  surface  of  such  a  solid  is  not 
yet  available,  but  by  applying  the  basic 
rules  of  chemistry,  a  model  can  be  made. 
Such  a  model  suggests  that  it  is  undulat- 
ing, folding  back  on  itself  every  three 
bases,  forming  a  series  of  clefts.  Each  cleft 
has  a  negative  charge  on  one  side  and  a 
positive  charge  on  the  other,  and  these  are 
just  the  right  distance  apart  to  capture  a 
"head"  or  a  "tail"  of  one  of  the  twenty 
amino  acids  that  form  proteins.  The  side 
chain  of  the  amino  acid  projects  into  the 
space  between  the  bases,  which  differs  for 
each  of  the  three  bases.  Each  cleft  will  ac- 
cept only  a  particular  molecule — that  is, 
the  fish  with  a  head  and  tail  the  right  dis- 
tance apart  and  with  the  correctly  shaped 
dorsal  fin.  When  RNA  is  supported  like  a 
fixed  net  (below),  it  can  capture  fish,  and 
different  fish  in  each  bit  of  the  net. 

This  model  yields  more.  The  fish  are  al- 
ready oriented  head-to-tail.  A  "condens- 
ing agent,"  which  is  a  molecule  that  can 
remove  water,  such  as  polyphosphate, 
aligns  with  the  amino  acids.  When  condi- 
tions become  dry  and  the  condensing 
agent  removes  the  water,  the  fish  automat- 
ically join  up  in  a  line  and  separate  from 
the  RNA  template.  They  can't  get  at  the 
wrong  tail  or  the  dorsal  fins,  so  no  circles 
or  branched  chains  are  made.  Exactly  the 
same  protein  is  synthesized  each  time, 
with  no  half  proteins  or  double  ones. 

For  years,  scientists  debated  whether 
proteins  or  RNA  came  first.  Was  it  the 
chicken  or  the  egg?  With  RNA  attached  to 
a  solid,  a  compromise  emerges:  RNA  and 
proteins  came  together,  and  together  they 
lit  the  spark  that  resulted  in  all  the  wonder- 
ful things  that  we  call  life. 


We  take  groups  of  all  sizes  who  want  to  tour  our  distillery.  And  we're  well  equipped  for  folks  who  are  physically  handicapped, 

VISIT  AMERICA'S  OLDEST  registered 
distillery,  and  we'll  take  you  to  a  room  where 
every  drop  of  Jack  Daniel's  is  made. 

You'll  watch  us  cook  a  mash  of  corn,  rye  and 
barley  malt,  in  the  exact  amounts  Jack  Daniel 
himself  prescribed.  And  you'll  tour  this 
stilltov^er  —  v/here  the  whiskey  that 
flows  today  is  true  to  every  principle 
our  founder  set  down.  They  say 
seeing  is  believing.  Though  a  taste 
of  Jack  Daniel's,  w^e  believe,  is  all 
the  testimony  that's  needed. 


SMOOTH 
TENNESSEE 


SIPPIN' 
WHISKEY 


Tennessee  Whiskey  •  4043%  alcohol  by  volume  (80-85  proof)  •  Distilled  and  Bottled  by 

Jack  Daniel  Distillery,  Lem  Motlow,  Proprietor,  Route  1,  Lynchburg  (Pop  361),  Tennessee  37352 

P/oced  In  r/ic'  Nalumai  RcgiHer  uf  Hhloric  Places  hy  the  UnUcd  Stales  Government. 


13 


o 


o 
> 


Life's 

Expanding 

Realm 

Eveiy  living  organism 

rest's  on  a  microbial 

foundation  foi'med  billions  of 

years  ago 

by  Andrew  Knoll 


We  live  on  an  ever  changing  planet, 
where  stability — as  much  as  humans 
might  yearn  for  it — has  no  place.  With 
every  change  may  come  disruption,  or 
even  extinction,  for  some  forms  of  life.  For 
others,  however,  change  may  mean  oppor- 
tunity. The  result  of  all  this  dynamism  has 
been  more  than  just  a  constantly  changing 
cast  of  characters.  Environmental  change, 


along  with  the  opportunities  it  brings,  has 
created  an  expanding  Earth,  not  literally  a 
growing  planet  but  one  where  the  range  of 
environments  available  for  colonization 
has  increased  enormously  over  time  and 
where  beneficiaries  of  one  change  have 
been  the  progenitors  of  the  next. 

To  appreciate  the  biological  importance 
of  the  expanding  environment,  one  must 
take  the  long  view  of  evolution,  looking  at 
how  ecosystems  have  developed  over  the 
full  extent  of  the  earth's  history.  Wanting 
to  see  what  this  planet  might  have  been 
like  four  billion  years  ago,  and  lacking  a 
time  machine,  I  took  a  trip  to  the  North 
Pole.  The  trip  was  hot,  dusty,  and  bone- 
jarringly  bumpy;  only  skillful  driving 
prevented  collision  with  the  kangaroos 
encountered  en  route,  for  this  particular 
North  Pole  is  in  the  remote  outback  of 
western  Australia.  There,  in  the  hills  be- 
yond an  isolated  sheep  station,  are  3.5-bil- 
lion-year-old  chert  and  lava  formations. 
The  sediments  they  contain  help  us  put  to- 
gether a  picture  of  the  primordial  earth. 

Then,  as  now,  oceans  covered  the  globe, 
a  gray  green  expanse  broken  by  small  con- 


tinents and  broad  volcanic  platforms  that 
rose  out  of  the  sea,  as  Iceland  does  today. 
The  North  Pole  sediments  tell  us  that  the 
chemical  content  of  seawater  was  deter- 
mined not  so  much  by  erosion  from  the 
land,  as  it  is  today,  as  by  the  circulation  of 
water  through  vents  in  the  ocean  floor;  the 
atmosphere  contained  abundant  carbon 
dioxide  and  very  little  oxygen. 

On  such  a  planet,  humans  couldn't  sur- 
vive for  an  hour,  but  other  organisms 
could — and  did.  Du^ect  evidence  of  these 
early  organisms  exists  in  fossils  of  bacteria 
preserved  in  chert  and  in  stromatolites 
(distinctively  layered,  often  dome-shaped 


Once  cyanobacteria  (here  a  living  form 
magnified  100  times)  began  producing 
oxygen  as  a  byproduct  ofpfiotosynthesis, 
more  than  a  billion  years  passed  before 
the  atmosphere  contained  enough  of  the 
precious  element  to  allow  the  evolution  of 
oxygen-dependent  organisms. 


Dwigtit  R.  Kuhn 


14    Natural  History  6/94 


1  got 


,^^;V!fv:'Mi^:'i¥J; 


■::>  •jy  ':i 


take 
home 


size; 


I 


m'M 


No  compromise  in  a  GMC  Truck.  Industrial  strength  or 
handy  take-home  size,  you  get  full  strength.  As  it  has 
been  through  nearly  a  century:  GMC  Truck,  delivering 
the  strengths  of  trucks. 

What  have  we  done  for  you  lately?  The  1994  GMC 
Sierra.  It's  got  something  you  probably  don 'f  expect 
from  a  truck- refined  road  manners. 


A  vibration-eating  balance  shaft  in  Sierra's  standard 
engine  quiets  your  fears. 

Independent  front  suspension  smothers  road  shock 
before  it  can  reach  you.  While  a  conamanding  view  of  the 
road  makes  Sierra  decidedly  uncar4ike. 
When  you  look  into  your  next  truck,  look  into  luxuri- 
ous, take-home-sized  industrial  strength.  To  learn  more 


Skeptical?  Understood.  But  put  Sierra  through  its  paces.       about  GMC  Sierra,  call  1-800-GMC  TRUCK, 


OFFICIAL  SPONSOR :•».     , 

WorldCuplJSm^ 


SIERRA 

,THE  STRENGTH  OF  EXPERIENCE 


OlWfGMCorp. 


:,  GMC  Truck  Sierr.n  and  the  GMC  Truck  logo  are  rcglsterecj  trademarks  of  General  Motors  Corporation. 


o 


o 


About  2.8  billion  years  ago, 
cyanobacteria  formed  the  distinctive 
layers  visible  in  this  stromatolite  fivm  the 
Nullagine  Range  in  Western  Australia. 


Reg  Morrison 


Structures  formed  by  cyanobacteria  and 
other  microbes).  Indirect  evidence  of  life 
exists,  too.  Carbon  atoms  come  in  two  sta- 
ble forms  that  differ  by  a  single  neutron. 
Because  photosynthetic  organisms  prefer- 
entially incorporate  the  lighter  form,  they 
have  a  chemical  signature  that  can  be  read 
even  in  the  carbon  preserved  in  North  Pole 
rocks.  This  view  of  early  life  on  Earth,  al- 
though fragmentary,  is  enough  to  show 
that  three  billion  years  before  trilobites 
first  graced  the  oceans,  life  existed  in  the 
form  of  complex  microbial  communities. 
Some  of  the  organisms  that  evolved  in 
our  planet's  long  infancy  are  still  with  us. 
In  the  damp  mud  of  swamps,  deep  in  the 
Black  Sea,  at  the  mouths  of  hydrothermal 


vents  and  elsewhere  in  the  oceans,  and 
even  in  our  own  digestive  tracts,  oxygen- 
free  environments  harbor  bacteria  whose 
physiologies  evolved  to  exploit  the  ancient 
North  Pole  habitats  and  other  primeval 
seas.  Those  survivors  from  a  bygone 
world  suggest  that  the  eaith's  very  earliest 
biota  comprised  bacterialike  microbes  that 
lived  in  hot,  oxygen-poor  envu^onments 
and  derived  their  energy  from  chemical  re- 
actions or  the  fermentation  of  organic  mol- 
ecules. Early  on,  some  lineages  evolved 
the  ability  to  use  energy  from  sunlight  to 
drive  the  formation  of  organic  matter  from 
carbon  dioxide  dissolved  in  seawater.  This 
innovation — photosynthesis — was  eco- 
logically liberating  and  enabled  life  to 
cover  the  globe. 

Most  photosynthetic  bacteria  rely  on 
hydrogen  sulfide  and  similar  molecules 
for  the  electrons  needed  in  photosynthesis; 
but  one  lineage,  the  cyanobacteria,  learned 
to  use  a  much  more  common  substance — 
water.  As  a  result,  cyanobacteria,  the  blue- 
green  scum  in  birdbaths  and  ponds,  be- 
came the  most  abundant  producers  of 


organic  matter  on  the  planet.  And  because 
they  produce  oxygen  as  a  byproduct  of 
photosynthesis,  these  tiny  organisms  set  a 
new  course  for  the  earth's  environmental 
history,  paving  the  way  for  the  many  kinds 
of  creatures,  including  humans,  with  oxy- 
gen-dependent, or  aerobic,  metabolism. 

But  the  oxygen  revolution  didn't  happen 
quickly.  Cyanobacteria  may  have  begun 
releasing  oxygen  into  the  atmosphere  as 
early  as  three  and  a  half  billion  years  ago 
(at  the  time  of  the  North  Pole  sea),  but 
signs  of  atmospheric  change  first  show  up 
in  soils  formed  about  2.1  billion  years  ago. 
By  that  time  atmospheric  oxygen  had 
passed  a  crucial  threshold,  from  less  than 
about  1  percent  of  present-day  levels  to  10 
percent  or  more.  The  implications  of  this 
change  are  enormous:  Above  1  percent  of 
today's  level,  the  atmosphere  contains 
enough  oxygen  to  allow  the  evolution  of 
aerobic  organisms.  Also  at  the  higher  lev- 
els of  oxygen,  stratospheric  ozone  (itself  a 
form  of  oxygen)  eifectively  shields  the 
earth  from  lethal  ultraviolet  radiation. 

The  biological  consequences  of  this 


1 6    Natural  History  6/94 


John^s  losing  his  hain 
His  mission:  get  it  back. 


ASAP! 

But  how? 

Weaving?  No. 

Transplant? 

Not  for  him. 

A  hairpiece? 

Never,  never. 

What  John  really 

wants  is  his 

own  hair  back. 

And  now  he's  learned, 

for  male  pattern 

baldness,  only 

Rogaine'  has  been 

proven  to  regrow  hair. 


Rogaine'Topica]  Solution  (minoxidil  topical 
solution  2%)  works  in  part  by  prolonging 
the  growtii  of  hair,  which  grows  in  cycles. 
Witii  more  hairs  growing  longer  and 
thicker  at  the  same  time,  you  may  see 
improved  scalp  coverage. 

Will  Rogaine  work  for  you? 

Dermatologists  conducted  12-month  clini- 
cal tests.  After  4  months,  26%  of  patients 
using  Rogaine  reported  moderate  to  dense 
hair  regrowth,  compared  with  11%  of  those 
using  a  placebo  (a  similar  solution  without 
minoxidil  —  the  active  ingredient  in 
Rogaine) .  After  1  year  of  use,  48%  of  the 
men  who  continued  using  Rogaine  in  the 
study  rated  their  regrowth  as  moderate  to 
dense.  Thirty-six  percent  reported  minimal 
regrowth.  The  rest  (16%)  had  no  regrowth. 

Side  effects  were  minimal:  7%  of  those  who 
used  Rogaine  had  itching  of  the  scalp. 

Rogaine  should  only  be  applied  to  a 
normal,  healthy  scalp 
(not  sunburned 
or  irritated). 


See  next  page  lor  important 
additional  information. 


Make  a  4  month  commitment 
to  see  results. 

Studies  indicate  that  at  least  4  months  of 
twice-daily  treatment  with  Rogaine  are 
usually  necessary  before  there  is  evidence  of 
regrowth.  So  why  not  make  it  part  of 
your  normal  routine  when  you  wake  up 
and  go  to  bed,  like  brushing  your  teeth. 

As  you'd  expect,  if  you  are  older,  have  been 
balding  for  a  longer  period,  or  have  a  larger 
area  of  baldness,  you  may  do  less  well. 

Rogaine  is  a  treatment,  not  a  cure.  So 
further  progress  is  only  possible  by  using 
it  continuously.  Some  anecdotal  reports 
indicate  that  if  you  stop  using  it,  you  will 
probably  shed  the  newly  regrown  hair 
within  a  few  months. 

Get  your  free  Information  Kit  today. 
You  may  even  be  eligible  for 

a  free,  private  hair-loss 
consultation  with  a  doctor.* 

AVhy  wait?  Find  out  whether  Rogaine  is  for 
you.  Call  1-800-260-5284  for  a  free 
Information  Kit  about  the  product  and 
how  to  use  it  And  because  Rogaine 
requires  a  prescription,  well  include  a 
list  of  nearby  dermatologists  or  other  doctors 
experienced  in  treating  hair  loss  who  may  be 
able  to  offer  you  a  free,  private  hair-loss 
consultation* 

Call 

1800260-5284 

for  your  free  Information  Kit 
on  Rogaine. 

We'U  also  tell  you  how  to  find  out  if 
you're  eligible  for  a  free,  private  hair- 
loss  consultation  with  a  doctor.* 


Ro^inc! 

§&    •-'minoxidil  2% 


*t^ot  available  in  ail  areas. 

©1994  The  Upjohn  Company  USJ  1786,00  February  1994. 


Rcxsaine! 

SOLUTION    *-^minoxidil2% 

The  only  product  ever 
proven  to  regrow  hair. 


What  la  ROGAINE7 

ROGAINE  Topical  Solution  is  a  prescnplion  medicine  lor  use  on  the  scalp  tliat  is  used  to  treat  a  type  ot  hair  loss  in  men  and  women  known  as  androgeoetic 
alopecia:  hair  loss  ol  the  scalp  vertex  (top  or  crown  ol  Itie  head)  in  men  and  dittuse  hair  loss  or  thinning  ol  the  Iront  and  lop  ol  the  scalp  in  women, 
ROGAINE  IS  a  topical  loim  ol  minoxidil,  loi  use  on  the  scalp 

How  effective  la  ROGAINE? 

In  men:  Clinical  studies  wilh  ROGAINE  ol  over  2.300  men  with  male  pattern  baldness  involving  the  top  (ver1ex),ol  the  head  were  conducted  by  physicians  in 
27  US  medical  cenleis  Based  on  patient  evaluations  ol  tegrowth  at  the  end  ol  4  months,  26%  ol  the  patients  using  ROGAINE  had  moderate  to  dense  hair 
regrowth  compared  with  11%  who  used  a  placebo  treatmeni  (no  active  ingredient}  No  regrowlh  was  reported  by  41%  ot  those  using  ROGAINE  and  58%  ol 
those  using  a  placebo  By  the  end  ot  I  year.  48%  ol  those  who  continued  to  use  ROGAINE  raled  their  hatr  growth  as  moderate  or  better 

In  women:  Clinical  studies  with  ROGAINE  were  conducted  by  physicians  in  11  US  and  10  European  medical  centers  involving  over  600  women  with  hatr 
loss  Based  on  palieni  evaluations  ol  regrowth  after  32  weeks  (8  months).  23%  ol  the  women  using  ROGAINE  had  at  least  moderate  regrowth  compared  with 
9%  ol  those  using  a  placebo  No  regrowth  was  reported  by  43%  ot  the  group  using  ROGAINE  and  60%  of  the  group  using  placebo 

How  aoon  can  I  expect  reauKa  from  uaing  ROGAINE? 

Studies  show  that  the  response  lime  to  ROGAINE  may  differ  greatly  from  one  person  to  another  Some  people  using  ROGAINE  may  see  results  faster  than 
others:  others  may  respond  with  a  slower  rate  ol  hair  regrowth.  You  should  not  expect  visible  regrowth  in  less  than  4  months. 

How  long  do  I  need  to  uae  ROGAINE? 

ROGAINE  is  a  hait-loss  treatment,  not  a  cure  tl  you  have  new  hair  growth,  you  will  need  to  continue  using  ROGAINE  to  keep  ot  increase  hair  regrowth.  If  you 
do  not  begin  to  show  new  hair  growth  with  ROGAINE  after  a  reasonable  period  of  time  (at  least  4  months),  your  doctor  may  advise  you  to  discontinue  using 
ROGAINE 

What  happena  If  I  atop  uaIng  ROGAINE?  Will  I  keep  the  new  hair? 

Probably  not  People  have  reported  that  new  hair  growth  was  shed  after  they  stopped  using  ROGAINE 

How  much  ROGAINE  ahould  I  use? 

You  should  apply  a  1-mL  dose  ol  ROGAINE  twice  a  day  to  your  clean  dry  scalp,  once  in  the  morning  and  once  at  night  before  bedtime  Wash  your  hands  after 
use  if  your  fingers  are  used  to  apply  ROGAINE  ROGAINE  must  remain  on  the  scalp  tor  at  least  4  hours  to  ensure  penetration  into  the  scalp.  Do  not  wash  your 
hair  tor  at  least  4  hours  alter  applying  it  II  you  wash  your  hair  before  applying  ROGAINE.  be  sure  your  scalp  and  hair  are  dry  when  you  apply  il  Please  reler 
to  /he  InsUdclms  /or  (yse  m  the  package 

What  H I  miss  a  dose  or  forget  to  use  ROGAINE? 

Do  not  try  to  make  up  for  missed  apptications  ot  ROGAINE  You  should  restart  your  twice-daily  doses  and  return  to  your  usual  schedule. 

What  are  the  most  common  aide  effects  reported  In  clinical  studies  with  ROGAINE? 

ttching  and  other  skin  irntations  of  the  treated  scalp  area  were  the  most  common  side  effects  directly  linked  to  ROGAINE  in  clinical  studies.  About  7  of  every 
too  people  who  used  ROGAINE  (7%)  had  these  complaints 

Other  side  effects,  including  light-headedness.  dizziness,  and  headaches,  were  reported  both  by  people  using  ROGAINE  and  by  those  using  the  placebo 
solution  with  no  minoxidil  You  should  ask  your  doctor  to  discuss  side  effects  ol  ROGAINE  with  you 

People  who  are  extra  sensitive  or  allergic  to  minoxidil,  propylene  glycol,  or  ethanol  should  not  use  ROGAINE 

ROfiAINE  Topical  Solution  contains  alcohol,  which  could  cause  burning  or  irritation  ol  the  eyes  or  sensitive  skin  areas  II  ROGAINE  accidentally  gels  into 
these  areas,  rinse  the  area  wth  large  amounts  ol  cool  lap  water  Contact  your  doctor  if  the  irritation  does  not  go  away 

What  are  acme  of  the  aide  effects  people  have  reported? 

ROGAINE  was  used  by  3.857  patients  (347  females)  in  placebo-controlled  clinical  trials  Except  for  dermatologic  events  (involving  the  skin),  no  individual 
reaction  or  reactions  grouped  by  body  systems  appeared  to  be  more  common  in  the  minoxidil-trealed  patients  than  in  pfacebo-treated  patients 

OermitolOBic:  irritant  or  allergic  contact  dermatitis— 7  36%,  Respiratory:  bronchitis,  upper  respiratory  infection,  sinusitis— 7 16%:  Gaslrofnlesll- 
nal:  diarrhea,  nausea,  vomiting— 4  33%,  Neurologic:  headache,  dizziness,  laintness,  light-headedness— 3  42%.  Musculosketetal:  tractures.  back 
pain,  tendinitis,  aches  and  nains— 2  59%.  Cardiovascular:  edema,  chest  pain,  blood  pressure  increases/decreases.  palpitations,  pulse  rate  increases/ 
decreases— 1  53%:  Allergic:  nonspecihc  allergic  reactions,  hives,  allergic  rhinitis,  tacial  swelling,  and  sensitivity— 1 27%.  Melabotic-Hulrillonat: 
edema,  weight  gam— 1 24%:  Special  Scncei:  coniunctivitis.  ear  inlections,  vertigo— 1 17%.  Genital  Tract:  prostatitis,  epididymitis,  vaginitis,  vulvitis, 
vaginal  discharge/ilchmg— 0  9i%.  Urinary  Trad:  urinary  tract  infections,  renal  calculi,  urethritis- 0  93%.  Endocrine:  menstrual  cnanges.  breast 
symptoms— 0  47%:  Piychlatrtc:  anxiety,  depression,  fatigue- 0  36%.  Hertatotogic:  lymphadenopalhy.  thrombocytopenia,  anemia— 0  31% 

ROGAINE  use  has  been  monitored  for  up  to  5  years,  and  there  has  been  no  change  in  incidence  or  severity  ot  reported  adverse  reactions.  Additional 
adverse  events  have  been  reported  since  marketing  ROGAINE  and  include  eczema,  hypertrichosis  (excessive  hair  growth):  local  erythema  (redness): 
pruritus  (itching):  dry  skin/scalp  ftaking:  sexual  dysfunction:  visual  disturbances,  including  decreased  visual  acuity  (clarity),  increase  in  hair  toss:  and 
alopecia  (hair  loss) 

What  are  the  possible  side  effects  that  could  affect  the  hearl  and  circulation  when  using  ROGAINE? 

Serious  side  effects  have  not  been  linked  to  ROGAINE  in  clinical  studies  However,  it  is  possible  that  they  could  occur  it  more  than  the  recommended  dose  ot 
ROGAINE  were  applied,  because  the  active  ingredient  in  ROGAINE  is  the  same  as  that  in  minoxidil  tablets  These  effects  appear  to  be  dose  related:  that  is. 
more  effects  are  seen  with  higher  doses 

Because  very  small  amounts  ol  minoxidil  reach  the  blood  when  the  recommended  dose  ol  ROGAINE  is  applied  to  the  scalp,  you  should  know  about  certain 
effects  that  may  occur  when  the  tablet  form  of  minoxidil  is  used  to  treat  high  blood  pressure  Minoxidil  tablets  lower  blood  pressure  by  relaxing  the  arteries, 
an  effect  called  vasodilation  Vasodilation  leads  to  fluid  retention  and  faster  heart  rate  Tfre  following  effects  have  occurred  in  some  patients  taking  minoxidii 
tablets  for  high  blood  pressure: 

Increased  heatl  rale:  some  patients  have  reported  that  their  resting  heart  rate  increased  by  more  than  20  beats  per  minute. 

Salt  and  water  reterttm:  weight  gam  of  more  than  5  pounds  in  a  short  period  of  time  or  swelling  of  the  face,  hands,  ankles,  or  stomach  area. 

Problems  breaming  especially  when  lying  down:  a  result  ol  a  buildup  of  body  fluids  or  fluid  around  the  heart 

Worsening  or  new  attaa  ol  angina  pectoris:  brief,  sudden  chest  pain 

When  you  apply  ROGAINE  to  normal  skin,  very  tittle  minoxidil  is  absorbed  You  probably  wilt  not  have  the  possible  effects  caused  by  minoxidil  tablets 
when  you  use  ROGAttiE  If  however,  you  experience  any  ot  the  possible  side  effects  listed  above,  stop  using  ROGAINE  and  consult  your  doctor  Any  such 
etfects  would  be  most  likely  il  ROGAINE  was  used  on  damaged  or  inflamed  skin  or  in  greater  than  recommended  amounts. 

In  animal  studies,  minoxidil,  in  much  larger  amounts  than  would  be  absorbed  from  topical  use  (on  skin)  in  people,  has  caused  important  heart-structure 
damage.  This  kind  of  damage  has  not  been  seen  in  humans  given  minoxidil  tablets  lor  high  blood  pressure  at  effective  doses. 

What  factors  may  Increase  the  rlsl(  ot  serious  side  effects  with  ROGAINE? 

People  with  a  known  or  suspected  hearl  condition  or  a  tendency  lor  hearl  lailure  would  be  at  particular  risk  il  increased  heart  rate  or  fluid  retention  were  to 
occur  People  with  these  kinds  of  heart  problems  should  discuss  the  possible  risks  of  treatment  with  their  doctor  il  they  choose  to  use  ROGAINE. 

ROGAINE  should  be  used  only  on  the  balding  scalp  Using  ROGAINE  on  other  parts  of  the  body  may  increase  minoxidil  absorption,  which  may  increase  the 
chances  of  having  side  etfects.  You  stiould  not  use  ROfiAINE  it  your  scalp  is  irritated  or  sunburned,  and  you  should  not  use  it  il  you  are  using  other  skin 
Ireatmenis  on  your  scalp 

Can  people  with  high  blood  pressure  use  ROGAINE? 

Most  people  with  high  blood  pressure,  including  those  taking  high  blood  pressure  medicine,  can  use  ROGAINE  but  should  be  monitored  cfosely  by  their 
doctor  Patients  taking  a  blood  pressure  medicine  called  guanethidine  should  not  use  ROGAINE. 

Should  any  precautions  be  followed? 

People  who  use  ROGAINE  should  see  their  doctor  1  month  after  starting  ROGAINE  and  at  least  every  6  months  thereafter  Slop  using  ROGAINE  it  any  of  the 
following  occur  salt  and  water  retention,  problems  breathing,  faster  heart  rate,  or  chest  pains. 

Do  not  use  ROGAINE  il  you  are  using  other  drugs  applied  to  the  scalp  such  as  corticosteroids,  retinoids,  petrolatum,  or  agents  that  might  increase 
absorption  through  the  skin  ROGAINE  is  for  use  on  the  scalp  only  Each  1  mL  ot  solution  contains  20  mg  minoxidil,  and  accidental  ingestion  could  cause 
unwanted  etfects. 

Are  tttere  special  precautions  for  women? 

Pregnant  women  and  nursing  mothers  should  not  use  ROGAINE.  Also,  its  effects  on  women  during  labor  and  delivery  are  not  known.  Efficacy  in 
postmenopausal  women  has  not  been  studied.  Studies  show  the  use  of  ROGAINE  will  not  affect  menstrual  cycle  length,  amount  of  flow,  or  duration  of  the 
menstrual  period.  Discontinue  using  ROGAINE  and  consult  your  doctor  as  soon  as  possible  it  your  menstrual  period  does  not  occur  at  the  expected  time. 

Can  ROGAINE  lie  used  by  children? 

No.  the  safety  and  effectiveness  of  ROGAINE  has  not  been  tested  in  people  under  age  18. 

Caution:  Federal  law  prohibits  dispensing  without  a  prescription.  You  must  see  a  doctor  to  receive  a  prescription. 


DERMATOLOGY 
DIVISION 


©1994  Ttie  Upjotin  Company,  Kalamazoo,  Ml  49001,  USA 
USJ  1786.00    February  1994    CB-4-S 


oxygen-enriched  atmosphere  are  evident  if 
one  examines  evolutionary  trees  that  de- 
pict the  genealogical  relationships  among 
living  organisms.  Lower  branches  of  the 
tree  of  life  are  populated  by  organisms  that 
cannot  utilize  oxygen  in  their  metabolism; 
in  fact,  for  many,  oxygen  is  toxic.  Species 
higher  up  on  the  tree  of  life  are  able  to  use 
oxygen  in  respiration,  the  energy-yielding 
process  in  which  organic  molecules  are 
broken  down  into  carbon  dioxide  and 
water.  In  the  new  environments  created  by 
the  oxygen  revolution,  bacteria  diversified 
to  form  many  of  the  aerobic  lineages  that 
are  ubiquitous  on  the  modem  earth.  More 
ancient,  anaerobic  microbes  retreated 
along  with  their  environments,  from 
which  they  continued  to  play  a  central  role 
in  the  cycling  of  carbon  and  other  ele- 
ments through  ecosystems. 

The  earliest  organisms  were  prokary- 
otic — simple  cells  whose  genes  do  not  re- 
side in  a  membrane-bound  nucleus.  But  at 
some  point,  other  kinds  of  organisms 
evolved.  These  newcomers  were  eukary- 
otes,  organisms  with  a  clearly  defined  nu- 
cleus. These  nucleated  organisms — which 
now  include  protozoans,  algae,  fungi, 
plants,  and  animals — evolved  before  the 
oxygen  revolution  took  hold,  but  were 
probably  only  a  minor  part  of  early  com- 
munities. Oxygen  got  eukaryotes  started 
on  the  road  to  ecological  prominence,  not 
because  they  evolved  respiration  them- 
selves, but  because  they  swallowed  bacte- 
ria that  had.  Some  aerobic  bacteria  became 
symbiotically  incorporated  into  nucleated 
cells,  in  time  evolving  into  mitochondria 
(energy-producing  organelles  in  the  cells 
of  most  modem  eukaryotic  creatures).  In 
China,  North  America,  and  Australia,  fos- 
sils and  distinctive  biomolecules  in  an- 
cient rocks,  from  1.9  to  1.7  billion  years 
ago,  document  that  eukaryotic  organisms 
had  become  significant  participants  in  ma- 
rine ecosystems. 

The  oxygen  revolution  expanded  the 
range  of  terrestrial  environments  enough 
to  accommodate  eukaryotic  protozoans 
and  algae,  but  not  enough  to  support  the 
biology  of  our  own  kingdom,  Animalia. 
Animals,  and  their  tracks  and  trails,  are 
conspicuously  absent  from  the  geological 
record  until  about  600  million  years  ago. 
In  1959,  J.  R.  Nursall,  of  the  University  of 
Alberta,  suggested  that  animals  appeared 
so  late  in  the  evolutionary  day  because 
until  then  there  was  not  enough  oxygen  to 
support  their  metabolism.  Only  in  the  last 
few  years  have  we  accumulated  geological 
evidence  to  evaluate  his  idea. 

At  oxygen  concentrations  significanfly 


1 8    Natural  History  6/94 


above  those  reached  2. 1  biUion  years  ago, 
fossil  soils  do  not  provide  a  firm  guide  to 
atmospheric  composition,  and  thus  we  are 
unable  to  measure  oxygen  levels  directly. 
Fortunately,  however,  we  can  look  for  evi- 
dence of  environmental  processes  capable 
of  affecting  the  amount  of  oxygen  in  the 
atmosphere.  Principal  among  these  is  the 
burial  of  organic  matter  in  the  sea  floor  by 
sediments.  When  organisms  die.  they  de- 
compose. Normally,  the  amount  of  oxygen 
produced  in  photosynthesis  is  balanced  by 
the  amount  of  oxygen  consumed  by  respir- 
ing organisms,  including  decompsers. 
Burial,  however,  shields  organic  remains 
from  respiring  organisms,  thus  disrupting 
the  balance  of  oxygen  production  and  con- 
sumption and — if  enough  organic  matter 
gets  buried — tipping  the  balance  toward 
production.  Second  is  the  conversion  of 
sulfate  ions  (abundant  in  seawater)  to  oxy- 
gen-free forms  of  sulfur  that  accumulate  in 
sediments  as  pyrite.  also  known  as  fool's 
gold.  Every  time  a  sulfate  ion  combines 
with  a  metal  in  seawater  to  produce  a  sul- 
fide ion.  two  molecules  of  oxygen  are 
freed.  The  geological  history  of  these 
processes  is  written  in  the  language  of  iso- 
topes, the  variants  in  atomic  composition 
exhibited  by  individual  elements. 

A  decade  ago,  my  colleagues  and  I 
chanced  on  a  telling  fragment  of  this 
record  near  the  other,  better-known  North 
Pole.  Limestone  from  the  Arctic  island  of 
Spitsbergen  contained  distinctive  isotopic 
compositions  of  carbon  and  strontium  that 
hinted  at  large-scale  global  change  be- 
tween 750  and  550  million  years  ago. 
Since  then,  we  have  sampled  sediments 
from  around  the  world,  and  they  all  tell  a 
consistent  story.  Just  prior  to  the  radiation 
of  large  animals,  tremendous  amounts  of 
organic  matter  (the  remains  of  dead  organ- 
isms) were  buried  beneath  shallow  seas. 
The  high  rates  of  organic  carbon  burial  are 
related  to  rapid  sediment  accumulation,  as 
shifting  tectonic  plates  built  both  major 
mountain  chains  and  new  ocean  basins. 
Recently,  Gerry  Ross,  of  the  Canadian  Ge- 
ological Survey,  has  .shown  that  the  bal- 
ance of  the  sulfur  cycle  shifted  at  the  same 
time,  depositing  unusually  large  amounts 
of  pyrite  in  deep-sea  sediments. 

As  a  result  of  these  events,  the  environ- 
ment must  have  expanded  once  more, 
adding  a  richly  oxygenated  surface 
layer — the  atmosphere — in  which  the 
manifold  physiological  needs  of  large  ani- 
mals could  be  met.  The  Phanerozoic 
eon — the  age  of  visible  animal  life  that 
continues  to  the  present — was  ushered  in. 
The  first  animals  to  appear  in  the  fossil 


American  Museum  of  Natural  History 

IMAGES  OF  INDONESIA 

September  17  -  October  1,  1994 


Indonesia  comprises  over  13,000 
islands  spread  out  like  an  emerald 
crescent  between  the  Malay 
Peninsula  and  Australia.  Created  by 
powerful  geological  processes,  it  is 
a  land  of  distinct  cultures,  some  vir- 
tually untouched  by  outside  influ- 
ence, and  remote  islands  with  some 
of  the  world's  most  unusual 
species. 

Following  in  the  footsteps  of  such 
luminaries  as  renowned  naturalist 
Alfred  Russel  Wallace  and 
American  Museum  anthropologist 
Margaret  Mead,  the  American 
Museum  is  offering  an  exciting 
opportunity  this  September  to 
explore  these  enchanting  islands 
aboard  the  first-class,  110-passen- 
ger  Caledonian  Star. 


BALI 

SULAWESI 

SALAYAR 

KABAENA 

KAKABIA 

ALOR 
LOMBLEM 

SAVU 
KOMODO 


BRUNEI 

MALAYSIA 

MALAYSIA 

\ 

,  Singapore 

SINGAPORE 

\ 

BORNEO 

Palopo  _ 

IRIAN 

*-—  sAL^zr 

INDONESIA 

JAYA 

JAVA 

■    KOMODO,       ,,^„ 
'    '  ,BALI     SUMBAWA               ALOR 

SUMBA     , 

SAVU 

American 
Museum  of 
Natural 
History 
Discovery  Cruises 


Central  Park  West  at  79th  Street 
New  York,  NY   10024-5192 
Toll-free  (800)  462-8687  or 
(212)  769-5700  in  New  York 


19 


10 
Diameter 


Peace  on  Earth 

STAINED   GLASS   PLATE 

The  delicately-painted  dove,  carrying  an 
olive  branch,  soars  against  the  starlit  heavens 
as  the  luminous  earth  moves  by,  and  rays  of 
golden  light  reach  out  to  the  universe.  American 
artist,  Sharon  Crouse,  designed  the  Peace  on 
Earth  stained  glass  Christmas  plate  in  response 
to  the  worid's  hope  for  peace.  The  design  won 
first  place  in  the  National  Stained  Glass  Contest. 

The  stained  glass  plate  is  authorized  by  the 
United  States  Historical  Society. 

To  create  this  magnificent  work,  artists  of 
the  Stained  Glass  Guild  make  each  authentic 
stained-glass  round  by  carefully  painting 
hand-rolled  cathedral  glass  with  16  colors,  one 
at  a  time.  Then  the  glass  is  fired  in  a  red-hot 
kiln  for  four  hours,  fusing  paints  and  glass 
permanently.  They  will  never  fade. 

Artisans  place  the  stained  glass  into  a 
lead-free  pewter  rim,  decorated  with  a  design 
of  holly  leaves  and  berries. 

The  issue  will  benefit  organizations  that  are 
aiding  victims  of  wars  throughout  the  world.  One 
Peace  on  Earth  will  be  presented  to  the  Seaetary 
General  of  the  United  Nations. 


Please  send Peace  on  Earth  stained  glass 

and  pewter  plate{s) ,  aafted  by  ±e  Stained  Glass 
Guild  in  the  U.S.A.  at  the  advance  issue  price  of 
$125  plus  $3  for  shipping  and  handling.  Each 
plate  is  individually  numbered  and  includes  a 
certificate  of  authenticity  ft'om  the  society. 
Limited  edition. 


Address 

City  State  Zip 

D I  wish  to  pay  in  full  at  this  time. 
D I  wish  to  pay  a  deposit  of  $32  and  three 
monthly  payments  of  $32  each  per  plate. 
D  Check  enclosed  for  $ . 

(Maie  check  payable  to  U.S.  Historical  Society) 

D  Charge:  VISA  MasterCard 

No. Exp. 


(Virginia  residents  please  add  4.5%  sales  tax.) 

U.S.  Historical  Society,  Dept.  NH6 

First  and  Main  Sts.,  Richmond,  Virginia  23219 

1-800-788-4478 

The  United  States  Historical  Society  is  a  non-profit 
educational  organization  dedicated  to  historical 
research  and  the  sponsorship  of  projects  and 
issuance  of  objects  which  are  historically  and 
cotistically  significant. 


record  include  the  relatives  of  such  simple 
modem  creatures  as  sea  anemones  and  jel- 
lyfish, as  well  as  unusual  forms  not  easily 
related  to  living  groups.  Bilaterally  sym- 
metrical organisms — simple  worms — are 
also  represented  by  thin  trails  preserved  in 
the  sediments.  By  the  beginning  of  the 
Cambrian  period  545  million  years  ago, 
these  early  faunas  had  been  superseded  by 
diverse  associations  of  complex  animals 
that  included  the  trilobites,  mollusks,  an- 
nelid worms,  and  invertebrate  representa- 
tives of  our  own  phylum,  the  Chordata. 

Over  the  past  545  million  years,  the 
earth's  repertoire  of  physical  habitats  has 
remained  relatively  constant.  Environ- 
mental diversity,  however,  has  continued 
to  grow,  and  ever  more  rapidly.  This  time, 
the  driving  force  has  been  not  physical  but 
biological:  life  itself  has  become  an 
increasingly  dominant  aspect  of  environ- 
ments. Cyanobacteria,  by  producing  oxy- 
gen, may  have  provided  new  environ- 
ments for  future  organisms;  in  the 
Phanerozoic,  one  organism  can  actually 
become,  or  create,  the  environment  for  an- 
other. The  colonization  of  dry  land  by 
plants,  for  example,  created  a  broad  range 
of  new  habitats,  making  possible  the 


Animals,  such  as  this  565 -million-year- 
old  Inkryloviay7-ow  Russia,  evolved 
relatively  recently  (compared  with 
bacteria,  which  have  a  3. 5 -billion-year- 
old  history).  They  could  not  appear  until 
the  atmosphere  contained  enough  oxygen 
to  meet  their  metabolic  needs. 


emergence  of  diverse  terrestrial  communi- 
ties {see  "One  Giant  Step  for  Life,"  page 
22).  Vegetation  provided  both  food  and 
shelter  for  arthropods  and,  later,  verte- 
brates. Novel  compounds  synthesized  by 
the  plants  supported  new  types  of  bacteria 
and  fungi,  including  those  that  digest 
wood.  Many  insects  evolved  in  symbiotic 
partnership  with  flowers,  while  mammals 
and  birds  developed  features  that  enabled 
them  to  harvest  fruits  and  seeds.  Jonathan 
Swift's  doggerel  proclaiming  that  "a  flea 
hath  smaller  fleas  that  on  him  prey"  is  apt, 
as  evolving  animals  have  supplied  food 
and  living  space  for  a  panoply  of  other 
creatures.  In  our  own  case,  these  include 
the  mosquitoes  that  extract  our  blood,  the 
tapeworms  and  bacteria  that  reside  in  our 
intestines,  and  the  protozoans  that  cause 
malaria  and  other  scourges  of  our  species. 

In  the  conventional  view,  which  empha- 
sizes individual  lineages  of  plants  and  ani- 
mals, evolution  appears  to  be  a  process  of 
replacement.  New  species  evolve  in  suc- 
cession, each  occupying  a  particular  habi- 
tat and  persisting  untfl  something  comes 
along  that  can  do  the  job  better  or  (more 
commonly)  until  environmental  disrup- 
tion brings  extinction. 

The  long  view  of  evolution,  however, 
persuasively  argues  that  biological  diver- 
sity is  cumulative.  The  earth  and  its  biota 
have  evolved  in  concert,  with  environ- 
mental expansion  repeatedly  engendering 
biological  novelty.  New  species  do  not 
simply  replace  old  ones.  Rather,  new  types 
of  organisms  depend  directly  or  indirecfly 
on  those  that  came  before,  and  even  the 
most  intricate  ecological  edifices  of  the 
modem  world  rest  on  a  microbial  founda- 
tion formed  billions  of  years  ago. 


Andrew  Knoll 


20    NATtjRAL  History  6/94 


i-JUErHV 

AMERICAN 

MUSEUM  OF  NATURAL 

HISTORY 

<  stiHRnnrrnin 

■  umuuuj- ,V^  WM 

^^-             Exploring  the  world  with  expert  lecturers             -^ 

~^ ----..- J.  ■! 

ir^il 

il^ll 

DISCOVERY  CRUISES 

CRUISES 

AND  TOURS 

TRAIN  TRIPS 

Icebreaker  Expedition 

Beijing  to  Moscow 

TO  THE  North  Pole 

The  American  Museum  of  Natural 

September  15-30,  1994 

July  12-31,  1994 

Histoiy,  a  world  leader  in  scientif- 

ic exploration  throughout  its  125- 

Beijing  to  Hanoi 

Alaska's  Inside  Passage 

year  history,  created  the  first  muse- 

Oct. 25 -Nov.  12,  1994 

July  13-22,  1994 

um  educational  travel  program  in 
the  country  in   1953.  Reflecting 

Crossroads  of 

American  Museum  exhibition  and 

LAND  PROGRAMS 

the  Continents 

research     interests,     Discovery 

Alaska  &  the  Russian 

Cruises  and  Tours  give  partici- 

Tibet: Journey  to  the 

Far  East 

pants  an  opportunity  to  explore 

Roof  of  the  world 

July  20-30,  1994 

some    of    the    world's    greatest 
wildlife  areas,  archeological  sites 

September  2-21,  1994 

Beyond  the  North  Cape 

and  exotic  cultural  centers  in  the 

Morocco:  The  Road  of 

Spitsbergen  to  Bergen 

company  of  distinguished  scien- 

A Thousand  Kasbahs 

August  6-21,  1994 

tists   and   educators.   Each   tour 
reflects  our  commitment  to  further 

Sept.  24  -  October  8,  1994 

Voyage  to  Antiquity 

the  educational  experience  through 

Botswana:  Desert  &  Delta 

Turkey  and  the  Greek  Isles 

a   first-hand   understanding   and 

Sept.  30  -  October  15,  1994 

Aboard  the  Sea  Cloud 

appreciation  of  the  natural  world. 

August  30  -  Sept.  11,  1994 

Himalayan  Wildlife 

India  and  Nepal 

Into  the  Kaleidoscope: 

November  3-21,  1994 

Islands  of  Indonesia 

FAMILY 

Sept.  17  -  Oct.  1,  1994 

ADVENTURES 

Holidays  in  Kenya 

Dec.  20,  1994  -  Jan.  3,  1995 

Galapagos  islands  and  quito 

Voyage  to  Lands  of 

January  6-18,  1995 

Gods  and  Heroes 

Around  the  World 

and 

Italy,  Greek  Isles,  Turkey 

BY  Private  Jet 

January  13-25,  1995 

Aboard  the  Daphne 
June  30 -July  13,  1994 

January  19 -Feb.  21,  1995 

Sacred  cities  of 

Natural  Treasures 

Southeast  Asia 

Galapagos  Wildlife  and 

of  Costa  Rica 

January  9-31,  1995 

Andean  Highlands 
July  14-25,  1994 

February  4-15,  1995 

Baja  Whale  Watching 

Patagonian  Andes 

Expedition 

Kenya  Safari 

OF  Chile 

February  21  -  March  2,  1995 

August  8-21,  1994 

February  11-26,  1995 

American  Museum  of  Natural  History/] 

Mscovery  Cruises  and  Tours 

(212)  769-5700  in  Ne>y  York  or 

Central  Park  West  at  79th  St.  Npw  Yn 

rk,NY  10024-5192 

Toll-free  (800)  462-8687 

^w.^%^fl  ■  V^B    «4fl      A      *.*>    V«          T     T    Xi'kJ  Xf                                    -.---       ....        ._-..-             --. 

One  Giant 

Step  for 

Life 

Simple,  law-abiding  plants  led  the 
invasion  of  hostile  lands 

by  Karl  J.  Niklas 


I:^  In  H.  G.  Wells's  1 895  tale  The  Time  Ma- 
^  chine,  a  scientist  travels  into  the  future  to 
pL^  a  near-lifeless  earth  slowly  circling  a 
dying  sun  and  finds  "intensely  green  vege- 
tation... the  same  rich  green  that  one  sees 
on  forest  moss  or  on  the  lichens  in  caves: 
plants  which... grow  in  a  perpetual  twi- 
light." Ironically,  this  melancholy  descrip- 
tion of  life's  closure  adequately  describes 
the  earth  when  life  first  colonized  the  land 
some  440  million  years  ago.  Plants  were 
the  very  first  forms  of  life  to  migrate  onto 
land,  and  by  providing  food  and  creating  a 
more  humid  and  sheltered  environment, 
they  paved  the  way  for  the  later  coloniza- 
tion of  land  by  animal  life. 

Although  all  life  began  in  the  oceans, 
the  first  land  plants  came  from  freshwater 
environments.  The  transition  from  water 
to  land  was  long  and  complex  and  one  of 
the  greatest  adaptive  events  in  the  history 
of  life.  The  fossil  record  shows  that  the 


transition  involved  two  phases  that  collec- 
tively lasted  about  75  million  years. 

The  first  phase  got  under  way  about 
439  million  years  ago,  when  compara- 
tively small  and  structurally  simple  plants, 
resembling  today's  algae,  began  to  colo- 
nize the  land.  During  this  time  numerous 
adaptations  evolved.  Among  the  most  im- 
portant was  the  capacity  to  produce  a  cu- 
ticle, a  layer  of  waxlike  material  coating 
the  extemal  surface  of  the  plant  body.  The 
cuticle  is  not  required  for  life  in  water,  but 
it  is  the  sine  qua  non  of  a  land  plant.  Pores, 
or  stomata,  in  the  cuticle  were  another  es- 
sential development,  since  plants  need  at- 
mospheric gases  for  respiration  and  photo- 
synthesis. (Neither  nature  nor  the  best 
chemists  have  invented  a  material  that  is 
both  permeable  to  oxygen  and  carbon 
dioxide  yet  impermeable  to  water.)  Flank- 
ing the  stomata  on  most  land  plants  are 
highly  specialized  cells  that  can  change 
their  size  and  shape  depending  upon  the 
availability  of  water.  By  regulating  the  di- 
ameter of  stomata,  they  can  control  the 
rate  at  which  water  vapor  is  lost  from  plant 
tissues  to  the  air.  The  oldest  currently 
known  fossil  land  plants  with  cuticles, 
stomata,  and  guard  cells  are  from  very  an- 
cient rocks  dating  as  far  back  as  410  mil- 
lion years.  Another  important  adaptation 
was  the  evolution  of  plant  spores  with  cu- 
tinized  walls  that  reduced  water  loss  and 
afforded  mechanical  protection  as  well. 

The  second  phase  of  land-plant  evolu- 
tion started  about  410  million  years  ago 
with  the  appearance  of  larger,  more  com- 
plex plants  with  tissues  made  up  of  cells 


Requirements  for  Leaving  the  Water:  For  plants,  life  in 
air  first  demanded  cuticle,  stomata,  and — as  they 
became  larger — vascular  tissue. 


that  conduct  water  and  sap  throughout  the 
plant  body.  Vascular  tissues  are  the 
anatomical  hallmark  of  the  majority  of  the 
plants  most  familiar  to  us — ferns,  pine 
trees,  and  the  flowering  plants. 

All  these  modem  plants,  no  matter  how 
complex,  trace  their  evolutionary  history 
to  the  very  first  vascular  plants,  and  their 
diversity  is  the  consequence  of  a  remark- 
ably rapid  evolutionary  specialization. 
Within  only  fifty  million  years,  or  approx- 
imately 12  percent  of  the  entire  history  of 
vascular  plant  evolution,  virtually  every 
major  plant  group  currently  represented  in 
modem  world  floras  evolved. 

This  great  taxonomic  explosion,  rival- 
ing that  of  the  Cambrian  explosion  of  ani- 
mals {see  "Life's  Expanding  Realm,"  page 
14),  occurred  during  the  Devonian.  Flow- 
ering plants,  which  dominate  today's 
world  floras,  had  not  yet  appeared  by  the 
end  of  the  Devonian,  about  360  million 
years  ago.  Comparative  latecomers,  they 
made  their  first  appearance  in  the  fossil 
record  only  125  million  years  ago,  during 
the  Cretaceous  period. 

That  the  initial  colonization  of  the  land 
by  plants  took  longer  than  the  subsequent 
radiation  of  vascular  plants  is  not  surpris- 
ing. In  many  ways,  life  on  land  presented 
huge  difficulties  for  aquatic  organisms.  It 
meant  giving  up  unlimited  access  to  water, 
essential  for  the  growth  and  reproduction 
of  every  type  of  organism.  It  also  meant 
coping  with  the  compressive  effects  of 
gravity  on  body  mass.  (Water  is  roughly  a 
thousand  times  denser  than  air  and  affords 
aquatic  plants  and  animals  a  "mechanical 
cushion"  against  the  force  of  gravity.)  In- 
deed, we  may  well  wonder  why  the  land's 
surface  was  colonized  at  all.  Although  we 
may  never  know  the  answer  to  this  ques- 
tion, applying  a  little  physics  and  chem- 
istry provides  some  clues. 

Two  simple  facts  tell  us  that  plants  had 
something  to  gain  by  leaving  the  water. 
First,  water  absorbs  and  attenuates  sun- 
light, upon  which  all  plant  fife  depends. 
Second,  the  need  for  carbon  dioxide  and 
oxygen — the  basic  metabolic  require- 
ments of  plants — is  better  met  on  land 
than  in  freshwater. 

A  basic  law  of  physics — Bouguer's 
law — shows  that  the  intensity  of  Ught  de- 
creases exponentially  as  light  passes 
through  a  column  of  water.  That  is,  if  50 
percent  of  the  available  light  energy  is  ab- 
sorbed by  the  first  centimeter  of  water, 
then  it  is  weakened  yet  another  50  percent 
by  the  second  centimeter,  and  so  forth. 
Also,  the  quality  of  light  changes  as  it  pen- 
etrates the  water  column.  Because  wave- 


Diagrams;  Karl  Niklas  and  Joe  LeMonnier 


22    Natural  History  6/94 


With  Its  V8  Engine,  Jeep  Grand  Cherokee 

Can  Bring  R)v\^Tb  Places 

That  Dorit  Even  Have  Electricity. 


There  are  still  a  few  places 
in  this  vast  country  of  ours  where 
you  won't  find  telephone  poles 
or  streetlights.  And  Jeep  Grand 
Cherokee  has  more  than  enough 
power  to  take  you  there. 

Presenting  the  5.2  litre  V8 
Jeep  Grand  Cherokee.  With  220 
horsepower,  this  available  engine 


makes  Grand  Cherokee  the  most 
powerful  sport  utility  vehicle  in 
its  class*  And  the  only  one  capa- 
ble of  towing  6500  pounds.** 

But  the  attributes  of  Grand 
Cherokee  dorit  end  with  horse- 
SW^  power.  Other  features 
^^^  include  a  standard  four- 
W^yt^«.  wheel  anti-lock  brake 


system  and  the  safety  of  a  stan- 
dard driver's  side  air  bag.^ 

If  you'd  like  to  know  more 
about  Jeep  Grand  Cherokee, 
please  call  1-800-JEEP-EAGLE. 
We'll  be  more  than  happy  to 
shed  a  little  light  on  the  subject. 

There's  Only  One  Jeep!.g 

A  Division  of  the  Chrysler  Corporation. 


See  limited  warranties,  restrictions,  and  details  at  dealer.  'Ward's  1993  Middle  Sport  Utility  Class.  **With  optional  Trailer  Tow  Group  IV. 
'Always  wear  your  seat  belt.  Jeep  is  a  registered  trademark  of  Chrysler  Corporation. 


THE  BIRDS  OF 
SOUTH  AMERICA 

Volume  II:  The  Suboscine  Passerines 

By  Robert  Ridgely  and  Guy  Tudor 

This  eagerly  awaited  successor  to 
Volume  I,  which  Audubon  called  "the 
major  omithQlogical  publication  of  the 
year,"  encompasses  over  1,000  species. 

940  pages 
1 ,043  maps 
52  color  plates 
$85.00  cloth 

Still  available 

Volume  I: 
The  Oscine 
Passerines 

$70.00  cloth 


THE  BIRDS  OF 
lERICA 

iy  Robon  S  Ridgely 


UNIVERSITY  OF  TEXAS  PRESS 

60x7819  •  Austin  78713 
At  bookstores,  or  call  800-252-3206. 


PoiAR  Bears, 
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lengths  in  the  red  end  of  the  spectmm  di- 
minish more  quickly  than  others,  the  effi- 
ciency of  photosynthesis  is  reduced.  This 
limits  the  depth  to  which  plant  life  can  sink 
before  the  rate  of  photosynthesis  fails  to 
match  the  rate  at  which  plants  consume 
the  foods  they  manufacture  from  sunlight 
and  raw  chemicals.  This  equilibrium, 
known  as  the  compensation  point,  varies 
among  plant  species,  thereby  permitting 
different  types  of  plants  to  grow  at  differ- 
ent depths  in  oceans  and  deep  lakes. 

Yet  another  physical  law  demonstrates 
that  life  in  freshwater  is  harder  than  life  on 
land.  Pick's  law  shows  that  the  rate  at 
which  carbon  dioxide  and  oxygen  diffuse 
into  cells  depends  upon  a  physical  prop- 
erty called  the  diffusion  coefficient.  The 
higher  the  numerical  value  of  the  coeffi- 
cient, the  greater  the  rate  of  diffusion.  Im- 
portantly, the  diffusion  coefficients  for  car- 
bon dioxide  and  oxygen  dissolved  in  water 
are  significantly  lower  than  they  are  in  the 
air.  Thus,  all  other  things  being  equal,  car- 
bon dioxide  and  oxygen  take  a  longer  time 
to  enter  the  cells  of  plants  in  freshwater 
than  to  enter  those  on  land. 

Pick's  law  and  a  few  rules  of  elemen- 
tary geometry  also  tell  us  that  since  gases 
don't  diffuse  well  into  aquatic  plants,  the 
best  shape  for  a  plant  is  one  that  will  max- 


imize its  surface  area  in  relation  to  its  vol- 
ume. In  other  words,  to  get  enough  gases 
for  its  internal  needs,  an  aquatic  plant 
needs  either  to  remain  very  small  in  size  or 
to  adopt  "high  surface  area"  shapes.  Ex- 
amples are  long,  cigar-shaped  plants  or 
broadly  flattened,  leaf-shaped  plants,  such 
as  sea  lettuce. 

Finally,  all  these  lessons  about  the  phys- 
ical properties  of  water  and  gases  can  be 
used  to  construct  a  scenario  for  the  colo- 
nization of  the  land  by  plants.  Their  small 
size  (dictated  by  Pick's  law)  conferred 
ecological  and  evolutionary  advantages  on 
aquatic  plants.  Small  organisms  grow  and 
reach  sexual  maturity  more  rapidly  than 
their  larger  counterparts.  Therefore,  they 
can  live  in  ecologically  changeable  habi- 
tats. Also,  small  organisms,  with  their 
comparatively  rapid  life  cycles,  tend  to 
have  higher  mutation  rates  and,  as  a  very 
general  rule,  evolve  more  rapidly  than 
larger  organisms.  Thus,  small  plants  grow- 
ing just  below  the  surface  of  ancient  fresh- 
water lakes  or  water-saturated  soils  likely 
multiplied  rapidly  and  had  high  mutation 
rates — features  that  conferred  many  ad- 
vantages when  water  levels  periodically 
dropped.  Only  those  plants  capable  of  en- 
during short-term  water  deprivation  and 
brief  exposures  to  the  air  could  survive 


Horsetail 


0. 

50. 

100. 

150. 


S200. 


>250- 


§300 
350 
400 
450 
500 
550-J 


Club  Moss 


J£*s^pI 


Grass 


Daisy 


Neogene 


Paleogene 


Cretaceous 


E 


<r^ 


^    «BHHU 


Jurassic 


Triassic 


Permian 


Carboniferous 


Angiosperms 
(Flowering  Plants) 


^J- 


Devonian 


Silurian 


First  Vascular  Plants 


Ordovician 


Cambrian 


The  Great  Plant  Explosion:  The  diversity  of  today's  land  plants  is  the 
resuh  of  a  remarkably  rapid  period  of  diversification  in  the  Devonian. 


24    Natural  History  6/94 


and  serve  as  the  source  for  future  genetic 
variation  and  evolutionary  innovation. 

Continued  genetic  "trial  and  error" 
eventually  led  to  adaptations  permitting 
plants  to  survive  longer  and  longer  periods 
of  exposure  to  the  air  and  culminating  in 
plants  with  cuticles,  stomata,  and  cu- 
tinized  spore  walls.  This  scenario  also  ex- 
plains why  these  early,  nonvascular  land 
plants  are  not  often  found  in  the  fossil 
record.  Not  only  are  small  organisms 
likely  to  be  overlooked;  they  are  also  not 
likely  to  be  preserved,  particularly  in  dy- 
namically changing  freshwater  habitats, 
such  as  those  proposed  here  as  the  cradle 
for  early  land  plant  evolution. 

When  the  second,  rapid  phase  of  land- 
plant  evolution  began  with  the  appearance 
of  vascular  tissues,  it  was  attended  by  an 
overall  evolutionary  increase  in  plant  size 
and  height.  Larger  plants  are  not  only 
more  efficient  at  conserving  water  on  land; 
they  also  can  produce  more  spores  and  el- 
evate their  reproductive  and  photosyn- 
thetic  organs  above  shorter  neighboring 
plants  that  are  competing  for  the  same  re- 
sources (water,  sunhght,  and  space). 

The  increase  in  plant  size  and  height 
was  likely  the  outcome  of  a  biological 
arms  race  in  which  the  weapons  were  ex- 
tensive root  systems  to  absorb  water,  a 
canopy  of  leaves  to  intercept  all  the  avail- 
able sunlight,  and  tall,  robust  stems  ca- 
pable of  elevating  and  dispersing  repro- 
ductive organs  far  above,  and  away  from, 
the  interference  of  neighboring  plants. 
This  increase  in  plant  size  required  vascu- 
lar tissues  through  which  water  and  other 
nutrients  are  rapidly  transported  from  one 
part  of  a  plant  to  another.  And  because 
vascular  tissues  are  very  strong  and  com- 
paratively Ught  in  weight,  their  mechani- 
cal properties  are  ideal  for  building  very 
tall  structures.  Indeed,  many  biologists 
tend  to  forget  that  the  largest  organisms 
that  ever  lived  are  trees.  Built  of  vascular 
tissue — wood — the  largest  modern  se- 
quoia is  taller  (longer)  and  more  massive 
than  any  whale  or  dinosaur! 

Although  they  do  not  have  access  to 
H.  G.  Wells's  time  machine,  evolutionists 
can  draw  on  a  wonderful  fossil  record — 
documenting  more  than  three  billion  years 
of  biological  history — for  an  understand- 
ing of  the  mutability  and  adaptiveness  of 
life  in  response  to  the  physical  challenges 
posed  by  constantly  changing  environ- 
ments. They  also  benefit  from  knowing 
that  the  outcome  of  evolutionary  experi- 
ments must  comply  with  the  laws  of 
physics  and  chemistry,  as  well  as  the  rules 
of  geometry. 


A  boat  brings  you  as  close 
as  any  human  is  allowed  to  the  Bird  Islands. 
Watch  for  cormorants,  razorbills,  petrels  and  terns 
as  well  as  the  rare  Atlantic  Pujfin. 

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--  the  amazing  walk-behind  brush  cutter  that  - 


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sumac  -  even  tough  saplings  up  to  I"  thick! 

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-  Richard  A.  Guslafson,  Manchester,  NH 


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> 


A  Spinal 
Column 

Who 's  winning:  Big,  smart 

humans?  Small,  dumb  mice? 

Or  chiropractors? 

by  Roger  L.  Welsch 

Folklorist  Henry  Glassie  quotes  the  Ap- 
palachian mountain  man  who,  when  asked 
about  the  history  of  his  region,  responded, 
"First  there  was  the  dinosaurs... and  then 
Daniel  Boone... and  here  we  are!"  The 
breadth  of  that  view  is  hard  to  beat,  but  pa- 
leontologists at  the  American  Museum  of 
Natural  History  hope  to  meet  the  chal- 
lenge. Between  now  and  1996,  the  Mu- 
seum will  open  six  exhibition  halls  filled 
with  fossils  that  illustrate  the  evolution  of 
vertebrates,  or  animals  with  backbones. 
This  is  a  massive  undertaking,  even  if  it 
excludes  Congress.  According  to  a  new 
Museum  guidebook,  vertebrates  include, 
for  example,  sharks,  salamanders,  Uzards, 
kangaroos,  and  horses.  Phew,  imagine  the 
surprise  of  the  kangaroos  when  they  show 


up  at  their  500-million-year  family  re- 
union and  get  a  look  at  those  relatives! 

The  first  two  halls  that  are  opening, 
states  the  guidebook,  "feature  the  group  to 
which  humans  belong,  mammals  and  their 
extinct  relatives."  To  my  mind,  those 
tacked  on  words — "and  their  extinct  rela- 
tives"— represent  the  most  mysterious 
branches  of  the  evolutionary  tree.  Why  did 
some  family  lines  continue  and  change, 
while  others  died  out? 

I  don't  keep  up  with  the  finer  points  of 
the  biological  sciences  beyond  what  I  read 
on  the  front  cover  of  the  National  En- 
quirer while  I  am  waiting  at  the  grocery 
store  checkout  counter  ("Stranded  Ahen 
Fathers  Child  of  Zsa  Zsa  Gabor!").  But  it's 
my  impression  that  trying  to  find  logic  or 
pattern  within  the  processes  of  natural  se- 
lection is  right  up  there  with  following  a 
teen-age  daughter's  explanation  of  why 
she  missed  her  curfew. 

Turtles  make  sense  to  me.  Years  ago,  a 
Mend  of  mine  who  operated  a  gravel-pit 
pump  came  roaring  into  my  yard,  excited 
because  he  believed  he  had  dredged  from 
his  Pleistocene  glacier  rubble  a  petrified 
human  brain.  At  first  glance  I  recognized 
that  what  he  held  in  his  hand  was  not  a 
brain  but  a  turtle,  turned  to  limestone  mil- 
lenniums ago.  I  could  even  recognize  what 
kind  of  turtle  it  was — a  Blandings  or  some 


mighty  close  relative.  Turtles  represent 
evolution  at  its  best,  a  creature  built  to  last. 
I've  watched  coyotes  and  cows  paw  at 
closed  turtles  and  tortoises  without  dam- 
aging them.  Flood,  drought,  fire,  famine, 
isolation. .  .turtles  take  them  all  in  slow  but 
steady  stride.  Little  wonder  that  turtles 
have  survived. 

Now,  explain  to  me  how  the  opossum 
has  made  it  this  far,  right  along  with  the 
Blandings  turtle.  The  moment  the  first 
possum  fainted  away  in  terror  upon  en- 
countering a  coyote,  the  possum  should  by 
all  reason  have  become  extinct.  But  not  ten 
days  ago.  Lovely  Linda  came  in  to  tell  me 
some  savage  creature  was  asleep  in  the 
chicken  house,  and  when  I  went  out  to  in- 
vestigate, there  he  was — oF  possum,  terri- 
fied into  a  coma  by  a  rooster.  Pink-nosed, 
pink-toed,  and  utterly  defenseless,  he  was 
a  generous  lunch  for  anyone  so  inclined. 


The  fossil  skull  of  a  coyote  (left)  was 
found  crushed  beneath  the  bones  of  a 
mammoth.  The  coyote  may  have  been 
standing  too  close  to  the  dying  mammoth 
when  it  fell  or  when  its  carcass  shifted. 
A  modem  skull  (right)  is  intact. 


Ken  Bouc,  NEBRASKAIand  Magazine;  Nebraska  Game  and  Parks  Commission 

26    Natural  History  6/94 


Donald  Harmon  Doesn't  Mind 

A  Little  "Fun  And  Games" 

In  His  Classroom. 


Especially  when  the  game 

s  "Danopoly,"  the  creation  of  his 

_^__^__         _  jh   school   honors   students    in 

^^^^^  J^^-N.      ^^      '     Danville,  Indiana. 

^^^P^Bjjk         ^'^JIh  With  the  help  of  Junior  Achieve- 

^S^^r  "%    ^  ment  and  Donald's  guidance,  they  sold 

advertising  space  on  the  "properties"  to  local  businesses. 
They  researched  their  town's  history.  They  designed  a  game  board 
and  box.  And  marketed  the  final  product. 
^^^  Their  clever  adaptation  of  the  classic  game  helped  raise  $4,000 

H^^^H  for  a  variety  of  school  groups.  But  the  students  profited  in  more 

^9^^^r  ways  than  one.  They  learned  a  lot  about  business. 

And  they  gained  a  better  awareness  of  the  community  in  which  they 
live.  We'd  call  that  an  excellent  return  on  your  investment. 

And  that's  why  State  Farm  is  pleased 
to  present  Donald  Harmon  with  our 
Good  Neighbor  Award  and  $5,000  to 
Danville  Community  High  School. 


STATE    FARM 


INSURANCE 


Good 

Neighbor 

Award 

STATE  FARM  INSURANCE  COMPANIES 
Home  Offices:  Bloomington,  Illinois 


The  Good  Neighbor  Award  was  developed  in  cooperaticin 


BuschGarpens 
,  Sea^rld 


Don't  miss  the 

June  8  live 

broadcast  of 

the  1994 

Anheuser-Busch 

Theme  Parks 

Summer 
Celebration  on 

CBS-TV^ 

The  Anheuser-Busch  Theme 

Parks  Summer  Celebration  will 

be  broadcast  live  from  8:00  to 

9:00  pm  EDT  from 

Busch  Gardens,  Tampa  Bay. 

With  celebrity  hosts  and 

entertainment,  this  family 

special  will  focus,  in  part,  on 

the  many  youns  people  who 

are  workins  to  make  our 

planet  a  better  place  for  all  its 

inhabitants.  This  special  will 

also  showcase  all  the  excitins 

new  attractions  at  the 

other  Anheuser-Busch 

Theme  Parks. 


^%( 


[♦♦♦ 


eaturins< 

the  Anheuser-Busch 
A  Pledge  &  A  Promise 
Environmental  Awards! 

These  awards  were  judged 

by  representatives  from  the  Center 

for  Marine  Conservation,  the  Hubbs- 

Sea  World  Research  Institute,  the 

Izaak  Walton  Leasue  of  America,  the 

National  Fish  and 

Wildlife  Foundation,  the , 

National  Wildlife 

Federation  and  the 

Sea  World/Busch  Gardens'' 

Education  Departments. 


No  pattern  or  logic  there  in  that  survival. 

Another  example  is  one  of  my  favorites 
among  the  paleontological  treasures  at  the 
University  of  Nebraska  State  Museum.  I 
was  fascinated  by  the  specimen  when  I 
first  saw  it  thirty  years  ago,  and  just  last 
month  I  stood  before  it  again,  no  less 
awed.  The  central  element  of  the  exhibit  is 
the  fossilized  remains  of  two  gigantic 
mammoths.  Their  huge  tusks  locked  in 
etemal  battle,  the  great  creatures  died  star- 
ing into  each  other's  eyes.  They  stood 
there  in  their  last  moments,  magnificent 
creatures  to  the  end.  And,  as  such  things 
go  in  biology,  they  were  not  alone. 

A  coyote  watched  as  the  drama  un- 
folded. From  experience,  he  knew  what 
was  happening.  I  have  tried  to  imagine 
what  must  have  gone  through  that  coyote's 
mind:  "Never  again  will  I  have  to  eat  a 
grasshopper  or  mouse.  There  is  enough 
meat  in  these  two  beasts  to  last  me  the  rest 
of  my  life.  I'll  just  eat  my  way  into  one  of 
the  carcasses  and  spend  the  rest  of  my  life 
in  there  eating  and  sleeping,  sleeping  and 
eating.  Is  this  going  to  be  great  or.. . ." 

At  this  point,  however,  the  unfolding 
drama  took  a  twist.  The  great  mammoths 
staggered  a  Uttle  too  quickly,  a  httle  too  far 
in  the  wrong  direction  and  fell — right  on 
the  coyote.  And  there  the  coyote's  fos- 
silized skull  is  squashed  flat,  right  under 
the  bones  of  the  mammoths. 

Dead  mammoths,  dead  coyote.  But 
consider  this:  the  coyote — puny  and  emi- 


nently squashable — persists  right  here  on 
the  same  Plains  where  his  ill-fated  ances- 
tor died,  while  the  mammoth  has  become 
extinct,  along,  so  far  as  I  can  tell,  with 
cheap  electricians  and  reliable  plumbers. 
The  mammoth  is  gone  and  the  coyote 
thrives.  It  makes  no  sense. 

I  think  of  that  mystery  every  time  I  see 
a  road-kill  coyote  along  the  highway: 
"Wow,  if  things  had  gone  the  other  way 
around,  this  would  definitely  be  a  good 
place  to  own  an  auto  body  shop!" 

Horses  were  here,  and  then  horses  were 
gone,  and  then  horses  were  here  again. 
What's  that  all  about?  We're  big  and 
smart,  mice  are  little  and  dumb,  mosqui- 
toes are  even  smaller  and  even  dumber.  So 
who  do  you  think  is  winning  the  evolu- 
tionary survival  game  within  that  trio? 
See?  It  makes  no  sense  at  all.  The  brightest 
and  biggest — whales,  elephants,  rhinocer- 
oses— are  all  threatened;  the  dumbest  and 
most  humble  of  us  are  apparently  doing 
just  fine  (there  was  another  possum  in  the 
chicken  house  this  morning). 

And  yet  there  is  change,  there  is  cause 
and  effect,  there  are  valid  conclusions. 
There  is,  for  example,  within  the  family 
tree  of  vertebrates,  evidence  of  the  work- 
ings of  evolution.  Vertebrates,  we  can 
safely  say,  unquesrionably  gave  rise  to  chi- 
ropractors. 

Folklorist  Roger  L.  Welsch  lives  on  a  tree 
farm  in  Dannebrog,  Nebraska. 


28    Natural  History  6/94 


S 1994  Sea  ■World.  Inc. 


Bein^  stranded  on  a  deserted  beach 

seems  very  romantic. 

Unless  you're  tnree  hours  old. 

Hours  after  her  birth,  a  violent  storm  separated  this  harbor  seal 
pup  from  her  mother.  She  was  hungry.  Defenseless.  And  scared. 
Unable  to  survive  in  the  ocean,  she  beached  herself. 

Our  Beached  Animal  Recovery  Team  gently  collected  the 
helpless  pup  on  Valentine's  eve.  Appropriately,  they  named  her 
Cupid.  Back  at  Sea  World's  animal  care  facility,  Cupid  was  given  the 
medical  attention,  food  and  love  she  needed  to  live. 

Three  months  later,  she  ^vas  strong  enough  to  return  home.  So 
we  found  a  beautiful  stretch  of  Pacific  Ocean  frequented  by  fellow 
harbor  seals.  We  kne-w  it  was  the  perfect  match  for  Cupid.  And  we 
feel  good  knowing  her  life  in  the  ocean  will  be  a  lot  more  romantic. 

A  pledge  and  a  promise  from  tne  Anneuser-Buscti  Companies. 


L 


E 


I 


C 


A 


A    new    addition    to    the    family. 


BIRDERS  AND  NATURALISTS 

KNOW  THAT  LEICA  BINOCULA 

ARE  THE  BEST  WAY  TO 

ENJOY  NATURE'S     BEAUTY 

IN  ALL  ITS  DETAIL, 

NOW  THERE'S  A  NEW   LIGHTER    ^ 

WEIGHT  AND  VERSATILE 

ADDITION  TO  THE   LEICA 

ULTRA  FAMILY: 

THE  8  X  32  BA. 

THIS   LIGHTER  AND   MORE  GOMPA 

VERSION   OF  THE   FULL  SIZE   ULT 

SERIES   DEFINES  A   NEW  CATEGORY  OF 

MIDSIZE  BINOCULARS.     THE   NEW  8  X 

32'S   HAVE  ALL  OF  THE  SPECTACULAR 

LEICA  FEATURES  YOU   EXPECT. 

THEY'RE  WATERPROOF,   DUSTPROOF, 

RUGGED   ENOUGH  TO  GO  ANYWHERE, 

CLOSE-FOCUSED  TO 

10.7   FEET,   AND  OFFER, 

LEICA'S  SUPERIOR 

OPTICAL  PERFORMANCE 

AND   UNMATCHED  SHARP   DETAIL 


LEICA 


X      3  2      B  A 


FULLY  WATERPROOF  AND   FOG-FREE. 
BY   DESIGN,   A  UNIQUE     COMPENSATION 
ELIMINATES  THE   ROLLING   EFFECT 
COMMON   DURING   BROAD 
,_j       GLASSING.     NO   BINOCULARS  OF 
','<»^/?       ANY  SIZE  CAN   MATCH  THE 
'     '  OPTICAL  PERFORMANCE  AND 

EASY   HANDLING  OF  THIS   NEWEST 
ADDITION   TO  THE   LEICA   FAMILY, 
EXCEPT,   OF  COURSE,   OUR   FULL  SIZE 
7X42,   8X42  AND   10X42   ULTRAS.     ALL 
LEICA  BINOCULARS  ARE  COVERED   BY  A 
LIFETIME  WARRANTY  AND   LEICA'S 
EXCLUSIVE  3-YEAR   NO-FAULT 
PASSPORT  PROTECTION. 
FOR  BIRDERS,   NATURE  LOVERS, 
HIKERS,  CLIMBERS    AND 
TRAVELERS  THERE'S  NOTHING 
LIKE  A  LEICA. 


ONLY  THE  FINEST  OPTICAL  GLASS 
IS  SELECTED  FOR  THE  ANTI- 
REFLECTION  COATED  LENSES  AND 
PHASE-CORRECTED  PRISMS. 
RIGID  SLIDING  EYECUPS 
PROVIDE   FULL  FIELD  OF  VIEW 
FOR   EYEGLASS  WEARERS. 
EACH   EYE  CAN   BE 
ADJUSTED  TO    ±  4.0 
DIOPTERS.     TRUE   INTERNAL  FOCUSING, 
NITROGEN   FILLED  AND  SPECIAL 

SEALING   INSURES  THESE   BINOCULARS 
Brazilian  Tanager:C.H.  GreenwaltA/IREO 

For  information,  full  color  brochures  or  the  name  of  a  Leica  dealer,  call  (800)222-0118;  in  NJ  (201)767-7500.  Leica  Camera  Inc., 156  Ludlow  Ave.,  Northvale,  NJ  07647 


The  Games  Species  Play 


Joan  Mir6,  Le  Chant  au  Rossigne  ^  Minuit  et  la  Piute  Matinale;  ©  1 994  Artist's  Rights  Society;  Perls  Galleries.  New  York 

In  the  good  old  days — say  a  century  ago,  give  or  take  a  few  decades — scientists  had  a 
clear  understanding  of  the  evolution  of  life.  Lispired  by  Charles  Darwin's  view  of  the  role  of 
natural  selection,  they  argued  learnedly  about  the  survival  of  the  fittest  and  the  immutabihty 

of  species.  These  radical  ideas  even  moved  into  social  and  political  realms — sometimes 

with  ugly  consequences.  But  life,  in  all  its  complexity,  doesn't  follow  the  clear-cut  rules  we 

are  inclined  to  draw  up  for  it.  And  good  science  never  stops  looking,  questioning,  learning, 

and  challenging  even  its  most  sacred  concepts.  Scientists,  with  tools  of  high  technology  (as 

examples,  they  can  now  decode  a  gene,  watch  a  cell  battle  an  intruder  on  its  membrane, 

trace  an  element  through  a  complex  food  chain)  and  aided  by  the  vast  accumulation  and 

circulation  of  knowledge  (the  electronic  information  highway  is  the  latest  gimmick,  but 

universal  postal  service,  fast  printing  presses,  and  cheap  photocopiers  weren't  shabby 

innovations,  either)  are  indeed  making  progress  in  understanding  how  life  works.  The 

following  studies  (selected  from  thousands  of  equally  intriguing  possible  topics)  reveal 

some  of  that  progress  and  the  continued  significance  of  the  Darwinian  perspective.  They 

also  show  that  biological  science  is  still  the  most  exciting  game  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 


<: 

o 


o 

3 


31 


o 


o 
> 


Feminist 

Bacteria  of 

Ladybird 

Beetles 

A  dose  of  antibiotics  can  clear  up 

many  problems,  including  a 

biological  puzzle 

by  Gregory  Hurst  and 
Michael  Majerus 

Like  humans  and  many  other  animals, 
the  two-spotted  ladybird  beetle  tends  to 
produce  sons  and  daughters  in  approxi- 
mately equal  numbers,  sex  being  deter- 
mined by  the  genetic  constitution  of  the 
father's  sperm.  Fifty  years  ago,  however, 
Ya  Ya  Lus — a  Russian  scientist  breeding 
ladybirds  in  the  attic  of  his  house — no- 
ticed that  some  females  produced  mainly 
daughters.  Intriguingly,  these  females  also 
laid  many  eggs  that  simply  failed  to  hatch. 
Lus  performed  an  analysis  of  this  odd  phe- 
nomenon and  showed  that  the  mother,  not 
the  father,  was  apparently  responsible  for 
the  plethora  of  daughters  and  that  the 
dearth  of  sons  was  due  to  the  death  of  male 
embryos  early  in  their  development.  Un- 
fortunately, with  the  information  available 
to  him,  Lus  was  unable  to  determine  how 
this  strange  state  of  affairs  came  about. 

The  story  of  male  ladybird  mortality 
was  recently  taken  up  in  the  United  King- 
dom, where  field  research  into  the  mating 
preferences  of  these  beetles  had  turned  up 
similar  skewed  sex  ratios  and  where 
breeding  experiments  in  the  lab  had  deter- 
mined that,  as  in  Lus's  attic,  females  were 
behind  the  superabundance  of  daughters. 
And,  as  Lus  had  also  noted,  only  certain 
ladybird  "families"  were  involved.  To  find 
out  more,  we  began  our  real  detective 
work. 

Genetic  material  in  the  nucleus  of  a  cell 
comes  from  the  mother  and  father  in  equal 
proportions,  but  there  is  far  more  to  an  or- 
ganism than  its  nuclear  genes.  In  fact,  the 
vast  proportion  of  any  new  individual  is 
made  up  of  cytoplasm,  all  the  protoplasm 
in  a  cell  outside  the  nucleus.  This  cyto- 
plasm also  contains  genetic  material.  In 
most  kinds  of  organisms,  a  new  embryo  is 


formed  following  the  fertilization  of  an 
egg  cell  (which  contains  large  amounts  of 
cytoplasm)  by  a  spermatozoon  (which 
contains  very  little).  The  genes  in  the  new 
organism's  cytoplasm  thus  come  almost 
exclusively  from  its  mother. 

Cytoplasm  genes  are  less  numerous 
than  nuclear  genes,  but  they  may  be  of 
many  types.  Some,  such  as  mitochondria, 
may  be  essential  to  such  basic  cell  func- 
tions as  energy  production.  Other  genes 
may  come  in  the  form  of  viruses,  proto- 
zoans, or  bacteria  that  Uve  and  reproduce 


in  the  cytoplasm  of  their  host  cells  and  are 
passed  along  with  the  rest  of  the  genetic 
material  in  the  reproductive  cells  of  their 
host. 

As  we  set  out  to  track  down  the  killer  of 
our  male  ladybird  embryos,  we  followed 
the  scientific  dictate,  "Do  easy,  cheap  ex- 
periments before  difficult,  expensive 
ones."  And  since  previous  work  by  others 
had  turned  up  male-killing  bacteria  in 
other  situations,  we  adopted  an  approach 
familiar  to  physicians;  "If  there  is  a  suspi- 
cion that  the  problem  is  caused  by  bacte- 


32    Natural  History  6/94 


< 

o 


o 

3 


ria,  treat  with  antibiotics."  Therefore,  we 
fed  our  female  ladybirds  tetracycline  in 
syrup  (the  best  way  to  get  ladybirds  to  take 
medicine). 

Our  frugal  approach  paid  off.  Almost 
immediately,  the  hatch  rate  of  eggs  laid  by 
the  treated  females  increased,  suggesting 
that  males  were  now  surviving.  And  in- 
deed, when  we  examined  the  offspring 
produced  by  these  females,  we  found 
roughly  equal  numbers  of  each  gender. 
Our  killer  appeared  to  be  a  bacterium.  Mi- 
croscopy subsequently  corroborated  this 


analysis,  and  further  work  by  Jack  Werren, 
of  the  University  of  Rochester,  produced 
molecular  confirmation:  a  bacterium, 
passed  down  from  mother  to  daughter,  had 
killed  the  sons. 

Like  any  other  organism,  this  bacterium 
should  be  trying  to  reproduce,  to  perpetu- 
ate itself.  But  in  killing  the  males,  it  ap- 
pears to  be  committing  suicide.  So  what 
does  the  bacterium  have  to  gain  by  such 
misandrous  behavior?  A  great  deal,  sug- 
gests ladybird  ecology.  By  killing  male 
embryos  early  in  their  development,  a  bac- 


The  typical  two-spotted  ladybird  beetle  is 
a  rich  red  with  two  black  spots.  Dark 
individuals,  however,  are  not  uncommon 
and  are  as  successful  as  their  more 
traditionally  colored  conspecifics  at 
finding  food  and  mates. 

Michael  Majerus 


33 


o 


o 
> 


As  young  larvae  of  the  two-spotted 
ladybird  disperse  from  their  egg  batch  to 
seek  aphids,  they  leave  behind  a  jumble  of 
egg  debris.  The  yellowish  remains  are 
unhatched  eggs  that  have  been 
cannibalized. 

Michael  Majerus 


terium  may  help  insure  the  continued  sur- 
vival of  its  relatives,  all  geneticaUy  identi- 
cal to  itself. 

Ladybirds  lay  clutches  of  about  fifteen 
eggs,  which  hatch  over  a  period  of  two  to 
three  hours.  Any  eggs  that  have  not 
hatched  within  this  time  are  eaten  by  sib- 
hngs  that  emerged  earUer;  5  to  10  percent 
of  all  ladybirds  may  die  this  way.  The  bac- 
terium's actions  reduce  this  cannibahsm, 
at  least  on  female  embryos.  Male  embryos 
killed  by  the  bacterium  no  longer  pose  any 
threat  as  cannibals  and  instead  serve  as 
food  for  their  female  sibhngs.  They  may 
even  provide  some  protection  for  late- 
hatching  females,  which  are  less  Ukely  to 
be  cannibalized  when  there  are  so  many 
perfectly  nutritious  dead  male  eggs  lying 
around  for  the  taking.  And  anything  that 
increases  the  survival  of  females — which, 
unUke  males,  can  transmit  cytoplasmic 


material — is,  of  course,  also  good  for  the 
bacterium. 

The  death  of  male  ladybird  embryos 
may  have  other,  even  more  potent  effects 
on  female  survival,  however.  Sibling  egg 
cannibalism  is  common  in  ladybirds, 
probably  because  getting  a  meal  early  on 
in  life  greatly  increases  the  likeUhood  that 
a  ladybird  larva  wiU  survive.  The  larvae 
are  small  (no  more  than  2  mm  long)  and 
bom  with  scant  energy  reserves;  without 
food,  they  will  not  five  much  more  than  a 
day.  Newly  hatched  larvae  feed  on  aphids, 
which  they  search  out  primarily  by  touch. 
If  they  do  happen  to  bump  into  an  aphid, 
their  chances  of  capturing  it  are  poor.  The 
aphids  are  two  to  three  times  their  size  and 
have  several  defense  mechanisms:  they 
may  kick  the  larvae  away,  run  away  them- 
selves, or  drop  off  the  host  plant  to  avoid 
capture.  Many  larvae  die  without  obtain- 
ing their  first  aphid  meal. 

Cannibalism  boosts  energy  reserves  at 
this  vulnerable  stage,  and  any  larva  that 
gets  a  highly  nutritious  egg  meal  is  more 
likely  to  last  long  enough  to  catch  that 
first,  crucial  aphid.  Having  lots  of  dead 
male  embryos  around  is  an  additional  ad- 
vantage; in  such  clutches,  every  female 
has,  on  average,  at  least  one  dead  brother 
to  feed  on.  Again,  the  dead  males'  sisters 
are  not  the  only  ones  to  benefit;  the  set-up 


is  also  advantageous  to  the  bacterium  hv- 
ing  in  them,  for  with  the  death  of  the 
males,  the  survival  and  propagation  of  the 
bacterium  depends  totdly  on  that  of  the 
female  ladybirds. 

The  bacterium  thus  seems  to  have 
worked  matters  out  quite  nicely:  by  killing 
males,  the  sex  through  which  it  cannot  be 
inherited,  it  enhances  the  survival  of  fe- 
males, the  sex  through  which  it  can.  But 
why  has  the  ladybird  beede  not  died  out 
for  lack  of  males?  After  all,  while  the  fe- 
male beeties  may  not  need  many  males  to 
reproduce,  they  cannot  do  without  them 
entirely. 

As  it  turns  out,  uninfected  individuals 
are  being  produced  all  the  time,  for  a  cou- 
ple of  reasons.  For  one,  the  bacterium  is 
not  perfectly  transmitted  from  generation 
to  generation:  10  percent  of  daughters  are 
free  of  the  infection.  For  another,  a  bac- 
terium residing  within  a  female  inevitably 
uses  some  of  its  host  food  reserves  for  its 
own  metabolism,  thus  reducing  her  fecun- 
dity and  longevity.  This,  too,  slows  down 
the  rate  of  bacterial  transmission.  Bad  for 
the  bacterium  in  the  short  term,  this  imper- 
fect ttansmission  is  necessary  for  its  sur- 
vival over  the  long  term.  A  completely 
successful  bacterium,  like  a  predator  that 
wipes  out  all  of  its  prey,  would  be  doomed 
to  follow  its  host  to  extinction. 


34    Natural  History  6/94 


©  Lenox,  Inc.  1994 


©  Smithsonian  Institution  1994 


Eagle  of  Glory 

Please  enter  my  reservation  for  Eagle  of  Glory,  a  handcrafted 
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by  the  Smithsonian  Institution's  National  Zoological  Park. 

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sculpture  in  seven  monthly  installments  of  $36*  each. 

Signature 

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LENOX.      SINCE      188' 


Genetic 
Invasion  of 
the  Insect 
a      Body 
S    Snatchers 


o 
> 


By  controlling  sex  and  survival, 

some  parasites  can  turn  their 

hosts  into  new  species 

by  Jack  Werren 


My  first  encounter  with  a  jewel  wasp  in 
the  wild  occurred  along  a  roadside  in  the 
mountains  of  Utah.  I  had  stopped  to  inves- 
tigate a  porcupine  that  had  been  run  over 
several  weeks  previously.  Flies  had  long 
since  arrived  and  done  their  handiwork. 
All  that  remained  of  the  original  animal 
was  skin,  bones,  and  quills.  Beneath  the 
skin,  thousands  of  fly  larvae  had  pupated 
and  were  metamorphosing  into  adults.  But 
another  organism  was  doing  to  the  flies 
what  they  had  done  to  the  porcupine.  This 
was  the  jewel  wasp,  Nasonia  vitripennis. 

SmaU  (about  3  mm  long)  and  gnatlike, 
the  jewel  wasp  is  unremarkable  to  the 
naked  eye,  but  seen  through  a  microscope, 
it  is  a  beauty.  Its  finely  faceted  body  shim- 
mers with  iridescent  colors  that  change 
with  die  angle  of  light.  A  female  jewel 
wasp  seeks  out  fly  pupae  and  kills  them  by 
injecting  them  with  venom.  She  then  lays 
twenty  to  forty  eggs  in  each  fly  puparium. 
The  eggs  hatch  into  larvae  one  to  two  days 
later  and  begin  to  devour  the  meal  pro- 
vided by  their  mother.  In  about  two  more 
weeks,  the  adult  wasps  emerge.  Tlie  short- 
winged,  flightless  males  mate  and  die  in 
the  patch  of  fly  pupae  they  were  bom  in. 
The  newly  emerged  winged  females  fly 
off  immediately  after  mating  in  search  of 
fresh  fly  pupae  in  which  to  lay  their  eggs. 

What  originally  attracted  me  to  these 
creatures  was  the  female's  ability  to  con- 
trol the  sex  of  her  offspring.  In  wasps, 
bees,  and  ants,  males  develop  from  unfer- 
tilized eggs  and  are  haploid  (that  is,  fliey 
have  just  one  set  of  chromosomes,  inher- 
ited from  die  mother),  whereas  females 
develop  from  fertilized  eggs  and  are 


diploid  (with  two  sets  of  chromosomes, 
one  from  each  parent).  After  mating,  the 
female  jewel  wasp  stores  sperm  in  a  spe- 
cial organ  called  a  spermatheca.  This 
organ  resembles  a  balloon  with  a  strawlike 
tube  at  one  end;  attached  to  the  nibe  is  a 
muscle  that  can  either  straighten  out  and 
allow  sperm  to  pass  to  the  egg  (resulting  in 
a  daughter)  or  can  crimp  the  tube  and 
block  the  sperm  (resulting  in  a  son).  How 
many  daughters  a  female  produces  de- 
pends on  a  number  of  factors,  including 
whether  she  is  the  first  wasp  to  lay  eggs  in 
a  fly  pupa  (in  which  case  shell  lay  mostly 
daughters)  or  the  second  (in  which  case 
she  will  lay  more  sons). 


Despite  the  female's  impressive  ability 
to  influence  the  sexual  identity  of  her 
progeny,  her  control  is  far  from  complete. 
The  jewel  wasps,  like  the  porcupine  and 
the  fly  larvae  before  them,  are  fliemselves 
victims  of  parasites.  They  harbor  an  as- 
semblage of  genetic  parasites  that  can  alter 
an  insect's  reproductive  system  for  their 
own  advantage. 

The  jewel  wasp  is  not  alone  in  this.  As 
scientists  have  discovered  over  the  last 
decade,  virtually  all  organisms  carry  ge- 
netic parasites  that  perpetuate  fliemselves 
at  the  expense  of  flieir  host.  Some  of  these 
parasites  are  bacteria  "inherited"  from  one 
generation  to  the  next  through  die  host  or- 


36    Natural  History  6/94 


These  minute  jewel  wasps,  seen  here 
against  grains  of  sand,  are  parasites  that 
are  themselves  victims  of  parasitic 
bacteria  and  parasitic  DMA. 


Ed  Bridges 


ganism's  eggs  (see  "Feminist  Bacteria  of 
Ladybird  Beetles,"  page  32).  Others  are 
actual  pieces  of  DNA  that  reside  in  the 
host  organism's  chromosomes.  For  ex- 
ample, in  most  organisms  small,  mobile 
pieces  of  DNA  called  transposons  make 
and  insert  extra  copies  of  themselves  in  the 
chromosomes  of  their  hosts.  Humans  have 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  copies  of  a  trans- 
posonlike  element  called  Alu  that  makes 
up  more  than  5  percent  of  our  DNA.  This 
parasite  is  relatively  benign,  although 
every  once  in  a  while  it  causes  a  harmful 
mutation  by  inserting  itself  in  the  wrong 
place.  Other  organisms,  such  as  mosqui- 
toes, mice,  and  fruit  flies,  have  parasitic 


chromosomes  that  are  able  to  insure  that 
they  end  up  in  all  the  host's  reproductive 
cells,  rather  than  just  half,  as  would  nor- 
mally occur  during  meiosis. 

What  makes  the  jewel  wasp  unusual  is 
the  variety  of  genetic  parasites  it  harbors 
and  the  severity  of  their  effects.  Not  all  in- 
dividuals are  infected  with  all  these  para- 
sites at  any  given  time,  but  among  those 
commonly  found  are  bacteria  that  kill 
male  embyros;  a  second  element  (which 
we  have  not  identified  yet)  that  is  transmit- 
ted only  through  eggs  and  that  causes  the 
wasp  to  produce  nearly  100  percent 
daughters;  and  a  bacterium  called  Wol- 
bachia  that  prevents  the  development  of 


hybrid  offspring  engendered  by  the  mat- 
ing of  jewel  wasps  with  wasps  of  closely 
related  species.  But  the  most  remarkable 
piece  of  parasitic  DNA  found  in  the  jewel 
wasp  is  the  paternal  sex  ratio  chromosome, 
PSR  for  short. 

PSR  is  a  killer  chromosome.  Diminu- 
tive— about  one-fifth  the  size  of  a  regular 
chromosome — it  is  found  only  in  some 
males  of  the  species.  PSR  hitches  a  ride  in 
the  spermatozoon  along  with  the  other 
chromosomes.  Just  as  picking  up  human 
hitchhikers  can  sometimes  be  dangerous, 
sharing  a  sperm  with  PSR  is  fatal  for  its 
fellow  travelers. 

After  an  egg  is  fertihzed,  PSR  destroys 
all  the  other  paternal  chromosomes,  caus- 
ing them  to  condense  into  a  mass,  which  is 
eventually  lost  during  development.  PSR 
alone  survives  to  join  the  maternal  chro- 
mosomes within  the  egg.  Without  the  frat- 
ricidal action  of  PSR,  the  egg  would  have 
been  diploid,  and  the  fertile  embryo  would 
have  developed  into  a  female.  With  PSR 
on  board,  the  fertihzed  egg  will  remain 
haploid  and  produce  a  male.  This  sex 
change  is  advantageous  for  the  parasite 
because  PSR  in  male  wasps  is  transmitted 
to  100  percent  of  the  spermatozoa  (and 
thus  to  the  next  generation).  But  PSR 
stuck  in  a  female  tends  to  get  lost  during 
meiosis  and  reaches  significantly  less  than 
50  percent  of  her  eggs. 

PSR  is  not  only  a  killer  of  chromo- 
somes; it  is  also  a  serial  killer  In  each  gen- 
eration, it  becomes  associated  with  and  de- 
stroys a  new  set  of  chromosomes, 
converting  females  into  males.  Because 
this  chromosome  is  so  deadly,  inevitably 
eliminating  all  the  chromosomes  with 
which  it  is  associated,  generation  after 
generation,  it  is  considered  the  most  ex- 
treme example  of  parasitic  DNA  so  far 
identified  from  any  species. 

Genetic  parasites  such  as  PSR  chal- 
lenge our  basic  concept  of  what  an  organ- 
ism is.  For  example,  PSR  is  pan  of  the 
jewel  wasp's  DNA,  but  it  is  harmful  to  the 
rest  of  the  genetic  material.  We  now  know 
that  most  organisms  contain  a  variety  of 
parasitic  DNAs.  Certainly  an  organism's 
genome  is  not  a  completely  cooperative 


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unit,  as  we  used  to  think.  There  is  conflict 
within  the  genome. 

How  does  such  genetic  conflict  begin? 
For  instance,  where  did  PSR  come  from? 
Trying  to  answer  such  questions  brought 
me  back,  somewhat  circuitously,  to  Wol- 
bachia.  Ail  the  jewel  wasps  I  have  col- 
lected from  the  wild  carry  these  intracellu- 
lar bacteria,  which  reside  in  cells  of  the 
male  and  female  reproductive  tract.  The 
bacteria  can  be  quite  numerous:  jewel 
wasps  typically  harbor  one  to  two  thou- 
sand in  every  egg. 

At  first  glance,  Wolbachia  would  appear 
to  be  simply  going  along  for  the  ride. 
However,  when  we  cure  insects  of  the 
bacteria  by  treating  them  with  antibiotics 
or  arrange  matings  between  insects  carry- 
ing different  strains  of  Wolbachia,  we  find 
that  the  bacteria  exercise  considerable 
control  over  the  insects'  reproduction. 


In  these  developing  jewel  wasp  sperm 
cells,  the  stubby,  darkly  stained  PSR 
chromosomes  (see  arrows)  lie  next  to  the 
larger,  lighter  chromosomes  that 
they  will  ultimately  destroy. 


Wolbachia  bacteria  in  a  male's  testes  can- 
not be  transmitted  via  the  sperm,  but  they 
do  modify  his  chromosomes,  probably  by 
producing  proteins  that  bind  to  the  sperm's 
DNA.  Unless  bacteria  of  the  same  strain 
are  also  present  in  the  egg  to  undo  this 
modification,  the  sperm-delivered  chro- 
mosomes will  fragment  and  be  destroyed 
in  the  fertilized  egg.  For  most  insects,  this 
results  in  the  death  of  the  embryo.  In  the 
jewel  wasp,  the  outcome  is  less  than  lethal: 
it  results  in  (haploid)  males. 

The  bacteria  benefit  indirectly  because 
ehminating  the  daughters  of  females  who 
do  not  have  the  same  bacterial  strain  actu- 
ally increases  the  frequency  of  that  strain 
in  the  population.  By  this  mechanism,  in- 
fected females  can  eventually  predomi- 
nate, as  is  seen  in  populations  of  jewel 
wasps  and  many  other  insects. 

Some  scientists  have  speculated  that 
control  by  Wolbachia  over  the  insects'  re- 
production may  be  important  in  the  evolu- 
tion of  new  species.  A  key  step  in  specia- 
tion  is  reproductive  isolation  of 
populations,  which  allows  them  to  evolve 
in  divergent  directions.  If  bacteria  cause 
reproductive  incompatibility  between 
populations  that  once  interbred,  bacteria 
may  also  promote  speciation. 


The  situation  in  jewel  wasps  suggests 
this  may  indeed  happen.  Nasonia  vitripen- 
nis,  which  lives  throughout  the  world,  has 
two  close  relatives  in  North  America:  N. 
longicomis,  in  the  west,  and  N.  giraulti,  in 
the  east.  The  cosmopolitan  N.  vitripennis 
overlaps  with  the  two  others  in  some 
places,  making  hybridization  between 
them  a  real  possibility.  In  our  lab,  we  have 
found  that  while  the  three  different  species 
of  jewel  wasp  wiU  mate  with  one  another, 
no  hybrid  progeny  result.  Closer  examina- 
tion reveals  that  chromosomes  from  sperm 
are  chopped  up  into  httle  pieces  in  the  fer- 
tiUzed  egg.  However,  when  we  cured  the 
wasps  of  their  Wolbachia  infections  and 
repeated  the  crosses,  true  hybrid  progeny 
developed.  In  other  words,  reproductive 
isolation  is  "curable." 

What  does  all  this  have  to  do  with  PSR? 
Occasionally  in  incompatible  crosses  a 
piece  of  chromosome  survives  the  frag- 
mentation process  and  is  passed  on  to  the 
next  generation.  Bryant  McAllister,  a 
graduate  student  in  my  laboratory,  has 
found  that  DNA  sequences  on  PSR  are 
much  more  similar  to  DNA  from  A^.  longi- 
comis than  to  DNA  of  the  jewel  wasp,  in- 
dicating that  PSR  is  an  "ahen  chromo- 
some" that  came  from  the  former  species 
during  an  incompatible  cross.  One  of  the 
pieces  of  PSR  DNA  that  McAUister  has 
studied  is  itself  a  transposon,  which  makes 
it  a  piece  of  parasitic  DNA  on  a  piece  of 
parasitic  DNA,  generated  by  a  parasitic 
bacterium  within  a  parasitic  wasp.  PSR 
may  owe  yet  another  debt  to  the  Wol- 
bachia— its  ability  to  destroy  chromo- 
somes. We  are  now  testing  the  possibility 
that  PSR  acquired  the  relevant  genetic  ma- 
terial from  Wolbachia  by  genetic  ex- 
change during  formation  of  the  chromo- 
some. 

Wolbachia  are  turning  out  to  be  quite 
common  in  insects.  During  one  trip  to  the 
rain  forests  of  Panama,  for  example,  I  col- 
lected and  examined  more  than  a  hundred 
species  and  found  that  more  than  5  percent 
were  infected  with  Wolbachia.  Extrapolat- 
ing to  the  global  insect  fauna,  which  is  cur- 
rently estimated  to  be  at  least  five  million 
species,  an  amazing  250,000  species  may 
be  infected  with  Wolbachia.  Only  time 
will  tell  whether  these  reproductive  para- 
sites are  important  in  the  evolution  of  new 
species,  but  the  possibility  is  tantalizing. 
At  any  rate,  I  have  had  to  give  up  my  con- 
ception of  an  organism  as  a  strictly  coop- 
erative unit.  When  I  peer  through  a  micro- 
scope these  days,  I  am  no  longer  even 
certain  where  one  organism  ends  and  an- 
other begins. 


38    Natural  History  6/94 


Bacteria 

Break  the 

Antibiotic 

Bank 

Drug-resistant  genes  are  leaping 
across  species  boundaries 

by  John  Maynard  Smith 


The  brief  era  in  which  such  infectious 
diseases  as  pneumonia,  tuberculosis,  and 
gonorrhea  could  be  effectively  controlled 
by  antibiotics  may  be  nearing  its  end. 
Strains  of  disease-causing  bacteria  resis- 
tant to  penicillin  and  other  antibiotics  have 
rapidly  evolved,  and — even  more  unset- 
tling— such  resistance  can  often  be  passed 
from  one  type  of  bacterium  to  another. 

Penicillin,  for  example,  kills  bacteria  by 
binding  irreversibly  to  enzymes  (called 
penicillin  binding  proteins,  or  PBPs  for 
short)  that  normally  help  bacteria  manu- 
facture cell  walls.  The  penicillin  bond  puts 
the  PBP  enzymes  out  of  action  and  thus 
prevents  bacteria  from  synthesizing  new 
cell  walls.  As  a  result,  the  bacteria  die. 

But  bacteria  can  evolve  resistance  to 
penicillin  in  two  ways.  The  first  and  most 
common  method  is  for  bacteria  to  arm 
themselves  with  B-lactamase,  an  enzyme 
that  breaks  down  penicillin  before  it  can 
do  any  damage.  The  gene  that  codes  for  6- 
lactamase  is  not  actually  part  of  the  bacte- 
rial chromosome;  it  is  carried  on  an  acces- 
sory piece  of  DNA  known  as  a  plasmid. 
Plasmids,  which  are  self-replicating  cir- 
cles of  DNA,  can  travel  from  one  bac- 
terium to  another,  and  from  one  kind  of 
bacterium  to  another,  across  very  wide 
taxonomic  boundaries. 

Almost  all  bacteria  carry  plasmids, 
which  confer  a  wide  variety  of  properties 
on  their  hosts,  including  the  ability  to  me- 
tabolize unusual  nutrients,  to  resist  heavy 
metal  ions  and  toxic  substances,  and  to  re- 
sist attack  by  viruses.  Plasmids  that  en- 
code for  6-lactamase  probably  originated 
a  long  time  ago.  Penicillin  has  been 
around  for  many  millions  of  years,  al- 
though its  clinical  use  is  new.  It  is  manu- 
factured by  some  soil  fungi,  presumably 
because  it  helps  them  to  compete  with  soil 


bacteria.  Most  likely,  a  plasmid  that  per- 
mitted the  production  of  6-lactamase  first 
evolved  in  a  soil  bacterium,  and  it  and  its 
host  then  proliferated  because  of  the  pro- 
tection it  conferred. 

During  the  last  fifty  years,  as  a  result  of 
the  widespread  use  of  antibiotics,  plas- 
mids with  the  gene  for  B-lactamase  have 
been  incoiporated  in  most  of  the  bacteria 
that  live  in  humans.  Acquiring  plasmids 
that  carry  the  genes  they  need  is  one  way 
bacteria  can  evolve  and  become  adapted  to 
changed  circumstances — in  this  case  the 
increased  exposure  to  penicillin.  This  is 
similar  to  the  process  of  symbiosis, 
whereby  higher  organisms  sometimes  ac- 
quire new  abilities  by  linking  up  with  a 
partner — such  as  a  bacterium,  fungus,  or 
alga — that  has  the  necessary  genes. 

For  example,  the  roots  of  peas  and 
beans  have  bacteria  that  provide  them  with 
nitrogen  in  usable  form,  and  heathers  have 
fungi  associated  with  their  roots  that  en- 
able them  to  live  on  nutrient-poor,  acidic 
soils.  Similar  symbioses  enable  termites  to 


digest  wood  and  some  animals  to  live  in 
deep-sea  vents.  The  difference  between 
these  examples  and  plasmids  is  that  the 
symbionts  of  higher  animals  and  plants 
were  once  capable  of  a  free-living  exis- 
tence, and  often  still  are,  whereas  plasmids 
are  mere  circles  of  DNA  that  could  never 
have  multiplied  outside  a  cell.  They  appar- 
ently originated  as  pieces  of  bacterial 
chromosomes. 

Most  bacteria  have  evolved  the  ability 
to  resist  penicillin  by  acquiring  a  partner,  a 


Complicating  the  treatment  of  gonorrhea, 
some  strains  of  the  bacterium  Neisseria 
gonorrhoeae  are  no  longer  vulnerable  to 
penicillin  and  certain  other  antibiotics. 
They  have  acquired  their  resistance  by 
incorporating  bits  of  DNA  from  other 
bacterial  species — a  process  known  as 
genetic  transfonnation. 

Photographs  CNRI/Science  Photo  Library;  Photo  Researchers 


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plasmid,  that  has  the  necessary  gene.  Plas- 
mids  that  confer  resistance  to  many  other 
antibiotics  are  also  now  widespread.  Some 
plasmids  even  carry  genes  that  enable 
them  to  confer  resistance  to  more  than  one 
antibiotic. 

Other  bacteria  have  followed  a  different 
route  to  penicillin  resistance:  they  have 
changed  their  PBP  enzymes  so  that  peni- 
cillin will  no  longer  bind  to  them.  This  is 
true  of  Neisseria,  a  genus  that  includes  the 
causative  agents  of  gonorrhea  and  of  some 
cases  of  bacterial  meningitis. 

The  gene  coding  for  the  PBP2  enzyme 
(the  most  important  of  the  peniciUin  bind- 
ing proteins)  was  analyzed  for  several 
penicillin-sensitive  strains  of  Neisseria 
meningitidis  and  for  a  number  of  resistant 
strains.  The  sensitive  strains  were  all  very 
similar  to  one  another,  and  their  differ- 
ences had  little  effect  on  the  sequence  of 
amino  acids  (protein  building  blocks)  in 
the  PBP2  enzyme.  The  genes  belonging  to 
the  resistant  strains,  however,  differed  sig- 
nificantly. Each  gene  was  a  mosaic,  con- 
sisting of  DNA  pieces  that  were  very  sim- 
ilar to  the  corresponding  pieces  in  the  gene 
from  the  sensitive  strains,  along  with 
pieces  that  differed  in  about  20  percent  of 
their  bases  (the  chemical  units  in  DNA 
that  determine  what  amino  acids  will  be 
inserted  in  the  protein). 

The  variant  pieces  must  have  been  ac- 
quired from  another  bacterium.  We  know 
that  Neisseria  cells  actively  take  up  bits  of 
DNA  from  their  surroundings,  preferring 
DNA  similar  to  their  own.  The  DNA  is 
broken  into  pieces,  and  some  of  the  pieces 
are  slotted  into  the  bacterial  chromosome, 
replacing  those  that  are  already  there.  This 
process  of  "transformation"  is  analogous 
to  sex  in  higher  organisms:  it  is  a  means 
whereby  genetic  material  from  two  ances- 
tors is  combined  in  a  single  descendant. 
The  difference  is  that  in  the  sexual  process, 
the  new  individual  gets  half  its  DNA  from 
each  parent,  whereas  in  transformation, 
the  recipient  cell  gets  only  a  small  fraction 
of  its  DNA  from  a  donor  But  from  an  evo- 
lutionary point  of  view,  the  two  processes 
have  similar  consequences:  favorable  mu- 
tations occurring  in  different  ancestors  can 
combine  in  a  single  descendant. 

In  the  case  of  Neisseria,  we  know 
where  the  introduced  blocks  of  DNA 
come  from.  The  genus  includes  not  only 
the  bacteria  causing  meningitis  and  gonor- 
rhea but  also  a  number  of  harmless  species 
found  in  the  human  throat.  Some  of  these 
are  naturally  resistant  to  penicillin,  and 
were  so  before  the  clinical  use  of  antibi- 
otics began.  The  introduced  blocks  are  al- 


Genetic  transformation  has  enabled 
strains  o/Streptococcus  pneumoniae, 
which  cause  respiratory  disease,  to  resist 
many  antibiotics.  The  bacteria  (within  the 
globules)  also  combat  the  body's  natural 
immune  defenses  by  enveloping 
themselves  in  capsules  of  secreted 
material. 


most  identical  to  the  PBP2  genes  found  in 
one  or  the  other  of  two  harmless  species, 
N.  flavescens  and  N.  mucosa.  Thus  N. 
meningitidis  evolved  resistance  to  peni- 
cillin by  acquiring  DNA  from  related  spe- 
cies that  were  already  resistant.  The  same 
is  true  of  M  gonorrhoeae. 

The  PBP  genes  in  resistant  Streptococ- 
cus pneumoniae,  an  important  cause  of 
respiratory  disease,  also  show  a  mosaic 
structure,  and  we  are  confident  that  they 
too  were  acquired  by  genetic  transforma- 
tion. The  donor  species,  however,  has  not 
yet  been  found.  (S.  pneumoniae,  inciden- 
tally, was  the  bacterium  in  which  bacterial 
transformation  was  first  discovered  by  F. 
Griffith  in  1928.  Oswald  Avery  then 
demonstrated  that  the  transforming  factor 
was  DNA,  and  this  led  James  Watson  and 
Francis  Crick  to  study  the  structure  of 
DNA.  So  began  the  molecular  biology 
revolution.) 

Does  transformation  play  a  comparable 
role  in  other  bacteria  now  developing  re- 
sistance to  antibiotics?  We  cannot  be  sure. 
Many  bacteria,  including  the  geneticist's 
favorites,  Escherichia  and  Salmonella,  do 
not  actively  obtain  outside  DNA — they 
are  not,  to  use  the  jargon  of  microbial  ge- 
netics, "competent  for  transformation." 
But  even  these  bacteria  can  acquire  DNA 
from  other  cells.  For  example,  bacterio- 
phages (viruses  that  Uve  in  bacteria)  some- 
times carry  bacterial  DNA  into  a  new  host 
cell  by  accident. 

These  and  other  forms  of  bacterial  evo- 
lution, with  the  consequent  spread  of  an- 
tibiotic resistance,  are  undermining  our 
ability  to  treat  infectious  diseases,  includ- 
ing the  infections  that  can  wreak  havoc 
with  any  form  of  surgery.  Further  cause 
for  concern  is  the  increasing  use  of  bacte- 
ria in  industrial  processes.  If  genetically 
engineered  organisms  are  released  into  the 
environment,  the  genes  in  those  organisms 
are  unlikely  to  remain  where  we  put  them. 
We  therefore  have  to  ask  not  only  whether 
the  released  organism  is  harmless  but  also 
whether  the  genes  it  contains  are  harmless. 


40    Natural  History  6/94 


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On  Darwin, 

Snow,  and 

Deadly 

Diseases 

An  evolutionary  approach  to 

disease  control  could  vastly 

improve  public  health 

by  Paul  W.  Ewald 


The  other  passengers  on  the  London 
train  must  have  dismissed  me  as  another 
mental  casualty  of  twentieth-century 
urban  life.  I  had  looked  out  of  the  train 
window,  let  out  a  "Ha!"  and  then  chuck- 
led, nodding  my  head  as  though  I  had  just 
been  told  a  joke  by  an  invisible  friend.  But 
I  didn't  care.  I  had  just  made  a  connection 
between  discipUnes  that  was  symboUzed 
by  what  I  saw  through  the  window. 

The  day  began  like  most  that  summer  of 
1984.  I  entered  the  Ubrary  of  the  London 
School  of  Hygiene  at  opening  time,  hold- 
ing a  plastic  shopping  bag  filled  with 
about  a  thousand  note-covered  index 
cards.  Surviving  a  probing  glance  from  the 
front  desk,  I  scaled  a  flight  of  stairs  and 
hustled  to  a  secluded  table  sandwiched  be- 
tween floor-to-ceiling  shelves  of  old  med- 
ical journals.  I  removed  half  of  my  cards 
and  a  thermos  of  coffee  tiiat  I  had  hidden 
in  the  bag,  leaving  a  hand-width  passage- 
way to  a  cache  of  cookies,  which  would 
fuel  me  until  the  library  closed.  I  con- 
cealed the  cup  with  the  bag  and  stowed  the 
thermos  below  the  table,  out  of  the  Ubrar- 
ian's  Une  of  sight,  to  avoid  the  wrath  I  in- 
curred when  my  operations  were  less  clan- 
destine. I  then  set  to  work. 

I  was  trying  to  find  out  why  some  dis- 
eases are  so  dangerous  and  others  merely 
annoyances.  My  interest  had  been  sparked 
several  years  earlier  when  I  read  Man 
Adapting,  by  bacteriologist  Rene  Dubos.  I 
was  surprised  by  his  statement,  "Given 
enough  time  a  state  of  peaceful  coexis- 
tence eventually  becomes  estabhshed  be- 
tween any  host  and  parasite." 

I  saw  no  reason  why  natural  selection 
would  always  lead  to  peaceful  coexis- 
tence, although  it  might  do  so  in  certain 
circumstances.  Consider  a  population  of 

42    Natural  History  6/94 


viruses  living  within  a  human  host.  What 
if  one  variant  in  this  population  is  more 
adept  at  exploiting  the  host's  body?  Repli- 
cating more  rapidly,  it  would  win  the  evo- 
lutionary race  with  its  viral  competitors 
and  become  the  predominant  variant  in  the 
population.  It  would  also  make  the  host 
sicker  and  more  contagious. 

But  if  the  long-term  survival  of  such  a 
virus  depends  upon  its  being  transmitted 
directly  from  host  to  host,  as  is  the  case 
with  the  virus  that  causes  the  common 
cold,  then  the  rapid  reproducer  may  pay  a 
high  price  for  its  virulence.  If  the  illness  is 
severe  enough  to  immobilize  the  host, 
contact  with  new  hosts  will  be  drastically 
reduced.  A  more  slowly  reproducing, 
milder  virus — perpetually  being  trans- 
ported by  a  mobile  host  to  new  contacts — 
would  be  more  likely  to  prosper. 

If  host-pathogen  relations  always  fol- 
lowed this  scenario,  Dubos's  generaliza- 
tion would  be  reasonable;  viruses  would 
evolve  toward  a  relatively  mild  state  of  co- 
existence with  their  hosts. 

But,  I  reasoned,  what  if  the  pathogen 
could  be  transmitted  even  when  the  host 
was  immobilized?  Then  the  more  rapidly 
rephcating,  abusive  organism  might  get 
the  competitive  advantages  of  high  repro- 
duction at  a  bargain  price.  This  seemed  to 
be  the  case  with  Plasmodium  falciparum, 
a  pathogen  that  causes  malaria.  Even 
when  its  host  is  immobilized,  this  proto- 
zoan is  still  easily  transmitted  to  other 
people  by  mosquitoes.  Generalizing  from 
this  argument,  I  predicted  that  disease  or- 
ganisms transmitted  by  biting  arthropod 
vectors  should  be  more  severe  than  those 
transmitted  directly  from  person  to  person. 
I  searched  the  epidemiological  Uterature 
and  found  that  the  prediction  passed  the 
test.  Vector-borne  pathogens  like  P.  falci- 
parum and  the  yellow  fever  virus  are  sig- 
nificantly more  severe  than  such  host- 
borne  viruses  as  the  common  cold. 

Evolution  may  involve  long  spans  of 
time,  but  it  can  be  rapid  if  generations  are 
short  and  the  culling  of  competitors  is  in- 
tense. Use  of  antibiotics,  for  example,  can 
cause  staphylococcus  bacteria  in  hospitals 
to  evolve  high  levels  of  resistance  within  a 


few  weeks.  If  our  technology  can  acceler- 
ate the  evolution  of  a  bacterium,  couldn't 
other  human  activities  also  cause 
pathogens  to  evolve  rapidly?  My  attention 
was  drawn  to  diarrhea. 

Each  year  millions  of  people  die  from 
diarrheal  diseases,  but  the  organisms  that 
cause  diarrhea  are  not  equally  culpable. 
Some  cause  deadly  diseases  hke  cholera, 
typhoid  fever,  and  dysentery,  but  others 
rarely  kill.  Are  the  classic  killers  mal- 
adapted  organisms  that  will  eventually 
evolve  toward  peaceful  coexistence,  or  are 
they  severe  because  our  activities  have 
made  them  severe? 

This  was  the  question  that  brought  me 
to  the  London  School  of  Hygiene.  On  that 
summer  day,  punctuated  by  surreptitious 


An  1858  Punch  cartoon  depicted 
pollution  on  the  Thames.  The  skeleton  is 
facing  the  residential  area  where  John 
Snow  completed  his  classic  study  of 
cholera-laden  water  supplies. 

The  Granger  Collection 


sipping  of  coffee  and  covert  crunching  of 
cookies,  I  was  reading  John  Snow's  boolc 
On  the  Mode  of  Communication  of 
Cholera.  Snow  was  a  dedicated,  lonely 
workaholic  who  spent  many  years  during 
the  mid-nineteenth  century  trying  to  un- 
derstand how  cholera  was  transmitted.  He 
focused  on  a  middle-class  residential  area 
of  south-central  London;  the  northbound 
Thames  bends  sharply  to  the  east  and  then 
arcs  to  the  south  around  the  area.  Cholera 
battered  the  residents  in  1849.  Snow  was 
looking  for  risk  factors:  activities  or  envi- 
ronmental exposures  that  could  explain 
why  cholera  attacked  some  people  and  not 
others.  His  initial  observations  made  him 
suspect  the  water.  In  one  severely  affected 
area  he  found  that 


slops  of  dirty  water,  poured  down  by  the  in- 
habitants into  a  channel  in  front  of  the 
houses,  got  into  the  well  from  which  they 
obtained  water....  Owing  to  something 
being  out  of  order,  the  water  had  for  some 
time  occasionally  burst  out  at  the  top  of  the 
well,  and  overflowed  into  the  gutter  or  chan- 
nel, afterwards  flowing  back  again  mixed 
with  the  impurities;  and  crevices  were  left 
in  the  ground  or  pavement,  allowing  part  of 
the  contents  of  the  gutter  to  flow  at  all  times 
into  the  well;  and  when  it  was  afterwards 
emptied,  a  large  quantity  of  black  and 
highly  offensive  deposit  was  found... evac- 
uations [from  cholera  cases]  were  passed 
into  the  l3eds,...the  water  in  which  the  foul 
linen  was  washed  would  inevitably  be  emp- 
tied into  the  channel. 

Water  in  this  area  was  supplied  by  the 
Lambeth  Company  or  the  Southwark  and 


Vauxhall  Company.  When  one  of  Snow's 
colleagues  examined  the  water,  he  "found 
in  it  the  hairs  of  animals  and  numerous 
substances  which  had  passed  through  the 
alimentary  canal."  He  concluded  that  the 
water  from  these  companies  "is  by  far  the 
worst  of  all  those  who  take  their  supplies 
from  the  Thames." 

Before  the  cholera  epidemic  of  1853, 
the  Lambeth  Company  moved  its  water  in- 
take to  a  purer  source.  Snow  realized  that  a 
vast  experiment  had  been  set  before  him. 
Scattered  among  the  houses  receiving 
contaminated  water  from  the  Southwark 
and  Vauxhall  Company  were  houses  re- 
ceiving purer  water  from  the  Lambeth 
Company.  If  water  transmitted  cholera,  the 
residents  served  by  the  Southwark  and 


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Vauxhall  Company  should  have  suifered 
from  cholera  more  than  residents  served 
by  the  Lambeth  Company.  They  did. 
Snow  found  that  the  risk  of  cholera  among 
Southwark  and  Vauxhall  customers  was 
nearly  ten  times  greater  in  1853,  even 
though  it  had  not  been  greater  in  1849, 
when  both  companies  delivered  contami- 
nated water.  By  showing  that  cholera 
could  be  waterbome,  John  Snow  had  es- 
tablished the  field  of  epidemiology. 

From  an  evolutionary  perspective,  the 
transfer  of  the  "foul  linen,"  the  movement 
of  contaminated  sewage  into  water  sup- 
plies, and  the  delivery  of  contaminated 
drinking  water  acted  like  a  horde  of  mos- 
quitoes transmitting  pathogens  from  im- 
mobilized patients.  Might  such  water- 
bome transmission  be  responsible  for  the 
great  variability  in  harmfulness  found 
among  diarrheal  pathogens?  A  quick  look 
at  the  literature  cannot  resolve  this  ques- 
tion because  most  diarrheal  organisms  can 
sometimes  be  transmitted  by  water  and 
sometimes  not.  My  task,  therefore,  was  to 
determine  from  the  literature  whether  se- 
vere organisms  tended  to  be  waterbome 
more  often  than  were  milder  organisms. 

By  the  time  I  looked  out  of  the  train 
window,  I  was  a  few  years  into  this  task.  A 
pattem  was  taking  shape:  the  lethality  of 


London 's  Lambeth  Company  opened  a 
new  waterworks  in  1852.  Its  customers 
therefore  received  relatively  pure  water 
and  largely  escaped  a  cholera  epidemic 
that  ravaged  the  city  the  following  year. 


The  Granger  Collection 


the  various  diarrheal  bacteria  correlated 
almost  perfectly  with  their  tendencies  to 
be  waterbome.  The  correlation  explained 
why  cholera,  typhoid  fever,  and  some 
kinds  of  dysentery  were  so  severe.  It  also 
suggested  a  new  dimension  for  disease 
control.  If  waterbome  transmission  favors 
the  evolution  of  increased  harmfulness, 
then  water  purification  should  do  the  op- 
posite— transform  severe  pathogens  into 
milder  ones.  Indeed,  records  indicate  that 
this  transition  has  happened.  Pohcy  mak- 
ers, however,  have  recently  diverted  in- 
vestments from  clean-water  programs  be- 
cause field  studies  did  not  show  a  large 
reduction  in  frequencies  of  infection.  But 
frequencies  are  only  part  of  the  story,  the 
epidemiological  part,  the  part  that  Snow 
was  investigating.  The  severity  per  infec- 
tion is  the  other  important  part,  the  evolu- 
tionary part.  If  the  next  generation  of  pre- 
cise tests  shows  that  water  purification 
transforms  severe  organisms  into  mild 
ones,  then  we  will  have  a  powerful  evolu- 
tionary tool  for  taming  diarrheal  disease. 

These  ideas  forge  a  link  between  epi- 
demiology and  evolutionary  biology,  be- 
tween John  Snow  and  Charles  Darwin.  Al- 
though Snow  and  Darwin  were  long  dead, 
I  felt  as  though  I  had  been  meeting  with 
them — their  printed  words  had  launched 
their  insights  through  the  intervening  cen- 
tury. When  I  looked  out  of  the  train  win- 
dow I  was  aloft  with  these  thoughts,  but 
just  as  I  was  coming  back  to  earth,  I  left  it 
again  when  I  saw  a  sign  at  the  train  station: 
Vauxhall!  Until  then  the  places  in  Snow's 
book  had  just  been  markers  for  keeping 
track  of  disease  outbreaks.  But  at  that  mo- 
ment I  realized  that  I  was  having  both  an 
intercentury  tutorial  from  Snow  and  a  tour 


THE        LAMBETH        WATER        C  0  >f  I'  A  N  Y  *  S        N  E  ^V        W  0  R  I 


44    Natural  History  6/94 


of  the  places  that  he  had  methodically  can- 
vassed to  estabhsh  the  field  of  epidemiol- 
ogy. I  later  reahzed  that  I  had  begun  this 
tour  by  walking  out  of  the  library. 

Snow  moved  to  London  in  1836;  Dar- 
win in  1837.  hi  the  early  1840s  Darwin 
was  hving  on  Gower  Street,  a  block  north 
of  where  the  London  School  of  Hygiene 
would  be  built.  He  was,  in  his  words,  "col- 
lecting facts  bearing  on  the  origin  of  spe- 
cies." At  that  time  John  Snow  was  work- 
ing on  his  degree  at  the  University  of 
London,  which  was  across  the  street  from 
Darwin's  apartment.  But  Darwin  and 
Snow  apparently  never  met  and  may  not 
have  even  been  aware  of  each  other's 
earth-shaking  contributions.  Although 
Snow  was  four  years  younger  than  Dar- 
win, he  died  of  a  stroke  in  1858,  at  the  age 
of  forty-five,  one  year  before  the  publica- 
tion of  Origin  of  Species.  Each  time  I  went 
to  the  hbrary  that  summer,  I  walked  down 
Gower  Street,  where  Snow  and  Darwin 
must  have  walked  separately  many  times 
during  the  early  1 840s.  Chance  had  put  me 
in  the  same  place,  and  the  printed  words  in 
the  library  had  removed  the  barrier  of 
time,  allowing  a  linkage  between  Snow's 
epidemiology  and  Darwin's  evolution. 

Isaac  Newton  paid  homage  to  scientists 
such  as  Gahleo  and  Copernicus  by  writ- 
ing, "If  I  see  farther  than  other  people,  it  is 
because  I  stand  on  the  shoulders  of  gi- 
ants." The  rest  of  us  also  have  the  chance 
to  see  farther  if  we  do  a  httle  giant  climb- 
ing. As  for  me,  I  was  teetering  with  one 
foot  on  Charles  Darwin's  shoulder  and  the 
other  on  John  Snow's.  We  cannot  predict 
precisely  what  new  views  will  come  from 
the  merging  of  epidemiology  and  evolu- 
tion, but  we  can  see  many  possibihties.  A 
better  understanding  of  the  evolution  of 
virulence  should  allow  us  to  identify  inter- 
ventions that  will  not  only  reduce  the 
spread  of  infections  but  also  force 
pathogens  to  evolve  to  milder  states  by 
making  harmfulness  too  costiy  for  them. 
Diarrheal  pathogens  may  be  forced  into  a 
benign  state  by  water  purification.  Vector- 
borne  pathogens  may  be  similarly  trans- 
formed by  the  installation  of  mosquito- 
proof  housing  that  prohibits  transmission 
from  severely  ill  people.  I  expect  that  sci- 
entists at  the  end  of  the  twenty-first  cen- 
tury will  find  it  curious  that  today's  health 
scientists  were  so  skilled  at  recognizing 
the  importance  of  molecular  biology  and 
biochemistry,  but  that  it  took  more  than  a 
century  after  the  birth  of  evolutionary  biol- 
ogy, epidemiology,  and  microbiology  for 
us  to  realize  the  importance  of  using  evo- 
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45 


Behind-the- 
Scenes  Role 
of  Parasites 


^         The  fates  of  mushrooms,  flies, 
Q         and  parasitic  nematodes  are 
,  r>H  intricately  intertwined 


by  John  Jaenike 


*^  As  every  mushroom  picker  knows, 
p]^  many  of  the  mushrooms  that  spring  from 
the  earth  after  a  summer  rain  are  crawling 
with  insect  larvae.  Cut  open  the  stalk  of  a 
bolete  or  an  amanita  and  you  may  find 
hundreds  of  tiny,  white  larvae  tunneling 


through  the  fungus.  In  addition  to  humans 
and  other  mammals  such  as  deer  and 
squirrels,  numerous  insects  compete  for 
the  mushroom's  flesh.  In  turn,  these  in- 
sects are  eaten  by  beetles,  ants,  and  toads 
that  visit  the  mushrooms.  By  drawing  nu- 
trients from  the  surrounding  trees  and  soil 
through  a  network  of  mycorrhizae,  mush- 
rooms form  the  base  of  a  small,  but  com- 
plex, food  web. 

In  the  1970s,  I  became  interested  in 
mushroom-feeding  fruit  flies  while  con- 
ducting fieldwdrk  on  an  island  off  the 
coast  of  Maine.  All  around  me,  the  tiny 
flies  were  busy  laying  eggs  on  hundreds  of 
mushrooms  that  would  provide  food  and 
shelter  for  the  developing  larvae.  Because 
they  were  in  the  same  genus  as  Drosophila 
melanogaster,  the  workhorse  of  laboratory 
genetics,  I  realized  that  these  flies  would 
be  ideal  for  studying  ecological  relation- 
ships. Later,  when  I  learned  that  two  of  the 
most  common  mushroom-feeding  fruit 


flies,  D.  falleni  and  D.  piitrida,  can  be  in- 
fected by  a  parasitic  nematode  worm 
called  Howardula  aoronymphium,  I 
wanted  to  leam  whether  this  microscopic 
parasite  affected  the  relative  abundance  of 
the  flies. 

Traditionally,  ecologists  studying  why 
one  species  tends  to  be  more  abundant 
than  another  will  focus  solely  on  such  fac- 
tors as  competition  or  predation.  Increas- 
ingly, however,  we  are  realizing  that  the 
parasites  an  organism  harbors  can  be 
equally  important  in  determining  a 
species'  place  in  the  larger  ecological 
community  and,  ultimately,  in  its  evolu- 
tionary history. 

Some  parasites  may  evolve  with  a  par- 
ticular host  for  millions  of  years,  presum- 
ably in  a  state  of  equilibrium.  The  chewing 
lice  that  parasitize  pocket  gophers,  for  ex- 
ample, are  so  genetically  different  from  re- 
lated hce  that  their  association  with  the  go- 
phers must  be  a  long  one.  Although  some 
host-parasite  associations  are  long-stand- 
ing, many  other  parasitic  relationships  are 
quite  ephemeral — at  least  on  an  evolution- 
ary time  scale.  The  Howardula  nematodes 
are  internal  parasites  of  various  arthro- 
pods, including  flies,  beetles,  thrips,  and 
mites.  Such  a  broad  range  of  hosts  sug- 
gests that  the  worms  can  occasionally  shift 
from  one  host  to  another. 

The  worms  enter  the  fruit  fly  larvae  by 
piercing  their  outer  cuticle  when  they  are 
feeding  within  the  mushroom.  The  nema- 
todes thrive  inside  the  developing  flies, 
which  as  adults  spread  the  parasites  to 
other  mushrooms.  The  major  deleterious 
effect  that  H.  aoronymphium  has  on  some 
fruit  fly  species  is  that  it  makes  the  females 
sterile.  Nematodes,  therefore,  could  have 
drastic  effects  on  susceptible  fruit  fly  pop- 
ulations. The  parasites  don't  eliminate 
their  hosts,  however,  because  if  the  fly 
populations  fall  too  low,  transmission 
rates  decline,  so  fewer  flies  become  para- 
sitized, thus  allowing  the  fly  populations 
to  recover. 

Recently,  I  observed  just  how  fleeting 


A  stinkhom  mushroom,  left,  attracts 
fruit  flies  by  the  dozen.  These 
mushrooms  can  often  be  smelled  before 
they  are  seen.  A  trio  o/ Amanita 
muscaria  mushrooms,  right,  push  up 
through  fall  leaves.  As  they  age, 
they  will  attract  a  host  of  insects 
and  their  parasites. 

J.  L.  Lepore;  Photo  Researchers,  Inc. 


46    Natural  History  6/94 


< 

o 


o 


Ted  Neison;  Dembinsky  Photo  Associates 

47 


o 


o 
> 


the  relationships  between  H.  aoronymph- 
ium  and  their  fruit  fly  hosts  can  be.  Several 
years  ago,  after  determining  that  wild 
strains  of  the  nematodes  can  infect  both  D. 
falleni  and  D.  putrida,  I  began  to  maintain 
one  strain  in  the  laboratory  using  D.  falleni 
as  the  host.  (At  that  time,  I  found  it  easier 
to  keep  the  parasite  strain  going  in  this 
host  species.)  A  couple  of  years  later,  in 
the  course  of  doing  some  other  experi- 
ments, I  discovered  that  these  nematodes 
could  no  longer  infect  D.  putrida. 
(Whether  the  parasite  lost  the  ability  to 
recognize  the  fly  as  a  suitable  host  or 
whether  it  lost  some  specific  ability  to 
penetrate  the  fly  larvae's  cuticle  remains  a 
mystery.) 

Just  to  be  sure  of  my  observation,  I 


tested  two  other  strains  of  H.  aoronymph- 
ium  that  I  had  obtained  from  the  wild  more 
recently.  These  nematodes  infected  about 
two-thirds  of  both  species  of  fruit  fly.  My 
original  laboratory  strain  could  still  infect 
D.  falleni  with  the  same  frequency  as  these 
wild  strains,  but  it  had  completely  lost  its 
ability  to  infect  D.  putrida  after  being  iso- 
lated from  it  for  fifty  generations.  Because 
a  fruit  fly  generation  is  only  two  weeks  in 
the  laboratory,  fifty  generations  is  but  a 
blink  of  an  eye  on  an  evolutionary  time 
scale.  Presumably,  the  abihty  to  infect  a 
fruit  fly  host  can  be  reacquired  in  a  com- 
parably short  time. 

How  does  the  parasite's  ability  to  shift 
rapidly  from  species  to  species  affect  the 
evolution  of  its  hosts?  Consider  a  case  in 


which  the  outcome  of  competition  be- 
tween different  host  species  is  mediated  by 
a  shared  parasite  species,  ff,  for  instance,  a 
nematode  infects  one  fruit  fly  species 
more  frequently  than  another,  that  can  tip 
the  scales  in  favor  of  the  less-affected  spe- 
cies. But  if  this  less-affected  host  becomes 
more  abundant,  the  parasite  may  respond 
by  becoming  speciahzed  on  it,  thus  reduc- 
ing the  host's  competitive  advantage.  In 
this  manner,  a  rapidly  evolving  parasite 
may  enable  competing  host  species  to  co- 
exist— as  in  the  case  of  D.  falleni  and  D. 
putrida. 

A  parasite's  ability  to  rapidly  shift  hosts 
might  have  large  effects  on  island  popula- 
tions. Suppose  that  on  the  mainland,  a  ne- 
matode like  H.  aoronymphium  parasitizes 
two  competing  fruit  fly  species,  such  as  D. 
falleni  and  D.  putrida.  An  island  may  be 
colonized  by  one  of  tiiese  host  species  and 
later — or  simultaneously — by  the  nema- 
tode. Given  my  laboratory  results,  I  would 
expect  the  newly  arrived  nematodes  to 
quickly  become  specialized  on  the  island 
fruit  fly.  When  the  other  host  eventually 
colonizes  the  island,  it  wiU  be  at  a  compet- 
itive advantage  because  the  resident  nema- 
tode can  no  longer  parasitize  it. 

Finally,  the  Howardula  results  may  be 
relevant  to  the  evolutionary  enigma  of  sex. 
The  abihty  of  a  parasite  to  exploit  a  partic- 
ular host,  and  the  response  of  that  host  to 
the  parasite,  can  depend  on  the  specific 
genotypes  of  the  players.  For  instance, 
monocultures  of  crop  plants,  often  bred  to 
be  genetically  identical,  are  particularly 
susceptible  to  epidemics  of  parasites 
adapted  to  specific  crop  genotypes.  Such 
observations  have  led  to  the  hypothesis 
that  parasites  favor  the  maintenance  of 
sexual  reproduction  in  their  hosts  because 
sex  serves  to  reshuffle  the  genetic  deck 
every  generation,  preventing  any  one 
genotype  from  becoming  especially  com- 
mon, and  thus  vulnerable. 

Parasites  of  one  kind  or  another  have 
managed  to  invade  almost  every  organism, 
from  the  mushroom-dweUing  fly  larva  to 
the  human  body.  And  although  they  wiU 
never  be  apparent  to  most  people  who 
sttoll  through  flie  woods,  their  effect  is 
great.  Interacting  with  otiier  species,  they 
play  an  important  role  in  balancing  eco- 
logical communities. 


A  fly  and  insect  pupae  cling  to  the 
underside  of  a  broken  mushroom  cap. 

Joy  Spurr 


48    Natural  History  6/94 


Overiiearing 

Cricket 
Love  Songs 

Some  flies  bear  an  eary 
resemblance  to  their  victims 

by  Daniel  Robert  and 
Ronald  R.  Hoy 


For  200  million  years,  on  any  warm 
evening,  male  crickets  have  been  eagerly 
rubbing  their  forewings  together, 
"singing"  to  attract  mates.  Early  on,  they 
were  pioneers,  inventing  new  ways  to  ad- 
vertise their  presence  to  their  feUow  crick- 
ets. But  about  forty  milUon  years  ago,  their 
serenades  began  to  attract  some  eaves- 
dropping newcomers — tachinid  flies.  For 
crickets,  this  was  bad  news. 


Tachinid  flies  are  parasitoids,  parasites 
that  use  an  animal  host  as  a  food  source  for 
their  young,  although  the  adults  are  free- 
living.  The  female  tachinid  fly,  a  tiny  crea- 
ture, deposits  her  eggs  or  larvae  on  or  near 
a  host  insect,  typically  a  species  much 
larger  than  herself,  such  as  a  beetle  or  a 
caterpillar.  The  larvae  then  burrow  inside 
and  gorge  themselves  on  the  host's  gener- 
ous muscular  mass  or  other  tissues.  After  a 
week  or  so,  they  emerge  to  pupate.  This 
strategy  is  very  successful,  judging  by  the 
abundance  of  tachinid  fly  species  (8,000 
have  been  identified  worldwide,  1,000  in 
North  America  alone).  The  family  Tachi- 
nidae  is  the  second  largest  in  the  order  of 
true  flies,  Diptera,  after  the  very  diverse 
Tipulidae,  or  crane  flies.  Another  success- 
ful, large  family  of  parasitoids  is  the  Sar- 
cophagidae,  or  flesh  flies,  which  counts 
some  2,000  species  worldwide. 

As  far  as  we  know,  the  vast  majority  of 
tachinid  flies  (like  nearly  all  flies)  are  deaf 
to  high-pitched  sounds,  such  as  the  chirp- 
ing and  trilling  of  crickets,  and  find  their 
hosts  by  sight  and  smell.  But  a  few  species 
of  tachinid  flies  have  evolved  the  abiUty  to 


home  in  on  a  cricket's  chirp,  getting  the 
drop  on  their  victim,  no  matter  how  well  it 
may  be  concealed  by  vegetation  or  the 
darkness  of  night. 

Among  them  is  the  fly  Ormia  ochracea, 
which  lives  along  the  gulf  coast  from 
Florida  to  Texas,  preying  on  the  south- 
western or  southeastern  field  cricket.  Div- 
ing out  of  the  night  sky,  the  fly  deposits 
one  or  more  tiny  maggots  on  or  near  a 
chirping  male  cricket  and  takes  off.  The 
active  maggots  latch  on  to  the  cricket  and 
penetrate  it.  (They  may  even  end  up  para- 
sitizing a  female  cricket  attracted  by  the 
same  song.)  By  the  time  the  maggots  have 
matured  and  are  ready  to  emerge,  the 
cricket  is  at  death's  door. 

As  biologists  interested  in  the  evolution 


After  feasting  for  a  week  to  ten  days  on 
the  muscle  mass  of  a  living  cricket,  a 
larva  of  the  tachinid  fly  Ormia  ochracea 
emerges  to  pupate. 


Marie  Read:  Cornell  University 


< 

o 


o 


49 


m 


of  sensory  systems,  we  wanted  to  know 
how — and  how  well — this  species  of 
tachinid  fly  could  hear  the  field  crickets.  In 
the  course  of  their  lives,  both  the  female 
cricket  and  female  fly  face  the  same  repro- 
ductive problem:  finding  a  male  cricket 
singing  in  the  dark.  The  female  cricket 
uses  her  sense  of  hearing  not  only  to  de- 
tect and  locate  singing  male  crickets  but 
<~]     also  to  recognize  those  that  belong  to  her 
Q     own  species  and,  possibly,  to  assess  the 
,_,     adequacy  of  the  male  by  the  quality  of  his 
*—>     song.  For  the  fly,  the  task  is  also  to  find  a 
[ZS     cricket  of  the  right  species.  The  possibihty 
-H     that  a  female  fly  also  assesses  the  quality 
O     or  health  of  her  host  before  entrusting  her 
J>     brood  to  him  seems  sUm,  but  cannot  be 
ruled  out. 

Our  probing  of  its  anatomy  reveals  that 
the  hearing  organ  of  0.  ochracea  is  com- 
posed of  a  pair  of  very  thin  membranes  sit- 
uated on  the  front  of  the  thorax,  near  the 
neck  and  just  behind  the  head.  These 
membranes  act  much  as  human  eardrums 
do,  converting  sound  energy  into  mechan- 
ical movements.  Each  membrane  is 
backed  by  an  air  chamber  and  attached  in- 
ternally to  a  vibration  sensor.  The  ear  ap- 
pears to  have  evolved  from  a  chordotonal 
sensory  organ,  a  type  of  "mechanorecep- 
tor."  In  nonhearing  flies  this  organ  serves 
as  a  sort  of  strain  gauge  that  senses 
stresses  around  the  neck  region  and  prob- 
ably helps  monitor  the  movement  and  pos- 
ture of  the  head  and  front  legs. 

Although  an  exceptional  anatomical  de- 
velopment among  flies,  the  tiny  ears  re- 
semble those  found  in  various  other  in- 
sects, including  crickets.  In  all  cases  that 
have  been  studied,  insect  ears  seem  to 
have  evolved  from  such  chordotonal  or- 
gans. In  crickets,  for  example,  ears 
evolved  from  sensors  situated  on  the  tibia 
of  the  fi-ont  legs,  which  originally  func- 
tioned merely  to  detect  low-frequency 
ground  vibrations.  Various  lines  of  evi- 
dence suggest  that  the  original  sensory 
structure  was  duplicated,  and  that  this  du- 
plicate gained  a  separate  function,  the 
sensing  of  air  vibrations.  As  in  other  in- 
sects with  ears,  these  structures  have  noth- 
ing in  common  with  the  feathery  antennae 
that  enable  some  insects  (mosquitoes,  for 
example)  to  detect  low-pitched  sounds, 
such  as  the  buzzing  of  other  insects,  at 
close  range. 

The  fly's  ear  resembles  the  cricket's  not 
only  in  structure  and  sensory  origin  but 
also  in  sensitivity.  One  way  to  understand 
a  fly's  sensitivity  to  sound  is  to  measure 
the  electrical  activity  of  the  sensory  nerves 
leading  from  its  ears  to  its  central  nervous 


system.  To  determine  which  pitches  0. 
ochracea  is  most  sensitive  to,  we  inserted 
tiny  recording  electrodes  into  the  thorax, 
at  the  base  of  the  auditory  nerves,  and 
tested  the  reaction  to  computer-generated 
simulations  of  the  cricket's  song. 

Our  experiments  have  demonstrated 
that  this  tiny  fly  is  most  sensitive  to  sounds 
at  the  frequency  of  five  kilohertz  (a  little 
above  the  highest  pitch  on  the  piano),  a 
pitch  close  to  the  frequency  that  dominates 
the  cricket's  song.  This  is  a  striking  ex- 
ample of  a  phenomenon  known  as  conver- 
gent evolution,  where  superficially  similar 
structures  evolve  in  distanfly  related  or- 
ganisms as  adaptations  to  similar  require- 
ments or  circumstances. 

The  fly's  sensitivity — and  especially 
that  of  the  female  fly — even  surpasses  the 
cricket's.  We  estimate  that  a  female  cricket 
can  detect  a  male  cricket  from  at  least 
twenty  yards  away,  while  the  fly  can  hear 
it  from  twice  that  distance.  (Humans  we 
tested  are  even  more  sensitive,  discerning 
the  cricket  song  at  sixty  yards — but  they 
are  not  as  quick  and  precise  at  locating  it  in 
the  grassy  meadows,  perhaps  for  lack  of 
practice.) 

In  field  experiments  using  loudspeak- 
ers, we  have  shown  that  the  flies  are  at- 
tracted by  the  sound  of  the  cricket  and  re- 
quire no  other  cues,  such  as  smell.  If  the 
flies'  ears  are  damaged,  they  cannot  locate 
the  sound.  On  the  other  hand,  prehminary 
observation  suggests  that  they  may  be  re- 
luctant to  deposit  their  larvae  unless  they 
actually  find  a  cricket  at  the  source  of  the 
sound.  In  contrast,  entomologist  Tom 
Walker  and  his  colleagues  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Florida,  Gainesville,  have  observed 
that  a  related  species  from  Brazil,  O.  de- 
pleta,  will  readily  deposit  from  one  to 
eight  maggots  right  on  a  piece  of  paper 
covering  a  loudspeaker. 

So  far,  six  members  of  the  genus  Ormia 
are  known  to  have  ears  for  detecting  their 
insect  hosts,  an  ability  they  must  have  in- 
herited from  their  common  ancestor.  In  ad- 
dition to  field  crickets,  their  specific  hosts 
include  some  katydids  and  mole  crickets. 
Two  genera  of  flesh  flies  have  also 
evolved,  independently,  a  remarkably  sim- 
ilar hearing  organ  to  hsten  for  the  singing 
of  cicadas. 

To  be  a  successful  bacterium,  fungus, 
animal,  or  plant  depends  on  detecting  cru- 
cial features  of  the  environment.  Survival 
often  requires  diverse  sensory  capacities. 
From  an  evolutionary  perspective,  there  is 
always  a  potential  advantage  in  doing 
something  a  little  differently.  When  some 
parasitoid  flies  gained  ears,  a  whole  new 


Guided  by  her  acute  sense  of 
hearing,  a  female  fly  has  located  a 
cricket  host  for  her  brood. 

Daniel  Robert;  Cornell  University 


sensory  world  became  accessible  to  them. 
They  reaped  the  advantage  of  locating  a 
dispersed,  concealed  host.  Other  flies 
could  find  crickets  by  sight  or  smell,  but 
might  miss  some  that  are  easily  located  by 
sound.  The  hearing  flies  filled  a  new  niche, 
where  competition  was  reduced  and  re- 
sources lay  untapped. 

Despite  the  advantage  hearing  has  con- 
ferred on  certain  species  of  parasitoid  flies, 
the  phenomenon  is  not  widespread.  Shel- 
ley Adamo,  of  Cornell  University,  who 
studies  the  effects  of  parasitism  on  cricket 
behavior,  physiology,  and  reproductive 
success,  has  concluded  that  at  least  in 
North  America,  relatively  few  singing  in- 
sect species  have  bodies  large  enough  to 
support  a  tachinid  infestation.  Probably 
more  remain  to  be  discovered  in  the  trop- 
ics, where  singing  insects  are  numerous — 
and  often  large. 

Many  questions  remain  to  be  explored 
in  the  relationship  between  ear-equipped 
tachinid  flies  and  their  hosts.  What  effect 
do  the  parasitoids  have  on  the  cricket  pop- 
ulation as  a  whole?  How  detrimental  is  in- 
festation to  a  male  cricket's  ability  to  leave 
offspring?  And  will  the  cricket's  tendency 
to  chirp  eventually  be  eliminated  by  nat- 
ural selection? 

Some  cricket  species  have  lost  their 
ability  to  sing,  and  we  and  others  suspect 
that  parasitism  played  a  key  role  in  this 
loss.  Males  of  the  species  Gryllus  ovi- 
sopis,  whose  common  name  is  the  taciturn 
field  cricket,  lack  a  long-range  call,  al- 
though they  conserve  enough  of  the 
sound-producing  wing  anatomy  to  scrape 
out  a  short-range  courtship  song  if  a  fe- 
male wanders  into  range.  According  to 
Tom  Walker,  who  has  studied  them,  they 
do  not  seem  to  have  evolved  any  other 
long-range  signals,  such  as  chemicals.  An 
entirely  mute  species  (which  has  also  lost 
its  ears)  is  Larandeicus  bicolor  of  south- 
em  Africa.  Unlike  its  singing  relatives,  it 
attracts  a  female's  attention  with  its 
brightly  colored  wings.  Crickets  may 
never  regain  the  freedom  of  action  they 
lost  when  tachinid  flies  arose  forty  million 
years  ago.  But  if  the  going  gets  too  tough, 
they  may  evolve  some  new  tricks  of  their 
own. 


50    Natural  History  6/94 


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By  Charles  Anton 

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NASA  inspired  por- 
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o 


Mark  Bothko,  Light.  Earth  and  Blue:®  1 994  Artist's  Rights  Society;  Courtesy  of  C  S  M  Arts.  New  York 

The  awe-inspiring  story  of  the  evolution  of  life  on  earth  is  hidden  in  layer  upon 
layer  of  sedimentary  rocks.  Over  millions  of  years,  sediments  settled  into  these 
massive  formations,  which  were  compressed  and  then  twisted  and  deformed  by  the 

immense  forces  of  plate  tectonics.  The  fossil  evidence  of  life  that  survived  these 

processes  is  rare  and  fragmentary.  But  when — ^with  hard,  diligent  field  and  laboratory 

work,  and  luck — scientists  do  piece  together  a  chapter  of  life's  odyssey,  the  tale  it 

tells  rings  true  because  it  has  the  undeniable  weight  of  deep  time  on  its  side. 


55 


o 


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> 


On  the 
Importance 
of  Nothing 

Doing 

An  exhaustive  study  of  tiny 

bryozoans  supports  the  idea  of 

punctuated  equilibrium 

by  Jeremy  Jackson  and 
Alan  Cheetham 


From  Charles  Darwin's  day  until  about 
twenty  years  ago,  biologists  imagined  that 
the  evolution  of  new  species  was  a  slow 
and  gradual  process.  The  record  of  the 
rocks,  however,  has  always  told  a  different 
story.  While  some  hneages  can  be  seen  de- 
veloping in  a  series  of  transitional  species 
over  the  ages,  most  fossil  species  appear 
abruptly — without  intermediate  forms — 
and  survive  apparently  unchanged  for  mil- 
hons  of  years.  Darwin  attempted  to  dis- 
miss this  problem  by  invoking  the 
fragmentary  and  incomplete  nature  of  the 
fossil  record.  Trying  to  interpret  it,  he  said, 
was  like  trying  to  read  a  book  that  was 
missing  many  of  its  pages  and  even  whole 
chapters. 

This  explanation  was  widely  accepted 
until  the  1970s,  when  paleontologists 
Niles  Eldredge  and  Stephen  Jay  Gould 
noted  that,  contrary  to  Darwin's  expecta- 
tions, a  century  of  fossil  discoveries  had 
confirmed  a  pattern  of  stasis  and  abrupt 
change.  Why  not,  they  urged,  accept  the 
story  told  in  the  fossil  record  at  face  value? 
Long  periods  without  change  in  organisms 
and  relatively  abrupt  appearances  of  new 
species  (punctuated  origins)  must  be  in- 
corporated into  any  valid  evolutionary 
theory.  The  Gould-Eldredge  notion  of 
"punctuated  equilibrium"  set  new  hmits 
on  how  speciation  usually  occurs. 

Amid  the  resultant  controversy,  paleon- 
tologists set  out  to  see  if  they  could  dis- 
prove punctuated  equilibrium.  Some 
thought  that  by  measuring  the  anatomical 
details  of  an  extensive  sampling  of  fossil 
organisms,  they  could  confirm  that  specia- 
tion is  gradual.  When  they  attempted  such 
studies,  however,  they  found  that  most 
species  (by  about  ten  to  one)  show  punctu- 

56    Natural  History  6/94 


ated  origins  and  then  remain  so  stable  that 
specimens  differing  by  millions  of  years  in 
age  are  visually  and  statistically  indistin- 
guishable. 

Still,  skeptics  believed  that  long  periods 
of  species  stability  (stasis)  were  only  occa- 
sional occurrences  and  doubted  that  simi- 
lar-appearing organisms,  separated  by 
millions  of  years  in  the  fossil  record,  could 
really  be  considered  the  same  species. 
Within  fossil  skeletons,  they  suggested, 
dwelled  subtly  different  species.  (Exam- 
ples of  such  "cryptic  species"  exist  among 
some  groups  of  living  animals.  Even  ex- 
perts cannot  distinguish  among  a  dozen 
kinds  of  black  flies  or  certain  salamanders 
without  the  aid  of  molecular  genetic  tests. 
One  discovery  has  documented  two  spe- 
cies of  apparently  identical  African  ele- 
phant-nosed fish  that  are  distinguishable 
only  by  the  electrical  pulses  they  produce.) 
The  question  of  whether  skeletons  alone 
can  be  used  as  species  markers  is  thus  fun- 
damental to  accepting  the  fossil  record  as 
evidence  of  evolution.  Only  if  a  creature's 
skeleton  is  highly  correlated  with  its  ge- 
netics can  paleontologists  study  its  evolu- 
tion with  some  confidence. 


We  addressed  this  question  using  both 
living  and  fossil  cheilostome  bryozoans. 
These  common  but  little-known  animals 
live  in  colonies  in  the  sea  and  are  superfi- 
cially similar  to  corals.  While  the  individ- 
ual creatures  are  microscopic,  one  sees 
them  in  the  aggregate  attached  to  sea  bot- 
toms, tide  pool  rocks,  and  even  aquatic 
plants.  These  colonies  can  resemble  a 
mossy  covering  on  an  undersea  rock  or  a 
clump  of  miniature  trees  about  three  to 
four  inches  high.  The  hard-shelled  body  is 
topped  by  a  soft,  circular  feeding  organ, 
the  lophophore,  composed  of  ciliated  tent- 
acles surrounding  the  mouth.  The  moving 
ciha  create  a  current  of  water  that  directs 
plankton — microscopic  algae,  bacteria, 
and  flagellates — into  the  mouth. 

Bryozoans  are  not  only  among  the  most 
abundant,  wefl  preserved,  and  diverse  ma- 
rine fossils,  they  also  provide  a  fine  case 
study  of  evolutionary  patterns  because 
their  evolution  is  punctuated  in  the  ex- 
treme. Cheilostomes — a  major  group 
characterized  by  a  lidlike  structure  that 
covers  the  aperture  through  which  the 
lophophore  protrudes — first  appeared 
about  140  million  years  ago,  and  some 


#■ 


Magn  f  cat  on  approx  mately  X  90 


forms  similar  to  the  first-known  species 
persist  unchanged  today.  The  first  40  mil- 
lion years  of  their  fossil  record  shows  little 
change,  but  during  the  past  100  milhon 
years,  hundreds  of  genera  diversified.  In 
each  well-studied  case,  however,  the  new 
species  appeared  relatively  abruptly,  then 
remained  remarkably  stable  over  vast 
amounts  of  time. 

Our  research  strategy  was  to  begin  with 
hundreds  of  samples  of  modem  bryozoan 
skeletons,  and  assign  each  to  various  spe- 
cies by  measuring  their  structures  and 
ranges  of  variation — a  tedious  statistical 
procedure.  Next,  we  tested  the  reality  of 
the  "species"  our  measurements  had  de- 
fined. Would  they  match  up  with  species 
defined  by  breeding  experiments  and  tests 
of  their  genetic  biochemistry?  We  foresaw 
three  possible  results.  First,  as  some  skep- 
tics suggested,  skeletal  features  might  be 
too  uninformative  to  be  useful  in  distin- 
guishing species.  Second,  environmental 
differences  might  produce  very  different 
external  characteristics  in  colonies  of  the 
same  species,  creating  "false"  species. 
The  last  possibiUty — the  one  we  suspected 
was  true — was  that  skeletons  are  rehable, 


environmentally  stable  definers  of  bry- 
ozoan species,  equivalent  to  genes  in  their 
precision.  But  to  support  our  case,  we 
needed  a  very  high  level  of  agreement  in 
the  species  markers,  by  several  different 
means  of  measurement. 

We  first  studied  three  distantly  related 
genera  of  bryozoans  that  live  in  the  San 
Bias  Islands  and  elsewhere  along  the  Car- 
ibbean coast  of  Panama,  each  very  differ- 
ent in  its  skeletal  complexity.  We  would 
compare  them  with  fossil  bryozoans  based 
only  on  skeletal  measurements.  Among 
the  features  we  measured  were  the  dimen- 
sions of  the  apertures,  the  shape  of  the  cal- 
careous modules  that  encase  the  body,  and 
the  comma-shaped  stiaictures  (the  avicu- 
laria)  that  are  used  to  protect  the  oral  open- 
ing. Some  species'  skeletons  had  rela- 
tively simple  shapes  that  were  easy  to 
describe  in  ten  measurements,  while  the 
more  complex  types  had  additional  struc- 
tures that  required  as  many  as  forty.  We 
needed  to  know  whether  the  number  of 
traits  we  measured  was  influencing  our  re- 
sults. In  all  cases,  we  found  the  statistical 
differences  in  the  measurements  of 
twenty-two  species  held  up,  whether 


based  on  a  few  anatomical  features  or 
many. 

Next,  we  needed  to  check  on  the  stabil- 
ity of  the  species  in  differing  environ- 
ments. We  collected  colonies  from  differ- 
ent reefs  and  raised  their  offspring  in  the 
shallow  seawater  adjacent  to  the  Smith- 
sonian's laboratory  in  the  San  Bias  Is- 
lands. After  we  had  successfully  raised 
two  generations  there,  we  began  to  study 
the  offspring.  Nearly  500  had  grown  big 
enough  for  morphological  analysis  before 
the  experiment  was  terminated  by  a  hurri- 
cane. The  results  were  clear.  All  offspring 
in  all  three  genera  closely  resembled  their 
parents,  despite  having  been  transplanted 
to  a  new  environment.  No  false  species  or 
environmental  variants  appeared. 

We  then  used  a  biochemical  procedure 
called  protein  electrophoresis  to  study 
variation  in  enzymes  that  are  coded  by  the 
bryozoan's  DNA.  This  is  a  relatively  old 
and  not  particularly  sensitive  technique 
that  first  came  into  general  use  during  the 
1960s,  and  has  since  been  supplanted  by 
DNA  comparisons.  But  electrophoresis 
has  the  advantage  of  rapidly  and  cheaply 
screening  genetic  variation  in  large  num- 
bers of  animals.  We  examined  more  than 
400  colonies  of  eight  species.  Again  the 
results  were  unambiguous:  no  genetic  evi- 
dence for  undetected,  or  "hidden,"  species 
and  clear  genetic  differences  between  all 
species  tested.  So  far,  the  numbers  pointed 
overwhelmingly  in  a  single  direction:  we 
had  the  abihty  to  detect  true  bryozoan  spe- 
cies in  the  fossil  record  from  their  calcare- 
ous skeletons  alone. 

Finally,  we  extended  the  study  to  in- 
clude more  than  one  hundred  Caribbean 
and  western  Atiantic  populations  of  the 
genus  Stylopoma,  which  is  one  of  the  three 
bryozoans  that  we  had  first  looked  at.  We 
chose  this  genus  because  it  is  abundant 
today,  it  has  many  different  species,  and  its 
fossil  record  seems  complete  enough  to 
help  reconstruct  the  evolutionary  relation- 
ships of  all  known  species  in  the  genus. 


Fossil  skeletons  of  the  bryozoan 
Metrarabdotos  auriculatum,/oM/z£?  in 
the  Dominican  Republic,  show  how 
little  the  species  changed  over  eons. 
The  Pliocene  species,  left,  is  3.4 
million  years  old  and  the  Miocene 
species,  far  left,  dates  fivm  7.3 
million  years  ago,  yet  their  structural 
details  are  virtually  identical. 

Photomicrographs  by  National  Museum  of  Natural  History: 
SEM  Laboratory 


< 

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3 


57 


Charles  Seaborn;  Odyssey  Productions 

About  the  size  of  a  golf  ball,  a  Caribbean 
bryozoan  colony,  right,  attaches  itself  to 
the  sea  floor  in  waters  more  than  one 
hundred  feet  deep.  Species  closely  related 
to  it  are  abundant  in  the  fossil  record  and 
go  back  at  least  100  million  years.  Below: 
A  living  cheilostome  bryozoan  extends  its 
lophophores,  which  waft  food  particles 
into  a  few  of  the  colony's  many  mouths. 

Kjell  B.  Sandved;  Visuals  Unlimited 


We  identified  both  fossil  and  modem  spe- 
cies by  tlieir  skeletal  features,  as  before, 
and  used  these  measurements  to  construct 
our  hypothesis  of  relationships. 

We  then  looked  at  the  genetic  chem- 
istry, using  Stylopoma  from  Panama  and 
some  from  the  island  of  Cura9ao,  which 
are  far  enough  apart  (about  600  miles)  to 
contain  quite  different  faunas.  According 
to  the  genetic  tests,  only  one  of  the  237 
colonies  we  had  classified  by  skeletons 
was  proved  to  be  incorrectly  identified. 
Even  more  striking,  each  pair  of  species 
we  compared  showed  about  the  same 
magnitude  of  genetic  differences,  skeletal 
differences,  and  the  presumed  distance  of 
their  phylogenetic  relationship. 

The  excellent  agreement  among  all 
these  different  methods  and  measures  of 
relationship  means  that  skeletal  characters 
hold  up  as  a  valid  method  of  defining  bry- 
ozoan species,  hi  studying  those  species 
through  millions  of  years,  we  can  trace  the 
same  patterns:  relatively  abrupt  appear- 
ances, followed  by  enormous  periods  of 
unchanging  sameness.  Because  our  results 
have  been  consistent  across  three  distantly 
related  genera,  our  studies  support  punctu- 
ated equilibrium  as  a  measurable  reality. 
So  far  as  living  and  fossil  bryozoans  can 
tell  us,  patterns  of  punctuation  and  sta- 
sis— rather  than  slow  and  steady  gradual 
evolution — really  do  exist  in  the  history  of 
these  ancient  colonial  creatures. 

58    Natural  History  6/94 


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c 
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Survival 

of  the 
Smallest 

When  Pleistocene  seas  rose, 
diminutive'island  deer  gained  a 
competitive  edge. ..temporarily 

by  Adrian  M.  Lister 


►^  Islands  have  long  been  favorites  among 
[T^l  biologists  for  the  study  of  evolution.  Be- 
cause the  number  of  species  is  low  and  the 
habitats  relatively  simple,  islands  are  ideal 
for  thorough  surveys  of  both  ecology  and 
genetics.  They  also  provide  a  perfect 
model  for  one  of  the  most  popular  theories 
of  how  species  come  into  being:  a  small 
population  of  plants  or  animals,  isolated 
from  the  main  range  of  the  parent  species, 
can  rapidly  evolve  into  a  new  form.  The 
widespread  phenomenon  of  endemic 
species,  plants  or  animals  found  only  on 
particular  islands  or  island  chains,  testifies 
to  the  power  of  this  process. 

A  common  island  phenomenon  is  the 
evolution  of  unusual  body  size  in  mam- 
mals. Small  mammals,  such  as  dormice, 
shrews,  and  hamsters,  often  grow  larger 
than  usual,  while  larger,  herbivorous 
mammals  tend  to  become  smaller  than  the 
norm.  A  living  example  of  the  latter  can  be 
seen  in  the  Florida  Keys,  a  chain  of  narrow 
islands  off  the  southern  coast  of  Florida. 
Key  deer  are  miniature  versions  of  the 
common  white-tailed  deer  of  mainland 
North  America. 


Further  examples  of  dwarfing  come 
from  the  fossil  record,  particularly  from 
the  Pleistocene,  the  period  that  lasted 
much  of  the  last  two  million  years  and  in- 
cluded the  ice  ages.  During  this  time, 
many  islands  in  the  Mediterranean  were 
home  to  dwarf  forms  of  deer,  elephants, 
and  hippos.  Dwarf  stegodons,  which  were 
mastodonlike  proboscideans,  lived  in  In- 
donesia, and  dwarf  mammoths  inhabited 
islands  off  California  and  northern 
Siberia. 

For  the  past  six  years,  I  have  studied 
fossil  deer  from  caves  on  Jersey,  an  island 
politically  affiliated  with  Britain  but  geo- 
graphically close  to  the  coast  of  northern 
France.  The  recent  work  there  is  the  con- 
tinuation of  excavations  first  begun  in  a 
cave  at  Belle  Hougue  on  the  northern 
coast  of  the  island  in  1914;  a  second  cave 
with  deer  remains  was  discovered  nearby 
in  1965.  Anatomical  studies  show  these 
bones  to  be  closely  related  to  Cervus 
elaphus,  the  red  deer  common  today  in 
Europe  and  Asia,  and  differing  only 
slightly  from  the  North  American  elk.  The 
bones  from  Belle  Hougue  belonged  to  an- 
imals that,  fully  grown,  stood  less  than 
two  and  a  half  feet  at  the  shoulder  and 
weighed  eighty  pounds,  only  one-sixth  the 
body  weight  of  red  deer  from  other  Pleis- 
tocene fossil  deposits  in  mainland  Europe. 

Dating  of  the  Belle  Hougue  deposits,  by 
analysis  of  uranium  isotopes,  indicates 
that  the  dwarf  deer  lived  about  120,000 
years  ago.  However,  at  another  site  on  the 
island.  La  Cotte  de  Saint  Brelade,  older 
red  deer  fossils  have  been  discovered  in 
deposits  spanning  the  period  from  about 
230,000  years  ago  to  shortly  before  those 
of  Belle  Hougue.  These  older  remains  are 
much  larger  than  the  bones  from  Belle 
Hougue;  indeed,  they  are  the  same  size  as 
bones  of  red  deer  on  the  mainland.  Jersey, 


then,  was  once  home  to  ordinary-sized  red 
deer.  How  and  why  did  the  transition  to 
dwarf  deer  on  Jersey  occur?  The  clue 
comes  in  the  climate  of  the  Pleistocene. 

For  much  of  the  time  represented  by  the 
older  La  Cotte  deposits,  global  climates 
were  colder  than  those  of  today,  and  ice 
covered  the  higher  latitudes.  So  much  of 
the  world's  water  was  locked  up  in  the  ex- 
panded polar  icecaps  that  global  sea  levels 
fell  to  as  much  as  300  feet  below  present 
levels.  Even  today,  the  seaway  between 
Jersey  and  France  is  relatively  shallow — 
only  about  thirty  feet  deep  at  low  tide.  But 
during  the  ice  ages,  this  sea  floor  was  ex- 
posed, and  Jersey  became  part  of  a  broad 
plain  connecting  Britain  and  France  across 
the  dry  Channel.  The  large  red  deer  recov- 
ered at  La  Cotte  were  therefore  part  of  a 
widespread  mainland  population  free  to 
roam  over  a  broad  range  and  walk  be- 
tween present-day  France  and  Britain. 

About  125,000  years  ago,  the  climate 
warmed  up,  the  icecaps  melted,  and  as  sea 
levels  rose,  Jersey  became  an  island.  The 
dwarf  deer  bones  from  Belle  Hougue, 
which  date  from  this  period,  are  embedded 
within  a  deposit  of  pebbles  and  seashells 
above  the  reach  of  modem  tides.  Now  fos- 
sihzed,  these  deposits  were  a  beach  when 
sea  level  was  a  few  yards  higher  than  it  is 


Left  map:  Some  150,000  years  ago,  sea 
levels  were  about  300  feet  lower  than 
today's,  and  the  coast  of  Europe  (dark 
green)  was  farther  west  Britain,  France, 
and  the  island  of  Jersey  were  part  of  one 
land  mass.  Map  at  right:  As  sea  levels 
rose  about  125,000  years  ago,  Jersey  was 
joined  to  the  mainland  only  by  an 
isthmus.  By  120,000  years  ago,  the 
island's  isolation  was  complete. 


60    Natural  History  6/94 


today.  Almost  certainly,  the  isolation  of 
Jersey,  which  cut  its  population  of  deer  off 
from  the  deer  on  the  mainland,  set  the 
scene  for  the  dwarfing  process.  Then,  as 
now,  about  fifteen  miles  of  seaway  would 
have  separated  the  island  from  France. 
Red  deer  are  good  swimmers — they  have 
been  known  to  cross  four  miles  of  open 
water — but  the  greater  distance  from  Jer- 
sey to  the  mainland  would  have  insured 
their  genetic  isolation  and  allowed  the 
dwarfing  process  to  commence.  We  know 
from  studies  of  fossil  beaches  and  deep- 
sea  cores  that  the  temperate  episode  lasted 
about  1 1 ,000  years,  and  that  for  the  central 
6,000  years  of  this  period,  the  sea  was  high 
enough  to  isolate  Jersey.  This  gives  us  a 
maximum  time  span  of  just  6,000  years 
for  the  evolution  of  the  dwarf  deer. 

In  a  paleontological  context,  6,000 
years  is  a  very  short  interval.  Red  deer — of 
normal,  large  size — have  lived  in  Europe 
for  about  the  last  600,000  years,  so  the  Jer- 
sey dwarfing  represents  only  one  percent 
of  the  species'  duration.  On  a  geological 
time  scale,  the  dwarfing  process  qualifies 
as  a  very  rapid  evolutionary  event.  Biolog- 
ically, however,  6,000  years  represents 
about  2,000  generations  of  deer — plenty 
of  time  for  the  accumulation  of  genetic 
changes  leading  to  size  reduction.  To  an 
observer,  this  process  probably  would 
have  appeared  as  a  gradual  generation-to- 


generation  transition.  The  perception  of 
evolutionary  change  as  rapid  or  gradual  is 
therefore  subjective  and  dependent  on  the 
time  scale. 

The  tendency  of  large  mammals  inhab- 
iting islands  to  become  dwarfed  has  given 
rise  to  much  theorizing,  but  most  re- 
searchers agree  that  it  is  related  to  re- 
stricted food  supplies  and  the  absence  of 
mammalian  predators.  In  the  limited  land 
area  of  an  island,  food  is  at  a  premium,  and 
small-bodied  individuals  that  can  make  do 
with  less  have  a  better  chance  of  surviving 
and  reproducing.  Small  size  would  be  a 
particular  advantage  during  times  of  win- 
ter shortage,  since  island  inhabitants  can- 
not migrate  to  richer  feeding  grounds,  as 
can  their  mainland  counterparts.  In  addi- 
tion, large  carnivores  are  usually  absent,  as 
small  islands  often  cannot  support  the 
numbers  of  herbivorous  mammals  that 
predators  need  to  exist.  In  the  absence  of 
wolves,  bears,  or  large  cats,  one  of  the 
adaptive  advantages  of  large  size — de- 
fense and  escape  from  predators — disap- 
pears. Also,  in  the  absence  of  predators, 
herbivore  populations  expand  to  the  point 
where  individuals  must  compete  for  food, 
adding  to  the  premium  on  frugality  and 
small  size. 

What  became  of  the  Jersey  dwarfs? 
About  1 15,000  years  ago,  the  climate  again 
cooled  as  the  last  ice  age  began.  Sea  levels 


Red  Jeer  stags  congregate  on  an  estate  in 
northern  England.  Native  to  Eurasia, 
modem  red  deer  vary  in  size,  but  all  are 
larger  and  heavier,  and  the  males  have 
more  elaborately  branching  antlers,  than 
the  Pleistocene  dwarfs  of  Jersey. 

Leonard  Lee  Rue  III;  Bruce  Coleman,  Inc. 


dropped,  Jersey  once  again  was  connected 
to  the  mainland,  and  the  dwarfs  disap- 
peared from  the  fossil  record;  all  the  later 
remains  of  Jersey  red  deer  are  large.  With 
the  reemergence  of  the  bridge  to  the  main- 
land, the  dwarfs  would  have  come  into 
contact  with  normal-sized  red  deer.  We  do 
not  know  if  the  dwarfs  had,  in  6,000  years, 
become  a  separate  species  or  even  if  they 
were  on  their  way  to  achieving  their  own 
mating  cues,  which  would  ultimately  have 
isolated  them  genetically  from  mainland 
deer.  If  they  had  not  reached  this  point, 
they  may  have  been  subsumed  into  the 
population  of  mainland  red  deer  by  inter- 
breeding. In  either  case,  the  dwarfs  would 
have  had  to  compete  with  mainland  red 
deer  and  would  have  become  easy  prey  for 
large  mainland  carnivores.  Adapted  to  is- 
land life,  the  Jersey  dwarfs  perished  when, 
no  longer  isolated,  they  roamed  into  a  new 
land  of  relative  giants. 


< 

o 


o 

3 


61 


OffMANISIAM)S 


Illii^J^JlII 


I 


Sharing  has  always  come  easy 

in  this  place  we  call  home. 

The  Cayman  Islands. 

A  peaceful  island  trio  nesded 
beneath  Caribbean  skies. 

A  place  filled  with  warm 

friendly  people  who  respect 

the  natural  beauty  that  surrounds 

them.  Turquoise  waters  that  run 

clean  and  clear.  Pristine 
beaches  that  sparkle  and  soothe. 

Golf,  tennis,  shopping  and 

sightseeing  are  also  yours  on 

Grand  Cayman,  Cayman  Brae 

and  Little  Cayman. 


Fly  here  on  a  comfortable 

Cayman  Airways  jet.  For 

reservations,  call  your  travel 

agent  or  1-800-G-CAYMAN. 

For  more  information, 

caU  1-800-346-3313. 

Come  visit  The  Cayman  Islands. 

And  discover  how  this  wonderful 

place  we  caU  ours,  can 

also  be  yours. 


W 


"Those  who  know  us, 
love  us." 


The  Turtle's 

Long-Lost 

Relatives 

Its  ancestors  evolved  many 

turtlelike  traits  before  they 

acquired  shells 

by  Michael  Lee 


A  prominent  zoologist  once  quipped 
that  the  only  thing  turtles  have  done  since 
the  Triassic,  some  200  million  years  ago, 
is  survive.  This  assessment  seems  a  bit 
harsh,  however,  considering  the  variety  of 
environments  that  they  have  conquered. 
Today,  mrtles  thrive  in  oceans,  rain  forests, 
and  deserts.  Yet  underlying  this  ecological 
diversity  is  a  surprising  degree  of  anatom- 
ical uniformity.  No  one  has  any  difficulty 
recognizing  a  turtle;  in  all  turtles  the  body 
is  encased  within  a  rigid,  bony  box.  No 
other  animal  has  a  body  architecture  that  is 
even  remotely  similar. 

But  where  do  turtles  come  from?  The 
oldest  fossil  turtles  (along  with  the  earliest 
dinosaurs)  appear  abruptly  in  Triassic 
rocks,  fully  developed  and  without  any 
obvious  precursors.  Details  of  their  skull 
suggested  that  they  evolved  from  a  group 
of  primitive  reptiles,  but  none  could  be 
readily  identified  as  turtle  ancestors.  De- 
spite more  than  a  century  of  research,  the 
origin  of  turtles  remains  a  major  enigma. 

Such  "morphological  gaps"  are  invari- 
ably seized  upon  by  creationists  as  evi- 
dence against  evolution.  Scientists,  aware 
of  the  vagaries  of  the  fossil  record,  attach 
little  importance  to  such  negative  evi- 
dence— the  transitional  forms  may  have 
once  existed,  but  simply  have  not  yet  been 
discovered.  Mere  ignorance  of  something 
does  not  demonstrate  its  nonexistence. 
One  is  reminded  of  the  crack  about  the 
atheist  who  couldn't  prove  that  God  didn't 
exist — and  so  took  it  on  faith.  Indeed,  re- 
cent paleontological  finds  have  plugged 
some  of  the  most  embarrassing  and  persis- 
tent gaps  in  the  continuum  of  life:  Acan- 
thostega  from  Greenland,  transitional  be- 
tween fishes  and  amphibians;  Ambii- 
locetus  from  Pakistan,  a  seallike  link  be- 
tween whales  and  their  terrestrial  ances- 
tors; and  Eoraptor,  the  most  primitive  di- 
nosaur yet  discovered. 


Stunning  finds  by  intrepid  field  parties 
collecting  in  exotic  locations  aren't  the 
only  way  such  "missing  links"  become 
known  to  science.  Sometimes  a  careful 
reappraisal  of  known  forms  can  yield 
major  surprises.  For  more  than  a  century, 
the  origin  of  birds  remained  a  matter  of 
conjecUire,  until  John  Ostrom,  a  Yale  pale- 
ontologist, pointed  out  that  certain  small 
bipedal,  carnivorous  dinosaurs  closely  re- 
sembled Archaeoptetyx,  the  first  bird — so 
closely  that  a  specimen  of  Archaeopteiyx 
had  been  mistakenly  cataloged  as  a  di- 
nosaur by  museum  workers.  In  a  similar 
vein,  I  think  that  I  have  identified  a  group 
of  animals,  the  pareiasaurs,  that  bridge  the 
huge  morphological  gap  separating  the 
oldest  turtles  from  primitive,  lizardlike 
reptiles. 

Pareiasaurs  have  been  known  to  science 
since  the  mid- 1800s,  but  their  true  signifi- 
cance went  largely  unappreciated.  Their 
fossils  have  been  recovered  from  Upper 
Permian  rocks  (about  250  million  years 
old)  in  Russia,  South  America,  China,  and 
Europe.  Most  specimens,  however,  have 
come  from  South  Africa,  where  farmers  in 
the  dusty  Karroo  Basin  often  stumble 
across  bony  remains  weathering  out  of  ex- 
posed rocks.  The  local  Afrikaans  name  for 
them,  handjietand  dier  (which  is  every  bit 
as  annoying  to  spell  as  pareiasaur),  refers 
to  their  distinctive  dentition  and  means 
"animal  with  teethlike  little  hands." 

Pareiasaurs  were  among  the  largest  ani- 
mals of  their  time,  but  resemble  nothing 
alive  today.  Imagine  a  fat  hippopotamus 
with  a  thick  tail.  Shave  off  all  its  hair  and 
cover  its  back  with  little  armor  plates. 
Now,  stick  some  grotesque  knobs  all  over 
its  skull.  Finally,  make  it  drag  its  belly 
along  the  ground,  with  its  legs  sprawled 
out  sideways,  like  a  lizard's  or  a  turtle's. 
The  end  result  wouldn't  look  totally  unlike 
a  pareiasaur.  Aesthetically  challenged  to 
say  the  least,  these  ponderous  herbivores 
have  long  been  neglected  by  paleontolo- 
gists, dismissed  as  an  inconsequential  evo- 
lutionary dead  end.  (A  colleague  of  mine, 
Des  Maxwell,  branded  them  "history's 
ugliest  reptiles"  and  promptly  switched  to 
working  on  dinosaurs  instead.)  Even  their 
name,  pronounced  "pariah-saur,"  seems  to 
invite  such  scom. 

As  a  less-discriminadng,  first-year 
graduate  student,  however,  I  persisted  in 
studying  pareiasaur  anatomy  in  more  de- 
tail. I  discovered  that  although  they  resem- 
bled bloated,  oversized  lizards  in  many  re- 
spects, pareiasaurs  had  already  evolved 
many  of  the  characteristics  of  turtles.  For 
instance,  all  primitive  reptiles  completely 


lacked  body  armor.  Early  pareiasaurs, 
however,  had  tiny  bony  plates  embedded 
in  the  skin  over  the  backbone;  in  later 
forms  these  plates  spread  out  over  the 
sides  and  belly,  and  enlarged  and  fused 
with  one  another  to  form  a  rigid  cara- 
pace— just  like  a  turtle  .shell.  Also,  most 
eariy  reptiles  had  long,  slender  bodies, 
with  twenty-five  or  more  vertebrae  in  the 
neck  and  back.  Early  pareiasaurs  had  short 
bodies,  with  twenty  vertebrae;  later  forms     ^^ 
were  even  shorter,  with  nineteen;  and  tur-     HU 
ties  are  stubbier  still,  with  eighteen.  Fi-     -<^ 
nally,  moving  from  primitive  reptiles  to     Q 
early  pareiasaurs  to  late  pareiasaurs,  the     i— > 
shoulder,  pelvis,  and  limbs  also  became     ^ 
more  and  more  turtlelike.  The  message     r-h 
was  clear;  turtles  evolved  from  advanced     '"'  * 
pareiasaurs.  O 

If  a  pareiasaurian  ancestry  of  turtles  ^ 
was  so  obvious,  why  hadn't  anybody  else 
proposed  it?  Perhaps  I  had  overlooked 
some  fatal  weakness  in  the  argument.  As  it 
turned  out,  I  wasn't  the  first  person  to 
come  up  with  the  idea  after  all.  William 
Gregory,  a  curator  at  the  American  Mu- 
seum of  Natural  History  and  one  of  this 
century's  paleontological  greats,  had  pro- 
posed the  same  idea  almost  half  a  century 
ago,  but  his  discussion  of  the  supporting 
evidence  was  vague.  For  instance,  he 
failed  to  emphasize  that  the  similarities 
shared  by  pareiasaurs  and  turtles  were 
found  in  no  other  primitive  reptiles.  His 
views,  therefore,  were  largely  forgotten. 

What  about  more  recent  research? 
People  have  long  asserted  that  the  turtle's 
bizarre  body  plan  is  so  highly  modified 
that  all  evidence  of  its  ancestry  has  been 
effectively  obliterated.  Therefore,  many 
recent  workers  assumed  that  only  skull 
features  could  reveal  where  turtles  came 
from.  Thus,  they  overlooked  aU  the  strik- 
ing similarities  between  the  bodies  of 
pareiasaurs  and  turtles.  Scientists  are  no 
more  objective  than  other  people;  what  we 
see  is  heavily  constrained  by  what  we  ex- 
pect to  see.  My  ignorance  of  established 
dogma  proved  a  godsend.  Furthermore,  I 
was  fortunate  to  have  access  to  critical  in- 
formation unavailable  to  most  previous 
workers.  The  year  before  I  began  my  stud- 
ies, Eugene  Gaffney,  another  curator  at  the 
American  Museum  of  Natural  History  and 
an  expert  on  fossil  turtles,  published  a  de- 
tailed description  of  the  200-million-year- 
old  Proganochelys,  the  most  primitive  tur- 
tle yet  discovered.  Knowing  what  this 
turtle  looked  like  was  vitally  important  m 
trying  to  figure  out  what  its  immediate  an- 
cestors looked  like.  Proganochelys  re- 
tained many  features  inherited  from  its 


o 


o 
> 


pareiasaurian  forebears.  These  evolution- 
ary holdovers — clues  to  the  ancestry  of 
turtles — were  later  lost  in  more  advanced 
turtles.  Nevertheless,  a  forty-million-year 
gap,  spanning  almost  the  entire  Triassic, 
still  exists  between  the  last  pareiasaurs  and 
the  earliest-known  turtles.  When  turtles 
first  appear  in  the  fossil  record,  in  the  late 
Triassic,  they  are  represented  by  at  least 
four  distinct  lineages,  suggesting  that  the 
group  evolved  and  radiated  slightly  earlier. 

A  pareiasaurian  ancestry  helps  explain 
how  and  why  the  bizarre  turtle  body  plan 
evolved.  The  turtle  shell  is  an  adaptive 
marvel.  It  forms  an  organic  strongbox, 
into  which  the  extremities  can  be  retracted 
out  of  harm's  way.  It  also  supports  the  tur- 
tle, whose  backbone  is  fused  to  the  rigid 
shell  and  whose  shoulder  girdle  is  an- 
chored to  the  shell  by  ligaments  (other  an- 
imals need  muscles  to  keep  these  elements 
in  place).  Finally,  the  shell  forms  a  thick, 
insulating  layer,  which  confers  thermoreg- 
ulatory advantages.  Compared  with  other 
reptiles  of  the  same  size,  turtles  overheat 
more  slowly  on  hot  days  and  cool  down 
more  gradually  on  cold  nights. 

But  which  of  these  demands  favored  the 
evolution  of  the  shell?  Pareiasaurs  supply 
the  answer.  Early  pareiasaurs  possessed  a 
row  of  bony  plates  above  their  back- 
bone— the  first  hint  of  a  shell.  Recent 
work  by  Dino  Frey,  a  German  morpholo- 
gist,  suggests  that  these  plates  helped  the 
pareiasaur  stop  its  backbone  from  sagging. 
Thus,  the  precursor  of  the  turtle  shell  that 
evolved  in  the  large,  heavy  pareiasaurs, 
initially  served  a  supporting  function. 
Only  in  later  pareiasaurs  and  turtles  did 
these  plates  spread  out  over  the  body  and 
provide  protection  and  insulation.  All  the 
earliest  turtles  were  found  in  terrestrial  de- 
posits alongside  dinosaurs  and  possessed 
stout  legs  adapted  for  walking,  not  swim- 
ming. So  it  seems  safe  to  say  that  they,  like 


260  Million  Years  Ago 

Captorhinus 

Primitive  Reptile 

Two  feet  long 

No  bony  plates 


pareiasaurs,  were  land  animals.  For  a  long 
time  people  had  assumed  that  turtles  must 
have  evolved  in  the  water,  because  of  sup- 
port problems  created  by  the  heavy  shell. 
Yet,  not  only  did  turtles  evolve  on  dry 
land,  but  initially  the  shell  probably  served 
for  support. 

Many  other  distinctive  anatomical  traits 
of  turtles  appear  to  be,  in  one  way  or  an- 
other, adaptations  for  life  in  the  shell.  A 
straightforward  deduction  might  be  that 
these  traits  evolved  at  the  same  time  as  the 
shell,  or  immediately  afterward,  and 
served  their  function  right  from  the  very 
beginning.  Surprisingly,  this  isn't  the  case. 
Consider  the  turtle's  stout  body,  for  ex- 
ample. It  appears  to  be  adapted  to  fit  into 
the  shell.  The  wide,  short  shell  of  turtles  is 
difficult  for  predators  to  overturn  or  get 
their  jaws  around.  Furthermore,  a  shell  of 
this  shape  is  easier  to  maneuver  than  a 
long,  skinny  one  (imagine  how  much  diffi- 


255  Million  Years  Ago 

Bradysaurus 

Primitive  Pareiasaur 

Ten  feet  long 

A  row  of  small,  unfused 

bony  plates 


culty  a  Uzard  encased  in  a  rigid  tube  would 
have  getting  around).  But  this  body  shape 
actually  arose  in  the  pareiasaur  ancestors 
of  turtles  long  before  the  shell  appeared. 
The  earliest-known  pareiasaurs  lived  in 
southern  Africa,  which  at  the  time  had 
only  just  drifted  northward  out  of  the 
Antarctic  circle.  The  climate  then  was 
cool.  Because  short,  fat  animals  lose  heat 
less  rapidly  than  long,  thin  ones  (which  is 
why  many  animals,  ourselves  included, 
curl  into  a  ball  when  cold),  the  stout  bodies 
of  pareiasaurs  probably  helped  them  con- 
serve precious  body  heat.  Thus  the  short 
body  of  turtles  first  served  a  thermoregula- 
tory function  and  initially  had  nothing  to 
do  with  life  in  a  shell.  The  body  dictated 
the  shape  of  the  evolving  shell,  not  the  re- 
verse. 

Another  example  concerns  a  bony  proc- 
ess on  the  turtle  shoulder  blade,  the  acro- 
mion process,  which  helps  connect  the 


Shoulder  blade 


The  elongated,  lizardlike  skeleton  o/Captorhinus  is 
typical  of  primitive  reptiles.  It  had  five  neck 
vertebrae,  twenty  back  vertebrae,  and  a  shoulder 
girdle  lying  outside  the  rib  cage. 

Illustrations  by  Michael  Lee 


Acromion  process 


64    Natural  History  6/94 


248  MK.LION  Years  Ago 

Scutosaurus 

Intermediate  Pareiasaur 

Ten  feet  long 

Fused  bony  plates  over  shoulder  and  pelvic 

areas.  Unfused  plates  spread  laterally 


An 


248  Million  Years  Ago 

Anthodon 

Advanced  Pareiasaur 

Three  feet  long 

interlocking  mosaic  of  plates 

covered  its  back  and  sides 


210  Million  Years  Ago 

Proganochelys 

Primitive  Turtle 

Three  feet  long 

Looked  like  a  modem  turtle;  shell 

completely  enveloped  its  body 


<: 

o 


o 
:3 


shoulder  to  the  shell.  Again,  this  structure 
first  arose  in  early  pareiasaurs  and  must 
have  initially  served  a  different  function — 
one  that  is  clarified  by  comparison  with 
therapsids  (primitive  ancestors  of  mam- 
mals). Therapsids,  which  are  totally  unre- 
lated to  pareiasaurs  and  turtles,  had  inde- 
pendently evolved  a  similar  structure,  and 
research  suggests  that  the  acromion  proc- 
ess improved  the  flexibihty  of  the  shoulder 
region.  In  primitive  reptiles,  the  shoulder 
blade  and  collarbone  are  rigidly  cormected 
to  each  other  along  their  entire  length.  In 
therapsids,  the  shoulder  blade  meets  the 
collarbone  only  at  the  acromion  process, 
and  the  two  bones  can  move  with  respect 
to  each  other.  The  acromion  process  un- 
doubtedly served  a  similar  function  in 
pareiasaurs.  Thus,  the  acromion  process 
initially  evolved  in  pareiasaurs  as  a  mobile 
articulation  between  the  shoulder  bones, 
and  initially  had  nothing  to  do  with  an- 


choring the  shoulder  blade  to  the  shell. 
Not  surprisingly,  in  the  most  primitive  tur- 
tie,  Proganochelys,  the  acromion  process 
retains  the  old  function,  and  meets  the  col- 
larbone, not  the  shell.  Only  in  more  ad- 
vanced turtles  did  it  shift  position  and 
come  into  contact  with  the  shell. 

The  highly  distinctive  body  plan  of  tur- 
tles, therefore,  did  not  arise  in  one  huge 
evolutionary  leap.  Rather,  traits  that  were 
evolutionary  holdovers  from  their 
pareiasaur  ancestors  were  modified  and  in- 
tegrated with  one  another.  The  shell 
started  out  as  merely  a  supporting  row  of 
bony  plates  in  pareiasaurs.  Later,  in  turtles, 
these  were  co-opted  to  form  the  basis  of  a 
rigid  protective,  insulated  box.  Similarly, 
the  short  stubby  body,  the  acromion  proc- 
ess, and  many  other  turtle  traits  (such  as 
the  tall,  columnlike  shoulder  blade  and 
oddly  shaped  arm  and  thigh  bones)  are 
often  thought  to  have  arisen  purely  as 


adaptations  to  life  in  a  shell.  Yet  they  ap- 
peared first  in  pareiasaurs,  long  before  the 
shell  appeared. 

All  this  illustrates  once  again  the 
serendipity  of  evolution.  Natural  selection 
favors  what's  best  now — which  is  rarely 
what's  best  in  the  long  run.  Usually,  this 
means  adapting  an  existing  organ  to  per- 
form some  new  role  tolerably  well,  instead 
of  going  back  to  the  drawing  board  and 
evolving  a  completely  new  structure  that 
does  the  job  perfectly.  (Vertebrate  history 
is  full  of  such  makeshift  expediency:  our 
arms  are  really  only  modified  forelegs,  and 
our  ear  bones  arose  from  bits  of  gill  and 
jaw.)  Traits  that  originally  served  other 
purposes  in  their  pareiasaur  forebears  be- 
came modified  in  turtles  to  serve  functions 
related  to  life  in  a  shell.  And  so  well  have 
they  been  integrated  into  their  new  roles 
that  it  is  difficult  for  us  to  imagine  them  as 
having  evolved  to  do  anything  else. 


Anthodon,  a 

pareiasaur,  also  had 

five  vertebrae  in  its 

neck,  but  only  fourteen 

in  its  back.  In  front  of 

the  wide,  barrel-shaped 

rib  cage,  there  was  a  narrow 

shoulder  girdle.  Shifting  the  girdle  three 

vertebrae  farther  back  into  the  rib  cage 

would  result  in  a  turtlelike  arrangement. 


Shoulder  blade 


Proganochelys,  the  most  primitive  turtle 

known,  had  eight  neck  vertebrae  and  ten 

back  vertebrae,  and  the  shoulder 

girdle  lay  within  the  rib  cage. 

The  ribs  are  fused  with 

the  shell. 


Acromion  process 


65 


o 


o 
> 


ATaleof 
Two  Seas 

When  North  and  South  America 

collided,  some  close  families 

were  divided 

by  Nancy  Knowlton 

Panama,  the  country  where  I  now  live, 
once  lay  beneath  the  sea.  North  and  South 
America  were  separate  continents,  and  the 
waters  and  marine  animals  of  what  are 
now  the  Pacific  and  the  Caribbean  min- 
gled freely  over  the  submerged  land  that 
would  become  the  Central  American  Isth- 
mus. The  movements  of  the  earth's  crust 
and  the  resultant  collisions  of  plates — 
which  eventually  led  to  the  joining  of  the 
continents  and  the  separation  of  the 
oceans — were  gradual.  They  began  some 
fifteen  million  years  ago  and  by  about 
three  million  years  ago,  the  land  bridge 
was  complete.  These  events  set  into  mo- 
tion one  of  the  world's  greatest  natural  ex- 
periments: while  land  animals  migrated 
north  and  south  into  new  realms,  the  now 
separated  inhabitants  of  the  two  oceans 
began  to  travel  along  separate  evolution- 
ary pathways. 

Today,  the  closest  relatives  of  many 
Caribbean  fishes,  sea  urchins,  snails,  and 
shrimps  are  still  to  be  found  in  the  eastern 
Pacific.  Even  experts  may  have  a  hard 
time  figuring  out  which  ocean  a  particular 
animal  comes  from.  Nevertheless,  of  the 
few  attempts  at  mating  animals  from  op- 
posite sides  of  the  isthmus,  most  have 
failed;  even  if  we  can't  tell  the  difference, 
the  animals  can.  Once  members  of  a  single 
species,  these  organisms  were  separated 
geographically  after  the  isthmus  arose,  be- 
coming over  time  what  scientists  refer  to 
today  as  transisthmian  sister  species. 

My  colleagues  and  I  investigated  this 
evolutionary  phenomenon  by  studying  a 
single,  but  highly  diverse,  group,  the 
shrimp  genus  Alpheiis.  These  crustaceans 
look  superficially  like  miniature  cold- 
water  lobsters,  and  they  inhabit  shallow, 
tropical  seas,  where  they  tend  to  hide  in 
crevices,  burrows,  and  shelters  provided 
by  other  organisms,  such  as  corals,  sea 
anemones,  and  sponges.  Rarely  seen  but 
often  heard,  Alpheus  are  commonly  called 
snapping,  or  pistol,  shrimps  for  the  sound 
produced  when  they  rapidly  close  the 


larger  of  their  two  front  claws  during  ag- 
gressive interactions.  We  began  by  simply 
trying  to  identify  the  snapping  shrimps 
from  both  coasts  of  Panama.  With  a  little 
experience,  we  could  readily  recognize 
which  ones  were  probably  sister  species 
by  similarities  in  external  form  and  in 
color  patterns. 

We  wanted  to  find  out  if  these  appar- 
ently related,  look-alike  shrimps  were  still 


enough  alike  genetically  to  interbreed. 
Following  geographical  isolation,  even 
the  signals  that  animals  use  to  recognize 
potential  mates  can  change,  so  our  tran- 
sisthmian sister  species  provided  an  ele- 
gant model  for  smdying  the  process  of  be- 
havioral and  genetic  divergence  that  leads 
to  the  creation  of  new  species.  We  paired 
snapping  shrimps  from  the  same  and  op- 
posite sides  of  the  isthmus  and  then 


66    Natural  History  6/94 


< 

o 


o 


watched  for  any  signs  of  reproductive 
compatibility.  Because  so  few  studies  like 
this  have  been  done,  we  didn't  know  ex- 
actly what  to  expect. 

Snapping  shrimps  are  good  candidates 
for  such  a  matchmaking  experiment.  They 
breed  year-round,  and  when  pairs  are  in- 
compatible, they  tend  to  be  aggressive,  so 
we  could  look  at  both  behavioral  interac- 
tions and  fertility.  Under  experimental 


conditions,  almost  none  of  the  transisth- 
mian  pairs  produced  eggs.  Some  of  our 
look-alike  pairs  were  quite  tolerant  of  each 
other,  but  others  were  extremely  aggres- 
sive, snapping  repeatedly  and  sometimes 
pulling  off  claws.  We  were  able  to  show 
that  these  behavioral  incompatibiliries 
were  also  reflected  on  a  molecular  level. 

The  evolutionary  theory  of  the  molecu- 
lar clock  holds  that  certain  kinds  of  mole- 


Before  plate  tectonics  forged  the  land 
bridge  between  North  and  South 
America,  marine  creatures  such  as  the 
snapping  shrimp  Alpheus  armatus  moved 
freely  between  what  are  now  the 
Caribbean  Sea  and  the  Pacific  Ocean. 
Today  this  species  is  found  only 
in  the  Caribbean. 

Alex  Kerstitch 


67 


o 


o 
> 


cules  change  at  a  regular  rate  and  thus  pro- 
vide a  timepiece  for  dating  the  moment  at 
which  hneages  leading  to  different  organ- 
isms first  separated.  The  rough  regularity 
of  the  rate  is  due  to  the  steady  accumula- 
tion of  errors;  the  process  of  copying  DNA 
can  lead  to  mutations,  just  as  the  copying 
of  manuscripts  by  hand  can  lead  to 
changes  in  a  text.  To  estimate  how  far 
apart  the  pairs  of  species  had  drifted  ge- 
netically, we  looked  for  differences  in  the 
sequence  of  the  four  DNA  nucleotides  on 
a  part  of  the  circular  DNA  molecule  found 
in  the  mitochondrion  (the  energy-produc- 
ing engine  of  the  cell).  We  also  looked  for 
differences  in  proteins  that  are  determined 
by  DNA  in  the  nucleus  of  the  cell. 
When  we  combined  our  data  from  the 


A  Pacific  species  of  snapping  shrimp, 
Alpheus  sulcatus  inhabits  coastal 
waters  from  western  Mexico  to  Peru. 
Snapping  shrimps  wield  their  enlarged 
claws  in  territorial  battles;  when 
rapidly  closed,  the  claw  makes  a  sound 
reminiscent  of  com  popping. 


behavioral  and  molecular  studies,  we 
found  a  clear  pattern.  The  shrimp  pairs 
that  were  least  aggressive  to  each  other 
had  the  most  similar  mitochondrial  DNA 
and  nuclear  proteins,  while  pairs  that 
fought  vigorously  showed  much  greater 
molecular  divergence.  What  could  ac- 
count for  some  sister  species  being  more 
closely  related  to  their  transisthmian  coun- 
terparts than  others? 

Ecological  differences  among  the  vari- 
ous shrimps — especially  the  kind  of  habi- 
tat they  prefer — suggest  that  not  all  pau-s 
parted  company  at  the  same  time.  The 
most  closely  related,  and  thus  the  most  re- 
cently separated,  species  were  those  that 
inhabit  shallow,  turbid  waters — exactly 
the  kind  of  conditions  that  would  have 
characterized  near-shore  habitats  immedi- 
ately preceding  the  final  emergence  of  the 
isthmus  and  the  closing  off  of  any  connec- 
tion between  the  Pacific  and  Caribbean. 
The  more  divergent  pairs,  however,  both 
in  behavior  and  in  their  mitochrondrial 
DNA  and  proteins,  were  those  typically 
found  in  slightly  deeper  water  or  in  the 
clearer  waters  of  offshore  islands,  perhaps 
indicating  that  they  had  already  moved 
away  from  the  turbid  edge  of  the  emerging 
isthmus  before  the  land  barrier  was  com- 


plete. How  long  before?  Molecular  diver- 
gence rates  and  paleontological  evidence 
suggest  that  the  four  most  closely  related 
pairs  of  snapping  shrimps  were  separated 
about  the  time  of  final  closure  of  the  isth- 
mus, some  three  milhon  years  ago;  five 
were  isolated  four  to  six  million  years  ago; 
and  two  were  separated  at  least  seven  mil- 
hon years  ago. 

Judging  from  the  combination  of  be- 
havioral tolerance  and  infertility  demon- 
strated by  the  most  similar  males  and  fe- 
males from  opposite  sides  of  the  isthmus, 
three  milhon  years  appears  to  be  just  ade- 
quate for  the  creation  of  new  species  of 
snapping  shrimps.  A  study  of  closely  re- 
lated, but  geographically  isolated,  fruit 
flies  resulted  in  a  similar  estimate  of  the 
amount  of  time  required  to  create  new 
species.  In  both  cases,  the  separated  or- 
ganisms remained  almost  identical  in  out- 
ward appearance.  In  contrast,  during  the 
same  length  of  time,  the  transition  from 
Australopithecus  to  our  own  extremely 
different  species,  Homo  sapiens,  took 
place.  The  isthmus,  and  the  sibhng  species 
on  either  side  of  it,  give  us  one  measure  of 
the  background  rates  of  routine  evolution- 
ary change  against  which  great  evolution- 
ary developments  can  be  compared. 


68    Naitjral  History  6/94 


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> 


Wassily  Kandinsky,  Succession:©  1994  Artist's  Rights  Society;  The  Phillips  Collection 

Even  the  smallest  single-celled  organism  probably  would  be  obnoxiously  self- 
centered  if  it  had  the  means  and  time  to  think  about  itself.  And  Homo  sapiens, 
who  by  definition  are  thinking  animals,  certainly  have  worried  their  big  brains 

more  about  the  details  of  their  own  evolution  than  any  other  species.  But 

humans  have  played,  at  best,  only  a  bit  part  in  the  four-bUlion-year  drama  of  life 

on  earth.  H.  sapiens  barely  deserve  mention  in  this  special  issue.  Furthermore, 

Natural  History  has  treated  them  extensively  in  the  past  (see  the  section  on 

human  evolution  in  the  April  1993  issue  as  an  example).  Yet  knowing  (and 

sharing)  our  readers'  human  foible  of  narrow  self-interest,  we  end  this  issue  with 

three  evolutionary  essays  on  human  diseases,  our  body  plan,  and  the  global 

genetic  diversity  of  our  species. 


70    Natur.-\l  H'story  6/94 


We  thought  you'd 

JlKG  to  Know  Wll3rS     Some  stores  buy  a  sweater 
T.^  ^r^T-4  ^  -^  /-]    #-k  '^^  ^  shirt  off  the  shelf  from 

L  JCTrilTIC  1    cl  ^  manufacturer,  sew  their 

T  1     J  T^         1®1     1         1  names  on  the  collar,  and 

Lands  Lnd   label.         can  it  their  private  labd 

merchandise. 
Not  us.  At  Lands'  End,  we  don't  put  our  label  on  anything 
unless  we  have  a  big  hand  in  designing  and  manufacturing  it- 
and  then  checking  to  make  sure  if  s  up  to  snuff. 

We're  very  finicky.  We  may  have  a  perfectly  fine  wool 
sweater,  or  an  Oxford  buttondown  shirt  the  whole  world 
thinks  is  super.  But  we  keep  tinkering  with  it  -  to  see  if  we 
can't  improve  it  somehow. 

Often  that  involves  putting  back  features  and  construction 
details  that  others  have  taken  out  over  the  years.  We  won't 
chintz  on  anything  just  to  make  an  item  cheaper. 

We  believe  everything  in  our  catalog  should  be  a  quality 
product,  at  a  fair  price. 

You  see,  where  we  come  from  -  the  sweet  farm  country 
of  Dodgeville,  Wisconsin  -  we  still  believe  in  doing  an  honest 
day's  work.  And  we  expect  the  same  of  the  things  we  sell. 

Guaranteed.  Period! 


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A  Brave, 

New, 
Healthy 
World? 


*r^  By  accident,  we  may  be 

^      entering  an  era  of  unprecedented 
1— (  genetic  good  health 

o 

Pjj  by  Steve  Jones 

The  study  of  human  genetics  began 
with  a  fear  for  the  future.  Frances  Galton, 
Charles  Darwin's  cousin,  argued  in  his 
book  Hereditary  Genius  (1869)  that 
people  of  innate  merit — the  geniuses  of 
his  title — were  having  too  few  children, 
and  that,  as  a  result,  the  human  race  was  on 
the  edge  of  decline. 

Many  Utopian  and  antiutopian  novels 
trace  their  vision  of  the  future  directly  to 
biology.  Aldous  Huxley's  Brave  New 
World  owes  much  to  his  family's  scientific 
ambiance — his  brother  was  the  biologist 
Julian  Huxley,  and  his  grandfather 
Thomas  Henry  Huxley  was  known  as 
"Darwin's  Bulldog."  H.  G.  Wells — whose 
Utopia  appeared  in  The  Shape  of  Things  to 
Come — ^himself  wrote,  with  Julian  Hux- 
ley, a  textbook  on  evolution;  and  George 
Bernard  Shaw,  author  of  Back  to  Methuse- 
lah, appeared  on  public  platforms  with 
Galton. 

In  true  Victorian  style,  no  sooner  was 
the  idea  of  evolution  accepted  than  there 
was  a  call  to  interfere  with  it,  in  this  case 
by  controlling  human  mating.  Nobody 
needs  reminding  of  what  the  eugenics 
movement  led  to.  Many  of  Hitler's  crimes 
were  part  of  a  misplaced  attempt  to  control 
the  biological  future  of  the  human  race. 

Geneticists'  views  have  changed 
greatly  over  the  last  century.  Galton's 
sweeping  concerns  about  the  future  have 
been  replaced  by  a  more  realistic  focus  on 
the  risks  of  inbom  disease.  The  last  few 
years  have  seen  many  triumphs  in  the  di- 
agnosis and  treatment  of  genetic  illness, 
and  there  is  the  promise  of  many  more  to 
come. 

But  with  these  advances  has  come  a 
new  concern.  Perhaps  our  ability  to  inter- 
fere with  our  genes  may — as  the  eugeni- 


cists  feared — change  the  evolutionary  out- 
look for  the  worse.  Are  such  anxieties  jus- 
tified; and  was  Galton  right? 

Most  human  biological  evolution,  like 
that  of  any  other  species,  depends  on  mu- 
tations that  can  occur  as  genes  pass  from 
parents  to  offspring.  Some  of  these  are  bet- 
ter than  what  went  before  and  become 
more  common;  others  are  worse  and  fail  to 
survive.  This  process,  natural  selection,  is 
the  driving  force  of  adaptive  evolution. 

Another  important — but  often  ne- 
glected— agent  is  genetic  drift,  or  evolu- 
tion by  accident.  Particularly  in  small  and 
isolated  communities,  genes  become  com- 
mon or  rare  at  random,  as  those  who  carry 
them  have,  by  chance,  more  or  fewer  chil- 
dren than  average  and  are  hence  more  or 
less  successful  in  passing  on  their  genetic 
heritage. 

It  is  hard  to  predict  just  what  the  fore- 
cast for  mutation  or  natural  selection 
might  be.  One  thing,  though,  is  sure.  Bar- 
ring some  disastrous  reduction  in  the  num- 
ber of  people  around,  evolution  by  acci- 
dent no  longer  has  much  force.  Twenty 
thousand  years  ago,  there  were  only  as 
many  people  in  the  world  as  there  are  in 
New  York  today.  Society  was  based  on 
small  bands  or  isolated  villages,  and  mar- 
riages were  within  the  group.  For  most  of 
history,  everyone  had  to  marry  the  girl  (or 
the  boy)  next  door,  because  there  was  no 
choice. 

Few  people  now  live  in  small  or  iso- 
lated communities.  The  change  began 
thousands  of  years  ago  and  will  take  thou- 
sands more  to  complete  (although  it  has 
accelerated  during  the  past  century).  This 
will  have  not  only  a  long-term  effect  on 
our  biology  but  also  an  immediate  influ- 
ence on  genetics — not  on  the  number  of 
geniuses,  but  on  the  incidence  of  disease. 

Inherited  disease  is  certainly  common 
enough.  About  two  out  of  every  three 
people  reading  this  article  will  die  for  rea- 
sons connected  to  the  genes  they  carry. 
Many  of  the  genes  involved — including 
those  connected  with  cancer  and  heart  dis- 
ease— ^kiU  later  in  life,  after  the  reproduc- 
tive years  and  too  late  for  natural  selection 
to  have  much  effect. 

About  one  person  in  thirty,  though,  is 
bom  with  a  gene  that  takes  its  toll  rela- 
tively early.  Such  problems  have  become 
more  important,  in  the  West  at  least,  as  in- 
fectious diseases  are  controlled  {see  "Bac- 
teria Break  the  Antibiotic  Bank,"  page  39, 
and  "On  Darwin,  Snow,  and  Deadly  Dis- 
eases," page  42).  The  genes  that  underlie 
many  inherited  diseases  are  recessive; 
they  show  their  effects  only  when  a  carrier 


has  two  copies,  one  from  each  parent. 

The  commonest  inbom  diseases  among 
people  of  African  and  of  European  ances- 
try— sickle-cell  anemia  and  cystic  fibro- 
sis, respectively — are  of  this  kind.  Others 
are  more  local,  but  are  painfully  familiar  to 
people  from  the  affected  regions.  In 
Cyprus,  for  example,  one  inherited  blood 
disorder,  beta  thalassaemia,  or  Cooley's 
anemia,  is  so  common  that  treating  all  the 
children  involved  is  likely  to  soak  up  half 
the  entire  health  budget  within  ten  years. 
As  tteatments  are  developed  for  other  dis- 
eases, many  societies  will  face  the  prob- 
lem of  paying  for  them. 

Both  cystic  fibrosis  and  sickle-cell  ane- 
mia can  now  be  treated,  and  those  affected 
may  survive  to  have  children  of  their  own. 
Tests  to  determine  whether  a  fetus  is  at 
risk  of  genetic  disease  are  now  used  in 
many  parts  of  the  world,  so  that  the  num- 
ber of  children  bom  with  these  conditions 
is  dropping.  But  not  everyone  has  access 
to  the  tests,  and  some  choose  not  to  termi- 
nate a  pregnancy  even  when  the  test  is 
positive.  What  will  the  balance  be  be- 
tween the  increased  numbers  of  damaged 
genes  passed  on  by  survivors  and  those 
lost  by  selective  termination  of  preg- 
nancy? Are  we  meddling  with  biology 
without  realizing  what  we  are  doing? 

Perhaps,  but  the  effects  of  genetic  tech- 
nology pale  before  those  of  social  change. 
We  are  in  the  middle  of  one  of  the  most 
dramatic  events  in  evolutionary  history: 
the  human  race  may  be  entering  an  era  of 
unprecedented  genetic  good  health — a  bi- 
ological Utopia  reached  by  accident. 

At  the  heart  of  this  new  age  is  a  change 
in  mating  pattems.  Frances  Galton  himself 
showed  what  this  can  do  to  genes.  He 
looked  at  a  simple  inherited  character,  the 
surname.  Just  like  a  gene,  a  sumame  is 
passed  down  through  generations  (albeit 
through  only  one  parent)  and,  also  like 
genes,  names  do  odd  things  in  small  popu- 
lations. 

In  Switzerland,  for  example,  everyone 
in  a  mountain  village  may  have  the  same 
sumame,  while  everyone  in  another  vil- 
lage a  few  miles  away  shares  a  different 
name.  This  is  not  because  Schmidts  sur- 
vive in  one  place  and  Eisens  in  another.  In- 
stead it  happens  at  random.  Within  each 
hamlet  there  has,  over  the  years,  been  an 
accidental  loss  of  names  as  some  men 
have  no  sons.  Eventually,  different  names 
take  over  in  each  place.  The  process  is  in- 
evitable: even  if  each  of  the  villages 
started  out  (as  they  probably  did)  with  a 
slightly  different  set  of  names,  the  effects 
of  random  loss  mean  that  the  differences 


72    Natural  History  6/94 


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between  villages  are  quickly  amplified. 
Shared  names  mean  shared  ancestors.  If 
one  of  those  ancestors  carried  a  single 
copy  of  one  or  another  harmful  recessive 
gene — as  nearly  everyone  does — then  his 
or  her  descendants  in  the  village,  choosing 
their  mates  from  a  restricted  pool,  are  at  in- 
creased risk  of  having  a  child  with  two 
copies  of  the  gene. 
The  danger  is  a  real  one.  Finland,  with 
G     its  impenetrable  forests,  has  lots  of  iso- 
O     lated  and  inbred  populations — and  many 
•  i-H     local  centers  of  inborn  disease.  Some  are 
^     almost  unknown  elsewhere,  while  others 
^     represent  isolated  clusters  of  widespread 
-^     but  generally  rare  illnesses. 
^         Social  barriers  can  be  just  as  effective  as 
^     distance.  In  Britain,  many  children  of  Pa- 
pL^     kistani  immigrants  marry  among  them- 
selves. Nearly  half  are  married  to  a  cousin. 
Although  only  about  one  British  birth  in 
fifty  is  to  this  group  of  closely  related  par- 
ents, these  children  represent  about  5  per- 
cent of  all  inborn  disease.  Certain  religious 
communities,  such  as  the  Amish,  are  nat- 
ural laboratories  for  genetic  disease  be- 
cause they  are  so  inbred.  ElUs-van  Creveld 
syndrome,  an  inherited  abnormality  of  the 
skeleton,  is  commoner  among  the  Penn- 
sylvania Amish  than  in  any  other  group  of 


people.  Every  sufferer  traces  his  or  her  an- 
cestry to  Samuel  King,  a  founder  of  the 
community. 

Even  outside  such  closed  communities, 
most  people  have  traditionally  chosen  to 
mate  with  those  who  live  close  to  them. 
Now  this  pattern  is  changing  quickly.  The 
tens  of  thousands  of  surnames  in  New 
York — and  the  distinct  ethnic  groups  to 
which  many  of  them  are  attached — show 
just  how  mixed  up  the  world's  population 
is  becoming.  And  cities  are  not  the  only 
places  where  the  pool  of  potential  mates  is 
glowing.  Even  on  the  Lipari  Islands  off  the 
coast  of  Italy,  where  in  the  1920s  a  quarter 
of  marriages  were  between  first  or  second 
cousins,  only  about  one  marriage  in  fifty  is 
between  cousins  today. 

A  crude  but  effective  way  to  measure 
how  related  one's  ancestors  may  have 
been  is  to  ask  how  far  apart  they  were 
bom.  For  nearly  all  the  people  reading  this 
article,  the  distance  between  the  places 
where  they  and  their  partners  were  bom  is 
greater  than  that  separating  their  parents' 
birthplaces.  And  their  parents  were,  in 
tum,  likely  to  have  entered  the  world  far- 
ther apart  than  did  their  grandparents.  In 
parts  of  nineteenth-century  New  England, 
the  distance  between  birthplaces  of  mar- 


riage partaers  was  less  than  twenty  miles. 
Now  the  average  in  the  United  States  is 
several  hundred,  and  most  couples  are 
completely  unrelated. 

The  mixing  will  not  be  complete  for  a 
long  time,  if  ever — with  as  much  as  five 
hundred  years  needed  to  even  out  the  ge- 
netic differences  between  England  and 
Scotland  alone.  But  even  if  global  homo- 
geneity is  a  long  way  off,  increased  move- 
ment and  outbreeding  will  certainly  work 
to  decrease  the  numbers  of  children  bom 
with  two  copies  of  a  defective  gene. 

One  example  of  the  genetic  benefits  of 
outbreeding — albeit  one  that  has  its  roots 
in  an  abhorrent  period  of  history — can  be 
seen  in  the  United  States.  On  average, 
about  a  quarter  of  the  genes  of  North 
American  blacks  were  contributed  by 
white  ancestors — a  result  of  interracial 
mating  during  the  days  of  slavery  (usually 
between  white  males  and  black  females, 
who  had  little  say  in  the  matter). 

Since  the  recessive  gene  for  cystic  fi- 
brosis is  unknown  in  Africans  and  that  for 
sickle-cell  anemia  unknown  in  whites,  the 
child  of  a  black-white  mating  is  safe  from 
both  diseases.  One  piece  of  advice  that 
might  be  given  to  someone  concemed  that 
his  or  her  child  might  suffer  from  genetic 
disease  is  to  marry  someone  with  a  differ- 
ent skin  color.  Some  geneticists  believe 
that  some  of  the  general  increase  in  child 
health  seen  in  the  West  over  the  past  cen- 
tiu-y  or  so  is  due  to  such  increased  out- 
breeding. 

Any  benefits  that  genetic  mixing  will 
bring  cannot  last  forever.  In  time  the 
mixed  populations  of  the  world  will  reach 
a  new  equilibrium.  Many  of  the  genes  hid- 
den in  the  descendants  of  mixed  marriages 
will  reappear. 

This  new  uniformity  also  means  that  no 
longer  will  there  be  much  chance — as 
there  was  among  the  Amish — ^for  small 
and  isolated  populations  to  diverge  geneti- 
cally by  accident.  One  of  the  most  impor- 
tant agents  of  evolution  has  lost  its  power. 

Speculating  about  what  is  to  come — 
particularly  for  a  species  like  our  own,  so 
prone  to  social,  political,  or  ecological  dis- 
aster— is  dangerous,  but  because  so  much 
of  human  evolution  has  involved  random 
change  in  small  groups,  the  loss  of  this 
agent  of  change  probably  means  that  the 
biology  of  the  future  will  not  be  very  dif- 
ferent from  that  of  the  past.  Humans  may 
even  be  almost  at  the  end  of  their  evolu- 
tionary road.  If  so,  we  are  as  near  to  our  bi- 
ological Utopia  as  we  are  likely  to  get,  al- 
though it  has  been  reached  in  ways  not 
dreamed  of  by  Galton. 


74    Natural  History  6/94 


NATURAL 
HISTORY 


Thank  you,  American  Museum 
of  Natural  History,  FOR  YOUR 
CONTRIBUTIONS  TOWARD 
UNDERSTANDING  NATURE  AND 


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Best  Size 

and 
Number  of 

Human 
Body  Parts 

We  function  well  with  one  kidney, 
so  why  do  we  have  two? 

by  Tared  Diamond 


When  a  routine  medical  test  performed 
on  me  recently  detected  an  unsuspected 
kidney  cancer,  my  first  thought  was  how 
to  spend  my  final  year  of  life,  in  case  that 
proved  to  be  all  the  time  left  to  me.  But 
after  my  diseased  kidney  had  been  re- 
moved and  the  other  one  proclaimed 
healthy,  I  grew  reaccustomed  to  the  expec- 
tation of  a  normal  life  span.  I  began  to 
wonder  instead  how  my  life  style  would 
be  affected,  now  that  I  had  only  one  of 
what  was  originally  a  pair  of  vital  organs. 

Gradually,  the  answer  emerged:  There 
seems  to  be  no  effect.  Having  just  returned 
from  an  even  more  demanding  than  usual 
New  Guinea  expedition,  I  can't  detect  any 
hmitation  on  my  capacity  for  exercise  or 
for  digesting  food.  As  a  physiologist  and 
evolutionary  biologist,  I  am  left  to  wonder: 
Why  did  we  evolve  to  have  at  least  double 
the  necessary  mass  of  kidney,  which 
ounce-for-ounce  is  the  most  energy-guz- 
zling organ  of  our  body  to  operate? 

Actually,  people  can  survive  on  only 
part  of  a  single  kidney,  and  our  combined 
kidney  mass  has  to  drop  by  more  than  two 
thirds  before  it  affects  our  life  style.  Hence 
we  have  a  surfeit  of  kidney  tissue,  at  least 
three  times  what  we  need.  The  outcomes 
of  surgery  on  other  organs  show  that,  sim- 
ilarly, our  intestine  is  approximately  dou- 
ble and  our  paricreas  a  remarkable  ten 
times  the  necessaiy  size.  As  a  result  of  that 
enormous  excess  of  pancreatic  tissue,  one 
friend  of  mine  who  had  the  misfortune  to 


develop  pancreatic  cancer  felt  no  symp- 
toms until  90  percent  of  his  pancreas  had 
been  destroyed,  by  which  time  he  was 
within  a  few  months  of  death. 

Why  have  we  evolved  to  build  and 
maintain  such  excesses  in  vital  organs? 
Or — to  reverse  the  question — if  some  ex- 
cess is  good,  why  don't  we  maintain  even 
more?  Fifty  pounds  of  kidney  would,  of 
course,  be  too  heavy,  would  fill  too  much 
space,  and  would  require  too  much  energy. 
But  why  are  our  kidneys  the  particular  size 
that  they  are,  3  times,  rather  than  50  or  1 . 1 
times,  their  necessary  size? 

This  question  is  part  of  a  broader  prob- 
lem in  biological  design.  In  addition  to  the 
puzzle  of  "how  big,"  there  is  an  analogous 
puzzle  of  "how  many."  For  example,  why 
are  we  endowed  with  two  breasts,  rather 
than  with  one  or  sixteen?  (Some  mammal 
species  do  have  sixteen  breasts).  At  the 
molecular  level,  why  does  each  of  our  en- 
zymes exist  in  its  particular  number  of 
copies,  rather  than  in  some  higher  or  lower 
number?  Like  clamshells  and  spider  webs, 
our  bones  pose  a  third  obvious,  analogous 
puzzle  of  "how  strong."  Why  didn't  evo- 
lution result  in  our  having  stronger  bones 
that  would  break  less  often? 

Of  course,  you'll  say,  the  answer  has 
something  to  do  with  natural  selection, 
which  adapts  each  species  to  its  particular 
hfe  style  and  environment.  For  example, 
grass-eating  cows,  but  not  meat-eating 
tigers  or  humans,  evolved  a  big  rumen  to 
digest  cellulose.  Similarly,  Northern  Euro- 
peans dependent  for  millenniums  on 
drinking  fresh  milk  as  aduhs  evolved  to 
retain  the  milk-digesting  enzyme  lactase 
beyond  childhood,  but  most  peoples  in  the 
rest  of  the  world  did  not. 

Alas,  most  evolutionary  reasoning  re- 
mains at  that  qualitative,  gee-whiz  level 
and  hasn't  progressed  since  Darwin's  day. 
(As  a  frequent  author  of  such  qualitative 
accounts  myself,  I'm  not  blaming  other 
scientists  for  failings  of  which  I  claim  to 
be  innocent.)  Rarely  do  biologists  tackle 
the  problem  of  adaptation  quantitatively. 
We  still  lack  a  quantitative  theory  of  bio- 
logical design  to  predict  numerical  out- 
comes and  to  explain  their  variation  in  na- 
ture. We  have  yet  to  identify  the  selective 
pressures  that  keep  our  kidneys,  breasts, 
and  bones  the  size,  number,  and  strength 
they  actually  are. 

Exacdy  the  same  questions  arise  in  con- 


nection with  structures  that  we  ourselves 
engineer  Such  questions  are  now  much  on 
my  mind  and  on  those  of  my  fellow  earth- 
quake-shocked Angelenos  as  we  try  to  un- 
derstand why  some  of  our  houses  and  free- 
ways fell  down  while  others  didn't. 
Engineers  analyze  such  questions  by 
means  of  a  well-developed  framework 
that  could  serve  as  a  model  for  biologists. 

Like  biologists,  engineers  have  to  deal 
with  such  questions  as:  How  big?  How 
many?  How  strong?  Typical  questions  for 
them  include:  How  strong  should  this 
house  or  bridge  be  built?  How  big  should 
a  hot-water  heater  be  for  a  house  expected 
to  hold  six  occupants?  How  many  emer- 
gency exits  should  be  designed  for  a  12- 
passenger  commuter  prop  plane  or  for  a 
500-passenger  jumbo  jet? 

Engineered  structures  are  qualitatively 
adapted  to  their  "hfe  styles,"  as  are  biolog- 
ical structures.  For  example,  a  bridge  in- 
tended to  bear  the  traffic  of  Sherman  tanks 
is  built  more  strongly  than  a  bridge  in- 
tended only  for  pedestrian  traffic.  But  en- 
gineers go  further  than  these  qualitative 
analyses  by  calculating  a  "safety  factor," 
that  is,  the  ratio  of  a  structure's  capacity  to 
its  actual  expected  load.  The  cable  sup- 
porting a  fast  passenger  elevator,  for  ex- 
ample, is  built  with  a  safety  factor  of  11, 
meaning  that  the  cable  could  actually  sup- 
port eleven  times  the  maximum  legal  pay- 
load  specified  in  the  sign  posted  inside  the 
elevator.  Safety  factors  differ  among  engi- 
neered structures:  for  instance,  7  for  slow 
freight  elevators,  but  only  5  for  hotel  food 
elevators  (dumbwaiters). 

Why  do  engineers  build  with  safety  fac- 
tors exceeding  1.0?  Obviously,  the  answer 
is  that  actual  capacities,  as  well  as  loads, 
are  somewhat  uncertain  or  variable,  so 
that  elevator  cables  with  a  safety  factor  of 
exactly  1.0  would  often  snap.  Capacities 
vary  because  even  batches  of  steel  or  con- 
crete manufactured  from  the  same  mold 
differ  in  strength,  and  because  strength  de- 
teriorates depending  on  age  and  use. 
Loads  also  vary  unpredictably  because 
one  cannot  be  sure  how  many  sumo 
wrestlers  will  try  to  crowd  into  an  elevator 
at  once  or  how  many  big  trucks  will  si- 
multaneously be  driven  across  a  bridge. 

Actual  safety  factors  are  set  depending 
on  the  expected  magnitude  of  variation  in 
capacities  and  loads,  as  well  as  on  the 
costs  and  benefits  of  excess  capacity. 


78    Natural  History  6/94 


That's  why  cables  of  passenger  elevators 
have  higher  safety  factors  than  those  of 
dumbwaiters:  the  liability  judgment 
against  the  elevator  company  will  be  much 
higher  if  a  snapped  cable  kills  hotel  guests 
than  if  it  just  drops  their  room-service 
breakfasts.  Structures  made  of  wood  have 
to  have  higher  safety  factors  than  those 
made  of  steel  because  wood's  strength  is 
initially  more  variable  and  deteriorates 
faster  with  time.  Safety  factors  are  set  high 
enough  to  minimize  the  risk  of  structural 
failure,  but  low  enough  to  avoid  unneces- 
sary expense  or  size.  That  is,  safety  factors 
reflect  an  optimization  decision,  based  on 
trade-offs  between  costs  and  benefits. 

Engineers  used  to  make  those  decisions 
empirically  and  often  unconsciously.  For 
example,  in  New  Guinea's  Star  Moun- 
tains, from  which  I  remmed  a  few  months 
ago,  people  still  cross  mountain  torrents 
over  bridges  that  they  build  out  of  hanas 
and  saplings.  Falling  into  the  torrent 
would  mean  certain  death,  so  they  build 


their  bridges  strong  enough  to  make  col- 
lapse unlikely,  but  they  also  don't  make 
unnecessary  work  for  themselves  with 
overbuilt  bridges.  Those  principles  of 
bridge  design  evolved  by  natural  selec- 
tion, through  experience  with  bridges  that 
did  or  did  not  collapse. 

In  industrial  societies,  safety  factors  are 
instead  calculated  from  physical  princi- 
ples and  are  written  by  law  into  design 
codes.  However,  those  conscious  deci- 
sions are  still  ultimately  framed  by  a 
process  of  natural  selection,  where  the 
arena  is  the  marketplace  of  competing 
manufacturers  and  the  selective  agent  is 
consumer  choice.  Builders  presumably 
cease  to  buy  elevators  from  companies 
whose  cheap  cables  snap.  They  also  cease 
to  buy  from  companies  whose  overde- 
signed  elevators  cost  double  the  price  of 
already-safe,  competing  elevators. 

Biological  safety  factors  similarly 
evolved  through  natural  selection,  but  the 
process  is  always  "unconscious,"  and  the 


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codes  remain  largely  undeciphered  in  our 
genes.  The  biological  arena  in  which  nat- 
ural selection  operates  is  life  itself,  with  its 
myriads  of  competing  individuals  and  spe- 
cies. Yes,  if  all  other  things  were  equal,  we 
would  be  better  off  with  larger  kidneys, 
more  breasts,  thicker  bones,  and  more  en- 
zymes. But  one  cannot  ignore  the  price  of 
those  benefits.  All  biological  structures 
incur  direct  costs  of  biosynthetic  energy 
and  indirect  costs  of  space  occupied.  En- 
ergy in  the  form  of  ATP  is  required  not 
only  to  make  a  molecule  or  organ  in  the 
first  place  but  also  to  maintain  and  operate 
it.  Big  organs  incur  further,  indirect  oper- 
ating expenses  because  of  the  weight  that 
has  to  be  lugged  around,  as  anyone  who 
has  been  overweight  or  pregnant  knows. 

But  the  food  energy  available  to  an  ani- 
mal is  finite.  Space  is  also  finite,  as  you 
may  have  appreciated  when  you  saw  all 
those  organs  packed  closely  together  in- 
side the  body  cavity  of  the  frog  that  you 
dissected  in  introductory  biology.  Since 
available  energy  and  space  are  limited, 
any  resource  devoted  to  one  organ  or  en- 
zyme comes  at  the  expense  of  another. 
Thus,  an  economically  designed  animal 
will  tend  to  outcompete  not  only  an  under- 
equipped  animal  but  also  an  overequipped 
one,  profligate  in  one  organ  and  necessar- 
ily shorted  on  some  other. 

The  potential  disadvantages  of  biologi- 
cal underdesign  are  obvious.  Small  bones 
break  when  overstressed,  and  small  kid- 
neys on  which  you  dump  too  many  toxins 
can't  protect  you  against  poison.  As  for 
the  potential  disadvantages  of  biological 
overdesign,  they're  reflected  in  the  evolu- 
tionary loss  or  reduction  of  organs  that  be- 
come unnecessary  because  of  an  evolu- 
tionary change  of  life  style.  For  example, 
why  is  it  that  so  many  birds  on  remote, 
predator-free  islands  have  small  wings  or 
no  wings,  when  flight  seems  so  obviously 
advantageous?  The  hundreds  of  flightless 
bird  species  that  evolved  on  Hawaii,  Mau- 
ritius, and  other  islands  testify  to  the  ad- 
vantages of  getting  rid  of  expensive  and 
heavy  flight  muscles,  which  account  for 
up  to  one-quarter  of  a  bird's  mass,  when 
they  are  no  longer  needed  to  escape  preda- 
tors. Other  analogous  examples  include 
the  loss  or  reduction  of  eyes  in  cave- 
dwelling  animals,  and  the  loss  of  nutrient- 
synthesizing  enzymes  in  bacteria  grown  in 
mediums  providing  those  nutrients  with- 
out cost. 

For  humans,  the  disadvantages  of 
overdesign  become  clear  whenever  food 
availability  is  limited,  as  it  has  been  for 
most  people  throughout  human  evolution- 


80    Natural  History  6/94 


ary  history.  One  tragic  example  is  the  ill- 
fated  Donner  party  of  California  pioneers, 
who  became  trapped  by  snow  with  little 
food  during  the  winter  of  1846-47.  Half  of 
the  males  but  only  5  percent  of  the  females 
in  the  age  range  from  five  to  thirty-nine 
died.  Women  can  stay  alive  with  less  food 
than  men  can  because  women  are  smaller. 
In  another  tragic  example,  the  first  man  to 
collapse  and  die  on  Scott's  disastrous  trek 
to  the  South  Pole  was  the  biggest,  Edgar 
Evans,  starved  by  Scott's  democratic  divi- 
sion of  his  limited  food  supply  into  equal 
portions  for  each  of  his  men  regardless  of 
their  differing  weights. 

Selection  against  too  much  as  well  as 
too  Uttle  biological  investment  results  in 
the  fine-tuning  of  our  design,  depending 
on  the  demands  of  our  natural  fives.  Con- 
sider, for  instance,  the  fine-tuning  of  breast 
number,  which  proves  to  be  correlated 
with  the  natural  variation  in  litter  size. 
Most  mammal  species  have  a  teat  number 
double  the  number  of  pups  in  their  average 
fitter,  and  equal  to  the  number  of  pups  in 
their  maximum  natural  litter.  That  is, 
mammalian  teat  design  has  a  safety  factor 
of  2  for  normal  operation.  We  fit  that  rule: 
we  have  a  safety  factor  of  two  breasts  for 
our  usual  fitter  of  one;  we're  prepared  for 
our  occasional  twin  births,  which  account 
for  as  much  as  5  percent  of  births  in  some 
human  populations;  but  we  make  no  pro- 
vision for  triplets  and  larger  birth  num- 
bers, which  were  vanishingly  rare  before 
modem  fertility  drugs.  For  all  but  those 
rare  mothers  of  triplets,  four  breasts  would 
merely  add  to  our  weight  and  operating 
costs.  The  occasional  appearance  of  super- 
numerary teats  in  humans  and  other  mam- 
mals reveals  our  genetic  potential  for  more 
breasts,  a  potential  that  is  evidentiy  reined 
in  by  natural  selection. 

Innumerable  other  examples  testify  to 
the  ubiquity  of  such  fine-tianing.  Males  of 
those  species  that  have  sfightiy  higher  ex- 
pected frequencies  of  copulation  have 
slightly  larger  testes.  (That's  why  men 
have  bigger  testes  than  gorifias  but  smaller 
ones  than  chimpanzees).  Birds  and  mam- 
mals with  higher  metabolic  rates  have 
slightly  bigger  hearts  and  kidneys  than  re- 
lated species  with  lower  metabolic  rates. 
Such  fine-tuning  affects  every  aspect  of 
our  design,  from  the  molecular  level  to  the 
level  of  the  whole  body. 

Physicists,  and  even  many  biologists, 
scorn  evolutionary  biology  as  a  descrip- 
tive science,  full  of  just-so  stories  and  de- 
void of  predictive  power.  An  oft-quoted 
example  of  this  prejudice  is  a  notorious  re- 
mark by  the  physicist  I.  D.  Rutherford,  to 


the  effect  that  you  don't  understand  some- 
thing until  you  can  express  it  numerically. 
While  this  remark  is  in  many  respects 
wrong  and  ignorant,  the  critics  still  have  a 
valid  point.  Granted,  it's  harder  to  identify 
and  measure  the  numbers  underlying  bio- 
logical safety  factors  than  those  underly- 
ing safety  factors  of  elevator  cables.  But 
we  evolutionary  biologists  deserve  much 
of  the  blame  ourselves  for  not  even  trying. 
The  major  challenge  that  I  see  for  evo- 
lutionary biologists  in  the  coming  decades 
is  how  to  convert  a  quafitative  science  into 
a  quantitative  one.  That  requires  estimat- 
ing such  factors  as  the  costs  of  building. 


maintaining,  and  operating  a  kidney;  the 
variation  in  our  kidneys'  preprogrammed 
waste-excreting  capacity,  depending  on 
damage  and  deterioration  with  age;  and 
our  normal  rates  of  production  of  wastes 
to  be  excreted  by  the  kidneys.  Gathering 
all  that  information  is  at  least  conceivable 
in  principle,  even  though  it  won't  be  easy. 
But  the  prize  for  success  is  big.  It's  noth- 
ing less  than  a  quantitative  understanding 
of  biological  design. 

Jared  Diamond  is  an  evolutionary  biolo- 
gist and  physiologist  at  the  University  of 
California  Medical  School,  Los  Angeles. 


L-liurcn  bells  ring  in  lofty  steeples  ^ 
ana  edio  in  ancient  streets .  ine 
catnedral,  oatnea  in  stainea-glass 
uent,  oias  us  snare  in  its  splendour.       • 


J  or  some  inspirational 
noliaay  suggestions,  see  our 
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81 


Reviews 


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o 
> 


Putting 

Human 

Genes  on 

the  Map 

With  decades  of  data  and  big 

computers,  scientists  are 

beginning  to  visualize  the 

complexities  of  human  diversity 

by  Christopher  Wills 

Back  in  the  late  1970s,  I  had  the  plea- 
sure of  visiting  the  laboratory — or  perhaps 
more  properly  the  lair — of  Arthur  E. 
Mourant.  It  was  hidden  away  in  the  far  re- 
cesses of  the  British  Museum  of  Natural 
History  in  London.  Mourant,  a  genial  man 


The  History  and  Geography  of  Human 
Genes,  by  Luigi  Luca  Cavalli-Sforza, 
Paolo  Menozzi,  and  Alberto  Piazza. 
Princeton  University  Press,  $175;  1,032 
pp.,  illus. 

who  looks  rather  like  Mr.  Punch,  presided 
over  a  large  room  lined  with  cabinets  filled 
to  overflowing  with  papers.  For  decades, 
he  and  a  few  devoted  co-workers  had  kept 
track  of  our  growing  knowledge  of  the 
human  gene  pool,  summarizing  the  work 
of  thousands  of  scientists  in  huge  com- 
pendiums.  He  had  provided  scientists 
working  on  human  evolution  and  varia- 
tion with  a  distillation  of  studies  that  had 
been  written  in  a  dozen  languages,  in  a 
hundred  parts  of  the  world.  We  spent  a 
couple  of  fascinating  days  going  over 
some  of  the  reams  of  data  that  he  had  col- 
lected and  speculating  about  their  mean- 
ing. Among  other  things,  he  showed  me 
the  proofs  of  a  new  book  he  had  just  fin- 
ished on  human  genetic  variation  and  dis- 
ease. 

The  gray  columns  of  figures  in  this 
book  were  a  treasure  trove.  The  first  con- 
nection between  stomach  cancer  and  the 
ABO  blood  groups  had  been  published  in 


1953.  By  the  time  Mourant  summarized 
the  literature  in  1978,  an  astonishing  5,000 
studies  had  looked  for  connections  be- 
tween ABO  blood  groups  and  virtually 
every  major  disease.  About  15  percent  of 
them  showed  an  association. 

Other  gray  columns  of  his  figures  told 
about  another,  less-known  human  blood 
group  called  MN,  which  is  confined  to  the 
surface  of  our  red  cells.  So  minor  is  it  that 
it  is  usually  ignored  by  our  own  immune 
system  and,  unlike  ABO  blood  groups,  it 
is  not  important  in  transfusion  or  tissue  re- 
jection. Strenuous  efforts  by  many  re- 
searchers have  not  been  able  to  detect  any 
association  between  the  MN  blood  groups 
and  disease. 

Yet  virtually  every  human  population 
has  the  M  and  N  forms  of  this  trait  in  vary- 
ing proportions.  Why  are  both  so  perva- 
sive, and  why  is  not  our  entire  species  type 
M  or  type  N?  Is  it  simply  accidental  or  are 
selective  forces  at  work?  And  what  does 
the  distribution  of  these  and  other  variant 
forms  of  genes  tell  us  about  the  history  and 
current  state  of  our  species?  What  indeed 
can  it  tell  us  if  all  the  genes  that  have  been 
discovered  turn  out  to  be  as  different  as 
ABO  and  MN? 

A  new  book  by  Cavalh-Sforza  and  his 
collaborators,  as  massive  as  anything  put 
together  by  Mourant,  attempts  to  answer 
some  of  these  questions.  It  is  an  immense 
and  laudable  undertaking  that  pulls  to- 
gether the  information  on  many  genes 
that,  like  the  ABO  blood  group  gene,  are 
polymorphic — that  is,  they  exist  in  the 
population  in  a  variety  of  types  called  al- 
leles. Much  of  the  data  had  been  gathered 
in  raw  form  by  Mourant,  with  later  addi- 
tions by  Mourant's  co-workers  and  by 
Cavalli-Sforza's  group.  More  than  75,000 
allele  frequencies,  measuring  the  preva- 
lence of  various  alleles  in  nearly  7,000 
human  populations,  are  summarized — not 
in  the  gray  columns  of  Mourant's  compi- 
lation but  in  the  form  of  maps  and  statisti- 
cal analyses  that  make  trends  in  the  data 
far  more  obvious  and  accessible. 

The  book  begins  with  a  survey  of  the 
methods  used  in  analyzing  the  data  and 
then  moves  on  to  an  overview  of  the  ge- 
netic and  cultural  histories  of  our  species 
on  a  worldwide  scale.  Succeeding  chap- 
ters deal  with  each  continent  in  turn.  The 
book  is  nothing  less  than  an  attempt  to  re- 
late the  physical  appearance,  language, 


and  culture  of  the  far-flung  members  of 
our  extremely  variable  species  to  the  evi- 
dence of  the  genes.  In  the  course  of  this  ti- 
tanic enterprise,  the  book  summarizes 
how  much  we  have  learned  and  shows 
how  far  we  still  have  to  go. 

What  are  the  many  controversies  that 
the  book  hopes  to  cast  Ught  on?  One  is  the 
origin  of  our  species  itself.  Did  we  arise 
within  the  last  one  or  two  hundred  thou- 
sand years  in  Africa  and  spread  through- 
out the  rest  of  the  Old  World,  sweeping  all 
the  poor  hominids  already  resident  there 
into  the  ash  heap  of  history?  Or  did  we 
arise  from  our  immediate  ancestor.  Homo 
erectus,  in  a  series  of  parallel  events  in 
various  parts  of  the  Old  World,  aided  per- 
haps by  puzzhng  and  highly  specific  flows 
of  genes  conferring  human  rather  than 
prehuman  characteristics  on  our  diverse 
ancestors?  While  admitting  that  all  the  ev- 
idence is  not  in,  the  authors  come  down  on 
the  side  of  a  single  origin. 

A  second  question  that  the  authors 
spend  a  good  deal  of  time  on  is  the  matter 
of  races.  While  our  species  is  highly  di- 
verse both  physically  and  genetically,  the 
patterns  are  so  complex  that  it  is  impos- 
sible to  divide  us  into  races  in  any  consis- 
tent way.  For  example,  an  earher  genera- 
tion of  anthropologists  classified  the  Ainu 
of  northern  Japan  as  Caucasian  because  of 
the  abundant  hair  on  their  bodies,  the  lack 
of  an  epicanthic  fold  on  the  upper  eyelid, 
their  wavy  brown  hair,  and  pale  skin.  But 
then-  genes  place  them  squarely  among  the 
peoples  of  eastern  Asia.  The  San  (Bush- 
men), at  the  other  end  of  the  Old  World,  in 
southern  Africa,  have  flattened  faces  of 
rather  Asian  appearance — though  again 
without  an  epicanthic  fold — and  yellow 
rather  than  dark  skin.  Yet  the  frequencies 
of  their  various  alleles,  although  unusual 
in  some  respects,  resemble  those  of  their 
African  neighbors. 

The  authors  do  not  attempt  an  explana- 
tion. But  I  suspect  that  since  our  species  is 
blessed  with  an  abundant  variety  of  alleles 
of  genes  that  contribute  to  outward  ap- 
pearance, a  little  mixing,  matching,  and 
sorting  out  would  have  been  quite  enough 
to  have  produced — anywhere  on  the 
planet — the  relatively  trivial  differences  in 
appearance  on  which  we  put  so  much 
weight  when  we  classify  people  into  races. 

A  third  question  concerns  the  various 
patterns  of  migration  our  recent  ancestors 


82    Natural  History  6/94 


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took  as  they  roamed  over  Africa,  Europe, 
the  Middle  East,  and  far  Asia.  Can  the 
traces  of  these  migrations  be  detected  by 
looking  at  allele  frequencies,  or  does  the 
spread  of  culture  overwhelm  the  spread  of 
genes?  A  striking  cline — or  regular  grada- 
tion— of  frequencies  of  alleles  of  some 
genes,  such  as  ABO,  extends  across  Eu- 
rope and  correlates  in  space  and  time  with 
the  spread  of  farming  from  its  source  in 
the  Middle  East.  A  likely  explanation  is 
that  farmers,  able  to  multiply  in  numbers 
faster  than  their  neighboring  hunter-gath- 
erers, overwhelmed  and  mixed  with  them. 
This  new,  slightly  mongrelized  group  of 
farmers  repeated  the  process  as  farming 
spread  to  the  north  and  west.  On  the  other 
hand,  a  much  more  recent  spread  of 
Bantu-speaking  peoples  accompanied  by 
agriculture  in  southern  Africa  has  not  left 
such  obvious  traces  on  the  genes. 

And  finally,  is  there  any  correlation  be- 
tween the  traces  of  migration  seen  in  some 
of  our  genes  and  the  spread  and  history  of 
human  languages?  Sometimes.  Again,  a 
fairly  striking  correlation  is  found  in  Eu- 
rope. In  Austraha,  however,  no  correlation 
can  be  seen  among  the  genes  of  the  abo- 
riginal populations,  the  distribution  of 
their  languages,  and  the  fairly  simple  pat- 
terns of  colonization  from  Australia's 
north  that  we  know  must  have  taken  place 
starting  some  60,000  years  ago. 

The  book  is  unlikely  to  settle  any  of 
these  controversies  and,  indeed,  is  certain 
to  stir  some  because  of  its  unabashedly 
idiosyncratic  methods.  The  authors  state  at 
the  outset  that  they  are  going  to  concen- 
trate on  their  own  methods  of  interpreting 
the  data,  because  giving  full  justice  to  the 
approaches  of  others  would  make  the 
book  far  longer  than  its  current  thousand 
or  so  very  large  pages.  The  authors  are  to 
be  commended,  however,  for  laying  out 
all  the  data,  warts  and  all,  showing  how 
they  analyzed  it,  and  hedging  virtually  all 
their  conclusions  with  the  caveats  that  im- 
perfect data  demand. 

The  first  problem  with  this  compilation, 
impressive  as  it  is,  has  to  do  with  the  im- 
mense span  of  time  for  which  we  have  no 
genetic  data.  Because  our  genetic  portrait 
of  humankind  is  necessarily  based  on  re- 
cent sampUngs,  it  is  unavoidably  static. 
Historical  records  of  human  migrations 
cover  only  a  tiny  fraction  of  the  history  of 
our  species,  and  we  know  surprisingly  ht- 
tle  about  how  long  most  aboriginal  peo- 
ples have  occupied  their  present  homes. 
Language,  too,  is  so  labile  and  so  easily 
overwhelmed  by  history  that  it  can  only 
take  us,  at  the  most,  ten  or  twenty  thou- 


sand years  into  the  past.  We  are  pretty 
close  to  the  position  of  a  viewer  who  tries 
to  infer  the  entire  plot  of  the  film  Queen 
Christina  from  the  few  final  frames  show- 
ing Garbo's  rapt  face. 

Once  we  have  looked  as  far  back  as  we 
can — to  the  invention  of  agriculture  and  a 
little  way  into  the  Neolithic — how  much 
more  of  our  distant  history  can  we  infer 
from  the  present-day  distribution  of  alle- 
les? Very  little,  I  think.  As  the  authors  ac- 
knowledge throughout  the  book,  the  dis- 
tribution of  genes  has  as  many 
explanations  as  there  are  genes  them- 
selves. 

Take  the  Duffy  blood  group.  One  allele 
of  this  gene  confers  absolute  immunity 
against  a  particular  type  of  malaria.  This 
allele  is  present  in  sub-Saharan  Africa  be- 
cause of  malaria — not  migration — and 
may  have  made  its  appearance  only  tens  of 
thousands  of  years  ago.  The  ABO  poly- 
morphism, on  the  other  hand,  is  miUions 
of  years  old,  and  therefore  probably  far 
more  complex  than  that  of  Duffy.  Even 
though  we  have  known  about  it  for  the 
better  part  of  a  century,  we  have  still  not 
managed  to  discover  the  major  reason  that 
we  (and  our  close  relatives  the  great  apes) 
have  this  polymorphism. 

Many  of  the  maps  in  The  History  and 
Geography  of  Human  Genes  were  con- 
structed with  a  technique  called  principal 
component,  or  PC,  analysis,  which 
sounds — and  is — dauntingly  statistical. 
To  construct  one  of  the  maps,  eighty-two 
genes  were  examined  in  many  populations 
throughout  the  world.  Each  population 
was  represented  on  a  computer  grid  as  a 
point  in  eighty-two  dimensional  space, 
with  its  position  along  each  dimensional 
axis  representing  the  frequency  of  one  of 
the  alleles  in  question.  The  line,  rotated 
through  all  the  dimensions,  that  best  fits  all 
the  points  is  called  the  first  PC.  It  can  also 
be  understood  as  the  measure  that  best 
summarizes  all  the  variables.  Other  PCs 
can  be  obtained  that  summarize  the  left- 
over data. 

Suppose  that  all  our  genes  behaved  the 
same  way — that  is,  they  all  had  alleles  with 
a  high  frequency  in  Africa,  intermediate 
frequencies  in  Europe  and  Asia,  and  even 
lower  frequencies  in  Austraha.  Then  the 
first  PC  would  account  for  all  or  most  of  the 
information  in  the  data  set.  It  is  just  such  a 
pattem  that  the  eighty-two-gene  map  ap- 
pears to  show.  Tliis  is  misleading,  however, 
because  the  first  PC  accounts  for  only  about 
a  third  of  the  data,  and  the  other  two  thirds 
are  made  up  of  conflicting  trends.  Which,  if 
any  of  them,  do  we  beheve? 


84    Natural  History  6/94 


Unfortunately,  the  authors  tend  to 
search  through  the  various  PC  maps  until 
they  find  one  that  supports  the  argument 
they  are  trying  to  make  at  the  moment.  I 
rather  wish  that  they  had  played  around 
with  the  data  a  little  more  in  order  to  see 
how  robust  the  maps  are.  For  example, 
how  much  does  a  PC  map  change  if  one 
important  allele  like  the  Duffy  variant  is 
dropped  from  it?  The  authors  emphasize 
migration,  and  while  they  sometimes  sug- 
gest that  selection  for  or  against  particular 
alleles  and  combinations  of  alleles  in  dif- 
ferent regions  may  have  played  a  role  in 
shaping  these  maps,  my  guess  is  that  such 
selection  will  turn  out  to  be  at  least  as  im- 
portant as  migration. 

The  book  closes  with  a  plea  to  gather  ir- 
replaceable genetic  information  from  in- 
digenous peoples  before  they  are  killed, 
die  of  starvation  and  disease,  or  melt 
anonymously  into  the  favelas  of  Third 
World  cities.  At  times,  the  argument 
sounds  uncoinfortably  like  science-at-all- 
costs,  a  plea  for  "immortalizing"  the  white 
blood  cells  of  peoples  on  the  brink  of  ex- 
tinction as  the  peoples  themselves  fade 
away.  But  such  efforts  should  not,  I  think, 
be  supported  unless  they  form  a  part  (a 
small  part)  of  efforts  for  culmral  preserva- 
tion and  political  empowerment  of  the 
kind  espoused  by  the  Cambridge-based 
group  Cultural  Survival,  and  of  efforts  to 
shift  priorities  at  the  World  Bank  and 
among  the  Third  World  governments  di- 
rectly concerned. 

The  ABO  blood  groups  were  discov- 
ered in  the  year  1 900.  The  History  and  Ge- 
ography of  Human  Genes,  arriving  nearly 
a  hundred  years  later,  gathers  together 
much  of  the  information  that  has  since 
been  gleaned  about  human  diversity  and 
allows  us  to  see,  however  dimly,  a  small 
part  of  our  evolutionary  heritage.  The 
book  summarizes  this  exciting  story  well, 
but  the  really  exciting  discoveries  are  still 
in  the  future.  In  the  next  hundred  years  we 
will  find  the  genes  that  distinguish  us  from 
the  great  apes  and  perhaps  discover  how 
some  of  them  work.  And  we  will,  I  feel 
confident,  finally  be  able  to  determine 
which  one  of  the  many  conflicting  theories 
about  the  evolutionary  history  of  our 
unique  species  is  correct. 

Christopher  Wills  is  a  professor  of  biology 
at  the  University  of  California,  San  Diego. 
His  books  include  Exons,  Introns  and 
Talking  Genes:  The  Science  Behind  the 
Human  Genome  Project  and,  most  re- 
cently, The  Runaway  Brain:  The  Evolu- 
tion of  Human  Uniqueness. 


American  Museum  of  Natural  History 

HIMALAYAN  WILDLIFE 

ITJDIAANDMErAL 
November  3-21, 1994 


An  incredible  wealth  of  wildlife 
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Ranthambhore  Tiger  Reserve.  As 
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ancient  city  of  Pushkar  for  12 
days  of  religious  rituals,  camel 
trading  and  other  festivities. 
Come  discover  the  magic  of 
northern  India  and  Nepal. 


American 
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Discovery  Tours 

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Celestial  Events 


Making 
Time 

by  Gail  S.  Cleere 

By  1370,  King  Charles  V  of  France  had 
had  enough.  He  was  tired  of  hearing  the 
church  bells  of  Paris  ringing  at  irregular 
intervals.  He  ordered  a  uniform  time  for 
the  city,  making  the  clocks  synchronous 
with  the  master  clock  in  the  tower  of  the 
Palais  Royal.  Charles's  edict  estabhshed 
the  first  "time  service,"  comparable  to  the 
universal  system  we  have  today. 

Timekeeping  has  since  become  a  lot 
more  sophisticated,  but  uniformity  is  still 
the  goal.  On  June  30,  in  keeping  with  the 
decision  of  the  International  Earth  Rota- 
tion Service  in  Paris  (a  location  Charles 
would  consider  only  fitting),  a  "leap  sec- 
ond" will  be  officially  inserted  into  our 
clock  time  to  keep  it  precisely  matched  to 
solar  time,  or  the  rotation  of  the  earth. 
Only  a  year  after  the  last  adjustment,  Co- 
ordinated Universal  Time,  usually  shown 
as  UTC — and  formerly  known  as  Green- 
wich Mean  Time,  or  GMT — will  be  re- 
tarded by  one  second  between  the  last  sec- 
ond of  the  day,  and  the  first  second  of  the 
next. 

Why  do  we  do  this?  "Because  the  earth 
actually  rotates  irregularly  on  its  axis,"  ex- 
plains Bill  Klepczynski,  an  astronomer  at 
the  U.S.  Naval  Observatory's  Time  Ser- 
vice in  Washington,  D.C.,  where  the  na- 
tion's master  clock  is  housed.  "Our  clocks 
must  be  adjusted  to  stay  in  pace  with  the 
earth's  rotation  if  we  want  to  continue  to 
see  the  sun  in  the  daytime  hours,  and  the 
stars  at  night." 

The  mechanics  of  the  earth's  motion  on 
its  axis  are  still  not  completely  understood. 
Tidal  friction  and  the  "sloshing"  of  the 
earth's  fluid  core  seem  to  play  the  largest 
role  in  rotation,  but  atmospheric  condi- 


tions may  also  be  a  factor.  Even  El  Nino, 
which  pushes  warm  ocean  currents  up 
against  the  west  coast  of  South  America 
and  wreaks  havoc  with  the  world's 
weather,  can  affect  the  speed  of  the  earth's 
spin. 

Over  time,  such  fluctuations  add  up. 
Even  though  our  days  are  roughly  twenty- 
four  hours  long,  that  has  not  always  been 
the  case.  When  dinosaurs  roamed  the 
earth,  the  days  were  about  an  hour  and  a 
quarter  shorter  than  they  are  today.  Ever 
since  the  earth  coalesced  out  of  the  gases 
and  dust  of  the  primordial  cloud  and  began 
its  orbit  around  the  sun,  its  spin  has  been 
slowing  down. 

We  used  to  use  the  earth's  rotation  as 
the  standard  for  our  clock  time,  setting  the 
clocks  by  observing  the  regular  passage  of 
the  stars  overhead.  The  job  of  determining 
time  was  thus  up  to  the  astronomer,  which 
is  why  it  remains  the  bailiwick  of  the 
Naval  Observatory  today.  Precise  and  co- 
ordinated time  is  necessary  to  determine 
longitude  at  sea.  It  was  the  Naval  Obser- 
vatory's job  to  adjust  the  fleet's  chronome- 
ters before  placing  them  aboard  ships 
bound  for  the  high  seas. 

As  first  our  pendulum  and  then  our 
quartz  crystal  clocks  improved,  and  as  our 
methods  of  observing  distant  astronomical 
objects  became  more  precise,  the  discrep- 
ancies between  the  clocks  and  the  earth's 
rotation  became  more  and  more  apparent. 
Then,  in  the  late  1940s  the  first  atomic 
clocks  were  developed;  by  counting  the 
regular  oscillations  of  atoms,  they  allow 
time  to  be  measured  with  unprecedented 
accuracy.  Since  1967,  the  international 
second  of  time  has  been  defined  as 


86    Natural  History  6/94 


The  Landmark  Series  from  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History 

The  Illustrated  History  of  Humankind 


imnRsr 

HUMANS 

Human  Origins  and  History  lo  10,000  bc 


Documenting  the  epic  history  of  human  beings  and  the  development  of  global  society  over  four  million  years  with 
um-ivaled  range  and  excellence,  The  Illustrated  History  of  Humankind  T^myiAes  the  most  up-to-the-minute  information 
gathered  from  eminent  scholars  and  archaeologists  from  around  the  world.  Each  volume  in  this  ambitious  five-part  series  is 
lavishly  illustrated  with  more  than  three  hundred  full-color  photographs,  maps,  diagrams,  and  artists'  reconstructions. 


Much  needed,  up-to-date,  and  beautifully  illustrated Invaluable."— Richard  Leakey 


Volume  One,  The  First  Humans,  spans  human  history  to  10,000  B.C.  and  explores  our  earliest  origins,  the  great  apes,  the  origins 
of  language,  dating  the  past,  global  expansion,  extinct  species,  and  much  more.  Featured  in  this  volume  is  David  Hurst  Thomas, 
curator  of  anthropology  at  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History,  on  the  first  Americans.  Hardcover 


Uterally  spectacular  accomplishment." — Washington  Post  Book  World 


Volume  Two,  People  of  the  Stone  Age,  discusses  hunter-gatherers,  farmers,  the  human  impact  on  the  environment,  social  and 
gender  roles,  and  more.  Covering  10,000  B.C.  to  2000  B.C.,  Volume  Two  includes  Marija  Gimbutas,  the  author  of  The  Civilization 
of  the  Goddess,  on  goddess  worship.  Hardcover 


iransfixing  . .  .  outstanding  illustrations  and  clear  writing.  .  .  .  truly  magnificent" — Booklist 


Volume  Three,  Old  World  Civilizations,  vividly  illuminates  the  eadiest  urban  societies  (4000  B.C.  to  A.D.  1500)  around  the  world, 
chronicling  the  story  of  Mesopotamia  and  the  first  cities,  the  civilization  of  ancient  Egypt,  the  development  of  African  states,  the 
Iron  Age  in  Southern  Asia,  rising  dynasties  in  China,  the  age  of  classical  Greece,  and  the  rise  of  Rome.  Hardcover 


General  editor  Goran  Burenhult  is  associate  professor 
of  archaeology  at  the  University  of  Stockholm. 

U.S.  editor  David  Hurst  Thomas  is  curator  of 
anthropology  at  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History. 


To  order,  please  send  check  or  money  order  for  $41.00  per  volume 
(includes  shipping  and  handling — foreign  orders  extra)  to: 

Members  Choice  Collection/American  Mu.seum  of  Natural  History 
Central  Park  West  at  79th  Street,  New  York,  New  York  1 0024 

For  Mastercard/Visa  orders,  please  call  1-800-437-0033. 


Coming  in  Fall  1994: 

Volume  Four,  New  Worid  and  Pacific  Civilizations: 
Cultures  of  America,  Asia,  and  the  Pacific 

Volume  Five,  Traditional  Peoples  Today: 
Continuity  and  Change  in  the  Modern  World 


tdM 


HarperSanFrancisco 

A  Division  o/HarpcrCollinsPK^/is/jers 

Also  available  from  HarperCollinsCa»M<ijZ.£ii. 


9,192,631,771  oscillations  of  a  cesium 
atom,  and  the  rotation  of  the  earth  has 
ceased  to  be  the  standard  for  time. 

This  may  seem  a  bit  esoteric  if  all  you 
want  is  a  three-minute  egg,  but  June's  leap 
second  is  heady  news  in  the  world  of  com- 
munications and  navigation,  where 
nanosecond  accuracy  is  needed.  "In  elec- 
tronic navigation,  a  time  error  of  a  mil- 
honth  of  a  second  can  produce  a  position 
eiTor  of  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile.  Get  your 
celestial  timing  wrong  and  spacecraft  will 
sail  past  planets,  missiles  can  fall  in  the 
wrong  places,  and  jets  can  land  short  of 
the  runway,"  explains  Klepczynski.  "Leap 


seconds  are  the  earth's  way  of  keeping  us 
on  our  toes." 

The  Planets  in  June 

Mercury  is  visible  in  the  early 
evenings,  low  in  the  southwest  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  month,  before  slowly  fad- 
ing from  view.  The  planet  reaches  inferior 
conjunction  (between  the  earth  and  the 
sun)  on  the  25th. 

Venus  bedazzles  us  this  month,  shining 
in  the  western  evening  skies  at  a  brilliant 
-4  magnitude  (htore  than  seventeen  times 
brighter  than  Sirius,  the  brightest  star  in 
the  sky).  On  the  10th,  Venus  passes  the 


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first-magnitude  star  Pollux  in  Gemini,  and 
on  the  12th  passes  by  the  waxing  first- 
quarter  moon. 

Mars  rises  a  couple  of  hours  before  the 
sun  in  Aries  and  can  be  spotted  in  the 
southeast  just  before  sunrise.  On  the  6th, 
watch  as  the  old  crescent  moon  passes  just 
a  few  degrees  above  the  ruddy  planet. 
NASA  has  recently  announced  that  it  will 
continue  its  exploration  of  Mars  by 
launching  a  small  orbiter  in  1996  to  study 
the  surface  of  the  planet.  The  spacecraft 
will  carry  half  the  science  payload  that 
flew  on  the  Mars  Observer,  which  was  lost 
last  August. 

Jupiter  is  nicely  placed  in  Virgo.  It  is 
visible  as  a  very  bright,  silvery-white 
"star,"  well  up  toward  the  south  at  sunset, 
and  sets  after  midnight.  On  the  18th,  the 
giant  planet  can  be  found  just  north  of  the 
waxing  third-quarter  moon.  The  refur- 
bished Hubble  telescope's  new  images  of 
Comet  Shoemaker-Levy — due  to  crash 
into  Jupiter  next  months — show  that  the 
comet  is  continuing  to  break  up.  The 
largest  of  its  fragments  appears  to  measure 
2.5  miles  in  diameter. 

Saturn  rises  about  midnight  among  the 
faint  stars  of  Aquarius  and  is  well  placed 
in  the  southern  sky  for  observing  until 
dawn.  On  June  1,  and  again  on  the  28th, 
look  for  Saturn  well  below  the  moon — a 
pretty  sight  on  a  warm  summer  morning. 

Uranus  and  Neptune  are  the  two  blue 
green  worlds  that  can  be  seen  with  binoc- 
ulars and  the  help  of  a  detailed  sky  chart 
just  east  of  the  teapot-shaped  constellation 
Sagittarius,  rising  one  and  a  half  hours 
after  sunset. 

Pluto  is  not  far  from  Jupiter,  just  above 
the  star  that  marks  the  north  "claw"  of  the 
scorpion  (now  part  of  the  constellation 
Libra),  but  it  is  impossible  to  see  without  a 
large  telescope. 

The  Moon  reaches  last  quarter  on  the 
1st  at  12:02  a.m.,  EDT,  and  again  on  the 
30th  at  3:31  p.m.,  EDT.  The  moon  is  new 
on  the  9th  at  4:26  a.m.,  EDT,  and  reaches 
first  quarter  at  3:56  p.m.,  EDT,  on  16th. 

The  summer  solstice  occurs  at  10:48 
A.M.,  EDT,  on  the  21st,  marking  the  begin- 
ning of  summer  in  the  Northern  Hemi- 
sphere. The  sun  at  noon  reaches  its  highest 
point  in  the  sky  for  the  year  and  then  be- 
gins its  relentless  march  south.  Although 
the  earth  is  almost  at  its  farthest  distance 
from  the  sun,  it  is  tilted  so  that  the  North- 
em  Hemisphere  most  directiy  faces  the 
sun. 

Gail  S.  Cleere  lives  in  Washington,  D.C., 
and  writes  on  popular  astronomy. 


88    Natural  History  6/94 


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Coil  Ff>i-  Travel  Calalog 

800-642-2742 


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ARCTIC  •  RUSSIA  •  ANTARCTICA 
AUSTRALIA  •  PATAGONIA 


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untouched  nature,  abundant  wildlife,  dazzling  peaks, 
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1            COSTARICA            1 

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i 

'                                    1 

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GALAPAGOS 


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131 1-N  63rd  St.,  Emeryville  CA  94608 


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Free  color  catalog.  Himalayan  Travel.  (800)225- 
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Rates  and  Style  Information 

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order  to:  The  Market/NATURAL  HISTORY  Maga- 
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two  months  prior  to  cover  date. 


91 


TfflSLAND 


Chincoteague  Refuge,  Yirginia 


by  Robert  H.  Mohlenbrock 

Paralleling  the  Atlantic  Coast  from 
Long  Island  to  Horida,  a  string  of  barrier 
islands  shelters  the  mainland  from  the  rav- 
ages of  periodic  storms.  Composed  of 
sand  brought  up  by  wave  action  from  the 
gently  sloping  ocean  floor,  these  wind- 
swept islands  are  continuously  being  re- 
shaped. One  is  slender  Assateague  Island, 
which  stretches  thirty-five  miles  from 
southern  Maryland  to  Virginia.  The  main- 
land areas  it  protects  include  salt  marshes, 
freshwater  marshes,  bays,  ponds,  creeks, 
and  inlets.  These  coastal  wetlands,  as  well 
as  those  on  and  along  the  island  itself,  are 
important  to  wildhfe,  especially  the  migra- 


tory birds  that  pass  through  in  the  fall  and 
spring.  Along  with  a  bit  of  adjacent  Chin- 
coteague Island,  the  entire  Virginia  portion 
of  Assateague  Island  is  managed  by  the 
U.  S.  Fish  and  Wildlife  Service  as  the 
Chincoteague  National  Wildlife  Refuge. 

A  ridge  of  sand  up  to  forty-seven  feet 
high  edges  the  ocean  side  of  the  island. 
Built  up  by  the  wind  and  the  constant  ebb 
and  flow  of  the  tide,  the  ridge  is  too  un- 
stable to  support  the  growth  of  many  kinds 
of  plants.  The  principal  one  that  grows 
there  is  beach  grass,  able  to  anchor  itself 
by  much-branched,  deeply  penetrating 
rhizomes.  Even  the  beach  grass  is  often 


wiped  out  during  violent  storms,  and  the 
Fish  and  Wildlife  Service  replants  plugs  of 
grass  to  reestabhsh  some  cover  as  quickly 
as  possible. 

Just  behind  the  sand  ridge  he  a  variety 
of  wetlands  that  attract  shorebirds  and  wa- 
terbirds.  Gulls,  egrets,  herons,  ospreys, 
swans,  glossy  ibises — some  250  species  in 
all — can  be  observed  from  the  refuge's 
roads  and  trails. 

Some  of  the  wetlands  are  salt  marshes, 
shallow  places  where  there  is  an  inflow  of 
seawater.  The  plants  found  in  them  are 
adapted  for  survival  in  saltwater  and  are 
not  found  in  any  other  type  of  habitat.  One 


DoriM?  loops 

92    Natur,\l  History  6/94 


salt  marsh  that  is  easily  accessible  by  trail 
lies  near  the  southern  end  of  Assateague 
Island,  north  of  Toms  Cove. 

As  one  gazes  across  the  salt  marsh, 
from  very  shallow  to  deeper  water  to  the 
open  water  of  Toms  Cove,  one  is  im- 
pressed by  a  sea  of  grasses.  The  shortest 
grass,  less  than  one  foot  tall,  is  salt  grass, 
while  other  species  range  from  about  two 
feet  to  nearly  ten  feet  tall.  They  include 
Virginia  dropseed  and  several  species  of 
cordgrass.  The  grasses  form  a  continuous 
cover  because  their  aerial  stems  are  con- 
nected to  a  network  of  underground  rhi- 
zomes. All  are  able  to  take  up  saltwater 
and  exude  excess  salt.  If  you  were  to  rub 
your  finger  over  a  blade  of  salt  grass  and 
then  hck  your  finger,  you  would  get  a  very 
salty  taste. 

Scattered  throughout  the  salt  marsh  are 
various  wildflowers  that  have  also  devel- 
oped one  or  more  mechanisms  to  survive 
the  salty  conditions.  Some  have  succulent 
stems  that  store  water  for  use  when  fresh- 
water is  scarce.  Probably  the  most  un- 
usual-looking of  these  is  glasswort,  or 
pickleweed.  This  nearly  leafless  plant  has 
a  swollen,  jointed  stem  about  eight  inches 
tall.  Its  tiny  greenish  flowers,  formed  in 
conelike  structures  during  the  summer,  are 
inconspicuous,  but  in  the  autumn,  the  stem 
may  turn  bright  red.  A  similar-looking 
plant  with  showier,  pink  flowers  is  sea 
purslane.  A  third  species  with  a  succulent 
stem  is  sea  rocket,  a  member  of  the  mus- 
tard family,  whose  flowers  have  four 
white-to-lavender  petals. 

Other  plants  store  freshwater  in  their 


Cordgrass,  left,  grows  abundantly  in  a 
salt  marsh  along  Assateague  Island. 
Right:  Virginia  thistle 


Anne  Heimann 


A  wild  pony  roaming  amid  the  cordgrass 
is  a  descendant  of  domesticated  horses 
first  allowed  to  graze  on  Assateague 
Island  centuries  ago. 


fleshy,  succulent  leaves.  These  include 
seaside  goldenrod,  sea  oxeye  (a  species  of 
daisy),  and  narrow-leaved  aster  Despite 
their  thicker  leaves,  these  species  have 
flower  heads  that  look  very  much  like 
those  of  their  more  common  relatives. 

Some  plants  have  very  small  leaves  so 
that  httle  delicate  leaf  tissue  is  exposed  to 
the  caustic  action  of  saltwater  One  ex- 
ample is  sea  lavender,  a  small,  somewhat 
wiry  wildflower  with  equal  branching  and 
tiny  leaves.  Its  small  lavender  flowers 
have  paperlike  petals,  which  retain  their 
shape  and  color  for  many  weeks. 

At  the  edge  of  flie  salt  marsh  farthest 
from  open  water,  where  the  sand  is  dry  for 
most  of  the  year,  the  cover  consists  of 


Chincoteague  Refuge 

For  visitor  information  write: 

Refuge  Manager 

Chincoteague  National  Wildlife  Refuge 

Chincoteague,  Virginia  23336 

(804)336-6122 


colonies  of  red  fescue,  interspersed  with  a 
few  other  species,  such  as  sand  evening 
primrose  and  a  surface-hugging  sand 
spurge.  Red  fescue  is  the  grass  species  that 
has  given  rise  to  several  popular  strains  of 
lawn  grass,  but  the  original  variety  is  this 
sand-loving  plant  that  inhabits  the  edges  of 
salt  marshes.  If  the  sand  in  fliis  dry  zone 
gets  too  salty,  the  fescue  is  replaced  by 
better-adapted  grass  species,  wildflowers, 
and  such  shrubs  as  groundsel  tree  and  salt 
marsh  elder 

A  special  attraction  at  Chincoteague 
National  Wildlife  Refuge  are  the  wild 
ponies  that  may  be  ghmpsed  as  one  drives 
or  hikes  along.  About  1 30  of  these  ponies, 
owned  by  the  Chincoteague  Volunteer  Fire 


Company,  are  allowed  to  graze  by  permit 
on  the  refuge,  while  another  40  live  on  the 
Maryland  side  of  Assateague  Island.  They 
are  the  descendants  of  domesticated 
horses  that  were  aUowed  to  graze  on  the  is- 
land perhaps  three  hundred  years  ago. 
Slightly  smaller  tiian  a  typical  horse,  they 
have  exceptionally  fiirry  coats,  which  no 
doubt  help  them  survive  the  winter 
weather  and  hordes  of  summer  insects. 

Robert  H.  Mohlenbrock,  professor  emeri- 
tus of  plant  biology  at  Southern  Illinois 
University,  Carbondale,  explores  the  bio- 
logical and  geological  highlights  of  nat- 
ural areas,  especially  the  156  U.S.  na- 
tional forests. 


CHINCOTEAGUE 
NATIONAL 
WILDLIFE 
REFUGE 


0  3  Miles 


Joe  LeMonnier 


94    Natural  History  6/94 


.l« 


>lri 


k- 


r^y 


,    >■'.'■     -'        (•; 


He  s  Real. 
He's  Related. 

Meet  the  Eamily 


Visit  the  new  Lila  Acheson  Wallace  Wmg 
of  Mammals  and  Their  Extinct  Relatives. 

Enter  the  world  of  the  ^Museum's  seieiitists,  explorijiS'OHe  of 
the  most  faseiniitiiiK  stories  in  tlie  evolution  of  lifi;  -'a  story  of 


display  the  most  extensive  and  scientitieally  hnpoi-tant  ari'ay  of 

fossil  mammals  ever  assembled,  featiuiiig' more  real  sjieeimens 

than  can  lie  seen  an-\-\vheiv.else  in  the  world. 


ilM  .V-li.'wiii  Wi.lli /Aiiu-H.'iiii  .Mnsi'iiiii...r 

HiiMirXilliinil  Uisl.ii-y. 'riicrMv  ,,^^■.•^vYH 
.  .Miri:.n,.ii..l  Ini  II.  \Viill;,.-l.  l--..ii|i.l;.li.iii. 


American  Museum  of  Natural  Hi|t(Srf 

Central  Park  West  at  79th  Street,  New  York  City  -  For  information,  eall  212-769-6100 


At  THE  American  Museum  OF  Natural  History 


1 25TH- Anniversary  Cultural 
Festival 

The  American  Museum  of  Natural  His- 
tory will  commemorate  125  years  of  expe- 
dition, exploration,  and  discovery  on  Satur- 
day, June  4,  with  a  day-long  festival 
celebrating  cultural  diversity.  Among  the 
festival's  features  will  be  performances  of 
traditional  music  and  dance,  foods  of  the 
world,  and  demonstrations  and  workshops. 
Visitors  are  also  invited  to  bring  artifacts, 
bones,  fossils,  minerals,  and  other  natural 
objects  (no  gemstones,  please)  for  identifi- 
cation by  Museum  scientists.  General  ad- 
mission to  the  Museum,  as  well  as  to  the 
Naturemax  Theater  and  the  Hayden  Plane- 
tarium, will  be  waived.  For  further  schedule 
information,  call  (212)  769-5 1(X). 

Peruvian  Treasures 

The  exhibition  "Royal  Tombs  of  Sipan" 
will  feature  gold,  silver,  and  gilded  copper 
objects  of  the  Moche,  a  people  that  flour- 
ished from  a.d.  100  to  800  in  northern  Peru. 
The  tombs,  discovered  by  archeologists  in 
1987,  are  the  richest  ever  excavated  in  the 
New  World.  The  treasures  include  a  two- 
foot-high  gold-and-silver  scepter,  gold 
armor,  elaborate  headdresses,  and  a  selec- 
tion of  jewelry.  The  exhibition  will  open  in 
Gallery  3  on  Friday,  June  24,  and  run 
through  January  1995.  Admission  is  $5 
($2.50  for  children)  and  includes  an  audio 
tour  narrated  in  English  or  Spanish. 

Walter  Alva,  the  chief  archeologist  at 
Sipan  and  co-curator  of  the  exhibition,  will 
give  a  lecture  in  Spanish  (with  simultaneous 
translation  into  English)  on  Monday,  June 
20.  Co-curator  Christopher  B.  Donnan  will 
speak  on  Friday,  June  24.  Both  talks  will 
begin  at  7:00  p.m.  in  the  Kaufmann  Theater. 
The  lecture  series  costs  $25  and  includes  a 
special  preview  of  the  exhibition  on  June  20 
from  5:00  to  6:45  p.m.  Call  (212)  769-5310 
for  information. 

The  Earth  as  a 
Peppercorn 

The  "planet  walk"  through  the  solar  sys- 
tem will  take  place  on  the  Museum's 
grounds  on  Sunday,  June  12,  at  1:00  p.m.  A 
special  evening  tour  will  also  be  given  on 
Saturday,  June  25,  at  8:(X)  rm.  Developed  in 
1969  by  astronomer  Guy  OtteweU,  the  walk 
follows  a  thousand-yard-long  model  of  the 
solar  system.  Volunteer  guide  Robert  Cam- 
panile will  lead  the  tour,  which  is  free  and 
begins  on  the  Planetarium's  front  steps  on 
81st  Street.  Call  (212)  769-5566  for  infor- 
mation and  reservations. 


Update:  The  Universe 

Black  holes,  new  planets,  colliding  galax- 
ies, and  the  quest  for  extraterrestrial  life  will 
be  explored  in  die  Planetarium's  Sky  Show 
Update:  The  Universe.  Opening  Thursday, 
June  16,  the  show  incorporates  many  of  the 
discoveries  made  by  the  Compton  Gamma 
Ray  Observatory,  the  European  ROSAT, 
and  the  recently  overhauled  Hubble  Space 
Telescope.  Call  (212)  769-5100  for  show 
times,  prices,  and  other  information  about 
Planetarium  events. 

The  Natural  History  of  Love 

Poet  and  nature  writer  Diane  Ackerman 
will  discuss  her  latest  book,  The  Natural 
History  of  Love,  on  Thursday,  June  9,  at 
7:00  P.M.  This  nonfiction  narrative  draws  on 
history,  science,  psychology,  and  social  cus- 
toms. The  program  will  take  place  in  the 
Kaufmann  Theater.  Tickets  are  $20.  For  in- 
formation, call  (212)  769-5310. 

The  Quark  and  the  Jaguar 

Murray  Gell-Mann  is  a  theoretical  physi- 
cist and  winner  of  the  1969  Nobel  Prize  for 
his  discovery  of  quarks.  Now  at  the  Santa  Fe 
Institute,  he  works  on  a  range  of  theoretical 
issues  with  other  scholars  and  scientists. 
Among  the  topics  he  will  speak  about  on 
Thursday,  June  16,  at  7:00  p.m.,  are  the  con- 
nections between  elementary  particle 
physics  and  the  process  of  natural  selection. 
Tickets  are  $20.  Call  (212)  769-5310  for 
more  information. 

The  Wonders  of  Metropolitan 
New  York 

The  history  of  New  York's  water  supply 
system  and  the  area's  billion-year-old  geol- 
ogy will  be  the  subjects  of  two  talks  by  Sid- 
ney S.  Horenstein,  geologist  and  coordina- 
tor of  environmental  public  programs  at  the 
Museum.  The  Thursday-evening  lectures 
will  be  given  on  June  9  and  16  at  7:00  p.m.  in 
the  Kaufmann  Theater.  Tickets  are  $25. 

Horenstein  will  also  be  conducting  two  3- 
hour  sunset  cruises.  The  first,  on  Tuesday, 
June  7,  will  survey  the  geological  features 
of  the  Hudson  River,  the  southernmost  fiord 
in  the  Northern  Hemisphere.  The  ecology 
and  origins  of  the  river  and  the  Palisades  are 
among  the  topics  covered  on  the  trip.  The 
second  boat  tour,  on  Tuesday,  June  14,  will 
examine  some  of  New  York's  siuroimding 
waterways,  including  Newtown  Creek,  But- 
termilk Channel,  and  Gowanus  Bay.  The 
cruises  will  run  from  6:00  to  9:00  p.m.  Tick- 
ets for  each  are  $25  ($22  for  members).  Call 
(212)  769-5310  for  information. 


Calling  All  Hippos 

The  social  organization  and  underwater 
behavior  of  hippos  will  be  the  subject  of  a 
talk  by  William  Barklow,  a  professor  of  bi- 
ology at  Framingham  State  College  in 
Massachusetts.  Barklow's  1989  fieldwork  in 
Tanzania  documented  the  vocal  repertoire 
of  hippos,  including  underwater  signals 
similar  to  those  of  dolphins  eind  whales.  The 
sUde-illustrated  lecture  will  be  presented  on 
Thursday,  June  30,  at  7:00  p.m.  in  tiie  Kauf- 
mann Theater.  For  ticket  availability  and  in- 
formation, caU  (212)  769-5606. 

Field  Trip  to  Sterling  Hill  Mine 

Joseph  J.  Peters,  a  senior  scientific  assis- 
tant in  the  Museum's  Department  of  Min- 
eral Sciences,  will  lead  a  tour  of  the  last  op- 
erating zinc  mine  in  New  Jersey  on 
Saturday,  June  11,  from  9:30  a.m.  to  5:(X) 
p.m..  The  group  wiU  visit  underground  tun- 
nels and  view  mineral  displays  in  a  natural 
envirormient.  The  trip  is  Umited  to  thirty-six 
adults  and  costs  $50.  Call  (212)  769-5310 
for  reservatons  and  information. 

Storytelling 

Folk  tales,  myths,  and  personal  stories 
will  be  told  by  master  storytellers  Gioia 
Timpanelli  and  Diane  Wolkstein  on 
Wednesday,  June  8,  at  7:00  pm.  in  tiie  Kauf- 
mann Theater.  Gioia  Timpanelli  won  the 
Women's  National  Book  Association  Award 
for  her  work  on  oral  traditions  and  has  just 
compiled  a  book  based  on  Sicilian  folk 
tales.  Diane  Wolkstein  is  the  author  of  sev- 
enteen books  and  teaches  storytelUng  at 
Bank  Street  CoUege.  Call  (212)  769-5606 
for  ticket  availability. 

Origami  Theater 

Using  minimal  props — her  hands  and 
sheets  of  paper — Marieke  de  Hoop,  an 
origami  expert  from  Holland,  will  tell  a 
story  about  the  figures  she  creates  as  she 
transforms  the  paper  into  a  swan,  a  fox,  a 
peacock,  or  a  star.  This  presentation,  which 
she  calls  Orikadabra,  will  take  place  in  the 
Under  Theater  on  Wednesday,  June  15,  at 
3:30  RM.  Call  (212)  769-5606  for  ticket 
availability. 

These  events  take  place  at  the  American 
Museum  of  Naniral  History,  Central  Park 
West  at  79th  Street  in  New  York  City.  The 
Kaufmann  and  Under  Theaters  are  located 
in  the  Charles  A.  Dana  Education  Wing. 
The  Museum  has  a  pay-what-you-wish  ad- 
mission poUcy.  For  more  information  about 
the  Museum,  caU  (212)  769-5100. 


96    Natural  History  6/94 


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2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

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12 

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4      SATURDAY 

125th-Anniversary  Cultural 
Festivif^'A  Gift  to  the  Public 

SPECIAL  EVENT.  A 

Commemdrating  125  years  of 
expedition,  exploration,  and 
discovery,  the  Museum  opens 
its  doofi  to  the  public  with  a 
day-iolfig  festival  celebrating 
cultural  diversity.  10:00  a.m.  to 
9:15  p.m.  Admission  waived. 

Wonderful  Sky  O 
SKY  SHOW  FOR  CHILDREN, 
Hayden  Planetarium,  10:30  & 
'  11:45  a.m.  Admission  waived. 


iision 


6      MON^J^    . 

"The  Supiter-Comef  Coll 

of199#«  ^ 

LECTUfCfi,  Hayden  Planetarium, 
7:30  p  m.,  $6.00  members, 
$8.00  nonmembers 

8      WEDNESDAYji 

';Favorite  Stories  FolkC 
for  Grown-Ups"  ■ 
STORY-TELLING,  7:00  | 
Kaufmanr^heater,  $£ 
rtiembers,  &.00  nonSlfXlbers 


THURSDAY 

"The  Natural  History  of  Love: 
An  Evening  with  Author 
Diane  Ackerman"  + 
LECTURE,  7:00  p.m..  Main 
Auditorium,  $20.00 


calendar 


i 


16      THURSDAY 

Update:  The  Universe  • 

SKY  SHOW,  Hayden 
Planetarium,  shown  daily, 
$5.00  adults,  $2.50  children. 
Public  Opening 

"The  Quark  and  the  Jaguar: 
An  Exploration  of  Physics  and 
Natural  Selection"  + 
LECTURE,  7:00  p.m..  Main 
Auditorium,  $20.00 

20      MONDAY 

"R<3yal Tombs  of  Sipan:  The 
Discovery  and  the  Mystery"  + 
LECTURE,  (a  two-part  lecture 
series  with  the  discoverers  of 
the  royal  tombs  in  Peru),  7:00 
p.m.,  Main  Auditorium,  $25.00 
for  the  series,  $15.00  for  single 
lecture.  Program  continues  on 
Friday,  June  24. 

24      FRIDAY 

Royal  Tombs  of  Sipan 

SPECIAL  EXHIBITION. 
A  glittering  array  of  gold  and 
silver  objects  from  the  richest 
tombs  ever  excavated  in  the 
Western  Hemisphere.  The 
exhibition  explores  the  culture 
of  the  Moche,  a  pre-lnka  civi- 
lization that  dominated  Peru 
from  A.D.  100  to  800.  Special 
admission:  $5.00  adults,  $2.50 
children.  Public  Opening 

Peruvian  Highland  Music  and 
Dance  + 

PERFORMANCE,  Kaufmann 
Theater,  2:00  &  4:00  p.m. 
Repeated  Sunday,  June  26. 

28      TUESDAY 

Peruvian  Marriage 
Reenactment  + 
PERFORMANCE,  Kaufmann 
Theater,  2:00  &  4:00  p.m. 


THROUGHOUT  JIUNE 

125th-Annlversary 
Celebration  of  the  American 
Museum  of  Natural  History 

The  American  Museum  of     "^ 
Natural  History  celebrates  1254 
years  as  one  of  the  world's     ^ 
preeminent  science  and 
research  institutions. 

Lila  Acheson  Wallace  Wing  of 
Fossil  Mammals  and  Their 
Extinct  Relatives 

NEW  PERMANENT  EXHIBITION 
HALLS  displaying  the  world's 
most  extensive  collection 
of  fossil  HFiammals.  Now  open. 

Search  for  the  Great  Sharks  A 
IMAX  FILM;  a  round-the-globe 
expedition  to  observe  one  of 
the  world's  most  misunder- 
stood creatures,  daily  show- 
ings, Naturemax  Theater, 
$5.00  adults,  $2.50  children 

Man  on  the  Moon: 
The  Apollo  Adventure 

SPECIAL  EXHIBITION,  a  giant 
scale  replica  of  the  Apollo  1 1 
lunar  module  is  erected  mark- 
ing the  25th  anniversary  of 
the  first  moon  landing. 
Hayden  Planetarium. 


Photo:  A  miniature  gold  and 
turquoise  ornament  from  the 
exhibition  Royal  Tombs  of 
Sipan. 


I 


IjW         ■  Membership,  769-5606   A  Naturemax  Theater,  769-5650  +  Education,  769-5310  •  Hayden  Planetarium,  769-5900 

American  Musemn  of  Natural  Histoiy 

Central  Park  West  at  79th  Street,  New  York  City  -  For  information,  call  212-769-5100 


The  Natural  Moment 


^e^ift-h 


Terror  in 
the  Tide 


Southern  elephant  seals  and  sea  lions 
colonize  the  beaches  on  Valdes  Peninsula 
in  Patagonia,  Argentina,  where  they 
produce  hundreds  of  pups  each  year.  In 
April,  during  the  austral  autumn,  many 
young  sea  lions  leave  their  mothers  to 
take  their  first  ocean  swim — a  venture 
that  is  fraught  with  danger.  Immature  sea 
hons  face  not  only  the  mundane  hazards 
of  tides  and  rocks,  but  also  predacious 
killer  whales  attracted  to  the  vicinity  each 
year  at  weaning  time. 

In  their  pursuit  of  sea  Hon  pups,  whales 
make  spectacular  lunges  that  sometimes 
leave  them  temporarily  stranded  in  the 
shallows.  Although  they  occasionally 
take  young  elephant  seals,  the  whales 
prefer  the  sea  lions.  The  powerful 
cetaceans  typically  toss  the  pups  in  the  air 
and  may  kill  and  eat  them  right  away. 
Frequendy,  however,  they  throw  the 
dazed  little  sea  lions  around  before  eating 
them,  just  as  cats  toy  with  mice.  Marine 
mammal  speciaUst  John  K.  B.  Ford,  who 
studies  whale  vocahzations,  snapped  this 
picture  just  as  a  female  killer  whale 
snatched  a  pup  from  the  beach. 

This  female  is  well  known  to 
researchers,  who  have  been  observing  the 
area's  whales  for  more  than  fifteen  years. 
She  constantly  travels  with  four  younger 
whales,  presumably  her  offspring,  and 
does  all  of  the  hunting.  After  capturing  a 
sea  Uon  pup,  she  usually  tums  it  over  to 
her  brood.  In  this  instance,  the  young 
whales  played  with  their  captive  for 
several  minutes,  then  kiUed  it  and  shared 
the  meat.—/?.  M. 


Photograph  by  John  K.  B.  Ford 


99 


Expiore  Himalayan  cultures  arid  nature  on  70  year  round 
hiking  &  non-hil<ing  trips.  Professionai  service.  Smali  groups. 

-2,-    JOGRNEYS 
Ltetoj.     1-800-255-8735 

401 1  Jackson  Rd,  Dept.NH  ,  Ann  Arbor,  Ml  481 03 
Himalayan  Nature  &  Culture  Explorations  since  1978. 


r 


Indonesia 


^ 


Cultural  tour  to  the  Spice  Islands,  visit 
stone  age  people  in  west  New  Guinea, 
see  the  Komodo  Dragons  and  cosmic 
Torajaland,  immerse  yourself  in  exotic 
Bali,  visit  ancient  Buddhist  and  Hindu 
monuments  in  Java,  and  Orang  Utans 
in  central  Borneo.  Small  group,  led  by 
expert  director 


h. 


TILLER  INTERNATIONAL  TOURS 

209  Post  Street,  Suite  1015 

San  Francisco,  CA  94108 

415  397-1966    Fax  415  397-1967 


d 


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.A 


TTH( 


Anthony  Mellersh  (page  10)  first  be- 
came interested  in  life's  earliest  chemical 
evolution  as  a  student  at  the  University  of 
Sheffield,  where  he  earned  his  medical 
degree  in  1979  and  lectured  from  1981  to 
1986.  A  member  of  the  Royal  College  of 
Pathologists,  Mellersh  is  currently  a  con- 
sultant microbiologist  at  Derby  City  Gen- 


■■■■■■■■KSoini^BlliillBiaMiMa 

As  a  college  student,  Andrew  Knoll 

(page  14)  couldn't  decide  whether  to  con- 
centrate on  geology  or  biology.  Upon 
reading  Lynn  Margulis's  early  works  on 
the  evolution  of  eukaryotic  cells,  he  real- 
ized that  he  didn't  have  to  choose:  by 
studying  the  early  earth,  he  could  learn 
how  our  planet  and  its  biota  evolved  to- 
gether. His  fieldwork,  in  search  of  ancient 
rocks  and  the  signs  of  early  life  they  may 
contain,  has  taken  him  to  Spitsbergen, 
Siberia,  and  other  parts  of  the  Arctic,  as 
well  as  to  China,  Australia,  and  southern 


Africa.  Back  in  the  United  States,  where 
Knoll  is  chairman  of  Harvard's  Depart- 
ment of  Organismic  and  Evolutionary  Bi- 
ology, he  continues  his  investigations  in 
the  laboratory,  hi  the  future,  he  hopes  to 
go  back  to  Siberia  to  learn  more  about 
what  went  on  during  a  major  interval  of 
biospheric  change  about  one  billion  years 
ago.  For  a  popular  account  of  the  inter- 
twined histories  of  the  earth  and  its  life 
forms,  Knoll  suggests 
E.  G.  Nisbet's  Living  Earth  (New  York: 
HarperCollins,  1991). 


A  native  New  Yorker  who  grew  up  on 
the  pavements  of  lower  Manhattan,  Karl 
J.  Niklas  (page  22)  says  his  juvenile  ex- 
perience with  plants  went  no  further  than 
the  salads  and  vegetables  on  his  dinner 
plate.  Later,  as  a  math  major  at  the  City 
College  of  New  York,  NikJas  took  a 
botany  class  from  Larry  Crockett,  whose 
lectures  made  him  aware  of  the  "intrinsic 
geometrical  beauty  of  plant  shapes."  In- 
spired to  enter  a  new  field,  he  went  on  to 


Gregory  Hurst  (below)  earned  a  Ph.D. 
in  1993  from  Cambridge  University, 
where  he  is  now  a  junior  research  fellow 
at  Christ's  College,  which  Darwin  at- 
tended. Hurst 
(page  32)  says 
that  although 
he  has  long 
been  fasci- 
nated by  in- 
sects and  "pe- 
culiar" 
genetics,  he 
was  first  intro- 


get  higher  de- 
grees in 
botany  at  the 
University  of 
Illinois,  Ur- 
bana.  Now  a 
professor  of 
botany  at  Cor- 
nell Univer- 
sity, Niklas 
still  looks  at 


duced  to  the  odd  sex  ratios  of  ladybird 
beetles,  and  the  shenanigans  of  the  bacte- 
ria that  reside  in  them,  by  coauthor 
Michael  Majerus  (a.  k.  a.  "the  boss"). 
The  two-spotted  ladybug  continues  to 
provide  windows  into  the  evolutionary 
genetics  of  parasites;  Hurst  and  Majerus 
are  currently  investigating  sexually  trans- 
mitted disease  in  that  species.  Majerus,  a 
university  lecturer  and  fellow  at  Clare 
College,  Cambridge,  dates  his  interest  in 
insects  back  to  when  he  was  four  years 
old.  He  has  been  doing  fieldwork  ever 
since.  His  new  book,  Ladybirds,  will  be 


100    Natural  History  6/94 


eral  Hospital  in  Derby,  England,  and  a 
clinical  lecturer  at  Nottingiiam  Univer- 
sity. Among  his  avocational  interests  are 
the  history  of  India  and  fly-fishing.  For 
more  on  the  origin  of  proteins,  see 
Mellersh's  article  in  the  journal  Origins  of 
Life  and  Evolution  of  the  Biosphere,  vol. 
23  (1993). 


plants  from  a  biomechanical  perspective. 
For  the  last  twenty  years  his  abiding  in- 
terest, applying  engineering  principles  to 
plant  form  and  function,  has  resulted  in 
two  books  and  more  than  150  research 
papers.  "When  you  look  at  a  plant  shape, 
you  are  compelled  to  think  mathemati- 
cally," he  says.  An  avid  cellist,  operagoer, 
and  gardener,  Niklas  considers  teaching 
an  avocation  because  it  gives  him  such 
great  pleasure. 


published  in  July  by  HarperCollins.  In  the 
future,  Majerus  plans  to  do  "more  of  the 
same"  and  to  study  "anything  else  that  I 
cannot  understand  that  I  think  1  should  be 
able  to." 


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season  for  a  very  special  safari  to 
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After  completing  a  Ph.D.  in  insect  re- 
productive strategies,  Jack  Werren  (page 
36)  served  for  four  years  in  the  Army, 
where  tiis  job  involved  testing  water  for 
contaminating  bacteria.  The  task  gave 
him  a  real  appreciation  for  what  bacteria 
can  do  to  their  hosts,  and  he  returned  to 
academia  with  a  new  focus  for  his  re- 
search. Currently  an  associate  professor 
of  biology  at  the  University  of  Rochester, 


Werren  hopes  to 
continue  investi- 
gating genetic 
parasites  and  to 
learn  more  about 
the  distribution 
of  Wolbachia 
bacteria  and  their 
effects  on  the  in- 
sects they  inhabit.  For  a  discussion  of 


John  May- 
nard  Smith 

(page  39)  began 
studying  bacter- 
ial evolution 
fairly  recendy, 
when  a  colleague 
researching  an- 
tibiotic resistance 
started  asking 
him  questions  about  evolution.  He  is  prin- 
cipally concerned  with  the  role  of  sexual 
processes  in  bacteria.  Professor  emeritus 
of  biology  at  the  University  of  Sussex, 


England,  he  is  also  currenfly  investigating 
the  evolution  of  animal  signals  used  in 
mate  choice  and  in  conflicts.  Maynard 
Smith  has  explored  the  causes  of  aging 
and  the  origins  of  sexual  reproduction  and 
has  influenced  many  fields,  including 
population  genetics  and  ecological  theory. 
He  was  the  first  to  discuss  the  contrast  be- 
tween kin  and  group  selection.  Among 
his  books  are  The  Problems  of  Biology 
(Oxford:  Oxford  University  Press,  1986) 
and  Did  Darwin  Get  It  Right:  Essays  on 
Games,  Sex  and  Evolution  (New  York: 
Chapman  and  Hall,  1989). 


As  a  boy,  Paul  W.  Ewald  (page  42) 
did  his  first  "fieldwork"  in  the  many  va- 
cant lots  of  the  not  yet  completed 
Chicago  suburbs.  Collecting  and  identify- 
ing insects,  he  took  most  delight  in  seeing 
beautiful  satumiid  moths  attracting  their 
mates  at  dawn  in  early  summer.  Toward 
the  end  of  college  at  the  University  of 
California,  Irvine,  and  in  graduate  school 
at  the  University  of  Washington,  he  stud- 
ied territoriahty  in  hummingbirds,  a  sub- 
ject he  eventually  wrote  on  for  Natural 
History  (August  1979).  Ewald  began 
thinking  about  the  evolution  of  pathogens 


in  1975,  when  a  bad  case  of  diarrhea 
started  him  wondering  whether  his  body 
was  trying  to  flush  out  the  offending  mi- 
croorganisms or  whether  they  were  try- 
ing to  assure  their  own  survival  by  mak- 
ing themselves  more  transmissible. 
Nowadays,  when  chairing  Amherst  Col- 
lege's biology  department  is  not  claiming 
his  time,  Ewald  tries  his  hand  at  maple 
sugaring  and  attempts  to  keep  his  house, 
built  in  1760,  "from  faUing  apart."  His 
book,  The  Evolution  of  Infectious  Dis- 
ease, was  pubUshed  by  Oxford  Univer- 
sity Press  this  year. 


Swiss  biologist  Daniel  Robert  (page 
49)  began  investigating  hearing  in  ta- 
chinid  flies  when  he  became  a  research 
associate  in  coauthor  Ronald  R.  Hoy's 
laboratory  at  Cornell  University.  "While 
observing  some  of  these  parasitic  flies  at 
night  in  Florida,"  he  recalls,  "I  felt  my 
own  connection 
with  the  pattern 
of  nature — the 
mosquitoes  were 
eating  me  alive." 
Robert  (right) 
has  previously 
done  research  on 
hearing  in  moths 
and  locusts  and 


on  acoustic  com- 
munication in 
wild  chim- 
panzees of  the 
Ivory  Coast. 
Hoy,  a  professor 
of  neurobiology 
and  behavior,  has 
studied  hearing  and  acoustic  communica- 
tion in  species  of  Drosophila  and  praying 
mantises,  as  weU  as  in  crickets.  For  addi- 
tional reading  they  recommend  "Of 
Cricket  Song  and  Sex,"  by  William  H. 
Cade  (Natural  History,  January  1978), 
and  "Sex  for  a  Song  (Dinner  Included)," 
by  Scott  C.  Sakaluk  {Natural  History, 
January  1991). 


102    Natural  History  6/94 


how  natural  selection  acts  on  genes  in  an 
organism,  he  suggests  Richard  Dawkins's 
The  Selfish  Gene  (Oxford:  Oxford  Uni- 
versity Press,  1989).  Werren  also  recom- 
mends R.  R.  Askew's  book  Parasitic  In- 
sects (London:  Heinemann  Educational 
Books,  1973),  which  provides  fascinating 
life  histories  of  the  many  species  that,  like 
the  jewel  wasp,  live  at  the  expense  of 
their  hosts. 


Jeremy  Jackson  (page  56)  is  director 
of  the  Smithsonian  Institution's  Center  for 
Tropical  Paleoecology  and  Archeology  at 
Balboa,  Panama.  Ever  since  earning  his 
doctorate  in  geology  at  Yale  University  in 
1971,  Jackson  has  been  studying  bry- 
ozoans,  mollusks,  and  corals  in  the  waters 
off  Jamaica,  Panama,  Costa  Rica, 
Venezuela,  Guam,  and  Truk.  Before  join- 
ing the  Smithsonian  in  1984  as  a  senior 
scientist,  he  also  served  as  professor  of 
ecology  at  Johns 
Hopkins  Univer- 
sity. An  expert  on 
living  as  well  as 
fossil  inverte- 
brates, Jackson 
has  documented 
the  effects  of  oil 
spills  and  other  "anthropogenic"  damage 
to  the  oceans.  This  month's  article  had  its 
genesis  when  Jackson  read  coauthor  Alan 
Cheetham's  manuscript  about  punctu- 
ated equilibrium  of  bryozoans.  "I  won- 
dered to  him  out  loud  whether  or  not  the 
'species'  he  created  by  his  statistical 
hocus-pocus  had  any  biological  validity," 
Jackson  recalled,  "so  we  wrote  a  grant 
proposal  together  to  put  his  career  on  the 
line."  Cheetham  (below),  whose  doctorate 
from  Columbia  University  (1959)  is  in 
paleontology,  is  currently  a  senior  re- 
search geologist  at  the  National  Museum 
of  Natural  History  in  Washington,  D.C. 
During  forty  years  of  work  on  the  system- 
atics  of  bryozoans  in  the  United  States, 
Scandinavia,  England,  and  France,  he  has 
sought  methods  of  inferring  patterns  of 
evolution  from  the  fossil  record. 
Cheetham's  hobby  is  woodland  gardening 
near  a  small  tributary  of  the  Potomac, 
where  he  grows 
such  native 
plants  as  "May 
apple  and  yellow 
violets,  which, 
like  bryozoans, 
grow  in  modular 
aggregates." 


American  Museum  of  Natural  History  mm^mmm 


Train  Journeys 


BEIJING  TO  MOSCOW 
September  15-30, 1994 

The  legendary  Trans-Siberian  is  one  of 
the  greatest  railways  in  the  world.  Join  a 
team  of  American  Museum  lecturers  this 
September  for  a  5,300-mile  journey  from 
Beijing  to  Moscow.  Tracing  the  ancient 
route  of  the  tea  caravans,  we  will  travel 
through  the  vast  Gobi,  the  Mongolian 
steppe,  the  expansive  Siberian  taiga  and 
along  magnificent  Lake  Baikal.  We  will 
also  explore  numerous  Siberian  cities, 
frontier  towns  and  traditional  Mongolian 
ger  camps,  as  well  as  the  great  cities  of 
Beijing  and  Moscow. 

BEIJING  TO  HANOI 

with  an  optional  extension  to  Angkor  Wat 

October  25  -  November  12, 1994 

Since  the  time  of  Marco  Polo,  the  cultural  riches  and  natural  wonders  of 
China  have  intrigued  visitors.  Lesser  known  are  the  riches  of  neighboring 
Vietnam.  This  October,  enjoy  the  spectacular  landscapes  of  rural  China  and 
Vietnam  and  a  rare  look  at  other  cultures  as  we  travel  from  Beijing  to  Hanoi 
with  a  team  of  Museum  experts.  Among  the  highlights  of  our  journey  are 
the  terracotta  soldiers  of  Xi'an,  the  Stone  Forest  of  Kunming,  the  lovely  Li 
River  and  the  Red  River  Valley  of  Vietnam. 


^^Yaroslavl  RUSSIA 

Moscow       


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History 

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103 


Armed  with 
only  a  net,  John 
Jaenike  (page 
46)  is  ready  to 
catch  some  fruit 
flies.  Unlike  the 
famous  lab  insect 
Drosophila 
melanogaster, 
Jaenike's  quarry 
are  wild  and  seek 
out  mushrooms  on  which  to  lay  their 
eggs.  He  first  began  studying  these  mush- 
room-loving flies  while  conducting  field- 
work  on  a  small  island  off  the  coast  of 
Maine  (his  favorite  place  to  work). 
Jaenike  earned  his  B.A.  in  biology  at 
Amherst  College  in  1971  and  his  Ph.D.  in 
biology  at  Princeton  University  in  1975. 
He  is  currently  a  professor  of  biology  at 
the  University  of  Rochester  Jaenike  en- 
joys a  host  of  outdoor  acdvities  such  as 
hiking  and  windsurfing,  but  his  favorite 
pastime  is  playing  with  his  sons,  Peter 
and  David. 


"I  first  became  interested  in  snapping 
shrimps  as  a  beginning  graduate  student 
at  the  University  of  California  at  Berke- 
ley, when  I  went  to  look  for  octopuses  in 
Baja  California,"  recalls  Nancy  Knowl- 
ton  (page  66).  "I  found  hundreds  of 
shrimps  and  almost  no  octopuses,  leading 
me  to  believe  that  the  former  might  make 
a  more  practical  subject  for  my  doctoral 
dissertation."  Now  a  staff  scientist  at  the 
Smithsonian  Tropical  Research  Institute 
in  Panama,  Knowlton  continues  to  study 
shrimps,  as  well  as  corals.  In  the  future, 
she  plans  to  investigate  diversity  in  corals 
and  their  symbiotic  algae.  She  says  that 
for  twenty  years,  she  found  herself  work- 
ing on  projects 
that  incidentally 
turned  up  previ- 
ously unrecog- 
nized species, 
and  she  has  now 
turned  to  the 
problem  of  ma- 
rine biodiversity 
full  time:  "I  think  that  when  nature  tries 
so  insistently  to  tell  you  something,  you 
should  listen.  Hence  my  current  interest 
in  marine  biodiversity  and  systematics 
generally."  For  further  reading  on  the  bio- 
logical history  of  the  Isthmus  of  Panama, 
Knowiton  recommends  G.  J.  Vermeij's 
article  "The  Biological  History  of  a  Sea- 
way," Science,  vol.  260  (1993). 


The  strange  case  of  the  Jersey  dwarfs 
caught  the  attention  of  Adrian  M.  Lister 
(page  60)  in  the  early  1980s,  while  he 
was  a  doctoral  candidate  at  Cambridge 
University  in  England,  studying  the  evo- 
lution of  Pleistocene  deer  Now  a  research 
fellow  in  the  Department  of  Biology  at 
University  College  London,  Lister  contin- 
ues to  study  Pleistocene  mammals,  espe- 
cially deer  and  mammoths.  His  fieldwork 
has  included  the  excavation  of  four  mam- 
moth skeletons  in  Shropshire,  England, 
and  he  has  been  a  visiting  scientist  at  the 
Hot  Springs  Mammoth  Site  in  South 
Dakota.  Lister's  interest  in  mammals  ex- 
tends beyond  fossils  to  living  animals, 
particularly  to  the  preservation  of  the 
Asian  elephant.  He  recently  toured  re- 
serves in  Nepal  and  India  for  a  look  at  the 


Michael  Lee  (page  63)  was  bom  in 

Malaysia  and  grew  up  in  Australia.  Lee 
says  that  he,  like  many  children,  acquired 
an  interest  in  dinosaurs  and  natural  his- 
tory at  a  young  age,  but  unlike  most  he 
never  grew  out  of  it.  He  earned  his  B.S. 
in  zoology  at  the  University  of  Queens- 
land and  is  now  finishing  his  Ph.D.  at 
Cambridge  University.  His  current  inter- 
est is  the  study  of  primitive  reptiles  (those 
living  before  the  age  of  dinosaurs)  and 
pareiasaurs  in  particular.  Lee's  fieldwork 


problems  of  elephant  conservation  in 
those  countries.  For  more  information  on 
Pleistocene  fauna,  including  the  discov- 
ery of  frozen  mammoths,  readers  can 
refer  to  Antony  J.  Sutcliffe's  book  On  the 
Track  of  Ice  Age  Mammals  (Cambridge: 
Harvard  University  Press,  1985)  and  for 

I,   ^^      .,^     more  on  the  phe- 
m/^^^I^    nomenon  of 
^^^^H^P    dwarfing  in  is- 
i~    ^  wF  '^    land  mammals, 
Xv  ^9^ —    readers  can  con- 
sult Paul  Y.  Son- 
daar's  article 
"The  Island 
Sweepstakes,"  in 
Natural  History 
(September 
1986). 


(which  includes  "excavating"  specimens 
from  museum  drawers)  has  taken  him  to 
Russia,  South  Africa,  and  Australia.  He 
plans  to  return  to  Australia,  where  he  will 
be  at  the  University  of  Sydney  working 
on  the  evolution  of  monitor  lizards — the 
only  large  terrestrial  reptilian  carnivores 
alive  today.  For  more  details  on  similari- 
ties between  pareiasaurs  and  turtles,  see 
Lee's  article  "The  Origin  of  the  Turtle 
Body  Plan:  Bridging  a  Famous  Morpho- 
logic Gap"  in  Science,  vol.  261  (1993). 


Steve  Jones  (page  72)  is  a  professor  in 
the  Department  of  Genetics  at  University 
College  London.  These  days,  he  writes, 
his  hobby  is  doing  research;  his  present 
vocation,  being 
chairman  of  the 
department.  He 
does  manage, 
however,  to  con- 
tinue his  investi- 
gations into  the 
ecological  genet- 
ics of  snails  and 


slugs  and  the  molecular  mechanisms  of 
human  mutations.  In  the  future,  Jones 
hopes  to  concentrate  more  on  his 
"hobby,"  studying  the  snails  and  slugs 
surrounding  his  "very  modest"  house  in 
France.  For  more  on  human  genetics,  he 
recommends  The  Code  of  Codes:  Scien- 
tific and  Social  Issues  in  the  Human 
Genome  Project,  edited  by  D.  J.  Kevles 
and  L.  Hood  (Cambridge:  Harvard  Uni- 
versity Press,  1992).  Jones's  book  The 
Language  of  Genes  will  be  published  by 
Anchor  Doubleday  in  August. 


For  the  past  fifteen  years,  John  K.  B. 
Ford  (page  98)  has  studied  the  social  be- 
havior and  underwater  sounds  of  killer 
whales  and  other  cetaceans.  A  marine 
mammal  specialist  at  the  Vancouver 
Aquarium,  Ford  says  his  research  on 
killer  whales  led  to  his  interest  in  pho- 
tographing these  largest  members  of  the 
dolphin  family.  He  first  photographed  the 
natural  markings  on  their  dorsal  fins  as  a 
means  of  identifying  and  keeping  track  of 


individuals  and  later  began  documenting 
their  activities  as  well.  His  doctoral  dis- 
sertation at  the  University  of  British  Co- 
lumbia, where  he  is  now  an  adjunct  pro- 
fessor of  zoology,  describes  the  existence 
of  regional  dialects  among  these  creatures 
{see  "Family  Fugues,"  Natural  History, 
March  1991).  Hiding  in  a  blind  on  the 
beach.  Ford  snapped  this  month's  "Nat- 
ural Moment"  with  a  Nikon  F-801,  300- 
mm  f4  lens,  and  Kodachrome  64  film. 


i04    Natural  History  6/94 


ever  miss 


another 


VfVi 


g    r 


u    p 


When  you're  shooting  away  at 


two  frames  per  second,  composing 


the  perfect  shot  without  changing 


lenses,  you  will  know  why  the 


0m^ 


■'Dus.,IS-3  DLX  has  been 


■  pB  Mailed  a  truly  revolutionary  camera 


that  redefines  photography.  With 


Features  that  give  you  countless 


possibilities,  the  IS-3  is  a  smaller, 


lighter,  faster  SLR  that's  all  in  one. 


Real  photography,  real  easy. 


THE  OLYMPUS  IS-3  DLX 


BUILT-IN  35-180MM  ZOOM  LENS 


ED  GLASS  FOR  CRISPER  IMAGES  AT  ANY 


FOCAL  LENGTH 


AUTO-FOCUS,  MANUAL  OVERRIDE  FOR 


CREATIVE  CONTROL 
•  SHUTTER  SPEED  TO  1/2000TH  SEC. 


MACRO  AT  35-120MM  TO  23.6" 


•  4  FLASH  MODES 


•  8  EXPOSURE  MODES 


ISO  25-5000  IN  1/3  STEP  INCREMENTS 


•  COMPACT  AND  LICSHTWEIGHT 


OLYMPUS 

Never    miss     another    O 


ei994  Ot,Tnpia  Aimrici  Inc.  Fw  ttDrmlio*  w  OdaM 
wnio  OTyffipug  Ainonca  Inc.,  P.O.  Bai  JOB,  BuOd  L 
Inc.,  Totonlo. 


USA  CU  SOfr^I -30K)  c 

07818-  In  CmKta:  CmM^  &=». 


_.__  FINING  ITS  50  REFINEMENTS  «-%^ 
TAKES  AN  ENGINEERING  DEGREE. 

UT  IT  ONLY  TAKES  A  DRIVER'S 
LICENSE  TO  ENJOY  THEM.  -. 


FORD  TAURUS 

AMERICA'S 

BEST-SELLING  CAR. 

AGAIN. 


Most  people  would  look  at  build- 
ing America's  best-selling  car*  as 
the  ultimate  achievement.  Our 
engineers  looked  at  it  as  a  good 
start.  Instead  of  putting  Ford 
Taurus  on  a  pedestal,  they  put 
it  under  a  magnifying  glass,  and 


found  over  50  ways  to  make  it 
even  better.  Their  improvements 
include  "an  additional  supplemen- 
tal restraint  system,"  "enlarged 
rotors"  and  "revised  spring/stabilizer 
bars"— engineer  talk  that  trans- 
lates with  the  turn  of  a  key  into 
"new  stan- 
dard passen- 


ger air 
bag,"** 

"better  braking  performance"  and 
"more  responsive  ride  and  han- 
dling." Everyone  can  appreciate 
refinements  like  that. 


EVERY  1994  FORD  COMES 
WITH  OUR  ROADSIDE 
ASSISTANCE  PROGRAM.^ 

We've  also  engineered  a  better 
way  to  keep  you  on  the  road.  Help 
is  only  a  toll-free  call  away  if  you 
should  have  a  flat  tire,  run  out  of 
gas  or  lock  your  keys  in  the  car. 

*  Based  on  1993  CY  manufacturers  reported  retail  deliveries. 
"Always  wear  your  safety  belt 
t3  years/36,000  miles  See  dealer  for  details. 

HAVE  YOU  DRIVEN 
A  FORD  LATELY?