Dinosaur In a Haystack - A Website About Stephen Jay Gould's ...

The exhibit follows the six major branching events in mammalian history that cladisticsemphasizes. The first is the synapsid opening, a hole in the skull behind the eye thatseparates early mammals from other groups of reptiles. [It is important to recognize thatscientists use this feature simply as an identifier. It shows a common origin, but no claimis implied that this feature grants any particular evolutionary advantage or representsprogress. Other branches continue to evolve.] The second event is the formation of thedistinctive 3-boned mammalian ear. The third is the development of the placenta, whereour group branches off from the order that includes the platypus. The fourth is theformation of a hole in one of the bones in the middle ear; primates branch off at thispoint. Fifth is the formation of the hoof, which occurred after primates came intoexistence. Sixth is a distinctive movement of the eye sockets near the nose, a featurewhich is shared by elephants and manatees (sea cows). This puts sea cows at the end ofthe hall of mammals, which delights Gould. He does, however, offer a word of caution:new iconographies can free us from old biases, but can introduce new ones. He notes thatcladistics downplays unique traits formed by single lineages, such as the large teeth ofsaber-toothed tigers, and the bipedal gait of the genus Homo. It also downplays trendswithin groups that do not lead to further branchings, such as the reduction in the numberof toes in the natural history of horses, or larger brains in one group of primates. Suchevents are important, he argues, even if de-emphasized by cladistics.DIH 20. The Razumovsky DuetThe source of this essay is the dedication to an old book that Gould purchased. Thebook, written by Johann Gotthelf Fischer von Waldheim (1771 – 1853), was a minor butuseful reference work on zoological classification for Russian academics. GotthelfFischer was born in Saxony (now Germany), and was involved in the activity thatcoordinated the naming of geological strata. He may have coined the term“paleontology.” He spent the majority of his career in Moscow, as a professor andcurator of the natural history museum there. Importantly, he was there when Napoleonarrived, and during the subsequent fire that destroyed some two-thirds of the city. Thisfire prevented Napoleon from feeding his troops and thus forced his disastrous retreat;but it was also a disaster for the city, including the natural history museum, which wasdestroyed.This brings us to the dedication of Gotthelf Fischer’s book, published in 1813; it is a pleafor help (on behalf of his museum) to the Russian Minister of Public Instruction. Thisminister’s name was Alexis Razumovsky; his brother, Gould discovered in his research,was Andrei Razumovsky. Andrei lived in Austria and was a great patron of the arts ingeneral, and to Beethoven in particular. (Beethoven dedicated several of his works to hispatron, including the famous “Razumovsky Quartets.”) Gotthelf Fischer was not assuccessful with Andrei’s brother Alexis, however. But over the next twenty or so years,Gotthelf Fischer did succeed in partially rebuilding the museum’s collection. His successcame not from wealthy patrons, but from his fellow scientists throughout Russia and therest of Europe, who donated, traded, or sold books and specimens. The thesis of this25