-We as humans tend to inflate out evolutionary importance. Proof of this can be seen in the metaphors and models that we use to organize and explain species diversity.
-The ladder and the tree are two organizational metaphors that are commonly used as models for understanding biodiversity and evolution. Both of these models suggest that humans have earned a special place nearest the apex of evolution, superior to all other life forms.
-The ladder metaphor suggests that humans have marched up the ladder of progress and they are superior somehow to the life forms below them. The ladder metaphor is useful only to satisfy human egos.
-Marching up this ladder of progress is not necessarily a good thing. Many species such as mosses, fungi, sharks, and crayfish have changed very little over great expanses of time. They have remained fit enough to survive and reproduce, and this has been enough to secure their existence.
-Just because some organisms have changed and diversified a great deal over a period of time does not mean that they have gotten “better”. They have changed to survive in their current conditions. What was “better” a million years ago may not be “better” today, and what works in one location may not work in another.
-Darwin toyed with the concept of a "tree of life" to explain the evolutionary relationships between different species. -Without it the theory of evolution would never have happened. The tree also helped carry the day for evolution. Darwin argued successfully that the tree of life was a fact of nature, plain for all to see though in need of explanation. The explanation he came up with was evolution by natural selection. -Most branches eventually come to a dead end as species go extinct, but some reach right to the top - these are living species. The tree is thus a record of how every species that ever lived is related to all others right back to the origin of life.
-Unlike the "Tree of Life", the Juniper's branches twist and wind with no set form so that the trunk of the shrub is where its structure comes from. The truck represents the hearty and tough mechanisms of life which proved themselves by lasting the test of time and resulting in the species present today. As for the organization of species in the shrub; there is none. The different thickness and lengths of the branches do not single out any species as the most evolved or better than any other. Instead the species' branches are not distinguishable and with no structure showing how biodiversity is more of a sprawling web with all species intertwined in it with each as equally important as the next.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Current Status
This is our third meeting, however we have run into a few snags and progress is slow. We are currently taking another approach towards our podcast in hopes of better portraying the book's ideas.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
