Biology Honors Colloquium
Students in the course may find the following
links useful as well as informative and are invited to suggest additional
links to enrich the experience for all the participants.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/darwin/index.shtml
(Original classics to download free)
By Alfred Russell Wallace:
- 1858--
On the Tendancy of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from
the Original Type
(The paper presented to the Linnean Society
jointly with Darwin's notes and letters) - 1855--
On the Law which has Regulated the Introduction of New
Species
(The paper which justifies calling Wallace the
"father of biogeography")
By Charles Darwin:
The Origin of Species
- BBC Evolution Weekend (with illustrated guide)
- Literature.org (1st edition 1859, Web)
- EText Project (6th edition 1872)
I have included the review that follows to tempt the timid, the wary, the undecided.
The following description and review was copied without modification from a page at Amazon.com
From Amazon.co.uk
Just as we trace our personal family trees from parents to grandparents and so on back in time, so in The Ancestor's Tale Richard Dawkins traces the ancestry of life. As he is at pains to point out, this is very much our human tale, our ancestry. Surprisingly, it is one that many otherwise literate people are largely unaware of. Hopefully Dawkins's name and well deserved reputation as a best selling writer will introduce them to this wonderful saga.
The Ancestor's Tale takes us from our immediate human ancestors back through what he calls ‘concestors,’ those shared with the apes, monkeys and other mammals and other vertebrates and beyond to the dim and distant microbial beginnings of life some 4 billion years ago. It is a remarkable story which is still very much in the process of being uncovered. And, of course from a scientist of Dawkins stature and reputation we get an insider's knowledge of the most up-to-date science and many of those involved in the research. And, as we have come to expect of Dawkins, it is told with a passionate commitment to scientific veracity and a nose for a good story. Dawkins's knowledge of the vast and wonderful sweep of life's diversity is admirable. Not only does it encompass the most interesting living representatives of so many groups of organisms but also the important and informative fossil ones, many of which have only been found in recent years.
Dawkins sees his journey with its reverse chronology as ‘cast in the form of an epic pilgrimage from the present to the past [and] all roads lead to the origin of life.’ It is, to my mind, a sensible and perfectly acceptable approach although some might complain about going against the grain of evolution. The great benefit for the general reader is that it begins with the more familiar present and the animals nearest and dearest to us—our immediate human ancestors. And then it delves back into the more remote and less familiar past with its droves of lesser known and extinct fossil forms. The whole pilgrimage is divided into 40 tales, each based around a group of organisms and discusses their role in the overall story. Genetic, morphological and fossil evidence is all taken into account and illustrated with a wealth of photos and drawings of living and fossils forms, evolutionary and distributional charts and maps through time, providing a visual compliment and complement to the text. The design also allows Dawkins to make numerous running comments and characteristic asides. There are also numerous references and a good index.-- Douglas Palmer --
Spring 2007
Again the subject is Evolution, once again with Richard Dawkins, this time in a literary allusion. The Ancestor's Tale takes its structure from literature but its substance from our own evolutionary history, working backward through a succession of stories about ancestors we hold in common with other organisms back to the beginning of life.
Once more we will read a contemporary book and discuss it on a weekly basis beginning February 21, 2007.
The Ancestor's Tale
by Richard Dawkins
This page includes a review of the book, a few links to related sites, and the potential to grow as Honors Colloquium students add to the resources here.