Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

Do Elephants Have Knees?: And Other Stories of Darwinian Origins
Do Elephants Have Knees?: And Other Stories of Darwinian Origins
Do Elephants Have Knees?: And Other Stories of Darwinian Origins
Ebook411 pages5 hours

Do Elephants Have Knees?: And Other Stories of Darwinian Origins

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

Read preview

About this ebook

Thinking whimsically makes serious science accessible. That’s a message that should be taken to heart by all readers who want to learn about evolution. Do Elephants Have Knees? invites readers into serious appreciation of Darwinian histories by deploying the playful thinking found in children’s books. Charles R. Ault Jr. weds children’s literature to recent research in paleontology and evolutionary biology. Inquiring into the origin of origins stories, Ault presents three portraits of Charles Darwin—curious child, twentysomething adventurer, and elderly worm scientist. Essays focusing on the origins of tetrapods, elephants, whales, and birds explain fundamental Darwinian concepts (natural selection, for example) with examples of fossil history and comparative anatomy.

The imagery of the children’s story offers a way to remember and recreate scientific discoveries. By juxtaposing Darwin’s science with tales for children, Do Elephants Have Knees? underscores the importance of whimsical storytelling to the accomplishment of serious thinking. Charles Darwin mused about duck beaks and swimming bears as he imagined a pathway for the origin of baleen. A "bearduck" chimera may be a stretch, but the science linking not just cows but also whales to moose through shared ancestry has great merit. Teaching about shared ancestry may begin with attention to Bernard Wiseman’s Morris the Moose. Morris believes that cows and deer are fine examples of moose because they all have four legs and things on their heads. No whale antlers are known, but fossils of four-legged whales are. By calling attention to surprising and serendipitous echoes between children’s stories and challenging science, Ault demonstrates how playful thinking opens the doors to an understanding of evolutionary thought.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateAug 15, 2016
ISBN9781501706417
Do Elephants Have Knees?: And Other Stories of Darwinian Origins
Author

Charles R. Ault

Charles R. Ault Jr. is Professor Emeritus at the Lewis & Clark Graduate School of Education and Counseling.

Related to Do Elephants Have Knees?

Related ebooks

Biology For You

View More

Related articles

Reviews for Do Elephants Have Knees?

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5

2 ratings1 review

What did you think?

Tap to rate

Review must be at least 10 words

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    One third concise, accessible potted biography of Charles Darwin, two-thirds essays offering new, if odd, pathways to contextualizing Darwin's famous Theory of Evolution by means of natural selection. It's enjoyably presented, contains enough illustrative figures to give the reader a sense of what they're reading about, and makes its science plain.I really don't get the inclusion of quotes from kidlit. It's not always apt, at least it wasn't so to me, but it really didn't ever detract from my reading of Dr. Ault's stories. If you, like I did, think this book is aimed at younger audiences, get that misconception out of your head now. Maybe a high-school senior at the youngest, more likely a not-very-science-oriented twentysomething is at the sweet spot. The older reader whose science education is behind the curve will get a lot out of the read because it's packed with reasonably current science. Really good analogies and examples bring meaning to often abstract concepts. The vocabulary pulls no punches, so have your preferred reference source handy. There are endnotes aplenty, and the index actually functioned as an index...it was, after all, published by a university press. All of this, on top of the popular-science tone of the author's presentation, gave me a very enjoyable reading experience.

Book preview

Do Elephants Have Knees? - Charles R. Ault

qNabook_preview_excerpt.html}˒ɕݯ62,Qlƫ 5 eZxfzf+"<;^qANZ$j9suBȌMTU}|7ճ޼wϪ/~곟uގP]yOuWu7aSYl==^US3V_W||xmOS;isSM=n_]Ca||__m}[uO_4]l?vmz6ͪGϾC£8ԟ[OolgJ؍MNM eۏcwb7\\M8<rnֱ Ҿ jqMþ{Swqa`ͧ҄au`;<;i+ꮛ^:?ÈU45Nx-yb8DV/ReJy{ĹK6ԍe\?ސM܊hȟO_u`!W{HgwSS}moP!_R^'tq;e"><5О"Nz#.x<ϰsw1w+G$@hoꞺau#p" ؈ށz_^U0 h<5x)O6Mݖ6M`kg wWիG WO};MT@&o6udz%r;h Sa_z_wc~Ï9uݮ{jjoo&H(q7qVNijb`qi5^r_v1uO;bO07ә{ ~62x=#":%%;j V4 0ǎ'a7" l ciA皖NXB5ЦlPЦR<8orh?$ļKmo z.vM6pRPxw Z:#o;tݞH.@W(2a9;c ]7:`:{]I*&P a@퉫S٧%Y^CTd|&߱ 6R)hm6 'Fւ6]H%_|lX'yjeqLk[&z6gx< \Kpsc$]7w<,@07ǭ)cC s s\n\|d|걵.އKz.OY}J_{h[3LQ*$:SFAF}w^\vⷘ(5&>Ym [#Muf:5k!"'@}ͻ6Wh:{yvRc >, -ĐINOnM1P[;`,H:]GBd[OAq}}[ (cIӛEj/ M /T."ʤNa]hJ[9~otyx4{7 RG2\f1+ڄ9 L /cï| @ݖ 9 5`Ǜ> T=\'LoںZnI!'a2í&yepc/ւ &kRa *q%V1%zmcS}2TGH^bwc'DL&M[ȱE1t@R'Ob^asO/~/~~_c ԛ |" (8LBAe[+ZkUz0G< l  FmP]^C-l){$,-ƞqO"?6IMX?~ w ce _-W?vv'`v6N{_ ?b6s!Kn~ {B :XTVT\,s gPnVMS[\="z40zTNSぐʎb$Y-@ L@)?N=FHz׸Z/aoq KP|^ú1$U >B oqK`3~?k_~TjjľSA| tVN*D 2>G<^LPty!&_4a! `ss530ί҂IAy|q4LGn;̍83nۏG e@GnGJ69ͫm◻b 6MkV<3{cc(Gam%]'gNKgq(%ߥsF`(_hzpoiK *őJD Ck.Sz`2q݋P"!du/Iy t U" Y~3Yj4QNޚ/r:|d/g(ֹX2c>_643@=yƙ v|Jn\B+la϶Fh4bꌩH# `qFײ Xa3*1XLqˎƣsze5A@ Hzmn\3UfmQDFO[r0(J%&%/?V$4A7Z͸UԄ\v9Dب+fWYiUp;#K#!IJ[??Vv \ZiΆ~4I#ȩ}+)4vl9╆yTtδ-s"Tѳ؀IzYYM\'4ШвmѡW~~OYGD [L4%dW`UMX8MԞզ눓nJ(\f6ǩ+yKev&j3w'@8M~lmѴoYICQPIE@5SAx2&0-߆Ћg{0)ܦ}@Dm,s,jºA|w!.."-NNl!6_%%emYBI#1I[òǾ&qC-?7ml VrjbLK@cOLea(Iۥoq\WPEo U(`JX9 ;#3b,Ǟ"SŢ@!kT E E56 Z=+NWulK 4I寓y?lX)5.AuZ׏nK {d2_ <}jMiof6?3X<|6h|5GZ;b<3b3U Kzu/4ŠfPgRZ?e!!ffQa:.E)#!7Xa5kX,7 ;㗓 n/<U*X>3O3#zj.zvV].\\`8`$@% 3tixjeoΊ)ϫcMTHp?[;[nh#k%lpLqJv6~[cs"՚{#β?)_kj@b1_F;DrJ [:s>WacfqWBj2;yJK `)x^-yKASOsh@CЃ~ȃQDiM_.1 FfzyVfŖ4b̴!Gײϒ9E9a.yH@TM72^(RpQjYn Z I^^I 2N2ʓaw)upx2mT_LId0XWYA݄ܛmg+rmS"7RA\&cm_(?TEh[*GK[E>TT/<-SW_*Dx^EҏgP1Fg ݃LlLd΀ T΅ob"#fJ";uA*ZMX =$@}|T|Ɂ $=/]J),|sAtOLpf1BֲsPzzǞ lTl&zݐFu`-O|w^!o̝"BS3$Q05BKفH{.I` [k~J[MA~!_xti*tz`7dw7,· :Aმ{=;+a5ZQꪀcRPaI`zRzg=);.ŋ6G?p{qNc1Mz|JP!h+E HE"48Mb;*9ܰk.A qCWE=^|6Y[%J㑿</By։S[BU5y^?|4 n#poAa`VXPYA٧V[1Pb-Z\3hYlXR|}dJJZ^Yt*LqS}TTiRM=*n剅VKc`^3b BYVZ 0ݨb~%V-j lBR\jxXW՝9flY:xNLt=B\~<.:5ZG_̸~/&T"c4S2M031^W 4 7ysۻȖ] ??\CQV< !hw8۔3TaBdLym۟ܘm[{SH;^9@!I!uP<|!7w 6K5@I7YIٴ\7f8j8TK7pB6TFѡ`>rjy @سA듵h;%-jj`¡ʇWՋ}R^@Vx s\_DQ[֧xPVsn5EQk9m6EK:jnjGAMMsu\kx R1Eu-ū&HsxB\Syi'h}6!aՋdjc+8&lTk~nʰEg c-"0:' 4M&1PjT:9IheóXRI5fbcIT-v1߲rwSfӪ TNdnx57w7uoґC][dܦ}=Wwnf .*{-M&cN{>&> [4L*C*$,CV-OܣbcK8Sw1"Т`җ@[3΄ʪyz R#uk0+$u&L >W~?)Oh'+c|Dk^js,aWd=h:&U% g)/iB)%R.).7c UGchom!Qj,*V$ȀWD#Y$dj?ied+[^S>,D ܾ8ؑg0, fGYWkuP.Ʌ8({}"IF&^qcҔ{bp<"c1?%WS{1F2iH؏|YG$IXStFIIx9`LijTW Č72[ooJ_HOyS")Vu^arM:fv[[" W7Zd'̹ lKf(>U V"lY7[K֔KnI<>@5L}{ Qx:˦*i?Nޥl&lkERB10liYᛔUKg*jY,]S zIO]&W.hIb D?< ͽ'vh%4jcISbvEC6w<',njԭGPArPflT]1 66n"T7Fu /ϼה4yL~ 2]W廅|0 QZbz';8*Z|SO2f 5L#lC=oS` j_-w&wP4-u=TMGa얇@a.R]_0ת 6NzMRlUGl͑^6'+F51#Z@آιVGǾ|G)Ww3ixN) E[k=͐SE(;u}gKuG:=NHy-i;N mkYfdʂwW27^BgoPFU5Eqw3t Njf|Z\j{:$KWN]"SI|oq.J/QѮTEC/`}17Qw%^-m]}`xٴN6_k)sJVFE;yj0sZ޼!>yeJz\N ,[?%X~'9m6Z[kKDɼ3_DwfЕ$!=/fwYi?W[wXY^s;Nw5Q+VhڿO@0A@Hy߷%ldn2ĺs-Cs͢ m*e!imF5ڷo|~Nved2M]rr>M̀mdÑÄ>a\ݩ«6v-OeNփg…ui3+F-,%HaL.Ѯc;NJo&І@䪚3qЖSW5r>EvGXT4( _6Hg*)Oz
Enjoying the preview?
Page 1 of 1