Do Elephants Have Knees?: And Other Stories of Darwinian Origins
4/5
()
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.
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
Do Elephants Have Knees?: And Other Stories of Darwinian Origins Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Flying Zoo: Birds, Parasites, and the World They Share Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Introduction to California Chaparral Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Charles Darwin Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Ecology and Behavior of Amphibians Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Little Species, Big Mystery: The Story of Homo Floresiensis Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNature Journal Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDeep Things out of Darkness: A History of Natural History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMaking a Good Life: An Ethnography of Nature, Ethics, and Reproduction Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAdventures among Ants: A Global Safari with a Cast of Trillions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dolphin Confidential: Confessions of a Field Biologist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Greenhouse of the Dinosaurs: Evolution, Extinction, and the Future of Our Planet Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Desert Journal: A Naturalist Reflects on Arid California Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Origin of Species Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fire: The Spark That Ignited Human Evolution Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wild Within: Histories of a Landmark British Zoo Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhat's Eating You?: People and Parasites Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Moth Catcher: An Evolutionist'S Journey Through Canyon And Pass Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStalking the Subject: Modernism and the Animal Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDiatoms to Dinosaurs: The Size And Scale Of Living Things Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Birds and Beasts of Ancient Mesoamerica: Animal Symbolism in the Postclassic Period Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTeen Innovators: Nine Young People Engineering a Better World with Creative Inventions Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOrigins: The Search for Our Prehistoric Past Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wild Blue: A Natural History of the World's Largest Animal Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flying Dinosaurs: How Fearsome Reptiles Became Birds Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Real Thing: The Natural History of Ian McTaggart Cowan Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Emperor's Embrace: Reflections on Animal Families and Fatherhood Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Biology For You
The Winner Effect: The Neuroscience of Success and Failure Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body's Most Underrated Organ (Revised Edition) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Peptide Protocols: Volume One Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mother of God: An Extraordinary Journey into the Uncharted Tributaries of the Western Amazon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All That Remains: A Renowned Forensic Scientist on Death, Mortality, and Solving Crimes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Woman: An Intimate Geography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Emotional Blackmail: When the People in Your Life Use Fear, Obligation, and Guilt to Manipulate You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5"Cause Unknown": The Epidemic of Sudden Deaths in 2021 & 2022 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lifespan: Why We Age—and Why We Don't Have To Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dopamine Detox: Biohacking Your Way To Better Focus, Greater Happiness, and Peak Performance Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Crack In Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vax-Unvax: Let the Science Speak Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Obesity Code: the bestselling guide to unlocking the secrets of weight loss Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lies My Gov't Told Me: And the Better Future Coming Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anatomy 101: From Muscles and Bones to Organs and Systems, Your Guide to How the Human Body Works Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Letter to Liberals: Censorship and COVID: An Attack on Science and American Ideals Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Suicidal: Why We Kill Ourselves Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Trouble With Testosterone: And Other Essays On The Biology Of The Human Predi Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Seven Sins of Memory: How the Mind Forgets and Remembers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Blood of Emmett Till Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Do Elephants Have Knees?
2 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One 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.