Author: A. M. Redfield
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Zoology
Languages : en
Pages : 738

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Author: J. David Archibald
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231537662
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Leading paleontologist J. David Archibald explores the rich history of visual metaphors for biological order from ancient times to the present and their influence on humans' perception of their place in nature, offering uncommon insight into how we went from standing on the top rung of the biological ladder to embodying just one tiny twig on the tree of life. He begins with the ancient but still misguided use of ladders to show biological order, moving then to the use of trees to represent seasonal life cycles and genealogies by the Romans. The early Christian Church then appropriated trees to represent biblical genealogies. The late eighteenth century saw the tree reclaimed to visualize relationships in the natural world, sometimes with a creationist view, but in other instances suggesting evolution. Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859) exorcised the exclusively creationist view of the "tree of life," and his ideas sparked an explosion of trees, mostly by younger acolytes in Europe. Although Darwin's influence waned in the early twentieth century, by midcentury his ideas held sway once again in time for another and even greater explosion of tree building, generated by the development of new theories on how to assemble trees, the birth of powerful computing, and the emergence of molecular technology. Throughout Archibald's far-reaching study, and with the use of many figures, the evolution of "tree of life" iconography becomes entwined with our changing perception of the world and ourselves.

Author: Free Public Library (Worcester, Mass.)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Catalogs, Dictionary
Languages : en
Pages : 1416

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Author: Mary P. Winsor
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226902153
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 345

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Reading the Shape of Nature vividly recounts the turbulent early history of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard and the contrasting careers of its founder Louis Agassiz and his son Alexander. Through the story of this institution and the individuals who formed it, Mary P. Winsor explores the conflicting forces that shaped systematics in the second half of the nineteenth century. Debates over the philosophical foundations of classification, details of taxonomic research, the young institution's financial struggles, and the personalities of the men most deeply involved are all brought to life. In 1859, Louis Agassiz established the Museum of Comparative Zoology to house research on the ideal types that he believed were embodied in all living forms. Agassiz's vision arose from his insistence that the order inherent in the diversity of life reflected divine creation, not organic evolution. But the mortar of the new museum had scarcely dried when Darwin's Origin was published. By Louis Agassiz's death in 1873, even his former students, including his son Alexander, had defected to the evolutionist camp. Alexander, a self-made millionaire, succeeded his father as director and introduced a significantly different agenda for the museum. To trace Louis and Alexander's arguments and the style of science they established at the museum, Winsor uses many fascinating examples that even zoologists may find unfamiliar. The locus of all this activity, the museum building itself, tells its own story through a wonderful series of archival photographs.

Author: Mrs. Anna Maria (Treadwell) Redfield
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Natural history
Languages : en
Pages : 722

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Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 874

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Author: New York State Library
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 872

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Author: New York (State). Legislature. Senate
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 1632

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Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 396

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Author: New York State Library
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Bibliography
Languages : en
Pages : 868

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