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The cult of amphioxus in German Darwinism; or, Our gelatinous ancestors in Naples’ blue and balmy bay
Biologists having rediscovered amphioxus, also known as the lancelet or Branchiostoma, it is time to reassess its place in early Darwinist debates over vertebrate origins. While the advent of the ascidian–amphioxus theory and challenges from various competitors have been documented, this article off...
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Springer International Publishing
2015
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4286652/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26013195 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40656-014-0034-x |
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author | Hopwood, Nick |
author_facet | Hopwood, Nick |
author_sort | Hopwood, Nick |
collection | PubMed |
description | Biologists having rediscovered amphioxus, also known as the lancelet or Branchiostoma, it is time to reassess its place in early Darwinist debates over vertebrate origins. While the advent of the ascidian–amphioxus theory and challenges from various competitors have been documented, this article offers a richer account of the public appeal of amphioxus as a primitive ancestor. The focus is on how the ‘German Darwin’ Ernst Haeckel persuaded general magazine and newspaper readers to revere this “flesh of our flesh and blood of our blood”, and especially on Das neue Laienbrevier des Haeckelismus (The new lay breviary of Haeckelism) by Moritz Reymond with cartoons by Fritz Steub. From the late 1870s these successful little books of verse introduced the Neapolitan discoveries that made the animal’s name and satirized Haeckel’s rise as high priest of its cult. One song is reproduced and translated here, with a contemporary “imitation” by the Canadian palaeontologist Edward John Chapman, and extracts from others. Predating the American “It’s a long way from amphioxus” by decades, these rhymes dramatize neglected ‘species politics’ of Darwinism and highlight the roles of humour in negotiating evolution. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4286652 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2015 |
publisher | Springer International Publishing |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-42866522015-01-15 The cult of amphioxus in German Darwinism; or, Our gelatinous ancestors in Naples’ blue and balmy bay Hopwood, Nick Hist Philos Life Sci Original Paper Biologists having rediscovered amphioxus, also known as the lancelet or Branchiostoma, it is time to reassess its place in early Darwinist debates over vertebrate origins. While the advent of the ascidian–amphioxus theory and challenges from various competitors have been documented, this article offers a richer account of the public appeal of amphioxus as a primitive ancestor. The focus is on how the ‘German Darwin’ Ernst Haeckel persuaded general magazine and newspaper readers to revere this “flesh of our flesh and blood of our blood”, and especially on Das neue Laienbrevier des Haeckelismus (The new lay breviary of Haeckelism) by Moritz Reymond with cartoons by Fritz Steub. From the late 1870s these successful little books of verse introduced the Neapolitan discoveries that made the animal’s name and satirized Haeckel’s rise as high priest of its cult. One song is reproduced and translated here, with a contemporary “imitation” by the Canadian palaeontologist Edward John Chapman, and extracts from others. Predating the American “It’s a long way from amphioxus” by decades, these rhymes dramatize neglected ‘species politics’ of Darwinism and highlight the roles of humour in negotiating evolution. Springer International Publishing 2015-01-08 2015 /pmc/articles/PMC4286652/ /pubmed/26013195 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40656-014-0034-x Text en © The Author(s) 2014 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Original Paper Hopwood, Nick The cult of amphioxus in German Darwinism; or, Our gelatinous ancestors in Naples’ blue and balmy bay |
title | The cult of amphioxus in German Darwinism; or, Our gelatinous ancestors in Naples’ blue and balmy bay |
title_full | The cult of amphioxus in German Darwinism; or, Our gelatinous ancestors in Naples’ blue and balmy bay |
title_fullStr | The cult of amphioxus in German Darwinism; or, Our gelatinous ancestors in Naples’ blue and balmy bay |
title_full_unstemmed | The cult of amphioxus in German Darwinism; or, Our gelatinous ancestors in Naples’ blue and balmy bay |
title_short | The cult of amphioxus in German Darwinism; or, Our gelatinous ancestors in Naples’ blue and balmy bay |
title_sort | cult of amphioxus in german darwinism; or, our gelatinous ancestors in naples’ blue and balmy bay |
topic | Original Paper |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4286652/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26013195 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40656-014-0034-x |
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