Animals: From Mythology to Zoology (Discovering the Earth)

225 Pages·2010·10.755 MB·English

by  Michael Allaby

AnimAls
From Mythology to Zoology

AnimAls
From Mythology to Zoology
Michael Allaby
Illustrations by Richard Garratt
ANIMALS: From Mythology to Zoology
Copyright © 2010 by Michael Allaby
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Allaby, Michael.
Animals: from mythology to zoology / Michael Allaby; illustrations by Richard Garratt.
p. cm.—(Discovering the Earth)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8160-6101-3 (hardcover)
ISBN-10: 0-8160-6101-7 (hardcover)
ISBN: 978-1-4381-2745-3 (e-book)
1. Animals—Popular works. 2. Animals—Mythology—Popular works. 3. Zoology—Popular works.
I. Title.
QL50.A395 2010
590—dc22 2009006194
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Excerpts included herewith have been reprinted by permission of the copyright holders; the author
has made every eff ort to contact copyright holders. Th e publishers will be glad to rectify, in future
editions, any errors or omissions brought to their notice.
Text design by Annie O’Donnell
Illustrations by Richard Garratt
Photo research by Tobi Zausner, Ph.D.
Composition by Hermitage Publishing Services
Cover printed by Creative Printing
Book printed and bound by Creative Printing
Date printed: December, 2009
Printed in China
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Th is book is printed on acid-free paper.
xiv+212_DTE-Animals.indd 4 2/11/10 2:19:54 PM
CCOONNTTEENNTTSS
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction xii
3 CHAPTER 1
WHERE DO ANIMALS COME FROM? 1
Th e Elements 2
Epicurus and Animals Th at Emerge from the Ground 4
Nature the Creator 7
Animals Designed for the Ways Th ey Live 9
Th e Servants of People 11
Th e Modern Concept of Adaptation 
3 CHAPTER 2
THE BEGINNING OF SCIENCE 14
Plato and the World of Ideas 15
Aristotle and the Importance of Observation 18
Pliny, Collector of Information 21
Th e Death of Pliny 
3 CHAPTER 3
MENAGERIES AND ZOOS 27
King Wen and His Garden of Intelligence 28
Marco Polo and the Gardens of Kinsai 29
Marco Polo at Xanadu 34
Queen Hatshepsut and the First Expedition to Collect Animals 36
Solomon’s Monkeys and Nebuchadrezzar’s Lions 38
Greek Bird Gardens 39
Roman Pets, Menageries, and Circuses 43
Th e Menagerie of Octavius Augustus 44
Th e Diff erence between a Menagerie and a Zoo 
Nero and the Grounds of His Golden House 47
Henry I and the First English Menagerie 48
King John and His Menagerie at the Tower of London 51
Th e Royal Menagerie at Versailles 55
3 CHAPTER 4
TRAVELERS’ TALES 59
Moral Lessons to Be Drawn from Animal Behavior 60
Bestiaries 61
How Doth the Little Busy Bee 63
Hedgehog 65
Fox 67
Weasel 67
Pelican 68
Eagle 70
Elephant 71
Viper 73
Crocodile 73
Barnacles 75
Captain Hunter, Th omas Bewick, and the
Duck-billed Platypus 77
3 CHAPTER 5
FANTASTIC BEASTS 81
Manticora 82
Dragons 83
Basilisk 85
Onocentaur 87
Siren 87
Satyr 88
Phoenix 89
Amphisbaena 90
Hydrus 91
Caladrius 93
3 CHAPTER 6
FANTASTIC HUMANS 94
Dog-headed Men 95
Blemmyes, Cyclops, Sciapodae, and Panotii 97
3 CHAPTER 7
OBSERVATION AND UNDERSTANDING 101
Conrad Gessner, the Swiss Pliny 101
Pierre Belon, and the Skeletons of Birds and Mammals 104
Homology, Analogy, Orthology, and Paralogy 
Guillaume Rondelet and the Study of Fishes 108
3 CHAPTER 8
CLASSIFYING AND EXPERIMENTING 110
John Ray and Francis Willughby 111
Th e Invention of the Microscope 112
Robert Hooke: England’s Leonardo? 
Malpighi and the Anatomists 116
Francesco Redi and Spontaneous Generation 119
Descartes and Mechanical Animals 120
Linnaeus and the Beginning of Modern Classifi cation 123
Carl von Linné: Binomial Nomenclature 
Modern Classifi cation 
3 CHAPTER 9
GENERATION, SPECIES, AND EVOLUTION 127
Preformation 127
Charles Bonnet and How Aphids Reproduce 129
Abraham Trembley and the Polyp 131
Comte de Buff on and His Natural History 134
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and Adaptive Evolution 135
Erasmus Darwin and the Progress of Life 137
Charles Robert Darwin and Evolution by Means
of Natural Selection 139
3 CHAPTER 10
GENETICS AND RELATIONSHIPS 143
Gregor Mendel and His Peas 144
August Weismann and the Rejection of Lamarck 147
Wilhelm Johannsen and the Gene 149
William Bateson and Balanoglossus 150
Discovery of the Double Helix 151
Th e Universal Genetic Code 
Th e Central Dogma 
Genomes and Evolutionary Trees 155
Eugenics 
3 CHAPTER 11
ANIMAL BEHAVIOR 160
Red in Tooth and Claw 160
Sir John Lubbock and the Social Insects 162
Social Darwinism 
Max Verworn, Jacques Loeb, and Responses to Stimuli 165
C. Lloyd Morgan and His Canon 167
Ivan Pavlov and Conditioned Responses 169
Instinct and Drive 
Konrad Lorenz and Imprinting 171
Niko Tinbergen and Defending Territory 174
Karl von Frisch and the Dances of the Honeybee 176
Cameras, Radio Collars, and Event Recorders—Modern
Behavior Studies 179
Conclusion 
Glossary 
Further Resources 
Index 