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Image provided by: Suffolk Cooperative Library System
a s 1 1 reveas. - A43 Barnacles Darwin and evolution: a cautious tale 1 had the pleasure of reading Rebecca Stott's Darwin and the Barnacle. It confirmed a suspicion I had whenever 1 discussed Darwin's contributions to the theory of evolution by natural selection. Darwin wrote a four volume analysis of barnacles. from 1844 to 1852 that is rarely read and very hard to find in libraries. It does not discuss evolution. I had felt Darwin wrote i to show his fellow scientists that he was not a dilettante and speculator about biology but a serious scholar dated back to Jurassic times, long before there were familiar dinosaurs. Darwin recognized two broad class- es, some typical cones stuck on an object and some with a stalk so they could sway and move and get a bit more food in the area where they resid- ed. He also discovered a rare third type of barnacle that had no shell at all, which rasped away and dnlled into a shell's surface. or even a rock,. and tucked itself into a cavity, resting naked in a safe hole. Darwin discovered who wanted the approval of hus fellow - scholars as one of them. He succeeded in doing that - because - during those eight years Darwin became the world's expert on barnacles. Barnacles are famil- 1ar to us when we turn up a mollusk shell on West Meadow Beach and see encrusted on it the cones of cemented barnacles disturbing the shell's symmetry and BY ELOF CARLSON that most barnacles were hermaphrodiutes,. having both ovaries and testes. In relation to body size. barnacles have the world's longest penis teight times the length of their bodies). The long penis allows a barnacle to find a female at some dis- tance from its cemented housing. In some species there are separate sexes and the males are small parasites that embed themselves in beauty. To us they are the graffiti artists of nature,. plastering themselves to the bodies of whales. sticking on rocks and pilings. and slowing down the passage of ships by adhering to their hulls. We think of barnacles as loafers and moochers. going along for a free mide. The ones we see look like some sort of mollusk because they have shells - but they are not mollusks. They are crustaceans like crabs and lobsters. As embryonic larvae they can swim. and when they find a nice spot they land heads down and make a nice cone shaped shell that serves as their hous- ing. They eat with their multiple feet. sweeping the plankton around them into their mouths. Darwin classified the barnacles -from coltections around world. - Over those eight years hundreds of packages arrived from museums, sea captains, naturalists and collectors with whom Darwin corresponded. He used his microscope to dissect their bodies and he studied the fossil barnacles that IN THIS EDITION a female. What surprised Darwin was the amount of vanation that existed among his barmmacles. He could tell within S50 miles where a par- tucular barnacle came from by a careful examination of its anatomy and shell Darwin had watchmaker's nerve because he dissected tiny barnacle hwy parts under a microscope with very fine needles He reclassified hun- dreds of species and corrected the errors of past naturalists in systemati- cally analyzing the world's barnacles. He had figured out how they evolved but he was too cautious to state it in hs four volumes. The world was not yet ready for a theory of natural selection which he had first conceived in 1838. It would take him six more years after his bar- The Origin of Species Elof Axel Carlson is a distinguished teaching professor emeritus in the Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at Stony Brook Univers Mm t? 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Is Sponsoring a Sports Memorabilia and Art Auction Featuring Local Artists When: Friday, September 16, 2005 at 7:30pm Location: Atria Assisted Living at 10 Cheshire PI., East Northport, N.Y. Fee: $10.00 includes Wine, Cheese and Refreshments All Proceeds to benefit Gift of Life and Local Charities Raffle and Door Prizes For Additional Information call 631-368-3542 HOME BUYING SEMINAR FREE No Sales Pitches - No Obligation You will learn ... -* The steps of purchasing a home. * The roles of the professionals involved in the home buying process. * How to read your credit report and repair your credit. * How to qualify for a mortgage. « The mortgage programs available today, including 100% financing for qualified buyers. IF YOU CAN RENT, YOU CAN OWN Even with less than perfect credit, hard to verify income, or no money down. September 13 7pm-9pm Holiday Inn Express Stony Brook 3131 Nesconset Hwy., Stony Brook 2 Blocks East of Nicolls Rd (Rte. 97) Please call or email Colleen to register 631.246.5700 ext. 40 or LSBCoHeen@yahoo.com