Collecting Evolution: The Galapagos Expedition that Vindicated Darwin by Matthew J. James-Book Review

June 1, 2020 SouthAmerica

We purchased this book on Santa Cruz Island on our visit to Charles Darwin Research Station, and I was excited to learn about it but the first thing I noticed was the missing map, as I have stated before on book reviews, I like to see a map of the area I am reading about; it offers a better perspective and understanding of it. More so this time that I am reading about the many Galapagos Islands. The author uses their English names instead of the Spanish names we use now. There are 15 Galapagos islands, although the number varies because some smaller islands haven’t been recognized yet.

The book is about a voyage following Darwin’s journey on the HMS Beagle under Captain Robert FitzRoy’s command on a five-year voyage, that took place between 1831-1836. Charles Darwin published his book “On the Origin of Species” in 1859. Collecting Evolution starts with a very interesting account on the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. Then moves forward to the eight young scientist from the Academy who will trace back Charles Darwin’s expedition. The job was to collect and preserve as many species as they could. The Academy’s voyage took place in 1905-1906. They visited thirteen islands in total, nine more than Charles Darwin visited during his voyage. These scientists collected seventy-eight thousand animal and plant specimens. Their collection was bigger than any other expedition done before or after them. As the author cites “they brought the Galapagos back to San Francisco.” The author has a brief description on the qualifications of these eight men; Rollo Beck, Edward Gifford, Joseph Hunter, Ernest King, Washington Ochsner, Joseph Slevin, Alban Stewart and Francis Williams.

As one continues reading this account, I have to admit that is hard to accept what they did, what they could have done, and what didn’t happen. To quote the author “In the conservation logic of their time, animals were better off dead and preserved in a museum than left to the whims of reckless humans and introduced animals.” It comes down to tortoises being killed for their meat, that even Darwin enjoyed. While they were also being killed for their oil, which was a lucrative enterprise. Wild dogs killed them sometimes to extinction. Add to this the collectors which believed on collecting as much as you can. Some animals that Darwin encountered were; giant tortoises, iguanas, finches, mockingbirds, blue-footed booby.

This book has a significant detail of The Academy’s journey on the Galapagos islands, the many stories of the different visits to the islands are sometimes hard to take. Starting on chapter 5, “Collecting Evolution.” Shows the extended research done by the author providing the readers a comprehensive account of the scientists, and their job. The following chapters offer diverse accounts on the exploration, that as a reader I had a confluence of emotions, but I will accept the science and its aim of preservation. There are parts of the book that I really enjoyed mainly because we visited the places mentioned. And some of these places show so minor changes that as the author remarks: “visiting the Galapagos now offers almost the same experience as when Darwin visited it.” We could say the same for the eight scientists.

Something new to me was “obligate siblicide” and “facultative siblicide,” and how it operates, the author explains this in the book, with “natural selection”. We first learned of siblicide on our visit to Seymour Island. Our tour guide gave us a brief explanation of it regarding the Nazca booby, and how the older sibling, being stronger, pushes the weaker one out of the nest, securing his survival. Some characteristic of the animals on the Galapagos islands that have changed little are their tameness, and this in part contributed to the extinction of some species. The animal species on the islands suffer from many attacks, these being done by wild dogs, cats, poachers, natives, and yes, explorers too. The late also encountered frigate birds, doves, flamingos, mockingbirds, and ground finches. On our visit to the islands we saw these birds and I am glad they are still populating their territory. Besides the tortoise, lizards, sea lions, and marine iguanas. Captain FitzRoy’s team and crew members, and The Academy’s people, all ate some species there were studying and collecting.

On collecting and preserving the many species from the Galapagos Islands, and the explicit detail of this was done, gave us a fresh perspective for understanding what really entails having these species in museums all over the world. This is something we haven’t considered before. Experts in many areas came together to accomplish such a task, it’s described entirely in this book, as the stories of daily work life, its eventualities and misadventures. They collected everything they encountered, big and small; lava lizards, geckos, snakes, beetles, scorpions, grasshoppers, among some small species. These men celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve on the Islands, they talked about what the New Year would bring. Spending such holidays in an unknown place offers a once in a lifetime experience. We celebrated the beginning of this 2020 year on Isabela Island, and little we knew that life as we knew it would change forever on the coming months, on this post “New Year’s Eve in Isabela Island-Galapagos”

Two major events of grand importance took place during this expedition. One was the big earthquake that hit Ecuador on January 31st, 1906, with a magnitude of 8.8 on the Richter scale. This is considered one of the world’s largest recorded earthquakes in Ecuador. This earthquake occurred on the sea and the Academy at that time were sailing nearby, but luckily, they weren’t affected by it, otherwise they could have died while losing the entire collection. Although the earthquake didn’t cause much damage the Tsunami that followed hit the coast of Ecuador and Colombia, killing over a thousand people. The second event was again, an earthquake that hit San Francisco on April 18^th 1906 followed by three days of fires that devastated the city. The California Academy of Sciences was left in ruins. It was a struck of luck that the Academy didn’t return home before this big earthquake, as it was first planned.

Conclusions:

Charles Darwin’s name is famously recognized by what we now know as “Darwin’s finches.” They are the most famous example of Darwin’s evolution theory. As Mr. James states, “The eventual universal acceptance of natural selection vindicated Darwin,” well after his death in April 1882.

Also, Darwin’s evolution theory gets vindicated through the better understanding of genetic variation. Something surprising was the land snails. Author’s quote “It turns out that land snails in the Galapagos have produced more new species, in the sense of Darwin’s origin of species, than all the finches, tortoises and Scalesia and iguanas and lava lizards combined.” As well Darwin’s Darkling Beetles, “considered an excellent example of Darwinian evolution.”

The Academy’s collection included plants, mollusks, insects, birds, mammals, reptiles, making a grand total of seventy-eight thousand specimens. The Academy of Science’s vast collection not only preserved some endemic species, it also provided an opportunity for future researches, especially those done by researchers at Charles Darwin Research Station.

The Academy’s collection saved, preserved and allowed success to the New California Academy of Science in San Francisco, what many people know as the Natural History Museum in Golden Park.

Darwin and the Galapagos Islands are forever linked to one another, thanks to his recognized theory of evolution, and origin of species.

Extinction of some species were to happen no matter what; unrecorded or recorded by scientists.

What is evolution? Evolution is the permanent genetic modification over time.

-Yanira K. Wise, June, 2020

Links:

Collecting Evolution: The Galapagos Expedition that Vindicated Darwin by Matthew J. James

The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin

California Academy of Sciences

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ResearchGate: James M. Wise

Author´s page: James M. Wise

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