Tytuł: Life Stories
Autor(zy): Davit Attenborough
Rok wydania: 2009
Wydawnictwo: BBC Worldwide Limited
Dlaczego w bazie: Książka ta jest w gruncie rzeczy zapisem tekstowym opowieści jakie autor tworzył na potrzeby audycji radiowych (największą wartością dodaną względem po prostu wysłuchania wersji z radia są dodane strony z grafikami na dany temat). Żółwie elementy znaleźliśmy w rozdziale 19, zatytułowanym ” Collecting”, czyli Kolekcjonerstwo.
Pierwsza żółwia wzmianka dotyczy Lorda Waltera Rothschilda, który to zbierał rozmaitości, w tym żółwie.
In the nineteenth century, Lord Walter Rothschild, fuelled by his family wealth, assembled the biggest collection of natural history objects ever made by one man, paying over 400 collectors to scoop up things for him from all over the world. Giant tortoises, bird skins, birds eggs, butterflies, beetles, there seems to be no product of the natural world that he was unwilling to acquire.
Druga znaleziona wzmianka dotyczy Darwina i żółwi z Galapagos, tego jak naprowadziły go na jego sławną Teorię a zarazem nie mogły być użyte jako argument/dowód, bo nie notował z której wyspy jakiego żółwia/skorupę zdobył.
It may come as a consolation to some of us that on occasion even the great Darwin was less than perfect as a scientific collector. It’s said that the idea of natural selection was sparked in his mind by the claim made by a British resident in the Galapagos Islands that he could tell which island a giant tortoise had come from by the shape of the opening in the front of the shell through which the animal’s head emerges. Those on dry islands which lacked a reasonable turf on which to graze had front openings with a peak to them so that owners could crane their exceptionally long necks upwards and browse from the branches of tall plants.
Darwin certainly brought back several shells and skeletons of these extraordinary reptiles, but he had done the unforgivable; he had neglected to note which of them came from which island. So he couldn’t use them to illustrate his theory. Instead he had to base that on the mockingbirds that is assistant, Syms Covington, had not only collected but had meticulously labelled with their place of origin.
Dwie ostatnie wzmianki to podpisy pod zdjęciami, jedno przedstawia Lorda Rothschilda i wspomina o tym, że zbierał żółwie, drugie zaś to grupka żółwi z Galapagos w naturalnym środowisku. Pierwszego zdjęcia nie pokazujemy, bo nie ma nic żółwiego, drugie można zobaczyć poniżej.
Lord Rothschild collected living animals as well as dead specimens. He had a herd of giant tortoises and also keep zebra and trained them to pull the carriage in which he travelled occasionally in London.
A herd of giant Galapagos tortoises. Darwin failed to note the detail, critical for his theory, of which islands his specimens came from.
Autor: XYuriTT
