Walcott, the Burgess Shale and rumours of a post-Darwinian world

Conway Morris, Simon (2009) Walcott, the Burgess Shale and rumours of a post-Darwinian world. Current Biology, 19 (20). R927-R931. ISSN 0960-9822 DOI 10.1016/j.cub.2009.08.046

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Abstract

More than one of my colleagues has cast her eye round the packed conference room and then murmured sotte voce that, well, she was suffering just a little from Darwin fatigue. So too, more than one commentator has remarked how the bicentenary of his birth and the 150th anniversary of the Origin have completely outstripped any episode of previous rejoicing. And to play the curmudgeon one might wonder if our obsession with the centential and hemi-centential actually reflects a deeper schadenfreude, a loss of way, an eclipse of confidence. While evolutionary biologists caper round the Darwinian totem, other drum-rolls from Hades remind musicologists that Georg-Friedrich Händel (d. 1759), Joseph Haydn (d. 1809) and Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (b. 1809) must be dragged from their crepuscular retreats, while enthusiasts for Alfred Tennyson (b. 1809) listen anxiously for the creak of Charon's oars conveying their hero back for a brief exposure in the sunlit pastures.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	09AREP; IA59;
Subjects:	04 - Palaeobiology
Divisions:	04 - Palaeobiology
Journal or Publication Title:	Current Biology
Volume:	19
Page Range:	R927-R931
Identification Number:	10.1016/j.cub.2009.08.046
Depositing User:	Sarah Humbert
Date Deposited:	28 Nov 2009 12:28
Last Modified:	23 Jul 2013 09:56
URI:	http://eprints.esc.cam.ac.uk/id/eprint/1228

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