Friday, March 20th, 2009

Darwin's Supporting Evidence

Field ecologist Bruce Means shows off an Eastern diamondback rattlesnake (Crotalus adamanteus) that he caught near Tallahassee, Fla. (Credits: Produced by Flora Lichtman) See More Videos

Everyone has heard of Darwin -- he gets most of the credit for the theory of evolution. And while he deserves to be recognized for his contributions, of course, he couldn't have gotten there on his own.

In this segment, we'll talk with biologist Sean Carroll about the flora, fauna, fossils, and scientists that, over the years, have helped to prove Darwin was right. In his new book, "Remarkable Creatures," he writes about the scientists and adventurers, both formally trained and self-taught, who inspired Darwin and helped provide support for his ideas. From Alexander Van Humboldt, to Alfred Russell Wallace, and Roy Chapman Andrews, they're names that you may not have heard, but whose contributions to science were enormous.

We'll also talk with naturalist Bruce Means about his recent discovery of a new family of frogs has Guyana, and about his work on this continent looking at the snakes and frogs of the Florida Panhandle. How many fantastic species are yet to be discovered in remote jungles -- and in the weeds behind your garden? We're broadcasting this week from the campus of Florida State University in Tallahassee, as part of the Origins '09 Symposium.

Guests

Sean B. Carroll
Author of "Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origin of Species" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009), "The Making of the Fittest" (2006, W.W. Norton) and of "Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo" (2005, W.W. Norton).
Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics
Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute
University of Wisconsin
Madison, Wisconsin

Bruce Means
Author, Stalking the Plumed Serpent and Other Adventures in Herpetology (Pineapple Press, 2008)
President and Executive Director, Coastal Plains Institute and Land Conservancy
Adjunct Professor, Department of Biological Science
Florida State University
Tallahassee, Florida

Related Links

Segment produced by:Annette Heist

Image: Fossil trilobites from Morocco.

Image: Stone age tools found in East Africa by Louis Leakey - it would be 31 years before he would find any remains of their makers

Image: Mary Leakey uncovering

Image: Roy Chapman Andrews with dinosaur egg nest in Gobi Desert

Image: Eugene Dubois extremely lucky, and hard earned, discovery of a skullcap from what we now call Homo erectus

Image: An Amazonian fish drawn by Alfred Wallace - one of the few items he salvaged from the shipwreck that took four years of collections to the bottom of the Atlantic.

Image: Megatherium - a giant fossil ground sloth Darwin uncovered on the coast of South America that inspired him to think about the geological relationship between the present and past inhabitants of that continent.