How’s Our Library Doing? Part 4

............... Chevaux de la grotte Chauvet (31 000 BP) ...............

Man and Neanderthal lived in Europe at the same time.

However, it doesn't seem that Neanderthal painted.

Click on the picture to get a better view.

Comment #2 to my blog of Saturday, April 14, 2007, “Let’s ask Leonardo” was gratifying insofar as Anonymous seemed to agree with the evolutionary point of view. Several of Anonymous’ points call for clarification. Anonymous said, “Many fossils of Homo sapians [sic] have been found all over the earth and researchers can prove the evolution of a neandrothal [sic] through the widening of the skull and the shortening of the mandible.”

Although it is somewhat ambiguous, I take the above statement to say that Homo sapiens (us folks) evolved from Neanderthal (Homo neanderthalensis). Presently there is scientific consensus that Cro-Magnon man (as Homo sapiens are called during this time frame) lived side by side in Europe with Neanderthal man. The implication is that neither Neanderthal evolved from humankind nor did humankind evolve from Neanderthal. They evolved from a common ancestor at some point in their evolutionary history.

Sadly, even supporters of evolutionary theory in the Evolution fact v. Creationism nonsense often hold very outmoded or incorrect notions. This allows a bit of an unwarranted handhold for Creationists in this ruckus (it certainly can’t be characterized as a debate).

Which brings me to our library. (What a weak segue, eh?) I recently saw a book on the Discard Pile (cost: 2 bits) at the checkout desk, "Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms: Essays on Natural History" by Stephen Jay Gould.

First let us talk about the Discard Pile. Libraries need to constantly cull their collections. There are several reasons: they buy a lot of popular fiction that no one wants to read a few years hence, they have non-fiction material that becomes outmoded, books wear out, books are donated that the librarian doesn’t want in the collection, etc. I certainly agree with the principle, particularly in a small community library.

Now let’s talk about the author, Stephen Jay Gould (died 2002), a long time professor at Harvard, and leading paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science. For many, many years Gould wrote a monthly essay for Natural History magazine. These essays have been gathered up and published on a regular basis. "Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms: Essays on Natural History" was one of these collections of essays. Gould was a great scientist, teacher, and writer. Amazon.com gives 268 results for Author: Stephen Jay Gould.

I bought the book from the discard heap and re-read it. (I first read it when it first appeared in our library in 1998.) I would have liked to refer Anonymous to an essay in this book called "Up Against a Wall". There Anonymous could have read a little bit about Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon co-existing in the time of the great cave-paintings at Lascaux and Chauvet. Sadly our library no longer owns this fine book. Happily, now I do. But, again happily, if you want to read this article you can! Thanks to Indiana’s libraries. Go to http://www.inspire.net/. Get your free Indiana account and Search For “Up against a wall”: Title AND “Gould, Stephen Jay”: Author in the Database: “Academic Search Elite”.

Generally I do not have any big disagreement with the Starke County Library’s discards. In this case, they made a definite mistake. If the library wants "Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms: Essays on Natural History" back, please e-mail me at knox.indiana@hotmail.com . I’ll drop it in the book return box.