Disembodied duck feet helped Darwin make the case for evolution

Charles Darwin make out that making the case for evolution would involve more than just a good idea . . Darwin knew the mind of evolution would fall into discredit if any aspect of it was questionable . gratefully , dead duck feet provided the solvent to one of organic evolution ’s biggest mystery story .

The trouble was this : Why it was potential to find similar species of animal along the westerly sea-coast of Europe and the easterly coast of America ? Oceans had shew an impassible barrier for humans for thousands of years , but people in radically dissimilar locations spotted animals like squirrel , bears , and black eye , that were standardised to each other . Occasionally , they even feel identical works or beast on separate coasts . It ’s perceivable that like environmental condition might give rise to similar life descriptor , but Darwin could scarcely argue that many identical plants and brute evolve one by one by happenstance . He needed an account that was n’t “ God put them there . ”

And so Darwin embark on a series of experiments to gauge whether it was plausible that flora and animals could drift across ocean . Some of his experimentation were tame stuff : he put seeds in salinity water for different lengths of clip to see if they would still grow into a yield - bearing plant after weeks , or calendar month , in the urine ; he floated whole branches in the piddle to see how long it would take them to get waterlogged and drop down or disintegrate ; he studied ocean electric current and sea ocean trip time .

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Then he get weird . seed did n’t just float across the ocean — they were carried in the guts of birds . During Darwin ’s metre , bird droppings were recognized as a source of seeds , and plenty of birds migrated foresighted distance . Seed - eating razz crossed some stint of water , but they incline to chart most of their flying plan over land . Darwin was concerned in ocean voyages . Ocean - going shuttle were more carnivorous than their inland counterparts , but the fish they ate were n’t . So Darwin started his own little roofy of life . He force - run seeded player to fish , then force - fed Pisces to birds like pelicans and storks . Then he watch their droppings , planted the seeds , and wait for the results . One can only think his pleasure when many of the much - abused seeds sprouted .

The real coup de grâce came when Darwin decided to investigate the movements of freshwater snails . His possibility was that young snail would cling to the feet of ducks , which would vanish long distance . Snails could theoretically hop their elbow room across a continent , or even an ocean . Why he could n’t apply a whole duck’s egg for this experiment , I do n’t have intercourse — perhaps he had an aversion to them . At any rate , he opted for two dead duck foot . He dabble them in the water with young snail . for sure enough , the snails climbed aboard . Darwin admitted that these escargot could survive shorter journey than the seeds , some of which were viable after four month in salt water . The baby snails had to remain blotto with sweet water wherever the duck traveled . Still , he ’d shown that even fauna could make the hop from one continent to another … provided they still had their pegleg hop with .

[ ViaThe Monkey ’s Voyage ]

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