{"id":1214,"date":"2013-05-22T17:31:26","date_gmt":"2013-05-22T05:31:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2013\/05\/a_great_synopsis_of_evolution\/"},"modified":"2013-05-22T17:31:26","modified_gmt":"2013-05-22T05:31:26","slug":"a-great-synopsis-of-evolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2013\/05\/a-great-synopsis-of-evolution\/","title":{"rendered":"a great synopsis of evolution? no, i don’t think so"},"content":{"rendered":"

 The great & wonderful FB (<\/snark>) this morning delivered me a link to this video<\/a>, describing it as ‘a great depiction of the process of evolution’.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

 To which, having watched it, I can only say, ‘no, I don’t think so’.<\/p>\n

Why? Well, apart from the music (repetitive rap-style tracks don’t do a lot for me, but then I am a Grumpy Older Person, lol), the whole thing smacks of the old Scala Naturae<\/a> – the idea that evolution is a linear process. Which is anything but correct. A lot of the iconography of evolution <\/a>repeats this misconception, but that doesn’t make it right.<\/p>\n

And the video contributes to another misconception: that humans are the pinnacle of the evolutionary process. I mean, that’s pretty much all the second half of the video focuses on.<\/p>\n

As it happens, it looks like there are several different versions out there. The one below at least has a better handle on mammal evolution (I mean, it has Dimetrodon<\/i>!, but it still subscribes to those same misconceptions. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Which is rather a pity, really.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

 The great & wonderful FB (<\/snark>) this morning delivered me a link to this video, describing it as ‘a great depiction of the process of evolution’.  To which, having watched it, I can only say, ‘no, I don’t think so’. Why? Well, apart from the music (repetitive rap-style tracks don’t do a lot for me, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12],"yoast_head":"\na great synopsis of evolution? no, i don't think so : BioBlog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2013\/05\/a-great-synopsis-of-evolution\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"a great synopsis of evolution? no, i don't think so : BioBlog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\" The great & wonderful FB (<\/snark>) this morning delivered me a link to this video, describing it as ‘a great depiction of the process of evolution’.  To which, having watched it, I can only say, ‘no, I don’t think so’. 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