Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-08-26
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.

| smaller antelopeS naturally feed on
| grass-they don't need long necks for
that. But the longer-necked "gernuk"
| feeds on the leaves of bushes. and has
| to stretch up after them. He can stand
| on his hind legs and reach up double
his normal height. and, in thousands
| OF years, the longer the neck stretched,
the more food that animal got, and SO
| the long-necked individuals grew
strong and became a survival of the
| fittest." until distinct species, or at
least a variety. developed. So there
were first "Harnessed Antelopes."
then, when feed grew high, that high.
cost-Of-living developed longer necks
to reach it. and the result was Great
| er Kudus" and Giant Glands. And
there grew antelopes as big as Hol.
| stems. and quite as good to eat,
though too costly to raise on farms.
But in certain regions in Africa,
even the Giant Glands could not find
leaves in sufficient abundance. until,
through a million years or so, they
had stretched their necks longer and
longer and longer. and men began call
Ing them "giraffes," that being a more
elegant term than what is sometimes
applied to tourists. Giraffes eat the
| leaves Of tall timbers, for the foliage
| is closer than the grass beneath their
| feet.
To a scientist it is no offense to
term that sort of development 'Evolu-
tion," while a Fundamentalist farmer
| is at liberty to speak Of it simply as
breeding up"
y * X X
| In another case at the Museum
there are two CRATES, which stand
| some 20 feet high, and they have lips
which are formed to grasp the foliage
They can browse off Of trees 25 or 80
feet high.
Standing between these two giraffes
| Is most peculiar animal, which, for
want OF shorter name, is called a.
Baluchiterium. It has q. modified neck
| of giraffe. with a horn between it's
eyes like that Of a. rhineroceros and
striped hind quarters like ''Har-
| messed Antelope" Less than Is years
ago the most advanced scientist would
| have sided with the skeptical farmer
| In saying Of a Baluchiterium, what
the farmer said of its ancestor, the
giraffe: Call that Evolution if you
| are a biologist, or just cross breeding
II a farmer. It's all the same
Il X X X
The science OF biology had its roots
In the days of Aristotle, who began
classification of animals. But for
$500 years or longer it made no
progress. until in the time Of the
italian Renaissance, that great genius
painter and engineer and scientist
l-Leonardo da Vinci. suggested that
| there was evidence in the shells and
bones, and footprints found in the
rocks even upon mountain peaks,
which proved the previous existence
or animals or birds or fishes which no
longer could exist there.
That was the reawakening of in
terest in the sermons in stones
paleontology. 1t tells us that trop-
ical plants once grew in the Arctic
region, and elephants roamed the
plains Of America, and MOSES grew
like trees, until at last they lay de-
| caying In swamps to make coal for
twentieth century man. It tells us
that horses were no larger than COM
mon ours, and through the ages they
developed-or evolved-into beasts of
burden Weighing ton. The various
stages of that evolution are shown in
the National Museum, in relics Of
horse skeletons, from the Eocene
age to the present-the breeding up
| through millions of generations.
True biology began only a century
and half ago, when Culver laid it's
foundation in the science of paleontol-
ogy-the lore of the records in the
rocks and shells tracing animal life.
The first use of the term biology was
made by Lamarck in work pub
lished in 1901. Since then the science
has become one of the most important
in human culture. and has contrib
uted to mans knowledge Of breeding,
which means food production.
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