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JUNE 2001

VOLUME 110

NUMBER

FEATURES
OF GENES AND GENOMES
Halfway through this geneconscious year, Natural History

some small things with

looks at

big implications.

28 ARE GENES REAL?

NATHANIEL
3 8

C.

COMFORT

THE BEAST WITH

GENOMES

FIVE

LYNN MARGULIS
AND DORION SAGAN

42 SEX, ERRORS, AND

THE GENOME
MARK RIDLEY
5 2

BACTERIAL
REVELATIONS
ROBERTA FRIEDMAN

COVER

Our bodies have two kinds of

genomes.

Tiie larger

sequenced)

found

is

one (recently
in

the center of each

of our cells. But a different set of genes, of

bacterial ancestry, dwells in the

mitochondria, the

cells'

powerhouses. Our

innards and skin also host hundreds of

microbial species,

each with

genome.
Alexis

its

own

Artist

Rockman

adds mitochondria
(green ovals) and
bacteria (spirals

and rods) to

fanciful "portrait"

of our species.

FEATURES
DEPARTMENTS
8

UP FRONT
of the Small
and Obscure

Lifestyles

10 LETTERS
12 CONTRIBUTORS

14 FINDINGS
The Chimeric Self
]. LEE NELSON
18 IN SUM
20 CELESTIAL EVENTS
There Goes the Sun
RICHARD PANEK

A NOSE FOR ALL REASONS

BORN TO BE TAME

A sampler of various

Trusting, hand-raised birds

and

versatile snouts

LAWRENCE

M.

WITMER

go to desert survival school.

YOLANDA VAN HEEZIK AND

21 THE SKY IN JUNE

JOE RAO
22 THIS LAND

How the West Was Swum

RICHARD L. ORNDORFF,
ROBERT W. WIEDER, AND
HARRY F. FILKORN

PHILIP SEDDON

26 BIOMECHANICS

The Lobster's VioUn

ADAM SUMMERS
72 IN THE FIELD
Arctic Fires

PETER

J.

MARCHAND

78 REVIEW

Among the Hominids

JOHN VAN COUVERING

Hardball

79 nature.net
Biology's Giant Leap

ROBERT ANDERSON
80 BOOKSHELF

MUSEUM EVENTS
84 THE NATURAL MOMENT
82

Woodworks
PHOTOGRAPHS BY
JIM BRANDENBURG
86 ENDPAPER

Would Darwin Get

Grant Today?
T. V.

Visit our

RAJAN

Web

site at

wurw. naturalhistory. com

Ck

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,

NATURAL HISTORY 6/01

UP FRONT

of the

lifestyles

The magazini of the

American Museum of Natural History

Small and Obscure

Ellen Goldensohn
Rebecca B.

Editor in Chief

Maire Crowe

Finnel]

Managing Editor

Executive Editor

Science, a product of the

human mind,

huinan ego. Copernicus removed us from the center of the

solar system.

Darwin

on

displaced us from near-angelic status by sticking us

ordinary,

though

relatively

new and

Thomas Page

has delivered repeated blows to the

Board of Editors

Jenny Lawrence, Vittorio Maestro, Richard Milner,

a quite

Judy Rice, Kay Zakanasen

in a nondescript corner

Project.

When

a draft

us that the

Milky

Way

is

an undistinguished galaxy

of the universe. Then came the

Thomas

Human Genome

nematode

Of course,

Barbie Bischof Research Editor

Merle Okada

Mark A. Furlong

Denise Clappi

gene-

Edgar

Jessica

their attention to

as

Fuljtlltnent

Gladys Rivera Assistant

Suzanne Kato

Circulation Assistant

Neui yorl^Mctiocorp Marketing (212) 972-1157

organisms

bacteria

deserve the limelight.

life

billion years

&

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886-4399
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For subscription information,

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photosynthesis in animals and plants. (Plants and animals, including humans,

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Lynn Marguhs and Dorion

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OF Natural History

and going on to do the jobs of respiration and

carry bacterial descendants in each

call

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made complex

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Coordinator

Advertising Sales Representatives

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ago, they

Publisher

to the

Monique Berkley Advertising

the

arguably the most

About 2

Manager

Jennifer Stagnari Pronwtion Director

most abundant (and

on Earth,

Manager

Advertising Production

E. Alvarez Circulation Manager

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genomes typically have

between 1,500 and

And

Director of Manufacturing

Waites Senior Account Manager

Mackin

Ramon

whose

4,000 genes.

PubUsher

Harrison National Advertising Manager

L.

Soma W.

have devoted most of

influential)

Interns

Judy Lee-Buller General Aianager

do bruise

sequencing professionals

bacteria,

Weir

L.

Gale Page Consumer Marketing Director

but

vanity.
far,

Assistant to the Editor

Judy Jacobson, Kirsten

numbers

these findings

So

Editors

(22,000).

aren't everything,

our

Managing

Rosinski Assistant Designer

Carol Barnette Editorial Coordinator

Associate

Flora Rodriguez Picture Coordinator

of our genome was pubHshed in February of this year,

we learned that we don't even have as many genes as we thought we did.

The estimated 100,000 was pared down to a mere 33,000 not all that
much bigger than the genome of a mouse (28,000), a fruit fly (23,000), or

into larger cells

(Pictures)

green, branch of the animal family tree.

Michel DeMatteis. Avis Lang

Edwin Hubble informed

Designer

An institution dedicated to

linderstanding and preserving

biological and cultural orversity

Sagan explain in "The Beast With Five Genomes," page 38.)

Genomic studies can tell us something about how bacteria behave in

human bodies and other habitats. Turn to "Bacterial Revelations" (page
for

new

insights into the obscure lifestyles

tuberculosis bacillus, the typhus pathogen,

Prochlorococais marinns, the world's smallest

bacterium.

Ellen Goldemohii

of several germs

Lewis W. Bernard Chainmn, Board of Trustees

Ellen

NiUmil

including the

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10

NATURAL HISTORY

6/0

LETTERS

"The Scavenging of 'Peking

Man,' " by Noel T. Boaz
and Russell
(3/01),

was

Cottonwood Creek near

Hamilton Dome.

occurred in the absence of

good job of
highlighting the two sides of

human

That was

the anti-aging debate, but

Steve Leece

what

was about,

his description

Bagnio City, Philippines

so

outstanding petroglyphs

Pioneers!

L.

Ciochon

fascinating.

rapid cHmate change has

at

on cow bones fed

captive hyenas

the article

were

states,

to

not, as

pioneering.

WilHam Buckland,

the

first

article

clearly

do not "blame

humanity" for

However, Helmuth Zapfe's

studies

activity.

my

Scott Wing

change. That

replies:

"Paleontology heaven"
the best

greenhouse gases to the

have heard for

The

professor of geology at the

the Bighorn Basin.

University of Oxford,

Paleocene and Eocene

atmosphere through
activities

fossils

that we study are

Cody and other towns

is

and documented, and

and rocks

not aware of any

experiments in Oxford in

near

who

1821 by feeding ox bones to

in the central portion of the

hyena in

traveUng

menagerie.

Within

basin.

He compared

the fragmented bones with

locations.

these are

in England,

which he

rivers,

Almost

most

be

where recent

sediments tend to cover the

time, a

amount

that will

flats,

that

their $300 bet wQI have

become $500 million in the
year 2150. Not Ukely Eight

percent rather than 10

percent annual interest

is

probably more reaHstic, and

that yields a more modest

Figuring in 3 percent
inflation,

much

we wind up with

less iinpressive

$450,000

150

sagebrush

the

exact

miracle of compounding.

figure of $30 milhon.

earth's

generated, the possible role

ancient hyena dens

at

scientists

dry creeks, and

interpreted as having been

The

of warming

of

all

am

lead to an increase in

surface.

away from major

dispute that these gases

temperature near the

that area are

HteraUy thousands of fossil

bones found in various caves

human

well measured

conducted the same

of a bet with

Olshansky overstates the

The author reckons

the

addition of CO2 and other

is

two-word

description

cHmate

all

said,

(4/01), does a

at

the end of those

years.

Stuart Robinson
via e-mail

older rocks.

controversial

Steven Austad

view. Buckland published

Wing

engravings of the bones. His

Scott

work and experimental

writes of the

approach were truly

warming

interest

matter-of-factly

Eocene

rapid as the one

pioneering.

as

Neville Haile

humans

Oxford, England

and experience."

difference in our interest-

we

rate

beHeve there

is

of countervailing

don't

enough

assumptions leads to

Stuart Robinson's

about to cause

are

pretty evident,

is

given that a mere 2 percent

global

being "perhaps

as

replies:

miracle of compound

The

...and Hell

detailed comparative

and the

effects

factors,

of climate

my wager as
mere $30 milhon,

calculation of

yielding a

Heaven .
Could authors Scott L.
Wing ("Hot Times in the

evidence to support such a

change on plants and

strong indictment of

animals are poorly

compared with my estimate

of $500 milHon (or more

humanity. There have been

understood

than $7 biUion

Bighorn Basm," 4/01) and

many

That's

Kenneth D. Rose
("Wyoming's Garden of

ages in the
years

Eden," 4/01) be

and cooHng

more
the

a Httle

specific as to

Bighorn Basin

studies take place?

is

where

in

other documented ice

last

and rapid warming

that httle, if anything,

their

is

The

known about what

basin

paleontology heaven, with

excellent outcroppings of

cHmate change
and

spells in the

The

fact
is

causes

cHmatic change on a large

scale.

one reason why

research into the history of

100,000

interglacial periods.

at present.

To blame humanity

is

important

why working on

problems

is

these

prudent planet

rate

is

guide, has as

$500

is,

very

httle.

Regardless

of inflation, $30 miUion or

mMon or $7 bilhon

ought to

at least

buy

harsh and premature.

Precambrian to Tertiary age

Kent K. Smith

Steven N. Austad's review of

the

Tlie Qtiest for Immortality:

farsighted ancestor.

Wind

River Canyon,

via e-mail

the southernmost part of

the basin, to huge dinosaur

finds in Therinopolis

and

my

descendants a good night on

everything from

at

as a

much

Interesting Point

in the

guess, using

crediblhty as Robinson's

whether we admit

or not.

my

seventy years of history

that

it

2 percent higher).

trust that

management the business

we humans are getting into,
is

if the interest

town

to celebrate their

Science at the Frontiers of

Scott Wing

replies:

Smith correctly

Kent

states that

Aging,

by

S.

Jay Olshansky

and Bruce A. Carnes

Natural History's e-mail

address

is

nhmag@amnh.org.

1^

r:

Tickets

And

If

now

Space Show, featuring the largest ffHIiPFellity simulator in the world.

more down-to-earth adventures, explore'fhe other 45 halls of the Museum.

available for the

you're looking for

Call212-769-5200orvisitwww.amnh.org

Central Park
"j

West at 79th

Street

P. and Sandra P. Rose, Richard Gilder, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman, David S. and Ruth L. Gottesman, and
Support for the Hayden Planetarium has been provided by a generous grant from the Charles Hayden Foundation, Public support of the Rose Center has been

the Rose Center have been provided by Frederick

Vork, the City of New York, Office of the Mayor, the Speaker and the Council of the City of New York, and the Office of the Manhattan Borough President.
:-rogramming support has been provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Major support from Easti 'an Kodak Company.

'.<;.'/
-:

12

NATURAL HISTORY

6/0

CONTRIBUTORS
As

a graduate student in genetics at the University

of Wisconsin, Lynn MarguUs

("The Beast With Five Genomes," page 38) learned about "cytoplasmic genes" such
and recognized that they belonged to
as those that determine green color in plants

microbes that were once

Now a Distinguished University Professor at the

free living.

University of Massachusetts Amherst, she

exploring the impHcations of such

is still

ancient mergers. Margulis has collaborated with writer Doiion Sagan on numerous
books, including Slanted Truths: Essays on Gaia, Symbiosis and Euolution (Springer- Verlag, 2001). Then- collaborative
is

accessible at www.sciencewriters.org.

Mark Ridley

("Sex, Errors, and the

Sagan

is

now

coauthoring

Genome," page 42)

book on

started gravitating

by famed marine

natural sciences in his midteens, after hearing a lecture

toward

a career in the

biologist AHstair Hardy.

Ridley's fascination with genes and evolution developed at the University of Oxford,
first

encountered the ideas of Richard Dawkins.

department, Ridley
2001). Despite his

such

as

is

work

the evolution of inteUigence.

Now himself a researcher in

where he

Oxford's zoology

the author of several books, including Tlie Cooperative Gene (Free Press,

penchant for theory Ridley

enjoys old-fashioned natural-history pursuits

still

identifying birds, bugs, and flowers.

New York City.

Roberta Friedman ("Bacterial Revelations," page 52) grew up in Queens,

received her Ph.D. in pharmacology from Vanderbilt University in Tennessee,

much

researched the neurotransmitter serotonin, but reaHzed that she

research to carrying

it

out. For the past fifteen years, she has written

for a variety of publications.

A resident of Santa Cruz,

science for children, inspired lately

pottery and hopes to set up her

by her three boys.

own

She

where she

preferred writing about

on

science and medicine

CaUfornia, Friedman has also written

Now ready for a third career,

on

she makes

studio soon.

Yolanda van Heezik and Philip Seddon ("Born to Be Tame," page 58), coauthors and spouses,
spent nine years at the National Wildhfe Research Center in Taif Saudi Arabia, helping to
reintroduce houbara bustards into the desert. The pair met at the University of Otago in New
Zealand, where both did their doctoral work.
for the

November 1997

issue

old son, Connor, Heezik

wildlife

oi Natural

(left) is

management program

at

the

a lecturer in

Now back in New

zoology and Seddon

in

South Africa

Zealand with their four-year(see

page 61)

the University of Otago. Sophie the fox

United Arab Emirates and may soon embark on

the-art captive breeding facihty in the

Associate professor of anatomy

at

They wrote about jackass penguins

History.

Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine

new

now

is

director of the

Uves "in a state-of-

career

as a

mother."

in

Athens, Lawrence M. Witmer ("A Nose for AH Reasons," page 64) has "one foot in the
Mesozoic and the other in the present, studying Hving species to learn about dinosaurs and
other extinct beasts." To that end, he has made CAT scans of everything from tapirs to Allosaurus
and, with his students, dissected all sorts of animals (currently in the freezer are two rhinoceros
heads,

two manatee heads, monitor Hzards, seals, and birds). To colleagues

coming from his lab, he repHes, "Sometimes science stinks."

who

complain about

the odor

After two decades of traveUng

on assignment

("The Natural Moment," page 84) decided

native Minnesota.

Coming upon

reports, than did his

for National Geographic, photographer

to setde

down

a million-acre

the tracks of a wolf or a lynx gives

former adventures in the

Namib

Desert or the

Brandenburg's books include Wliite Wolf. Living With an

estabhshed a nonprofit gallery of his

and preserving the

next to

work

taUgrass prairie near his

in his

Arctic

wilderness in his

him even more

forests

there (see

pleasure,

he

of Manchuria.

Legend (Northword

hometown of Luverne;

boyhood farm

Jim Brandenburg

Press).

He

has

the proceeds go to acquiring

wwwjimbrandenburg.com).

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14

NATURAL HISTORY

6/01

FINDINGS

CHIMERIC
SELF
Cellular traffic

mother and

between

fetus raises

questions about the causes of

autoimmune

disease.

Lee Nelson

B\/ J.

One

self.

There

of immunology is why the

body of a pregnant woman

that

rheumatoid

doesn't reject her fetus. After

immune

all,

our

system evolved to keep for-

eigners out, to maintain a clear distinction

between

years,

no evidence,

of the unsolved mysteries

self

and other. In recent

the mystery deepened

re-

as

is

arthritis sufferers

had

anything wrong with their joints, or

with the

tissues

might have led

ease; their

Hning the

joints, that

to the onset

of the

dis-

bodies appear to have simply

turned on themselves.

The

indefinite

persistence of fetal cells in a

me

searchers learned that fetal cells get into

body, however, led

the maternal bloodstream during preg-

so-called

nancy and, what's more, may

triggered by foreign

stay there

for example,

autoimmune

woman's

to ask if
diseases

cells,

some

may be

specifically

for decades, perhaps indefmitely.

What

by

how we

think

body. After several years of looking into

might

this

mean

for

about autoimmune disease?

The
nity

is

tity: a

son,

traditional

that

this question,

view of autoimmu-

a case

of mistaken iden-

body, often for no apparent rea-

fails

tissues

it is

to recognize soine ot

fetal cells

its

own

and mounts an attack against

it-

present in the mother's

recently proposed that

head of a hon, the body of a

the

tail

populations of

a fire-breathing creature

with the

refers to

derived from an-

grand but, to

a less

researchers like myself, equally

pelling notion.
to exist
cells is

when

Microchimerism
the

very low

than one foreign

host

gest

comis

said

number of nonhost
(for

example, fewer

cell for

every million

cells).

One
a

observation that led

me

that these illnesses

familiar

arthritis,

to sug-

connection between micro-

chimerism and autoimmune

most

was

cells

other individual

croscopic

Greek mythology, the chimera

term "chimerism"

an organism whose body contains

was

In

and

of a serpent. In modern medi-

cine, the

what we may be dealing with, in tact, is

a kind of chimerism, though on a miscale.

goat,

diseases

among

the

of which are rheumatoid

systemic lupus erythematosus,

and multiple

sclerosis

usually afflict


nancy was an obvious one, and
are uniquely subject to a

was in-

took blood samples from two groups of

women

women:

trigued by the possibiUty that

kind of reverse

and

children,

well

as

as

women who have never been pregnant,

also

develop autoimmune diseases, but

microchimerism could play

a role

these populations as well, because there

ways people may wind up,

are several

perhaps

with

indefinitely,

that

cells

turns out that the donor's longer-

lived,

nucleated white blood

persist

within the recipient.

Further sparking

cells

of greater than ten to one. Fur-

many of these

most often

my interest was

cirrhosis

biliary

and destruction of the

derma
skin

(inflammation

Hver),

and

sclero-

(progressive hardening of the

and internal organs).

eases hit earlier in

differences

life,

between

If these dis-

when hormonal

men and women

are so striking, the logical assumption

would be

somehow

that

sex

implicated.

cause they tend to

(often

But

come on

developing

not

menopausej,

hormones were

in part

be-

later in life

women

carrying a normal male

Working with

fetus.

skin biopsy sam-

other investigators subsequently

ples,

produced

similar results.

As exciting

as

these results were, the

DNA

who undergo bone

able to detect fetal cells

transplantation often

known

as

systems of

chronic

healthy

symp-

smaller

numbers

autoimmune

then,

do

but not others?

Much

of

my own

research

done

Fred Hutchinson

begins with hardening ot the

illness

skin

on

the fingers and toes and slowly

marches to the arms,

trunk.

legs,

face,

and

Advanced hardening can

and the loss of fingers or

result

in skin ulcers
toes.

No

treatment exists to reverse

scleroderma, and

when

it

moves

to the

digestive system, kidneys, heart,

after

lungs,

looked for other

diffcr-

To

it is

often

and

microchimerism

in scleroderma,

answer,

of

we

present in

the

in

sick

Why,
may be

cells

instances of disease

beheve,

in the

lies

genetic relationship between a mother

and her child,

closely matched

specifically
their

Present in almost
cells

all

crucial part of our

vital to the

HLA

in

how

genes

are.

the nucleated

HLA

in our body,

genes are

immune

system,

body's ability to distinguish

from other. A clear mismatch between the HLA genes of a pregnant

woman and her fetus appears to be a
good thing, because the mother's imself

mune

system will then have no trouble

recognizing
that

may

stream.

as

foreign any fetal

cross over into her

If

genes are

fatal.

investigate the possible role

The

than

some

most often when the donor's

recipient's.

tested

think that such

implicated in

not perfectly matched to the

the

there nonetheless.

of scleroderma. This syndrome occurs

cells are

women we

women, but

especially those

By
we were
immune

more than 60 percent of the

toms very much Hke those of certain

diseases,

not

is

sufficient to explain scleroderma.

(stem

until

ences between males and females. Preg-

exceeded those found in preg-

patients

cell)

their

yet the levels of

marrow

Cancer Research
Center in Seattle and with Diana
Bianchi and her team at the New England Medical Center in Boston
has
focused on scleroderma. This insidious

flammation of the thyroid gland), pri-

had borne

earlier,

DNA in some of the scleroderma

patients

nant

of

women. The

phoma

Three

age.

in our studies

many years

male

maximum

healthy

the

using very sensitive techniques,

in collaboration with colleagues at the

such examples are thyroiditis (an in-

mary

the

diseases strike

middle

in late

can

sons

sixty-one male

as

mere presence of foreign

graft-versus-host disease, with

thermore,

many

as

leukemia and lym-

develop a syndrome

ratios

equivalent to

that

knowledge

at

greater in the scleroderma patients

women

can occur between twins in

detect

test to

blespoon of blood was significantly

into the developing fetus. In addition,

Blood transfusions are another

pathway for cell transfer: although the
which have no
donor's red blood cells
nucleus and are short-Hved are soon
cleared from the recipient's circulation,

more women than men, sometimes

that

simple

compared with

it

had

DNA in a female host). We found

the amount of male DNA in a ta-

in

for

utero.

b.c.

of

availability

male

two

women

of sons were chosen because of the

cells,

own. During pregnancy,

cell transfer

irezzo chimera, bronze, sixth century

ers

instance, the mother's cells can also pass

aren't their

and

patients

previously given birth to a son (moth-

inheritance from their children.

Men

scleroderma

healthy "controls." All the

maternal and

a perfect

ments from one

not be

match,

fetal
cell

cells

blood-

HLA
move-

to the other will also

problem, since there would in

NATURAL HISTORY

16

6/01

be nothing foreign to worry

about. But what if, my colleagues and

preliminary report, in the salivary

The

glands of some patients with Sjogren's,

human

wondered, the HLA genes of

mother and child are not identical but
very similar? Might this make it easier

or sicca, syndrome (in which inflam-

frontier.

results in dry eyes and a dry

mouth) and in the livers of patients
with primary biliary cirrhosis (although, complicating matters, it was
also frequently found in the hvers of
patients with other non-autoimmune
diseases). Furthermore, two recent papers on myositis, a degenerative mus-

me

fact

for the foreign cells to slip past the

immune

mother's

and remain

somehow

system undetected

might

active? If so,

put the mother

this

at risk

of

developing an autoimmune disease

later in hfe?

To

we looked

find out,

HLA

the

at

genes of women with scleroderma and

fusing

because

many

variations

comes

who

has

ther

who

sake,

from

il-

mother

B and

and

and

many more

course,

a fa-

(in reahty,

genes than

of

this are

mother and the

pass on the A gene,
with its two A

involved). If both the

father

happen

then

the

genes

to

fetus

will not

mother,

who

seem foreign

has an

to the

gene of her

however, the mother's

gene will

HLA B

HLA-DRBl,

we

gene

autoimmune

found was
tients

whom

to

be in-

many
What we

scleroderma pa-

as in

likely than

to have given

whose

HLA-DRBl

genes were very similar to

when,

theirs.

And

the hypothetical example

above, foreignness existed only from

perspective

the

of the

mother then appeared

as

to

the

child,

run

as

much

nineteen-fold risk of developing

Fetal cells

and

fetal

DNA

been found by researchers

ing other
well

nal

or mater-

fetal

cells

neither detri-

mental nor neutral, but beneficial.

Some

studies, for instance,

have sug-

once

that

woman

has

birth, she

may

have

given

reduced

in fact

of

risk

we

autoimmune

were scleroderma

sufferers

and

have

investigat-

diseases

for example, according to

as

one

gating the possibility that reverse in-

may be

heritance

when

fetal

providing some pro-

And we

tection here.

have found that

and maternal

mismatched

cells are

ge-

way, a

into offspring, suggesting that mater-

remission from the disease during her

nal cells could be involved in this dis-

pregnancy.

netically

autoimmune

indeed involved

disease,

cellular transfer

why

is

there

The most

and the onset of ill-

likely explanation

that these cells may,

is

under the right ge-

netic circumstances, predispose a per-

son to an

but that some kind of

illness,

triggering event

exposure
example,
must

fectious agent, for

ronmental toxin

to an in-

or an envi-

occur in

also

order for the disease to develop.

At

this stage,

one person's

we

cells

don't yet

attack

damage

on host

cells

know Iww

cause malfunctions in

the body of another.

likely that

in a particular

already has rheu-

may sometimes enjoy

arthritis

Future research will undoubtedly

If foreign cells are

in

woman who

matoid

ease as well.

eign

devastating disease.

this

whether
may sometimes be

eign

others not. Other researchers have

found they could induce lupus in laboratory mice by injecting parental cells

ness?

were healthy mothers

some of

nal cells in adult children,

known

were nine times more

Our

disease than in those without.

of

illnesses.

striking:

birth to a child

exclusive) possibilities. Persistent for-

toid arthritis, and

scleroderma team has detected mater-

concentrated on

volved in scleroderma and in

other

at least

however,

are,

other interesting (and not mutually

uniquely subject

often such a long lag between the time

register as foreign.

In this study,

There

diseases.

their children.

own. From the point of view of the

fetus,

from

are currently investi-

imagine

HL^i genes
has

be an important factor in

to

be-

quickly

cells

to another will prove

developing rheuma-

matter of perspective. For

this

movement of

that the

one individual

some

new

is

research has convinced

of reverse inheritance

to a kind

mismatched genes. "For-

lustration's

with

in children

cells

more

My

the

ot

on the
theme of matched and
eignness"

maternal

Women are

be con-

studies can

cle condition, reported finding

health and disease

gested

those of their children.

Such

mation

study of microchimerism in

We

results

tissues

think

from

it

less

reveal

much more about

traffic

between mother and

cluding whether

crochimerism
side effect

the cellular
fetus,

in-

form of mi-

this

simply an unavoidable

is

of pregnancy or whether

if

beneficial effects should prove to out-

weigh the negative ones

tually

it

might ac-

have been the target of natural se-

lection.

Obstetricians

may never

feel

the need to hand out pamphlets entitled

"Warning: The genes you don't inherit
may be harmflil to your health." But

one thing

certain:

is

old question

microchimerism

new light on
"Who am I?"

research has shed

the age-

a direct

than that the for-

operate hke a computer virus,

J.

Lee Nelson

Program

of

is

an associate member

Human

Innmmogenetics

in the

at the

disrupting the sensitive network of

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

communication between

and an

ble for

immune

of the host.

cells

responsi-

regulation in the

body

associate professor in the Division

Rheumatology of
ington, Seattle.

the University of

of

Wash-

'

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18

NATURAL HISTORY

6/01

SUM

IN

SNAKY FAKERY

According to a theory of

mimicry promulgated by English Victorian natu-

Dependent Batesian Mimicry," Nature 410,

2001) Richard

.)

IS'

Henry Walter Bates, some harmless crea-

ralist

tures warn

away predators by evolving

a strong

resemblance to poisonous ones. Thus, several

venomous

kinds of king snakes mimic the

coral

EAU DE GENES

Scientists

and lovers

have long known that fragrance plays a

alike

role in

sexual communication. Now, research done by

snake's distinctive pattern of alternating red,

Manfred Milinski and Claus Wedekind while

and yellow or white bands. Now an ex-

they were at the Universitat Bern in Switzer-

black,

perimental field study has demonstrated that

land suggests

the king snakes can get away with the charade

for

only

'^Xhimpanzee with hyrax

Milner

coral snakes inhabit the

if

same

some evolutionary explanations

odor preferences.

locality.

set of genes involved in both scent recog-

immunity to infection

nition and conferring

known
(MHC)

as the major histocompatibility

is

complex

widespread in vertebrates. Both mice

and humans, for example, have been shown to

prefer the

MHC genotypes

and men to assess various scents, indicating

southeastern corner, hunt much less frequently

whether they would

and prey only on tree pangolins.

"like to smell like that"

lation

like

to smell

between the subjects' own MHC genes

leagues from Kyoto University in Japan have

but

captured and killed western tree hyraxes but

relation for fragrances they selected for po-

did not eat them. At Bossou, they recently ob-

served a mixed-sex group, including the alpha

tential partners.

The researchers believe that people prefer

Hill,

and colleagues predicted that the pro-

fragrances that amplify rather than

tective effect of looking like a coral snake

their natural body odor.

in areas

where the genuine

was absent. The researchers placed

article

total of 1,200 plasticine models of snakes at

woodland and desert locales

forty different

two wilderness

areas,

one

in

in

Arizona and an-

MHC genes
uals

are dissimilar to their own, individ-

may reduce inbreeding

bility to ceri:ain diseases.

as well as suscepti-

("Evidence for

skunks, or bears bit the models, they

marks

in

left

tooth

the plasticine.

snake mimics within the ranges of real coral

Pfennig believes that predators in

tall tree.

Humans,"

Weir

then slamming

live hyrax,

branches.

PLAY OR PREY

if there's

one fact emerg-

ing from all the field studies of chimpanzees,

air,

tures") differ widely from place to place.

Com-

munities vary in their greeting behavior, use of

tools,

and food preferences. Because chimps

these areas have developed an innate avoid-

are so closely related to

ance of snakes with bright-colored band pat-

carefully

us,

primatologists

against the tree's

An eight-year-old female soon got

and carried

tree nest,
all

it.

She

swung

it in

the

finally settled into a

where she slept with the dead hyrax

night; the next morning, she

groomed

around, and eventually let

it

its

drop

to the ground.

Although chimps at Mahale do consume

it

that chimp behavior and customs ("cul-

it

hold of the motionless carcass,

fur, carried it

is

Since there were far fewer attacks on king

snakes.

MHC-

and half were placed out-

raccoons, coatis, foxes, coyotes,

out of a

was seen moving through a tree swinging a

mates, and by selecting partners whose

Behaviorai Ecology 12, Z001)Kirsten

When

fell

that broadcast their genetic makeup to potential

Correlated Perfume Preferences in

it.

male, scream excitedly and then attack a hyrax

that

In another incident, an adolescent male

other in North and South Carolina. About half

coral snake territory,

mask

By using perfumes

the models in each area were placed inside

side

reported incidents in which chimps at Bossou

a negative cor-

themselves

would break down

other

Satoshi Hirata, Gen Yamakoshi, and col-

was a positive

a partner. There

and the scents they chose for

David W. Pfen->

Still

communities are almost entirely vegetarian.

corre-

them on

of North Carolina at Chapel

while

other chimp groups at Bossou, in Guinea's

themselves or whether they would

the University

mammals and eat them,

ent species of

different from their own.

and Wedekind asked both women

Milinski

nig, of

body odor of partners that possess

hyraxes, those at Bossou either let

kill

them go or

them without eating them. Bossou chimps,

which only

rarely interact with hyraxes, appar-

ently do not consider

them

prey. For further in-

formation, go to www.pri.kyoto-u.ac.jp/chimp

document any unusual behavior.

/Bossou/Bossou.html. ("Capturing and Toying

acquire their in-

One recurrent question concerns the extent

With Hyraxes (Dendrohyrax dorsalis) by Wild

stinctive fear remains a question, as a single

of ape carnivory. Observers have verified that

Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) at Bossou,

Mahale Mountains Wild-

Guinea," American Journal of Primatology 53,

terns.

How

these

mammals

well

remove the

"learner" from the gene pool.

("Frequency-

coral

snake

bite

might

chimp populations
life

at

Research Centre in Tanzania

kill

ten differ-

2001) Richard

Milner

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March

13

- April

6,

2002

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20 NATURAL HISTORY 6/01

your Hfetime, chances are

CELESTIAL EVENTS

you are going to have to

go to

it.

Which helps explain

why echpse cruises and
land expeditions have

and the

become popular

best such tours not only

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you

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on what

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to

totaHty

arrives. That's

not to say

that the eclipse cruise

took in 1999 didn't have a

casino or an onboard

"The

featuring

Ipanema"

in

its

Girl

band

From

repertoire.

Nor was

every passenger

"chasing

totality," as

echpse veterans hke to

There Goes the Sun

Witnessing an eclipse today

may not be

preparatory briefing in
favor of a napkin-folding

the mystical

tutorial. Still, those

experience

it

once was, but

it's

no

less

impressive.

who

good look

tour organizers were billing

cruise ship's official guides

total solar

was saying, "you won't be

solar ecHpses

your

one of the

People

family.

People scream. People babble."

unofficial guide

planetarium back

An

the director of a

and one

in the States

of our fellow passengers

had

more

occur on average about

once every other

them seem

year.

What makes

so rare, however,

is

You can

Moon

happen

what we were about

right place at the right time.

equate

it

possibly Hve
billing?

cruise

The

natural event (even love)

up

widest, and the right time

to such

place

advance

passengers aboard

on the Black Sea

in

a special

August

1999 were about to find out

as will

people taking similar sea cruises or

land expeditions in Afi-ica this

when

the

to

shadow

with love."

Can any

if you

moon

once again

month,

totally

eclipses the Sun.

Such an event

particularly rare.

UnUke

isn't

spectacular

one seconds.

itself

the path of the

several

at

minutes

less.

at a

Weather. After the edge of the

Moon

meets the edge of the Sun, the

temperature

may begin

Aboard our

to drop
ship, idling in

noticeably.

totaHty

the August heat of the Black Sea,

the longest and usually

ecHpse will be visible

phenomena any

at its

can be seven minutes, thirty-

one seconds
lasts

right

Moon's umbral

170 miles across

is

the

anticipate are

be in the

The

last

observer of a total solar ecUpse can

precisely superimposing itself upon the

Sun only

"the

out of our two minutes and twenty-

Among

witness the

as

ecHpse of the millennium"

found ourselves trying to get the most

inaccessibility.

frankly romantic interpretation of

to experience: "I

their

what some

only once or twice a decade, total

able to describe to
cry.

at

comets, which tend to streak into view

you'll see,"

of us

did go to the middle

of the Black Sea for

By Richard Panek

What

say:

on the morning of the

main event, fifteen
passengers passed up the
final and most extensive

total solar

given place

21 F altogether, to 83

it fell

at totahty.

Shadow. Just before the beginning

of totahty, the shadow of the Moon
wlU

visibly race across the landscape

our

calm surface of the

on Earth only once about eveiy 375

years on average, so if you want to see
any of the three dozen or so such

in

events that are going to occur during

of the Sun poke through the valleys

case, the

from

sea

the west.

Baily's beads.

When

the

last rays

Sun

along the perimeter of the Moon's

disk,

not without

is

iiineteenth-centur\' British amateur

astronomer Francis Baily described

as

"a string of bright beads."

its

whether

applications,

they create an effect that

Sun

scientific

the spectacle that minutes earlier

had awed everyone

Arthur

it's

continued

to

Eddington using photographic images

play itself out, only in reverse, hardly

of the 1919 ecHpse to help vaHdate

anyone paid attention. The band

Einstein's general theory

resumed playing; the totaHty chasers

of relativity

or today's astronomers monitoring the

drank champagne and danced. Off to

Daily's

bead appears together with the

event to view the corona, the highly

one

\'-isible

band formed by the

ionized gases surrounding the Sun.

of astronomy and anthropology

But the psychological impact of seeing

Colgate University and one of the

Diamond-ring

The

effect.

final

solar

corona.

the perfect

Wildlife. Birds and beasts will be

responding, perhaps starting to bed

Sun

down

visible

for the "night" as the sunlight

dims. But the response of human

beings will be no

less

our

my

As

notable.

Moon

and

is

what

"The Sky

And

yourself that

that the

impact of a solar ecHpse

you

but

do.

And

then you understand

people shootuig arrows

To be

at

Moon."

the

ecHpse of the

sure, a total

midHne.

need any evidence

alter totaHty.

Moon

of the

As the

What a bunch of eclipse

we are!"

hypocrites

is

sight

creeping across the

Richard Panek

Our

is

How

Believing:

the author of Seeing

Eyes and Minds to the Heavens

(Penguin, 1999).

By Joe Rao

Mercury swings between Earth and the

this

month, reaching

month

as their target

Mercury

for

not

is

fliU

hunters,

wiU be cloaked by the

weU to the right ot an almost

Moon, rising together with it on
6th. By the 13th the fiery planet

the

rises as

blinding solar glare.

end,

the

it is

Sun

sets,

already

and by month's

weU above

southeastern horizon

Venus, by

far the brightest

planets, rises every

dawn. At twiHght
it

ascends in the

attains

June

8.

its

it is

unmistakable

The

17th the

as

appears

below and to the right of Venus;

on the 18th the Moon is a similar
distance below and to its left.

well

the 14th, and the planet

ot June.

On June

21

only 41.8 million miles away,

it is

its

closest

approach to Earth since October 19,

1988. Mars retrogrades

of Ophiuchus
latitude,

it

all

rises

on

invisible for
it

might

among

the stars

month. At 40 north

about an hour

after

at

11:19 P.M.

total solar eclipse, the

wUl

get

first

under way

at

of the

6:37

A.M. on June 21 and can be viewed

along

South

narrow swath

starting in the

Atlantic, crossing Angola,

Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Madagascar,

east-

northeastern horizon about forty-five

and ending in the Indian Ocean. The

minutes before sunrise. This marks the

Moon's umbral shadow cone wiU

beginning of a yearlong apparition,

touch Earth

when

Uruguay.

the giant planet will blaze

stars

of Gemini.

far off the coast

The open

first

of

waters ot the

South Atlantic will experience the

longest totality: four minutes and fifty-

skies this

month, reaching opposition on June

13, when it shines at an eye-popping
magnitude of -2.4.

is

At month's end,

be gHmpsed just above the

within the

Mars dominates the night

dusk.

Jupiter's solar conjunction occurs

most

planet

Moon

27th

centuiy,

greatest elongation as early as

On the

at

fuU on June 5 at 9:39 p.m.

comes on June 13 at 11:28
P.M. The new Moon faUs on the 21st at
7:58 A.M., and first quarter is on the
is

Last quarter

the east-

of the

morning just before

east.

The Moon

sunset at the beginning of June and

appears

inferior

conjunction on June 16. This

the best

and

Opened

the Telescope

THE SKY IN JUNE

Sun

that

others in our

Aveni laughed. "We've abandoned the

more psychological than scientific,

consider what happened on our cruise
immediately

as several

"We're aU heading tor the Bosporus,"

month

in June," below, for

if you

as

barreHng back across the Black Sea.

casual

Planetarium,

is

weU

immediate vicinity were already

system

details).

said, "You can tell

you don't beHeve the
going to come to an end

onboard experts, noticed

from the surface of a planet in

solar

(see

at

our ship

They'll be watching this

Bonadurer, director of the Minneapolis

world

official

professor

the only such coincidence

observers remember.

Robert J.

fellow cruise passenger

between

fit

Anthony E Aveni,

side,

Saturn wiU be too close to the Sun

during the

first

be seen, but
to

seven seconds.

two weeks of June to

midmonth, it begins

after

emerge low

in the east-northeastern

sky about two hours before sunrise.

On

morning of the 19th the

yellowish planet will be below and
the left of the Moon's crescent.

Summer

solstice occurs

on June 21

at

3:38 A.M. in the Northern

Hemisphere.

the

to

Unless otherwise noted,

in

all

Eastern Daylight Time.

times are given

22

NATURAL HISTORY 6/01

THIS LAND

How the
West Was

Swum
At Nevada's BerlinIchthyosaur State Park,
fossils

of giant marine

predators point to the

watery

region's

B\/

Richard

Wieder,

L.

past.

Orndorff, Robert W.

and Harry

F.

Filkorn

Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park

sits

on

the western flank of Nevada's

Shoshone Mountains, about 7,000

above sea level. Today a

feet

seemingly endless expanse of

sagebrush covers the relatively
featureless landscape

of the

valleys,

while the rocky slopes of the

mountains support scattered

sagebrush and stands of juniper and
piiion trees. This sparsely populated

part of Nevada has changed

little

since the first settlers arrived

than one hundred years ago.

more
But it

had to surface to breathe

air

and they

gave birth to hve young. Their

make up
About
Luning
Formation.
Nevada's
the sedimentary rocks that

rows of pointed conical teeth, similar

230 million years ago, when these

sediments were deposited, North

Period Hved here, more than 200

in shape to those of modern toothed

America was part of the northern

million years ago.

whales.

has changed

much

since the largest

marine predators of the

Triassic

Extinct reptiles that plied ancient

elongate

bony

mouth and

strong jaws held

of overlapping

supercontinent

known

plates internally reinforced the

the Panthalassa

Ocean covered much

circular set

oceans, ichthyosaurs had highly

disproportionately large eyes of some

of what

streamHned bodies resembHng those of

ichthyosaurs and compensated for

States.

some of today's

fastest fish,

such

as

changes in water pressure

when

is

now

Pangaea, and

as

the western United

Outcrops, or protruding layers

of rock, of the Luning Formation are

the

mountain

swordfish, marUn, and tuna. Despite

animals dived or surfaced. This feature

scattered throughout the

their fishhke exteriors, ichthyosaurs

enabled them to consistently maintain

ranges of central Nevada, and

Adapted from Gfohgy Underfool in Central Nevada, by R. L.

Wieder, and H. F. Filkorn. 2001 by the
Orndorff, R.

authors. Reprinted

by permission of Mountain

Publishmg Company, MissoiJa, Montana.

their highly
at all

developed sense of vision

swimming

depths.

Press

Fossil ichthyosaurs are

common

in

paleontologists have

found ichthyosaur

remains in the West

Humboldt Range

and the

New Pass Range,

as

well

as

in

Union Canyon

in the

Mountains, the

site

Shoshone

skulls

of Berlin-

Ichthyosaur State Park.

with elongate jaws, fdled with

The

general scarcity of fossils of

conical teeth. In contrast, the well-

scavenging marine animals also

preserved ichthyosaurs found in shale

well with this interpretation, because

fits

quarries in

Holzmaden, Germany,

scavengers tend to be

discovered in Union Canyon were

excavated by gold prospectors from the

which

from the Jurassic Period,

deep marine waters. In

mining towTi of BerHn (now a welland part ot the

state park). While the miners saw the

While fossil bones tell us about the

body plans of extinct creatures, the

contain an abundant and diverse

composition of the surrounding rock

echinoderms, and sponges that

can give clues to the enviromiients they

typically

The

first

ichthyosaur bones

preser\-ed ghost to\\Ti

bones

as

novelties

and sometimes used

them

to decorate their cabins, the

fossils

did not

remains of ancient reptiles until

as the

were only the

of today's dolphins.

size

questions as

how

Berkeley paleontologist Charles L.

Camp and

America.

WeUes in 1954. Today a stroll through

Union Canyon takes visitors by
Camp's cabin, where he and other
scientists worked diligently for years to

sea, situated
is

The bedrock

now North

in the area

indicates that the ichthyosaur

were deposited in
environment.

bones

deep ocean shelf

One

along

the bones are stiU in

is

the

fine-grained sedimentary rock that

and solve the puzzle of their presence

encloses the

fossils.

As

carcasses

during their decomposition,

and the bones would have been

scattered during their transport.

currents

must have been

fairly

Thus

weak,

rivers carrying

the bones, and the presence of

brachiopod

shells

on them, suggest

the bones lay exposed

on

that

the seafloor

sediment spiU into

for a time, but the

the ocean, freshwater

relative

ichthyosaur skeletons. In 1966 an A-

mixes with standing

of the skeletons

frame shelter was buUt over the main

marine water, and

indicates that they

here.

some of the exposed

quarr\' to protect
fossils

The

and allow

has yielded at

mostly complete

least thirts'-seven

visitors to see

them.

skeletons of nine individuals, their

embedded in rock, are on

view. While Camp considered the
Union Canyon fossils to be of three
bones

still

different species

of ichthyosaurs,

now

specimens are

all

the

thought to be the

remains of a single species, Shonisaums

popularis,

named

tor the surrounding

mountain range.

Thanks

to the

abundance of

Shonisaums specimens collected in the

region, scientists

know more

about the

the

momentum

were buried on the

of

seafloor soon after

a result, coarse

the flesh had

sediment drops to

decomposed.

One

bottom near the

unresolved problem

remains in

concerns the

suspension

much

explanation for

longer and travels far

where

out to

sea,

settles

slowly to the

exactly

came

so close to

another.

the

layers in

Union Canyon

Ichthyosaur bas-relief and

more

deeper areas of the continental

time

largest creatures

about

the size of a

modern

sperm whale and twice the

killer

of its

size

of a

whale. Larger individuals had

six-foot-long front

foot-long

tails,

fins,

twenty-five-

and ten-foot-long

Other

of vertebrae

trail

one

plausible explanations
exist.

The

shelf.

found with the

period; according to this scenario, their

bottom, and weak

carcasses sank to the

idea that this was a deepwater

currents naturally concentrated

environment. Most of these are from

into a depression, or

swimming organisms, such as

ammonoids and nautiloid mollusks

on

above the deep

seafloor.

may

have died singly over an extended

ichthyosaur remains also support the

that lived just

many

Two

ichthyosaurs

in the

fossils

so

be preserved

sediment

accumulated

one of the

to

bottom. The

other Late Triassic ichthyosaur. Fifty or

estimated forty tons, Shonisaums was

how

ichthyosaur skeletons

it

rocks suggest they

long and weighing an

major

shore. Fine sediment

skeleton of this species than about any

feet

completeness

the flow decreases; as

the

as

The

they typically are in deeper water.

corroded and pitted surfaces of some of

of the most

convincing pieces of evidence

reconstruct the ichthyosaurs' skeletons

Union Canyon

is,

to one another. Strong ocean currents

would have moved at least some of the

ichthyosaurs Uved, the

region was a tropical

P.

articulated; that

Shoshone Mountains. At the time the

the west coast of what

Samuel

in shallower waters.

ot the Shonisaums skeletons are

the correct anatomical position relative

Union Canyon

his colleague

hved

corals,

going predators ended up in the

The first field expedition to

Union Canyon was launched by
1928.

in

contrast, other

assemblage of moUusks,

Most

many large ocean-

so

numerous

less

rock layers of the Luning Formation

inhabited and help answer such

become known to the

community and recognized

scientific

date

submarine

them
valley,

the seafloor. Alternatively, this

deposit of multiple ichthyosaur skeletons

could represent a massive die-off.


NATURAL HISTORY

24

6/0

Based mainly upon studies of

modern marine
been proposed

Park Ranging

vertebrates, various

of varying

theories,

State Park.

The

account for the

to

state

of Nevada, which has

sudden-mass-mortality scenario.

adopted Shonisaimis popularis

Changes

state fossil, first officially

in the physical or

chemical

conditions of the seawater have been

proposed

change

cause of death, but any

as a

enough to kill
would also have killed

drastic

ichthyosaurs

recognized

the importance of Union

1955,

when

it

Located about twenty-three

miles east of the

as its

Canyon

designated the

in

site

tunnel used by the Berlin

mining ghost town of Berhn, and the

along

Camping

available,

can help visitors enjoy the

trails

juniper and pifion woodland,

indicate any such additional die-off.

examine the

Volcanic eruptions could have killed

sight

ichthyosaurs, but then

is

and an extensive system of hiking

to include the

with the ichthyosaur bones to

many

town of

Mine rock

prospectors.

In 1970 the boundaries

no other

exists

Fossil Shelter, the ghost

BerUn, and the Diana

Ichthyosaur Paleontological State

were expanded

evidence

town of Gabbs, the

park offers guided tours of the

Monument.

other marine organisms. However,

fossil

was renamed Berlin-Ichthyosaur

site

have

plausibility,

we

should see some evidence, such

local bedrock, or catch

of wildlife. Eagles,

pronghorn
and

rattlesnakes, deer,

antelope, foxes, coyotes,

as a

roam

mountain

lions

rock record. Similarly, the

For

information on seasonal

stratigraphic record lacks evidence of

access, tour schedules,

volcanic ash layer, preserved in the

sediments.

a severe

None

storm, for example, a

that

such

behavior

HC

spawning,

stranding, or coastal foraging

is

Box 61200

NV 89310

rules

and

964-2440

from other

964-2012

Fax: (775)

10
miles

improbable. As dramatically
fossils

61

Austin,

Tel: (775)

brought these Shonisaurus together

evidenced in

and

Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park

some ichthyosaurian
as

visitor

regulations, contact:

coarser-grained layer ot sediment.

The notion

the area.

present in the

is

wvifw.state.nv.us/stparks/bi.htm

sites,

ichthyosaurs bore live young, so they

did not spawn en masse

fish.

And

as

do many

stranding was previously supported

a

as

cause for the concentrations of

skeletons here, researchers

and refined their views of how

tainted with a neurotoxin that

while mass mortality by

now

paralyzed them. (Paralytic shellfish

Shonisaurus popularis

poisoning in humans also

predator and

a neurotoxin.)

Such

results

from

may have

poison

originated at the base of the marine

how

it

hved

as

came

an active

to rest

on

Each new generation of

on the work of
came before, providing

the seafloor.

paleontologists builds

who

consider that scenario unlikely, given

food chain, in oceanic plankton, and

those

the evidence for an ocean shelf,

then become concentrated in the

some answers but invariably providing

many more questions. A visit to

rather than a coastal, setting.

One

intriguing possibility

tissues
is

that

the ichthyosaurs ate fish or shellfish

of the animals that

plankton.

The

ate the

BerHn-Ichthyosaur State Park

Slwnisatmis, top

predators and consumers in the food

chain,

may have

eaten

these plankton-

opportunity to ponder the giant

environment. As you investigate the

fossils, you might want to
some of these questions. And
some of your own.

Shonisaurus

perished. This type of

consider

poisoning mechanism

ask

some of

the mass

of

kills

modern whales along

the coast of

New

England.

Over
scientists

an

predators and their ancient

feeding organisms and

has triggered

is

Richard L. Orndorffis assistant professor of

geology at the University of Nevada, Las
Vegas; Robert
the

W. Wieder

is

a biologist at

California Department of Agriculture;

the years,

and Harry

have revised

Kent

F.

Filkorn

is

a paleontologist at

State University in Ohio.

A N^^GGd by PORSCHE

"

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26

NATURAL HISTORY 6/01

BIOMECHANICS

Some

lobsters

and many eight-

year-old vioHnists have a knack

for

making unpleasant

noises;

amazingly, crustaceans and

The

known

as

Palinuridae, or spiny lobsters.

clawless

tail.

These

as

New Zealand lobster

showy

pair

joins the head)

cicadas,

make

Story by

of claws,

comb

or a pick across guitar

across a vibrating

is

strings.

"bow," called

a flattened
a series

emerging from the

segment of each antenna.

of soft

basal
(Earlier

researchers thought the lobster's

plectrum functioned
the confusing

Sheila Patek, of Duke University,

analogue of the vioHn string

an oblong lump,

file

either side

hence

like a pick;

mix of terms.) The

of the

is

the

or pad, one

lobster's head.

By

has discovered that spiny lobsters

wagghng an antenna,

produce sound

draws the plech:,um''arross the fde;

in a veiy different way:

to give a predator pause.

Adam Summers

ridges)

person drawing a thunrbnail across

But

bow

protuberance (actually

noise by "plucking"

Lobsteri
enough

the plectrum,

is

as crickets

much Uke

surface. In this case the

of spikes or ridges (usually on

The
It's

by drawing

the reason for the

their legs or wings)

the

marine invertebrates, found

Instead of a

and

a series

worldwide, often appear on menus

rock lobster or

it

common name.
Many invertebrates, such

lobsters in question are

family

antenna (where

most

base of each

lobster's

not Maine's clawed variety but

members of a

are their

The

thick and spiny

humans use much the same

mechanism to produce these awful
sounds.

two long antennae

striking feature.

Illustration by Sally J. Bensusen

the lobster

on

is

a surprisingly loud, rasping

(One

difference between

the result

buzz.

lobster

and

striking
violinist,

of course,

is

no amount of practice wiU turn

that

this

buzz into music.)

This type of mechanism
stick-and-slip motion.

rocks sitting
instead

on

along the

rides

At some
spring

conveyor

belt,

the

with

box

As the

it,

is

becomes

dinner by slamming their antennae

skitters

along the belt toward the

as

wall.

ot

(and thus reduces the tension of) the

but

ireely

secured to a

moves, the

stretching the spring.

point, the tension

box

box

belt,

belt

stout antennal bases,

known

Imagine

of being able to move

wall by a spring.

box

is

amount of
resistance to movement that occurs
between two moving objects in physical
contact) between box and belt, and the
iiicrional force (the

of the

greater than the

movement

This backward

box once again

spring, permitting the

Each time

ride the belt.

back

across the belt,

rumble;
there

when
silence.

is

the

the

box

to

is

taut.

Then

the

box would

nylon or gut

it.

strings

lobsters, the friction

friction

is

very

armor

to

comes from

Each time the

lobster's

fde,

^by

guitarists so

plucking a hard
a series

just

of hard

would be obHged
it would benefit

the animal

fall silent

tasty

had

when

most from an antipredator noisemaker:

it
it

the length of the fde, the

during the vulnerable few days

for the carapace to

The

it

takes

harden following

plectrum generates between

molt.

two and twenty-four of these

and-slip approach

pulses, creating the

structure rubbing against another soft

characteristic raspy squeak.

structure

The

duration of the sounds

depends on the length of the

which

file,

varies considerably

from genus to genus. In

fact,

seven

of the nine genera of spiny lobsters can

be identified by the shape of their
plectra.
files

to eat. If a spiny lobster

plectrum across

to

have

who

naked crustaceans are both

produce sound the way

ridges

and

animals with

all

they grow. As anyone

as

and easy

smooth

fdes.

a lobster

prefer a vioHn to a guitar.

Lobsters, Hke

microscopic shingles on the otherwise

travels

files

(The other two do not

and thus make no noise

lobster waggles one or both of its

Patek believes that lobsters

antennae, causing a flattened projection

these raucous sounds to deter

essential to sound production.

on you."

eye

often do

produces a pulse of sound. As

create friction, which is

the lobster version of "I've got

In any case, there

attest,

of their instrument

plectrum skids on the

file

element of surprise has been

that the

has appreciated soft-shell crabs can

by rubbing rosin on the bow. For

on the

the noise

exoskeletons, periodically shed their

no sound.
enhance the

use

simply inform a shady character

would

Violinists

located on either side of the animal's

Or

about to get clunked.

important biological reason

until the spring

between the horsehair bow and the

head, near the eye. Microscopic shingles

predator that

conveyor belt was greased, the box

No friction,

file)

it is

friction. If the

smoothly and soundlessly underneath

base to skid across an oblong lump (the

may

sound to warn

my

to srick-and-

fish

together. In the wild, lobsters

lost

ride in place, with the belt sliding

(the plectrum) on each antenna's spiky

and even catch the occasional

would move forward

was stretched

To generate its loud, raspy buzz, the spiny

wield these spiky clubs aggressively

rides smoothly,

The key

several inches long. In captivity they

may

skips

makes an audible

it

box

sUp sound production

shortens

which may be

at all.)

make

molt

as

it

Many

great advantage of the stick-

works just

as

well right after a

did beforehand.

animals produce sounds to

communicate with
species

that a soft

is

to issue

their

own

warnings or

invitations or to affirm their presence.

Spiny lobsters appear to have

developed

this

communication system

solely to talk to other species.

Their

predators can certainly hear sounds in

the range produced by the plectrum

Think how you would react

if a hot dog let out a loud squeak
when you picked it up. However, the
sound may do more than just startle
predators.

and

file,

but

we know,

as far as

the

lobsters themselves are completely deaf

to their

own

playing.

potential predators. Spiny lobsters can

Adam Summers

do considerable damage with

the University of California, Irvine.

their

is

an

assistant professor at

28

NATURAL HISTORY 6/01

ESSAY

Are Genes Real?

Our

understanding of heredity has been propelled

by the oscillations of a conceptual pendulum, arcing

between the gene as a real entity and the gene
as

an abstraction.

By Nathaniel
At the entrance

emy of

C.

Comfort

to the Cahfornia

Acad-

Sciences in San Francisco, a

235-pound brass pendulum bob swings

on a thirty-foot cable fixed to the
cathedral ceiling. It is known as a Foucault's pendulum, after Jean-BernardLeon Foucault, a French physicist of
the nineteenth centuiy Each arc of the
pendulum cuts a diameter across a ring
of metal pegs set on the floor. As the
earth rotates, each peg in turn moves
into the path of the giant bob and is
knocked over. Although the pendulum
swings in a straight
to the

same spot

line, it

ward march of progress depicted in

textbooks and newspapers. An idea
may oscillate between two extremes,
yet as the

neath

its

world of science

path, each

swing

different incarnation of the idea.

Gregor Mendel

One
such idea
real.

-.,,j.

whether or not genes

is

If the

accumulation of

are

scientific

knowledge were Unear, the idea of the

gene ought to have started out vague

and become progressively more sharply

dehneated with time. In

fact,

over the

past 150 years, our understanding of

never returns

heredity has been propelled by the os-

t^vice in succession.

pendulum than Hke

be-

'

Science often behaves more Hke a

Foucault's

shifts

results in a

cillations

the for-

tiiiS:'

James Clerk Maxwell

of

conceptual pendulum,

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30

NATURAL HISTORY

arcing

between

6/0

a real

gene and an ab-

The word "gene" was coined

1909 by Wilhelm Johanssen,

known Danish

a well-

of the

botanist

in

late

nineteenth and early twentieth cen-

During the preceding four

decades, Gregor Mendel, Charles Dar-

win, and

many

other scientists had pro-

how

posed theories of

were passed down

hereditary

traits

through the genera-

Mendel, the canonical father of

tions.

genetics,

modeled the inheritance

of seven carefully chosen

terns

gem-

mules budded off from the body's

stract one.

turies.

bearing particles that he called

pat-

"difier-

and collected

sues
ceUs,

on

where they waited

to

be passed

to the next generation. Pangenesis

won few
cist

tis-

in the reproductive

The great physiJames Clerk Maxwell even diadherents.

gressed from his

1875 Encydopcedia

"The Atom" to take a

"Some of the exponents of

Britannica essay

swipe
this

at

it.

theory of heredity have attempted

of placing

to elude the difficulty

whole world of wonders within a

body so small and so devoid of visible
structure as a germ," he wrote, re-

Gregor Mendel did

Maxwell

not distinguish

between the
as

such

seed color and

pod

texture,

an expert on particles

no

simple particle could conceivably ex-

traits

seen in a plant

Darwin's gemmules. To

ferring to

plain the

function and development of a

without

shape,

ture,"

and

and stem length

wonders of heredity and em-

bryology. "To explain differences of

assuiTiing differences

he continued,

the properties of a

"is to

germ

germ

of struc-

admit that

are not those

of a purely material system." Advocat-

the hereditary

ing hereditary particles seemed tanta-

elements that

mount

to mysticism.

Nevertheless, in the late 1800s

produced them.

Mendel died

the inost influence.

entiating characters" (differierende Merkiiinle)

for example,

stem length, pod

shape, color and texture of the seeds

At the end of

in garden peas.

a paper

pubHshed in 1866, Mendel hinted that

the Merkmale might He in the cell nucleus,

but he did not distinguish be-

tween the

traits

seen in the plant and

elements

the

hereditary

that

produced them. For

Mendel
were

these

elements

abstractions, usetul in

understanding the patterns

of inheritance.

The

hereditary

ele-

ments proposed by Dar-

win were more

and therein
downfall.

In

physical
lay

1868,

their

un-

aware of Mendel, Darwin

put forth his hypothesis of
pangenesis, in

which

trait-

was

it

Darvwn's theory, not Mendel's, that had

in

1884, and his paper was largely ignored

until the torn

of the centory;

it

was cited

just a handfiil

of times and never

landmark

the

Though

in

study

as a

of heredity.

Darwin's theory of pangenesis

was soundly

rejected,

echo throughout the

The major

it

rest

continued to

of the centoiy

theories of heredity put for-

ward

in the 1880s

sumed

and 1890s

also as-

the existence of real, physical par-

ticles,

with such exotic-sounding names

as ids,

biophors, and pangenes.

When Mendel's principles, with their

mathematical treatment of heredity, were
rediscovered in 1900, however, the pen-

dulum swung back toward

genes.

One

abstract

of Mendelism's staunchest

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ffi,2ooo Ameiican

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oi

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32

NATURAL HISTORY

6/0

mosphere saturated with chromosomic

acid."

In 1910

Morgan

abruptly tipped the

other way.

Among

the thousands of

he was breeding in

fruit flies

tory,

he found

eyes, rather

his labora-

male with white

a single

than the usual red. Breed-

ing experiments revealed that eye color

was inherited together with a "factor"

determined

that

sex.

Stevens's results

could no longer be ignored. Sex and

eye color were linked by association

with the

X chromosome.

Morgan and his graduate students at

Columbia made genes real again. Dur-

To Thomas Hunt

Morgan and

the other

early fruit-fly
geneticists

who

together the

put

gene

first

maps, a gene

'was

roughly synonymous
'with a physical point

on
American

ton, an

various

gesting that Mendelian ele-

and measuring the distance between

chromo-

genes in terms of the hkeUhood that

lay

somes.

lish biologist

his attacks

who

saw

in

it

on the Darwinian

tinuous variation in nature.

of heredity

units

abstract

contradict this view,

cated

on material

ferred to the

characters

term

weapon

Making

and he

the

helped Bateson

on

Two

the

years

later,
(a

particles.

or X,

then available, too

many

assumptions

would be inherited

much as blond
eyes.

To

chromosomes

hair often goes

these early fruit-fly geneticists,

locus, a physical point

some. In 1922

Hermann

on

Morgan's former students, went

describing genes

as

MuUer dreamed of one day

being "able to grind genes in

and cook them

abstract

passionately denied their

siasts,

theory seemed to

him enthu-

bandwagon jumpers.

In 1905 he

wrote that

his colleagues at

Columbia

University, especially the distinguished

American embryologist
fol-

In 1903 Walter Sut-

cytologist

Edmund Beecher

Wilson,

were "wild over chromosomes," making Morgan feel he lived "in an at-

further,

"ultra-microscopic

mosome

unit

chromo-

Muller, one of

was explained. Advocates of the chro-

as

together,

with blue

gene was roughly synonymous with a

Bateson re-

dehberately

this trend.

"accessory,"

chromosome. Morgan, however, was

skeptical. Given the limited evidence

traits

to different

particles."

named Thomas Hunt Morgan

lowed

niysterious

was associated with

two

traits

were required and not enough biology

material existence.

A young

the

that sex

first

predi-

which was

MendeUan elements
a

for

of con-

idea

showed

gene maps, assigning genes for

of Mendel's principles, sug-

former student of Morgan's)

was WiHiani Bateson, an Eng-

ing the following years, they developed

the

geneticist Nettie Stevens

partisans

chromosome.

offered a cellular explanation

ments
Richard Goldschmidt

cytologist,

mortar

in a beaker."

Practitioners

of

this

"classical"

school of genetics mostly ignored the

question of what genes were

The

made of.
them

question of most interest to

was what genes

Working

at

Stan-

ford University with the bread

mold

did.

Xeurospcra,

George Beadle,

and Edward Tatiim,

ing,

a geneticist,

a chemist

by

train-

provided an elegant answer in

1941.

They

muta-

identified genetic

tions that disabled specific steps in the

of

synthesis

complex molecule.

Kno\\ing from biochemistiT that each

step

was catalyzed by

a particular

en-

zyme, they concluded that each mutation

sical
as

knocked out one enzyme. In clasgenetics, genes had been defined

when mutated, changed

one mutation, one gene. Beadle

things that,

a trait:

and Tatum refined the definition by

sho^^'ing that a gene was a thing on a

chromosome

that specified an

enzyme:

one gene, one enz\'me.

As Beadle and Tatum's work became accepted, more and more scientists

thought of genes

as real entities.

This did not happen overnight,

how-

One

of the

ever,

and there were

critics.

and most

most eloquent
advocates

to

of

real

Richard Goldschmidt,

aggravating

genes

was
can-

a brilliant,

German who in 1936 fled

Nazi Germany and took up a post at
tankerous

the University' of California, Berkeley.

"There are no genes," Goldschmidt

wrote in 1937, and "no gene mutations." In 1951 he continued his attack

on the gene by suggesting this analogy:

"If the A-string on a violin is stopped
an inch from the end, the tone C is
produced. Something has been done to
a

locus

changed

in

the

string,

in regard to

its

it

been
But

has

fiinction.

nobody would conclude that there is a

C-body at that point."
Within two years, Goldschmidt's
provocative criticism seemed absurd. In

May of 1953, James Watson

and Francis Crick published their two

April and

papers describing the double-helical

structure

of DNA. The genius of

model was

that the structure

their

of the

molecule and the structure of the gene

were one and the same. With the double hehx finally came insight not just

how genes worked but also into

what they were made of A gene was
merely a particular sequence of nuinto

NATURAL HISTORY

Lysenko, right |

DNA!

Everybody

speaks about

nobody

but

it,

has seen

it!"

Englehardt explained

of

that in fact plenty

people had seen

he sent

and

it,

his secretary to

When

fetch some.

she

returned with a vial of

DNA,

powdered

Ly-

senko retorted, "Ha!

You

are speaking

DNA

non-

an

acid.

is

a liquid.

And

that's

powder. That

can't

be

sense!

Acid

is

DNA!"
when

Yet just

became
only

clear

deny the

reality

the

mour Benzer,
turned

neticist

ge-

Purdue
proposed

more than one

that

type of gene existed,

Experience music, song and dance

and he suggested the

- the threads that bind Scotland's

proud past nith its vibrant modem
culture - in traditional country-

term "cistron" for a

segment of DNA that
encodes a protein.

pubs, marching pipe bands, or the

and

a physi-

viral

at

University,

world

to shift

In 1957 Sey-

again.

concert halls

of

scientific

ground began

cist

could

cranks

genes,

it

that

hip chibs of our

This was, in essence,

class cities.

the

gene of Beadle

and Tatum expressed

a pearl

on

a string

For most

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DNA strandnot

but the string

itself.

geneticists, the discovery

of the double

Cain-800-969-SCOT

of a

helix instantly

and un-

equivocally settled the debate in favor of

real genes;

from

that point on, skeptics

little more than comic reHef.

Horace Freeland Judson reports an
anecdote told by Russian biocheinist

provided

Vladimir Englehardt about

his

meeting

in 1961 with Trofuii Denisovich Ly-

senko, the infamous Soviet agronomist

who
Explore the p^
Glimpse the future.

ism
ogy.

rejected

as

Mendelism and Darwin-

inconsistent with Stalinist ideol-

Lysenko

scoffed,

"AH

this

DNA,

language

the

in

cleotide subunits

of

Watson and Crick. Cistrons caught on;

the term is still used today. Recons and
mutons, two other types of genes pro-

posed by Benzer, soon

side,

though, because

came

clear that they

to a single unit

the

fell

by the way-

it

quickly be-

merely amounted

of DNA. Nevertheless,

very suggestion

that

biologists

should think in tenns of several senses

of "gene" created

fissures in the

con-

cept of a monoHthic gene.

Meanwhile,
neticists,

Jacques

group of French ge-

led by Francois Jacob and

Monod, were showing

gene's boundaries

that the

were fuzzier than bi-

Land

Aiiierican
had thought.

ologists

genes often

First,

Jacob and

act in clusters:

Charles E.

Monod

por-

Little, Series

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enduring works on geography, landscape, nature, and place.

trayed "the" gene as a set of structural

which encode proteins, and regwhich switch the structural genes on and off in response to
signals from the cell. Furthermore,
Jacob and Monod showed that genes
genes,

DEATH

ulators- genes,

VALLEY
Jolin Roiidolpli Spc'ors

not restricted to chromosonies.

are

They found

free-floating genetic ele-

ments, called episomes and plasmids, in

bacteria; other scientists

soon found

these elements in higher organisms as

Mitochondria, the

well.

and chloroplasts

plants,

were

cells

found

later

cell's

power

in green plant

to have their

own

genes, inherited independently from

those

on the chromosomes.
at

Illustrnted

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JoLn C. Van Dyke

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Peter Wild
its first

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Van Dyke's The
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School, and Sankhar Adhya, of the

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Ronald, University of

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I.

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another wrinkle: regions of bacterial

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36

NATURAL HISTORY

6/01

single

sometimes quite

distantly

on the chromosome.

In such

gene

separated

are

genes the segments are then spliced to-

RNA

compose the

gether to

message.

Furthermore, the same segments can be

combined in different ways, which

means that one gene is capable of specifying a whole family of products: one
gene, sometimes several enzymes.

And

the story gets even

more comexam-

pUcated. Biologists have found

of genes within genes and even

ples

overlapping genes. In some cases, the

same
tein

DNA sequence specifies one pro-

when

read in the "forward" direc-

when

tion and another

Muddling

verse."

things further, the

encoded

instructions

read "in re-

in the

DNA

not always reach the ribosome

In

translation.

eral

known

as

RNA

do

as a Ht-

phenomenon

editing, an

enzymatic

RNA mes-

highwayman

intercepts the

sage en route

and

ing protein

not identical to that spec-

is

by the

ified

alters

so the result-

it,

DNA.

In a sense, as the reaHty of the gene

become more and more certain,

the gene has again become an ideal, a
measuring stick against which scientists
has

compare the exceptions and deviations

move around

within

movement

takes place.

a reasonable

might

DNA
DNA

The

Within ten years, insertion elements

were found to be widespread in nature.
Bacteria use

them

to pass along genes

working

read:

one or more

transcribed into an

is

RNA,

which

bosomes, where

it

is

translated into a

protein chain. This definition

ful distiUation

of much that

which

is

really just a starting point for

strains

of disease-causing germs spread

so rapidly. Insertion elements enable

about

all

that a

last

is

we

about genes in the

that drug-resistant

learned

gene can

thinking

In 1977 two research groups, one led

Cold Spring

Harbor Laboratory and the other

chromosomes. By 1980

Phillip

many

Sharp

DNA

at

at

MIT, found

term "gene"
some term or

altogether, in favor of
set

of terms to better ex-

dynamism of the chromosomes. DNA is not made of discrete

units with frxed boundaries; it compress the

prises great lengths

shuffled,

altered,

Goldschmidt was

of sequence that are

and reused. Perhaps

right.

pendulum continues
Some of the most exciting

Yet the
swing.

to
re-

search in biology today employs devices

known

as

DNA

chips to provide

snapshots of the activity of every gene

corporate their genes into their hosts'

accepted that certain genes routinely

it is

be.

retroviruses (HIV, for example) to in-

had

wonder, then,

Little

writers, such as the historian

and philosopher of biology Evelyn Fox

a use-

century, but

by Richard Roberts

biologists

fer-

the genetic message out to the ri-

that confer resistance to antibiotics

one reason

defini-

that specify a pro-

intermediary called
ries

as a site

chromosome.

tein.

this

some

KeUer, have advocated scrapping the

segments of

show how

real biology.

torpedoed the idea of the gene

tion of a gene

to

of

that

Today

first

chromosome,

between chromosomes, within a species, between species. Movable genes

on

Shapiro and Adhya were the

led

by

that the

segments that constitute

in a ceU.
less

with

of

DNA

ganism.
tive,

The

glass

or

chip, a square inch or

plastic,

is

first

from every gene

The genome

dotted

in an or-

that interac-

responsive, deeply integrative set

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Natural History

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38

NATURAL HISTORY 6/01

THE BEAST WITH

FIVE GENOMES
Inside a termite's gut lives Mixotricha paradoxa,
a microscopic orgam'sm comprising hundreds

of thousands of smaller life-forms. M. paradoxa is

an extreme example of how

animals

including ourselves have evolved to

contain multitudes.

By Lynn MarguUs and Dorion Sagan

human

'he hullabaloo over mapping the

sum of
might one

genome
vidual

the

all

lead

species has only a single

genetic

and

makeup of

unitary.

plants and

all

Such

is

the genes

to think that each

genome and

individual organisms
far

m an indi-

from the

case.

AH

acting genomes.
cleus;

this

is

the

One

is

DNA

the

genome

the

ternal Hne. For

have

two

nu-

been

that

of the

DNA in the mi-

multiple oxygen-breathing

known

more than

that every

some

a century,

organism

is

ma-

scientists

in fact a multiple

being, but until recently these unorthodox researchers

were ignored.

In most of the animals

inter-

in the cell

that has recently

is

cell's

organelles that are inherited only through the

discrete

Paraphrasing

animals' cells have at least

that the

is

Walt Whitman, we multicellular beings contain

multitudes.

"mapped." The other

tochondria

(mammals,

we

reptiles, msects),

termine hmbs,

eyes,

think

the

we know

genomes

best

that de-

and nervous systems, for ex-

ample, are very similar to our own. These animals,

Hke

"THE GENOMIC

us, are

doubly genomic. Even some unicellular

beings that do not have eyes, hmbs, or nervous sys-

such

contain

REVOLUTION"

tems

Opening May 26 at the

American Museum of

both nuclear and mitochondrial genomes. Plants

Natural History, a

third

landmark exhibition

evolutionary history, they ingested (but did not di-

explores the emerging

gest)

photosynthetic blue-green bacteria. There-

fore,

all

role of

genomics

in

sdence, technology, and

everyday

life.

The

exhibition runs through

January

1,

2002.

as

amoebas and paramecia

and algae have these double genomes

genome, of symbiotic

visible

least three

origin.

The

During

plus a
their

photosynthetic organisms have

genomes. But many organisms

the protists that inhabit termites

them up

as well,

to five or

such

at
as

contain within

more genomes.

great nineteenth-century naturalist Joseph

Leidy one of the founders of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia,

close-up look

at

was the

first

to take a

the contents of a termite's gut. "In

A termite's gut

is a

closed universe

containing myriad microscopic organisms

that enable

it

to digest wood. Found

only within a particular Australian

termite species, the protist Mixotricha

paradoxa (inset)
being. Bacteria

turn a composite

is in

thousands of small,

hairlike spirochetes

larger ones

cover

and hundreds of

its

outer surface,

enabling M. paradoxa to move, while

thousands of spherical bacteria comprise

its internal

chemical workshop.

Illustration by Alexis

Rockman


40

NATURAL HISTORY 6/01

watching the Termites from time to time wandering along their passages beneath stones," he wrote,
"I

what might be the

food." What he saw under his

have often wondered

exact nature of their

as to

microscope amazed him.

If the termite's intestine

is

ruptured by the experimenter, he wrote, "myriads

evolved in the nearly oxygen-free closed system of

the termite's
years;

abdomen

without the

that have

become

miUion

wood-degrading

factories

their digestive systems, these ter-

mites starve.

The

pioneering

Merezhkovsky

The pioneering biologist

Konstantin S. Merezhkovsky

for probably 100

living,

green dots (chloroplasts) in plant

thesize sugars in the presence

from symbionts of foreign

argued in 1909 that the

green dots in plant

little

"symbiogenesis"

was

major

the turning out of a multitude of persons from the

view

cial role in

that

A Russian anatomist,

all

them outside the ceU. Both

men experimented with the

taining

physiology of chloroplasts

"white

and bacteria and found

actually

striking similarities in

of different kinds of

function. Chlo-

lite-torms,

tists

proposed, ori-

tered cells as

mi-

are

en-

ginally

call

(Pro-

protists.

they

roplasts,

what

we now

food

live

microbes that

crobes

with

nuclei;

more

fought

complex than

survive

Canaleparolina

the

bacteria,

(spirochete)

itous

within the larger

cells

the

that

Leidy observed within

is

They remained

immense

and motley crew

termite

in

no way

add-on or

it is

particular tissue: an aggregate

that turns the refractory

mam

This composite

re-

1918; Wallin and Merezhkovsky

is

were ostracized by

of

organized

as a

working mechanism

gists,

and

their

work was

their fellow biolo-

forgotten.

Recent

have demonstrated, however, that the

studies

cell's

most
and

compounds Ugnin and celwood) into food.

important organelles

or Hving consortium, has

tegrated and weU-organized former bacteria. Using

constituents of
fabric,

protected

produce. Famintsyn died in

m-

a necessaiy part

the termite's digestive system and

down through

ages,

and always ready to

Mixotricha parado.

gratu-

a pathological

fection. Rather,

lulose (the

by

their ingestors.

Treponema sp

algae.

We now recognize
the

then

exploited

amoebas, slime

that

to

and

were

darwim'ensis (spirochetetj;

group includes
molds, and

and

their structure

including bacte-

and

S.

kinds of symbioses played a cru-

composed of dozens

ria

of new

Andrey

were symbionts, succeeded in main-

Leidy immediately reahzed that

tiny

species

evolution, and Famintsyn, beheving that

chloroplasts

crowded meeting-house."
as

new

merger

worked independently during the early

decades of the twentieth century on similar hypotheses. WaUin further developed his unconventional

were

proposed that

for the

Wallin,

of the Hving occupants escape, reminding one of

ants"

He

Famintsyn, and an American biologist, Ivan E.

organisms.

what he knew

origin.

term he coined

which syn-

creative force in the production

kinds of organisms.

originally separate

cells,

S.
little

of sunlight, evolved

of different kinds of Hfe-forms into

cells,

which make sugar in the

presence of sunlight, were

door of

Konstantin

biologist

argued in 1909 that the

first

chloroplasts in plants

mitochondria in plants and animals

are highly in-

new

methods,

permanent

have been able to

scienrists

resoh'e the question ot

how

and

raise

became

these bacteria

we

harbor in our intestines

an assortment of specific microbes that help us digest

some

mans.

are also able to

Few of our microbes

tissue,

Hve outside hu-

are organized as layers

and

\\-ithout these hitchhikers to help digest fiber

produce vitamins, we
even

like termites

^weaken and

our bodies, however,

die. Entirely integral to

are the

of

they must be in termites. Nevertheless,

as

mitochondria in our nucleated

cells.

These

tiny entities use ox^^gen to generate the chemical

energ\"

needed

close relatives, that four different kinds

its

were part of

body, and that

its

it

of

lacked

mitochondria.

s\Tnbionts.

Like other animals,

food, although

than

bacteria

They reproduce on

to sustain Hfe.

many

For

tographed

we have

years,

organism.

this

studied and pho-

Under low

magnification,

M. paradoxa looks Uke a single-celled swimming ciliate. With the electron microscope, however, it is
seen to consist of five distinct kinds of creatures. Externally,

most obviously the kind of one-celled

it is

organism that
nucleated

is

tochondria, are

where

face,

classified as a protist.

But

where one would expect

cell,

inside each

many spherical bacteria. On

ciha should be, are

mi-

to find

the sur-

some 250,000

hair-

Hke Treponema spirochetes (resembling the type that

causes syphilis), as well as a contingent of large rod

Acceptance of the composite

bacteria that

nature of the individual

named them

revolutionizes evolutionary

cellence.

We

after short bursts

DNA,

and

of muscular

more mitochondria-

growing them

cells,

no one has

when

they claimed that

all

nucleated Hving things evolved by symbiogenesis,

genomes

physically associated with other organisms.

buLlding corals, for instance, are

Reef-

now known

to

have five different genomes of once independent

organisms.

And

Mixotricha paradoxa, a

beauty found in

genomes par ex-

systems, always repro-

termite's gut,

compound

(when

their survival

of genes

are virtually the

next

to

is

threatened) rampant exchange

which our own

species'

Biologists have always puzzled over

are so

many

level,

most bac-

affairs.

why

at

the genomic

account for nature's beetlemania. Insects have

degree. In

many

genomes

to an extraordinary

cases, bacteria reside in all the tis-

accumulate in the eggs, and are inherited.

Beetles have developed partnerships with an ex-

tremely diverse assortment of bacteria;

many more

kinds Hve inside their tissues than hve in most other

groups of animals.
Eventually

we may

well realize that natural se-

much by

genomes. Indeed, M. paradoxa could well be the

lection operates not so

"poster animal" for symbiogenesis.

mutations, which are often harmful, but on

In 1933 Australian biologist J. L. Sutherland

described and

mixed-up

named

first

"the paradoxical being with

hairs" (she mistakenly thought

it

was the

only microbe that swims by simultaneously using

both flageUa and

cilia).

Studies

done by A.

stone of Cambridge and the late L.

Harvard

showed

in the

that

M.

V.

Grim-

R. Cleveland of

there

kinds of beetles. Perhaps symbionts be-

integrated bacterial

sues,

same

sexual proclivities of bacteria include

chanalian orgies look like rather subdued

has five

also

gene flow

is,

The

neath the surface, generating variety

in test tubes.

generally because of preexisting bacterial

that

thing.

are so genet-

beHeve that WaUin and Merezhkovsky were

flindamentally correct

Devoid of immune

and sex

each of our

soon revolutionize evolutionary

supremely promiscuous beings in which infection

packed muscles. Because mitochondria

yet succeeded in

predict, will

ducing without mate recognition, bacteria are

own, independendy of the nuclear

ically integrated into

Caiialeparolitia daiwiiiieiisis.

spUcers and dicers and mergers of

par excellence.

exercise, leading to stronger,

we

biology. Bacteria are exemplary genetic engineers:

mergers of genomes

more quickly

we

als,

exemplary genetic engineers:

splicers and dicers and

multiply

250,000 strong. In addition,

Acceptance of the composite namre of individu-

biology. Bacteria are

their

also

is

have redescribed 200 spirochetes of a larger type and

acting

on random

new

kinds of individuals that evolve by symbiogenesis.

Scrutinizing any organism
is

like

moving ever

at

the microscopic level

closer to a pointiUist painting

by Georges Seurat; the seemingly solid figures of

trees, on close inspection, turn
made up of innumerable tiny dots and

humans, dogs, and

out to be

1950s with the electron microscope

dashes, each with

paradoxa was a hundred times larger

sity,

and form.

its

own

attributes

of color, den-

6/0

NATURAL HISTORY 43

AND
THE GENOME

SEX, ERRORS,
Can human beings keep
evolving? Or does the
error-ridden process of

reproduction prevent us from

getting more complex than we
already are?

By Mark Ridley

Through

3.5 billion years of evolution, life-

forms have been able to perpetuate themselves

and become more complex than

When

extraterrestrial visitors land

on Earth

in their

space saucer, they will be excited to see that ours

one

ot those rare planets

They

evolved.

on which complex

Hfe has

already have found microbes

^vi[l

organisms resembHng our viruses and bacteria

ever^' other

is

hte-bearmg planet.

And

they will

on

know

these

copying

their ancestors

ways of deaHng with

partly because they evolved

DNA

Double-stranded

errors.

(which appeared quite early in the history of

and certain enzymes work within the

from happening

to prevent errors

Hfe)

nucleus

in the first place.

Other enzymes correct most of the

nonetheless

cell

errors that

proofreading and repair enzymes

arise:

that the real fian begins not in trying to understand

correct errors in the code, and developmental trou-

how

bleshooting enzymes correct the expression of a

on Earth came to exist at all but in how

such complex forms as humans and butterflies and
clams and whales and trees came about. And a quesHfe

is, How many copying

make when it reproduces

faulty

code without correcting the code

plex forms, which contain

fore the possibiHty of making

When we
spring,

(and other Hfe-forms) produce off-

our genome

DNA

is

DNA code?

the

sum of aU our

individual

copied. But the repeated copying that

numerous dican alter the mes-

takes place prior to pregnancy, during

visions

of our reproductive

sages in

cells,

much

our genome

of Chinese Whispers

(called

as

the children's

game

Telephone or Gossip

the United States) distorts a verbal message as

repeated from one person to the next.

By

in

it is

the end

of the Hne in Chinese Whispers, the message

is

laughably corrupted.

But

many genes (and theremany errors), was the

tion they will certainly ask

mistakes does earthly Hfe

the hereditary- molecules of its

itself

the most important factor in the evolution of com-

evolution of sex. Because sex takes one set of genes

from each parent and recombines them, it shufiles
the errors that
fenses

manage

to sHp through aU the de-

and improves the odds

healthy, error-fr^ee offspring

wiU

some

that at least

This crucial

result.

innovation probably arose about 2 bilHon years ago,

around the time that

more complex

called the eukaryotic cell

human

Nonetheless,
prone.

When we

Earth. In fact, every

type

beings are quite error

copy our

mistakes than most, if not

cell

originated.

DNA, we make more

all,

other forms of Hfe on

human being is conceived in

How many of these 200

Based on the

200-fold copying error.

mutations are harmful

In sexual reproduction, a male's

and

female's genomes are reshuffled,

increasing the odds that some
offspring will be produced without

serious

DNA copying

errors.

seem

ca.

1800

be neutral, and

not known. Most errors

a

very few

may

actually

help the organism, but even rigorous accounting

cannot squeeze the harmful-error

about 2 per conception.

rate

These high numbers

our complexity.

to

below

figure of 5 to 10, or even

20, harmful mutations per conception

likely.

Rajah Bhup Singh of GuLer under a quilt with his rani,

to

is

A human

are a

may be

forthcoining book

The

Cooperative Gene,
by

Mark

Ridley.

Copyright
by

2001

Murk Ridley

be published by

To

The

Free Press, a division

quite

consequence of

being contains 30,000

genes, included within a total of some 6.6 billion or

of Simon and
Schuster, Inc.,

Adapted with
permission.

N.Y.


44 NATURAL HISTORY 6/01

not

only do most

comphcating matters further

human embryos

MUTATIONS: MOTHER VERSUS FATHER

As

men

their life spans stretch out,

women

and

Men

different ways.

About 40

of their genomes in

sperm

in his

and

times in

its

DNA
A

genome has been copied more than 200

more than 600 times. Compare that

species forward.

DNA has been copied only 58

DNA in spermatozoa therefore
its

average, 2 to

Any

is

A female human,
by the time she

is

And

these

wiU of course

human

have,

20 damaging typos.

individual

may produce some

faulty

young,

on the other hand,

about 33

^with

a late-stage fetus.

already possesses her hfe-

cell divisions

When

least

man

a thirty-year-old

to persist, the average parent

life

behind them

one error-free

enzymes

to having

woman, his DNA has been copied

With about thirteen times as many errata

we

must produce

that prevent or correct

copying

have sex, which provides each off-

errors,

430 times

spring with a helpful redundancy of genes. In

against her 33.

DNA,

about 185 of the 200 copying mistakes in each

human conception may come from

However, a
errors in chromo-

the sperm.

woman's eggs are more hkely to carry serious

some numbers, and these errors increase with maternal
disorders, such as

hver the wrong

All the

with

all

errors in

Down

our

syndrome, are the

result

double hehx.

two

sets

book production

in transcribing their

made

buyers of Britannica would receive

that

wiU

itself

comes into play

after

In this case, natural selection

conception: embryos with the

in the very earUest stages

who

DNA. A

bacterium might have on

unit error rate, however,

humans and bacteria. Humans

mistakes than bacteria do, for
that a scribe

is

more Hkely

copying the Bible

a half in the

Middle Ages

therefore

much

to

a job that

is

similar in

mistakes

when

took about a year and

than when copying

single psalm.

Another, and perhaps even more important, rea-

son

we humans

are error

prone

is

that

Down syndrome,

often

for

What impHcations does our high error rate have

human evolution? Can we keep on evolving

make more

the same reason

make

with

have significant health problems.)

the order of 2,000 genes and 2 million units of

DNA. The

always die

of their intrauterine exis-

have extra chromosomes but do

survive, such as people

of

not always pre-

wrong number of chromosomes almost

tence. (Those

units

a maternal

survive to reproduce. Unfor-

chromosome or two.

sets

wrong number of books.

more

and

vent an embryo from picking up a whole extra

with 200 printing errors on average, and half the time they'd be
sent the

baby

tunately, sexual reproduction does

the same rate fathers and mothers do

at

DNA,

a paternal

correct version in one set will usu-

average parent has a reasonable chance of producing

of eggs that de-

DNA messages in a sperm and an egg can be compared

the text in

override a copying mistake in the other, so the

ally

number of chromosomes during conception.

of encyclopedias. If publishers

fact,

contain four copies of the information for

each genetic instruction

Some

age.

cells

also

at

offspring. Luckily, in addition

breeds with a thirty-year-old

in his

on

but for humans or any sexually reproducing form of

relatively error free.

time supply of eggs

that are potentially available to carry the

rat: its

short Hfe, and the

with generations measured in weeks or

months is negligible. Even if half of all embryos
have chromosomal errors, that stiU leaves 50 percent
pigs

a forty-year-old's

with the average adult male

length of a typical

probably a factor here, too, because

is

the percentage of such errors in rabbits or guinea

have occurred in a

cells

the time he reaches puberty. After that, the

twenty-year-old man's
times,

the reproductive

copied every sixteen days, or 23 times per year.

is

generation

manufacture sperm throughout their Hves.

cell divisions in

human male by

number of chromosomes. The

on

that goes

DNA messages, but about

50 percent of these conceptions have a botched

travel different

amount of DNA copying

evolutionary roads, and the

in their gonads contributes to the error level

contain about 200 copying errors,

or "typos," in individual

we

are

long

hved, with an average of thirty years between one

AT CONCEPTION,

HUMAN

EMBRYOS AVERAGE ABOUT 200

COPYING ERRORS, AND 50
PERCENT OF THE EMBRYOS HAVE
A BOTCHED NUMBER OF

CHROMOSOMES.

generation and the next. Mutation rates are higher

in long-Hved animals such as

copy our reproductive

the interval

ceived and

DNA

humans because we
number of times in

between when we ourselves

when we

beget our

own

are

con-

children. (See

"Mutations: Mother Versus Father," above.)

And

and pick up more genes for more functions?

high can the error rate go

Hfe-form

is

to

if a sexually

be indefinitely sustainable? Equations

have been written to address

real

How

reproducing

this question,

answer remains unknown.

but the

o^^sS^lV^!

,'w-;.*.

mM
1^

Wm
p

^KLw^M wBe

classical

^^-TT.'.-fl^^^^l

^^^^^^^^p

iHll cruises
presents

An

Extraordinary Travel Opportunity

Passage to India
Aboard the 88-Guest All-Suite

Clelia

A Remarkable Passage
Land

to a Timeless
is

woven

music,

art, ritual,

Unique
''

Red

Fort,

fabric of religion,

as

and mysticism.

civilization,

the

Study Leaders
Annapurna Garimella

an overwhelming feast
for the senses. This winter, sample the rich traditions left by
more than 50 centuries of civilization and experience an exotic
kaleidoscope of some of the
world's most astonishing cultures

Departure: Febnmry

on Fassage

University Northridge, and documented

country

"-'mii!'

a land of contrasts, a

India
richly

is

to India.

Agra

March 2

A native of India, Annapurna Garimella

is

a specialist in Indian and Islamic art

and

architecture.

A graduate of Columbia

University, where she received her Ph.D.

in art history, she

was curator of the exhi-

bition Saris of India

at California State

paintings and wrote interpretive materials

Sailing aboard the

all-suite Clelia

explore some of India's

II,

most stun-

ning and culturally diverse sites in

the company of distinguished
experts on Indian history, art, and
culture. See the grand baroque
churches of the old Portuguese
colony of Goa. Visit Cochin, the
oldest European settlement in
India, with co-existing Jewish,
Chinese, Dutch, and British communities. Experience Tiruchendur's

Subramanya Temple and the

fasci-

nating Sinhalese palaces of Kandy.

Discover Jaipur, the lovely pinkand-rose city built by a maharaja;

and Mumbai (Bombay), home to

some of the finest monuments from
the Victorian age.

for the

1998 exhibition Sakki: Friend and

Messenger in Rajput Love Paintings at the

Sackler Gallery of Art. She

is

modern Indian

researching

currently
religious

architecture as a Visiting Fellow at the

Center

the

for

Study of Culture and

Society in Bangalore, India.

To Be Announced
Departure: February 19

March 8

James Clad
Departure: February 26 - March 16
James Clad holds the Henry R. Luce
Foundation Research Professorship of
Southeast Asian Studies at Georgetown

A diplomatic officer posted in

University.

from

India

1976-77,

Professor

Clad

chaired the "Georgetown India Forum"

last

His

year.

views

on India and

Indonesia are frequently quoted in leadDecorated Elephant, Qoa

Among

the highlights of the pro-

ing newspapers nationwide, and he regu-

gram will be time in Delhi and

Agra exploring the monuments of
Old and New Delhi and visiting

larly

appears as guest commentator

Asia

issues

the incomparable Taj Mahal. This

exquisite monument to love is one
of the most impressive examples of

Damodar

landscaping and architectural symmetry in the world.

CNN,

on

National Public Radio,

CNBC.

and

R. Sardesai

Departure: March

5-22

Professor Emeritus of Indian History at

the University of California, Los Angeles,

Damodar

Sardesai has written over a

We invite you to
and discover for yourself
our unique concept of "travel as a

dozen books, including India Through the

Ages, and more than 200 articles, papers,
and book reviews. Among many academic honors, he has received honorary fellowships to the Royal Historical Society
in 1979, Father Heras Society of Bombay
in 1991, and was elected President of The

learning experience."

Asiatic Society of

For

over
Cruises has
voyages of
the world's

30

years,

Classical

been offering unique

discovery to some of
most fascinating and

pristine places.

join us

Fishing Nets, Cochin

for

Bombay

in 1989.

Day?

Delhi

Bharatpur

Day

AGRA

Sikandra
'Agra

BHARATPUR

JAIPUR

Drive to renowned Keoladeo National

Jaipur,

Park this morning. Later in the

noon, arrive

Mumbai [

TKinT
A
lJNUl/\

(Bombay )f-...

after-

two-night

stay.

Day 14

TUTICORIN
Morning

JAIPUR

thriving

Jaipur, including the

or Palace of the Winds.

Hawa Mahal,

Continue

to the

TIRUNELVELI

TIRUCHENDUR

Da:y8

Tour
r.N^-

at Jaipur for a

13

AT SEA

Tuticorin,

in

arrival

Portuguese

Tirunelveli

TUTICORIN

the

visit

once a
In

colony.

13th-century

Nellaiyappa Temple. After lunch, contin-

_..'^'

Amber
,'.MJ Oc-,

Also

Fort.

the Jantar Mantar

visit

Observatory and City Palace.

Day
Cochin

JAIPUR

.Tuticorin

LANKA

SRI

MUMBAI (BOMBAY)

Day 15

Board a morning flight to Mumbai. In the

afternoon tour the Prince of Wales

Museum, Victoria Terminus, Marine

Drive, Chowpatty Beach, and the
Municipal Dhobi Ghats. Accommodations are at the Hotel Taj Mahal.

Itinerary
Dayl

USA
Day

EN ROUTE

COLOMBO,

SRI

LANKA

Colombo

for

Buddha.

We

KANDY

an excursion to
Peradeniya to see its beautiful Royal
Botanic Gardens. Continue to Kandy and
the lake-front Temple of the Tooth,
which enshrines what is said to be a tooth

Call at

the

tour

Day 10

of

MUMBAI

Archaeological Museum, with

EMBARKATION

Enjoy an excursion by local boat to

Elephanta Island, the small island famous
for its eighth-century temple caves carved
out of rock. This afternoon, transfer to

DEPARTURE

to Tiruchendur to explore the

Subramanya Temple, one of South India's
most sacred temples.

ue

the port to embark Clelia U.

the

superb

its

collection of sculptures and other objects.

Day 16

AT SEA

COCHIN

After a day at sea arrive in Cochin, the

European settlement

oldest

Day 3
DELHI, INDIA

also

in India.

Day 17

COCHIN

Arrive in Delhi and transfer to the Taj

DISEMBARKATION

Explore via local boats the backwaters of

Mahd Hotel. Afternoon tour of New Delhi.

Cochin to observe typical village life.

Afternoon at leisure. This evening,

Day 4

DELHI

attend a performance of the centuries-old

Old Delhi. Tour

by Mughal Emperor

In the morning, explore

Kathakali dance theater.

Red Fort, built

Shah Jahan as his

tions are at the Taj

the

royal residence; the

Accommoda-

Malabar Hotel.

Day 18

jami Mosque; and the Raj Ghat, the

COCHIN

USA

memorial to Mahatma Gandhi. This

In the morning, tour the old districts of

Museum

Mattancherry and Fort Cochin. After

afternoon, visit the National

and

its

extensive collection of artifacts.

lunch,

Royal Botanic Qardem, Peradeniya

Day 5

DELHI

SIKANDRA

This morning,

visit

Day

AGRA

Akbar's Mausoleum, an

11

After a morning at sea, arrive in Panaji for

ing Hindu, Christian, Islamic, Buddhist,

an excursion

and Jain

motifs.

Continue

transfer to the Jaypee Palace

to

Agra and

Hotel Later in

the afternoon, tour the massive

Agra

Fort.

to

Old Goa.

TA]

FATEHPUR

MAHAL

MANGALORE MUDABIDRI
KARKALA MANGALORE

visit

for

the

connect with

Day 19

ARRIVE USA

leads to

Departures

pilgrims from

the incomparable Taj

Mahal. This afternoon, tour the aban-

doned yet

airport
to

several revered Jain shrines that attract

SIKRI

This morning,

the

Day 12

From Mangalore an excursion

Day 6

to

Mumbai

the flight to the United States.

GOA

extraordinary work of architecture blend-

AGRA

transfer

return flight to

perfectly preserved

Mughal

of Fatehpur Sikri.

city

Chandranatha

all

over India, including

Basti,

with an imposing

entrance gate and two large columned

halls,

and Chaturmukha Temple, noted

for

symmetrical proportions.

its

limited to only 88 guests.

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Depart

Return

Febniary 12, 2002

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2,

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800-252-7745or212-794-3200
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The 88'Guest AlUSuite

11.

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at

A complacent conclusion can be drawn

sume

that sexual reproduction

compensate for errors

with

then natural selection can

harmful mutations, and

motoring along

we

as-

ability to

has dramatically raised the

upper Umit on copying mistakes.

ily

its

it

It it

has

easily take care

Homo sapiens is

done so,
of all the

evolutionar-

more important worries

\vith

than mutational error.

Another possibility

that the harmful-error rate

mutational meltdown. This scenario

apocalyptic but unlikely.

Our

we
is

ancestors have probotF-

wrong number of chromo-

somes in 50 percent of them ever since the span of

one hominid generation evolved

figure

of

when

this

and

to the

happened.

Some

about

argue that chimpanzees

and

would push the origin of

thirty years),

that trait

is

some evidence

that

we

rate

than are other species, but

are

mutation

accumulating mutant genes

rate

is

older than

we

of chimps and gorOlas.

is

at a

higher

suspect that our

are

We

rate

to suggest

and

is

similar to

are probably not

mutating our way to inevitable extinction.

What
tell

does an understanding of genomic error

us about

human

what we can expect

a discussion

is

flituristic

conditional, but the

error,

new

and necessarily uncertain and

way we understand

evolution,

and complexity does bear on the answers.

One

potential reproductive technology that has

aroused tremendous interest

flill

ti-om the

reproductive and genetic technologies? Such

reproductive cloning

in

cloning.

Although

which an

individual

is

which

back near the

origin of great apes, to about 15 iniHion years ago.

Others would use a figure nearer 5 million years

when

There

have a generation time roughly similar

gorillas

to ours (between twenty

ago,

of 2 million years would be

have been just fine for 15 million years,

truly sustainable.

modern

thirty years or so. Experts disagree

we

a figure

we'd have to conclude that our mutation

are in a

not only

been making 200 copying mistakes per

spring and putting the

better. If

that
is

has already reached an upper Umit and

ably

Homo, maybe

human Une branched otf trom that

great apes. Or, if our modern genera-

Perhaps our species would be

unharmed if we disposed of sex, but

the

of the other

tion length dates back to the

origm of the genus

it

would be a good idea to find out first

Amorous couple
period, ca.

1750

in bed, terracotta. Old

b.c.

Babylonian


46

NATURAL HISTORY 6/01

made from an

produces an offspring

DNA in his

the

be used by

human

minority of

no other reproductive options,

tice

highly unlikely to

is

reason

is

cells

might

who

beings

as

many

have

suspect the prac-

become widespread. The

simply that cloning has a drawback:

from

fers

exact copy of

or her sperm or egg

suf-

it

errors as sexual reproduction does

but lacks a crucial mechanism (sex

itself)

beings

signed up to use only clonal reproduction in the fu-

they would also be signing up their progeny

ture,

Mutations would accumu-

for rapid genetic decay.

much faster than they could be eliminated. Not

many generations would pass before all the clones

late

were so loaded with genetic defects

not survive.

"Why

(See

Sex

that they could

Than

Better

Is

Cloning," page 49.)

At

this stage

what volunteering
would have been during the
rather hke

is

for a heart transplant

era before the function

known. The problem

of our bodies

feature

of the

when we do

Whatever

sign principles.

immune

system was

in messing with a design

lies

not

know

the de-

factors allowed sexual re-

production to evolve, the advantages they conferred

big. Otherwise, the sexual form of
which each being is able to pass on only
genes would never have evolved in the first

must have been

life

in

half its

up

The lower

place.

for

by

offspring

reproductive rate

is

probably

probably twice

as

good

as

the equivalent

cloned offspring. In other words, sex

evolved for some reason that

we

may have

are clueless about,

and perhaps our species would be unharmed

disposed of it. But

out

made

a difference in quality: the average sexual

is

it

would be

good

and

are ghastly,

gies to cure genetic error.

And

any

in

case,

gene therapy,

it

therefore

new

technolo-

Of course,

been shown

have not yet

to

be

these practices

relative to

potential. In absolute

its

number

THE RISK OF HAVING A

SCHIZOPHRENIC CHILD IS THREE
TIMES GREATER FOR FIFTY-YEAROLD FATHERS THAN FOR FATHERS

UNDER TWENTY-FIVE.
maybe

if

we

idea to find

in the hundreds,

of

maybe

the tip of the iceberg. Every

few thou-

in the

defective genes, but this

is

probably only

one of

first.

Gene therapy, however, may be another story.

Gene therapy means medically curing a defective
gene by replacing
it,

it

with a normal version, or by

or by

some other technology

unimagined. The use of such technology

will,

human's

30,000 or so genes wrU have several mutant, defective versions.

DNA

Defects also exist in pieces of

do not code for genes.

Whatever the benefits of gene

that

ture

may

therapy, the fu-

bring technologies for preventing

also

copying errors in the

place, thus

first

eHminating

the need for repair. Consider the idea of freezing

gametes

(or

preserving

them by some other

method). In women, the quaHty of egg

to decline

cells

tends

with time. The possibihty that a twenty-

year-old mother will conceive a baby with an extra

chromosome

is

negligible; the

year-old mother will do so

soon

is

after that, the biological

chance that a fortyseveral percent;

and

clock reaches mid-

we may be able
Young women could opt

night. In the future, however,

to

clock hands.

to

stay the

have some reproductive

cells

removed and

embalmed, and then have them revived

neutraHzing

humans.

safe for

we cannot now do much with

terms, geneticists have identified a large

sands

of our understanding, opting to re-

produce by cloning

Such decisions

seems Ukely that people will use the

for clear-

human

ing out the errors. If a subset of

ness.

nancy

at a

time of their

quence would be

own

choosing.

softly

for preg-

One

conse-

reduction in the mutation rate

in individuals (and in species, in proportion to the

yet

number of individuals who choose

ex-

Indeed, the mutation rate might be further reduced

this

procedure).

pect, prove to be as acceptable as conventional

by harvesting the

medicine

is now. (The idea of gene enhancement

which an individual's genes are replaced with the
aim of improving physical appearance and athletic,

for example.

in

involve particularly knotty ethical problems (the

mental, or other
sial.)

as

If

one

is

abilities

will

easier than the only

options currently available: deciding not to have

fect,

all,

course, the trade-off" here

would

impossibility of getting informed consent being the

carrying a gene for a condition such

may someday be much

children at

at birth,

remain controver-

Tay-Sachs disease, deciding to undergo gene

therapy

Of

cells as early as possible

is to persist, the average

parent must produce at least one

If a life-form

error-free offspring.

aborting a fetus that inherits the de-

or giving birth to a baby with an incurable

ill-

Detail from Offering to Venus, by Titian, ca.

1518

most

ob\'ious).

An

Men,

too,

could freeze their ga-

study found that fathers over

fifty

run three times

many mutageneticist
F.
Crow
once joked
tions that the
James
that the greatest threat to the human generic fiiture
is fertile old men. The broad consequences, it any,

the risk of having a child that develops schizophre-

of freezing sperm are uncertain, but

proves that sexual reproduction

metes.

old man's sperm contains so

a recent U.S.

nia than

do

fathers

under twenty-five.

Could we ever evolve

hard to

say,

and

it

to be

more complex?

It's

depends on whether research

is

up

to the task

of

48

NATURAL HISTORY 6/01


would be created by an or-

clearing the errors that

ganism with

longer

a longer generation time,

life,

or a larger genome. Early in the history of microbial

life,

the evolution of repair enzymes helped reduce

the copying-error rate from about

about

netic defects,
lent

by

in 10 biUion. If gene therapy

be used to cure
it

in 10,000 to

proportion of

a large

itself

could

human

ge-

could become the cultural equiva-

brainier, however, may not be the best

become more complex. I have in mind an-

Being

way

to

other fanciful idea, inspired by the

W D.

theorist

needed

Hamilton.

code for

to

human being

20,000 to code for an oak

might code

for

four.

all

would not combine

late

evolutionary

30,000 genes are

If

or a bird, and

tree or a lobster,

The

resultant

100,000

organism

the features of all those organ-

of those repair enzymes. The introduction of

new gene and

out to

reproducrive technologies could turn

be not just

way

to prevent individual heart-

momentous

break but one of the most

2-biLlion-year history' of complex

events in the

life. It

would

rate

with the handful of evolutionary breakthroughs:

re-

WHY

SEX

IS

BETTER THAN CLONING

some mutations, or

All reproduction gives rise to

the copying of

DNA messages.

Sexual reproduction, which oper-

among

vantage of redistributing the parents' mutations

Mendelian machinery of inheritance, and the evo-

spring. In effect, a toss of the coin determines

lution of sex and gender.

particular

breakthrough in reducing error

rates

fateful cell
tated, has

a particular

But what inight such

nization, for example.

a Hfe-

ofi"-

is

only

50-50 chance of making

sperm or

one harmfril

DNA

egg.

On

way

its

the

mu-

division in which each gene, whether perfect or

new level of complexity'

in intellect or social orga-

the

whether any

gene wiU be "allowed" into each embryo. Meiosis

might permit the evolution of forms with a whole

during

according to Mendel's principles of inheritance, has the ad-

ates

hably repHcating molecules, repair enzymes, the

Such

errors,

gamete

into a

average, if a male or female with

mutation produces eight gametes, four will

When

have the flaw and four will be free of error.

both

the sperm and

GENE THERAPY COULD BECOME

ONE OF THE MOST MOMENTOUS
DEVELOPMENTS IN THE HISTORY
OF COMPLEX LIFE.

form eight new organisms, four offspring

on average will have one harmfril mutation and two will have two,
but the remaining two vvdll have no mutations at all. The Hfe-form

form look Hke? Thirty thousand genes of DNA code

mutation decides to have eight offipring,

give

you

complex being such

human

as a

two parents
are combined

eggs of
tion

of

whom

have one harmful muta-

to

carries on.

Now

or

flaw.

consider a clonal hfe-form. If a parent with one harmfril

all

eight will inherit the

A Ufe-form that reproduces this way will continue to accumu-

DNA

mouse, but what would 100,000 give you? Since ed-

late errors

ucation in our information-based society uses up a

becomes unsustainable and wUl be destroyed by its mutations.

Though some life-forms certain plants, for example use clonal
reproduction, they also have sex from time to time. On the family
tree of complex life, only a few odd twigs are exclusively clonal.

large fraction

of the

could evolve to

more

span, perhaps we
Or we might evolve
abilities. Our skill in acquir-

human

efficient learning

ing language between the

is

first

impressive, but genetic

learning probably involves

With
other

and second year of Ufe

programming for early

a large number of genes.

extra genes at our disposal,

skills

set

we

could acquire

the same way, with our brains prompting

Each

us in the right direction.

own

life

live longer.

DNA

of

codes.

computer programming,
pricing derivatives

on the

learn to understand

We

skill

would have

its

could then pick up

for example, or
fritures

methods of

market, the

and speak our

own

way we

languages.

each time

its

Another reason

way

that sex

is

is

Elvis,

by Andy Warhol, 1963

we

doubt

could go in for cloning in

big
hfe.

to

This conclusion would stem from the theory (put forward by Alex

Kondrashov, of the National Center for Biotechnology Information)

that sexual reproduction evolved primarily to

genes. Another plausible theory

being destroyed by

is

that sex exists to

and

parasitic protozoans, evolve

rapidly as they exploit our bodies as habitats,

netic shifts in each generation to

would
would be more Hkejy to
netic disease.

is

stiU

we need

to

a better explanation for

be

make ge-

keep up with them. Even

bad

idea.

if the

why

sex

Your cloned offspring

die of infectious disease rather than ge-

Cloning yourself would be Hke taking your children

to a plague-stricken
is

purge bad

keep us from

and microbial pathogens. Since infec-

parasites

tious bacteria, as well as viruses

plague
Large Triple

it

probably a necessary condition for complex

evolved, cloning

of creating copying errors that cannot

be corrected.

copied; over several generations,

parasite-avoidance theory

Unlike sex, cloning has the drawback

is

doubled.

city,

where the chance

that they will die

of

50

NATURAL HISTORY 6/01

monstrous body would have hopelessly

integration tasks. What the extra genes

isms; such a
difficult

might provide

the opportunity to choose

is

Ufe-form to become. At some embryonic

which

stage,

our

large-genomed creature could assess its environment and see where the best opportunities lay. If a
niche for oak trees was relatively unoccupied,

could commit to

this

form and grow up

it

as a tree

produces acorns. If the sea bottom was under-

that

exploited,

could grow claws, eight

it

spring-action

tail

and watch out

Unconstrained by the form of

its

legs,

and

for lobster pots.

parents, the

em-

bryo would pick the adult form that promised the

be

sess

creature, because

complex

itself would
would have to as-

The embryo

best reproductive return.

it

those environments and opportunities.

all

might

start

dergo

It

out in larval-assessor form and then un-

metamorphosis

necessary genes for

its

as it

switched on

all

the

preferred adult form. All the

unused genes would simply be switched

off,

per-

haps until the next generation.

But there may be many reasons such a flexible

form has not evolved. An important one is that natural selection

creating a massive slaughter of mu-

tants in every generation

genetic information

is

is

needed

to ensure that

not erased by mutational

decay. If genes are not expressed, natural selection

cannot work on them. Put another way,

not used,

The

it is

lost

if a

gene

is

over evolutionary time.

destructive force of mutation has prevented

from evolving reserves of occasionally

if that force were relaxed

earthly Hfe

expressed genes. But what

or resisted? If future technology could accompUsh

this,

or if an otherworldly

method of reproduction

superior to

Mendehan

inheritance emerged, hfe

could add to

its

reserves

of DNA. The future would

He with Ufe-forms

more

that,

although not necessarily

inteUigent than humans, might have genetic

subroutines that could be called up

After

fire

as

appropriate.

and brimstone, such descendants could

as fire-adapted flowers and

reinvent themselves

cover the scorched Earth with fresh foUage. After

the deluge, they could
safely

grow up

as fish

and swim

beneath the waves.

If we evolved extra genes, we might

acquire computer skills as effortlessly
as we pick up our native language.
Golconde, by Rene Magritte, 1953


52

NATURAL HISTORY 6/01

BACTERIAL REVELATIC
Genomics

is

providing a wealth of information about

of Earth's littlest, oldest, and

~

story by Roberta Friedman

most abundant

living things.

Grossman

Illustrations by Robert

up operations

Pumping Metal

some

Ralstonia metallidiinms.

is

Through

its

turn normally poisonous heavy metals

ability to

into harmless carbonates, this bacterium has the po-

How
oils,

do certain bacteria

subsist

and rank toxic sludge

most other forms of

life?

amid heavy

metals,

substances that

Genomes may

kill

help re-

its

transformational powers.

Since the carbonates accumulate on the surface of

R.

the cleanup of humanity's nastiest messes.

work

bacterium that may be useful in mopping-

the environment safe for other

fornrs of Hfe that lack

searchers answer this question and, as a result, aid in

One

make

tential to

metallidiirans,

if

for a while

these microbes are allowed to

and

are then

metals can be effectively

removed, the heavy

removed with them.

Last October, as part of

its

first

annual

"Microbial Month," the U.S. Department of

Energy's (DOE's) Joint

Genome

Institute in

Walnut Creek, California, sequenced the

genomes of fifteen bacteria. One was R. nietalliduraiis. Although not finalized, the sequences give researchers a good idea of how
this

microbe survives and even thrives in the

most

hostile environments.

The DOE's draft

may in fact re-

of this organism's 3,000 genes

veal the secret of

pump heavy

some microbes'

ability to

them

metals and precipitate

harmlessly.

The genes
resistance to

of

DNA

that confer

inetallidiirans's

circular bit

called a plasmid. Plasmids are the

shuttle buses

of the bacterial genetic world,

easUy transferring genes

even across species.

Dunn,

R.

heavy metals are on a

And

a biologist at the

National Laboratory, R.

among microbes
according to John

DOE's Brookhaven
inetallidiirans's

mids are about ten times the usual

plas-

size.

Before Microbial Month, only one percent of this bacterium's

genome had been

known. Now, because of the DOE-led

scientists

can

contemplate,

adding genes to R.

METAL- MINING MICROBE

hnk

its

for

effort,

example,

metalJiduraiis that

would

uptake of heavy metals to biolumines-

JS

Glowing

cence.

bacteria could then indicate the

Earth: one tablespoon of seawater

presence of heavy-metal contaminants. Researchers

10,000 of them. Together,

might

cus

pumping

liduranss

to use

be able to

also

it

as

effect the transfer ot

R.

inetal-

instructions to other bacteria, or

a host for other genes that could improve

make up

all

species

may

contain

of Prochlorococ-

nearly a third of the ocean biomass that

make

uses Hght to

Massachusetts

Penny Chisholm, of the

of Technology (MIT),

food.

Institute

upon its talents.

The very flexibihty of the R. metallidurans
genome is what allows it to adapt nimbly to changing and challenging environments, says Dunn. Of

points out that, along with other phytoplankton,

course, tinkering with such a mobile microbial

says,

genome

raises

concerns, and scientists working

on

the carbon dioxide-consuming

key role in the regulation of

first

amassing adequate knowl-

Dunn

would

croarrays

which

strain

brightly

twoof

surface

lit

it

wiU be

the story of R. metallidurans's

has fewer

dweller,
its

Light of the Sea

now

difficulties

of exploring the

that the science

possible the

of genomics

decoding of complete ge-

strains.

However,

it

also has

it

possesses

by Ught.

And

low-

its

many more

genes

surface

as befits a

an enzyme that repairs damage to

DNA caused by exposure to ultraviolet Hght.

does the deepwater speciaHst have that

its

shallow-water counterpart doesn't? Apparently,

it

can

make

For

a start,

Hving off diverse sources of nutrients.

it

bears genetic instructions for

enzymes capable of utilizing the

making

nitrite that

sent in deeper waters but absent

is

pre-

from the surface

moving

to-

waters of the open ocean. In addition, the deep-

more comprehensive understanding of

the

water cyanobacterium carries the codes for several

netic blueprints, researchers are quickly

a

both

are quite different.

1 ,700 compared with the 2,400 of

What

probe marine ecosystems have always

been hampered by the

And

The surface-dweUing cyanobacterium

genes

By the

ward

strain,

turns out

two

that are activated

making

Hves in rather

Another

it

that the

light relative.

is

MED4,

waters.

netic instructions of

full

unraveled.

open ocean. But

to three-fold."

marinus,

have been working to determine the complete ge-

some time before

Efforts to

will allow scientists to take snap-

shots of the microbe's genes in action

lifestyle is

increase

One

concentration in the atmosphere

be mounted for

metallidurans will

DNA

CO2

"the

microarray chip. Even with mi-

expects that within a year, the

genome of R.
study on a

atmos-

in the

MIT9313, inhabits deeper waters. Researchers at

MIT, the Joint Genome Institute in California, and
the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee

edge of the habits these bugs might adopt. To that

end,

marinus plays a

phere. "If all the phytoplankton suddenly died," she

the organism do not propose to release altered

genomes without

P.

CO2

enzymes

marine food chain.

Take the cyanobacterium Prochlorocoaus marinus.

Discovered only fifteen years ago,

it is

the smallest

and most abundant photosynthetic microbe on

that handle sugars.

Scientists are also using

how

genomics to examine

certain microbes thrive in novel ways, using the

abundant

light available in the surface waters

of the

54

NATURAL HISTORY 6/01

SHALLOW AND DEEP WATER CYAN O BACTERIA

A pigmented molecule called rhodopsin helps

ocean.

many
is

creatures use light; in

present in the retina.

Oded

Beja, of the

humans, for example,

But Edward

F.

it

DeLong and

Monterey Bay Aquarium Re-

modern

optimally with available light. Without

genomics, the researchers would never have discovered oceanic rhodopsin or detected the habitatspecific spectral

tuning evident in

its

variants.

search Institute in California, certainly didn't expect

to

fmd rhodopsin

in oceanic microbes, because

it

But find

it

had never been found

they did.

in any bacteria.

They confirmed

How TB

capable of harvesting biochemical energy from light,

More

thus giving the microbes an energy boost from sun-

culosis

light.

Since rhodopsin-containing microbes are

widespread in the
harvesting

is

DeLong,

sea,

the researchers predict that this

an important oceanic process.

Beja, and colleagues also discovered

from Monterey Bay

and from surface waters of the

Pacific

a red-reacting

Ocean north

rhodopsin, while

those from the Antarctic and the deep waters ot the

North

Possum

Pacific have a blue-reacting variant.

killer.

than sixty years into the antibiotic

is

still

One

to eradicate

the world's

is

The

dif-

white blood

M.

its

it,

dormant

it

for decades.

may cause
may weather the

third

active disease right

initial

attack

by the

body's defenses and then enter a state of latency,

persisting quietly in a kind of equilibrium

immune

appear to have "tuned" their rhodopsins to react

state.

reaches the farthest depths of the sea, while red

with depth. The bacteria

mi-

population harbors the bacil-

ference most likely occurs because blue light

light quickly attenuates

tuber-

infectious

has a talent for hiding out in

sometimes

human

tuberculosis

away, or

era,

that Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the

cells

of the world's
lus in

number-one

reason the disease has been so difficult

crobe that causes

that microorganisms gathered

of Hawaii contain

Plays

that these rhodopsins are

with the

system. If a host's defensive line falters

(when the immune system is suppressed by AIDS,

for example, or weakens with malnutrition or ad-


The ability to
mark of a successfiilly

vancing age), active disease ensues.

ations to survive in the host

coexist with

of this change

its

host

is

the

evolved pathogen, and the tuberculosis bacterium

has an extremely effective strategy for doing so, says
researcher
sity

Gary K. Schoolnik, of Stanford Univer-

School of Medicine's Beckman Center.

TB

large white
start

when its hosts the

known as macrophages

pathogen "turns on"

blood

responding

macrophages'

cells

to

immune

its

presence.

response

is

When

the

activated, the

pathogen undergoes fundamental metaboUc

gen

also

alter-

cell.

One component

switch to the hosts' fatty acids

source of carbon for energy.

as

The patho-

responds to nitric oxide, one of the main

products of the activated white

oxide

Schoolnik has been able to show which genes

the

a principal

is

levels are high, the

TB

slow or stop replicating. Wlien

cHnes, repHcation resumes.

do not prove,

dormant
There

The

cell.

When

nitric

pathogen seems to
its

production de-

results suggest,

but

that nitric oxide induces the disease's

state.

are

grapple with

many
as

he

other puzzles for Schoolnik to

tries to

unravel the secrets of M.

TUBERCULOSIS GERM PLAYING PEEKABOO WITH A WHITE BLOOD CELL


56

NATURAL HISTORY 6/01

For one, the microbe seems to

tuberculosis^ success.

be turning on the genes

its

in

it

uses to acquire iron

from

surroundings, even though the nutrient mixture

which he

is

cultivating the

microbe

rich in iron.

is

Perhaps the toxic soup of macrophages and other

vi^hite

blood

cells

encountered by the microbe lead

more

it

to sense that iron

is

depleted, or perhaps

is

needed by the bug

in this environment.

So

far, says

nomic

iron

of tuberculosis

is

that

salty puddles,

NRC-1

grows on the de-

grading carcasses of less sturdy organisms that die off

mounts due

as salinity

to evaporation.

NRC-1

of Halobacterium

facilitates this

The genome
by

process

cluding instructions for generating such exotica

putrescine transporter

making proteins

heavy metals such

NRC-1

what ap-

also contains the

that can eject toxic

and cadmium.

arsenic

as

inas a

molecular version of

The microbe

waste-disposal truck.
directions for

Schoolnik, the lesson from the ge-

investigation

of Earth's

can prosper in water ten times

saltier

pear to be genes for ordinary metaboHc functioning

than Earth's oceans and can function happily with

could in fact be crucial mediators of the infection's

hypersalty innards.

virulence.

crobes,

it is

UnUke many

grown

easUy

other exotic mi-

in the lab,

making

it

workhorse for future research on the

tential

group of archaeal microorganisms known

Pillars of a Salty

tremophiles.

World

ery that

po-

entire
as

ex-

International efforts have resulted in the discov-

NRC-1

genes are carried on three reph-

Sequencing the genomes of the ancient kingdom of

one of which is as big as a typical

chromosome; the other two are "minichromo-

microbes called archaea yields evidence that

somes."

cating units, only

shares

some

of earning

Consider

a living.

of Halobacteriuin,
est,

microbe

this:

the tiny

hfe

ways

genome

that thrives in the salti-

most landlocked bodies of water,

similarities

all

basic strategies, despite disparate

shares

with complex (eukaryotic)

cells,

many
even

Last year, an international

the

NRC-1

strain

to predict

ble any other

known

genes. Yet

many of NRC-1

's

genes do carry instructions for familiar proteins

for example, those that facihtate molecular signal-

ing across the

cell

membrane and

those that are

used for metabolic (housekeeping) functions. In

those from humans.

ina;

The genome sequence was used

about 2,600 genes, a third of which do not resem-

team finished sequenc-

of Halobacteriuiii. The vulture

fact,

ing

NRC-1

many

plants

carries genetic instructions for

cellular systems similar to those

mak-

found in

and animals.

Microbiologist ShUaditya DasSarma, of the Uni-

of Massachusetts Amherst, led the interna-

versity
tional
1

's

He

sequencing project.

on

proteins

is

to have

inside that carry a high negative

its

charge. Bacteria that lack such proteins

salt

NRC-

explains that

trick to surviving in ever saltier water

succumb

to

poisoning.

Also found in

NRC-1

's

genes are the machinery

growth in both the presence and absence of

oxygen; a primitive photosynthesis system; and a

for

very efficient

DNA

repair system that protects

damage by harsh

against

of Halobacterium

is

sunlight. This hardy strain

also genetically

ing systems that guide

it

where

the optimal locations

rigged with sens-

to the best-lit waters

and oxygen can stimulate

and

to

nutrients, temperature,

its

growth.

NRC-1

even

membrane that can be

retina, and a component that

has a protein molecule for a

Ukened

to a primitive

in other bacteria
acts to

AH

HALOPHiLIC MICROBE

(as

well

as in plants

and animals)

maintain circadian rhythms.

in

all,

sive genetic

the microbe should serve as an impres-

ambassador from

its

ancient kingdom.

TYPHUS- THE

Kl

LLER OF SOLDIERS
respiring bacteria

Typhus,

sson's

and You

Cats,

and converting them into Htde en-

ergy-producing organelles, the mitochondria. Ander-

sequencing of the typhus genome has yielded

remarkable msights into

When
Despite having one of the smallest genomes known,
typhus-causing pathogen,

Rickettsia proimzekii, the

up residence
host for

in a host,

basic needs,

its

evolutionary

this

heist.

independent organism takes

a formerly

it

begins to depend on the

and some of its

own

genetic

become redundant. Mutations can

has played a major infective role throughout history.

instructions

More

soldiers have

occur in the genes of the synibiont vwthout conse-

spread

it)

crobe's

been

by typhus

killed

than have been killed in

genome

battle.

(lice

The mi-

itself looks like a molecular theater

of war, with dead genes strewn among the Hving.

According to Siv G. E. Andersson, of Sweden's
Uppsala University,
the microbe's

kind of junk

that's

because

compact genome

is

their final stages

made up

to

animal and plant

similar to

of the

genomes

that

Mitochondria have tiny

cells.

encode only

few

proteins; the rest

of

the instructions for their task of generating cellular

energy reside
they inhabit.

in the centers,

The

sunilarit\'

or nuclei, of the ceUs

between some of the nu-

clear genes that code for the mitochondria's energy

production and the genes of the typhus organism suggests that these instructions

nuclear

genome from

were transferred into the

a bacterial ancestor

chondria. According to this scenario,

levels started to rise in the

ago,

of the mito-

when oxygen

atmosphere 2

that

of Bartonella
dis-

whereas the cat-scratch pathogen, in the same

Uttle killer's

flinctions

genome with

its

microbe responsible for cat-scratch

cells,

mitochondria, the energy-generating packets within

all

henselae, the

microbial family,

allow for a

be remarkably

some important

son contrasts

Anders-

a history,

ot a

Andersson, part of the team that sequenced the

those that govern

Theorizing that the typhus

Typhus microbes can

of deterioration.

working genes mrn out

survival.

ease.

ancient genes in

typhus genome, has also found that the

its

of

fliUy a quarter

DNAinactivated,

quences for

pathogen may have had just such

billion years

our cellular ancestors had to adapt or die: they

responded to the catastrophe by s"wallowing oxygen-

still

sui"vive

only within other

carries functioning genes that

more independent

Hfestyle. B.

microbes are taken into the infected

don't live directly in the
live in a

do even more for

tained genes instructing

blocks for proteins and

on the other hand,

amino

cell,

fluids.

acids

cell for a

it

itself: it

DNA. The

typhus patho-

steady supply of them. As

its

making

lacks the genes for

and nucleosides and depends on

of genes may have been

has re-

to create the building

much

cent of the typhus pathogen's original

evolved

but they

Rather, they

kind of bubble called a phagosome.

B. henselae can

gen,

cell's

henselae

lost

its

host

80 per-

as

complement

or inactivated

completely parasitic existence,

as

it

Anders-

son speculates.

Meanwhile, evidence accumulating from genomics suggests

that the nucleus

of the so-called

eukaryotes, or nucleated cell organisms,

is

itself a

donation from an ancestor of the microorganisms

known

as archaea.

NATURAL HISTORY 6/01

58

Born To Be Tame

To attract a mate,
a

male houbara

bustard, above,

fans his

elongated crown

To survive in the

Imagine
time.

desert of Saudi
Arabia, captive-bred

and neck plumes

and may perform

bustards have to

"display run"

a strange

go

wild.

wander onto a dark street. A large man

comes toward you. Perhaps he could give you di-

You

smile hesitantly.
a knife.

Too

He

late,

smiles back

you

realize

and

you've

a fatal mistake.

In the natural world, naivete

is

costly,

also rare in animals that share their

at a time.

first

tently

made

for an hour

for the

town, you're preoccupied with look-

then flourishes

learn to

on your own

the comforts of home and in

ing for a place to get a meal and you inadver-

rections.

an animated

you're living

Away from

but

it is

environment

with natural enemies. Constantly faced with the

danger of becoming someone

By Yolanda van Heezik and

Philip

Seddon

else's

dinner, prey an-

imals are skilled in recognizing and avoiding poten-

some

predators. In

rial

largely

response to the decHne of resident houbaras in the

seems to be learned from

Arabian Peninsula, the Saudi government began a

species this ability

innate, while in others

it

parents or other

members of a herd

mals raised in an

artificial

is

or flock. Ani-

environment and without

such guidance often lack the predator-detection

of their wild cousins.

skills

at a captive

breeding

center for Asiatic houbara bustards in Saudi Ara-

At the National Wildhfe Research Center

bia.

female bustards are

Taif,

and the chicks

The

goal

cluded captive breeding and the creation of large

protected areas.
artificial

we worked

For nine years

conservation program in 1986. This project in-

program of

the successful

a surplus

of chicks, enough to begin introducing

some of them

into the wild. Juvenile birds,

thirty-five to forty-five days old,

were

from

at first re-

inseminated

artificially

and then

are hand-raised

in

By 1992

insemination and incubation had produced

released.

to reestablish healthy populations of

is

One ot the
was how to pre-

bustards in their Saudi Arabian range.

first

challenges the program faced

pare naive bustards to survive

eaten

to eat

and not be

in the desert.

Camouflaged and,

in their natural state,

houbara bustards are

birds, Asiatic

at

home

wary
in the

undulating steppes and semideserts of the Arabian

Peninsula, western

and

and the Indian

central Asia,

subcontinent. Superbly adapted to arid environ-

wUd

ments,

houbaras do not need to drink water

but manage to get aU the moisture they need from

their food. Indeed, part

survival

may be

heart, they

wiU

of the secret of the bustards'

their varied diet. Opportunists at

try

most edible objects they en-

counter, from juicy berries and

to

powerfril

fliers,

houbaras prefer to walk and are

more

difricult to

When

they do take to the

is

young green shoots

crunchy beetles and sunbathing Hzards. Though

about

discern

five feet), their

black patches

on

their

when on

air,

the ground.

their size (wingspread

deep wingbeats, and the

wings and neck make them

easy to recognize. Houbaras' strong flight, coupled

with
in

a fighting spirit,

make them

premier quarry

the ancient sport of falconry. This kind of hunt-

ing, in

larger

which the falcons are trained

birds, is one reason bustards

throughout

Houbara

much of their

to attack

much

are threatened

range.

bustards are also sensitive to

human

disturbance. Before Saudi Arabia's oil-fired eco-

leased into a predator-free enclosure of about

and

a half square rrdles,

to find natural food. In their

young

own good

birds could simply fly out into the

serve, a

human

Riippell's fox,

above, rarely

re-

predators but had a

full

bustards,

retreated

while others headed off into the desert,

Considering the enormous transition the young

nomic expansion, the wanderings of nomadic

herdsmen were dictated by the presence of water

birds

and green vegetation. Today water

food finding was concerned. After growing up on

livestock,

is

trucked to

and both the herds and the four-wheel-

drive vehicles penetrate

once

pristine landscapes. In

diet

had to make, many of them fared well

of unlimited food

crickets,

pellets, alfalfa,

insectivorous,

wider

complement of natural predators. Some

on first leaving the enclosure, immediately
inside,

Tiny and mainly

time, the

fenced area of 850 square miles that was free

of livestock and

back

one

where they could learn how

as far as

mealworms,

and water, they were somehow able to rec-

preys on newly
released
bustards, but

many

of the

young birds

fell

victim to red
foxes.

Houbara bustard

ognize and collect their natural plant and insect

chicks, above,

foods.

are cared for by

that soared above 100

hand. Right:

young red

They coped without water

ured out

how

in temperatures

F and eventually even

The main stumbling block along

fox,

fig-

to breed successtiilly.

the road to

was predation. As more and more of

Sophie, was

self-sufficiency

enlisted to give

the

predator-

tacks,

avoidance

dehcate Httle RiippeU's fox inhabits the region, but

lessons.

its

newly

we

free

young

birds

fell

victim to deadly at-

considered a Ust of likely suspects.

predominantly insectivorous diet and small

The
size

(However,

its being the

hungry RiippeU's fox blunder upon a recently released bustard barely able to fly and search-

argued against
should

ing for

Its

villain.

water dish, then the fox

is

Hkely to prefer

6/01

NATURAL HISTORY 61

im

Eager to chase
bustards, Sophie

is

kept in hand

by author Philip

Seddon. Each
carefully

supervised
training bout
lasted just three

minutes.

short distances at one

month of

They

age.

taught by their mothers or other bustards

on

and many paid the

Navigating

price.

to

The

recognize and avoid foxes and other dangers.

captive-bred houbaras missed out

are

how

these lessons,
a

new, seem-

ingly limitless environment, finding appropriate

sources of food, and learning to Hve without water

was demanding, yet

predators

at

To help
the bird over another beetle.)

The

faced sand cat could have preyed

on some

the habits of

Later on,

lovely,

that eagle owls could

was to dispatch naive

birds.

was the red

Not

as

around the predator-free enclosure and move

far away.

become

closure, provided they

But our

how

investi-

main

culprit

in

the region as Ruppcil's

pose

litde

problem

for

houbara bustards. Wild houbara chicks, usually two

or three per clutch, stay with their mother for about
three

months

in total,

riod, the research center's staff decided to trap foxes

them

fox.

common

much.

get the birds through this critical pe-

even though they begin to

fly

When

the

young

birds left the en-

remained close

by,

their

chances of running into a hungry fox were diminished. Despite these trapping efforts,

more than

half

the bustards released were quickly killed by predators

three-quarters of these

of foxes from

foxes, red foxes ordinarily

cope with

living

gation of the tracks and other signs around predator-killed carcasses indicated that the

the same time was too

to

known.

habitual houbara killers once they discovered

ea.S)' it

Having

but

birds,

this desert species are litde

we found

wide-

possible.

a buffer

had only delayed the

tors;

by red

foxes.

Removal

zone around the enclosure

birds'

encounters with preda-

the proportion killed was the same.

Our
nerds"

bustards were in danger of becoming "bird

hand-reared

age to survive,

still

individuals that, if they

man-

have handicaps that even other


62

NATURAL HISTORY 6/01

members of their own

species can readily recognize.

study of captive-bred male partridges, for ex-

ample, has

shown

that

when

released, these birds

not only lacked some basic survival

were

less attractive to

but also

skills

females than were wild birds.

Hand-reared female partridges were more Hkely

than their wild counterparts to lose their eggs and
chicks to predators.

Could our

birds

be instructed

how

to recog-

nize predators and behave appropriately around

them? At

we

first,

tried exposing the naive birds to

Although

simulated attacks, using a stuffed red fox. This

primarily ground

method was

birds,

houbara

bustards are
strong fliers

when they take

to the

air, right.

In the wild,

clutches
usually of two or

three eggs

are

laid directly

on

and allowed us to repeat the

But while the young bustards did
seem to fear the model, when released they were
just as likely to be devoured by a fox as were unschooled birds. We began to think that the birds
would benefit by experiencing a more reahstic attack. For this we needed a live predator, but we
training

wanted one we had some control over. To this

end, one chiUy March morning, we raided a fox
den in northern Saudi Arabia, carefully extricating
a ten-day-old female fox.

We named her Sophie.

the desert
surface, below.

safe

trials.

She spent her

weeks

first

snuggled inside layers of our clothing and waking us

up

at

night with her warbling wails for food. As she

grew, her prowess at chewing and

marked by our gradually

raising

chmbing was

our possessions

all

onto higher and higher shelves and into cupboards

from fox-reach. Sophie was very

far

playfiil

and

Uked nothing better than to be entertained by

us.

Her

al-

delightful personality threatened to shift

legiance from bustards to foxes.

We

phie that she was going to have to

keep, and

we

work

for her

spent time trying to accustom her to

walking on a lead and wearing a muzzle.

miserably

our

reminded So-

on both

counts.

The

We

failed

lead was sometimes

ignored, and at other times Sophie

went

ofr" at a

breakneck pace, dragging us behind, until she

some odoriferous burrow or bone. The muzzle was apparently a grievous

jerked to a halt to investigate

insult to a fox
bility.

and resulted in her complete immo-

We despaired that she would ever be of use in

training the bustards.

The day came, however, when young birds were

moved from the captive breeding facil-

ready to be

to the enclosure,

it\'

lared,

cage.

and taken

The

birds

and Sophie was caught, col-

to a specially designed training

had three training

sessions,

of about

three minutes' duration each, over the course of a

week. During those three minutes Sophie would

tear

around the cage, darting both

at

and away from


the bustards, sending

them up and

cloth walls and roof in a panic.

crashing into the

We

were treading

Kne between making the sessions frightening

enough to teach the birds the lesson and damaging
them. Eventually, half the bustards were "trained";
the other half, a control group, did not make Sofine

Before being released,

all

the birds were

fitted

wdth radio transmitters that allowed daily monitoring of their movements.

We

for news. Past experience

would occur

the birds

left

then waited anxiously

had told us that most

missing and

ter usually
uals

after

the security of the enclosure. As ex-

some were

if a bird

two weeks

vvdthin about

pected, over the next few weeks,

Even

was

lost

killed

remained

had made

to

houbara bustard conservation.

Her foxiness must have

left a lasting

young houbaras, because

the

birds in the "trained"

Most of the
during the

significantly

more

group survived.

bustards that

first

impression on

week on

fell

their

prey to foxes did so

own. None of those

that died survived longer than nineteen days, but

phie's acquaintance.

deaths

tion she

by

intact.

due

some

birds

went

to illness or injury.

a predator,

its

ti"ansmit-

The remains of individ-

could be found quickly, and

could usually be ascribed. Within

a cause
a

of death

few months, we

were able to congratulate Sophie on the contribu-

those that lasted

to
cal

be no longer

more than nineteen days appeared

at risk.

We

beHeve

this

is

the criti-

period during which the bustards learn to adapt

Stillness

and cryptic
coloration can be

natural defenses
in the bustard's

new diet and new environment.

The houbara bustards' experience with Sophie
may have helped them develop some simple rules

environment.

the primary one being to react rather than hesitate

female bustard,

to a

during a dangerous encounter.

nique

is

place in

now available for use

new sites. We Hke to

as

Our

training tech-

future releases take

think

we took

a little

of the nerd out of the birds and gave them a flying

start

toward self-sufliciency and

Arabian Peninsula.

a real life in the

Below: A
captive-bred

equipped with
a radio
transmitter, is

almost invisible
as she incubates

her eggs.

The

bulbous

big,

nose of the adult

male proboscis

monkey

consists

of erectile tissue

that

fills

with

blood when he

is

excited. This

causes the nose

to

become

red

and swollen

display that

speaks volumes
to the female,

whose own nose

is petite

and

upturned.


6/01

A NOSE FOR ALL

REASONS

NATURAL HISTORY

From the size

and arrangement
of fossil

nose bones,
paleontologists

From courtship to camouflage,

sinking to swimming, there's a
nose for the job.

are certain that

many dinosaurs
had huge, fleshy
noses. The

By Lawrence M. Witmer

anatomy of
some, such as

are for

more than just

Noses
or for holding up
gloss

remarks in

smelling

the hadrosaur
Saurolophus,

Pan-

spectacles, as

left,

Caudide.

Voltaire's

Olfaction is certainly the nose's ancestral role, and smelling remains important for
most animals, but in many disparate groups of vertebrates the organ has been co-opted for a
variety of other, quite different functions. The reasons for the nose's evolutionary adaptabihty
are straightforward. For starters, it is well positioned to greet the environment. In addition, it
can be modified without compromising essential tasks such as locomotion or chewing. Fibone, cartilage, muscle, blood vesnally, nasal anatomy makes use of diverse raw materials
sels, connective tissues
on which natural selection can draw.
I was thrust into the arena of nose anatomy by dinosaurs. Along with Scott Sampson, of the

University of Utah,

had noticed

some taking up

cated noses,

that certain groups

of dinosaurs had enormous and compU-

half the skuU. Clearly, something biologically important was going

had proposed a number of possibihties, based on loose analogies with

Hoping to unravel the enigma of dinosaur noses, we decided to conduct
of modern analogues. My collaborators (including many students) and I soon

on. Previous researchers

animals Hving today.

our

own

studies

discovered just

A variety

how

evolutionarily labile the vertebrate nasal apparatus

of mammals, such

as tapirs

and elephants, have evolved

many

Up) capable of manipulating objects. In

display organ, such as the fleshy

hooded

seal,

three species

and the swollen

only

list

could go on

locating bats
ical tissues.

but

and

the saiga, sport

the general point

determining the biological

most

is

that

roles

and

we

are

as in these

communicate

rival males.

noses that give

these noses are built

all

Many

birds

in-

and

them an exceptional

likely did

currendy homing

available.

from

Now our task

is

a limited set

to add

of reconstructing the dinosaurs'

of their nasal

novelties.

Our

studies

of anatom-

all this

in

on

informa-

soft tissues

and

of tapirs, for example, indi-

as some researchers have proposed. Instead,

some other enormous dinosaurs was not a mechanical

not have trunks,

think that the nose of Triceratops and

tool,

serve to

of the

the nasal snorkel of many aquatic turtles, the nasal leaf of many echo-

Evolution "makes do" with what's

cate that dinosaurs

upper

temperature and conserve water.

tion to the fossil evidence, with the goal

we

which

both to females and to

status

antelopes, notably the dik-dik

The

gharial, the inflatable sac

appendage of the proboscis monkey. Often

the males possess display-worthy noses,

ability to regulate brain

a trunk (nose plus

nose has been transformed into a

knob on the snout of the

nasal

formation about their health and

some

species, the

is.

its

precise physiological function. Stay tuned.

suggests

the presence of
inflatable nasal
sacs.

One way to

explore this

and other
possibilities is

to study the

noses of living
animals

the

hooded

seal, for

example.

65

66

NATURAL HISTORY 6/01

The enigmatic nasal

appendage of
Madagascar's leaf-

nosed snake may

enhance camouflage
and/or improve the
animal's sense of

touch. The male's

nose ends in a
tapering spike and
the female's in a
flattened "leaf," so

the appendage

may

play a role in social

display as well.

The nose of the

white bat

is

like a leaf,

shaped

an

adaptation for
echolocation. Leaf-

nosed bats vocalize

through their noses,
not their mouths,

and the leaf both

modulates and
focuses the sound.

tapir's

more

trunk works

Like an

octopus's tentacle

than like a typical

vertebrate

appendage. Made
mostly of muscle,
fat,

and connective

tissue, this highly

flexible organ is

useful for

everything from

rummaging

in debris

on the forest floor

to "directional

smelling."

Male hooded seals

have two dramatic
displays. The first
(inset) involves

closing both nostrils

and exhaling, thus

inflating the highly
elastic black skin of

the nose. For the

second display, the

male closes just one

nostril

and exhales,

blowing out the

blood-red elastic
nasal septum

through the other

nostril.

68

NATURAL HISTORY 6/01

many

In their hot, arid

In

African habitat, dik-

turtles, the nasal

diks

may go months

without drinking.

soft-shelled

cartilages are

greatly elongated,

The anatomy of the

effectively turning

proboscis and nasal

the nose into a

cavity enables these

snorkel. Thus

tiny antelopes to

equipped, the

reclaim water

turtle can remain

otherwise lost

submerged,

during exhalation

periodically

and to cool blood

extending

going to the brain.

above the water's

its

nose

surface to breathe.

!\

70

NATURAL HISTORY 6/01

The snout of the

jl

male gharial
graced by a

is

stiff,

hollow knob, used in

|i

both visual and

acoustic displays.

Building a nose

ornament entailed
the evolution of a

new means

of

closing the nostrils:

penislike erectile
tissue that,

when

engorged, seals off

the airway.

Once thought to be
airspeed indicators,

the nostrils of the

southern giant
petrel and

some

other ocean birds

help in the
excretion of excess
salt. Salty fluids

drain from glands

above the eye, pass

through the nostril
(a long,

horny tube

perched atop the

beak), and
ultimately drip off

the

bill tip.

Formed by
thousands upon
thousands of small
muscles that confer
both strength and
versatility,

the

elephant's trunk is

perhaps the most

remarkable
multipurpose
vertebrate

appendage.

It is

used for breathing,

sniffing,

manipulating
objects as small as
a single blade of
grass, lifting an

entire tree trunk,

taking a shower or

dust bath, and

snorkeling across a
river. In short, it

does everything one

could ask of a nose

and then some.

titKiif

72

NATURAL HISTORY 6/01

horsetail,

and

arctic

had

IN THE FIELD

invaded the

saxifrage

would be many

site. It

years before the tundra

could return to

burn

its

pre-

state.

In a place where

permafrost

is

a feature

of

the environment, the

makeup of the plant

community depends largely
on the depth to which the
soil

thaws each summer.

The depth of the thaw

is

determined by a tenuous
balance between heat lost

during the dark winter

months and heat gained during the

perpetual days of summer. This balance,

Arctic Fires
By Peter

J.

of the ground

the

soil.

Adding

equation

Marchand

may

For
a

wildfires triggered

evolution of plant
the world

traits.

Around

strikes.

the impact of fire here can be far

longer lasting than might be expected

in grasslands,

coniferous forests, chaparral

And

by Ughtning

for a

fire

landscape dominated by low-

influences the

growing shrubs and herbs.

regulates the course

Noatak and Kugururok Rivers, where

ecologist Charles Racine has

makeup of plant
communities, shapes the way many
plants grow and reproduce, and

Flying over the confluence of the

of natural

succession (the orderly replacement of

one group of species by another over

time). Fire may even play a major role
in

determining what

bloom

types of flowers

in the cold arctic mndra.

in Alaska's

way

Noatak River
to a seemingly endless

expanse of dwarf shrubs and tussock-

forming sedges

that stretch

to the farthest horizon.

soils

northward

Although the

known

fi-ozen

as permafirost lies

below the

surface), plant

accumulated over
dries out in early

the study

could see the extent

of a 30,000-acre burn that had once

charred the area. Its boundaries were

dehneated by the flesh green of

new

vigorous

growth, standing out

backdrop. At the
assistant

site,

Racine and

monitoring changes in the plant

community, quantifying what I had
already suspected: the

fire

had

set into

matter that has

foothold. Already, several

many seasons often

summer and becomes

motion

events, giving

colonists
grass,

among them

wildfire to the

shift

the balance

absorption of sunlight, and in the

absence of insulating plant cover, the

absorbed heat

new

bluejoint

fireweed, fourpart dwarf gentian.

is

efficiently

conducted

downward. By season's end, the depth

of thaw in burned areas may be 50
percent greater than in unburned
tundra.

And

it

doesn't take plants long

to respond. Sedges sprout vigorously,

spurred by a flush of nutrients resulting

from the accelerated

microorganisms

as

activity

well

as

of soil

from the

burning of dead plant matter. Other

species, unnoticed at the site at the time
of the burn, suddenly show up; some
are carried in from afar, and some
germinate from seed lying dormant in
the

only inches

and

ground

his

Kathy Hutchins were

complex cycle of
some species all the
advantage they needed to gain a

in this region are usually cold

wet (permanently

fires,

site for

sharply against a charcoal gray

watershed, where sparse stands of white

spruce give

of tundra

clearly

My first experience with tundra fire

came

estabUshed a research

what

insulates

surface substantially increases

vulnerable, for a brief period, to

fundamental role in the

is

sunlight and

A newly fire-blackened

dramatically.

eons, wildfire has played

the nature

cover, since this

absorbs or reflects

for lightning to strike.

Tundra flowers wait

on

in turn, depends greatly

soil.

Even cotton

grass, a

widespread and dominant tundra

species that reproduces year after year

by cloning,

profits

from

fire. Its

dense,

knee-high tussocks are built up through

the prolific sprouting of belowground
stems, but fire stimulates flowering

seed production, introducing fresh

genetic material into a stand and

keeping the species adaptable.

and

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74

NATURAL HISTORY

The

6/0

plants that benefit

wildfire,

though,

annuals.

Annual

may

most from

well be arctic

species (those that

must germinate from seed, grow to

maturity, and produce a

new

crop of

production before the

frost, this

was

kiUing

first

good

as

this

is

greatly diminished

by

Removal of

into forty or fifty days.

the lab, Hutchins found

The

for.

good

them

to

be 87

When
from

jump

the long-lived sedges

clumps that

however, bring

opportunists. Kneeling

among

blue

soil

profusion of gentian blossoms,

willow shrubs, and

Hutchins measured the response of

invaders slowly

this

annual to the

counting more

fire,

than 200 plants and

1 ,200 flowers per

square yard where the soil was

blackened and competing vegetation

had been destroyed. While she found

that the total

study

number of plants

site difi"ered little

number

at

unburned

at

the

sites,

tully

one week

plants

study

earlier

from unburned

than

fire, if

only occasional

occurred
it

areas.

did in

For

cold-storage depository,

some change

to tip

favor.

And

in this frozen

Eden,

there's

like a

summer bloom.

which reduces soil temperature and

makes it even more difficult for
annuals to become established. But

one flower

site

this

environment by shading the ground,

'v!-

at the

their

predecessors, changing the

characteristic stood out: seed

maturation

many hundreds of

seeds of diverse species. Biding their

nothing

(it

Peter J.

Marchand

scientist at the

is

currently a visiting

Carnegie

Museum

of

Natural History's Powdermill Biological

occurs once

Station in the Allegheny

Mountains of

^^^^^IPIP

every three to four years somewhere

from the

that every square yard

holds

good fire to rouse

them from dormancy and spark a

These

crowd out

soil

the balance of competition in their

lichens, mosses,

alders.

of tundra

the seeds await

and eventually

become colonized by

underground seed bank.

future in an

time in

large

are often drier than the

surrounding

out the best in these fast-growing

form

seed for future generations in tightly

We now know

start.

and other disruptions,

exposure of the

keep annuals in the game.

resourceful arctic annuals invest their

tundra vegetation remains

fires

to

closed and long-lasting cones, the

any

as

annuals in burned areas were

clearly getting a

free

as

the established plant cover and

soil,

reverses

Like fire-adapted pines, which bank

commercial seed grower could hope

compression of the growing season

enough

something of a novelty
their success

valley)

Preakness. Testing the seeds back in

percent viable

environment, where the likelihood of

Noatak River

course of succession just often

length lead in the homestretch of the

seed within a single season) are

in this

in the

three-

as a

western Pennsylvania.

arctic

annuals racing to finish seed

M.

I.

Eg
'
[

Charred spruce forest near the Koyukuk River

With so much more to see,

you'll want to come more often.
Especially when you have

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78

NATURAL HISTORY 6/01

REVIEW
History,

they

say,

written by

is

the winners. If

we may

so,

have been missing some good

books. Jon Kalb's engrossing account of

Hardball Amon:
the Hominids

discovery and disappointment in the

Afar region of Ethiopia

may be one

ot

the best first-person accounts of finding

human

fossils

restless

and somewhat overmature grad-

ever written. In 1971,

uate student in geology, Kalb

Fossil riches in the

Horn of Africa

have sparked

decades of cutthroat competition.

as a

By John Van Couvering

galva-

nized by the fossil-fmding successes of

weU-fmanced French, American, and

Kenyan groups working near the northern

of Lake Turkana

tip

move

decided

gether his

own

to

and put to-

his family to Ethiopia

expedition into the

Kalb and Taieb were

by

sought

young professor, Yves

out

Coppens, represent-

ing the French pres-

ence in the

last

area, as

by an ambi-

unexplored segment of the East African

well

Rift System. Alas, once the hominid re-

tious graduate stu-

mains began to turn up, Kalb was the

first

as

through

been

the

Louis

who had

Leakey,

Threaded

of fieldwork,

this vivid story

from

team.

U.S.

Ethiopia was exploding in waves

of murderous revolution.

Donald C. Jo-

dent,

hanson

(but not the only) loser in the ap-

palling academic brawl that ensued,

even

as

by

sidehned

and

illness

politics

paleoanthropological poHtics, and on-

after

the-spot war reportage

Kenyan contingent,
was also eager to

Kalb's nervy

is

struggle simply to stay in the game.

In these pages

some of the

we

know more about

are backstage for

human

great scenes in

the Afar

pa-

jealousies that

been written by Giuseppe

fifty

Raymond

human

ans at Addis

rift

Turkana

basin, discoveries

ings

valleys,

were reaching

Kalb and

especially Kenya's

The prevailing mood at the Afar

camp

field

in

the importance of

1973

around in

At

first,

they began to

infernal land-

scape of Ethiopia's Afar Depression to

themselves.

It

was

he and Taieb learned to get

feel-

French geologist

Maurice Taieb, had the

Kalb's not trusting

how

ing

and hard

a crescendo.

his partner,

jagged wasteland of

this terrible

fmd

place (and

fossil

how

beds wherever

wiping out exploration

parties.

Describ-

it

hominid

to

fos-

turned out, she couldn't have

been more

From

prescient.

that time

quickens inexorably

almost

that

to have joined

Some needed no
news

one wishes

them

urging.

who's

who

that the Afar

had

Not long
fossil

as

everyone that the Afar

there.

dating back miUions of years reached the

of

As

came

compeUing imagery

after

a history

sils.

it

onward, the action in Kalb's story

unfordable, unsanitary rivers, with a

had

anybody when

they looked), Kalb uses such vivid and

oveiJike heat, frantic mosquitoes, and

local population that

Ababa

December 1971,
Mary Leakey stressed

1970s in South African caves and East

African

con-

in

new

ancestor to fight over. In the

Mary,

at a

of prehistori-

gress

dis-

covery of the Taung skull in southern

Afiica, giving anthropologists a

Leakey

his wife,

met Kalb

Verdi. Nearly

had passed since

years

and

might have

Dart astounded the world with the

fossils.

When

leontology, a long-running saga of tri-

umphs and

organizing the

beds

of hominid paleontology'

that

was entrenched around Lake Turkana,

dawns on

it
is

the biggest,

the most fossUiferous, and (surely) the

most newsworthy of
cales in

human

Depression,

all

the tabled lo-

evolution.

however

The Afar

inaccessible

hellhole, appeared to be the

one

re-

niaining place

on

earth that had geo-

Kalb notes, how-

Various accounts exist of what hap-

in

of them: In

all

late

Desmond

taken over by J.

1972 Kalb and

Clark and

who had

fornia, Berkeley,

with their French and American part-

obtained an overlapping permit.

ners and were joindy awarded a permit

Denied funds

Bodo

by the Ethiopian governments Antiqui-

NSF

Administration to study the geology

Awash River
In October 1973 Johanson came
hominid remains australo-

informed

square miles of the Afar's

valley.

across

pithecine leg bones

exploring

Hadar

at

(in

strictly

Kalb

Kalb was forced out. Kalb claims

tiquities

An-

was that a rumor of

connection

with

CIA had been

his

as

Ethiopia's

brought

NSF

well

by Johanson. Within months,

announced the

discoveries of

"Lucy"

and ot the 2.3-million-year-old

"First

Family," a cache of 214 fossil bones

teeth

found

managed

to retain

corner of the original concession

the

Middle Awash

body had

valley,

He

yet explored.

they

found

artifacts so

2,000

same

feet."

place,

year-old

in

to reject

rumor

(the other

two

applications

had

vanished from the fdes)

versity

at

as a

means

for

all

sum-

moment

of us (ww^v.newscientist

.com/news/genome.jsp)
For budding student

want

to get in

mend

starting

on

who

geneticists

the action,

recom-

with the University of

Utah's Genetic Science Learning Center

(gslc.genetics.utah.edu).

site

Its

"Basic

how

Genetics" section has a primer on

our

cells translate

DNA's

genetic infor-

Uni-

our bodies need. Science becomes per-

Austin, Kalb paints

sonal in the "Genetic Disorders" sec-

an engaging and sympathetic picture of

himself

has nice online

mation into the multitude of proteins

a research fellow at the

of Texas

Scientist

good guy who got steam-

tion, in

from

which young people

suffering

a rare genetic disease, neurofibro-

Skull digging without skull-

matosis, share their experiences. For

hard to imagine, however,

news about how genetic research is

changing the world, click on "Genetics

of

trove

cleavers, "the

at

Bodo cranium.

and Kalb may

just not have

been

proficient a hardball player as his

petitors.

"the hominid
ontologist

wry

recall the

game"

who was

fossil fish at

the time.

work

in

the

Middle Awash went to the National Sci-

com-

Southern Methodist University,

New

and

York University, and Harvard

all

tion,

Or

try the "Students" sec-

with demonstrations such

DNA

Place

split

bad

liver)

in a blender;

"It's

a pale-

always

"when

to extract

tenderizer,

terone poisoning."

voila,

editor

is

and puhHsher of

cropakontoioj^Y Press.

a j^eolo^ist
the

and

"How

peas (or onions or chicken

add water and

and alcohol,

you get

strands

code of life. Seeing

John Van Coiwcrinj^

as

from anything living":

blend; then add a Utde detergent,

you get hominid fever on top of testos-

1977 from

Kalb's eminently qualified associates at

in Society."

by
Kenya studying

offered

in

as

diagnosis of

combination," she concluded,

in

CIA

New

is

October 1976, in the

they found the 600,000-

ence Foundation (NSF)

who had argued privately

the Harvard application due to the

Special" of the

weekly popular-science maga-

duggery

In

for

erees

Project, try

www.ornl.gov/hgmis/. Also,

maries of what biology's big

who moved

ref-

information

Human Genome

rollered.

from an airplane

Three proposals

zine

was out of the way, was one of the

this task

May

dense in places that they

[could] be seen

showed that the CIA

rumor was indeed a factor. The information released to Kalb showed
Middle Awash

fewer

far

assembled

vast

Acheulean hand axes and

where no-

another team, and sure enough, in

1975,

British

into the

Now

in a single locality.

Kalb, meanwhile,
a

and

of early hominids of both sexes and

different ages

NSF. Their records

only weeks after Kalb

former partoers Taieb and Johanson

wide-ranging

For
about the

"Human Genome

that Clark,

could take decades.

the

Depres-

just begin-

than the original estimates

pubHc apology from the

2001; $29)

Books,

with only 30,000 genes

site at

as

is

our complex biochemistry. Even

in

the

Ancestors in

Afar

the project read-

work

admit, the hard

a court-stipulated settlement

sion, by Jon Kalb (Ccpeniiais

to their attention

his

Human

cover

the

no such rumor

that

filed a lawsuit against the

Adventures in the Bone

Trade: The Race to Dis-

Administration

were

rejections

1986

that the reason given by

the director of the

was blandly

their ears. In

won

and

ily

figure out the role that each gene plays

He

under the Freedom of Information Act

the northern part

of the concession). Just eleven months

later,

on merit

who worked on

tists

the

CIA involve-

the

that

The prehminary map of the human

genome is complete, but as the scien-

ning. Researchers will be trying to

the problem.

had ever reached

team was

the

as

By Robert Anderson

Kalb went to the

supposed

to see if his

ment was

Biology's Giant Leap

his

previously

investigate

to

further,

site

13,000

and paleontology of nearly

how

of

from the University of Cali-

associates

nature.net

six

Awash was then

Taieb signed an agreement to cooperate

ties

year,

of the

bitterest part

Kalb's dry description

is

the area of the Middle

same

tacts are the

The

days' notice.

book

ever, there's always the Sudan.)

pened, but the central

The foUovwng

rejected.

Kalb was expelled from Ethiopia on

logical potential for a paleoanthropological bonanza. (As

were

three

is

salt;

meat

in sequence. Et

of sticky

DNA,

the

believing.

the

Museum's Mi-

Robert Anderson

is

a freelance science writer

hving in Los Angeles.

80

NATURAL HISTORY 6/01

BOOKSHELF
Brave

New

Brain: Conquering Mental

Illness in the Era of the

Nancy C. Andreascii (Oxford

Genome,

by

University Press,

2001; $29.95)

it is

haystack

of finding in
.

Ac-

a neuroscientist,

mapping of the organ holds

promise

"this

Colin

slay

of mental

the

one of the biggest

Tudge (Hill and IVang/Farrar, Straus

For Tudge,
the

nology

by Michel

Press,

2001;

our basic humanity

of biotech-

are algorithms that are in-

DNA molecules and in pro-

So writes this French biologist,

on looking at genes as synthesizof proteins and on offering precise

tems."

accounts of

how

ftmdamental

life

they operate in such

processes

as

develop-

ment, aging, learning, and behavior.

human

Genome

beings.

Project,

completed

begun

effort

composi-

The Human
in

1990 and

this year, "represents

an ex-

traordinary technological achievement,

is

ment

at best

perhaps the defining

mo-

of mankind."

in the evolution

Transducing the Genome: Information, Anarchy,

and Revolution

Hill,

in the

by Gary Zweiger

2001; $24.95)

Abraham

Lincoln's

DNA and Other

Adventures in Genetics,
Rcilly (Cold Spring

by Philip R.

Harbor Laboratory Press,

Storing and analyzing the genomic data

2000; $25)

of our

Doctor, geneticist, and lawyer Reilly

species, writes

Zweiger, promises

standing of

life"

new under-

examines the diverse uses of genetic

but also to impose on

technologies, from the proposal to di-

enormous

responsibility ot be-

agnose

a disorder in Lincoln's

coming "stewards of our own genome."

known

as

us the

Marfan syndrome

DNA

to using

animal organs in humans.

intent
ers

and intensely competitive

to decipher the full genetic

and

at risk?

to create "a dramatically

$24.95)

carnated in

turned writer,

possibilities

raise the disturbing question. Is

(McGraw
Morange (Harvard University

a scientist

immense

gives a lively account of the

Genetics,

costly

tion of

Biomedical Sciences,

illness."

The Misunderstood Gene,

"Organisms

by

small

the quixotic needle that

can be used to
giants

reveals

smaller in schizophrenics.

cording to Andreasen,
future

From

Gene:

Mendel's Peas to Designer Babies,

and Giroux, 2001; $21)

Neuroimaging of the thalamus

that

Impact of the

The

Cracking the Genome: Inside the

Race to Unlock
Davies (Tlie Free

Human DNA,

Press,

by Kevin

2001; $25)

Davies, the founding editor of Nature

Perspectives on Genetics: Anecdotal,

Historical,

and

Critical

mentaries, 1987-1998,

Com-

edited by James

ADVERTISEMENT

F.

Crow and lllUiam

Dove

F.

(University of

Wisconsin Press, 2000; SI 9. 95)

This collecrion of essays originally ap-

peared in

Written by such

Genetics.

contributors

the

to

field

as

Joshua

Lederberg, Richard C. Lewontin, and

John Tyler Bonner, they richly document the history of modern genetics research and

its

NATU RAL

H STO RY
I

continuing evolution.

Decoding Darkness: The Search for

the Genetic Causes of Alzheimer's
Disease, by Rudolph E. Tanzi and Ann B.
Parson (Perseus Publishing, 2000; $26)

Isolating the genes

(now

and proteins respon-

neuron-wasting disorder

sible for this

affecting

A place tofind out more about the world we live in.

20 percent of people age

sevent)'-five to eighty-four

and 40 per-

cent of those eighty-five and over) has

been Tanzi

's

quest since the early 1980s.

The Seven Daughters of Eve: The Science That Reveals Our Genetic Ancestry, by Bryan Sykes (W. W. Norton,

2001; $25.95)

Modern

genetics permits us to journey

"way
beyond the reach of written records or
into the deep past of our species,

stone inscriptions," writes geneticist

Sykes.

"These genes

tell a

story

which

begins over a hundred thousand years

ago and whose

den within the

chapters are hid-

latest
cells

The Way of the

of every one of us."

Molecules, Or-

Cell:

ganisms, and the Order of Life,

Franklin

M. Harold

(Oxford University

by

Press,

2001; $27.50)
In

1944

ageless

Erwin Schrodinger

physicist

pubhshed

his

book

question

IVIiat Is Life?

is

at

the

This

heart

of

Harold's investigation of the ubiquitous

"process of living" and the unique capacity

of organisms "to reproduce

therri-selves indefinitely,

and

arise

on

"Natural

Moment" and
From

"Natural Selections"

the Past," check out

what

NATURAL HISTORY has on the Web for you.

Subscribe online.

Let us know how we're doing.

hear from you!

We want to

millennial time-scale by the interplay

of variation and selection that underlies

biological evolution."

The books mentioned

From

to our editors' "Pick

are usually avail-

Check

us out at

www.naturalhistory.com

Museum Shop or via the

Museum's Web site, www.amnh.org.
able in the

Copyright

Natural

History

Magazine,

999

82

NATURAL HISTORY 6/01

MUSEUM EVENTS
JUNE 4
Lecture: "What's the Matter
in the Universe?" (Frontiers
in Astrophysics series).

As-

tronomer Vera Rubin. 7:30

Space Theater, Hayden

P.M.,

Planetarium.
Lecture:

"Dragon Hunter:

The Life of Explorer Roy

Chapman Andrews." Writer
and archaeologist Charles
Gallenkamp. 7:00

mann

P.M.,

Theater. For

information,

Kauf-

more
(212)

call

313-7607.

JUNES,
Three

12,

AND 19
"Evolution

lectures:

Rob De-

and Genomics,"

curator of the exhibi-

Salle,

"The Genomic Revo-

tion

June 5; "Natural
History of the Genome:

lution,"

The Role of Genes

and

Na-

9:

Opening of the Discovery Room, an interactive space for families with children ages

up. Activities are available in all the Museum's major fields of

five

and

sdence and research, from

anthropology to astrophysics. Tuesday-Sunday, 10:00 a.m.-5:00

Friday 10:00 a.m.-8:45 p.m.

p.m.;

Status," Niles Eldredge,

curator. Division
12;

in

Mutations,

ture, Extinction,

June

of Paleontology, June

and "Genetic Diversity and Native

American/First Nations Cultural

sues,"

American Cancer Re-

search Corporation, June 19 (Science

of the

Genome

mann

Theater.

series).

May

7:00 p.m., Kauf-

jects including genetics, spiders, fishes,

and Hfe in the universe. Continuing ed-

26 and 30, caU (212) 769-5200.

ucation and graduate credits available.

Is-

Linda Burhansstipanov, executive

director. Native

on

Theater). For additional screenings

JUNE

For more information,

From

"Transition

Lecture:

to

Sail

Steam: Archaeology and the Social History of Ships" (Earthwatch

seum

series).

Mu-

the

at

Anthropologist Richard

visit

www.

amnh.org/learn/pd/sos/
Films

at

the

IMAX

Theater: Lost

Worlds: Life in the Balance (biodiversity

and the need for conservation);

Shackle-

Gould. 7:00 RM., Kaufinann Theater.

ton's Antarctic

Adventure (the dramatic

story of the

1914-17 British Impe-

Films and discussions in connection

DURING JUNE

rial

with "The Genomic Revolution":

JUNE

6, 9, 13, 20,

Lost Tribes of Israel

AND 27

(DNA research

quest for identity), June

6,

Jlie

aids a

6:30 P.M.;

fossil

of

a subadult

theropod (125-

145 million years old) discovered in

northeastern China

is

on

Trans-Antarctic Expedition); and

Ocean Oasis (the biodiversity of the Baja

Cahforma

peninsula).

display in the

Gene Hunters (genetic research and in-

Astor Turret. This dinosaur, covered

The American Museum of Natural

2:00 RM.;

with well-preserved featherlike struc-

History

digenous peoples), June

panel discussion on
ogy,

art

9,

and biotechnol-

June 13, 7:00 P.M.; Amrit Beeja

(traditional agriculture

and agribusiness

June 20, 6:30 RM.; After Darwin (possibilities and ethics of genetic

in India),

technologies) June 27, 6:30 RM. Kauf,

mann Theater

(except June 13, Linder

tures,

probably looked

much

For information on

workshops
side

for adults

like a bird.

field trips

and children,

and outside the Museum,

call

and

listings

in-

hours,

(212)

769-5315.
Seminars on Science: Six- week online courses for

K-12

teachers

on sub-

is

located at Central Park West

and 79th Street in

New York

of events,
call

(212)

769-5100 or

Museums Web site

Space Show tickets,

at

visit

For

and
the

www.amnh.org.

retail

Museum memberships
able online.

City.

exhibitions,

products, and

are also avail-

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86

NATURAL HISTORY 6/01

ENDPAPER
the

For

Would Darwin
first

research

logical

dominated by

who

studied

Today?

a Grant

Get

half of the

twentieth century, bio-

By

was

T.

V.

soon render chnical or descriptive research

Rajan

scientists

whole organisms

life

as a

some

even, in

and has

as

stamp

enough
cial

why

genetic

traits

are so

example, a particular malformation of the

(known as the Hapsburg Hp) turned up over several centuries in members of the German royal family.
Physicists who felt that quantum mechanics had exhausted the possibihties offered by inanimate objects were

lips

Furthermore, nature

roles in

condition

may

Hving organ-

approach produced a massive explosion in our

it

make

My concerns
tual descendants

feel,

the molecular biology revolution has put the

am

own

often involved in reviewing grant proposals in

field

^biomedical research

and

witnessed a disturbing trend. Nearly

all

over the years have

the worthy molecular

studies receive the funding they need, while

clinical projects
real

human

regrettable,

my

patients, for instance

are turned

because both approaches are

down. This

critical to

is

under-

affect

other areas of her physiology, such

are

not hmited to medicine.

as

my

view, this

how

how their physiology is structured,

how they function in their current ecological

Fortunately, as readers of Natural History

ogy

is

far firom dead,

and many

As we begin

as

the

efforts to

genetic) that determine

Some

how

now

in-

understand

am

back into fash-

an essential part of our

Hfe.

of them,

the illness progresses.

scientists believe that

also

settings.

to appreciate the hmits of reductionism,

wiU come

all

we

field biol-

field biologists are

optimistic that descriptive biology

factors (some, but not

As

us, to

corporating molecular biology into their research programs.

ion and once again be recognized

and the numerous

tragic.

they evolved,

know,

the genes that

ness,

is

molecular biology and genonaics can teach

study

and

we may

the possible intellec-

standing the

many complex factors involved in any disease:

may predispose someone to a particular illness,
environmental or other triggers that may bring on the ill-

as

who might otherwise choose

many young people

of Darwin

fear

deeply understand Uving organisms requires that

many promising

^following the progression of a disease in

prema-

enzyme in order to
No, because tinkering with

to study organisms in the wild. In

much

baby at risk of being thrown out with the bathwater.

to inhibit

sense to tinker with the

would adversely

be discouraging

asso-

is

her susceptibility to cardiovascular disease.

Unfortu-

nately,

why not try

testosterone level?

organisms derive their enormous complexity from a vast

relatively simple interactive systems.

one

treat

leave the patient vulnerable to other prob-

menarche? The enzyme responsible for breaking down

the male hormone testosterone (which females also have,
though in lesser amounts) may cause premature menarche.

understanding of the molecular basis of hfe, teaching us that

number of

studies.

notoriously frugal with her re-

of developing breast cancer, so

girl's

as

as

ture

it

complex

well

ciated with health risks, including an increase in the chance

increase a

as

as

lems. For example, the early onset of puberty in girls

Wouldn't

proach to understanding systems

is

an organism. Altering a gene in order to

studying individual molecules was the only plausible ap-

isms. This

suffer-

play multiple, often Htde-understood

Most genes

sources.

by Schrodinger's words to turn their attention to biscientists brought with them the bias that

These

ology.

and

to dictate steady finan-

support of clinical

molecular

that physics could help explain

inspired

a genetic discovery

discovery should be grounds

powerful influence

^why, for

inevitable time lag

conspired

book entided Wliat Is Life? by Austrian physicist Erwin

Schrodinger, whose work was vital to the development of
quantum mechanics. In this book, Schrodinger maintained

far,

knowledge has
help manage the

ing that might result from the

was the 1944 pubHcation of a

stable

for ap-

any alleviation of human

to bring about a reductionist ap-

One

ane-

sickle-cell

The change

as several forces

proach.

to

The

between

been contemptuously dismissed

began

with

this

little

disease.

scientific circles,

collecting.

hemoglobin

done

poor cousin

to molecular biology

skepti-

substitution in the

however,

has increasingly

been perceived

am

amino-acid

proximately forty years; so

decades, this approach to the

study of

mia has been known

a Galapagos tortoise

their natural settings. In recent

moot.

precise

of patients

Charles Darwin and

in

The

cal.

genetic information will

T.

V Rajan

sity

is

chairman of the pathology department

of Connecticut

Heahh

Center in Farmington.

at the Univer-

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2'i-Apr

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1-8D0-CAL1

WVA

callwva.com
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to cbdttge.

American Museums
Discovery Tours
The History

of

Food & Wine by

Ancient Trade Centers

JANUARY 2002

Revealed: Saudi Arabia, Oman

Private Jet

October 22 - November

4,

2001

India: Traditions

Action

in

& the LLA.E.

January 3 -21, 2002

February 14 - 28, 2002

Great Treasures of Southeast

Expedition to the South Pole by
Private Plane

Asia: Thailand, Cambodia,

Malaysia, and Indonesia Aboard

Clipper Odyssey
October 22 - November

10,

the

2001

January 8 - 23, 2002

The Galapagos
Aboard

Jewels of the Adriatic Sea:

to

Venice Aboard the

Sicily

the Isabella

Islands

The Amazon:

II

January 13-23, 2002

Georc/ia & the Falkland Islands

Petra,

Muscat, Lhasa, Kathmandit,

tbc

Search of the Source of the

Nile: From London

to

Zanzibar,

Tanzania, Urania, and Khartoum

January 13 - February

The Amazon:
3,

2002

New Zealand by Land

lllaanhaatar, and Samarkand

October 31 - November 20, 2001

September 4 -23, 2001

Along the Ancient Coast of

Turkey: Aboard tht Panorama

Belize & Tikal: Riinijonst,

September 21 - October

and Ruins

1,

2001

Silk

Road:

Patagonia:

2001

Aboard tbe Royal Orient

March 4 - 22, 2002

3,

2002

in

Mali; Featuring

and

Tierra

the

Indochina Unveiled:

Laos,

Vietnam & Cambodia

January 25 - February 12, 2002

by Private Plane

Coastal Treasures of the

Arabian Gulf: Dubai, Qatar,
Bahrain,

October 2 -18, 2001

Kf(ii'<iit,

fBRUARY 2002
Mexico: Mayan Ruins and

of African

Song

Haciendas
February2- 15,2002

Exefuisite

of Flower

November 7 -20, 2001

Civilization

Bhutan & Northern

the

Mysteries of Earth By Private

An Around

Jet:

Nature & Man

March 1 1 - April

tlje

World

Country
India:

Fairs of India: Featurinij

the

Festival

Ethiopia: A Journey Through Time

February 9 - 23, 2002

November 15-30, 2001

Pearls of the South Pacific:

Royal Orient

October 8 - 26, 2001

Society, Cook, Tontja

Sailing the Tyrrhenian Sea: Rome,

4,

2002

Indian Ocean Odyssey:

Madagascar & the Seychelles Aboard
the

17,

2001

Pushkar Camel

Aboard

March 8 -21, 2002

Saudi Arabia,

Khasah, and Muscat Aboard

tbe

October 3 -

Treasures of the Pharaohs:

Egypt Aboard the Sunboat 111

Exploration of the Wonders of

Exploring Egypt & Jordan

Ethiopia: The Heart

Torres Del Paine

f iierto Aboard

Terra Australis
November 5 - 16, 2001
Del

OCTOBER

Bhutan and Northern India

Clipper Odyssey
January 20 - February

Timbuktu & the Do^on Country

January 22 February 6, 2002

A Journey

September 21 - October 13, 2001

its

Circumnavigatinij Aboard the

Daily Life

Throutjh China and Central Asia

and Sea:

Discovering

Natural Wonders Aboard La Amatista

March 2-10, March 9-17, 2002

Kcifs,

November 2 -11, 2001

The Ancient

its

Aboard

Hanseatic

Vientiane, Lnanij Prabanij, Anclkor,

In

Discoverinij

Exploring Antarctica: South

October 22 - November 10, 2001

SEPTEMBER 2001

Jet:

Natural Wonders Aboard La Amatista

February 23 - March 3, 2002

Sea Cloud

Lost Cities by Private Jet:

South America By Private

Natural Wonders & Ancient Mysteries

February 19 - March 1 1, 2002

Nepal: A Himalayan fiimilj Adpinluie

December 20, 2001 -January 3, 2002

Aboard

the Spirit of

&

Fiji Islands

Song

of Flower

March 25 -

April 10,

2002

Rain Forests and Waterways:

Costfl Rica to the Panama Canal
Aboard Le Ponant
March 26 -AprU 4, 2002

Oceanus

February 9 - 28, 2002

Elba, Corsica, Capri, Salerno, Lipari,

and Catania Aboard the Sea

October 18-30, 2001

Cloud

Cuba
February

10-20,2002

Human Odyssey: A
April

Expeditions

Search for

Our

Beginnings an Expedition by Private Jet

1

19,

2002

throughout the World

si

ATURAL History

2001 - 2002 Programs

The Lost World:

Bioiiiversity in the

Circumnavigating Iceland

White Nights: A Summer Voyage

Orinoco

Ahoani Le Levant

Aboard

the Baltic

Rii'fr Deltii

April?-

2002

15.

Arabian Voyage:

Song

Ahoiiui the
^pril 9

26,

AUisciit to Aifaha

of Flower

Costa Rica for Families

Aboard

China

The Ancient

in

oJ

The Outer

Silk

Road:

and

Family

14,

of Civilization

Islands

August 2002

2002

SEPTEMBER 2002
Jewels of the FJimalaya
September 1-19, 2002

Experience

Iran

Voyage

to the

North Pole

World: Jordan

Aboard the Yamal

-August 1,2002

2,

2002

Grand Valley oj
- 26, 2002

In

Aboard

the

Budapest

to

Amadeus

Colorado River

September 17 - October

Family Alaska Expedition Aboard

the Wilderness Adventurer

by Private Plane
September 25 - October

June 22

July 25 - August

Skills:

Family

Chaco Canyon
2002

in

28,

the

1,

2002

NOVEMBER

Moscow
the

Through
to St.

6,

26 - August

Aboard

(fee

Clelia

to

August 9 -

Cods and Heroes:

Aboard
Jiine28-Juiy 10,2002

8,

East Africa:

Beijing, Xi'an,

Yangtze River, Guilin

2002

September 27 - October

2002

13,

2002

Sailing Turkey's Turquoise

September 30 - October

11,

Fairs of India: Featuring

Ancient Crossroads by Private Jet

November 4 - 24, 2002

2002

and Tribes: A

Family Adventure in Thailand

December 20, 2002 - January 2, 2003

Egypt and the Nile:

Family Holiday Program Aboard

the

Oberoi Sheharazade

December

2002 - January

2,

2003

2002

Toronto Aboard Le Levant

17,

For

2002

more information:

800-462-8687 or
212-769-5700
call:

II

The

Biodiversity of Madagascar

Fax: 212-769-5755
discoverytours.org

and Southern Africa

August 10-29,2002

/viTH

2002

& Shanghai

North America's Great Lakes:

2002

Istanbul to Athens

2002

Pushkar Camel Fair

November 4- 19,2002

Trains, Treks,

Coast by Private Yacht

Chicago

Family

10,

2002

2002

AUGUST

Viking Kirov

June 23 -July

1,

Game Parks of
A Family Safari

the Ages:

Petersburg

Country

DECEMBER
11,

China & the Yangtze River:

July

Russia

2002

Australia Air Safari: The Outback

JUNE 2002
Adventure

11,

Classic

July 20

Outdoor Living

Explorer

the

The Swiss Alps

Caves France and Spain

May 2002

the

& Syria

September 16 - October

Family Dinosaur Discovery:

the

Aboard

October 28 - November

July 18

South Africa's Great Rail

Journey Aboard Rovos Rail
May 15-29, 2002

Helena,

15-25,2002

July

Modern

St.

Cumba & South Georgia

Mediterranean Crossing: Malta

to Malaga Aboard the Sea Cloud

Treasures of the Ancient

Ancient Persia and
May 14 -28, 2002

Gold

- 25, 2002

October 7 - November

Switzerland: An Alpine Family

Turkey: The Crossroads
May 9 - 24, 2002

oJ

Stem

Lost Islands of the South

Tristan da

Learning Adventure
July 6

1 1

Atlantic: Ascension,

Kenya & Tanzania

Rockies:

October

to

Odyssey

Way

Living the Navajo

October 6 - 13, 2002
Peru: Empires

Islands of Britain

Carl Akeley's Africa:

The Canadian

From Hanoi

Reap Aboard the Clipper

October 3 - 19, 2002

the

Japan Aboard
the Clipper Odyssey
May 2 -16, 2002

2002

Vietnam and Cambodia: A

Ireland Aboard the Song of Flower

August 31 - September 12, 2002

for Families

June 2002

in

OCTOBER

of Flower

Journey Through China & Central Asia

August 30 - September 22, 2002

Katharina von Bora

May 1 - 14, 2002

Springtime

Song

the

August 16-25, 2002

June 2002

Aboard

Timeless Journey

Family Adventure

Mongolia: In the Footsteps

Roy Chapman Andrews

2002

River: Treasures oj

Timeless Laii

Wildlife of the Galapagos

Aboard the Santa Cruz

June 29 -July 9, 2002

Classical Greece at Easter

April 28 -May 11, 2002

The Elbe

August 13-25,2002

Islands:

2002

MAY

Explorer
June 28 -July 14, 2002
the

Distinguished Scientists

and Educators
*'

Dolts

(?H(J itiitcries

are suhjcct to chtvi()e.

architect

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demolition exp'