The mythical dinosaurs
QUESTION How were fossilised dinosaur bones explained before the discovery of geological time and Darwin’s theory of evolution? In The First Fossil hunters, author Adrienne Mayor says the early Greeks explained the presence of large fossilised bones with tales of great mythical creatures.
One Greek motif around 700BC was the gryphon (or griffin), a giant creature with the body, tail and back legs of a lion, and an eagle’s head, wings and talons.
The Greeks created a natural history for the creature, whose existence was based on the bones of the Protoceratops, a herbivorous dinosaur with a distinctive horny neck frill, found in Scythian gold mines and in the Mongolian desert.
Fossil elephant skulls probably inspired the Cyclops of homer’s Odyssey. These skulls have a large central nasal cavity, a hole that could easily be imagined as the single eye of a mighty monster. The ancient Greek philosopher Xenophanes (c. 570478BC) was more perspicacious. he observed shellfish and seaweed in the quarries of Syracuse and concluded that water had covered the land and the fossils were the remains of ancient sea creatures preserved in marine sediments.
Thinkers in the Middle Ages called fossils lusus naturae, ‘jokes of nature’. They based their beliefs on the Bible, and as God had created the earth and the sea separately, bones of marine creatures on land could only be attributed to God’s mysteries or, to those with a more magical bent, to Merlin the magician or various demons.
Lusus naturae were the formal teaching of the Vatican until the 17th century. As late as 1580, French potter and naturalist Bernard Palissy, famous for discovering principles of geology, hydrology and fossil formation, was denounced as a heretic.
Ian Summers, Criccieth, Caernarfonshire.
QUESTION Why is the indigenous population of Argentina so small, less than 1.5 per cent of the population? When Spanish colonists arrived in what is now Argentina in the 16th century, they landed at the Rio de la Plata, and their first settlement grew into Buenos Aires.
They settled the fertile Pampas areas of the country, forcing the indigenous communities north- westwards and southwards into the Patagonian desert.
‘ Indian’ raiding parties were commonplace, but the Spanish built a series of forts which held them south of the Salado river, a geographical barrier to the south. Most approaches to Patagonia from the sea were hampered by inhospitable cliffs. With the Pampas Indians acting as a buffer against europeans to the north, the Patagonian Indians were unmolested until the 19th century, when european settlers encroached further and warfare erupted.
After Argentina gained independence from Spain in 1816, it was keen to expand its borders across the Salado river and into Patagonia to establish dominance in the continent and to allow for more immigrants. In 1875, a group of indigenous raiders stole 200,000 cattle from three cities in the Buenos Aires province. In retaliation, the Argentine army invaded Patagonia, defeating indigenous warriors and destroying villages.
The subsequent eight- year war, or Conquest of the Desert, enabled the young nation to become an agricultural superpower in the early 20th century. however, thousands were slaughtered and many natives were pushed into inhospitable areas.
According to official data, the indigenous population is 600,329, 1.7 per cent of the 42 million Argentines. Indian communities are generally restricted to small reservations at the northern and southern extremes of the country.
The most significant populations are Mapuche (113,680 people), the Kolla (70,505), the Toba (69,452), the Guarani (68,454), the Wichi (40,036), the Diaguita-Calchaqui (31,753), the Mocovi (15,837), the huarpe (14,633), the Comechingon (10,863), the Tehuelche (10,590), the Quechua (6,739), the Charrua (4,511), the Pilaga (4,465), the Chane (4,376), and the Chorote (2,613).
Carla Martin, London SW14.
QUESTION Are any species of animals other than humans affected by Down’s syndrome or extra chromosome conditions? DOWn’S syndrome is also known as Trisomy 21, a trisomy being a type of polysomy in which there are three of a particular chromosome instead of two. Trisomy in animals is relatively common but usually fatal. Down’s syndrome is notable for being one of the few survivable trisomy disorders which does not always cause the mother to miscarry. If trisomy in animals does occur and the animal survives birth, it rarely lives into adulthood and is unlikely to mate.
In various species of cattle, trisomy 28 (three copies of the 28th chromosome in an otherwise diploid cell) can result in a cleft palate and congenital heart abnormalities, and sufferers rarely survive long.
Trisomy of chromosome 22 (equivalent to human 21) has been reported in the great apes. It was reported in a sevenyear-old female Sumatran orang-utan and in a gorilla, and has also been reported in two hominid chimpanzees.
Dr Ian Smith, Cambridge.
QUESTION What is the card game in Poldark that exposes Warleggan’s cousin Sanson as a cheat? FuRTheR to my earlier answer, this will explain some of the terminology Poldark and Sanson use in French Ruff.
In the game, you each get five cards and the next is turned for trump. The aim is to win at least three of the five tricks played.
Before play, non-dealer may ‘propose’ an exchange of cards. If dealer ‘accepts’, they reject unwanted cards and get the same number from the top of the pack. This continues until either the non-dealer is satisfied and declines to propose, or the dealer is satisfied with his and refuses to accept. Then non-dealer leads to the first trick. ‘The book’ means ‘I’ll change all five’. David Parlett, Author: The Oxford History of
Card Games, London.
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