The thing about there not having been any snakes on the island of Ireland even before St. Patrick arrived is a nice example of the science of "biogeography." This is an area of study I find really engaging, fruitful and thought-provoking. I got hooked on this topic via David Quammen's most excellent book Song of the Dodo -- find it at UofT library (on course reserve at Gerstein; other copies at UTM, UTSC) or buy on Amazon.com (USA, incl. a Kindle ed.) or Amazon.ca (Canada, no Kindle)
Question: why does the Kindle e-book of this title list at Amazon.com for more than even the hardback edition, let alone the paperback? Surely electronic delivery has way better margins than warehousing, stocking and displaying or shipping the dead trees format? Not the first case I've seen of this disparity.
Anyway, UofT's geography department offers a course on biogeography, GGR305. This is why Song of the Dodo is on course reserve at Gerstein.
It turns out our library hosts a website of topic-specific "library guides" saying what the library offers that you'll need for a specific course. Here the library guide for GGR305 and their Recommended resources for GGR305
Currently I have checked out a really neat book on this theme (making slow progress, lots of competing titles and other tasks):
Newton, Ian, 2003. The speciation and biogeography of birds (Gerstein Library, QL677.3 .N5 2003) -- find on Amazon.ca
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Were there any snakes in Ireland for St. Patrick to 'drive out'?
The famous evangelical monk St. Patrick spread Christianity in Ireland in the Middle Ages. Adding to his legendary stature is the oft-repeated story that he "drove the snakes out of Ireland."
Seeing a mention of this legend today, I got to thinking about natural history and wondered if there was any evidence that Ireland ever had any snakes in the first place. Turns out someone already thought about this, took a closer looker, and found out: nope.
In particular, no snake skeletons have ever been found among Ireland's extensive fossil record. Also, if there had been snakes on such a large island, current experience suggests you would really need divine intervention on a grand scale to succeed in eradicating them. Much smaller tropical islands naturally free of snakes have been infested with alien species introduced accidentally by humans - having hitched a ride on a ship or even a plane. One really tragic example is Guam where the brown tree snake introduction has devastated the indigenous nesting bird population who have no natural defense against predation by snakes, having evolved over millions of years in their absence.
One nice 'explanation' of the 'drove out the snakes' legend is that the snakes may have been symbolic rather than literal: there are suggestions the local Druids bore snake tattoos - a practice that would have been 'driven out' as people converted to Christianity. It's always nice to find a "reasonable" explanation of something that otherwise just sounds fanciful and contrary to our understanding of natural reality. Of course those who want there to be an impressive miracle to validate the spiritual status of their saintly hero don't mind if the story defies belief. The part about there never having been any snakes there to start with is just a bit inconvenient for the legend, is all...
Seeing a mention of this legend today, I got to thinking about natural history and wondered if there was any evidence that Ireland ever had any snakes in the first place. Turns out someone already thought about this, took a closer looker, and found out: nope.
In particular, no snake skeletons have ever been found among Ireland's extensive fossil record. Also, if there had been snakes on such a large island, current experience suggests you would really need divine intervention on a grand scale to succeed in eradicating them. Much smaller tropical islands naturally free of snakes have been infested with alien species introduced accidentally by humans - having hitched a ride on a ship or even a plane. One really tragic example is Guam where the brown tree snake introduction has devastated the indigenous nesting bird population who have no natural defense against predation by snakes, having evolved over millions of years in their absence.
One nice 'explanation' of the 'drove out the snakes' legend is that the snakes may have been symbolic rather than literal: there are suggestions the local Druids bore snake tattoos - a practice that would have been 'driven out' as people converted to Christianity. It's always nice to find a "reasonable" explanation of something that otherwise just sounds fanciful and contrary to our understanding of natural reality. Of course those who want there to be an impressive miracle to validate the spiritual status of their saintly hero don't mind if the story defies belief. The part about there never having been any snakes there to start with is just a bit inconvenient for the legend, is all...
What, ANOTHER blog?
I decided that rather than have just one blog for all the different topics I have something to say on, I should split things up into separate blogs for work stuff, climate stuff, and now I'm starting this one to be more of a diary and random musings. I don't see any point in foisting these on the people at work and they don't relate to climate change in particular. So, yes, another separate blog. FWIW, YMMV.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)