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 Close examination of the socially monogamous red-backed fairy-wren is
revealing that drabness and bright coloration each has its place in our
revised—and spicier—understanding of avian relationships and
survival. Photo by Trevor Quested.
Part of the answer is that the research questions themselves are
important. Evolutionary biology is a thriving discipline that
involves thousands of scientists across the globe. Evolution is the
unifying theme that puts the “why” into our understanding of
biological systems. It tells us why organisms look and act and
function the way that they do. It tells us why we have the
diversity of life on earth that we have, and why so many species,
like the dinosaurs, are no longer with us. And it tells us about
our own family tree and where humans, as a species, came from.
Indeed, as the evolutionary biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky put it
several decades ago, “Nothing in biology makes sense if not in the
light of evolution.”
But, truth be told, that is only part of the answer, and none of
that is what I am thinking about as I watch my little wrens flit
away. Instead, I am thinking about how pretty they are, bright
plumage against the green foliage, twittering songs bouncing off
the leaves. This, of course, is why I am here and why I have
devoted my career to studying behavior and evolution—I am
fascinated with these little birds and want to understand as much
as I can about them. This fascination is shared by the students
working with me here in Australia. Around the dinner table at night
we chat about the birds, what we saw them doing that day, and also
any other interesting little tidbits we observed, like the large
carpet python hunting through the brush this morning. To be sure,
we also talk a lot about science—the data we are collecting and the
ideas that we are testing—but a good deal of our time is spent just
chatting about our many nonhuman neighbors in the forest that
surrounds us.
This fascination with nature is what drives and compels
evolutionary biologists. There is little fame in this line of work,
and little fortune. Rather, what drives people into this line of
work is equal parts innate curiosity and deep appreciation for
nature. Evolutionary biologists—indeed most scientists in
general—are obsessed with solving questions about nature. Some of
these questions and puzzles are big ones, but for the most part
they are small questions about tiny aspects of nature. The answers
to these many little questions, though, add up to a larger
understanding of nature and how it operates.
Charles Darwin, the original architect for the modern theory of
evolution, himself typified this mixture of deep curiosity and love
for nature. As a young man Darwin set out on a five-year voyage
around the world, during which he occupied himself with observing,
describing, and thinking about what he saw. His observations led to
questions and puzzles. Why were so many fossil animals similar to,
but slightly different from, living organisms in the same areas?
Why did the depth of a flower so closely match the tongue length of
its pollinator? Why did the birds on an island resemble each other
in so many ways except size of the bill? These observations and
questions led Darwin to formulate the Theory of Evolution by
Natural Selection, and biologists to this day continue to uncover
the details of that process. Throughout the rest of his career
Darwin devoted himself to studying the flowering habits of orchids,
the lives of mollusks, the effects of worms on mould, and the
expression of emotion in animals. Throughout it all, he was driven
always by that innate curiosity and love.
Some have told me that this evolutionary explanation robs nature
of beauty by reducing it to a cold mechanical process, “red in
tooth and claw,” as the saying goes. This attitude puzzles me,
because all the evolutionary biologists whom I know—and I know
many!—are driven by a love for nature, and to them nothing is more
exciting than to uncover some hidden aspect of a natural system.
Darwin himself probably best described this fascination that
evolutionary biologists have with the natural world when he wrote
these closing lines to his first book on evolution, The Origin
of Species: “There is grandeur in this view of life, . . .
that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed
law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most
beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being,
evolved.”
Michael Webster is an associate
professor in the School of Biological Sciences. His research
focuses on the evolution of sexually elaborate traits, such as
bright plumage, and reproductive behaviors in wild birds.
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