The idea of a graphic version of the Origin of Species

In early December 2007, my hometown newspaper, the Louisville, Kentucky, Courier- Journal, published my opinion piece concerning the newly opened creation museum in northern Kentucky.

It is of course a wonderful thing to receive an honorary degree from the University of Missouri, an institution that many years ago I called home.

I’m extremely grateful to all of the people who supported my candidacy for this high honor, particularly Frank Schmidt.

INTRODUCTION

A vestigial structure is a rudimentary biological structure that was not rudimentary in the ancestors of its bearer. Such a structure is interpreted by evolutionary biologists as a vestige of a homologous structure that was more fully functional and often larger in the ancestors of the organism in question. Biologists generally consider the existence of vestigial structures one of the main lines of evidence for evolution (Barton and others 2007; Hall and Hallgrimsson 2009).

Oxford paleobiologist Martin Brasier’s new book, Darwin’s Lost World, is first of all a recounting of his own research history, beginning with a 1970 trip to study