The Ancient Creature on a Desert Island: With Extra-Long Fingers Caused a Sensation in Europe
A brilliant British anatomist, a notorious eccentric in his later yearsRichard OwenReceived a letter, the cover of which bore the title of the British Governor-General of Mauritius. The Governor, before leaving Britain, had promised to send Owen some interesting zoological specimens. In the letter, he said that he had obtained a strange thing from the island of Madagascar, which today is also known asfinger monkeyThis is one of the earliest records of this magical animal. Because the island of Madagascar is isolated from the world, the animals here basically maintained their primitive forms, we can see many mammals that do not exist on the mainland here, finger monkeys are representatives of these wonderful animals
The uproar caused by the finger monkey
Finger monkeys are a particularly special kind of lemur, with a cat-like shape, huge ears, large incisors like otters, and only the middle finger is half as thick as the other fingers, looking like a bent wire. Next, the British Governor-General stated that he had put a lot of effort into catching it, and the finger monkey was worshipped on the island of Madagascar. If someone touched the finger monkey, he would surely die within a year, so it was difficult to obtain a specimen. The Governor said that he had to spend ten pounds to make them get this animal, and finally got this animal
The British Governor-General kept this finger monkey in a wooden cage, along with a fewburrowing beetles (beetle larvae)of tree branches. The finger monkey was very interested in these branches, it carefully examined the branches, used its big ears to listen attentively, thencuriously tapped the bark with its finger, like a woodpecker, but the sound made by the woodpecker was much smaller, occasionally it also inserted its long middle finger into the holes where the beetle larvae had burrowed, just like a doctor using a probe to examine patientsThe finger monkey tapped the bark to start the burrowing beetle, then it would carefully listen to the movement inside, the burrowing beetle would dig deeper into the branches, but the finger monkey could always successfully catch it. It would first bite off the bark at the hole, then use its long middle finger to stretch into the hole to dig out the burrowing beetle,
According to this recipe, the Governor has always kept the finger monkey alive, but it eventually 'escaped'. The exact reason why the Governor didn't write it in the letter, perhaps the monkey broke the wooden cage, or some other reason. However, the Governor quickly caught it back, and according to Owen's instructions, he 'killed' it withmethylene chlorideHe described: 'The finger monkey's arteries were injected with methylene chloride, the cranium was exposed, and alcohol was injected into the abdominal cavity and digestive tract. Finally, it was completely immersed in a bucket of alcohol'. The Governor thus sent the corpse of the finger monkey to Owen, so the latter wrote a forty-page anatomical report on this rare species from Madagascar
Richard Owen
Owen was one of Darwin's rivals. He was a strange old man, and also an advocate of conservative thought in the Victorian era, he strongly opposed the idea of natural selection, and believed that some higher power 'designed' each species and 'arranged' its ecological nicheThomas Henry Huxleywas the main supporter of Darwinism, he once publicly opposed Owen and insulted Owen. It can be said that Owen and Huxley were deeply estranged, and during an important scientific meeting, Owen said that humans and apes were far removed, and humans could not have evolved from apes because only humans had the hippocampus in their brains, of course this has been proven wrong later
Thomas Henry Huxley
The appearance of the finger monkey caused another uproar in Europe, regardless of how much opposition to Darwin, Owen also had his own somewhat immature 'evolutionary theory'Ironically, Owen argued that his greatest idea was even earlier than Darwin's theory of natural selection, and his idea had become a reference for Darwin's theory of evolution. Owen believed that the fingers of the finger monkey should not simply be considered the deformed hands of primates, but should be considered the 'prototype' hands of mammals, because the creator 'created' all species using the same 'blueprint', This 'blueprint' is the unique finger of the finger monkey
For a long time, Europeans believed in Darwin's ideas, believing that finger monkeys belonged to Darwin's theory of common ancestry, that is, the fingers and hands of finger monkeys are similar to human hands because they came from a common ancestor a long time ago, and this ancestor also had similar hands. The problem of evolution is deep and profound, we don't know whether this view is correct. In the early stages of evolution, fish evolved into wings, and these wings helped them climb onto the shore. The evolution of fish fins was probably to avoid being hunted by predators in the water. These fins evolved into a variety of four-legged animals, including amphibians, reptiles, mammals and birds
The 'blueprint' was preserved. The 'fins' of early fish are the 'fins' of the wings of bats, the 'fins' of the stout-legged long-legged rhinoceros are the 'fins' of human hands, and the 'fins' of the finger monkey is a highly specialized hand for catching burrowing beetles, because we all came from a common fish ancestor,
""""""""""""
""""""
