"Song of the Dodo" - Evolution & Extinction

What happened to the dodo, and who or what is next? Reading David Quamman's book, The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction, we will discuss and examine the mysteries of evolution and extinction.

This 625-page book is part travelog (quick reading), and part evolutionary science and biogeography (slower going). We have 2 used copies we can loan out, area libraries have a few more, and it can be found online.

In this class, we will learn about Linnaeus and the naming and classification of plants and animals; the travels of Alfred Wallace and Charles Darwin and their almost simultaneous development of the theory of evolution; biogeography and biodiversity; evolution and extinction; and islands and their special roles in evolution and extinction -- big islands, little islands, and islands nowhere near water.

The only requirement for the course is that you commit to keeping up with the reading. We will work our way through the book (with some of the reading occasionally designated as optional), discussing 100-120 pages every week, supplemented with short, timely articles. It’s probably 3-6 hours reading each week, but for the most part very readable, and in places laugh-out-loud funny.

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Instructor: Larry Rabinowitz

I was (briefly) Director of Horticulture at a small tropical botanical garden in Sarasota, Florida, The Marie Selby Botanical Gardens. Also the first to make plant labels there and the first to teach classes there.