Animal Weapons: The Evolution of Battle
Douglas J. Emlen
Language: English
Pages: 138
ISBN: 0805094504
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
The story behind the stunning, extreme weapons we see in the animal world—teeth and horns and claws—and what they can tell us about the way humans develop and use arms and other weapons
In Animal Weapons, Doug Emlen takes us outside the lab and deep into the forests and jungles where he's been studying animal weapons in nature for years, to explain the processes behind the most intriguing and curious examples of extreme animal weapons—fish with mouths larger than their bodies and bugs whose heads are so packed with muscle they don't have room for eyes. As singular and strange as some of the weapons we encounter on these pages are, we learn that similar factors set their evolution in motion. Emlen uses these patterns to draw parallels to the way we humans develop and employ our own weapons, and have since battle began. He looks at everything from our armor and camouflage to the evolution of the rifle and the structures human populations have built across different regions and eras to protect their homes and communities. With stunning black and white drawings and gorgeous color illustrations of these concepts at work, Animal Weapons brings us the complete story of how weapons reach their most outsized, dramatic potential, and what the results we witness in the animal world can tell us about our own relationship with weapons of all kinds.
Limulus in the Limelight: A Species 350 Million Years in the Making and in Peril?
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metabolic demands of an especially large body size. Again, the problem is the balance between opposing forces of selection. Jaw dimensions affect individual performance in two contexts: swallowing prey and catching prey in the first place. Larger jaws are definitely better for ingesting bigger and more diverse prey. But they are selected against due to the drag they incur as they’re pushed through the water.20 For many open-water predatory fish, natural selection for faster swimming speed acts in
Montana. With armed guards standing on the roof of our vehicle spotting for lions and angry Cape buffalo, I’d rushed from the truck with gloves and a spade to poke through manure as fast as I could. In this way, I was able to sample beetles from buffalo, gazelle, and giraffe dung. But the real find that day was a pile of fresh elephant droppings in the middle of the road. We must have just missed the elephant—the pile lay steaming between the rutted tire tracks. I promptly did what any field
to demands of particular terrains or tasks. Some become specialized for transport, others for speed, still others for fighting. When vehicles start to fight with other vehicles, selection favors characteristics that improve performance in these contests. Often, as with scramble contests or outright chases, this means faster speeds and greater agility, precluding elaborate armor or big, heavy guns. Occasionally, however, when conditions are just right, vehicles with the biggest weapons win. Bigger
people, so it seems only prudent to reflect for a moment on the Cold War and its legacy. What can animal weapons teach us about the world we live in today? Many feel we survived the Cold War because of deterrence, and after researching this book I’m inclined to agree. We escaped two extremely dangerous near misses, but in the end deterrence prevailed. The threat of total destruction prevented either superpower from launching, and it kept all the other states at bay in the process. It’s been