On my toes
OK, I need some help from somebody who knows. I thought my grasp of science was quite firm but I find it shaken to its foundations by tricky questions from Maggie (who, incidentally has been in and out and in and out of school like a tee-to-tum* this past week; we have no idea what is going on except she’s a bit poorly. Sometimes.) We’ve been touching on evolution a little since our visit to the Natural History Museum in the summer, but it is all a bit confused. What can I say, ask me about molecules!
She declares she doesn’t believe in dinosaurs because it doesn’t seem very likely, does it. Well no it doesn’t – and how to explain that they are not like fairies or, you know, dragons, or something that you can choose to believe in a bit if you like but really we all know they are not true. Or Santa – and we’ve had some interesting chats about the juxtaposition of him and Jesus, also, thanks to the church school she is attending. The Christmas when Jesus was born was indeed the first Christmas, after a fashion, but was it the first time Santa brought presents? And if not, why not?
So. We established rather reluctantly that dinosaurs had existed a long time ago (we saw the skeletons, remember). But – here’s the science bit – did the monkey things** evolve from the dinosaurs? Or did they evolve from the other mammally things that were around at the same time (I think), mammoths and, um, sabre-toothed tigers and suchlike? And if that is the case, did they share a common ancestor? I am pretty firm on birds (and I imagine reptiles) evolving from dinosaurs, but didn’t some fishy thing crawl out of the swamp on its fins at some point? Was the pre-dinosaur, and did that then evolve into us or into birds?
*A thing that goes in and out a lot. No idea; ask my mum.
**She’s fairly unquestioningly happy about us having evolved from monkey things, and I am reasonably happy about hominids and Lucy and missing links. I think. We haven’t got into that in depth yet.
September 16th, 2009 12:35
It’s always going to be Wikipedia
September 16th, 2009 12:40
In a nutshell, humans evolved from the mammals that evolved from the fishy things that co-existed with the dinosaurs.
September 16th, 2009 12:50
Lisa (and Maggie, hi Maggie!):
Dinosaurs evolved into birds (this has been shown now in extensive scientific research). Monkeys, apes, and ultimately humans, evolved from other mammals that existed at the time of the dinosaurs (which was an awfully long time, historically speaking, hundreds of millions of years), and some of which survived whatever it was that killed off most of the dinosaurs. Hope this helps.
September 16th, 2009 13:16
Thank you! I knew somebody would know, and would know where to look. Do the fishy things and the dinosaurs share a common ancestor? (OK OK I’ll go and look at wiki. And there a couple of children’s books that have fallen into my amazon basket.)
September 16th, 2009 14:28
I guess our common ancestor with the dinosaurs would have been a reptile of some kind.
September 16th, 2009 20:33
Hahaha, this is so funny (spooky?) Ian and I were ‘debating’ this last night.
I don’t believe in the ‘we evolved from fish’ stuff, and all creatures evolved from dinosaurs.
I’m not especially religious but I believe in Creationism over that kind of evolution, lol.
(Lisa, there’s nothing wrong with saying ‘I don’t know.’, giving her relevant books, and letting her make her own opinion 😀 )
September 17th, 2009 08:22
Really? I have absolutely zero time for creationism in any shape or form. I realise it is ok to say I don’t know – and in fact that is what I have done so far – but my point was that 5-year-olds make you stop and think about things you thought you had a grip on!
September 20th, 2009 07:06
Give her a copy of The Selfish Gene and be done with it! Or, on second thoughts, maybe read it yourself. Yes, that’s probably more realistic.
September 20th, 2009 08:14
Hmm. Do you know, I have read it. I don’t seem to have taken away a very clear picture of evolution – maybe a spot of revision is in order!