"Rudyard Kipling, in addition to his journalism, adventure
stories, and chronicling of the British Raj in India,
is remembered for a series of charming children's
tales about the origins of animals. The Just-So Stories
(1902) are fanciful explanations of how . . the camel got
his hump (rolling around in lumpy sand dunes). Modeled
on the folktales of tribal peoples, they express humor,
morality, or are whimsy in 'explaining' how various
animals gained their special characteristics.
" 'Not long ago,' writes science historian Michael
Ghiselin, 'biological literature was full of 'Just-So' stories
and pseudo-explanations about structures that had
developed 'for the good of the species.' Armchair biologists
would construct logical, plausible explanations of
why a structure benefited a species or how it had been of
value in earlier stages."—*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of
Evolution (1990), p. 245.

Other related topics:

• rudyard-kipling
• myths
• armchair-biologists
• myth
• elephant
• nose

Animal navigation with magnetite (Facts About Biology) Labels: evolution, navigation

Craseonycteris thonglongyal bat (Facts About Biology) Labels: senses, evolution, mammal, bat

Darwin hoped that evolution would eliminate the lower races (Facts About Evolution) Labels: philosophy, moral, evolution, darwin, races, racism, racist

Darwin wondered why all the transitional species are missing (Facts About Evolution) Labels: charles-darwin, darwin, evolution, transitional, species, transitional-species

Evolution has been turned into an all-pervading process (Facts About Evolution) Labels: science, religion, julian-huxley, evolution