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Endangered Species
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Is the Giant Panda still considered an endangered species?
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no_statement
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the "giant" panda is no longer "considered" an "endangered" "species".. the "giant" panda has been removed from the list of "endangered" "species".
|
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/09/giant-pandas-no-longer-endangered-in-the-wild-china-announces
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Giant pandas no longer endangered in the wild, China announces ...
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Giant pandas are no longer endangered in the wild, but they are still vulnerable with a population outside captivity of 1,800, Chinese officials have said after years of conservation efforts.
The head of the environment ministry’s department of nature and ecology conservation, Cui Shuhong, said the reclassification was the result of “improved living conditions and China’s efforts in keeping their habitats integrated”.
He said the announcement reflected China’s national efforts to preserve biodiversity in recent years. The authorities have worked to expand giant pandas’ habitats and replanted bamboo forests to feed them.
The number of Siberian tigers, amur leopards, Asian elephants and crested ibis have also “visibly increased” as a result of continuing conservation efforts in recent years, Cui told a press conference this week.
This week’s announcement was met with delight on social media. Related hashtags on Weibo have been read nearly 10m times.
“Wonderful, wonderful news,” said one post. “It shows all the efforts have been paid off. Well done.” Another urged China’s conservationists to continue their work. “It’s a good start indeed, but there are still threats to these species. Do not relax.”
Observers say the issue of conservation also ties into Beijing’s diplomacy in recent months. The foreign ministry spokesperson, Wang Wenbin, said on Thursday that “the concept that lush mountains and clear water are worth their weight in gold and silver has taken root among the public in China.
“We stand ready to work with all sides to strengthen international cooperation in ecological preservation and environmental management to jointly,” he said.
Pandas, however, still face long-term threats. IUCN has said climate change could destroy more than 35% of their bamboo habitat in the next 80 years.
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Giant pandas are no longer endangered in the wild, but they are still vulnerable with a population outside captivity of 1,800, Chinese officials have said after years of conservation efforts.
The head of the environment ministry’s department of nature and ecology conservation, Cui Shuhong, said the reclassification was the result of “improved living conditions and China’s efforts in keeping their habitats integrated”.
He said the announcement reflected China’s national efforts to preserve biodiversity in recent years. The authorities have worked to expand giant pandas’ habitats and replanted bamboo forests to feed them.
The number of Siberian tigers, amur leopards, Asian elephants and crested ibis have also “visibly increased” as a result of continuing conservation efforts in recent years, Cui told a press conference this week.
This week’s announcement was met with delight on social media. Related hashtags on Weibo have been read nearly 10m times.
“Wonderful, wonderful news,” said one post. “It shows all the efforts have been paid off. Well done.” Another urged China’s conservationists to continue their work. “It’s a good start indeed, but there are still threats to these species. Do not relax.”
Observers say the issue of conservation also ties into Beijing’s diplomacy in recent months. The foreign ministry spokesperson, Wang Wenbin, said on Thursday that “the concept that lush mountains and clear water are worth their weight in gold and silver has taken root among the public in China.
“We stand ready to work with all sides to strengthen international cooperation in ecological preservation and environmental management to jointly,” he said.
Pandas, however, still face long-term threats. IUCN has said climate change could destroy more than 35% of their bamboo habitat in the next 80 years.
|
no
|
Endangered Species
|
Is the Giant Panda still considered an endangered species?
|
no_statement
|
the "giant" panda is no longer "considered" an "endangered" "species".. the "giant" panda has been removed from the list of "endangered" "species".
|
https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1285
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Panda No Longer 'Endangered' in IUCN Red List Update
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Panda No Longer ‘Endangered’ in IUCN Red List Update
The giant panda is no longer considered an endangered species, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Instead, their slow growth in numbers means they are now considered “vulnerable.”
Eight years after its last assessment, the IUCN updated its “red list” of species at risk of going extinct at the IUCN World Conservation Congress currently being held in Hawaii. The first list was released in 1963 and today contains close to 83,000 species, of which nearly a third are considered threatened.
“The story tells us conservation works,” said the IUCN’s Director General Inger Andersen, who added that if people really invest in conservation, they can change the fates of at-risk species.
The giant panda has long been a poster child for animal protection efforts. The animals once freely roamed the woods of eastern and southern China, but due to overhunting and habitat loss, there were only about 1,000 animals left by the 1980s. To make matters worse, the animals are notoriously uninterested in mating, although research centers in China have become increasingly adept at encouraging them to pair up.
In a previous interview with Sixth Tone, a panda breeding specialist at the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda said that the center had shifted away from “breeding as many pandas as possible,” adding that panda handlers had become so confident in their abilities that they only allowed the fittest animals to reproduce. According to China’s fourth national giant panda survey, conducted in 2015, decades of conservation efforts have helped increase the number of wild pandas to a total of 1,864.
On Monday, the State Forestry Administration (SFA), which oversees animal conservation efforts in China, released a statement obtained by Sixth Tone’s sister publication The Paper. The SFA believes the downgrading of the giant panda’s conservation status to “vulnerable” to be premature, and says the relabeling could mislead people to think that conservation efforts can be dialed down.
According to the SFA, many wild pandas live separated into small groups, most of which are made up of fewer than 10 individuals. The fact that these groups don’t interact is detrimental to the gene pool, and thus to the health of the species as a whole.
Wang Dajun, an assessor for IUCN and a researcher at Peking University’s School of Life Sciences, told Sixth Tone that the relabeling doesn’t mean conservation efforts should be scaled back. Rather, it is only a reflection of the fact that their habitats have improved, said Wang, who added that he still believes China can do more to protect the panda.
Xie Yan, a zoologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told Sixth Tone that habitat fragmentation remains the biggest threat to the giant panda. Even though some panda habitats have been connected with wildlife corridors, most are still fragmented, she said.
Another success story is the Tibetan antelope, which has moved from “endangered” to “near threatened.” Before the 1980s, the animals were hunted for their soft, warm fur, known as “shahtoosh” and used to weave shawls. As a result, their numbers decreased to less than 20,000, but the Chinese government announced in 2013 that the population had recovered to more than 200,000 due to conservation efforts.
Li Weidong, a zoologist who studies the Tibetan antelope at the Xinjiang Institute of Geography and Ecology, told Sixth Tone that massive hunting for the antelope’s fur had stopped entirely since the 2000s. The current threats, he said, come from increasing human activity, such as mining operations in the animals’ habitats.
Despite these success stories, it’s mostly bad news on the red list. Twenty-eight percent of all mammals are under threat, compared to 25 percent eight years ago. Illegal hunting and habitat loss are wiping out some of humanity’s closest relatives. The eastern gorilla, western gorilla, Bornean orangutan, and Sumatran orangutan are all at the brink of extinction and have been moved to “critically endangered.” The other two “great apes,” the chimpanzee and bonobo, are listed as endangered.
Even the outlook for the giant panda is still grim: According to research, climate change is expected to wipe out 35 percent of the bamboo forests they call home, causing the population to decline once again over the next 20 years.
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Panda No Longer ‘Endangered’ in IUCN Red List Update
The giant panda is no longer considered an endangered species, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Instead, their slow growth in numbers means they are now considered “vulnerable.”
Eight years after its last assessment, the IUCN updated its “red list” of species at risk of going extinct at the IUCN World Conservation Congress currently being held in Hawaii. The first list was released in 1963 and today contains close to 83,000 species, of which nearly a third are considered threatened.
“The story tells us conservation works,” said the IUCN’s Director General Inger Andersen, who added that if people really invest in conservation, they can change the fates of at-risk species.
The giant panda has long been a poster child for animal protection efforts. The animals once freely roamed the woods of eastern and southern China, but due to overhunting and habitat loss, there were only about 1,000 animals left by the 1980s. To make matters worse, the animals are notoriously uninterested in mating, although research centers in China have become increasingly adept at encouraging them to pair up.
In a previous interview with Sixth Tone, a panda breeding specialist at the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda said that the center had shifted away from “breeding as many pandas as possible,” adding that panda handlers had become so confident in their abilities that they only allowed the fittest animals to reproduce. According to China’s fourth national giant panda survey, conducted in 2015, decades of conservation efforts have helped increase the number of wild pandas to a total of 1,864.
On Monday, the State Forestry Administration (SFA), which oversees animal conservation efforts in China, released a statement obtained by Sixth Tone’s sister publication The Paper. The SFA believes the downgrading of the giant panda’s conservation status to “vulnerable” to be premature, and says the relabeling could mislead people to think that conservation efforts can be dialed down.
|
no
|
Endangered Species
|
Is the Giant Panda still considered an endangered species?
|
no_statement
|
the "giant" panda is no longer "considered" an "endangered" "species".. the "giant" panda has been removed from the list of "endangered" "species".
|
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/85808/giant-pandas-are-no-longer-considered-endangered
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Giant Pandas Are No Longer Considered Endangered | Mental Floss
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Giant Pandas Are No Longer Considered Endangered
Good news for giant pandas (and the people who love them): the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) no longer considers them to be an endangered species, LiveScience reports.
On Sunday, September 4, IUCN announced updates to its Red List of Threatened Species, a comprehensive inventory that details the global conservation status of various animal, plants, and fungi species. According to the organization, the giant pandaâs population numbers have increased enough for the group to downgrade the species as âvulnerable."
Wild giant pandas mostly live in Chinaâs bamboo forests. Threats including poaching and human-caused habitat destructionâwhich drives animals from their homes and also causes food shortagesâpushed the giant panda to the brink of extinction. But due to recent forest protection and reforestation measures, things are looking up: A nationwide census conducted in 2014 found that Chinaâs wild population of adult giant pandas now numbers 1864âa dramatic increase from 1596 in 2004. Add cubs to the mix, and the number rises to 2060.
Thanks in part to the World Wildlife Fundâs iconic logo, few endangered species are more recognizable than the adorable giant panda. But the WWF shouldnât consider changing its mascot just yet: Even though its population is rebounding, the IUCN says that the pandaâs habitat and food sources are still threatened by climate change. More than 35 percent of its bamboo habitat could vanish over the next century, they warn.
âWhereas the decision to downlist the giant panda to vulnerable is a positive sign confirming that the Chinese governmentâs efforts to conserve this species are effective, it is critically important that these protective measures are continued, and that emerging threats are addressed,â the IUCNâs report concluded.
According to The New York Times, the Tibetan antelope was also removed from the IUCNâs âendangeredâ listâbut other animals didnât fare so well. The eastern gorilla is now closer to extinction, and the plains zebra is ânear threatenedâ due to hunting.
|
Giant Pandas Are No Longer Considered Endangered
Good news for giant pandas (and the people who love them): the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) no longer considers them to be an endangered species, LiveScience reports.
On Sunday, September 4, IUCN announced updates to its Red List of Threatened Species, a comprehensive inventory that details the global conservation status of various animal, plants, and fungi species. According to the organization, the giant pandaâs population numbers have increased enough for the group to downgrade the species as âvulnerable."
Wild giant pandas mostly live in Chinaâs bamboo forests. Threats including poaching and human-caused habitat destructionâwhich drives animals from their homes and also causes food shortagesâpushed the giant panda to the brink of extinction. But due to recent forest protection and reforestation measures, things are looking up: A nationwide census conducted in 2014 found that Chinaâs wild population of adult giant pandas now numbers 1864âa dramatic increase from 1596 in 2004. Add cubs to the mix, and the number rises to 2060.
Thanks in part to the World Wildlife Fundâs iconic logo, few endangered species are more recognizable than the adorable giant panda. But the WWF shouldnât consider changing its mascot just yet: Even though its population is rebounding, the IUCN says that the pandaâs habitat and food sources are still threatened by climate change. More than 35 percent of its bamboo habitat could vanish over the next century, they warn.
âWhereas the decision to downlist the giant panda to vulnerable is a positive sign confirming that the Chinese governmentâs efforts to conserve this species are effective, it is critically important that these protective measures are continued, and that emerging threats are addressed,â the IUCNâs report concluded.
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no
|
Endangered Species
|
Is the Giant Panda still considered an endangered species?
|
no_statement
|
the "giant" panda is no longer "considered" an "endangered" "species".. the "giant" panda has been removed from the list of "endangered" "species".
|
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/shortcuts/2016/sep/05/giant-panda-animals-removal-endangered-list
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Take that, extinction: giant pandas and the other animals fighting ...
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The most famous thing about pandas, apart from them spending all day eating bamboo and not having sex, is how endangered they are. However, the animal has just been moved off the endangered species list by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Although the giant panda is still considered vulnerable, its population is much healthier – there are thought to be 1,864 adults, and although there isn’t a definitive number of cubs, the total population now exceeds 2,000. It is, noted the IUCN report, “a positive sign confirming that the Chinese government’s efforts to conserve this species are effective”. Few conservation measures have been as intensive or high profile. The work included increasing the number of panda reserves, protecting forests (such as reforestation and banning logging in panda habitats) and creating “corridors” so isolated wild panda populations can mix and strengthen the gene pool. Anti-poaching patrols, and moving humans out of reserves also helped. Pandas are still at risk, particularly from a reduction in bamboo availability owing to climate change, but it shows conservation efforts pay off. Here are some other animals that have been brought back from the brink:
Amur tiger
Although they are still classed as endangered, the Amur tiger, mostly found in Russia, was once nearly extinct. In the 1930s, just 20 to 30 animals remained. Russia banned tiger hunting in 1947, and since then other efforts have protected and increased the population. These include reducing the hunting of their prey (such as deer) and anti-poaching measures. According to a 2005 survey, there are now an estimated 360 tigers (other estimates are higher) and it was moved from critically endangered to endangered in 2007. Poaching and low genetic diversity is still a risk.
Arabian oryx
In 1972, the last wild Arabian oryx, a large antelope that once lived across the Arabian peninsula, were shot. For decades, they had been hunted almost to extinction and had already disappeared from some areas. In 1982 in Oman, the Arabian oryx was released back into the wild following a captive breeding programme using the animals that had been captured previously, often from royal collections. In later years, more were released in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Israel and Jordan. With their numbers increased to around 1,000, and their populations stable, the IUCN downgraded the Arabian oryx from endangered to the lower threat-level of vulnerable in 2011.
Greater one-horned rhinoceros
The Indian rhinoceros, now extinct in Bangladesh and Bhutan, once roamed across the northern Indian subcontinent. In the early 20th century, hunters and tea-growers pushed their decline almost to extinction, and in 1975, there were just 600. Hunting laws, habitat protection and anti-poaching measures have resulted in the population growing to more than 3,000. After decades of being classed as endangered, the IUCN downgraded the Indian rhino to vulnerable in 2008.
Chatham petrel
Once classed as critically endangered, then endangered, the Chatham petrel, was downgraded to vulnerable in 2015, thanks to intensive conservation efforts. The pacific seabird only breeds in the Chatham Islands, 400 miles off the coast of New Zealand. Between 2002 and 2006, 200 chicks were taken to a predator-free site on one of the islands, and some bred successfully. Another 200 were transferred to the main Chatham Island. Their burrows were also protected from other seabirds.
Iberian lynx
Iberian lynx: numbers are recovering but the main threat now comes from cars. Photograph: Victor Fraile/Reuters/Corbis
Although still very rare – estimates put numbers of the wild cat at around 400 – the Iberian lynx is making a recovery and the IUCN now classifies it as endangered, rather than critically endangered. In the early 2000s, there were thought to be around just 50 adults, and only two breeding populations, both in southern Spain. It mainly eats wild rabbits, and so conservation efforts focused on restoring rabbit populations, and lynx, bred in captivity, have also been reintroduced to other areas in Spain and Portugal. Now, one of the main threats comes from cars – a record 22 lynx were killed in 2014.
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The most famous thing about pandas, apart from them spending all day eating bamboo and not having sex, is how endangered they are. However, the animal has just been moved off the endangered species list by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Although the giant panda is still considered vulnerable, its population is much healthier – there are thought to be 1,864 adults, and although there isn’t a definitive number of cubs, the total population now exceeds 2,000. It is, noted the IUCN report, “a positive sign confirming that the Chinese government’s efforts to conserve this species are effective”. Few conservation measures have been as intensive or high profile. The work included increasing the number of panda reserves, protecting forests (such as reforestation and banning logging in panda habitats) and creating “corridors” so isolated wild panda populations can mix and strengthen the gene pool. Anti-poaching patrols, and moving humans out of reserves also helped. Pandas are still at risk, particularly from a reduction in bamboo availability owing to climate change, but it shows conservation efforts pay off. Here are some other animals that have been brought back from the brink:
Amur tiger
Although they are still classed as endangered, the Amur tiger, mostly found in Russia, was once nearly extinct. In the 1930s, just 20 to 30 animals remained. Russia banned tiger hunting in 1947, and since then other efforts have protected and increased the population. These include reducing the hunting of their prey (such as deer) and anti-poaching measures. According to a 2005 survey, there are now an estimated 360 tigers (other estimates are higher) and it was moved from critically endangered to endangered in 2007. Poaching and low genetic diversity is still a risk.
Arabian oryx
In 1972, the last wild Arabian oryx, a large antelope that once lived across the Arabian peninsula, were shot.
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no
|
Endangered Species
|
Is the Giant Panda still considered an endangered species?
|
no_statement
|
the "giant" panda is no longer "considered" an "endangered" "species".. the "giant" panda has been removed from the list of "endangered" "species".
|
https://nypost.com/2021/07/09/giant-pandas-are-no-longer-endangered-china-says/
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Giant pandas are no longer endangered, China says
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Giant pandas are no longer endangered in China — but keeping the adorable furballs protected isn’t all black and white, officials in the country said this week.
The bamboo-munching bear was reclassified from “endangered” to “vulnerable” with 1,800 of the animals outside of captivity — after a beefed-up conservation effort helped revive their population, according to the Guardian.
The encouraging news is a result of “improved living conditions and China’s efforts in keeping their habitats integrated,” said Cui Shuhong, head of the environment ministry’s department of nature and ecology conservation.
In recent years, China has replanted bamboo forests to help provide the animals with a food source, according to officials.
Giant pandas are no longer endangered in China, according to officials in the country.AFP via Getty Images
Animal lovers in China took to the social media site Weibo to cheer the “Wonderful, wonderful news” — adding, “It shows all the efforts have been paid off.”
But another observer quickly reminded people that the fight isn’t over yet.
“It’s a good start indeed, but there are still threats to these species. Do not relax,” they wrote.
The reclassification comes five years after the International Union for Conservation of Nature removed giant pandas from its endangered species list — prompting criticism from experts in China, who said the mammals were still at risk of extinction.
Giant pandas are considered a national gem in China.Visual China Group via Getty Ima
The pandas still face long-term threats due to climate change, with more than 35 percent of their bamboo habitat expected to be destroyed in the next 80 years, IUCN has predicted.
The black-eyed animals are considered a national gem in China and have been used as a part of Beijing’s international diplomacy since the 1950s.
|
Giant pandas are no longer endangered in China — but keeping the adorable furballs protected isn’t all black and white, officials in the country said this week.
The bamboo-munching bear was reclassified from “endangered” to “vulnerable” with 1,800 of the animals outside of captivity — after a beefed-up conservation effort helped revive their population, according to the Guardian.
The encouraging news is a result of “improved living conditions and China’s efforts in keeping their habitats integrated,” said Cui Shuhong, head of the environment ministry’s department of nature and ecology conservation.
In recent years, China has replanted bamboo forests to help provide the animals with a food source, according to officials.
Giant pandas are no longer endangered in China, according to officials in the country. AFP via Getty Images
Animal lovers in China took to the social media site Weibo to cheer the “Wonderful, wonderful news” — adding, “It shows all the efforts have been paid off.”
But another observer quickly reminded people that the fight isn’t over yet.
“It’s a good start indeed, but there are still threats to these species. Do not relax,” they wrote.
The reclassification comes five years after the International Union for Conservation of Nature removed giant pandas from its endangered species list — prompting criticism from experts in China, who said the mammals were still at risk of extinction.
Giant pandas are considered a national gem in China. Visual China Group via Getty Ima
The pandas still face long-term threats due to climate change, with more than 35 percent of their bamboo habitat expected to be destroyed in the next 80 years, IUCN has predicted.
The black-eyed animals are considered a national gem in China and have been used as a part of Beijing’s international diplomacy since the 1950s.
|
no
|
Endangered Species
|
Is the Giant Panda still considered an endangered species?
|
no_statement
|
the "giant" panda is no longer "considered" an "endangered" "species".. the "giant" panda has been removed from the list of "endangered" "species".
|
https://www.britannica.com/animal/giant-panda
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Giant panda | Facts, Habitat, Population, & Diet | Britannica
|
Recent News
giant panda, (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), also called panda bear, bearlike mammal inhabiting bamboo forests in the mountains of central China. Its striking coat of black and white, combined with a bulky body and round face, gives it a captivating appearance that has endeared it to people worldwide. According to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, fewer than 1,900 pandas are thought to remain in the wild.
Large males may attain 1.8 metres (6 feet) in length and weigh more than 100 kg (220 pounds); females are usually smaller. Round black ears and black eye patches stand out against a white face and neck. Black limbs, tail, legs, and shoulders contrast with the white torso. The rear paws point inward, which gives pandas a waddling gait. Pandas can easily stand on their hind legs and are commonly observed somersaulting, rolling, and dust-bathing. Although somewhat awkward as climbers, pandas readily ascend trees and, on the basis of their resemblance to bears, are probably capable of swimming. An unusual anatomic characteristic is an enlarged wrist bone that functions somewhat like a thumb, enabling pandas to handle food with considerable dexterity.
Natural history
As much as 90–98 percent of the panda’s diet consists of the leaves, shoots, and stems of bamboo, a large grass available year-round in much of China’s forested regions. Despite adaptations in the forepaws, teeth, and jaws for bamboo consumption, the giant panda has retained the digestive system of its carnivore ancestry and is therefore unable to digest cellulose, a main constituent of bamboo. Pandas solve this problem by rapidly passing prodigious quantities of the grass through their digestive tracts on a daily basis. As much as 16 out of every 24 hours is spent feeding, and elimination of wastes occurs up to 50 times per day. Fossilized dental remains indicate that the giant panda committed to bamboo as its principal food source at least three million years ago. Although unable to capture prey, pandas retain a taste for meat, which is used as bait to capture them for radio collaring and has made them pests in human camps on occasion. The species cannot naturally survive outside bamboo forests, though in captivity they have been maintained on cereals, milk, and garden fruits and vegetables. Bamboo is the healthier diet for captive pandas.
The giant panda’s solitary nature is underscored by its reliance on its sense of smell (olfaction). Each animal confines its activities to a range of about 4 to 6 square km (1.5 to 2.3 square miles), but these home ranges often overlap substantially. Under this arrangement scent functions in regulating contact between individuals. A large scent gland located just below the tail and surrounding the anus is used to leave olfactory messages for other pandas. The gland is rubbed against trees, rocks, and clumps of grass, with scent conveying information on identity, sex, and possibly social status of the marking individual. Chemical analysis of marks is consistent with a difference in function for males and females. Males appear to use scent to identify the areas where they live, whereas females primarily use it for signaling estrus. Except for the mothers’ care of infants, the only social activity of pandas takes place during females’ estrus, which occurs annually during the spring and lasts one to three days. A spring mating season (March–May) and a fall birth season (August–September) are seen in both wild and captive populations. Males appear to locate females first by scent and ultimately by vocalizations. Assemblages of one to five males per female have been recorded. At this time males may become highly aggressive as they compete for the opportunity to mate.
Like bears, giant pandas undergo a delay in implantation of the fertilized ovum into the wall of the uterus, a period of two to three months after mating. Hormone levels in females’ urine indicate that the period of embryonic/fetal growth and development lasts only about two months. Altogether, gestation averages 135 days (with a range of 90–184 days), but, because of the short growth phase, a term fetus weighs only about 112 grams (4 ounces) on average. Relative to the mother, giant pandas produce the smallest offspring of any placental mammal (about 1/800 of the mother’s weight). For the first two to three weeks of life, the mother uses her forepaws and her thumblike wrist bones to cuddle and position the infant against herself in a rather uncarnivore-like and almost human fashion. Nearly half of the 133 captive births recorded before 1998 were of twins, but panda mothers are typically unable to care for more than one infant. Reasons for the extremely small size of the offspring and the frequent production of twins are not understood, but both are traits shared with bears.
The newborn panda is blind and covered with only a thin all-white coat. It is virtually helpless, being able only to suckle and vocalize. It depends on its mother for warmth, nourishment, positioning at the breast, and stimulating the passage of wastes. Development is slow during the early months. Eyes begin to open at about 45 days, and the first wobbly steps are taken at 75–80 days. Its helpless state mandates birth in a den, an environment in which it lives for the first 100–120 days of life. By about 14 months, at which age the milk teeth have erupted, the infant readily consumes bamboo, and at 18–24 months weaning from the mother takes place. Separation from the mother must occur before a female can undertake the production of her next litter. Captive pandas may live beyond 30 years in captivity, but life span in the wild is estimated at about 20 years.
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Conservation and classification
Fossils from northern Myanmar and Vietnam and much of China as far north as Beijing indicate that the giant panda was widely distributed throughout eastern Asia during the early Pleistocene Epoch (2.6 million to 11,700 years ago). Human destruction of its forest habitat, combined with poaching, has restricted the species to remote fragments of mountain habitat along the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau in the Chinese provinces of Sichuan (Szechwan), Shaanxi (Shensi), and Gansu (Kansu). The total area of these habitats is about 13,000 square km (5,000 square miles), and in recent times periodic mass flowering and die-offs of bamboo have brought starvation for some populations. (Five to 10 years are required for bamboo forests to recover from these natural events.) Since the 1990s China has greatly expanded its conservation efforts, and it now regards the panda as a national treasure. The reserve system has been expanded from 14 sites to more than 40, and cooperative international arrangements were implemented to provide training in reserve management and captive breeding. The panda had long been considered an endangered species by the IUCN, but the environmental organization changed the status of the panda to “vulnerable” in 2016, because of China’s success in restoring bamboo forest habitat.
Prior eras of giving pandas as gifts and of short-term commercial loans to zoos have given way to lending agreements that generate funds for preservation of the wild population. More than 120 pandas are maintained in captivity in China, and another 15 to 20 are found in zoos elsewhere. Captive populations are increasing. Su-Lin, the first of the giant pandas to be exhibited in the West, reached the United States as an infant in 1936 and was a popular attraction at the Brookfield Zoo, near Chicago, until its death in 1938. No European observed a live giant panda in the wild until the Walter Stötzner expedition of 1913–15, although Armand David, a Vincentian missionary, discovered some panda furs in 1869.
The classification of giant pandas has long been a subject of controversy. Anatomic, behavioral, and biochemical data have been used to place pandas with bears (family Ursidae), with raccoons (Procyonidae), or in a family of their own (Ailuridae). Improved molecular analyses made during the 1990s strongly suggest bears as the giant panda’s closest relatives, and many of their behavioral and reproductive characteristics are consistent with this placement.
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The total area of these habitats is about 13,000 square km (5,000 square miles), and in recent times periodic mass flowering and die-offs of bamboo have brought starvation for some populations. (Five to 10 years are required for bamboo forests to recover from these natural events.) Since the 1990s China has greatly expanded its conservation efforts, and it now regards the panda as a national treasure. The reserve system has been expanded from 14 sites to more than 40, and cooperative international arrangements were implemented to provide training in reserve management and captive breeding. The panda had long been considered an endangered species by the IUCN, but the environmental organization changed the status of the panda to “vulnerable” in 2016, because of China’s success in restoring bamboo forest habitat.
Prior eras of giving pandas as gifts and of short-term commercial loans to zoos have given way to lending agreements that generate funds for preservation of the wild population. More than 120 pandas are maintained in captivity in China, and another 15 to 20 are found in zoos elsewhere. Captive populations are increasing. Su-Lin, the first of the giant pandas to be exhibited in the West, reached the United States as an infant in 1936 and was a popular attraction at the Brookfield Zoo, near Chicago, until its death in 1938. No European observed a live giant panda in the wild until the Walter Stötzner expedition of 1913–15, although Armand David, a Vincentian missionary, discovered some panda furs in 1869.
The classification of giant pandas has long been a subject of controversy. Anatomic, behavioral, and biochemical data have been used to place pandas with bears (family Ursidae), with raccoons (Procyonidae), or in a family of their own (Ailuridae).
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no
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Zoogeography
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Is the Komodo dragon native to Australia?
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yes_statement
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the "komodo" "dragon" is "native" to australia.. australia is the "native" habitat of the "komodo" "dragon".
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https://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/komodo-dragon
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Komodo dragon | Smithsonian's National Zoo
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Members are our strongest champions of animal conservation and wildlife research. When you become a member, you also receive exclusive benefits, like special opportunities to meet animals, discounts at Zoo stores and more.
Komodo dragon
Komodo dragons, or Komodo monitors, are the largest, heaviest lizards in the world — and one of the few with a venomous bite. These stealthy, powerful hunters rely on their sense of smell to detect food, using their long, forked tongues to sample the air. They can spend hours waiting for a sizable meal to wander within range before launching a deadly attack with their large, curved and serrated teeth.
Fun Facts
Komodo dragons can briefly run at speeds of up to 13 mph (20 kph).
When threatened, they can throw up the contents of their stomachs to lessen their weight in order to flee.
Komodo dragons are large lizards with long tails, strong and agile necks, and sturdy limbs. Their tongues are yellow and forked. Adults are an almost-uniform stone color with distinct, large scales, while juveniles may display a more vibrant color and pattern.
The muscles of the Komodo's jaws and throat allow it to swallow huge chunks of meat with astonishing rapidity. Several movable joints, such as the intramandibular hinge opens the lower jaw unusually wide. The stomach expands easily, enabling an adult to consume up to 80 percent of its own body weight in a single meal, which most likely explains some exaggerated claims for immense weights in captured individuals. When threatened, Komodos can throw up the contents of their stomachs to lessen their weight in order to flee.
Although males tend to grow larger and bulkier than females, no obvious morphological differences mark the sexes. One subtle clue does exist: a slight difference in the arrangement of scales just in front of the cloaca. Sexing Komodos remains a challenge for human researchers; the dragons themselves appear to have little trouble figuring out who is who.
Size
The Komodo dragon is the largest living lizard in the world. These wild dragons typically weigh about 154 pounds (70 kilograms), but the largest verified specimen reached a length of 10.3 feet (3.13 meters) and weighed 366 pounds (166 kilograms). Males tend to grow larger and bulkier than females.
Native Habitat
Komodo dragons are limited to a few Indonesian islands of the Lesser Sunda group, including Rintja, Padar and Flores, and of course the island of Komodo, the largest at 22 miles (35 kilometers) long. They have not been seen on the island of Padar since the 1970s.
They live in tropical savanna forests but range widely over the islands, from beach to ridge top.
Food/Eating Habits
Komodo dragons eat almost any kind of meat, scavenging for carcasses or stalking animals that range in size from small rodents to large water buffalo. Young feed primarily on small lizards and insects, as well as snakes and birds. If they live to be 5 years old, they move onto larger prey, such as rodents, monkeys, goats, wild boars and deer (the most popular meal). These reptiles are tertiary predators at the top of their food chain and are also cannibalistic.
Although the Komodo dragon can briefly reach speeds of 10 to 13 mph (16 to 20 kph), its hunting strategy is based on stealth and power. It can spend hours in one spot along a game trail — waiting for a deer or other sizable and nutritious prey to cross its path — before launching an attack.
Most of the monitor's attempts at bringing down prey are unsuccessful. However, if it is able to bite its prey, bacteria and venom in its saliva will kill the prey within a few days. After the animal dies, which can take up to four days, the Komodo uses its powerful sense of smell to locate the body. A kill is often shared between many Komodo dragons.
Monitors can see objects as far away as 985 feet (300 meters), so vision does play a role in hunting, especially as their eyes are better at picking up movement than at discerning stationary objects. Their retinas possess only cones, so they may be able to distinguish color but have poor vision in dim light. They have a much smaller hearing range than humans and, as a result, cannot hear sounds like low-pitched voices or high-pitched screams.
The Komodo dragon's sense of smell is its primary food detector. It uses its long, yellow, forked tongue to sample the air. It then moves the forked tip of its tongue to the roof of its mouth, where it makes contact with the Jacobson's organs. These chemical analyzers "smell" prey, such as a deer, by recognizing airborne molecules. If the concentration of molecules present on the left tip of the tongue is greater than that sample from the right, the Komodo dragon knows that the deer is approaching from the left.
This system, along with an undulatory walk, in which the head swings from side to side, helps the dragon sense the existence and direction of food. At times, these reptiles can smell carrion, or rotting flesh, up to 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) away.
This lizard's large, curved and serrated teeth are its deadliest weapon, tearing flesh with efficiency. The tooth serrations hold bits of meat from its most recent meal, and this protein-rich residue supports large numbers of bacteria. Some 50 different bacterial strains, at least seven of which are highly septic, have been found in the saliva. Researchers have also documented a venom gland in the dragon's lower jaw. In addition to the harmful bacteria, the venom prevents the blood from clotting, which causes massive blood loss and induces shock.
The Komodo's bite may be deadly, but not to another Komodo dragon. Those wounded while sparring with each other appear to be unaffected by the bacteria and venom. Scientists are searching for antibodies in Komodo dragon blood that may be responsible.
The lizard's throat and neck muscles allow it to rapidly swallow huge chunks of meat. Several movable joints, such as the intramandibular hinge, open its lower jaw unusually wide. The dragon's stomach also easily expands, enabling an adult to consume up to 80 percent of its own body weight in a single meal. When threatened, Komodo dragons can throw up the contents of their stomachs to lessen their weight in order to flee.
Komodo dragons are efficient eaters, leaving behind only about 12 percent of their prey. They eat bones, hooves and sections of hide, as well as intestines (after swinging them to dislodge their contents).
At the Smithsonian's National Zoo, the Komodo dragons eat rodents, chicks, rabbits, and occasionally fish and carcass meals of beef.
Social Structure
Because large Komodos cannibalize young ones, the young often roll in fecal material, thereby assuming a scent that the large dragons are programmed to avoid. Young dragons also undergo rituals of appeasement, with the smaller lizards pacing around a feeding circle in a stately ritualized walk. Their tail is stuck straight out and they throw their body from side to side with exaggerated convulsions.
Reproduction and Development
Determining the sex of a Komodo dragon is challenging for researchers, as no obvious morphological differences distinguish males from females. One subtle clue is a slight difference in the arrangement of scales just in front of the cloaca. Courtship opportunities arise when groups assemble around carrion to feed, and mating occurs between May and August.
Dominant males compete for females in ritual combat. Using their tails for support, they wrestle in upright postures, grabbing each other with their forelegs as they attempt to throw the opponent to the ground. Blood is often drawn, and the loser either runs away or remains prone and motionless.
Females lay about 30 eggs in depressions dug on hill slopes or within the pilfered nests of megapodes — large, chicken-like birds that make nests of heaped earth mixed with twigs that may be as long as 3 feet (1 meter) in height and 10 feet (3 meters) across.
Delays in egg laying may occur, which could help the clutch avoid the brutally hot months of the dry season. Additionally, unfertilized eggs may have a second chance with subsequent mating. While the eggs incubate in the nest for about nine months, the female may lay on the nest to protect the eggs. No evidence of parental care for newly hatched Komodos exists.
The hatchlings weigh less than 3.5 ounces (100 grams) and average 16 inches (40 centimeters) in length. Their early years are precarious, and they often fall victim to predators, including other Komodo dragons. At 5 years old, they weigh about 55 pounds (25 kilograms) and average 6.5 feet (2 meters) long. At this time, they begin to hunt larger prey. They continue to grow slowly throughout their lives.
Sleep Habits
They escape the heat of the day and seek refuge at night in burrows that are just barely large enough for them.
Lifespan
Komodo dragons are thought to live about 30 years in the wild, but scientists are still studying this.
While they have been hunted (legally and illegally), their population decline is due to their limited range. No Komodo dragons have been seen on the island of Padar since the 1970s, the result of widespread poaching of deer, the reptile's primary source of prey.
Komodo National Park, established in 1980, and strict anti-poaching laws have helped protect the dragons, although illegal activity still takes place. Villagers sometimes poison carrion bait to reduce the population, much like ranchers of the American West poison sheep carcasses to rid the area of coyotes and mountain lions. The Dutch colonial government instituted protection plans as early as 1915.
Each year, more than 18,000 people travel to Indonesia to visit sites that still have these animals. The tourism provides an economic incentive for local people to support the Komodo dragon's protection.
The Smithsonian's National Zoo was the first zoo outside of Indonesia to successfully hatch Komodo dragons.
Help this Species
Practice ecotourism by being an advocate for the environment when you’re on vacation. During your travels, support, visit or volunteer with organizations that protect wildlife. Shop smart too! Avoid buying products made from animals, which could support poaching and the illegal wildlife trade.
Support organizations like the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute that research better ways to protect and care for this animal and other endangered species. Consider donating your time, money or goods.
Are you a student? Did you love what you learned about this animal? Make it the topic of your next school project, or start a conservation club at your school. You'll learn even more and share the importance of saving species with classmates and teachers, too.
Reptile Discovery Center is home to two male Komodo dragons named Murphy and Onyx.
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Males tend to grow larger and bulkier than females.
Native Habitat
Komodo dragons are limited to a few Indonesian islands of the Lesser Sunda group, including Rintja, Padar and Flores, and of course the island of Komodo, the largest at 22 miles (35 kilometers) long. They have not been seen on the island of Padar since the 1970s.
They live in tropical savanna forests but range widely over the islands, from beach to ridge top.
Food/Eating Habits
Komodo dragons eat almost any kind of meat, scavenging for carcasses or stalking animals that range in size from small rodents to large water buffalo. Young feed primarily on small lizards and insects, as well as snakes and birds. If they live to be 5 years old, they move onto larger prey, such as rodents, monkeys, goats, wild boars and deer (the most popular meal). These reptiles are tertiary predators at the top of their food chain and are also cannibalistic.
Although the Komodo dragon can briefly reach speeds of 10 to 13 mph (16 to 20 kph), its hunting strategy is based on stealth and power. It can spend hours in one spot along a game trail — waiting for a deer or other sizable and nutritious prey to cross its path — before launching an attack.
Most of the monitor's attempts at bringing down prey are unsuccessful. However, if it is able to bite its prey, bacteria and venom in its saliva will kill the prey within a few days. After the animal dies, which can take up to four days, the Komodo uses its powerful sense of smell to locate the body. A kill is often shared between many Komodo dragons.
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no
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Zoogeography
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Is the Komodo dragon native to Australia?
|
yes_statement
|
the "komodo" "dragon" is "native" to australia.. australia is the "native" habitat of the "komodo" "dragon".
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komodo_dragon
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Komodo dragon - Wikipedia
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As a result of their size, Komodo dragons are apex predators, and dominate the ecosystems in which they live. Komodo dragons hunt and ambush prey including invertebrates, birds, and mammals. Komodo dragons' group behavior in hunting is exceptional in the reptile world. The diet of Komodo dragons mainly consists of Javan rusa (Rusa timorensis), though they also eat considerable amounts of carrion. Komodo dragons also occasionally attack humans.
Mating begins between May and August, and the eggs are laid in September; as many as 20 eggs are deposited at a time in an abandoned megapode nest or in a self-dug nesting hole. The eggs are incubated for seven to eight months, hatching in April, when insects are most plentiful. Young Komodo dragons are vulnerable and dwell in trees to avoid predators, such as cannibalistic adults. They take 8 to 9 years to mature and are estimated to live up to 30 years.
Komodo dragons were first recorded by Western scientists in 1910. Their large size and fearsome reputation make them popular zoo exhibits. In the wild, their range has contracted due to human activities, and is likely to contract further from the effects of climate change; due to this, they are listed as Endangered by the IUCN Red List. They are protected under Indonesian law, and Komodo National Park was founded in 1980 to aid protection efforts.
Taxonomic history
Skull of a Komodo dragon
Komodo dragons were first documented by Europeans in 1910, when rumors of a "land crocodile" reached Lieutenant van Steyn van Hensbroek of the Dutch colonial administration.[5] Widespread notoriety came after 1912, when Peter Ouwens, the director of the Zoological Museum of Bogor, Java, published a paper on the topic after receiving a photo and a skin from the lieutenant, as well as two other specimens from a collector.[4]
The first two live Komodo dragons to arrive in Europe were exhibited in the Reptile House at London Zoo when it opened in 1927.[6]Joan Beauchamp Procter made some of the earliest observations of these animals in captivity and she demonstrated their behaviour at a scientific meeting of the Zoological Society of London in 1928.[7]
The Komodo dragon was the driving factor for an expedition to Komodo Island by W. Douglas Burden in 1926. After returning with 12 preserved specimens and two live ones, this expedition provided the inspiration for the 1933 movie King Kong.[8] It was also Burden who coined the common name "Komodo dragon".[9] Three of his specimens were stuffed and are still on display in the American Museum of Natural History.[10]
The Dutch island administration, realizing the limited number of individuals in the wild, soon outlawed sport hunting and heavily limited the number of individuals taken for scientific study. Collecting expeditions ground to a halt with the occurrence of World War II, not resuming until the 1950s and 1960s, when studies examined the Komodo dragon's feeding behavior, reproduction, and body temperature. At around this time, an expedition was planned in which a long-term study of the Komodo dragon would be undertaken. This task was given to the Auffenberg family, who stayed on Komodo Island for 11 months in 1969. During their stay, Walter Auffenberg and his assistant Putra Sastrawan captured and tagged more than 50 Komodo dragons.[11]
Research from the Auffenberg expedition proved enormously influential in raising Komodo dragons in captivity.[12] Research after that of the Auffenberg family has shed more light on the nature of the Komodo dragon, with biologists such as Claudio Ciofi continuing to study the creatures.[13]
Etymology
The Komodo dragon, as depicted on the 50 rupiahcoin, issued by Indonesia
The Komodo dragon is also sometimes known as the Komodo monitor or the Komodo Island monitor in scientific literature,[14] although these names are uncommon. To the natives of Komodo Island, it is referred to as ora, buaya darat ('land crocodile'), or biawak raksasa ('giant monitor').[15][5]
Evolutionary history
The evolutionary development of the Komodo dragon started with the genus Varanus, which originated in Asia about 40 million years ago and migrated to Australia, where it evolved into giant forms (the largest of all being the recently extinct Varanus priscus, or "Megalania"), helped by the absence of competing placentalcarnivorans. Around 15 million years ago, a collision between the continental landmasses of Australia and Southeast Asia allowed these larger varanids to move back into what is now the Indonesian archipelago, extending their range as far east as the island of Timor.
The Komodo dragon is believed to have differentiated from its Australian ancestors about 4 million years ago. However, fossil evidence from Queensland suggests the Komodo dragon actually evolved in Australia, before spreading to Indonesia.[1][16] The oldest records of the Komodo dragon on Flores date to around 1.4 million years ago.[17] If one were to reconstruct the ecosystems that existed before the arrival of the humans on Australia, reintroducing Komodo dragons as an ecological proxy of megalania to the continent has been suggested.[18]
Dramatic lowering of sea level during the last glacial period uncovered extensive stretches of continental shelf that the Komodo dragon colonised, becoming isolated in their present island range as sea levels rose afterwards.[1][5] Fossils of extinct Pliocene species of similar size to the modern Komodo dragon, such as Varanus sivalensis, have been found in Eurasia as well, indicating that they fared well even in environments containing competition, such as mammalian carnivores, until the climate change and extinction events that marked the beginning of the Pleistocene.[1]
Genetic analysis of mitochondrial DNA shows the Komodo dragon to be the closest relative (sister taxon) of the lace monitor (V. varius), with their common ancestor diverging from a lineage that gave rise to the crocodile monitor (Varanus salvadorii) of New Guinea.[19][20][21] A 2021 study showed that during the Miocene, Komodo dragons had hybridized with the ancestors of the Australian sand monitor (V. gouldii), thus providing further evidence that the Komodo dragon had once inhabited Australia.[22][23][24] Genetic analysis indicates that the population from northern Flores is genetically distinct from other populations of the species.[2] With the Komodo's similarities to extinct species of large lizards, their teeth has been used to date and predict the size of theropod dinosaurs.[25]
Description
Specimen in profile
In the wild, adult Komodo dragons usually weigh around 70 kg (150 lb), although captive specimens often weigh more.[26] According to Guinness World Records, an average adult male will weigh 79 to 91 kg (174 to 201 lb) and measure 2.59 m (8.5 ft), while an average female will weigh 68 to 73 kg (150 to 161 lb) and measure 2.29 m (7.5 ft).[27] The largest verified specimen in captive was 3.13 m (10.3 ft) long and weighed 166 kg (366 lb), including its undigested food.[5] The largest wild specimen had a length 3.04 m (10.0 ft), a snout-vent length (SVL) 1.54 m (5 ft 1 in) and a mass of 81.5 kg (180 lb) excluding stomach contents.[28][29] The heaviest reached a mass in 87.4 kg (193 lb).[28] The study noted that weights greater than 100 kg (220 lb) were possible but only after the animal had consumed a large meal.[28][29]
Closeup of the skin
The Komodo dragon has a tail as long as its body, as well as about 60 frequently replaced, serrated teeth that can measure up to 2.5 cm (1 in) in length. Its saliva is frequently blood-tinged because its teeth are almost completely covered by gingival tissue that is naturally lacerated during feeding.[30] It also has a long, yellow, deeply forked tongue.[5] Komodo dragon skin is reinforced by armoured scales, which contain tiny bones called osteoderms that function as a sort of natural chain-mail.[31][32] The only areas lacking osteoderms on the head of the adult Komodo dragon are around the eyes, nostrils, mouth margins, and pineal eye, a light-sensing organ on the top of the head. Where lizards typically have one or two varying patterns or shapes of osteoderms, komodos have four: rosette, platy, dendritic, and vermiform.[33] This rugged hide makes Komodo dragon skin a poor source of leather. Additionally, these osteoderms become more extensive and variable in shape as the Komodo dragon ages, ossifying more extensively as the lizard grows. These osteoderms are absent in hatchlings and juveniles, indicating that the natural armor develops as a product of age and competition between adults for protection in intraspecific combat over food and mates.[34]
Senses
Komodo dragon using its tongue to sample the air
As with other varanids, Komodo dragons have only a single ear bone, the stapes, for transferring vibrations from the tympanic membrane to the cochlea. This arrangement means they are likely restricted to sounds in the 400 to 2,000 hertz range, compared to humans who hear between 20 and 20,000 hertz.[5][35] They were formerly thought to be deaf when a study reported no agitation in wild Komodo dragons in response to whispers, raised voices, or shouts. This was disputed when London Zoological Garden employee Joan Procter trained a captive specimen to come out to feed at the sound of her voice, even when she could not be seen.[36]
The Komodo dragon can see objects as far away as 300 m (980 ft), but because its retinas only contain cones, it is thought to have poor night vision. It can distinguish colours, but has poor visual discrimination of stationary objects.[37]
As with many other reptiles, the Komodo dragon primarily relies on its tongue to detect, taste, and smellstimuli, with the vomeronasal sense using the Jacobson's organ, rather than using the nostrils.[38] With the help of a favorable wind and its habit of swinging its head from side to side as it walks, a Komodo dragon may be able to detect carrion from 4–9.5 km (2.5–5.9 mi) away.[37] It only has a few taste buds in the back of its throat.[38] Its scales, some of which are reinforced with bone, have sensory plaques connected to nerves to facilitate its sense of touch. The scales around the ears, lips, chin, and soles of the feet may have three or more sensory plaques.[30]
Behaviour and ecology
Male Komodo Dragon Fight.
The Komodo dragon prefers hot and dry places and typically lives in dry, open grassland, savanna, and tropical forest at low elevations. As an ectotherm, it is most active in the day, although it exhibits some nocturnal activity. Komodo dragons are solitary, coming together only to breed and eat. They are capable of running rapidly in brief sprints up to 20 km/h (12 mph), diving up to 4.5 m (15 ft), and climbing trees proficiently when young through use of their strong claws.[26] To catch out-of-reach prey, the Komodo dragon may stand on its hind legs and use its tail as a support.[36] As it matures, its claws are used primarily as weapons, as its great size makes climbing impractical.[30]
For shelter, the Komodo dragon digs holes that can measure from 1 to 3 m (3.3 to 9.8 ft) wide with its powerful forelimbs and claws.[39] Because of its large size and habit of sleeping in these burrows, it is able to conserve body heat throughout the night and minimise its basking period the morning after.[40] The Komodo dragon hunts in the afternoon, but stays in the shade during the hottest part of the day.[9] These special resting places, usually located on ridges with cool sea breezes, are marked with droppings and are cleared of vegetation. They serve as strategic locations from which to ambush deer.[41]
Diet
Komodo dragons are apex predators.[42] They are carnivores; although they have been considered as eating mostly carrion,[43] they will frequently ambush live prey with a stealthy approach. When suitable prey arrives near a dragon's ambush site, it will suddenly charge at the animal at high speeds and go for the underside or the throat.[30]
Komodo dragons do not deliberately allow the prey to escape with fatal injuries but try to kill prey outright using a combination of lacerating damage and blood loss. They have been recorded as killing wild pigs within seconds,[44] and observations of Komodo dragons tracking prey for long distances are likely misinterpreted cases of prey escaping an attack before succumbing to infection. Most prey attacked by a Komodo dragon reputedly suffer from said sepsis and will later be eaten by the same or other lizards.[45]
Komodo dragons eat by tearing large chunks of flesh and swallowing them whole while holding the carcass down with their forelegs. For smaller prey up to the size of a goat, their loosely articulated jaws, flexible skulls, and expandable stomachs allow them to swallow prey whole. The undigested vegetable contents of a prey animal's stomach and intestines are typically avoided.[41] Copious amounts of red saliva the Komodo dragons produce help to lubricate the food, but swallowing is still a long process (15–20 minutes to swallow a goat). A Komodo dragon may attempt to speed up the process by ramming the carcass against a tree to force it down its throat, sometimes ramming so forcefully that the tree is knocked down.[41] A small tube under the tongue that connects to the lungs allows it to breathe while swallowing.[30]
After eating up to 80% of its body weight in one meal,[42] it drags itself to a sunny location to speed digestion, as the food could rot and poison the dragon if left undigested in its stomach for too long. Because of their slow metabolism, large dragons can survive on as few as 12 meals a year.[30] After digestion, the Komodo dragon regurgitates a mass of horns, hair, and teeth known as the gastric pellet, which is covered in malodorous mucus. After regurgitating the gastric pellet, it rubs its face in the dirt or on bushes to get rid of the mucus.[30]
Komodo excrement has a dark portion, which is stool, and a whitish portion, which is urate, the nitrogenous end-product of their digestion process
The eating habits of Komodo dragons follow a hierarchy, with the larger animals generally eating before the smaller ones. The largest male typically asserts his dominance and the smaller males show their submission by use of body language and rumbling hisses. Dragons of equal size may resort to "wrestling". Losers usually retreat, though they have been known to be killed and eaten by victors.[46][47]
The Komodo dragon's diet is wide-ranging, and includes invertebrates, other reptiles (including smaller Komodo dragons), birds, bird eggs, small mammals, monkeys, wild boar, goats, pigs,[48] Javan rusa deer, horses, and water buffalo.[49] Young Komodos will eat insects, eggs, geckos, and small mammals, while adults prefer to hunt large mammals.[43] Occasionally, they attack and bite humans. Sometimes they consume human corpses, digging up bodies from shallow graves.[36] This habit of raiding graves caused the villagers of Komodo to move their graves from sandy to clay ground, and pile rocks on top of them, to deter the lizards.[41] The Komodo dragon may have evolved to feed on the extinct dwarf species of Stegodon (a member of Proboscidea related to elephants) that once lived on Flores, according to evolutionary biologist Jared Diamond.[50]
The Komodo dragon drinks by sucking water into its mouth via buccal pumping (a process also used for respiration), lifting its head, and letting the water run down its throat.[44]
Saliva
Although previous studies proposed that Komodo dragon saliva contains a variety of highly septic bacteria that would help to bring down prey,[46][51] research in 2013 suggested that the bacteria in the mouths of Komodo dragons are ordinary and similar to those found in other carnivores. Komodo dragons have good mouth hygiene. To quote Bryan Fry: "After they are done feeding, they will spend 10 to 15 minutes lip-licking and rubbing their head in the leaves to clean their mouth ... Unlike people have been led to believe, they do not have chunks of rotting flesh from their meals on their teeth, cultivating bacteria." Nor do Komodo dragons wait for prey to die and track it at a distance, as vipers do; observations of them hunting deer, boar and in some cases buffalo reveal that they kill prey in less than half an hour.[52]
The observation of prey dying of sepsis would then be explained by the natural instinct of water buffalos, who are not native to the islands where the Komodo dragon lives, to run into water after escaping an attack. The warm, faeces-filled water would then cause the infections. The study used samples from 16 captive dragons (10 adults and six neonates) from three US zoos.[52]
Antibacterial immune factor
Researchers have isolated a powerful antibacterial peptide from the blood plasma of Komodo dragons, VK25. Based on their analysis of this peptide, they have synthesized a short peptide dubbed DRGN-1 and tested it against multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogens. Preliminary results of these tests show that DRGN-1 is effective in killing drug-resistant bacterial strains and even some fungi. It has the added observed benefit of significantly promoting wound healing in both uninfected and mixed biofilm infected wounds.[53]
Venom
In late 2005, researchers at the University of Melbourne speculated the perentie (Varanus giganteus), other species of monitors, and agamids may be somewhat venomous. The team believes the immediate effects of bites from these lizards were caused by mild envenomation. Bites on human digits by a lace monitor (V. varius), a Komodo dragon, and a spotted tree monitor (V. scalaris) all produced similar effects: rapid swelling, localised disruption of blood clotting, and shooting pain up to the elbow, with some symptoms lasting for several hours.[54]
In 2009, the same researchers published further evidence demonstrating Komodo dragons possess a venomous bite. MRI scans of a preserved skull showed the presence of two glands in the lower jaw. The researchers extracted one of these glands from the head of a terminally ill dragon in the Singapore Zoological Gardens, and found it secreted several different toxic proteins. The known functions of these proteins include inhibition of blood clotting, lowering of blood pressure, muscle paralysis, and the induction of hypothermia, leading to shock and loss of consciousness in envenomated prey.[55][56] As a result of the discovery, the previous theory that bacteria were responsible for the deaths of Komodo victims was disputed.[57]
Other scientists have stated that this allegation of venom glands "has had the effect of underestimating the variety of complex roles played by oral secretions in the biology of reptiles, produced a very narrow view of oral secretions and resulted in misinterpretation of reptilian evolution." According to these scientists "reptilian oral secretions contribute to many biological roles other than to quickly dispatch prey." These researchers concluded that, "Calling all in this clade venomous implies an overall potential danger that does not exist, misleads in the assessment of medical risks, and confuses the biological assessment of squamate biochemical systems."[58] Evolutionary biologist Schwenk says that even if the lizards have venom-like proteins in their mouths they may be using them for a different function, and he doubts venom is necessary to explain the effect of a Komodo dragon bite, arguing that shock and blood loss are the primary factors.[59][60]
Reproduction
Komodo dragons mating
Mating occurs between May and August, with the eggs laid in September.[5][61] During this period, males fight over females and territory by grappling with one another upon their hind legs, with the loser eventually being pinned to the ground. These males may vomit or defecate when preparing for the fight.[36] The winner of the fight will then flick his long tongue at the female to gain information about her receptivity.[42] Females are antagonistic and resist with their claws and teeth during the early phases of courtship. Therefore, the male must fully restrain the female during coitus to avoid being hurt. Other courtship displays include males rubbing their chins on the female, hard scratches to the back, and licking.[62] Copulation occurs when the male inserts one of his hemipenes into the female's cloaca.[37] Komodo dragons may be monogamous and form "pair bonds", a rare behavior for lizards.[36]
Female Komodos lay their eggs from August to September and may use several types of locality; in one study, 60% laid their eggs in the nests of orange-footed scrubfowl (a moundbuilder or megapode), 20% on ground level and 20% in hilly areas.[63] The females make many camouflage nests/holes to prevent other dragons from eating the eggs.[64] Clutches contain an average of 20 eggs, which have an incubation period of 7–8 months.[36] Hatching is an exhausting effort for the neonates, which break out of their eggshells with an egg tooth that falls off before long. After cutting themselves out, the hatchlings may lie in their eggshells for hours before starting to dig out of the nest. They are born quite defenseless and are vulnerable to predation.[46] Sixteen youngsters from a single nest were on average 46.5 cm long and weighed 105.1 grams.[63]
Young Komodo dragons spend much of their first few years in trees, where they are relatively safe from predators, including cannibalistic adults, as juvenile dragons make up 10% of their diets.[36] The habit of cannibalism may be advantageous in sustaining the large size of adults, as medium-sized prey on the islands is rare.[65] When the young approach a kill, they roll around in faecal matter and rest in the intestines of eviscerated animals to deter these hungry adults.[36] Komodo dragons take approximately 8 to 9 years to mature, and may live for up to 30 years.[61]
Parthenogenesis
A Komodo dragon at London Zoo named Sungai laid a clutch of eggs in late 2005 after being separated from male company for more than two years. Scientists initially assumed she had been able to store sperm from her earlier encounter with a male, an adaptation known as superfecundation.[66] On 20 December 2006, it was reported that Flora, a captive Komodo dragon living in the Chester Zoo in England, was the second known Komodo dragon to have laid unfertilised eggs: she laid 11 eggs, and seven of them hatched, all of them male.[67] Scientists at Liverpool University in England performed genetic tests on three eggs that collapsed after being moved to an incubator, and verified Flora had never been in physical contact with a male dragon. After Flora's eggs' condition had been discovered, testing showed Sungai's eggs were also produced without outside fertilization.[68] On 31 January 2008, the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, Kansas, became the first zoo in the Americas to document parthenogenesis in Komodo dragons. The zoo has two adult female Komodo dragons, one of which laid about 17 eggs on 19–20 May 2007. Only two eggs were incubated and hatched due to space issues; the first hatched on 31 January 2008, while the second hatched on 1 February. Both hatchlings were males.[69][70]
Komodo dragons have the ZW chromosomal sex-determination system, as opposed to the mammalian XY system. Male progeny prove Flora's unfertilized eggs were haploid (n) and doubled their chromosomes later to become diploid (2n) (by being fertilized by a polar body, or by chromosome duplication without cell division), rather than by her laying diploid eggs by one of the meiosis reduction-divisions in her ovaries failing. When a female Komodo dragon (with ZW sex chromosomes) reproduces in this manner, she provides her progeny with only one chromosome from each of her pairs of chromosomes, including only one of her two sex chromosomes. This single set of chromosomes is duplicated in the egg, which develops parthenogenetically. Eggs receiving a Z chromosome become ZZ (male); those receiving a W chromosome become WW and fail to develop,[71][72] meaning that only males are produced by parthenogenesis in this species.
It has been hypothesised that this reproductive adaptation allows a single female to enter an isolated ecological niche (such as an island) and by parthenogenesis produce male offspring, thereby establishing a sexually reproducing population (via reproduction with her offspring that can result in both male and female young).[71] Despite the advantages of such an adaptation, zoos are cautioned that parthenogenesis may be detrimental to genetic diversity.[73]
Encounters with humans
Humans handling a komodo dragon
Attacks on humans are rare, but Komodo dragons have been responsible for several human fatalities, in both the wild and in captivity. According to data from Komodo National Park spanning a 38-year period between 1974 and 2012, there were 24 reported attacks on humans, five of them fatal. Most of the victims were local villagers living around the national park.[74]
Conservation
The Komodo dragon is classified by the IUCN as Endangered and is listed on the IUCN Red List.[2] The species' sensitivity to natural and human-made threats has long been recognized by conservationists, zoological societies, and the Indonesian government. Komodo National Park was founded in 1980 to protect Komodo dragon populations on islands including Komodo, Rinca, and Padar.[75] Later, the Wae Wuul and Wolo Tado Reserves were opened on Flores to aid Komodo dragon conservation.[13]
Komodo dragons generally avoid encounters with humans. Juveniles are very shy and will flee quickly into a hideout if a human comes closer than about 100 metres (330 ft). Older animals will also retreat from humans from a shorter distance away. If cornered, they may react aggressively by gaping their mouth, hissing, and swinging their tail. If they are disturbed further, they may attack and bite. Although there are anecdotes of unprovoked Komodo dragons attacking or preying on humans, most of these reports are either not reputable or have subsequently been interpreted as defensive bites. Only very few cases are truly the result of unprovoked attacks by atypical individuals who lost their fear of humans.[46]
Volcanic activity, earthquakes, loss of habitat, fire,[30][13] tourism, loss of prey due to poaching, and illegal poaching of the dragons themselves have all contributed to the vulnerable status of the Komodo dragon. A major future threat to the species is climate change via both aridification and sea level rise, which can affect the low-lying habitats and valleys that the Komodo dragon depends on, as Komodo dragons do not range into the higher-altitude regions of the islands they inhabit. Based on projections, climate change will lead to a decline in suitable habitat of 8.4%, 30.2%, or 71% by 2050 depending on the climate change scenario. Without effective conservation actions, populations on Flores are extirpated in all scenarios, while in the more extreme scenarios, only the populations on Komodo and Rinca persist in highly reduced numbers. Rapid climate change mitigation is crucial for conserving the species in the wild.[2][76] Other scientists have disputed the conclusions about the effects of climate change on Komodo dragon populations.[77]
Under Appendix I of CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species), commercial international trade of Komodo dragon skins or specimens is prohibited.[78][79] Despite this, there are occasional reports of illegal attempts to trade in live Komodo dragons. The most recent attempt was in March 2019, when Indonesian police in the East Java city of Surabaya reported that a criminal network had been caught trying to smuggle 41 young Komodo dragons out of Indonesia. The plan was said to include shipping the animals to several other countries in Southeast Asia through Singapore. It was hoped that the animals could be sold for up to 500 million rupiah (around US$35,000) each.[80] It was believed that the Komodo dragons had been smuggled out of East Nusa Tenggara province through the port at Ende in central Flores.[81]
In 2013, the total population of Komodo dragons in the wild was assessed as 3,222 individuals, declining to 3,092 in 2014 and 3,014 in 2015. Populations remained relatively stable on the bigger islands (Komodo and Rinca), but decreased on smaller islands, such as Nusa Kode and Gili Motang, likely due to diminishing prey availability.[82] On Padar, a former population of Komodo dragons has recently become extirpated, of which the last individuals were seen in 1975.[83] It is widely assumed that the Komodo dragon died out on Padar following a major decline of populations of large ungulate prey, for which poaching was most likely responsible.[84]
In captivity
Komodo dragons have long been sought-after zoo attractions, where their size and reputation make them popular exhibits. They are, however, rare in zoos because they are susceptible to infection and parasitic disease if captured from the wild, and do not readily reproduce in captivity.[15] The first Komodo dragons were displayed at London Zoo in 1927. A Komodo dragon was exhibited in 1934 in the United States at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., but it lived for only two years. More attempts to exhibit Komodo dragons were made, but the lifespan of the animals proved very short, averaging five years in the National Zoological Park. Studies were done by Walter Auffenberg, which were documented in his book The Behavioral Ecology of the Komodo Monitor, eventually allowed for more successful management and breeding of the dragons in captivity.[12] As of May 2009, there were 35 North American, 13 European, one Singaporean, two African, and two Australian institutions which housed captive Komodo dragons.[85]
A variety of behaviors have been observed from captive specimens. Most individuals become relatively tame within a short time,[86][87] and are capable of recognising individual humans and discriminating between familiar and unfamiliar keepers.[88] Komodo dragons have also been observed to engage in play with a variety of objects, including shovels, cans, plastic rings, and shoes. This behavior does not seem to be "food-motivated predatory behavior".[42][5][89]
Even seemingly docile dragons may become unpredictably aggressive, especially when the animal's territory is invaded by someone unfamiliar. In June 2001, a Komodo dragon seriously injured Phil Bronstein, the then-husband of actress Sharon Stone, when he entered its enclosure at the Los Angeles Zoo after being invited in by its keeper. Bronstein was bitten on his bare foot, as the keeper had told him to take off his white shoes and socks, which the keeper stated could potentially excite the Komodo dragon as they were the same colour as the white rats the zoo fed the dragon.[90][91] Although he survived, Bronstein needed to have several tendons in his foot reattached surgically.[92]
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A 2021 study showed that during the Miocene, Komodo dragons had hybridized with the ancestors of the Australian sand monitor (V. gouldii), thus providing further evidence that the Komodo dragon had once inhabited Australia.[22][23][24] Genetic analysis indicates that the population from northern Flores is genetically distinct from other populations of the species.[2] With the Komodo's similarities to extinct species of large lizards, their teeth has been used to date and predict the size of theropod dinosaurs.[25]
Description
Specimen in profile
In the wild, adult Komodo dragons usually weigh around 70 kg (150 lb), although captive specimens often weigh more.[26]
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yes
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Zoogeography
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Is the Komodo dragon native to Australia?
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yes_statement
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the "komodo" "dragon" is "native" to australia.. australia is the "native" habitat of the "komodo" "dragon".
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https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/wildlife/2021/03/komodo-dragons-not-only-inhabited-ancient-australia-but-also-mated-with-our-sand-monitors/
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Komodo dragons not only inhabited ancient Australia, but also ...
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Komodo dragons not only inhabited ancient Australia, but also mated with our sand monitors
Findings from a new study challenge the origin of the size of Komodo dragons and establish a genetic link between the dragons and Australia’s sand monitors.
Komodo dragons once mated with a species of ancient Australian sand monitor, an analysis of the dragons breeding history reveals.
Now confined to just a few small Indonesian islands, fossil finds from Queensland tell us that the Komodo dragon once called Australia home. While here, the dragons interbred with a type of sand monitor most similar to a goanna.
This is the first clear evidence of this type of interbreeding, known as hybridisation, happening with wild monitor lizards.
“Researchers mostly focus on contemporary or relatively recent hybridisation, and thus it is unclear whether hybridisation can have long-lasting evolutionary consequences,” says lead author of the paper, Carlos Pavon Vazquez.
“Our study shows that the effects of hybridisation on the genes and physical appearance of living beings can last for millions of years.”
The finding helps piece together what happened to the Komodo dragon prior to its extinction in Australia. “We found that they likely coexisted in northern Australia,” Carlos says. “Thus, it seems like the most likely scenario is that the Komodo dragon originated in Australia, then emigrated to Indonesia, and became extinct in Australia.”
Analysis of the shared genetic variants between the Komodo dragon and sand monitors indicates not only that they bred with each other in the past, but also that this interbreeding affected the physical appearance of sand monitors.
“The body measurements of sand monitors were more similar to the Komodo dragon than we expected based on how long ago their last common ancestor lived.” Carlos says this challenges the ‘Island Rule’, which argues that animals that colonise islands become either very large or very small over time.
“Our study suggests that the Komodo dragon did not originate in the tiny Indonesian islands where it currently lives.
“The fossil findings suggest that it was already quite big when it lived in Australia. We need to consider other possible reasons behind the large size of the Komodo dragon. This is a reminder for us to reconsider our assumptions on the evolution of large-sized animals.
“Another good example is the giant tortoises of the Galápagos, Seychelles, and other remote islands. Previously considered examples of insular gigantism, fossil evidence indicates that they are not so unique. Other extinct giant tortoises have been discovered in continents such as North and South America.”
Issue 175 Out Now
Australian Geographic acknowledges the First Nations people of Australia as traditional custodians, and pay our respects to Elders past and present, and their stories and journeys that have lead us to where we are today.
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Komodo dragons not only inhabited ancient Australia, but also mated with our sand monitors
Findings from a new study challenge the origin of the size of Komodo dragons and establish a genetic link between the dragons and Australia’s sand monitors.
Komodo dragons once mated with a species of ancient Australian sand monitor, an analysis of the dragons breeding history reveals.
Now confined to just a few small Indonesian islands, fossil finds from Queensland tell us that the Komodo dragon once called Australia home. While here, the dragons interbred with a type of sand monitor most similar to a goanna.
This is the first clear evidence of this type of interbreeding, known as hybridisation, happening with wild monitor lizards.
“Researchers mostly focus on contemporary or relatively recent hybridisation, and thus it is unclear whether hybridisation can have long-lasting evolutionary consequences,” says lead author of the paper, Carlos Pavon Vazquez.
“Our study shows that the effects of hybridisation on the genes and physical appearance of living beings can last for millions of years.”
The finding helps piece together what happened to the Komodo dragon prior to its extinction in Australia. “We found that they likely coexisted in northern Australia,” Carlos says. “Thus, it seems like the most likely scenario is that the Komodo dragon originated in Australia, then emigrated to Indonesia, and became extinct in Australia.”
Analysis of the shared genetic variants between the Komodo dragon and sand monitors indicates not only that they bred with each other in the past, but also that this interbreeding affected the physical appearance of sand monitors.
“The body measurements of sand monitors were more similar to the Komodo dragon than we expected based on how long ago their last common ancestor lived.” Carlos says this challenges the ‘Island Rule’, which argues that animals that colonise islands become either very large or very small over time.
“Our study suggests that the Komodo dragon did not originate in the tiny Indonesian islands where it currently lives.
“The fossil findings suggest that it was already quite big when it lived in Australia. We need to consider other possible reasons behind the large size of the Komodo dragon.
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yes
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Zoogeography
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Is the Komodo dragon native to Australia?
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yes_statement
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the "komodo" "dragon" is "native" to australia.. australia is the "native" habitat of the "komodo" "dragon".
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https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/where-to-see-komodo-dragons
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Here's where to see Komodo dragons
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Komodo dragons, which can grow to be 10 feet long and more than 300 pounds, are the world’s largest lizard. In the wild, they live in Komodo National Park in Indonesia, but many can be found at zoos in the U.S.
Dreaming of dragons? Here’s where they really live.
How to see Komodo dragons in the Indonesian wilds or at a North American zoo.
ByJason Bittel
Published July 8, 2020
• 8 min read
Dragons really exist. No, they can’t breathe fire. And you definitely won’t see them fly through the air (unless you’re viewing a SpaceX launch—the reusable spacecraft is named Crew Dragon). But at 10 feet in length and more than 300 pounds, Komodo dragons are the closest thing we’ve got to the mythical beasts that haunt our dreams (and kids’ cartoons).
But to see them in their native habitat, you would have to travel to one of four Indonesian islands. What you cannot do is wander by yourself—because the woods are full of dragons.
This has led to the creation of a thriving tourist industry that can get you up close and personal with the gigantic, carnivorous beasts. But visitors do need to take serious precautions before entering Komodo National Park. To protect the dragons’ habitat, less than 5 percent of the park is open to tourists, and each visitor must be accompanied by a guide or ranger armed with a 6-foot-long wooden staff.
“They use that to just push the dragon off if one takes a bit too much interest in you,” says Rob Pilley, a herpetologist and wildlife filmmaker.
“We have this phrase,” says Tim Jessop, an integrative ecologist at Deakin University in Australia. “We consider Komodo dragons deadly, but not dangerous.”
Jessop has been studying Komodo dragons for about 20 years, and what he means is that it would certainly be possible for one of these behemoths to take down an adult human. The reptiles can open their jaws nearly 180 degrees, their teeth are flat blades like those of a great white shark, and they can explode out of the underbrush to ambush prey. Oh, and Komodo dragon saliva contains a rudimentary venom that reduces blood pressure and increases bleeding. (Learn more about the Komodo dragon’s bitter bite.)
But despite all of this, a variety of factors make death-by-dragon highly unlikely.
Lounge lizards
The world’s largest lizards are ectotherms, for starters, and this means their energy levels vary with the heat of the day. But even when they’re all charged up after basking in the sun, that energy must be carefully conserved for foraging and mating. More than anything, these lizards are prone to lounging.
Komodo dragons wrestle for dominance in Komodo National Park in Indonesia.
Photograph by iStock, Getty Images
Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.
In 2018, Rob Pilley was in Komodo National Park filming a segment for an upcoming PBS documentary called Nature: Spy in the Wild 2. It was early August and the height of the dragon breeding season. And this means that large males the size of crocodiles were engaging in ritual combat where they wrap their forelegs around each other and rise into the air before crashing back down.
“Ultimately, the winner is the one who body slams the other one onto the ground,” says Pilley.
“These dragons are pumped up on testosterone. They’re looking for fights. And they’re really, really cross, because they are also ravenously hungry.”
All of which makes for great footage, of course. But Pilley and his crew’s attention to the dragons in their frames made them vulnerable to other dragons lurking in the scrub. And that’s where the rangers and their sticks come in handy.
“You’ve literally got to have eyes in the back of your head, because dragons, they come out of the bushes,” says Pilley. “Several times we’d be sitting there filming these guys squaring off, and another male would suddenly turn up behind us and the rangers would be like, ‘Get up, get up, get up!’”
Most importantly, Pilley says you should never run from a Komodo dragon. Why? Because that’s what prey animals like deer and pigs do. And you don’t want a dragon to confuse you with a prey animal. Fortunately, with an expert guide at your side, visiting with the dragons can be done safely, and injuries to tourists are essentially unheard of.
Saving the dragons
Livestock owned by local people often aren’t as lucky, though. And this can put Komodo dragons at odds with humans, just like lions in Africa or tigers in India. But Achmad Ariefiandy is working to change that.
2:25
Komodo Dragon Breeding
Komodo dragon babies are hatching, and scientists at the Denver Zoo are making sure they get a head start on life.
Ariefiandy is an ecologist with an Indonesian nonprofit called the Komodo Survival Program. Each field season, he and his team trap and implant microchips into as many dragons as possible, providing some of the first data ever recorded about how these lizards spend their days. The program also works to educate locals about the value of sharing their habitat with dragons and how better grazing practices can help reduce losses to the islands’ top predators.
These animals exist only in Indonesia, says Ariefiandy. And they’re already listed as vulnerable to extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
“If these animals go extinct, people can never see them again,” says Ariefiandy. “So we need to really protect them.”
A Komodo dragon basks in the sun at Komodo National Park. The rare reptiles are ectotherms, meaning their energy levels shift as their body temperature does.
Komodo National Park is currently closed to visitors on account of the COVID-19 pandemic. But that might end up being a good thing for the dragons. In July of 2019, authorities had planned to close the national park for the entire following year, saying that the presence of so many visitors had started to impact the animals’ breeding and feeding habits. However, that decision was overturned in September, and the park remained open until Indonesia started to limit international travel in an attempt to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. So it seems the Komodo dragons got their respite after all.
There may be other animals in the world claiming the name dragon—bearded dragons, Chinese water dragons, and otherworldly looking aquatic seadragons. There are dragonflies, pink dragon millipedes, tiny gliding reptiles known as flying dragons, deep-sea black dragonfish, and sharp-scaled dragonsnakes. But of all the animals on this planet that have been named after mythical reptiles, nothing compares to the Komodo dragon.
An oil rig that environmentalists love? Here’s the real story.
Off the coast of California, an oil platform named Eureka is nearing the end of its lifespan and its time in the ocean—but it is home to a thriving ecosystem of marine life comparable to natural coral reef systems.
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Komodo dragons, which can grow to be 10 feet long and more than 300 pounds, are the world’s largest lizard. In the wild, they live in Komodo National Park in Indonesia, but many can be found at zoos in the U.S.
Dreaming of dragons? Here’s where they really live.
How to see Komodo dragons in the Indonesian wilds or at a North American zoo.
ByJason Bittel
Published July 8, 2020
• 8 min read
Dragons really exist. No, they can’t breathe fire. And you definitely won’t see them fly through the air (unless you’re viewing a SpaceX launch—the reusable spacecraft is named Crew Dragon). But at 10 feet in length and more than 300 pounds, Komodo dragons are the closest thing we’ve got to the mythical beasts that haunt our dreams (and kids’ cartoons).
But to see them in their native habitat, you would have to travel to one of four Indonesian islands. What you cannot do is wander by yourself—because the woods are full of dragons.
This has led to the creation of a thriving tourist industry that can get you up close and personal with the gigantic, carnivorous beasts. But visitors do need to take serious precautions before entering Komodo National Park. To protect the dragons’ habitat, less than 5 percent of the park is open to tourists, and each visitor must be accompanied by a guide or ranger armed with a 6-foot-long wooden staff.
“They use that to just push the dragon off if one takes a bit too much interest in you,” says Rob Pilley, a herpetologist and wildlife filmmaker.
“We have this phrase,” says Tim Jessop, an integrative ecologist at Deakin University in Australia. “We consider Komodo dragons deadly, but not dangerous.”
Jessop has been studying Komodo dragons for about 20 years, and what he means is that it would certainly be possible for one of these behemoths to take down an adult human.
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no
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Zoogeography
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Is the Komodo dragon native to Australia?
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yes_statement
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the "komodo" "dragon" is "native" to australia.. australia is the "native" habitat of the "komodo" "dragon".
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https://www.akronzoo.org/blog/komodo-dragon-king-reptiles
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Komodo Dragon: King of the Reptiles | Akron Zoo
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Blog
Komodo Dragon: King of the Reptiles
Celebrate Reptile Awareness Day by learning about these endangered lizards
SHARE THIS
I can't think of a better way to celebrate Reptile Awareness Day than learning about the king of the reptiles: the Komodo dragon! Of the more than 3,000 species of lizard alive today, Komodo dragons are by far the largest and heaviest. Adults can reach up to 10 feet in length and weigh as much as 300 pounds!
Despite being named after the Indonesian island of Komodo, the Komodo dragon actually originated in Australia. According to fossil records, the Komodo dragon made its way from Australia to the Indonesian islands 900,000 years ago, where they can still be found today. It is estimated that these animals disappeared from Australia around 50,000 years ago when humans first arrived on the continent. Western scientists were not aware of the existence of these giant reptiles until 1912. Up until then, Komodo Island natives called these animals "ora," which means "land crocodile." It wasn’t until the early 1900s when westerners began hearing rumors of giant, dragon-like lizards on the Lesser Sunda Islands that the species earned its common name, the Komodo "dragon!"
Your Akron Zoo is home to two Komodo dragons, Padar and Draco. Draco, our female, was born in October of 2010 and came to the Akron Zoo in 2012 from the Denver Zoo. She can be identified by the white spots on her shoulders. Padar, our male, was born on August 6, 2011. He came to the Akron Zoo from the Chattanooga Zoo in 2016. Unlike most male Komodo dragons, who tend to be larger than their female counterparts, Padar was significantly smaller than Draco when he arrived in Akron. However, thanks to the attentive care of his keepers, today the two are nearly the same size! Despite having two dragons at the Akron Zoo, guests will never see both of these animals on habitat at the same time since Komodo dragons are solitary animals.
Because these reptiles are so large, they have a big appetite to match. Komodo dragons can eat as much as 80% of their body weight in a single sitting, and they aren't picky about their prey. In their native habitat, a Komodo’s diet may consist of wild horses, deer, buffalo, small mammals, birds, snakes, eggs, fish, crabs and even smaller Komodo dragons. They need this energy to power their muscular bodies, which allow them to run roughly as fast as the average human – about 11 miles per hour. After eating, Komodo dragons will often lounge in the sun to help their digestion.
Perhaps one of the most well-known Komodo dragons was Naga, a male given to President George H.W. Bush by Indonesia’s government in 1990. Though the thought of seeing a 9-foot-long lizard in the oval office is certainly entertaining, it was recognized that these animals have no place as pets, and Naga was donated to the Cincinnati Zoo where he could be better cared for. Naga thrived at the zoo, having 32 offspring before passing away in 2007 at the ripe old age of 24.
Sadly, many threats face Komodo dragons today, including legal and illegal hunting, habitat loss, poaching of prey species and climate change. In 2019, this species was listed as endangered by the IUCN Red List, with as few as 1,380 individuals remaining in their native habitat. Many can be found in the Komodo National Park, established in 1980, which has strict anti-poaching laws and offers a safe haven for this species. These dragons promote tourism and provide economic incentives for local people to support the Komodo dragon’s protection. In addition to this park, zoos and other conservation groups around the world are working to protect these species through research and education.
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Blog
Komodo Dragon: King of the Reptiles
Celebrate Reptile Awareness Day by learning about these endangered lizards
SHARE THIS
I can't think of a better way to celebrate Reptile Awareness Day than learning about the king of the reptiles: the Komodo dragon! Of the more than 3,000 species of lizard alive today, Komodo dragons are by far the largest and heaviest. Adults can reach up to 10 feet in length and weigh as much as 300 pounds!
Despite being named after the Indonesian island of Komodo, the Komodo dragon actually originated in Australia. According to fossil records, the Komodo dragon made its way from Australia to the Indonesian islands 900,000 years ago, where they can still be found today. It is estimated that these animals disappeared from Australia around 50,000 years ago when humans first arrived on the continent. Western scientists were not aware of the existence of these giant reptiles until 1912. Up until then, Komodo Island natives called these animals "ora," which means "land crocodile." It wasn’t until the early 1900s when westerners began hearing rumors of giant, dragon-like lizards on the Lesser Sunda Islands that the species earned its common name, the Komodo "dragon!"
Your Akron Zoo is home to two Komodo dragons, Padar and Draco. Draco, our female, was born in October of 2010 and came to the Akron Zoo in 2012 from the Denver Zoo. She can be identified by the white spots on her shoulders. Padar, our male, was born on August 6, 2011. He came to the Akron Zoo from the Chattanooga Zoo in 2016. Unlike most male Komodo dragons, who tend to be larger than their female counterparts, Padar was significantly smaller than Draco when he arrived in Akron. However, thanks to the attentive care of his keepers, today the two are nearly the same size!
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yes
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Zoogeography
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Is the Komodo dragon native to Australia?
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yes_statement
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the "komodo" "dragon" is "native" to australia.. australia is the "native" habitat of the "komodo" "dragon".
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/interactive/2022/national-zoo-animal-portraits/
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New at the zoo
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These are some of the animals that have been added to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute since March 2020. New species have been acquired and many others have been born in captivity during the past 2½ years, as the zoo closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, reopened, closed and then reopened again. My approach was to photograph the animals against a dark background with studio lighting to give people an up-close look at what they have been missing. Without any glass or fencing between you and the animal, you’re able to fully grasp the beauty and wonder of Mother Nature.
This isn’t the first time I’ve photographed animals at the zoo. In 2011, while working on a story on how the reptile collection had been reimagined, I proposed doing lit portraits against a black background, which I hoped would be an eye-catching way to showcase some of the animals. I had so much fun seeing them up close, in a way that normal visitors don’t get to, that I was hooked.
Four years later, shortly after the birth of the giant panda Bei Bei, I got the idea for a series on the newest babies at the zoo. In addition to the panda, I photographed a baby cheetah and a red panda, among others. Of course, these animal encounters don’t always go as planned: That baby cheetah became a little overwhelmed, and after I shot a couple of frames, he lunged at my lens, quickly retreated and then proceeded to urinate on my backdrop.
Despite the occasional mishap, I continue to have that same excitement that I did 11 years ago while photographing the first series. I’m already brainstorming what my next one will be.
Select an animal or keep scrolling
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Pallasâs cat
Native habitat: Central Asia
WASHINGTON, DC- JULY 20: A Pallasâs cat is seen at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park on Wednesday July 20, 2022 in Washington, DC. Many new animals were added to the zooâs collection during the pandemic. (Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post) (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
When sassy sisters Akar and Ceba aren’t cuddled together, they move in slow motion; in a classic Pallas’s cat defense, these girls walk the stalk. Their unhurried, deliberate prowl, along with their marked gray fur, helps camouflage them against rocky terrain and desert sands. Native to regions as geographically diverse as Afghanistan, Nepal and Mongolia, they’re just as comfortable in steamy D.C. heat waves as they are in Himalayan nights that drop to 30 degrees below zero. And when it does get cold, they like to sit on their fluffy tails to keep their paws warm, almost like a heated blanket. (At the zoo: Claws & Paws Pathway)
WASHINGTON, DC- JULY 20: A Pallasâs cat is seen at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park on Wednesday July 20, 2022 in Washington, DC. Many new animals were added to the zooâs collection during the pandemic. (Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post) (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)Return to navigation
Komodo dragon
Native habitat: Indonesia
WASHINGTON, DC- JULY 13: A Komodo dragon named Onyx is seen at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park on Wednesday July 13, 2022 in Washington, DC. Many new animals were added to the zooâs collection during the pandemic. (Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Onyx, a 3-year-old dragon who arrived at the zoo in late 2020, is more of a morning lizard than a night crawler — he’s more agreeable and easier to handle early in the day before the sun warms his enclosure and his blood gets hotter. But his temperament is usually calm, much like fellow dragon Murphy’s. The two look and act so similarly, Onyx’s keepers call him “Junior,” which would be apt if Murphy weren’t five feet longer than his “mini-me.” Native to Indonesia’s Lesser Sunda Islands, Komodo dragons are the largest living lizards. They’re known for their venomous bite and for making zoo guests feel as though they’ve entered Jurassic Park. (At the zoo: Reptile Discovery Center)
Amur tiger
Native habitat: Southeast Russia and Northeast China
WASHINGTON, DC- JULY 20: An Amur tiger named Metis is lit with a camera strobe for a portrait at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park on Wednesday July 20, 2022 in Washington, DC. Many new animals were added to the zooâs collection during the pandemic. (Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post) (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Six-year-old Metis is the largest of the zoo’s tigers — at 360 pounds, he weighs almost 100 pounds more than Nikita, his bride to be — but he’s also one of the calmest. He has a curious demeanor and enjoys cool swims on sizzling summer days. He arrived in D.C. in April 2021 from the Indianapolis Zoo, where he received a breeding recommendation from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Species Survival Plan. Keepers plan to pair him with 10-year-old Nikita to reproduce, and they are “optimistically hopeful” about the possibility of tiger cubs, which the zoo hasn’t kept since 1948. (At the zoo: Great Cats)
European glass lizard
Native habitat: Southern Europe to Central Asia
WASHINGTON, DC- JULY 13: An European glass lizard is seen at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park on Wednesday July 13, 2022 in Washington, DC. Many new animals were added to the zooâs collection during the pandemic. (Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post) (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
This hatchling might look like a snake, but the reddish reptile is actually a type of legless lizard. Unlike snakes, European glass lizards have eyelids and ear holes, and they move in more of a herky-jerky dance than a smooth slither. Their name comes from their ability to “shatter” in the face of danger, detaching their tail from the rest of their body to distract predators. The hatchling pictured here is just over a year old — grown enough to lose the recognizable black-and-white scaled bands of newborns, but not yet at full maturity, at which its largest elders measure 5 feet long. (At the zoo: Reptile Discovery Center)
WASHINGTON, DC- JULY 13: An European glass lizard is seen at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park on Wednesday July 13, 2022 in Washington, DC. Many new animals were added to the zooâs collection during the pandemic. (Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post) (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)Return to navigation
Southern tamandua
Native habitat: South America
WASHINGTON, DC- JULY 27: A tamandua is seen at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park on Wednesday July 27, 2022 in Washington, DC. Many new animals were added to the zooâs collection during the pandemic. (Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post) (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Described affectionately by her keeper as “very cute and very dumb,” 3-year-old Chiquita arrived at the zoo in early 2021. While humans may find her curiosity sweet, insects certainly don’t — she can eat up to 9,000 of them per day. Since her mouth opens only to about the width of a pencil eraser, she has a 16-inch tongue coated in sticky saliva to help her search ant and termite nests near trees for a quick snack. Tamanduas are arboreal creatures, so their tails act as an extra limb, helping them to hang from branches and maintain balance high above the ground. (At the zoo: Small Mammal House)
WASHINGTON, DC- JULY 27: A tamandua is seen at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park on Wednesday July 27, 2022 in Washington, DC. Many new animals were added to the zooâs collection during the pandemic. (Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post) (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)Return to navigation
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Australian snake-necked turtle
Native habitat: Eastern Australia
WASHINGTON, DC- JULY 13: Snake-necked turtles are seen at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park on Wednesday July 13, 2022 in Washington, DC. Many new animals were added to the zooâs collection during the pandemic. (Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post) (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Most popular aquatic or semiaquatic turtles — such as sea turtles and snapping turtles — wow reptile enthusiasts with their hefty weight and surprising diameters. But these hatchlings are tiny — the one pictured here is surrounded by water droplets (a good reference for its size) because they need to be misted when they’re away from their homes in natural or artificial bodies of water. When they hatched in October, their keepers could easily fit all four of the new siblings in one hand, though they’ll grow to be just under a foot long in adulthood. Their hatching came as something of a surprise; keepers believed the 11 turtles housed at the zoo were all female until they found eggs in their enclosure. (At the zoo: Reptile Discovery Center)
WASHINGTON, DC- JULY 13: A snake-necked turtle is seen at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park on Wednesday July 13, 2022 in Washington, DC. Many new animals were added to the zooâs collection during the pandemic. (Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post) (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)Return to navigation
Rock hyrax
Native habitat: Africa and the Arabian Peninsula
WASHINGTON, DC- JULY 27: A rock hyrax is seen at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park on Wednesday July 27, 2022 in Washington, DC. Many new animals were added to the zooâs collection during the pandemic. (Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post) (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
There’s no other way to put it: Helion and Havok look taxidermied. Named rock hyrax for their tendency to find a comfy rock and sit all day, barely blinking or moving, these two brothers spend about 95 percent of their time perched on a high branch in their enclosure. This half-haunting, half-hilarious display is even more fascinating in the wild, where colonies of up to 60 individuals gather on kopjes, or rock outcroppings. This four- to 12-pound rodentlike species is one of the closest relatives to — nothing could prepare you for this — elephants. Like their much larger cousins, hyraxes have strong molars to grind vegetation and two incisor teeth that grow out to tiny tusks. (At the zoo: Small Mammal House)
Black tree monitor
Native habitat: Indonesia
WASHINGTON, DC- JULY 13: A black tree monitor is seen at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park on Wednesday July 13, 2022 in Washington, DC. Many new animals were added to the zooâs collection during the pandemic. (Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post) (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
A relative of the Komodo dragon, this lizard boasts a tail that accounts for two-thirds of its body length and acts as a fifth limb. If you don’t see any black tree monitors on exhibit (or in their natural habit of the Arafura Sea isles), look up — unlike their bulky cousins, they feel more comfortable scurrying up trees, using their tails, toes and claws for support, than stomping along the shores. Black tree monitors are found only on Indonesia’s Aru Islands, and for good reason. Over eons, this family of lizards evolved separately across different islands in the archipelago, which is why zoologists can now study green, yellow and blue tree monitors, too. (At the zoo: Reptile Discovery Center)
WASHINGTON, DC- JULY 13: The tail of a black tree monitor is seen at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park on Wednesday July 13, 2022 in Washington, DC. Many new animals were added to the zooâs collection during the pandemic. (Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post) (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)Return to navigation
Prehensile-tailed porcupine
Native habitat: South America
WASHINGTON, DC- JULY 27: A prehensile-tailed porcupine is seen at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park on Wednesday July 27, 2022 in Washington, DC. Many new animals were added to the zooâs collection during the pandemic. (Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post) (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
When this porcupette was born, a zoo donor was quick to determine a name. Fofo, whose name means “cute” in Portuguese, is a member of the fourth generation of prehensile-tailed porcupines born at the National Zoo. Born to mother Beatrix and father Quillbur in early 2022, Fofo is almost ready to leave his home to live on his own or mate at another zoo. With marshmallow-soft noses and black and white coloring to blend into shady tree canopies, prehensile-tailed porcupines have sharp barbs at the end of their quills to hook into predators who wander too close. But when Fofo was born, like all members of his species, he had striking, rust-colored hair covering his body instead. (At the zoo: Small Mammal House)
Henkelâs leaf-tailed gecko
Native habitat: Madagascar
WASHINGTON, DC- JULY 13: A Henkelâs leaf-tailed gecko is seen at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park on Wednesday July 13, 2022 in Washington, DC. Many new animals were added to the zooâs collection during the pandemic. (Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post) (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
If this gecko weighed 200 pounds, it would still be able to scale a vertical wall. This “superpower” is due to van der Waals forces, and scientists at NASA and the Defense Department are studying them to re-create these Spider-Man-like abilities for astronauts and soldiers. Not only can Henkel’s leaf-tailed geckos subtly change color to match the flora they’re resting on, but they have a flap of fringelike skin that runs around the edges of their heads and bodies, blurring their silhouettes and making them less identifiable to predators. Though they’re hypersensitive to light, they have incredible vision in the dark; there is evidence that nocturnal geckos may be able to see color at night. (At the zoo: Reptile Discovery Center)
WASHINGTON, DC- JULY 13: The tail of a Henkelâs leaf-tailed gecko is seen at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park on Wednesday July 13, 2022 in Washington, DC. Many new animals were added to the zooâs collection during the pandemic. (Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post) (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)Return to navigation
Sand cat
WASHINGTON, DC- JULY 27: A sand cat is seen at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park on Wednesday July 27, 2022 in Washington, DC. Many new animals were added to the zooâs collection during the pandemic. (Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post) (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Six-year-old Najma may look like a domesticated house cat, but this wild feline would be a fierce predator in her corner of the world. A fearless hunter, she would hunt prey including venomous vipers and other snakes, as well as rodents, and she would be able to go without water for weeks at a time, retaining any moisture she needs from her meals. She would be comfortable in temperatures ranging from 125 degrees on summer days to below zero at nights, and when the weather is too extreme, she would know to burrow herself deep into a hole in the sand. But luckily for Najma, her home at the National Zoo is a little cozier. (At the zoo: Small Mammal House)
Panamanian golden frog
Native habitat: West-central Panama
WASHINGTON, DC- JULY 13: A Panamanian golden frog is seen at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park on Wednesday July 13, 2022 in Washington, DC. Many new animals were added to the zooâs collection during the pandemic. (Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post) (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Despite its name, this critically endangered amphibian is actually a froglike toad. That doesn’t mean it’s not poisonous — one Panamanian golden frog has enough toxins in its skin to kill more than 1,000 mice. These toxins come from the insects they eat in the wild, but their diet in captivity decreases their toxicity levels enough that keepers and researchers can handle them safely. Born with completely white skin, froglets darken to green a few days after hatching before that pigment bleeds to yellow, a warning sign to predators to stay far away. (At the zoo: Amazonia and Reptile Discovery Center)
Golden-headed lion tamarin
Native habitat: Southern Brazil
WASHINGTON, DC- JULY 27: A young golden-headed lion tamarin is seen at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park on Wednesday July 27, 2022 in Washington, DC. Many new animals were added to the zooâs collection during the pandemic. (Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post) (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Parents Coco and Lola welcomed not one, not two, but four offspring since the zoo initially shut its doors during the pandemic. Twins Tom and Carmen are the oldest at 11 months, followed by an unnamed 6-month-old “toddler” and a 3-month-old infant. It’s healthy for this species of primate to have a big family; in the rainforests of Brazil’s Bahia, they’re known to assemble in groups of up to 14 individuals that sometimes include lone adoptees. They sleep together in tree holes, and the dad is tasked with carrying infants for the first weeks of their lives. When he gets tired, the eldest offspring get their turn “playing house.” Tom and Carmen have both been spotted carrying their small siblings on their backs. (At the zoo: Small Mammal House)
Vietnamese mossy frog
Native habitat: Northern Vietnam
WASHINGTON, DC- JULY 13: A Vietnamese mossy frog is seen at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park on Wednesday July 13, 2022 in Washington, DC. Many new animals were added to the zooâs collection during the pandemic. (Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post) (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
These amphibians are not known for their grace. They’re clumsy predators (they leap on top of their meals, usually crickets and cockroaches, and shove them into their mouths) and clumsy prey (when frightened, they curl into a ball and plop into water from the walls of limestone caves to evade perceived danger). They are known, however, for their unique coloration and texture. In their youth, Vietnamese mossy frogs are a Christmassy red and green, and in adulthood, their earthy tones almost perfectly resemble moss. They’re also masters of ventriloquism, capable of throwing their voices up to 13 feet. (At the zoo: Reptile Discovery Center)
Collared brown lemur
Native habitat: Southeast Madagascar
WASHINGTON, DC- JULY 27: A collared brown lemur is seen at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park on Wednesday July 27, 2022 in Washington, DC. Many new animals were added to the zooâs collection during the pandemic. (Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post) (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Brothers Bentley and Beemer warmed to keepers quickly when they arrived at the zoo in May 2021. Bentley, more of a leader, tends to head expeditions on Lemur Island, the enclosure that houses the zoo’s eight lemurs, with Beemer trailing a bit behind — he’s a little more fond of food than exploration. In their natural habitat, collared brown lemurs live in groups of up to 22 individuals called “troops.” Like any good soldier, they have to keep up their physical appearances; perhaps this is why they have a built-in comb in their lower teeth that they use to groom their hair. (At the zoo: Primates)
Cave salamander
Native habitat: Central and southern United States
WASHINGTON, DC- JULY 13: A cave salamander is seen at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park on Wednesday July 13, 2022 in Washington, DC. Many new animals were added to the zooâs collection during the pandemic. (Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post) (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
There are more species of salamanders in the Appalachian ecosystem than anywhere else on Earth. They are, in fact, so abundant that their collective biomass easily outweighs that of all the deer in the region, but individually, they weigh less than an ounce. These lungless amphibians can absorb oxygen through their skin, but they can take in harmful toxins and other pollutants, too. Cave salamanders are, perhaps, one of the species we can have the most impact in preserving through sustainable choices, such as limiting harmful pesticide use and disinfecting footwear before hikes to avoid tracking in potentially harmful foreign bacteria. After all, cave salamanders do live in the DMV’s backyard. (At the zoo: Reptile Discovery Center)
Binturong
Native habitat: South and Southeast Asia
WASHINGTON, DC- JULY 20: A binturong named Hank is seen at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park on Wednesday July 20, 2022 in Washington, DC. Many new animals were added to the zooâs collection during the pandemic. (Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post) (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
You might hear Hank (pictured above) and Lola before you see them. Their keeper says they “fight like an old married couple,” and in a binturong relationship, that means lots of loud howls and hisses that you can hear from several exhibits away. And if you don’t hear them, you’re sure to smell them, since a chemical in their urine gives off the unmistakable impression of buttered popcorn. Watching them flip and fly through their exhibit is almost like watching a movie. Though sometimes called “bear cats” for their stocky bearlike bodies and sly catlike faces, binturongs are related to neither, and actually have the playful temperament of a pet dog. (At the zoo: Claws & Paws Pathway)
Lemur leaf frog
Native habitat: Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia
WASHINGTON, DC- JULY 13: A lemur leaf frog is seen at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park on Wednesday July 13, 2022 in Washington, DC. Many new animals were added to the zooâs collection during the pandemic. (Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post) (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
This frog may look like it’s wearing eyeliner, but this beauty doesn’t need it. At night, while the frog is most active, its yellow-green skin turns brown and its eyes turn dark gray for better camouflage — call it built-in makeup. During the day in an active rainforest, lemur leaf frogs sleep on the underside of leaves, where their bright green skin helps them blend into the foliage. Unlike other frogs in the rainforest, these tree dwellers tend not to hop or jump, but to walk hand over hand, strolling through tree canopies — unless presented with a threat. (At the zoo: Amazonia and Reptile Discovery Center)
Siamang
Native habitat: Malay Peninsula and Sumatra
WASHINGTON, DC- JULY 27: A siamang named Gunther is seen at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park on Wednesday July 27, 2022 in Washington, DC. Many new animals were added to the zooâs collection during the pandemic. (Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post) (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Seven-year-old Guntur is quite the vocalist. His pinkish throat sac, which can grow as large as a grapefruit, inflates when he sings, allowing him and the other three siamangs with whom he shares a home to communicate in a variety of grunts, booms and barks that can echo for miles. Guntur likes to sing duets with “girlfriend” Adi, who arrived around the same time from another zoo and with whom he shares a breeding recommendation. He also likes to steal sunglasses and other items from his keepers through the gaps in his netted enclosure, though he usually gives them back when he realizes they’re not food. (At the zoo: Primates)
Matt McClain is a staff photojournalist at The Washington Post. Before joining The Post, he was a staff photographer at the Ventura County Star in Ventura, Calif., and the Rocky Mountain News in Denver.TwitterTwitter
Sophia Solano is an editorial aide and freelance writer for fine arts and pop culture at The Washington Post. Before joining The Post, she worked with NBC4 Washington and Voice of America Student Union.TwitterTwitter
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2022 in Washington, DC. Many new animals were added to the zooâs collection during the pandemic. (Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post) (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)Return to navigation
Komodo dragon
Native habitat: Indonesia
WASHINGTON, DC- JULY 13: A Komodo dragon named Onyx is seen at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park on Wednesday July 13, 2022 in Washington, DC. Many new animals were added to the zooâs collection during the pandemic. (Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Onyx, a 3-year-old dragon who arrived at the zoo in late 2020, is more of a morning lizard than a night crawler — he’s more agreeable and easier to handle early in the day before the sun warms his enclosure and his blood gets hotter. But his temperament is usually calm, much like fellow dragon Murphy’s. The two look and act so similarly, Onyx’s keepers call him “Junior,” which would be apt if Murphy weren’t five feet longer than his “mini-me.” Native to Indonesia’s Lesser Sunda Islands, Komodo dragons are the largest living lizards. They’re known for their venomous bite and for making zoo guests feel as though they’ve entered Jurassic Park. (At the zoo: Reptile Discovery Center)
Amur tiger
Native habitat: Southeast Russia and Northeast China
WASHINGTON, DC- JULY 20: An Amur tiger named Metis is lit with a camera strobe for a portrait at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park on Wednesday July 20, 2022 in Washington, DC. Many new animals were added to the zooâs collection during the pandemic.
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no
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Zoogeography
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Is the Komodo dragon native to Australia?
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yes_statement
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the "komodo" "dragon" is "native" to australia.. australia is the "native" habitat of the "komodo" "dragon".
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https://www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2013/06/fear-of-komodo-dragon-bacteria-wrapped-myth
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Fear of Komodo dragon bacteria wrapped in myth - UQ News - The ...
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Fear of Komodo dragon bacteria wrapped in myth
A team led by a University of Queensland researcher has proven that the fearsome Komodo dragon is a victim of bad press.
It has long been believed that Komodo dragon bites were fatal because of toxic bacteria in the reptiles’ mouths.
But ground-breaking research by The University of Queensland’s Associate Professor Bryan Fry and colleagues in the United States has found that the mouths of Komodo dragons are surprisingly ordinary and the levels and types of bacteria do not differ from any other carnivore.
This presents a powerful challenge to how most scientists and zookeepers have viewed the Komodo dragon.
“After they are done feeding, they will spend 10 to 15 minutes lip-licking and rubbing their head in the leaves to clean their mouth.
"The inside of their mouth is also kept extremely clean by the tongue.
“Unlike people have been led to believe, they do not have chunks of rotting flesh from their meals on their teeth, cultivating bacteria.”
In fact it seems the poor hygiene of water buffalo is responsible for perceptions about deadly toxic bacteria in the dragons.
Komodo dragons evolved in Australia and preyed upon young megafauna.
They now populate the islands of Indonesia where they prey on the introduced water buffalo, and on pigs and deer.
Professor Fry said attacks on pigs and deer were extremely successful, with about 75 per cent bleeding out within 30 minutes and a further 15 per cent dying within three to four hours from venom in the salivary glands of the Komodo dragons.
“In contrast, water buffalo always get away but with deep wounds to the legs,” he said.
“The water buffalo follow their instincts and seek shelter in warm water that is usually stagnant, filled with water buffalo faeces and flourishing with bacteria, particularly nasty anaerobic types.”
Pathogenic bacteria found in komodo mouths were simply the remnants from when the dragons drank from sewage filled watering holes. The dragons do not have enough bacteria in their mouths to infect an injured water buffalo.
"It is when the water buffalo go stand in the toxic water with gaping wounds that they get infected," Professor Fry said.
"It really has been that simple all along.
"If water buffalo had never been introduced onto the islands, then this enchanting fairy tale never would have come into existence.
“The water buffalo are not living in their native habitat of large fresh marshes but rather on islands with the only water source being tiny water holes.
“So they are basically going to the bathroom directly onto their wounds. This is an ideal scenario for infection, but a situation that is man-made and thus entirely artificial.”
Professor Fry says the next step is to conduct tests on the watering holes to prove that they are the true source of any infection to water buffalo and to characterise what sorts of pathogens are responsible for the sickness to the water buffaloes.
The findings from Associate Professor Fry and his colleagues are published in the Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine.
Through research undertaken in the School, UQ has been ranked by the 2012 National Taiwan University Rankings in the top five universities globally for research in ecology and environmental biology and in the top 18 universities globally for plant and animal biology. The UQ School of Biological Sciences attracts researchers of world standing in a range of disciplines, with international leaders in many diverse fields. Our work spans the scales of biological organisation, from molecules and cells to organisms, populations, species and communities. With more than 150 researchers working in evolution, global change biology, ecology, aquaculture, animal behaviour, physiology, entomology, zoology, botany, genomics, development and conservation biology, our researchers and graduate scientists are well-equipped to make a real difference in contributing to solving global problems.
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Fear of Komodo dragon bacteria wrapped in myth
A team led by a University of Queensland researcher has proven that the fearsome Komodo dragon is a victim of bad press.
It has long been believed that Komodo dragon bites were fatal because of toxic bacteria in the reptiles’ mouths.
But ground-breaking research by The University of Queensland’s Associate Professor Bryan Fry and colleagues in the United States has found that the mouths of Komodo dragons are surprisingly ordinary and the levels and types of bacteria do not differ from any other carnivore.
This presents a powerful challenge to how most scientists and zookeepers have viewed the Komodo dragon.
“After they are done feeding, they will spend 10 to 15 minutes lip-licking and rubbing their head in the leaves to clean their mouth.
"The inside of their mouth is also kept extremely clean by the tongue.
“Unlike people have been led to believe, they do not have chunks of rotting flesh from their meals on their teeth, cultivating bacteria.”
In fact it seems the poor hygiene of water buffalo is responsible for perceptions about deadly toxic bacteria in the dragons.
Komodo dragons evolved in Australia and preyed upon young megafauna.
They now populate the islands of Indonesia where they prey on the introduced water buffalo, and on pigs and deer.
Professor Fry said attacks on pigs and deer were extremely successful, with about 75 per cent bleeding out within 30 minutes and a further 15 per cent dying within three to four hours from venom in the salivary glands of the Komodo dragons.
“In contrast, water buffalo always get away but with deep wounds to the legs,” he said.
“The water buffalo follow their instincts and seek shelter in warm water that is usually stagnant, filled with water buffalo faeces and flourishing with bacteria, particularly nasty anaerobic types.”
Pathogenic bacteria found in komodo mouths were simply the remnants from when the dragons drank from sewage filled watering holes.
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yes
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Zoogeography
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Is the Komodo dragon native to Australia?
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yes_statement
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the "komodo" "dragon" is "native" to australia.. australia is the "native" habitat of the "komodo" "dragon".
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https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/may/17/here-be-dragons-the-million-year-journey-of-the-komodo-dragon
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Here be dragons: the million-year journey of the Komodo dragon ...
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In 1910, Lieutenant Jacques Karel Henri van Steyn van Hensbroek was stationed on Flores Island in eastern Indonesia within the Dutch colonial administration, when he received word of a “land crocodile” of unusually large size living on the nearby island of Komodo. Intrigued, he set out to Komodo to investigate for himself. He returned with a photo and the skin of the animal, which he sent to Pieter Ouwens, then director of the Java Zoological Museum and Botanical Gardens in Buitenzorg (now Bogor). The animal was not a crocodile of any sort, but a large monitor lizard. Ouwens realised that this animal was new to science and published the first formal description of the animal, which we know now as Komodo dragon, Varanus komodoensis (Ouwens, 1912).
Although fossils of giant varanids had been known since the mid-1800s, the discovery that giant lizards were still among us, albeit on a few isolated islands in far-away Southeast Asia, was met with fascination and excitement. Zoologists set out to collect more specimens, some of which were even brought back to Europe alive, and various aspects of their biology were studied. The discovery is even said to have been the inspiration behind the movie King Kong. But it wasn’t until 1969, when a herpetologist at the Florida Museum of Natural History, Walter Auffenberg, relocated with his family to Komodo island, that the first long-term study of Komodo dragons began. Together with his assistant Putra Sastrawa, Auffenberg tagged and studied over 50 wild Komodo dragons, resulting in the seminal work The Behavioral Ecology of the Komodo Monitor.
Komodo dragons are endemic to eastern Indonesia and are currently only found on the northern coast of Flores and on the nearby islands of Komodo, Rinca, Gili Motang and Nusa Kode (Purwandana et al., 2014). Adults can reach up to 3 meters in length, and with their powerful tail, large claws and serrated teeth, they do live up to their fearsome reputation. As large-bodied carnivores, adult Komodo dragons dine predominantly on large herbivores such as deer and pigs, which they ambush alongside trails, supplemented with birds and small mammals, and the occasional tourist (although my guide ascertained me that the last tourist, a Swiss, had been in eaten in 1974). Yet despite their awe-inspiring physique, Komodo dragons are shy creatures that will avoid encounters with humans. In some areas, you will have to put a goat out for 3 days before a Komodo dragon will show himself. Today, only ~2,500 Komodo dragons are thought to survive in the wild (Purwandana et al., 2014), and continuing habitat destruction threatens their already limited distribution, making them even more vulnerable to extinction.
Most of the modern day Komodo dragon’s diet consists of animals that are not native to the area. The Lesser Sunda islands, of which Flores and the other islands are part, were never connected to mainland Asia. Up until the Late Pleistocene, the only large herbivores present on the islands were dwarf elephants. Deer and pigs were introduced to the islands by modern humans some 4-5,000 years ago (van den Bergh et al., 2009). This led some scientists to suggest that Komodo dragons had evolved from a small-sized ancestor, and only evolved larger body sizes after their arrival to the Flores archipelago. In the absence of mammalian carnivores, a larger body size would enable Komodo dragons to fill the niche of top predator in the hunt for pygmy elephants (Diamond, 1987).
Over the last decades, however, this interpretation of Komodo dragon body size evolution has changed, mostly because of the findings of large and giant fossil monitor lizards across Indonesia and Australia. The oldest fossils of Varanus komodoensis stem from the late Pliocene (~3 million years ago) of mainland Australia, and they are already similar in size to living Komodo dragons (Hocknull et al., 2009). This indicates that Komodo dragons originated in Australia alongside a variety of marsupial megafauna, rather than in isolation on Komodo or Flores. Moreover, the Australian material indicates that Komodo dragons attained large size early on in their evolution.
Fossil remains of the earliest Komodo dragon from the Pliocene of Australia next to the skull of a modern Komodo dragon (A, center). B-D: fragments of the upper mandible. E-F: fragments of the skull bones. G–H: quadrate bone . I–J. partial left mandible, with dotted lines illustrating the tooth sockets. Photograph: Hocknull et al., 2009. Dragon's Paradise Lost: Palaeobiogeography, Evolution and Extinction of the Largest-Ever Terrestrial Lizards (Varanidae)
From Australia, Komodo dragons spread westwards, but when this happened is not known. Fossils from Flores’ hot central region indicate that Komodo dragons first appeared on the island around one million years ago, and lived alongside pygmy elephants, giant tortoises and giant rats, and continued to do so for thousands of years.
Fossil evidence from Timor and Sumba indicate that as varanids spread westwards from Australia into Asia during the beginning of the Pleistocene, they radiated into several species. Varanids may even have crossed the Wallace’s line and reached Java, as evidenced by a fossil varanid from the island with affinities to Komodo dragons (Hocknull et al., 2009). At the same time, the radiation of varanids in Australia gave rise to an even larger varanid, Varanus priscus, (also known as Megalania) whose length may have reached a whopping 7 meters (Molnar, 2004), making it the largest terrestrial lizard ever.
None of these lacertian giants survived the Pleistocene era. For the Javan and Timorese varanids, only a handful of bones remind us of their existence, and the timing of their extinctions remains unknown. In Australia, Varanus priscus co-existed briefly with the first humans on the continent (Price al., 2015), before it disappeared in the Late Pleistocene, making it very likely that the first humans in Australia set eyes on one of these behemoths.
On Flores, evidence from Liang Bua, a limestone cave on the western part of the island, shows that Komodo dragons lived alongside pygmy elephants, small hominins (Homo floresiensis), giant scavenging storks and vultures until 50,000 years ago (Sutikna et al., 2016). But as its fellow islanders went extinct, populations of Komodo dragons contracted significantly. Nowadays, small populations survive on the islands’ northern coast and on the nearby islands that were once connected to Flores during low sealevels. There, the last of the king lizards survive. But for how much longer?
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Deer and pigs were introduced to the islands by modern humans some 4-5,000 years ago (van den Bergh et al., 2009). This led some scientists to suggest that Komodo dragons had evolved from a small-sized ancestor, and only evolved larger body sizes after their arrival to the Flores archipelago. In the absence of mammalian carnivores, a larger body size would enable Komodo dragons to fill the niche of top predator in the hunt for pygmy elephants (Diamond, 1987).
Over the last decades, however, this interpretation of Komodo dragon body size evolution has changed, mostly because of the findings of large and giant fossil monitor lizards across Indonesia and Australia. The oldest fossils of Varanus komodoensis stem from the late Pliocene (~3 million years ago) of mainland Australia, and they are already similar in size to living Komodo dragons (Hocknull et al., 2009). This indicates that Komodo dragons originated in Australia alongside a variety of marsupial megafauna, rather than in isolation on Komodo or Flores. Moreover, the Australian material indicates that Komodo dragons attained large size early on in their evolution.
Fossil remains of the earliest Komodo dragon from the Pliocene of Australia next to the skull of a modern Komodo dragon (A, center). B-D: fragments of the upper mandible. E-F: fragments of the skull bones. G–H: quadrate bone . I–J. partial left mandible, with dotted lines illustrating the tooth sockets. Photograph: Hocknull et al., 2009. Dragon's Paradise Lost: Palaeobiogeography, Evolution and Extinction of the Largest-Ever Terrestrial Lizards (Varanidae)
From Australia, Komodo dragons spread westwards, but when this happened is not known.
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yes
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Zoogeography
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Is the Komodo dragon native to Australia?
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yes_statement
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the "komodo" "dragon" is "native" to australia.. australia is the "native" habitat of the "komodo" "dragon".
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https://www.cruisecritic.com/cruiseto/cruiseitineraries.cfm?portofcall=5895
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THE 25 BEST Cruises to Komodo Island 2023 (with Prices ...
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Cruises to Komodo Island
Komodo National Park, UNESCO World Heritage Site (Photo: duchy/Shutterstock)
About Cruising to Komodo Island
Komodo National Park encompasses this entire Indonesian island, which is the native habitat of the komodo dragon. Upward of 4,000 dragons freely roam on Komodo Island. If you are planning a cruise to Indonesia, you'll want to include the island that features varied terrain including rainforests, white sand beaches and savannahs, and is also home to lots of wildlife and unique native plants. The waters are home to some of the best diving sites in the world and have more than 385 varieties of coral, making it an ideal place to scuba or snorkel.
Australia,new Zealand & Indonesia
Nature lovers will enjoy exploring this verdant island and the chance to see the komodo dragons
Cons:
The dragons on the island can be massive, which may be a bit of a shock if you've never seen them
Bottom Line:
This island is ideal for active travelers who prefer to spend their days hiking or diving
Komodo Island Cruise Reviews
We used a local company for the tour and had a lovely day out. Also visited Pink beach and had an hour snorkelling. Read More
KetoCruiser
One of the things I wanted to see on the Bali leg. Only I took this tour because it required a lot of hiking. There are several park ranger assigned to protect the tour which offered two walking tours - a short and lRead More
dicknash
We chose to snorkel at the pink beach instead of seeing dragons, and we were very happy we did that. The crowds on the pier waiting to march through the jungle in the heat to see the Komodo dragons were daunting, andRead More
dianeherrmann
We were again late getting onto Komodo because the captain could not maneuver the ship properly. The dragons were great. I had chartered a boat so we went to a remote place for snorkelling that was wonderful. We Read More
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Cruises to Komodo Island
Komodo National Park, UNESCO World Heritage Site (Photo: duchy/Shutterstock)
About Cruising to Komodo Island
Komodo National Park encompasses this entire Indonesian island, which is the native habitat of the komodo dragon. Upward of 4,000 dragons freely roam on Komodo Island. If you are planning a cruise to Indonesia, you'll want to include the island that features varied terrain including rainforests, white sand beaches and savannahs, and is also home to lots of wildlife and unique native plants. The waters are home to some of the best diving sites in the world and have more than 385 varieties of coral, making it an ideal place to scuba or snorkel.
Australia,new Zealand & Indonesia
Nature lovers will enjoy exploring this verdant island and the chance to see the komodo dragons
Cons:
The dragons on the island can be massive, which may be a bit of a shock if you've never seen them
Bottom Line:
This island is ideal for active travelers who prefer to spend their days hiking or diving
Komodo Island Cruise Reviews
We used a local company for the tour and had a lovely day out. Also visited Pink beach and had an hour snorkelling. Read More
KetoCruiser
One of the things I wanted to see on the Bali leg. Only I took this tour because it required a lot of hiking. There are several park ranger assigned to protect the tour which offered two walking tours - a short and lRead More
dicknash
We chose to snorkel at the pink beach instead of seeing dragons, and we were very happy we did that. The crowds on the pier waiting to march through the jungle in the heat to see the Komodo dragons were daunting, andRead More
dianeherrmann
We were again late getting onto Komodo because the captain could not maneuver the ship properly. The dragons were great. I had chartered a boat so we went to a remote place for snorkelling that was wonderful.
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no
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Zoogeography
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Is the Komodo dragon native to Australia?
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yes_statement
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the "komodo" "dragon" is "native" to australia.. australia is the "native" habitat of the "komodo" "dragon".
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https://animalia.bio/perentie
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Perentie - Facts, Diet, Habitat & Pictures on Animalia.bio
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The perentie (Varanus giganteus ) is the largest monitor lizard or goanna native to Australia. It is the one of the largest living lizards on earth, after the Komodo dragon, Asian water monitor, crocodile monitor, and intersecting by size with Nile monitor. Found west of the Great Dividing Range in the arid areas of Australia, it is rarely seen, because of its shyness and the remoteness of much of its range from human habitation. The species is considered to be a least-concern species according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Its status in many Aboriginal cultures is evident in the totemic relationships, and part of the Ngiṉṯaka dreaming, as well as bush tucker. It was a favoured food item among desert Aboriginal tribes, and the fat was used for medicinal and ceremonial purposes.
Appearance
The Perentie is the largest monitor lizard native to Australia, and the fourth-largest living lizard on earth. It has a very strong tail and powerful legs with 5 clawed toes. The color pattern is brown with large cream or yellow rosettes.
Distribution
Geography
Perenties are found in Western Australia, South Australia, the Northern Territory, and Queensland. They inhabit arid desert areas, rocky outcroppings, and gorges, with hard-packed soil and loose stones.
Biome
Climate zones
Habits and Lifestyle
These lizards lead a solitary life; they generally avoid human contact and will retreat before they are seen. Being able diggers, they can excavate a burrow for shelter in only minutes. Their long claws enable them to easily climb trees. They often stand on their back legs and tail to gain a better view of the surrounding terrain. This behavior, known as "tripoding", is quite common in monitor species. Perenties are fast sprinters and can run using either all four legs or just their hind legs. When detected, perenties will either freeze (lying flat on the ground, and remaining very still until the danger has passed) or run. If cornered, this powerful carnivore will stand its ground and use its arsenal of claws, teeth, and whip-like tail to defend itself. They inflate their throats and hiss as a defensive or aggressive display, and strike at opponents with their muscular tails. Perenties will also lunge forward with open mouths, either as a bluff or as an attack. The bite of a perentie can do much damage, not only from the teeth but also because of the oral secretions from their mouths. Perenties are normally active hunters but may also hide and ambush prey when needed. They attack by either biting with their strong jaws or whipping the prey with their long, powerful tail; their tails are so strong, that they can easily break a dog's leg with a single blow. Once they bring their prey down, they shake it to death in their strong jaws and then swallow it whole. Perenties use their tails both offensively and defensively.
Venom
In late 2005, University of Melbourne researchers discovered that all monitors may be somewhat venomous. Previously, bites inflicted by monitors were thought to be prone to infection because of bacteria in their mouths, but the researchers showed that the immediate effects are caused by mild envenomation. Bites on the hand by Komodo dragons, (V. komodensis), perenties (V. giganteus ), lace monitors (V. varius ), and spotted tree monitors (V. scalaris ) have been observed to cause swelling within minutes, localised disruption of blood clotting, and shooting pain up to the elbow, which can often last for several hours.
University of Washington biologist Kenneth V. Kardong and toxicologists Scott A. Weinstein and Tamara L. Smith have argued that the suggestion of venom glands "... has had the effect of underestimating the variety of complex roles played by oral secretions in the biology of reptiles, produced a very narrow view of oral secretions and resulted in misinterpretation of reptilian evolution". According to the scientists "... reptilian oral secretions contribute to many biological roles other than to quickly dispatch prey". They concluded, "Calling all in this clade venomous implies an overall potential danger that does not exist, misleads in the assessment of medical risks, and confuses the biological assessment of squamate biochemical systems".
Diet and Nutrition
Perenties are carnivores and scavengers and feed on a wide variety of prey. Depending on their size, they hunt insects, lizards, fish, birds, turtle eggs, small animals such as rats and rabbits, and carrion. Larger individuals will also hunt large animals, such as small kangaroos, wombats, and even lone dingoes.
Population
Population threats
There are no major threats to perenties at present. However, these lizards were once a favored food item among desert Aboriginal tribes, and their fat was used for medicinal and ceremonial purposes.
Population number
The IUCN Red List and other sources don’t provide the number of the perentie total population size. Currently, this species is classified as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List and its numbers today are stable.
Ecological niche
Perenties are important predators and also scavengers in the ecosystem they live in. As these lizards feed on carrion they prevent the spread of disease and assist with a sort of “natural recycling”.
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The perentie (Varanus giganteus ) is the largest monitor lizard or goanna native to Australia. It is the one of the largest living lizards on earth, after the Komodo dragon, Asian water monitor, crocodile monitor, and intersecting by size with Nile monitor. Found west of the Great Dividing Range in the arid areas of Australia, it is rarely seen, because of its shyness and the remoteness of much of its range from human habitation. The species is considered to be a least-concern species according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Its status in many Aboriginal cultures is evident in the totemic relationships, and part of the Ngiṉṯaka dreaming, as well as bush tucker. It was a favoured food item among desert Aboriginal tribes, and the fat was used for medicinal and ceremonial purposes.
Appearance
The Perentie is the largest monitor lizard native to Australia, and the fourth-largest living lizard on earth. It has a very strong tail and powerful legs with 5 clawed toes. The color pattern is brown with large cream or yellow rosettes.
Distribution
Geography
Perenties are found in Western Australia, South Australia, the Northern Territory, and Queensland. They inhabit arid desert areas, rocky outcroppings, and gorges, with hard-packed soil and loose stones.
Biome
Climate zones
Habits and Lifestyle
These lizards lead a solitary life; they generally avoid human contact and will retreat before they are seen. Being able diggers, they can excavate a burrow for shelter in only minutes. Their long claws enable them to easily climb trees. They often stand on their back legs and tail to gain a better view of the surrounding terrain. This behavior, known as "tripoding", is quite common in monitor species. Perenties are fast sprinters and can run using either all four legs or just their hind legs. When detected, perenties will either freeze (lying flat on the ground, and remaining very still until the danger has passed) or run. If cornered, this powerful carnivore will stand its ground and use its arsenal of claws, teeth, and whip-
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no
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Zoogeography
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Is the Komodo dragon native to Australia?
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yes_statement
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the "komodo" "dragon" is "native" to australia.. australia is the "native" habitat of the "komodo" "dragon".
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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121017102941.htm
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Extreme 'housework' cuts the life span of female Komodo dragons ...
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Extreme 'housework' cuts the life span of female Komodo dragons
Researchers have found that female Komodo dragons live half as long as males on average, seemingly due to their physically demanding "housework" such as building huge nests and guarding eggs for up to six months.
An international team of researchers has found that female Komodo Dragons live half as long as males on average, seemingly due to their physically demanding 'housework' such as building huge nests and guarding eggs for up to six months.
The results provide important information on the endangered lizards' growth rate, lifestyle and population differences, which may help plan conservation efforts.
The Komodo dragon is the world's largest lizard. Their formidable body size enables them to serve as top predators killing water buffalo, deer and wild boar and they have also been known to kill humans.
A research team which included scientists from the University of Melbourne, Australia, Indonesia and Italy studied 400 individual Komodo Dragons for 10 years in eastern Indonesia, their only native habitat. The team then produced a model of the Dragon's growth rate, with results published in the current issue of international journal PLoS ONE.
Males live to around 60 years of age, reaching an average 160 cm in snout-vent length (not including tail) and 65 kg at adulthood. However their female counterparts were estimated to live an average of 32 years and reach only 120 cm in snout-vent length, and 22 kg.
Dr Tim Jessop from the Department of Zoology at the University of Melbourne was a co-author on the study and said that the team were surprised by the significantly shorter lifespan of the female Komodo Dragon.
"The sex-based difference in size appears to be linked to the enormous amounts of energy females invest in producing eggs, building and guarding their nests. The process can take up to six months during which they essentially fast, losing a lot of weight and body condition, he said.
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"Males and females start off at the same size until they reach sexual maturity at around seven years of age. From then on females grow slower, shorter and die younger."
The research team was keen to understand the growth rate of the Komodo Dragons as this critical process can indicate how the species prioritises its energy use in lifestyle and reproductive strategies. The results suggest that females have high energy 'costs' for reproduction resulting in their smaller size, whereas to reproduce successfully, males must keep increasing in size.
The results could have dramatic consequences for the endangered species as early female deaths may be exacerbating competition between males over the remaining females, possibly explaining why males are the world's largest lizards.
"These results may seem odd to humans when the life span between Australian men and women differ by five years. But each species has different strategies to pass on their genes. For example humans invest a lot of energy in few children as raising them is very energy intensive, whereas insects will have hundreds of offspring with no input into their rearing."
University of Melbourne. "Extreme 'housework' cuts the life span of female Komodo dragons." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 17 October 2012. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121017102941.htm>.
University of Melbourne. (2012, October 17). Extreme 'housework' cuts the life span of female Komodo dragons. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 14, 2023 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121017102941.htm
University of Melbourne. "Extreme 'housework' cuts the life span of female Komodo dragons." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121017102941.htm (accessed August 14, 2023).
Apr. 3, 2023 An international research team has determined that Troodon, a dinosaur very close to modern birds, was a warm-blooded animal (an endotherm), but had a reproductive system similar to that of modern ...
Feb. 22, 2022 Scientists studied the differences in activity of immune genes between male and female Kentish Plovers and found that the immune genes of males were more active. This is evidence that males live ...
Sep. 12, 2019 Just beneath their scales, Komodo dragons wear a suit of armor made of tiny bones. These bones cover the dragons from head to tail, creating a 'chain mail' that protects the giant predators. However, ...
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Extreme 'housework' cuts the life span of female Komodo dragons
Researchers have found that female Komodo dragons live half as long as males on average, seemingly due to their physically demanding "housework" such as building huge nests and guarding eggs for up to six months.
An international team of researchers has found that female Komodo Dragons live half as long as males on average, seemingly due to their physically demanding 'housework' such as building huge nests and guarding eggs for up to six months.
The results provide important information on the endangered lizards' growth rate, lifestyle and population differences, which may help plan conservation efforts.
The Komodo dragon is the world's largest lizard. Their formidable body size enables them to serve as top predators killing water buffalo, deer and wild boar and they have also been known to kill humans.
A research team which included scientists from the University of Melbourne, Australia, Indonesia and Italy studied 400 individual Komodo Dragons for 10 years in eastern Indonesia, their only native habitat. The team then produced a model of the Dragon's growth rate, with results published in the current issue of international journal PLoS ONE.
Males live to around 60 years of age, reaching an average 160 cm in snout-vent length (not including tail) and 65 kg at adulthood. However their female counterparts were estimated to live an average of 32 years and reach only 120 cm in snout-vent length, and 22 kg.
Dr Tim Jessop from the Department of Zoology at the University of Melbourne was a co-author on the study and said that the team were surprised by the significantly shorter lifespan of the female Komodo Dragon.
"The sex-based difference in size appears to be linked to the enormous amounts of energy females invest in producing eggs, building and guarding their nests. The process can take up to six months during which they essentially fast, losing a lot of weight and body condition, he said.
advertisement
"Males and females start off at the same size until they reach sexual maturity at around seven years of age. From then on females grow slower, shorter and die younger.
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no
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Ornithology
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Is the New Zealand Kiwi bird blind?
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yes_statement
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the "new" zealand kiwi "bird" is "blind".. the "new" zealand kiwi "bird" lacks vision.
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https://bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12915-017-0424-0
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Blind free-living kiwi offer a unique window into the ecology and ...
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Abstract
The first report of multiple, blind, wild birds in good health suggests vision is not necessary for the survival of kiwi.
The avian visual system is widely recognized for its superior performance [1]. Birds are broadly considered to have an unmatched dependence for high quality visual information compared to other vertebrate classes, largely due to a unique set of ecological demands (e.g., flight, foraging behavior, and sexual behavior) [1, 2]. The typical avian eye is relatively conserved in that regard, stamped with several distinctions that afford high performance, such as large size and densely packed retinal neurons [2, 3]. However, dramatic interspecific variation is also present, enabling different species to perform visually at a high level while occupying ecological niches with different challenges, such as variable habitat types and activity patterns [2].
Although strict nocturnality in birds is uncommon, most avian species active in low light levels have specializations within their visual systems that facilitate nocturnal performance (e.g., large pupillary aperture for gathering light, rod-dominated retinae for high light sensitivity). However, kiwi (Apteryx spp.), a nocturnal and flightless group of birds, do not follow this general pattern. They possess the smallest eyes relative to body mass of any avian species, have underrepresented visual brain regions, and have the smallest visual fields among birds [4, 5]. It is likely that the visual system of kiwi is only able to coarsely resolve objects within its visual field in a nocturnal environment [5]. This surprisingly mundane set of visual characteristics for a bird becomes understandable when one considers the kiwi’s energetic devotion and input to other sensory systems: auditory [6], olfactory [7], and tactile somatosensory systems with a uniquely positioned set of mechanoreceptors at the tip of their long bill [4, 7].
With such prowess among other sensory systems, one may ask whether vision in kiwi is necessary for survival? We offer evidence that it indeed is not, and describe the first report of complete blindness or severe visual compromise affecting more than one individual in a free-living avian population where physical condition was not significantly impacted. Through an intensive conservation management program, an ophthalmologic survey was performed on 160 free-living Okarito kiwi (Apteryx rowi) in their natural habitat in New Zealand. Initial brief examinations revealed that about one-third of the birds had ocular lesions in one or both eyes (Table 1). A detailed examination was performed by a veterinary ophthalmologist (CJM) on 11 of the kiwi with these lesions. Common abnormal findings included corneal opacification (e.g., edema, fibrosis), shrunken fibrotic globes (phthisis bulbi), among others (Fig. 1). Such ophthalmic findings are prevalent in captive avian populations, but are rare in free-living prey species with reports being limited mostly to raptors (i.e., eagles, hawks, owls, and other predatory birds) [2]. This is likely due to the profound negative impact on survival that any reduction in the quality of visual information can have on visually dependent species, which is shown here to not be the case for kiwi, who may depend on other sensory systems.
Of particular interest were three kiwi found in our study that had bilateral and severe ocular lesions resulting in complete blindness. Surprisingly, these three individuals were found in good physical condition, assessed by complete physical examination and body condition scoring by a veterinarian with advanced training in avian medicine (JPM). The ocular lesions were also chronic in nature, suggesting that these birds had survived for months to years without vision. After our initial examinations, radio transmitter tracking revealed that the three blind individuals survived for at least 4 more years, and one of the birds had pair-bonded with a visual bird but it is unclear whether or not they successfully mated. There has only been one report of a blind, free-living bird: a kakapo (Strigops habroptilus) [8]. Additionally, a North Island brown kiwi (Apteryx mantelli) has been described to be blind, but was a captive bird [9]. Both cases, however, were limited to a single individual, and both the ophthalmic status and physical health were not reported in detail. Currently the health status of the endangered kakapo is closely monitored for conservation purposes, and no living kakapos are blind (personal examination JPM). The lack of reports of blind free-living birds in good health is a testament to the typical bird’s dependence on vision, and raises questions regarding the role of vision in kiwi.
Despite clear visual adaptations to maintain sight in a nocturnal activity pattern (e.g., rod-dominated retina) [5], the robust health status of the three blind kiwi described here suggests that vision is not necessary, at least not in the ecological niche these three kiwi occupied. So, how important are the eyes of kiwi, and what is their ultimate fate? Kiwi visual specializations may be remnants from a common ancestor that relied more heavily on vision for survival (e.g., moa), and thus we may be witnessing an example of adaptive regressive evolution [4, 5]. Unlike the kiwi, all vertebrate examples of known regressive evolution of the visual system inhabit areas devoid of light and have completely lost vision [4]. Kiwi could represent an intermediate stage of adaptive regressive evolution where the cost for maintaining a large eye is not well spent for what can be gained in low luminance on the forest floor [4]. Perhaps kiwi eye size and brain visual centers have adapted more readily than the retina and have thus diminished in their relative importance while leaving the retina relatively specialized [5]. This is plausible when one considers that decreasing eye size with a relatively constant decrease in the size of the pupillary aperture will result in similar light gathering ability. Additionally, complex central processing may not be necessary for crude detection of light level (and periodicity) provided the presence of sufficient intra-retinal processing. However, many of the ocular abnormalities described above are chronic in nature and are suggestive of this population being aged. The unique ecological niche of kiwi may contribute to the survivability of visually impaired, or even blind, individuals, and thus need not lead to adaptive change.
Resource competition among kiwi is low, which may contribute to the success of individuals with visual dysfunction. Visual ability does not seem to be related to foraging success by prey detection and capture given the good physical condition of the blind birds. Most birds that visually forage and can visualize their bill tip binocularly, but the long bills of kiwi are not visualized [1, 4]. This is supportive of the relative accentuation of other sensory systems and associated brain regions in kiwi: olfactory [7], auditory [6], and tactile [4, 7] sensory systems. Like some nocturnal mammalian species with olfactory specializations that forage on the forest floor [4, 10], kiwi may use vision to detect periodicity of day and night as a means of determining ideal activity time for foraging [5].
An alternative to adaptive evolution, for which direct evidence is currently lacking, to be considered is that perhaps the evolution of kiwi in the absence of natural mammalian predators has driven sensory allocation away from predator detection and towards sensory systems being more directed at nocturnal ground foraging and social interactions. Predator detection is an unrelenting challenge faced by most bird species, and is undoubtedly a major reason why profound ocular lesions in free-living birds are rare. The shaping of visual fields is multi-modal and is a balanced trade-off between foraging and anti-predatory behaviors [3]. For example, species that use non-visual cues while foraging tend to have wide visual fields (small blind areas, small binocular fields) for greater allocation toward the detection of predators [1]. In contrast, species that are heavily dependent on vision for foraging tend to have narrow visual fields (larger blind areas behind and above the head) but wider binocular areas [1]. The kiwi is the only known avian species that does not exemplify this pattern, having not only narrow binocular fields but also the narrowest visual fields (large blind areas) of any bird [4], presumably due to having evolved under little risk of predation. The eyes of kiwi have also not been reported to have significant degrees of movement, which is positively correlated with anti-predator behavior [3].
While it is apparent that kiwi are able to support themselves nutritionally in the complete absence of vision, we do not fully understand how kiwi utilize their visual system. Whether we are witnessing an intermediate stage of adaptive regressive evolution or a consequence of sensory drive due to a unique ecological niche is yet to be determined. Being a rare example of a flightless, nocturnal species of bird having evolved with no consistent natural predators, the kiwi represents an excellent opportunity to study the ecology and evolution of the visual system from a unique perspective.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thanks Christopher Rickard, Susan Anderson, Simon Stevenson, Daryl Scott, and Colin Tuck for their help. This study required no outside funding. Further information on the findings reported here are available upon inquiry. All parts of the study and design were performed according to the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology resolution on the use of animals in research.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
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Through an intensive conservation management program, an ophthalmologic survey was performed on 160 free-living Okarito kiwi (Apteryx rowi) in their natural habitat in New Zealand. Initial brief examinations revealed that about one-third of the birds had ocular lesions in one or both eyes (Table 1). A detailed examination was performed by a veterinary ophthalmologist (CJM) on 11 of the kiwi with these lesions. Common abnormal findings included corneal opacification (e.g., edema, fibrosis), shrunken fibrotic globes (phthisis bulbi), among others (Fig. 1). Such ophthalmic findings are prevalent in captive avian populations, but are rare in free-living prey species with reports being limited mostly to raptors (i.e., eagles, hawks, owls, and other predatory birds) [2]. This is likely due to the profound negative impact on survival that any reduction in the quality of visual information can have on visually dependent species, which is shown here to not be the case for kiwi, who may depend on other sensory systems.
Of particular interest were three kiwi found in our study that had bilateral and severe ocular lesions resulting in complete blindness. Surprisingly, these three individuals were found in good physical condition, assessed by complete physical examination and body condition scoring by a veterinarian with advanced training in avian medicine (JPM). The ocular lesions were also chronic in nature, suggesting that these birds had survived for months to years without vision. After our initial examinations, radio transmitter tracking revealed that the three blind individuals survived for at least 4 more years, and one of the birds had pair-bonded with a visual bird but it is unclear whether or not they successfully mated. There has only been one report of a blind, free-living bird: a kakapo (Strigops habroptilus) [8]. Additionally, a North Island brown kiwi (Apteryx mantelli) has been described to be blind, but was a captive bird [9].
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no
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Ornithology
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Is the New Zealand Kiwi bird blind?
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yes_statement
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the "new" zealand kiwi "bird" is "blind".. the "new" zealand kiwi "bird" lacks vision.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiwi_(bird)
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Kiwi (bird) - Wikipedia
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DNA sequence comparisons have yielded the conclusion that kiwi are much more closely related to the extinct Malagasy elephant birds than to the moa with which they shared New Zealand.[6] There are five recognised species, four of which are currently listed as vulnerable, and one of which is near-threatened. All species have been negatively affected by historic deforestation, but their remaining habitat is well-protected in large forest reserves and national parks. At present, the greatest threat to their survival is predation by invasive mammalian predators.
Kiwi eggs are one of the largest in proportion to body size (up to 20% of the female's weight) of any order of bird in the world.[7] Other unique adaptations of kiwi, such as their hairlike feathers, short and stout legs, and using their nostrils at the end of their long beak to detect prey before they see it, have helped the bird to become internationally well-known.
The kiwi is recognised as an icon of New Zealand, and the association is so strong that the term Kiwi is used internationally as the colloquial demonym for New Zealanders.[8]
Etymology
The Māori language word kiwi is generally accepted to be "of imitative origin" from the call.[9] However, some linguists derive the word from Proto-Nuclear Polynesian*kiwi, which refers to Numenius tahitiensis, the bristle-thighed curlew, a migratory bird that winters in the tropical Pacific islands.[10] With its long decurved bill and brown body, the curlew resembles the kiwi. So when the first Polynesian settlers arrived, they may have applied the word kiwi to the new-found bird.[11] The word is usually uncapitalised when used for the birds. The plural is either the anglicisedkiwis[12] or, consistent with the Māori language, appearing as kiwi without an ‑s.[13]
Taxonomy and systematics
Although it was long presumed that the kiwi was closely related to the other New Zealand ratites, the moa, recent DNA studies have identified its closest relative as the extinct elephant bird of Madagascar,[6][15] and among extant ratites, the kiwi is more closely related to the emu and the cassowaries than to the moa.[6][16]
Research published in 2013 on an extinct genus, Proapteryx, known from the Miocene deposits of the Saint Bathans Fauna, found that it was smaller and probably capable of flight, supporting the hypothesis that the ancestor of the kiwi reached New Zealand independently from moas, which were already large and flightless by the time kiwi appeared.[17]
The largest species, standing about 45 cm (18 in) tall, with females weighing about 3.3 kg (7.3 lb) and males about 2.4 kg (5.3 lb). It has grey-brown plumage with lighter bands. The female lays one egg a year, which both parents incubate. The population is estimated at over 20,000, distributed through the more mountainous parts of northwest Nelson, the northern West Coast, and the Southern Alps / Kā Tiritiri o te Moana of the South Island.[19]
A small kiwi the size of a bantam, standing 25 cm (9.8 in) tall, with the female weighing 1.3 kg (2.9 lb). She lays one egg, which is incubated by the male. This small, docile kiwi is unable to withstand predation by introduced pigs, stoats and cats, leading to its extinction on the mainland. There are about 1350 on Kapiti Island and it has been introduced to other predator-free islands, where it appears to be getting established with about 50 on each island.[20]
The Okarito kiwi, first identified as a new species in 1994,[21] is slightly smaller than the North Island brown kiwi, with a greyish tinge to the plumage and sometimes white facial feathers. Females lay up to three eggs in a season, each one in a different nest. Male and female both incubate. Distribution is now limited to a small area on the West Coast, but studies of ancient DNA have shown that, in prehuman times, it was far more widespread on the western side of the South Island and lived in the lower half of the North Island, where it was the only kiwi species detected.[22]
Almost as big as the great spotted kiwi and similar in appearance to the brown kiwi, though its plumage is lighter in colour. It is relatively numerous. Ancient DNA studies have shown that, in prehuman times, the distribution of this species included the east coast of the South Island.[22] Several subspecies are recognised:
The northern Fiordland tokoeka (Apteryx australis ?) and southern Fiordland tokoeka (Apteryx australis ?) live in Fiordland, the remote southwest part of the South Island. These sub-species of tokoeka are relatively common and are nearly 40 cm (16 in) tall.[citation needed]
The Haast southern brown kiwi or Haast tokoeka, Apteryx australis 'Haast', is the rarest taxon of kiwi with only about 300 individuals. It was identified as a distinct form in 1993. It occurs only in a restricted area in the Haast Range of the Southern Alps at an altitude of 1,500 m (4,900 ft). This form is distinguished by a more strongly downcurved bill and more rufous plumage.[23]
A. mantelli (or A. australis before 2000 and still in some sources) females stand about 40 cm (16 in) tall and weigh about 2.8 kg (6.2 lb), while the males weigh about 2.2 kg (4.9 lb). The plumage is streaky red-brown and spiky. The female usually lays two eggs, which are incubated by the male.[24] The North Island brown has demonstrated a remarkable resilience: it adapts to a wide range of habitats, including non-native forests and some farmland. It is widespread in the northern two-thirds of the North Island and is the most common kiwi, with about 35,000 remaining.[25]
Their adaptation to a terrestrial life is extensive: like all the other ratites (ostrich, emu, rhea and cassowary), they have no keel on the sternum to anchor wing muscles. The vestigial wings are so small that they are invisible under the bristly, hair-like, two-branched feathers. While most adult birds have bones with hollow insides to minimise weight and make flight practicable, kiwi have marrow, like mammals and the young of other birds. With no constraints on weight due to flight requirements, brown kiwi females carry and lay a single egg that may weigh as much as 450 g (16 oz). Like most other ratites, they have no uropygial gland (preen gland). Their bill is long, pliable and sensitive to touch, and their eyes have a reduced pecten. Their feathers lack barbules and aftershafts, and they have large vibrissae around the gape. They have 13 flight feathers, no tail and a small pygostyle. Their gizzard is weak and their caecum is long and narrow.[26]
The eye of the kiwi is the smallest relative to body mass in all avian species, resulting in the smallest visual field as well. The eye has small specialisations for a nocturnal lifestyle, but kiwi rely more heavily on their other senses (auditory, olfactory, and somatosensory system). The sight of the kiwi is so underdeveloped that blind specimens have been observed in nature, showing how little they rely on sight for survival and foraging. In an experiment, it was observed that one-third of a population of A. rowi in New Zealand under no environmental stress had ocular lesions in one or both eyes. The same experiment examined three specific specimens that showed complete blindness and found them to be in good physical standing outside of ocular abnormalities.[27] A 2018 study revealed that the kiwi's closest relatives, the extinct elephant birds, also shared this trait despite their great size.[28]
Unlike virtually every other palaeognath, which are generally small-brained by bird standards, kiwi have proportionally large encephalisation quotients. Hemisphere proportions are even similar to those of parrots and songbirds, though there is no evidence of similarly complex behaviour.[29]
Behaviour and ecology
Before the arrival of humans in the 13th century or earlier, New Zealand's only endemic mammals were three species of bat, and the ecological niches that in other parts of the world were filled by creatures as diverse as horses, wolves and mice were taken up by birds (and, to a lesser extent, reptiles, insects and gastropods).[30]
The kiwi's mostly nocturnal habits may be a result of habitat intrusion by predators, including humans. In areas of New Zealand where introduced predators have been removed, such as sanctuaries, kiwi are often seen in daylight. They prefer subtropical and temperate podocarp and beech forests, but they are being forced to adapt to different habitat, such as sub-alpine scrub, tussock grassland, and the mountains.[26] Kiwi have a highly developed sense of smell, unusual in a bird, and are the only birds with nostrils at the end of their long beaks. Kiwi eat small invertebrates, seeds, grubs, and many varieties of worms. They also may eat fruit, small crayfish, eels and amphibians. Because their nostrils are located at the end of their long beaks, kiwi can locate insects and worms underground using their keen sense of smell, without actually seeing or feeling them.[26] This sense of smell is due to a highly developed olfactory chamber and surrounding regions. It is a common belief that the kiwi relies solely on its sense of smell to catch prey but this has not been scientifically observed. Lab experiments have suggested that A. australis can rely on olfaction alone but is not consistent under natural conditions. Instead, the kiwi may rely on auditory and/or vibrotactile cues.[31]
Once bonded, a male and female kiwi tend to live their entire lives as a monogamous couple. During the mating season, June to March, the pair call to each other at night, and meet in the nesting burrow every three days. These relationships may last for up to 20 years.[32] They are unusual among other birds in that, along with some raptors, they have a functioning pair of ovaries. (In most birds and in platypuses, the right ovary never matures, so that only the left is functional.[26][33][34])
Kiwi eggs can weigh up to one-quarter the weight of the female. Usually, only one egg is laid per season. The kiwi lays one of the largest eggs in proportion to its size of any bird in the world,[35][a] so even though the kiwi is about the size of a domestic chicken, it is able to lay eggs that are about six times the size of a chicken's egg.[38] The eggs are smooth in texture, and are ivory or greenish white.[39] The male incubates the egg, except for the great spotted kiwi, A. haastii, in which both parents are involved. The incubation period is 63–92 days.[26] Producing the huge egg places significant physiological stress on the female; for the thirty days it takes to grow the fully developed egg, the female must eat three times her normal amount of food. Two to three days before the egg is laid there is little space left inside the female for her stomach and she is forced to fast.[40]
It was believed that the large eggs were a trait of much larger moa-like ancestors, and that kiwi retained large eggs as an evolutionarily neutral trait as they became smaller. However, research in the early 2010s suggested that kiwi were descended from smaller flighted birds that flew to New Zealand and Madagascar, where they gave rise to kiwi and elephant birds. The large egg is instead thought to be an adaptation for precocity, enabling kiwi chicks to hatch mobile and with yolk to sustain them for two and half weeks. The large eggs would be safe in New Zealand's historical absence of egg-eating ground predators, while the mobile chicks would be able to evade chick-eating flying predators.[41]
Status and conservation
Nationwide studies show that only around 5–10% of kiwi chicks survive to adulthood without management.[48][49] As of 2018[update] over 70% of Kiwi populations are unmanaged.[50] However, in areas under active pest management, survival rates for North Island brown kiwi can be far higher. For example, prior to a joint 1080 poison operation undertaken by DOC and the Animal Health Board in Tongariro Forest in 2006, 32 kiwi chicks were radio-tagged. 57% of the radio-tagged chicks survived to adulthood.[citation needed]
Efforts to protect kiwi have had some success, and in 2017 two species were downlisted from endangered to vulnerable by the IUCN.[51] In 2018 the Department of Conservation released its current Kiwi Conservation Plan.[50]
North island brown kiwi were introduced to the Cape Sanctuary in Hawke's Bay between 2008 and 2011, which in turn provided captive-raised chicks that were released back into Maungataniwha Native Forest.[67]
Sanctuaries for kiwi are also referred to as 'kōhanga sites'[62] from the Māori word for 'nest' or 'nursery'.[68]
The West Coast Wildlife Centre, at Franz Josef on the southern West Coast of New Zealand, is part of Project Nest Egg, breeding the endangered local species of kiwi known as the rowi.
Operation Nest Egg
Operation Nest Egg is a programme run by the BNZ Save the Kiwi Trust—a partnership between the Bank of New Zealand, the Department of Conservation and the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society. Kiwi eggs and chicks are removed from the wild and hatched and/or raised in captivity until big enough to fend for themselves—usually when they weigh around 1200 grams (42 ounces). They are then returned to the wild. An Operation Nest Egg bird has a 65% chance of surviving to adulthood—compared to just 5% for wild-hatched and raised chicks.[69] The tool is used on all kiwi species except little spotted kiwi.
1080 poison
In 2004, anti-1080 activist Phillip Anderton posed for the New Zealand media with a kiwi he claimed had been poisoned. An investigation revealed that Anderton lied to journalists and the public.[70] He had used a kiwi that had been caught in a possum trap. Extensive monitoring shows that kiwi are not at risk from the use of biodegradable 1080 poison.[71]
Threats
Introduced mammalian predators, namely stoats, dogs, ferrets, and cats, are the principal threats to kiwi. The biggest threat to kiwi chicks is stoats, while dogs are the biggest threat to adult kiwi.[49]Stoats are responsible for approximately half of kiwi chick deaths in many areas through New Zealand. Young kiwi chicks are vulnerable to stoat predation until they reach about 1–1.2 kg (2.2–2.6 lb) in weight, at which time they can usually defend themselves. Cats also to a lesser extent prey on kiwi chicks.[49] These predators can cause large and abrupt declines in populations. In particular, dogs find the distinctive strong scent of kiwi irresistible and easy to track, such that they can catch and kill kiwi in seconds. Motor vehicle strike is a threat to all kiwi where roads cross through their habitat. Badly set possum traps often kill or maim kiwi.[72]
Habitat destruction is another major threat to kiwi; restricted distribution and small size of some kiwi populations increases their vulnerability to inbreeding.[49] Research has shown that the combined effect of predators and other mortality (accidents etc.) results in less than 5% of kiwi chicks surviving to adulthood.[48]
Relationship to humans
Detail of the bottom edge of a kahu kiwi, showing the distinctive hair-like nature of the kiwi feathers.
The Māori traditionally believed that kiwi were under the protection of Tāne Mahuta, god of the forest. They were used as food and their feathers were used for kahu kiwi—ceremonial cloaks.[73] Today, while kiwi feathers are still used, they are gathered from birds that die naturally, through road accidents, or predation, and from captive birds.[74] Kiwi are no longer hunted and some Māori consider themselves the birds' guardians.[11]
Scientific documentation
In 1813, George Shaw named the genus Apteryx in his species description of the southern brown kiwi, which he called "the southern apteryx". Captain Andrew Barclay of the ship Providence provided Shaw with the specimen. Shaw's description was accompanied by two plates, engraved by Frederick Polydore Nodder; they were published in volume 24 of The Naturalist's Miscellany.[75]
As a national symbol
The kiwi as a symbol first appeared in the late 19th century in New Zealand regimental badges. It was later featured in the badges of the South Canterbury Battalion in 1886 and the Hastings Rifle Volunteers in 1887. Soon after, the kiwi appeared in many military badges; and in 1906, when Kiwi Shoe Polish was widely sold in the UK and the US, the symbol became more widely known.[81]
During the First World War, the name "Kiwis" for New Zealand soldiers came into general use, and a giant kiwi (now known as the Bulford kiwi) was carved on the chalk hill above Sling Camp in England. Usage has become so widespread that all New Zealanders overseas and at home are now commonly referred to as "Kiwis".[82]
A kiwi has featured on the reverse side of three New Zealand coins: the one florin (two-shilling) coin from 1933 to 1966, the twenty-cent coin from 1967 to 1990, and the one-dollar coin since 1991. In currency trading the New Zealand dollar is often referred to as "the kiwi".[84]
In popular culture
A song, "Sticky Beak the Kiwi", with words by Bob Edwards and music by Neil Roberts, was recorded in 1961, sung by Julie Nelson (aged 14) and accompanied by the Satins and the Don Bell Orchestra of Whangārei. A Christmas song, it portrays Sticky Beak as insisting on pulling Santa Claus's sleigh when distriuting presents south of the equator.[85]
"How the Kiwi Lost its Wings" is a fable written by broadcaster Alwyn Owen in 1963. It uses elements of Māori mythology, such as Tāne Mahuta, and the World War I symbol of cowardice, white feathers, in a pourquoi story explaining features of New Zealand birds. Owen portrays the kiwi as nobly sacrificing its wings and flight in order to protect the trees from depredation by ground-dwelling creatures, and thereby winning its unique renown. Owen's story is sometimes described as "A Maori Legend".[86][87] It has been recorded as a children's story,[88] published as a book,[89] was made into an animated film in 1980,[90] set to music for the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra by Thomas Goss as "Tāne and the Kiwi" in 2002 (recorded for RNZ by Orchestra Wellington in 2008[91]), and performed as a ballet by the Royal New Zealand Ballet in 2022.[92]
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The eye has small specialisations for a nocturnal lifestyle, but kiwi rely more heavily on their other senses (auditory, olfactory, and somatosensory system). The sight of the kiwi is so underdeveloped that blind specimens have been observed in nature, showing how little they rely on sight for survival and foraging. In an experiment, it was observed that one-third of a population of A. rowi in New Zealand under no environmental stress had ocular lesions in one or both eyes. The same experiment examined three specific specimens that showed complete blindness and found them to be in good physical standing outside of ocular abnormalities.[27] A 2018 study revealed that the kiwi's closest relatives, the extinct elephant birds, also shared this trait despite their great size.[28]
Unlike virtually every other palaeognath, which are generally small-brained by bird standards, kiwi have proportionally large encephalisation quotients. Hemisphere proportions are even similar to those of parrots and songbirds, though there is no evidence of similarly complex behaviour.[29]
Behaviour and ecology
Before the arrival of humans in the 13th century or earlier, New Zealand's only endemic mammals were three species of bat, and the ecological niches that in other parts of the world were filled by creatures as diverse as horses, wolves and mice were taken up by birds (and, to a lesser extent, reptiles, insects and gastropods).[30]
The kiwi's mostly nocturnal habits may be a result of habitat intrusion by predators, including humans. In areas of New Zealand where introduced predators have been removed, such as sanctuaries, kiwi are often seen in daylight. They prefer subtropical and temperate podocarp and beech forests, but they are being forced to adapt to different habitat, such as sub-alpine scrub, tussock grassland, and the mountains.[26]
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no
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Ornithology
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Is the New Zealand Kiwi bird blind?
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yes_statement
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the "new" zealand kiwi "bird" is "blind".. the "new" zealand kiwi "bird" lacks vision.
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https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/kiwi-colour-blind-gene-study-finds/7W67UGZS44DPCSMZF5T5MAG4ZQ/
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Kiwi colour-blind, gene study finds - NZ Herald
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Mutations in genome from about 35 million years ago point to vision changes but also strong sense of smell.
Not only is our quirky national bird flightless - it's also colour blind.
The finding comes from new research revealing how the endangered kiwi evolved its sense of smell and colour 35 million years ago to help it cope with its nocturnal life sniffing around the undergrowth at night.
The study published in the journal Genome Biology mapped, for the first time, the genome of the North Island brown kiwi - the most common species of the endangered bird.
After sequencing the genome of two kiwi, the German scientists who led the study uncovered evolutionary changes that could help explain why it was among the 3 per cent of bird species that have adapted to nocturnality.
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"We've seen for the first time that kiwi lack colour vision, and that their olfactory receptors can probably detect a larger range of odours which may be essential for their night-time foraging," said study lead author Diana Le Duc, of the University of Leipzig. "These adaptations seem to have happened around 35 million years ago, soon after their arrival in New Zealand, probably as a consequence of their nocturnal lifestyle."
The gene responsible for black and white vision, rhodopsin, was found to be similar in other vertebrates.
However, the team identified mutations in the green and blue vision receptor genes, which could render blue and green colour vision absent in the kiwi.
The changes in kiwi vision and smell were consistent with changes thought to occur during adaptation to nocturnal lifestyle in mammals.
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Mutations in genome from about 35 million years ago point to vision changes but also strong sense of smell.
Not only is our quirky national bird flightless - it's also colour blind.
The finding comes from new research revealing how the endangered kiwi evolved its sense of smell and colour 35 million years ago to help it cope with its nocturnal life sniffing around the undergrowth at night.
The study published in the journal Genome Biology mapped, for the first time, the genome of the North Island brown kiwi - the most common species of the endangered bird.
After sequencing the genome of two kiwi, the German scientists who led the study uncovered evolutionary changes that could help explain why it was among the 3 per cent of bird species that have adapted to nocturnality.
Advertisement
"We've seen for the first time that kiwi lack colour vision, and that their olfactory receptors can probably detect a larger range of odours which may be essential for their night-time foraging," said study lead author Diana Le Duc, of the University of Leipzig. "These adaptations seem to have happened around 35 million years ago, soon after their arrival in New Zealand, probably as a consequence of their nocturnal lifestyle. "
The gene responsible for black and white vision, rhodopsin, was found to be similar in other vertebrates.
However, the team identified mutations in the green and blue vision receptor genes, which could render blue and green colour vision absent in the kiwi.
The changes in kiwi vision and smell were consistent with changes thought to occur during adaptation to nocturnal lifestyle in mammals.
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no
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Ornithology
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Is the New Zealand Kiwi bird blind?
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yes_statement
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the "new" zealand kiwi "bird" is "blind".. the "new" zealand kiwi "bird" lacks vision.
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https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/its-now-black-and-white-our-kiwi-is-colour-blind/2P4QWNYUQZGLQRIUUMB5RPZ3RM/
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It's now black and white: Our kiwi is colour blind - NZ Herald
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Not only is our quirky national bird flightless - it's also colour blind.
The long-suspected finding comes from new research revealing how the kiwi evolved its sense of smell and colour 35 million years ago to help it cope with its nocturnal life sniffing around the undergrowth at night.
The insights have been revealed in a study, published today in the journal Genome Biology, which mapped for the first time the genome of the North Island brown kiwi - the most common species of the endangered bird.
Kiwi have proven curious creatures to scientists for many reasons, among them their highly developed sense of smell, low metabolic rate, and enormous eggs in relation to body size.
Advertisement
How they have developed genetically to have these characteristics, however, hasn't been well understood.
When a team of German researchers sequenced the genomes of two kiwi, they discovered not only that it was one of the largest bird genomes sequenced to date, but also strange evolutionary changes that could help it explain how it gradually adapted to nocturnality.
This behaviour is observed in less than three per cent of all bird species.
"We've seen for the first time that kiwi lack colour vision, and that their olfactory receptors can probably detect a larger range of odours which may be essential for their night-time foraging," said study lead author Diana Le Duc, of the University of Leipzig and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
The researchers estimated the onset time of these changes to around 35 million years ago, suggesting that the kiwi adopted its nocturnal lifestyle shortly after the arrival of its ancestor in New Zealand.
At the time the kiwi arrived other ratite birds, the moa, already inhabited New Zealand.
These now extinct birds, of which one species was over three metres in height, are thought to have monopolized food sources during the day, forcing the kiwi to adopt an alternative nocturnal lifestyle.
Kiwi are unique among birds in having nostrils present at the end of their long beaks and it has long been thought they are more similar to mammals than birds in their reliance on tactile and smell senses for foraging.
The kiwi genome showed significantly higher diversity in smell receptors than other investigated birds, suggesting that they may be able to distinguish a larger range of odours.
Nocturnal animals tend to have low energy metabolism, and kiwi have the lowest metabolic rate among all birds.
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In the genome, the team found enriched changes in genes related to energy expenditure, reserves and metabolic processes, which may also be linked to this nocturnal lifestyle.
The study marks the latest leap in our understanding of kiwi and its clouded history.
Last year, DNA sequencing revealed the kiwi was closely related to the extinct, 2.3m tall elephant bird, a native of Madagascar, re-writing a back-story that had the kiwi's ancestor likely flying in from Australia.
The country breathed a collective sigh of relief at the fact our kiwi was no Aussie.
Dr Tammy Steeves, a conservation geneticist at Canterbury University, said the new findings from Germany were exciting.
Of the more than 10,000 bird species worldwide, a mere 50 of them had a readily available genome.
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"Given that bird genomes are small, compact and highly conserved, the publication of the kiwi genome will help pave the way for a new era in the conservation of bird biodiversity in New Zealand."
Using a high quality genome like that generated for the North Island brown kiwi would allow for the development of species-specific genomic resources, she said.
"These resources will provide a more accurate representation of genome-wide diversity and better inform conservation management strategies to minimise the loss of genomic diversity, particularly for threatened birds like the North Island brown kiwi."
Last year, the Department of Conservation warned that the kiwi could become extinct within our grandchildren's lifetime if there was not intervention.
Wild kiwi numbers were falling by 2 per cent each year and, at this rate, the bird could be wiped out on the mainland within the next generation.
This year's Budget included a special $11 million allocation for kiwi conservation, with an aim to turn the 2 per cent decline into an annual increase as soon as possible.
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Not only is our quirky national bird flightless - it's also colour blind.
The long-suspected finding comes from new research revealing how the kiwi evolved its sense of smell and colour 35 million years ago to help it cope with its nocturnal life sniffing around the undergrowth at night.
The insights have been revealed in a study, published today in the journal Genome Biology, which mapped for the first time the genome of the North Island brown kiwi - the most common species of the endangered bird.
Kiwi have proven curious creatures to scientists for many reasons, among them their highly developed sense of smell, low metabolic rate, and enormous eggs in relation to body size.
Advertisement
How they have developed genetically to have these characteristics, however, hasn't been well understood.
When a team of German researchers sequenced the genomes of two kiwi, they discovered not only that it was one of the largest bird genomes sequenced to date, but also strange evolutionary changes that could help it explain how it gradually adapted to nocturnality.
This behaviour is observed in less than three per cent of all bird species.
"We've seen for the first time that kiwi lack colour vision, and that their olfactory receptors can probably detect a larger range of odours which may be essential for their night-time foraging," said study lead author Diana Le Duc, of the University of Leipzig and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
The researchers estimated the onset time of these changes to around 35 million years ago, suggesting that the kiwi adopted its nocturnal lifestyle shortly after the arrival of its ancestor in New Zealand.
At the time the kiwi arrived other ratite birds, the moa, already inhabited New Zealand.
These now extinct birds, of which one species was over three metres in height, are thought to have monopolized food sources during the day, forcing the kiwi to adopt an alternative nocturnal lifestyle.
|
no
|
Ornithology
|
Is the New Zealand Kiwi bird blind?
|
yes_statement
|
the "new" zealand kiwi "bird" is "blind".. the "new" zealand kiwi "bird" lacks vision.
|
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0000198
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Kiwi Forego Vision in the Guidance of Their Nocturnal Activities ...
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Figures
Abstract
Background
In vision, there is a trade-off between sensitivity and resolution, and any eye which maximises information gain at low light levels needs to be large. This imposes exacting constraints upon vision in nocturnal flying birds. Eyes are essentially heavy, fluid-filled chambers, and in flying birds their increased size is countered by selection for both reduced body mass and the distribution of mass towards the body core. Freed from these mass constraints, it would be predicted that in flightless birds nocturnality should favour the evolution of large eyes and reliance upon visual cues for the guidance of activity.
Methodology/Principal Findings
We show that in Kiwi (Apterygidae), flightlessness and nocturnality have, in fact, resulted in the opposite outcome. Kiwi show minimal reliance upon vision indicated by eye structure, visual field topography, and brain structures, and increased reliance upon tactile and olfactory information.
Conclusions/Significance
This lack of reliance upon vision and increased reliance upon tactile and olfactory information in Kiwi is markedly similar to the situation in nocturnal mammals that exploit the forest floor. That Kiwi and mammals evolved to exploit these habitats quite independently provides evidence for convergent evolution in their sensory capacities that are tuned to a common set of perceptual challenges found in forest floor habitats at night and which cannot be met by the vertebrate visual system. We propose that the Kiwi visual system has undergone adaptive regressive evolution driven by the trade-off between the relatively low rate of gain of visual information that is possible at low light levels, and the metabolic costs of extracting that information.
Funding: The study was funded in part by a grant from The Royal Society to G.R.M.
Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Introduction
Flight in birds is guided primarily by vision since, with the exception of high frequency echolocation found only in bats [1], no other sensory modality can provide spatial information at sufficient speed and resolution to guide flight [2]. Among birds, the nocturnal habit is derived from day-time active ancestors and, since in terrestrial environments natural ambient light levels are typically more than 1-million times lower than those during day-time [3], adaptations of sensory systems to cope with the sensory problems of night-time activity have long been of interest [3]–[5]. However, a set of fundamental constraints due to the quantal nature of light apply to any visual system, and these are manifest primarily in the trade-off between sensitivity and resolution, and the fact that any eye which maximises information gain at low light levels needs to be large [3]. This imposes exacting constraints upon vision in flying birds. Eyes are essentially heavy fluid-filled chambers and in flying birds their increased size is countered by selection for both reduced body mass and the distribution of mass towards the body core [6]. Freed from these mass constraints, it would be predicted that both flightlessness and nocturnality in birds should favour the evolution of large eyes and reliance upon visual cues for the guidance of activity. Indeed, among the largest eyes of flying birds are those of strictly nocturnal species such as owls (Strigiformes) and Oilbirds Steatornis caripensis[7], [8], and a general survey of eye size in birds has shown that the nocturnal habit has a strong effect on eye size relative to body mass [9]. Furthermore, among all terrestrial and aquatic vertebrates the eyes of the flightless Struthioniformes (Ostriches and their allies) and Sphenisciformes (Penguins) [10]–[12] are among the largest, suggesting that flightlessness removes an important constraint upon eye size in birds. Paradoxically, in the nocturnal and flightless Kiwi (Apterygidae), the eyes are exceptionally small with respect to body mass [12], rather than large as would be expected because of their nocturnal and flightless habits.
Five extant Kiwi taxa are recognised [13], [14]. They are endemic to New Zealand and are descended from a fauna that evolved in the absence of terrestrial mammals over a period of 80 million years [14]. Kiwi are nocturnal, flightless, cursorial birds that exploit forest floor habitats where they forage mainly for soil and surface-dwelling invertebrates [15]. Structural differences among Kiwi taxa are relatively minor, e.g. body mass, leg bone size and bill length [15]. Little is known about Kiwi sensory systems although olfaction can be used to detect food items [16] and their eyes are able to accommodate, showing that their optical system is functional [17].
To understand more fully the role of sensory systems in Kiwi behaviour, we investigated the following: eye size and the topography of visual fields as an indicator of the extent to which foraging is visually guided; minimum f-number as a measure of the light gathering capacity of the eye; the occurrence of sensory pits close to the nostrils and near the bill tip as an indicator of the extent to which non-visual cues may be involved in foraging. We also determined the extent of brain centres associated with visual processing, relative to those associated with other sensory systems, as an indicator of the relative importance of information processing from different sensory modalities.
Results
Axial length and equatorial diameter of the two Kiwi eyes sampled = 7.0 mm. Overall eye shape was similar to that of diurnally active birds such as Common Starling Sturnus vulgaris and Rock Pigeon Columba livia. The eyes did not show the tubular shape associated with nocturnal activity in owls (Strigiformes) [7], [18]. Kiwi eye size is comparable to that of many birds of small body mass, but is markedly smaller than that of volant birds whose body mass is similar to that of Kiwi [9]. In addition, Kiwi eye size falls well outside the uniform scaling of eye diameter with body mass in birds based upon analysis of 104 species of flying birds (each species from a different family; body mass between 6 g and 4.9 kg) and within which other species of flightless birds (penguins and other ratites) also fit [12]. Assuming that Kiwi eye's optical structure is similar to that of other avian species, its focal length will be ≈0.6×(axial length) [19]. Thus, an estimate of the eye's minimum f-number (focal length/maximum entrance aperture diameter) based upon the diameter of the cornea (4.4 mm) gives a value of 0.95. This means that maximum image brightness in Kiwi eyes is similar to that of other nocturnal birds and higher than that of diurnal birds [8]. It is also similar to that of some nocturnally active mammals [20]. It can be concluded that Kiwi eyes show evidence of adaptation to lower light levels by virtue of their higher light gathering capacity. However, because of their small absolute size, the ability of kiwi eyes to retrieve spatial information at low light levels will be severely reduced, allowing the detection of only gross levels of detail within a nocturnal scene [3], unlike the situation in the larger eyed nocturnal flying birds, such as owls and Oilbirds Steatornis caripensis[7], [8].
The visual fields of Kiwi (Fig. 1) are the smallest yet reported among birds and exhibit features found in birds whose foraging is known to be guided by non-visual cues [21]. In particular, the frontal binocular field is almost non-existent. It is particularly narrow compared with those of nocturnal flying birds such as owls and Oilbirds [7], [20]. In addition, the bill falls at the very periphery of the visual field and the birds cannot see their own bill tip, This frontal visual field topography is similar to that found in birds whose foraging is guided by tactile cues from the bill rather than by vision (some dabbling ducks (Anatidae) and long-billed probing birds (Scolopacidae)) [22]. However, the total area of the binocular field is smaller and the vertical extent much less in Kiwi than in these volant tactile foragers. In these birds, the eyes are set high in the head and have monocular fields close to 180° in diameter that provide the birds with comprehensive panoramic vision about the head. In Kiwi, however, the monocular fields have a diameter of 125° and this results in a large blind area behind the head. This blind area is similar in size to that of larger eyed nocturnal birds, but in these species this results from the more forward placement of the eyes in the skull to produce a wide frontal binocular field [20]. In Kiwi, such a trade-off between wide frontal binocularity and lack of vision behind the head does not occur. Kiwi visual fields are simply small, and this, coupled with their absolutely small eye-size, indicates that the birds gather information of low spatial detail only from a very restricted area around the head. The control of forward locomotion by visual cues in birds is thought to be primarily a function of the symmetrical optical flow-fields generated in each eye within the forward facing binocular sector [21]. In Kiwi this small binocular field, coupled with low spatial resolution, clearly restricts the amount of flow-field information that is available to guide locomotion.
a, Perspective view of an orthographic projection of the binocular field as projected onto the surface of a sphere surrounding the bird's head. The grid shows conventional latitude and longitude at 20° intervals and the median sagittal plane of the bird's head is in the plane of the equator (which is vertical). The head is in the same posture as depicted in (c). b, Horizontal section through the visual field in the plane of maximum binocular field width which is the horizontal plane in (a) and (c). c, Drawing of a side view of a kiwi head, the bill tip projects 20° below the horizontal as shown in (a). Scale bar 40 mm.
In birds generally, the major retinal projection is to the highly laminated optic tectum (OT). In most birds the tectofugal pathway is by far the larger of two major visual pathways to the telencephalon, relaying in nucleus rotundus of the dorsal thalamus and terminating in the entopallium (E) embedded within the nidopallium (N). There is a smaller retinal projection to the dorsal thalamus, which then projects upon the dorsal pallium and terminates in the visual Wulst, the generally recognized homologue of the primary visual cortex of mammals. The notable exceptions to this scenario comprise those birds with more frontally placed eyes, such as owls (and some other nocturnal birds [23]), which are known to have a relatively large thalamofugal projection [24]. Craigie [25], in his examination of the Kiwi brain, commented on the reduced size, depressed form, and reduced thickness of the optic tectum, and observed reductions to all but two of its fifteen layers: the central grey and the monolaminar sixth. Here we compared the diameter of the optic nerve and thickness of the optic tectum in Kiwi (a nocturnal ratite), Emu (a diurnal ratite), Barn Owl (a nocturnal predator) and Pigeon (a diurnal, visually-guided pecking species). The results show that Kiwi have by far the smallest optic nerve diameter (Fig. 2; ON, Emu: 4.59 mm; Kiwi: 0.77 mm; Barn Owl: 1.60 mm; Pigeon: 1.58 mm), that Kiwi and Barn Owl are similar in having a relatively small optic tectum (OT), that Emu has by far the largest optic tectum and Pigeon an intermediate sized optic tectum (Figs. 2 and 3). Correspondingly, in Kiwi nucleus rotundus, the thalamic relay in the tectofugal pathway, is less conspicuous than in other birds (see also Craigie, p 298 [25]) and the entopallium (E), to which rotundus projects, appears as a narrow strip that flanks more caudal regions of the striatum (St) (Fig 4). In addition, the Wulst, the end station of the thalamofugal visual pathway, is massive in Barn Owl and Emu, moderate in Pigeon, but apparently very much reduced in Kiwi (Fig. 2). The vallecula, a groove that houses a large blood vessel and demarcates the lateral border of the Wulst in many avian species, is extremely shallow and relatively medially placed in Kiwi, with the result that the Wulst cannot be identified as a definitive bulge on the dorsum of the hemisphere, as it can in other avian species (Figs 2 and 4). Also, the Wulst does not reach the frontal pole of the telencephalon, but is displaced further caudally where it appears as the hyperpallium apicale (HA, Fig. 4). In general, these observations show a marked reduction in the size, and presumably in the visual processing capacity, of the visual centres in Kiwi, in agreement with the earlier conclusions of Craigie [25].
Figure 2. Visual processing areas of the brains of four species of birds.
Ventral and dorsal views of the brains of a, Emu (diurnal, flightless); b, Kiwi (nocturnal, flightless); c, Barn Owl (nocturnal, flying), and d, Pigeon (diurnal, flying). OT: optic tectum; ON: optic nerve ; OB; olfactory bulb (which actually consists of a cortical-like sheet in the adult kiwi – see Fig. 6b); V: vallecula. Note the reduced diameter of the optic nerve in Kiwi compared with that in the three other species (see text for actual measurements). In the dorsal view of Kiwi, note the caudal extension of the large telencephalic hemispheres, which completely hide the underlying midbrain. Note also in Kiwi that there is no obvious bulge on the dorsum of the hemisphere that identifies the Wulst in species such as Barn Owl and Emu. Scale bars: Emu, 1 cm; Kiwi, Barn Owl and Pigeon: 0.5 cm.
Figure 3. Boxplot of normalised tectal thicknesses of the four bird species.
The log10 of the thickness of the tectum was normalised to the log10 of the width of the midbrain hemisection; N = 22 for kiwi, 40 for Emu, 26 for Barn Owl and 49 for Pigeon. Data was analysed using Mann-Whitney non parametric pairwise comparisons (against Kiwi). *: p≤0.005; **: p≤0.001.
Kiwi are unique among birds in having the opening of their nostrils close to the tip of the maxilla (Fig. 5). In all other birds, the nostrils open externally close to the base of the bill, or internally in the roof of the mouth. We provide evidence that Kiwi bill tips are the focus of both olfactory and tactile information. Inspection of prepared skulls shows that clustered around the tips of both the maxilla and mandible, on both internal and external surfaces, is a high concentration of sensory pits (Fig. 5) [26]. Such pits house clusters of mechanoreceptors (Herbst and Grandry corpuscles) protected by a soft rhamphotheca. These sensory pits function in foraging to detect objects touching or close to the bill tips [27]–[29]. In Kiwi, the sensory pits cover the entire surface of the tip of the maxilla and almost encircle the nostrils that open laterally ca. 3 mm behind the bill tip (Fig. 5), suggesting that the bill tip is a focus for gaining both tactile and olfactory information for guiding the bill when foraging. This conclusion is supported by the absolute size and histological complexity in Kiwi of the brain centres representing these modalities. For example, the principal sensory trigeminal nucleus (PrV), which receives the tactile input from the beak, is large and well-defined (cf [30]) (Fig. 6a). Furthermore, the telencephalic target of PrV, known as nucleus basorostralis (Bas), although mediolaterally narrow in Kiwi, flanks a large rostrocaudal extent of the truly massive striatum in this species (Fig. 4). Finally, the extensive olfactory cortical-like sheet that surrounds the frontal pole of the brain is the hallmark of the sensory specializations in Kiwi (Figs. 4 and 6b).
a, Lateral view of the bill tip of a museum skin specimen of A. mantelli with the rhamphotheca intact and showing the position of the nostril (arrow). b–e, bones of the bill tip of A. mantelli. b latero-ventral view of the maxilla showing the complex blunt shape of the bill tip whose surface is covered with closely packed sensory pits; the approximate position of the nostril is indicated (arrow). c, dorsal view of the maxilla with the approximate positions of the nostrils indicated (arrows), d, dorsal view of the mandible showing that sensory pits are found at the bill tips within the mouth, e, latero-ventral view of the mandible showing that closely packed sensory pits cover the outer surface of the lower jaw. All scale bars 5 mm.
a, Cresyl Violet stained coronal section through the pons of a kiwi showing the large sensory trigeminal nucleus (PrV) that receives tactile input from the beak; b, Cresyl Violet stained sagittal section of a kiwi brain showing the olfactory bulb, which in the adult is a cortical-like sheet surrounding the frontal pole of the brain (bracketed by dashed line, and see Fig. 4). Scale bar: 5 mm.
Discussion
We have presented a range of information suggesting that although Kiwi are apparently free from weight constraints upon eye size that apply to flying birds, and that their nocturnal habits would predict a large eye size, their eyes and visual fields are in fact very small, and the visual centres serving vision are very much reduced while centres processing olfactory and tactile information are relatively large. This indicates that in Kiwi visual information is of little importance; probably a unique situation among birds. Given the relationship of Kiwi with the extinct Moa and the extant ratites, which have been noted for their large eyes [31], it seems safe to conclude that reduced reliance upon visual information is a derived characteristic in Kiwi and is probably an example of adaptive regressive evolution [32]. At some point in the evolution of Kiwi, natural selection favoured foregoing visual information in favour of other sensory information. The ecological circumstances favouring this are unclear. However, reliance upon tactile and olfactory information over visual information is found in both Kiwi and in nocturnal mammals such as rodents [33]. This suggests the independent evolution in Kiwi and in these mammals of similar sensory performance that is tuned to a common set of perceptual challenges presented by the forest floor environment at night that cannot be met by vision. Regressive evolution of visual systems have been described in both vertebrate and invertebrate animals [32], [34]. However, all of these examples have involved a complete loss of vision following colonisation of subterranean habitats devoid of light. In Kiwi, complete regression of the eye and parts of the brain associated with visual information processing has not occurred. However, while Kiwi roost and nest in burrows, their foraging habitats are not completely devoid of light [14]. Given that other flightless birds have some of the largest eyes among terrestrial vertebrates and that many flying birds of similar or smaller mass have eyes that are larger than those of Kiwi [12], it would seem that the higher cost of transport in locomotion of larger eyes is not sufficient to explain eye regression in Kiwi. We propose that regressive evolution of Kiwi vision is the result of the trade-off between the requirement for a large eye to gain information at low light levels, and the metabolic costs of extracting and processing that information [35]. It seems possible that there is an ambient light level below which the costs of maintaining a large eye and associated visual centres are not balanced by the rate at which information can be gained, and that this occurs in forest floor habitats at night.
Materials and Methods
Specimens
Kiwi are a group of endangered species protected under New Zealand law. We were able to work on these birds for research purposes only under strict guidelines and permits kindly issued by the New Zealand Department of Conservation and animal ethics approvals from Lincoln University
Methods
Visual fields were measured in two birds (one North Island Brown Kiwi Apteryx mantelli; one Great Spotted Kiwi A. haastii). Both birds were adults and were not part of any breeding programme. To reduce disturbance to the birds, measurements were conducted on the birds' holding premises and the birds were returned to their aviaries immediately after measurements were complete. To ensure comparability of these measurement with those conducted on other birds the same procedures were used as described previously for work with a range of species (e.g. Oilbirds Steatornis[8], Flamingos Phoeniconaias[21]). Each bird was restrained with the body immobilised and the head position fixed by holding the bill. The bill was held in a specially built metal holder coated with cured silicone sealant to produce a non-slip surface. The bird's body was cradled by the bird's regular keeper/handler during the measurements. The bill holder was mounted on an adjustable mechanism and the head positioned so that the mid-point of a line joining the corneal vertices was at the approximate centre of a visual perimeter apparatus [8] that enabled the eyes to be examined ophthalmoscopically from known co-ordinates centred on the head. The perimeter's co-ordinate system followed conventional latitude and longitude with the equator aligned vertically in the birds' median sagittal plane and this co-ordinate system is used for the presentation of the visual field data (Fig. 1). Each bird's head was positioned with the plane through the eyes and bill tip pointing at an angle of approximately 20° below the horizontal. This head position approximated that which the birds adopted spontaneously when held in the hand. The projection of the bill tip when measurements were made was determined accurately from photographs and the visual field data corrected for this. The eyes were examined using an ophthalmoscope mounted on the perimeter arm. The visual projections of the limits of the frontal retinal visual field of each eye were determined as a function of elevation (10° intervals) in the median sagittal plane. To the rear of the head the limits of retinal visual field were determined at all elevations down to the horizontal. From these data (corrected for viewing from a hypothetical viewing point placed at infinity) topographical maps of the frontal visual fields and horizontal sections through the visual fields were constructed. The positions of the visual field margins in each of the birds were within 5° of each other at all elevations and the mean position of the field boundaries determined.
Anatomy
Skins of kiwi were examined and photographed at the collections held by the Natural History Museum (Tring, UK), and skeletal materials were examined and photographed at the collections held by the Canterbury Museum (Christchurch, New Zealand). Eye size and brain structure were determined from post mortem specimens of A. mantelli collected in Keri Keri, New Zealand under permits issued to JRC by the New Zealand Department of Conservation (NO-16732-FAU, NO-18095-DOA). Post mortem Emu Dromaius novaehollandiae brains were obtained from Northland Ostrich and Emu Ltd, Kaitaia and Pigeon Columba livia and Barn Owl Tyto alba brains were obtained from specimens held at the J. M Wild lab. Kiwi (n = 2) and Emu (n = 1) brains were fixed by immersion in 4% paraformaldehyde in 0.1 M phosphate buffered saline (PBS), for 1–2 months. The brains were cryoprotected in 30% sucrose in 0.01 M PBS for 1 week and cut on a sliding microtome at 50 µm thickness in the coronal or sagittal plane. Sections were collected in PBS. Every sixth section was mounted serially onto subbed slides, stained with Cresyl Violet, dehydrated and coverslipped. Pigeon and Barn Owl brains were perfused with 4% paraformaldehyde in 0.01 M PBS, cryoprotected and cut coronally at a thickness of 35 µm and 40 µm, respectively. All tectal measurements were obtained from serial sections stained with Cresyl Violet, except for the pigeon where some measurements were taken from A Stereotaxic Atlas of the Brain of the Pigeon [36]. Measurements were obtained from 11 kiwi, 20 Emu, 14 Barn Owl, and 31 Pigeon sections. Tectal thickness was measured from the midpoint of the midbrain ventricle, orthogonally to the tectal surface. Log10 transformed measures were normalized to the log10 of the width of the midbrain at which the measurement was taken (log OT/log MB). Statistical comparisons were made using Mann Whitney U Test using SPSS v 11.
Immunocytochemistry, performed here with the sole aim of aiding the demarcation of different brain areas, was performed on Kiwi brain sections using a rabbit polyclonal antibody against calretinin (SWANT, Switzerland) at a dilution of 1∶5000. No claims as to the specificity of antibody binding are made and, therefore, we refer to the calretinin-like immunoreactivity as CR-LI. Floating sections of kiwi brains were bleached for 10 minutes in 50% methanol and 1% H2O2 to block the activity of endogenous peroxidase and washed thoroughly in 0.01 M PBS. Sections were incubated overnight at room temperature in the primary antibody in the presence of 2.5% normal serum and 0.4% Triton X-100. Sections were then incubated in an appropriate biotinylated secondary antibody (1∶300) for 1–2 hrs at room temperature, followed by streptavidin-horseradish peroxidase (1∶1000, Molecular Probes, OR) for 1–2 hrs at room temperature, and developed with a chromagen solution consisting of PBS, 0.25 mg/ml diamino benzidine tetrahydrochloride (DAB) and 0.018% H2O2. In some cases, 0.02% cobalt chloride was added to the chromagen solution to render the reaction product black. All steps in this and all other incubation procedures were separated by washes in the incubation buffer. The tissue was mounted onto subbed slides, dehydrated, and coverslipped with Permount. A brown and/or blue/black reaction product indicated positive staining for the antigen. The material was photographed on a light table using a standard photographic camera. The images were processed with Adobe PhotoShop v. 9 software to produce the final figures.
Acknowledgments
We thank Paul Rushworth (Willowbank Wildlife Reserve, Christchurch, NZ) and Anne Richardson (Peacock Springs, Christchurch, Isaac Wildlife Trust) for access to birds and for holding the birds during the visual field measurements, Paul Scofield (Canterbury Museum, Christchurch, NZ) and Robert Prys-Jones (Natural History Museum, Tring, UK) for access to skins and skeletal material. Emu brains were kindly provided by R. Pennell at Northland Ostrich and Emu Ltd. We are grateful to N. Duggan for assistance in producing brain photographs. We are also indebted to the New Zealand Department of Conservation for their support during this project and for permits to handle live birds. In particular we thank C. Gardner and P. Graham for their invaluable assistance in obtaining kiwi specimens.
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Materials and Methods
Specimens
Kiwi are a group of endangered species protected under New Zealand law. We were able to work on these birds for research purposes only under strict guidelines and permits kindly issued by the New Zealand Department of Conservation and animal ethics approvals from Lincoln University
Methods
Visual fields were measured in two birds (one North Island Brown Kiwi Apteryx mantelli; one Great Spotted Kiwi A. haastii). Both birds were adults and were not part of any breeding programme. To reduce disturbance to the birds, measurements were conducted on the birds' holding premises and the birds were returned to their aviaries immediately after measurements were complete. To ensure comparability of these measurement with those conducted on other birds the same procedures were used as described previously for work with a range of species (e.g. Oilbirds Steatornis[8], Flamingos Phoeniconaias[21]). Each bird was restrained with the body immobilised and the head position fixed by holding the bill. The bill was held in a specially built metal holder coated with cured silicone sealant to produce a non-slip surface. The bird's body was cradled by the bird's regular keeper/handler during the measurements. The bill holder was mounted on an adjustable mechanism and the head positioned so that the mid-point of a line joining the corneal vertices was at the approximate centre of a visual perimeter apparatus [8] that enabled the eyes to be examined ophthalmoscopically from known co-ordinates centred on the head. The perimeter's co-ordinate system followed conventional latitude and longitude with the equator aligned vertically in the birds' median sagittal plane and this co-ordinate system is used for the presentation of the visual field data (Fig. 1). Each bird's head was positioned with the plane through the eyes and bill tip pointing at an angle of approximately 20° below the horizontal. This head position approximated that which the birds adopted spontaneously when held in the hand. The projection of the bill tip when measurements were made was determined accurately from photographs and the visual field data corrected for this.
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no
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Ornithology
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Is the New Zealand Kiwi bird blind?
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no_statement
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the "new" zealand kiwi "bird" is not "blind".. the "new" zealand kiwi "bird" has sight.
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https://earthsky.org/earth/giant-extinct-flightless-elephant-birds-nocturnal-possibly-blind/
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This giant flightless bird was nocturnal, possibly blind | Earth ...
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The extinct elephant bird – the largest bird known to science – was nocturnal and possibly blind. That’s according to new brain reconstruction research that found that the part of the bird’s brain that processed vision was tiny.
A nocturnal lifestyle is a trait shared by the elephant bird’s closest living relative, the kiwi — a practically blind, chicken-size bird that lives in New Zealand. According to Christopher Torres of University of Texas at Austin, that’s a clue that is helping scientists learn more about the elephant bird’s behavior and habitat. Torres led the research, which was published October 31, 2018, in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Torres said in a statement:
Studying brain shape is a really useful way of connecting ecology – the relationship between the bird and the environment – and anatomy.
Elephant birds were large, flightless and lived in what is now Madagascar until a mixture of habitat loss and potential human meddling led to their demise between 500 and 1,000 years ago. Torres said:
Humans lived alongside, and even hunted, elephant birds for thousands of years. But we still know practically nothing about their lives. We don’t even really know exactly when or why they went extinct.
A digital brain reconstruction of the recently extinct elephant bird revealed that its optic lobe was virtually absent, a trait that indicates it was nocturnal and possibly blind. The kiwi, the closest living relative of the elephant bird, also has an absent optic lobe, nocturnal behavior and very poor eyesight. In contrast, the tinamous, a distant elephant bird relative, has good eyesight and a prominent optic lobe. Image via Chris Torres/University of Texas at Austin.
Scientists had previously assumed that elephant birds were similar to other big, flightless birds, like emus and ostriches — both of which are active during the day and have good eyesight. But the new brain reconstructions suggest that elephant birds had distinctly different lifestyles. Read more about how the scientists conducted the study here.
Andrew Iwaniuk is an associate professor at the University of Lethbridge and an expert on brain evolution in birds who was not involved with the research. Iwaniuk said that he had a similar reaction to the findings.
I was surprised that the visual system is so small in a bird this big. For a bird this large to evolve a nocturnal lifestyle is truly bizarre and speaks to an ecology unlike that of their closest relatives or any other bird species that we know of.
Eleanor Imster
About the Author:
Eleanor Imster has helped write and edit EarthSky since 1995. She was an integral part of the award-winning EarthSky radio series almost since it began until it ended in 2013. She and her husband live in Tennessee, where they enjoy guitar playing and singing. They have 2 grown sons.
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The extinct elephant bird – the largest bird known to science – was nocturnal and possibly blind. That’s according to new brain reconstruction research that found that the part of the bird’s brain that processed vision was tiny.
A nocturnal lifestyle is a trait shared by the elephant bird’s closest living relative, the kiwi — a practically blind, chicken-size bird that lives in New Zealand. According to Christopher Torres of University of Texas at Austin, that’s a clue that is helping scientists learn more about the elephant bird’s behavior and habitat. Torres led the research, which was published October 31, 2018, in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Torres said in a statement:
Studying brain shape is a really useful way of connecting ecology – the relationship between the bird and the environment – and anatomy.
Elephant birds were large, flightless and lived in what is now Madagascar until a mixture of habitat loss and potential human meddling led to their demise between 500 and 1,000 years ago. Torres said:
Humans lived alongside, and even hunted, elephant birds for thousands of years. But we still know practically nothing about their lives. We don’t even really know exactly when or why they went extinct.
A digital brain reconstruction of the recently extinct elephant bird revealed that its optic lobe was virtually absent, a trait that indicates it was nocturnal and possibly blind. The kiwi, the closest living relative of the elephant bird, also has an absent optic lobe, nocturnal behavior and very poor eyesight. In contrast, the tinamous, a distant elephant bird relative, has good eyesight and a prominent optic lobe. Image via Chris Torres/University of Texas at Austin.
Scientists had previously assumed that elephant birds were similar to other big, flightless birds, like emus and ostriches — both of which are active during the day and have good eyesight. But the new brain reconstructions suggest that elephant birds had distinctly different lifestyles. Read more about how the scientists conducted the study here.
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yes
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Ornithology
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Is the New Zealand Kiwi bird blind?
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no_statement
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the "new" zealand kiwi "bird" is not "blind".. the "new" zealand kiwi "bird" has sight.
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https://www.popsci.com/elephant-bird-blind/
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Behold the mighty elephant bird, blindly crashing through the ...
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Islands breed strange animals. Isolated from the rest of the world, these ecosystems often produce creatures uniquely adapted to their idiosyncratic environments. Nations like Madagascar and New Zealand can thus support strikingly similar life despite dissimilar climates.
So while most of the world has birds that rely primarily on vision, Madagascar and New Zealand has a couple of strange additions. Or in some cases, had.
Though the phrase “elephant bird” probably conjures images of an emu or ostrich, a recent study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B suggests that these extinct giants had more in common with the kiwi. Both were flightless and, according to the new research, were mostly blind and nocturnal. This sort of fits into how you might think of a kiwi. They’re diminutive, with tiny fluffy brown feathers and preposterously large eggs in comparison to their bodies—you might even call them silly. The fact that they can hardly see and roam around the New Zealand bush at night in search of grubs jives with their image.
But elephant birds were enormous. Standing 10 feet tall and weighing in at half a ton—that’s more than two SUVs—these were the world’s biggest birds ever. Imagine Big Bird, but make him more than two feet taller and make him more reptilian, then stick him in a dense woodland at night, walking around blindly. That’s what elephant birds were like. (One species of elephant bird is literally named for the Malagasy word for “big bird.”)
Most of this is a recent revelation. Fossils of this extinct family are rare, and it wasn’t until researchers at the University of Texas at Austin digitally reconstructed brains from two elephant bird skulls that they realized the birds might have been mostly blind. They came to this conclusion by looking at the olfactory bulb and optic lobes, where smells and images are processed respectively, and finding that the balance was out of whack compared to your average bird. Most avian species rely primarily on vision to navigate and hunt prey, so their optic lobes are well developed in comparison to their olfactory bulbs. This is even true of nocturnal species. Owls hunt at night, and their evolutionary strategy has been to increase their night vision capabilities to see in the darkness.
But elephant birds, like kiwis, have much larger olfactory bulbs in proportion to their optic lobes, suggesting that they rely more on smell than on sight. In fact, they practically have no optic lobes. That means the birds would have been nearly blind.
Elephant bird brains compared to those of the living kiwi and tinamou C. Torres for The University of Texas at Austin
Although the idea of an enormous bird crashing around in the underbrush is fairly hilarious, odds are these behemoths had no problem navigating the woods. As the authors of this recent paper point out, some wild kiwis are completely blind yet have no reduction in their overall fitness. They have such complex somatosensory, olfactory, and auditory systems that they’re able to get around just fine in the dark, much like bats (except sans sonar). The researchers suspect that elephant birds may not have have been quite the evolutionary aces that kiwis are, but were obviously well-adapted enough to survive. Elephant birds even managed to stick around after early human settlement of Madagascar, a feat which many birds native to islands—like New Zealand’s moa—fail to achieve. Some combination of human intervention and habitat loss seems to have eventually killed them off in the 1600s, though no one is entirely sure.
After all, until this paper, no one had ever suspected that a bird this big would be blind. We clearly have a lot to learn.
This discovery will help researchers figure out the evolutionary tree that spawned kiwis, elephant birds, emus, cassowaries, moas, rheas, and tinamous (a family of birds living in Mexico and Central and South America). That group, Palaeognathae, is the sister clade to all other living birds, making them useful tools in understanding how all birds came to be.
They’re also just odd. “Palaeognath evolution has been marked by repeated gains of gigantism, flightlessness, island endemism, and crepuscularity/nocturnality,” note the authors. They go on to explain that losing sight in favor of olfaction might be a trait available only to ground-dwelling birds on predator-free islands, since “only flightless nocturnal birds on islands are known to reduce the visual system in favor of other senses.” Without large mammals or reptiles around to eat them, birds could evolve to sense their prey in other ways—without worrying about having to spot a potential predator.
We still know very little about this enormous weirdos, however, and the researchers hope their discovery will spur more investigation into the multiple species of elephant bird. Who knows what surprises might lurk beneath all those feathers.
Sara Chodosh was an editor at Popular Science for more than 5 years, where she worked her way up from editorial assistant to associate science editor. In that time she slowly took over running the Charted section of the now-defunct print magazine. Her love of graphics eventually led to her current job as a graphics editor at the New York Times. Contact the author here.
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Islands breed strange animals. Isolated from the rest of the world, these ecosystems often produce creatures uniquely adapted to their idiosyncratic environments. Nations like Madagascar and New Zealand can thus support strikingly similar life despite dissimilar climates.
So while most of the world has birds that rely primarily on vision, Madagascar and New Zealand has a couple of strange additions. Or in some cases, had.
Though the phrase “elephant bird” probably conjures images of an emu or ostrich, a recent study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B suggests that these extinct giants had more in common with the kiwi. Both were flightless and, according to the new research, were mostly blind and nocturnal. This sort of fits into how you might think of a kiwi. They’re diminutive, with tiny fluffy brown feathers and preposterously large eggs in comparison to their bodies—you might even call them silly. The fact that they can hardly see and roam around the New Zealand bush at night in search of grubs jives with their image.
But elephant birds were enormous. Standing 10 feet tall and weighing in at half a ton—that’s more than two SUVs—these were the world’s biggest birds ever. Imagine Big Bird, but make him more than two feet taller and make him more reptilian, then stick him in a dense woodland at night, walking around blindly. That’s what elephant birds were like. (One species of elephant bird is literally named for the Malagasy word for “big bird.”)
Most of this is a recent revelation. Fossils of this extinct family are rare, and it wasn’t until researchers at the University of Texas at Austin digitally reconstructed brains from two elephant bird skulls that they realized the birds might have been mostly blind. They came to this conclusion by looking at the olfactory bulb and optic lobes, where smells and images are processed respectively, and finding that the balance was out of whack compared to your average bird. Most avian species rely primarily on vision to navigate and hunt prey, so their optic lobes are well developed in comparison to their olfactory bulbs.
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yes
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Publishing
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Is the Oxford Comma Necessary?
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yes_statement
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the "oxford" comma is "necessary".. the use of the "oxford" comma is required.
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https://writer.com/blog/oxford-comma/
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Oxford comma: is it necessary? - Writer
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Oxford comma: is it necessary?
Want to know the quickest way to start a heated debate among writers, editors, and English teachers? Ask this question.
Is the Oxford comma necessary?
It seems like writers are willing to go to war over the Oxford comma. Some are diehard fans, and others insist it should be banished from the English language.
So, should you be using the Oxford comma? And when do you need to use it?
In this post, we’ll cover the basics that you need to know about the use of the Oxford comma, including the rules that apply to it, whether or not it’s grammatically correct, and examples of the correct and incorrect way to use it.
What’s the Oxford comma rule?
The Oxford comma, a.k.a. the serial comma, is the last comma in a list. The Oxford comma should be placed before the word “and” at the end of a list.
Here’s a quick example of what a sentence with the Oxford comma would look like:
I have three dogs named Blaze, Buster, and Dash.
The same sentence without the Oxford comma would read:
I have three dogs named Blaze, Buster and Dash.
Whether or not you choose to add a comma will depend on the style guide you follow. For instance, AP Style doesn’t require the Oxford comma, while the Chicago Manual of Style requires it in almost all cases. Be sure to check with the style guide you use to see if the Oxford comma is a requirement or not.
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Are Oxford commas grammatically correct?
Contrary to what most students believe, the Oxford comma isn’t grammatically correct. But that doesn’t mean it’s wrong to use it. Instead, it’s grammatically optional.
As mentioned in the section above, whether or not you use the Oxford comma will depend on the style guide you follow. Some style guides require you to use it, while others, like the Associated Press Stylebook, consider it unnecessary.
The type of writing you’re doing, the meaning of a sentence, and your personal preference will also come into play.
Rest assured that regardless of what grammarians, English teachers, and your friends may think, you won’t be breaking any grammar rules if you include or omit the Oxford comma in your writing.
Even if it isn’t a grammatical faux pas, the Oxford comma does have its place. For instance, lawyers or legal writers are encouraged to include the Oxford comma for clarity. While the serial comma does help clarify lists, it can interfere with good sentence composition and flow. Many journalists are against it for this reason. Some even argue that it makes for lazy writing or clutters the piece with unnecessary punctuation.
Here’s an example of the Oxford comma being used to clarify a sentence:
Oxford comma: “I live with my parents, cat, and dog.”
And the same sentence without:
No Oxford comma: “I live with my parents, cat and dog.”
You can see how dropping the serial comma can create some confusion, or at the very least, a silly sentence. Without the Oxford comma, it seems that the parents are the cat and dog. With it, you can tell the parents, cat, and dog are all different parts of the list.
However, someone against the Oxford comma could claim that the writer should simply reword their sentence. They could change it to:
“I live with my parents. I also have a cat and dog.”
These sentences nix the issue of using or not using the Oxford comma. They also emphasize the difference in the groups. Yes, the result is a bit longer than the original sentences, but it adds even more clarity.
In the next section, we’ll give a few more examples so you can see how to use and not to use the serial comma.
Oxford comma examples
Example #1:
In this example, we’re using the last names Lee, Miller, and Swanson as a title. You might see something like this as a law firm in your city. The ampersand (&) doesn’t pair well with the Oxford comma. If you wanted to use the ampersand in the title, you would need to drop the Oxford comma, so the title read like this, “Lee, Miller & Swanson.” If you prefer to use the serial comma, then you’ll need to give up the ampersand as shown in the correct usage above.
Example #2:
In this example, leaving out the Oxford comma makes it seem like Batman and Wonder Woman are the author’s grandparents. An intriguing power couple, but not likely what the author intended. If the author didn’t want to use the Oxford comma, they could rework the sentence for clarity like this, “My heroes are my grandparents as well as Batman and Wonder Woman.”
Example #3:
In this instance, both examples use a correctly placed Oxford comma following “Socrates.” However, the incorrect example uses an extra comma after “about” to start the list. The sentence doesn’t make sense this way.
Example #4:
In this example, the first sentence is incorrect because it is missing a final comma after the forklift operator.
Example #5:
In this case, not just the serial comma is left out, but all commas have been left out of the incorrect example. This goes to show the importance of using commas to separate words in a list. Yes, it would still make sense without the Oxford comma after white, but it certainly doesn’t make sense when commas are left out altogether.
Example #6:
Perhaps one of the most interesting cases of a missing Oxford comma was a real-life dispute that resulted in a $5 million lawsuit. In this legal mishap reported on by The New York Times, Maine legislation stated:
Maine law requires overtime pay – equal to time-and-a-half pay – for each hour worked after 40 hours, but exemptions were made for the duties listed above. Without an extra comma following the word “shipment,” the courts ruled that it was unclear what was exempt. Was it the distribution of the three categories: agricultural produce, meat and fish products, and perishable foods? Or was the exemption intended for packing for the shipment or distribution of them?
***
When it comes to the Oxford comma, you have options. Go with the requirements of the style guide you’re using when applicable, but when it comes down to personal preference, go with your gut. Whether you use the Oxford comma or prefer the lack of a comma, just keep it consistent all the time. And most importantly – make sure your sentences are clear.
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Oxford comma: is it necessary?
Want to know the quickest way to start a heated debate among writers, editors, and English teachers? Ask this question.
Is the Oxford comma necessary?
It seems like writers are willing to go to war over the Oxford comma. Some are diehard fans, and others insist it should be banished from the English language.
So, should you be using the Oxford comma? And when do you need to use it?
In this post, we’ll cover the basics that you need to know about the use of the Oxford comma, including the rules that apply to it, whether or not it’s grammatically correct, and examples of the correct and incorrect way to use it.
What’s the Oxford comma rule?
The Oxford comma, a.k.a. the serial comma, is the last comma in a list. The Oxford comma should be placed before the word “and” at the end of a list.
Here’s a quick example of what a sentence with the Oxford comma would look like:
I have three dogs named Blaze, Buster, and Dash.
The same sentence without the Oxford comma would read:
I have three dogs named Blaze, Buster and Dash.
Whether or not you choose to add a comma will depend on the style guide you follow. For instance, AP Style doesn’t require the Oxford comma, while the Chicago Manual of Style requires it in almost all cases. Be sure to check with the style guide you use to see if the Oxford comma is a requirement or not.
Writer for Chrome
Clear, concise and error-free
Start your free 14-day trial
Are Oxford commas grammatically correct?
Contrary to what most students believe, the Oxford comma isn’t grammatically correct. But that doesn’t mean it’s wrong to use it. Instead, it’s grammatically optional.
As mentioned in the section above, whether or not you use the Oxford comma will depend on the style guide you follow. Some style guides require you to use it, while others, like the Associated Press Stylebook, consider it unnecessary.
The type of writing you’re doing, the meaning of a sentence, and your personal preference will also come into play.
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no
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Publishing
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Is the Oxford Comma Necessary?
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yes_statement
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the "oxford" comma is "necessary".. the use of the "oxford" comma is required.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_comma
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Serial comma - Wikipedia
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In English-language punctuation, a serial comma (also called a series comma, Oxford comma, or Harvard comma)[1][2] is a comma placed immediately after the penultimate term (i.e., before the coordinating conjunction, such as and or or) in a series of three or more terms. For example, a list of three countries might be punctuated as either "France, Italy and Spain" (without the serial comma) or "France, Italy, and Spain" (with the serial comma).[3][4][5]
The Oxford Companion to the English Language notes: "Usage varies as to the inclusion of a comma before and in the last item. ... This practice is controversial and is known as the serial comma or Oxford comma, because it is part of the house style of Oxford University Press."[15]
There are cases in which the use of the serial comma can avoid ambiguity, and also instances in which its use can introduce ambiguity.[16]
The comma itself is widely attributed to Aldus Manutius, a 15th-century Italian printer who used a mark we now recognize as a comma to separate words.[17] Etymologically, the word comma, which became widely used to describe Manutius's mark, comes from the Greek koptein (literally "to cut off").[18] The Oxford comma (defined above) has been used for centuries in a variety of languages, though not necessarily in a standardized or prescribed manner.[19] The Oxford comma as we know it is most often attributed to Horace Hart. The printer and controller of the Oxford University Press from 1893 to 1915, Hart authored the eponymous Hart's Rules for Compositors and Readers in 1905 as a style guide for the employees working at the press.[20] The guide called for the use of the serial comma (hence the name "Oxford Comma"),[21] but the punctuation mark had no distinct name until 1978, when Peter Sutcliffe referred to the Oxford comma as such in his book about the history of the Oxford University Press.[22]
Sutcliffe, however, attributed the Oxford comma not to Horace Hart but to F. Howard Collins,[22] who mentioned it in his 1905 book, Author & Printer: A Guide for Authors, Editors, Printers, Correctors of the Press, Compositors, and Typists.[23]
Omitting the serial comma may create ambiguity. Writers who normally avoid the serial comma often use one when it avoids ambiguity. Consider this apocryphal book dedication:[30]
To my parents, Ayn Rand and God.
There is ambiguity about the writer's parentage because "Ayn Rand and God" can be read as a renaming of[31]my parents, leading the reader to believe that the writer claims that Ayn Rand and God are the parents. A comma before and removes the ambiguity:
To my parents, Ayn Rand, and God.
But lists can also be written in other ways that eliminate the ambiguity without introducing the serial comma, such as by changing the word order or by using other punctuation, or none, to introduce or delimit them (though the emphasis may thereby be changed):
A serial comma following "Kris Kristofferson" would help prevent this being understood as Kris Kristofferson and Robert Duvall being the ex-wives in question.
Another example:
My usual breakfast is coffee, bacon and eggs and toast.
It is unclear whether the eggs are being grouped with the bacon or the toast. Adding a serial comma removes this ambiguity:
My usual breakfast is coffee, bacon and eggs, and toast.
In some circumstances using the serial comma can create ambiguity. If the book dedication above is changed to
To my mother, Ayn Rand, and God.
the serial comma after Ayn Rand creates ambiguity about the writer's mother because it uses punctuation identical to that used for an appositive phrase, leaving it unclear whether this is a list of three entities (1, my mother; 2, Ayn Rand; and 3, God) or of only two entities (1, my mother, who is Ayn Rand; and 2, God).[16]
This is ambiguous because it is unclear whether "a maid" is an appositive renaming of Betty or the second in a list of three people. On the other hand, removing the final comma:
They went to Oregon with Betty, a maid and a cook.
leaves the possibility that Betty is both a maid and a cook (with "a maid and a cook" read as an appositive phrase[33]). So in this case neither the serial-comma style nor the no-serial-comma style resolves the ambiguity. A writer who intends a list of three distinct people (Betty, maid, cook) may create an ambiguous sentence, regardless of whether the serial comma is adopted. Furthermore, if the reader is unaware of which convention is being used, both versions are always ambiguous.
The list x, y and z is unambiguous if y and z cannot be read as a renaming of x.
Equally, x, y, and z is unambiguous if y cannot be read as a renaming of x.
If neither y nor y, and z can be read as a renaming of x, then both forms of the list are unambiguous; but if both y and y and z can be read as a renaming of x, then both forms of the list are ambiguous.
x and y and z is unambiguous if x and y and y and z cannot both be grouped.
Ambiguities can often be resolved by the selective use of semicolons instead of commas when more separation is required.[34] General practice across style guides involves using semicolons when individual items have their own punctuation or coordinating conjunctions. But typically, a "serial semicolon" is required.[35]
Wikipedia's Manual of Style (MOS:SERIAL) leaves use of the serial comma up to the editor so long as individual articles are consistent.
Lynne Truss writes: "There are people who embrace the Oxford comma, and people who don't, and I'll just say this: never get between these people when drink has been taken."[6]
Omitting a serial comma is often characterized as a journalistic style of writing, as contrasted with a more academic or formal style.[36][37][38] Journalists typically do not use the serial comma, possibly for economy of space.[39] In Australia and Canada, the serial comma is typically avoided in non-academic publications unless its absence produces ambiguity.
It is important that usage within a document be consistent;[40] inconsistent usage can seem unprofessional.[38]
"After each member within a series of three or more words, phrases, letters, or figures used with and, or, or nor." It notes that an age ("70 years 11 months 6 days") is not a series and should not take commas.[41]
"What, then, are the arguments for omitting the last comma? Only one is cogent – the saving of space. In the narrow width of a newspaper column this saving counts for more than elsewhere, which is why the omission is so nearly universal in journalism. But here or anywhere one must question whether the advantage outweighs the confusion caused by the omission. … The recommendation here is that [writers] use the comma between all members of a series, including the last two, on the common-sense ground that to do so will preclude ambiguities and annoyances at a negligible cost."[42]
"When a conjunction joins the last two elements in a series of three or more, a comma … should appear before the conjunction. Chicago strongly recommends this widely practiced usage." In answer to a reader's query, The Chicago Manual of Style Online notes that their style guide has been recommending use of the serial comma ever since the first edition in 1906, but also qualifies this, saying "the serial comma is optional; some mainstream style guides (such as the Associated Press) don't use it. … there are times when using the comma (or omitting it) results in ambiguity, which is why it's best to stay flexible."[43]
"In a series of three or more terms with a single conjunction, use a comma after each term except the last." This has been recommended in The Elements of Style since the first edition by Strunk in 1918.[43]
"To separate the elements (words, phrases, clauses) of a simple series of more than 2 elements, including a comma before the closing 'and' or 'or' (the so-called serial comma). Routine use of the serial comma helps to prevent ambiguity."
"Whether to include the serial comma has sparked many arguments. But it's easily answered in favor of inclusion because omitting the final comma may cause ambiguities, whereas including it never will – e.g.: 'A and B, C and D, E and F[,] and G and H'."
"Medical transcriptionists use the serial comma when two medications or diagnoses must be seen as separate; i.e., for 'The patient was on Aspirin, Coversyl, and Dilaudid', the comma is used before 'and' to avoid the reader erroneously thinking that Coversyl and Dilaudid must be taken together."[44]
AIP Style Manual, American Institute of Physics, fourth edition, 1990
"A comma goes before 'and' or 'or' in a series of three or more: Sn, K, Na, and Li lines are invisible."
"Use commas to separate elements in a series, but do not put a comma before the conjunction in a simple series. […] Put a comma before the concluding conjunction in a series, however, if an integral element of the series requires a conjunction: I had orange juice, toast, and ham and eggs for breakfast. Use a comma also before the concluding conjunction in a complex series of phrases: The main points to consider are whether the athletes are skillful enough to compete, whether they have the stamina to endure the training, and whether they have the proper mental attitude. In the United States, the choice is between journalistic style (no serial comma) and "literary" style (with serial comma); consistent use of the serial comma is usually recommended for college writing."[36]
"For a century it has been part of OUP style to retain or impose this last serial (or series) comma consistently, … but it is commonly used by many other publishers both here and abroad, and forms a routine part of style in US and Canadian English. … Given that the final comma is sometimes necessary to prevent ambiguity, it is logical to impose it uniformly, so as to obviate the need to pause and gauge each enumeration on the likelihood of its being misunderstood – especially since that likelihood is often more obvious to the reader than the writer."[47]
"In an enumeration of three or more items, the practice in MHRA journals is to insert commas after all but the last item, to give equal weight to each enumerated element. … The conjunctions and and or without a preceding comma are understood as linking the parts of a single enumerated element"
But paragraph 5.1[48] says "The comma after the penultimate item may be omitted in books published by the MHRA, as long as the sense is clear."
"Do not put a comma before and at the end of a sequence of items unless one of the items includes another and. Thus 'The doctor suggested an aspirin, half a grapefruit and a cup of broth. But he ordered scrambled eggs, whisky and soda, and a selection from the trolley.'"
"Sometimes it is essential: compare 'I dedicate this book to my parents, Martin Amis, and JK Rowling' with 'I dedicate this book to my parents, Martin Amis and JK Rowling'."
University of Oxford Public Affairs Directorate Writing and Style Guide[51]
"Note that there is generally no comma between the penultimate item and 'and'/'or' – this is sometimes referred to as the 'Oxford comma'. However, it is essential to use an Oxford comma if required to prevent ambiguity."
Mainly British style guides that consider it generally unnecessary but discretionary[edit]
"A comma before the final 'and' in lists: straightforward ones (he ate ham, eggs and chips) do not need one, but sometimes it can help the reader (he ate cereal, kippers, bacon, eggs, toast and marmalade, and tea)."
"The so-called 'Oxford comma' is an optional comma that follows the penultimate item in a list of three or more items and precedes the word 'and' … The general rule is that it should be used consistently or not at all … However, the Oxford comma can help to avoid ambiguity, ... and it is sometimes helpful to the reader to use an isolated serial comma for clarification, even when the convention has not been adopted in the rest of the text."
"The general rule is that one style or the other should be used consistently. However, the last comma can serve to resolve ambiguity, particularly when any of the items are compound terms joined by a conjunction, and it is sometimes helpful to the reader to use an isolated serial comma for clarification even when the convention has not been adopted in the rest of the text."
"A comma is used before and, or, or etc. in a list when its omission might either give rise to ambiguity or cause the last word or phrase to be construed with a preposition in the preceding phrase. … Generally, however, a comma is not used before and, or or etc. in a list."
Public Works and Government Services Canada Translation Bureau's The Canadian Style: A Guide to Writing and Editing[56]
"Items in a series may be separated by commas:
Complacency, urbanity, sentimentality, whimsicality
They may also be linked by coordinating conjunctions such as and or or:
economists, sociologists or political scientists
the good, the bad and the ugly
Opinions differ on whether and when a comma should be inserted before the final and or or in a sequence. In keeping with the general trend toward less punctuation, the final comma is best omitted where clarity permits, unless there is a need to emphasize the last element in a series."
In the U.S. state of Maine, the lack of a serial comma became the deciding factor in a $13 million lawsuit filed in 2014 that was eventually settled for $5 million in 2017. The U.S. appeals judge David J. Barron wrote, "For want of a comma, we have this case."[57][58][59]
In O'Connor v. Oakhurst Dairy,[60] a federal court of appeals was required to interpret a statute under which the "canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution" of certain goods were activities exempted from the general requirement of overtime pay. The question was whether this list included the distribution of the goods, or only the packing of the goods for distribution. The lack of a comma suggested one meaning, while the omission of the conjunction or before "packing" and the fact that the Maine Legislative Drafting Manual advised against use of the serial comma suggested another. It said "Although authorities on punctuation may differ, when drafting Maine law or rules, don't use a comma between the penultimate and the last item of a series."[61] In addition to the absence of a comma, the fact that the word chosen was "distribution" rather than "distributing" was also a consideration,[62] as was the question of whether it would be reasonable to consider the list to be an asyndetic list. Truck drivers demanded overtime pay; the defense conceded that the expression was ambiguous but said it should be interpreted as exempting distribution activity from overtime pay.[62] The district court agreed with the defense and held that "distribution" was an exempt activity. On appeal, however, the First Circuit decided that the sentence was ambiguous and "because, under Maine law, ambiguities in the state's wage and hour laws must be construed liberally in order to accomplish their remedial purpose", adopted the drivers' narrower reading of the exemption and ruled that those who distributed the goods were entitled to overtime pay. Oakhurst Dairy settled the case by paying $5 million to the drivers,[63] and the phrase in the law in question was later changed to use serial semicolons and "distributing" – resulting in "canning; processing; preserving; freezing; drying; marketing; storing; packing for shipment; or distributing".[64]
The opinion in the case said that 43 of the 50 U.S. states had mandated the use of a serial comma and that both chambers of the federal congress had warned against omitting it, in the words of the U.S. House Legislative Counsel's Manual on Drafting Style, "to prevent any misreading that the last item is part of the preceding one"; only seven states "either do not require or expressly prohibited the use of the serial comma".[26][27]
In 2020 a commemorative 50p coin was brought into circulation in the United Kingdom to mark "Brexit day", January 31, 2020, minted with the phrase "Peace, prosperity and friendship with all nations". English novelist Philip Pullman and others criticized the omission of the Oxford comma, while others said it was an Americanism and not required in this instance.[65][66]
^Sometimes, the term also denotes the comma that might come before etc. at the end of a list (see the Australian Government Publishing Service's Style Manual for Authors, Editors, and Printers, below). Such an extension is reasonable, since etc. is the abbreviation of the Latin phrase et cetera (lit. and other things).
^The serial comma sometimes refers to any of the separator commas in a list, but this is a rare, old-fashioned usage. Herein, the term is used only as defined above.
^Garner, Bryan A. (2009). Garner's Modern American Usage (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 676. ISBN978-0-19-538275-4. ... omitting the final comma may cause ambiguities, whereas including it never will ...
^ abStrunk, William Jr.; White, E. B. (2005). The Elements of Style. Illustrated by Maira Kalman (Illustrated ed.). Penguin Press. p. 3. ISBN9-7815-9420-069-4. Retrieved February 15, 2013. In a series of three or more terms with a single conjunction, use a comma after each term except the last.
^"GPO Style Manual"(PDF). United States Government Publishing Office. 2016. pp. 201–202. Retrieved January 10, 2023. The comma is used ... after each member within a series of three or more words, phrases, letters, or figures used with and, or, or nor.
^The Economist Style Guide (10th ed.). Profile Books. 2012. pp. 152–153. ISBN978-1-84668-606-1. Most American writers and publishers use the serial comma; most British writers and publishers use the serial comma only when necessary to avoid ambiguity ...
^The Oxford Style Manual, 2002: "The presence or lack of a comma before and or or ... has become the subject of much spirited debate. For a century it has been part of OUP style ..., to the extent that the convention has come to be called the 'Oxford comma'. But it is commonly used by many other publishers here and abroad, and forms a routine part of style in US and Canadian English" (p. 121).
^"University of Oxford Style Guide"(PDF). p. 13. Note that there is no comma between the penultimate item in a list and 'and'/'or', unless required to prevent ambiguity – this is sometimes referred to as the 'Oxford comma'.
^The Oxford Style Manual, 2002: "But it is commonly used by many other publishers here and abroad, and forms a routine part of style in US and Canadian English" (p. 121).
^The Oxford Style Manual, 2002; from discussion of the serial comma: "The last comma serves also to resolve ambiguity, particularly when any of the items are compound terms joined by a conjunction" (p. 122).
^The Oxford Style Manual, 2002; in discussion of the semicolon, examples are given in which complex listed items are separated by semicolons, with the same structure and on the same principles as are consistently recommended for use of the comma as a list separator in the preceding section (pp. 124–5)
^Ridout, R., and Witting, C., The Facts of English, Pan, 1973, p. 79: "Usually in such lists 'and' is not preceded by a comma, […]".
^ abGramlich, Andy (2005). "Commas: the biggest little quirks in the English language"(PDF). Hohonu. 3 (3): 71. Retrieved December 17, 2013. It's just a matter of STYLE, and in this case, newspaper or literary (book) style. . . . Choose one style or the other the authorities say, but be consistent. Most writers recommend the literary style in college writing to avoid possible confusion . . .
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Thus 'The doctor suggested an aspirin, half a grapefruit and a cup of broth. But he ordered scrambled eggs, whisky and soda, and a selection from the trolley.' "
"Sometimes it is essential: compare 'I dedicate this book to my parents, Martin Amis, and JK Rowling' with 'I dedicate this book to my parents, Martin Amis and JK Rowling'. "
University of Oxford Public Affairs Directorate Writing and Style Guide[51]
"Note that there is generally no comma between the penultimate item and 'and'/'or' – this is sometimes referred to as the 'Oxford comma'. However, it is essential to use an Oxford comma if required to prevent ambiguity. "
Mainly British style guides that consider it generally unnecessary but discretionary[edit]
"A comma before the final 'and' in lists: straightforward ones (he ate ham, eggs and chips) do not need one, but sometimes it can help the reader (he ate cereal, kippers, bacon, eggs, toast and marmalade, and tea)."
"The so-called 'Oxford comma' is an optional comma that follows the penultimate item in a list of three or more items and precedes the word 'and' … The general rule is that it should be used consistently or not at all … However, the Oxford comma can help to avoid ambiguity, ... and it is sometimes helpful to the reader to use an isolated serial comma for clarification, even when the convention has not been adopted in the rest of the text. "
"The general rule is that one style or the other should be used consistently. However, the last comma can serve to resolve ambiguity, particularly when any of the items are compound terms joined by a conjunction, and it is sometimes helpful to the reader to use an isolated serial comma for clarification even when the convention has not been adopted in the rest of the text. "
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no
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Publishing
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Is the Oxford Comma Necessary?
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yes_statement
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the "oxford" comma is "necessary".. the use of the "oxford" comma is required.
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https://www.yourdictionary.com/articles/oxford-comma-guide
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The Oxford Comma: A Simple Guide With Real-Life Examples ...
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The Oxford Comma: A Simple Guide With Real-Life Examples
The Oxford comma has the distinction of being one of the most hotly debated elements of the English language. Also referred to as the serial comma, this little punctuation mark has been fiercely defended — or shrugged off — by grammarians for years. Get an all-inclusive guide to everything about the Oxford comma so you can take your own stance on using it.
What Is the Oxford Comma?
So what is this questionable Oxford comma? The Oxford comma is, you guessed it, a comma! It's placed in a series of three or more items before the coordinating conjunction. (You'll also see it called a series comma or a serial comma.) It can be used in both "and" and "or" lists as the last comma separating a series of items. It works to help order these items and provide a distinction between the items on the list, particularly the last two items. See several Oxford comma examples at play to understand the basics of how it works.
She liked to read books, paint portraits, and take her dog for a walk.
Make sure he doesn't eat any peanuts, bread, or carrots.
When going on the trip, we need to make sure to pack, make the bed, and shut off the lights before we leave.
Peter, Paul, Jane, and Anna are all going to join the meeting today.
You have to make sure you close the gate, check the latch, and open the screen before letting the dog out.
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Oxford Comma Quick Check
Want all the ins and outs of the Oxford comma in one place? Clear up the confusion with this easy-to-follow infographic on its usage.
DESCRIPTION
infographic oxford comma rules pros cons
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cat: Maxterdesign , women: KavalenkavaVolha , ice cream: Sudowoodo
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Used under Getty Images license
Who Invented the Oxford Comma?
The invention of the Oxford comma is debated almost as much as its usage. Why it's called the Oxford comma is easy to explain. Peter Sutcliffe used the term in his 1978 informal history of the Oxford University Press. The original invention is less clear. Sutcliffe credits the introduction of the Oxford comma to F. Howard Collins, who created the 1912 Authors’ & Printers’ Dictionary. Collins, in turn, cites philosopher Herbert Spencer as the authority.
When Is the Oxford Comma Needed?
To find out when an Oxford comma is needed, it’s important to look at this serial comma's purpose. It provides the distinction between items in a list. Let's consider an example.
We are excited to visit Madame Tussaud's and see her parents, Elvis Presley and Dolly Parton.
So, are they seeing the parents and Dolly Parton and Elvis Presley? Or are Dolly Parton and Elvis Presley the parents? Without an Oxford comma, the world will never know.
While most people would like to believe they are meeting all four people, the Oxford comma would completely clarify the distinction between meeting four or two people.
We are excited to visit Madame Tussaud's and see her parents, Elvis Presley, and Dolly Parton.
The Oxford comma shows you clearly the distinction between the parents, Elvis Presley, and Dolly Parton.
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Necessary Oxford Comma Examples
Let’s look at a few more fun examples to clearly see when an oxford comma is needed so you don't look like a weirdo!
We are going to be wearing dresses that are blue, green and purple and red. (What colors are the dresses exactly?)
The cosmetology school offered a perm, cut and curl and color for a very reasonable price. (Are the cut and curl offered together or is it the curl and color?)
We needed to discuss the state of the union address, William and Henry's meeting and marriage rights. (Are they meeting and getting married?)
The ice cream comes in an assortment of flavors including banana and strawberry, strawberry and mango and blueberry. (Is strawberry and mango one flavor or is it blueberry and mango?)
In class today you'll meet the spiders, Spencer and Telly. (Are these the names of the spiders?)
We were given this information by the Congressman, a liar and a cheat. (Is the Congressman a liar and a cheat?)
When you're coming to the party can you bring Janet, a clown and an acrobat? (Is Janet a clown and an acrobat?)
As you can see, leaving out the Oxford comma can sometimes make things confusing, hilarious, and possibly scandalous if you were to take the sentence the wrong way.
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How an Oxford Comma Can Change Meaning: Real-Life Cases
Worse than people thinking you're a liar and cheat, a lack of an Oxford comma can even have legal ramifications. Check out these real cases where the Oxford comma made a big difference.
Maine Delivery Drivers Lawsuit
A group of dairy delivery drivers in Maine received a $5 million settlement, due entirely to the lack of an Oxford comma. In legislative documents, certain tasks were singled out as exempt from overtime payments. The documents indicated that the "canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of" certain product are exempt from overtime payments.
Without a final comma in the series of tasks, "packing for shipment or distribution" could be read as "packing for shipment OR packing for distribution," where "packing for" is used for both "shipment" and "distribution." This is quite different from [packing for shipment] or [distribution], wherein the drivers are doing the latter task. By placing an Oxford comma before "or distribution," it would've been clear that "distribution" was its own separate act. Don't you think five million dollars is quite a loss, due the lack of a single, tiny comma? You can be sure an Oxford comma was added to the revised documents.
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Obama's Surprise Engagement
When writing a tweet, you might not think about grammar, but it can lead to confusion. News sites, for example, might want to consider how things look when the Oxford comma is missing. In one tweet, SkyNews caused a bit of confusion on Twitter when they announced, "World leaders at Mandela tribute, Obama-Castro handshake and same-sex marriage date set ..." Without the Oxford comma, it's hard to tell whether Obama and Castro just shook hands or they are also planning a same-sex marriage!
Which Countries Use the Oxford Comma?
Ironically, the Oxford comma is not actually a big deal in the U.K., its country of origin, but it’s a popular punctuation mark in many parts of the world. According to Google Trends, the top 5 places interested in the Oxford comma include the Philippines, the United States, Canada, Singapore and the United Kingdom.
The U.S. routinely tops the chart of Oxford comma lovers. Within the United States, the regions with the most interest are the District of Columbia, New Hampshire and Montana. Additionally, while serial comma and Oxford comma are both common search terms, Oxford comma is by far the stronger term.
However, in any country, whether or not you choose to use the Oxford comma is typically a personal choice. In the U.S. most academic style guides require it, but even they don’t completely agree.
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What Style Guides Say About the Oxford Comma
Let's review the main style guides and see where each of the heavy-hitters comes down on the subject.
AP Stylebook
In September 2017, the Associated Press (AP) released a clear, concise statement via Twitter. They wrote, "We don't ban Oxford commas! We say: If omitting a comma could lead to confusion or misinterpretation, then use the comma." That's precisely the kind of thing that could've saved the state of Maine a whopping $5 million.
APA Stylebook
The APA Stylebook by the American Psychological Association, however, is far firmer on its stance on the Oxford comma. In the punctuation section of the guidebook, it states the APA "requires the use of the serial (or Oxford) comma in lists of three or more items."
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The Chicago Manual of Style
Turns out the Chicago Manual of Style falls on the same side as the APA. It, too, requires the serial comma in a list of three or more items. It comes down to be a matter of ambiguity. In an effort to minimize exactly that, the Chicago Manual of Style calls for the serial comma.
MLA Style Guide
Finally, the MLA Style Guide from the Modern Language Association requires the use of the Oxford comma as well. The only style guide that leaves it open to interpretation is the Associated Press.
Oxford Comma: A Hot Debate
While the style guides provide a clear set of rules for the Oxford comma, this is far from an open and shut issue. The controversy is still raging on the internet and beyond on whether to use or not to use the Oxford comma. The truth is that the Oxford comma is both grammatically correct and often grammatically unnecessary at the same time. With no clear answer, the debate will continue.
In fact, this highly contested comma even lead to a proposed boycott of a coin. Author Philip Pullman called for a boycott of the Brexit 50p because of a missing Oxford comma. Additionally, the TikTok video by Kelsie Satterfield showing the merits and importance of the Oxford comma went viral in 2019. There are a lot of people on both sides of the serial comma issue.
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Pros and Cons of the Oxford Comma
No matter where you stand on the serial comma, there are a few very significant pros and cons you should know.
Pros of Oxford Comma
Cons of Oxford Comma
It clears up ambiguity in a sentence: "I want to thank my parents, the president, and the vice president."
It can produce ambiguity: "This is for my daughter, Billie, and Sherrie." Adding the Oxford comma creates uncertainty about whether or not Billie is the daughter.
It keeps punctuation use consistent throughout a paper.
It creates unnecessary sentence bulk.
The omission of an Oxford comma can create a stronger connection between the last two items than was intended.
It's unnecessary for most simple lists.
Should You Use the Oxford Comma?
Alright, alright. If someone is truly adamant, don't allow them to get under your collar. It's true that the Oxford comma is open to interpretation, but, in the case of academic writing, be sure to check your style guides. Three out of four require it.
In informal writing, go with your gut. Choose what works best, just be consistent. If you want to err on the side of clear and concise, use the Oxford comma. Remember you may run into a situation akin to the delivery drivers in Maine if you go without it. For such a tiny punctuation mark, the comma carries a lot of weight. Aside from clarity and precision, here are eight other times commas were important.
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When going on the trip, we need to make sure to pack, make the bed, and shut off the lights before we leave.
Peter, Paul, Jane, and Anna are all going to join the meeting today.
You have to make sure you close the gate, check the latch, and open the screen before letting the dog out.
Advertisement
Oxford Comma Quick Check
Want all the ins and outs of the Oxford comma in one place? Clear up the confusion with this easy-to-follow infographic on its usage.
DESCRIPTION
infographic oxford comma rules pros cons
SOURCE
cat: Maxterdesign , women: KavalenkavaVolha , ice cream: Sudowoodo
PERMISSION
Used under Getty Images license
Who Invented the Oxford Comma?
The invention of the Oxford comma is debated almost as much as its usage. Why it's called the Oxford comma is easy to explain. Peter Sutcliffe used the term in his 1978 informal history of the Oxford University Press. The original invention is less clear. Sutcliffe credits the introduction of the Oxford comma to F. Howard Collins, who created the 1912 Authors’ & Printers’ Dictionary. Collins, in turn, cites philosopher Herbert Spencer as the authority.
When Is the Oxford Comma Needed?
To find out when an Oxford comma is needed, it’s important to look at this serial comma's purpose. It provides the distinction between items in a list. Let's consider an example.
We are excited to visit Madame Tussaud's and see her parents, Elvis Presley and Dolly Parton.
So, are they seeing the parents and Dolly Parton and Elvis Presley? Or are Dolly Parton and Elvis Presley the parents? Without an Oxford comma, the world will never know.
While most people would like to believe they are meeting all four people, the Oxford comma would completely clarify the distinction between meeting four or two people.
We are excited to visit Madame Tussaud's and see her parents, Elvis Presley, and Dolly Parton.
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yes
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Publishing
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Is the Oxford Comma Necessary?
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yes_statement
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the "oxford" comma is "necessary".. the use of the "oxford" comma is required.
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https://capitalizemytitle.com/what-is-the-oxford-comma/
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What Is the Oxford Comma and Why Is It Important? - Capitalize My ...
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What Is the Oxford Comma and Why Is It Important?
It is common knowledge that writing is fun and exciting, especially when you want to express yourself vividly. You want to write from the heart, devoid of the standards of journalism. But to some extent, you would have to write based on the conventions of grammar. One of these conventions includes the use of the Oxford comma.
You may be wondering what the Oxford comma is. You may, in fact, have used it before. In this article, we will introduce you to the Oxford comma and why you should be using it in your writing.
The Oxford Comma Defined
The Oxford comma, also known as the serial comma, is the final comma that is placed before a coordinating conjunction in a set of three or more objects. These coordinating conjunctions include “and” or “or.” Editors and writers have varied opinions on whether or not people should use the serial comma. Even its use also differs between and among regional varieties of English. Nevertheless, the comma has been used in various pieces throughout the ages.
Let us provide you with an example:
Sentence 1: John brought us apples, oranges and grapes.
Sentence 2: John brought us apples, oranges, and grapes.
If you look at the Sentence 1 above, the Oxford comma was not used. Hence, we can conclude that the two fruits namely, “oranges and grapes” are considered as one. In Sentence 2, the Oxford comma was used. This changes the whole structure of the sentence. We can safely assume that John brought three different fruits: apples, oranges, and also grapes.
You should note that the Oxford comma is optional, which means you are not required to use it. As a matter of fact, it is not a common practice in countries such as the United Kingdom, South Africa, or Australia. Although it is a standard grammar rule in the United States, it is more common when dealing with non-journalistic forms of prose.
Importance of the Oxford Comma
As we have mentioned earlier, using the serial comma or Oxford comma is entirely optional. However, the meanings of most – if not all – sentences might change drastically without it. This is one of the reasons why the Oxford comma is important.
Let us take for instance several examples presented below.
Sentence 1: Cynthia invited her two bosses, Larry and Bert.
Sentence 2: Cynthia invited her two bosses, Larry, and Bert.
With the omission of a comma, the meaning of the sentence changes completely. For the first sentence, Cynthia invited two people – her two bosses. This is because the absence of the Oxford comma makes it appear that the bosses are in fact, Larry and Bert. However, in the second sentence, Cynthia invited four people – her two bosses, Larry, and finally, we have Bert. The presence of the Oxford comma makes it appear that Larry and Bert are separate entities from the two bosses.
One of the other reasons why the Oxford comma is necessary is so that we could make our thoughts as clear as possible. When writing, the stress or pause which we intend might not be translated fully into text. This might confuse a lot of readers. Let us look at another example where this reason is evident.
Sentence 1: Dimitri drove with his best friend, a doctor and an engineer.
Sentence 2: Dimitri drove with his best friend, a doctor, and an engineer.
If we try to study the first sentence, we may conclude that Dimitri’s best friend is a doctor and an engineer at the same time. This is because the absence of the Oxford comma allows us to think that these two terms (namely, the doctor and the engineer) describe his best friend. However, if we try to add the Oxford comma after the conjunction, the whole sentence forms a new meaning. The second sentence now means that Dimitri drove with three different people – his best friend, a doctor, and also the engineer.
Here is another example where confusion might arise when the Oxford comma is absent.
Sentence 1: She dedicated her speech to her parents, Walt Whitman and God.
Sentence 2: She dedicated her speech to her parents, Walt Whitman, and God.
Basing from the first sentence, it is likely that the speech was dedicated to her parents, namely Walt Whitman and God. This might confuse readers since they could comprehend that her parents’ names are indeed Walt Whitman and God. To avoid confusion and ambiguity, the comma is essential. If we look at the second sentence, it becomes more evident – that the speech was dedicated to her parents, to Walt Whitman, and finally, to God.
To read more about common oxford comma issues and other punctuation errors, you should read Eats, Shoots & Leaves.
History of the Oxford Comma
Like the comma itself, the origins of the Oxford comma is also ambiguous. But before we do get to know the person who is attributed to this grammar style, we have to give credit to the person who introduced comma. An Italian painter in the 15th century, Aldus Manutius (or Aldo Manuzio as others call him) introduced the concept of the comma in order to separate things.
Horace Hart, on the other hand, is attributed to be the person who introduced the serial comma to the world. Hart is a controller of the Oxford University Press from the year 1893 to 1915. In the year 1905, he published a book entitled, “Hart’s Rules for Compositors and Readers,” which served as a style guide for the employers who used to work at the press. The Oxford comma was included in such rule.
There were others, however, which were attributed to being the one who introduced such concept. Peter Sutcliff credited F. Howard Collins for introducing Oxford comma. It was noted that Collins stated it in his 1912 book entitled, “Author & Printer: A Guide for Authors, Editors, Printers, Correctors of the Press, Compositors, and Typists.” Nevertheless, it was Sutcliff himself who called the Oxford comma as such in his 1978 book regarding the history of the Oxford University Press.
No matter the ambiguous history, there is one thing that is clear – the need to use the Oxford comma. Why not try using it today?
Capitalize My Title is a dynamic title capitalization tool used to make sure your titles or headlines use proper capitalization rules according to various style guides include APA, AP, MLA, and Chicago. It also counts your words and checks for grammar issues.
1 COMMENT
SENTENCE 2: DIMITRI DROVE WITH HIS BEST FRIEND, A DOCTOR, AND AN ENGINEER.
There are two interpretations possible for Sentence 2.
1. Dimitri was accompanied by two people, his best friend who is a doctor, and an engineer.
2. Dimitri was accompnaied by three people, his best friend, a doctor, and an engineer.
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What Is the Oxford Comma and Why Is It Important?
It is common knowledge that writing is fun and exciting, especially when you want to express yourself vividly. You want to write from the heart, devoid of the standards of journalism. But to some extent, you would have to write based on the conventions of grammar. One of these conventions includes the use of the Oxford comma.
You may be wondering what the Oxford comma is. You may, in fact, have used it before. In this article, we will introduce you to the Oxford comma and why you should be using it in your writing.
The Oxford Comma Defined
The Oxford comma, also known as the serial comma, is the final comma that is placed before a coordinating conjunction in a set of three or more objects. These coordinating conjunctions include “and” or “or.” Editors and writers have varied opinions on whether or not people should use the serial comma. Even its use also differs between and among regional varieties of English. Nevertheless, the comma has been used in various pieces throughout the ages.
Let us provide you with an example:
Sentence 1: John brought us apples, oranges and grapes.
Sentence 2: John brought us apples, oranges, and grapes.
If you look at the Sentence 1 above, the Oxford comma was not used. Hence, we can conclude that the two fruits namely, “oranges and grapes” are considered as one. In Sentence 2, the Oxford comma was used. This changes the whole structure of the sentence. We can safely assume that John brought three different fruits: apples, oranges, and also grapes.
You should note that the Oxford comma is optional, which means you are not required to use it. As a matter of fact, it is not a common practice in countries such as the United Kingdom, South Africa, or Australia. Although it is a standard grammar rule in the United States, it is more common when dealing with non-journalistic forms of prose.
Importance of the Oxford Comma
As we have mentioned earlier, using the serial comma or Oxford comma is entirely optional. However, the meanings of most – if not all – sentences might change drastically without it. This is one of the reasons why the Oxford comma is important.
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no
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Is the Oxford Comma Necessary?
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yes_statement
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the "oxford" comma is "necessary".. the use of the "oxford" comma is required.
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https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/oxford-comma-silly-unnecessary-immoral-greg-weatherford
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The Oxford comma is silly, unnecessary and immoral. You're wrong ...
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Behind every great change is a great story.
First I'll demonstrate why mine is the correct point of view from every perspective that matters -- logically, in terms of clarity and even, in its way, morally.
And then I'm going to show you why the whole argument doesn't matter.
Buckle in. We're going to discuss the serial comma. Or, rather, the reasons I choose not to use it.
The situation at hand
First, if somehow you've missed this raging storm of controversy, what is the serial comma?
Also called the Oxford comma, it's the comma used before "and" in a series or list of three or more. For example: "I love eating, my cars, and Grandma."
The comma before "and Grandma" -- that's a serial comma. This is the ground upon which people who like to think of themselves as grammarians have staked their flag. They call themselves diehard defenders of the serial comma.
They're serious about it, too.
Just Google "serial comma defense." You'll be swamped with essays, articles and vigorous defenses of the Oxford comma.
Here's one.
Another:
This is a good one:
Funny, right?
But here's the thing with all these arguments: They're all based on spurious, and in some cases dishonest, reasoning.
Logic
The typical defense of the serial comma relies on the idea that not using it every time will inevitably lead readers to conclude that the author is inept. Or possibly insane.
Unless Nelson Mandela really was a collector of dildos, that final example is an unlikely situation to arise in real life. But it's standard practice for the pro-Oxford camp to build their arguments on such logically shaky ground.
For example, this statement from an online essay (titled, with typical pro-Oxford zealousness, "14 Reasons You Should Use The Oxford Comma: It's necessary, important, and life changing"): "Why would you only separate some things in a list while leaving others connected? I'm convinced that you're probably just lazy."
What a silly argument.
Why would you only separate some things in a list and not others? Because we know our readers are not brain-dead.
They know that "red, white and blue" is a list of three colors. They do not need a second comma to make this clear. (For that matter, following this senseless argument to its conclusion, shouldn't there be a comma after the final element in the series? And yet no one is arguing for that.)
We also know our readers will understand that the sentence "I had eggs, toast and orange juice" does not indicate that someone is telling toast and orange juice about the rest of breakfast. On what planet would someone read it that way?
In addition, we recognize that torturing logic to the point of breaking, as in that absurd yet often-presented example, does not help one's case.
Clarity
Most of these zealous pro-Oxford-comma arguments are built on the idea that the serial comma is required for clarity, and that style guides that suggest avoiding them will lead to floods of confusion.
This position is built on the assumption that non-Oxford comma styles insist on never using it.
This assumption, however, is false.
The fact is that every stylebook that eschews the serial comma -- including the Associated Press's -- indicates that if the comma is necessary for clarity the writer should use it.
Let me rephrase that to make it absolutely clear. The rule under these so-called anti-serial-comma style guides is this:
If a sentence is unclear without a serial comma, use it.
And, following the same logic: If a sentence is clear without a serial comma, do not use it.
Strangely, I never hear this point mentioned in discussions with pro-serial-comma zealots. Perhaps they simply don't know it. Or maybe they are too consumed with self-righteousness to pay attention to the rules they are attacking.
Strangely, I never hear this point mentioned in discussions with pro-serial-comma zealots.
All those examples like "This book is dedicated to my parents, Ayn Rand and God"? Agreed! Those are perfect cases in which a serial comma should be used.
If a sentence is unclear without serial commas, use them! No one is stopping you.
(This, by the way, is the point of the "my parents" sentence pictured above, which is often presented out of context. It was made up by author Stephen Pinker to show an example of when serial commas should be used.)
Morality
This may be a perspective only I share, but I bristle at being told I have to use a punctuation mark even when it is unnecessary.
I find this position to be dogmatic, draconian and dismissive of the writer's art. It presumes that a rulebook is superior to sense. It presupposes that no reader or writer can be trusted to distinguish between a clearly understandable list and one that needs help to be understood.
These people's insistence on following a punctuation rule in every case, despite all logic, strikes me as the sort of position held by self-important martinets and bureaucrats -- not by people who care about clarity and communications.
This argument presumes that a rulebook is superior to sense.
I would argue, in fact, that this mindless insistence on the inflexible use of the serial comma is the sort of rigid, thoughtless activity that in fables led lemmings over the cliffs -- and in real life leads people to obey orders, no matter how unethical or immoral or offensive those orders may be.
Yes, I just compared Oxford-comma zealots to Nazis. Deal with it.
None of this matters
I promised that I'd discuss why all this discussion is pointless. Here we go.
The secret to correct use of a publication's style is to keep in mind an important point that is almost always overlooked in discussions by non-professionals.
Here it is: A style guide is nothing more -- or less! -- than a guide to a publication's style. It is designed to encourage clarity and good grammar, yes, but most of all it is designed to enforce consistency.
If one editor spells a word "color" and another spells it "colour," a reader might well think a publication to be inconsistent. And for good reason! Same goes for how to write numbers. Is it 100 or one hundred or a hundred? Nine or 9? Should street names be spelled out (North Madison Street) or abbreviated (N. Madison St.)?
And so on. There are a thousand variations on all of these issues.
This is why style books and style guides exist. They lay a comforting blanket of consistency over the varying styles and personalities held by a mishmash of writers and editors from all sorts of backgrounds and educations and with all sorts of temperaments.
In the end, if you like one spelling of a word over another, or one punctuation rule more than another ... so what?
A good editor will apply the rules of the publication. A great one will play those rules like an instrument.
A professional understands that what really matters is understanding a publication's style rules and applying them with care and thought and integrity, with an eye to clarity and consistency and an ear for rhythm and rhyme.
A good editor will apply the rules of the publication. A great one will play those rules like an instrument.
The only thing that matters in the end is that good writing communicates. The rest is just noise.
A last thought
As you can see, I believe the serial comma has its uses but don't like being told I have to use it in every case. That's my view. But I will happily apply the serial comma when it is needed, and when I'm editing copy for a publication that calls for its universal use I apply those serial commas with vigor and satisfaction.
In the end, most of these jeremiads in support of the Oxford comma are really spirited defenses of clear writing. Their examples, however tortured, are pointing out how bad punctuation can confuse people.
If only they stuck to that point rather than attack people who don't believe the serial comma is required in every case. They're confusing the rule for the purpose behind it.
I always try to keep in mind a philosophy I adopted long ago: Rules are intended to make things better. If they don't, they're bad rules.
Can you point out a single instance in which the use of the serial comma makes writing less clear? You might as well suggest that the use of question marks is unnecessary because most questions start with a question word and we know our readers aren't stupid so we don't need the punctuation.
In Dutch we don't have this and it's totally unnecessary (immoral seems a bit over the top, but I can go along with stupid ;-) ). When I writing in English I purposefully never use the Oxford comma. People are smart enough to understand it.
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Here's one.
Another:
This is a good one:
Funny, right?
But here's the thing with all these arguments: They're all based on spurious, and in some cases dishonest, reasoning.
Logic
The typical defense of the serial comma relies on the idea that not using it every time will inevitably lead readers to conclude that the author is inept. Or possibly insane.
Unless Nelson Mandela really was a collector of dildos, that final example is an unlikely situation to arise in real life. But it's standard practice for the pro-Oxford camp to build their arguments on such logically shaky ground.
For example, this statement from an online essay (titled, with typical pro-Oxford zealousness, "14 Reasons You Should Use The Oxford Comma: It's necessary, important, and life changing"): "Why would you only separate some things in a list while leaving others connected? I'm convinced that you're probably just lazy. "
What a silly argument.
Why would you only separate some things in a list and not others? Because we know our readers are not brain-dead.
They know that "red, white and blue" is a list of three colors. They do not need a second comma to make this clear. (For that matter, following this senseless argument to its conclusion, shouldn't there be a comma after the final element in the series? And yet no one is arguing for that.)
We also know our readers will understand that the sentence "I had eggs, toast and orange juice" does not indicate that someone is telling toast and orange juice about the rest of breakfast. On what planet would someone read it that way?
In addition, we recognize that torturing logic to the point of breaking, as in that absurd yet often-presented example, does not help one's case.
Clarity
Most of these zealous pro-Oxford-comma arguments are built on the idea that the serial comma is required for clarity, and that style guides that suggest avoiding them will lead to floods of confusion.
This position is built on the assumption that non-Oxford comma styles insist on never using it.
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no
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Publishing
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Is the Oxford Comma Necessary?
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yes_statement
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the "oxford" comma is "necessary".. the use of the "oxford" comma is required.
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https://thedrewacorn.com/2022/11/18/why-the-oxford-comma-is-objectively-correct/
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Why the Oxford Comma is Objectively Correct – The Drew Acorn
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Why the Oxford Comma is Objectively Correct
The Oxford comma, sometimes called the serial comma, is one of the most important pieces of punctuation in the English language. For those who don’t know, the Oxford comma is a comma placed before the “and” or the “or” in a list of three or more items. I would give you an example, but unfortunately, I can’t. This is because the Associated Press (or “AP”) style––the writing style guide by which newspapers are published and to which our own paper adheres––forbids the use of the Oxford comma for some unknown and ungodly reason.
At first, this may seem like merely a gross overreaction from a grammar nerd. And that is an understandable response. However, clarity is key in writing, especially when one is reporting factual information, such as that presented in the majority of most newspapers, and the Oxford comma is essential in creating that much-needed clarity. For example, I present this sentence:
“I had lunch with my parents, Bob and Susan.”
Now from this, you might infer that my parents’ names are Bob and Susan, a reasonable inference based on the structure of the sentence. However, this would be incorrect. My intention in this sentence is actually to say that I had lunch with three individual parties, my parents and Bob and Susan. Not that Bob and Susan are my parents.
But how would you know that?
You would know that, dear reader, if I were able to use the Oxford comma to make my intentions clear by separating Bob and Susan as two separate parts of this list. But alas, the constraints of the AP style foil me once more and thus you are left confused and entirely misunderstanding my message.
This sort of ambiguity caused by the lack of Oxford commas does not merely include simple misunderstandings as the example I have given you. In 2014, it even led to a $5 million lawsuit. This lawsuit involved a dairy company, Oakhurst Dairy, and its employees in Maine. The dispute regarded whether certain actions merited overtime pay, which Maine state law, found at maine.gov, defines as “hours worked in excess of 40 in a work week at a rate not less than one and one-half their regular rates of pay.” The issue lies in the state of Maine’s further regulations, read at thewritelife.com on what work is eligible for overtime pay, stating, with this exact punctuation, that the following was not eligible:
The dispute came in regarding the absence of a comma between “shipment” and “or distribution.” Oakhurst Dairy argued that the law intended to say that “packing for shipment” and “distribution” were two separate entities in the list of ineligible tasks, but many of their employees argued that, due to the lack of a comma, the law didn’t actually say that. “In 2017, Judge David Barron reasoned that the law’s punctuation made it unclear if ‘packing for shipping or distribution’ is one activity or if ‘packing for shipping’ is separate from ‘distribution,’” wrote NBC News. The five distribution drivers who led the suit received $50,000 each and the other employees who filed were given due overtime compensation from their employer.
While not every example of confusion and misunderstanding from the lack of a comma is this drastic, it certainly proves the point that the Oxford comma, however small it may seem, is absolutely necessary. So use the Oxford comma, folks. Not only is it important, it’s correct.
Without the need to get on a flight across the globe, the Drew community was invited…
About Us
The Drew Acorn is Drew University’s student-run newspaper. Established in 1928, the Acorn covers campus life and news, as well as events in Madison and the surrounding area that are of interest to our student body. If you’re interested in writing for the Acorn, get in touch at [email protected], or join on path.drew.edu.
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Why the Oxford Comma is Objectively Correct
The Oxford comma, sometimes called the serial comma, is one of the most important pieces of punctuation in the English language. For those who don’t know, the Oxford comma is a comma placed before the “and” or the “or” in a list of three or more items. I would give you an example, but unfortunately, I can’t. This is because the Associated Press (or “AP”) style––the writing style guide by which newspapers are published and to which our own paper adheres––forbids the use of the Oxford comma for some unknown and ungodly reason.
At first, this may seem like merely a gross overreaction from a grammar nerd. And that is an understandable response. However, clarity is key in writing, especially when one is reporting factual information, such as that presented in the majority of most newspapers, and the Oxford comma is essential in creating that much-needed clarity. For example, I present this sentence:
“I had lunch with my parents, Bob and Susan.”
Now from this, you might infer that my parents’ names are Bob and Susan, a reasonable inference based on the structure of the sentence. However, this would be incorrect. My intention in this sentence is actually to say that I had lunch with three individual parties, my parents and Bob and Susan. Not that Bob and Susan are my parents.
But how would you know that?
You would know that, dear reader, if I were able to use the Oxford comma to make my intentions clear by separating Bob and Susan as two separate parts of this list. But alas, the constraints of the AP style foil me once more and thus you are left confused and entirely misunderstanding my message.
This sort of ambiguity caused by the lack of Oxford commas does not merely include simple misunderstandings as the example I have given you. In 2014, it even led to a $5 million lawsuit. This lawsuit involved a dairy company, Oakhurst Dairy, and its employees in Maine. The dispute regarded whether certain actions merited overtime pay, which Maine state law, found at maine.gov, defines as “hours worked in excess of 40 in a work week at a rate not less than one and one-half their regular rates of pay.”
|
yes
|
Publishing
|
Is the Oxford Comma Necessary?
|
no_statement
|
the "oxford" comma is not "necessary".. the use of the "oxford" comma is optional.
|
https://dailytrojan.com/2015/11/12/to-oxford-comma-or-not-to-oxford-comma/
|
To Oxford comma or not to Oxford comma? - Daily Trojan
|
To Oxford comma or not to Oxford comma?
The Oxford comma is one of the many paradoxes of the English language. We were taught to put a comma before “and” in a list of three or more ideas, and since then, we have unquestioningly followed this rule.
Journalism is different, though. We don’t use the Oxford comma; we believe that the “and” is already enough to separate two different ideas. In the spirit of simplicity, we do away with the Oxford comma that we learned to love in our elementary English classes.
With the English language in constant evolution, we must ask ourselves — should we use it in our writing? This is with the exception of journalistic-style writing, as the rule of having no Oxford commas is hard and fast.
The answer is: it’s up to you. The Oxford comma is one of those grammar rules that depends on what suits your writing style or what makes the most sense in the context of your written work.
I’m sorry to break it to you, but the Oxford comma that we all have known to love or hate is no longer vital to the grammatical feasibility of our essays. It’s not completely gone though — there is an ongoing debate among academic professionals whether or not the Oxford comma is still necessary.
There are those who say that without the Oxford comma, your written work can become confusing:
In the hospital waiting room there was a nurse, a pregnant woman and a construction worker.
Without the Oxford comma, you might jump to the conclusion that the pregnant woman is also a construction worker, which would obviously not make any sense. So you would rephrase it with the Oxford comma to avoid confusion:
In the hospital waiting room there was a nurse, pregnant woman, and a construction worker.
Those who are for the Oxford comma argue that the sentence can be re-ordered to avoid the aforementioned confusion:
In the hospital waiting room there was a construction worker, a nurse and a pregnant woman.
Ultimately, it is up to the writer to include or exclude the Oxford comma. The Oxford comma is completely optional, and depends on the context of the sentence, so use it at your discretion. Also know that the Oxford comma will not be going away anytime soon.
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|
To Oxford comma or not to Oxford comma?
The Oxford comma is one of the many paradoxes of the English language. We were taught to put a comma before “and” in a list of three or more ideas, and since then, we have unquestioningly followed this rule.
Journalism is different, though. We don’t use the Oxford comma; we believe that the “and” is already enough to separate two different ideas. In the spirit of simplicity, we do away with the Oxford comma that we learned to love in our elementary English classes.
With the English language in constant evolution, we must ask ourselves — should we use it in our writing? This is with the exception of journalistic-style writing, as the rule of having no Oxford commas is hard and fast.
The answer is: it’s up to you. The Oxford comma is one of those grammar rules that depends on what suits your writing style or what makes the most sense in the context of your written work.
I’m sorry to break it to you, but the Oxford comma that we all have known to love or hate is no longer vital to the grammatical feasibility of our essays. It’s not completely gone though — there is an ongoing debate among academic professionals whether or not the Oxford comma is still necessary.
There are those who say that without the Oxford comma, your written work can become confusing:
In the hospital waiting room there was a nurse, a pregnant woman and a construction worker.
Without the Oxford comma, you might jump to the conclusion that the pregnant woman is also a construction worker, which would obviously not make any sense. So you would rephrase it with the Oxford comma to avoid confusion:
In the hospital waiting room there was a nurse, pregnant woman, and a construction worker.
Those who are for the Oxford comma argue that the sentence can be re-ordered to avoid the aforementioned confusion:
In the hospital waiting room there was a construction worker, a nurse and a pregnant woman.
Ultimately, it is up to the writer to include or exclude the Oxford comma. The Oxford comma is completely optional, and depends on the context of the sentence, so use it at your discretion. Also know that the Oxford comma will not be going away anytime soon.
|
no
|
Lepidopterology
|
Is the Painted Lady butterfly the most widespread butterfly in the world?
|
yes_statement
|
the "painted" lady "butterfly" is the most "widespread" "butterfly" in the "world".. the "painted" lady "butterfly" holds the title for being the most "widespread" "butterfly" in the "world".
|
https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/painted-lady-butterfly-vanessa-cardui/
|
Painted Lady Butterfly, Vanessa cardui – Wisconsin Horticulture
|
Painted Lady Butterfly, Vanessa cardui
The adult painted lady has orange and brown patterned wings with white spots near the tips of the forewings.
The painted lady (Vanessa cardui) is the most widespread of all butterflies in the world. It is found throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, and Central America. Although not a permanent resident here in Wisconsin (it can only survive very mild winters here), it is a common visitor to the garden, especially in the fall. In most years, the painted lady moves north out of the deserts of northern Mexico and the southwestern U.S. to temporarily colonize the United States and Canada south of the Arctic. The first adults usually arrive in June to begin egg-laying. Periodically, enormous migrations from these deserts inundate other areas of the country, so it can be locally very abundant at times. There are four small spots on the underside of the wings.
The upper side of the 2-2½” wings are pinkish-orange with thick black lines and white spots near the tips of the forewings. The underside is a pattern of black, brown, red-orange and gray with four small spots near the margins. Females are generally larger than males.
The adults like open areas, such as prairies, old fields, vacant lots, and gardens. They prefer to feed from tall (3-6 feet high) plants, including blazing star, cosmos, New England aster, Joe-pye weed, Mexican sunflower, purple coneflower, and zinnias. They will visit other nectar plants, though, including red clover and milkweed. The adults only live for about 2 weeks, feeding exclusively on nectar. Males perch and patrol during the afternoon for females that are ready to mate. A caterpillar of the related American (V. virginiensis) on Echinops ritro.
The female butterflies lay pale green eggs the size of a pin head singly on leaves of many different food plants. The spiny caterpillars, which hatch after 3 to 5 days, are grayish brown or purple-black with yellow side stripes. They feed on the leaves of a wide variety of host plants (more than 100 species have been recorded) primarily in the families Compositae, Boraginaceae, and Malvaceae. Some of their preferred foods include calendula, hollyhock, mallow, sunflower and thistles (including Canada thistle). They eat continually for 5 to 10 days while living in a loosely woven silk nest, and, if numerous, can completely defoliate a plant. They go through 5 instars as they grow to an ultimate size of about 1¼ inches, before pupating on the host plant. The caterpillar hangs upside-down, attached with a single silken string, and forms a naked chrysalis from which the adult butterfly will emerge 7 to 10 days later. The number of generations per year vary from year to year but is generally two in our area. This species overwinters as adults but rarely survives the harsh winters in the Midwest. Painted lady egg (L and LC), young larva (C), last instar larva (RC) and pupa (R). All images from Wikipedia. A mass of butterflies on a flowering Allium.
These butterflies can be attracted by planting flowers they like, providing shallow water or draining wet sand and keeping the area pesticide-free. Some other garden nectar plants they will visit (in addition to those mentioned above) include butterfly bush (Buddleia), heliotrope, anise hyssop, marigolds, scabiosa, sedums, sweet William and Verbena bonariensis.
Other common, closely-related species, which are actually more abundant in Wisconsin in most years, include the red admiral (V. atalanta) and American lady (V. virginiensis). They can be distinguished from the painted lady by the patterns on the upper and lower wing surfaces. Red admirals have distinct red bands, while the American lady has thinner black lines on the upper wing surface and two larger spots on the underside. Other common butterflies closely related to painted lady include the red admiral (upper wing surfaces L, underside LC) and American lady (upper RC, underside R). – Susan Mahr, University of Wisconsin
An EEO/AA employer, University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension provides equal opportunities in employment and programming, including Title VI, Title IX, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act requirements.
|
Painted Lady Butterfly, Vanessa cardui
The adult painted lady has orange and brown patterned wings with white spots near the tips of the forewings.
The painted lady (Vanessa cardui) is the most widespread of all butterflies in the world. It is found throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, and Central America. Although not a permanent resident here in Wisconsin (it can only survive very mild winters here), it is a common visitor to the garden, especially in the fall. In most years, the painted lady moves north out of the deserts of northern Mexico and the southwestern U.S. to temporarily colonize the United States and Canada south of the Arctic. The first adults usually arrive in June to begin egg-laying. Periodically, enormous migrations from these deserts inundate other areas of the country, so it can be locally very abundant at times. There are four small spots on the underside of the wings.
The upper side of the 2-2½” wings are pinkish-orange with thick black lines and white spots near the tips of the forewings. The underside is a pattern of black, brown, red-orange and gray with four small spots near the margins. Females are generally larger than males.
The adults like open areas, such as prairies, old fields, vacant lots, and gardens. They prefer to feed from tall (3-6 feet high) plants, including blazing star, cosmos, New England aster, Joe-pye weed, Mexican sunflower, purple coneflower, and zinnias. They will visit other nectar plants, though, including red clover and milkweed. The adults only live for about 2 weeks, feeding exclusively on nectar. Males perch and patrol during the afternoon for females that are ready to mate. A caterpillar of the related American (V. virginiensis) on Echinops ritro.
The female butterflies lay pale green eggs the size of a pin head singly on leaves of many different food plants.
|
yes
|
Lepidopterology
|
Is the Painted Lady butterfly the most widespread butterfly in the world?
|
yes_statement
|
the "painted" lady "butterfly" is the most "widespread" "butterfly" in the "world".. the "painted" lady "butterfly" holds the title for being the most "widespread" "butterfly" in the "world".
|
https://www.learnaboutbutterflies.com/ButterflyFacts.html
|
Butterfly Facts
|
Frequently Asked
Questions
Next>>How did the word
butterfly originate ?According to popular belief, the word
butterfly is derived from the expression 'butter-coloured fly'. This
term may have been applied to the Brimstone, one of Britain's most
well known butterflies and often the first species to be seen when
they awake from hibernation in the Spring.
However there might be a better explanation. In Old English the word
was spelt 'butterfloege' and in Old Dutch and German it was
'botervleig' and 'butterfliege' respectively. These terms all
translate as 'butter fly'. Another German name 'milchdieb'
means 'milk-thief' and may refer to the habit that butterflies once
had of being attracted to buttermilk. In eastern Europe where
ancient farming methods have not died out, butterflies are still
sometimes attracted to buttermilk being hand-churned in farmyards.
Brimstone butterfly - the original "butter-coloured fly" ? �
Adrian HoskinsElsewhere in the world, butterflies
are known by other names. In Spain and Latin America they are called
mariposas. In Portugal they are borbolettas. To the French they are
papillons. In Russia they are babochka and in Armenia teeternig. My
favourites however are the Romanian flutturi ( because butterflies
are fluttery! ), and the Nigerian olookolombooka( oh look - a lombooka! ).Click here to see the historic
names of all British butterflies.How can you tell a butterfly
from a moth ?
All butterflies and moths belong to the order Lepidoptera. This is
split into 34 superfamilies, each with
particular characteristics. 95% of the species in these
superfamilies are nocturnal insects, and are commonly called moths.
Positioned ( in evolutionary and systematic terms ) somewhere in the
middle of all these moths are two particular superfamilies - the
Hesperioidea and Papilionoidea. The Hesperioidea
comprises of a single family Hesperiidae. Its members are called
Skippers, and are generally thought of as being butterflies. The
Papilionoidea comprises of 6 families. Five of these - the
Papilionidae, Lycaenidae, Riodinidae, Pieridae and Nymphalidae have
always been regarded as butterflies. In 2011 scientists decided as a
result of molecular analysis that members of the moth family
Hedylidae had more in common with
the traditional butterfly families than with other moths.
Consequently the Hedylidae were transferred to the Papilionoidea,
and are now regarded as butterflies! In terms of systematics the
Papilionoidea are positioned between the moth superfamilies
Geometroidea and Drepanoidea.
"Moths" are usually thought of as being drab in colour and nocturnal
in habit, but
there are plenty of very colourful day-flying moths, e.g. Urania
moths ( Uraniidae ),
Burnets ( Zygaenidae ) and Tiger moths (
Arctiidae ). Conversely while it's true that the great majority of
butterflies are colourful sun loving creatures, many tropical
species such as Opsiphanes Owlet
butterflies and Melanitis Evening
Browns are dull in colour and only fly between dusk and dawn.It is
often incorrectly stated that all butterflies have clubbed antennae,
thereby distinguishing them from moths, which in most cases have
tapered or pectinate antennae. It's true that butterflies in the
families Papilionidae, Lycaenidae, Riodinidae, Nymphalidae and
Pieridae have antennae with a club or swelling at the tip, but so do
moths in the families Zygaenidae, Castniidae and Sematuridae. The
nocturnal Hedylidae are anatomically somewhere between butterflies
and moths, with sombre wings and thin tapered antennae.The antennae of most butterflies
have a swollen or clubbed tip. � Adrian HoskinsThe antennae of skippers (
Hesperioidea ), such as Erynnis tages
have hooked tips, as do those of moths from the families Zygaenidae,
Sematuridae and Castniidae �
Adrian Hoskins
A pair of day-flying moths from Peru : Urania
leilus, which could easily be mistaken for a swallowtail
butterfly; and the pretty yellow and black
Xanthiris flaveolata �
Adrian HoskinsMost moths have narrow tapered
antennae, but the males of Saturniidae have feathery plumes that are
used to detect and home in on female pheromones
� Emily HalseyThe fore and hind-wings of all
moths are physically linked in flight by a wing-coupling bristle
known as a frenulum. This is absent from the wings of butterflies,
with the exception of a single Australian species the Regent Skipper
Euschemon rafflesia, which has a
frenulum in males but not in females.
Members of the moth family Hedylidae are considered to be living
ancestors of modern butterflies, as they have a remarkable number of
common characteristics. See
Macrosoma 'Butterfly moth'.For more
details about classification please visit theTaxonomy pages.How do scientists
describe and name new species ?
When someone thinks
they have discovered a 'new' species, they have to send a sample
specimen to a taxonomist for analysis. By examining the structure of
the wings, legs and antennae the family and subfamily can quickly be
determined. Next, examination of the layout of the wing veins makes it
possible to ascertain whether the insect belongs to an existing genus.
If the venation is unique, a new genus has to be invented as a
"container" for the species.
Sometimes a new species is so closely related to a
known species, that the only way to distinguish them is by dissecting
and comparing their genitalia. Other methods are also employed,
including microscopic examination of wing scales, and DNA analysis.
If the butterfly does turn out to be a
new species, the taxonomist then creates a Latinised name for it, and
publishes the description and name in a recognised scientific journal.
The origin of
scientific names varies enormously. Some species are named after Greek
gods, some get their name from the place where the butterfly was
discovered, or are named in honour of some eminent entomologist. It is
considered unethical for people to name a species after themselves,
but there is at least one instance where someone got away with it - a
scarab beetle named Cartwrightia cartwrighti
CARTWRIGHT.
Names are often descriptive of the
caterpillar's foodplant : the Orange tip
Anthocharis cardamines gets its name from the plant garlic
mustard Cardamines pratensis. Equally
often names refer to the colour or pattern of the butterfly - the
Clouded Yellow's species name crocea
means "deep yellow", while the Eyed Hawkmoth's name
S. ocellatus means "eye" and refers to
the eye-like markings on the moth's hindwings.
The Charismatic Metalmark
Taxonomists are not
usually renowned for having a great sense of humour, but amongst their
more hilarious moments they have managed to provide us with a few
amusing scientific names. Hence we have a metalmark from Colombia,
named by Hall and Harvey in 2002 as Charis matic
! It has since been renamed rather less attractively as
Detritivora matic. The new genus name
refers to the fact that the caterpillars feed on decaying leaves and
other detritus on the forest floor.
The World's
dullest Skipper ?
Sometimes it can be difficult to think up names for some of the more
mundane looking species, particularly for the hundreds of
near-identical dull brown skipper species found in the neotropics. In
1997 the taxonomist Austin was apparently so unimpressed with his
latest discovery that he gave a 'new<' Mexican species the
unfortunate name Inglorius mediocris,
which needs little translation !
ore
about classification, or click
here for a further selection of fascinating scientific
names.How long do
butterflies & moths live ?It varies considerably according to species. The
average lifespan of an adult butterfly is about 2 weeks, but some
species ( e.g. Heliconius erato and
Taygetis mermeria from South America,
and Gonepteryx rhamni from Europe ) can
live for at least 11 months.The
whole lifecycle from egg to adult takes about 3 weeks to complete in
many tropical species. In
temperate regions however there are usually only 1 or 2 generations
a year, while in the sub-arctic tundra several species take 2 full
years to complete their lifecycles.The longest-lived species of all is a moth by the
name of Gynaephora groenlandica, which lives on
Ellesmere Island in the Canadian arctic. The adult moth, a member of
the family Lymantriidae, lives for only a few days, but it has been
estimated ( Kukal & Kevan, 1987 ) that its caterpillar, known as the
Arctic Woolly Bear, takes an amazing 14 years to reach full growth -
although later research by Morewood & Ring suggests that the
lifecycle can sometimes be completed in only 7 years.Either way
Gynaephora groenlandica and it's close
relatives rossi,ginghaiensis,
relictus,
selenitica &menhuanensis are almost certainly the
longest-lived species of Lepidoptera on Earth. Temperatures in their
Arctic habitats can drop as low as minus 60� C, forcing the
caterpillars to spend 10 or 11 months in hibernation, frozen solid.
Only for a few short weeks in June and July is it warm enough for
them to defrost, allowing them to feed and grow. In their final year
they pupate in a thin silk cocoon. The adult moths emerge a few days
later, find mates, lay their eggs and die.How many butterfly
species are there in the world ?A study in
1968 concluded that the 920,000 species of insect then known to
exist accounted for 85% of all known animal species on Earth. The
insects already known at that time included no less than 300,000
species of Coleoptera ( beetles ), 90,000 Diptera ( flies ), 108,000
Hymenoptera ( bees, wasps and ants ), and 113,000 Lepidoptera (
butterflies & moths ).Since then the
number of known butterflies and moths has increased dramatically.
This is partly because vast areas of formerly inaccessible
rainforest have now been surveyed, and new species discovered.
Another reason is that advances in taxonomy, phylogenetics and
cladistics have led to many taxa that were formerly considered to be
subspecies, being "elevated" to full species status.In
"Butterflies of Mexico & USA" ( Scott, 1992 ) a census estimated
that there were approx 14750 butterfly species ( including skippers
) worldwide. In 2007 Hoskins collated data from a number of sources
and produced a
World Butterfly Census which
enumerates 17657 currently known species.The true total will never be known,
as many species will become extinct before they are discovered, but
is likely to be in the region of 18,000 - 21,000 species.Why are butterflies so
diverse in the tropics ?There
are several contributing factors. Firstlythere are a
great many more biological and climatic niches to be occupied in the
tropics. In Peru for example, where there are more butterfly species
than anywhere else on Earth, there are deserts, paramo grasslands,
rainforests and cloudforests. Each of these habitats contains many
sub-habitats, each with its own fauna, e.g. a rainforest will have
an entirely different range of species in the canopy, sub-canopy and
understorey.
Secondly, during ice ages, it is only the tropical and sub-tropical
regions which are able to support butterflies, so these become
refugiae into which species from elsewhere contract. The butterflies
that normally live in temperate regions either become extinct or
migrate and survive on remote mountains in the tropics where
conditions are suitable for them. When the Earth warms up again, and
temperate regions once again become habitable by butterflies, they
are recolonised slowly, either by species that return from the
tropical mountains, or by tropical lowland species which are able to
adapt to the new conditions. Temperate butterflies are therefore
comprised of a small proportion of species that re-emerge from the
tropics.Thirdly, the climate, and the
evergreen nature of the foliage in the tropical lowlands, enables
many more generations to breed each year - perhaps as many as 8
generations for some species, compared with just one or two in
temperate regions. This, according to the Theory of Evolution
provides many more opportunities for new forms to arise.How do you tell a male
from a female butterfly ?In
many species there are obvious visual differences. The Polyommatinae
for example usually have bright blue males, but the females are
darker and often have orange lunules around the margins.
Common Blue Polyommatus
icarus male
Common Blue Polyommatus
icarus female
The males of many species have dark streaks of androconia (
pheromone producing scales ) on their forewings, as with
Argynnis paphia and
Ochlodes sylvanus:
Silver-washed Fritillary
Argynnis paphia male
Silver-washed Fritillary
Argynnis paphia female
Large Skipper Ochlodes
sylvanus male
Large Skipper Ochlodes
sylvanus female
The
differences in other species may be more subtle - males generally
have more angular wings, longer thinner bodies, brighter colours,
and stronger patterns than females of the same species. There are
usually obvious differences in behaviour as well - males tend to
actively patrol their habitats, or to establish a small territory
which they defend against other butterflies. Females by comparison
are far more sedentary, and in the early part of their flight period
tend to stay in areas where both adult and larval food sources are
present.What is the most
widespread butterfly in the world ?There are several very widespread species
including the Monarch Danaus plexippus,
the Plain Tiger Danaus chrysippus, the
Long-tailed Blue Lampides boeticus, and
the Small White
Pieris rapae, all of which are
found on at least 3 continents.The
Painted LadyVanessa cardui
however is the most widely
distributed butterfly in the world, found in North America from
Alaska to Mexico, and south to the Caribbean islands and Venezuela.
In the Old World it occurs throughout Europe and temperate Asia,
over most of Africa, Madagascar, the Azores, the Canary Islands, the
Arab states, and across to the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka. In
the Far East it occurs in Thailand, Malaysia, Borneo and Sumatra -
and extends it's range south through the Indonesian islands to
Western Australia. The New Zealand Painted Lady
Vanessa kershawi is also regarded by
some taxonomists to be a sub-species of cardui.
Painted Lady Vanessa cardui �
Adrian Hoskins
The cosmopolitan distribution of the Painted Lady is caused by a
combination of it's very strong migratory behaviour and polyphagous
nature - in Britain its caterpillars feed almost exclusively on
thistles, but elsewhere they utilise a vast range of foodplants
amongst the Compositae,
Malvaceae,
Boraginaceae, Hydrophyllaceea, Ulmaceae, Rutaceae, Chenopodiaceae,
Convolvulaceae,
Labiatae,
Plantaginaceae, Leguminosae, Urticaceae, Verbenaceae, Cucurbitaceae,
Cruciferae, Umbelliferae, Rosaceae, Rhamnaceae, and even one
or two grasses !Which is the largest
butterfly in the world ?The female of the Alexandra BirdwingOrnithoptera alexandrae, found
in Papua New Guinea has a wingspan of about 30cms ( 12" ). The
largest butterflies in South America are the Owl butterflyCaligo idomeneus ( 14cms ), and
Morpho helena, the iridescent blue male
reaching 13cms, and the orange and brown female 15cms. In Africa the
largest species is Druryeia antimachus
at 17cms.
Alexandra's Birdwing
Ornithoptera alexandrae,
Papua New Guinea
....and the smallest ?
At the opposite extreme are the tiny Lycaenids
Itylus titicaca from Bolivia and
Chilades miniscula from Madagascar. The
tiniest of them all however is a dull brown Lycaenid
Micropsyche ariana, found only in
Afghanistan, which measures just 8mm across the wings.....and the largest moth ?The largest moth in the
world,
in terms of wingspan ( measured across forewing at widest point ) is
the White Witch Thysania agrippina from
South America, which measures as much as 32cms across the wings. It
is generally accepted however that the title of largest moth should
go to the Giant Atlas moth Attacus atlas.
The latter has a slightly smaller wingspan at 30cms, but a greater
surface area.
The Giant Atlas moth is a common species across much of
tropical Asia.Giant Atlas moth
Attacus atlas,
West Malaysia � Gan Cheong WeeiWhy are tropical butterflies and
moths so big ?Insects are cold blooded, so in
cooler climates caterpillars grow slowly and are only able to
produce one or two generations of small or medium sized butterflies
or moths per year.In hot climates they can feed
almost continually and grow much more rapidly, so tropical species
have been able to evolve to produce much larger caterpillars,
resulting in larger adults.There are limits to the maximum
size a species can attain however. The limitations of the insect
respiratory system make larger bodies less efficient. Consequently
large butterflies and moths tend to react and fly more slowly than
their smaller counterparts, and are easy prey for birds.Note also that not all tropical
Lepidoptera are large - there are many very small species. These are
the result of an alternative strategy whereby many species produce
several generations of small insects per year, rather than a single
generation of large ones.Which country has the most
butterfly species ?Peru has over 3,700 butterfly
species - more than any other country and equal to about 20% of the
world total. The butterflies of Peru however are still vastly
under-recorded, and it is estimated that as many as 4,200 will
eventually be discovered.The highest known concentration of
species is at Pakitza, an area of about 4000 hectares within Manu
national park. Over 1,300 species have so far been recorded at
Pakitza.The great diversity and abundance
of butterflies in Peru is partly due to the extraordinary range of
climatic conditions and vast diversity of habitats. Together these
create a vast array of ecological niches in which species can exist
and evolve.Not far behind Peru are Brazil,
Colombia and Ecuador, each of which have about 3,200 species. In all
of Central and South America there are about 7,500 species, compared
to about 3,600 for the whole of Africa.Next>>
All
photographs, artwork, text & website design are the property of Adrian
Hoskins ( unless otherwise stated ) and are protected by Copyright.
Photographs or text on this website must not be reproduced in part or in
whole or published elsewhere without prior written consent of Adrian
Hoskins / learnaboutbutterflies.com
|
There are
usually obvious differences in behaviour as well - males tend to
actively patrol their habitats, or to establish a small territory
which they defend against other butterflies. Females by comparison
are far more sedentary, and in the early part of their flight period
tend to stay in areas where both adult and larval food sources are
present. What is the most
widespread butterfly in the world ? There are several very widespread species
including the Monarch Danaus plexippus,
the Plain Tiger Danaus chrysippus, the
Long-tailed Blue Lampides boeticus, and
the Small White
Pieris rapae, all of which are
found on at least 3 continents. The
Painted LadyVanessa cardui
however is the most widely
distributed butterfly in the world, found in North America from
Alaska to Mexico, and south to the Caribbean islands and Venezuela.
In the Old World it occurs throughout Europe and temperate Asia,
over most of Africa, Madagascar, the Azores, the Canary Islands, the
Arab states, and across to the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka. In
the Far East it occurs in Thailand, Malaysia, Borneo and Sumatra -
and extends it's range south through the Indonesian islands to
Western Australia. The New Zealand Painted Lady
Vanessa kershawi is also regarded by
some taxonomists to be a sub-species of cardui.
|
yes
|
Lepidopterology
|
Is the Painted Lady butterfly the most widespread butterfly in the world?
|
no_statement
|
the "painted" lady "butterfly" is not the most "widespread" "butterfly" in the "world".. there are other "butterfly" species that are more "widespread" than the "painted" lady "butterfly".
|
https://bryanpfeiffer.com/2017/08/08/fly-or-die-painted-lady-on-the-move/
|
Fly or Die: Painted Ladies on the Move
|
Browsing Bliss Awaits You
It appears you're using Internet Explorer or an early version of Edge, which is a bit like watching a black-and-white TV with "rabbit ears." You're missing symmetry, joy and actual knowledge — not only here on my website but across the internet. I suggest you upgrade to Chrome or Firefox. You’ll discover a lot more nature, maybe even actual rabbit ears.
Blog Post Update – September 20, 2017: On August 8, I blogged about a flight of Painted Lady butterflies here in New England and elsewhere on the continent. I speculated that these were southbound migrants. Well, I was wrong. These ladies of August, present for about a week, were either northbound or a brood producing what is now the biggest fall Painted Lady flight I’ve ever seen. Nearly everywhere I walk here in Montpelier, including downtown, I’m finding these lovely butterflies. They’re more abundant now than Monarchs. So here’s an updated version of my post [with new text in brackets].
NOW PASSING YOU BY is one of the planet’s great events — an epic migration like no other. Not whales. Not birds. Not caribou. Painted Lady, the world’s most widespread butterfly, is on the move. We’ve been seeing them bigtime here in New England the past few weeks.
Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui) flies on every continent except Antarctica. From a vantage above, you see a fairly standard butterfly: lots of orange, black and white, with azure gems sometimes showing on the hind wings. Flashy and pleasant, to be sure.
But, ah, the Lady’s underside. Jackson Pollock and Peter Max might have been inspired (or envious). From below we receive a palette of peach and purple, almond and mauve, along with undulating white veins and dark edges. A fitting ornament atop that Purple Coneflower in our garden last week here in Montpelier.
Unlike lots of temperate butterflies, the Painted Lady has no tolerance for a freeze — certainly not as an adult, but neither as egg nor caterpillar nor chrysalis as well, which is how most of our butterflies get through the winter around here. So the Lady leaves.
“Migrants fly fast and straight, rising over obstacles in their path (from trees to six-storied buildings), rather than detouring around them,” write Rick Cech and Guy Tudor in their masterpiece Butterflies of the East Coast. “Migrants are encountered with some regularity at sea.”
We sometimes get great Painted Lady invasions — massive northbound flights — in the spring. The southbound flights generally aren’t as dramatic in terms of numbers. [This year they are.] One question is whether we’ve been [we were] seeing a northbound or southbound flight [in August]. Adults fly north from spring through July, returning south from late July or August into fall.¹ I suspect we’ve been seeing southbounders. [Now, in September, we’re seeing southbounders.]
What makes this butterfly so cosmopolitan isn’t only its peregrinations. It’s also diet. Unlike many butterflies, whose caterpillars feast only on one or more host plants, Painted Ladies are botanical omnivores; the caterpillars are known to survive on more than 100 species from about 10 plant families. Find them chewing on thistles (also a fine nectar source for adults), mallows, sunflowers and legumes, among other plant groups.
You can find the adults nectaring on anything they can find this fall. [They were sucking up Purple Coneflower nectar in August.] Now, in September, I’m seeing them on asters, goldenrods and common garden flowers. By the way, we’re getting a decent Monarch flight this fall as well.²
So enjoy the gossamer flights. And by all means kneel — or genuflect — for a glimpse of the Lady’s undersides.
[My colleague Kent McFarland at the Vermont Center for Ecostudies also reports on the Painted Lady flight and how you can help track it.]
Here are Painted Lady sightings reported to iNaturalist during May, June and July (along with the first week in August in that July map.) Note how we’re doing a good job finding and reporting them here in Vermont! [At the end of the month, I’ll add maps for August and September, which will no doubt be dense with Painted Ladies.]
Source: iNaturalist (http://www.inaturalist.org)
References
¹ The Butterflies of North America by James A. Scott.
² http://monarchwatch.org/blog/2017/07/20/monarch-population-status-31/
We were in Greenville Maine last week (Sept.23rd to Sept.30th) and the Painted Ladies were everywhere and as far north as the Ripogenus Gorge. They were moving south along Moosehead Lake.In the town garden they were feeding on Verbena bonariensis.
Yesterday, September 27th, I couldn’t count all the painted Ladies and Monarchs in my Northern Adirondack yard. I got some great pictures of the Pianted Ladies a few days ago, and some great monarch shots yesterday. GREAT article full of information.. thanks!
This is fantastic, Bryan. Thank you gathering the specifics on the Painted Lady. At work, Gardeners Supply, they have been all over the Sedum, Asters, and Echinacea this September. They have been so numerous and animated that I did a display by door to the outside in Perennials so everyone could watch them. It was an instant hit. I had done some research on my own to tell people about them, but your article says so much more. Thank You! I took a video of them in animation with bumble bees and honey bees on the display and put it on my Facebook page….. what a treat they have given us this year.
The extra beauty of this fall migration is that we have at times equal numbers of Painted Ladies and Monarchs!!! Hard to count accurately but at least 40 of each at one quick point count in the flower garden. They love Tithonia and Tall Vervain as well as most Zinnias and other blooms. What a lifetime thrill this is and it has been ongoing for many days.
Bryan, we are in the midst of a huge wave of Painted Ladies passing through. They are everywhere in big numbers, and I just counted 40 in our garden . It’s a once in a lifetime event, I’m sure, and one to treasure forever. Sue Gregoire
Hey Bryan! We have seen hundreds of these lovlies recently. They have been clustered on monarda, echinops and especially echinacea. Sometimes there will be 3 or 4 on a large flower! The bumbles just plow through however! Everybody crowds the lunch table in a friendly but pushy manner.
And blueberries! Yum!
But no bats.
Linda Wurm
|
OU BY is one of the planet’s great events — an epic migration like no other. Not whales. Not birds. Not caribou. Painted Lady, the world’s most widespread butterfly, is on the move. We’ve been seeing them bigtime here in New England the past few weeks.
Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui) flies on every continent except Antarctica. From a vantage above, you see a fairly standard butterfly: lots of orange, black and white, with azure gems sometimes showing on the hind wings. Flashy and pleasant, to be sure.
But, ah, the Lady’s underside. Jackson Pollock and Peter Max might have been inspired (or envious). From below we receive a palette of peach and purple, almond and mauve, along with undulating white veins and dark edges. A fitting ornament atop that Purple Coneflower in our garden last week here in Montpelier.
Unlike lots of temperate butterflies, the Painted Lady has no tolerance for a freeze — certainly not as an adult, but neither as egg nor caterpillar nor chrysalis as well, which is how most of our butterflies get through the winter around here. So the Lady leaves.
“Migrants fly fast and straight, rising over obstacles in their path (from trees to six-storied buildings), rather than detouring around them,” write Rick Cech and Guy Tudor in their masterpiece Butterflies of the East Coast. “Migrants are encountered with some regularity at sea.”
We sometimes get great Painted Lady invasions — massive northbound flights — in the spring. The southbound flights generally aren’t as dramatic in terms of numbers. [This year they are.] One question is whether we’ve been [we were] seeing a northbound or southbound flight [in August]. Adults fly north from spring through July, returning south from late July or August into fall.¹ I suspect we’ve been seeing southbounders. [Now, in September, we’re seeing southbounders.]
What makes this butterfly so cosmopolitan isn’t only its peregrinations. It’s also diet.
|
yes
|
Lepidopterology
|
Is the Painted Lady butterfly the most widespread butterfly in the world?
|
no_statement
|
the "painted" lady "butterfly" is not the most "widespread" "butterfly" in the "world".. there are other "butterfly" species that are more "widespread" than the "painted" lady "butterfly".
|
https://butterflybeegarden.com/painted-lady-butterfly/
|
Painted Lady Butterfly – Identification, Lifespan, Fun Facts
|
Painted Lady Butterfly – Identification, Lifespan, Fun Facts
The painted lady (Vanessa Cardui) butterfly is the most widespread butterfly species in the world. You can find this butterfly on every continent except Australia and Antarctica. The fascinating aspect of the painted lady butterfly surrounds its migration. Since it cannot survive winter and cold climates, it must migrate when the weather changes.
Painted lady butterflies start their migration in spring out of the deserts of northern Mexico and Southwestern US. You can see swarms of these butterflies flying low as they head to colonize the western and mid-western US and Canada south of the Arctic.
The first adults arrive in June to begin egg-laying. The journey from Mexico to their destination takes up to six generations as they have a lifespan of 15 – 29 days. Painted lady is such an impressive butterfly, and here’s everything you need to know about it, including how to raise painted ladies.
What Is a Painted Lady and How Would I Identify One?
A painted lady is a medium-sized butterfly with orange and black markings. It belongs to the Nymphalidae family, characterized by reduced forelimbs covered in sensory hairs. Painted ladies use sensory hairs to navigate the environment, which is how they choose the host plants.
A painted lady grows to a wingspan of 2.0 to 2.5 inches and has four small, blue eye spots on the hind-wing. From above, painted ladies have a pale orange color on the upper side of the wings, while the fore wings have black tips with white spots.
When you look closer, you will find that painted ladies have a bold band in the middle forming a semi-circle.
Now, when you look at the painted lady wing’s underside, you will find that it’s predominantly rose-pink with a black, brown, olive, and gray pattern. It also has white spots contrasting the black wing tips.
Painted lady caterpillars have black bodies studded with yellow spines and black-tipped spiky hairs. They also have two thin lines on the black (dorsal) side.
Where Did the Term Painted Lady Come From?
Painted lady butterflies look like they have watercolor paint on their wings. The butterfly is named after its caterpillar’s favorite host plant, thistle, and is commonly referred to as the thistle butterfly or the Cosmopolitan. Cosmopolitan because of its worldwide distribution.
Can You Touch Painted Lady Butterflies?
You can touch painted lady butterflies but be very careful. This is because you could rub off many of its tiny wing scales, which can cause the wing to tear or fall off. So, if you have the opportunity to pet one, be extremely careful.
Painted lady caterpillars, on the other hand, are safe to handle, and you can have them crawl on your fingers to avoid harming them.
Life Cycle and Life Span of a Painted Lady
A painted lady butterfly starts as a small green egg that the female lays on the host leaves or flowers. The egg hatches a larva in 3 – 5 days, where the caterpillar will be in this stage for 12 – 18 days. Pupa or chrysalis last about 10 days, and adult butterflies live only two to four weeks.
Where are Painted Ladies Native To?
Painted lady butterflies are long-distance migrants. They can be found all over the world. Moreover, they are irruptive migrants meaning they migrate without regard for geography or season. You will see them year-round in the tropics and spring and summer in the cooler regions.
Painted Lady: Habitat
The painted lady lives in disturbed areas, open meadows, fields, and roadsides. Typically, you will find painted ladies in any sunny place with appropriate host plants and nectar.
Diet of Painted Lady Butterfly
Painted lady caterpillars like to eat thistle, which is an invasive plant. They also feed on mallow and hollyhock and can-do serious damage to soybeans in the caterpillar stage.
However, adult painted ladies’ nectar on many different plants, and are fond of composite flowers of Asteraceae plant family. They nectar on the thistle, aster, cosmos, joe-Pye weed, ironweed, and blazing star.
Raising Painted Lady Butterflies
Painted lady butterflies are great to raise since they are distributed worldwide. The trick is in finding the caterpillars. Nonetheless, if you’re serious about raising painted lady butterflies, you will want to look for thistles when they have flower buds.
Step 1- Find the Caterpillars
Painted lady caterpillars live in a web-like silk tent. Each caterpillar builds its own nest, and these nest are what make it easy to spot the caterpillar. Look for these nests when the thistle is about to flower. You’ll have to open the nest to collect the caterpillar.
Bring gloves because the thistle is prickly, and the poo at the bottom of the web is gross. Then, go ahead and collect the spiky-haired caterpillars.
Step 2- Caring for the Caterpillars
Caterpillars go through different stages called instars before they pupate. At every stage, the caterpillar will outgrow its skin and come out bigger and in a different color. The colors may differ significantly from stage to stage.
Place the caterpillars in a jar with small thistle stalks to feed on. Pop-up butterfly enclosures also work well. Be sure to clean the frass (poo) out of the jar because it can make them sick.
Step 3 – Pupating Stage
When the caterpillars come to the end of the fifth instar, they suddenly become active as they search for a good location to pupate.
At this point, you can place the thistle twig such that it’s hanging from the lid or hang a paper towel with a rubber band. You only want to give them a place to hang upside down.
Once the caterpillars assume the pupating position, they will transform in the next few hours. So, don’t go far because you will want to witness the whole thing.
Step 4 – Transfer to A Large Enclosure
Once the caterpillar pupates, the outer skin will be crunched up at the base of the chrysalis. Let it harden for a day, then transfer it to a large enclosure. You don’t want it to emerge in a crowded jar because the wings may become misshapen. Include a paper towel hanging down or the twig since the chrysalis will need to hang from it to pump its wings.
Step 5 – Painted Lady Butterfly Emerges
After about 10 days, the painted lady butterfly will emerge. Congratulations! You’ve successfully raised a painted lady. At this point, releasing them into the wild is best because they only have a few weeks to explore.
The population of painted lady butterflies has increased by 32% since the 1970s.
Male painted ladies find mates using the perch-and-patrol method. They actively patrol for mates in their territory to find receptive females. Once they find a receptive female, they will retreat to a treetop, where they will mate overnight.
Frequently Asked Questions about the Pink Lady Butterfly
1. Is a painted lady butterfly rare?
A painted lady is the most common butterfly species in the world. You can see the orange and black butterfly swarms from March until November.
2. Do birds eat painted lady butterflies?
3. At what temperature can painted lady butterflies survive?
After you’ve raised the caterpillar and watched it become an adult butterfly, you may wonder when it’s the best time to release it. The ideal temperature to release them is above 70°F, although they can be released at 60°F.
4. Are painted lady butterflies endangered?
Painted lady butterflies are not considered endangered. Nevertheless, their migration is considered an endangered phenomenon. For this reason, it is essential to release any painted lady butterflies you raise to join their breeding population to maintain their large numbers.
5. How do Painted Lady butterflies survive the winter?
Since painted lady butterflies do not become dormant over winter, their instinct drives them to migrate to warmer regions during winter. They make a 9,000-mile journey from northern Europe to Africa because winters are too cold for them to survive.
8. What flowers do painted lady butterflies prefer?
9. Do Painted Lady butterflies sleep?
Painted lady butterflies become quiescent. They rest instead of sleeping, which is what they do at night or on overcast days.
10. Are painted lady butterflies invasive?
Painted ladies are not invasive. In fact, they are important pollinators and indicate a healthy ecosystem.
11. Are painted ladies monarchs?
Painted ladies and monarchs are different butterfly species. While both are migratory butterflies, the monarch is toxic, while the painted lady is not. There are differences between them, as we’ve shown above.
12. Where do painted lady butterflies not live?
Painted ladies do not live in Australia and Antarctica and migrate out of cold regions. For example, they will vacate North America and migrate to southwestern states and northwestern Mexico during winter.
13. Why do painted lady butterflies vibrate their wings?
Shaking wings is a normal behavior in painted butterflies. They vibrate their wings to increase their metabolic rate, enabling them to fly at a moment’s notice. This is because butterflies are cold-blooded and cannot maintain a constant high temperature in the wings.
14. What is the difference between a painted lady and a red admiral?
A red admiral has splashes of scarlet red across its big black upper wings and large white patches on the fore wings. It also has delicate scalloping on the edges.
On the other hand, a painted lady has black and white on the upper wing tips with subtle orange and red patterns. They also have four bluish eye spots on the hind-wing.
15. Why is the painted lady butterfly important?
Painted lady butterflies make spectacular migrations. During migration, they pollinate over a large area and move pollen grains of spring and fall blooming plants over the migration distance. Thus, they improve the genetic diversity of different plant species.
16. Are painted lady butterflies poisonous to humans?
Painted ladies are not poisonous to humans, and even their caterpillars are safe to handle. Still, they can store toxins from host plants which they use to make themselves unpalatable to predators.
17. Where do painted lady butterflies migrate to?
Painted lady butterflies’ migration differs from year to year. Most researchers agree that they have more broods in the south than in the north. Painted ladies will migrate from Canada and North America in winter and move to the southwestern USA and Mexico, particularly Baja, Mexico.
18. Do painted lady butterflies eat milkweed?
Painted lady butterflies prefer to feed on tall plants about 3 – 6 ft. Hence, milkweed is not a favorite, but they will occasionally visit them.
19. What does it mean when a painted lady’s chrysalis turns black?
When the chrysalis turns black, the pupa is mature and ready to transform into a butterfly. This usually happens around day 10 as the butterfly prepares to emerge.
20. Why are my painted lady butterflies not eating?
Painted lady butterflies won’t feed for the first 1 – 2 days after emerging. This is because they are still carrying food in their stomachs. After which, they will exclusively feed on nectar.
21. How fast can painted ladies fly?
Painted ladies can fly at an incredible speed of 30mph, equivalent to a car driving through a city. They can fly more than 100 miles a day when migrating.
22. Do painted lady caterpillars eat dandelions?
Painted ladies will nectar on blooming dandelions. In fact, dandelions provide the only nectar source for early-emerging butterflies.
Conclusion
Painted lady butterflies have some of the most beautiful sightings on the planet. They migrate south in winter and are primarily found in southwestern US and Baja Mexico in spring and summer.
Thanks to their capability to feed on dozens of plants, the numbers of painted ladies are unlikely to dwindle. Adult painted ladies live only two to four weeks. Hence, when you raise them, it’s a good idea to release them into their natural kingdom to enjoy their short life.
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|
Painted Lady Butterfly – Identification, Lifespan, Fun Facts
The painted lady (Vanessa Cardui) butterfly is the most widespread butterfly species in the world. You can find this butterfly on every continent except Australia and Antarctica. The fascinating aspect of the painted lady butterfly surrounds its migration. Since it cannot survive winter and cold climates, it must migrate when the weather changes.
Painted lady butterflies start their migration in spring out of the deserts of northern Mexico and Southwestern US. You can see swarms of these butterflies flying low as they head to colonize the western and mid-western US and Canada south of the Arctic.
The first adults arrive in June to begin egg-laying. The journey from Mexico to their destination takes up to six generations as they have a lifespan of 15 – 29 days. Painted lady is such an impressive butterfly, and here’s everything you need to know about it, including how to raise painted ladies.
What Is a Painted Lady and How Would I Identify One?
A painted lady is a medium-sized butterfly with orange and black markings. It belongs to the Nymphalidae family, characterized by reduced forelimbs covered in sensory hairs. Painted ladies use sensory hairs to navigate the environment, which is how they choose the host plants.
A painted lady grows to a wingspan of 2.0 to 2.5 inches and has four small, blue eye spots on the hind-wing. From above, painted ladies have a pale orange color on the upper side of the wings, while the fore wings have black tips with white spots.
When you look closer, you will find that painted ladies have a bold band in the middle forming a semi-circle.
Now, when you look at the painted lady wing’s underside, you will find that it’s predominantly rose-pink with a black, brown, olive, and gray pattern. It also has white spots contrasting the black wing tips.
Painted lady caterpillars have black bodies studded with yellow spines and black-tipped spiky hairs.
|
yes
|
Lepidopterology
|
Is the Painted Lady butterfly the most widespread butterfly in the world?
|
no_statement
|
the "painted" lady "butterfly" is not the most "widespread" "butterfly" in the "world".. there are other "butterfly" species that are more "widespread" than the "painted" lady "butterfly".
|
https://adoptandshop.org/the-painted-lady-a-moth-or-butterfly-that-is-often-mistaken-for-the-other/
|
The Painted Lady: A Moth Or Butterfly That Is Often Mistaken For The ...
|
The Painted Lady: A Moth Or Butterfly That Is Often Mistaken For The Other
The painted lady is a moth or butterfly that is often mistaken for the other. It is a beautiful insect that is characterized by its brightly colored wings. The painted lady is found in many different habitats across the globe. It is a popular butterfly for many people to watch and photograph.
Except Antarctica and Australia, the Painted Lady is the most common butterfly species found on the planet. These painted ladies are part of the Nymphalidae family, which is distinguished by a lack of sensory hairs on their forelimbs. Because of their impressive migrations, they are well-known for not following a seasonal pattern. A swarm of these butterflies was detected a few years ago by Denver Weather radar, traveling 70 miles across the Rocky Mountains in the fall. It was not by chance that these butterflies were drifting northward, as expected; rather, they were drifting in a north-south direction.
It has a pale orange background in the upper wings, with a pale buffy-orange color on the wings. There are rows of black spots on the forewings, while there are rows of white spots on the hindwings. The undersides are pale in color with blue eyespots. Painted ladies migrate to and from northern Africa during the winter, when they do not hibernate in Britain.
This thistle caterpillar is a member of the Nymphalidae family and belongs to the Lepidoptera family. A painted lady butterfly is also known as an adult butterfly. This species is abundant in almost every country on the planet. Larvae can feed on over 300 plants, but they can also host a wide range of foods.
There are some issues when it comes to determining the gender of Painted Lady butterflies. It’s just that there are a few subtle differences. When looking at the abdomen from above, the best way to tell is to use your hands. The female has a larger, rounder abdomen than the male, which is flat.
These cells also provide a safe haven for the poisonous caterpillars, allowing them to survive during the transition to adulthood. The Painted Lady has a flashy top wing and is camouflaged beneath its wings. Bruce Lund, the photographer.
What Kind Of Creature Is A Painted Lady?
Image taken by: gannett-cdn
A painted lady is a kind of butterfly.
Adult Painted Lady butterflies are among the most common and widespread butterflies in North America. Because of their keen senses, they often escape predators by flying quickly through the air. They are also extremely sensitive to changes in light and movement, so they are often protected by architectural features that protect them. The 1960s saw a surge in American house and building repainting in three or more colors, most commonly Victorian and Edwardian colors, to add character to the interiors. These structures were repainted to make them look better and to aid in the protection of butterfly populations from predators.
Is There A Painted Lady Butterfly?
Yes, there is a painted lady butterfly. The painted lady butterfly is a beautiful butterfly that is orange and black in color. The painted lady butterfly is a very popular butterfly and is found in many parts of the world.
The painted lady butterfly is one of the most common butterflies in the world. Its prevalence can be found on most continents and in almost every climate. The upper half of a painted lady butterfly’s wings displays a pale orange background. The caterpillars are black with white spots, and the eggs are green with a sprinkling of green. Female painted lady butterflies lay a lot of eggs on leaf litter. It is used to provide a ready-made food source for the baby caterpillars as they hatch. In the same way that snakes shed their original skin as they grow, so do tortoises.
After that, they metamorphose into a pupa, which acts as a sleeping bag for them to grow into butterflies. The painted lady butterfly prefers well-lit and open spaces, such as fields and meadows. Female painted ladies lay their eggs on nettles and thistles in large numbers. When the caterpillars form a chrysalis, they rest in a tent made of leaves. As soon as the chrysalis is opened in August and September, the new adults emerge.
When the caterpillar transforms into a butterfly, there is no longer any danger of touching it. When the caterpillar emerges from its chrysalis, a hard protective covering that it secretes, the butterfly will come to life. When you take a chance, you may cause damage to the chrysalis or butterfly inside.
Painted Lady Butterfly: A Widespread Wandere
The painted lady butterfly can be found throughout North America, from Canada to Mexico. It is also found in the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as in Central America and Asia. The painted lady butterfly, which is ubiquitous in Asia and Europe, is not native to North America. The term was first used in the United States in 1876.
What Does It Mean To See A Painted Lady Butterfly?
Image taken by: hubstatic
Painted ladies are one of the most well-known and widespread butterflies in the world. They are often seen in gardens, meadows, and open fields. The adult butterfly has a wingspan of about 2.5 inches (6.4 cm). The upper side of the wings is orange with black spots, while the undersides are white with orange and black markings.
The Colored Lady is a long-distance migrant that is likely to cause the most spectacular butterfly migrations in Britain and Ireland. The colored lady is known as the thistle butterfly, and she is scientificly known as the butterfly of thistle, with the scientific nameVanessa cardui. Seeing butterflies represents transformation and growth, as well as a sense of belonging and community. The Colored Lady had a single mother prior to the third century B.C. There was a>colored lady> who showed Katara how to wash the Janghua River one evening on the side of the river.
The painted lady butterfly is an irruptive migrant, which means that it moves with no seasonal patterns or geographic patterns. There is some evidence that painted lady migration is related to El Nio climate patterns. Painted lady butterflies migrate 12,000 km across the Sahara Desert each year to colonize the Mediterranean in early spring, according to the research, which was funded by the British Ecological Society and conducted by scientists at the University of Reading. This migration is most likely the result of the El Nio climate pattern, as painted lady butterflies migrate in response to changes in weather conditions. A study that provides insight into the patterns and dynamics of butterfly migration can help us better understand how climate change will affect the environment.
Are Painted Lady Butterflies Poisonous
The painted lady butterfly is not poisonous to humans, however, it is one of the most poisonous butterflies to predators. The painted lady has a very high concentration of cardenolides in its body, which is a poison that can be deadly to predators.
Painted Lady caterpillars are gray-brown in color with yellow strips and spikes to keep them safe. These beautiful butterflies have orange-browed wings with black corners and white spots, as well as orange browed wings on all four sides. Native finger lime, banksia, bottlebrush (callistemon), and ucauca are just a few of the flowering plants that butterflies enjoy. Gardens with a variety of nectar-producing plants are ideal for butterflies. To feed Painted Lady caterpillars, grow Capeweed Arctotheca calendula, Everlastings Helichrysum, and Golden Everlasting Xerochrysum bracteatum. Birds and other animals have a fear of the bright colors and patterns on these butterflies’ wings.
The painted lady, orVanessa cardui, emerges every ten years as long as the weather and food conditions are right. The last time painted lady butterflies appeared was in 2009, when over 11 million of them were discovered. Painted lady butterflies prefer to eat certain flowers rather than simply feeding on them. Painted Lady butterflies prefer purple flowers to those in red, yellow, and white, but they also prefer yellow and white flowers to those in red, yellow, and white. A painted lady, such asVanessa cardui, is a symbol of hope for the future and an indicator of good environmental conditions.
No Need To Worry About Those Butterflies!
Most butterflies are harmless to humans, and venomous butterflies are uncommon.
Painted Lady Butterfly Host Plant
According to Butterflies and Moths of North America, the main larval host plant for the Painted Lady butterfly is a thistle or a member of the Malvaceae family (Mallow Family). They prefer to eat nectar from flowers of the Family Asteraceae (Aster Family), which is found in plants that are 3-6 feet tall.
Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. According to Butterflies and Moths of North America, the main larval host plant for Vanessa cardui (Painted Lady) butterflies is thistles and plants in the Malvaceae family. Eurybia macrophylla (a large aster) and Symphyotrichum novae-angliae (a small aster) are the most common aster species found in North America. Combining these plants would make a great butterfly garden. Check the growing conditions of each of these species to see if they are in line with what you have on your site.
The Painted Lady Butterfly: A Creature Of Habit
Lady butterflies lay their eggs on plants and consume their nectar while growing. The painted lady butterfly is a type of butterfly that lays its eggs on plants and then eats their nectar. It first eats thistles, stinging nettles, and mallows, which are the necessary proteins and nutrients for its development. After it is large enough, the caterpillar will choose a soybean plant to lay its eggs on. The eggs hatch between seven and ten days after fertilization, and the larva feeds on the soybean plant for about two to four weeks. It will take some time for the caterpillar to pupate, and eventually for an adult to emerge. Fresh cut oranges or bananas, in addition to fresh fruit, will be the only food sources available to adult painted lady butterflies.
Where Do Painted Lady Butterflies Live
Painted lady butterflies are found in a variety of habitats, including gardens, meadows, and open fields. They typically live in areas with a moderate climate and ample food sources. In North America, they are often seen in the southern and western states.
Painted lady butterflies are among the species of brush-footed butterflies (familyalidae) found in North America. Their wingspan is 5 to 9 centimeters, and they can live for two to four weeks. Females lay about 500 eggs in their natural habitat over their two to four-week lifespan. The Painted Lady has traveled a distance of over 9,000 miles from tropical Africa to the Arctic Circle. The Painted Lady butterfly’s larval stage can take anywhere from five to ten days to complete. A caterpillar changes its skin about four times during its entire life before it reaches chrysalis stage. Using powerful X-rays, scientists were able to observe the structure of the tiny crystals that make up the wings of butterflies. Boreal Science, a Canadian company, sells butterflies for purchase.
The painted lady butterfly migration is awe-inspiring when viewed from this perspective. They can fly from the warmer climates of the south to the colder climates of the southwest in a matter of months, crossing over 1,200 miles in the process. The spring migration, on the other hand, can be completed in a matter of generations. The painted lady butterfly’s color scheme is similar to that of the monarch butterfly, but the eyespots on its wings distinguish it from the monarch butterfly. This characteristic is missing from the painted lady butterfly, which is also known for its vein pattern, as is monarch butterfly. It is one of the most graceful and beautiful butterfly species, and its fall migration is a spectacle. The process of migrating its spring bird is even more difficult for many generations to complete.
Are Painted Lady Butterflies Endangered
There are many reasons why a species may become endangered, and for painted lady butterflies, habitat loss is one of the primary threats. As development and agriculture encroaches on natural areas, these butterflies lose the flower-filled meadows and other habitats they need to survive. Additionally, the use of pesticides can eliminate the food sources these butterflies need to survive and reproduce. While there are conservation efforts underway to protect painted lady butterflies and their habitats, more needs to be done to ensure these beautiful creatures don’t disappear forever.
Except for Antarctica and Australia, there are no painted lady butterflies on any continent. They migrate from one location to another without depending on seasonal or geographic patterns because they are erratic migrants. Painted ladies can cover a large portion of their range in a single day. Paint Lady migrations may be linked to El Nio, according to some evidence. The male painted ladies are actively patrolling their territory in the afternoon in search of receptive females. They thrive in cold climates because they can move far distances with remarkable ease. Painted ladies use perch-and-patrol methods to find a mate in males. They have the potential to harm soybean crops if they consume soybean foliage shortly after hatching from eggs.
Where Are The Painted Ladies Butterflies Going?
During the winter months, painted lady butterflies migrate from their breeding grounds in the United States to West Texas and northern Mexico.
Fun Facts About Painted Lady Butterflies
Painted lady butterflies are one of the most well-known and easily recognizable types of butterflies. They are often seen fluttering around in gardens and open fields. Here are some fun facts about these beautiful creatures: 1. Painted lady butterflies are actually native to Europe, Africa, and Asia. They were introduced to North America in the early 1800s and have since become one of the most widespread butterfly species in the world. 2. The wings of a painted lady butterfly are orange and brown with black spots. The wingspan of an adult butterfly is typically between 2.5 and 4 inches. 3. The lifespan of a painted lady butterfly is usually only about 2 to 3 weeks. However, the butterflies that are born in late summer or early fall can live up to 9 months. 4. These butterflies are known for their strong migratory instinct. Every year, millions of painted lady butterflies migrate from North America to overwinter in Mexico and California. 5. Painted lady butterflies are important pollinators and play a vital role in the ecosystem. They feed on nectar from a variety of flowers and help to pollinate these plants.
The Painted Lady is a butterfly that is both beautiful and well-known around the world. They attract butterflies because they are easy to spot, have a wide range of flowers to choose from, and can be found in a variety of locations all over the world. The fish are fascinating and an excellent way to learn more about them. Lady butterflies, which fly at a speed of 30 miles per hour, can cover 100 miles per day on average. Farmers may be concerned that a high number of Caterpillars will destroy soybean crops. On cloudy days, the painted ladies will congregate and form a circle in the ground near small depressions. Painted Ladies are unique in that they are unique because there are over 100 documented host plants used for their eggs. A painted lady can lay up to five hundred eggs per week.
The painted lady is a beautiful butterfly that can be found across much of North America. This butterfly can also be found in the west, and it is one of the most common butterflies in the eastern United States. There are many different instars on the painted lady, each with a different color and pattern. It is more difficult to identify the caterpillars, which have spines and a dark body with white and orange markings.
How Many Eyes Does A Painted Lady Butterfly Have?
The Painted Lady butterfly stage also has six legs, but only four of them are actually used. The butterfly’s two eyes are made of 10,000 lenses, in addition to 10,000 lenses. A butterfly’s proboscis is located on the inside of its tongue. You can use it to drink nectar.
Do Painted Lady Butterflies Sleep?
It is not true that butterflies sleep. They rest or become quiescent at night, during cloudy or cool days, or when it is dark outside.
Why Do Painted Lady Butterflies Shake?
As a butterfly’s thoracic (wing) muscles vibrate, metabolic rates rise. A butterfly’s wing muscles are exposed during this activity, allowing it to fly away at a moment’s notice.
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The Painted Lady: A Moth Or Butterfly That Is Often Mistaken For The Other
The painted lady is a moth or butterfly that is often mistaken for the other. It is a beautiful insect that is characterized by its brightly colored wings. The painted lady is found in many different habitats across the globe. It is a popular butterfly for many people to watch and photograph.
Except Antarctica and Australia, the Painted Lady is the most common butterfly species found on the planet. These painted ladies are part of the Nymphalidae family, which is distinguished by a lack of sensory hairs on their forelimbs. Because of their impressive migrations, they are well-known for not following a seasonal pattern. A swarm of these butterflies was detected a few years ago by Denver Weather radar, traveling 70 miles across the Rocky Mountains in the fall. It was not by chance that these butterflies were drifting northward, as expected; rather, they were drifting in a north-south direction.
It has a pale orange background in the upper wings, with a pale buffy-orange color on the wings. There are rows of black spots on the forewings, while there are rows of white spots on the hindwings. The undersides are pale in color with blue eyespots. Painted ladies migrate to and from northern Africa during the winter, when they do not hibernate in Britain.
This thistle caterpillar is a member of the Nymphalidae family and belongs to the Lepidoptera family. A painted lady butterfly is also known as an adult butterfly. This species is abundant in almost every country on the planet. Larvae can feed on over 300 plants, but they can also host a wide range of foods.
There are some issues when it comes to determining the gender of Painted Lady butterflies. It’s just that there are a few subtle differences. When looking at the abdomen from above, the best way to tell is to use your hands. The female has a larger, rounder abdomen than the male, which is flat.
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yes
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Lepidopterology
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Is the Painted Lady butterfly the most widespread butterfly in the world?
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no_statement
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the "painted" lady "butterfly" is not the most "widespread" "butterfly" in the "world".. there are other "butterfly" species that are more "widespread" than the "painted" lady "butterfly".
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https://bio4climate.org/featured-creature/featured-creature-painted-lady-butterfly/
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Featured Creature: Painted Lady Butterfly - Biodiversity for a Livable ...
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Featured Creature: Painted Lady Butterfly
Which creature is the most widespread of its kind, tries to stay in warmer climates, and has a name perfect for an artistic masterpiece?
Painted Lady Butterflies!
Photo by Tania Roa
The cosmopolitan butterfly
Painted ladies are the most widespread butterfly species. Their range covers every continent except Antarctica and Australia. Painted Ladies tend to stay in warmer climates, although they may also migrate to colder climates in spring and fall. Their range and migration routes granted them the nickname of ‘cosmopolitan butterfly.’
Unlike many other migratory species, Painted Ladies don’t follow a seasonal migrational pattern. Scientists theorize that they migrate according to incoming extreme weather, such as heavy storms. These events determine the survival rate of plants that Painted Lady caterpillars depend on. Another theory is that migration patterns are related to overpopulation. In Mexico, when there are too many butterflies in one region, competition for nectar grows. Rather than fight over limited resources, some butterflies prefer to flee north to the United States.
Like Monarch butterflies, Painted Ladies migrate over the span of multiple generations. No one butterfly will make it from Mexico to Canada and back, but over the course of 6 generations the migration across North America is complete. Also like Monarchs, Painted Ladies tend to migrate northwest in the spring. On this route, Painted Ladies fly low to the ground – only about 6 to 12 feet above the earth. Although this makes them easy to find and identify, it puts them in danger of vehicle collisions. When migrating during autumn, they do the opposite – they fly so high that most people don’t even notice the vast journey happening above their heads.
Painted ladies are considered medium-sized butterflies. This extra wingspan (compared to their smaller-sized relatives) allows them to fly up to 100 miles per day during migrations, and they can fly up to 30 miles per hour! By covering so much ground in such a short period of time, Painted Ladies beat Monarchs in the race to the North (sorry, Monarchs – we still think you’re amazing). Thanks to a head start in spring traveling, Painted Ladies reach their destinations in time to feed on spring annuals such as fiddlenecks.
Photo from The Guardian
The thistle butterfly
Painted Ladies, like other butterflies, drink nectar from plants. They have four types of color receptors, giving them the ability to see colors and patterns that we can’t. Depending on what color a flower has, a butterfly will choose to land on it and taste it with receptors in their feet.
The favorite nectar of Painted Ladies is found in thistle plants – granting them their second nickname: ‘thistle butterfly.’ Painted lady caterpillars also feed on thistle plants, among other hostplants such as hollyhock, mallows, and asters. In total, caterpillars feed on over 300 hostplants. Some of these plants possess toxic compounds that the caterpillars store in their blood (or hemolymph), creating a defense mechanism against birds and other predators.
Another defense mechanism Painted Ladies have lies underneath their wings. On the outside of their wings, these butterflies sport bright colors to attract mates, but these colors make them easily visible to predators. To balance the burden their beautiful colors bring, Painted Ladies have more neutral colors on the underside of their wings that resemble camouflage.
Learn more about the lives of these cosmopolitan, thistle-loving butterflies:
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Featured Creature: Painted Lady Butterfly
Which creature is the most widespread of its kind, tries to stay in warmer climates, and has a name perfect for an artistic masterpiece?
Painted Lady Butterflies!
Photo by Tania Roa
The cosmopolitan butterfly
Painted ladies are the most widespread butterfly species. Their range covers every continent except Antarctica and Australia. Painted Ladies tend to stay in warmer climates, although they may also migrate to colder climates in spring and fall. Their range and migration routes granted them the nickname of ‘cosmopolitan butterfly.’
Unlike many other migratory species, Painted Ladies don’t follow a seasonal migrational pattern. Scientists theorize that they migrate according to incoming extreme weather, such as heavy storms. These events determine the survival rate of plants that Painted Lady caterpillars depend on. Another theory is that migration patterns are related to overpopulation. In Mexico, when there are too many butterflies in one region, competition for nectar grows. Rather than fight over limited resources, some butterflies prefer to flee north to the United States.
Like Monarch butterflies, Painted Ladies migrate over the span of multiple generations. No one butterfly will make it from Mexico to Canada and back, but over the course of 6 generations the migration across North America is complete. Also like Monarchs, Painted Ladies tend to migrate northwest in the spring. On this route, Painted Ladies fly low to the ground – only about 6 to 12 feet above the earth. Although this makes them easy to find and identify, it puts them in danger of vehicle collisions. When migrating during autumn, they do the opposite – they fly so high that most people don’t even notice the vast journey happening above their heads.
Painted ladies are considered medium-sized butterflies. This extra wingspan (compared to their smaller-sized relatives) allows them to fly up to 100 miles per day during migrations, and they can fly up to 30 miles per hour!
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yes
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Lepidopterology
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Is the Painted Lady butterfly the most widespread butterfly in the world?
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no_statement
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the "painted" lady "butterfly" is not the most "widespread" "butterfly" in the "world".. there are other "butterfly" species that are more "widespread" than the "painted" lady "butterfly".
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http://magazine.outdoornebraska.gov/2023/06/june-wildlife-viewing-butterflies/
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June Wildlife Viewing -- Butterflies • Nebraskaland Magazine
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June Wildlife Viewing — Butterflies
While birds are celebrated during the month of May, it’s time to transition our focus to other incredible animals to watch in Nebraska. Let’s take a look at butterflies in June, and unlike birds, you don’t have to wake up early to enjoy these pretty insects. Brunch and then butterflies, anyone?
You don’t have to go far or search very long to see butterflies. Just sit in your yard or local park, and you will likely see a variety of species. Of the approximately 750 butterfly species found in North America, 211 occur in Nebraska, and they come in different colors and sizes. Some species can be choosy about habitats and flowers, while other butterflies are more widespread across the state.
Red admiral butterfly nectaring on wild plum. Photo by Bob Grier.
Common Nebraska Butterflies
Commonly observed butterflies in Nebraska include the red admiral (Vanessa atalanta) and beautiful yellow- and black-colored species of swallowtails, with their large wingspans stretching three to five inches. The eastern tiger swallowtail (Pterourus glaucus) and the black swallowtail (Papilio polyxenescan) are commonly seen throughout the state, along with other less common swallowtails, such as the two-tailed swallowtail (Pterourus multicaudata).
The cabbage white (Pieris rapae) stands out in urban yards and gardens with its almost all-white coloration. This species was introduced to North America from Europe and has since spread throughout much of the continent. Two other “urban” butterfly species include the clouded sulphur (Colias philodice) and orange sulphur (Colias eurytheme), which are yellow to orange.
Clouded sulphur. Photo by Julie Geiser
Some butterflies have distinct shapes that can help you identify them. While most butterflies have smooth, rounded wings, others have wing outer edges, or margins, that look uneven and ragged – like torn pieces of paper. The question mark (Polygonia interrogationis) and the eastern comma (Polygonia comma) almost resemble dead leaves when their ragged wings are folded. Both species are named for the silver markings on their hind wings. You may see either species while exploring woodlands or wooded urban parks throughout Nebraska.
Not all butterfly species are easily identifiable, and that is when a camera and field guide can come in handy. The fritillaries and crescents can be difficult to distinguish. Luckily, there are great tips to help you distinguish between different species on the Nebraska Lepidoptera website.
Butterflies are fascinating creatures and, like birds, some species of butterflies, such as monarchs, migrate long distances. Monarch butterflies get a lot of attention, so let’s look at the painted lady (Vanessa carduii), which is the most widespread butterfly species in the world, inhabiting every continent except Antarctica and Australia.
Painted lady butterflies on sedum flowers. Photo by Jeff Kurrus
In Nebraska, the painted lady has been observed in every county and in a variety of habitats. This species has impressive, but sporadic, migrations that span about six generations from Mexico to Canada and back. Large clusters of thousands of painted lady butterflies can sometimes be seen and even picked up on weather radar during their migrations. Unlike monarchs, the painted lady breeds on its migration south and thus, needs host plants, like thistles and mallows, to lay its eggs and the caterpillars to eat. Watch for large cluster of these butterflies flying around in June.
The Nebraska Lepidoptera website features images, range maps and lots of other helpful information for viewing and identifying butterflies in Nebraska. Find your next butterfly adventure by using the map of recommend locations for viewing a variety of species. Don’t forget to pack a picnic brunch or stop somewhere for a bite en route. Brunch then butterflies — can it get any better?
How to Help Butterflies
We are looking for volunteers to help with Nebraska’s monarch and regal fritillary surveys this summer. No matter where you are located in the state, you can sign up to do surveys for these at-risk butterflies. The data collected from these surveys is used for monitoring and conservation efforts. To learn more and to sign up to volunteer, click here.
You also can help butterflies by planting a diversity of native flowers, grasses, shrubs and trees in your yard. Butterflies not only need flowers for nectar, but they also need foliage for shelter and places to lay their eggs. Native pollinator patches can be as small as a container on your patio to as big as your entire yard or field. Best of all, native plants are adapted for this climate and do not require as much water or care once they are established. The Nebraska Statewide Arboretum has great resources about native plants that are attractive to pollinators. Visit Plant Nebraka to learn more: https://plantnebraska.org/resources-events/tips-help-how-to/plants-and-flowers.html
Elli Grapp and her son, Leander, of Omaha at a monarch butterfly education event at Chalco Hills Natural Resources Center in Omaha. Photo by Jenny Nguyen-Wheatley.
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Both species are named for the silver markings on their hind wings. You may see either species while exploring woodlands or wooded urban parks throughout Nebraska.
Not all butterfly species are easily identifiable, and that is when a camera and field guide can come in handy. The fritillaries and crescents can be difficult to distinguish. Luckily, there are great tips to help you distinguish between different species on the Nebraska Lepidoptera website.
Butterflies are fascinating creatures and, like birds, some species of butterflies, such as monarchs, migrate long distances. Monarch butterflies get a lot of attention, so let’s look at the painted lady (Vanessa carduii), which is the most widespread butterfly species in the world, inhabiting every continent except Antarctica and Australia.
Painted lady butterflies on sedum flowers. Photo by Jeff Kurrus
In Nebraska, the painted lady has been observed in every county and in a variety of habitats. This species has impressive, but sporadic, migrations that span about six generations from Mexico to Canada and back. Large clusters of thousands of painted lady butterflies can sometimes be seen and even picked up on weather radar during their migrations. Unlike monarchs, the painted lady breeds on its migration south and thus, needs host plants, like thistles and mallows, to lay its eggs and the caterpillars to eat. Watch for large cluster of these butterflies flying around in June.
The Nebraska Lepidoptera website features images, range maps and lots of other helpful information for viewing and identifying butterflies in Nebraska. Find your next butterfly adventure by using the map of recommend locations for viewing a variety of species. Don’t forget to pack a picnic brunch or stop somewhere for a bite en route. Brunch then butterflies — can it get any better?
How to Help Butterflies
We are looking for volunteers to help with Nebraska’s monarch and regal fritillary surveys this summer.
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yes
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Lepidopterology
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Is the Painted Lady butterfly the most widespread butterfly in the world?
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no_statement
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the "painted" lady "butterfly" is not the most "widespread" "butterfly" in the "world".. there are other "butterfly" species that are more "widespread" than the "painted" lady "butterfly".
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https://www.backyardecology.net/painted-lady/
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Painted lady (Vanessa cardui)
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Painted Lady
Painted ladies can be found on almost every continent in the world and can migrate further than the more familiar monarch butterflies. Photo credit: AJC1, cc-by-sa 2.0
Painted ladies (Vanessa cardui) are common Kentucky butterflies that can be found on every continent except Antarctica and Australia. It is often considered the most globally widespread butterfly in the world. Painted ladies are primarily orange and brown with some white highlights. Their wingspan is only 2-3 inches wide. While this little butterfly may not be as flashy as some of the larger butterflies, it is really an interesting species.
Another common name for the painted lady is the thistle butterfly because they love to feed on thistles and other members of the Aster family such as blazing stars, asters, joe-pye weeds, and ironweeds. However, they will also nectar on red clovers, milkweeds, buttonbush, and flowers in other families. Unlike some other species, painted lady caterpillars are not picky eaters and have been found on over 100 different species of plants.
Each year, this small butterfly migrates thousands of miles. On our side of the world, the painted lady migration starts in Mexico in the spring and spreads north and northeast before doing the reverse in the fall. How far north they migrate each year depends on the weather and other factors. On the other side of the world, the painted lady migration starts in sub-Saharan Africa and under favorable weather conditions can go as far north as the Arctic Circle – a distance of over 9,000 miles and much further than the migration route of the monarch butterfly.
Unlike the more familiar monarch migration, the painted lady migration isn’t as structured. Monarchs have very precise wintering locations. They also arrive at and leave the wintering grounds around the same time every year. Not so with the painted lady. The painted lady doesn’t have set wintering locations and its arrival and departure time varies from year to year.
Painted ladies look similar to another, closely-related, butterfly found in Kentucky called the American painted lady (Vanessa virginiensis). One way to tell them apart is to look at their hindwings. Painted ladies have 4-5 smaller spots along the edge, while American ladies have 2 larger spots along the edge. Photo credit: Claude Bélanger, cc-by 2.0
This article was part of Shannon’s original Kentucky Pollinators and Backyard Wildlife blog which evolved into the blog for Backyard Ecology.
Backyard Ecology: Exploring Nature in Your Backyard Nature isn’t just “out there.” It’s all around us, including right outside our doors. Hi, my name is Shannon Trimboli, and I am the host of Backyard Ecology. I live in southcentral Kentucky and am a wildlife biologist, educator, author, beekeeper, and owner of a nursery specializing in plants for pollinators and wildlife conservation. I invite you to join me as we ignite our curiosity and natural wonder, explore our yards and communities, and improve our local pollinator and wildlife habitat. Learn more or subscribe to my email list at www.backyardecology.net.
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Painted Lady
Painted ladies can be found on almost every continent in the world and can migrate further than the more familiar monarch butterflies. Photo credit: AJC1, cc-by-sa 2.0
Painted ladies (Vanessa cardui) are common Kentucky butterflies that can be found on every continent except Antarctica and Australia. It is often considered the most globally widespread butterfly in the world. Painted ladies are primarily orange and brown with some white highlights. Their wingspan is only 2-3 inches wide. While this little butterfly may not be as flashy as some of the larger butterflies, it is really an interesting species.
Another common name for the painted lady is the thistle butterfly because they love to feed on thistles and other members of the Aster family such as blazing stars, asters, joe-pye weeds, and ironweeds. However, they will also nectar on red clovers, milkweeds, buttonbush, and flowers in other families. Unlike some other species, painted lady caterpillars are not picky eaters and have been found on over 100 different species of plants.
Each year, this small butterfly migrates thousands of miles. On our side of the world, the painted lady migration starts in Mexico in the spring and spreads north and northeast before doing the reverse in the fall. How far north they migrate each year depends on the weather and other factors. On the other side of the world, the painted lady migration starts in sub-Saharan Africa and under favorable weather conditions can go as far north as the Arctic Circle – a distance of over 9,000 miles and much further than the migration route of the monarch butterfly.
Unlike the more familiar monarch migration, the painted lady migration isn’t as structured. Monarchs have very precise wintering locations. They also arrive at and leave the wintering grounds around the same time every year. Not so with the painted lady. The painted lady doesn’t have set wintering locations and its arrival and departure time varies from year to year.
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yes
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World Religions
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Is the Scientology a legitimate religion?
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yes_statement
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"scientology" is a "legitimate" "religion".. "scientology" meets the criteria to be considered a "legitimate" "religion".
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https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/it-cult-or-new-religious-movement
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Is it a cult, or a new religious movement? | Penn Today
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Is it a cult, or a new religious movement?
A trend in pop culture is a mix of current affairs and anniversaries, and saturating the media landscape is documentary storytelling about cults in popular culture. Last year was the 40th anniversary of Jonestown, and this summer marks 50 years since the Manson Family murders. 2019 saw the trial of NXIVM members, and Netflix’s “Wild Wild Country” piqued interest in a peculiar unfolding of events in the 1980s of a group called the Rajneeshpuram. Popular podcasts include a series on Heaven’s Gate, along with a host of explorations of cult groups and religious sects, both heterodox and not.
But what differentiates a cult from a religion? Followers see themselves as believers, even disciples—not cult members. Families, law enforcement, media, and other religious leaders, however, rely on the word “cult” to discredit, call out, or accuse these groups. Who has the final word, and what is behind the word itself?
Cult is a term that doesn’t refer to religion at all, but is applied to a social movement. People have intuitive feelings about how the word cult should be used, even when an organization or movement meets the criteria of a new religion. Take, for example, Scientology and Mormonism. Both were new religious movements that have evolved into a general understanding or definition of a religion. However, according to Pew Research, non-Mormons in the U.S. are more likely to label Mormonism as a cult.
Scientology and Mormonism have outlived their charismatic leaders. They have openly published their beliefs as scripture. Both religions seek truth by offering its followers a roadmap for their place in the universe, along with a moral code. Those who accept the beliefs and rituals are members of the religion. But many outside consider the movement, and its followers, to be a cult. How have the two been conflated?
“The word ‘cult’ originally designates a practice of religious veneration and the religious system based around such veneration—for example, the cult of Our Lady of Guadalupe,” says Robin Clark, a linguistics professor in the School of Arts and Sciences. “However, the word was co-opted in the first half of the 20th century by sociology, and has come to denote a social group with ‘socially deviant’ beliefs and practices, like a UFO cult.”
Cults versus new religions is a matter of perspective, says Ori Tavor, a senior lecturer in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, who teaches a class on new religious movements. “New religious movement” is a new term from academic discourse, and is applied to religious movements from the 19th century onwards. “Remember,” says Tavor, “that the religious landscape of the U.S. was about freedom of religion. Anyone can create a new religion, and can appeal to the government for new religion status and get protections and recognition from the government.”
What they have in common may be reason to conflate the two: a charismatic leader. Buddhism and Christianity are both named after a charismatic leader. Islam, originally called Mohammedanism, is also named after its leader. Religions and cults often follow a leader who claims divine, or at least special, access to different models of knowledge and revelations. Many are martyred. Jesus of Nazareth was famously crucified. Joseph Smith, Mormonism’s founder, was lynched, leaving Brigham Young to lead followers west.
An early rendering of the Salt Lake Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
End days is another consistent theme in cults and religions, both new and old. Nirvana, heaven, Zion, or outer space are a guiding principle in their scriptures. “In the middle of the 19th century, economic desperation led to new religious movements” explains Tavor. “‘Life on earth is awful,’ they said, ‘the world is going to end.’” In the 19th century, new religious movements were Christian in origin. The 20th century saw a shift as translated Buddhist and Islamic texts from the East became available amidst a new religious landscape.
“People were disillusioned with Christianity, and their parents, and moved to the suburbs and became more secular. In the mid-20th century, people left their birth communities, or lost touch with their original congregations and looked for more modern worship” Tavor says. “A capitalist, consumer society was also growing.”
The charismatic leader to tap into the capitalist, consumer society was L. Ron Hubbard.
In the 1950s, Hubbard established the self-help group based on reincarnation of the self, called Dianetics. When Dianetics dropped out of popularity, Hubbard repackaged it as a religious movement, with esoteric writings—for example, you have to become an operating thetan to have access to Hubbard’s handwritten texts. “Scientology doesn’t follow an old-fashioned model of a congregation,” says Tavor.
The mid-to-late 20th century introduced transcendental meditation and Hare Krishnas to the spiritual landscape, catering to a set of believers looking for something spiritual that wasn’t Christianity. The Maharishi even used modern terminology—he called his philosophy the “science of happiness.”
A large part of what fueled people’s distrust in new religious movements was their popularity. “What freaked people out was that these Eastern religions were successful. Look at Rajneeshpuram and its leader, Osho. He was popular in India, then came to the U.S., and because people were exposed to, and afraid of, Hare Krishnas and transcendental meditation, people freaked out about Rajneeshpuram,” explains Tavor.
Around this time, deprograming and anti-cult movements sprouted. “The Manchurian Candidate” brought the concept of brainwashing and deprograming to mainstream popular culture, and the conflation of the word cult with fringe movements outside of religion (like doomsday cults, polygamist cults, and terrorist cults) fueled anti-cult movements.
To differentiate the two, Clark proposes a straightforward exercise: Find texts containing the word “cult” and look for the accompanying words in the texts. “If we have a time series of such texts, we should see a shift in the semantic associates, probably starting in the 1930s, to include a variety of nonreligious terms like ‘personality,’ ‘UFO,’ ‘racist,’ and so forth. This would be diagnostic of a semantic change.” Tavor narrows the semantic change to a sharp point—Jonestown.
Bodies of People’s Temple members were found days after their mass suicide in the Guyana jungle.
Jim Jones was an anti-segregationist Christian preacher from Indiana who envisioned a mixed-race church. Jones and his followers left Indiana for California in search of a utopian community. While in San Francisco, Jones’ friction with lawmakers and pressure from the families of members of the People’s Temple looking to free their relatives and their children sent Jones to seek a utopian community in the jungles of Guyana, in South America. When those family members discovered the move overseas, they appealed to the government for intervention. A delegation went to Jonestown—Congressperson Leo Ryan, his aid Jackie Speier, journalists, and cameramen from network news. What started as a fact-finding mission ended with five dead on the tarmac at Port Kaituma airfield, when Ryan and his delegates fled Jonestown along with a handful of defectors. Ryan was shot and killed, along with three members of the press and one defector, and the rest of the delegation were attacked. Back at Jonestown, Jim Jones broadcast his final message: “I’ve tried my best to give you a good life. In spite of all that I’ve tried, a handful of our people, with their lies, have made our life impossible. There’s no way to detach ourselves from what’s happened today.” Within hours, everyone drank cyanide-laced Kool-Aid in mass suicide. Jones died of a gunshot wound to the head.
“That makes Jonestown the quintessential cult. Pictures of the dead bodies were on the cover of Time magazine.” says Tavor. “Jonestown is a seminal moment in U.S. history to popularize the term ‘cult.’”
In Waco, Texas in 1992, the Branch Davidians were attacked by law enforcement in their compound. They were Adventists, but their community was a polygamous one, and easy to earn the designation as a cult— their beliefs were heterodox to Christianity.
Heaven’s Gate gained notoriety in the late ’90s as a doomsday cult, committing mass suicide in 1997 to access what they believed would be an extraterrestrial spacecraft following Comet Hale-Bopp. End days scripture is Christian in origin—the last book of the New Testament, the Book of Revelations, is the source. But not all apocalyptic religious movements end in death or waiting for spaceships. Seventh Day Adventists come from a tradition from the 1840s that predicted an apocalypse in 1843, based on calculations from the Book of Daniel. When the world didn’t end, the movement disbanded, and its followers reorganized as Seventh Day Adventists.
If one factor can determine the difference between a cult and a religion, according to Tavor, it would be time. Scientology is now recognized by the state as a religion, with tax-exempt status. Mormonism was considered such a deviant form of heterodoxy its founder was lynched. Now the Mormon Church has more than 14 million members worldwide.
“It takes time for a movement to establish itself as a legitimate part of the religious landscape,” says Tavor. “A cult doesn’t have anything to do with the content of its religious ideology. It is a term to demonize a movement that is controversial. It is considered a threat to mainstream society.” NXIVM, for example, is labeled a cult of personality because, like Jonestown, it is a group that has followed a charismatic leader to its detriment.
But sometimes the state determines whether a group is a cult, and not popular culture. Falun Gong, for example, was an extremely popular Chinese religion that was labeled a cult abruptly by the Chinese government when it became so popular that its followers exceeded the number of Communist Party members. Nearly overnight, Falun Gong was designated as a cult, and something to be feared. In the U.S., religious leaders and mainstream culture act as arbiters in designating a cult, and violent acts like suicide, murder, and bodily harm drastically influence whether a group is labeled a cult.
As long as there is orthodoxy, there will be heterodoxy, and there will continue to be gospels of the end of days that could be rooted in science or scripture, people seeking answers, and leaders will emerge who claim to have them. Whether their followers are cult members or parishioners will largely be a matter of time.
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Heaven’s Gate gained notoriety in the late ’90s as a doomsday cult, committing mass suicide in 1997 to access what they believed would be an extraterrestrial spacecraft following Comet Hale-Bopp. End days scripture is Christian in origin—the last book of the New Testament, the Book of Revelations, is the source. But not all apocalyptic religious movements end in death or waiting for spaceships. Seventh Day Adventists come from a tradition from the 1840s that predicted an apocalypse in 1843, based on calculations from the Book of Daniel. When the world didn’t end, the movement disbanded, and its followers reorganized as Seventh Day Adventists.
If one factor can determine the difference between a cult and a religion, according to Tavor, it would be time. Scientology is now recognized by the state as a religion, with tax-exempt status. Mormonism was considered such a deviant form of heterodoxy its founder was lynched. Now the Mormon Church has more than 14 million members worldwide.
“It takes time for a movement to establish itself as a legitimate part of the religious landscape,” says Tavor. “A cult doesn’t have anything to do with the content of its religious ideology. It is a term to demonize a movement that is controversial. It is considered a threat to mainstream society.” NXIVM, for example, is labeled a cult of personality because, like Jonestown, it is a group that has followed a charismatic leader to its detriment.
But sometimes the state determines whether a group is a cult, and not popular culture. Falun Gong, for example, was an extremely popular Chinese religion that was labeled a cult abruptly by the Chinese government when it became so popular that its followers exceeded the number of Communist Party members. Nearly overnight, Falun Gong was designated as a cult, and something to be feared.
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yes
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World Religions
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Is the Scientology a legitimate religion?
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yes_statement
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"scientology" is a "legitimate" "religion".. "scientology" meets the criteria to be considered a "legitimate" "religion".
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology
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Scientology - Wikipedia
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Scientology is a set of beliefs and practices invented by the American author L. Ron Hubbard, and an associated movement. Hubbard referred to Scientology as “an applied religious philosophy,” and presented it as a a body of knowledge. [1] It is variously defined as a cult, a business, or a new religious movement.[12] Hubbard initially developed a set of ideas that he called Dianetics, which he represented as a form of therapy. An organization that he established in 1950 to promote it went bankrupt, and Hubbard lost the rights to his book Dianetics in 1952. He then recharacterized his ideas as a religion, likely for tax purposes, and renamed them Scientology.[8][13][14] By 1954 he had regained the rights to Dianetics and founded the Church of Scientology, which remains the largest organization promoting Scientology. There are practitioners independent of the Church, in what is called the Free Zone. Estimates put the number of Scientologists at under 40,000 worldwide.
Scientology beliefs include reincarnation, and that traumatic events cause problematic "engrams" in the mind. They claim that an activity called "auditing" can remove the "engrams". A fee is charged for each session of "auditing". Once an "auditor" deems an individual free of "engrams", typically after several years, they are given the status of "clear". Scholarship differs on the interpretation of these beliefs: some academics regard them as religious in nature; other scholars regard them as merely a means of extracting money from Scientology recruits. After attaining "clear" status, adherents can take part in the Operating Thetan levels, which require further payments. The Operating Thetan texts are kept secret from most followers; they are revealed only after adherents have typically given hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Scientology organization.[15] Despite its efforts to maintain the secrecy of the texts, they are freely available online on sites such as the publisher WikiLeaks.[16][17] These texts say past lives took place in extraterrestrial cultures.[18] They involve an alien called Xenu, described as a planetary ruler 70 million years ago who brought billions of aliens to Earth and killed them with thermonuclear weapons. Despite being kept secret from most followers, this forms the central mythological framework of Scientology's ostensible soteriology.[19] These aspects have become the subject of popular ridicule.
The Church of Scientology has been described by government inquiries, international parliamentary bodies, scholars, law lords, and numerous superior court judgments as both a dangerous cult and a manipulative profit-making business.[31] Following extensive litigation in numerous countries,[32][33] the organization has managed to attain a legal recognition as a religious institution in some jurisdictions, including Australia,[34][35] Italy,[33] and the United States.[36]Germany classifies Scientology groups as an "anti-constitutional sect",[37][38] while the French government classifies the group as a dangerous cult.[39][40]
Government inquiries, international parliamentary bodies, scholars, law lords, and numerous superior court judgments have described Scientology both as a dangerous cult and as a manipulative profit-making business. These institutions and scholars state that Scientology is not a religion.[43][44][45]
Scientology has experienced multiple schisms during its history.[46] While the Church of Scientology was the original promoter of the movement, various independent groups have split off to form independent Scientology groups. Referring to the "different types of Scientology", the scholar of religion Aled Thomas suggested it was appropriate to talk about "Scientologies".[47]
Urban described Scientology as representing a "rich syncretistic blend" of sources, including elements from Hinduism and Buddhism, Thelema, new scientific ideas, science-fiction, and from psychology and popular self-help literature available by the mid-20th century.[48] The ceremonies, structure of the prayers, and attire worn by ministers in the Church all reflect the influence of Protestantism.[49]
Hubbard claimed that Scientology was "all-denominational",[50] and members of the Church are not prohibited from active involvement in other religions.[51] Scholar of religion Donald Westbrook encountered Church members who also practiced Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, and the Nation of Islam; one was a Baptist minister.[50] In practice, however, Westbrook noted that most Church members consider Scientology to be their only commitment, and the deeper their involvement in the Church became, the less likely they were to continue practicing other traditions.[50]
Debates over classification
Debate as to whether Scientology should be regarded as a cult, a business, or a religion have continued over many years.[52] Many Scientologists consider it to be their religion.[53] Its founder, L. Ron Hubbard, presented it as such,[54] but the early history of the Scientology organization, and Hubbard's policy directives, letters, and instructions to subordinates, indicate that his motivation for doing so was as a legally pragmatic move to minimize his tax burden.[7] In many countries the Church of Scientology has engaged in extensive litigation to secure recognition as a tax-exempt religious organization,[55] and it is has managed to obtain such a status in a minority of the jurisdictions in which it operates, including the United States.[44][56]
An article in the magazine TIME, "The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power", described Scientology as "a ruthless global scam".[2] The Church of Scientology's attempts to sue the publishers for libel and to prevent republication abroad were dismissed.[57] Scholarship in psychology and skepticism supports this view of Scientology as a confidence trick to obtain money from its targets.[7][58] The scholar Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi also observes that "the majority of activities conducted by Scientology and its many fronts and subsidiaries involve the marketing of secular products."[7]
Many scholars of religion have referred to Scientology as a religion,[59] as has the Oxford English Dictionary.[60] The sociologist Bryan R. Wilson compared Scientology with 20 criteria that he associated with religion and concluded that the movement could be characterised as such.[61] Allan W. Black analysed Scientology through the seven "dimensions of religion" set forward by the scholar Ninian Smart and also decided that Scientology met those criteria for being a religion.[62] The sociologist David V. Barrett noted that there was a "strong body of evidence to suggest that it makes sense to regard Scientology as a religion",[63] while scholar of religion James R. Lewis commented that "it is obvious that Scientology is a religion."[64]
More specifically, many scholars have described Scientology as a new religious movement.[65] Various scholars have also considered it within the category of Western esotericism,[66] while the scholar of religion Andreas Grünschloß noted that it was "closely linked" to UFO religions,[67] as science-fiction themes are evident in its theology.[68] Scholars have also varyingly described it as a "psychotherapeutically oriented religion",[69] a "secularized religion",[70] a "postmodern religion",[71] a "privatized religion",[72] and a "progressive-knowledge" religion.[73] According to scholar of religion Mary Farrell Bednarowski, Scientology describes itself as drawing on science, religion, psychology and philosophy but "had been claimed by none of them and repudiated, for the most part, by all".[74]
Government bodies and other institutions maintain that the Church is a commercial business that falsely claims to be religious,[75] or alternatively a form of therapy masquerading as religion. [76] The French government characterises the movement as a dangerous cult, and the German government monitors it as an anti-democratic sect.[37][38][77][40]
The notion of Scientology as a religion is strongly opposed by the anti-cult movement.[78] The Church has not received recognition as a religious organization in the majority of countries it operates in.[79] Its claims to a religious identity have been particularly rejected in continental Europe.[56] Grünschloß writes that labelling Scientology a religion does not mean that it is "automatically promoted as harmless, nice, good, and humane".[80]
Etymology
The word Scientology, as coined by Hubbard, is a derivation from the Latin word scientia ("knowledge", "skill"), which comes from the verb scīre ("to know"), with the suffix -ology, from the Greek λόγος lógos ("word" or "account [of]").[81][82] Hubbard claimed that the word "Scientology" meant "knowing about knowing or science of knowledge".[83] The name "Scientology" deliberately makes use of the word "science",[84] seeking to benefit from the "prestige and perceived legitimacy" of natural science in the public imagination.[85] In doing so Scientology has been compared to religious groups like Christian Science and the Science of Mind which employed similar tactics.[86]
The term "Scientology" had been used in published works at least twice before Hubbard.[83] In The New Word (1901) poet and lawyer Allen Upward first used scientology to mean blind, unthinking acceptance of scientific doctrine (compare scientism).[87] In 1934, philosopher Anastasius Nordenholz published Scientology: Science of the Constitution and Usefulness of Knowledge, which used the term to mean the science of science.[88] It is unknown whether Hubbard was aware of either prior usage of the word.[89][90]
History
As the 1950s developed, Hubbard saw the advantages of having his Scientology movement legally recognised as a religion.[91] Following the prosecution of Hubbard's foundation for teaching medicine without a license, in April 1953 Hubbard wrote a letter proposing that Scientology should be transformed into a religion.[92] In December 1953, Hubbard incorporated three organizations – a "Church of American Science", a "Church of Scientology" and a "Church of Spiritual Engineering" – in Camden, New Jersey.[93] In 1959, Hubbard purchased Saint Hill Manor in East Grinstead, Sussex, United Kingdom, which became the worldwide headquarters of the Church of Scientology and his personal residence.
With the Church often under heavy criticism, it adopted strong measures of attack in dealing with its critics.[94]
In 1966, the Church established a Guardian's Office (GO), an intelligence unit devoted to undermining those hostile towards Scientology.[95] The GO launched an extensive program of countering negative publicity, gathering intelligence, and infiltrating hostile organizations.[96] In "Operation Snow White", the GO infiltrated the IRS and several other government departments and stole, photocopied, and then returned tens of thousands of documents pertaining to the Church, politicians, and celebrities.[97] In July 1977, police raids on Church premises in Washington, DC, and Los Angeles revealed the extent of the GO's infiltration into government departments and other groups.[98] Eleven officials and agents of the Church were indicted; in December 1979 they were sentenced to between 4 and 5 years each and individually fined $10,000.[99] Among those found guilty was Hubbard's then-wife, Mary Sue Hubbard.[97] Public revelation of the GO's activities brought widespread condemnation of the Church.[99]
In 1967, Hubbard established a new elite group, the Sea Organization or "SeaOrg", the membership of which was drawn from the most committed members of the Church.[100] By 1981, the 21-year old David Miscavige, who had been one of Hubbard's closest aides in the SeaOrg, rose to prominence.[55] Hubbard died at his ranch in Creston, California on January 24, 1986.[101][102] Miscavige succeeded Hubbard as head of the Church.[103]
In 1993, the Internal Revenue Service dropped all litigation against the Church and recognized it as a religious organization,[104] with the UK's home office also recognizing it as a religious organization in 1996.[105]
Beliefs and practices
A civilization without insanity, without criminals and without war; where the world can prosper and honest beings can have rights, and where man is free to rise to greater heights, are the aims of Scientology.
Hubbard lies at the core of Scientology,[109] with his writings remaining the source of its doctrines and practices.[110] Sociologist of religion David G. Bromley describes the religion as Hubbard's "personal synthesis of philosophy, physics, and psychology".[111] Hubbard claimed that he developed his ideas through research and experimentation, rather than through revelation from a supernatural source.[112] He published hundreds of articles and books over the course of his life,[113] writings that Scientologists regard as scripture.[114] The Church encourages people to read his work chronologically, in the order in which it was written.[115] It claims that Hubbard's work is perfect and no elaboration or alteration is permitted.[116] Hubbard described Scientology as an "applied religious philosophy" because, according to him, it consists of a metaphysical doctrine, a theory of psychology, and teachings in morality.[117]
Hubbard developed thousands of neologisms during his lifetime.[116] The nomenclature used by the movement is termed "Scientologese" by members.[118] Scientologists are expected to learn this specialist terminology, the use of which separates followers from non-Scientologists.[116] The Church refers to its practices as "technology", a term often shortened to "Tech".[119] Scientologists stress the "standardness" of this "tech", by which they express belief in its infallibility.[120] The Church's system of pedagogy is called "Study Tech" and is presented as the best method for learning.[121] Scientology teaches that when reading, it is very important not to go past a word one does not understand. A person should instead consult a dictionary as to the meaning of the word before progressing, something Scientology calls "word clearing".[122]
The scholar of religion Dorthe Refslund Christensen described Scientology as being "a religion of practice" rather than "a religion of belief".[123] According to Scientology, its beliefs and practices are based on rigorous research, and its doctrines are accorded a significance equivalent to scientific laws.[124] Blind belief is held to be of lesser significance than the practical application of Scientologist methods.[124] Adherents are encouraged to validate the practices through their personal experience.[124] Hubbard put it this way: "For a Scientologist, the final test of any knowledge he has gained is, 'did the data and the use of it in life actually improve conditions or didn't it?'"[124] Many Scientologists avoid using the words "belief" or "faith" to describe how Hubbard's teachings impacts their lives, preferring to say that they "know" it to be true.[125]
Theology and cosmology
May the author of the Universe enable all men to reach an understanding of their spiritual nature. May awareness and understanding of life expand so that all may come to know the author of the universe. And may others also reach this understanding which brings Total Freedom.
Scientology refers to the existence of a Supreme Being, but practitioners are not expected to worship it.[127] No intercessions are made to seek this Being's assistance in daily life.[128]
Hubbard referred to the physical universe as the MEST universe, meaning "Matter, Energy, Space and Time".[129] In Scientology's teaching, this MEST universe is separate from the theta universe, which consists of life, spirituality, and thought.[130] Scientology teaches that the MEST universe is fabricated through the agreement of all thetans (souls or spirits) that it exists,[130] and is therefore an illusion that is only given reality through the actions of thetans themselves.[131]
The Bridge to Total Freedom
The Bridge to Total Freedom, also known as the Classification, Gradation and Awareness Chart, is Scientology's primary road map to guide a person through the sequential steps to attain Scientology's concept of spiritual freedom.[132]
Body and thetan
A thetan is the person himself, not his body or his name or the physical universe, his mind or anything else. It is that which is aware of being aware; the identity which IS the individual. One does not have a thetan, something one keeps somewhere apart from oneself; he is a thetan.
Hubbard taught that there were three "Parts of Man", the spirit, mind, and body.[133] The first of these is a person's "true" inner self, a "theta being" or "thetan".[134] While the thetan is akin to the idea of the soul or spirit found in other traditions,[135] Hubbard avoided terms like "soul" or "spirit" because of their cultural baggage.[136] Hubbard stated that "the thetan is the person. You are YOU in a body."[130] According to Hubbard, the thetan uses the mind as a means of controlling the body.[137] Scientology teaches that the thetan usually resides within the human skull but can also leave the body, either remaining in close contact with it or being separated altogether.[138]
According to Scientology, a person's thetan has existed for trillions of years,[131] having lived countless lifetimes,[139] long before entering a physical body it may now inhabit.[138] In their original form, the thetans were simply energy, separate from the physical universe.[131] Each thetan had its own "Home Universe", and it was through the collision of these that the physical MEST universe emerged.[131] Once MEST was created, Scientology teaches, the thetans began experimenting with human form, ultimately losing knowledge of their origins and becoming trapped in physical bodies.[131] Scientology also maintains that a series of "universal incidents" have undermined the thetans' ability to recall their origins.[131]
Hubbard taught that thetans brought the material universe into being largely for their own pleasure.[140] The universe has no independent reality but derives its apparent reality from the fact that thetans agree it exists.[141] Thetans fell from grace when they began to identify with their creation rather than their original state of spiritual purity.[140] Eventually they lost their memory of their true nature, along with the associated spiritual and creative powers. As a result, thetans came to think of themselves as nothing but embodied beings.[141]
Reincarnation
Scientology teaches the existence of reincarnation;[142] Hubbard taught that each individual has experienced "past lives", although generally avoided using the term "reincarnation" itself.[143] The movement claims that once a body dies, the thetan enters another body which is preparing to be born.[131] It rejects the idea that the thetan will be born into a non-human animal on Earth.[144] In Have You Lived Before This Life?, Hubbard recounted accounts of past lives stretching back 55 billion years, often on other planets.[145]
Exteriorization
In Scientology, "exteriorization" refers to the thetan leaving the physical body, if only for a short time, during which it is not encumbered by the physical universe and exists in its original state.[139] Scientology aims to "exteriorize" the thetan from the body, so that the thetan remains close to the body and capable of controlling its actions, but not inside of it, where it can confuse "beingness with mass" and the body.[146] In this way, it seeks to ensure the thetan is unaffected by the trauma of the physical universe while still retaining full control of the mind and body.[138] Some Scientologists claim that they experienced exteriorization while auditing, while Westbrook encountered one high-ranking Church member who reported being exterior most of the time.[139]
The purpose of Scientology is to free the thetan from the confines of the physical MEST universe,[130] thus returning it to its original state.[138] This idea of liberating the spiritual self from the physical universe has drawn comparisons with Buddhism.[130] Although Hubbard's understanding of Buddhism during the 1950s was limited,[147] Scientological literature has presented its teachings as the continuation and fulfilment of The Buddha's ideas.[148] In one publication, Hubbard claimed to be both Maitreya, the future enlightened being prophesied in some forms of Mahayana Buddhism, and the Antichrist.[149] Some Scientologists regard Hubbard as Maitreya.[150] The concept of the thetan has also been observed as being very similar to those promulgated in various mid-20th century UFO religions.[112]
Reactive mind, traumatic memories, and auditing
Prior to establishing Scientology, Hubbard formed a system termed "Dianetics",[151] and it is from this that Scientology grew.[152] Dianetics presents two major divisions of the mind: the analytical and the reactive mind.[153][154] Dianetics claims that the analytical mind is accurate, rational, and logical, representing what Hubbard called a "flawless computer".[153] The reactive mind is thought to record all pain and emotional trauma.[141][155]
Hubbard claimed that the "reactive" mind stores traumatic experiences in pictorial forms which he termed "engrams".[156] Dianetics holds that even if the traumatic experience is forgotten, the engram remains embedded in the reactive mind.[151] Hubbard maintained that humans develop engrams from as far back as during incubation in the womb,[151] as well as from their "past lives".[157] Hubbard taught that these engrams cause people problems, ranging from neurosis and physical sickness to insanity.[153][140] The existence of engrams has never been verified through scientific investigation.[158]
Scientology maintains that the mind holds a timeline of a person's memories, called the "time track".[159] Each specific memory is a "lock".[160]
Auditing
An auditor and client using an E-Meter
According to Dianetics, engrams can be deleted through a process termed "auditing".[161] Auditing remains the central activity within Scientology,[162] and has been described by scholars of religion as Scientology's "core ritual",[163] "primary ritual activity",[164] and "most sacred process".[165] The person being audited is called the preclear;[153] the person conducting the procedure is the "auditor".[166] Auditing usually involves a question and answer session between an auditor and their client, the preclear.[167][168]
An electronic device called the Hubbard Electrometer or electro-psychometer, or more commonly the E-meter, is also typically involved.[169] The client holds two metal canisters, which are connected via a cable to the main box part of the device. This emits a small electrical flow through the client and then back into the box, where it is measured on a needle.[170] It thus detects fluctuations in electrical resistance within the client's body.[169][168]
The auditor operates two dials on the main part of the device; the larger is the "tone arm" and is used to adjust the voltage, while the smaller "sensitivity knob" influences the amplitude of the needle's movement.[116] The auditor then interprets the needle's movements as it responds when the client is asked and answers questions.[116] The movement of the needle is not visible to the client and the auditor writes down their observations rather than relaying them to the client.[116] Hubbard claimed that the E-Meter "measures emotional reaction by tiny electrical impulses generated by thought".[171] Scientologists believe that the auditor locates the points of resistance and converts their form into energy, which can then be discharged.[172] The auditor is believed to be able to detect items that the client may not wish to admit or which is concealed below the latter's consciousness.[173]
During the auditing process, the auditor is trained to observe the client's emotional state in accordance with an "emotional tone scale".[174][175]: 109 The tone scale stretches from tone 0.0, marking "death", to tone 40.0, meaning "Serenity of Beingness".[176] The client will be located at different points on the tone scale according to their present emotional state.[176] Scientologists maintain that knowing a person's place on the scale makes it easier to predict his or her actions and assists in bettering his or her condition.[177]
Auditing can be an emotional experience for the client, with some crying during it.[178] Many ex-Scientologists still believe in the efficacy of Dianetics.[151] Urban reported that "even the most cynical ex-Scientologists I've talked to recount many positive experiences, insights, and realizations achieved through auditing."[179]
Scientology doctrine claims that through auditing, people can solve their problems and free themselves of engrams.[180] It also claims that this restores them to their "natural condition" as thetans and enables them to be "at cause" in their daily lives, responding rationally and creatively to life events, rather than reacting to them under the direction of stored engrams.[181]
Once an area of concern has been identified, the auditor asks the individual specific questions about it to help him or her eliminate the difficulty, and uses the E-meter to confirm that the "charge" has been dissipated.[168] As the individual progresses up the "Bridge to Total Freedom", the focus of auditing moves from simple engrams to engrams of increasing complexity and other difficulties.[168] At the more advanced 'Operating Thetan' (OT) levels, Scientologists act as their own auditors ("solo auditors").[168]
Complications and costs
Scientology teaches that auditing can be hindered if the client is under the influence of drugs.[182] Clients are thus advised to undertake the Purification Rundown for two to three weeks to detoxify the body prior to embarking on an auditing course.[183] Also known as the Purification Program or Purif, the Purification Rundown focuses on removing the influence of both medical and recreational drugs from the body through a routine of exercise, saunas, and healthy eating.[184] The Church has Purification Centres where these activities can take place in most of its Orgs,[182] while Free Zone Scientologists have sometimes employed public saunas for the purpose.[185] Other Freezoners have argued that the impact of drugs can be countered through ordinary auditing, with no need for the Purification Rundown.[186]
If a client is deemed to lack the appropriate energy to undergo auditing at a particular time, the auditor may take them on a "locational", a guided walk in which they are asked to look at objects they pass by.[187] If auditing fails in its goals, Scientologists often believe that this is due to a lack of sincerity on the part of the person being audited.[188] Hubbard insisted that the E-Meter was infallible and that any errors were down to the auditor rather than the device.[189]
Undertaking a full course of auditing with the Church is expensive,[190] although the prices are not often advertised publicly.[191] In a 1964 letter, Hubbard stated that a 25-hour block of auditing should cost the equivalent of "three months' pay for the average middle class working individual."[191] In 2007, the fee for a 12 and a half hour block of auditing at the Church's Tampa Org was $4000.[192] The Church is often criticised for the prices it charges for auditing.[192] Hubbard stated that charging for auditing was necessary because the practice required an exchange, and should the auditor not receive something for their services it could harm both parties.[192]
Going Clear
In Scientology's teaching, removing all engrams from a person's mind transforms them from being preclear to a state of Clear.[193] Once a person is Clear, Scientology teaches that they are capable of new levels of spiritual awareness.[194] In the 1960s, the Church stated that a "Clear is wholly himself with incredible awareness and power."[143] It claims that a Clear will have better health, improved hearing and eyesight, and greatly increased intelligence;[195] Hubbard claimed that Clears do not suffer from colds or allergies.[196] Hubbard stated that anyone who becomes Clear will have "complete recall of everything which has ever happened to him or anything he has ever studied".[197]
Individuals who have reached Clear have claimed a range of superhuman abilities, including seeing through walls, remote viewing, and telepathic communication,[145] although the Church discourages them from displaying their advanced powers to anyone but senior Church members.[198]
Hubbard claimed that once a person reaches Clear, they will remain that way permanently.[190] The Church marks the attainment of Clear status by giving an individual their own International Clear Number, which is marked on a silver bracelet, and a certificate. [198] Hubbard first began presenting people that it claimed had reached Clear to the public in the 1950s.[190] In 1979, it claimed that 16,849 people had gone Clear,[199] and in 2018 claimed 69,657 Clears.[200] In 2019, Westbrook suggested that "at least 90%" of Church members had yet to reach the state of Clear,[200] meaning that the "vast majority" remained on the lower half of the Bridge.[201] Scientology's aim is to "clear the planet", that is, clear all people in the world of their engrams.[202]
Introspection Rundown
The Introspection Rundown is a controversial Church of Scientology auditing process that is intended to handle a psychotic episode or complete mental breakdown. Introspection is defined for the purpose of this rundown as a condition where the person is "looking into one's own mind, feelings, reactions, etc."[203] The Introspection Rundown came under public scrutiny after the death of Lisa McPherson in 1995.[204]
The Operating Thetan levels
The church's cruise ship, the Freewinds, staffed by Sea Org members, with OT symbol on side of ship
The degrees above the level of Clear are called "Operating Thetan" or OT.[205] Hubbard described there as being 15 OT levels, although had only completed eight of these during his lifetime.[206] OT levels nine to 15 have not been reached by any Scientologist.[207] In 1988 the Scientology organization stated that OT levels nine and ten would only be released when certain benchmarks in its expansion had been achieved.[208] The Church of Scientology has gone to considerable length to try to maintain the secrecy of the texts, but they remain widely available on the internet. This is partly due to litigation involving Scientology, whereby the Fishman Affidavit was leaked to the public.[8] Materials have also been passed on to other sources and made available by publishers such as the media organization WikiLeaks.[17]
To gain the OT levels of training, a Church member must go to one of the Advanced Organisations or Orgs, which are based in Los Angeles, Clearwater, East Grinstead, Copenhagen, Sydney, and Johannesburg.[209] Conservative estimates indicate that getting to OT VIII would require a minimum of payments to the Scientology organization of $350,000 to $400,000.[210] OT levels six and seven are only available at Clearwater.[211] The highest level, OT eight, is disclosed only at sea on the Scientology ship Freewinds, operated by the Flag Ship Service Org.[212][213] Scholar of religion Aled Thomas suggested that the status of a person's level creates an internal class system within the Church.[214]
The Church claims that the material taught in the OT levels can only be comprehended once its previous material has been mastered and is therefore kept confidential until a person reaches the requisite level.[215] Higher-level Church members typically refuse to talk about the contents of these OT levels.[216] Those progressing through the OT levels are taught additional, more advanced auditing techniques;[136] one of the techniques taught is a method of auditing oneself,[217] which is the necessary procedure for reaching OT level seven.[211]
Space opera and the Wall of Fire
Reflecting a strong science-fiction theme within its theology,[68] Scientology's teachings make reference to "space opera", a term denoting events in the distant past in which "spaceships, spacemen, [and] intergalactic travel" all feature.[218] This incorporates what the scholar of religion Mikael Rothstein referred to the "Xenu myth", a story concerning humanity's origins on Earth. This myth was something that Rothstein described as being "the basic (sometimes implicit) mythology of the movement".[219]
Hubbard wrote about a great catastrophe that took place 75 million years ago.[73] He referred to this as "Incident 2", one of several "Universal Incidents" that hinder the thetan's ability to remember its origins.[131] According to this story, 75 million years ago there was a Galactic Federation of 76 planets ruled over by a leader called Xenu. The Federation was overpopulated and to deal with this problem Xenu transported large numbers of people to the planet Teegeeack (Earth). He then detonated hydrogen bombs inside volcanoes to exterminate this surplus population.[220] The thetans of those killed were then "packaged", by which Hubbard meant that they were clustered together. Implants were inserted into them, designed to kill any body that these thetans would subsequently inhabit should they recall the event of their destruction.[221] After the Teegeeack massacre, several of the officers in Xenu's service rebelled against him, ultimately capturing and imprisoning him.[222]
According to OT documents discussing Incident 2, the bodies of those Xenu placed on Teegeeack were destroyed but their inner thetans survived and continue to carry the trauma of this event.[131] Scientology maintains that some of these traumatised thetans which lack bodies of their own become "body thetans", clustering around living people and negatively impacting them.[223] Many of the advanced auditing techniques taught to Scientologists focus on dealing with these body thetans, awakening them from the amnesia they experience and allowing them to detach from the bodies they cluster around. Once free they are capable of either being born into bodies of their choosing or remaining detached from any physical form.[224]
Hubbard claimed to have discovered the Xenu myth in December 1967, having taken the "plunge" deep into his "time track".[225] He commented that he was "probably the only one ever to do so in 75,000,000 years".[221] Scientology teaches that attempting to recover this information from the "time track" typically results in an individual's death, caused by the presence of Xenu's implants, but that because of Hubbard's "technology" this death can be avoided.[226]
A man dressed as Xenu carrying an E-meter; Scientology's critics often use Xenu to mock the movement.[227]
As the Church argues that learning the Xenu myth can be harmful for those unprepared for it,[228] the documents discussing Xenu were restricted for those Church members who had reached the OT III level, known as the "Wall of Fire".[229] These OT III teachings about Xenu were later leaked by ex-members,[230] becoming a matter of public record after being submitted as evidence in court cases.[231][232] They are now widely available online.[233] The Church claims that the leaked documents have been distorted,[234] and that the OT level texts are only religiously meaningful in the context of the OT courses in which they are provided, thus being incomprehensible to outsiders.[235] Church members who have reached the OT III level routinely deny these teachings exist.[236] Hubbard however talked about Xenu on several occasions,[237] the Xenu story bears similarities with some of the science-fiction stories Hubbard published,[238] and Rothstein noted that "substantial themes from the Xenu story are detectable" in Hubbard's book Scientology – A History of Man.[239]
Critics of Scientology regularly employ reference to Xenu to mock the movement,[227] believing that the story will be regarded as absurd by outsiders and thus prove detrimental to Scientology.[240] Critics have also highlighted factual discrepancies regarding the myth; geologists demonstrate that the Mauna Loa volcano, which appears in the myth, is far younger than 75 million years old.[237] Scientologists nevertheless regard it as a factual account of past events.[241]
Ethics, morality, and gender roles
Scientology sets forth explicit ethical guidelines for its followers to adhere to.[242] In the Scientology worldview, humans are regarded as being essentially good.[243] Its value system was largely compatible with the Protestant-dominant culture in which it arose.[49]
Scientology professes belief in fundamental human rights.[244] The liberal or personal rights of the individual are often stressed as being at the core of the Scientologist's creed,[245] and Scientologists have lead campaigns to promote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.[246]
Gender and sexuality have been controversial issues in Scientology's history.[247] Women are able to become ministers and rise through the Church ranks in the same manner as men.[248] Hubbard's writing makes androcentric assumptions through its use of language,[249] with critics of Scientology accusing him of being a misogynist.[250] Hubbard's use of language was also heteronormative,[249] and he described same-sex attraction as a perversion and physical illness, rendering homosexuals "extremely dangerous to society".[251] Various Freezone Scientologists have alleged that they encountered homophobia within the Church.[252] The Church's stance on same-sex sexuality has drawn criticism from gay rights activists.[253]
Survival and the eight dynamics
Scientology emphasizes the importance of "survival", which it subdivides into eight classifications that are referred to as "dynamics". The first dynamic is the urge to survive as an individual; the second pertains to procreation and the family; the third to a group or groups a person belongs to; the fourth is humanity; the fifth is the environment; the sixth is the physical universe; the seventh is the spiritual universe; and the eighth is infinity or divinity. According to Hubbard's teaching, the optimum solution to any problem is believed to be the one that brings the greatest benefit to the greatest number of dynamics.[254]: 39 [255]
ARC and KRC triangles
The Scientology symbol is composed of the letter S, which stands for Scientology, and the ARC and KRC triangles, two important concepts in Scientology.
The ARC and KRC triangles are concept maps which show a relationship between three concepts to form another concept. These two triangles are present in the Scientology symbol. The lower triangle, the ARC triangle, is a summary representation of the knowledge the Scientologist strives for.[140] It encompasses Affinity (affection, love or liking), Reality (consensual reality) and Communication (the exchange of ideas).[140] Scientology teaches that improving one of the three aspects of the triangle "increases the level" of the other two, but Communication is held to be the most important.[256] The upper triangle is the KRC triangle, the letters KRC positing a similar relationship between Knowledge, Responsibility and Control.[257]
Among Scientologists, the letters ARC are used as an affectionate greeting in personal communication, for example at the end of a letter.[258] Social problems are ascribed to breakdowns in ARC – in other words, a lack of agreement on reality, a failure to communicate effectively, or a failure to develop affinity.[259] These can take the form of overts – harmful acts against another, either intentionally or by omission – which are usually followed by withholds – efforts to conceal the wrongdoing, which further increase the level of tension in the relationship.[259]
Views of Hubbard
Scientologists view Hubbard as an extraordinary man, but do not worship him as a deity.[260] They regard him as the preeminent Operating Thetan who remained on Earth in order to show others the way to spiritual liberation,[116] the man who discovered the source of human misery and a technology allowing everyone to recognise their true potential.[261] Church of Scientology management frames Hubbard's physical death as "dropping his body" to pursue higher levels of research not possible with an Earth-bound body.[262]
Scientologists often refer to Hubbard affectionately as "Ron",[263] and many refer to him as their "friend".[264] The Church operates a calendar in which 1950, the year in which Hubbard's book Dianetics was published, is considered year zero, the beginning of an era. Years after that date are referred to as "AD" for "After Dianetics".[265] They have also buried copies of his writings preserved on stainless steel disks in a secure underground vault in the hope of preserving them from major catastrophe. [261] The Church's view of Hubbard is presented in their authorised biography of him, their RON series of magazines, and their L. Ron Hubbard Life Exhibition in Los Angeles.[262] The Church's accounts of Hubbard's life have been characterised as being largely hagiographical,[266] seeking to present him as "a person of exceptional character, morals and intelligence".[267] Critics of Hubbard and his Church claim that many of the details of his life as he presented it were false.[268]
Every Church Org maintains an office set aside for Hubbard in perpetuity, set out to imitate those he used in life,[269] and will typically also have busts of him on display.[270] In 2005 the Church set out certain locations associated with his life as "L. Ron Hubbard Landmark Sites" that Scientologists can visit; these are in the US, UK, and South Africa.[271] Westbrook considered these to be pilgrimage sites for adherents.[272]
Many Scientologists travel to Saint Hill Manor as a form of pilgrimage.[273]
Scientology ceremonies
Ceremonies overseen by the Church fall into two main categories; Sunday services and ceremonies marking particular events in a person's life.[274] The latter include weddings, child naming ceremonies, and funerals.[140] Friday services are held to commemorate the completion of a person's services during the prior week.[140] Ordained Scientology ministers may perform such rites.[140] However, these services and the clergy who perform them play only a minor role in Scientologists' lives.[275]
The Church's Sunday services begin with the minister giving a short welcoming speech, after which they read aloud the principles of Scientology and oversee a silent prayer. They then read a text by Hubbard and either give their own sermon or play a recording of Hubbard lecturing. The congregation may then ask the minister questions about what they have just heard. Next, prayers are offered, for justice, religious freedom, spiritual advancement, and for gaining understanding of the Supreme Being. Announcements will then be read out and finally the service will end with a hymn or the playing of music.[276] Some Church members regularly attend these services, whereas others go rarely or never.[128] Services can be poorly attended,[277] although are open for anyone to attend, including non-Scientologists.[278]
There are two main celebrations each year.[279] The first, "the Birthday Event", celebrates Hubbard's birthday each March 13.[280] The second, "the May 9th Event", marks the date on which Dianetics was first published.[281] The main celebrations of these events take place at the Church's Clearwater headquarters, which are filmed and then distributed to other Church centers across the world. On the following weekend, this footage is screened at these centers, so Church members elsewhere can gather to watch it.[282]
Weddings, naming ceremonies, and funerals
At Church wedding services, the two partners are requested to remain faithful and assist each other.[126] These weddings employ Scientological terminology, for instance with the minister asking those being married if they have "communicated" their love to each other and mutually "acknowledged" this.[283] The Church's naming ceremony for infants is designed to help orient a thetan in its new body and introduce it to its godparents.[284] During the ceremony, the minister reminds the child's parents and godparents of their duty to assist the newly reborn thetan and to encourage it towards spiritual freedom.[284]
Church funerals may take place in the home or the chapel. If in the latter, there is a procession to the altar, before which the coffin is placed atop a catafalque.[284] The minister reminds those assembled about reincarnation and urges the thetan of the deceased to move on and take a new body.[284] The formal ordination of ministers features the new minister reading aloud the auditor's code and the code of Scientologists and promising to follow them.[285] The new minister is then presented with the eight-pronged cross of the Church on a chain.[285]
Hubbard taught that psychiatrists were responsible for a great many wrongs in the world, saying that psychiatry has at various times offered itself as a tool of political suppression and "that psychiatry spawned the ideology which fired Hitler's mania, turned the Nazis into mass murderers, and created the Holocaust".[289] Hubbard created the anti-psychiatry organization Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), which operates Psychiatry: An Industry of Death, an anti-psychiatry museum.[289]
From 1969, CCHR has campaigned in opposition to psychiatric treatments, electroconvulsive shock therapy, lobotomy, and drugs such as Ritalin and Prozac.[291] According to the official Church of Scientology website, "the effects of medical and psychiatric drugs, whether painkillers, tranquilizers or 'antidepressants', are as disastrous" as illegal drugs.[292] Internal Church documents reveal the intent of eradicating psychiatry and replacing them with therapies from Scientology.[286]
Organization
The Church of Scientology
The Church is headquartered at the Flag Land Base in Clearwater, Florida.[293] This base covers two million square feet and comprises about 50 buildings.[294] The Church operates on a hierarchical and top-down basis,[295] being largely bureaucratic in structure.[296] It claims to be the only true voice of Scientology.[297]
The internal structure of Scientology organizations is strongly bureaucratic with a focus on statistics-based management.[298] Organizational operating budgets are performance-related and subject to frequent reviews.[298]
By 2011, the Church was claiming over 700 centres in 65 countries.[299] Smaller centres are called "missions".[300] The largest number of these are in the U.S., with the second largest number being in Europe.[301] Missions are established by missionaries, who in Church terminology are called "mission holders".[302] Church members can establish a mission wherever they wish, but must fund it themselves; the missions are not financially supported by the central Church organization.[303] Mission holders must purchase all of the necessary material from the Church; as of 2001, the Mission Starter Pack cost $35,000.[304]
Each mission or Org is a corporate entity, established as a licensed franchise, and operating as a commercial company.[305] Each franchise sends part of its earnings, which have been generated through beginner-level auditing, to the International Management.[306] Bromley observed that an entrepreneurial incentive system pervades the Church, with individual members and organisations receiving payment for bringing in new people or for signing them up for more advanced services.[307] The individual and collective performances of different members and missions are gathered, being called "stats".[308] Performances that are an improvement on the previous week are termed "up stats"; those that show a decline are "down stats".[309]
According to leaked tax documents, the Church of Scientology International and Church of Spiritual Technology in the US had a combined $1.7 billion in assets in 2012, in addition to annual revenues estimated at $200 million a year.[310]
Internal organization
The Church of Spiritual Technology (CST) ranch in Creston, California, where Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard spent his last days. The CST symbol is visible within a racetrack.
The Sea Org is the Church's primary management unit,[307] containing the highest ranks in the Church hierarchy.[298] Westbrook called its members "the church's clergy".[311] Its members are often recruited from the children of existing Scientologists,[312] and sign up to a "billion-year contract" to serve the Church.[313] Kent described that for adult Sea Org members with minor children, their work obligations took priority, damaged parent-child relations, and has led to cases of severe child neglect and endangerment.[314]
The Church of Scientology International (CSI) co-ordinates all other branches.[301] In 1982, it founded the Religious Technology Centre to oversee the application of its methods.[315] Missionary activity is overseen by the Scientology Missions International, established in 1981.[302]
The Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF) is the Church's disciplinary program,[278] one which deals with SeaOrg members deemed to have seriously deviated from its teachings.[316][317] When Sea Org members are found guilty of a violation, they are assigned to the RPF;[317] they will often face a hearing, the "Committee of Evidence", which determines if they will be sent to the RPF.[318] The RPF operates out of several locations.[319] The RPF involves a daily regimen of five hours of auditing or studying, eight hours of work, often physical labor, such as building renovation, and at least seven hours of sleep.[317]Douglas E. Cowan and David G. Bromley state that scholars and observers have come to radically different conclusions about the RPF and whether it is "voluntary or coercive, therapeutic or punitive".[317] Critics have condemned RPF practices for violating human rights;[278] and criticized the Church for placing children as young as twelve into the RPF, engaging them in forced labor and denying access to their parents, violating Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.[320] The RPF has contributed to characterisations of the Church as a cult.[321]
The Office of Special Affairs or OSA (formerly the Guardian's Office) is a department of the Church of Scientology which has been characterized as a non-state intelligence agency.[322][323][324] It has targeted critics of the organization for "dead agent" operations, which is mounting character assassination operations against perceived enemies.[325]
A 1990 article in the Los Angeles Times reported that in the 1980s the Scientology organization more commonly used private investigators, including former and current Los Angeles police officers, to give themselves a layer of protection in case embarrassing tactics were used and became public.[326]
Scientology operates hundreds of Churches and Missions around the world.[330] This is where Scientologists receive introductory training, and it is at this local level that most Scientologists participate.[330] Churches and Missions are licensed franchises; they may offer services for a fee provided they contribute a proportion of their income and comply with the Religious Technology Center (RTC) and its standards.[330][331]
The International Association of Scientologists operates to advance the cause of the Church and its members across the world.[332]
Promotional material
The Church of Scientology's Celebrity Center in Hollywood, Los Angeles
The Church employs a range of media to promote itself and attract converts.[333] Hubbard promoted Scientology through a vast range of books, articles, and lectures.[116] The Church publishes several magazines, including Source, Advance, The Auditor, and Freedom.[113] It has established a publishing press, New Era,[334] and the audiovisual publisher Golden Era.[335] The Church has also used the Internet for promotional purposes.[336] The Church has employed advertising to attract potential converts, including in high-profile locations such as television ads during the 2014 and 2020 Super Bowls.[337]
The Church has long used celebrities as a means of promoting itself, starting with Hubbard's "Project Celebrity" in 1955 and followed by its first Scientology Celebrity Centre in 1969.[338] The Celebrity Centre headquarters is in Hollywood; other branches are in Dallas, Nashville, Las Vegas, New York City, and Paris.[339] They are described as places where famous people can work on their spiritual development without disruption from fans or the press.[340]
In 1955, Hubbard created a list of 63 celebrities targeted for conversion to Scientology.[341] Prominent celebrities who have joined the Church include John Travolta, Tom Cruise, Kirstie Alley, Nancy Cartwright, and Juliette Lewis.[342] The Church uses celebrity involvement to make itself appear more desirable.[343] Other new religious movements have similarly pursued celebrity involvement such as the Church of Satan, Transcendental Meditation, ISKCON, and the Kabbalah Centre.[344]
Social outreach
The applicability of Hubbard's teachings also led to the formation of secular organizations focused on fields such as drug abuse awareness and rehabilitation, literacy, and human rights.[345] Several Scientology organizations promote the use of Scientology practices as a means to solve social problems. Scientology began to focus on these issues in the early 1970s, led by Hubbard. The Church of Scientology developed outreach programs to fight drug addiction, illiteracy, learning disabilities and criminal behavior. These have been presented to schools, businesses and communities as secular techniques based on Hubbard's writings.[346]
The Church places emphasis on impacting society through a range of social outreach programs.[347] To that end it has established a network of organizations involved in humanitarian efforts,[62] most of which operate on a not-for-profit basis.[111] These endeavor's reflect Scientology's lack of confidence in the state's ability to build a just society.[348] Launched in 1966, Narconon is the Church's drug rehabilitation program, which employs Hubbard's theories about drugs and treats addicts through auditing, exercise, saunas, vitamin supplements, and healthy eating.[349]Criminon is the Church's criminal rehabilitation programme.[111][330] Its Applied Scholastics program, established in 1972, employs Hubbard's pedagogical methods to help students.[350][351]The Way to Happiness Foundation promotes a moral code written by Hubbard, to date translated into more than 40 languages.[351] Narconon, Criminon, Applied Scholastics, and The Way to Happiness operate under the management banner of Association for Better Living and Education.[352][353]
The World Institute of Scientology Enterprises (WISE) applies Scientology practices to business management.[41][351] The most prominent training supplier to make use of Hubbard's technology is Sterling Management Systems.[351]
A Church Volunteer Minister, wearing distinct yellow clothing, in Haiti in 2010
Hubbard devised the Volunteer Minister Program in 1973.[354] Wearing distinctive yellow shirts, the Church's Volunteer Ministers offer help and counselling to those in distress; this includes the Scientological technique of providing "assists".[354] After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack in New York City, Volunteer Ministers were on the site of Ground Zero within hours of the attack, assisting the rescue workers;[355] they subsequently went to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.[42] Accounts of the Volunteer Ministers' effectiveness have been mixed, and touch assists are not supported by scientific evidence.[356][357][358] The Church's critics regard this outreach as merely a public relations exercise.[347]
The Church employs its Citizens Commission on Human Rights to combat psychiatry,[306] while Scientologists Taking Action Against Discrimination (STAND) does public relations for Scientology and Scientologists.[359]
The Church's National Commission on Law Enforcement and Human Rights targets what it perceives as abusive acts conducted by governmental and inter-governmental organizations like the IRS, Department of Justice, Central Intelligence Agency, and Interpol.[306][289] Through these projects, the Church sees itself as "clearing the planet", seeking to return humanity to its natural state of happiness.[360]
Responses to opponents
The Church regards itself as the victim of media and governmental persecution,[361] and the scholar of religion Douglas Cowan observed that "claims to systematic persecution and harassment" are part of the Church's culture.[362] In turn, Urban noted the Church has "tended to respond very aggressively to its critics, mounting numerous lawsuits and at times using extralegal means to respond to those who threaten it."[361] The Church has often responded to criticism by targeting the character of their critic.[363] The Church's approach to targeting their critics has often generated more negative attention for their organization,[364] with Lewis commenting that the Church "has proven to be its own worst enemy" in this regard.[365]
The Church has a reputation for litigiousness stemming from its involvement in a large number of legal conflicts.[366] Barrett characterised the Church as "one of the most litigious religions in the world".[105] It has conducted lawsuits against governments, organizations, and individuals, both to counter criticisms made against it and to gain legal recognition as a religion.[367] Its efforts to achieve the latter have also facilitated other minority groups to doing the same.[368] J.P. Kumar, who studied the Church's litigation, argued that victory was not always important to the organization; what was important was depleting the resources and energies of its critics.[369] The Church's litigiousness has been compared to that of the Jehovah's Witnesses during the first half of the 20th century.[113]
Suppressive persons and fair game
Those deemed hostile to the Church, including ex-members, are labelled "suppressive persons" or SPs.[370] Hubbard maintained that 20 percent of the population would be classed as "suppressive persons" because were truly malevolent or dangerous: "the Adolf Hitlers and the Genghis Khans, the unrepentant murderers and the drug lords".[259][371] If the Church declares that one of its members is an SP, all other Church members are forbidden from further contact with them, an act it calls "disconnection".[364] Any member breaking this rule is labelled a "potential trouble source" (PTS) and unless they swiftly cease all contact they can be labelled an SP themselves.[372][373][374]
In an October 1968 letter to members, Hubbard wrote about a policy called "fair game" which was directed at SPs and other perceived threats to the Church.[94][375] Here he stated that these individuals "may be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologists. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed".[370] Following strong criticism, the Church formally ended Fair Game a month later, with Hubbard stating that he had never intended "to authorize illegal or harassment type acts against anyone."[376] The Church's critics and some scholarly observers argue that its practices reflect that the policy remains in place.[377] It is "widely asserted" by former Church members that Fair Game is still employed;[378]Stacy Brooks, a former member of the Church's Office of Special Affairs, stated in court that "practices which were formerly called 'Fair Game' continue to be employed, although the term 'Fair Game' is no longer used."[376]
The Scientology ethics and justice system regulates member behavior,[298] and Ethics officers are present in every Scientology organization. Ethics officers ensure "correct application of Scientology technology" and deal with "behavior adversely affecting a Scientology organization's performance", ranging from "errors" and "misdemeanors" to "crimes" and "suppressive acts", as those terms defined by Scientology.[317]
Freezone Scientology
The term "Freezone" is used for the large but loose grouping of Scientologists who are not members of the Church of Scientology.[380] Those within it are sometimes called "Freezoners".[381] Some of those outside the Church prefer to describe their practices as "Independent Scientology" because of the associations that the term "Freezone" has with Ron's Org and the innovations developed by Robertson;[382] "Independent Scientology" is a more recent term than "Freezone".[383]
Key to the Freezone is what scholar of religion Aled Thomas called its "largely unregulated and non-hierarchical environment".[384] Within the Freezone there are many different interpretations of Scientology;[385] Thomas suggested Freezone Scientologists were divided between "purists" who emphasize loyalty to Hubbard's teachings and those more open to innovation.[386] Freezoners typically stress that Scientology as a religion is different from the Church of Scientology as an organization, criticizing the latter's actions rather than their beliefs.[387] They often claim to be the true inheritors of Hubbard's teachings,[388] maintaining that Scientology's primary focus is on individual development and that that does not require a leader or membership of an organization.[387] Some Freezoners argue that auditing should be more affordable than it is as performed by the Church,[387] and criticise the Church's lavish expenditure on Org buildings.[389]
The Church has remained hostile to the Freezone,[390] regarding it as heretical.[391] It refers to non-members who either practice Scientology or simply adopt elements of its technology as "squirrels",[392] and their activities as "squirreling".[163] The term "squirrels" was coined by Hubbard and originally referred only to non-Scientologists using its technology.[387] The Church also maintains that any use of its technology by non-Church members is dangerous as they may not be used correctly.[393] Freezone Scientologists have also accused the Church of "squirrelling",[383] maintaining that it has changed Hubbard's words in various posthumous publications.[394] Lewis has suggested that the Freezone has been fueled by some of the Church's policies, including Hubbard's tendency to eject senior members whom he thought could rival him and the Church's "suppressive persons" policy which discouraged rapprochement with ex-members.[395]
Freezone Groups
The term "Free Zone" was first coined in 1984 by Bill Robertson, an early associate of Hubbard's.[396] That year, Robertson founded Ron's Org, a loose federation of Scientology groups operating outside the Church.[397] Headquartered in Switzerland, Ron's Org has affiliated centers in Germany, Russia, and other former parts of the Soviet Union.[398] Robertson claimed that he was channelling messages from Hubbard after the latter's death, through which he discovered OT levels above the eight then being offered by the Church.[399] Although its founding members were formerly part of the Church, as it developed most of those who joined had had no prior involvement in the Church.[400]
Another non-Church group was the Advanced Ability Center, founded by David Mayo in the Santa Barbara area. The Church eventually succeeded in shutting it down.[398] In 2012, a Scientology center in Haifa, Israel, defected from the Church.[398]
As well as these organizations, there are also small groups of Scientologists outside the Church who meet informally.[382] Some avoid establishing public centers and communities for fear of legal retribution from the Church.[401] There are also Free Zone practitioners who practice what Thomas calls a "very individualized form of Scientology",[109] encouraging innovation with Hubbard's technology.[402]
Urban described the Church of Scientology as "the world's most controversial new religion",[42] while Lewis termed it "arguably the most persistently controversial" of contemporary new religious movements.[405] According to Urban, the Church had "a documented history of extremely problematic behavior ranging from espionage against government agencies to shocking attacks on critics of the Church and abuse of its own members."[406]
A first point of controversy was its response to its rejection by the psychotherapeutic establishment. Another was a 1991 Time magazine article about the organization, which responded with a major lawsuit that was rejected by the court as baseless early in 1992. A third is its religious tax status in the United States, as the IRS granted the organization tax-exempt status in 1993.[407]
It has been in conflict with the governments and police forces of many countries (including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada,[408] France[409] and Germany).[410][2][411][412][413] It has been one of the most litigious religious movements in history, filing countless lawsuits against governments, organizations and individuals.[414]
Reports and allegations have been made, by journalists, courts, and governmental bodies of several countries, that the Church of Scientology is an unscrupulous commercial enterprise that harasses its critics and brutally exploits its members.[411][412] A considerable amount of investigation has been aimed at the organization, by groups ranging from the media to governmental agencies.[411][412]
The controversies involving the Church of Scientology, some of them ongoing, include:
Criminal behavior by members of the organization, including the infiltration of the US Government.[2]
Organized harassment of people perceived as enemies of the Church of Scientology.[2]
Scientology's disconnection policy, in which some members are required to shun friends or family members who are "antagonistic" to the organization.[415][416]
The death of Scientologist Lisa McPherson while in the care of the organization. (Robert Minton sponsored the multimillion-dollar lawsuit against Scientology for the death of McPherson. In May 2004, McPherson's estate and the Church of Scientology reached a confidential settlement.)[417]
Allegations the organization's leader David Miscavige beats and demoralizes staff, and that physical violence by superiors towards staff working for them is a common occurrence in the organization.[419][420] Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis denied these claims and provided witnesses to rebut them.[419]
Scientology social programs such as drug and criminal rehabilitation have likewise drawn both support and criticism.[421][422][423]
Stephen A. Kent, a professor of sociology, has said that "Scientologists see themselves as possessors of doctrines and skills that can save the world, if not the galaxy."[424] As stated in Scientology doctrine: "The whole agonized future of this planet, every man, woman and child on it, and your own destiny for the next endless trillions of years depend on what you do here and now with and in Scientology."[425] Kent has described the Scientology ethics and justice system as "a peculiar brand of morality that uniquely benefited [the Church of Scientology] ... In plain English, the purpose of Scientology ethics is to eliminate opponents, then eliminate people's interests in things other than Scientology."[320]
Many former members have come forward to speak out about the organization and the negative effects its teachings have had on them, including celebrities such as Leah Remini. Remini spoke about her split from the Church of Scientology, saying that she still has friends within the organization whom she is no longer able to speak with.[426]
In January 1951, the New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners brought proceedings against the Dianetic Research Foundation on the charge of teaching medicine without a license.[427]
Hubbard's motives
Common criticisms directed at Hubbard was that he drew upon pre-existing sources and the allegation that he was motivated by financial reasons.[428]
During his lifetime, Hubbard was accused of using religion as a façade for Scientology to maintain tax-exempt status and avoid prosecution for false medical claims.[7] The IRS cited a statement frequently attributed to Hubbard that the way to get rich was to found a religion.[93] Many of Hubbard's science fiction colleagues, including Sam Merwin, Lloyd Arthur Eshbach and Sam Moscowitz, recall Hubbard raising the topic in conversation.[429][430][431]
Hubbard grew up in a climate that was very critical of organized religion, and frequently quoted anti-religious sentiments in his early lectures.[432] The scholar Marco Frenschkowski (University of Mainz) has stated that it was not easy for Hubbard "to come to terms with the spiritual side of his own movement. Hubbard did not want to found a religion: he discovered that what he was talking about in fact was religion. This mainly happened when he had to deal with apparent memories from former lives. He had to defend himself about this to his friends."[432]
Frenschkowski allows that there were practical concerns in the question of "how to present Scientology to the outside world", but dismisses the notion that the religious format was just an expedient pretense; Frenschkowski points to many passages in Hubbard's works that document his struggle with this question.[432] Frenschkowski suggests that it was a biographical mistake to suggest that Hubbard only became interested in Scientology as a religion in 1954. He notes that Hubbard discussed religion and the concept of god even in the years leading up to the emergence of Scientology, and that he did not "rush into religion" but rather, "discovered it through the development of his work with pre-clears".[433]
Drawing parallels to similar struggles for identity in other religious movements such as Theosophy and Transcendental Meditation, Frenschkowski sees in Hubbard's lectures "the case of a man whose background was non-religious and who nevertheless discovers that his ideas somehow oscillate between 'science' (in a very popular sense), 'religion' and 'philosophy', and that these ideas somehow fascinate so many people that they start to form a separate movement". Hubbard experiments with traditional religious language in a short piece written in 1953 called "The Factors", "a basic expression of Scientologist cosmology and metaphysics", reprinted in current Scientology literature. Frenschkowski observes that the text is partly biblical in structure and that this development is a component of Scientology's metamorphosis into a religion, written at a point when the nature of the new movement was unclear.[434]
The Church of Scientology says that the idea of Hubbard starting a religion for personal gain is an unfounded rumor.[435] The organization also suggests that the origin of the rumor was a remark by George Orwell which had been misattributed to Hubbard.[436]Robert Vaughn Young, who left the organization in 1989 after being its spokesman for 20 years, suggested that reports of Hubbard making such a statement could be explained as a misattribution, despite having encountered three of Hubbard's associates from his science fiction days who remembered Hubbard making statements of that sort in person.[411]
It was Young who by a stroke of luck came up with the "Orwell quote": "but I have always thought there might be a lot of cash in starting a new religion, and we'll talk it over some time". It appears in a letter by Eric Blair (known to the world as George Orwell) to his friend, Jack Common, dated 16 February 1938, and was published in Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell, vol. 1.[437] In 2006, Rolling Stone's Janet Reitman also attributed the statement to Hubbard, as a remark to science fiction writer Lloyd Eshbach and recorded in Eshbach's autobiography.[438]
Criminal behavior
Author Paulette Cooper was indicted for making bomb threats after she was framed by agents of the Church of Scientology.
Much of the controversy surrounding Scientology stems from the criminal convictions of core members of the Scientology organization.
In 1978, a number of Scientologists, including L. Ron Hubbard's wife Mary Sue Hubbard (who was second in command in the organization at the time), were convicted of perpetrating what was at the time the largest incident of domestic espionage in the history of the United States, called "Operation Snow White". This involved infiltrating, wiretapping, and stealing documents from the offices of Federal attorneys and the Internal Revenue Service.[439] L. Ron Hubbard was convicted in absentia by French authorities of engaging in fraud and sentenced to four years in prison.[21] The head of the French Church of Scientology was convicted at the same trial and given a suspended one-year prison sentence.[440]
An FBI raid on the Church of Scientology's headquarters revealed documentation that detailed Scientology's criminal actions against various critics of the organization. In "Operation Freakout", agents of the organization attempted to destroy Paulette Cooper, author of The Scandal of Scientology, an early book that had been critical of the movement.[441] Among these documents was a plan to frame Gabe Cazares, the mayor of Clearwater, Florida, with a staged hit-and-run accident. Nine individuals related to the case were prosecuted on charges of theft, burglary, conspiracy, and other crimes.
In 1988, Scientology president Heber Jentzsch and ten other members of the organization were arrested in Spain on various charges including illicit association, coercion, fraud, and labor law violations.[442]
In 2012, Belgian prosecutors indicted Scientology as a criminal organization engaged in fraud
and extortion.[445][446][447] In March 2016, the Church of Scientology was acquitted of all charges, and demands to close its Belgian branch and European headquarters were dismissed.[448]
Organized harassment
Scientology has historically engaged in hostile action toward its critics; executives within the organization have proclaimed that Scientology is "not a turn-the-other-cheek religion".[449]Journalists, politicians, former Scientologists and various anti-cult groups have made accusations of wrongdoing against Scientology since the 1960s, and Scientology has targeted these critics – almost without exception – for retaliation, in the form of lawsuits and public counter-accusations of personal wrongdoing. Many of Scientology's critics have also reported they were subject to threats and harassment in their private lives.[450][451]
According to a 1990 Los Angeles Times article, Scientology had largely switched from using Church members to using private investigators, including former and current Los Angeles police officers, as this gives the organization a layer of protection in case investigators use tactics which might cause the organization embarrassment. In one case, the organization described their tactics as "LAPD sanctioned", which was energetically disputed by Police Chief Daryl Gates. The officer involved in this particular case of surveillance and harassment was suspended for six months.[326]
Journalist John Sweeney reported that "While making our BBC Panorama film Scientology and Me I have been shouted at, spied on, had my hotel invaded at midnight, denounced as a 'bigot' by star Scientologists, brain-washed – that is how it felt to me – in a mock up of a Nazi-style torture chamber and chased round the streets of Los Angeles by sinister strangers".[452]
Violation of auditing confidentiality
During the auditing process, the auditor collects and records personal information from the client.[453]
While the Church of Scientology claims to protect the confidentiality of auditing records, the organization has a history of attacking and psychologically abusing former members using information culled from the records.[453] For example, a December 16, 1969, a Guardian's Office order (G. O. 121669) by Mary Sue Hubbard explicitly authorized the use of auditing records for purposes of "internal security".[454] Former members report having participated in combing through information obtained in auditing sessions to see if it could be used for smear campaigns against critics.[455][456]
Allegations of coerced abortions
Protester against Scientology, holding a sign which reads: "What kind of church makes its staff have abortions"
The Sea Org originally operated on vessels at sea where it was understood that it was not permitted to raise children on board the ships.[320][failed verification] Pregnant women in the Sea Org have stated that they had been pressured to undergo abortions.[320][failed verification]
In 2003, The Times of India reported "Forced abortions, beatings, starvation are considered tools of discipline in this church".[457]
A former high-ranking source reports that "some 1,500 abortions" have been "carried out by women in the Sea Organization since the implementation of a rule in the late 80s that members could not remain in the organization if they decided to have children". The source noted that "And if members who have been in the Sea Organization for, say, 10 years do decide to have kids, they are dismissed with no more than $1,000" as a severance package.[458]
Many former members have said they were pressured to undergo abortion.
A protester holds a sign which reads: "C[hurch] o[f] $[cientology] forces its female members to get abortions" (February 10, 2008)
Longtime member Astra Woodcraft left Scientology for good when the church tried to pressure her to have an abortion.[459][460] Former Sea Org member Karen Pressley recounted that she was often asked by fellow Scientologists for loans so that they could get an abortion and remain in the Sea Org.[461][462][463] Scientology employee Claire Headley has said she "was forced to have (two) abortions to keep her job and was subjected to violations of personal rights and liberties for the purpose of obtaining forced labor".[464] Laura Ann DeCrescenzo reported she was "coerced to have an abortion" as a minor.[465]
In March 2009, Maureen Bolstad reported that women who worked at Scientology's headquarters were forced to have abortions, or faced being declared a "suppressive person" by the organization's management.[466] In March 2010, former Scientologist Janette Lang stated that at age 20 she became pregnant by her boyfriend while in the organization,[467] and her boyfriend's Scientology supervisors "coerced them into terminating the pregnancy".[468] "We fought for a week, I was devastated, I felt abused, I was lost and eventually I gave in. It was my baby, my body and my choice, and all of that was taken away from me by Scientology", said Lang.[468][469]
Australian Senator Nick Xenophon gave a speech to the Australian Parliament in November 2009, about statements he had received from former Scientologists.[470] He said that he had been told members of the organization had coerced pregnant female employees to have abortions.[470] "I am deeply concerned about this organisation and the devastating impact it can have on its followers," said Senator Xenophon, and he requested that the Australian Senate begin an investigation into Scientology.[470] According to the letters presented by Senator Xenophon, the organization was involved in "ordering" its members to have abortions.[471]
Former Scientologist Aaron Saxton sent a letter to Senator Xenophon stating he had participated in coercing pregnant women within the organization to have abortions.[472] "Aaron says women who fell pregnant were taken to offices and bullied to have an abortion. If they refused, they faced demotion and hard labour. Aaron says one staff member used a coat hanger and self-aborted her child for fear of punishment," said Senator Xenophon.[473] Carmel Underwood, another former Scientologist, said she had been put under "extreme pressure" to have an abortion,[474] and that she was placed into a "disappearing programme", after refusing.[475] Underwood was the executive director of Scientology's branch in Sydney, Australia.[473]
Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis said these statements are "utterly meritless".[464] Mike Ferriss, the head of Scientology in New Zealand, told media that "There are no forced abortions in Scientology".[476] Scientology spokesperson Virginia Stewart likewise rejected the statements and asserted "The Church of Scientology considers the family unit and children to be of the utmost importance and does not condone nor force anyone to undertake any medical procedure whatsoever."[477]
Scientology, litigation, and the Internet
In the 1990s, Miscavige's organization took action against increased criticism of Scientology on the Internet and online distribution of Scientology-related documents.[480]
Starting in 1991, Scientology filed fifty lawsuits against Scientology-critic Cult Awareness Network (CAN).[481] Many of the suits were dismissed, but one resulted in $2 million in losses, bankrupting the network.[481] At bankruptcy, CAN's name and logo were obtained by a Scientologist.[481][482] A New Cult Awareness Network was set up with Scientology backing, which says it operates as an information and networking center for non-traditional religions, referring callers to academics and other experts.[483][484]
In a 1993 U.S. lawsuit brought by the Church of Scientology against former member Steven Fishman, Fishman made a court declaration which included several dozen pages of formerly secret esoterica detailing aspects of Scientologist cosmogony.[485] As a result of the litigation, this material, normally strictly safeguarded and used only in Scientology's more advanced "OT levels", found its way onto the Internet.[485] This resulted in a battle between the Church of Scientology and its online critics over the right to disclose this material, or safeguard its confidentiality.[485] The Church of Scientology was forced to issue a press release acknowledging the existence of this cosmogony, rather than allow its critics "to distort and misuse this information for their own purposes".[485] Even so, the material, notably the story of Xenu, has since been widely disseminated and used to caricature Scientology, despite the Church of Scientology's vigorous program of copyright litigation.[485]
In January 1995, Church of Scientology lawyer Helena Kobrin attempted to shut down the newsgroupalt.religion.scientology by sending a control message instructing Usenet servers to delete the group.[486] In practice, this rmgroup message had little effect, since most Usenet servers are configured to disregard such messages when sent to groups that receive substantial traffic, and newgroup messages were quickly issued to recreate the group on those servers that did not do so. However, the issuance of the message led to a great deal of public criticism by free-speech advocates.[487][488] Among the criticisms raised, one suggestion is that Scientology's true motive is to suppress the free speech of its critics.[489][490]
An Internet-based group which refers to itself as 'Anonymous' held protests outside Scientology centers in cities around the world in February 2008 as part of Project Chanology. Issues they protested ranged from alleged abuse of followers to the validity of its claims to qualify as a religion for tax purposes.[491]
Beginning in the middle of 1996 and ensuing for several years, the newsgroup was attacked by anonymous parties using a tactic dubbed sporgery by some, in the form of hundreds of thousands of forged spam messages posted on the group. Some investigators said that some spam had been traced to members of the Church of Scientology.[492][493] Former Scientologist Tory Christman later asserted that the Office of Special Affairs had undertaken a concerted effort to destroy alt.religion.scientology through these means; the effort failed.[494]
On January 21, 2008, Anonymous announced its intentions via a video posted to YouTube entitled "Message to Scientology", and a press release declaring a "war" against the Church of Scientology and the Religious Technology Center.[502] In the press release, the group stated that the attacks against the Church of Scientology would continue in order to protect the freedom of speech, and end what they saw as the financial exploitation of members of the organization.[504]
A protester criticizing Scientology
On January 28, 2008, an Anonymous video appeared on YouTube calling for protests outside Church of Scientology buildings on February 10, 2008.[505][506] The date was chosen because it was the birthday of Lisa McPherson.[507] According to a letter Anonymous e-mailed to the press, about 7,000 people protested in more than 90 cities worldwide.[508] Many protesters wore masks based on the character V from V for Vendetta (who was influenced by Guy Fawkes) or otherwise disguised their identities, in part to protect themselves from reprisals from the Church of Scientology.[509][510] Many further protests have followed since then in cities around the world.[511]
The Arbitration Committee of the Wikipedia internet encyclopedia decided in May 2009 to restrict access to its site from Church of Scientology IP addresses, to prevent self-serving edits by Scientologists.[512][513] A "host of anti-Scientologist editors" were topic-banned as well.[512][513] The committee concluded that both sides had "gamed policy" and resorted to "battlefield tactics", with articles on living persons being the "worst casualties".[512]
Disputes over legal status
The legal status of Scientology or Scientology-related organizations differs between jurisdictions.[32][33][514] Scientology was legally recognized as a tax-exempt religion in Australia,[34]Portugal,[515] and Spain.[516] Scientology was granted tax-exempt status in the United States in 1993.[517][518][519][520] The organization is considered a cult in Chile and an "anticonstitutional sect" in Germany,[37] and is considered a cult (French secte) by some French public authorities.[38]
The Church of Scientology argues that Scientology is a genuine religious movement that has been misrepresented, maligned, and persecuted.[361][521] The organization has pursued an extensive public relations campaign for the recognition of Scientology as a tax-exempt religion in the various countries in which it exists.[522][523][524]
The Church of Scientology has often generated opposition due to its strong-arm tactics directed against critics and members wishing to leave the organization.[525] A minority of governments regard it as a religious organization entitled to tax-exempt status, while other governments variously classify it as a business, cult, pseudoreligion, or criminal organization.[526][527]
In 1957, the Church of Scientology of California was granted tax-exempt status by the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and so, for a time, were other local branches of the organization.[36] In 1958 however, the IRS started a review of the appropriateness of this status.[20] In 1959, Hubbard moved to England, remaining there until the mid-1960s.[528]
In the mid-sixties, the Church of Scientology was banned in several Australian states, starting with Victoria in 1965.[20] The ban was based on the Anderson Report, which found that the auditing process involved "command" hypnosis, in which the hypnotist assumes "positive authoritative control" over the patient. On this point the report stated,[529]
It is the firm conclusion of this Board that most scientology and dianetic techniques are those of authoritative hypnosis and as such are dangerous ... the scientific evidence which the Board heard from several expert witnesses of the highest repute ... leads to the inescapable conclusion that it is only in name that there is any difference between authoritative hypnosis and most of the techniques of scientology. Many scientology techniques are in fact hypnotic techniques, and Hubbard has not changed their nature by changing their names.
The Australian Church was forced to operate under the name of the "Church of the New Faith" as a result, the name and practice of Scientology having become illegal in the relevant states. Several years of court proceedings aimed at overturning the ban followed.[citation needed] In 1973, state laws banning Scientology were overturned in Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. In 1983 the High Court of Australia ruled in a unanimous decision that the Church of Scientology was "undoubtedly a religion and deserving of tax exemption".[35]
In 1967, the IRS removed Scientology's tax-exempt status, asserting that its activities were commercial and operated for the benefit of Hubbard, rather than for charitable or religious purposes.[36][530]
Scientology in religious studies
Hugh B. Urban writes that "Scientology's efforts to get itself defined as a religion make it an ideal case study for thinking about how we understand and define religion."[531]
Frank K. Flinn, adjunct professor of religious studies at Washington University in St. Louis wrote, "it is abundantly clear that Scientology has both the typical forms of ceremonial and celebratory worship and its own unique form of spiritual life."[532] Flinn further states that religion requires "beliefs in something transcendental or ultimate, practices (rites and codes of behavior) that re-inforce those beliefs and, a community that is sustained by both the beliefs and practices", all of which are present within Scientology.[526] Similarly, World Religions in America states that "Scientology contains the same elements of most other religions, including myths, scriptures, doctrines, worship, sacred practices and rituals, moral and ethical expectations, a community of believers, clergy, and ecclesiastic organizations."[533]
While acknowledging that a number of his colleagues accept Scientology as a religion, sociologist Stephen A. Kent writes: "Rather than struggling over whether or not to label Scientology as a religion, I find it far more helpful to view it as a multifaceted transnational corporation, only one element of which is religious" [emphasis in the original].[7][41]
Donna Batten in the Gale Encyclopedia of American Law writes, "A belief does not need to be stated in traditional terms to fall within First Amendment protection. For example, Scientology – a system of beliefs that a human being is essentially a free and immortal spirit who merely inhabits a body – does not propound the existence of a supreme being, but it qualifies as a religion under the broad definition propounded by the Supreme Court."[534]
The material contained in the OT levels has been characterized as bad science fiction by critics, while others claim it bears structural similarities to gnostic thought and ancient Hindu beliefs of creation and cosmic struggle.[535]
Influences
The general orientation of Hubbard's philosophy owes much to Will Durant, author of the popular 1926 classic The Story of Philosophy; Dianetics is dedicated to Durant.[536] Hubbard's view of a mechanically functioning mind in particular finds close parallels in Durant's work on Spinoza.[536] According to Hubbard himself, Scientology is "the Western anglicized continuance of many early forms of wisdom".[537] Ankerberg and Weldon mention the sources of Scientology to include "the Vedas, Buddhism, Judaism, Gnosticism, Taoism, early Greek civilization and the teachings of Jesus, Nietzsche and Freud".[538]
Hubbard asserted that Freudian thought was a "major precursor" to Scientology. W. Vaughn Mccall, Professor and Chairman of the Georgia Regents University writes, "Both Freudian theory and Hubbard assume that there are unconscious mental processes that may be shaped by early life experiences, and that these influence later behavior and thought." Both schools of thought propose a "tripartite structure of the mind".[539]Sigmund Freud's psychology, popularized in the 1930s and 1940s, was a key contributor to the Dianetics therapy model, and was acknowledged unreservedly as such by Hubbard in his early works.[540] Hubbard never forgot, when he was 12 years old, meeting Cmdr. Joseph Cheesman Thompson, a U.S. Navy officer who had studied with Freud[541] and when writing to the American Psychological Association in 1949, he stated that he was conducting research based on the "early work of Freud".[542]
In Dianetics, Hubbard cites Hegel as a negative influence – an object lesson in "confusing" writing.[543] According to Mary A. Mann, Scientology is considered nondenominational, accepting all people regardless of their religions background, ethnicity, or educational attainment.[544] Another influence was Alfred Korzybski's General Semantics.[540] Hubbard was friends with fellow science fiction writers A. E. van Vogt and Robert Heinlein, who both wrote science-fiction inspired by Korzybski's writings, such as Vogt's The World of Null-A. Hubbard's view of the reactive mind has clear and acknowledged parallels with Korzybski's thought; in fact, Korzybski's "anthropometer" may have been what inspired Hubbard's invention of the E-meter.[540]
As noted, elements of the Eastern religions are evident in Scientology,[542] in particular the concept of karma found in Hinduism and Jainism.[545][546] In addition to the links to Hindu texts, Scientology draws from Taoism and Buddhism.[547] According to the Encyclopedia of Community, Scientology "shows affinities with Buddhism and a remarkable similarity to first-century Gnosticism".[548][549]
J. Gordon Melton writes that Scientology has its roots in Esoteric thought. He cited the significance of understanding Scientology's appeal as aligned with Esoteric tradition. He argues that Scientology is a "significant revision" and "meaningful revitalization" within the esoteric tradition. Melton states that Scientology can also be traced back to Gnosticism, Manicheanism, Freemasonry and Theosophy.[550]
Demographics
As of 2016, scholarly estimates suggest that there are a maximum of 40,000 Scientologists;[79] this was the estimate given in 2011 by high-level Church defector Jeff Hawkins.[551] They are found mostly in the U.S., Europe, South Africa and Australia.[180]
By the start of the 21st century, the Church was claiming it had 8 million members.[62] Several commentators claim that this number was cumulative rather than collective, amounting to the total number of people who had some involvement in the Church since its founding, some of whom only had one or two auditing sessions.[552] The Church also maintained that it was the world's fastest growing religion,[553] a title also claimed by several other religious groups, including Mormons, modern Pagans, and Baha'i,[554] but which is demonstrably incorrect.[555][556][526][557][558] Due to its internationally dispersed nature, it is difficult to determine the number of Freezone Scientologists.[401] In 2021, Thomas suggested that the Free Zone was growing,[401] with Lewis commenting that Freezoners may one day outnumber Church members.[559]
The American Religious Identification Survey of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York found 45,000 Scientologists in the United States in 1990,[555] and then 55,000 in 2001,[560] although in 2008 it estimated that that number had dropped to 25,000.[561][562] Lewis commented that the "pattern of solid growth" he observed in the 2000s seemed "suddenly to have ground to a halt" by the early 2010s.[563] Within the U.S., higher rates of Scientology have been observed in the western states, especially those bordering the Pacific Ocean, than further east.[564] The Canadian census revealed 1,215 Scientologists in 1991 and 1,525 in 2001,[309] down to 1,400 in 2021.[565] The Australian census reported 1,488 Scientologists in 1996 and 2,032 in 2001,[566] before dropping to under 1,700 in 2016.[567][568][569]
The New Zealand census found 207 Scientologists in 1991 and 282 in 2001.[309] Andersen and Wellendorf estimated that there were between 2000 and 4000 Scientologists in Denmark in 2009,[570] with contemporary estimates suggesting between 500 and 1000 active Church members in Sweden.[571] Germany's government estimated around 5000 to 6000 German Church members in 2008,[301] while observers have suggested between 2000 and 4000 in France.[301] The 2021 census in England and Wales recorded 1,800 Scientologists.[572]
Internationally, the Church's members are largely middle-class.[573] In Australia, Scientologists have been observed as being wealthier and more likely to work in managerial and professional roles than the average citizen.[574] Scientology is oriented towards individualistic and liberal economic values;[575] the scholar of religion Susan J. Palmer observed that Scientologists display "a capitalist ideology that promotes individualistic values".[576] A survey of Danish Scientologists revealed that nearly all voted for liberal or conservative parties on the right of Denmark's political spectrum and took a negative view of socialism.[577] Placing great emphasis on the freedom of the individual, those surveyed believed that the state and its regulations held people down, and felt that the Danish welfare system was excessive.[578] Interviewing Church members in the United States, Westbrook found that most regarded themselves as apolitical, Republicans, or libertarians; fewer than 10 percent supported the Democratic Party.[579]
Recruitment
Scientology stress tests being offered on public sidewalk
Most people who join the Church are introduced to it via friends and family.[580] The Church also offers free "personality tests" or "stress tests", typically involving an E-Meter, to attract potential converts.[581] It hopes that if non-Scientologists purchase one service from the Church and feel a benefit from it – a "win" in Church terminology – they are more likely to purchase additional services from the Church.[582] Other recruitment methods include lectures and classes introducing non-Scientologists to the subject.[300] The Church has also claimed that prominent instances in which Scientology has been ridiculed in the media have resulted in a growth of people expressing interest in it.[242]
The Church's own statistics, published in 1998, reveal that 52.6% of those who joined Church activities did so through their family and friendship networks with existing Church members.[583] 18% were drawn in through personality tests, 4.8% through publicity, and 3.1% through lectures.[584]
Westbrook's interviews with Church members determined that most people who joined the Church were initially attracted by "the practical benefits advertised".[585] Westbrook found that various members deepened their involvement after having what they considered to be a spiritual experience, such as exteriorization or a past life memory, in their first few weeks of involvement.[586]
Barrett noted that "vast amounts" have been written about Scientology, both in support and opposition to it.[363] Much of this literature has been heavily polarised.[588] Scientology has attracted negative publicity since its founding,[589] with criticism of the Church coming from government agencies, the media, and anti-cult groups.[299] Much material critical of the Church was written by ex-members such as Cyril Vosper, Bent Corydon, and Jon Atack.[363] Many of the Church's critics have utilised the Internet, for instance to disseminate leaked OT documents.[590] The Church have sought to sue various websites, including the Usenet group alt.religion.scientologist, for disseminating Hubbard's writings.[591] Urban noted that Scientologists have long maintained that theirs is "a legitimate religious movement that has been misrepresented, maligned, and persecuted by media witch-hunters and McCarthy-style government attacks."[361]
Several human rights organisations have expressed concern about the stance that the French and German government have taken towards Scientologists.[105] Relations between the Church and German government are largely hostile.[592] The German government banned Church members from working in the public sector, fearing the Church to be a threat to democracy.[105] The US State Department has criticised Germany's treatment of Scientologists in its reports on international religious freedom and at least one German Scientologist has received asylum in the US due to their beliefs.[592] In France, conspiracy theories have spread alleging that the Church controls the US government or that it is a front for American imperialism, perhaps run by the Central Intelligence Agency.[593] French Scientologists have reported being fired or refused jobs because of their beliefs,[594] and bombs have been thrown at French Scientology centres; in 2002 one Scientologist sustained permanent injuries as a result.[595]
A 2022 YouGov poll on Americans' attitudes toward religious groups ranked Scientology as the country's least-favored group, with around 50% of respondents indicating a negative view of the practise, alongside Satanism.[596]
Media, popular culture, and academia
Scientology has received an "extraordinary amount" of media interest,[597] although the Church's relationship with the media has been turbulent.[598] In his writings, Hubbard often described journalists in negative terms, for instance calling them "merchants of chaos".[599] He discouraged Scientologists from interacting with journalists, a tendency that, Westbrook argued, has contributed to negative press portrayals of the movement.[600] Many journalists taking a negative stance on the Church have been concerned about potential human rights violations.[601]
Hubbard had better experiences with scholars than journalists and the Church sometimes views academics as potential allies in its public relations and legal issues.[599] Academic research into Scientology was for several decades comparatively limited compared to the media and public interest in it.[597] This has been attributed to the Church's secrecy,[602] its reputation for litigiousness,[603] and a lack of academic access to documentary material about the organization.[362] Early studies included Roy Wallis' The Road to Total Freedom (1976) and Harriet Whitehead's Renunciation and Reformulation (1987).[604] Research intensified in the early 21st century,[605] and in 2014, the first academic conference on the topic was held, in Antwerp, Belgium.[606] Several academics who have studied the movement have described the Church paying close attention to their work by telephoning them and sending representatives to attend their talks on the subject.[597] Some critics of Scientology have also been hostile to scholars studying it, accusing them of being apologists for it.[607]
The depiction of Xenu in the South Park episode "Trapped in the Closet"
^ abcCarobene, Germana (June 16, 2014). "Problems on the legal status of the Church of Scientology". Stato, Chiese e Pluralismo Confessionale. Milan: University of Milan. 2014 (21). doi:10.13130/1971-8543/4109. Retrieved March 10, 2020. In this sense the long process of Milan is of great importance, which, after six pronunciations was concluded in 2000 and legally recognized Scientology as a religion in Italy. The case was based on the complaint of a series of criminal offenses against some members of the church: conspiracy, fraud, extortion. After some contradictory rulings, the Milan judges became aware of the need to define the religiosity of the movement, i.e. it is to be considered a religion if all the alleged activities can qualify as normal religious practices
^ abChurch of the New Faith v Commissioner of Pay-roll Tax (Vict)[1983] HCA 40, (1983) 154 CLR 120, High Court (Australia) "the evidence, in our view, establishes that Scientology must, for relevant purposes, be accepted as "a religion" in Victoria"
^Dericquebourg, Regis (2014). "Acta Comparanda". Affinities between Scientology and Theosophy. International Conference – Scientology in a scholarly perspective 24–25th January 2014 (in English and French). Antwerp, Belgium: University of Antwerp, Faculty for Comparative Study of Religions and Humanism. Archived from the original on February 16, 2017.
^Souchard, Pierre-Antoine (February 2, 2012). "Scientology Fraud Conviction Upheld". Huffington Post. Archived from the original on November 3, 2013. Retrieved February 3, 2012. A French appeals court on Thursday upheld the Church of Scientology's 2009 fraud conviction on charges it pressured members into paying large sums for questionable remedies.
^Hubbard, L.R. (1965): Keeping Scientology working (Series 1), page 7. The Hubbard Communication Office Policy Letter, titled Keeping Scientology Working Series 1, was included in the attached documents submitted to the IRS in 1993. Available from Xenu.net: [1]
^Russell, Ron (September 9, 1999). "Scientology's Revenge – For years, the Cult Awareness Network was the Church of Scientology's biggest enemy. But the late L. Ron Hubbard's L.A.-based religion cured that–by taking it over". New Times LA.
^Lucy Morgan (March 29, 1999). "Abroad: Critics public and private keep pressure on Scientology". St. Petersburg Times. In the United States, Scientology gained status as a tax-exempt religion in 1993 when the Internal Revenue Service agreed to end a long legal battle over the group's right to the exemption.
^Willms 2009, p. 245. "Being a religion is one of the most important issues of Scientology's current self-representation."
^Kennedy, Dominic (June 23, 2007). "'Church' that yearns for respectability". The Times. London. Archived from the original on May 23, 2011. Retrieved January 4, 2009. Scientology is probably unique in that it keeps its sacred texts secret until, typically, devotees have paid enough money to learn what they say.
^Melton, J. Gordon (2014). "Acta Comparanda". On doing research on Scientology. International Conference – Scientology in a scholarly perspective January 24–25, 2014 (in English and French). Antwerp, Belgium: University of Antwerp, Faculty for Comparative Study of Religions and Humanism. Archived from the original on February 16, 2017.
^Jarvik, Elaine (September 18, 2004). "Scientology: Church now claims more than 8 million members". Deseret News. Archived from the original on June 16, 2008. Retrieved August 1, 2007. Melton, who has been criticized by some for being too easy on Scientology, and has been criticized by the church for being too harsh, says that the church's estimates of its membership numbers – 4 million in the United States, 8 to 9 million worldwide – are exaggerated. "You're talking about anyone who ever bought a Scientology book or took a basic course. Ninety-nine percent of them don't ever darken the door of the church again." If the church indeed had four million members in the United States, he says, "they would be like the Lutherans and would show up on a national survey" such as the Harris poll.
^Tu, Janet I (July 31, 2010). "Scientology church finds new home in Queen Anne neighborhood". The Seattle Times. Sociologist Barry Kosmin of Trinity College, one of study's principal researchers, said the sample size of Scientologists used was too small to give a reliable count of members. Still, he said, the data "strongly suggests that there has been no recent vast increase and that the number of Scientologists (in the U.S.) is in the tens of thousands". [Bob] Adams, the Church of Scientology International spokesman, estimates there are millions of Scientologists worldwide, though he couldn't be more specific on the number, and about a million in the U.S.
DeChant, Dell; Jorgenson, Danny L. (2003). "Chapter 14: The Church of Scientology: A Very New American Religion". In Neusner, Jacob (ed.). World Religions in America. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN978-0-664-22475-2.
Dericquebourg, Régis (2009). "How Should We Regard the Religious Ceremonies of the Church of Scientology?". Scientology. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 165–182. ISBN978-0-19-5331-49-3.
Grünschloß, Andreas (2004). "Waiting for the "Big Beam": UFO Religions and "Ufological" Themes in New Religious Movements". In James R. Lewis (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 419–444. ISBN978-0195369649.
Harley, Gail M.; Kieffer, John (2009). "The Development and Reality of Auditing". In Lewis, James R. (ed.). Scientology. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 183–205. ISBN978-0-19-5331-49-3.
Lewis, James R. (2009b). "The Growth of Scientology and the Stark Model of Religious "Success"". In Lewis, James R. (ed.). Scientology. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 117–140. ISBN978-0-19-5331-49-3.
Lewis, James R. (2012). "Scientology: Up Stat, Down Stat". In Olav Hammer; Mikael Rothstein (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to New Religious Movements. New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 133–149.
Richardson, James T. (2009). "Scientology in Court: A Look at Some Major Cases from Various Nations". In Lewis, James R. (ed.). Scientology. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 283–294. ISBN978-0-19-5331-49-3.
Shupe, Anson; Bromley, David G.; Darnell, Susan E. (2004). "The North American Anti-Cult Movement". In James R. Lewis (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 184–205. ISBN978-0195369649.
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967, the IRS removed Scientology's tax-exempt status, asserting that its activities were commercial and operated for the benefit of Hubbard, rather than for charitable or religious purposes.[36][530]
Scientology in religious studies
Hugh B. Urban writes that "Scientology's efforts to get itself defined as a religion make it an ideal case study for thinking about how we understand and define religion. "[531]
Frank K. Flinn, adjunct professor of religious studies at Washington University in St. Louis wrote, "it is abundantly clear that Scientology has both the typical forms of ceremonial and celebratory worship and its own unique form of spiritual life. "[532] Flinn further states that religion requires "beliefs in something transcendental or ultimate, practices (rites and codes of behavior) that re-inforce those beliefs and, a community that is sustained by both the beliefs and practices", all of which are present within Scientology.[526] Similarly, World Religions in America states that "Scientology contains the same elements of most other religions, including myths, scriptures, doctrines, worship, sacred practices and rituals, moral and ethical expectations, a community of believers, clergy, and ecclesiastic organizations. "[533]
While acknowledging that a number of his colleagues accept Scientology as a religion, sociologist Stephen A. Kent writes: "Rather than struggling over whether or not to label Scientology as a religion, I find it far more helpful to view it as a multifaceted transnational corporation, only one element of which is religious" [emphasis in the original].[7][41]
Donna Batten in the Gale Encyclopedia of American Law writes, "A belief does not need to be stated in traditional terms to fall within First Amendment protection. For example, Scientology – a system of beliefs that a human being is essentially a free and immortal spirit who merely inhabits a body – does not propound the existence of a supreme being, but it qualifies as a religion under the broad definition propounded by the Supreme Court.
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yes
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World Religions
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Is the Scientology a legitimate religion?
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yes_statement
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"scientology" is a "legitimate" "religion".. "scientology" meets the criteria to be considered a "legitimate" "religion".
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https://www.scientologyreligion.org/landmark-decisions/national-church-of-scientology-of-spain-officially-recognized-as-world-religion.html
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National Church of Scientology of Spain Officially Recognized as ...
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National Church of Scientology of Spain Officially Recognized as World Religion
October 31, 2007
Spain
The Church of Scientology is officially recognized as a religion in Spain. On 31 October 2007, the National Court in Madrid issued a unanimous landmark decision affirming the right to religious freedom in Spain by recognizing that the National Church of Scientology of Spain is a religious organization entitled to the full panoply of religious rights that flow from entry in the government’s Registry of Religious Entities.
This recognition marked the end of an era in which Spanish Scientologists were forced to fight for their rights to religious freedom. It vindicated the Church of Scientology in Spain and signaled a new beginning for all Spanish Scientologists.
“The court rules that we must acquit and thus do acquit without reservation the defendants.”
Today there is no question of Scientology’s legitimate status as one of the world religions. Scientology is fully developed in its theology, religious practice and organization. The breadth and scope of the religion include more than eleven thousand Churches of Scientology, missions and related organizations in countries all over the world.
Landmark Religious Freedom Decision
The Church of Scientology decision is extremely significant for a number of reasons. First, the National Court recognized the legal status of the National Church of Scientology of Spain as a “religious group” and its fundamental right, in conjunction with its parishioners, to the collective practice and manifestation of religious freedom.
Second, the National Court determined, after examining the evidence in the case, that no public-order issue existed and that the Church pursued religious purposes as required by Article 3.2 of the Organic Law of Religious Freedom.
Third, the National Court determined that the religious freedom principles and religious-registration criteria developed and created by the European Human Rights Court for application throughout Europe and by the Spanish Constitutional Court for application in Spain, must apply to the Church of Scientology and the Scientology religion.
The National Court thoroughly examined the Church of Scientology formative documents, aims and purposes to unequivocally determine that the National Church of Scientology of Spain has the right to be registered as a religion under Spanish law.
Specifically, the National Court determined that the right of the Church of Scientology to register as a religious organization constitutes a manifestation of its right to religious freedom and its right to the collective practice of the Scientology religion. In reaching this conclusion, the Court reaffirmed the principle:
That the registration of a religious entity in the Registry implies, above all, the recognition of its legal status as a religious group, that is, the identification and admission in the Law of a group of people that intend to practice, with immunity from coercion, their fundamental right to the collective practice of religious freedom as it is established by Article 5.2 of the Spanish Religious Freedom Law.
The National Court also relied on decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, most notably the Human Rights Court’s unanimous decision of 5 April 2007, in Church of Scientology Moscow v. Russia, affirming that the Church of Scientology is entitled to the rights and protections of religious freedom that flow to religious organizations pursuant to Article 9 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR), an international human rights treaty that Spain has signed and ratified. The Human Rights Court enunciated fundamental principles of religious freedom and pluralism in its decision to uphold the religious freedom rights of Scientologists and their religious associations.
The National Court’s decision is extremely significant because it constitutes another official recognition of the Church of Scientology as a religious organization in Europe and by a prominent member state of the European Union. The National Court’s decision mandates that Scientologists and their religious associations be afforded the same rights and privileges as members of other registered religious organizations in Spain.
As well, the National Court’s reliance on the judgment of the Strasbourg Court in Church of Scientology Moscow v. Russia to find that the Church of Scientology is entitled to be registered as a religious organization in Spain demonstrates that the fundamental principles of religious freedom articulated in the Russian case apply throughout the forty-seven member states that comprise the Council of Europe and have signed and ratified the ECHR. The National Court’s decision evidences that the Church of Scientology is entitled to the full panoply of religious freedom rights guaranteed by the ECHR in every country that has signed and ratified the treaty.
Scientology Right to Religious Entity Registration “As a Manifestation of its Right to Freedom of Religion”
In its decision overturning the refusal by the Ministry of Justice to register the Church as a religious organization, the National Court determined that the Church of Scientology of Spain had a right to be registered as a religious entity “as a manifestation of its right of freedom of religion.”
The Spanish Court noted that this right to religious freedom is protected by Article 16 of the Spanish Constitution. The Court also noted that the Church of Scientology’s request for religious registration implicated fundamental rights that, in accordance with Article 10.2 of the Constitution, must be interpreted pursuant to the European Human Rights Convention.
In light of the need to adhere to fundamental international human rights authority, the Spanish Court also relied upon key principles regarding religious freedom developed and articulated by the European Human Rights Court. The Court noted that the European Human Rights Court has declared that the right to religious freedom, protected by Article 9 of the ECHR, “constitute[s] one of the pillars of democratic society” and that this freedom must be related to the need to secure religious pluralism. The Court also noted that “the right to religious liberty as understood by the [ECHR] excludes any evaluation on the part of the State regarding the legitimacy of religious beliefs or their means of expression.” As well, the Court noted that the “duty of neutrality and impartiality” mandated by Article 9 of the ECHR is “incompatible with this evaluation of the legitimacy of beliefs.”
Significantly, the Spanish Court observed that these fundamental principles of religious liberty “have been reaffirmed” in recent judgments by the European Human Rights Court, including the judgment of the Strasbourg Court in Church of Scientology Moscow v. Russia.
The Court then noted that the Spanish Constitutional Court, in its decision of 15 February 2001 (46/01), established the criteria in religious freedom cases for interpretation of these fundamental principles developed by the Human Rights Court. The Court summarized these criteria, as follows:
The recognition of the legal status of an organization as a “religious group” and their “fundamental right to the collective practice of religious freedom as it is established by Article 5.2 of the Spanish Religious Freedom Law” free from coercion.
The specified “status” of religious entity granted by registration in the Registry is broad and is meant not only to recognize the legality of a religious entity. It also protects concrete manifestations of religion that “in the exercise of their fundamental rights the members of the group or the registered community perform” in order to ensure that they “be facilitated in such a manner to allow the collective exercise of religious liberty without coercion, obstacles or disturbances of any kind.”
The registration process “does not empower the State” to have any control over evaluating whether religious beliefs or the means used to express such beliefs are legitimate.
As registration is an essential manifestation of religious freedom, any attempt by the State to restrict that right is subject to strict scrutiny; accordingly, authorities responsible for registration may not exercise discretionary power to deny registration “but rather its acts are regulated.”
Applying these fundamental religious freedom principles and religious-registration criteria to this case, the Court examined evidence documenting the Scientology religion’s founding or establishment in Spain, its religious aims and purposes, its religious activities and functions, its rules of functioning, its representative organizations and its management entities.
No Public Order Violations
In addition, pursuant to Article 3.2 of the Organic Law of Religious Freedom, the Court also examined the record to determine whether the State could impose limitations to the Church’s right to religious freedom due to public order or due to the Church pursuing non-religious aims. The Court found that no such evidence existed:
The positive conclusion favorable to its consideration as a religious entity emerges ‘prima facie’ from its bylaws as well as from the doctrine/teachings presented, and also from the fact that the association is similar to others that are rightfully registered in official registries in countries of similar jurisprudence and culture.
Based on these findings, the Court “declare[d] the right of the [National Church of Scientology of Spain] to its registration in the Registry of Religious Entities of the Ministry of Justice.”
Ramifications: Fundamental Rights Flowing from Registration
The Spanish National Court’s determination that the Church of Scientology must be treated as a “religious group” entitled to the rights and protections that flow to such groups pursuant to the European Convention on Human Rights and the Spanish Constitution represents yet another judicial pronouncement recognizing that the Church of Scientology must be treated no differently from other religious organizations and that the Church and its parishioners are entitled to the right to religious freedom protected by international human rights law and national law.
It is also important to note that a number of fundamental rights flow from religious registration in Spain. The Spanish Constitutional Court, in its decision of 15 February 2001, identified some of the key benefits that occur with registration, including “an attitude of respect to the creed and its religious practices” by the State, the provision of “required protection” of religious practices by the State, and affirmative action by the State regarding “the real and effective enforcement” of the rights of the Church of Scientology and its parishioners to religious freedom. The Constitutional Court has also noted the following:
Recognition provides a religious organization with a given status which is evidenced in the full independence attributed by Article 6.1 of the Organic Religion Law, whereby religious institutions or confessions “may establish their own rules of organization, internal regimen and staff scheme.” This power of self-regulation may include determination of the structure of the institutions established for fulfilling their goals.
Recognition requires “due respect” for the religious beliefs of such organizations. Recognition also provides specific protection against those who “with violence, threaten, riot, prevent, interrupt, or disturb the acts, functions, ceremonies or manifestations of the religious confessions recorded in the corresponding public Registration of the Ministry of Justice….”
Recognition establishes that “marriage consent may be given, as established by registered religious confessions, in the conditions agreed with the State or otherwise authorized by its legislation,” thus attributing to the marriage celebrated in any established religious form the due civil effects, as specified in the law.
Registration provides the foundation for the adoption of “measures necessary to facilitate religious assistance at military, hospital, health care, prison and other establishments and also the religious training at public teaching centers.”
Spanish Experts Agree: Scientology a World Religion
The National Court’s decision confirms the considered opinions of Spain’s foremost experts in the fields of comparative religion, history of religion, religious studies and sociology, all of whom unanimously agree that Scientology is a religion. Distinguished Spanish scholars who have reached this conclusion include Urbano Alonso Galan, Doctor of Philosophy and Licentiate of Theology, Gregorian University and Saint Bonaventure Pontifical Faculty, Rome (Scientology: A True Religion), and Dionisio Llamazares, Professor of Ecclesiastic Law, University Complutense de Madrid (Legal Study of Religious Denominations In Spanish Law).
Dr. Galan, one of the foremost religious scholars in the world who has served as a moderator in Ecumenical Congresses directed by the Vatican and who worked with Pope John XXIII and Pope Paul VI on religious matters, studied Scientology for many years through review of written Scriptures and observance of religious ceremonies and practices in several countries. He concludes:
From my viewpoint as a theologian and philosopher, and having studied the religion of Scientology in its writings and practices, I can strongly affirm that Scientology is a religion, in the very fullest sense. The community of persons united with a complex body of beliefs in its search for the infinite, the sacred, searching to place man into his proper relationship with the divine, is what one encounters in examining the beliefs and practices of the religion of Scientology.
The Church of Scientology is a world religion that is growing throughout the world and in Spain today. Currently Spain is home to thousands of Scientologists who practice their faith and worship in Scientology Churches, missions and related groups throughout the country.
Conclusion
The 31 October 2007 decision of the National Court in Madrid recognizing the right of the National Church of Scientology of Spain to be registered as a religious entity reaffirms and definitively establishes what human rights experts, academics and numerous international and national courts have already found: Scientology is a bona fide religion and the Church of Scientology is a religious community entitled to the full panoply of human rights that flow to such organizations and their parishioners.
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Landmark Religious Freedom Decision
The Church of Scientology decision is extremely significant for a number of reasons. First, the National Court recognized the legal status of the National Church of Scientology of Spain as a “religious group” and its fundamental right, in conjunction with its parishioners, to the collective practice and manifestation of religious freedom.
Second, the National Court determined, after examining the evidence in the case, that no public-order issue existed and that the Church pursued religious purposes as required by Article 3.2 of the Organic Law of Religious Freedom.
Third, the National Court determined that the religious freedom principles and religious-registration criteria developed and created by the European Human Rights Court for application throughout Europe and by the Spanish Constitutional Court for application in Spain, must apply to the Church of Scientology and the Scientology religion.
The National Court thoroughly examined the Church of Scientology formative documents, aims and purposes to unequivocally determine that the National Church of Scientology of Spain has the right to be registered as a religion under Spanish law.
Specifically, the National Court determined that the right of the Church of Scientology to register as a religious organization constitutes a manifestation of its right to religious freedom and its right to the collective practice of the Scientology religion. In reaching this conclusion, the Court reaffirmed the principle:
That the registration of a religious entity in the Registry implies, above all, the recognition of its legal status as a religious group, that is, the identification and admission in the Law of a group of people that intend to practice, with immunity from coercion, their fundamental right to the collective practice of religious freedom as it is established by Article 5.2 of the Spanish Religious Freedom Law.
|
yes
|
World Religions
|
Is the Scientology a legitimate religion?
|
yes_statement
|
"scientology" is a "legitimate" "religion".. "scientology" meets the criteria to be considered a "legitimate" "religion".
|
https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/8965552/Cavanaugh.html?sequence=2
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Scientology and the FDA: A Look Back, A Modern Analysis, And A ...
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This paper is submitted in satisfaction of the
course requirement for Food and Drug Law (Winter 2003) and Harvard
Law School’s third year written work requirement.
ABSTRACT
Clashes between the government’s power to
regulate activity and religious adherents’ free exercise
right to practice their religion are frequent. However, for some
federal agencies, such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA),
conflicts with religion are not commonplace and, when they do
occur, are arduous and complicated. This paper seeks to explore the
historical legal battle between the FDA and the Church of
Scientology (Scientology), an off-beat religious movement that
employs a device known as an E-meter in its activities. Scientology
alleges that the E-meter has therapeutic and curative properties.
The paper examines the conflict from three perspectives. First, it
provides a narrative account of the conflict between Scientology
and the FDA as well as an analysis of three significant legal cases
that arose during the conflict. Second, it examines how both
constitutional law and the Federal, Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act
(FDCA) have evolved since the clash between the FDA and Scientology
and how these changes in the law would alter the judicial analysis
if the Scientology cases were tried in the courts today. Finally,
this paper suggests an amendment to the FDCA that, if adopted and
applied to a religious device similar to that of the E-meter, would
satisfy the FDA’s asserted interest in regulating harmless
religious devices, would not significantly interfere with the free
exercise of religion, and would avoid the exorbitant expenditure of
time, money, and resources by the FDA.
Introduction
Like many groups arising outside of the
Judeo-Christian mainstream, the Church of Scientology (Scientology)
has faced a significant amount of prejudice while trying to
establish itself as a bona fide religion in the eyes of the
public and under the laws of the United States. It has been
ridiculed as a cult in the popular media and its beliefs have been
labeled as quackery by the courts.[1] Far more difficult for Scientology to contend
with than the personal insults and taunting, have been the legal
assaults waged against it by federal government agencies, including
the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). These assaults have
questioned Scientology’s religious status and its right to
claim religious protections from federal regulation under the First
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.[2]
In the late 1950s, soon after it was founded,
Scientology became the subject of an investigation by the FDA and,
eventually, a series of lawsuits brought against it by the agency.
The FDA’s investigation and subsequent proceedings against
Scientology were focused on the organization’s use of a
harmless contraption known as a Hubbard Electrometer (E-meter)
during its religious activities and its claims that use of the
E-meter can alleviate physical illnesses. The FDA argued that under
the provisions of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA)
the E-meter was a misbranded and mislabeled medical device that
also lacked adequate directions for its intended uses.[3] With statutory jurisdiction, the FDA, with the
assistance of other federal agencies, sought to end the use of
E-meters in the United States by seizing the devices and seeking
their condemnation and destruction in the courts.
Unable to engage in their religious activities
without access to E-meters, Scientologists charged the FDA with
violating their right to practice religion freely under the Free
Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.[4] Specifically, the Scientologists argued that the
FDA’s application of the FDCA to the E-meters was prohibiting
their ability to engage in activities central to the practice of
Scientology. This clash between a federal regulatory statute and
the free exercise of religious activity generated a significant
constitutional dilemma and a substantial discourse in the
courts.
This paper seeks to accomplish three overlapping
goals while exploring Scientology’s contentious relationship
with the FDA. First, it provides a narrative account of the battle
between Scientology and the FDA as well as an analysis of three
significant legal cases that arose during the conflict (Parts I and
II). Second, it examines how both constitutional law and the FDCA
have evolved since the clash between the FDA and Scientology and
how these changes in the law would alter the judicial analysis if
the Scientology cases were tried in the courts today (Part III).
Finally, this paper suggests an amendment to the FDCA that, if
adopted and applied to a religious device similar to that of the
E-meter, would satisfy the FDA’s asserted interest in
regulating harmless religious devices, would not significantly
interfere with the free exercise of religion, and would avoid the
exorbitant expenditure of time, money, and resources by the FDA
(Part IV).
I. Scientology—A History
In May 1950, an article entitled “Dianetics:
A New Science of the Mind” appeared in Astounding Science
Fiction , a pulp magazine sold for twenty-five cents per
issue.[5] The author, Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (L. Ron
Hubbard) was an American war veteran and a prodigious producer of
science fiction stories. Remarkably, over the next few years,
Hubbard evolved the basic ideas presented in that article into the
scriptures of present-day Scientology. A knowledge of that
progression, along with the basic doctrines and practices of
Scientology, is useful for understanding the rise of conflict
between Scientology and the FDA.
A. L. Ron Hubbard
L. Ron Hubbard (Hubbard) was born in Tilden,
Nebraska on March 13, 1911.[6] He was the only child of Harry, a naval officer, and
Ledora Hubbard.[7] Like many children in military families, Hubbard
spent much of his youth moving between bases both within and
outside of the United States.[8] This constant moving and its consequent lack of
records has left substantial gaps in his biography. Not
surprisingly, Scientologists and critics disagree substantially on
the factual contents of those gaps.[9] Few details beyond the time and place of
Hubbard’s birth and death are undisputed.[10]
According to Scientology’s official
biographical sketch, Hubbard was a quick-witted, intelligent child
who befriended religious leaders, including Blackfoot Indian
medicine men and Buddhist priests, as he moved around the
world.[11] It is from these men that Hubbard first learned
about spirituality and human nature. As a teenager, Hubbard
received an extensive education in Freud’s theories of the
mind and dabbled in nuclear physics.[12] Seeking to live a life of adventure and
exploration, he eventually followed in his father’s footsteps
and joined the Navy.[13]
In 1945, Scientology’s account continues,
Hubbard was in the midst of a burgeoning military and writing
career when he ended up at Oak Knoll Naval Hospital crippled and
partially blind as a result of serious war injuries.[14] His recovery, according to his physicians, was
medically uncertain. During his year-long stay at Oak Knoll,
Hubbard became frustrated with the treatment he was receiving and
the pace of his medical progress. Eventually, he began treating
himself with a therapeutic technique he had created by integrating
his knowledge of Eastern religions, psychology, and nuclear
physics.[15] The technique focused on the ability of the mind
to effect the body.[16] Using this therapy, Hubbard found that he healed
faster, felt happier, and achieved physically and mentally in a
manner no one thought possible.[17]
After leaving Oak Knoll Naval Hospital, Hubbard
shared his new therapeutic technique and used it to save the lives
of patients in other physical and mental hospitals.[18] In 1950, he published several magazine articles
and books describing his “new science” and how it could
be used to improve the conditions of life.[19] He named this new science Dianetics.
B. Dianetics
Hubbard’s public introduction of Dianetics
was met with great success.[20]Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental
Health , the fundamental text of Hubbard’s new movement
sold quickly; and, it has appeared on the New York Times bestseller
more than 150 times since.[21] The book describes Dianetics as a practical method
for approaching the human mind and harnessing its power to cure
mental anguish and physical illness. Hubbard offered this new
approach as an alternative to psychology and psychiatry.[22] The public, it seems, was eager to give it a
try.
As created by Hubbard, Dianetics is an explicitly
secular science.[23] Its fundamental theory rests on the idea that the
human mind consists of two subparts: the analytical and the
reactive minds.[24] The analytical mind houses a limitless factual
memory and serves as the center for information processing and
problem solving.[25] It is a source of endless power and the essence of
human perfection.[26] The reactive mind, on the other hand, serves as
the repository for emotions and emotional memories.[27] It records every painful experience that an
individual goes through during his lifetime, including those
suffered while in the womb.[28] These memories stored in the reactive mind are
referred to as “engrams.”
According to Hubbard, the presence of engrams
causes the analytical mind to work sub-optimally.[29] When an individual encounters a stimulus similar
to an element of an engram, the reactive mind sends physiological
signs to the individual indicating that he may be entering a
harmful situation.[30] This response is meant to prepare the individual
for an impending encounter with physical or mental pain and to
reduce the ultimate harm caused to the individual by the stimulus
that triggered the reaction. According to Hubbard, however, an
individual collects so many engrams over time that, unless he is
able to purge these memories, he will eventually spend all of his
mental and physical energy reacting to potentially harmful stimuli.
His analytical mind will have no energy with which to process
information. As a result, the individual will suffer from problems
such as weakness, confusion, psychosomatic illnesses, and
inadequate mental performance.[31] The goal of Dianetics is to eliminate engrams from
the reactive mind of an individual, thereby restoring the
analytical mind to its optimal level of performance and alleviating
many of the emotional, mental and physical conditions suffered by
the individual.[32]
The process of removing engrams is known as
“auditing.”[33] There are three tangible components involved in
every auditing session: the preclear, the auditor, and the E-meter.
The preclear is the individual seeking to remove engrams from his
reactive mind. During an auditing session, the preclear holds the
electrodes of a skin galvanometer known as an E-meter while he is
asked a series of prescribed questions by the trained
auditor.[34] These questions were specially designed by Hubbard
to identify engrams as efficiently as possible.[35] As the preclear answers the questions, the auditor
watches a needle-indicator on the E-meter for evidence that an
engram has been located. The presence of an engram is indicated by
rapid movements of the needle.[36] When an engram is encountered, the auditor uses a
technique similar to repressed memory therapy to help the preclear
recover and relive the traumatic experience that is captured in the
engram one or more times.[37] Re-experiencing the painful memory eventually
purges the engram from the reactive mind. Over time, as a preclear
eliminates accumulated engrams he progresses along a continuum
toward the state of “clear.”[38]
As noted earlier, Hubbard’s public
introduction of Dianetics was met with undisputed enthusiasm; but,
what happened in the aftermath of that introduction is a matter of
some debate. Critics of Scientology suggest that as Dianetics
gained in popularity, Hubbard lost control over the
movement’s monetary profits and grew hostile toward his
financial partners as well as the leaders of spin-off factions of
Dianetics.[39] According to this theory, to regain his
centralized power and his potential for financial gain, Hubbard
added some superficially religious elements to his secular theory
of Dianetics, renamed it Scientology, and presented it as a new
religion.[40] Not surprisingly, Scientology’s version of
the story is quite different. According to it, Hubbard had always
considered his theories to be spiritual and he simply revealed the
religious elements of his philosophy over time as he discovered
them himself.[41] With Hubbard’s death in 1986, it is unlikely
that anyone will ever know for certain what motivated Hubbard to
create Scientology.
C. Scientology
Hubbard founded Scientology soon after he
introduced Dianetics into the public domain, delivering his first
lectures on Scientology in 1952 and incorporating five Scientology
churches between 1953 and 1954.[42] Regardless of how or why Hubbard created
Scientology, its doctrines clearly grew out of his original secular
philosophy. The basic tenets of Scientology consist of the theory
and practice of Dianetics; however, Scientology integrates elements
of spirituality, cosmology, and religious ritual into its
doctrine.[43]
The spiritual element of Scientology centers on the
belief that every human body is a temporary holding space for an
immortal spirit known as a “thetan.”[44] Over the billions of years that the world has
existed, each thetan has occupied innumerable physical
bodies.[45] The actions and creations of individuals on Earth
are, and always have been, controlled by thetans.[46] The thetan is the mind of the individual; it
houses both the analytical and reactive minds. According to
Hubbard, the thetans currently inhabiting Earth were placed here 75
million years ago by a prince named Xenu.[47] At that time, Xenu ruled a cluster of overcrowded
planets known as the Galactic Federation and was desperate to
reduce their population.[48] As a permanent solution, Xenu banished a large
group of thetans to Earth, a planet that lay outside the Galactic
Foundation.[49] He implanted images of what life should be like on
Earth into the minds of the banished thetans and left them to
create a new civilization.[50]
Like Dianetics, the individual goal of Scientology
is to erase engrams through auditing. However, this process is much
longer and more intense in Scientology because each Scientologist
must recover and erase engrams created during his own lifetime as
well as those collected by the thetan inhabiting his body over the
course of thousands of lifetimes.[51] This arduous process is said to be worthwhile
because of its effects on the individual and on society.
Scientology guarantees that a preclear will begin thinking more
clearly, quickly, and logically as he undergoes auditing and
progresses towards the state of clear.[52] In addition, participation in auditing will
allegedly increase a person’s physical health and heal him of
any psychosomatic illnesses.[53] On a societal level, if every person on Earth
becomes clear and allows his analytical mind to work optimally,
Scientology assures that the world will be free of problems such as
crime, insanity, and war.[54]
Under Scientology’s fundamental
“doctrine of exchange,” an individual must pay for any
tangible or intangible thing of value that he receives, including
auditing and classes provided by Scientology churches.[55] To ease the application of this doctrine,
Scientology has established a fixed fee schedule for auditing and
other services it provides to members.[56] The prices on the schedule, which is not widely
available to the public, vary with the length and the level of
sophistication required to provide the service.[57] Auditing sessions are sometimes priced
individually, but discounts are offered for sessions purchased in
bulk. The most recent figures available are from the 1972 fee
schedule. At that time, the shortest package of auditing sessions
available bought twelve and one-half hours of auditing for $625,
the longest package bought 100 hours of auditing for
$4250.[58] The revenue collected through the provision of
auditing and other services comprises the bulk of
Scientology’s finances.[59]
D. The E-Meter
There are six elements involved in every
Scientology auditing session: “the preclear, the auditor, the
auditing process, communication, the Auditor’s Code and the
E-Meter.”[60] The E-meter is a simple skin galvanometer similar
to those used in lie detector tests.[61] It consists of two hand-held metal electrodes, a
battery, and a needle-indicator. When the machine is turned on and
the electrodes are held, the battery releases a weak electrical
current, and the needle-indicator reflects fluctuations in the
electrical resistance of the skin.[62] Outside of Scientology, E-meters are considered
completely harmless and useless for the diagnosis or treatment of
disease.[63]
During auditing, the auditor asks the preclear a
sequence of designated questions and watches the E-meter’s
needle-indicator for evidence that the preclear is discussing a
subject that holds the “charge” of an engram.[64] Charge is indicated by a surge in electrical
resistance caused by the reactive mind’s movement of mental
mass and energy.[65] After an engram has been identified, the auditor
takes the preclear through a series of mental exercises designed to
purge the engram from the reactive mind. Success in erasing the
engram and deactivating the reactive mind is indicated by the
rhythmic sweeping of the needle-indicator back and forth across its
dial.[66]
In keeping with its fundamental doctrine of
exchange, Scientology requires that trained auditors purchase their
E-meters from a Distribution Center. In 1968, E-meters were
available for $125; it can be assumed that, like the price of
auditing, the cost of E-meters has skyrocketed over the last
thirty-five years.[67]
E. Scientology’s Medical Claims
When L. Ron Hubbard set out the benefits that can
be derived from auditing, he did not limit himself to the
psychological and spiritual realms. He also made fantastic claims
about the ability of auditing to cure disease and improve physical
health. Among the texts authored by Hubbard and now considered the
doctrine of Scientology are claims that auditing can relieve
“arthritis, dermatitis, asthma, some coronary difficulties,
eye trouble, bursitis, ulcers, and sinusitis,”[68] “speed recovery and healing after operations
and accidents,”[69] end chronic illness,[70] and improve vision, hearing, colorblindness, and
balance.[71]
Almost since its founding, Scientology has fought
the notion that its doctrine makes direct medical claims. It states
prominently on its official website that it has a “firm
policy of not diagnosing or treating the sick.”[72] Rather, it argues, the assertions in its
literature are similar to those made by other religions regarding
the power of prayer to heal. The Church advises members to seek out
the help of a physician for any bacterial or trauma-related
illness.[73] Then, “once under medical treatment, a
Scientologist [can address] his illness or injury with auditing to
handle any spiritual trauma or other factors connected with the
physical condition which may have predisposed him to illness or
injury.”[74] In essence, Scientology posits that the presence
of engrams in the reactive mind both saps energy away from the
body’s immune system and causes the body to overreact to
everyday stimuli. The result is psychosomatic illness, illness
caused by the mind rather than by bacteria or trauma.[75] Therefore, by clearing the engrams out of the
reactive mind, psychosomatic illness can be mitigated or avoided
altogether.
Notwithstanding its disclaimers, Scientology
disseminates anecdotal testimony to the public that strongly
implies that auditing has the potential to heal, regardless of the
cause of illness. For example, testimony from one Scientologist
states:
My success ranks with biblical references to the
blind seeing, the lame walking and people being raised from the
dead! What the top medical authorities in the fields of internal
medicine, orthopedics, radiology and neurology could not handle in
three years, my auditor with L. Ron Hubbard’s technology
handled in one afternoon! I can move my previously debilitated left
arm with ease and comfort now. This morning I could not raise it
from my side without terrible pain! The spiritual cause of the
problem is resolved and the problem no longer exists.[76]
Ambiguous statements like this testimony, that
claim miraculous physical results from auditing and mention
spiritual healing only in passing, are at the root of the
FDA’s efforts to regulate the practice of auditing through
the E-meter. As described, Scientology does not assert that the
E-meter can directly cure or mitigate disease; rather, the E-meter
plays a vital role in the allegedly illness-alleviating process of
auditing by identifying the presence and location of the cause of
psychosomatic illnesses. Other systems work to actually accomplish
the discharge of illness-causing agents.
II. A Look Back—The Legal Battle Between
Scientology and the FDA
Not long after Hubbard founded Scientology, the FDA
became concerned with the medical claims made in
Scientology’s literature regarding the process of auditing
and the use of E-meters.[77] With these claims, the FDA believed Scientology
was representing the useless E-meter to its members and to the
public as a device capable of physically effecting the body. To
confirm this belief and to better understand the extent of the
medical claims made by Scientology, the FDA installed Inspector
Taylor Quinn as an undercover agent within the Founding Church of
Scientology of Washington, D.C. (Founding Church) in 1958.[78] Quinn posed as an individual interested in
Scientology and, using an alias, participated in classes and
engaged in auditing sessions at the Founding Church.[79] Quinn reported his observations back to the FDA
and transferred materials that he collected and purchased at the
Founding Church’s Distribution Center to the agency.
After several years of investigation and
evidence-gathering by Quinn and other agents, the FDA felt that its
suspicions had been adequately confirmed: Scientology, in general,
and the Founding Church, specifically, were misrepresenting the
E-meter as a medical device capable of detecting and treating
disease. Armed with the results of its lengthy investigation, the
FDA chose to pursue action against the Founding Church for
violations relating to the E-meter. On January 4, 1963 a group of
United States Marshals, FDA agents, and Washington, D.C. police
officers raided the Founding Church.[80] In their sweep through the church buildings, the
law enforcement agents seized more than 100 E-meters and over 200
separate pieces of literature containing approximately 20,000 pages
of text.[81] In conjunction with this raid, the FDA charged the
Founding Church with multiple violations of the FDCA and sought the
condemnation and destruction of the E-meters and their associated
literature.
Two cases with significant consequences for the
practice of Scientology arose directly out of this FDA raid:
Founding Church of Scientology of Washington, D.C. v. United
States[82] and United States v. Article or Device
(Hubbard Electrometer ).[83] Following on the heels of these two cases, but
arising from a separate set of charges by the FDA, Church of
Scientology of California v. Richardson also has significant
implications for the ability of Scientologists to engage in
auditing.[84]
A. Founding Church of Scientology of Washington,
D.C. v. United States[85]
In its case against the Founding Church, the FDA
utilized the evidence seized during its raid to allege two
violations of the FDCA. According to the FDA, the E-meters and
their accompanying literature were subject to condemnation and
destruction under Section 334(a) of the FDCA because together they
constituted devices that, under Section 352 of the FDCA, were 1)
accompanied by false and misleading labeling and 2) lacking
adequate directions for use.[86] At trial, the jury found for the FDA and a decree
of condemnation and destruction was entered by the District
Court.[87] The Founding Church immediately appealed the
judgment and the decree on three separate grounds. It asserted: 1)
that the FDA’s seizure of the E-meters and the literature
violated its Fourth Amendment rights, 2) that the FDA seizure and
proceedings interfered with its free exercise of religion, and 3)
that there was not sufficient evidence to sustain the
verdict.[88] For the purposes of this discussion, only the
Founding Church’s free exercise claim will be
examined.[89]
The Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (Court of
Appeals) utilized a two-step approach to determine whether the
application of the FDCA’s mislabeling provision to the seized
E-meters and their accompanying literature violated the Founding
Church’s constitutional right of free exercise. The Court of
Appeals first reviewed the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence
regarding the Free Exercise Clause and examined whether the
mislabeling provisions of the FDCA had been applied to the E-meters
in compliance with these Supreme Court rulings. It then considered
whether Scientology is a religion warranting protection under the
Free Exercise Clause.
The Court of Appeals’ holding in Founding
Church did not reach the ultimate constitutional question
regarding the application of the mislabeling provisions of the FDCA
to the E-meter. Rather, the Court of Appeals held that, under the
Free Exercise Clause, literature setting forth religious doctrine
“cannot be considered ‘labeling’ of...an
instrument for purposes of the ‘false or misleading
labeling’ provisions of the [FDCA].”[90] With this holding, the Court of Appeals reversed
the judgment of the trial court and remanded the case, ordering the
District Court for the District of Columbia (District Court) to
determine whether any of the literature submitted as evidence by
the FDA was non-doctrinal and could be considered labeling for the
purposes of the FDCA.[91]
1. The Free Exercise Clause
At the time the Court of Appeals decided
Founding Church , the Supreme Court was employing a
compelling interest test to analyze free exercise claims.[92] Under this test, described to a greater extent in
Part III, a religious practice had to endanger a paramount
government interest or be a grave abuse of another’s
constitutional rights in order for government regulation of that
practice to be justified.[93] For the holding in this particular case, however,
the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v.
Ballard was most consequential.[94]Ballard held that the Free Exercise Clause
prohibits “regulation of religious action which involves
testing in court the truth or falsity of religious
belief.”[95] After reviewing the compelling interest test and
the Ballard decision, but before looking to the facts of
Founding Church , the Court of Appeals expressed serious
concern about the constitutionality of condemning E-meters and
their accompanying literature.[96]
Turning to the application of the FDCA’s
mislabeling provision to the E-meters, the Court of Appeals noted
that, in order for the E-meters to be mislabeled their accompanying
literature had to: 1) constitute labeling of the E-meters and 2)
set forth false medical claims.[97] The literature seized by the FDA was sold in the
Distribution Center, a bookstore in the Founding Church’s
basement that adjoined the area where auditing sessions were
conducted.[98] Although none of the literature was attached to or
sold as part of an E-meter, the lack of physical proximity did not
exempt the literature from being considered labeling under the
FDCA.[99] The Supreme Court decision in Kordel v. United
States established that written material need not be physically
attached to an object in order to constitute labeling.[100] It must simply be “designed for use in
the distribution and sale of the device and the two must be parts
of an integrated distribution program.”[101] Under this broad definition, the Court of
Appeals recognized that some, if not all, of the seized literature
might be considered labeling. However, if any of this literature
developed the doctrine of Scientology and if Scientology merited
religious status under the First Amendment, then a finding that the
literature set forth false medical claims would violate the Supreme
Court’s holding in Ballard . The Court of Appeals
concluded that religious doctrine can not be considered labeling
under the FDCA and, as a result, contingent on Scientology’s
religious status, much of the literature offered by the FDA as
evidence against the Founding Church might not constitute labeling
of the E-meters.
2. Scientology’s Religious Status
Any protection offered to Scientology under the
First Amendment depends on its ability to prove itself a valid
religion, rather than a secular organization clothed in religious
ornaments. Without this religious status, Scientology’s free
exercise claims would be groundless. Looking to the evidence
offered, the Court of Appeals held that the Founding Church had
established a prima facie case that Scientology is a bona
fide religion.[102]
To some extent, the Court of Appeals based its
decision on the Founding Church’s incorporation as a
religious institution and the characteristics that Scientology
shares with recognized religions. For example, Scientology has
ministers who perform marriages and burials and “its
fundamental writings contain a general account of man and his
nature.”[103] However, the real deciding factor for the
Court of Appeals was the government’s failure to rebut the
Founding Church’s evidence of Scientology’s religious
nature.[104] Acknowledging the substantial influence of
this oversight to its ultimate decision, the Court of Appeals noted
that it had not held that Scientology is a religion for all legal
purposes and that the government retained the opportunity to prove,
in another case, that Scientology was not a religion.[105] The government could disprove
Scientology’s claims by showing either that its beliefs are
not held in good faith or that the organization was “erected
for the sole purpose of cloaking a secular enterprise with the
legal protections of religion.”[106]
On remand from Founding Church , the
District Court took on the task of determining whether any of the
literature accompanying the E-meters could be considered labeling
and, if so, how the FDCA could be applied to the E-meters and their
labeling in a manner consistent with the Supreme Court’s free
exercise jurisprudence.[108] In an opinion written with obvious contempt
for Scientology, the District Court held: 1) that most of the
literature offered as evidence by the FDA was non-doctrinal and
could be considered labeling, 2) that all secular use of E-meters
must cease under the FDCA, and 3) that religious use of E-meters
must be allowed to continue, but only if all of the E-meters used
in the religious context bear specified disclaimers informing the
user that the E-meter has no medical or scientific
purpose.[109]
To reach its ultimate holdings, the District Court
first found that the E-meter is a device within the meaning of the
FDCA.[110] The E-meter is essential to the process of
auditing, which is advertised by Scientology as a method to remove
engrams from the reactive mind and to cure the conditions,
including physical ailments, caused by engrams.[111] As an apparatus that is part of a process
“used and intended to be used in the cure, mitigation, or
treatment, of disease,” the E-meter qualifies as a
device.[112] The District Court also held that the
harmless nature of the E-meter does not exempt it from the
FDCA.[113]
The District Court then sought to characterize the
literature seized by the FDA from the Founding Church.[114] As held by the Court of Appeals, any texts
setting forth religious doctrine could not be considered
labeling.[115] To be considered doctrine, the writing had to
be held out as making only “religious, as opposed to medical,
scientific, or otherwise secular claims.”[116] Upon examination, the District Court found
that “the bulk of the material is replete with false medical
and scientific claims devoid of any religious overlay or
reference.”[117] As such, the material did not qualify as
doctrine. With no discussion, the District Court also found that
the literature “‘accompanied’ the device within
the meaning of the [FDCA].”[118] The non-doctrinal literature was labeling
that made false medical claims regarding the E-meters.[119]
Turning to the available remedies for mislabeling
under the FDCA, the District Court dealt with secular and religious
use of E-meters separately. At the time of Hubbard
Electrometer , secular use of E-meters was abundant because of
the popularity of Dianetics and the aggressive advertising by
Scientology regarding the benefits of auditing. When the FDA
brought suit against the Founding Church, as many as one-third of
the E-meters in the United States “were being used by members
of the public without any religious control or
supervision.”[120] Without any special protection from the First
Amendment, secular use of the E-meters was vulnerable to the full
remedial effect of the FDCA for mislabeling of a medical device.
The District Court condemned all non-religious use of the E-meter
and its labeling.[121]
The application of the FDCA’s remedies to
religious use of the E-meter and its labeling was complicated by
the protection offered to religions from government regulation
under the Free Exercise Clause. Under the prevailing free exercise
analysis, the District Court could apply the FDCA to the use of
E-meters in only the narrowest manner possible to achieve the
legitimate non-religious end of the statute.[122] This would permit Scientologists freedom to
act on their beliefs in the power of auditing, while also allowing
the government to serve its role as society’s protector. The
government’s legitimate end in enforcing the mislabeling
provisions of the FDCA is to protect “the public against
misrepresentation.”[123]
Balancing the government’s goal and the free
exercise rights of Scientology, the District Court formulated a
solution. It allowed E-meters to be used only for the purposes of
bona fide religious counseling and only if their use
complied with the following conditions: (1) Every E-meter had to
bear a “prominent, clearly visible notice warning...that the
device has been condemned by a United States District Court for
misrepresentation and misbranding under the Food and Drug laws,
that use is permitted only as part of religious activity, and that
the E-meter is not medically or scientifically capable of improving
the health or bodily functions of anyone”; (2) Every user,
purchaser, distributee, of E-meters had to acknowledge on paper
that he had read the warning, understood it, and would preserve it;
(3) All literature that qualified as labeling and referred to the
process of auditing or to E-meters had to contain a notice similar
to that required to be located on the E-meter; (4) Every person
undergoing the auditing process had to sign a written contract
including a similar written notice.[124]
Two years after Hubbard Electrometer was
decided, the Court of Appeals reconsidered the requirements for
religious use of E-meters.[125] The Court of Appeals concluded that, although
the District Court was correct in its substantive decisions in
Hubbard Electrometer , the assigned requirements were not
the least restrictive means necessary to meet the
government’s legitimate end.[126] According to the Court of Appeals, the
District Court’s decision constituted an excessive
entanglement of the government with religion.[127] In restructuring the requirements, the Court
of Appeals upheld the necessity for disclaimers on E-meters and on
their accompanying literature, but eliminated the need for
individuals using, purchasing, or distributing E-meters to
acknowledge their receipt of the disclaimers in writing.[128] The Court of Appeals also made slight
alterations to the required text of the disclaimers.
Under the Court of Appeals’ decision, which
remains in force today, every E-meter must bear on its front panel
a warning that states, “The E-meter is not medically or
scientifically useful for the diagnosis, treatment, or prevention
of any disease. It is not medically or scientifically capable of
improving the health or bodily functions of anyone.”[129] In addition, the Court of Appeals demanded
that all literature that “directly or indirectly refers to
the E-meter or to Dianetics and/or Scientology and/or auditing or
processing” bear a label on its front cover or title page
stating:
Warning
The device known as a Hubbard Electrometer, or
E-meter, used in auditing, a process of Scientology and Dianetics,
is not medically or scientifically useful for the diagnosis,
treatment, or prevention of any disease. It is not medically or
scientifically capable of improving the health or bodily functions
of anyone.[130]
These reformulated disclaimers removed the District
Court’s references to the judicial condemnation of
E-meters.[131] That the Court of Appeals put forth the
effort to make this slight change to the text indicates a belief
that the mention of government activities in the disclaimers placed
a greater burden on the practice of Scientology than was necessary
to protect the public from misrepresentation. By removing these
references, the Court of Appeals understood its disclaimer
requirements to be in compliance with the Free Exercise Clause.
For the purposes of discussion in this paper, the
Court of Appeals’ revised disclaimers are referred to as the
Hubbard Electrometer disclaimer requirements.[132]
Neither Founding Church nor Hubbard
Electrometer addressed the FDA’s claim that the seized
E-meters lacked adequate directions for use.[134] However, in the same year that Hubbard
Electrometer was decided, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
(Ninth Circuit) tackled the issue of adequate directions for
E-meters in Church of Scientology of California v.
Richardson .[135]Richardson arose from the FDA’s
seizure of a shipment of E-meters that were being imported into the
United States from Britain.[136] The FDA refused entrance to the E-meters to
the United States because, it claimed, they were medical devices
lacking adequate directions for use in violation of Section
352(f)(1) of the FDCA.[137] The Church of Scientology of California filed
suit against the FDA to prevent the forced return of the E-meters
to Britain.
Under the FDCA, a device is misbranded if its
labeling does not bear adequate directions for its intended
uses.[138] In Richardson , the FDA offered much
of the same Scientology literature as evidence of the intended uses
of the E-meter as was offered as labeling in Founding Church
and Hubbard Electrometer . However, in Richardson ,
all of the medical and scientific claims contained in the
literature were assumed to be true.[139] Therefore, the E-meters could not be properly
labeled unless they were accompanied by directions for using them
to cure arthritis, dermatitis and asthma, among other illnesses.
Scientology had conceded in earlier cases that the E-meter has no
medical or scientific value, so the Church of Scientology of
California could not legally or in good faith place directions on
the machine for medical use.[140] At the same time, directions for using an
E-meter to spiritually heal physical ailments would not satisfy the
requirements of the FDCA. Therefore, within this confluence of the
laws, E-meters could never bear adequate directions for their
intended uses. As a result, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the
FDA’s seizure and refusal of entrance to the E-meters.
When deciding Richardson , the Ninth Circuit
summarily dismissed the Church of Scientology of California’s
argument that the application of the misbranding provisions of the
FDCA violated its right to free exercise under the First Amendment.
To explain its dismissal, the Ninth Circuit did not apply the
applicable Supreme Court analysis of free exercise claims, but
rather stated, “the exercise of religious freedom does
not include the freedom to violate the Federal Food, Drug,
and Cosmetic Act.”[141] As will be discussed further in Part III of
this paper, the abrupt dismissal of Scientology’s free
exercise claims by the Ninth Circuit was contrary to the free
exercise jurisprudence applicable when Richardson was
decided. In fact, if the proper analysis had been followed, the
holding in Richardson would likely have been very different.
The E-meters would not have been prohibited from entering the
United States for lack of adequate directions for use.
While considering the impact of the holding in
Richardson , it is interesting to note that although the
seized E-meters carried the disclaimers mandated by the District
Court in Hubbard Electrometer , the Ninth Circuit ruled that
the disclaimers could not fulfill the statutory requirement for
adequate directions.[142] Under the FDCA, medical devices are required
to bear labeling including directions for use. Therefore, combined
with the ruling in Hubbard Electrometer , the E-meters were
required to bear both disclaimers and directions. Following this
logic, it appears that the Ninth Circuit’s ruling demands
that an individual seeking to import E-meters to the United States
for use in a religious context must place on each device (1) a
disclaimer explaining that it has no medical or scientific
function, and (2) adequate directions for using the E-meter to
achieve its intended medical or scientific use. This result is,
quite clearly, absurd, illogical, and unfair. The Ninth
Circuit’s ruling leaves importers of E-meters no legal path
for acquiring the devices from an international source and thereby
unnecessarily reduces the ability of Scientologists to engage in
auditing. A potential statutory solution for this problem is
presented in Part IV.
III. A Modern Analysis—Regulation of
Scientology and the E-Meter
As indicated by Founding Church , Hubbard
Electrometer , and Richardson , the FDA’s ability
to regulate use of the E-meter and its accompanying literature
depends on three elements: 1) Scientology’s status as a valid
religion meriting protection from government regulation under the
First Amendment, 2) the government’s power to regulate
religious activity under the Free Exercise Clause, and 3) the
FDCA’s provisions and their application to E-meters and their
accompanying literature.
As with all legal concepts, the understanding of
these elements has evolved over time and continues to evolve as
courts confront new, complicated factual situations that require a
deeper consideration of the legal and constitutional issues
underlying rulings concerning religion and government regulation of
its practice. These changes in judicial analysis could have a
significant impact on Scientology and its use of the E-meter if
cases similar to Founding Church , Hubbard
Electrometer , or Richardson were to arise again.
Part III of this paper explores recent changes in
both the case law and the statutory texts concerning the
judicially-created definition of religion, the ability of the
government to regulate religious activity under the Free Exercise
clause, and the application of the FDCA to the E-meter and its
accompanying literature. The effect of this legal evolution on
Scientology and the FDA’s regulation of the E-meter is also
considered.
A. Scientology’s Status as a Religion for
the Purposes of the First Amendment
Scientology’s status as a religion is
essential to any protection it seeks from government regulation of
the E-meter under the FDCA. Without this status,
Scientology’s activities can be regulated to the same extent
as secular activities. For example, in both Founding Church
and Hubbard Electrometer , Scientology was granted religious
status under the First Amendment.[143] Without this status, the holdings in those
two cases would have been significantly different. In Founding
Church , all of the literature seized by the FDA would have
constituted labeling and, in Hubbard Electrometer use of the
E-meter in any context, secular or religious, would have been
condemned. In neither of those cases, however, did the court hold
that Scientology was a religion for all legal purposes. Rather,
each court recognized Scientology as a religion for the purpose of
the case before it and, at the same time, explicitly preserved the
government’s opportunity to disprove Scientology’s
religious status in a future case.[144]
With its religious status so precariously held,
Scientology has a vested interest in the Supreme Court’s
definition of religion. This definition has changed significantly
over time and continues to evolve today. Here, Scientology’s
status as a religion for the purposes of the First Amendment is
examined through Supreme Court jurisprudence, recent case law
concerning Scientology, and the characteristics of Scientology
that, for some courts, bolster its religious claims.
1. The Supreme Court’s Evolving Definition
of Religion
With no constitutional explanation as a guidepost,
the Supreme Court has been charged with creating a definition of
religion that protects legitimate beliefs but, at the same time,
does not provide special status to secular beliefs cloaked in
religious veneer. It has yet to accomplish this task. Over time,
the Supreme Court’s concept of religion has changed
substantially. In the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, its
understanding of religion was focused primarily on a Christian
version of God or, at its most inclusive, the “relationship
between a person and some Supreme Being.”[145] Few religions outside of mainstream
Protestantism were granted constitutional protection under this
definition.[146]
As American society has become more diverse, the
Supreme Court has broadened its definition of religion to encompass
a wider variety of legitimate beliefs. The landmark decision of
United States v. Ballard forced the initial shift in the
judicial approach to religion.[147] In Ballard , the Supreme Court held
that the judiciary may not inquire, or be forced by statute to
inquire, into the truth or falsity of an individual’s
religious beliefs, no matter how bizarre those beliefs may
seem.[148] This decision, therefore, attempted to do
away with judicial scrutiny of the content of religious beliefs to
determine their legitimacy.
After Ballard , the Supreme Court shifted to
a more functional concept of religion that focused on the role
played by the claimed religious doctrine in the lives of its
adherents.[149] Emphasis was no longer placed on the presence
or absence of a deity. Rather, the Supreme Court recognized as
religious all beliefs that are held in good-faith and “based
upon a power or being, or upon a faith, to which all else is
subordinate or upon which all else is ultimately
dependent.”[150]
While considering the alleged religious beliefs of
conscientious objectors during the Vietnam War, the Supreme Court
broadened its definition of religion further to include
“sincere and meaningful belief which occupies in the life of
its possessor a place parallel to that filled by the God of those
admittedly qualifying for the exemption.”[151] This functional approach is the current
analysis used by the Supreme Court. With its reduced emphasis on
content, this approach has allowed the Supreme Court to grant First
Amendment protection to many religions that fall outside of the
Judeo-Christian mainstream including Buddhism, Taoism, Ethical
Culture, Secular Humanism, and other non-theistic
organizations.[152]
However, the functional approach has neither
completely eroded the distinction between secular and religious
pursuits nor totally eliminated judicial scrutiny of the content of
alleged religious beliefs. The Supreme Court has prohibited the
application of the religious label to secular belief systems, even
those that occupy a major role in an individual’s life. For
example, in Wisconsin v. Yoder , the Supreme Court drew a
distinction between the simple, isolated lifestyle of the Amish
based on “deep religious conviction, shared by an organized
group, and intimately related to daily living” and the
similar lifestyle of Henry Thoreau based on “a matter of
personal preference.”[153] Under the Supreme Court’s analysis, the
Amish lifestyle was protected by the First Amendment from
unreasonable infringement by the federal government, while
Thoreau’s lifestyle was not protected.[154] Although Thoreau’s lifestyle was
all-encompassing, it was not based on a set of religious beliefs
held in good-faith; rather, it was based on his own secular
ideals.[155] As such, it was not protected by the First
Amendment.
Looking at the Supreme Court’s evolving
definition of religion, two fundamental factors appear necessary,
but not entirely sufficient, for a belief system to qualify as
religious for the purposes of the First Amendment. First, although
a belief in God or another deity is not required, there must be a
moral belief component to the proffered religion.[156] Second, the system of beliefs must be central
to the believer’s identity and must give “meaning and
orientation to a person’s whole life.”[157] However, as Thoreau’s lifestyle
seemingly possessed both of these elements, additional less-defined
factors must also be required. Although not a Supreme Court
decision,Founding Church implies that if an alleged religion
shares some practices and characteristics with accepted mainstream
religions, such as the employment of ministers, a court may be
swayed to accept its religious status.
2. Case Law Concerning Scientology’s Status
as a Religion
In addition to the Supreme Court’s general
considerations, other courts have specifically contemplated the
religious status of Scientology. A brief examination of a few of
these decisions provides a more pointed indication of whether a
modern court would grant Scientology religious status. For example,
Scientology has faced lawsuits for fraud brought by former
adherents and their families. In fraud cases where the defendant
claims religious status, courts must determine whether the religion
is bona fide before considering any allegedly fraudulent
statements. If the court concludes that the religion is legitimate,
no fraud analysis can be performed because, under Ballard ,
religious doctrine can not be examined for truth or falsity.
Therefore, fraud cases against Scientology contain considerable
judicial reflection regarding Scientology’s religious
status.
Christofferson v. Church of Scientology of
Portland provides a representative example of the judicial
consideration of Scientology in the fraudulent claim
context.[158] In Christofferson , the Court of
Appeals of Oregon held that Scientology is a religion for the
purposes of the First Amendment.[159] In reaching its decision, the court noted
that a belief in God is not a necessary prerequisite to finding
that an organization is religious and that Scientology’s
recent origin should not factor into the First Amendment
decision.[160] The court also recognized that some of
Scientology’s theories appear to be more psychological than
religious, but concluded that it could not dissect
Scientology’s body of beliefs into pieces.[161] The religious character of a belief system
must be based on consideration of its doctrine as an integrated
whole.[162] In the end, the court concluded that
Scientology is a religion because it “is incorporated as
a...religious organization; it has ordained ministers and
characterizes itself as a church. It has a system of beliefs, or
creed, which encompasses beliefs which are religious in
character.”[163]
Scientology has also waged an uphill, and
ultimately successful, legal battle against the Internal Revenue
Service (IRS) for recognition as a tax-exempt religious
organization under the Internal Revenue Code (the Code). The IRS
granted Scientology tax exemption in 1957, but revoked that status
in 1967 after determining that Scientology was “engaged in
business for profit” and “operated in a manner whereby
a portion of its earnings inured to the benefit of a private
individual, [L. Ron Hubbard].”[164] As such, Scientology was not in compliance
with the requirements of Section 501(c)(3) of the Code and could
not qualify as tax exempt, regardless of its religious
purposes.[165] To qualify as a tax exempt organization under
Section 501(c)(3), an organization must show that it is organized
and operated exclusively for religious or charitable
purposes.[166] Not even the smallest portion of a tax exempt
religion’s income may inure to a private individual; the sole
beneficiary of the organization must be the public.[167] After the IRS revoked its tax exempt status,
Scientology filed a number of lawsuits against the IRS, hoping to
gain back its preferential treatment.[168] However, all of the courts upheld the
decision of the IRS, each finding that L. Ron Hubbard profited
handsomely from his single-handed control over Scientology and its
finances.[169]
The revocation of Scientology’s tax exempt
status does not control its recognition as a religion for the
purposes of the First Amendment. An organization can be founded for
religious purposes, but denied tax exemption under Section
501(c)(3) of the Code.[170] However, the revocation of
Scientology’s tax exempt status by the IRS and the subsequent
judicial support of this decision do generate serious doubt
regarding Hubbard’s good faith belief in the tenets of
Scientology and the beliefs of those who currently run and profit
from the organization. With the revenue from auditing and other
services flowing directly into his hands, it is reasonable to
wonder whether Hubbard simply founded Scientology as a ploy to make
money.[171]
In 1993, without explanation, the IRS ended its
longstanding legal battle with Scientology and re-granted its tax
exempt status.[172] Neither the IRS nor Scientology has ever
discussed the terms of the settlement that brought about this
change.[173] However, with a constant stream of lawsuits
filed against it by Scientology, it seems likely that the IRS
concluded that it was simply cheaper to grant Scientology tax
exemption than to continue defending its revocation in the courts.
To this day, Scientology enjoys tax exempt status under Section
501(c)(3) of the Code as an organization operated exclusively for
religious purposes.[174]
Despite the mysterious grant of its tax exempt
status, Scientology can now assert that it has passed the scrutiny
of the IRS as a religious organization. This implies that the IRS
has deemed the religious tenets of Scientology to be truly and
sincerely held and the practices and rituals associated with
Scientology to be legal and in harmony with defined public
policy.[175] Although this vote of confidence from the IRS
does not guarantee Scientology’s religious status under the
First Amendment, it would influence a court’s decision
significantly.
3. The Religious Characteristics of
Scientology
As indicated by the judicial commentary in
Founding Church and Christofferson , any
characteristics that Scientology shares with mainstream religions
will strengthen its legal argument for religious status. Some, but
not all of these characteristics, are doctrinal. Non-doctrinal
characteristics, such as the provision of marriage ceremonies and
weekly church services, are not described in Scientology’s
fundamental texts but evidence of them may be found in its public
advertisements.
Scientology’s official website could not be
more clear regarding its self-conception.[176] “Scientology is a religion,” it
states. “It holds in common many of the beliefs of other
religions and philosophies.”[177] To highlight this point, the website traces
Scientology’s perception of its own religious
heritage.[178] It provides a brief history of religion,
including major religious movements (for example, Judaism, Taoism,
and Christianity), philosophical icons (Socrates, Galileo, and
Darwin), and stages of religious “health” such as
tolerance, materialism, and totalitarianism.[179] The timeline concludes with Scientology,
which is portrayed as the amalgamation of all the religious
knowledge preceding its creation.[180]
In addition to the heritage it purportedly shares
with mainstream religions, Scientology’s website also
emphasizes the aspects of its doctrine that conform to the Supreme
Court’s current definition of religion. It discusses the
concept of morality that is woven into Scientology’s doctrine
(“Scientology believes that man advances to the degree he
preserves his spiritual integrity and values, and remains honest
and decent.”[181] ) and the centrality of Scientology to an
adherent’s life (“Scientology offers a practical
technology...that can be applied to actually improve conditions in
life. As one applies this technology to day-to-day concerns to
better himself and others, he finds he is now more able to continue
his journey to higher levels of spiritual awareness and
ability.”[182] ).
Finally, Scientology’s website is replete
with statements drawing parallels between its beliefs and
activities and those of mainstream religions. These statements tend
to reflect the objective elements referenced as indicators of
religious status in Founding Church . For example, an
explanation of the role of ministers on the website states:
Churches have always provided guidance and succor
to their parishioners in times of need. In fact, beyond strictly
spiritual concerns, churches traditionally have seen their mission
as easing temporal suffering, helping where help is required and
restoring dignity to men and women at pivotal points in their
lives. By longstanding tradition, Scientology ministers also have
acted to ease suffering and provide counsel and succor to those in
need, whether a member of their congregation or simply someone in
the community who may need help.[183]
Similarly, the website contains information on
Scientology activities, which are described as “the same
types of ceremonies and services that ministers and priests of
other religions perform,” including weddings, christenings,
and funerals.[184]
It is unclear whether the elements that Scientology
claims to share with established religions have always been part of
its practice or have been developed over time to correspond with
the evolving judicial definition of religion. However, regardless
of their origins, these shared characteristics are likely to
influence a court’s decision regarding Scientology’s
religious status.
4. Would Scientology Be Considered a Religion by a
Modern Court?
A modern court would almost certainly grant
Scientology full religious status for the purposes of the First
Amendment, even if the government put forth an argument against it.
Scientology’s doctrine does not include a belief in a
specific deity, but it does contain elements of a moral code of
conduct. It encourages adherents to undergo auditing so that they
may live a virtuous life focused on honesty and free of drug and
alcohol abuse, crime, and other immoral behaviors. It also provides
its members with a system of beliefs that are meant to play a role
in their lives on a daily basis. The desire to avoid the buildup of
new engrams provides Scientologists with an incentive to avoid
getting involved in or creating emotionally painful situations. As
such, the practice of Scientology gives meaning and orientation to
the lives of its members. Scientology has also been recognized as a
religion by a federal agency and by other courts and it shares a
variety of activities and practices with recognized religions.
Potentially even more influential for a court’s decision,
however, is the existence of more than 50,000 individuals who
actively participate in Scientology and claim it as their religious
faith.[185] It seems unlikely that a court would tell
these individuals that they are mistaken. Even if Scientology was
not a religion when it was founded by Hubbard, it would likely be
granted protection as a religion under the Free Exercise Clause by
a modern court.
B. The Free Exercise Clause
Assuming that Scientology is a religion for
constitutional purposes, it is protected by the Free Exercise
Clause of the First Amendment.[186] The extent of this protection, as determined
by the Supreme Court, establishes the level of restriction that may
be constitutionally placed on the religious use of E-meters and
their accompanying literature under the FDCA.
The Free Exercise Clause is intended to restrict
government involvement in religion and to promote religious life in
the United States.[187] Two elements are understood to make up free
exercise: the freedom to believe and the freedom to act on those
beliefs.[188] Under the Free Exercise Clause, the freedom
to believe in a religious organization and its form of worship is
absolute and cannot be restricted by law.[189] For example, the FDA could not
constitutionally force Scientologists to stop believing that
E-meters can help to cure physical ailments. The freedom to act, on
the other hand, is conditional.[190] In spite of the Free Exercise Clause, the
government retains its ability to reasonably regulate activities to
protect the public’s health, safety, morals and welfare, even
if that regulation infringes on religious practices.[191] Without this power, the government would lose
control of society as people claimed expansive religious exemptions
and became laws unto themselves.[192] How to strike the proper balance between an
individual’s freedom to act on religious beliefs and the
government’s police power is an issue that has caused, and
continues to cause, controversy in the Supreme Court and in
Congress.
Since the decisions in Founding Church ,
Hubbard Electrometer , and Richardson constitutional
analysis of free exercise claims by a valid religion has gone
through two major revisions. These changes could have a significant
impact on the FDA’s ability to regulate the E-meter and its
accompanying literature if the issue were to arise again in the
courts. Here, the development of free exercise analysis from the
time of Founding Church to the present is reviewed and the
potential application of the FDCA to the use of E-meters and their
accompanying literature under the different analyses is considered.
The application of the relevant free exercise analysis in
Hubbard Electrometer and Richardson is also examined
and critiqued.
1. Compelling Interest Test
For much of the twentieth century, the
government’s ability to regulate religious activities using
generally applicable laws was based on the importance of the
regulation to the welfare of society. This analysis is known as the
“compelling interest test.” Under this test, a rational
basis for the regulation of an activity is not sufficient to
warrant government infringement on religion.[193] Rather, a religious activity must pose grave
and immediate dangers to a legitimate government interest before
regulation may interfere with the activity.[194]
While it remained good law, the compelling interest
test was applied by courts in a consistent, methodical manner every
time the application of a regulation to a religious activity was
challenged under the Free Exercise Clause. First, the court would
determine if the law substantially interfered with important
activities of a valid religion.[195] This decision entailed an assessment of the
alleged religion’s status under the First Amendment, an
investigation of the importance of the regulated activity to the
asserted religion, and an evaluation of the burden placed on the
religious activity by the regulation. To qualify for protection
under the Free Exercise Clause, the burden of the regulation had to
be more than an inconvenience; it had to force the religious actor
to refrain from religiously motivated conduct or compel him to
engage in activities or to make statements that were contrary to
his religious beliefs.[196] Second, the court would consider whether the
government had a compelling interest in regulating the religious
activity.[197] If so, the court would then determine whether
exempting the religious activity from regulation would interfere
significantly with the government’s interest.[198] Finally, the court would consider whether any
means of accomplishing the government interest existed that were
less restrictive than enforcing the regulation on the religious
activity.[199]
a) The Supreme Court’s Application of the
Compelling Interest Test
The Supreme Court developed the compelling interest
test through a series of free exercise cases, but its decisions in
Sherbert v. Verner and Wisconsin v. Yoder are often
cited as containing the most comprehensive descriptions and
applications of the test.[200]
In Sherbert , the Supreme Court held that it
was unconstitutional for South Carolina to deny unemployment
benefits to a Seventh-Day Adventist who lost her job because she
refused to work on Saturday, her Sabbath, and who could not find
new work for the same reason.[201] Under the South Carolina Uncompensation Act
(the Act), an individual was ineligible for benefits if he
“failed, without good cause...to accept available suitable
work when offered him by the employment office or the
employer.”[202] South Carolina refused to recognize
Sherbert’s religious beliefs as a “good
cause.”[203]
Applying the compelling interest test in
Sherbert , the Supreme Court found that the Act burdened
Sherbert’s free exercise because it pressured her to go
against her religious beliefs and work on Saturdays.[204] After noting that “only the gravest
abuses, endangering paramount interests” can justify an
imposition on the performance of religious activities, the Supreme
Court held that there was no compelling government interest to
justify the Act’s infringement on Sherbert’s religious
freedoms.[205] It deemed unconvincing the government’s
asserted interests of avoiding the filing of fraudulent
unemployment claims by unscrupulous individuals feigning religious
objections to Saturday work, maintaining the value of South
Carolina’s unemployment compensation fund, and preventing
problems for employers seeking to hire workers for Saturday
shifts.[206] With no compelling government interest to
justify the state-imposed burden on Sherbert’s practice of
her religion, the Act was deemed unconstitutional as applied under
the Free Exercise Clause.
In Yoder , the Supreme Court applied the
compelling interest test to invalidate the enforcement of a
Wisconsin law mandating that children attend school until the age
of sixteen against members of the Amish and Mennonite
religions.[207] Upon investigation, the Supreme Court found
that a fundamental belief of the recognized Amish and Mennonite
religions is that an individual must remain “aloof from the
world” in order to maintain his purity.[208] In keeping with this belief, the Amish and
the Mennonites had developed a practice of withdrawing their
children from the public school system after they completed the
eighth grade.[209] Looking to its compelling interest test, the
Supreme Court determined that the Wisconsin law burdened a
fundamental religious belief, but it also served the compelling
government interest of educating children residing in the state in
order to produce hard working, highly productive adult
citizens.[210] Continuing with its analysis, the Supreme
Court held that exempting Amish and Mennonite children from the law
would not substantially interfere with the state’s ability to
achieve its compelling interest.[211] After the Amish and Mennonite children left
the public school system, they were educated at home in the
practical pursuits required for them to be functioning adults in
their secluded societies.[212] This home education sufficiently served the
government’s interest in education for the purposes of Amish
and Mennonite children.[213] Therefore, the Supreme Court held that the
Wisconsin law was unconstitutional, as applied to members of the
Amish and Mennonite religions.
Although Sherbert and Yoder are the
most frequently cited cases involving the compelling interest test,
the Supreme Court’s application of this test in a series of
cases concerning the government’s ability to regulate
polygamy provide a closer factual parallel to the application of
the FDCA to E-meters and their accompanying literature. When the
federal government outlawed the practice of polygamy, members of
the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) asserted that, under the
Free Exercise Clause, they should be exempted from the law because,
at that time, the practice of polygamy was central to their
religious beliefs.[214] The Supreme Court recognized the Church of
Latter Day Saints as a valid religion and polygamy as one of its
fundamental practices.[215] However, it also found that the federal
government has a compelling interest in maintaining peace, good
order, and the morals of society and that the practice of polygamy
destroys the sanctity of marriage, disturbs the peace of families,
degrades women, and debases men.[216] Exempting Mormons from the law prohibiting
polygamy, the Supreme Court believed, would allow secondary effects
of the practice to leak into and poison society in general.
Therefore, according to the Supreme Court, there was no less
restrictive way for the government to avoid the immoral influence
of polygamy on society than to apply the anti-polygamy law to
Mormons.[217] The federal government was allowed to enforce
a full ban on polygamy, despite the significant burden on religious
behavior caused by this regulation.
b) Application of the Compelling Interest Test in
Hubbard Electrometer and Richardson
Founding Church , Hubbard
Electrometer , and Richardson were all decided while the
compelling interest test prevailed as the analysis applied under
the Free Exercise Clause when a government regulation allegedly
constrained the practice of an individual’s religion.
However, only the Hubbard Electrometer and Richardson
decisions required application of the test.[218]
In Hubbard Electrometer , the District Court
applied the compelling interest test, but in reverse. That is,
rather than determining whether the FDCA was correctly applied to
the seized E-meters, the District Court formulated an application
of the FDCA to the religious use of E-meters that would satisfy the
compelling interest test if challenged under the Free Exercise
Clause. As its first step in applying the test, the District Court
noted that it remained bound by the decision in Founding
Church that Scientology had established a prima facie
case for religious status.[219] It then found that auditing and the E-meter
play a central role in the practice of Scientology and deserve
protection from unjustified government encroachment.[220] Next, the District Court considered the
consequences of applying the FDCA to religious use of the E-meter
in the same manner as it was applied to secular use. It
concluded:
Serious interference indeed results if the Church
is entirely prohibited from using the E-meter by condemnation or if
the Court orders the Food and Drug Administration to oversee a
general rewriting of all the writings the Church purveys. Where
there is a belief in a scientific fraud there is nonetheless an
interference with the religion that entertains that belief if its
writings are censored or suppressed. Similarly, if a church uses a
machine harmless in itself to aid its ministers in communicating
with adherents, the destruction of that machine intrudes on
religion.[221]
After establishing that a substantial burden on
religious activity existed, the District Court took on the task of
designing the application of the FDCA that was the least
restrictive on the religious use of E-meters but that also achieved
the legitimate non-religious purpose of the FDCA.[222] The District Court identified the purpose of
the FDCA as applied to the E-meters as protecting “the public
against misrepresentation since the E-meter is harmless in
itself.”[223] Only the narrowest possible remedy to achieve
this goal would satisfy the compelling interest test. The District
Court’s solution was to allow religious use of E-meters to
continue, but to require that disclaimers be displayed on all
E-meters and their accompanying literature and that users and
purchasers of E-meters acknowledge their receipt of the information
provided in those disclaimers.[224] This, according to the District Court, was
the solution that left the FDA with the least amount of power to
interfere with Scientologists’ free exercise of their
religion.
As noted earlier, subsequent to the District
Court’s decision in Hubbard Electrometer , the Court
of Appeals did away with the requirement that users of the E-meter
acknowledge their receipt of the mandated E-meter warnings and
reformulated the text of the District Court’s disclaimers.
These modifications by the Court of Appeals represented that
court’s judgment that a slightly narrower remedy was
available to meet the government’s legitimate goal.
The District Court’s application of the
compelling interest test in Hubbard Electrometer , along
with the Court of Appeals’ revisions, was appropriate. Under
the application of the FDCA crafted by the District Court and the
Court of Appeals, Scientologists retained their ability to undergo
and conduct auditing sessions in search of spiritual clarity and
health, while individuals confronted with E-meters received the
valuable information that the devices are not medically or
scientifically useful. It could be argued that protecting the
public from the misrepresentation of a harmless device is not a
compelling justification for infringing on religious activities.
However, as identified by the Ninth Circuit in Richardson ,
providing valid information regarding the effective uses, or lack
thereof, of a medical device is important for the protection of
ignorant and gullible people who would otherwise rely on the device
rather than seeking out professional advice for physical ailments
the device is represented to relieve or prevent.[225] With Scientology’s emphasis on
advertising, the District Court, along with the Court of Appeals,
reasonably considered the misrepresentation of the harmless E-meter
to be a public health risk and the prevention of this risk to be a
compelling government interest.
Unlike the courts in Hubbard Electrometer ,
the Ninth Circuit fundamentally erred in its application of the
compelling interest test in Richardson . In that case, the
Ninth Circuit denied all of the non-Ballard related Free
Exercise claims of the Church of Scientology of
California.[226] To explain this denial, it stated only,
“the exercise of religious freedom does not include
the freedom to violate the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic
Act.”[227] With this simple and uninformative statement,
the Ninth Circuit denied the application of the compelling interest
test to the facts of Richardson , despite the burden placed
on the practice of Scientology by the blocked importation of
E-meters under the FDCA.
The Ninth Circuit should have applied the
compelling interest test to the facts of Richardson in the
same manner as it was applied in Sherbert , Yoder ,
and Hubbard Electrometer . At the time Richardson was
decided, religions did not have the absolute right to violate
generally applicable statutes, but they did have the right, if an
activity central to their practice was burdened by a government
regulation, to be subjected to no more restriction than necessary
to fulfill the governmental purpose embodied in the statute.
Therefore, the Ninth Circuit was only partially correct when it
stated that “the exercise of religious freedom does
not include the freedom to violate the Federal Food, Drug,
and Cosmetic Act.”[228]
The Ninth Circuit should have begun its application
of the compelling interest test with the recognition that
Scientology is a valid religion for the purposes of the First
Amendment, that auditing with E-meters is a fundamental part of the
doctrines and practices of that religion, and that preventing the
importation of E-meters into the United States places a substantial
burden on the religious activities of Scientologists. Then, the
Ninth Circuit should have looked to the specific purpose of the
FDCA’s importation provisions as applied to the religious use
of E-meters. That purpose is the same as the stated purpose in
Hubbard Electrometer , “to protect the public against
misrepresentation since the E-meter is harmless in
itself.”[229]
Finally, the Ninth Circuit should have crafted a
remedy for the lack of adequate directions on the E-meters that
served the government’s purpose, but also restricted
Scientologists’ ability to engage in auditing to the minimum
degree possible. Refusing admission to the E-meters was not the
narrowest remedy available; neither was requiring that the E-meters
bear adequate directions in compliance with the FDCA. Composing
adequate directions for the use of a medical device that is
scientifically and medically useless is an impossible task.
Therefore, a judicial order demanding that imported E-meters bear
adequate directions for use is equivalent to banning importation.
The narrowest possible remedy available to the Ninth Circuit was a
reassertion of the disclaimers ordered by Hubbard
Electrometer . Labels restricting the use of the E-meter to
religious activity should have served as sufficient directions for
use. The E-meter is physically harmless and, therefore, more
specific directions for use were unnecessary.
In 1990, free exercise analysis changed drastically
when a sharply divided Supreme Court overturned Sherbert and
Yoder , eliminated the compelling interest test, and adopted
a government-friendly analysis for evaluating claims that a
government regulation was unconstitutionally interfering with
religious conduct. In Employment Division v. Smith , the
Supreme Court upheld the application of an Oregon law denying
unemployment benefits to employees discharged for work-related
misconduct to individuals fired because of their religious use of
peyote.[231] Justice Stevens, writing for the majority,
held that generally applicable laws that do not purposefully target
a particular religious activity, but incidentally effect it, are
constitutional, regardless of how severely the regulation restricts
the practice of religion.[232]
With its decision in Smith , the Supreme
Court eliminated the government’s responsibility to justify
any burdens placed on religious conduct by its neutral laws. In
essence, the decision tacitly advocated government infringement on
religious activities, as long as that infringement is cloaked in
neutral language. A rationale for this radical decision can be
imagined. Ordered society could suffer from a system in which an
individual’s responsibility to act in a lawful manner is
contingent on his religious beliefs. Such a system would allow each
individual to behave according to his own body of laws and would
require law enforcement agents to question suspects about their
religious beliefs before charging them with violations of
established law.
If a case similar to Hubbard Electrometer
was decided under the Smith analysis, its result would place
immense restrictions on the practice of Scientology. The FDCA is a
generally applicable law that does not target religion and only
secondarily impacts the religious activities of Scientology.
Therefore, the FDCA would be applied in full to religious use of
the E-meter, regardless of the burden placed on auditing by this
regulation. After Smith , religions no longer receive any
special treatment under generally applicable laws. As established
in Hubbard Electrometer , E-meters are mislabeled medical
devices; therefore, under the FDCA and Smith , E-meters used
for both secular and religious purposes would be condemned and
destroyed and auditing would effectively be prohibited.
If a case similar to Richardson was tried
under a Smith analysis, the resolution would be identical to
the holding of the Ninth Circuit. The FDCA’s importation
provisions would be applied to the E-meters in the same manner as
they would be applied to a secular medical device. Importation of
E-meters lacking adequate directions for use would be banned. As
discussed earlier, crafting adequate directions for use of E-meters
under the FDCA is impossible. Therefore, under a Smith
analysis, the importation of E-meters into the United States would
be, for all intents and purposes, banned. Any E-meters caught at
the borders would be seized and returned to their country of origin
or destroyed.
As illustrated, the application of the free
exercise analysis developed under Smith to the facts of
Hubbard Electrometer and Richardson restricts the
practice of Scientology far more than is needed to meet the
government’s purpose in enforcing the FDCA against harmless
religious devices. To take the drastic step of completely
eradicating E-meters and the practice of auditing is not necessary
to prevent gullible individuals from being duped into believing the
E-meter is medically effective. The effect of a Smith -based
free exercise analysis on the practice of Scientology is adverse to
the purposes of the Free Exercise Clause; allowing the FDA to get
rid of all E-meters not only involves the government in the
practice of religion, but also works against the promotion of
religious life in the United States.
It is not currently clear whether the compelling
interest test or the Smith analysis would apply to
Scientology’s free exercise claim if a case similar to
Hubbard Electrometer or Richardson was to arise in
the courts. Under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993
(RFRA), Congress explicitly invalidated the Supreme Court’s
decision in Smith, reestablished the compelling interest
test for free exercise claims, and created a private right of
action for any individual “whose religious exercise has been
burdened” by the government.[234] However, as discussed below, the validity of
RFRA has been questioned by the Supreme Court.
When laying out the logical reasoning that led it
to create and pass RFRA, Congress first noted that the free
exercise of religion has been recognized as an inalienable right
since the founding of the United States and that free exercise is
protected under the First Amendment of the Constitution.[235] It recognized that “laws
‘neutral’ toward religion may burden religious exercise
as surely as laws intended to interfere with religious
exercise.”[236] Congress then made three findings: (1)
“governments should not substantially burden religious
exercise without compelling justification;”[237] (2) the Supreme Court’s decision in
Employment Division v. Smith eliminates the
government’s responsibility to justify the burdens it imposes
on religious exercise through religion-neutral laws;[238] and (3) the compelling interest test set
forth in Sherbert and Yoder is the fairest and most
reasonable way to strike a balance between the protection of free
exercise and the ability of government to achieve its legitimate
goals.[239]
Congress then set out the two specific purposes of
RFRA: (1) “to restore the compelling interest test as set
forth in Sherbert v. Verner ...and Wisconsin v. Yoder
... and to guarantee its application in all cases where free
exercise of religion is substantially burdened” and (2)
“to provide a claim or defense to persons whose religious
exercise is substantially burdened by government.”[240] To ensure that the compelling interest test
was restored in its proper form, Congress described the test in
detail in RFRA’s text:
Government shall not substantially burden a
person's exercise of religion even if the burden results from a
rule of general applicability...[unless] government...demonstrates
that application of the burden to the person (1) is in furtherance
of a compelling governmental interest; and (2) is the least
restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental
interest.[241]
Confident that it had restored the proper judicial
analysis, Congress was shocked in 1997 when the Supreme Court
invalidated RFRA, at least partially, in City of Boerne v.
Flores .[242]City of Boerne held that Congress had
overstepped its powers under the Enforcement Clause of the
Fourteenth Amendment by passing RFRA.[243] RFRA was an unconstitutional intrusion by
Congress into areas of autonomy preserved to state governments.
City of Boerne ’s impact on the enforceability of RFRA
against action by the federal government has been the subject of
much debate. The consensus among the courts, at this time, is that
City of Boerne held only that RFRA was unconstitutional as
applied to the states and that RFRA remains constitutional as
applied to the federal government and its agencies.[244] Therefore, until the Supreme Court states
otherwise, RFRA can be applied to actions taken by the FDA and
applications of the FDCA that burden religious activities.
Whether a Smith or a RFRA analysis would
apply in a case similar to Hubbard Electrometer or
Richardson makes a significant difference in the ability of
Scientologists to practice their religion. Under a RFRA analysis,
secular use of E-meters would be prohibited as in Hubbard
Electrometer , but religious use would be allowed as long as
the E-meters and their accompanying literature carried specified
disclaimers regarding their capabilities. In addition, E-meters
that bore disclaimers, but not adequate directions for their
intended uses, could be imported into the United States. With the
special status afforded to religion under the First Amendment, this
RFRA-generated solution to the mislabeling of E-meters is far more
reasonable than the solution under Smith . As required by
the compelling interest test, the government’s purpose in
enforcing the FDCA is fulfilled while the infringement on the
practice of Scientology is minimized.
C. The Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act
Before the Free Exercise Clause became relevant to
the FDA’s cases against Scientology, the provisions of the
FDCA had to be applied appropriately to the E-meters and their
accompanying literature. Like the Supreme Court’s definition
of religion and its free exercise analysis, the FDCA has undergone
significant changes since Founding Church , Hubbard
Electrometer , and Richardson . However, unlike those
previously discussed legal analyses, the changes to the FDCA do not
effect its application to E-meters and their accompanying
literature. For this reason, only a brief review of the changes to
the FDCA and the recent application of the provisions relevant to
E-meters and their accompanying literature is provided here.
1. Medical Device Regulation and the E-Meter
The FDA’s regulation of medical devices under
the FDCA has changed substantially since the decisions in
Founding Church , Hubbard Electrometer , and
Richardson . The medical device regulations underwent
significant modifications in 1976, 1990, and 1997.[245] These changes were meant to increase the
effectiveness and safety of medical devices sold, distributed, and
used in the United States. However, it does not appear that any of
these revisions would change the FDCA-based analysis of the
harmless E-meter.
As part of the Medical Device Amendments of 1976,
the FDA adopted a three-tiered classification system.[246] Under this system, the controls and
notification requirements for each medical device are determined
according to the class in which the device is placed by the FDA.
Placement in a particular class is based on the public safety risk
posed by the device. Class I devices are least risky; they include
surgical bandages, tongue depressors and, most likely,
E-meters.[247] The traditional controls applied by the FDCA
to medical devices are sufficient to protect the public from the
“dangers” of Class I devices. These controls include
the standard prohibitions against adulteration and misbranding as
well as the labeling requirements employed by the FDA in
Founding Church , Hubbard Electrometer , and
Richardson .[248] The controls also involve postmarket
surveillance of the device and user facility and manufacturer
reporting requirements.[249] The majority of Class I devices are not
subject to the premarket notification requirements applied to Class
II and Class III devices.[250] Manufacturers of Class I devices neither need
to inform the FDA of their intention to sell and distribute their
devices, nor need to receive approval from the FDA before marketing
their devices. The Medical Device Amendments also preserved the
remedies available to the FDA under the mislabeling, misbranding,
and importation provisions of the FDCA; long-standing seizure,
injunction, criminal prosecution, and administrative detention all
remain viable options.[251]
Although the Medical Device Amendments and other
FDCA revisions have modified the FDA’s approach to medical
devices, this new classification system would not effect the
application of the FDCA to E-meters. As Class I devices, E-meters
are subject essentially to the same provisions of the FDCA as in
Founding Church , Hubbard Electrometer , and
Richardson .
The E-meter has consistently been recognized by
courts as a medical device under Section 321(h)(2) of the FDCA,
which defines a medical device as “an instrument, apparatus,
implement, [or] machine...which is...intended for use in the
diagnosis of disease or other conditions, or in the cure,
mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, in man or other
animals.” [252] Historically, the FDA has recognized
galvanometers as medical devices under the FDCA when they are used
to measure the electric flow from an individual’s body for
the purpose of diagnosing, treating, curing, or preventing
disease.[253] For example, in United States v. An
Article of Device , the court agreed with the FDA’s
determination that a string galvanometer advertised as being
capable of detecting a variety of serious physical ailments was a
device under the FDCA and, therefore, within the jurisdiction of
the FDA.[254]
Under Section 321(h)(2), the definition of a
medical device relies on the intended, and not the effective, use
of the machine. The objective intent of the person responsible for
labeling the device defines the intended use of the device; the
intent of that individual is gleaned from the device’s
labels.[255] Scientology literature associated with the
E-meter suggests that the contraption is to be used during auditing
to locate and remove the root cause of physical diseases.
Scientology’s objective intent, then, is for the E-meter to
be used in “the diagnosis of disease or other conditions, or
in the cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of
disease.”[256]
The fact that the E-meter is not the only element
in the process of auditing does not exclude it from the
FDCA’s definition of a medical device. As stated by the
District Court in Hubbard Electrometer , “The device
plays a key part in both the secular and religious auditing process
which is used and intended to be used in the cure, mitigation or
treatment of disease. It need not be the only agent in an allegedly
curative process to be a device within the
definition.”[257]
Courts have traditionally interpreted the medical
device definition of the FDCA broadly and have consistently applied
that definition to galvanometers that claim to have medical
properties.[258] With no significant changes made to the
judicial interpretation of the FDCA’s medical device
definition as it applies to harmless devices, it is almost certain
that a modern court would categorize E-meters as medical devices
that fall under the regulatory provisions of the FDCA.
2. The Labeling Provisions
Labeling is defined in Section 321(m) of the FDCA
as “all labels and other written, printed, or graphic matters
(1) upon any article or any of its containers or wrappers, or (2)
accompanying such article.”[259] None of the literature seized by the FDA and
presented as evidence in Founding Church and Hubbard
Electrometer was attached to the E-meters or their wrappings.
Rather, the literature was sold from a bookstore located within the
same building where Scientology auditing sessions were conducted.
The first question for courts concerning the labeling of E-meters
then is whether this literature is “accompanying” the
E-meters, as that term is understood under the FDCA.
In Kordel v. United States , the most
influential FDCA labeling case, the Supreme Court held that
literature shipped separately from a product can be considered
labeling.[260] The Supreme Court reasoned that when a
product and literature share a common origin and destination and
when the literature explains the product’s uses and is used
in the sale of the product, the literature is labeling for the
purposes of the FDCA.[261] Labeling is not restricted to text adhered to
a device or its packaging. In Kordel , pamphlets detailing a
variety of uses for a drug product were shipped by the
manufacturer, independently of the drugs, to vendors.[262] The vendors distributed the pamphlets to
consumers by displaying them in their stores, giving them away to
purchasers of the drugs, selling the pamphlets independently of the
drugs, or mailing the pamphlets to customers.[263] The Supreme Court held that the pamphlets
were labeling of the drugs because “One article or thing is
accompanied by another when it supplements or explains it, in the
manner that a committee report of the Congress accompanies a bill.
No physical attachment one to the other is necessary. It is the
textual relationship that is significant.”[264] The Supreme Court also noted that attaching a
cost to the pamphlets, rather than giving away a pamphlet each time
a drug is purchased, does not save the pamphlets from the labeling
provisions of the FDCA. “The [FDCA] cannot be circumvented by
the easy device of a “sale” of the advertising matter
where the advertising performs the function of
labeling.”[265]
On the same day that Kordel was decided, the
Supreme Court held in United States v. Urbuteit that a
leaflet misrepresenting the usefulness of an electrical device in
the diagnosis and cure of various diseases, which was shipped
separately from the electrical device, was labeling within the
meaning of the FDCA.[266] As in Kordel , the Supreme Court held
that it was immaterial whether the advertising material was shipped
along with the device.[267] Rather, if the literature was designed to
serve a purpose identical to that of standard labeling attached to
a device, it is labeling.[268] The device examined in Urbuteit had no
labels itself, so the leaflet was required for a consumer to
understand the intended purpose and use of the device.[269] As a necessary companion of the device, the
Supreme Court deemed the leaflet to be labeling.
Since Kordel and Urbuteit were
decided, courts have continued to apply a broad definition of
literature “accompanying” an article for the purposes
of the FDCA. For example, United States v. Pro-Ag, Inc. held
that “previously distributed promotional literature may be
considered [labeling] if it can be shown that customers relied on
the representations made in the literature when purchasing the
product” even if the literature was distributed years before
the purchase.[270] The courts have not, however, expanded the
definition of labeling beyond reasonable limits. In United
States v. Hanafy , a piece of paper that served only to
identify the contents of a shipping tray and contained no
information additional to what was displayed on the articles
themselves was held not to constitute labeling for the purposes of
the FDCA.[271] According to the court in Hanafy ,
labeling must “be intended to provide substantial information
about the use or benefits of the article.”[272] Purely descriptive literature is not
labeling.
Under the broad judicial interpretation of
labeling, most, if not all, of the non-doctrinal literature
collected by the FDA and presented as evidence in Founding
Church and Hubbard Electrometer would be found to
constitute labeling of the E-meters in a similar case. The
literature presented by the FDA contained descriptions of the
intended uses of the E-meter, the potential benefits of using the
device, and the process by which the device should be used. The
E-meters themselves bore no similar labels. As such, the literature
was designed to serve a purpose identical to that of labeling that
is typically attached to a device.
If the literature constitutes labeling, there is
little doubt that it would qualify as “false or
misleading.”[273] Under Section 352(a) of the FDCA, a device is
misbranded if its label contains false or misleading
statements.[274] Claims that use of the E-meter can identify
and cure disease are clearly false and misleading in the medical
and scientific context of the FDCA. As a misbranded device, the
E-meters would remain subject to seizure under Section 334(a) of
the FDCA.[275]
3. The Importation Provisions
In Richardson , the Ninth Circuit repeatedly
emphasized that the E-meters presented for importation were denied
access to the United States under Section 381(a) of the FDCA, and
not under the mislabeling provisions at issue in Founding
Church and Hubbard Electrometer .[276] Under Section 381(a), the federal government
must refuse admission to the United States to any medical device
that appears at examination to be adulterated or
misbranded.[277] Definitive proof of misbranding is not
required. A device is misbranded if it lacks adequate directions
for use.[278]
In Richardson , the seized E-meters were
eventually denied admission to the United States because adequate
directions could not be drafted for them to accomplish their
intended use of detecting and curing disease.[279] A similar reasoning was used to deny entrance
to the United States to E-meters in Church of Scientology of
Minnesota v. Department of Health, Education and Welfare
.[280] In that case, the court reasoned its denial
for importation with the following argument:
This Court in passing upon defendants' motion does
not assume to find or determine the actual effects of the use of
the E-meter in auditing in the ceremony of the Church. That is, the
question of the truth or the falsity of the claims made by the
Church in the process of auditing in the Church of Scientology is
not herein determined and is not before the Court for
determination. The Court merely finds that the E-meter as used in
the auditing ceremony is an instrument which is used by the Church
for certain diagnostic and therapeutic purposes in improving the
health of the person audited, usually after Dianetic auditing, and
therefore the machine and the use thereof come within the scope of
Section 352(f)(1), 21 U.S.C., and finds that the machines
transported from the United Kingdom to this country and seized by
the defendants do not bear adequate instructions for their
use.[281]
There have been no recent, significant changes in
the application of Section 381(a) of FDCA. If a factual situation
similar to Richardson arose again, the E-meters would be
detained at the borders for their lack of adequate directions to
accomplish their intended uses.
4. Harmless Device Exception
Although the argument was not accepted by the Ninth
Circuit, the Church of Scientology of California argued in
Richardson , that the E-meter should be exempted from the
FDCA’s provisions mandating adequate labeling and directions
for use because the E-meter is a harmless device. Under Section
352(f)(2) of the FDCA, a device shall be exempted from the labeling
requirements if labeling “is not necessary for the protection
of the public health.”[282] Although E-meters are concededly physically
harmless, the Ninth Circuit held that they are not harmless for the
purposes of the FDCA because “their danger lies in the
possibility that 'ignorant and gullible persons...[will] rely upon
them instead of seeking professional advice for conditions they are
represented to relieve or prevent.’”[283] This broad interpretation of what is
necessary for the protection of the public health, in conjunction
with a similar interpretation in Drown v United States , has
served to read any mandated exemption for harmless devices out of
the FDCA and to grant discretionary control of harmless device
exemptions to the FDA.[284] No court has ever granted a mandated
exemption to a harmless device from the adequate directions for use
provisions of the FDCA.[285]
From a public policy perspective, limiting the
number of harmless device exemptions to the labeling provisions of
the FDCA is a good idea. The public assumes that medical devices
are useful for the purposes they are advertised to serve.
Mislabeled physically harmless devices are likely to dupe the
average user into believing they are having an effect, particularly
if the expected consequence of using the device is not obvious to
the user, such as reducing the size of a tumor.
In the case of the E-meter, however, a
conditionally-granted exemption would have better served the
government’s purpose and would have greatly reduced the
burden placed on the religious exercise of Scientologists. The
E-meters seized in Richardson bore disclaimers stating that
the E-meters were “not intended or effective for the
diagnosis, treatment, or prevention of any disease.”[286] Use of the E-meters was also limited to
religious purposes.[287] These preexisting conditions satisfied the
FDA’s purpose in enforcing the FDCA against the E-meter.
Therefore, the Ninth Circuit’s holding in Richardson
did not reflect the intent of Congress when it chose to include a
harmless device exception to the adequate directions provision.
However, because no court has ever mandated an exemption, it is
unlikely that a court would force the FDA to exempt E-meters from
the adequate directions requirement if a case like
Richardson were to arise again.
IV. A New Approach—A Religious Device
Amendment to the FDCA
The FDA’s attempt to regulate the religious
use of E-meters was long and arduous.[288] While working towards this goal, the FDA
expended an immense amount of time, energy, and money on the
prosecution of Scientologists using, selling, and/or distributing
E-meters. This choice by the FDA to allocate its limited resources
to the regulation of a harmless device has been sharply
criticized.[289] At the time, the FDA believed the this action
was necessary because, unless the E-meters were brought into
compliance with the FDCA, gullible individuals might depend on the
devices to cure their physical ailments. As such, the FDA’s
action was within its established mission of protecting the public
health by ensuring the efficacy of medical devices.[290] However, not all actions that fall within the
FDA’s jurisdiction can be pursued. The FDA has significant
discretion in choosing which violations of the FDCA it seeks to
prosecute.[291] It must allocate its resources to the
activities that it considers most vital to serving the
agency’s purposes. Justification for the FDA’s decision
to prosecute use of the E-meter and not to pursue other, more
serious and potentially harmful FDCA infractions is
questionable.
A far more useful endeavor than contemplating the
past actions and possible mistakes of the FDA is formulating a
solution that will allow the FDA to reach its legitimate goal if a
similar situation with a religious device arises in the future, but
does not require an allocation of significant FDA resources.
Congressional adoption of a statutory amendment to the FDCA that
specifically deals with devices used in a religious context is the
most reasonable and satisfactory approach.
A religious device amendment to the FDCA must
comply with the free exercise jurisprudence currently applied by
the Supreme Court. For the purposes of the amendment proposed here,
RFRA is considered to be good law as applied to federal agencies
(the FDA) and federal statutes (the FDCA). In order to pass
constitutional scrutiny, the proposed amendment must not
substantially burden the exercise of religion unless that burden is
the least restrictive means of achieving a compelling government
interest. The District Court in Hubbard Electrometer has
already recognized that the FDA has a compelling interest in
protecting the public against misrepresentation of the
effectiveness of harmless, useless devices employed in religious
activities. As a result, to pass a constitutional analysis, the
religious device amendment either must place no substantial burden
on the exercise of religion or must be the least restrictive means
of protecting the public against misrepresentation.
When considering a religious device amendment to
the FDCA, it should be noted that it is not necessary for Congress
to exempt religious doctrine from consideration as labeling for
religious devices in order to avoid “an inquisition into the
validity of any personal religious beliefs, or the infliction of a
punishment upon any person for holding or disseminating such
beliefs.”[292] That is, in adopting a religious device
amendment, Congress does not need to abide by the decision in
Founding Church . Instead, the amendment can focus entirely
on the scientific or medical claims made by the religion in its
doctrine and its secular literature. The amendment must convey
clearly that any religious doctrine that meets the definition of
labeling under the FDCA will be examined for medical or scientific
claims made regarding the effectiveness or use of the device. The
doctrine will not be judged for its religious value, but the
validity of any medical or scientific claims put forth in the
doctrine will be considered for their medical or scientific
validity. If the device has not been medically or scientifically
proven to have the proposed effect, the FDA will have the power to
order that specified disclaimers, similar to those required in
Hubbard Electrometer , be displayed on the device.
The classification of religious doctrine as
labeling for the purposes of the religious device amendment will
not violate the Supreme Court’s decision in Ballard as
long as the amendment restricts the consideration of claims made in
the doctrine to their medical and scientific purposes. This way, a
court that finds a religious device to be mislabeled based on
statements made in religious doctrine holds only that secular
medical and scientific evidence does not support the claims made in
the doctrine regarding the effectiveness or use of the device. The
court’s holding does not reflect on the religious belief that
the device has the capabilities claimed in the doctrine. Religious
adherents are free to continue believing that use of the device has
medical implications. Allowing religious doctrine to be considered
labeling will not make the religious device amendment a
“regulation of religious action which involves testing in
court the truth or falsity of religious belief.”[293] Instead, as in Richardson , all of the
religious beliefs will be assumed true and their religious veracity
will remain unquestioned.
To avoid being labeled either a substantial burden
on religion or an overbroad means of regulation, the religious
device amendment to the FDCA should also alleviate the no-win
situation regarding adequate directions for use of a useless
religious device identified in Richardson . Under the
proposed amendment, harmless religious devices that are in
compliance with its disclaimer labeling requirements should be
exempted from the FDCA’s requirement of adequate directions
for use. To require manufacturers or distributors to label devices
that are concededly medically and scientifically useless with
adequate instructions for their religiously-motivated medical or
scientific use is to demand an impossibility. Alternately,
requiring that a religion label its device with instructions for
its religious use would excessively entangle the government with
religion. The FDA’s legitimate goal of protecting the public
from misrepresentation is met by mandated disclaimers declaring
that the device has no medical or scientific value; there is no
need for adequate directions for use.
The text of the proposed religious device amendment
could read as follows:
Labeling Requirements for Religious Devices.
The labeling requirements for a device (as defined in Section
321(h)) that is both physically harmless to users and employed as
an essential part of a religious activity are controlled by this
Section. If a religious device is accompanied by literature,
including religious doctrine, that sets out medical or scientific
claims regarding the effectiveness or use of the device, those
claims shall be examined for their medical or scientific validity
only. No evaluation of the religion’s beliefs or the
device’s religious capabilities shall occur. If sufficient
evidence to prove the medical or scientific validity of the claims
is not provided, a disclaimer shall be attached prominently and
visibly to each religious device before it is sold, distributed, or
used. The disclaimer shall read: “This device has no proven
medical or scientific capabilities. Use of this device is
restricted to religious activities and ceremonies.” Religious
devices that bear this disclaimer shall not be required to bear
adequate directions for use. The labeling requirements of this
provision apply only to religious devices used in a religious
setting. The labeling requirements for these same devices when used
in a secular setting are identical to the requirements applied to
all non-religious devices.
Individuals who sympathize with the decision in
Smith may criticize the proposed religious device amendment
for requiring the FDA and the courts to determine which devices are
employed as an essential part of religious activities or
ceremonies. This investigation into religious practices is similar
to an unconstitutional evaluation of the merits of a religious
belief. Although the amendment does give the FDA and the courts
some discretion in deciding what devices qualify for the special
labeling requirements, the ability of courts to distinguish between
religious and secular use of devices is evidenced in cases such as
Hubbard Electrometer . In addition, the discretion afforded
to the government and the courts through the religious device
amendment is no greater than the discretion afforded under
RFRA’s required decision regarding which regulations
constitute a “substantial burden” on religious
activities. Finally, even if the religious device amendment may be
wielded imperfectly by the FDA, the result of its application will
always be less restrictive than a Smith analysis. A small
amount of worrisome discretion in the hands of the FDA and the
courts is more acceptable than a total ban on certain
physically-harmless religious activities. The concerns considered
here should not stop Congress from passing a religious device
amendment.
The proposed religious device amendment complies
with the compelling interest test and with RFRA. The amendment
allows individuals to continue believing in the religious power of
harmless devices to heal despite the lack of scientific or medical
evidence to support their belief. At the same time, the proposed
amendment allows the FDA to meet its goal and its purpose of
protecting the American public from being misled regarding the
medical or scientific effectiveness of religious devices. The
amendment does not place a substantial burden on the practice of
religion; the mandated disclaimers on the side of religious devices
are no more than an inconvenience. A believer will not be troubled
by them. Only a religion trying to persuade the public that its
device has medical or scientific, rather than purely religious,
properties would be dismayed by the disclaimers. As a government
regulation that does not test the truth of religious belief and
places only the slightest inconvenience on religious activity, the
proposed religious device amendment does not violate the
Constitution.
Whether the FDA’s legal battle with
Scientology was an abuse of discretion and a pointed attempt to
destroy a disliked, but burgeoning religious organization is never
likely to be clear.[294] Regardless of the motivation behind the
FDA’s action, however, the holdings of the resulting cases
should provide inspiration for Congress to adjust the FDCA so that
new religious organizations are not required to face the same
arduous battle with the government in order to continue their
religious practices. The lesson in free exercise provided by
Scientology and the E-meter should not be overlooked.
[2] The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads,
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging
the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people
peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress
of grievances.” U.S. CONST.
amend. I.
[9] Michael Browne, Should Germany Stop Worrying and
Love the Octopus? Freedom of Religion and the Church of Scientology
in Germany and the United States , 9 IND.
INT'L & COMP. L. REV. 155, 157 (1998).
[12] Charles Stafford, Individual Life Force is
Focus of Scientology , ST. PETERSBURG
TIMES , 1980, available at
http://www.lermanet.com/scientologynews/sptimes/spt-series2.htm
(last visited April 21, 2004).
[34] Church of Scientology Int’l, What is
Scientology Auditing: A Description of Auditing , available
at
http://www.scientology.org/en_US/religion/auditing/pg002.html (last
visited Apr. 21, 2004).
[35] “When the person holding the E-Meter
electrodes thinks a thought, looks at a picture, reexperiences an
incident or shifts some part of the reactive mind, he is moving and
changing actual mental mass and energy. These changes in the mind
influence the tiny flow of electrical energy generated by the
E-Meter, causing the needle on its dial to move. The needle
reactions on the E-Meter tell the auditor where the charge lies,
and that it should be addressed through auditing.” Church of
Scientology Int’l, What is Scientology Auditing: The
E-Meter , available at
http://www.scientology.org/en_US/religion/auditing/pg005.html (last
visited Apr. 21, 2004).
[40] Hubbard has often been quoted as having once
said, “if a man really wanted to make a million dollars, the
best way to do it would be to start his own religion.”
However, whether Hubbard actually made this remark is the subject
of much debate. Id .
[43] “While it retains many of the basic
principles of Dianetics, as well as the focus on auditing as a
course of therapy and self-improvement, it adds an overlay of
spirituality, a detailed and somewhat Byzantine cosmology, and a
patina of religious ritual.” Horwitz, supra note 5, at
95.
[44] L. Ron Hubbard, Ceremonies of the Founding
Church of Scientology 9 (1959).
[56] “The Church charges a ‘fixed
donation,’ also known as a ‘price’ or a
‘fixed contribution,’ for participants to gain access
to auditing and training sessions.” Hernandez , 490
U.S. at 685; Foley v. Commissioner , 844 F.2d 94, 96
(1988).
[58]Id . These fees represent a large jump in
price from the $500 for twenty-five hours of auditing cited in
Founding Church of Scientology of Washington, D.C. v. United
States , 409 F.2d 1146, 1152 (D.C. Cir. 1969).
[60] Church of Scientology Int’l, What is
Scientology Auditing: How an Auditing Session is Conducted ,
available at
http://www.scientology.org/en_US/religion/auditing/pg006.html (last
visited Apr. 21, 2004). The Auditor’s Code is the code of
ethics that governs an auditor’s actions during an auditing
session. The Auditor’s Code guarantees the greatest possible
spiritual gains for the preclear because it demands secrecy
regarding information divulged during the session. As a result, the
preclear can feel comfortable divulging even his most embarrassing
or damaging memories. Church of Scientology Int’l, What is
Scientology Auditing: The Auditor’s Code , available
at
http://www.scientology.org/en_US/religion/auditing/pg004.html (last
visited Apr. 21, 2004).
[64] The questions asked by the auditor were isolated
by Hubbard as those necessary to bring about spiritual freedom. In
Scientology, his development of these questions is thought to be a
great achievement. “An unlimited number of questions could,
of course, be asked — which might or might not help a person.
The accomplishment of Dianetics and Scientology is that L. Ron
Hubbard isolated the exact questions and directions to bring about
spiritual freedom.” Scientology, What is Scientology
Auditing: A Description of Auditing , supra note 34.
[77] One book lays out a conspiracy theory regarding
the FDA’s interest in the Church of Scientology and the
E-meter. According to Garrison, the FDA’s investigation was
part of a wider governmental conspiracy to destroy the Church.
OMAR GARRISON, PLAYING DIRTY
(1980).
[78]Id at 21; see also Interview with
William W. Goodrich, Office of the General Counsel, FDA,
available at
http://www.fda.gov/oc/history/oralhistories/goodrich/part2.html#scientology
(last visited Apr. 21, 2004).
[89] The Court of Appeals held that the FDA’s
search of the Founding Church and its seizure of the E-meters and
the literature was constitutional. The Court of Appeals did not
reach a decision regarding the Founding Church’s claim that
there was insufficient evidence to sustain the verdict. Founding
Church , 409 F.2d 1146.
[96] Before discussing Ballard , the Court of
Appeals stated, “The principles expressed in Cantwell
, Barnette and Sherbert at least raise a
constitutional doubt concerning the condemnation of instruments and
literature apparently central to the practice of religion. That
doubt becomes more serious when we turn to the decision of the
Supreme Court in United States v. Ballard .”
Founding Church , 409 F.2d at 1156.
[97] The Court of Appeals did not issue a holding
regarding the E-meter’s status as a device under the FDCA. 21
U.S.C. § 352(a) (2004).
[101]Id . The Court of Appeals did not
decide whether any of the literature presented by the government
constituted labeling under the FDCA, but it did suggest that under
the broad definition of labeling adopted by the Supreme Court
clearly secular literature regarding the E-meter would qualify as
labeling. “Were the literature here introduced clearly
secular, we might well conclude that under existing law it
constituted ‘labeling’ for the purposes of the [FDCA].
Such a conclusion might be justified by a broad reading of the
statute, consistent with its high purpose of protecting the public
health and pocketbook against health frauds.” Founding
Church , 409 F.2d at 1159.
[104] The government did not present any evidence
regarding Scientology’s religious status because it believed
that status was irrelevant to the case; it argued that once an
individual or organization acts, it is stripped of any First
Amendment protection, regardless of the religious or secular
motivation for the action. Id at 1154. By focusing on this
narrow theory, the government gave up its opportunity to prove that
Scientology is not a religion. As noted by the Court of Appeals,
“Since the Government chose not to contest appellants' claim
to religious status, and since in our view appellants have made a
prima facie case for such status, we conclude that for
purposes of review of the judgment before us they are entitled to
the protection of the free exercise clause.” Id at
1160.
[108]Hubbard Electrometer was heard as a
bench trial before the District Court. Id .
[109] District Judge Gesell spared no words in
expressing his dislike for Scientology. For example, Gesell
described the growth of Scientology as follows: “Hubbard, who
wrote much of the material, is a facile, prolific author and his
quackery flourished throughout the United States and in various
parts of the world.” Id at 358. Gesell also referred
to the Founding Church as a “religious cult.” Id
at 359.
[114] Because Hubbard Electrometer was heard
as a bench trial, the District Court did not need to examine each
item of literature for its religious or secular context; rather,
“a single false scientific nonreligious label claim [was]
sufficient to support condemnation...” Id at 361.
[126] The Court of Appeals sustained the complete
condemnation of all E-meters used in a secular context and
reaffirmed that the seized E-meters were misbranded under 21 U.S.C.
§§ 352(a) and (f)(1). Id .
[134] The Court of Appeals in Founding Church
lay the foundation for the claim in Richardson when it
stated, “We do not hold that public health laws in general,
or the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act in particular, have no
application to the activities of religion. For instance, it may
well be that adulterated foods, drugs or devices used in religious
practices can be condemned under the Act. It may be that a drug or
device used in religion is subject to condemnation as "misbranded"
if its labeling is found to lack, for instance, adequate directions
for use, as was charged in this case. Our holding prevents only a
finding of false labeling on the basis of doctrinal religious
literature.” 409 F.2d at 1162.
[139]Richardson , 437 F.2d at 218. By
presuming that the medical and scientific claims made in the
literature were true, the Ninth Circuit avoided a conflict with the
Supreme Court’s decision in Ballard .
[140] In Founding Church , Scientology
“conceded that the E-meter is of no use in the diagnosis or
treatment of disease as such.” 409 F.2d at 1154.
[143] In Founding Church , the Court of
Appeals held that Scientology had made a prima facie case
for religious status. 409 F.2d at 1160, and see note 104. On
remand, in Hubbard Electrometer , the District Court
remained bound by the decision in Founding Church .
Hubbard Electrometer , 333 F. Supp. at 360.
[144] The Court of Appeals in Founding Church
stated explicitly, “We do not hold that the Founding Church
is for all legal purposes a religion. Any prima facie case
made out for religious status is subject to contradiction by a
showing that the beliefs asserted to be religious are not held in
good faith by those asserting them, and that forms of religious
organization were erected for the sole purpose of cloaking a
secular enterprise with the legal protections of religion.”
409 F.2d at 1162.
[163] The Court earlier noted that
Scientology’s beliefs are religious in character in part
because “the theories of Hubbard are interrelated and involve
a theory of the nature of the person and of the individual's
relationship with the universe.” Id .
[165]Id at 1319. Section 501(c)(3) of the
Internal Revenue Code exempts from taxation “Corporations,
and any community chest, fund, or foundation, organized and
operated exclusively for religious, charitable, scientific, testing
for public safety, literary, or educational purposes, or to foster
national or international amateur sports competition (but only if
no part of its activities involve the provision of athletic
facilities or equipment), or for the prevention of cruelty to
children or animals, no part of the net earnings of which inures to
the benefit of any private shareholder or individual, no
substantial part of the activities of which is carrying on
propaganda, or otherwise attempting, to influence legislation
(except as otherwise provided in subsection (h)), and which does
not participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or
distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of
(or in opposition to) any candidate for public office.” 26
U.S.C. § 501(c)(3)(2004).
[168] Rather than focusing directly on the issue of
tax exemption under Section 501(c)(3), many of Scientology’s
cases against the IRS were based on Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) document requests. This spate of FOIA claims has been cited
by some critics as an effort by Scientology to harass the IRS into
restoring its tax exempt status. See, e.g., Church of
Scientology v. IRS , 484 U.S. 9 (1987);Church of Scientology
Int’l v. IRS , 995 F.2d 916 (9th Cir. 1993).
[169] The IRS and the courts held repeatedly that
income from Scientology inured to L. Ron Hubbard because he used
the church to generate copyrighted literature, to promote royalty
payments, to receive excessive “debt repayments,” and
to aggressively market his personal products. When Scientology was
battling to regain its tax exempt status as a religious
organization, it was dealt another blow in Hernandez v
Commissioner , 490 U.S. 680 (1989). In Hernandez , the
Supreme Court held that “donations” made to Scientology
by adherents in exchange for auditing and other services are not
tax deductible. Id . According to the Court, the
“donations” are actually payments for services rendered
and not charitable contributions. Id .
[170] If any of a religious organization’s
money inures to an individual, even a very small amount, the
organization can not be granted tax exempt status. 26 U.S.C. §
501(c)(3)(2004).
[171] Some critics have pointed to
Scientology’s focus on collecting money from its members as
an indication that it is not a religion. However, the mere fact
that Scientology receives a substantial amount of money from its
followers does not make it unique or different from mamy mainstream
religions and therefore says nothing about Scientology’s
validity as a religion. Horwitz, supra note 5, at 102.
[172] The Revenue Ruling from the IRS overturning
its decision stated simply, “Church of Scientology. Revenue
Ruling 78-189 is obsoleted.” Rev. Rul. 93-73, 1993-2 C.B. 75.
There was no formal explanation provided. Varying accounts have
tried to explain why the IRS settled with Scientology. Some believe
Scientology’s extensive legal battles with the IRS eventually
wore it into submission. However, Scientology insists that it was
finally able to prove convincingly to the IRS that it was a
legitimate religion and that it acted in compliance with the
requirements of § 501(c)(3) of the Code. Browne, supra note 9,
at 192-93.
[174] Beyond the financial benefits, tax exempt
status under the Code also affords Scientology credence as a
religion in the eyes of the federal government. For example, the
State Department now regards Scientologists claims of persecution
abroad as human rights complaints. Browne, supra note 9, at
193.
[175] James Walsh, Tax Treatment of the Church of
Scientology in the United States and the United Kingdom , 19
SUFFOLK TRANSNAT'L L. REV . 331, 337
(Winter 1995).
[176] Scientology’s official website can be
located at http://www.scientology.org (last visited Apr. 26,
2004).
[177] Church of Scientology Int’l,
Scientology: Its Backgrounds and Origins: The Scientology
Religion , available at
[208] “As a result of their common heritage,
Old Order Amish communities today are characterized by a
fundamental belief that salvation requires life in a church
community separate and apart from the world and worldly influence.
This concept of life aloof from the world and its values is central
to their faith.” Id at 210.
[214] The Church of Latter Day Saints has since
removed the practice of polygamy from its doctrine and now
denounces the practice. For a general discussion of the Church of
Latter Day Saints and its doctrinal change regarding polygamy see
RICHARD N. OSTLING AND JOAN K. OSTLING, MORMON
AMERICA (1999).
[215]Reynolds v United States , 98 U.S. 145
(1878); Davis v Beason , 133 U.S. 333 (1890), and Late
Corp. of Church of Jesus Christ, etc. v United States , 136
U.S. 1 (1890).
[218] The Court of Appeals did not apply the
compelling interest test in Founding Church because it never
reached a point in its analysis that required the application of
the FDCA to Scientology or to the E-meter. When setting out its
holdings in Founding Church , the Court of Appeals noted
explicitly, “We do not hold that public health laws in
general, or the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act in particular, have no
application to the activities of religion. For instance, it may
well be that adulterated foods, drugs or devices used in religious
practices can be condemned under the Act.” Founding
Church , 409 F.2d at 1163.
[234] In a remarkable showing of solidarity against
Justice Stevens’s reasoning and holding in Smith ,
Congress passed RFRA in near unanimity. RFRA was passed by the
House of Representatives unanimously. It passed the Senate with
only three votes against it. President Clinton signed RFRA into law
on November 16, 1993. John Gatliff, City of Boerne v. Flores
Wrecks RFRA: Searching For Nuggets Among the Rubble ,
23 AM. INDIAN L. REV. 285 , 298
(1998/1999). The text of RFRA states, “A person whose
religious exercise has been burdened in violation of this section
may assert that violation as a claim or defense in a judicial
proceeding and obtain appropriate relief against a government.
Standing to assert a claim or defense under this section shall be
governed by the general rules of standing under article III of the
Constitution.” 42 U.S.C.A. § 2000bb-1(c) (2004).
[244] Since City of Boerne was decided, many
courts have upheld the application of RFRA to actions by the
federal government and its agencies. See e.g. , Kikimura
v. Hurley , 242 F.3d 950, 959 (10th Cir. 2001) (“It is
well established that when a portion of a statute is declared
unconstitutional the constitutional portions of the statute are
presumed severable "unless it is evident that the Legislature would
not have enacted those provisions which are within its power,
independently of that which is not.”); Sutton v.
Providence St. Joseph Medical Center , 192 F.3d 826, 832 (9th
Cir. 1999) (“Not surprisingly, then, most courts that have
considered the issue have concluded that the Supreme Court
invalidated RFRA only as applied to state and local law.”);
Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Developlment v. Ashcroft
, 333 F.3d 156, 167 (D.C. Cir. 2003) (“Although the City
of Boerne case held the RFRA unconstitutional as applied to
state government action, we have held that without doubt ‘the
portion [of RFRA] applicable to the federal government...survived
the Supreme Court's decision striking down the statute as applied
to the States.’” (citations omitted). However, some
scholars and courts have argued that City of Boerne
invalidated RFRA as applied to both the states and the federal
government. See, e.g. , Marci A. Hamilton, The Religious
Freedom Restoration Act is Unconstitutional, 1 U. PA. J. CONST. L. 1, 2 (Spring 1998) (“RFRA
is a straightforward violation of separation of powers and the
Establishment Clause...RFRA is also a violation of the due process
required in lawmaking.”); Branch Ministries, Inc. v.
Richardson , 970 F. Supp. 11, 13 n.1 (D.D.C. 1997); Geltzer
v. Crossroads Tabernacle (In re Rivera) , 214 B.R. 101, 102 n.1
(Bankr. S.D.N.Y. 1997); In re Andrade , 213 B.R. 765, 772
(Bankr. E.D. Cal. 1997); In re Gates Community Chapel of
Rochester, Inc. , 212 B.R. 220 (Bankr. W.D.N.Y. 1997).
[245] John Y. Chai, Medical Device Regulation in
the United States and the European Union: A Comparative Study ,
55 FOOD DRUG L.J. 57, 60 (2003).
[252] 21 U.S.C. § 321(h)(2) (2004). The
District Court in Hubbard Electrometer suggested that no
court could reasonably find that the E-meter was not a medical
device when it stated, “It obviously meets the statutory
definition of an apparatus or contrivance intended for use in the
diagnosis, cure, mitigation or treatment of disease. Moreover, it
is held out as such in the constant promotion of E-meter auditing,
a process designed to effectuate cures of mental and physical
illnesses.” Hubbard Electrometer , 333 F. Supp. at
360.
[254] 224 F. Supp. 265 (E.D. Pa. 1963). Similarly,
in United States v Ghadiali 165 F.2d 957 (3rd Cir. 1943) and
United States v Ellis Research Laboratories, Inc. 300 F.2d
550 (7th Cir. 1962), the courts held that galvanometers advertised
and labeled as being instruments effective for detecting and curing
disease were devices within the scope of § 321(h)(2) of the
FDCA.
[275] 21 U.S.C. § 334(a)(1) (2004) states, in
part, “Any article of food, drug, or cosmetic that is
adulterated or misbranded when introduced into or while in
interstate commerce or while held for sale (whether or not the
first sale) after shipment in interstate commerce...shall be liable
to be proceeded against while in interstate commerce, or at any
time thereafter, on libel of information and condemned in any
district court of the United States or United States court of a
Territory within the jurisdiction of which the article is
found.”
[285] Because the Secretary has the authority to
grant exceptions under 21 U.S.C.A. § 352(f), harmless devices
may still be granted exceptions if the Secretary desires to grant
them. However, under the Court of Appeals’ reasoning no
physically harmless device could ever be proven harmless for the
purposes of the FDCA.
[287] “The device may be used or sold or
distributed only for use in bona fide religious counseling.”
Hubbard Electrometer , 333 F. Supp. at 364.
[288] At the time it was fought, the battle between
the FDA and Scientology over use of the E-meter was the longest
legal case ever fought by the FDA. Garrison, supra note 77, at
34.
[289] For example, one critic has stated, “It
should be kept in mind that while the FDA was thus expending many
thousands of dollars and countless man-hours in a campaign of
persecution against a minor religious sect, they were failing
dismally in the discharge of their one and only
responsibility—insuring the national safe medication and pure
food.” Id at 33.
[290] The FDA’s Mission Statement reads,
“The FDA is responsible for protecting the public health by
assuring the safety, efficacy, and security of human and veterinary
drugs, biological products, medical devices, our nation’s
food supply, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation. The FDA
is also responsible for advancing the public health by helping to
speed innovations that make medicines and foods more effective,
safer, and more affordable; and helping the public get the
accurate, science-based information they need to use medicines and
foods to improve their health.” U.S. Food and Drug
Administration, FDA’s Mission Statement , available
at http://www.fda.gov/opacom/morechoices/mission.html (last
visited Apr. 22, 2004).
[291] “Nothing in this chapter shall be
construed as requiring the Secretary to report for prosecution . .
. minor violations of this chapter whenever he believes that the
public interest will be adequately served by a suitable written
notice or warning.” 21 U.S.C. § 336 (2004); FDA is
“given rather broad discretion--broad enough undoubtedly to
enable [it] to perform [its] duties fairly without wasting [its]
efforts on what may be no more than technical infractions.”
United States v. Sullivan , 332 U.S. 689, 694 (1948).
[294] From the perspective of its former General
Counsel William W. Goodrich, the FDA sought condemnation of the
E-meter not because it disliked Scientology’s beliefs but
because it believed Hubbard was trying to avoid government
regulation by claiming his secular movement was a religion.
Goodrich has said, “With Scientology, our experience here was
that they established a place of business in downtown Washington in
a row house towards the center of town. In Hubbard's early
writings, in Dianetics and other things, he had espoused this
psychological theory and later hit on the idea that by making a
church, they would be exempt from any regulations, hoping that
they'd be exempt from Food and Drug and from tax regulation.”
Interview with William W. Goodrich, supra note 78.
|
If the court concludes that the religion is legitimate,
no fraud analysis can be performed because, under Ballard ,
religious doctrine can not be examined for truth or falsity.
Therefore, fraud cases against Scientology contain considerable
judicial reflection regarding Scientology’s religious
status.
Christofferson v. Church of Scientology of
Portland provides a representative example of the judicial
consideration of Scientology in the fraudulent claim
context.[158] In Christofferson , the Court of
Appeals of Oregon held that Scientology is a religion for the
purposes of the First Amendment.[159] In reaching its decision, the court noted
that a belief in God is not a necessary prerequisite to finding
that an organization is religious and that Scientology’s
recent origin should not factor into the First Amendment
decision.[160] The court also recognized that some of
Scientology’s theories appear to be more psychological than
religious, but concluded that it could not dissect
Scientology’s body of beliefs into pieces.[161] The religious character of a belief system
must be based on consideration of its doctrine as an integrated
whole.[162] In the end, the court concluded that
Scientology is a religion because it “is incorporated as
a...religious organization; it has ordained ministers and
characterizes itself as a church. It has a system of beliefs, or
creed, which encompasses beliefs which are religious in
character.”[163]
Scientology has also waged an uphill, and
ultimately successful, legal battle against the Internal Revenue
Service (IRS) for recognition as a tax-exempt religious
organization under the Internal Revenue Code (the Code).
|
yes
|
World Religions
|
Is the Scientology a legitimate religion?
|
yes_statement
|
"scientology" is a "legitimate" "religion".. "scientology" meets the criteria to be considered a "legitimate" "religion".
|
https://www.cesnur.org/2004/waco_davis.htm
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CESNUR 2004 - The Church of Scientology: In Pursuit of Legal ...
|
The Church of Scientology: In Pursuit of Legal Recognition
by Derek H. Davis A paper presented at CESNUR 2004 international conference, Baylor University, Waco (Texas), June 18-20, 2004 Preliminary version do not reproduce or quote without the consent of the author
Scientology emerged in the early 1950s as a movement that found its inspiration in the voluminous writings of L. Ron Hubbard (1911-1986). According to new religions expert Gordon Melton, Scientology has overcome one controversy after another, each of which inhibited growth in one country or the other for a brief period, [but] the overall trend has been one of continuous expansion.[1] Members of the church (which claims about 15 million adherents) can today be located in most countries around the world, and its vast written materials are now translated into fifty-four languages. Many countries, including the United States, now give official recognition to Scientology as a religion, but many do not. It is widely condemned in many parts of Europe, especially Germany, as part of a growing anti-cult movement, yet it continues a meteoric growth not only in Europe but also worldwide. It claims among its devotees a host of well-known Hollywood stars, including John Trovolta, Tom Cruise, Kelly Preston, Catherine Bell, Anne Archer, Isaac Hayes, and Kirstie Alley. Scientologists proudly make the claim that they are the only major new religion to have emerged in the twentieth century.
Scientology is full of mystery for most non-Scientologists.[2] Indeed, its history is checkered, marked by some amazing achievements but also marred by some suspect practices. Its theology is nontraditional, perhaps modern in the highest sense, but clearly its social betterment and social reform programs, and its impressive commitment to religious freedom and other human rights, are to be applauded. All in all, the jury of public opinion is still out on the Church of Scientology. Its ongoing struggle for legal recognition, a struggle that matches its pursuit of social acceptance, is the subject of this essay.
Scientology: A Brief History of Belief and Practice
L. Ron Hubbards seminal work, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, published in 1950 and an immediate best seller, contained Hubbards conclusions about mental aberrations experienced by all human beings and how to clear them through a counseling technique called auditing. Dianetics, however, presented no comprehensive worldview that might be called a religion; it was strictly an analysis of how the mind functions. But Hubbard soon shifted his emphasis away from the mind to an emphasis on the greater entity that observes and directs the mind-what Hubbard called the thetan, from the Greek letter theta, for thought or life-what many religions call the spirit or soul. Ones thetan is eternal and, in keeping with Eastern thought (with which Hubbard was familiar), is continually reincarnated. The term Scientology emerged as a description of this deeper understanding of humanitys place in the cosmos. Scientology was soon serving as a religion for many of Hubbards followers; thus the first Church of Scientology was founded in 1954.
The heart and soul of Scientology is the belief that every human being, by practicing the proper techniques, can eliminate harmful psychological influences and in turn find happiness and fulfillment. Through the officially sanctioned use of a device Hubbard developed called an E-Meter, coupled with a technique administered by authorized church representatives called auditing, members believe they can rid themselves of unwanted negative spiritual and psychological influences and eventually achieve a state of clear, which Scientology claims is similar to the state of awareness in Buddhism called the Bodhi, or enlightened one. According to Scientology teachings, though man is by nature basically good, he indulges in bad behavior because of painful past experiences stored in the memory bank and in the thetans own record of experiences in past lives.[3] These experiences must be purged in order to become clear. During the auditing process, the counselee holds a device in each hand which is attached to the E-Meter, which in turn registers fluctuations in galvanic skin conductivity as he relates information about his own history, problems, repressed feelings, and aspirations. This information is interpreted by an auditor reading the E-Meter, who then offers therapeutic counseling. The process is believed by Scientologists to be scientific and accurate, producing positive results essential for proper and healthy living. According to church spokeswoman Cathy Norman at the Church of Scientology in Austin, Texas, the state of clear achieved in Scientology is a permanent state of spiritual awareness never attainable prior to dianetics and Scientology.[4]
Scientology grew swiftly in the 1960s and is still growing. Dianetics and Scientology technologies are available in some 74 countries worldwide. Over the years, the Church of Scientology has developed a number of community and volunteer organizations, which operate independently of the church but are considered a part of the church's social betterment program. Such organizations as Narconon, Applied Scholastics, The Way to Happiness, Criminon, and Association for Better Living and Education are all Scientology-affiliated groups. Scientologists, sporting bright yellow t-shirts, were the most visible and most numerous assistance group to injured persons in New York City immediately following the 9/11 attack by the al-Ouaida terrorist organization on the Twin Towers.
Beginning membership for new Scientologists is free. What is not always made immediately clear to new Scientologists is that the auditing and training services are expensive. Entry level courses are less than $100 for 8-16 hours of study, but costs rise rapidly thereafter. Some training can cost $500-600 per hour. Membership without taking expensive training or auditing is possible, but the higher states of Scientology cannot be attained this way. The cost of OT IX Readiness, one of the highest levels, costs approximately $375,000, but it is absolutely necessary to achieve full spiritual improvement.[5] The Church of Scientology reportedly earns more than $300 million annually from auditing fees, training courses, and the sale of literature. The high cost of auditing and training is, in fact, the most frequently criticized feature of Scientology expressed by non-Scientologists.[6]
The church also conducts basic ceremonies and services common to many religions, such as sermons at church meetings, naming ceremonies (similar to baptisms), weddings, and funerals. In Scientology, the concept of God is expressed as the Eighth Dynamic--the urge toward existence as infinity, also identified as the Supreme Being.[7] According to its own literature, Scientology has no dogma concerning God. While Scientology affirms the existence of a Supreme Being, its practice does not include the worship of such. Scientology claims to allow one to reach his own conclusions of eternity and God, and to attain salvation through personal spiritual enlightenment.[8] The final sentence in the creed of Scientology reads: And we of the church believe that the spirit can be saved and that the spirit alone may save or heal the body.[9]
Pursuing Legal Recognition
All new religions must endure, in their early stages, trials and persecution. This was true of Catholics as they emerged in pagan Rome nearly two thousand years ago, and it was equally true of Lutherans, Puritans, and Baptists as they rose to challenge Catholicism in the sixteenth-century Reformation. In more recent times it has been true of Jehovahs Witnesses, Mormons, and Seventh-day Adventists, and now the same is true of Scientology. But with the churchs growing prominence and visibility has come recognition and understanding. Today the religiosity of Scientology is acknowledged by most courts and governments on both sides of the Atlantic and throughout the rest of the world.[10]
A. Scientology and the IRS in the United States
Courts in the United States since 1993 have formally recognized Scientology as a religion. Its battle to receive its tax-exempt status was not won easily, however; after being recognized as a tax-exempt religious organization in 1957, its exemption was revoked by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in 1967. While this revocation applied only to the Church of Scientology in California, and none of its branches, the ruling was important because the California entity was the main church and generally directed the activities of the other branches around the world. In its revocation letter, the IRS said that Scientologys activities were commercial and that the church was operated not for charitable or religious reasons but for the benefit of Hubbard. Scientology essentially ignored the ruling and continued to treat itself as tax-exempt. Moreover, the church embarked on a program code-named Snow White. Reportedly, in a document labeled secret, Hubbard outlined a strategy to root out all false and secret files held by governments around the world regarding Scientology. Attack is necessary to an effective defense, Hubbard wrote.[11]
Snow White soon turned sinister. Under the supervision of Hubbard's third wife, Mary Sue, Scientologists reportedly infiltrated the Department of Justice and the IRS to uncover information on Hubbard. In Watergatelike fashion, they broke into offices at night and copied mountains of documents. At one point, an electronic bugging device was hidden inside an IRS conference room the day before a meeting about Scientology. Critics say those actions fell under a church doctrine that Hubbard had called the Fair Game policy. Hubbard wrote that church enemies may be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. [They] may be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed. The apparent conspiracy was uncovered in 1977, and Mrs. Hubbard and ten others were eventually sentenced to prison. Hubbard was named an unindicted co-conspirator because investigators could not link him to the crimes. The church immediately took steps to change its ways. Members who broke the law were purged, including Mrs. Hubbard, and the church was restructured to protect against a recurrence. The Fair Game policy, church leaders said, was never intended to justify breaking the law.[12]
In an aggressive but more legal application of the Snow White policy, the churchs hundreds of affiliated entities filed a steady stream of lawsuits against the IRS to have their tax-exempt status approved. In addition, members of the church began filing thousands of lawsuits against the IRS, claiming entitlement to tax deductions for auditing and training expenses. Believing that their bombardment strategy against the IRS would eventually pay off, they were finally rewarded in October 1993 when the Internal Revenue Service granted full non-profit status and tax exemption to all churches of Scientology and related social betterment organizations, concluding after an exhaustive and thorough review that Scientology churches are organized and operated exclusively for religious and charitable purposes.[13]
The Church of Scientology paid the IRS $12.5 million as part of a comprehensive settlement under which the main branch of the church and its branches across the United States secured tax-exempt status. The church agreed to drop all of its lawsuits. The churchs $12.5 million settlement was intended to cover the churchs payroll, income, and estate tax bills for an undisclosed number of years before 1993. This was considered a windfall since, according to some, the Church of Scientology might have owed as much as a billion dollars in back taxes. The IRS agreed not to audit the church or its affiliated entities for any year prior to 1993, and ensured that auditing and training expenses of members were tax deductible. All of this was remarkable in that the IRS is rarely so easily accommodated. Critics charged that the IRS had purchased its peace with Scientology at a bargain basement price.[14]
B. Scientology in Other Jurisdictions
European governments have since bestowed similar recognitions of religious and charitable status on churches of Scientology. According to Heber Jentzsch, President of the International Church of Scientology, as early as 1980 an appeals court in Paris ruled that Scientology must be granted full protection as a religion under the French Constitution. This decision was later supported by an appeals court in Lyon, a ruling subsequently upheld by the French Supreme Court.[15]
In 1997, the Milan branch of the Church of Scientology won a ruling that many scholars regard as one of the most important legal precedents on religion issued by any court in Europe. The Italian Supreme Court overruled a lower court that had narrowly defined religion as Judeo-Christian, noting that Taoism, Buddhism, and many other great religions had thereby been excluded. In answering the charge that Scientology is excessively interested in making money, the Court noted that this charge appears much less excessive if we consider how money was raised in the past by the Roman Catholic Church.[16] The Court described in considerable detail why Scientology deserves to be regarded as a religion--a decision followed by the Italian Ministry of Finance, which soon afterward granted non-profit recognition and tax exemption to Scientology churches in Italy.
Only a few weeks later, the Federal Administrative Court in Germany announced that Scientology religious practices are spiritual counseling aimed at the attainment of a higher level of being. Germanys administrative courts and appeals courts have consistently held in more than forty rulings over the last three decades that Scientology is to be afforded the protection of Article 4 of the German Constitution, which guarantees the freedom of religious belief and practice as well as ideological opinion. In no state in Germany, however, is Scientology granted public law status, which would entitle it to receive taxes from the government for its support. This status is reserved for only longstanding, traditional religions in Germany, which excludes not only Scientology, but also Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism, among others.[17]
In early 2003, a German court granted a tax exemption for 10% license fees that are sent to the United States. This exemption, however, is related to a German-American double taxation agreement, and has nothing to do with exemption as a charitable organization. Germany is at the forefront of countries that remain somewhat hostile to Scientology. Most significantly, in January 2003, the German Federal Finance Office granted the Church of Scientology International, the mother church of the Scientology religion, full tax exemption on monies given in support of the mother church by nine churches of Scientology in Germany--a decision reported in hundreds of newspaper articles across the country. Similar recognitions have been issued in Holland, Hungary, Portugal, Switzerland, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, India, Albania, Hungary, Holland, South Africa, Slovenia, Croatia, and Japan.[18]
In November 1999, the government of Sweden declared the Church of Scientology to be a charitable, non-profit organization with a religious purpose. The following year, the Swedish government officially recognized the church by granting its ministers the right to perform marriages.
While official status as a charitable organization has been denied to Scientology in England, there have been some notable decisions in that country. The Ministry of Defense, specifically the Royal Navy, recognized Scientology as one of the faiths that sailors must be allowed to practice. In May 2001, the Customs and Excise granted churches of Scientology exemption from value added tax on the basis that they are religious organizations. That same year, Englands Internal Revenue decreed that employees of the church who are part of its religious order are not subject to the ordinary wage laws but must be treated in alignment with the rules for religious institutions. A near-identical determination was made by Germanys Federal Labour Court in October 2002 which stated explicitly that the staff members of Scientology churches are seeking idealistic purposes and [their] own spiritual perfection through the teachings of Scientology.[19]
In 2002, the Austrian tax office also came to the conclusion that the work of the Church of Scientology in Vienna is for the public benefit and not for anyones personal profit. It thus granted that church tax-exempt status as a charitable religious organization. In December 2002, the government of New Zealand issued an official decree fully recognizing the Church of Scientology of New Zealand as an exempt religious and charitable organization. And in March 2003, the National Ministry of the Interior for Taiwan also recognized the Church of Scientology of Taiwan as a charitable religious institution and officially added it to the rolls of the recognized religions of the country.[20]
Nevertheless, there are countries where Scientology is struggling for recognition. Germany and France are at the forefront of countries that remain somewhat hostile to Scientology, especially in the court of public opinion. Moreover, in Scotland Scientology is not permitted to call itself a religion, and in Russia it is deemed a totalitarian organization.[21] But Scientology has experienced far more successes than failures in recent years in being recognized as a religion. None of these recognitions came easily. Church officials frequently had to deal with misconceptions about Scientology, false reports, and time and again had to tell their story and make the case for the religious character of Scientology. Scientologists understandably cite with pride the words of the Australian High Court, which found in 1983 that Scientology is irresistibly a religion.[22]
Is Scientology a Religion?
While the details of the 1993 IRS settlement in the United States were not disclosed, the main feature of the settlement was that it ensured the tax-exempt status of Scientology in the United States as a religion. Given the nature of Scientology, is this a valid judgment?
The American judiciary's formal inquiry into the constitutional meaning of religion commenced in 1878 when the United States Supreme Court decided the case of Reynolds v. United States.[24]In that case the Court considered a Mormon's argument that his practice of polygamy was a religious duty and therefore protected under the Free Exercise Clause. The Court held that the trial court had not been in error to refuse to charge the jury that if Reynolds believed it was his religious duty to practice polygamy, he must be found not guilty of bigamy. In searching for the scope of protected religious activity in the Constitution, the Court stated: The word religion is not defined in the Constitution. We must go elsewhere, therefore, to ascertain its meaning, and nowhere more appropriately, we think, than to the history of the times in the midst of which the provision was adopted.[25]
The Court examined statements made by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson for guidance in ascertaining the framers' meaning of the word religion. For Madison, religion was the duty we owe to our creator,[26] and for Jefferson, a matter which lies solely between man and his God.[27] While these statements are far from being exhaustive definitions, they accord with the common understanding of religion in late eighteenth-century America as a relationship between a person and some Supreme Being. But while Madison, Jefferson, and most of the founders were theists, there is no evidence that the constitutional framers wrote the First Amendment to protect only theism. Some of the founders clearly sought religious freedom for nontheists. Jefferson, for example, wrote that his Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom was to comprehend within the mantle of its protection the Jew and Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo, and infidel of every denomination.[28] The Court's inquiry into the founders' understanding of the meaning of religion produced no clear answers. Satisfied that the defendant's polygamous practices were too unconventional to be protected by the First Amendment, the Court found it unnecessary to formulate a definition of religion.
Twelve years later the propriety of polygamy was again the issue before the Supreme Court. In Davis v. Beason,[29]the Court upheld an Idaho statute that required individuals registering to vote to swear that they neither practiced polygamy nor belonged to any organization that looked upon polygamy favorably. The defendant, a devout Mormon, asserted that the statute violated the Free Exercise Clause. This time the Court was more specific in stating its understanding of the term religion: The term religion has reference to one's views of his relations to his Creator, and to the obligations they impose of reverence for his being and character, and of obedience to his will.[30] But while the defendant's beliefs and practices clearly fit within this definition, the Court held that only his beliefs, and not his practices, were protected under the First Amendment. In finding the statute not to be in violation of the First Amendment, the Court stated: Whilst legislation for the establishment of a religion is forbidden, and its free exercise permitted, it does not follow that everything which may be so called can be tolerated. Crime is not the less odious because sanctioned by what any particular sect may designate as religion.[31] The First Amendment provides no protection, the Court said, for acts inimical to the peace, good order and morals of society.[32]
The Davis Court's substantive definition of religion emphasizing traditional ideas of obedience to and worship of a deity continued to be affirmed by American courts well into the twentieth century.[33] As late as 1931, the Supreme Court seemed to reaffirm this interpretation when Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes concluded that the essence of religion is belief in a relation to God involving duties superior to those arising from any human relation.[34] Such narrow, content-based interpretations of religion, however, were to become much less common as courts were increasingly confronted with pleas by adherents of nontraditional religions for First Amendment protection.
Beginning in the 1940s, American courts began to move away from narrow, substantive definitions of religion to broader, functional ones. The shift seems to have come in two significant cases: United States v. Ballard,[35]decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1944, and United States v. Kauten,[36] a federal circuit court case decided a year earlier.
In the Ballard case, the founder of the I Am movement was prosecuted for using the mails for fraudulently promoting his faith-healing powers. Guy Ballard told his followers that his ministry had been sanctioned by personal encounters with Jesus and Saint Germain. Followers were encouraged to send contributions to the movement, and many did. When many contributors, contrary to Ballard's promises, failed to experience physical healing, a San Francisco district attorney sought prosecution. The United States Supreme Court held that the trial court had ruled properly when it told the jury that it could inquire into the sincerity, but not the truth or falsity, of Ballard's religious beliefs. In his majority opinion, Justice William O. Douglas wrote:
Heresy trials are foreign to our Constitution. Men may believe what they cannot prove. They may not be put to the proof of their religious doctrines or beliefs. Religious experiences which are as real as life to some may be incomprehensible to others. Yet the fact that they may be beyond the ken of mortals does not mean that they can be made suspect before the law. . . . If one could be sent to jail because a jury in a hostile environment found one's teachings false, little indeed would be left of religious freedom. . . . The religious views espoused by respondents might seem incredible, if not preposterous, to most people. But if those doctrines are subject to trial before a jury charged with finding their truth or falsity, then the same can be done with the religious beliefs of any sect. When the triers of fact undertake that task, they enter a forbidden domain.[37]
In Ballard, the distinction between sincerity and credibility became an important judicial criterion for assessing what kinds of religious activities are protected under the First Amendment. The credibility of one's beliefs were less important than the sincerity with which those beliefs were held. As repugnant as the religious practices of a particular religion might be to its nonadherents, the price of religious freedom, as Justice Robert H. Jackson put it in his dissenting opinion, is that we must put up with, and even pay for, a good deal of rubbish.[38]Ballard attempted no concrete definition of religion, but the case made it clear that a broad spectrum of religious beliefs, at least those that did not violate the legitimate concerns of the state, might be protected under the First Amendment.
An even greater protection of a wide range of beliefs was granted by the Second, Circuit in United States v. Kauten. The case marked the beginning of a series of decisions in which the judicial interpretation of congressional statutes on conscription became the vehicle for addressing the legal definition of religion. Kauten dealt with a conscientious objector who was convicted under the 1940 Selective Service Act for refusing to submit to induction. He claimed exemption as a conscientious objector, defined by the act as any person who, by reason of religious training and belief, is conscientiously opposed to participation in war in any form.[39] Kauten, an atheist, was opposed to war, claiming that it solves none of the world's problems and that the draft was President Franklin D. Roosevelt's personal scheme to reduce unemployment. The court held that Kauten's beliefs were strictly philosophical and political and fell outside the statute's requirement of religious training and belief. The court did, however, propose that something less than a belief in God might qualify as religion. Judge Augustus Hand offered this definition:
Religious belief arises from a sense of the inadequacy of reason as a means of relating the individual to his fellow-men and to this universe. . . . It is a belief finding expression in a conscience which categorically requires the believer to disregard elementary self-interest and to accept martyrdom in preference to transgressing its tenets. . . . [Conscientious objection] may justly be regarded as a response of the individual to an inward mentor, call it conscience or God, that is for many persons at the present time the equivalent of what has always been thought a religious impulse.[40]
Whereas prior cases saw religion in theistic terms, Kauten saw religion in psychological terms-as belief that produced effects upon one's life that were similar to the effects produced by traditional religion. Kauten remains a landmark case because it was the first to offer a functional definition of religion.
This expanded understanding of religion was not immediately accepted. In Berman v. United States, decided in 1946, the Ninth Circuit dismissed Judge Hand's definition of religion in Kauten asmere dictum, and affirmed the conviction of a humanist pacifist because the religious training and belief required for exemption under the Selective Service Act could not, without the concept of a deity . . . be said to be religion in the sense of that term as it is used in the statute.[41] Congress agreed with the Berman formulation and in the 1948 amendment to the Selective Service Act specifically defined "religious training and belief' to mean an individual's belief in a relation to a Supreme Being involving duties superior to those arising from any human relation, but [excluding] essentially political, sociological, or philosophical views, or a merely personal moral code.[42]
This amended language was interpreted in 1965 by the U. S. Supreme Court in three cases decided under the style of United States v. Seeger.[43] All three of the defendants were conscientious objectors who had been convicted in federal district courts for refusal to submit to induction after Selective Service officials had rejected their claims for exemption. All three men had similar worldviews, and none had a traditional concept of God. Seeger, for example, said that he was uncertain of whether a Supreme Being existed, but that his skepticism or disbelief in the existence of God did not necessarily mean lack of faith in anything whatsoever. His, he stated, was a belief in and devotion to goodness and virtue for their own sakes, and a religious faith in a purely ethical creed.[44]
Writing for a unanimous Supreme Court, Justice Tom Clark wrote that Congress had not intended to restrict the exemption for conscientious objectors only to those who believe in a traditional God. The expression, Supreme Being, rather than God, had been employed by Congress so as to embrace all religions while excluding essentially political, sociological, or philosophical views. The test of belief required by the act, the Court held, is whether a given belief that is sincere and meaningful occupies a place in the life of its possessor parallel to that filled by the orthodox belief in God of one who clearly qualifies for the exemption.[45] The Court specifically found the beliefs of the three defendants to be "religious" within the meaning of the Selective Service Act.
Congress was not pleased by the Court's expansive interpretation of religious training and belief. Congress had obviously intended to limit conscientious objector status to those who held a traditional belief in God. The Court, however, rather than ruling that the statute was unconstitutional, grounded its decision in a rather loose reading of congressional intent. Reading between the lines, the Court's tactful approach may have been what led Congress to go along with the Court's ruling by removing the Supreme Being clause in the new Military Selective Service Act of 1967, although the new provision retained the restrictive phrase which ruled out inclusion of essentially political, sociological, or philosophical views, or a merely personal moral code.[46]
Three years later, in Welsh v. United States,[47]the Supreme Court considered the case of a conscientious objector who had initially refused to label his objection as religious as required under the new Military Service Act. In his written objection, he struck out the word religious and wrote that his beliefs had been formed by reading in the fields of history and sociology. Although he had first claimed that his beliefs were nonreligious, he later wrote in a letter to his appeal board that his beliefs were certainly religious in the ethical sense of the word.[48] If anything, Welsh's beliefs were even more remotely religious than Seeger's. The Court was thus facedwith considering whether the Act's requirement of religious training and belief would extend protection to a person motivated in his objection to the draft by profound moral conviction. The Court again enlarged the scope of the statute, and held: If an individual deeply and sincerely holds beliefs which are purely ethical or moral in source and content but that nevertheless impose upon him a duty of conscience to refrain from participating in any war at any time, those beliefs certainly occupy in the life of that individual a place parallel to that filled by . . . God in traditional religious persons.[49]
As the diversity of religions benefiting from First Amendment protection has expanded, the ability of government to regulate religion on definitional grounds has correspondingly diminished. The judicial means by which this development has occurred has been the adoption of functional criteria, in replacement of substantive criteria, for defining religion. The substantive model generally delimits religion to the range of traditional theisms: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and so on. The functional model, in contrast, allows for a greater range of religions, theistic as well as nontheistic. By defining religion according to its social function, the functional approach treats religion largely as synonymous with such terms as world view, belief system, moral order, ideology, and cosmology.[50] In Seeger, the Supreme Court spoke approvingly of the views of German-American theologian Paul Tillich, who located the essence of religion in the phrase, ultimate concern. The Court quoted from Tillich for the proposition that the phrase ultimate concern may be more definitive than the word God in the designation of religious belief: And if that word [God] has not much meaning for you, translate it, and speak of the depths of your life, of the source of your being, of your ultimate concern, of what you take most seriously without reservation. Perhaps in order to do so, you must forget everything traditional that you have learned about God. . . . .[51] The Court's interpretation of ultimate concern as referring to a belief which occupies the same place in the life of an objector as an orthodox belief in God[52] was confirmed in Welsh where the Court held, Welsh's atheism notwithstanding, that because his beliefs function as a religion in his life, such an individual is as much entitled to a religious conscientious objector exemption . . . as is someone who derives his conscientious opposition to war from traditional religious convictions.[53]
Seeger and Welsh thus served to establish the parallel position rule and the ultimate concern rule as the twin criteria to judge whether a belief is religious in nature. So long as an ultimate concern occupies in the possessor's life a place parallel to traditional ideas of God, and so long as the beliefs are not based on policy, pragmatism, or expediency, they are constitutionally religious. Under this content-neutral, functional approach, few of the new religions are deprived of religious status.[54] The courts have had little difficulty, for example, in concluding that the Unification Church is a religion.[55] The Church of' Scientology, as we have already noted, has been held by the courts to be a religious organization.[56] Likewise, the religious nature of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness has been firmly established in the courts.[57] Indeed, the Seeger-Welsh framework has created an environment making it possible for a wide array of nontraditional or new religions to receive protection under the First Amendment.
B.Application of Court Definitional Guidelines to Scientology
Some Scientologists hold a traditional view of God that would easily fit the Davis scheme (emphasizing ones relations to his Creator and the obligations that follow). In fact, some Scientologists claim to still be Lutherans, Methodists, or adherents of some traditional religion, although not actively so. Most Scientologists, however, will describe themselves as Scientologists rather than adherents of some other religion, and they do not subscribe to the traditional view of a personal God. Does this nontraditional belief qualify as religion within the Seeger and Welsh guidelines?
The Reverend Dean Kelley, former head of the Religious Liberty council of the Churches of Christ, USA, wrote in 1980 an unpublished paper which detailed his impressions of twenty-one Scientologists whom he personally interviewed. He had this to say about the nature of most of their beliefs:
Many reported that they had been dissatisfied with previous religions because their questions had not been answered satisfactorily. They had often been told what to believe but had not directly experienced the answers to their questions, and so remained seekers until they came into Scientology, where they were not given answers or told what to believe, but were enabled to discover answers through their won experience, which apparently satisfied their need. They referred repeatedly to the Eighth Dynamic, less often to God or a Supreme Being-to whom one is said to relate in the Eighth Dynamic-but made clear that Scientology does not provided a definition of God or specific content for the Eighth Dynamic, leaving that to the individual to discover.[58]
I personally have had many conversations with Scientologists who have related to me the character of their beliefs. In every case, they clearly believe in a spiritual world, and hold that every human is in fact a spiritual being. Thus they believe in an unobservable supernatural world that is just as real as the observable natural world. In fact, they seem to collapse the two into one, as if there was no distinction. Scientologists belief that they are spiritual beings is alone a significant departure from nonreligious worldviews. It is a belief characterized by most religions but by virtually no philosophy that is nonreligious. They are not as comfortable, as Kelley found, in discussing God, but they uniformly believe in the realm of the supernatural, and that we derive our creation as humans from this supernatural world and will remain in it indefinitely through successive reincarnations of our spirit. Consequently, they deal with death in a way that is similar to Christian Science belief, denying the importance of the physical body or earthly casing. In all of this, belief in God or a Supreme Being is not essential, although there is a place for it, unlike other organizations characterized by courts as religions, such as Ethical Culture, Secular Humanism,[59] and Fellowship of Humanity.[60] In these respects, Scientologists beliefs seem to occupy, at the very least, per the Seeger standard, a place in the life of its possessor parallel to that filled by the orthodox belief in God of one who clearly qualifies for the exemption [for conscientious objectors to war]. Their view of reality obviously provides, per theologian Paul Tillichs standard for being religious, and as sanctioned by the U.S. Supreme Court in Welsh, ultimate meaning.[61]
I have also been impressed with Scientologists commitment to live ethical lives. Many Scientologists stray, but in this respect they are no different from those of other religions who also lapse from time to time. Scientologists are committed to a number of practices that are deemed important moral practices by other religions. For example, it is important, according to official teachings of Scientology, to remain committed sexually to ones marital partner, to live drug-free lives, to abstain from theft and dishonesty, to live by the golden rule of doing unto others as one would have done unto them, and to live spiritually rather than becoming unduly obsessed by material pursuits. In fact, one of the main purposes of the auditing process is to increase ones ability to live ethically. Undergoing auditing, which is done regularly, is the equivalent for many Scientologists to confession. Scientologists believe that regular auditing keeps them on the path to virtuous and moral living. All of this, again, points in the direction of Scientology meeting the parallel position and ultimate concern requirements of Seeger and Welsh.
C. IRS Criteria for Qualifying as a Religion
In the United States, the IRS is bound by court decisions, but it has its own criteria for determining when an organization qualifies as a religion. These criteria come in the form of a thirteen-point set of guidelines; the criteria have never risen to the status of an official IRS regulation, but they are widely used by IRS agents charged with the responsibility of ascertaining the religious character of organizations.[62] The criteria, with appropriate commentary as applied to Scientology, are:[63]
1. A Distinctive Legal Existence. The Church of Scientology is legally incorporated in California and many other states across the United States and in many foreign countries. It is interesting to note that some prestigious religious groups in the United States, such as the United Methodist Church and the Episcopal Church, are not formally incorporated, yet their legitimacy is not questioned by the IRS.
2 A Recognized Creed and Form of Worship. Shortly after the Church of Scientology was incorporated in California in 1954, L. Ron Hubbard wrote a creed for the church, which shortly thereafter was officially adopted:
We of the Church believe: That all men of whatever race, color or creed were created with equal rights; That all men have inalienable rights to their own religious practices and their performance; That all men have inalienable rights to their own lives; That all men have inalienable rights to their sanity; That all men have inalienable rights to their own defense; That all men have inalienable rights to conceive, choose, assist or support their own organizations, churches and governments; That all men have inalienable rights to think freely, to talk freely, to write freely their own opinions and to counter or utter or write upon the opinions of others; That all men have inalienable rights to the creation of their own kind; That the souls of men have the rights of men; That the study of the mind and the healing of mentally caused ills should not be alienated from religion or condoned in nonreligious fields; And that no agency less than God has the power to suspend or set aside these rights, overtly or covertly.
And we of the Church believe: That man is basically good; That he is seeking to survive; That his survival depends upon himself and upon his fellows and his attainment of brotherhood with the universe.
And we of the Church believe that the laws of God forbid man: To destroy his own kind; To destroy the sanity of another; To destroy or enslave anothers soul; To destroy or reduce the survival of ones companions or ones group.
And we of the Church believe that the spirit can be saved and that the spirit alone may save or heal the body.[64]
3. A Definite and Distinct Ecclesiastical of Government. Scientology has an elaborate and sophisticated organizational structure, but whether it is ecclesiastical depends on whether it is religious. For purposes of the IRS criteria, the two terms are essentially synonymous.
4. A Formal Code of Doctrine and Discipline.Short of the Roman Catholic code of canon law, there has seldom been a body of doctrine and discipline as voluminous as the official directives and manuals of Scientology. The Church of Scientology is legendary for the number of books, manuals, pamphlets, and other materials it publishes, the majority of which is for the training and instruction of members. Whether it is doctrine and discipline in the sense intended by the IRS turns again on whether the content is religious, but I would contend that it is definitely religious in character.
5. A Distinct Religious History. This criterion is also circular. Scientology has a fairly distinct history covering its development since inception in the early 1950s, but whether this constitutes a religious history depends on whether it is a religion.
6. A Membership Not Associated with any Other Church or Denomination. This trait of exclusivity is characteristic of most Western religions in recent times, but not of the mystery religions of Rome, c. 200 B.C.-200 A.D.; one could be a devotee of Mithra, of Isis and Osiris, and of Dionysius all at the same time. Neither is mutual exclusivity characteristic of some Eastern religions. Scientology does not claim to be the one and only mode of belief, as most modern Western faiths do, but in actuality it seems to pre-empt the believer's attention to other systems of religious belief, and to satisfy or assuage the religious needs and interests of its adherents. As mentioned earlier, some Scientologists claim to be Christians, but this attachment seems symbolic since their attention to Christian doctrine appears lacking if not replaced almost entirely by the tenets of Scientology. Scientology is not a religion one would describe as syncretistic, although Scientologists often make the claim that it is compatible with all religions.
7. A Complete Organization of Ordained Ministers Ministering to Their Congregations and Selected After Completing Prescribed Courses of Study. If there is anything Scientology abounds in, it is ordained ministers who have completed prescribed courses of study. Its ratio of staff or full-time practitioners to laity or part-time practitioners is unusually high, with a mission having several staff, a church dozens, and a major center like Los Angeles or Clearwater, hundreds. The core of Scientology is prescribed courses of study, including a minister's course required of all who seek to qualify as auditors. The highest order of clergy within Scientology is the Sea Organization, whose members comprise approximately one-third of Scientology staff. Sea Org members pledge a billion year commitment to Scientology, work for modest stipends, and are assigned full-time work in furtherance of Scientology.[65] For members who commit serious violations of their obligations as faithful Scientologists, they can undergo a special rehabilitative program called the Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF), and can be reinstated after successfully meeting all program requirements. The phrase ministering to their congregations is more difficult to apply, since there is not the one-to-one relationship between a minister and a congregation in Scientology that there is in most Protestant denominations. The pattern is more like a Roman Catholic parish, with several priests and nuns ministering collectively to hundreds or thousands of parishioners. It should be noted that several acknowledged religions, such as old-line Quakers and the Church of Christ, Scientist, do not have ministers at all, and several do not require prescribed courses of study for their preachers, yet their status before the IRS is not in jeopardy.
8. A Literature of Its Own. Some religions do not have this attribute. Scientology does. It has enough literature of its own to supply them all twice over if it is religious literature. The church is now nearing completion of the publication of all of L. Ron Hubbards voluminous writings, which number more than 100,000.
9. Established Places of Worship. There are many established Scientology facilities or installations through the world. They are not places of worship as conventionally understood. Whether they are nevertheless places of religious practice depends upon whether Scientology is a religion. Scientology does have its own Sunday services, although they do not build churches for such services, as is traditional with Christianity, Judaism, Islam and some other religions. Services are usually dedicated to ethical teachings and learning more about Scientology, especially about L. Ron Hubbards writings.
10. Regular Congregations. Scientology has centers which are frequented by members, mainly to engage in instructional courses and counseling. It does not have many collective assemblages to which all or most of the constituents are expected to come for corporate activities. Those who enroll for courses in Scientology sign a form which describes the applicant as a Church of Scientology International Member, and records are kept of all such applicants/enrollees/members, most of whom progress over longer or shorter periods of time through the seemingly inexhaustible levels of auditing and training called the Bridge, the higher levels of which can be attained only at Los Angeles and a few other centers, and the highest only at Clearwater, Florida, the Western Hemisphere headquarters of the church. Whether these centers are the equivalent of conventional congregations depends again on whether Scientology is a religion.
11. Regular Religious Services. As indicated earlier, Scientology has fairly regular Sunday services. Scientologists have related to me that attendance is not mandatory and that Sunday was chosen as the day of meeting to blend in with the Christian practice, prominent in North and South America, of attending church on Sunday. Scientologists who attend, however, do so out of a desire to deepen their faith commitments, and not as a promotional effort to rein in former Christians who would be comfortable with the traditional Christian practice of meeting on Sundays. But of course many new religions borrow from older ones to gain protective coloration. The Baptists and Quakers eventually attained recognition as religions without resorting to the conventional religious symbols of their time and without benefit of clergy, but they endured severe persecution in the process. New religions ought not to have to mimic the trappings of older ones in order to survive and be accepted on their own terms. Though they are not characterized as worship, Sunday meetings might qualify as regular religious services, assuming Scientology is a religion, which I contend it is.
12. Sunday Schools for the Religious Instruction of the Young. The evidence on this point is sparse and conflicting. Some informants say Scientology has no such schools for the religious instruction of the young, but some Scientology centers apparently have such schools specifically for training of children. There are some religions which address themselves exclusively to adults and thus do not have such schools. The criterion is also circular, since whether the instruction given in such schools (if they exist) is religious instruction depends on the prior question whether Scientology is a religion.
13. Schools for the Preparation of Its Ministers.Scientology is itself one vast and infinitely gradated school for the preparation of its ministers, if the functionaries so produced are conceded to be ministers, which turns on whether they minister a religion. Sea Organization members undergo intensive training as clergy. The Sea Org was so named, in fact, because its members, beginning in 1967, underwent basic training aboard ships, a practice which is still followed but not rigorously.
Most of the foregoing evidences are not conclusive, but rest on the question of what is a religion? Even if Scientology does not meet the substantive definitions of religion used by courts in early American jurisprudence, it clearly meets the functional definitions embraced by more recent courts. The Internal Revenue Service's criteria are not only circular but highly conventional. As one commentator, Sharon Worthing Vaino, has written of them:
These criteria tend to require an organization to be a developed denomination according to the pattern reflected in the most accepted mainline churches. They do not recognize the substantial departure from this structure among a number of religious organizations which have long been recognized as American churches ... Christ and his band of disciples certainly did not meet these criteria ... It is perhaps never wise to define a religion based on its developed state, since its early state is not only most fluid, but usually its most delicate and important. It is precisely then, in this larval stage, that a particular religion needs to have the benefit of religious protections.[66]
Vainos comment suggests, in effect, that courts need to be willing to move beyond older substantive definitions of religion to more modern functional ones. Even though the IRS guidelines are written in line with older substantive criteria in mind, Scientology nevertheless satisfies most of the IRS guidelines. Scientology would definitely meet the court-crafted functional definitions of religion described earlier.
Conclusion
Scientology is a controversial new religion. I have sought to show in this chapter that according to court-sanctioned guidelines and IRS criteria in the United States, Scientology is a religion, if not according to substantive definitions used by the American courts, at least by functional definitions. Scientology provides its adherents with purpose and the ultimate meaning of life, which is the essence of religion. Not all Scientologists remain Scientologists, but neither do adherents of other religions always remain within the fold. One mark of recent international declarations and treaties is the inclusion of the fundamental human right to change ones religion, and this right applies to Scientology no less than to any other religion.[67] Scientology nevertheless has a remarkable track record of retaining its members, with only a small percentage defecting.
While courts cannot avoid the responsibility of determining which groups qualify as religions, they should nevertheless resist the temptation to define religion. As I have argued elsewhere, at least with regard to the issue in the United States,
The task of distinguishing religion from nonreligion has proven to be a difficult one for American courts. The operative word of the religion clauses-religion-was left undefined by the framers. This omission, however, did not result from oversight. To define the term would have placed a permanent imprimatur upon only those forms of faith and belief that conformed to their definition. The framers instead chose to leave the term undefined, thereby protecting a diversity of beliefs, not merely the traditional ones, from undue advancement or prohibition of expression by government. This guarantee of freedom of religion, the centerpiece of American liberties, has served to protect all religions, old and new, against governmental preference, intrusion, and harassment.[68]
As reported by Italian religion expert Massimo Introvigne, the Supreme Court of Italy adhered to this notion in its 1997 decision on Scientology. It is better, according to the Court, not to limit with a definition, always by its very nature restrictive, the broader field of religious liberty.[69]
Scientologys acceptance as a legally sanctioned religion in its birthplace, the United States, has laid the foundation for its acceptance in other nations. Because it now has a life of more than fifty years, it is time that all nations acknowledge the religious character of Scientology and permit it to use its creative and economic resources to advancing its beliefs rather than having to spend them on defending itself against a torrent of lawsuits that challenge its credibility. When this happens, Scientology will no longer be a new and persecuted religion, but will have found its rightful place within the everbroadening landscape of world religions that make positive contributions to the progress and development of human civilization.
Derek H. Davis (B.A., M.A., J.D., Baylor University; Ph.D., University of Texas at Dallas) is director of the J.M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies and professor of political science, Baylor University, and editor of the award-winning Journal of Church and State. He is the author of Original Intent: Chief Justice Rehnquist & the Course of American Church-State Relations (Prometheus, 1991), Religion and the Continental Congress, 1774-1789: Contributions to Original Intent (Oxford, 2000), and editor or coeditor of thirteen additional books, including the Legal Deskbook for Administrators of Independent Colleges and Universities and The Role of Religion in the Making of Public Policy. He serves numerous organizations given to the protection of religious freedom in American and international contexts.
[2] For a useful, scholarly summary of the beliefs of Scientology, see Frank Flinn, Scientology: The Marks of Religion, which can be accessed at http://theology.scientology.org/eng/pdf/scien-tology-11-marks-religion.pdf.
[7] According to Scientology teachings, the basic urge of all organic life, including human beings, is survival. In the case of humans, this urge expresses itself in eight dynamics: self, creativity (including sex and family life), group survival, mankind, life forms, the physical universe, the spiritual universe, and the Supreme Being (also called infinity). See the Scientology publication, What is Scientology? (Los Angeles, California: Bridge Publications, Inc., 1998), 71-73.
[16] Quoted from testimony delivered by Massimo Introvigne before the OSCE, 30 July 1998. For an excellent treatment of the economic activity of the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages, see Robert E. Ekelund, Robert F. Hérbert, Robert D. Tollison, Gary M. Anderson, and Audrey D. Davidson, Sacred Trust: the Medieval Church as an Economic Firm (New York: Oxford University Press), 1996.
[23]For an expanded treatment of this subject, see Derek Davis, The Courts and the Constitutional Definition of Religion: A History and Critique, in The Role of Government in Monitoring and Regulating Religion in Public Life, eds. James E. Wood and Derek Davis (Waco, Texas: J.M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies, 1993). Much of this section is drawn from that treatment.
[26] James Madison, A Memorial and Remonstrance on the Religious Rights of Man, in The Papers of James Madison, William T. Hutchinson and William M.E. Rachal, eds. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1973), 8:293.
[53]Welsh v. United States at 340. For an insightful discussion of the Court's reliance upon TiIIich, see James McBride, Paul Tillich and the Supreme Court: TiIIich's Ultimate Concern as a Standard in Judicial Interpretation, Journal of Church and State 30 (Spring 1988): 245.
[54] William C. Shepard, To Secure the Blessings of Liberty: American Constitutional Law and the New Religious Movements (Chico, Calif.: Scholars Press, 1985), 20.
[55] See Unification Church v. I.N.S., 547 F.Supp. 623 (982), and In the Matter of the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity v. The Tax Commission of the City of New York, 435 N.E. 2d 662 (1982).
[56] See Founding Church of Scientology of Washington, D.C. v. United States, 409 F.2d 1146 (1969). The Church of Scientology has hadmany challenges to its tax-exempt status for federal income taxpurposes, but those challenges are generally not to its religious character,but usually to its failure to satisfy the I.R.C. Section 501(c)(3)requirement that income not inure to the benefit of private individuals. See, for example, Founding Church of Scientology v. United States, 412 F.2d 1197 (1969), and Church of Scientology of California v. Commission of Internal Revenue, 823 F.1d 1310 (9tn Cir.1987).
[61] For an insightful discussion of the Courts reliance upon Tillich, see James McBride, Paul Tillich and the Supreme Court: Tillichs Ultimate Concern as a Standard in Judicial Interpretation, Journal of Church and State 30 (Spring 1988):245.
[62] Bruce Hopkins, The Law of Tax-Exempt Organizations, 7th ed. (Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, 2003), 134.
[63] The commentary offered on these criteria are a combination of Dean Kelleys (as set forth in his unpublished paper referenced in footnote 58) and my own.
[64] The Creed of the Church of Scientology; see http://www.scientology.org/p_jpg/wis/wiseng/33/33-cree.htm.
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Conclusion
Scientology is a controversial new religion. I have sought to show in this chapter that according to court-sanctioned guidelines and IRS criteria in the United States, Scientology is a religion, if not according to substantive definitions used by the American courts, at least by functional definitions. Scientology provides its adherents with purpose and the ultimate meaning of life, which is the essence of religion. Not all Scientologists remain Scientologists, but neither do adherents of other religions always remain within the fold. One mark of recent international declarations and treaties is the inclusion of the fundamental human right to change ones religion, and this right applies to Scientology no less than to any other religion.[67] Scientology nevertheless has a remarkable track record of retaining its members, with only a small percentage defecting.
While courts cannot avoid the responsibility of determining which groups qualify as religions, they should nevertheless resist the temptation to define religion. As I have argued elsewhere, at least with regard to the issue in the United States,
The task of distinguishing religion from nonreligion has proven to be a difficult one for American courts. The operative word of the religion clauses-religion-was left undefined by the framers. This omission, however, did not result from oversight. To define the term would have placed a permanent imprimatur upon only those forms of faith and belief that conformed to their definition. The framers instead chose to leave the term undefined, thereby protecting a diversity of beliefs, not merely the traditional ones, from undue advancement or prohibition of expression by government. This guarantee of freedom of religion, the centerpiece of American liberties, has served to protect all religions, old and new, against governmental preference, intrusion, and harassment.[68]
As reported by Italian religion expert Massimo Introvigne, the Supreme Court of Italy adhered to this notion in its 1997 decision on Scientology.
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yes
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Bibliography
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Is the Sherlock Holmes character based on a real person?
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yes_statement
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the "character" of sherlock holmes is "based" on a "real" "person".. sherlock holmes is a fictional "character" inspired by a "real" individual.
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https://decider.com/2022/11/09/enola-holmes-2-true-story-real-person/
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Is 'Enola Holmes 2' Based on a True Story? How Real-Life Activist ...
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Enola Holmes 2, the sequel which began streaming on Netflix last week, opens with a title card that reads, “Some of what follows is true. The important parts at least.”
Naturally, after seeing that, a lot of people watching the movie—especially the younger viewers that the movies are aimed at, who may not be familiar with the legacy of the Sherlock Holmes character—assumed that Enola Holmes 2 is based on a true story.
If that’s you, I don’t blame you. But I’m also here to tell you that Enola Holmes 2 is not a true story. Sherlock Holmes is not a real person. Enola Holmes is not a real person. Sorry to disappoint, but this is a fictional movie based on a fictional book series, which is in turn based on yet another fictional book series.
So what did director Harry Bradbeer and screenwriter Jack Thorne mean when they included this “true story” title card at the beginning of Enola Holmes 2? Read on to learn about the actual true story that inspired the plot of Enola Holmes 2.
Is Enola Holmes 2 based on a true story?
Not really… but sort of. None of the main characters in Enola Holmes 2 are based on real people. That said, Enola’s new case was inspired by the true story of labor activist Sarah Chapman and the Match Girls’ Strike of 1888. But it’s hardly an accurate rendition of Chapman’s story.
Who is Sarah Chapman from Enola Holmes 2?
In the movie, Sarah Chapman is the name of a missing girl that detective Enola Holmes is hired to find. Sarah’s sister says Sarah went missing after she was accused of stealing at her job at a matchstick factory, which is currently experiencing an outbreak of the deadly typhus virus. At the end of the movie—spoiler alert—Enola discovers that Sarah Chapman went into hiding after she discovered that a new substance being used to make the matches, white phosphorus, was killing the factory workers, not typhus. Sarah and her friends plotted to expose the factory for knowingly endangering workers by using this new, cheap substance to make matches to increase profits. When the truth about the factory gets out, Sarah and Enola convince the workers to strike.
In real life, Sarah Chapman was a labor activist who did help organize a labor strike in 1888, at the matchmaking factory where she worked. The strike was in protest of a myriad of unjust working conditions, including long hours, little pay, and, according to the write-up from Chapman’s great-grandaughter on the People’s History Museum website, working close proximity to a substance known as white phosphorus that caused cancer. Chapman was one of eight women on the initial “Match Girls Strike Committee.” According to Chapman’s great-granddaughter, after the match girls formed a union, Chapman was elected to the new Union Committee and was their first representative to the International Trades Union Congress (TUC) in November 1888.
However, this is about where the “Enola Holmes 2 true story” ends. Chapman never went missing nor did she form a secret identity as a high society lady, as is seen in the film. She did not secretly date the son of the factory owner. (According to Chapman’s great-granddaughter, she married a man named Charles Dearman in 1891.) And she certainly never got involved in a murder case.
Was Sherlock Holmes or Enola Holmes a real person?
No and no. Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character invented by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. The first Sherlock Holmes mystery story, A Study in Scarlet, was published in 1887, and was followed by dozens of sequels, starring the popular detective Sherlock Holmes and his assistant, Dr. John Watson. Since then, there have been countless adaptations of the Sherlock Holmes stories.
Enola Holmes is also a fictional character, though she was not a character in the original Arthur Conan Doyle books. She was invented by author Nancy Springer, who published the first book in The Enola Holmes Mysteries series in 2006. The series imagines a new character in the Holmes-verse: Enola Holmes, the 14-year-old sister of the already world-famous detective Sherlock Holmes. Springer is one of many writers who took advantage of the early Sherlock Holmes stories entering the public domain in the early 2000s, giving her the license to play around in the Sherlock Holmes universe.
But again, because it bears repeating: Neither Sherlock Holmes nor Enola Holmes is a real person. In the future, Netflix may want to think twice before slapping a “this is based on a true story” title card on any old movie.
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Enola Holmes 2, the sequel which began streaming on Netflix last week, opens with a title card that reads, “Some of what follows is true. The important parts at least.”
Naturally, after seeing that, a lot of people watching the movie—especially the younger viewers that the movies are aimed at, who may not be familiar with the legacy of the Sherlock Holmes character—assumed that Enola Holmes 2 is based on a true story.
If that’s you, I don’t blame you. But I’m also here to tell you that Enola Holmes 2 is not a true story. Sherlock Holmes is not a real person. Enola Holmes is not a real person. Sorry to disappoint, but this is a fictional movie based on a fictional book series, which is in turn based on yet another fictional book series.
So what did director Harry Bradbeer and screenwriter Jack Thorne mean when they included this “true story” title card at the beginning of Enola Holmes 2? Read on to learn about the actual true story that inspired the plot of Enola Holmes 2.
Is Enola Holmes 2 based on a true story?
Not really… but sort of. None of the main characters in Enola Holmes 2 are based on real people. That said, Enola’s new case was inspired by the true story of labor activist Sarah Chapman and the Match Girls’ Strike of 1888. But it’s hardly an accurate rendition of Chapman’s story.
Who is Sarah Chapman from Enola Holmes 2?
In the movie, Sarah Chapman is the name of a missing girl that detective Enola Holmes is hired to find. Sarah’s sister says Sarah went missing after she was accused of stealing at her job at a matchstick factory, which is currently experiencing an outbreak of the deadly typhus virus. At the end of the movie—spoiler alert—Enola discovers that Sarah Chapman went into hiding after she discovered that a new substance being used to make the matches, white phosphorus, was killing the factory workers, not typhus.
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no
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Bibliography
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Is the Sherlock Holmes character based on a real person?
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yes_statement
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the "character" of sherlock holmes is "based" on a "real" "person".. sherlock holmes is a fictional "character" inspired by a "real" individual.
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https://bibliolifestyle.com/famous-fictional-characters-who-were-inspired-by-historical-figures/
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10 Famous Fictional Characters Who Were Inspired ... - BiblioLifestyle
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The blog is where I share reading tips, lifestyle how-to's, book lists, reading guides, share conversations with authors, offer free mini-trainings, plus all the things I'm currently obsessed with and find inspiring.
Historical figures have inspired many famous fictional characters, and we will discuss some of the most well-known ones. Characters like Sherlock Holmes and James Bond were based on real people. It is interesting to see how these fictional characters were shaped by the lives of the people who inspired them. So from literature, we will share twelve fictional characters inspired by real people and historical figures.
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is one of the most famous fictional detectives of all time. He was created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle based on a real-life doctor named Joseph Bell. Bell was an Edinburgh surgeon who used his powers of observation to solve crimes. He even consulted with the police on occasion.
James Bond
James Bond is another well-known fictional character who was inspired by a real person. Ian Fleming, the author of the James Bond books, based the character on a number of different people. One of them was Forest Yeo-Thomas, a British secret agent during World War II. Yeo-Thomas was known as the “White Rabbit” because of his ability to escape from capture.
Peter Pan
Peter Pan is a beloved children’s character who was inspired by five real boys. J.M. Barrie, the author of Peter Pan, credited five boys with inspiring the tale: George, John (Jack), Peter, Michael and Nicholas (Nico) Llewelyn Davies, sons of Arthur and Sylvia Llewelyn Davies. Barrie was a close friend of the family and became the guardian of those same five boys.
Dracula
Dracula is another famous fictional character who was inspired by a real person. Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula, based the character on the real-life Vlad the Impaler, also known as Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia (present day Romania) who was known for his cruelty and was said to have impaled his enemies on spikes.
Hannibal Lecter
The character of Hannibal Lecter was inspired by Alfredo Ballí Treviño. Treviño was a Mexican doctor who was convicted of killing and cannibalizing his patients. Thomas Harris, the author of The Silence of the Lambs, based Lecter on Treviño who he met in the 1960s and who left a very strong impression on the young writer.
Dorian Gray
The character of Dorian Gray was inspired by a real-life man named John Gray. Gray was an English poet who was friends with Oscar Wilde, the author of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Wilde based the character of Dorian Gray on John Gray.
Moby Dick
The character Moby Dick was inspired by a real-life whale named Mocha Dick. Mocha Dick was a sperm whale that lived in the Pacific Ocean. He was known for attacking ships, and he was said to have killed over 20 sailors. Herman Melville, the author of Moby Dick, based the character on Mocha Dick.
Iron Man
The character of Tony Stark, a.k.a the Iron Man, was inspired by a real-life man named Howard Hughes. Hughes was an American businessman and inventor who created the world’s first successful helicopter. He also developed the Spruce Goose, which was the largest airplane ever built at the time. Stan Lee, the co-creator of Iron Man, based Tony Stark on Howard Hughes.
Professor Moriarty
The character of Professor Moriarty was inspired by a real-life person named Adam Worth. Worth was a German-born American criminal mastermind who was known as the “Napoleon of Crime.” He was active in England and Europe in the late 19th century. Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories, based Moriarty on Adam Worth.
Catwoman
The character of Catwoman Catwoman aka Selina Kyle was created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger. Bob Kane said that he took inspiration from actresses Jean Harlow, Hedy Lamarr, and his own cousin, Ruth Steele. Steele was an American dancer and acrobat who performed under the name “the Cat Girl.” She was active in the 1930s and 1940s. Bill Finger, one of the creators of Catwoman, based the character on his own wife, Norma.
These are just a few of the many famous fictional characters who real people inspired. It is fascinating to see how these characters were shaped by the lives of the people who inspired them.
What other fictional characters do you know of that were inspired by real people? Please share them in the comments below!
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Share this:
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The blog is where I share reading tips, lifestyle how-to's, book lists, reading guides, share conversations with authors, offer free mini-trainings, plus all the things I'm currently obsessed with and find inspiring.
Historical figures have inspired many famous fictional characters, and we will discuss some of the most well-known ones. Characters like Sherlock Holmes and James Bond were based on real people. It is interesting to see how these fictional characters were shaped by the lives of the people who inspired them. So from literature, we will share twelve fictional characters inspired by real people and historical figures.
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is one of the most famous fictional detectives of all time. He was created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle based on a real-life doctor named Joseph Bell. Bell was an Edinburgh surgeon who used his powers of observation to solve crimes. He even consulted with the police on occasion.
James Bond
James Bond is another well-known fictional character who was inspired by a real person. Ian Fleming, the author of the James Bond books, based the character on a number of different people. One of them was Forest Yeo-Thomas, a British secret agent during World War II. Yeo-Thomas was known as the “White Rabbit” because of his ability to escape from capture.
Peter Pan
Peter Pan is a beloved children’s character who was inspired by five real boys. J.M. Barrie, the author of Peter Pan, credited five boys with inspiring the tale: George, John (Jack), Peter, Michael and Nicholas (Nico) Llewelyn Davies, sons of Arthur and Sylvia Llewelyn Davies. Barrie was a close friend of the family and became the guardian of those same five boys.
Dracula
Dracula is another famous fictional character who was inspired by a real person. Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula, based the character on the real-life Vlad the Impaler, also known as Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia (present day Romania) who was known for his cruelty and was said to have impaled his enemies on spikes.
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yes
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Bibliography
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Is the Sherlock Holmes character based on a real person?
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yes_statement
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the "character" of sherlock holmes is "based" on a "real" "person".. sherlock holmes is a fictional "character" inspired by a "real" individual.
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https://conandoyleestate.com/news/did-sherlock-holmes-really-exist-by-richard-pooley
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Did Sherlock Holmes really exist?
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Latest News
Did Sherlock Holmes really exist?
“So please grip this fact with your cerebral tentacle, The doll and its maker are never identical.” “To An Undiscerning Critic”, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1912
The question posed in the title of this article may strike you as absurd. No, I hope you will answer: Sherlock Holmes was the fictional creation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. If you do say this, I can tell you on good authority that you are right. But I would be prepared to bet you £100 in whatever is your choice of currency that not everyone reading this believes you are correct. Millions around the world are sure Holmes was a real person. I suspect the vast majority have never heard of Doyle and have assumed that all the stories about Holmes are merely embellishments of the life of a real British detective who existed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Fair enough. But there is a significant minority who know who Doyle was and have read the original stories either in English or in translation but who still either insist that Holmes existed or want to believe that he did. It is this belief of the last group of people – those who want him to have lived in order to have solved all those crimes in the way that he did – which has intrigued me down the years.
Think of other famous fictional characters. Does anybody think that Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple were real people? Unlike Doyle, Christie is probably still more well known than her creations. That can’t be said of Ian Fleming. James Bond must be better known than his creator. But does anyone really believe Mr Bond existed (or exists and is spending his retirement tending bees in Sussex)?
Doyle himself despaired that so many thought his creation was real. Letters poured in to him and his publishers from people convinced that the detective could solve their problems. After Doyle’s death in 1930 his widow continued to receive such letters. They did not stop at her death in 1940 (by which time how old would Sherlock Holmes have been?). The British building society Abbey had moved into its new head office at 219-229 Baker Street in 1932 and immediately found it had to employ a secretary full-time to answer letters addressed to Holmes at 221B (where he could not, in fact, have lived; the numbers did not go higher than 85 in the much shorter Baker Street that existed at the time of the Holmes stories). Abbey merged with National in 1944 but the letters continued to arrive from all over the world long into the second half of the last century.
Doyle was especially irked by those who, knowing full well that Holmes was fictional, still assumed that Holmes was Doyle’s alter ago and thought as he did. Arthur Guiterman, an American writer of humorous poems, was one. In 1912 his poem “To Sir Arthur Conan Doyle” was published in Life magazine. In it he praised Doyle’s work but attacked him for not acknowledging that he had borrowed Holmes’ methods and his stories’ plots from Edgar Allan Poe’s detective stories of the 1840s, featuring C. Auguste Dupin. Guiterman wrote:
Doyle had indeed put such words into Holmes’ mouth in his first Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet, published in 1887 in Beeton’s Christmas Annual. But Doyle had also many times acknowledged his debt to Poe, writing in 1907, for example, that “Poe is the master of all.” He skewered Guiterman with a poem, “To An Undiscerning Critic”, published in London Opinion on 28 December 1912:
“Have you not learned, my esteemed commentator, That the created is not the creator? As the creator I’ve praised to satiety Poe’s Monsieur Dupin, his skill and variety.
He, the created, the puppet of fiction, Would not brook rivals nor stand contradiction. He, the created, would scoff and would sneer, Where I, the Creator, would bow and revere.”
Note that Doyle uses the capital C when he refers to himself as the Creator of the “puppet of fiction” Sherlock Holmes. His frustration is palpable.
Time for me to declare an interest. My step-grandmother was Dame Jean Conan Doyle, the fifth and last of Doyle’s children and the only one who was successful in her own right (retiring as head of the UK's Women's Royal Air Force). I also run the Conan Doyle Estate, which manages the literary, merchandising, and advertising rights in Doyle’s works and all his characters. The question I get asked most frequently, other than a host of abusive ‘questions’ in social media, is: “How do you account for the enduring appeal of Sherlock Holmes?”
My answer usually goes something like this: Holmes is the cold, rational problem-solver who thinks laterally and remembers only what is useful to him. Watson is the warm, intelligent Everyman who thinks linearly and unimaginatively. We are astonished by Holmes' powers, intrigued by his observational methodology and infuriated by his arrogance, but glad that he is around to put the world to rights. He is beholden to no one and dismissive of authority, yet a patriot. He is incorruptible. He brings order to muddle. He is the cerebral hero of the nerds and schoolboy swots who wish brainpower could always overcome muscle power.
The differences and tensions between Holmes and Watson are crucial to the success of the stories and novels, especially those written between 1887 and the First World War. The death in that war of Doyle's son, Kingsley, and his obsession with Spiritualism in the last decade of his life may have been the causes for the changes in Holmes' character which appear in the last twelve stories, published in the Strand Magazine between 1921 and 1927 and put together in 1927 as The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes. Holmes becomes softer, more empathetic. As a result the stories are less compelling. Holmes' otherness no longer frightens and fascinates Watson or us. Personally, I believe Doyle had grown so tired of his money-spinning creation that he put little effort into writing these final stories. My step-grandmother, only 17 when Doyle died, used to tell me how Doyle would discuss the later of these stories with her, sometimes even seeking inspiration from her.
Jon Lellenberg was for long the Conan Doyle Estate’s literary agent in the USA and is one of the world’s foremost authorities on Doyle and Sherlock Holmes (do get hold of the award-winning Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters that he co-edited and was a BBC Book of the Week when it came out in September 2007). Jon has this to say:
“What has struck me to explain the unending popularity of Sherlock Holmes are fundamentally two things:
First, most people's desire for justice in the world and in people's lives, and admiration for Holmes's way of bringing it about, not by force like the Mike Hammer sort of detective, but principally by reason, and by applying science (including psychology, the most personal of the sciences) to human and also social problems.
And second, by perhaps the best depiction of a friendship in English literature (and for all I know, anybody's literature). There are two ways of depicting characters in serial fiction, one in which the characters never grow older, staying the same as they were, individually and in relation to each other, from the day they were first created, and the other having the characters grow older as time passes in the stories as well as in their creation.
Conan Doyle's stories stretch chronologically from the beginning of 1881 to the eve of World War I in 1914, with both Holmes and Watson growing older in the process, going through all sorts of life's changes and issues in the stories, with their friendship becoming even deeper in the backward-looking stories Conan Doyle continued to write in the 1920s. This makes Holmes and Watson realer as people than those characters in other fiction who never grow old.”
I think there is one more thing which accounts for Holmes’ enduring popularity and also why so many believe that he really lived. Many authors identify with their creations. They are their alter egos. But Doyle’s alter ago was Watson, not Holmes. Watson is you or me, the ordinary person. This allows readers to imagine themselves accompanying Holmes on his adventures. It also allows them to believe that Watson is really Doyle recording the life of an extraordinary but real person.
Other News
The Conan Doyle Estate are excited and proud to share this amazing book cover for The Improbable Tales of Baskerville Hall, Book One - released on the 12th of September 2023. Currently in development for TV with Imagine Entertainment.
In a highly competitive situation, Imagine Kids+Family has landed the filmed content rights to Ali Standish's upcoming multi-book series The Improbable Tales of Baskerville Hall, which tracks the imagined origins story of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional characters, for development as a TV series that builds an integrated Arthur Conan Doyle universe spanning all his works.
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Latest News
Did Sherlock Holmes really exist?
“So please grip this fact with your cerebral tentacle, The doll and its maker are never identical.” “To An Undiscerning Critic”, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1912
The question posed in the title of this article may strike you as absurd. No, I hope you will answer: Sherlock Holmes was the fictional creation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. If you do say this, I can tell you on good authority that you are right. But I would be prepared to bet you £100 in whatever is your choice of currency that not everyone reading this believes you are correct. Millions around the world are sure Holmes was a real person. I suspect the vast majority have never heard of Doyle and have assumed that all the stories about Holmes are merely embellishments of the life of a real British detective who existed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Fair enough. But there is a significant minority who know who Doyle was and have read the original stories either in English or in translation but who still either insist that Holmes existed or want to believe that he did. It is this belief of the last group of people – those who want him to have lived in order to have solved all those crimes in the way that he did – which has intrigued me down the years.
Think of other famous fictional characters. Does anybody think that Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple were real people? Unlike Doyle, Christie is probably still more well known than her creations. That can’t be said of Ian Fleming. James Bond must be better known than his creator. But does anyone really believe Mr Bond existed (or exists and is spending his retirement tending bees in Sussex)?
Doyle himself despaired that so many thought his creation was real. Letters poured in to him and his publishers from people convinced that the detective could solve their problems. After Doyle’s death in 1930 his widow continued to receive such letters. They did not stop at her death in 1940 (by which time how old would Sherlock Holmes have been?).
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Is the Sherlock Holmes character based on a real person?
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the "character" of sherlock holmes is "based" on a "real" "person".. sherlock holmes is a fictional "character" inspired by a "real" individual.
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https://www.distractify.com/p/was-sherlock-holmes-a-real-person
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Was Sherlock Holmes Based on a Real Person? What About Enola ...
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The first Sherlock Holmes story, "A Study in Scarlet" was published in 1887, and would become the prototype for the modern mastermind detective.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was Joseph Bell's assistant during Doyle's time at school and followed along like Watson as Bell instilled in him the importance of observing minute details. Who's to say if Bell, Like Holmes was robotic and flat, or if Holmes was made that way to better highlight his extreme powers of observation and deduction? Like Holmes, at least, Bell was now and then called upon by the authorities to solve forensic cases.
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Source: SOURCE: Getty Images
Arthur Conan Doyle based his famoush character, the observant Sherlock Holmes, after his old school professor named Joseph Bell.Arthur Conan Doyle based his famoush character, the observant Sherlock Holmes, after his old school professor named Joseph Bell.
Was Sherlock Holmes a real person, or strictly fiction?
It's no mystery that Enola Holmes and Sherlock Homes aren't real people. If he were, it's likely he would have made some amazing headlines and you wouldn't have to ask if he was real or not.
Article continues below advertisement
No, Arthur Conan Doyle didn't know a real Sherlock, but he did know a man by the name of Joseph Bell. You see, Doyle was a student at Edinburgh Medical School when the pioneer of forensic science Joseph Bell was his lecturer in 1877. Enola Holmes doesn't have the same issues with socialization, but she has Bell's knack for observation.
Joseph Bell helped Scotland Yard analyze the murders of Jack the Ripper. Beyond that, he was involved in several other police investigations in Scotland such as the Ardlamont mystery in 1893. Sherlock Holmes wasn't the first master detective in literature, Edgar Allen Poe's C. Auguste Dupin, as well as a few others, came before, but Sherlock is the most prolific. The reason being Holme's peculiar way of viewing the world. A trait that was inspired by Bell's method of forensics.
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Joseph Bell's classes stressed the importance of paying attention to even the most minute details. Just in the way Holmes had the uncanny ability to tell where everyone around him was from and their occupation based on everything from subtle changes in smell to the amount of dust on their clothes, Bell was able to read the people on his examination table. As Doyle followed him around like Watson as an assistant, Bell would correctly deduce bodies' origins based on careful deduction and observation.
Source: SOURCE: Netflix
Sherlock, Enola, and Tewkesbury work together to solve mysteries.
Bell died in 1911, but the character he inspired is an established literary figure destined to stick around for multiple generations. Sherlock is described as a brilliant savant, a strict, obtuse, scrupulous man who is somehow also irredeemably messy and cluttered. He honestly seems like a person with some form of autism which is possible since that wouldn't be known about in the 19th century. Enola Holmes's Sherlock seems a bit more put-together, by comparison. But then, Enola seems to display more of book-Sherlock's traits.
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The first Sherlock Holmes story, "A Study in Scarlet" was published in 1887, and would become the prototype for the modern mastermind detective.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was Joseph Bell's assistant during Doyle's time at school and followed along like Watson as Bell instilled in him the importance of observing minute details. Who's to say if Bell, Like Holmes was robotic and flat, or if Holmes was made that way to better highlight his extreme powers of observation and deduction? Like Holmes, at least, Bell was now and then called upon by the authorities to solve forensic cases.
Article continues below advertisement
Source: SOURCE: Getty Images
Arthur Conan Doyle based his famoush character, the observant Sherlock Holmes, after his old school professor named Joseph Bell. Arthur Conan Doyle based his famoush character, the observant Sherlock Holmes, after his old school professor named Joseph Bell.
Was Sherlock Holmes a real person, or strictly fiction?
It's no mystery that Enola Holmes and Sherlock Homes aren't real people. If he were, it's likely he would have made some amazing headlines and you wouldn't have to ask if he was real or not.
Article continues below advertisement
No, Arthur Conan Doyle didn't know a real Sherlock, but he did know a man by the name of Joseph Bell. You see, Doyle was a student at Edinburgh Medical School when the pioneer of forensic science Joseph Bell was his lecturer in 1877. Enola Holmes doesn't have the same issues with socialization, but she has Bell's knack for observation.
Joseph Bell helped Scotland Yard analyze the murders of Jack the Ripper. Beyond that, he was involved in several other police investigations in Scotland such as the Ardlamont mystery in 1893. Sherlock Holmes wasn't the first master detective in literature, Edgar Allen Poe's C. Auguste Dupin, as well as a few others, came before, but Sherlock is the most prolific. The reason being Holme's peculiar way of viewing the world.
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yes
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Is the Sherlock Holmes character based on a real person?
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yes_statement
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the "character" of sherlock holmes is "based" on a "real" "person".. sherlock holmes is a fictional "character" inspired by a "real" individual.
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https://www.novelsuspects.com/articles/the-appeal-of-sherlock-holmes/
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The Appeal Of Sherlock Holmes | Novel Suspects
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The Appeal Of Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a character so famous that his name is more well-known than the author who created him, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Sherlock Holmes and the detective novels and short stories that feature him are over one hundred years old. And yet this fictional detective character remains an important and well-loved figure in pop culture. What is it about the Sherlock Holmes books that make them so enjoyable to readers? And why do we love Sherlock Holmes, a character who is so intelligent but also so emotionally distant?
The character of Sherlock Holmes first appeared in the short story “A Study in Scarlet,” which was originally published in Beeton’s Christmas Annual in 1887. While Sherlock Holmes himself is a fictional character, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle based his famous detective on a real person: Dr. Joseph Bell. Bell was a forensic scientist at Edinburgh University, and Doyle worked as a clerk for the doctor at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. Dr. Bell was especially good at paying attention to minor details and drawing conclusions based on his observations. These powers of deductions would also become a defining trait for the Holmes character.
But Sherlock Holmes is more than just his deductive powers. The detective is knowledgeable in many subjects, including anatomy, chemistry, mathematics, law, and sensational literature, just to name a few. He also has a deep appreciation for music and plays the violin. Additionally, Sherlock Holmes is a physically imposing character, standing at six feet tall and being proficient in boxing, fencing, and singlestick. While Sherlock Holmes has a sharp wit and many physical strengths to match, the detective is by no means perfect.
Sherlock Holmes is logical to the point of being cold and dispassionate. He doesn’t really know or care to know how to interact with people, his assistant and roommate Watson being one exception.
Sherlock Holmes has no interest in romance or romantic relationships. Throughout the Holmes stories, the detective doesn’t have the kindest opinion of women in general. During Holmes’ deductions, he frequently makes sweeping generalizations about women which could be, by today’s standards, considered misogynistic.
Holmes also has an obsessive personality. When he gets stuck on an idea, he has trouble thinking of anything else. Then there’s the detective’s issues with drugs. When Holmes doesn’t have a case to keep him occupied, he frequently turns to drugs like morphine and cocaine, both of which were legal in 19th Century England.
So with all of his faults and character flaws, why are people so obsessed with this one detective character? It’s precisely Sherlock Holmes’s flaws that make him so fascinating. At first glance, Sherlock Holmes might seem more computer than man; he’s cold, highly calculating, far removed from emotion and sympathy, and extremely focused on his work. But there’s so much more to him than that. For one, we take comfort in the fact that he’s not good at everything. Yes, Sherlock Holmes understands the motivations of people, but he’s not actually good at interacting with human beings. Holmes also has his vices, and while readers might not share the exact same vices as the detective, most of us understand those impulses. Overall, readers love Sherlock Holmes for his weaknesses just as much as they admire him for his strengths.
Beyond that, there’s also the perspective in which we the readers receive the stories in Sherlock Holmes’ books. For the most part, we know about Sherlock Holmes through his companion Watson. While Watson does have his criticisms of Holmes and his strange behaviors, overall our narrator is fascinated by his friend’s intelligence and capabilities. We as readers have adopted the same fascination and love for Holmes that Watson has. It doesn’t matter that Holmes might be emotionally distant from most people. We as readers are nonetheless given a window into the detective’s inner life through Watson, and that feels especially intimate and special because we know how few people get to see this side of him.
While Sherlock Holmes is a character from 19th century Victorian England, most of the things readers love about him are qualities that are timeless. Holmes is amazingly intelligent and strong, but he’s also relatable. Sherlock Holmes remains the most popular out of all of the fictional detectives for these reasons. To this day, his stories are still inspiring retellings of all kinds, from new detective novels to television shows, to movies, and much more.
Our Favorite Books on Sherlock Holmes
Arthur Conan Doyle
A Study in Scarlet is an 1887 detective novel by Scottish author Arthur Conan Doyle. The story marks the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, who would become the most famous detective duo in popular fiction. The book's title derives from a speech given by Holmes, a consulting detective, to his friend and chronicler Watson on the nature of his work, in which he describes the story's murder investigation as his "study in scarlet": "There's the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it."
Christopher Sandford
Though best known for the fictional cases of his creation Sherlock Holmes, Conan Doyle was involved in dozens of real life cases, solving many, and zealously campaigning for justice in all. Stanford thoroughly and convincingly makes the case that the details of the many events Doyle was involved in, and caricatures of those involved, would provide Conan Doyle the fodder for many of the adventures of the violin-playing detective.
There can be few (if any) literary creations who have found such a consistent yet evolving independent life as Holmes. He is a paradigm that can be endlessly changed yet always maintains an underlying consistent identity, both drug addict and perfect example of the analytic mind, and as Christopher Sandford demonstrates so clearly, in many of these respects he mirrors his creator.
Graham Moore
In December 1893, Sherlock Holmes-adoring Londoners eagerly opened their Strand magazines, anticipating the detective’s next adventure, only to find the unthinkable: his creator, Arthur Conan Doyle, had killed their hero off. London spiraled into mourning-crowds sported black armbands in grief-and railed against Conan Doyle as his assassin. Then in 1901, just as abruptly as Conan Doyle had “murdered” Holmes in “The Final Problem,” he resurrected him. Though the writer kept detailed diaries of his days and work, Conan Doyle never explained this sudden change of heart. After his death, one of his journals from the interim period was discovered to be missing, and in the decades since, has never been found…. Or has it?
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The Appeal Of Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a character so famous that his name is more well-known than the author who created him, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Sherlock Holmes and the detective novels and short stories that feature him are over one hundred years old. And yet this fictional detective character remains an important and well-loved figure in pop culture. What is it about the Sherlock Holmes books that make them so enjoyable to readers? And why do we love Sherlock Holmes, a character who is so intelligent but also so emotionally distant?
The character of Sherlock Holmes first appeared in the short story “A Study in Scarlet,” which was originally published in Beeton’s Christmas Annual in 1887. While Sherlock Holmes himself is a fictional character, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle based his famous detective on a real person: Dr. Joseph Bell. Bell was a forensic scientist at Edinburgh University, and Doyle worked as a clerk for the doctor at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. Dr. Bell was especially good at paying attention to minor details and drawing conclusions based on his observations. These powers of deductions would also become a defining trait for the Holmes character.
But Sherlock Holmes is more than just his deductive powers. The detective is knowledgeable in many subjects, including anatomy, chemistry, mathematics, law, and sensational literature, just to name a few. He also has a deep appreciation for music and plays the violin. Additionally, Sherlock Holmes is a physically imposing character, standing at six feet tall and being proficient in boxing, fencing, and singlestick. While Sherlock Holmes has a sharp wit and many physical strengths to match, the detective is by no means perfect.
Sherlock Holmes is logical to the point of being cold and dispassionate. He doesn’t really know or care to know how to interact with people, his assistant and roommate Watson being one exception.
Sherlock Holmes has no interest in romance or romantic relationships. Throughout the Holmes stories, the detective doesn’t have the kindest opinion of women in general.
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Is the Sherlock Holmes character based on a real person?
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yes_statement
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the "character" of sherlock holmes is "based" on a "real" "person".. sherlock holmes is a fictional "character" inspired by a "real" individual.
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https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-adventures-of-sherlock-holmes-published
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"The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" published
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October
1892
“The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” published
On October 14, 1892, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Arthur Conan Doyle, is published. The book was the first collection of Holmes stories, which Conan Doyle had been publishing in magazines since 1887.
Conan Doyle was born in Scotland and studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, where he met Dr. Joseph Bell, a teacher with extraordinary deductive power. Bell partly inspired Doyle’s character Sherlock Holmes years later.
After medical school, Conan Doyle moved to London, where his slow medical practice left him ample free time to write. His first Sherlock Holmes story, “A Study in Scarlet,” was published in Beeton’s Christmas Annual in 1887. Starting in 1891, a series of Holmes stories appeared in The Strand magazine, and Conan Doyle was able to give up his medical practice and devote himself to writing.
Later collections include The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894), The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905), and The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes (1927). In 1902, Conan Doyle was knighted for his work with a field hospital in South Africa. In addition to dozens of Sherlock Holmes stories and several novels, Conan Doyle wrote history, pursued whaling, and engaged in many adventures and athletic endeavors. After his son died in World War I, Conan Doyle became a dedicated spiritualist. He died in 1930.
HISTORY.com works with a wide range of writers and editors to create accurate and informative content. All articles are regularly reviewed and updated by the HISTORY.com team. Articles with the “HISTORY.com Editors” byline have been written or edited by the HISTORY.com editors, including Amanda Onion, Missy Sullivan, Matt Mullen and Christian Zapata.
Fact Check
We strive for accuracy and fairness. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate.
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Choose another dateCurrent one is: October 14. Enter a date in the format M/D (e.g., 1/1)
Changing the day will navigate the page to that given day in history. You can navigate days by using left and right arrows
October
1892
“The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” published
On October 14, 1892, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Arthur Conan Doyle, is published. The book was the first collection of Holmes stories, which Conan Doyle had been publishing in magazines since 1887.
Conan Doyle was born in Scotland and studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, where he met Dr. Joseph Bell, a teacher with extraordinary deductive power. Bell partly inspired Doyle’s character Sherlock Holmes years later.
After medical school, Conan Doyle moved to London, where his slow medical practice left him ample free time to write. His first Sherlock Holmes story, “A Study in Scarlet,” was published in Beeton’s Christmas Annual in 1887. Starting in 1891, a series of Holmes stories appeared in The Strand magazine, and Conan Doyle was able to give up his medical practice and devote himself to writing.
Later collections include The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894), The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905), and The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes (1927). In 1902, Conan Doyle was knighted for his work with a field hospital in South Africa. In addition to dozens of Sherlock Holmes stories and several novels, Conan Doyle wrote history, pursued whaling, and engaged in many adventures and athletic endeavors. After his son died in World War I, Conan Doyle became a dedicated spiritualist. He died in 1930.
HISTORY.com works with a wide range of writers and editors to create accurate and informative content. All articles are regularly reviewed and updated by the HISTORY.com team.
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the "character" of sherlock holmes is "based" on a "real" "person".. sherlock holmes is a fictional "character" inspired by a "real" individual.
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https://www.sidebarsaturdays.com/2017/08/05/httpwp-mep7vddb-us/
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Using Real People, Places, And Corporations In Your Fiction – How ...
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Using Real People, Places, And Corporations In Your Fiction – How Real Can You Get And Not Be Sued?
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Do you have a publishing law question? Or maybe a question about a fictional legal scenario in your manuscript? Ask it here.
This week one of our subscribers asked about using a real person in her fiction. RuPaul was making an appearance in some sort of fashion (and in fashion I might assume too). The question is a common one by writers and usually centers on a character modeled after a family member, friend, or acquaintance. Or maybe a celebrity has a cameo role. Or possibly a famous person or corporation is somehow woven into the plot.
J.K. Rowling used her chemistry teacher, John Nettleship, as a model for creating Severus Snape. Edward Gein, who kept the skin and bones of his victims, inspired Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs. Dr. Joseph Bell, a surgeon known by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, inspired Sherlock Holmes.
But just because these writers did it, does that mean it is legal?
Maybe. Depending on what you do (I know, that was such a lawyer way to answer the question).
There are three areas of law writers should be cognizant of when using real people, corporations, or places in their fiction:
Defamation;
Invasion of privacy; and
The right of publicity.
Do not let the legal terms scare you. With a little understanding and guidance, you can easily navigate these legal landmines and avoid stressing that your published work will land you in court.
I have compiled the information and guidelines for you below. If you want more information, have a gander at the articles above.
Defamation
Otherwise known as libel, we usually hear this legal term when a gossip rag damages a celebrity’s reputation by printing false rumors of a derogatory nature like a sexual escapade, or an embittered lover tweets about his famous ex-paramour’s heroine addiction. But libel in fiction happens too, as well as in memoirs and works of non-fiction. Thankfully, for writers, the success rate for libel suits tends to be low. Even so, no writer wants to spend time and resources defending themselves against a claim of defamation. Where is the fun in that?
Libel is the publication of a false statement that injures a person’s reputation (as opposed to slander, which covers the verbal form of defamation). The statement must be false and factual. The defamed person need not be identified by name. The writer need only use enough identifying information in creating the fictional character so that the real person is identifiable to readers.
The real person must be living to sue for defamation (the dead cannot suffer reputational harm). Business entities and small identifiable groups (like a lacrosse team) can be defamed too. And there must be some degree of fault by the writer (like malice, reckless disregard, or negligence).
Here are the general rules a writer should follow when creating fictional characters based on real people:
1) Do nothing to disguise the fictional character based on the real person, and avoid depicting them in an unsavory manner; or
2) Substantially disguise the fictional character so readers cannot identify the connection to the real person, and then be as defamatory as you want.
The problem arises when the writer does not disguise enough so the connection between character and real person is easily linked, or he wrongly assumes the real person will not consider his statements defamatory.
Libel defenses
If you find yourself subject to a claim of defamation, your best defenses would be truth, opinion, or parody/satire.
1. Truth is a complete defense to a defamation claim – no false statement, no libelous statement. Even if minor inconsequential facts are incorrect, libel does not exist if the overall statement is true.
2. Opinions are protected (because opinions are neither true or false). This defense, however, can be tricky to navigate. Just because you say it is your opinion will not keep the statement from being defamatory. Merely implying a false statement can be enough. “In my opinion, she is an alcoholic” is just as defamatory as “she is an alcoholic.” These issues often arise with memoirs and biographical works. The best way to utilize this defense is for the writer to provide in their work the underlying facts on which the opinion is based, like she was convicted of a DUI, and then went to rehab.
3. Parody and satire genres exaggerate material for comic effect, which is not considered to be true or a statement of fact.
These are DEFENSES, which means you use them after you have been sued. Instead of relying on a defense, do your best to avoid a libel claim before you publish.
How to avoid a libel claim
1. Disguise the character so there is no connection to the real person. Change the character’s sex, ethnicity, name, residence, age, physical traits, odd quirks, personal background, familial connections, profession, friends, time, setting etc. The more unsavory your character, the better you should be at disguising any identifying detail that will link the character or company to the real life person or corporation. Changing the name and physical description is not enough. What you are attempting to achieve is a character that does not significantly parallel the life of the real person the character is based on. Same for a business. Use common sense when justifying the risk. If you create a fast food restaurant that sells beef tainted with mad cow disease, make sure that company does not appear to be based on a real fast food chain.
2. Do not use a name that suggests the real person or entity.
3. Use a disclaimer or a nicely written acknowledgement. One of my favorite books is Running With Scissors. In 2007, Augustine Burroughs settled a defamation suit filed by a family depicted in his memoir. He agreed to call his work a book instead of a memoir, and acknowledge that certain real families portrayed in his book might have memories of the events that differ from his. While disclaimers can help, it does not prevent readers from identifying the real person and the defamatory statements, and often will not shield a writer from liability.
4. Wait until the real person is dead. Be careful, however, you do not defame someone related – the wife of the dead man you claimed was head of a family-run meth lab may bring her own defamation suit.
5. As tempting as it might be, do not use your novel as revenge. If you think readers will recognize the real person whom you used to create the negatively portrayed character, layer in as many fictional details as possible to distance the character from the real person.
6. Do not publicize the fact you have used the person as your character inspiration. I once heard a writer state her method for avoiding defamation was to give her ex-boyfriend small genitals, claiming, “He’d never admit the character was based on him.” While far-fetched facts help a writer’s argument that no one would believe the character and real person are one in the same, admissions like the above do not help.
7. If you are writing a memoir or a biography, document your fact-finding and keep copies for proof that you have not made negligently false statements. Tape recordings are the best when interviewing. Next to that, contemporaneous notes are helpful (all of which should be dated, signed, and the place and source identified).
8. Releases/Written Consent – Get a signed release from the real person you used as the model for your fictional character, or for those you write about in your memoir or biography.
9. Retractions can be useful under the right circumstances. Some states have retraction statutes, but these generally apply to newspapers, radio stations, and magazines. There are a few cases that involve online defamatory statements and the use of retractions to minimize damages. Retraction statutes do not generally apply to book publishers and could, if used, be considered an admission that the statement was false and defamatory.
10. Do not assume your publisher will take care of litigation that arises because of your book. Most publishing contracts require indemnification for defending defamation and privacy claims based on your work. The onus is on you to avoid any legal snafus when it comes to such claims.
11. If you are still worried about risky content in your work, use your publisher’s legal department or consult your own publishing lawyer to review your manuscript.
Invasion Of Privacy
People have the right to be left alone. So, when private facts that are not in the public interest are publicly disclosed, invasion of privacy has occurred.
While the truth can deflect a defamation claim, often the truth when disclosed can be the basis for an invasion of privacy claim. Usually, invasion of privacy occurs when:
1. Private facts that are not of public interest are disclosed;
2. There has been intrusion into a person’s secluded life; or
3. Someone is portrayed or misrepresented in a false light, i.e. portrayed in way that is highly offensive to a reasonable person.
For invasion of privacy to apply, the injured person must be living. The disclosure of private facts must cause harm to the person’s reputation (personal or professional). Mere embarrassment usually is not enough. And the information must not be of public interest.
The fact disclosed must be a fact that an injured person has a reasonable expectation would remain private. If the act or facts you want to write about occur in public, then most likely there is no expectation of privacy.
Public figures and celebrities usually have trouble proving invasion of privacy because their lives are of public interest and there is less expectation of privacy. As Helen Sedwick mentions, “a movie star lounging topless on a yacht should not be surprised that a camera with a long lens is pointed her way.” But sex caught on camera when it happened in a backyard surrounded by a privacy fence that required a ladder to see the private act would be an invasion of privacy.
Leniency is given to a memoirist for disclosure of facts in his own stories versus a journalist or biographer telling someone else’s story.
How to avoid an invasion of privacy claim
1. Get a release from the person if you can. If not, then stick to the truth (which for you may be different from their truth).
2. Avoid disclosure of facts that the person expected to remain private, and were not in the public’s interest (he was so drunk he zipped up his privates…pun intended).
3. If the action took place in public, it is fair game (she smoked crystal meth at a concert).
4. You can avoid the invasion of privacy problem completely by masking the person’s identity – a change of name and characteristics like you would to avoid a defamation claim would apply.
The Right Of Publicity
Misappropriation of the right of publicity is using someone’s name, likeness, or identifying characteristics for advertising, merchandising, endorsements, promotional, or commercial purposes without their permission. The law normally applies to the living, although some states will extend the right of publicity to a person/estate of someone who is dead. And it only applies to a person who makes money from who they are, i.e. famous people.
How to avoid being sued for misappropriation of the right of publicity
1. If you do not have permission, then do not use someone’s name, likeness, or identifying characteristics for advertising, merchandising, endorsements, promotional, or commercial proposes. You might think Channing Tatum is hot, but using him as character in your book equates to using his celebrity status to sell the book.
2. Likewise, you would not want to put Lee Child’s endorsement on your book if he has not given one.
3. And of course, common sense dictates you cannot use a famous person’s name as your pen name since that would be taking advantage of their reputation for commercial purposes.
4. A real person, famous or not, can make cameo appearances. Like Kathryn Goldman notes, “if your hero attended a rally where Emma Watson actually spoke as an activist for gender equality, you can use that in your story. Emma Watson really is an activist for gender equality. If you read an interview of Liam Hemsworth, you may learn many things about his private life that are true that you can use in your story.”
In general, the rule I follow when attempting to avoid issues of defamation, invasion of privacy, and right of publicity in my fiction is: when in doubt, fictionalize the facts.
Legal Disclaimer: This information is provided for educational purposes only. Consult a qualified lawyer in your jurisdiction for all legal opinions for your specific situation. See the disclaimer link in the footer of our website for more information.
9 thoughts on “Using Real People, Places, And Corporations In Your Fiction – How Real Can You Get And Not Be Sued?”
Thank you for taking the time and offering this wealth of information. I am wondering if you can expand on nonfictional works to this depth? What about real people, places and corporations, or the government, licensed personnel, and politicians? For example, the use of evidence, emails, or other correspondence used as facts, then could those facts be followed by personal opinion as long as not directed as personally defammatory to a human or corporation, or otherwise? Or should personal opinions be totally left out?
Thank you again.
With non-fiction, because you are writing what you believe to be true, you must stick to the facts. Remember, however, that believing something is true is different from being able to prove it.
You can tell your story but stick to provable facts — emails, correspondence, interviews etc. I would suggest footnoting the evidence as you write, or making notes in the text itself. It will make vetting the text easier when you or your publisher does a risk assessment prior to publication.
Invasion of privacy with non-fiction, like fiction, involves disclosure of highly offensive facts that are not newsworthy (i.e. no legitimate public interest). Public interest can take many forms – disclosure sheds light on important aspects of the human condition, the person’s life is so intertwined and integral to your own that the facts must me told, or writing about private lives of public figures is newsworthy. These decisions are fact driven and always debatable, like someone contending the facts disclosed were intimate, damaging, and false.
Getting permission helps. Also, you can disguise the identity of the person like you would do when basing a fictional character on a real person — different physical characteristics, profession, residence, etc. But even that is not full proof. Here’s a great article by Mark Fowler regarding non-fiction and the invasion of privacy. Just remember, publishing private facts about others comes with legal risks, so an assessment is a must prior to publishing.
As for opinions, as noted in the article, opinions are a defense to a defamation claim. Just like truth is as well. Your opinions are protected (because opinions are neither true or false). But just because you say it is your opinion will not keep the statement from being defamatory. Just to reiterate from the article, merely implying a false statement can be enough to make it defamatory. “In my opinion, she is an alcoholic” is just as defamatory as “she is an alcoholic.” Make sure you can prove the underlying facts on which the opinion is based, like she was convicted of a DUI, and then went to rehab. You could then leave the conclusion to the reader. Or if you can prove the alcoholism diagnosis, then you are on safer ground.
Disclaimers: See point no. 3 about disclaimers and the “Running with Scissors” example.
Other points:
-If you are writing about people or corporations in a positive or neutral light, then there’s no risk of defamation or invasion of privacy.
-Defamation and invasion of privacy claims stop at the grave. Some suggest that you make a R.I.P list – those people in the manuscript who are dead. But remember, you can defame survivors of the dead.
-For politicians, public figures, and government entities (like municipalities, school districts, and water districts etc.), the standards for defamation and invasion of privacy are a tad different. The burden for defamation is higher. The public has the right to free speech. Courts see defamation suits by governments and public figures as attempting to quash that right and expose wrongdoers. But if statements are made that are false and intended to harm (made with actual malice) the public figure or government agency can claim defamation.
Rarely will public officials, government agencies, and municipalities sue for defamation (again, unless the statement is false and made with malice). But it does happen. In 2012, the Central Basin Municipal Water District sued the author of emails that alleged they were guilty of corruption and fraudulent conduct in the context of a water contract bid. It’s more common for governments and representatives to threaten detractors with legal action than actually follow through with a lawsuit because the burden for winning is so much higher.
— If you are traditionally publishing, there will be a team of people who fact check and make risk assessments. But publishing contracts usually hold the writer liable for things like a defamation suit. If you are self publishing, then you assume all the risk, so you may want to consult a lawyer.
As a reminder, I’m a writer who is also a lawyer, just not your lawyer. So this information is provided for educational purposes only. Consult a qualified lawyer in your jurisdiction for all legal opinions for your specific situation.
Hi Matt – quick question. I’m using at the moment a real county in the US and it is portrayed in a rather negative light. There are references to real cities, but nothing about real businesses or individual residents (those are all 100% fictional). However, there are references to official county bodies like X County Attorney, X County Sheriff’s Office, X County Public Defender’s Office. Is something like that okay if I indicate in the disclaimer that the county is used in a strictly fictional manner or should I change it to a totally fictitious place?
There’s no need to make the city or county or government entities fictional. A disclaimer can’t hurt, but it’s not full proof. Also, for politicians, public figures, and government entities (like the sheriff’s office, municipalities, school districts, and water districts etc.), the standards for defamation is higher. The public has the right to free speech. Courts see defamation suits by governments and public figures as attempting to quash that right and expose wrongdoers. But if statements are made that are false and intended to harm (made with actual malice) the public figure or government agency can claim defamation. Usually these type of suits happen in the context of non-fiction. I’d avoid using real names from these entities obviously.
Public officials, government agencies, and municipalities rarely sue for defamation (again, unless the statement is false and made with malice). But it does happen. In 2012, the Central Basin Municipal Water District sued the author of emails that alleged they were guilty of corruption and fraudulent conduct in the context of a water contract bid. It’s more common for governments and representatives to threaten detractors with legal action than actually follow through with a lawsuit because the burden for winning is so much higher.
I hope this helps.
As a reminder, I’m a writer who is also a lawyer, just not your lawyer. So this information is provided for educational purposes only. Consult a qualified lawyer in your jurisdiction for all legal opinions for your specific situation.
Thanks Matt, that really helps a lot. I find this one a bit tricky since racism and police violence is involved (a black kid is shot by a deputy who is also framing the brother for murder), so I’m not sure if this can be seen at all as false and with malice. It’s of course not based on a real person of the sheriff’s department or any real incident and the other deputies and the sheriff are portrayed in a more positive light. Does that change your advice in any way?
Quick question . Writing a novel which features famous dead people who are supposedly dead but are still alive in the novel. Their real life deaths are fakes in the novel. Will this have any legal problems and should I stay away from this sort of concept. It would make for one imaginary and humorous novel.
The dead can’t sue for defamation or invasion of privacy (unless the misappropriation took place before the person in question died). Although you’ll want to be careful not to defame someone related to the real person.
The bigger issue is the Right of Publicity, which in many states survives after death. Generally, this claim occurs with dead celebrities when the name or likeness of the celebrity is exploited for commercial gain. Fortunately, the First Amendment and the laws of many states protect the use of someone’s name or likeness in creative works like novels with real-life figures and historical fiction (as well as “real-life event” movies and parody). But if your novel uses the name and likeness to exploit the person’s identity, the First Amendment won’t protect you.
In general, someone violates the right of publicity when using a name or likeness to advertise or promote the book, like placing a picture on the cover and claiming the person had endorsed the book. The key is not to exploit the name or likeness to drive book sales. However, using someone’s name or likeness in a creative work that is transformative (i.e, a substantial creative element has been added, like the fictional story you’ll create, rather than a mere depiction of the person) is usually safe territory for writers.
My suggestion as a writer would be to have a lawyer vet the manuscript prior to publication to make sure the book doesn’t run afoul of the right of publicity laws. Also, if you are really concerned, you can purchase business liability or media insurance.
Legal Disclaimer
All information provided on Sidebar Saturdays is general in nature and for educational purposes only. If you use this blog, you agree to our terms. This blog does not constitute legal advice or create an attorney-client relationship between you and the authors of Sidebar Saturdays. For more information, click the Legal Disclaimer and Privacy Policy links below. Or send an email to [email protected].
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J.K. Rowling used her chemistry teacher, John Nettleship, as a model for creating Severus Snape. Edward Gein, who kept the skin and bones of his victims, inspired Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs. Dr. Joseph Bell, a surgeon known by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, inspired Sherlock Holmes.
But just because these writers did it, does that mean it is legal?
Maybe. Depending on what you do (I know, that was such a lawyer way to answer the question).
There are three areas of law writers should be cognizant of when using real people, corporations, or places in their fiction:
Defamation;
Invasion of privacy; and
The right of publicity.
Do not let the legal terms scare you. With a little understanding and guidance, you can easily navigate these legal landmines and avoid stressing that your published work will land you in court.
I have compiled the information and guidelines for you below. If you want more information, have a gander at the articles above.
Defamation
Otherwise known as libel, we usually hear this legal term when a gossip rag damages a celebrity’s reputation by printing false rumors of a derogatory nature like a sexual escapade, or an embittered lover tweets about his famous ex-paramour’s heroine addiction. But libel in fiction happens too, as well as in memoirs and works of non-fiction. Thankfully, for writers, the success rate for libel suits tends to be low. Even so, no writer wants to spend time and resources defending themselves against a claim of defamation. Where is the fun in that?
Libel is the publication of a false statement that injures a person’s reputation (as opposed to slander, which covers the verbal form of defamation). The statement must be false and factual. The defamed person need not be identified by name. The writer need only use enough identifying information in creating the fictional character so that the real person is identifiable to readers.
The real person must be living to sue for defamation (the dead cannot suffer reputational harm).
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yes
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Bibliography
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Is the Sherlock Holmes character based on a real person?
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yes_statement
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the "character" of sherlock holmes is "based" on a "real" "person".. sherlock holmes is a fictional "character" inspired by a "real" individual.
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http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2014/04/real-life-sherlock-holmes/
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Was the Character of Sherlock Holmes Based on a Real Person?
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Was the Character of Sherlock Holmes Based on a Real Person?
Sue T. asks: My sister told me Sherlock Holmes was based on a real person. Is this true?
In 1887, Doyle published the novel “A Study in Scarlet.” It was the first work to star Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. It was also the first record of a magnifying glass being used as a tool of investigation. “A Study in Scarlet” didn’t attract much attention (and neither did its sequel, “The Sign of Four.”) but in the July 1891 issue of “The Strand Magazine”, Doyle published the first short story starring Holmes. That’s when the detective began to take off in popularity. Even early on, readers wanted to know who was the basis for this new type of crime fighter. Doyle couldn’t have just conceived this eccentric, brilliant, logical character out of thin air, right? After more than a century since Sherlock Holmes made his first appearance on paper, evidence points to Holmes being based on primarily two individuals, as well as, perhaps, the author himself.
At the young and impressionable age of 18, Doyle was studying to be a physician at the University of Edinburgh in 1877. It was a professor by the name of Joseph Bell that drew Doyle’s attention immediately. Dr. Bell’s lectures were bombastic, entertaining, and fascinating. Using his amazing deductive abilities, Dr. Bell would make immediate conclusions about his patients that were often spot-on.
According to Doyle himself, as written in his autobiography, Bell’s “strong point was diagnosis, of not only disease, but of occupation and character.” In a famous example, also accounted in Doyle’s autobiography, a man stepped forward to Bell without giving any information about himself. After a good eying over, Bell gave this conclusion about the man he’d never met before:
Well, my man, you’ve served in the army… Not long discharged… A Highland regiment… A non-com officer… Stationed at Barbados…
Bell was correct on all points. He explained how he did it as follows,
You see, gentlemen, the man was a respectful man but did not remove his hat. They do not in the army, but he would have learned civilian ways had he been long discharged. He has an air of authority and he is Scottish. As to Barbados, his complaint [why he was visiting the doctor] is elephantiasis, which is West Indian, not British, and the Scottish regiments are at present in that particular island.
Conan Doyle said of such displays of Bell’s, “To his audience of Watsons, it all seemed very miraculous until it was explained, and then it became simple enough.”
During Doyle’s second year, Bell “singled” him out and made him his outpatient clerk, which meant he took basic notes of the patients who came in and presented them to Bell. Essentially, he became Bell’s Watson. Ten years later, when Doyle put pen to paper, this unique and wildly fascinating skill-set, to take trivialities and turn them into broader accurate conclusions, embodied itself in Sherlock Holmes.
Doyle freely admitted this. In an interview later in life, according to the biography “Teller of Tales: The Life of Arthur Conan Doyle,” Doyle exclaimed, “Sherlock Holmes is the literary embodiment, if I may so express it, of my memory of a professor of medicine at Edinburgh University.” Further, in a letter to Bell, Doyle told him, “It is most certainly you I owe Sherlock Holmes.”
While there were major elements of Dr. Joseph Bell in Sherlock Holmes, he wasn’t the only inspiration. The famed Edinburgh native forensic scientist, public health inspector, and dissector of human bodies, Henry Littlejohn is also credited for giving Holmes some of his personality. Littlejohn was prominently involved in the investigations of any accident, tragic death, or murder that took place in Edinburgh in that day. Helping pioneer the use of fingerprinting and photographic evidence in criminal investigations, Littlejohn was revolutionizing the way cases were cracked right when Doyle was conceiving Holmes in the 1880s and 1890s.
During the time Doyle was writing “The Final Problem” in 1893, the Ardlamont murder trial was taking place. Alfred John Monson was accused of shooting his twenty year old student, Cecil Hambrough, during a hunting trip. The defense claimed that Hambrough had “accidentally” shot himself in the head. According to the Edinburgh News, Littlejohn testified that the position of the wound, the scorch marks from the bullet, the damage to the victim’s skull, and even the smell of the victim indicated the contrary, that this was murder.
Interestingly enough, Dr. Bell was brought in as an expert witness and using his considerable deductive powers ultimately agreed with Littlejohn. In the end, the jury came back with a verdict of not guilty, but Doyle used this trial and the forensic science of Henry Littlejohn as inspiration for a part of the character of Sherlock Holmes.
And finally we have Doyle himself. Bell once wrote a letter to Doyle stating, “You are yourself Sherlock Holmes and well you know it.” To illustrate, in December 1908, Marion Gilchrist was beaten to death during an armed robbery. A Jewish German immigrant was accused and then convicted of the crime. In 1909, he was sentenced to death. The following year, Scottish lawyer William Roughead wrote “The Trial of Oscar Slater,” where he laid out the case that Slater was innocent.
In 1912, in hopes of getting Slater a retrial and acquitted, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote his own synopsis “The Case of Oscar Slater,” in over a hundred pages painstakingly highlighting details and circumstances that proved Slater’s innocence, not the least of which was that the hammer found in Slater’s trunk, thought to be the murder weapon, was “an extremely light and fragile instrument, and utterly incapable in the eyes of commonsense of inflicting those terrific injuries which had shattered the old lady’s skull.”
Of course, something of a “chicken and the egg,” it is not entirely clear if Sherlock Holmes inspired Doyle’s own sleuthing or Doyle’s deductive abilities and passion for the subject helped inspired Holmes. Either way, thanks in part to Doyle, Oscar Slater was acquitted and freed in 1928.
As for the name, “Sherlock Holmes” it is thought to have been taken from two sources – “Holmes” from the prominent, and fellow doctor, Oliver Wendell Holmes and “Sherlock” from Doyle’s favorite musician, Alfred Sherlock.
By the late 1890s, Dr. Bell had earned quite a reputation as an investigator. So much so, in fact, that when a series of murders of “ladies of the night” went down, the police called in Bell to help. This became the infamous Jack the Ripper case. According to a November 2011 Irish Examiner article, Bell even came up with the name of a man he suspected, but, as of the writing of the article, that name has never been released
Doyle would continue to write adventures for Sherlock Holmes until 1927 and would pass away from a heart attack in 1930.
6 comments
For those who are not familiar with Sherlock Homes you could have added the (nasty) bonus fact that Holmes seems to be a cocaine addict. It’s not just a curioisity about the character, but there are several passages on the books which depict him using the drug, hinting a possible addiction. Although disguting and innaceptable nowadays, it seems it was somehow normal and acceptable by thet society whe he was created.
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Was the Character of Sherlock Holmes Based on a Real Person?
Sue T. asks: My sister told me Sherlock Holmes was based on a real person. Is this true?
In 1887, Doyle published the novel “A Study in Scarlet.” It was the first work to star Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. It was also the first record of a magnifying glass being used as a tool of investigation. “A Study in Scarlet” didn’t attract much attention (and neither did its sequel, “The Sign of Four.”) but in the July 1891 issue of “The Strand Magazine”, Doyle published the first short story starring Holmes. That’s when the detective began to take off in popularity. Even early on, readers wanted to know who was the basis for this new type of crime fighter. Doyle couldn’t have just conceived this eccentric, brilliant, logical character out of thin air, right? After more than a century since Sherlock Holmes made his first appearance on paper, evidence points to Holmes being based on primarily two individuals, as well as, perhaps, the author himself.
At the young and impressionable age of 18, Doyle was studying to be a physician at the University of Edinburgh in 1877. It was a professor by the name of Joseph Bell that drew Doyle’s attention immediately. Dr. Bell’s lectures were bombastic, entertaining, and fascinating. Using his amazing deductive abilities, Dr. Bell would make immediate conclusions about his patients that were often spot-on.
According to Doyle himself, as written in his autobiography, Bell’s “strong point was diagnosis, of not only disease, but of occupation and character.” In a famous example, also accounted in Doyle’s autobiography, a man stepped forward to Bell without giving any information about himself. After a good eying over, Bell gave this conclusion about the man he’d never met before:
Well, my man, you’ve served in the army… Not long discharged… A Highland regiment… A non-com officer… Stationed at Barbados…
Bell was correct on all points.
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yes
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Networking
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Is the TOR network safe?
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yes_statement
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the "tor" "network" is "safe".. it is "safe" to use the "tor" "network".
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https://nordvpn.com/blog/is-tor-safe/
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Is Tor browser safe to use? | NordVPN
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Is Tor browser safe to use?
Over the years Tor has become a synonym for anonymous browsing, used by millions of people around the world. Since users are more and more concerned about online privacy, the popularity of Tor is growing. But what is Tor capable of? And is Tor safe to use?
Is Tor safe?
Tor strengthens your online privacy, but it won’t protect you from all the dangers of the internet. While browsing the web with Tor is a much safer option than with no protection, Tor is not 100% secure.
When traffic passes through Tor nodes, it has to be decrypted before reaching the open internet. This is where one of the biggest Tor weaknesses lies. The person who is operating the “exit node” could monitor your traffic and intercept sensitive data. Bad actors, restrictive regimes, and other snoopers can run their own node and spy on users.
Is using Tor safe? Just like any other software Tor also has bugs, and in the past errors in JavaScript code were exploited to reveal users’ IP. If you want to hide your identity from an authoritarian government, this type of flaw could get you in trouble.
How does Tor work?
Tor (The onion router) is an open source software designed to help users browse the internet anonymously. It encrypts your traffic and moves it across different relays (also called nodes) run by volunteers. At every stop an extra layer of encryption is added (that’s why it’s called an onion).
When you browse the internet using Tor, nobody can see what you do online, link your browsing activities to your identity, track your location, and snoop on your data. This includes your internet service provider (ISP), government agencies, hackers, and other interested parties.
Apart from providing users with anonymity, Tor also allows you to access the dark web, which you can’t do with regular browsers. Tor is legal to use in most countries, except those known for online surveillance and censorship.
Is Tor legal in the US?
Tor is legal in the US. You won’t likely get in trouble just because you use the Tor browser. However, Tor is not a lawless domain, so you can’t use this browser for illegal activities. If you use Tor for buying drugs or weapons, you are held responsible against the law.
Advantages of Tor
Free to use. Tor browser is free on Android, Linux, macOS, and Windows.
Open-source. Since Tor is an open-source project, you can download the source code and modify it as you like.
Independent. Tor is run by volunteers, so it doesn’t need to invest in building its own infrastructure. Since it’s not developed for profit, government and law enforcement agencies can’t impact its services.
Encryption. Tor provides you with enhanced online privacy and encrypts your traffic, so your activity can’t be traced directly back to you.
Hides your IP address. The default settings of Tor will hide your IP, so nobody can see your real location.
Access to .onion sites. Tor allows you to access the invisible part of the internet and browse the dark web.
Disadvantages of Tor
Reputation. Tor is used not only by people concerned about online privacy but also by criminals. Some services block Tor because of its bad reputation and you might bump into restrictions while trying to access legitimate sites.
Speed. Since your traffic moves around different nodes and is encrypted multiple times, your connection will be slower than normal.
What’s the difference between Tor and a VPN?
While Tor and a VPN are both designed to protect users’ privacy, they also have key differences. When you connect to a VPN, your traffic is redirected through one of the servers of the VPN provider. NordVPN allows you to choose from more than 5,500 servers in 59 countries, hopping between them with one click.
In theory, a hacker or government could be running multiple Tor nodes and spying on users. In the meantime, NordVPN enhances your privacy, so it’s a much safer option.
A VPN is also faster than Tor and is much more suitable for daily use. With one NordVPN account, you can protect up to six different devices: laptop, routers, smartphones, tablets, and others. NordVPN encrypts all your internet traffic, while Tor is designed specifically for anonymous browsing. Our Tor vs. VPN article will explain about their differences.
All NordVPN apps (minus Linux) even have the Dark Web Monitor feature, which will notify users if they’re personal information is uploaded to the dark web.
How to use Tor securely
If you want to use Tor securely, combine it with a VPN. NordVPN has the Onion Over VPN feature, which enhances security for Tor users. That way, you can access Onion network without the need of a Tor browser.
When you combine a VPN with Tor, people who operate exit nodes can’t access your traffic. Your ISP and other parties won’t even be able to see that you’re using Tor.
NordVPN is a good option for Tor, so look no further if you want to browse the web privately and securely.
Karolis is a tech geek who writes about cybersecurity, online privacy, and the latest gadgets. When not rattling his keyboard, he’s always eager to try a new burrito recipe or explore a new camping spot.
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Is Tor browser safe to use?
Over the years Tor has become a synonym for anonymous browsing, used by millions of people around the world. Since users are more and more concerned about online privacy, the popularity of Tor is growing. But what is Tor capable of? And is Tor safe to use?
Is Tor safe?
Tor strengthens your online privacy, but it won’t protect you from all the dangers of the internet. While browsing the web with Tor is a much safer option than with no protection, Tor is not 100% secure.
When traffic passes through Tor nodes, it has to be decrypted before reaching the open internet. This is where one of the biggest Tor weaknesses lies. The person who is operating the “exit node” could monitor your traffic and intercept sensitive data. Bad actors, restrictive regimes, and other snoopers can run their own node and spy on users.
Is using Tor safe? Just like any other software Tor also has bugs, and in the past errors in JavaScript code were exploited to reveal users’ IP. If you want to hide your identity from an authoritarian government, this type of flaw could get you in trouble.
How does Tor work?
Tor (The onion router) is an open source software designed to help users browse the internet anonymously. It encrypts your traffic and moves it across different relays (also called nodes) run by volunteers. At every stop an extra layer of encryption is added (that’s why it’s called an onion).
When you browse the internet using Tor, nobody can see what you do online, link your browsing activities to your identity, track your location, and snoop on your data. This includes your internet service provider (ISP), government agencies, hackers, and other interested parties.
Apart from providing users with anonymity, Tor also allows you to access the dark web, which you can’t do with regular browsers. Tor is legal to use in most countries, except those known for online surveillance and censorship.
Is Tor legal in the US?
Tor is legal in the US. You won’t likely get in trouble just because you use the Tor browser. However, Tor is not a lawless domain, so you can’t use this browser for illegal activities.
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no
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Networking
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Is the TOR network safe?
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yes_statement
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the "tor" "network" is "safe".. it is "safe" to use the "tor" "network".
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https://www.avast.com/c-tor-dark-web-browser
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Dark Web Browser: What Is Tor, Is It Safe & How to Use It | Avast
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The Dark Web Browser: What Is Tor, Is It Safe, and How to Use It
The Tor Browser takes online privacy to extremes. With an encrypted and anonymous connection, Tor helps you access the unindexed part of the internet known as the dark web. But how does this dark web browser work, and is it safe? Learn more about Tor and its pros and cons — then get Avast Secure Browser for cleaner and faster private browsing.
What is Tor Browser?
Tor (The Onion Router) is a network that anonymizes web traffic to provide truly private web browsing. The Tor Browser hides your IP address and browsing activity by redirecting web traffic through a series of different routers known as nodes. Because Tor hides browsing activity and blocks tracking, it’s used by whistleblowers, journalists, and others who want to protect their privacy online.
Tor anonymizes web traffic with a special encryption technique originally developed by the US Navy to help protect American intelligence communications. Today, Tor is an open-source, privacy platform available to everyone. Though some countries — like China — have banned its use outright.
Besides a web browser, Tor also provides onion services via its onion network to enable anonymity for websites and servers. A [dot]onion web address, which is exclusively accessible via the Tor Browser, protects the identity of both the website and visitors.
With a complex, encrypted connection that offers up anonymity for both hosts and visitors, Tor is often used to create and access the dark web. As such, Tor is the very definition of a dark web browser.
How does Tor, the dark web browser, work?
Tor uses onion routing to encrypt and reroute web traffic through Tor’s onion network. After your data is secured inside multiple layers of encryption, your web traffic is transmitted through a series of network nodes, called onion routers. Each router (or node) “peels away” a layer of encryption until the data reaches its final destination, fully decrypted.
Tor anonymously transmits encrypted data across three layers of international proxies that make up the Tor circuit. Let’s take a closer look at the three layers of network nodes:
Middle nodes: Here your data is fully encrypted. Then it’s sent through a series of nodes which decrypt your data one layer at a time. To ensure anonymity, each middle node knows only the identity of the preceding and the subsequent middle nodes.
Exit node: Once the last layer of encryption is peeled off, the decrypted data leaves the Tor network via an exit node and reaches its final server destination.
Because Tor-encrypted data needs to be “peeled“ through more than 7,000 independent network relays before it’s fully decrypted, by the time internet traffic reaches its destination, its origin is completely obscured. This elaborate process shows how secure Tor is at protecting data and hiding your IP address from websites, your ISP, and even the government.
Your web traffic goes through thousands of layers of decryption when connecting to the internet via Tor Browser.
Is Tor Browser anonymous?
Tor Browser is anonymous in terms of hiding your location and browsing activity — but there are limits. Although they can’t see your browsing activity or Tor encrypted data, your ISP can still see that you’re using Tor. You can also be identified if you log in to an online account or provide details to a website while using Tor.
What is the difference between Tor Browser and a proxy server?
A proxy server acts as an intermediary between you and web sites and services. While proxies hide your IP address and location, they don't encrypt internet traffic, meaning your data is still exposed in transit. Tor Browser is much more secure thanks to onion routing and multi-layer encryption, which anonymizes your location and protects your data from hackers, web trackers, and other snoops.
Is Tor a VPN?
Tor is not the same as a VPN, though both tools provide encryption and reroute your web traffic to another network. A key difference between Tor and a VPN is that a VPN’s network is operated by a central service provider, while the Tor network is decentralized and run by volunteers.
In addition, Tor and VPNs take different approaches to rerouting data. A VPN sends your web traffic to a server, which transmits it to the internet. Tor’s onion routing method reroutes your data through a series of independent nodes. Though Tor is slower, the process of rerouting data through nodes makes it more difficult to trace your activity back to you.
What is Tor Browser used for?
Tor Browser is primarily used as a method of anonymous browsing. From journalists and civil society organizations seeking to escape spying or political repression, to regular individuals with online privacy concerns, Tor Browser users are a diverse group. But criminals also take advantage of Tor’s anonymity to carry out illegal activities both on and off the dark web.
Can I be tracked while using Tor?
Despite its impressive privacy features, there are still ways that you can be tracked while using Tor. Onion routing is a sophisticated means to prevent tracking your location, but there's no such thing as perfect online anonymity.
Although your internet traffic is encrypted on Tor, your ISP can still see that you’re connected to Tor. Plus, Tor cannot protect against tracking at the entry and exit nodes of its network. Anyone who owns and operates the entry node will see your real IP address. And at the exit node, your decrypted traffic is vulnerable to interception.
You can reinforce Tor’s weak spots by pairing it with a VPN that provides end-to-end encryption. That means your web traffic will be fully encrypted at the entry and exit nodes of the Tor network, and using VPN-over-Tor will keep your real IP address safe from any prying eyes lurking at those gateways.
Use Tor alongside a VPN to ensure your web traffic is fully encrypted.
Reasons to use Tor
One of the main reasons to use Tor is the high level of privacy provided by the onion network. Not only do Tor’s security protocols allow users to access sites safely and hide their IP address, but the browser is open-source, free, and simple to use, especially considering the complex protection it provides.
Is Tor Browser legal?
Tor Browser is legal to use in most countries, although there may be a stigma attached to using it, because Tor is often associated with dark web criminality. But despite its sometimes seedy reputation, the dark web is host to many legitimate resources, like the dark web wikipedia, secure email services, and research databases. If you’re not engaged in illicit activities, it’s not a crime to use the dark web to protect your privacy.
Still, Tor usage can call undue attention to your web activity, which could be counter-productive if you’re seeking privacy. ISPs have been known to throttle internet speeds and even contact customers about Tor usage. Your government may also track your activities if you use Tor.
In some countries, Tor itself is outlawed. China has banned anonymous browsing — making Tor illegal to use. Other countries like Russia and Venezuela actively try to block their citizens from using Tor. If you’re interested in anonymous browsing, first check whether Tor or VPNs are legal in your country.
Is Tor Browser safe?
The Tor Browser is generally considered safe and secure thanks to onion routing protocol that encrypts your data and hides your IP address. But Tor does have some vulnerabilities, and as with any browser, Tor users remain vulnerable to online threats, ranging from malware to phishing scams.
Knowing how to safely use Tor means using it alongside other cybersecurity tools, so set up a VPN to benefit from end-to-end encryption. And make sure your network’s protected by a firewall and the best antivirus software.
Tor Browser and the dark web
For many, Tor is synonymous with the dark web — the unindexed part of the internet that’s only accessible with certain browsers. The connection between Tor and the dark web started with the Silk Road, the first dark web market where customers could buy drugs and other illegal goods. When in operation, the notorious online marketplace could only be accessed through Tor.
As a browser that enables anonymity to both website hosts and visitors, the appeal of Tor to dark web participants is obvious. And though the dark web is not just a haven for illicit activity, accessing the dark web via the onion browser is popular with criminals.
But Tor was not designed with criminality in mind, or intended to be the “dark web browser.” Tor is a legitimate and effective online privacy tool that’s used by a variety of users who value their online privacy and data security.
The disadvantages of Tor Browser
Although Tor is a sophisticated privacy tool, it has several disadvantages — some of which counteract its cybersecurity advantages.
Here are the disadvantages of using Tor:
Slow Speeds: Tor is a slow browser. Onion routing encrypts web traffic and sends it through a series of network nodes — this is great for privacy, but the elaborate process results in slow speeds compared to other browsers. Although there are ways of making Tor faster, you can’t significantly boost speeds.
Stigma: Tor has acquired the unfortunate stigma of dark web illegality. ISPs and governments may take note of people who use the browser. For people seeking privacy, Tor may bring them the opposite.
Blocking: Some network administrators block Tor. Some websites also keep track of and block web traffic coming from Tor exit nodes. But you can mask node usage by using Tor bridges or a VPN.
Vulnerabilities: Though Tor is designed for anonymity, the onion network is vulnerable at the entry and exit nodes. Since internet traffic is not encrypted at these points, your data is liable to interception, and your IP address could be exposed.
Other dark web browsers
Though the Tor Browser has strong ties with dark web browsing, it also has competition. There are other browsers that can also access the dark web. Though Tor enables anonymity, these other browsers have their own advantages.
Here are the other dark web browsers:
Subgraph OS: This open-source operating system is designed to be resistant to surveillance and other snoops. It’s been mentioned by whistleblower Edward Snowden as showing potential.
Firefox: Though this popular and accessible browser can access the dark web, it lacks safety features.
Waterfox: Based on Firefox, the Waterfox browser is fast and features tracking protection to safeguard your privacy.
I2P - Invisible Internet Project: Similar to Tor, this is a fully-encrypted, private network layer.
How to use Tor Browser on Windows and Mac
Tor is currently available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It’s a Firefox-based app that’s downloaded and installed on your computer. After installation, you can use Tor to access the public internet as well as .onion websites.
How to use Tor on mobile
Tor is available on mobile only for Android devices, as there’s no Tor Browser for iPhone. The mobile Tor Browser is an application you can download on the Tor project website and the Google Play store.
Here’s how to access Tor on your Android device:
On the Tor project website, go to the Tor Browser download page. Or, find and download the app in the Google Play store.
Download the app on your Android device.
Click the app icon on your home screen to launch the browser.
Browse securely and privately online
Though Tor is a powerful tool for anonymous browsing, it’s not without flaws. Tor is slow and can be vulnerable to attacks. And Tor may attract unwanted attention from your government or ISP. If you’re looking for a secure and private alternative that’s also much easier to use than Tor, get Avast Secure Browser.
Light, fast, and easy-to-use, Avast Secure Browser is designed to provide ironclad online privacy, while stopping hackers from stealing your data, blocking malicious links, and warning you about dangerous websites. Avast Secure Browser also forces websites to use encryption and integrates seamlessly with a VPN for ultimate security and privacy. Download Avast Secure Browser today.
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Use Tor alongside a VPN to ensure your web traffic is fully encrypted.
Reasons to use Tor
One of the main reasons to use Tor is the high level of privacy provided by the onion network. Not only do Tor’s security protocols allow users to access sites safely and hide their IP address, but the browser is open-source, free, and simple to use, especially considering the complex protection it provides.
Is Tor Browser legal?
Tor Browser is legal to use in most countries, although there may be a stigma attached to using it, because Tor is often associated with dark web criminality. But despite its sometimes seedy reputation, the dark web is host to many legitimate resources, like the dark web wikipedia, secure email services, and research databases. If you’re not engaged in illicit activities, it’s not a crime to use the dark web to protect your privacy.
Still, Tor usage can call undue attention to your web activity, which could be counter-productive if you’re seeking privacy. ISPs have been known to throttle internet speeds and even contact customers about Tor usage. Your government may also track your activities if you use Tor.
In some countries, Tor itself is outlawed. China has banned anonymous browsing — making Tor illegal to use. Other countries like Russia and Venezuela actively try to block their citizens from using Tor. If you’re interested in anonymous browsing, first check whether Tor or VPNs are legal in your country.
Is Tor Browser safe?
The Tor Browser is generally considered safe and secure thanks to onion routing protocol that encrypts your data and hides your IP address. But Tor does have some vulnerabilities, and as with any browser, Tor users remain vulnerable to online threats, ranging from malware to phishing scams.
Knowing how to safely use Tor means using it alongside other cybersecurity tools, so set up a VPN to benefit from end-to-end encryption. And make sure your network’s protected by a firewall and the best antivirus software.
Tor Browser and the dark web
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yes
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Networking
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Is the TOR network safe?
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yes_statement
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the "tor" "network" is "safe".. it is "safe" to use the "tor" "network".
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https://surfshark.com/blog/is-tor-browser-safe
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Is the Tor Browser safe to use in 2023? - Surfshark
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Is the Tor Browser safe?
The Tor Browser itself is safe. It’s just the Tor network having security issues that make it less-than-secure. I’m going to use both terms interchangeably in this article and will explain just how safe the Tor Browser may be.
Table of contents
Is the Tor Browser safe? Safety benefits vs. issues at a glance
Before we get into the details, here’s a quick overview on safety issues and benefits to answer the question of whether the Tor Browser is safe:
Tor safety benefits
Tor safety issues
Three layers of encryptions
Entry node sees your IP, exit node sees your data
Connects via three random nodes
Nodes are run by volunteers and thus could be compromised
Nodes are changed every five minutes
Your privacy can be compromised by holding entry or exit nodes, or both.
The security issues with the Tor Browser
To fully explain the security issues with the Tor Browser, we should talk about how Tor traffic is handled.
How Tor works:
Aspiring users need to download and install the Tor Browser to access Tor;
The Tor Browser establishes a connection to the volunteer-maintained Tor network;
Any data you send out via the Tor Browser gets bundled into three layers of encryption;
The Tor Browser forwards the data to the entry node (sometimes called the “guard node”);
The entry node knows the data is coming from you, but it can’t see what data you’re sending. The entry node decrypts the first encryption layer to find out where to forward the data – what the middle node is;
The middle node knows that data is coming from the entry node. It decrypts the second layer to find out where to send the data – what the exit node is;
The exit node knows that the data is coming from the middle note. It decrypts the third layer of data to find where to send it – the node can also see the data now;
Incoming data uses the same process, but from the other way around – the exit node is now the entry node, etc.;
The Tor Browser periodically switches to a new random circuit of nodes.
This allows you to more privately access regular websites as well as specific Tor websites. At this point, you might not see it, but the architecture of the Tor network is vulnerable to certain exploits.
It’s easy to compromise a volunteer-run network
The Tor Project doesn’t buy and maintain the nodes on the network – volunteers do. Meaning virtually anyone can host a Tor node. Hackers have the means to seed their nodes in the Tor network, and security agencies (CIA, GCHQ, FSB, etc.) have even more resources they can devote to putting up their own nodes. With enough nodes, you can intercept the data going through the entry and exit nodes of the same circuit.
Compromised nodes allow malicious parties to triangulate data
If you control the entry node, you can find out which Tor users were accessing Tor via the node by recording their IP (Internet Protocol) addresses. If you control the exit node, you know what websites and services were accessed from Tor via that node. If you have enough nodes to get that data, you can piece together what someone was doing online at one point or another.
Tor exit nodes may be blocked
This is more of an inconvenience than a vulnerability: some websites and services block Tor IP addresses from accessing their content. Going by the logic that Tor is a network that may be used for nefarious purposes (such as distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks), some companies block it.
For example, Wikipedia editing and BBC’s iPlayer block IPs from the Tor network.
In addition, using Tor may be illegal in some countries due to dark web connections or just “security” concerns. Since your internet service provider can tell that you’re using Tor, this can expose you to the authorities.
But outside of someone knowing that you’re using Tor, let’s consider whether they can track you while you’re using Tor.
Can they track you on Tor?
It is technically possible to track you on Tor. As discussed before, there are ways to compromise the volunteer-run network.
Tracking method #1: Triangulation
Triangulation is possible by matching the entry and exit node use. It requires having enough nodes to compromise both ends of the circuit. This way, they could, for example, match Activist X (via his IP address) sending data via entry node at 15:04:37 and a post criticizing the government appearing on a block at 15:04:38.
Tracking method #2: Eavesdropping
Eavesdropping the exit node may allow for the theft of Tor users’ data. As the entry node removes the last layer of Tor decryption to forward the data, it may be possible to read it. In that case, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that someone submitting your user name and password to a website is you (or just stealing those same log-ins they just saw you enter).
Tracking method #3: Noticing Tor use
Noticing Tor use is something that can become dangerous if Tor Browser use is declared illegal. Your ISP (Internet Service Provider) doesn’t see what you do on Tor, but it can detect your internet traffic going via the Tor network. Thus, they can track when you use Tor and for how long.
What are the safety benefits of using Tor?
While there are some dangers when using the Tor Browser (no greater than those of regular browsers), there are many reasons to use it to beef up your security:
It’s free: as a free tool, Tor is miles above using any free proxy or free VPN;
It’s easy to use: you only need the Tor Browser, which is a) free, b) no more complicated to use than any other browser, and c) teaches you how to use it;
It’s harder to compromise: with a proxy or VPN, you have to trust the supplier not to spy on you. With Tor, the network is decentralized, and your circuit changes constantly;
Unfortunately, Tor is not a good solution for everyday use. The volunteer nature of the network means the connections are of variable quality, and the need to bounce over three nodes makes Tor Browser slow.
But if you’re using it for noble causes that demand secrecy, there are ways to improve it.
How to use the Tor Browser safely
Fiddle with other security settings: it’s possible to disable automatic cookie deletion, though you shouldn’t;
Change browsing habits: Tor doesn’t help much if you use it to log into your public Gmail account;
Try new circuits and identities: those are the two methods to switch up how the Browser reaches the rest of the network;
Keep your security updated: this means using only the latest versions of your Tor Browser, VPN app, and antivirus;
Use Tor over a VPN: some people can’t tell the difference between VPN and Tor. In a nutshell, a VPN is a different tech that can hide your entry node’s real IP, and its encryption can hide the exit node data. Not sure how it works? Check this:
These steps should help keep you safe from being tracked while using Tor.
In conclusion: it’s mostly safe to use Tor
It’s impossible to be completely anonymous online, but using the Tor Browser is one of the ways to make yourself more private. And there are ways to improve your safety while using it. As mentioned before, a VPN can help protect you at the entry and exit nodes. So why not get Surfshark?
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Is the Tor Browser safe?
The Tor Browser itself is safe. It’s just the Tor network having security issues that make it less-than-secure. I’m going to use both terms interchangeably in this article and will explain just how safe the Tor Browser may be.
Table of contents
Is the Tor Browser safe? Safety benefits vs. issues at a glance
Before we get into the details, here’s a quick overview on safety issues and benefits to answer the question of whether the Tor Browser is safe:
Tor safety benefits
Tor safety issues
Three layers of encryptions
Entry node sees your IP, exit node sees your data
Connects via three random nodes
Nodes are run by volunteers and thus could be compromised
Nodes are changed every five minutes
Your privacy can be compromised by holding entry or exit nodes, or both.
The security issues with the Tor Browser
To fully explain the security issues with the Tor Browser, we should talk about how Tor traffic is handled.
How Tor works:
Aspiring users need to download and install the Tor Browser to access Tor;
The Tor Browser establishes a connection to the volunteer-maintained Tor network;
Any data you send out via the Tor Browser gets bundled into three layers of encryption;
The Tor Browser forwards the data to the entry node (sometimes called the “guard node”);
The entry node knows the data is coming from you, but it can’t see what data you’re sending. The entry node decrypts the first encryption layer to find out where to forward the data – what the middle node is;
The middle node knows that data is coming from the entry node. It decrypts the second layer to find out where to send the data – what the exit node is;
The exit node knows that the data is coming from the middle note. It decrypts the third layer of data to find where to send it – the node can also see the data now;
Incoming data uses the same process, but from the other way around – the exit node is now the entry node, etc.;
The Tor Browser periodically switches to a new random circuit of nodes.
This allows you to more privately access regular websites as well as specific Tor websites.
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no
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Is the TOR network safe?
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yes_statement
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the "tor" "network" is "safe".. it is "safe" to use the "tor" "network".
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https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/is-tor-safe/
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Is Tor Safe? How to Use the Tor Browser Safely in 2023
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Our Verdict
When handled with caution, the Tor Browser is safe and legal to use on Windows, macOS, and Android devices in most countries. Tor provides more anonymity than a regular web browser by hiding your IP address and passing your web traffic through three layers of encryption. However, Tor is not completely secure. Using it can put you at risk of data leaks, spying, and man-in-the-middle attacks via malicious exit nodes.
Tor is a free, volunteer-run system designed to conceal your identity, location, and online activity from tracking or surveillance.
Tor is most commonly accessed through the Tor Browser: a free, open-source application based on Mozilla Firefox. The Tor Browser works by routing your traffic through three random nodes; the guard node, the middle node and the exit node.
A layer of encryption is added for each of the nodes your traffic passes through, ending at the last node. At the exit node point, your traffic is fully decrypted and sent to its destination.
Tor routes your web traffic through a network of randomized servers and protects it with three layers of encryption. This hides your IP address from the websites you visit and prevents your ISP (Internet Service Provider) from monitoring your activity.
While your browsing data is anonymous, it is not private. Tor’s guard node can see your public IP address but not your activity. Tor’s exit node can see your activity but not your IP address.
Your web traffic is fully decrypted and visible at the exit node, although it is not traceable to your identity. This means you are at risk of surveillance or malware injection via malicious exit nodes.
There is some evidence that Tor users can be de-anonymized by US law enforcement agencies and academic researchers.
Tor can be complicated to use and set up, which means it is easy to reveal your true identity through data leaks or behaviour that might reveal personal information.
Tor is legal in most countries, though the use of the Tor browser can mark you for surveillance by government authorities due to its ability to access hidden .onion domains.
EXPERT TIP: A simple way to protect your Tor traffic is to use a trusted VPN service, which adds an additional layer of encryption to your connection and acts as a firewall to some types of malware. We recommend NordVPN which offers a 30-day money back guarantee.
In the table below, we summarize the strengths and weaknesses of the Tor browser when it comes to safety:
Pros
Cons
Three layers of encryption shield your activity from tracking and surveillance by your ISP
Traffic at the exit node is exposed to surveillance and man-in-the-middle attacks
The websites you visit cannot see your public IP address or location
Data leaks can easily reveal identifying information
Tor is decentralised, so users do not have to trust a private VPN service
There is evidence of Tor users being de-anonymized
Grants access to the dark web
Tor is less safe on devices using iOS
Open-source software
Visiting HTTP sites will make you more vulnerable to surveillance as these sites do not encrypt your traffic
.Onion domains can harbour malware
Your public IP address is exposed to the guard node
JavaScript can expose your identity on Tor
Here’s a more detailed list of potential safety and security issues when using the Tor Browser:
Tor Is Anonymous, But It Is Not Private
Tor is designed for complete anonymity. A singular node cannot have access to both your traffic and IP address, which means your identity and online activity within the Onion network are never disclosed at the same time.
While Tor is anonymous, it is not private. Your personal IP address is visible to the guard node, and your traffic is visible to the exit node. In theory, someone running an exit node can spy on your activity, although they won’t know who it belongs to.
Tor does provide more general privacy protections than a normal web browser like Google Chrome, including DNS over HTTPS. Your location is hidden and your ISP cannot track your traffic to the same degree – though it will still see that you are using the Tor Network, which can mark you for surveillance by some ISPs.
While your traffic is encrypted for most of its journey through the Onion network, it is exposed when it passes through the exit node. This means that the final server operator has the ability to view your activity, just like an ISP would if you weren’t using Tor or a VPN.
Your traffic is decrypted when it leaves the Tor network.
This does not necessarily undermine your anonymity since the exit node has no way to see your true IP address. However, if you were to access an email account or Facebook page associated with your true identity, this could be observed and your identity would be exposed.
Malware Can Be Spread To Your Device
Tor is used to access dark web domains that are hidden from regular browsers. As a result, Tor users are susceptible to malware and viruses if the browser is not used carefully.
The dark web is saturated with malicious actors. Many websites within this space contain malicious scripts or malware that can be passed on to your computer if you click on an unsecured site.
One way this can happen is through port forwarding. Open ports can be dangerous when Tor is in use as infiltrators can hack your device through this method.
When a user clicks on a malicious site, your device is scanned for open ports. A message is sent to each port, where a hacker can identify which ports are open and vulnerable to exploits.
Vulnerable ports can be used to spread malware and gain unauthorised access to personal and financial information, resulting in your accounts being hacked.
Tor Is Less Safe on Some Mobile Devices
The Tor browser is available as an application for Android devices. If you use the app cautiously, using Tor on Android is no more dangerous than using it on desktop. The alpha release is easy to download and use, but the same risks apply as when you use the browser on desktop.
There is not an official Tor application for iOS, but the Onion Browser application can be used to access the Tor network on iOS if you absolutely need to. This is an open-source app designed by Mike Tigas, a lead developer for the Tor Browser.
The Onion Browser can be found on the App Store for iOS devices.
Even with caution, using Tor on an iPhone or iOS device is less safe than using Tor on other devices. JavaScript cannot be completely disabled on the app. This lessens your privacy as JavaScript may share your personal information and store cookies in the browser.
If you need to use Tor on a mobile device, we recommend choosing Android.
Using Tor Without a VPN
Due to its association with the dark web, government authorities work hard to prevent criminal activity within the Tor network. Therefore the regular use of Tor can mark you for surveillance by the government.
If you don’t connect to a VPN, your ISP can see you are connected to the Tor network. This increases the likelihood of authorities monitoring your traffic and targeting you for de-anonymization.
Without a VPN, Tor’s guard node can also see your public IP address. This can reveal personal information such as your location and your ISP.
Windows Vulnerabilities
Windows wasn’t built for anonymity. Even if you are careful and only access the internet from within the Tor browser, the operating system sends information back to Microsoft by default. This can result in your identity being revealed.
In 2013, a zero-day vulnerability in Firefox and the Tor browser was used to exploit vulnerabilities in JavaScript to accumulate Personally Identifiable Information (PII) from users on Windows devices.
It is considered safer and more reliable to run Tor on Linux where possible.
Tails and Whonix are both popular Linux variants, which have been built for use with Tor.
However, you can run the service safely on practically any version of the Linux operating system, and further bolster your protection with a top-rated Linux VPN.
Can You Be De-Anonymized on Tor?
Suspicions that the FBI, National Security Agency (NSA), and other US government agencies can de-anonymize Tor users have existed for years. This has led to rumours that Tor is simply a trap used by law enforcement to monitor those seeking anonymity online.
It is worth remembering that The Onion network was initially conceived and developed by the US Navy and is still largely funded by the US government. This is not necessarily a problem in itself, but the ongoing collaboration between the Tor developers and the US government — identified by Yasher Levine in her book Surveillance Valley — is more of a concern.
Although Tor is designed for complete anonymity, there have been numerous occasions where such suspicions of de-anonymization have been confirmed.
In a 2017 court case, the FBI ultimately refused to disclose or give evidence about a potential Tor vulnerability used to identify their suspect, completely collapsing the case. This demonstrates that while the FBI may have the capability to de-anonymize users, they cannot reveal their methods.
If an intelligence agency did publicly disclose a vulnerability, regular users would boycott the platform. It would then be impossible to use the platform for surveillance, and easy to identify any remaining traffic as state-affiliated.
Despite this, several email correspondences between Tor developers and US government agencies have been made public in recent years. Here is an example in which a Tor co-founder discusses cooperation with the Department of Justice, including reference to the installation of “backdoors”:
De-Anonymizing Tor Users: Research at Columbia University
NetFlow is a technology designed to collect IP traffic information and monitor network flow. It is built into Cisco routing protocols which allows traffic to be obtained as it enters and exits an interface.
Infiltrators can use this information to conduct traffic analysis attacks by monitoring traffic patterns across different points of the Onion network.
By exploiting NetFlow, infiltrators can reveal the original IP address of a user and disclose their true identity. This further confirms suspicions that Tor users can be identified and de-anonymized.
The Safety Benefits of Using Tor
As evidenced above, Tor cannot guarantee your anonymity. However, the Tor browser still has its benefits. If used properly, it can provide an additional layer of privacy and security to your online activity. It also enables access to the dark web and .onion sites, which regular browsers do not support.
The Tor browser is open-source, which means the software’s source code is publicly accessible and open to peer review. This improves the network’s performance as errors and privacy risks are easier for experts to identify and fix.
Open-source software is also more transparent. If encryption backdoors are placed in the browser’s backend, they should hypothetically be visible to analysts. In this respect, open-source software tends to be safer.
Tor’s software has highlighted numerous privacy risks to the online world. Engineers have used these problems to improve privacy issues across the internet.
Here’s a more detailed list of Tor’s safety and security advantages:
Three Layers of Encryption and a Randomized IP Address
At its very core, Tor is used to anonymize online activity. Similarly to a VPN, it does this by encrypting your web traffic and changing your IP address.
Unlike a VPN, Tor uses a randomized, decentralized server network, which means you cannot control the location of the server you connect to. To better understand these distinctions, read our Tor versus VPN guide.
For added security, your data is also assigned a new set of servers to bounce between every ten minutes. Because each node only knows the identity of the server directly next to it in the chain, it is impossible for someone to reverse engineer your data’s route through the Onion network.
Although the dark web is often associated with criminality, it can also help those residing countries with strict censorship laws. Tor provides access to legitimate content on the dark web such as political forums. This greatly helps users whose right to free speech is threatened.
This makes Tor an important tool for unblocking websites in censored countries or on regulated WiFi networks.
Tor Is Legal to Use Almost Everywhere
Tor is legal to use in most countries around the world. However, there are some places where it is illegal, banned, or blocked by authorities to enforce state censorship. These countries include Belarus, Turkey, Russia, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. China also blocks all Tor traffic to prevent users bypassing the Great Firewall.
If you are a resident of a country where Tor is blocked, a Tor bridge can be used to access the Onion Network. Tor bridges are relay nodes that are not listed in the public Tor directory. This makes it almost impossible for governments to completely block access to Tor, as a number of relay nodes are unknown to authorities.
Users can connect to a Tor bridge in Tor’s network settings.
Alternatively, you can combine a VPN with Tor. This is known as Onion over VPN. By connecting to a remote server first, you can bypass local censorship and access the Tor network using the VPN server’s IP address.
Decentralized Server Network
VPN software reroutes your data through a single remote server in a location of your choice. This server is privately-owned by the VPN service, which means the company technically has access to both your IP address and your browsing activity.
If a VPN keeps logs of your web traffic, government authorities can legally force the service to hand over this information.
By contrast, Tor is a community-based network. It relies on a random, decentralized network of servers run by volunteers, which means users do not have to place their trust in a private company, their ISP, or any other third party.
At no point does a server have access to both who you are and what you are doing.
How to Stay Safe on Tor
Most of the risks associated with Tor can be resolved by changing your browsing behavior. In order to stay anonymous online, you must avoid behavior that might result in an information leak or enable an onlooker to infer your identity.
Some healthy skepticism can keep you safe here. It is wise to assume that someone is always watching you.
To keep safe online, we do not recommend using Tor unless it is absolutely necessary. If you’re in a position where Tor is your only option, follow our advice below to use Tor safely:
Avoid connecting to the same VPN server with and without the Tor browser
Avoid torrenting (it slows the network) — and BitTorrent especially
Disable JavaScript, which can expose your identity
Keep your operating system up-to-date
Avoid using the Tor browser Bundle (Firefox vulnerabilities make it easier to expose your identity)
If you use Tor like a normal browser it will almost certainly result in DNS or IP leaks. Other applications such as email and other web browsers aren’t funnelled through the Tor network. It is therefore not safe to log into personal accounts such as online banking, email and social media profiles.
Here’s a more detailed explanation of the most important steps to stay safe using Tor:
Install Anti-Malware Software
The Tor Project advises users to regularly check for malware and viruses. While the Tor network itself is secure, it is known to have vulnerabilities that make it possible for infiltrators to spread malware to your device via compromised exit nodes.
In 2014, sensitive data was stolen from Tor users after a Russian hacker inserted malicious code into downloads within the Onion network.
Before using Tor, it is important to install anti-malware software on your device to identify and protect against malware sent by malicious exit nodes.
Use a Trusted Virtual Private Network (VPN)
You can use a VPN with Tor to add an additional layer of encryption to your web traffic.
However, the order in which you connect to each tool will affect the privacy and security benefits you receive.
You can use a VPN with Tor in two different ways:
1. Connect to a VPN Before Using Tor
This is known as Onion over VPN. By connecting to a VPN service first, you will:
Although your VPN service will be unable to view your activity on Tor, it will still be able to see that you are connected to the Tor network, along with your true IP address. Exit nodes in the Onion network – malicious or otherwise – will still be able to monitor your web traffic.
2. Connect to Tor Before Using a VPN
This is known as VPN over Onion. By connecting to the Tor network first, you will:
Prevent Tor exit nodes from viewing your browsing activity
Use advanced VPN features with Tor e.g. switching servers or double VPN
Prevent IP and DNS leaks using the VPN kill switch
Send all of your VPN web traffic through the Tor Network
Although Tor exit nodes will be unable to monitor your traffic, your VPN service will have access to exactly the same information as it would without Tor, including your IP address and activity.
Choosing a Safe VPN for Tor
We’ve reviewed hundreds of VPN services for privacy and security to find the safest VPNs for Tor. Based on the results of our tests, we recommend NordVPN or Astrill for secure and trustworthy usage with the Tor browser.
Both VPNs include a kill switch, IP leak protection, and native ‘onion over VPN’ support. They both use industry-standard AES-256 encryption and OpenVPN, which ensures your traffic is protected when accessing the Tor network.
How to use the Tor Browser safely with NordVPN.
NordVPN’s no logs policy works to protect your online privacy and anonymity. We recommend using NordVPN if you are a casual user. While the VPN excels in security, it’s user-friendly and cost effective making it ideal for VPN beginners.
Astrill also has a safe and transparent logging policy that permanently deletes all recorded information once your active VPN session has ended. This allows the provider to maintain performance while still protecting your privacy. Astrill is a more expensive, technical service but its flexibility and additional features make it an excellent choice for advanced users.
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By contrast, Tor is a community-based network. It relies on a random, decentralized network of servers run by volunteers, which means users do not have to place their trust in a private company, their ISP, or any other third party.
At no point does a server have access to both who you are and what you are doing.
How to Stay Safe on Tor
Most of the risks associated with Tor can be resolved by changing your browsing behavior. In order to stay anonymous online, you must avoid behavior that might result in an information leak or enable an onlooker to infer your identity.
Some healthy skepticism can keep you safe here. It is wise to assume that someone is always watching you.
To keep safe online, we do not recommend using Tor unless it is absolutely necessary. If you’re in a position where Tor is your only option, follow our advice below to use Tor safely:
Avoid connecting to the same VPN server with and without the Tor browser
Avoid torrenting (it slows the network) — and BitTorrent especially
Disable JavaScript, which can expose your identity
Keep your operating system up-to-date
Avoid using the Tor browser Bundle (Firefox vulnerabilities make it easier to expose your identity)
If you use Tor like a normal browser it will almost certainly result in DNS or IP leaks. Other applications such as email and other web browsers aren’t funnelled through the Tor network. It is therefore not safe to log into personal accounts such as online banking, email and social media profiles.
Here’s a more detailed explanation of the most important steps to stay safe using Tor:
Install Anti-Malware Software
The Tor Project advises users to regularly check for malware and viruses. While the Tor network itself is secure, it is known to have vulnerabilities that make it possible for infiltrators to spread malware to your device via compromised exit nodes.
In 2014, sensitive data was stolen from Tor users after a Russian hacker inserted malicious code into downloads within the Onion network.
Before using Tor, it is important to install anti-malware software on your device to identify and protect against malware sent by malicious exit nodes.
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Is the TOR network safe?
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the "tor" "network" is "safe".. it is "safe" to use the "tor" "network".
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https://www.cyberghostvpn.com/en_US/privacyhub/is-tor-safe/
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Is Tor Safe? 6 Things You Need to Know About the Tor Browser ...
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Tor Safety Precautions
What Is Tor?
Tor (the Onion Router) is a long-standing privacy pioneer. Tor uses several encryptions, tunneling, and IP cloaking layers (hence the onion reference) to protect your privacy on the web.
The global Tor community involves thousands of volunteers who believe “everyone has the right to enjoy private access to an uncensored web”. The Tor Project has brought the world privacy-focused technologies, including the popular Tor Browser.
The Tor browser is free and open-source software running on Mozilla’s Firefox browser. It lets you search privately and visit any website you like. It’s also the only way to access the dark web.
Tor is a web browser much like Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, but with one major difference. Tor makes it extremely difficult for anyone to track your browsing activity.
How, you ask? Well, Tor makes you look like any other user, so it’s difficult for trackers to ‘fingerprint’ you based on your browser and device information. Tor then encrypts your online traffic and reroutes it through several random servers around the world. It’s like how taking a zigzaggy route might help you lose anyone trailing you on the road.
When you connect to Tor’s network, anyone tracking your Internet connection can’t see what sites you visit, and the sites can’t track your physical location. Tor also has digital platforms, allowing you to share files and communicate without exposing your real IP address or location.
What Is Tor?
People use the Tor browser to access geo-restricted content, bypass censorship, and visit the dark web. Organizations, journalists, whistleblowers, and anyone who wants to keep their internet activity private rely on Tor to communicate online in complete confidence.
In countries with restrictions on free speech, activists like Edward Snowden use Tor to protect their information, sources, and identities. Tor helps people living under repressive regimes to bypass online censorship and gain access to blocked sites from anywhere in the world. For example, during the 2010 Arab Spring, Tor protected people’s identity online and gave them access to critical resources, social media, and blocked news websites.
Ordinary people who want to avoid someone watching their online activity browse the internet using Tor. Tor lets you post on websites without sharing your location, making it ideal for improving your privacy when discussing sensitive topics. Tor has also made it possible for domestic abuse and rape survivors, or people with illnesses, to get the support they need without exposing themselves to danger.
It’s important to remember this protection only applies to Tor browser traffic. It doesn’t protect any other application on your system (including other browsers), so you still need a good VPN when using Tor.
Is Tor Safe?
While Tor improves your online privacy, it’s certainly not sniper-proof. You still need to watch out for:
Surveillance Agencies
In the past, the FBI, CIA, and NSA have all been able to crack Tor’s security and expose Tor users’ identities and activities. To their credit, Tor’s people constantly work to patch up any weaknesses, but mistakes do happen.
Google’s All-Seeing Eye
As Tor works with the Mozilla Firefox browser, and Google is the default search engine on Firefox (and generates 95% of Mozilla’s revenue) you could still have cause to fear Google tracking you through your account and search activity. If so, log out of your Google account and switch to a more private search engine like DuckDuckGo or Startpage or protect yourself with other measures like using a VPN.
Snitching ISPs
Your ISP is another problem. Some ISPs stop your connection when they see you’re using Tor. They could even decide to report you to law enforcement. Several court cases have seen individual Tor users charged with engaging in illegal activities on the dark web. This means the law enforcement still has ways and means to get their hands on your data–even if you use Tor. Use a VPN to prevent your ISP from knowing you are using Tor and reporting you.
Cybercrooks
Tor won’t stop cybercriminals, viruses, and other malware from hiding in the sites you visit–especially on the dark web. You still need to use a good antivirus software and think before you click.
Bad Nodes
Another Tor risk factor is a bad exit node, where the final node in the relay exposes your activity and IP. Malicious server hosts could record your data to sell it or use it to blackmail you. Surveillance agencies also run a number of Tor exit nodes to keep tabs on users.
You can protect yourself against these risks with CyberGhost VPN and a decent antivirus software.
6 Things to Remember About Tor
Now that we’ve covered the basics, here are 6 things you need to understand about Tor.
At each stop, another encryption layer is peeled off (like an onion), making it difficult for websites to trace your online activity back to you.
2. Multilayered Security
Tor has more features designed to protect your online privacy than any other browser.
Encrypted Traffic
Tor relays and encrypts your traffic as it passes over the network to protect your identity.
IP Masking
Tor hides your real IP address so websites and snoopers don’t know who you are or what you’re up to.
Blocks Trackers
Tor isolates every site you visit so third-party trackers and ads can’t follow you from site to site.
Blocks Fingerprinting
Tor Browser is engineered to make your digital fingerprint almost exactly like every other Tor user. This way, no one can identify you based on your browser and device information.
Bin Your History
When you close your tabs, and all your browsing records (history, cookies, form data) disappear for good. Every search is a clean slate.
3. Tor’s Free
It’s easy to be suspicious of Tor Browser because it’s free. If it’s free, you’re the product, right? Tor is also partially US government-funded, which will raise some eyebrows. Tor was originally used as a tool to allow for anonymous communication within the US Navy. It has some people fearing the US government and if it still has secret backdoor access to Tor. If this were the case, volunteers who analyze the open-source code would surely pick it up.
After doing some digging myself, I’m convinced Tor is kosher. Though Tor started as a government-run project, today it’s entirely volunteer-operated and suitably transparent. I’d go as far as encouraging you to make a donation or volunteer to run a server for Tor to remain free.
4. Tor’s Legal (in Most Places)
Tor is perfectly legal in most Western countries. It only becomes illegal when you use it to access sites to trade in illegal materials. Though, you can still get flagged for dodgy activity if someone like your ISP spots you using it. It’s important to protect yourself by connecting to a VPN before using Tor. Enjoy safe and censorship-free browsing with CyberGhost VPN.
5. Tor can be Slow
Be aware that Tor Browser can run a bit slower than other browsers. That’s because your traffic, along with a million others’ traffic, has to pass through several nodes in Tor’s limited server network. It bounces back and forth between continents before it gets to its destination. Nevertheless, Tor’s developers claim it’s getting faster every day, and can only improve the more users donate servers.
6. Tor has a Dark Side
Tor has a bad reputation for being allied with the dark side because it allows anyone to access the dark web. This is the internet’s unregulated “Wild West” where other popular browsers and search engines fear to tread.
Falling within the bigger deep web, the dark web is home to every imaginable illegal activity and covert communication. The dark web isn’t all cloak and daggers though. It can be a haven for journalists, whistleblowers, and ordinary citizens. They can communicate free from censorship, surveillance, and prosecution.
If you’re tempted to take a walk on the wild side, you’ll need Tor as your trusty guard dog. Just watch your step. The dark web can be hazardous for you and your device.
Remember to:
✔️ Get out the second you suspect a site is trying to infect your computer with malware.
✔️ Steer clear of sites involved in illegal activities.
✔️ Keep an eye open for cybercriminals, they’re behind every bush in the dark web
✔️ Use a VPN to fully protect your privacy and keep network attacks at bay.
Pro tip: Travel safely on the dark web with CyberGhost VPN. We encrypt your internet traffic and reroute it through our private servers. This way, your data is wrapped in an invisibility cloak and kept safe from all prying eyes. We also shield you from many other cyber threats lurking on the dark web.
How to Download the Tor Browser
Tor browser is available on Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android*. It’s easy to find and download the current version for your operating system from the official Tor site.
The installation process for Tor Browser works just like any other software. Once installed, the browser will open automatically and you can use it like any other web browser.
*Got an iPhone? Tor won’t work for you, but you can always try the Onion Browser app. This Tor alternative is open source, uses Tor routing, and people who work closely with the Tor Project developed it.
How to Explore with Tor Safely
Don’t Overshare
When you visit a website using Tor, the site doesn’t know who or where you are. Don’t fill in forms or sign in anywhere or you’ll give the game away. If you submit your name, email, phone number, or any other personal information, you’re no longer anonymous to the site.
Adjust Tor Settings
For maximum privacy and security, turn the settings up to ‘Safest.’ This will keep you safe if Tor gets hacked. It also helps to reduce online tracking to almost zero. Some websites won’t work as well, but it’s the price you pay for privacy these days.
Update Your Antivirus
Even with your safety settings at their highest, bizarre things can and do happen on the dark web. You need a decent antivirus program to protect yourself and always make sure it’s up to date. The CyberGhost Security Suite comes with a cutting-edge antivirus.
Use HTTPS websites
Tor encrypts your traffic to and within the Tor network, but not from the exit node to the final destination site. While Tor Browser uses HTTPS Everywhere to force encryption, not all sites support it. You should still keep an eye on the URL bar to ensure the websites you visit are safe. Check if they have a padlock or onion icon in the address bar, start with https://, and the domain name looks correct.
Think Before You Click
Avoid clicking on links you don’t know. This is your best defense against the scams, malware, and viruses which dominate the dark web.
Use a VPN
Cover yourself with extra protection layers and use a VPN with Tor. A VPN encrypts and protects your traffic, even after it leaves the Tor network. This way, malicious exit nodes can’t expose you, and other third parties can’t track your location. It also prevents your ISP or anyone else from seeing what you’re up to. This is crucial in countries where just using Tor raises a flag.
A quality VPN like CyberGhost keeps all your online activity hidden from ISPs, cybercriminals, governments, and anyone else lurking in the cyber bushes.
How to Use Tor Browser with CyberGhost VPN
Tor-over-VPN
This is the most common way to use Tor with a VPN. First you connect to your VPN, then open Tor. Your VPN encrypts your entire connection and routes your traffic through its secure servers before sending any of it through Tor. This way, your ISP can’t see you’re using Tor and all of your data is private, not just your browsing data. Here’s how to do it:
Pro tip: For optimal speeds, connect to a server close to your physical location.
VPN-over-Tor
You could also opt for the VPN-over-Tor method, but currently this setup is not possible with CyberGhost, or with most VPNs for that matter. The reason for this is that it’s very complicated to configure and doesn’t add that much security over the above method.
For interest’s sake, though, here’s how VPN-over-Tor works:
First, you connect to the Tor network through the Tor browser, and only then activate your VPN. This reconnects you through the VPN’s adapter and network, which means your exit node will be an IP from the VPN network, not a Tor IP. As such, you don’t get access to the exclusive resources available to Tor users, such as access to the dark web.
To enable VPN-over-Tor, your VPN must have an active onion domain (VPN servers hosted in the Tor network) to work as intended. So, unless your VPN provider has a feature to enable VPN-over-Tor, this is not achievable.
It’s important to note that VPN-over-Tor is not as safe as the first option (Tor-over-VPN) and even Tor itself doesn’t recommend it. The main reason is because this setup exposes your Tor use to your ISP.
The only reason to try this setup is if you don’t trust your VPN with your secrets. In that case, my best advice would be to switch to a trustworthy VPN service like CyberGhost.
Here at CyberGhost, your privacy is our priority. We follow a strict No-Logs policy, which means we never collect, store or share any or your data. Based in Romania, we’re outside of any surveillance alliances and can happily ignore any legal requests to hand over your data. Just take a look at our recent Transparency Report to see how many requests we’ve declined – all of them!
For improved online security, rather go with the first (Tor-over-VPN) setup and use a trustworthy VPN like CyberGhost.
Why Choose CyberGhost VPN
Easy to Use
CyberGhost is a beginner-friendly, easy-to-use VPN with no fuss. Connect in a click to one of our 9000+ secure servers in 90+ countries and enjoy a high-speed ride to a restriction-free world wide web.
Leak-Proof
CyberGhost VPN shields your digital identity with DNS and IP leak protection. This stops your device from accidentally leaking your DNS requests or IP address, despite having a VPN on. We also have an automatic Kill Switch to protect you if your connection ever drops unexpectedly.
No Logs
Since we’re based in Romania, we’re exempt from any surveillance alliances and aren’t obligated to hand your data over to any authorities. We also follow a strict No-Logs policy, meaning we don’t monitor or record your activities.
A VPN for Every Device
If you can run Tor on your device, you can run CyberGhost VPN as well. We have dedicated apps for Android, Windows, macOS, and even iOS devices. You could even cover all your devices in one go with CyberGhost VPN on your router. However you want it, you’ve got it in a single CyberGhost VPN subscription, protecting up to 7 devices simultaneously.
Final Thoughts
Tor is without a doubt a godsend for privacy advocates everywhere. It’s a powerful private browser that lets you surf the web with a higher degree of security.
That said, you need a few more privacy essentials on your side to be safe online. Along with a powerful antivirus software, you need a quality VPN like CyberGhost. We’ll hide your Tor usage from your ISP (and anyone else spying on you) and improve your online privacy.
Download CyberGhost VPN now and find out why millions of Tor-ists never step foot into the dark web, or anywhere else online without additional protection.
FAQ
Can you be tracked on Tor?
It’s highly unlikely for someone to track you on the Tor network. That said, ISPs and some governments monitor the Tor network’s major entry and exit nodes to block and spy on individual users. Any apps or sites you access without the Tor browser could expose you to tracking.
CyberGhost VPN will keep you invisible with end-to-end, system-wide military-grade encryption, no matter what application you use.
Is Tor legal?
Yes, Tor is legal in most countries, but it does host illegal content. Simply connecting to Tor can make your ISP suspicious. Use a VPN like CyberGhost along with Tor to protect your digital identity and hide all your online activity from your ISP and others, including the fact you’re connecting to Tor. That way, you avoid raising any alarms.
Is Tor free?
Yes, The Tor Browser is free to download and use. It’s also free to distribute as long as you follow the Tor Project’s license. Watch out for fake sites trying to charge you to download Tor. Remember to first connect to a reliable VPN like CyberGhost before using Tor to stay safe online. Find out what others are saying about CyberGhost VPN.
Does Tor work on mobile devices?
Tor works on Android but not on iOS. You can use an app called the Onion Browser. It’s open-source and uses Tor routing, and the Tor Project recommends it. Just like Tor, Onion Browser is far safer when combined with CyberGhost VPN. You can get our iOS app here.
Why is Tor slow?
Tor is slower than your usual browser because it encrypts your traffic and relays it through several nodes before it reaches its final destination. This can cause some bottlenecks and latency issues. That’s why you’ll need a super-fast VPN like CyberGhost to browse with Tor without causing any further holdups.
Should you use a VPN with Tor?
A VPN can patch up some of Tor’s privacy gaps.
For example, even if Tor encrypts and anonymizes traffic running through its network, malicious actors could intercept your data at the entry or exit nodes to reveal who you are and what you’re doing.
A VPN prevents your ISP from seeing you’re connected to Tor to avoid any suspicion. With a good VPN like CyberGhost, you’ll also enjoy unlimited bandwidth, advanced AES-256-bit encryption, and automatic Wi-Fi protection on up to 7 devices simultaneously, all backed by our 45-day money-back guarantee.
Which is better–VPN-over-Tor or Tor-over-VPN?
Tor-over-VPN is easier and safer. The Tor-over-VPN approach means you first connect to your VPN, then open Tor just like you’d open any other browser. The VPN encrypts your entire connection and routes your traffic through its secure servers before connecting to Tor.
It protects all your traffic and your ISP (or anyone else) can’t see you’re using Tor. The only drawback is your VPN can’t protect you from malicious exit nodes since your traffic becomes unencrypted once it reaches its destination.
If you don’t trust your VPN provider, you may want to go the VPN-over-Tor route. With the VPN-over-Tor approach, you first connect to Tor, then connect through your VPN. This method requires some manual configuration and an onion domain from your VPN. Most VPNs don’t have one, though.
Note: Tor’s developers don’t recommend this method and very few VPNs can be configured to work with Tor that way around.
No, DuckDuckGo is a private search engine and the default search engine on Tor. It offers more security and privacy than most search engines because it doesn’t collect your data or track your searches. It also doesn’t personalize your search results based on previous searches.
The deep web includes all websites you can’t access through a regular search engine. That means dark web sites, but also private sites like corporate intranets, databases, online banking platforms, and other sites you can only access with login credentials.
Within the deep web, you get the dark web–the part you can’t access without Tor. Dark web sites don’t have URLs ending in .com or .org, but rather .onion, which is why they’re called onion sites. Many organizations have their own onion sites to protect their users’ privacy and help get around censorship. The dark web teems with illegal activities, but it’s also a haven for free speech and dissent.
You could, but we don’t recommend it. You have no guarantee a free VPN offers proper privacy protection, won’t log and sell your data to third parties, or can give you a decent connection. For only $2.15 a month for our 3-year plan, CyberGhostcan set you up with an affordable and reliable VPN to keep you protected on all your devices.
Author Kristi Hansen
Kristi has been tracking the latest advances in technology for over a decade. She’s known for compiling useful tips and hacks to help people stay safe online. Aside from being a gifted napper, she’s probably the most talented Netflix binge-watcher you’ll find.
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About us
Our mission is to help you navigate the ever-changing world of privacy and cybersecurity. We believe knowledge is the key to staying safe and protected online. And we’re always here to keep you informed.
Gary Kovacs
CEO of AVG Technologies
Privacy is not an option, and it shouldn't be the price we accept for just getting on the Internet.
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It’s like how taking a zigzaggy route might help you lose anyone trailing you on the road.
When you connect to Tor’s network, anyone tracking your Internet connection can’t see what sites you visit, and the sites can’t track your physical location. Tor also has digital platforms, allowing you to share files and communicate without exposing your real IP address or location.
What Is Tor?
People use the Tor browser to access geo-restricted content, bypass censorship, and visit the dark web. Organizations, journalists, whistleblowers, and anyone who wants to keep their internet activity private rely on Tor to communicate online in complete confidence.
In countries with restrictions on free speech, activists like Edward Snowden use Tor to protect their information, sources, and identities. Tor helps people living under repressive regimes to bypass online censorship and gain access to blocked sites from anywhere in the world. For example, during the 2010 Arab Spring, Tor protected people’s identity online and gave them access to critical resources, social media, and blocked news websites.
Ordinary people who want to avoid someone watching their online activity browse the internet using Tor. Tor lets you post on websites without sharing your location, making it ideal for improving your privacy when discussing sensitive topics. Tor has also made it possible for domestic abuse and rape survivors, or people with illnesses, to get the support they need without exposing themselves to danger.
It’s important to remember this protection only applies to Tor browser traffic. It doesn’t protect any other application on your system (including other browsers), so you still need a good VPN when using Tor.
Is Tor Safe?
While Tor improves your online privacy, it’s certainly not sniper-proof. You still need to watch out for:
Surveillance Agencies
In the past, the FBI, CIA, and NSA have all been able to crack Tor’s security and expose Tor users’ identities and activities. To their credit, Tor’s people constantly work to patch up any weaknesses, but mistakes do happen.
Google’s All-Seeing Eye
As Tor works with the Mozilla Firefox browser, and Google is the default search engine on Firefox (and generates 95%
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Is the TOR network safe?
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the "tor" "network" is "safe".. it is "safe" to use the "tor" "network".
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https://vpnoverview.com/privacy/anonymous-browsing/is-tor-safe/
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Is Tor Still Safe to Use? | VPNOverview
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Is Tor Safe to Use?
Tor is a special web browser that anonymizes your internet traffic by sending it through multiple Tor computers. This ensures that nobody is able to see where data is coming from and where it’s going. Tor browser makes it difficult for governments or websites to link your browsing activity to you and therefore enhances your privacy online. But is it safe to use Tor?
Well, like any other system, it has its weaknesses. Your system can still be hacked, you can still get malware when browsing with Tor — especially if you use it to access the dark web. It’s highly advisable to take some precautions when using the Tor browser:
Use the Safest option when determining your security level. This option can be found by going to the Privacy & Setting in the menu.
Make sure you have reliable antivirus software installed on your device to protect against viruses and other malware.
Use a good VPN along with Tor. This will add an essential extra layer of security to ensure none of your information is visible to third parties. We recommend NordVPN as it’s highly secure and user-friendly.
NordVPN
Read the full article below for everything you need to know about staying safe while using Tor browser.
For many, The Onion Router (Tor) has become a household name. It’s a guaranteed safe way to stay anonymous on the internet. In theory, no one can see what you’re doing online when you use the Tor browser. Moreover, it’s one of the easiest ways to access the dark web.
Over the past years, however, it has become apparent on multiple occasions that Tor’s security suffers from some serious problems. The FBI, CIA, and NSA have all been able to crack Tor’s security. So is Tor safe to use? Is it still a decent way to anonymously surf the web?
The short answer is yes. You can use Tor browser to surf anonymously. However, we strongly discourage you from using just Tor for online protection.
Multiple incidents have shown that unsafe use of Tor can result in a severe privacy leak or even issues with your online safety. Think of viruses, criminals, and hacks. This article will shed some more light on these problems with Tor.
To protect yourself as well as possible, it’s best to use Tor browser in combination with a decent virtual private network (VPN) and an antivirus. A trustworthy VPN you could consider is NordVPN. This service has excellent encryption, is very user-friendly, and has thousands of servers available for you to choose from.
How Tor Works
Tor browser is a special browser that anonymizes your internet traffic. Your data is sent past multiple Tor computers. With this process, the browser ensures that outsiders are unable to see where that data came from and where it’s going.
In other words: Tor browser makes it a lot more difficult for websites and even governments to link your online browsing behavior back to you. At every stop (or node) that Tor uses to cloak your data, an extra layer of encryption is added or removed, depending on which way the traffic is going. Therefore, using the Tor browser should result in a safe and anonymous internet experience.
Using Tor isn’t illegal. The browser is used by many different people, among them those who would like to stay anonymous because they’re using the platform to criticize the dictatorship of the country they’re living in.
In these cases, Tor ensures freedom of speech. People using Tor still have the possibility to speak freely about political issues, without having to fear getting prosecuted for it.
Simultaneously, there are also people that use the Tor browser out of principle. They simply don’t want to be tracked by companies and marketers. However, it has come to light that Tor isn’t as safe as we all assumed.
Tor’s Safety Breached
Several court cases have shown that illegal activities on the dark web can sometimes be traced back to specific individuals using Tor browser. Hence, it seems possible to discover and collect a user’s data — including their IP address — even when they are being protected by Tor.
In the past, Tor users have been found out because the National Security Agency (NSA) in the U.S. owned a huge part of the Tor nodes. The NSA could clearly see who used those nodes. This was problematic for users who concern themselves with illegal practices. The moment those users are identifiable, the police can track them down and arrest them.
Tor is no longer as safe as it once was. Hackers constantly attempt to breach Tor’s security. Many groups, organizations, and individuals want access to the information Tor browser is hiding and try to get that time and again.
In 2014, one group of researchers succeeded. Financed by the government, they took a closer look at Tor browser and were able to collect information from the browser for months on end.
Weaknesses in the Tor software can surface in less compromising ways, as well: in 2017, users found a leak that could easily make IP addresses of Linux and macOS users visible.
Of course, Tor didn’t sit around to watch all this happen: whenever a possible leak in the system was discovered, those leaks were patched as soon as possible.
However, in February 2021, researchers reported that about 27% of Tor’s exit nodes (shown in the infographic above) were controlled by a malicious actor tracking users’ dark web activity. So it’s important to note that Tor is not completely safe and anonymous, and does have some inherent risks.
Which Risks Do I Face When I Use Tor?
Practice shows that Tor isn’t 100% safe. Like every other system, it has its weaknesses.
Even though leaks are constantly being patched, you can never be sure whether these patches happen in time. Aside from this, there are more reasons to be worried about the safety that Tor offers. Here are a few.
First of all, Tor users are regularly hacked. This usually isn’t Tor’s fault. Instead, these hacks are possible because the user’s device is insufficiently protected.
This could happen to anyone, which means every user should be aware of it. Criminals, viruses, and other malicious content could be hiding on the web pages you visit — especially when you’re surfing the dark web. Therefore, it’s always important to carefully consider every click.
A second danger is that you could still be tracked online, even when using Tor. Bad exit nodes are one example of how this could happen.
As illustrated in the picture at the top of this page, an exit node is the last stop before you’re connected to a website or page. If the person who controls this node wants to, they could see all the traffic passing through it. If this happens — as was the case with the NSA — your internet data is no longer private. There’s someone else who can directly see which pages you’re visiting.
One thing worth mentioning is that you usually do stay anonymous in such a situation. Even the owner of the exit node isn’t able to trace down the source of the data, because it’s been through at least two other nodes before that.
Can I Use Tor Browser for Anonymous Browsing?
You won’t have to worry too much about people trying to track you online if you only use Tor to browse the regular web. For most governments and other parties, that kind of traffic isn’t relevant enough to trace. Instead, they focus on uncovering illegal activities, some as horrifying as the spreading of child porn on the dark web.
Moreover, there’s no need to be wary of the initial intended audience of Tor either. Tor was initially built to allow for anonymous communication within the US Navy. Some people fear that the US Navy still has secret access to the traffic going through the browser.
This is, however, not at all the case. Because Tor is open-source, official organizations like the Navy won’t be able to hide any secret entrances within the code. Open source means that everyone has access to Tor’s code. An oddity, therefore, would be discovered and eliminated within moments.
In short, if you use the internet for general browsing, you don’t have too much to fear. Any online surveillance very likely won’t focus on you. However, this doesn’t mean you should use Tor without a care in the world. Before you tackle the internet with this browser, you should be aware of the dangers of the dark web.
Beware: Tor and the Dark Web
Tor allows you to access this hidden part of the internet. Other popular browsers, such as Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Firefox, can’t do this. The dark web is part of the much bigger deep web.
The dark web is unregulated and, therefore, quite fascinating. Sometimes it’s even terrifying. It contains bizarre websites you’d never encounter on the ‘normal’ internet. Among other things, you could come across marketplaces for drugs, weapons, and illegal credit cards.
Not every website on this dark part of the internet is as dodgy as this. Some pages allow people to speak their minds freely without having to fear prosecution from a dictatorial regime. The unregulated nature of the dark web results in a space that holds both the best and the worst of humanity.
Tor gives you access to the entirety of the dark web: it’s internet freedom in a browser. However, this freedom isn’t always safe.
Always be careful when you use Tor to visit the dark web. This part of the internet isn’t monitored, meaning it can be very dangerous for you and your computer. Try not to get caught up in websites that infect your computer with malware. Stay away from websites that concern themselves with illegal activities. And finally, beware of hackers — they’re hiding everywhere.
A Glance at Tor’s Safety Features
Tor is the centerpiece of the internet safety niche. No other browser matches its security features and encryption abilities. But what safety tools does Tor offer exactly?
By default, you don’t need to make many adjustments apart from choosing among Tor’s security levels. The browser automatically applies the following out-of-the-box:
Blocks fingerprinting and tracking
Clears history and forms data
Cloaks your IP address
That’s why you’ll notice that Tor doesn’t launch instantly as other web browsers do. This is due to the tedious but necessary process whereby Tor connects to several circuits that contain relays, layers, proxies, nodes, servers, and bridges. It’s an integral part of the anonymization and encryption process that is there to shroud you in as much privacy and anonymity as possible.
Tor Browser Onion Services
Simply put, an onion service is a website that can only be accessed through the Tor network. Tor Browser provides an option to prioritize onion services when available.
Some websites you can access on a regular browser (such as Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome) also have onion services. News websites like the New York Times and BBC News have onion services for people who may not be able to access their public websites because of government censorship.
An onion service’s address looks different than a regular link. An onion address is a string of 56 mostly random letters and numbers that ends with “.onion”.
So, for instance, the Freedom of the Press Foundation’s regular website address looks like https://freedom.press but its onion address is http://fpfjxcrmw437h6z2xl3w4czl55kvkmxpapg37bbopsafdu7q454byxid.onion/.
When your Tor browser is on an onion service, you’ll see an icon of an onion beside the website’s URL.
Choose “Options.” A new tab should open with the address “about:preferences”.
From the menu on the left, pick “Privacy & Security.”
Scroll down until you find “Security Levels.”
All three of the security level options are vastly different and result in an equally different browsing experience.
The Standard setting is the default setting and enables all website features.
The Safer setting disables potentially risky website features, which can cause some websites to stop functioning normally. It also blocks JavaScript on non-HTTPS websites and makes WebGL, audio, and video files click-to-play.
The final setting, Safest, is the strictest setting. It blocks all website functions except for fundamental features and basic services. This setting has a harsh effect on media, scripts, and images. JavaScript is also disabled on all sites, which can cause websites to stop functioning completely.
If you are looking for an optimal level of security, then you should stick to the Safest setting. Casual users of Tor should be fine with a more balanced and relaxed setting like Safer.
Integration between Brave Browser and Tor
Brave Browser, initially released in 2019, is a free, open-source privacy-focused web browser that is widely used and well-known as a strong advocate for online privacy and safety. Brave also boasts built-in ad-blocking capabilities, as well as BAT cryptocurrency user rewards.
Privacy aficionados will know that Brave has famously partnered up with Tor by managing some of their connection relays. It has also integrated Tor functionality into its browser.
This feature within the Brave browser is called the Private Tabs with Tor mode, which is currently available only for the desktop version of Brave browser.
Within the desktop version of Brave browser, you’ll find a menu in the top right corner containing the following options:
New Tab
New Window
New Private Window
New Private Window With Tor
The first two options refer to the regular browsing you likely already do with your default browser. In these modes, anonymity functions and clearing of search history do not take place.
The New private window option is Brave’s own anonymous mode, similar to Google Chrome’s Incognito mode and Mozilla Firefox’s Private window. Using this option does not anonymize you in any way, but it does clear your search history, forms, cookies, and site data.
The New private window with Tor option reroutes your connection through three computers in the Tor network, which anonymizes your activity to a certain extent. You’ll notice a slowing down in your browsing experience if you use this. Keep in mind, however, that using the standalone Tor browser is a more complete and safer browsing option — even Brave says so.
How Do I Safely Use Tor?
There are plenty of dangers waiting for you when you’re considering changing your browser to Tor. These dangers range from privacy risks to more serious attacks on your safety, such as viruses and other forms of malware. In both cases, it’s important to arm yourself as well as possible.
Here are a few tips that’ll help you get there.
1. Use the security level settings within the browser
Turn this option in your settings all the way up to ‘Safest.’ This ensures you remain unscarred if Tor is hacked by means of JavaScript. It also helps to minimize online tracking.
Some websites won’t work as well when you’ve got maximum security enabled, but that’s a relatively small price to pay for protection.
2. Install good antivirus software
Even with the safety settings of the Tor browser optimized, weird things can happen. This is especially dangerous on the dark web.
If you use a trustworthy antivirus program, a lot of these problems can be prevented. Once you have installed good antivirus software, always make sure it’s up to date so you’ve got the best and most recent protection.
3. Use Tor alongside a good VPN
Combining two privacy solutions ensures maximum protection. A VPN encrypts and anonymizes your online data traffic. This means none of your information will be visible, and neither can any of it be traced back to you.
A good VPN, combined with the options the Tor browser offers, provides you with double protection, making surfing a lot safer. Indeed, they’re the most basic tools recommended to users who want to explore the dark web. You can’t have just one or the other; you need both.
In Conclusion
Like all browsers, Tor has its fair share of weaknesses that needs constant improvement. However, no other browser available can provide you with the safety and encryption you need to browse the dark web. Partnered with sensible browsing habits, a good antivirus, and a reliable VPN, your Tor experience can be completely safe and worry-free.
Have a question about Tor’s safety you’d like a quick answer for? Keep reading to find out more.
Is Tor safe?
Generally speaking, using Tor is safe. In fact, Tor was created to browse the internet more freely, safely, and anonymously, anonymizing your traffic by guiding it through different servers.
However, Tor can be used for some riskier things, as well, such as accessing the dark web. If you want to know what the dangers of browsing the dark web are and how to safely use Tor, read this article.
How can I safely use Tor?
Tor is already an anonymous and safe browser as is. However — especially when using Tor to access the dark web –danger can always strike.
That’s why we recommend taking another precaution: use a VPN. After all, a VPN offers some significant privacy and safety advantages. Learn more about VPNs in this article.
Does Tor have disadvantages?
Tor’s main disadvantage is its slower connection speeds. Tor anonymizes and protects your data traffic quite well — however, to do this, Tor guides your traffic through at least three external servers spread out over the world. This slows down your connection quite a bit.
Chief Editor/Coordinator
Priscilla is VPNOverview’s chief editor and has several years of experience in VPNs and product reviews. She helps coordinate the team and ensures that all content on our website is honest and accessible.
I was hoping to get something specific on how the Tor browser might fail to keep me private. But unfortunately your article had very little to say specifically other than the owner of the exit node could be a bad guy. So I guess I still don’t know.
It’s true that your privacy could still be compromised when using Tor. You might find the information you’re looking for here in our ‘access the dark web’ article. We don’t necessarily talk about the pitfalls of Tor, but we do give some tips on Tor settings and why you should or shouldn’t change them.
As far as we can find, using the Tor browser doesn’t automatically turn your device into an exit node. This means that traffic will not look like it’s coming from your device. However, in the past, Tor users that have set up their computer as an exit node (for example privacy activists) have been investigated by law enforcement agencies. Sometimes these people owning the exit node were mistakingly investigated as the person doing illegal things on the dark web. We couldn’t find any information on regular Tor users being investigated because of traffic going through their computer, but Tor users who have their computer set up as an exit node might be investigated and even have their devices confiscated in rare cases.
Hence our claim that the person who owns the exit nodes COULD see the information. This isn’t a given, but a possibility. SSL encryption ensures that the content of web pages and your actions on them aren’t visible to anyone but you and the website. However, not all websites use SSL and not every SSL certificate is legit, meaning the forms you fill in still won’t be as private as you might believe them to be. You can read more about this in our article about encryption.
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Is Tor Safe to Use?
Tor is a special web browser that anonymizes your internet traffic by sending it through multiple Tor computers. This ensures that nobody is able to see where data is coming from and where it’s going. Tor browser makes it difficult for governments or websites to link your browsing activity to you and therefore enhances your privacy online. But is it safe to use Tor?
Well, like any other system, it has its weaknesses. Your system can still be hacked, you can still get malware when browsing with Tor — especially if you use it to access the dark web. It’s highly advisable to take some precautions when using the Tor browser:
Use the Safest option when determining your security level. This option can be found by going to the Privacy & Setting in the menu.
Make sure you have reliable antivirus software installed on your device to protect against viruses and other malware.
Use a good VPN along with Tor. This will add an essential extra layer of security to ensure none of your information is visible to third parties. We recommend NordVPN as it’s highly secure and user-friendly.
NordVPN
Read the full article below for everything you need to know about staying safe while using Tor browser.
For many, The Onion Router (Tor) has become a household name. It’s a guaranteed safe way to stay anonymous on the internet. In theory, no one can see what you’re doing online when you use the Tor browser. Moreover, it’s one of the easiest ways to access the dark web.
Over the past years, however, it has become apparent on multiple occasions that Tor’s security suffers from some serious problems. The FBI, CIA, and NSA have all been able to crack Tor’s security. So is Tor safe to use? Is it still a decent way to anonymously surf the web?
The short answer is yes. You can use Tor browser to surf anonymously. However, we strongly discourage you from using just Tor for online protection.
Multiple incidents have shown that unsafe use of Tor can result in a severe privacy leak or even issues with your online safety. Think of viruses, criminals, and hacks.
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Is the TOR network safe?
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the "tor" "network" is "safe".. it is "safe" to use the "tor" "network".
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https://blog.torproject.org/possible-upcoming-attempts-disable-tor-network/
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Possible upcoming attempts to disable the Tor network | The Tor ...
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Possible upcoming attempts to disable the Tor network
The Tor Project has learned that there may be an attempt to incapacitate our network in the next few days through the seizure of specialized servers in the network called directory authorities. (Directory authorities help Tor clients learn the list of relays that make up the Tor network.) We are taking steps now to ensure the safety of our users, and our system is already built to be redundant so that users maintain anonymity even if the network is attacked. Tor remains safe to use.
We hope that this attack doesn't occur; Tor is used by many good people. If the network is affected, we will immediately inform users via this blog and our Twitter feed @TorProject, along with more information if we become aware of any related risks to Tor users.
The Tor network provides a safe haven from surveillance, censorship, and computer network exploitation for millions of people who live in repressive regimes, including human rights activists in countries such as Iran, Syria, and Russia. People use the Tor network every day to conduct their daily business without fear that their online activities and speech (Facebook posts, email, Twitter feeds) will be tracked and used against them later. Millions more also use the Tor network at their local internet cafe to stay safe for ordinary web browsing.
Tor is also used by banks, diplomatic officials, members of law enforcement, bloggers, and many others. Attempts to disable the Tor network would interfere with all of these users, not just ones disliked by the attacker.
Every person has the right to privacy. This right is a foundation of a democratic society. For example, if Members of the British Parliament or US Congress cannot share ideas and opinions free of government spying, then they cannot remain independent from other branches of government. If journalists are unable to keep their sources confidential, then the ability of the press to check the power of the government is compromised. If human rights workers can't report evidence of possible crimes against humanity, it is impossible for other bodies to examine this evidence and to react. In the service of justice, we believe that the answer is to open up communication lines for everyone, securely and anonymously.
The Tor network provides online anonymity and privacy that allow freedom for everyone. Like freedom of speech, online privacy is a right for all.
[Update Monday Dec 22: So far all is quiet on the directory authority front, and no news is good news.]
[Update Sunday Dec 28: Still quiet. This is good.]
We know Tor probably has nothing to do with the Sony attack; the public don't. They will just believe whatever the government tell them. If the government want Tor to be down, they can put the blame on Tor (regardless of whether the attack really came from Tor), and shut down any servers or personal computers running Tor.
NSA in particular have been looking for a "justifiable cause" to attack TOR recently comment where made to the effect that operatives where"helping the tor team find possible weaknesses".
There are some interesting points to consider
1) many relays are high capacity high speed relays.not the sort of thing you would usually associate with a volunteer network of users.
2) "copyright" holders. have been wanting to find ways to control internet traffic to their advantage. citing"piracy" having not managed to get their way through offician channels their MO is not to try and get under the table agreements allowing them to directly interfere with DNS lockup tables at the backbone level.
3) As has already been pointed out. leaving aside outfits like the silk road drug distribution network criminals, including terrorists DO NOT use tor simple because they KNOW that doing to would bring them to the attention of the authorities .
4) Governments have increasingly been taking the assumption that they, and they alone are entitled to privacy no one else matters. the oft quoted"nothing to hide, nothing to fear" comes to mind and does not hold water.
I note that today(23/12/14 it took several attempts to establish a TOR connection, this is in itself an atypical experience for me usually i am able to establish a connection first try, within 30 seconds. 60 seconds max.
this leads me to believe two possible scenarios are in operation
a) fallback measures are being put into place
or
b) TOR is under active attack.
LOL, I think that North Korea doesn't have a unit 21 of high qualified hackers because it is too dangerous to have them.
1) North Korea is isolated from internet => there is a very little people who understand what these "hackers" do => who will supervise these men? They will be selfsupervised.
2) They have to give them unlimited access to foreign internet (because noone except them understand what they do and wheither they really need this information)
3) The hacker is a freeminded man.
4) 2) + 3) => they will understand all the shit about North Korea and will get angry.
5) because they cannot be controlled, they can start secretely destroying NK from the inside and noone can detemine that.
I think that
1) it is a psyop made to create a casus belli to put the screws on Internet in the US (see http://patch.com/california/studiocity/obama-slams-sony-north-korea-cal⦠)
2) NK is a voluntary scarecrow to frighten the citizens of all the countries of the world. One more reason to distract them from inner problems and remember them that if they require too much freedoms, rights and respect, the state will have to take measures like in NK such as cruel penalties for all law breaking, a collective penalty (very effective multieffect mesure), prohibition all the potentially uncontrollable means of taking freedom (arms, crypto without key escrow, computers without backdoors, radios with possibility to tune it, etc) with very cruel penalties, authoritarian/totalitarian regime enshrined in law, high taxes (to make people think only about that how to survive this taxes (paying them and surviving after it)), etc...
that is a somewhat bogus analysis. you obviously don't understand what brainwashing is, how it works, and or what motivates people to work. Your analysis of the system is done based on purely on western views. Surely if this were the case, there would be no Chineese, American, Russian, or any other nationalist hackers as well. Lets break this down.
>1) North Korea is isolated from internet => there is a very little people who understand what these "hackers" do => who will supervise these men? They will be selfsupervised.
Grew up in an isolated enviroment, being brainwashed since day one that NK is the best, and probably for a long time, that they are the elite of North Korea, and that everything else is pure propaganda. Given there is only 21 of them in a country of 7 million, there is no reason that NK can't give them special privledge that no one else gets, or other carrots, in addition to the brainwashing.
>2) They have to give them unlimited access to foreign internet (because noone except them understand what they do and wheither they really need this information)
and this gives them major leverage in North Korean society. Even if they understood how harmful NK is, they'd have to give up their status as elites. Or mabey even besides NK internet they are still not a fan of the USA and see themselves the way America does, as anti-Imperialist crusaders. Many other anti-USA nations are now sending envoys to NK to warm ties.
>3) The hacker is a freeminded man.
the American/Western hacker tradition grew out of countercultures very unique to America/the west, and its very anti-tech, very anti-intellectual cultures. "Hackers" as we know them, grew up being hated for being as such, by people who hated and feared the machines.
This is not an imperative of the computer using skill. There are no western style self-taught hackers from North Korea. Their hackers are taught, and funded by the state, and most likely developed a culture along radically diffrent lines.
People have this strange notion that everyone in North Korea is getting ready to defect at a moments notice, and that its basicly like East Germany, with no real popular support, or willpower. It is nothing more than rhetoric based on propaganda.
seems you are still trying to play "democracy == usa" card. it's just false pretend. it "was" but now it "is" police state with enormous brain washing capabilities. sure there is small nearly negligible part of usa government structures with sympathy to democracy way but en masse control is in nsa/cia/fbi hands. There is the place where main harm to internet is done and ongoing. And this unhuman structure arise on uncontrolled spending of tax players money and falsifying constitution.
and after all recent disclosures you still trying to speculate on possibility of small number of foreign hackers to "harm" whole internet already owned/controlled by nsa...
Well, actually those NK hackers were trained when they were young children.The authorities needed to do tests to choose those who had gift to study hacking skills and gave them proper educations and training, like sending them abroad (Of course cutting off the contacts of outside is very essential) and then sending them back to the university. NK has a special unit in composed of elite hackers.Their skills are no better
than super hackers from US, UK, Deutschland, Russia etc. Despite this brain wash is still vitally important~
hope can help~
Actually, NK, does have internet in several different open ad closed variations ! Furthermore, there is a Unit 21, in addition to many more dedicated sections and subsections [ with various and different responsibilities ] !
There was an excellent blog on Twitter from @cyberwar, who mapped and scanned many of the different computers and their IP addresses, even so far as to I'd a Macbook.
So, the lesson here is...don't spout unscholarly drivel just to inflate your own ego. Now that you have been properly scolded, I take my leave.
TOR ROCKS PLANET EARTH...NEVER QUIT !
whatever suck up! i have a CCC attack going on and a Hp attack,Label print attack,Power Director attack Going on ever since the X-Box360 attack on Christmas! It Looks like a clean install! But I will mention that I got a mystery update By Microcrap itsef !!!! KB 971033 , once I installed it more SHTF! Microsoftis BAD !
>U.S. officials also tell CNN the hackers routed the attack through servers in countries from Asia, Europe and Latin America, even some in the U.S.
>The hackers used common DNS masking techniques to make it look like it was coming from those places, but the National Security Agency and FBI were able to track it back to North Korea.
>North Korean internet traffic is routed through China, which is one way they are able to hide their activity, but the FBI was still able to trace it back to the origin, sources tell CNN.
This sounds like Tor is totally useless against the NSA and that they are able to see a full path through a Tor circuit back to the Tor client but if they are able to do this why would FBI need to seize Tor directory authority servers for the purpose of investigation?
Tor is not what I would describe as "common DNS masking techniques". It sounds like the Sony people used something much simpler than Tor. For example, a common bad-guy approach is to break into a computer and then route your traffic through it. And a common bad-guy slip-up is to accidentally make a direct connection once because you wanted to see if your attack is working or something like that.
extremely useful advice. falsifier #1 is "U.S. Government and/or U.S. corporations".
bcose as they say 'national security matter, so shut up an eat'.
and it can be just a pr action before attack on nk country. btw is nk in one basket with kgb state?
The Sony hack by Sony was my first thought until they pulled the movie. Even so, if it is re-released it certainly has plenty of free press. And if the leader of North Korea weighs in with a positive review, who knows. He looks ready to enjoy some NBA games and give up on all this fearless leader business.
:-)
Sony pulled the plug because they knew the movie was going to be a flop. Instead of having the balls to admit failure they create the big hack scare and place the blame on someone other than themselves.
of course it's sony hacking sony, helped by US govt.
sony gets to test punk marketing for a movie and manipulates the public to pay for a movie they'd probably normally illegally download by 'mah stars and stripes' patriotism rant.
US govt gets another reason to ramp up sanctions against ronery korea as well as kicking TOR in the head and looking like internet supercops.
US corps play along for their own interests and the paradigm of white hats v black hats is clearly defined for the sheeple so they can go back to sleep.
Greetings Tor.
Your insider may wish to purchase a crash helmet..
As you know Tor was attacked by #LizardSquad @MafiaSquad.
They and #FinestSquad are part of a huge FBI/US intelligence psy op.
I will leave you to ponder upon the implications of this
Good to see the attack was a big fail.
Happy new year Tor...It's gonna be a fun packed one for sure!
If you know any people or groups who misunderstand the value of Tor, you can teach them why trying to undermine the Tor network would harm a lot of good people and generally cause huge collateral damage. Explain how Tor has helped you in your work. Help spread the word.
So, short answer, don't worry too much. We wanted to be safe and tell you just in case it turns into something.
Umm, who wants to and is going to seize which nodes where an why?
Stop with all the veiled silence bullshit, it makes you look stupid, and like some questionable entity.
Torproject is not the only voice and direction of tor, and you're preventing the rest of the voices from speaking freely in support.
To be sure to keep our source safe, we're not providing more details quite yet.
But actually, we don't know many more details than the ones we posted. And as for your 'why', that's an excellent question, and one we've been wrestling with too. There are nine directory authorities, spread around the US and Europe. If they're trying to hunt down particular Tor users, most possible attacks on directory authorities would be unproductive, since those relays don't know anything about what particular Tor users are doing.
Our previous plan had been to sit tight and hope nothing happens. Then we realized that was a silly plan when we could do this one instead.
What exactly is the upside of making the rumor public? Downside is the seizure doesn't actually occur for whatever reason (good so far..) and then Pando publishes a series of 'cry wolf' articles about how Tor is run by delusional paranoids with a persecution complex.
I think it depends on the definition of upside and downside. If there is no attack, then that is good for Tor users. Maybe the attack was delayed or redesigned, or maybe it never actually existed. If this happens, we may never know. There may be repercussions, but it's a necessary risk, because if there is an attack and we didn't say anything then that puts users at risk, and that goes against the purpose of this project.
No (but yes, kind of). The directory authorities know nothing about Tor users, so taking these servers offline or compromising them has no direct impact on the anonymity of users. However, if you control enough of the directory authorities then you can define which relays are in the network. At this point, users can potentially be deanonymized. This is a huge attack, though.
A) Taking over a threshold of directory authorities would tell you nothing about what Tor users did in the past. It would allow you, at worst, to make up a new fake Tor network and try to trick users into switching to it. See my comment below for more details.
B) By "huge attack" I might instead say "hugely expensive attack", at least in terms of political capital and goodwill.
they want it - to own internet and allow only marked with your id-number ip packets. they want to insert in you head identification chip with this number and to trace it (and they have done it with home animals). they want you to be part of their own internet machine. they want to harass you with if you try to not use their "services". they simply want to control you. so please try to read some uncontrolled by them sources(real books?) and think.
Surely each operator has a disaster recovery plan in place already, for more usual events like hardware failure. If the servers were seized, could you all not just execute that, and be up and running again within minutes to hours?
Could authorities replace seized DAs with their own clones that only send users to NSA/GCHQ controlled nodes? Is this possible without knowing DA private keys if you have full control of the hosting server?
It depends what exactly they can extract from each computer. Years ago we separated the directory authority keys into a long-term (offline) key and a medium-term (online) signing key. Directory authorities have their medium-term key expiring at various times: https://consensus-health.torproject.org/#authoritykeys
We've taken some steps recently that we hope will make it quite hard for attackers to extract the medium-term key even if they seize the computer. So for the ones where that hope turns out to be true, they get basically nothing besides disruption by seizing that authority.
If they nonetheless can extract five unexpired signing keys, then they can make up their own consensus and point people to their own relays. That would indeed be really bad. For a bit of consolation, it would be super highly illegal and places like EFF would be happy to mess them up for it. But let's hope that doesn't happen, especially now that we've made clear to them all the collateral damage involved.
In any case, even if just one is seized, we'll likely put out a new Tor release that stops trusting that one. Otherwise they could in theory keep chipping away at the directory authorities (though the expiration dates on the keys will put an upper bound on how effective that approach could be for them).
if you haven't already, you should consider auto-wiping the keys on those servers if motion is detected in their proximity. (assuming they're located somewhere where there normally isn't movement around them, like a cage, anyways.)
from a layer 7 and above perspective.. are you confident that all directory authority operators will be able to detect whether someone may have physically tampered with or replaced a directory authority box?
for example, jake's most likely not going to be in the US anytime soon, although i'm guessing he has friends who could examine the physical integrity of the directory server he runs.
physical custody of keys/boxes has been on my mind lately, since recent TBB releases were signed with erinn's key even though she doesn't work for the tor project anymore.
As for Erinn's key signing Tor Browser packages (and she does indeed still participate in Tor Browser development stuff), check out https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/13407
(And also remember that the builds are reproducible, so the signature is not as important as it would have been in the past.)
thanks for the quick reply; i agree re: signing keys. wasn't trying to cast doubts..just was pointing out that some of my own tor-related assumptions about who physically controls keys came up recently
You should learn more about the directory design and how the threshold of signatures works. I can't quite figure out what you're doing from what you've said, but it sounds likely that you're shooting yourself in the foot.
In particular, configuring your Tor client to use a subset of the current directory authorities could actually make you weaker than configuring all of them, even if you genuinely do trust only that subset.
Honestly, I agree with the poster above. With this threat and the online harassment blog post, you folks are woefully short on *facts*. To me, if you don't share the *reasons* for why you're doing what you're doing, what you're doing is of little use.
It's like the US asking us to trust them, because we can't handle the truth...and we all know how much we trust them.
For a non-profit that's all about openness, Tor sure isn't open when it comes it its own dealings.
I hear that the Tribler network uses a Tor-like protocol without DAs. Anyone can run a bootstrap node, and that's enough to keep the network running apparently.
It looks like bridges for exemple could take on the additional role of bootstrap nodes for Tor.
Has there been any discussion on that ?
I'm not too fond of trusting a couple of servers that may or may not have been seized.
There's not even a warrant cannary page afaik.
The current situation is that nobody knows of a better design that is actually better in practice. The one we have is well-studied and has well-understood downsides, so I'm not eager to move to one that is poorly-studied and has poorly-understood downsides.
As for Tribler, my current understanding is that Tribler provides *significantly* less anonymity than Tor does, and a lot of its weakness comes exactly because it has an easily attacked network discovery mechanism.
If enough directory authorities are controlled than the available hosts can be specified by an attacker and they can specify only their hosts. In your the directory authorities are trusted parties in the other one they are whoever wants and so an attacker can create a ton of those.
Somebody should actually write out the design for this and work through all the details. I bet there will be some interesting, subtle, and devastating attacks on the first couple of versions of this design. More research required!
(Part of the confusion probably is that directory authorities serve a variety of purposes in Tor, to defend against a variety of attacks. To move beyond "yes they do no they don't", somebody should write up a clear explanation of everything directory authorities need to do to serve their purposes well. The above links are a good start there, but see also http://freehaven.net/anonbib/#danezis-pet2008 )
starttls is nsa invention. nobody in his mind should chance protocol after connection. it is like inviting all the spies in the path. right sequence _must_ be as in: service should wait for some information from a client to select own behavior according to that information. if something wrong - drop connection.
It's a shame to not see the country I live in (US) among them. I think it might turn the tide of public opinion if it were more widely accepted that the chilling effect of "passive" communication interference should be grouped with other forms of repression.
This whole North Korean hack thing is so obviously a false flag operation. And who can trust anything the US Government says any more anyway? The worldwide political elite are a haven for crooks, liars, and murderous paedophiles.
fine new name for nsa net - lizardnet. so i see headlines - "lizardnet define new dangerous trend in user behavior - before watching new daily propaganda block they visiting toilet. our new swat teams ready to fight such illegal behavior."
If its false flag then the government has been feeding our media misinformation for years about NK. Everything about the Sony hack fits perfectly and points directly at NK. Not to mention they have reason to not like Sony and lack of rationality to care about getting caught.
i do not like sony so what? and if they have some damage i will not be sorry at all.
but what about damage for everyone because of lowering ttl numbers in dns responces by many corporations? for me its more important than some problems in some corporation.
The messages sound American to me. Like in a comedy where a teenager pretends to be Korean but using cornball Engrish. At one point, the part between the parentheses, they slipped into regular American English.
As for TAO hanging out on it, that seems unlikely -- not because nobody would want to watch it, but because various intelligence agencies already work to surveil large parts of the Internet, and I don't think they need the TAO group to help them there.
I see exclusively big and growing log of "We tried for 15 seconds to connect to 'xxx' using exit yyy at zzz. Retrying on a new circuit" records. So maybe many relays are just fake? Or they allow connections to to sites interesting for nsa operations only? Kind of prefiltering?
You might still be seeing the 15 second timeout thing, if the site you're loading pulls in some third-party component which is unreasonable. And your telnet test to the primary site would not notice this.
"The current situation is that nobody knows of a better design that is actually better in practice. The one we have is well-studied and has well-understood downsides, so I'm not eager to move to one that is poorly-studied and has poorly-understood downsides."
Not necessarily, you could publish the most recent node list via a blockchain transaction. The publishing address would then be the "announce" address which client's would lookup. That scenario would require no writing to the blockchain. What we don't know is how secure that scenario is.
Unfortunately, just adding more DAs doesn't make the system more robust. There's a significant overhead in dirauth communication and the voting process is not as robust as we'd like. We're pretty happy with the set of dirauths we have currently.
The community can do many things to improve the situation. Primarily: donate and educate. Make a financial contribution to Tor Project, be it cash or virtual currency. Educate others about right to privacy. Defend Tor from media attacks labeling it as a nothing but a merchant of death, drugs, and dissidents.
Wait, what?? Donations???
Doesn't the government pay you and your project anymore? Or did you already burn the $100k+ you got and the multi million $ the NSA/DoD/HomelandSec donated to the project this year?
The funding we have from various government agencies comes in the form of specific deliverables. For example, everybody likes funding work on pluggable transports and censorship circumvention (it's uncontroversial to help with providing freedom for "over there"). But nobody cares much about funding stronger anonymity, since they think we have a great handle on it and thus there's no need to work on it. So donations are how we are able to spend developer and researcher time on the things that the world needs but it's hard to find funders for.
Did I miss something? "Our previous plan had been to sit tight and hope nothing happens. Then we realized that was a silly plan when we could do this one instead."
What plan / action is, "this one instead?"
Other than announcing the possible attack, or the already "built in Tor network redundancy," what plan are we talking? But those are good, on their own.
Thanks.
Thanks. And Roger is probably busy right now (should be), so can't answer.
But while announcing it on a blog & tor-talk may? be a good idea, it isn't really a "plan" at all. That's why I thought I'd missed something.
I live in the United States. I use Tor for my everyday web surfing because I believe any record of my web activity to be a violation of privacy. I have nothing to hide, but hiding is my choice. Online privacy is a right for all.
The threat to internet security is pregnable systems, not a network that allows anonymous access to those systems. The threat to our nation is not the threats of anonymous hackers, but adhering to their demands. Sony Pictures, Regal Entertainment, AMC Entertainment and others have put our nation at risk by rolling over at the demand of terrorists. By refusing to release that movie they have set a dangerous precedent and opened the door to future attacks.
nice addition to the nudist company "We have nothing to hide"TM. EVERYBODY have. Otherwise you are controlled by by some inter-terrestrial government because they have something to hide. How this something can appear if it was nothing?
Roger: As far as I can tell there are 9 servers that are listed in the Tor source as directory authorities. Let's say that 4 of them were be seized and taken offline indefinitely.
How would this affect the remainder of the Tor network? My guess is that it would increase the load on the other nodes, but if they have sufficient spare capacity it would not result in an outage. Is that generally correct? (I apologize for not knowing as much about Tor's internals as I probably should.)
Correct, there are currently 9 directory authorities. More than half of the authorities must be online and they must reach a consensus on the current state of the network every hour for them to create and publish the hourly networkstatus-consensus (the list of all the known relays). If four out of the 9 dir auths were compromised and taken offline, then the remaining 5 will continuing publishing the consensus and the network will continue operating normally. If more than 5 are taken offline then this was a horrendously large operation and the necessary corrective actions will be taken to ensure the network remains operational.
The one performance impact will be seen by new clients. When they first try connecting to the network (download and launch Tor Browser for the first time) they will try connecting to one of the directory authorities and download the networkstatus consensus from it. If some of the directory authorities are offline, it may take some time for each connection to timeout (while the client connects to an unavailable authority), but eventually the client will reach an operational authority and it will then be able to use the Tor network as usual.
This sounds like a possible denial of service attack would be to seize a single server, leave it online, and program it to never agree with the other eight thereby preventing the hourly networkstatus-consensus publication.
Thanks for the insightful and productive comment. No, it's not the best design; but it is the best design we have right now. Also, The Tor Project doesn't control the directory authorities. They are run independently by individuals and groups Tor trusts.
I can't claim to have a very good idea of how the physical infrastructure looks behind tor, but by the sound of this comment it sounds like it would scale well horizontally? Is the tor project in need of hardware? I can't contribute with colo's but i have access to used ibm x-series servers and similar. See you guys at 31c3
Just as the Second Amendment to the US Constitution does not grant a right ... it merely acknowledges it as pre-existing ... the most any other political "grant" of rights can do is acknowledge pre-existing rights and agree not to infringe upon them. Whether the Second Amendment has been infringed or not is not the point under consideration but the issue of whether a right exists outside of any declaration by a government that it does.
There is a right to privacy. There is a right to speak freely. There is a right to defend oneself and neighbors from attack regardless of the source of the attack. These rights await no dictum from any source. They are rights possessed by all mankind at the moment of birth.
Arma is correct. If "rights" depend on grants by authority, then there are no rights to be had anywhere for anyone. If a "right" must first be granted and can later be withdrawn, it is not a right ... it is a privilege.
Free men and women assert rights, servants seek privileges. Might I suggest that the rallying cry of "Live Free or Die" remains the essence of all freedoms all over the globe?
don't forget to put on your pants when leaving government premises. should i talk with my children as we are in jail? fuck you "law" which justify this.
I'm sorry, but i don't need your interpretation of humanity.
So is the aim of this attack to disable the network or to de-anonymize users en masse? If the latter then how? If the former then what would be the point, since I assume you guys will just establish new DAs and be on your merry way?
This cyber attack has really spooked the govt...it seems they have -finally- realized just how vulnerable we are to cyber attack. One can only imagine the scene if someone does this to the electrical grid.
Speculation here but I wonder if the prez has authorized for Tor to be nuked? Given this and the recent drugs and cp busts the FBI may have convinced him that the downsides outweigh the upsides. Man the DoD is gonna be pissed.
Re the electrical grid, you're right that there sure is a lot of vulnerability going around.
As for the speculation part... while we're speculating, I'll counter-speculate that Obama has never even heard of Tor. The DoJ is full of people trying to make a name for themselves, who get unhappy when something slows that down. And those people are super unhappy that companies like Apple and Google have been working on architecture changes that make compliance harder.
At the same time as we're freaking out that all the intelligence agencies have spiraled out of control and are illegally watching everything, these people are freaking out that they're about to become unable to see anything and unable to fight any crimes. It's an odd contradiction, but here we are.
Have the tor devs considered the possibility of using satellite technology? I'd like to see the FBI try to go up there as seize a satellite. I know that sounds prohibitively expensive but I think it would be possible to raise funds.
The epic irony of "Tor matters to a lot of people and we wanted to let people know of this possible upcoming attack"? Thanks for your understanding I guess.
As for censoring comments, we've disabled all the parts of the blog comment system that report your IP address and other details to recaptcha or other spam engines. That's a feature in my book, but the downside is that we get a bunch of spam that we have to manually delete.
Oh, and yes, we also delete the small number of comments that are deliberately hateful or harmful. I'm a fan of free speech, but in this case those people should go take their free speech elsewhere.
Well, I'd like to think it wouldn't have been a catastrophe no matter how it played out.
But it could be a big distraction, especially since we've all got more important things to do next week (31c3 is coming up, with no doubt more embarrassment for governments about how they've broken their own laws and done horrible things).
It is obvious that there are many out there who would like to see the network disrupted as it undermines and in some cases directly threatens what they do (or would like to do).
The removal of DA's will not prevent Tor working per-se but it will cause significant issues with maintaining the integrity of the relay list and communication of that to client instances and indeed other relays.
We would question the motivation behind such an attack though, is it just short term disruption? Or a nefarious attempt to propagate a longer term sybil-a-like attack? Or something else completely?
In any case it is clear that some consideration must be given to the DA function within the network and how to hold the census together in a more resilient manner but at the same time avoid creating exposure to sybil attacks. The mechanism used for maintaining the Hidden Service directories using a DHT is an obvious candidate but again just opens up the DA function to a different class of attack.
is there a possible pre-emptive action that can be taken - in the open light - to render such a move futile ?
For instance ask the nice people from CCC and their freedom minded supporters working at freedom minded companies to set up another three directory authorities? Which would work on a short time scale.
A suggestion for the longer term, would be that the developers take some lessons from the freenet design and ask your bridges (& perhaps users along) into lending some harddisk space (1mb for example) and distribute broken up lists in an encrypted way over these channels (key served later).
And perhaps let bridges turn into DAs themselve, distribute an encrypted "fortune cookie", and when the DAs shout a special key throughout tor then only certain(random) bridges & users can turn into DAs(minimizing the chance of a hostile takeover of tor).
I suspect that a fast reaction that would take place within a few days might be difficult.
The directory authorities (DAs) almost certainly need to handle massive amounts of bandwidth, need to be on colocated hardware, and need to be security hardened. This means that establishing a new DA would take some time - and even then, I suspect (but do not know for certain) that the DA would then have to be hard coded into Tor. So, users would then half to upgrade to get the advantages of establishing a new DA.
Additionally, the people that run any new DAs need to be trusted to keep the network secure.
As far as the more technical solutions you mention, you should consider creating a proposal for a more complete idea so it can be evaluated in full. While doing so, it is helpful if you can suggest some advantages and disadvantages that your approach provides.
I said this on another forum once. If I know anything about the US Navy and the DoD (not talking about 5os and other feds, only military) that tells them what to do and how to think; They have thier own damn tor network, despite what dingledongs and applegay say.
when on earth have you seen the military activly operate where civis are? sure they may have several bases where we live but really now, do they launch any real attacks from them? only excercises and in times of emergency... the military isn't exactly fond of emergencies.
Good luck on reloacting your DAs. Just, try to do it right. I have no idea of your situation so I can't know what right is; but you can figure it out by taking a moment to think. If they bothered to ask you before hand, you may have some time to plan. I don't know who exactly wants your DAs but it can not be for peace or for our benefit.
Don't matter if the military thing is true or not Tor is our own real anonimity system that works on the regular internet. Although don't act surprised if it is true because and I will say this ahead of time... I told you so.
Suggestion: why not let people voulunteer DAs (that work on a distro like tails) you will find out about them via email, in person, and or the same way to find out about hidden bridges... then you could just cherry pick the DAs you need, as you need and see fit (for consensus voting and the such) until someone comes up with a more suitable replacement for "decentralizing" your DAs. (namecoin sounds interesting but... bitcoin is not anonymous everyone, everywhere would know when you search for something or 'bought' a domain name; I have other ideas such as dark/anoncoin but dingledong is right, we still need to do our homework)
p.s. I know the nicknames sound like insults but as a TG, they are what I find sexy about you two. ;)
Seriously, thank you for tor. I am not like some high profile person you have saved. I mean you have helped me keep my transition secret until I feel ready from my family (by using tails). I was just really ashamed what they would think about me if I was searching for these things and I thought I was alone and what I was doing was selfish.
We should make little clusters of networks that connect to each other so the whole world can be the tor network. So you can't shutdown the whole network. You would need to take it down computer by computer and that would be almost impossible.
It has been considered, but that doesn't mean everybody has all the answers.
I believe I2P's network discovery mechanism falls to various more complicated attacks. I'd rather stick with the simpler design where we understand the flaws and we understand the attacks.
That said, there's a great opportunity here for researchers to step in and do some analysis on the I2P design -- one of its huge problems right now is that they've for whatever reason failed to get researchers to care enough to break it, except in rare cases like http://freehaven.net/anonbib/#pets2011-i2p
There's no democracy nor privacy in the country were I resign.
If this last privacy services end, I will damn all the neat American technologies which only supports my authorities to monitor their citizens, and will abandon the internet and cellular communication forever.
I'd like to think that our architecture makes national security letters not as dangerous for us. For example, delivering a national security letter to The Tor Project won't affect the directory authorities, since The Tor Project doesn't run any of the directory authorities. Similarly, sending a national security letter to just one directory authority doesn't do anything by itself no matter their response.
No, they're manually chosen by the Tor community (i.e. us), and everybody can see the ilst. Most of the directory authority operators are high-profile figures in the security community, so many people get the chance to meet them in person and evaluate them.
Please consider alternate hosts for Tor bundle download. It is blocked in my country which is an US aly and therefore no media bothers to criticze it when it comes to human rights violations and abuse.
I am deeply concerned. But I have still hope for Tor. We all should beware our hope in these dark times.
I have two questions for you, Roger.
1. How is it possible that there are still good people within the potential attacker's organization? Your source - that warned you - seems to be in favor of Tor.
2. Do you feel confident that you (the Tor Project and its community) will be able to fight back this potential attack? There is so much brilliance and expertise in this community. If I had one single wish for Christmas, I would love to see Tor being the David winning against Goliath.
With the recent talk here about integrating namecoin, etc. I think we hit on a better solution to the problem. One that tries to maintain backwards compatibility. https://github.com/vivalibra/norproject
Note that there is talk of a coin in the README document, that is mostly the result of chatting with some other devs in the crypto world. Considering the timetable we will be working under, I don't think a coin could realistically launch at the same time as the rest of the system.
I'm going to start building this right away, hope is to launch a beta before DA servers are pulled out. Anyone that feels like they would like to participate is welcome to join up. Even pointing out design flaws could be helpful.
Please keep any discussion on the page for the project, though I don't want to spam this blog with it.
My technical expertise is low which might be why it isn't obvious to me how taking down part of the Tor network would facilitate an investigation into the Sony incident by the FBI. What makes more sense to me is hacking into Tor to develop tools to better handle the next attack. The advanced warning makes the hack look friendlier â something like those âthis is only a testâ announcements the government makes on the radio and television.
Tor and Tails are two applications that I rely on every day and I don't even have anything to hide. I use these tools daily to maintain a small footprint and to keep proficient for a time when the tools and skills are truly necessary. The dedication and helpfulness of the staff of these two development teams is amazing. The other day I posted a question regarding Tor on the Tor IRC channel and quickly received a concise and helpful response by arma. I didn't know who arma was until I began reading this blog, but I must say that I am pleasantly surprised that arma would take the time to help an ordinary Tor user.
I would consider it to be a near catastrophe if Tor or Tails is compromised because I know of no other easy to use combination that provides the level of anonymity.
I can only say one thing about this: "Too big to fail". I don't think anyone can shut down Tor. We all need it, even if some people don't realise it yet. "You can not kill an idea." I believe you/we will find a way to keep Tor alive. Too much is at stack here. Never underestimate the power of the people.
Does this effect anyone who doesn't commit any crimes, doesn't go to any illegal sites, in the United States, ISP doesn't know my activities, and I only use Tor to conceal my IP because of stalkers I've encountered?
Correctly configured Tor relays have no logs that are useful to attackers. So no, this should not be an issue.
(Of course, that doesn't mean there are no places on the Internet that log information about traffic flows. That's a lot of what the NSA / GCHQ surveillance fuss is about. But that is a separate topic, I hope.)
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Possible upcoming attempts to disable the Tor network
The Tor Project has learned that there may be an attempt to incapacitate our network in the next few days through the seizure of specialized servers in the network called directory authorities. (Directory authorities help Tor clients learn the list of relays that make up the Tor network.) We are taking steps now to ensure the safety of our users, and our system is already built to be redundant so that users maintain anonymity even if the network is attacked. Tor remains safe to use.
We hope that this attack doesn't occur; Tor is used by many good people. If the network is affected, we will immediately inform users via this blog and our Twitter feed @TorProject, along with more information if we become aware of any related risks to Tor users.
The Tor network provides a safe haven from surveillance, censorship, and computer network exploitation for millions of people who live in repressive regimes, including human rights activists in countries such as Iran, Syria, and Russia. People use the Tor network every day to conduct their daily business without fear that their online activities and speech (Facebook posts, email, Twitter feeds) will be tracked and used against them later. Millions more also use the Tor network at their local internet cafe to stay safe for ordinary web browsing.
Tor is also used by banks, diplomatic officials, members of law enforcement, bloggers, and many others. Attempts to disable the Tor network would interfere with all of these users, not just ones disliked by the attacker.
Every person has the right to privacy. This right is a foundation of a democratic society. For example, if Members of the British Parliament or US Congress cannot share ideas and opinions free of government spying, then they cannot remain independent from other branches of government. If journalists are unable to keep their sources confidential, then the ability of the press to check the power of the government is compromised. If human rights workers can't report evidence of possible crimes against humanity, it is impossible for other bodies to examine this evidence and to react. In the service of justice, we believe that the answer is to open up communication lines for everyone, securely and anonymously.
The Tor network provides online anonymity and privacy that allow freedom for everyone.
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yes
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Networking
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Is the TOR network safe?
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no_statement
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the "tor" "network" is not "safe".. using the "tor" "network" is not "safe".
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https://www.groovypost.com/howto/is-the-tor-browser-safe/
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Is the Tor Browser Safe?
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groovyPost
Is the Tor Browser Safe?
The Tor browser is an amazing browser that allows an incredibly secure extra layer of protection. But is it safe? We take a look.
Is the Tor Browser safe to use? This question is an iffy one and entirely depends on what you mean. If you’re asking “Is the Tor Browser itself safe to use?” then the answer is yes. It’s actually much safer to use than most other browsers. On the other hand, if you’re asking “Is the Tor Browser safe to use to surf the deep web/dark web?” then the answer is yes and no.
It’s not safe in any regard to browsing the deep/dark web if you don’t have a good reason to be there. If you’re using Tor to go on the Clear Web, your connection would be incredibly safe. However, if you want to surf the deep web, you’d have to make sure you’re using a VPN service and that you aren’t going to any sites that have content that’s illegal in your country unless however, the site is a deep web news source. Those are legal anywhere.
Using Tor To Surf The Clear Web
The Tor Browser and the system it uses to help you access the internet is incredibly secured. Instead of just encrypting your information once and then sending the packets back and forth in one connection, the Tor browser takes the packets being sent and passes them through multiple layers of encryption. The data is encrypted this way in both directions, so many attacks are near impossible.
So, why would you use this to surf the Clear Web? It’s actually much safer to use the Tor browser to surf the clear web than it is to use other browsers. The Tor browser takes sensitive information and encrypts it incredibly heavily. So, let’s say you’re sending your credit card information over a network. To be sure about its security, would you feel better using Tor (given what you know about it now), or Chrome? Personally, I’d go with Tor.
A lot of people also live in very restrictive countries. Using the Tor browser is actually necessary for a lot of people to even access the majority of the internet. Without Tor, a large number of people would be completely cut off from the world. The Internet keeps us all connected. Some countries try to restrict that connection by setting up firewalls and making their internet centralized. Some people are able to get around this thanks to VPNs and Tor.
Using Tor To Surf The Deep Web
As I stated in the beginning, you shouldn’t enter the Deep Web unless you have a good reason to. Many people on the Deep Web are dangerous, and allowing that type of traffic onto your network could be detrimental to you. You need to be careful about where you go and how you get there. First, I’d recommend using a VPN service on top of using the Tor browser. Even if someone gets through all the levels of encryption the Tor browser has set in place, the VPN can be used as a final line of defense.
Personally, I’d recommend using Tor only to look for news sources and documents that you may not be able to find on the Clear Web. Many people use the Deep Web as a way to spread freedom of information. It’s uncensored and largely unbiased. Deep Web news sources aren’t run by a central large news corporation and will bring you the actual facts about what’s happening around the world.
I would also recommend checking out websites from different countries when you connect to those countries through the connections. Each country has its own type of internet and its own websites you can access that you may not be able to in your country. The Deep Web is more universal than the Clear Web. All sites are accessible by anyone, anywhere, at any time. Just make sure you know where a link leads to before clicking on it. Don’t click on links without knowing exactly where it will lead you and why you’re going there. Even if you have protections set up on your computer to keep yourself anonymous, you could still be tracked.
Reasons Why You’d Use Tor
There is a multitude of reasons why someone may use Tor. It all depends on where you are, what you’re trying to access, and the level of protection you’re needing. If you’re in the US using the clear web, you may not want to necessarily use the Tor browser (although it would increase security). However, if you’re in a more restrictive country, you may need to use the Tor browser to get around the firewall blocking access to the majority of the internet.
I would also recommend using Tor if you’re sending any sensitive information over the internet (along with a VPN). For example, you’d want your credit card information as secure as possible. If you’re shopping for anything, I’d recommend using the Tor browser to do it. Anything that you may need to send sensitive information for, I would recommend using the Tor browser rather than a standard browser.
Now it goes without saying if you’re trying to access .onion links you’re going to need to be on the Tor browser. Onion links aren’t accessible using any other browser aside from the Tor browser. You should never go to a .onion link unless you know where you’re going, and only if the content is legal in your country. There are many safe forums and news sources to access on the deep web, so I encourage you to check those out. However, you must know that where you are going is safe before going there.
Conclusion
The Tor browser is an amazing browser that allows an incredibly secure extra layer of protection. It can be used for surfing the Clear Web as well as the Deep Web. There’s an unlimited amount of things you can do with this browser. You just have to make sure you’re safe while using the Tor network and not accessing places you know are illegal. Many of the sites are honey pots set up by the government to catch people in illegal activity. Do not share any personal information on the internet in general unless you know the source is reputable. Have fun using Tor!
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But is it safe? We take a look.
Is the Tor Browser safe to use? This question is an iffy one and entirely depends on what you mean. If you’re asking “Is the Tor Browser itself safe to use?” then the answer is yes. It’s actually much safer to use than most other browsers. On the other hand, if you’re asking “Is the Tor Browser safe to use to surf the deep web/dark web?” then the answer is yes and no.
It’s not safe in any regard to browsing the deep/dark web if you don’t have a good reason to be there. If you’re using Tor to go on the Clear Web, your connection would be incredibly safe. However, if you want to surf the deep web, you’d have to make sure you’re using a VPN service and that you aren’t going to any sites that have content that’s illegal in your country unless however, the site is a deep web news source. Those are legal anywhere.
Using Tor To Surf The Clear Web
The Tor Browser and the system it uses to help you access the internet is incredibly secured. Instead of just encrypting your information once and then sending the packets back and forth in one connection, the Tor browser takes the packets being sent and passes them through multiple layers of encryption. The data is encrypted this way in both directions, so many attacks are near impossible.
So, why would you use this to surf the Clear Web? It’s actually much safer to use the Tor browser to surf the clear web than it is to use other browsers. The Tor browser takes sensitive information and encrypts it incredibly heavily. So, let’s say you’re sending your credit card information over a network. To be sure about its security, would you feel better using Tor (given what you know about it now), or Chrome? Personally, I’d go with Tor.
A lot of people also live in very restrictive countries. Using the Tor browser is actually necessary for a lot of people to even access the majority of the internet. Without Tor, a large number of people would be completely cut off from the world. The Internet keeps us all connected.
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yes
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Astronautics
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Is the U.S. flag still standing on the moon?
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yes_statement
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the u.s. "flag" is still "standing" on the "moon".. the "flag" of the united states remains "standing" on the "moon".. the american "flag" is still planted on the lunar surface.
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https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-19050795
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Apollo Moon flags still standing, images show - BBC News
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Apollo Moon flags still standing, images show
John Young salutes the flag while jumping in this picture taken by Charles Duke on the Apollo 16 mission
Images taken by a Nasa spacecraft show that the American flags planted in the Moon's soil by Apollo astronauts are mostly still standing.
The photos from Lunar Reconaissance Orbiter (LRO) show the flags are still casting shadows - except the one planted during the Apollo 11 mission.
This matches Buzz Aldrin's account of the flag being knocked over by engine exhaust as Apollo 11 lifted off.
LRO was designed to produce the most detailed maps yet of the lunar surface.
Each of the Apollo missions that touched down on the Moon planted an American flag in the soil.
Scientists had previously examined photos of the landing sites for these flags, and had seen what looked like shadows cast by them on the lunar surface. But this was not considered conclusive.
Now, researchers have studied photos of the same areas taken at different points during the day and have observed shadows circling the points where the flags are thought to be.
Prof Mark Robinson, the chief scientist for the spacecraft's camera instrument, LROC, said in a blog entry: "From the LROC images it is now certain that the American flags are still standing and casting shadows at all of the sites, except Apollo 11."
The Arizona State University scientist added: "The most convincing way to see that the flags are still there, is to view a time series of LROC images taken at different times of day, and watch the shadow circle the flag."
"Personally I was a bit surprised that the flags survived the harsh ultraviolet light and temperatures of the lunar surface, but they did. What they look like is another question (badly faded?)"
LRO began its mission in lunar orbit in September 2009, to identify mineral and other resources on the Moon as well as scout promising landing sites for future missions.
Image caption,
This image from the LROC camera shows the Apollo 16 flag - and its shadow - today
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Apollo Moon flags still standing, images show
John Young salutes the flag while jumping in this picture taken by Charles Duke on the Apollo 16 mission
Images taken by a Nasa spacecraft show that the American flags planted in the Moon's soil by Apollo astronauts are mostly still standing.
The photos from Lunar Reconaissance Orbiter (LRO) show the flags are still casting shadows - except the one planted during the Apollo 11 mission.
This matches Buzz Aldrin's account of the flag being knocked over by engine exhaust as Apollo 11 lifted off.
LRO was designed to produce the most detailed maps yet of the lunar surface.
Each of the Apollo missions that touched down on the Moon planted an American flag in the soil.
Scientists had previously examined photos of the landing sites for these flags, and had seen what looked like shadows cast by them on the lunar surface. But this was not considered conclusive.
Now, researchers have studied photos of the same areas taken at different points during the day and have observed shadows circling the points where the flags are thought to be.
Prof Mark Robinson, the chief scientist for the spacecraft's camera instrument, LROC, said in a blog entry: "From the LROC images it is now certain that the American flags are still standing and casting shadows at all of the sites, except Apollo 11."
The Arizona State University scientist added: "The most convincing way to see that the flags are still there, is to view a time series of LROC images taken at different times of day, and watch the shadow circle the flag."
"Personally I was a bit surprised that the flags survived the harsh ultraviolet light and temperatures of the lunar surface, but they did. What they look like is another question (badly faded?) "
LRO began its mission in lunar orbit in September 2009, to identify mineral and other resources on the Moon as well as scout promising landing sites for future missions.
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yes
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Astronautics
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Is the U.S. flag still standing on the moon?
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yes_statement
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the u.s. "flag" is still "standing" on the "moon".. the "flag" of the united states remains "standing" on the "moon".. the american "flag" is still planted on the lunar surface.
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https://www.tampabay.com/environment/poop-flags-and-golf-balls-heres-all-the-stuff-thats-left-on-the-moon-20190711/
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Poop, flags and golf balls: Here's all the stuff that's left on the moon
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Poop, flags and golf balls: Here's all the stuff that's left on the moon
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin poses for a photograph beside the U.S. flag deployed on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission on July 20, 1969. (Neil A. Armstrong/NASA via AP, 1969)
Published July 10, 2019
The mission on the moon then over, astronaut Buzz Aldrin peaked out from the Apollo lunar module onto the powdery gray surface before him, the U.S. flag planted into it — just about the only color as far as the eye could see.
But as the ascent engines on the spacecraft came to life, carrying him and Neil Armstrong up, up, up, Aldrin caught a glimpse of something. Did the exhaust blow the $5.50 flag from its lunar foothold? Maybe. Probably.
Images taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera more than 40 years later proved Aldrin right. Unlike the other Apollo sites, there is no longer an American flag still standing at the place where humankind first made contact with the lunar surface 50 years ago on July 20.
When people do return to our celestial partner, they likely won't find standing the most famous item that was left behind — a symbol of the nation's sacrifice and accomplishment. But they'll find other things: lunar landers and moon cars, camera gear and backpacks, a photo, maybe a few faded flags, some golf balls if they're lucky.
They'll find some more recent occupants, too, including an Israeli lander called Beresheet that crashed onto the surface in April.
But the Apollo missions were responsible for the largest chunk of the estimated 400,000 pounds of detritus left behind on the moon, a graveyard of spacecraft parts and symbolic items that was never supposed to be left undisturbed for so long. If current schedules hold, astronauts may stumble upon the remains as soon as 2024.
Here is what they may find:
96 BAGS OF HUMAN WASTE
When it came to defecating on or en route to the moon, astronauts had to rely on a pretty simple process: a bag taped to their bottoms. If all went well — that is, if it all ended up in the bag and not floating in the Apollo craft as sometimes happened — the waste would then be left on the moon as one of the many things discarded on the lunar surface to reduce the weight inside the spacecraft when it headed back to Earth.
The six Apollo missions that landed on the moon produced 96 bags of waste. According to the NASA History Office, white jettison bags, or trash bags, are definitely still on the moon, some containing astronaut poop.
The astronaut, apart from being the second man who set foot on the moon, also holds another title: He was the first to urinate there.
According to space historian Teasel Muir-Harmony's book, Apollo to the Moon: A History in 50 Objects, Aldrin's urine collection device bag broke on a leap onto the lunar surface, leaking into his left boot.
"Everyone has their first on the moon," he said. The urine collection devices were also tossed overboard as the astronauts bid farewell to the moon.
WHAT'S LEFT OF THE AMERICAN FLAGS
Five decades of exposure to ultraviolet radiation and 500-degree temperature swings probably didn't create quite the nurturing environment needed to keep the five flags that remain on the moon in tip-top shape.
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Apart from the Apollo 11 flag, which is believed to have been lost, the others were planted during Apollo 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17. According to images captured by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter during different times of day, shadows in the areas where the flags were planted indicate they're still standing.
Still, they're not likely to look like the well-known images of crisp red, white and blue flags stark against the bottomless black of space.
"You know how [if] you leave a flag out over summer, how it starts to fade," Arizona State University scientist Mark Robinson, the principal investigator of LRO's camera, told Space.com in 2011. "Now, imagine the extreme UV environment on the moon, and the hot and cold cycling … they're probably in pretty rough shape."
A FALCON FEATHER
In the final minutes of the Apollo 15 moon walk, Commander David Scott performed a small science experiment for the live television viewers back on his home planet.
He dropped a 0.06-pound falcon feather and a nearly 3-pound aluminum hammer from the same height at the same time. In the vacuum of space, they both hit the lunar surface simultaneously, confirming astronomer Galileo Galilei's theory that mass, or the weight of an object, doesn't have any effect on gravitational pull. The objects should fall at the same rate.
Because of the atmosphere on Earth, it doesn't quite work that way — but it does on the moon.
"How about that," Scott said when they hit the ground. "Mr. Galileo was correct in his findings."
The feather and hammer, it seems, are still there.
AN ASTRONAUT FAMILY PHOTO
Charles Duke was only 36 when he stepped on the moon during the Apollo 16 mission, the youngest man to do so. He was married to Dorothy Meade Claiborne and had two sons, Charles Duke III, who was 7 at the time, and Thomas Duke, 5, but was spending long periods of time away from his family in Houston while training in Florida.
"So just to get the kids excited about what dad was going to do, I said, 'Would y'all like to go to the moon with me?' " Duke told Business Insider in 2015. "We can take a picture of the family and so the whole family can go to the moon."
A friend from NASA, Ludy Benjamin, took a photo of the Dukes in their backyard, and on the back the astronaut wrote: "This is the family of Astronaut Duke from Planet Earth. Landed on the moon, April 1972." The kids signed it, too.
Duke shrink-wrapped the photo and fulfilled the promise.
"So I left that on the moon and took a picture of the picture," he told NASA in his 1999 oral history, "and that's one of our neatest possessions now."
COSMIC GOLF BALLS
Armstrong had the first step. Aldrin had the first tinkle. Alan Shepard had the first swing.
The astronaut and avid golfer told NASA in his 1998 oral history that he was intrigued by the idea that a ball hit by the same club head could travel "six times as far" in the airless environment on the moon.
"I thought, 'What a neat place to whack a golf ball!' " he said.
But to persuade NASA to let him do it, Shepard modified the handle used to scoop lunar samples and affixed an adapted club head to it. He took two golf balls with him, all of which he paid for.
"The two golf balls and the club at no expense to the taxpayer," Shepard said. He promised his boss, Bob Gilruth, the director of NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center, that he would wait to take the golf swing at the end of the Apollo 14 mission and only proceed if everything else had gone well.
So on Feb. 6, 1971, Shepard teed up his golf balls. Because of the bulkiness of his suit, he could only grab the club with his right hand. He shot. The first ball fell into a crater nearby but the second attempt was more successful.
"Miles and miles and miles!" Shepard called out as it soared away. The two balls are still there.
For years later, Shepard refused to say what brand the balls were, lest some company would try to profit from the information.
"There has been absolutely no commercialism. One company tried to say it was their golf ball, and we cut them off very quickly," Shepard told NASA. The astronaut sued a ball manufacturer who claimed to have made the moon balls.
"I've never told anybody," he is quoted as saying in his biography, Light This Candle: The Life and Times of Alan Shepard. "I've never told my wife."
But, as the biography's author, Neal Thompson, revealed: The balls were in fact made by Spalding.
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Poop, flags and golf balls: Here's all the stuff that's left on the moon
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin poses for a photograph beside the U.S. flag deployed on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission on July 20, 1969. (Neil A. Armstrong/NASA via AP, 1969)
Published July 10, 2019
The mission on the moon then over, astronaut Buzz Aldrin peaked out from the Apollo lunar module onto the powdery gray surface before him, the U.S. flag planted into it — just about the only color as far as the eye could see.
But as the ascent engines on the spacecraft came to life, carrying him and Neil Armstrong up, up, up, Aldrin caught a glimpse of something. Did the exhaust blow the $5.50 flag from its lunar foothold? Maybe. Probably.
Images taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera more than 40 years later proved Aldrin right. Unlike the other Apollo sites, there is no longer an American flag still standing at the place where humankind first made contact with the lunar surface 50 years ago on July 20.
When people do return to our celestial partner, they likely won't find standing the most famous item that was left behind — a symbol of the nation's sacrifice and accomplishment. But they'll find other things: lunar landers and moon cars, camera gear and backpacks, a photo, maybe a few faded flags, some golf balls if they're lucky.
They'll find some more recent occupants, too, including an Israeli lander called Beresheet that crashed onto the surface in April.
But the Apollo missions were responsible for the largest chunk of the estimated 400,000 pounds of detritus left behind on the moon, a graveyard of spacecraft parts and symbolic items that was never supposed to be left undisturbed for so long. If current schedules hold, astronauts may stumble upon the remains as soon as 2024.
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no
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Astronautics
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Is the U.S. flag still standing on the moon?
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yes_statement
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the u.s. "flag" is still "standing" on the "moon".. the "flag" of the united states remains "standing" on the "moon".. the american "flag" is still planted on the lunar surface.
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https://www.space.com/16798-american-flags-moon-apollo-photos.html
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Apollo Moon Landing Flags Still Standing, Photos Reveal | Space
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Apollo Moon Landing Flags Still Standing, Photos Reveal
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera images of each Apollo site taken at roughly the same orientation but with different sun angles to show the travel of shadows. Combined with knowledge of the Apollo site maps which show where the flag was erected relative to the Lander, long shadows cast by the flags at three sites - Apollo 12, Apollo 16, and Apollo 17 - show that the these flags are still “flying”, held aloft by the poles. There is no indication of a flag shadow in this Apollo 11 image.(Image credit: NASA)
An enduring question ever since the manned moon landings of the 1960s has been: Are the flags planted by the astronauts still standing?
"From the LROC images it is now certain that the American flags are still standing and casting shadows at all of the sites, except Apollo 11," LROC principal investigator Mark Robinson wrote in a blog post today (July 27). "Astronaut Buzz Aldrin reported that the flag was blown over by the exhaust from the ascent engine during liftoff of Apollo 11, and it looks like he was correct!"
Each of the six manned Apollo missions that landed on the moon planted an American flag in the lunar dirt.
Scientists have examined images of the Apollo landing sites before for signs of the flags, and seen hints of what might be shadows cast by the flags. However, this wasn't considered strong evidence that the flags were still standing. Now, researchers have examined photos taken of the same spots at various points in the day, and observed shadows circling the point where the flag is thought to be. [Video: Moon Photos Prove Apollo Flags Still Stand]
Robinson calls these photos "convincing."
"Personally I was a bit surprised that the flags survived the harsh ultraviolet light and temperatures of the lunar surface, but they did," Robinson wrote. "What they look like is another question (badly faded?)."
Most scientists had assumed the flags hadn't survived more than four decades of harsh conditions on the moon.
"Intuitively, experts mostly think it highly unlikely the Apollo flags could have endured the 42 years of exposure to vacuum, about 500 temperature swings from 242 F during the day to -280 F during the night, micrometeorites, radiation and ultraviolet light, some thinking the flags have all but disintegrated under such an assault of the environment," scientist James Fincannon, of the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, wrote in the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal.
In recent years, photos from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter have also shown other unprecedented details of the Apollo landing sites, such as views of the lunar landers, rovers, scientific instruments left behind on the surface, and even the astronauts' boot prints. These details are visible in photos snapped by the probe while it was skimming just 15 miles (24 kilometers) above the moon's surface.
LRO launched in June 2009, and first captured close-up images of the Apollo landing sites in July of that year. The $504 million car-size spacecraft is currently on an extended mission through at least September 2012.
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Clara Moskowitz is a science and space writer who joined the Space.com team in 2008 and served as Assistant Managing Editor from 2011 to 2013. Clara has a bachelor's degree in astronomy and physics from Wesleyan University, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She covers everything from astronomy to human spaceflight and once aced a NASTAR suborbital spaceflight training program for space missions. Clara is currently Associate Editor of Scientific American. To see her latest project is, follow Clara on Twitter.
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Apollo Moon Landing Flags Still Standing, Photos Reveal
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera images of each Apollo site taken at roughly the same orientation but with different sun angles to show the travel of shadows. Combined with knowledge of the Apollo site maps which show where the flag was erected relative to the Lander, long shadows cast by the flags at three sites - Apollo 12, Apollo 16, and Apollo 17 - show that the these flags are still “flying”, held aloft by the poles. There is no indication of a flag shadow in this Apollo 11 image.(Image credit: NASA)
An enduring question ever since the manned moon landings of the 1960s has been: Are the flags planted by the astronauts still standing?
"From the LROC images it is now certain that the American flags are still standing and casting shadows at all of the sites, except Apollo 11," LROC principal investigator Mark Robinson wrote in a blog post today (July 27). "Astronaut Buzz Aldrin reported that the flag was blown over by the exhaust from the ascent engine during liftoff of Apollo 11, and it looks like he was correct!"
Each of the six manned Apollo missions that landed on the moon planted an American flag in the lunar dirt.
Scientists have examined images of the Apollo landing sites before for signs of the flags, and seen hints of what might be shadows cast by the flags. However, this wasn't considered strong evidence that the flags were still standing. Now, researchers have examined photos taken of the same spots at various points in the day, and observed shadows circling the point where the flag is thought to be. [Video: Moon Photos Prove Apollo Flags Still Stand]
Robinson calls these photos "convincing. "
"Personally I was a bit surprised that the flags survived the harsh ultraviolet light and temperatures of the lunar surface, but they did," Robinson wrote. "What they look like is another question (badly faded?).
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yes
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Astronautics
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Is the U.S. flag still standing on the moon?
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yes_statement
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the u.s. "flag" is still "standing" on the "moon".. the "flag" of the united states remains "standing" on the "moon".. the american "flag" is still planted on the lunar surface.
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https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/07/19/apollo-11-moon-landing-what-you-cant-see-buzz-aldrin-flag-photo/1570334001/
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Apollo 11 moon landing: What you can't see in Buzz Aldrin flag photo
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Zoom in. What's really in the image? Why is the flag waving? Where are the stars? And how did those shadows get there?
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, USA TODAY spoke with experts at NASA and reviewed its archives to explain the most notable details in the famed photo. Spoiler alert: Not everything went as the space agency planned it.
The flag, a topic of many a conspiracy theory, probably toppled over when the astronauts departed, and medals for Soviet astronauts lie on the surface as well.
Here's the backstory of what you're seeing in the photograph.
Who's in the suit? And how we got to the moon in the first place
On July 20, 1969, around 11:40 p.m. EDT, the scene depicted in one of the most iconic photos ever taken unfolded.
Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Aldrin were more than 110 hours into the historic moon landing mission when they planted a U.S. flag. Video of the event was broadcast to millions back on Earth.
Aldrin stepped to the side to raise his hand in salute. Armstrong stepped back to photograph the moment.
"It's such an iconic image," said Jennifer Ross-Nazzal, a historian for the Johnson Space Center in Houston. "This has become part of American culture. ... You see this photo in textbooks."
The photo was taken during the Apollo 11 mission, the first manned moon landing. Aldrin and Armstrong landed in the Sea of Tranquility on the lunar surface as Command Module Pilot Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit.
Though the Soviet Union sent the first person into space, the United States took the lead in the space race when it landed two men on the moon.
About the flag: It fell over
Photos of the U.S. flag planted on the moon have been topics of conversations concerning patriotism and conspiracies ever since the world first saw stars and stripes on the lunar surface.
However, the flag probably isn't still standing.
The working presumption at NASA is that the flag fell, said John Uri, manager of the Johnson Space Center History Office. Aldrin said he thought he saw the flag tip over from the exhaust when the lunar module lifted off, and the shadow of the flag is not visible in satellite images.
Why isn't the flag drooping?
Because the moon has no substantial atmosphere, NASA scientists led by Jack Kinzler designed a horizontal crossbar to support the flag and keep it from drooping down, Platoff wrote.
A hem was sewn across the top of the 3-by-5-foot nylon flag so the bar could go through, then be lifted and locked into place at a 90 degree angle. The flagpole had a base that allowed it to more easily be driven into the moon's surface, and a red circle was painted at 18 inches from the bottom to help judge how deep it needed to go.
The astronauts struggled to drive the flag's base beyond 6 to 9 inches deep into the surface, which probably contributed to the flag falling.
The flag traveled to space tacked onto the ladder on the lunar module, so the astronauts could access it when they walked on the moon. A protective shroud was built to protect the flag from the heat from the engines.
Packing the flag involved a 12-step process and five people, Platoff wrote. Eleven steps were needed to mount the flag on the ladder. The astronauts were able to access it by removing pins and Velcro it was attached to. (And no, NASA didn't invent Velcro during the Apollo missions, though it did popularize its use.)
What caused the ripples in the flag?
Many say the flag in the photo looks like it's flowing in the wind. Conspiracy theorists cite this as evidence the moon landing was filmed in a warehouse with air conditioning creating the ripple. That's false.
The horizontal crossbar was supposed to give a slight wavy effect as in a breeze, Platoff wrote, and Aldrin and Armstrong said they had trouble pulling the flag out all the way.
What you can't see: A golden olive branch and hidden messages
A stainless steel plaque noting the feat of the first manned moon landing, a silicon disc with messages from world leaders in tiny text and a small pouch with an Apollo 1 patch, medals honoring two Soviet astronauts and a small gold olive branch were also left on the moon, according to NASA.
The patch commemorates Apollo 1 astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee, who died in a launchpad fire in 1967.
As for the Soviet medals, Aldrin and Armstrong honored Vladimir Komarov, who died during the Soyuz 1 mission when his parachute failed, and Yuri Gagarin, the first human in outer space. NASA did not officially acknowledge at the time that the Soviet items were left on the moon.
Aldrin's book "Men from Earth," published in 1989, detailed the full contents of the packet they left, according to NASA.
The flag serves as "a sign of what America really accomplished," Ross-Nazzal said. Though there were concerns that it would appear that the United States was "claiming" the moon, that was never the intention, she said.
"It shows a sense of accomplishment and proof that we've been there," she said.
"If we went back there today, the footprints would still be there," Uri said. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter can show the disturbed topsoil in areas on the moon where lunar modules have landed, rovers have roamed and astronauts have walked, he said.
The Apollo 11 crew described the lunar regolith, or soil, as "almost a little bit like wet sand," Uri said. In reality, the regolith is made of rocks that have been ground up into a fine material over many years under the bombardment of micrometeorites and solar wind radiation. Because the moon has no atmosphere, liquid water or wind erosion, the regolith probably remains well-preserved, Uri said.
There were even some fears that when a lunar module landed on the moon, the surface would be so thick with dust that it would sink, Uri said.
Is that a moon rock in the bottom right corner?
Yes. Though the moon's surface is mostly made up of the fine regolith, various rocks are scattered throughout.
The white specks seen in the background of the photo are probably lunar rocks reflecting light.
The basalts are 3.6 billion to 3.9 billion years old and solidified from molten lava. The breccias are fragments of older rocks broken up over the years by meteorites hitting the moon. Small rock fragments are sometimes fused under the intense heat and pressure of the impacts, forming breccias.
Aldrin and Armstrong collected samples of the regolith and up to 50 rocks during their mission.
The sky is black in the photograph. Why are there no stars in the background?
When people think of what it would be like in space, they might conjure images of a star-filled expanse. Though the stars are definitely there, none is visible in Armstrong's photo.
Conspiracy theorists who say NASA fabricated the moon landing cite this as evidence; however, there is a scientific explanation.
"The only time the astronauts really saw the stars clearly was when they were orbiting the moon and in the shadow of the moon," Uri said.
Sunlight reflecting off the moon's surface washed out any of the light the stars emitted, Uri said, making them invisible in the photographs. Even the Earth's own shine could be bright enough to block out the stars, he said.
The cameras did not use long enough exposure times to document the stars. Rather than focusing on space, the purpose of taking photos was to document the engineering feat of landing on the moon, Uri and Ross-Nazzal said.
Armstrong took most the photos the public associates with the landing. He used a 70mm Hasselblad, though NASA heavily modified the camera, so it would be easier to use while in a spacesuit. A variety of other cameras were also used during the mission.
According to the Universities Space Research Association, cameras operated using a trigger and were mounted on the front of the astronauts' spacesuits, which discredits a popular conspiracy theory about not being able to see a camera in the reflection in Aldrin's helmet in one photo Armstrong took. (We can thank NASA's later work for the creation of small enough cameras for an essential device in our modern lives: the camera phone.)
What made the long dark shadow behind the flag?
The lunar module, the spacecraft Aldrin and Armstrong used to get from the main command and service module in lunar orbit to the moon's surface, is seen in the top left of the photograph.
There were no external lights brightening up the photos and video taken of the mission. The light comes from sunlight and reflections off the moon's surface, the astronauts' suits and the lunar module.
Buzz Aldrin's golden visor is shiny for a reason
Each piece of the astronauts' spacesuit is meticulously designed and serves a very specific purpose.
What's in the square pack on Aldrin's back? The Personal Life Support System, or PLSS, according to Cathleen Lewis, spacesuit curator at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.
The gloves they wore were constructed from a fabric called Chromel-R, a woven stainless steel that insulated their hands. The fingertips of the gloves were made from silicone rubber for sensitivity, according to the Air and Space Museum.
To protect Aldrin's eyes from the intense sun exposure, his helmet had inner and outer visors.
"Worn on top of the clear bubble helmet, the visor had shades and an outer visor that was a plastic with a monomolecular layer of gold. The gold acted as a sunscreen, much in the way that sky goggles do," Lewis said.
They could have tripped on those wires in the bottom left
In the bottom left side of the photo, a series of cables appear to run along the moon's surface toward the lunar module.
It was those wires, powering a video camera, that allowed millions of people worldwide to watch Aldrin and Armstrong during their extravehicular activity, the official name for their moonwalk.
Because it was such a historic mission, NASA "wanted to share the experience with rest of the world," Uri said.
Armstrong set up the camera so most of their activities would be visible to the millions back on Earth, according to the Universities Space Research Association. The setup went smoothly, but the wiring created a tripping hazard for Armstrong and Aldrin.
According to Ross-Nazzal, the public affairs office at NASA pushed hard to get TV cameras on board spaceflights as early as the time of the Gemini missions.
The astronauts and engineers feared the added weight and operation of the cameras would create unnecessary complications, and even when the first live televised mission occurred, Apollo 7, resistance persisted within NASA, Uri and Ross-Nazzal said.
"Pubic affairs thought the public needed to see what was going on and get excited about what was happening," Ross-Nazzal said. "While the U.S. did it first, we really brought everyone else along."
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Zoom in. What's really in the image? Why is the flag waving? Where are the stars? And how did those shadows get there?
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, USA TODAY spoke with experts at NASA and reviewed its archives to explain the most notable details in the famed photo. Spoiler alert: Not everything went as the space agency planned it.
The flag, a topic of many a conspiracy theory, probably toppled over when the astronauts departed, and medals for Soviet astronauts lie on the surface as well.
Here's the backstory of what you're seeing in the photograph.
Who's in the suit? And how we got to the moon in the first place
On July 20, 1969, around 11:40 p.m. EDT, the scene depicted in one of the most iconic photos ever taken unfolded.
Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Aldrin were more than 110 hours into the historic moon landing mission when they planted a U.S. flag. Video of the event was broadcast to millions back on Earth.
Aldrin stepped to the side to raise his hand in salute. Armstrong stepped back to photograph the moment.
"It's such an iconic image," said Jennifer Ross-Nazzal, a historian for the Johnson Space Center in Houston. "This has become part of American culture. ... You see this photo in textbooks. "
The photo was taken during the Apollo 11 mission, the first manned moon landing. Aldrin and Armstrong landed in the Sea of Tranquility on the lunar surface as Command Module Pilot Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit.
Though the Soviet Union sent the first person into space, the United States took the lead in the space race when it landed two men on the moon.
About the flag: It fell over
Photos of the U.S. flag planted on the moon have been topics of conversations concerning patriotism and conspiracies ever since the world first saw stars and stripes on the lunar surface.
However, the flag probably isn't still standing.
The working presumption at NASA is that the flag fell, said John Uri,
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no
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Astronautics
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Is the U.S. flag still standing on the moon?
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yes_statement
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the u.s. "flag" is still "standing" on the "moon".. the "flag" of the united states remains "standing" on the "moon".. the american "flag" is still planted on the lunar surface.
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https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/07/apollo-moon-landing-site-today/594364/
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The Apollo 11 Landing Site: What's It Like Now? - The Atlantic
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Editor’s Note: This article is part of a series reflecting on the Apollo 11 mission, 50 years later.
About 4.5 billion years ago, according to the most popular theory of the moon’s formation, a mysterious rocky world the size of Mars slammed into Earth. From the fiery impact, shards swirled and fused into a new, airless world, itself bombarded with rocky objects. In the absence of the smoothing touch of weather and tectonic activity, every dent remained. And then, one day, among craters both microscopic and miles-wide, two guys came along and stepped on the surface, carving new hollows with their boots.
Buzz Aldrin, seeing the moon from the surface for the first time, described it as “magnificent desolation.”
It was not so desolate when they departed. The Apollo 11 astronauts discarded gadgets, tools, and the clothesline contraption that moved boxes of lunar samples, one by one, from the surface into the module. They left behind commemorative objects—that resplendent American flag, mission patches and medals honoring fallen astronauts and cosmonauts, a coin-size silicon disk bearing goodwill messages from the world leaders of planet Earth. And they dumped things that weren’t really advertised to the public, for understandable reasons, such as defecation-collection devices. (Some scientists, curious to examine how gut microbes fare in low gravity, even proposed going back for these.)
Fifty years later, of everything that remains at the cosmic campsite, the American flag has had the worst time of it.
The flag is no longer standing. In fact, it’s been flat on the ground since the moment Aldrin and Neil Armstrong lifted off. As the Eagle module ignited its engines and rose, spewing exhaust around, Aldrin caught a glimpse of the flag falling from his window.
The flag, made of nylon, was an off-the-shelf purchase. Unlike Earth, the moon lacks an atmosphere capable of blocking out the worst of the sun’s rays. It wouldn’t have taken long for the ultraviolet light to eat away at the dye and bleach the flag white. “Have you ever seen burnt newspaper from a fireplace? All the color is gone and everything,” says Dennis LaCarrubba, who worked at the New Jersey–based company that manufactured the flag. “That’s probably what the flag would look like now.”
The photographic evidence for this came decades later, thanks to NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, a spacecraft that still circles the moon today. The spacecraft’s camera photographed several Apollo landing sites. The NASA astronauts who flew to the moon in the late 1960s and early 1970s always brought American flags with them. In photos of later Apollo missions, you can see, amid all the pockmarked gray terrain, a little white smudge and, right next to it, a slightly bigger, black smudge—a flag, faded from the glow of the sun, and its shadow.
Scientists long thought that the sun exposure would cause the fabric to disintegrate, reducing the little monuments of American achievement to dinky poles surrounded by fibers. But the orbiter photos suggest that the fabric has withstood the conditions.
The photos also provide some defense against people who believe the moon landing was faked. Julie Stopar, a scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute and a member of the lunar orbiter’s imaging team, carries postcards of the landing sites in case she runs into someone with doubts, including her own friends and family. “They’ll ask me jokingly—and in some cases, not so jokingly—‘Are you sure we really landed on the moon?’ And it’s like, ‘Yes, I am sure. I’ve seen it, and we have pictures of it,’” Stopar says. “And then I’ll show them the pictures and then they’re like, ‘Oh, okay, I guess that’s pretty convincing.’”
The resolution of the orbiter’s cameras isn’t strong enough to make out the Apollo astronauts’ boot prints, but some may have been blasted out of existence when the exhaust of the Eagle’s engines slammed into the regolith. Subsequent Apollo missions captured footage of the turbulent experience of liftoff. “You can see a severe blowing occurring; you can see flags flapping in the wind like it’s a hurricane; you can see dust lifting off the surface everywhere,” says Phil Metzger, a planetary scientist at the University of Central Florida.
The tracks outside of the blast zone were likely undisturbed, though, and most anything made with metals—the lower half of the Eagle, a seismometer, commemorative plaques, assorted tools—has probably fared well on the moon. The module’s gold foil, which provided warmth for its passengers, has probably faded and splintered. And one of the experiments is still going.
Armstrong and Aldrin placed on the surface a boxy array of mirrors designed to reflect incoming light back to its source without significantly scattering. Several times a month, Tom Murphy, a physics professor at the University of California at San Diego, instructs a telescope in southern New Mexico to beam a laser at the instrument. The light sprints home in two and a half seconds. “The photons that we make in our laser go out, touch these reflectors, and come back to us and report,” says Murphy, who uses the measurements to study the fundamentals of gravity.
The mirrors still provide good data, but they don’t work like they used to. Murphy suspects that they’re covered in dust, which degrades their reflectivity, especially during a full moon, when particles absorb the direct sunlight, creating thermal distortions. During an eclipse, when the near side of the moon is in darkness, the reflectors return to their usual performance.
No one has ever returned to the site of Apollo 11. No one has been on the moon’s surface at all since 1972, but national governments, commercial companies, and nonprofits alike are hoping to make it. In preparation for a potential moon rush, NASA has created guidelines for future commercial spacecraft that include no-fly zones and warnings to keep a distance.
The Apollo 11 site is a historical landmark, and it should be treated as such, says Michelle Hanlon, a co-founder of For All Moonkind, an organization of lawyers who specialize in space law. Hanlon believes that the Apollo spots deserve the same protections as heritage sites on Earth. “If you go to the pyramids, you assume they’re protected,” she says. “If you think about the moon, humanity’s greatest technological achievement, you assume that’s protected, too.” Hanlon recently worked with members of Congress to write legislation that would enforce preservation rules for historic lunar sites; the Senate approved the bill this week.
If human beings someday inhabit the moon, they might consider doing more than designating the Apollo 11 landing site a landmark. They could cover the area with geodesic domes, as a protective measure against contamination, and let people come a little closer. Visitors would pop over to an Apollo 11 gift shop to browse rocket-ship keychains and chalky astronaut ice cream.
When they peer through the gossamer bubble, inspecting the provincial exploration efforts of earlier generations, those visitors might look closely at the ground near the lunar module. Armstrong and Aldrin took only the top part of the capsule back into space with them, and the lower half—the one that famously nearly ran out of fuel seconds before Armstrong touched down—might have acted as a shield for the boot prints closest by.
This presents a tantalizing possibility: The first human step on another world might be in pristine condition. It might be caked in a thin coating of dust, but it could still be there, recognizable to future space travelers, should any ever arrive.
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And they dumped things that weren’t really advertised to the public, for understandable reasons, such as defecation-collection devices. (Some scientists, curious to examine how gut microbes fare in low gravity, even proposed going back for these.)
Fifty years later, of everything that remains at the cosmic campsite, the American flag has had the worst time of it.
The flag is no longer standing. In fact, it’s been flat on the ground since the moment Aldrin and Neil Armstrong lifted off. As the Eagle module ignited its engines and rose, spewing exhaust around, Aldrin caught a glimpse of the flag falling from his window.
The flag, made of nylon, was an off-the-shelf purchase. Unlike Earth, the moon lacks an atmosphere capable of blocking out the worst of the sun’s rays. It wouldn’t have taken long for the ultraviolet light to eat away at the dye and bleach the flag white. “Have you ever seen burnt newspaper from a fireplace? All the color is gone and everything,” says Dennis LaCarrubba, who worked at the New Jersey–based company that manufactured the flag. “That’s probably what the flag would look like now.”
The photographic evidence for this came decades later, thanks to NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, a spacecraft that still circles the moon today. The spacecraft’s camera photographed several Apollo landing sites. The NASA astronauts who flew to the moon in the late 1960s and early 1970s always brought American flags with them. In photos of later Apollo missions, you can see, amid all the pockmarked gray terrain, a little white smudge and, right next to it, a slightly bigger, black smudge—a flag, faded from the glow of the sun, and its shadow.
Scientists long thought that the sun exposure would cause the fabric to disintegrate, reducing the little monuments of American achievement to dinky poles surrounded by fibers.
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no
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Astronautics
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Is the U.S. flag still standing on the moon?
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yes_statement
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the u.s. "flag" is still "standing" on the "moon".. the "flag" of the united states remains "standing" on the "moon".. the american "flag" is still planted on the lunar surface.
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https://blogs.voanews.com/science-world/2012/07/31/forty-years-later-us-flags-remain-on-moon/
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Forty Years Later, US Flags Remain on Moon – Science World
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Those question have now been answered by high resolution images of the six Apollo landing sites taken by the mission’s Narrow Angle Cameras (NAC).
Images captured by the LROC cameras clearly show, not only the flags, but also the LEM descent stage, the lunar rovers and tracks left on the powdery lunar surface. The flags are still standing, casting shadows on the moon.
Apollo 12 landing site. Notice the image also includes the Surveyor 3 unmanned spacecraft which landed on the moon April 20, 1967. (Image: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University)
Only the flag planted by the first men on the moon, Apollo 11’s Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin , is not erect. Back when the two men took off from the lunar surface, Aldrin noticed the flag was blown over by the exhaust from their spacecraft’s engine during liftoff.
To determine whether the flags were still standing, the LROC team examined a timed series of images taken at different periods of the day, paying close attention to the shadows circling the flags.
The images also captured other signs of the astronauts’ presence on the moon, such as the LEM descent stages of the lunar landers and various pieces of equipment used for experiments or exploration.
Hello Mr.Viswanath. It is obvious that you must be another one of Obama’s sons. You may not be a true African American, but you are absolutely a Democrat by both intellect, intelligence, and your brilliant, and inciteful understanding of all things around you. Sometimes I marvel what we all did until you arrived on the scene. In any case, I am convinced by your natural wisdom and higher level thought processes, as only bequeathed to registered Democrats, that with you at the helm, we can all settle down and not worry about the great mysteries of the cosmos, or the economic despair that currently surrounds us. You are in charge, right ?
Ever be there the USA flag the great sign and brightest symbol of mankind greatest and brilliant innovations for world great developments and universe discoveries. God bless the great nation that has ever been promising the mankind for other more additional magical and admired innovations, the USA!
There is no shadow from the flag on the one shot, early pre-photoshop (die transfer) mistake. The flag had wires in it like a coat hanger to make it appear to be wind blown, like the dive flags in scuba shops.
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Those question have now been answered by high resolution images of the six Apollo landing sites taken by the mission’s Narrow Angle Cameras (NAC).
Images captured by the LROC cameras clearly show, not only the flags, but also the LEM descent stage, the lunar rovers and tracks left on the powdery lunar surface. The flags are still standing, casting shadows on the moon.
Apollo 12 landing site. Notice the image also includes the Surveyor 3 unmanned spacecraft which landed on the moon April 20, 1967. (Image: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University)
Only the flag planted by the first men on the moon, Apollo 11’s Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin , is not erect. Back when the two men took off from the lunar surface, Aldrin noticed the flag was blown over by the exhaust from their spacecraft’s engine during liftoff.
To determine whether the flags were still standing, the LROC team examined a timed series of images taken at different periods of the day, paying close attention to the shadows circling the flags.
The images also captured other signs of the astronauts’ presence on the moon, such as the LEM descent stages of the lunar landers and various pieces of equipment used for experiments or exploration.
Hello Mr.Viswanath. It is obvious that you must be another one of Obama’s sons. You may not be a true African American, but you are absolutely a Democrat by both intellect, intelligence, and your brilliant, and inciteful understanding of all things around you. Sometimes I marvel what we all did until you arrived on the scene. In any case, I am convinced by your natural wisdom and higher level thought processes, as only bequeathed to registered Democrats, that with you at the helm, we can all settle down and not worry about the great mysteries of the cosmos, or the economic despair that currently surrounds us. You are in charge, right ?
Ever be there the USA flag the great sign and brightest symbol of mankind greatest and brilliant innovations for world great developments and universe discoveries.
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yes
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Astronautics
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Is the U.S. flag still standing on the moon?
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yes_statement
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the u.s. "flag" is still "standing" on the "moon".. the "flag" of the united states remains "standing" on the "moon".. the american "flag" is still planted on the lunar surface.
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https://roundupreads.jsc.nasa.gov/roundup/1180
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Flying High: The Stars and Stripes in Space
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Flying High: The Stars and Stripes in Space
One of the most iconic images from the Apollo 11 mission is
of NASA astronaut Buzz Aldrin saluting the American flag on the surface of the
Moon. The decision to plant the American flag on the Moon was made rather late
in the lead-up to the mission. NASA Administrator Thomas O. Paine created the Committee on Symbolic Activities for the
First Lunar Landing and appointed Willis H. Shapley, NASA associate deputy administrator,
as its chair on Feb. 25, 1969. The committee received advice from the
Smithsonian Institution, the Library of Congress, the archivist of the United
States, the NASA Historical Advisory Committee, the Space Council and congressional
committees. The most common suggestion received was to carry an American flag
and plant it on the Moon, and that is what the committee recommended to Paine.
Robert L.
Gilruth, director of the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, now Johnson Space
Center, selected Jack A. Kinzler, chief of the Technical Services Division, to
design a flag and mechanism to allow it to “fly” in the airless lunar
environment. With less than three months before the first Moon landing flight, Kinzler,
assisted by Deputy Division Chief David L. McCraw, designed the mechanism in
just a few days.
The flag itself
was a standard 3- by 5-foot nylon flag, with the only modification being a hem
sewed along its top edge to allow a metal rod to slide through, which gave the
flag rigidity in the windless environment so that it appeared to wave. The flag
was attached to an 8-foot flagpole that the astronauts planted into the
lunar soil. The vertical and horizontal poles were gold-anodized aluminum
tubes. The overall Lunar Flag Assembly (LFA), including a stainless steel case
to protect the flag against temperature extremes, weighed 9 pounds and 7
ounces. Thomas L. Moser of the Structures and Mechanics Division
performed the analysis that showed it would be safe to attach it to the forward
landing leg of the Lunar Module (LM), and that it would withstand the heating
from the LM’s descent engine during the landing.
Moser, Kinzler
and William E. Drummond of the Parachute Support Section carefully folded the
flag into its case. Kinzler then hand-carried the flag assembly to NASA’s
Kennedy Space Center, where workers attached it to the LM Eagle's landing leg just three days before launch.
Watch a video of Apollo 11 astronauts Neil
A. Armstrong and Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin deploying the American flag on the lunar
surface on July 20, 1969. The split screen shows the live TV downlink on the
left, synchronized with film taken by an automatic camera set up inside the LM on
the right. The photograph above is superimposed in the video at the time that Armstrong
took it.
Left: The Lunar Flag Assembly prior to assembly
and installation on the LM Eagle. Middle: From left, Thomas Moser,
William Drummond and Jack Kinzler fold the flag. Right: David McCraw demonstrates
how the LFA was attached to the LM’s landing leg. Image Credits: NASA
Over the next
three years, five more flags joined the one left by Apollo 11. Photographs taken
in recent years by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) show that the flags left
by Apollo 12, 16 and 17 appear to still be standing. The first flag, left by
Apollo 11, cannot be seen and is presumably no longer standing.
The film taken
from inside the LM as the astronauts lifted off from the Moon begins after the
LM is already airborne, and the flag cannot be seen, but Aldrin claims he
caught a glimpse of the flag getting knocked over during liftoff. On the later
landings, astronauts planted the flags farther from the LM. The status of the
Apollo 14 and 15 flags cannot be determined conclusively, although it looks
like the Apollo 14 flag took quite a beating from the LM engine
exhaust during liftoff.
The flag that Apollo 17 left on the Moon is somewhat unique.
It went to the Moon and back on Apollo 11, and was then hung on the wall in
mission control. Later it made a return trip to the Moon, this time to stay. An
identical flag made a roundtrip on Apollo 17 and now hangs in mission control.
Left: Apollo 12
Commander Pete Conrad holding the flag at the Ocean of Storms landing site.
Right:Orbital view of the Apollo 12
landing site from the LRO taken in 2012 shows the shadow of the flag (at upper
left), indicating that our flag is still there. Image Credits: NASA
Left: Apollo 16
Commander John Young gives a leaping salute to the flag at Descartes, with the
LM Orion and lunar rover in the
background. Right:Apollo 17 Commander Gene
Cernan holds the flag at Taurus-Littrow, with Earth in the background. Image
Credits: NASA
The first American flag to leave Earth was aboard Alan B. Shepard’s
Mercury-Redstone 3 flight in May 1961. The success of this flight, which placed
the first American in space, inspired President John F. Kennedy to commit the
nation to landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth before
the end of the decade. The 23- by 36-inch cloth flag came from Cocoa Beach
School, located near Cape Canaveral, Florida, and was rolled up and stowed in a
wire bundle in the Freedom-7 spacecraft. Shepard was not aware the flag was
there until after his mission was over.
The same flag flew into space again in 1995 aboard the
STS-71 space shuttle flight—the 100th American crewed mission—which also marked
the first docking of a U.S. space shuttle to Russia's Mir space station.
After returning from space for a second time, the flag was
presented by Shepard and STS-71 Commander Robert L. "Hoot" Gibson for
display at the Astronaut Hall of Fame in Kennedy’s Visitor Complex, where it
remains today. John H. Glenn’s Friendship-7, the first Mercury orbital flight,
was the first spacecraft to have an American flag painted on its outside.
Left: The first
American flag in space carried aboard Freedom-7 in 1961, on display at the
Astronaut Hall of Fame. Image Credit: Smithsonian. Right: The first American
flag painted on a spacecraft, John Glenn’s Friendship-7, in 1962. Image Credit: NASA
In addition to the American flags carried into space and to
the Moon by astronauts, the Stars and Stripes have travelled to all eight
planets, as well as dwarf planets, asteroids and comets, carried there by an
extensive fleet of robotic explorers. The first flag on the surface of Mars
arrived via the Viking 1 Lander, which made its touchdown on the Red Planet on
July 20, 1976—exactly seven years after the Apollo 11 Moon landing and during
America’s Bicentennial year. Five American flags are leaving our solar system,
aboard Pioneer 10 and 11, Voyager 1 and 2, and New Horizons. The farthest of
those, the one aboard Voyager 1, is currently 11.7 billion miles from Earth.
Left: First American
flag on Mars in the Viking 1 Lander in 1976. Right: Project Manager John Casani
displays one of the U.S. flags that had been placed aboard the two Voyager
spacecraft. Image Credits:NASA
With NASA’s plans to go forward to the Moon by 2024,
American flags will be returning to the lunar surface, carried there by the
next man and the first woman to land on the Moon. And, soon thereafter,
astronauts will hopefully be carrying American flags to the surface of Mars.
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McCraw demonstrates
how the LFA was attached to the LM’s landing leg. Image Credits: NASA
Over the next
three years, five more flags joined the one left by Apollo 11. Photographs taken
in recent years by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) show that the flags left
by Apollo 12, 16 and 17 appear to still be standing. The first flag, left by
Apollo 11, cannot be seen and is presumably no longer standing.
The film taken
from inside the LM as the astronauts lifted off from the Moon begins after the
LM is already airborne, and the flag cannot be seen, but Aldrin claims he
caught a glimpse of the flag getting knocked over during liftoff. On the later
landings, astronauts planted the flags farther from the LM. The status of the
Apollo 14 and 15 flags cannot be determined conclusively, although it looks
like the Apollo 14 flag took quite a beating from the LM engine
exhaust during liftoff.
The flag that Apollo 17 left on the Moon is somewhat unique.
It went to the Moon and back on Apollo 11, and was then hung on the wall in
mission control. Later it made a return trip to the Moon, this time to stay. An
identical flag made a roundtrip on Apollo 17 and now hangs in mission control.
Left: Apollo 12
Commander Pete Conrad holding the flag at the Ocean of Storms landing site.
Right:Orbital view of the Apollo 12
landing site from the LRO taken in 2012 shows the shadow of the flag (at upper
left), indicating that our flag is still there. Image Credits: NASA
Left: Apollo 16
Commander John Young gives a leaping salute to the flag at Descartes, with the
LM Orion and lunar rover in the
background. Right:Apollo 17 Commander Gene
Cernan holds the flag at Taurus-Littrow, with Earth in the background.
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yes
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Astronautics
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Is the U.S. flag still standing on the moon?
|
yes_statement
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the u.s. "flag" is still "standing" on the "moon".. the "flag" of the united states remains "standing" on the "moon".. the american "flag" is still planted on the lunar surface.
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https://www.floridatoday.com/story/tech/science/space/2019/07/15/7-things-apollo-11-astronauts-left-moon-flag-reflector-armstrong-aldrin-lander/1251813001/
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Apollo 11: 7 things Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left on the moon
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7 things Apollo 11 astronauts left on the moon
When the Apollo 11 astronauts set foot on the moon for the first time in July of 1969, they left more than their footprints behind.
The things they left, which remain there today, ranged from scientific to sentimental to practical. In all, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left more than 100 objects on the lunar surface. These are among the most interesting:
1. Lots of footprints
While not technically objects, the footprints left by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin represent the most poignant evidence of the first human activity on the moon. Because there is no weather on the lunar surface, the footprints remain there today.
NASA has drafted guidelines to protect the Apollo 11 and Apollo 17 landing sites, including setting the areas as "off limits" for subsequent landings. The efforts aim to prevent future missions from disturbing lunar dust and destroying the footprints and abandoned equipment from these historic missions.
2. The Apollo 11 "Eagle" lunar landing module descent stage
When the Eagle landed on the moon and then lifted off to carry Armstrong and Aldrin back to the command module, part of the landing module stayed behind. The descent stage remained on the moon's surface to act as a launch pad when the module lifted off.
A commemorative plaque was affixed to one of the landing module's legs, which read, "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot on the Moon July 1969, A.D. We came in peace for all mankind."
3. Mementos honoring fallen space explorers
The crew of Apollo 11 brought a patch from the Apollo 1 mission to honor Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chafee, the astronauts who lost their lives when a fire swept through the Apollo 1 command module during a training exercise at Kennedy Space Center.
The astronauts also left medals honoring the late Russian cosmonauts Vladimir Komarov and Yuri Gagarin.
4. Messages of hope and peace
One of the more fascinating objects left on the moon by the Apollo 11 mission was a silicon disc with messages of goodwill from leaders in 73 countries. The disc was about the size of a half-dollar coin, with the words inscribed microscopically around the edge.
The disc bears the words "From Planet Earth, July 1969" in the center. It also lists the names of the members of Congress who signed legislation making the Apollo 11 mission possible, and the names of top NASA officials.
5. An American flag
While it's commonly thought the placement of a U.S. flag on the moon was the country's way of "claiming" the moon, the act was merely a symbolic gesture, according to NASA.
Astronauts would plant more flags during subsequent missions to the lunar surface. The current condition of these flags is a subject of speculation. Satellite imagery has apparently revealed at least some of the Apollo mission flags are still standing, although Buzz Aldrin said he saw the Apollo 11 flag knocked over by the blast from the landing module's engines as it took off.
Interestingly, it has been theorized that the flags left on the moon during the Apollo era have since faded to white under the harsh ultraviolet light from the sun.
6. Experiments
A collection of science experiments called the Early Apollo Scientific Experiment Package stayed on the lunar surface after the astronauts departed. One experiment measured the moon's seismic activity. Another monitored the effects of lunar dust on other equipment.
A third experiment, the only one from Apollo 11 that's still active, was the first portion of the Laser Ranging Retroreflector. This is a series of special mirrors designed to reflect laser beams sent through large telescopes on Earth. Data from this experiment helps scientists measure the distance between the Earth and the moon, and track the moon's orbit.
7. Tools and trash
Because the amount of weight the landing module could carry back was limited, Apollo 11 astronauts had to discard as much gear as they could to make room for samples. They left hammers, scoops, measuring devices and many other tools on the lunar surface.
To maximize space, they also left their waste bags. According to reports, the six Apollo missions left 96 bags of human waste on the moon. Later missions even left Lunar Roving Buggies on the surface to make room for samples. NASA collected nearly 850 pounds of moon rock and soil samples during the Apollo program.
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" lunar landing module descent stage
When the Eagle landed on the moon and then lifted off to carry Armstrong and Aldrin back to the command module, part of the landing module stayed behind. The descent stage remained on the moon's surface to act as a launch pad when the module lifted off.
A commemorative plaque was affixed to one of the landing module's legs, which read, "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot on the Moon July 1969, A.D. We came in peace for all mankind."
3. Mementos honoring fallen space explorers
The crew of Apollo 11 brought a patch from the Apollo 1 mission to honor Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chafee, the astronauts who lost their lives when a fire swept through the Apollo 1 command module during a training exercise at Kennedy Space Center.
The astronauts also left medals honoring the late Russian cosmonauts Vladimir Komarov and Yuri Gagarin.
4. Messages of hope and peace
One of the more fascinating objects left on the moon by the Apollo 11 mission was a silicon disc with messages of goodwill from leaders in 73 countries. The disc was about the size of a half-dollar coin, with the words inscribed microscopically around the edge.
The disc bears the words "From Planet Earth, July 1969" in the center. It also lists the names of the members of Congress who signed legislation making the Apollo 11 mission possible, and the names of top NASA officials.
5. An American flag
While it's commonly thought the placement of a U.S. flag on the moon was the country's way of "claiming" the moon, the act was merely a symbolic gesture, according to NASA.
Astronauts would plant more flags during subsequent missions to the lunar surface. The current condition of these flags is a subject of speculation. Satellite imagery has apparently revealed at least some of the Apollo mission flags are still standing, although Buzz Aldrin said he saw the Apollo 11 flag knocked over by the blast from the landing module's engines as it took off.
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no
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Astronautics
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Is the U.S. flag still standing on the moon?
|
no_statement
|
the u.s. "flag" is not still "standing" on the "moon".. the "flag" of the united states is no longer "standing" on the "moon".. the american "flag" is not planted on the lunar surface anymore.
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http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-072912a-us-flags-standing-apollo-moon-landing-sites.html
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Beyond a shadow of a doubt: US flags still standing at Apollo moon ...
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— Forty-one years ago on Monday (July 30), Apollo 15 astronauts David Scott and James Irwin planted an American flag on the moon. It was the fourth star-spangled banner to be deployed on the lunar surface, out of the six that would ultimately be raised by each of the United States' manned missions to land on the moon between 1969 and 1972.
"I'll hit it a few times so it'll stay up here for a few million years," Irwin said to Scott, as he used a hammer to drive the flag's pole into the ground on July 30, 1971.
Well shy of Irwin's estimate, it took less than four decades for doubts to begin that the Apollo 15 flag — along with the five others that preceded and followed it to the moon — was still standing.
Now, a NASA probe orbiting high above Hadley Rille has gave proof that the flag is still there.
By the Sun's yellow glare
Since its arrival at the moon two years ago, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has taken detailed photos of the lunar surface, including the very first views of the equipment that was left behind at the Apollo landing sites since the astronauts left the moon to come back to Earth 40 years ago.
The spacecraft's images are of high enough resolution that in addition to the moon landers, lunar rovers and surface deployed experiment packages, the astronauts' boot print tracks are also visible. But the flags are not thick enough to be resolved directly when viewed from above.
And that assumes they still exist.
"It is not really clear whether the flags are even there any more because they were not anything special, they were made out of nylon," Mark Robinson, principal investigator for the LRO Camera (LROC), said in September 2011. "In the extreme heat and [ultraviolet] UV environment on the moon, personally I would be surprised if there is anything left on them."
But as Robinson's camera circled the moon, it flew over the Apollo landing sites at different times of the lunar day. The sun's angle changed, and with it the shadows cast by the Apollo artifacts.
"The most convincing way to see that the flags are still there, is to view a time series of LROC images taken at different times of day, and watch the shadow circle the flag," Robinson wrote in a blog entry on the LROC website this week. "From the LROC images it is now certain that the American flags are still standing and casting shadows at all of the sites."
Fallen first flag
All that is, except one — the first flag on the moon.
The LROC images of the moon's Tranquility Base, where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made history as the first men to walk on another celestial body, reveal no shadow being cast where the flag once stood.
But that is less a mystery than it is a verification of what Aldrin saw as he and Armstrong blasted off the moon.
"I was concentrating intently on the computers, and Neil was studying the attitude indicator, but I looked up long enough to see the flag fall over," Aldrin recounted in his 1973 memoir, "Return to Earth."
"Buzz Aldrin reported that the flag was blown over by the exhaust from the ascent engine during liftoff of Apollo 11, and it looks like he was correct!" Robinson wrote on the LROC website.
Space vs. the stars and stripes
While the LRO images confirm that the American flags at the other five landing sites are still standing, they may still be unrecognizable as "Old Glory."
The shadows verify the physical cloth still exists, but the flags' red and blue colors may be no more.
"I was a bit surprised that the flags survived the harsh ultraviolet light and temperatures of the lunar surface, but they did," Robinson wrote. "What they look like is another question."
The same radiation that Robinson believed might degrade the flags, may have still stripped them of their colors, Paul Spudis, senior staff scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, wrote in a blog entry for Smithsonian Air&Space magazine in July 2011.
"Even on Earth, the colors of a cloth flag flown in bright sunlight for many years will eventually fade and need to be replaced," Spudis explained. "So it is likely that these symbols of American achievement have been rendered blank, bleached white by the UV radiation of unfiltered sunlight on the lunar surface."
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— Forty-one years ago on Monday (July 30), Apollo 15 astronauts David Scott and James Irwin planted an American flag on the moon. It was the fourth star-spangled banner to be deployed on the lunar surface, out of the six that would ultimately be raised by each of the United States' manned missions to land on the moon between 1969 and 1972.
"I'll hit it a few times so it'll stay up here for a few million years," Irwin said to Scott, as he used a hammer to drive the flag's pole into the ground on July 30, 1971.
Well shy of Irwin's estimate, it took less than four decades for doubts to begin that the Apollo 15 flag — along with the five others that preceded and followed it to the moon — was still standing.
Now, a NASA probe orbiting high above Hadley Rille has gave proof that the flag is still there.
By the Sun's yellow glare
Since its arrival at the moon two years ago, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has taken detailed photos of the lunar surface, including the very first views of the equipment that was left behind at the Apollo landing sites since the astronauts left the moon to come back to Earth 40 years ago.
The spacecraft's images are of high enough resolution that in addition to the moon landers, lunar rovers and surface deployed experiment packages, the astronauts' boot print tracks are also visible. But the flags are not thick enough to be resolved directly when viewed from above.
And that assumes they still exist.
"It is not really clear whether the flags are even there any more because they were not anything special, they were made out of nylon," Mark Robinson, principal investigator for the LRO Camera (LROC), said in September 2011. "In the extreme heat and [ultraviolet] UV environment on the moon, personally I would be surprised if there is anything left on them. "
But as Robinson's camera circled the moon, it flew over the Apollo landing sites at different times of the lunar day.
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yes
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Astronautics
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Is the U.S. flag still standing on the moon?
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no_statement
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the u.s. "flag" is not still "standing" on the "moon".. the "flag" of the united states is no longer "standing" on the "moon".. the american "flag" is not planted on the lunar surface anymore.
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https://www.ourstate.com/rhodiss-american-flag-mystery/
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Apollo 11, an American Flag, a Small Town, and a Mystery | Our State
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Apollo 11, an American Flag, a Small Town, and a Mystery
In the summer of 1969, a few weeks after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon, a note went up on the bulletin board at Burlington Industrial Fabrics’ Plant Number 2 in the tiny Foothills town of Rhodhiss. The news spread quickly, first through the mill, then through the town. Soon, an article appeared in the nearby Granite Falls Press. But by then, everyone knew. The material that ended up becoming the American flag — the one planted in the lunar dust? The one Aldrin saluted? The one seen by a worldwide TV audience? That material was woven right here in this mill, on the banks of the Catawba River, in this hamlet of just a few hundred people.
Soon, a picture of the flag on the moon went up in the lobby of the mill. The story was repeated in newspaper articles throughout the 1970s, and at a town bicentennial celebration in 1976. In 1983, when the mill shut down, the story came up again. In 1988, Sherrie Sigmon interviewed 55 townspeople for a history of Rhodhiss. They talked about the pride they’d felt when they heard the news. By then, the story of the moon flag was being taught in local elementary schools. In 1995, a NASA administrator presented the town with a plaque and a small North Carolina flag that had been flown to the moon and back on Apollo 16. Although the plaque didn’t mention the Apollo 11 flag, it was a thank-you for the mill’s many contributions to the space program. Around that time, Rhodhiss decided to adopt its first town seal, which included an image of an Apollo astronaut standing next to an American flag. Town leaders ordered new green signs to place at the town limits. The signs included the astronaut image, along with the words: “U.S. Moon Flags Woven Here.” More recently, television crews and newspaper reporters have come around, usually on anniversaries of the landing, and interviewed former workers.
In 2014, Art Delaney, the new town manager, decided that the still-standing mill deserved a historical marker from the state. But when a woman from the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources did some research and returned his call, she told him something that nearly knocked him out of his chair. She said that the story, the one that’d been circulating around Rhodhiss for nearly five decades, couldn’t be proven.
“We were blindsided,” says Sigmon. “We had no clue.”
• • •
Here’s what we know for sure. We know that industrial-strength fabrics woven at the mill in Rhodhiss certainly ended up in space, most notably in the heat shields of returning capsules and shuttles. We know that the moon flag itself was made of nylon. We know that the flag was almost an afterthought on the Apollo 11 mission, and that the design and assembly of the pole happened quickly, headed up by a NASA engineer named Jack Kinzler, who only had a few months to create something that could be easily set up by two men wearing space suits that limited their range of motion. Because of the rush, we know that the flag was not specially made or ordered. We also know that engineers cut the labels off the flags to make them fit onto the specially made poles, and that NASA itself has never confirmed their manufacturer.
Rhodiss’s official seal, which features an astronaut planting the American flag, signals the town’s connection to space. photograph by Eckard Photographic
But that’s where the definitive facts apparently end; from there, the story splits and goes into two directions. One seems to be backed up by some notes from Kinzler himself, who died in 2014. The notes imply that the flag was bought out of a government catalog for $5.50. The supplier of flags to the U.S. government at the time was a company called Valley Forge. But another story, also told by NASA, hints that the flag was bought at a department store in Houston. When an executive from Annin, the country’s oldest and largest flag maker, called NASA, he was told that several flags were bought at Sears by secretaries during their lunch breaks. Annin was the official supplier to Sears.
Quite simply, if you believe the catalog story, the flag came from Valley Forge. If you believe that a secretary bought it, it’s Annin’s flag.
Valley Forge and Annin didn’t weave the nylon themselves; they bought sheets of it, had it dyed, cut it, then sewed it into flags. So it would be possible to take a step backward, and simply find the mill that wove the nylon and shipped the sheets to the flag makers. Several former Rhodhiss workers say they made flag fabric, and at the time, Burlington was the world’s largest textile company.
But even here, things get complicated. Another textile company, Glen Raven, says the fabric that went into the Apollo 11 flag was woven at its plant in Burnsville, high in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Allen Gant, the company’s current CEO, says nearly all of the nylon being used in flags in the 1960s was manufactured by his company. “NASA didn’t want any one company being able to claim that the flag was theirs,” Gant says. “But we made the fabric for both [Valley Forge and Annin].”
It seems that, even though Rhodhiss and Burnsville are just 70 miles apart, and even though some people ended up working for both Burlington and Glen Raven, nobody in either town knew about the moon flag claim the other town was making. And nobody had heard of an exhaustive and definitive research paper written for NASA by Anne Platoff all the way back in 1992. It detailed the political and practical mechanisms that put the Apollo 11 flag on the moon. Platoff had pored through old archives, interviewed Kinzler and many others, and accumulated stacks of documents, before concluding that there was no way to prove the manufacturer.
• • •
There had to be more information. Something somebody missed. I started my own search. It took months. Sigmon sent me several packages of old newspaper clippings and documents, and gave me phone numbers of former workers. She sent emails with bits of information. I called Glen Raven, International Textile Group (which had bought Burlington), Annin, and Valley Forge. All searched for documentation, but none could produce any hard evidence. Bill Barry, a NASA historian, said smaller, more mundane documentation from 1969 may no longer exist. “The receipt for buying the flag,” he says, “probably wouldn’t have been saved.” Freedom of Information Act requests and phone calls to both NASA and the National Archives produced no new leads. Platoff went back through boxes and boxes of notes and documents to see if she could shake loose any new information. Nothing. There’s no proof that the material wasn’t woven in Rhodhiss, but she can’t say that it was. “Just because you can’t disprove it,” Platoff says, “doesn’t make it true.”
The proof may be elusive, but in their hearts, they know it’s their flag.
In March, Sigmon convened a meeting of 25 former employees to figure out what everyone remembered. Some of the workers hadn’t seen each other in years. It was a nice reunion. They remembered that their mill, for a time, made flag fabric, and that it was a supplier to hundreds of companies and agencies, including NASA. And all of them, every single one, remembered the posting on the bulletin board. It told them about the Apollo 11 flag, and its fabric. Their fabric. This story wasn’t just a rumor. It wasn’t hearsay. It wasn’t a joke. It came from the company itself.
But for now, that’s where the trail ends. To pick it up again, you’d have to know how managers at Burlington knew enough about the moon flag to post that note. Or you’d need to know, with certainty, whether Annin or Valley Forge made the flag, and who supplied them with woven nylon. You’d need to discover a document that nobody else has found, or a person that nobody else has talked to. These things might be out there. Until they’re found, the case has gone cold.
• • •
Sherrie Sigmon lets out a deep sigh. “The people of Rhodhiss have been living this for 47 years,” she says, “and then all of a sudden, you don’t have that, almost. It’s hard.” Sigmon’s father worked at Plant 2, making material that ended up in bulletproof vests, parachutes, bomb blankets, and space suits. She still believes. But her voice starts to waver. “This was the heart of what they did,” she says. Blayne Hollar, who worked at the mill from 1954 until it closed in 1983, repeats what several former workers told me: “We made the fabric of the first flag on the moon.”
Delaney says that even though plans for a historical marker are on hold, he knows that the story is true. “It was made here,” he says, unequivocally, before opening a filing cabinet at town hall and pulling out a square of white woven nylon. This, he says, came from the same batch as the moon flag. He then nods toward the NASA plaque on the wall. “How would NASA know about Rhodhiss?” he asks. “You don’t accidentally drive into Rhodhiss.”
The flag from Apollo 11 is no longer standing; Buzz Aldrin himself said that Neil Armstrong saw the pole blow over during liftoff from the lunar surface. And for a long time, scientists assumed that the rest of the Apollo flags had simply crumbled into dust. But in 2012, a lunar orbiter took pictures, and found something shocking. The photos showed specific shadows at the landing sites for Apollo 12, 16, and 17, confirming that those American flags were still standing, upright and intact, more than four decades later. They were all likely turned beige from relentless cosmic radiation. But they were still there. The people who’d always looked up at the moon and believed the flags still stood? After decades of being told they were wrong, they were finally proven right.
In Rhodhiss, too, the proof may be elusive, but the search goes on. The hope is still alive. And the belief has never wavered. In their hearts, they know it’s their flag. No matter what, that’s the truth.
From North Carolina to the International Space Station
Christina Koch grew up in Jacksonville and went to school in the Triangle. She tells Our State how she made it to her current home, 254 miles above Earth.
Jeremy Markovich is a former Our State editor, and is currently the communications director for the Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University. Find his newsletter, North Carolina Rabbit Hole, at ncrabbithole.com.
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Sigmon’s father worked at Plant 2, making material that ended up in bulletproof vests, parachutes, bomb blankets, and space suits. She still believes. But her voice starts to waver. “This was the heart of what they did,” she says. Blayne Hollar, who worked at the mill from 1954 until it closed in 1983, repeats what several former workers told me: “We made the fabric of the first flag on the moon.”
Delaney says that even though plans for a historical marker are on hold, he knows that the story is true. “It was made here,” he says, unequivocally, before opening a filing cabinet at town hall and pulling out a square of white woven nylon. This, he says, came from the same batch as the moon flag. He then nods toward the NASA plaque on the wall. “How would NASA know about Rhodhiss?” he asks. “You don’t accidentally drive into Rhodhiss.”
The flag from Apollo 11 is no longer standing; Buzz Aldrin himself said that Neil Armstrong saw the pole blow over during liftoff from the lunar surface. And for a long time, scientists assumed that the rest of the Apollo flags had simply crumbled into dust. But in 2012, a lunar orbiter took pictures, and found something shocking. The photos showed specific shadows at the landing sites for Apollo 12, 16, and 17, confirming that those American flags were still standing, upright and intact, more than four decades later. They were all likely turned beige from relentless cosmic radiation. But they were still there. The people who’d always looked up at the moon and believed the flags still stood? After decades of being told they were wrong, they were finally proven right.
In Rhodhiss, too, the proof may be elusive, but the search goes on. The hope is still alive. And the belief has never wavered. In their hearts, they know it’s their flag. No matter what, that’s the truth.
From North Carolina to the International Space Station
Christina Koch grew up in Jacksonville and went to school in the Triangle.
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yes
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Cytogenetics
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Is the Y chromosome disappearing?
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yes_statement
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the "y" "chromosome" is "disappearing".. the "y" "chromosome" is vanishing.
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https://www.latrobe.edu.au/news/articles/2022/opinion/men-are-slowly-losing-their-y-chromosome
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Men are slowly losing their Y chromosome, News, La Trobe University
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Men are slowly losing their Y chromosome
The sex of human and other mammal babies is decided by a male-determining gene on the Y chromosome. But the human Y chromosome is degenerating and may disappear in a few million years, leading to our extinction unless we evolve a new sex gene.
The good news is two branches of rodents have already lost their Y chromosome and have lived to tell the tale.
How the Y chromosome determines human sex
In humans, as in other mammals, females have two X chromosomes and males have a single X and a puny little chromosome called Y. The names have nothing to do with their shape; the X stood for “unknown”.
But the Y chromosome packs a punch because it contains an all-important gene that kick-starts male development in the embryo. At about 12 weeks after conception, this master gene switches on others that regulate the development of a testis. The embryonic testis makes male hormones (testosterone and its derivatives), which ensures the baby develops as a boy.
This master sex gene was identified as SRY (sex region on the Y) in 1990. It works by triggering a genetic pathway starting with a gene called SOX9 which is key for male determination in all vertebrates, although it does not lie on sex chromosomes.
The disappearing Y
Most mammals have an X and Y chromosome similar to ours; an X with lots of genes, and a Y with SRY plus a few others. This system comes with problems because of the unequal dosage of X genes in males and females.
How did such a weird system evolve? The surprising finding is that Australia’s platypus has completely different sex chromosomes, more like those of birds.
In platypus, the XY pair is just an ordinary chromosome, with two equal members. This suggests the mammal X and Y were an ordinary pair of chromosomes not that long ago.
In turn, this must mean the Y chromosome has lost 900–55 active genes over the 166 million years that humans and platypus have been evolving separately. That’s a loss of about five genes per million years. At this rate, the last 55 genes will be gone in 11 million years.
Rodents with no Y chromosome
The good news is we know of two rodent lineages that have already lost their Y chromosome – and are still surviving.
The mole voles of eastern Europe and the spiny rats of Japan each boast some species in which the Y chromosome, and SRY, have completely disappeared. The X chromosome remains, in a single or double dose in both sexes.
Although it’s not yet clear how the mole voles determine sex without the SRY gene, a team led by Hokkaido University biologist Asato Kuroiwa has had more luck with the spiny rat – a group of three species on different Japanese islands, all endangered.
Kuroiwa’s team discovered most of the genes on the Y of spiny rats had been relocated to other chromosomes. But she found no sign of SRY, nor the gene that substitutes for it.
What they discovered was a tiny difference near the key sex gene SOX9, on chromosome 3 of the spiny rat. A small duplication (only 17,000 base pairs out of more than 3 billion) was present in all males and no females.
They suggest this small bit of duplicated DNA contains the switch that normally turns on SOX9 in response to SRY. When they introduced this duplication into mice, they found that it boosts SOX9 activity, so the change could allow SOX9 to work without SRY.
What this means for the future of men
Some lizards and snakes are female-only species and can make eggs out of their own genes via what’s known as parthenogenesis. But this can’t happen in humans or other mammals because we have at least 30 crucial “imprinted” genes that work only if they come from the father via sperm.
To reproduce, we need sperm and we need men, meaning that the end of the Y chromosome could herald the extinction of the human race.
The new finding supports an alternative possibility – that humans can evolve a new sex determining gene. Phew!
However, evolution of a new sex determining gene comes with risks. What if more than one new system evolves in different parts of the world?
A “war” of the sex genes could lead to the separation of new species, which is exactly what has happened with mole voles and spiny rats.
So, if someone visited Earth in 11 million years, they might find no humans – or several different human species, kept apart by their different sex determination systems.
|
Men are slowly losing their Y chromosome
The sex of human and other mammal babies is decided by a male-determining gene on the Y chromosome. But the human Y chromosome is degenerating and may disappear in a few million years, leading to our extinction unless we evolve a new sex gene.
The good news is two branches of rodents have already lost their Y chromosome and have lived to tell the tale.
How the Y chromosome determines human sex
In humans, as in other mammals, females have two X chromosomes and males have a single X and a puny little chromosome called Y. The names have nothing to do with their shape; the X stood for “unknown”.
But the Y chromosome packs a punch because it contains an all-important gene that kick-starts male development in the embryo. At about 12 weeks after conception, this master gene switches on others that regulate the development of a testis. The embryonic testis makes male hormones (testosterone and its derivatives), which ensures the baby develops as a boy.
This master sex gene was identified as SRY (sex region on the Y) in 1990. It works by triggering a genetic pathway starting with a gene called SOX9 which is key for male determination in all vertebrates, although it does not lie on sex chromosomes.
The disappearing Y
Most mammals have an X and Y chromosome similar to ours; an X with lots of genes, and a Y with SRY plus a few others. This system comes with problems because of the unequal dosage of X genes in males and females.
How did such a weird system evolve? The surprising finding is that Australia’s platypus has completely different sex chromosomes, more like those of birds.
In platypus, the XY pair is just an ordinary chromosome, with two equal members. This suggests the mammal X and Y were an ordinary pair of chromosomes not that long ago.
In turn, this must mean the Y chromosome has lost 900–55 active genes over the 166 million years that humans and platypus have been evolving separately.
|
yes
|
Cytogenetics
|
Is the Y chromosome disappearing?
|
yes_statement
|
the "y" "chromosome" is "disappearing".. the "y" "chromosome" is vanishing.
|
https://www.sciencealert.com/the-y-chromosome-is-vanishing-a-new-sex-gene-could-be-the-future-of-men
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The Y Chromosome Is Vanishing. A New Sex Gene Could Be The ...
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The Y Chromosome Is Vanishing. A New Sex Gene Could Be The Future of Men
The sex of human and other mammal babies is decided by a male-determining gene on the Y chromosome. But the human Y chromosome is degenerating and may disappear in a few million years, leading to our extinction unless we evolve a new sex gene.
The good news is two branches of rodents have already lost their Y chromosome and have lived to tell the tale.
How the Y chromosome determines human sex
In humans, as in other mammals, females have two X chromosomes and males have a single X and a puny little chromosome called Y. The names have nothing to do with their shape; the X stood for 'unknown'.
But the Y chromosome packs a punch because it contains an all-important gene that kick-starts male development in the embryo.
At about 12 weeks after conception, this master gene switches on others that regulate the development of a testis. The embryonic testis makes male hormones (testosterone and its derivatives), which ensures the baby develops as a boy.
This master sex gene was identified as SRY (sex region on the Y) in 1990. It works by triggering a genetic pathway starting with a gene called SOX9 which is key for male determination in all vertebrates, although it does not lie on sex chromosomes.
The disappearing Y
Most mammals have an X and Y chromosome similar to ours; an X with lots of genes, and a Y with SRY plus a few others. This system comes with problems because of the unequal dosage of X genes in males and females.
How did such a weird system evolve? The surprising finding is that Australia's platypus has completely different sex chromosomes, more like those of birds.
In platypus, the XY pair is just an ordinary chromosome, with two equal members. This suggests the mammal X and Y were an ordinary pair of chromosomes not that long ago.
In turn, this must mean the Y chromosome has lost 900–55 active genes over the 166 million years that humans and platypus have been evolving separately. That's a loss of about five genes per million years. At this rate, the last 55 genes will be gone in 11 million years.
Rodents with no Y chromosome
The good news is we know of two rodent lineages that have already lost their Y chromosome – and are still surviving.
The mole voles of eastern Europe and the spiny rats of Japan each boast some species in which the Y chromosome, and SRY, have completely disappeared. The X chromosome remains, in a single or double dose in both sexes.
Although it's not yet clear how the mole voles determine sex without the SRY gene, a team led by Hokkaido University biologist Asato Kuroiwa has had more luck with the spiny rat – a group of three species on different Japanese islands, all endangered.
Kuroiwa's team discovered most of the genes on the Y of spiny rats had been relocated to other chromosomes. But she found no sign of SRY, nor the gene that substitutes for it.
What they discovered was a tiny difference near the key sex gene SOX9, on chromosome 3 of the spiny rat. A small duplication (only 17,000 base pairs out of more than 3 billion) was present in all males and no females.
They suggest this small bit of duplicated DNA contains the switch that normally turns on SOX9 in response to SRY. When they introduced this duplication into mice, they found that it boosts SOX9 activity, so the change could allow SOX9 to work without SRY.
What this means for the future of men
Some lizards and snakes are female-only species and can make eggs out of their own genes via what's known as parthenogenesis. But this can't happen in humans or other mammals because we have at least 30 crucial "imprinted" genes that work only if they come from the father via sperm.
To reproduce, we need sperm and we need men, meaning that the end of the Y chromosome could herald the extinction of the human race.
The new finding supports an alternative possibility – that humans can evolve a new sex determining gene. Phew!
However, evolution of a new sex determining gene comes with risks. What if more than one new system evolves in different parts of the world?
A "war" of the sex genes could lead to the separation of new species, which is exactly what has happened with mole voles and spiny rats.
So, if someone visited Earth in 11 million years, they might find no humans – or several different human species, kept apart by their different sex determination systems.
|
The Y Chromosome Is Vanishing. A New Sex Gene Could Be The Future of Men
The sex of human and other mammal babies is decided by a male-determining gene on the Y chromosome. But the human Y chromosome is degenerating and may disappear in a few million years, leading to our extinction unless we evolve a new sex gene.
The good news is two branches of rodents have already lost their Y chromosome and have lived to tell the tale.
How the Y chromosome determines human sex
In humans, as in other mammals, females have two X chromosomes and males have a single X and a puny little chromosome called Y. The names have nothing to do with their shape; the X stood for 'unknown'.
But the Y chromosome packs a punch because it contains an all-important gene that kick-starts male development in the embryo.
At about 12 weeks after conception, this master gene switches on others that regulate the development of a testis. The embryonic testis makes male hormones (testosterone and its derivatives), which ensures the baby develops as a boy.
This master sex gene was identified as SRY (sex region on the Y) in 1990. It works by triggering a genetic pathway starting with a gene called SOX9 which is key for male determination in all vertebrates, although it does not lie on sex chromosomes.
The disappearing Y
Most mammals have an X and Y chromosome similar to ours; an X with lots of genes, and a Y with SRY plus a few others. This system comes with problems because of the unequal dosage of X genes in males and females.
How did such a weird system evolve? The surprising finding is that Australia's platypus has completely different sex chromosomes, more like those of birds.
In platypus, the XY pair is just an ordinary chromosome, with two equal members. This suggests the mammal X and Y were an ordinary pair of chromosomes not that long ago.
|
yes
|
Cytogenetics
|
Is the Y chromosome disappearing?
|
yes_statement
|
the "y" "chromosome" is "disappearing".. the "y" "chromosome" is vanishing.
|
https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-724446
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Y chromosome may be disappearing in humans, new study finds ...
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While most mammals have an X and Y chromosome-based system similar to that of humans, many species have seen a gradual decline in Y chromosomes.
A cell is seen undergoing mitosis, replicating its chromosomes as it divides (Illustrative).
(photo credit: PIXABAY)
Advertisement
Human sex has long been decided by the X and Y chromosomes – females are born with two X chromosomes, whereas males are born with one X and one Y chromosome. That future might be at risk as Y chromosomes continue to gradually disappear across different mammal species, a new study found.
The study, which was published in the peer-reviewed multidisciplinary scientific journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences), analyzed the platypus – a mammal that has different sex chromosomes, whereas most mammals have an X and Y chromosome-based system similar to that of humans.
The Australian Platypus, however, has XY chromosome pairs that would normally dictate that the mammal was a male – suggesting that the XY pairing was typical of mammal species not long ago.
Researchers estimated that the Y chromosome has lost over 900 active genes over 166 million years – the time period that human beings and the Australian Platypus have been evolving separately. At this rate, genes linked to Y chromosomes will be extinct in 11 million years.
How did other mammals overcome losing their Y chromosome?
A Platypus is a mammal with a beaver tail and a duckbill. (credit: Stefan Kraft via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)
While researchers fear humans would be the next species to lose Y chromosomes, the global scientific community is already aware of a mammal that has determined sex through genetics even after losing its Y chromosomes – two species of rodents.
The mole voles of eastern Europe and the spiny rats of Japan no longer have Y chromosomes, as they have completely disappeared as a result of evolution. Spiny rats, an endangered species native to several Japanese islands, managed to produce as males and females regardless due to a change in the rat’s chromosome 3. It remains unclear how the mole vole has evolved past Y chromosomes, though researchers will use the discoveries in spiny rats to continue researching.
“The evolution of differentiated sex chromosomes has been intensively studied over many decades to address questions, not only about the sex-determining mechanism but also on the genetic changes to sex chromosomes,” the Tokyo University researchers who authored the study wrote in their abstract. “Mammals possess an extremely stable XY chromosome system, in which the Y has almost completely degraded.”
While the eventual disappearance of Y chromosomes could theoretically lead to the extinction of mankind, evolution could also lead to new sex-defining genes developing and taking precedence over the weakening Y chromosomes.
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Researchers estimated that the Y chromosome has lost over 900 active genes over 166 million years – the time period that human beings and the Australian Platypus have been evolving separately. At this rate, genes linked to Y chromosomes will be extinct in 11 million years.
How did other mammals overcome losing their Y chromosome?
A Platypus is a mammal with a beaver tail and a duckbill. (credit: Stefan Kraft via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)
While researchers fear humans would be the next species to lose Y chromosomes, the global scientific community is already aware of a mammal that has determined sex through genetics even after losing its Y chromosomes – two species of rodents.
The mole voles of eastern Europe and the spiny rats of Japan no longer have Y chromosomes, as they have completely disappeared as a result of evolution. Spiny rats, an endangered species native to several Japanese islands, managed to produce as males and females regardless due to a change in the rat’s chromosome 3. It remains unclear how the mole vole has evolved past Y chromosomes, though researchers will use the discoveries in spiny rats to continue researching.
“The evolution of differentiated sex chromosomes has been intensively studied over many decades to address questions, not only about the sex-determining mechanism but also on the genetic changes to sex chromosomes,” the Tokyo University researchers who authored the study wrote in their abstract. “Mammals possess an extremely stable XY chromosome system, in which the Y has almost completely degraded.”
While the eventual disappearance of Y chromosomes could theoretically lead to the extinction of mankind, evolution could also lead to new sex-defining genes developing and taking precedence over the weakening Y chromosomes.
|
yes
|
Cytogenetics
|
Is the Y chromosome disappearing?
|
yes_statement
|
the "y" "chromosome" is "disappearing".. the "y" "chromosome" is vanishing.
|
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-17127617
|
Male Y chromosome extinction theory challenged - BBC News
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Male Y chromosome extinction theory challenged
Human cells carry 23 pairs of chromosomes, including one pair which determine gender
By Neil Bowdler
Science and health reporter, BBC News
Men may not become extinct after all, according to a new study.
Previous research has suggested the Y sex chromosome, which only men carry, is decaying genetically so fast that it will be extinct in five million years' time.
A gene within the chromosome is the switch which leads to testes development and the secretion of male hormones.
But a new US study in Nature suggests the genetic decay has all but ended.
Professor Jennifer Graves of Australian National University has previously suggested the Y chromosome may become extinct in as little as five million years' time, based on the rate at which genes are disappearing from the chromosome.
Genetics professor Brian Sykes predicted the demise of the Y chromosome, and of men, in as little as 100,000 years in his 2003 book Adam's Curse: A Future without Men.
The predictions were based on comparisons between the human X and Y sex chromosomes. While these chromosomes were once thought to be identical far back in the early history of mammals, the Y chromosome now has about 78 genes, compared with about 800 in the X chromosome.
Jennifer Hughes and colleagues at the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, have sought to determine whether rumours of the Y chromosome's demise have been exaggerated.
In a previous Nature paper in 2005, they compared the human Y chromosome with that of the chimpanzee, whose lineage diverged from that of humans about six million years ago.
They have now sequenced the Y chromosome of the rhesus monkey, which is separated from humans by 25 million years of evolution.
The conclusion from these comparative studies is that genetic decay has in recent history been minimal, with the human chromosome having lost no further genes in the last six million years, and only one in the last 25 million years.
"The Y is not going anywhere and gene loss has probably come to a halt," Dr Hughes told BBC News. "We can't rule out the possibility it could happen another time, but the genes which are left on the Y are here to stay.
"They apparently serve some critical function which we don't know much about yet, but the genes are being preserved pretty well by natural selection."
X-Y crossing
Most humans cells contain 23 sets of chromosomes, including one pair of sex chromosomes. In women, this sex pair consist of two X chromosomes, while men have one X and one Y chromosome. It is a gene within the Y chromosome which triggers the development in the embryo of male testes and the secretion of male hormones.
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Genetic deterioration of the Y chromosome has occurred because unlike with the two X chromosomes in women, there is very little swapping of genetic material between the Y and X chromosome during reproduction. This means mutations and deletions in the Y chromosome are preserved between (male) generations.
"The X is fine because in females it gets to recombine with the other X but the Y never gets to recombine over almost its entire length, and shutting down that recombination has left the Y vulnerable to all these degenerative forces," said Dr Hughes, "which is why we're left with the Y we have today."
Commenting on the paper, Professor Mark Pagel, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Reading and author of Wired for Culture: Origins of the Human Social Mind, said that while there might be some squabbling in academic circles over the timings of the events, the paper told us there was a future for males in the very long term.
"It's a very nice piece of work, showing that gene loss in the male-specific region of the Y chromosome proceeds rapidly at first - exponentially in fact - but then reaches a point at which purifying selection brings this process to a halt."
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Male Y chromosome extinction theory challenged
Human cells carry 23 pairs of chromosomes, including one pair which determine gender
By Neil Bowdler
Science and health reporter, BBC News
Men may not become extinct after all, according to a new study.
Previous research has suggested the Y sex chromosome, which only men carry, is decaying genetically so fast that it will be extinct in five million years' time.
A gene within the chromosome is the switch which leads to testes development and the secretion of male hormones.
But a new US study in Nature suggests the genetic decay has all but ended.
Professor Jennifer Graves of Australian National University has previously suggested the Y chromosome may become extinct in as little as five million years' time, based on the rate at which genes are disappearing from the chromosome.
Genetics professor Brian Sykes predicted the demise of the Y chromosome, and of men, in as little as 100,000 years in his 2003 book Adam's Curse: A Future without Men.
The predictions were based on comparisons between the human X and Y sex chromosomes. While these chromosomes were once thought to be identical far back in the early history of mammals, the Y chromosome now has about 78 genes, compared with about 800 in the X chromosome.
Jennifer Hughes and colleagues at the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, have sought to determine whether rumours of the Y chromosome's demise have been exaggerated.
In a previous Nature paper in 2005, they compared the human Y chromosome with that of the chimpanzee, whose lineage diverged from that of humans about six million years ago.
They have now sequenced the Y chromosome of the rhesus monkey, which is separated from humans by 25 million years of evolution.
The conclusion from these comparative studies is that genetic decay has in recent history been minimal, with the human chromosome having lost no further genes in the last six million years, and only one in the last 25 million years.
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no
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Cytogenetics
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Is the Y chromosome disappearing?
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yes_statement
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the "y" "chromosome" is "disappearing".. the "y" "chromosome" is vanishing.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/23/science/y-chromosome-though-diminished-is-holding-its-ground.html
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Y Chromosome, Though Diminished, Is Holding Its Ground - The ...
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Genetic Maker of Men Is Diminished but Holding Its Ground, Researchers Say
Men, or at least male biologists, have long been alarmed that their tiny Y chromosome, once the same size as its buxom partner, the X, will continue to wither away until it simply vanishes. The male sex would then become extinct, they fear, leaving women to invent some virgin-birth method of reproduction and propagate a sexless species.
The fear is not without serious basis: The Y and X chromosomes once shared some 800 genes in common, but now, after shedding genes furiously, the Y carries just 19 of its ancestral genes, as well as the male-determining gene that is its raison d’être. So much DNA has been lost that the chromosome is a fraction of its original size.
But there are grounds for hope that the Y chromosome has reached a plateau of miniaturized perfection and will shrivel no more. Researchers led by Jennifer F. Hughes and David C. Page of the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Mass., have reconstructed the Y chromosome’s past and find that its gene-shedding days seem to be over. Men are not living on borrowed time after all, they reported on Wednesday in the journal Nature.
In people, sex is determined by a single gene that resides on the Y chromosome. Chromosomes come in pairs, with one set bequeathed by each parent, and the Y is paired with X such that men have an X-Y pair and women an X-X. When the male-determining gene first arose, some 320 million years ago, the X and Y were both full-length chromosomes, each bearing the same set of 1,000 or so genes.
The Y chromosome began its self-sacrificing downsizing in the gallant cause of protecting women. As is well known, the purpose of sex is to exchange DNA between the mother’s and father’s version of each gene, creating novel combinations that will help children adapt to a new environment better than their parents did. So before generating sperm and eggs, the two members of each pair of chromosomes line up side by side and swap large chunks of DNA.
But the male-determining gene on the Y cannot be allowed to sneak across onto the X because it would insert maleness where it should not be. So a no-swapping zone was created around the male-determining gene. That inhibitory zone was extended in five stages until it covered the whole of Y chromosome except its very tips.
Genes at the tips of the Y exchange DNA with the X in the usual way, but all those in between were condemned to a monklike existence. And being unable to innovate, most of these genes became first antiquated and then dispensable. The X chromosome now has 790 genes in its no-swap zone, according to best current estimates, but the Y retains a mere 19 of these original genes.
As the only part of the human genome that never passes through a woman’s body, the Y is the ideal refuge for male-favoring genes, especially those having to do with sperm production. Eight such genes have leapt onto the Y from other chromosomes, bringing its total score to 27. But these few additions have not allayed concern about the chromosome’s long-term viability.
The Whitehead team’s new report provides solid assurance by showing that the Y’s shedding of genes is not a continuing process. Almost all of its genetic self-sacrifice occurred in the distant past.
This insight was gained by decoding the Y chromosome of rhesus monkeys, which shared a common ancestor with humans at the time, and retain 20 ancestral genes, meaning those that have a counterpart gene on the X. Only one of these genes has been lost in humans at some time in the last 25 million years, showing that the Y chromosome became essentially stabilized long ago.
He and his colleagues have reconstructed the entire history of the Y chromosome, showing that its no-swap zone expanded in five stages, of which the first began 320 million years ago and the last ended 29 million years ago. Each stage was caused when a chunk of DNA fell out of the Y chromosome and was accidentally flipped the wrong way when it was patched back in, so it would no longer line up correctly with its counterpart region on the X. At each stage, loss of genes was precipitous at first but then leveled off.
The first stage originated to fence in the male-determining genes. The driving force for creating more no-swap zones was probably the existence of genes in nearby regions that were beneficial for males and detrimental for females, Dr. Page said. Sexually antagonistic genes probably exist throughout the genome, but only on the Y chromosome can the male-favoring ones gain protection.
A version of this article appears in print on , Section A, Page 14 of the New York edition with the headline: Genetic Maker of Men Is Diminished but Holding Its Ground, Researchers Say. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
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Genetic Maker of Men Is Diminished but Holding Its Ground, Researchers Say
Men, or at least male biologists, have long been alarmed that their tiny Y chromosome, once the same size as its buxom partner, the X, will continue to wither away until it simply vanishes. The male sex would then become extinct, they fear, leaving women to invent some virgin-birth method of reproduction and propagate a sexless species.
The fear is not without serious basis: The Y and X chromosomes once shared some 800 genes in common, but now, after shedding genes furiously, the Y carries just 19 of its ancestral genes, as well as the male-determining gene that is its raison d’être. So much DNA has been lost that the chromosome is a fraction of its original size.
But there are grounds for hope that the Y chromosome has reached a plateau of miniaturized perfection and will shrivel no more. Researchers led by Jennifer F. Hughes and David C. Page of the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Mass., have reconstructed the Y chromosome’s past and find that its gene-shedding days seem to be over. Men are not living on borrowed time after all, they reported on Wednesday in the journal Nature.
In people, sex is determined by a single gene that resides on the Y chromosome. Chromosomes come in pairs, with one set bequeathed by each parent, and the Y is paired with X such that men have an X-Y pair and women an X-X. When the male-determining gene first arose, some 320 million years ago, the X and Y were both full-length chromosomes, each bearing the same set of 1,000 or so genes.
The Y chromosome began its self-sacrificing downsizing in the gallant cause of protecting women. As is well known, the purpose of sex is to exchange DNA between the mother’s and father’s version of each gene, creating novel combinations that will help children adapt to a new environment better than their parents did.
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no
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Cytogenetics
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Is the Y chromosome disappearing?
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yes_statement
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the "y" "chromosome" is "disappearing".. the "y" "chromosome" is vanishing.
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https://www.biologyonline.com/articles/men-could-go-extinct-y-chromosome-disappearing-slowly
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Men could go extinct? Y chromosome disappearing slowly - Biology ...
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Men could go extinct? Y chromosome disappearing slowly
Hold on to your seats, gentlemen — the male chromosome (Y chromosome) disappearing at a certain rate could absolutely be gone in the future. This presumption is based on genetic studies. It used to be genetically the same as the X chromosome. However, it has degenerated gradually, and now, it shriveled and became less relevant.
Male-determiner
Humans have two types of sex chromosomes: the X chromosome and the Y chromosome. Females have two X chromosomes whereas males have only one. Nonetheless, males have the Y chromosome that is passed on across generations from fathers to sons. In the XX/XY sex-determination system, it is the male-determining sex chromosome. Previously, the X chromosome was regarded as the sex-determiner. This conjecture, however, was eventually proven wrong when the SRY (sex-determining region Y) gene was identified on the male chromosome.1 This gene codes for the testis-determining factor, a protein that triggers testis development. Without this gene, testis fails to develop in males. There are few other genes present on the male chromosome. However, compared with the X chromosome, the Y chromosome is relatively gene-poor and the only highly notable gene on it is the SRY gene.
Y chromosome disappearing debate
Going back in time, about 166 million years ago, the first mammals had a Y chromosome (called a proto-Y chromosome) that was genetically similar to and of the same size as the X chromosome.2 However, the male chromosome diminished into the short chromosome that it is now. It degenerates as it loses genes through time. Unlike the other chromosomes, this chromosome does not undergo genetic recombination. Based on the current speed of degeneration, the Y chromosome would likely have 4.6 million years left, which relatively speaking is not that long, considering the 3.5 billion years that life has existed on Earth.2 Some mammals, such as certain rodent species, have already lost their entire Y chromosome. 3 Some experts (referred to as the “leavers”) infer that this event would also happen to humans in the future. This notion was opposed by others (the “remainers”) who believe that it would not disappear completely because it has evolved corrective mechanisms that slow down and deter gene loss. Gene amplification (the acquisition of multiple gene copies) and the presence of palindromes (a sequence that reads the same, whether backward or forward, e.g. AGTGA) help mitigate gene loss.3
Men without Y chromosome in the future
If the Y chromosome ultimately disappears in the future, what will happen to men? Will there be men in the future? Experts believe that men will get by when that time comes. Men would still be around just as women have been perfectly fine without it. As for the SRY gene, it could move to a different chromosome. Nonetheless, the chromosome that would take this gene would be at risk of going through the same fate as that of the Y chromosome.3 The absence of the SRY gene on the male chromosome is not new, however. In Swyer syndrome, the individual has a Y chromosome lacking the SRY gene and consequently fails to develop testis and other internal male organs. A person with this genetic condition is outwardly female but with a karyotype of a male (i.e. XY karyotype) .2
Further research on the degenerating male chromosome is essential to monitor the rate of gene loss on the Y chromosome. One possible implication of the possible complete disappearance of the Y chromosome is the impending necessity for more advanced reproductive modalities that can be applied artificially not just on humans but also on other mammals as reproduction by that time would ever hardly become natural.
You will also like...
Hold on to your seats, gentlemen — the male chromosome (Y chromosome) disappearing at a certain rate could absolutely be gone in the future. This presumption is based on genetic studies. It used to be genetically the same as the X chromosome. However, it has degenerated gradually, and now, it shriveled and became less relevant...
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3 Some experts (referred to as the “leavers”) infer that this event would also happen to humans in the future. This notion was opposed by others (the “remainers”) who believe that it would not disappear completely because it has evolved corrective mechanisms that slow down and deter gene loss. Gene amplification (the acquisition of multiple gene copies) and the presence of palindromes (a sequence that reads the same, whether backward or forward, e.g. AGTGA) help mitigate gene loss.3
Men without Y chromosome in the future
If the Y chromosome ultimately disappears in the future, what will happen to men? Will there be men in the future? Experts believe that men will get by when that time comes. Men would still be around just as women have been perfectly fine without it. As for the SRY gene, it could move to a different chromosome. Nonetheless, the chromosome that would take this gene would be at risk of going through the same fate as that of the Y chromosome.3 The absence of the SRY gene on the male chromosome is not new, however. In Swyer syndrome, the individual has a Y chromosome lacking the SRY gene and consequently fails to develop testis and other internal male organs. A person with this genetic condition is outwardly female but with a karyotype of a male (i.e. XY karyotype) .2
Further research on the degenerating male chromosome is essential to monitor the rate of gene loss on the Y chromosome. One possible implication of the possible complete disappearance of the Y chromosome is the impending necessity for more advanced reproductive modalities that can be applied artificially not just on humans but also on other mammals as reproduction by that time would ever hardly become natural.
You will also like...
Hold on to your seats, gentlemen — the male chromosome (Y chromosome) disappearing at a certain rate could absolutely be gone in the future. This presumption is based on genetic studies. It used to be genetically the same as the X chromosome. However, it has degenerated gradually, and now, it shriveled and became less relevant...
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yes
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Cytogenetics
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Is the Y chromosome disappearing?
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yes_statement
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the "y" "chromosome" is "disappearing".. the "y" "chromosome" is vanishing.
|
https://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/health/men-are-slowly-losing-their-y-chromosome-but-a-new-sex-gene-discovery-in-spiny-rats-brings-hope-for-humanity-86419
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Men are slowly losing their Y chromosome, but a new sex gene ...
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Published: Wednesday 07 December 2022
The sex of human and other mammal babies is decided by a male-determining gene on the Y chromosome. But the human Y chromosome is degenerating and may disappear in a few million years, leading to our extinction unless we evolve a new sex gene.
The good news is two branches of rodents have already lost their Y chromosome and have lived to tell the tale.
How the Y chromosome determines human sex
In humans, as in other mammals, females have two X chromosomes and males have a single X and a puny little chromosome called Y. The names have nothing to do with their shape; the X stood for “unknown”.
But the Y chromosome packs a punch because it contains an all-important gene that kick-starts male development in the embryo. At about 12 weeks after conception, this master gene switches on others that regulate the development of a testis. The embryonic testis makes male hormones (testosterone and its derivatives), which ensures the baby develops as a boy.
This master sex gene was identified as SRY (sex region on the Y) in 1990. It works by triggering a genetic pathway starting with a gene called SOX9 which is key for male determination in all vertebrates, although it does not lie on sex chromosomes.
The disappearing Y
Most mammals have an X and Y chromosome similar to ours; an X with lots of genes, and a Y with SRY plus a few others. This system comes with problems because of the unequal dosage of X genes in males and females.
How did such a weird system evolve? The surprising finding is that Australia’s platypus has completely different sex chromosomes, more like those of birds.
In platypus, the XY pair is just an ordinary chromosome, with two equal members. This suggests the mammal X and Y were an ordinary pair of chromosomes not that long ago.
In turn, this must mean the Y chromosome has lost 900–55 active genes over the 166 million years that humans and platypus have been evolving separately. That’s a loss of about five genes per million years. At this rate, the last 55 genes will be gone in 11 million years.
Rodents with no Y chromosome
The good news is we know of two rodent lineages that have already lost their Y chromosome – and are still surviving.
The mole voles of eastern Europe and the spiny rats of Japan each boast some species in which the Y chromosome, and SRY, have completely disappeared. The X chromosome remains, in a single or double dose in both sexes.
The Amami spiny rat (Tokudaia osimensis) is endemic to the Japanese island of Amami Ōshima.Asato Kuroiwa
Although it’s not yet clear how the mole voles determine sex without the SRY gene, a team led by Hokkaido University biologist Asato Kuroiwa has had more luck with the spiny rat — a group of three species on different Japanese islands, all endangered.
Kuroiwa’s team discovered most of the genes on the Y of spiny rats had been relocated to other chromosomes. But she found no sign of SRY, nor the gene that substitutes for it.
What they discovered was a tiny difference near the key sex gene SOX9, on chromosome 3 of the spiny rat. A small duplication (only 17,000 base pairs out of more than 3 billion) was present in all males and no females.
They suggest this small bit of duplicated DNA contains the switch that normally turns on SOX9 in response to SRY. When they introduced this duplication into mice, they found that it boosts SOX9 activity, so the change could allow SOX9 to work without SRY.
What this means for the future of men
Some lizards and snakes are female-only species and can make eggs out of their own genes via what’s known as parthenogenesis. But this can’t happen in humans or other mammals because we have at least 30 crucial “imprinted” genes that work only if they come from the father via sperm.
To reproduce, we need sperm and we need men, meaning that the end of the Y chromosome could herald the extinction of the human race.
The new finding supports an alternative possibility — that humans can evolve a new sex determining gene. Phew!
However, evolution of a new sex determining gene comes with risks. What if more than one new system evolves in different parts of the world?
A “war” of the sex genes could lead to the separation of new species, which is exactly what has happened with mole voles and spiny rats.
So, if someone visited Earth in 11 million years, they might find no humans – or several different human species, kept apart by their different sex determination systems.
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Published: Wednesday 07 December 2022
The sex of human and other mammal babies is decided by a male-determining gene on the Y chromosome. But the human Y chromosome is degenerating and may disappear in a few million years, leading to our extinction unless we evolve a new sex gene.
The good news is two branches of rodents have already lost their Y chromosome and have lived to tell the tale.
How the Y chromosome determines human sex
In humans, as in other mammals, females have two X chromosomes and males have a single X and a puny little chromosome called Y. The names have nothing to do with their shape; the X stood for “unknown”.
But the Y chromosome packs a punch because it contains an all-important gene that kick-starts male development in the embryo. At about 12 weeks after conception, this master gene switches on others that regulate the development of a testis. The embryonic testis makes male hormones (testosterone and its derivatives), which ensures the baby develops as a boy.
This master sex gene was identified as SRY (sex region on the Y) in 1990. It works by triggering a genetic pathway starting with a gene called SOX9 which is key for male determination in all vertebrates, although it does not lie on sex chromosomes.
The disappearing Y
Most mammals have an X and Y chromosome similar to ours; an X with lots of genes, and a Y with SRY plus a few others. This system comes with problems because of the unequal dosage of X genes in males and females.
How did such a weird system evolve? The surprising finding is that Australia’s platypus has completely different sex chromosomes, more like those of birds.
In platypus, the XY pair is just an ordinary chromosome, with two equal members. This suggests the mammal X and Y were an ordinary pair of chromosomes not that long ago.
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yes
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Cytogenetics
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Is the Y chromosome disappearing?
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yes_statement
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the "y" "chromosome" is "disappearing".. the "y" "chromosome" is vanishing.
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https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2012.10082
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The human Y chromosome is here to stay | Nature
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Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
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Men can breathe a sigh of relief — their sex-determining chromosomes aren’t going anywhere. A study of human and rhesus monkey Y chromosomes questions the notion that the Y is steadily shedding genes and is doomed to degenerate.
In fact, the version of the Y chromosome that every human male carries around has lost just a single gene in the 25 million years since humans and rhesus macaques shared a common ancestor.
“I think it should finally put an end to the speculation about the demise of the Y. Twenty-five million years is a big chunk of the history of the Y,” says Jennifer Hughes, a geneticist at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She and colleague David Page led the study, which is published online today in Nature1.
A brief history of Y
The Y chromosome emerged around 200 or 300 million years ago, in a common ancestor of most mammals. Males and females already existed, but their sex was determined by environmental factors such as temperature, rather than genetics.
This all changed when a gene called SRY evolved from a related gene, SOX3. For reasons that scientists are still studying, SRY, and not the environment, now made males male. The chromosome on which SRY evolved became the first Y, and its former pair, home to SOX3, became the X chromosome.
Like normal pairs of chromosomes, or autosomes, the early X and Y chromosomes reshuffled their genetic material in each generation. Gradually the Y withered away, losing hundreds of genes and most of its ability to recombine with the X. The chromosomes now reshuffle their DNA at the tips only.
In a 2002 article in Nature, two Australian scientists examined the rate at which the Y has withered and estimated that it “will self-destruct in around 10 million years”2. Some mammals, including mole voles and spiny rats, have lost their Ys already, and sex-determining genes have emerged on other chromosomes. It seemed that this could be the destiny of the human Y.
Monkey business
Hughes, Page and their team published3 the sequence of the chimpanzee Y chromosome in 2010, and found vast differences between it and the human Y. Chimpanzees have shed many protein-coding genes in the roughly 6 million years since their lineage diverged from that of humans. But other parts of the chimp Y had been duplicated over and over again in that time.
Hughes theorizes that the amplifications endowed chimps with extra copies of genes involved in sperm production — a useful trait for a promiscuous species in which multiple males mate with fertile females. “If you have a chromosome that is really good at making sperm, it might not matter” that it has lost these other genes, she says.
Y is here to stay
Your browser does not support the audio element.
Jennifer Hughes discusses her research with the Nature podcast team.
To gaze even further back into the history of the Y, Hughes and her team decoded the Y chromosome of the rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta), which has a common ancestor with humans and chimps that lived around 25 million years ago. Macaques are promiscuous, and Hughes expected to see that the macaque Y had dropped some genes and duplicated others involved in making sperm.
“It couldn’t have been more different,” she says. The macaque Y contained just one gene that humans have lost, and that gene resides on a particularly unstable portion of the Y. The human Y has grown much longer than the macaque’s, but the genes were mostly the same.
“Those are the genes that give me confidence that in another 50 million years, the Y chromosome will still be there. They’re not going away,” says Scott Hawley, a geneticist at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City, Missouri. He suggests that the genes have stuck around because, without them, men would be infertile.
“I’m more worried about global warming than the Y chromosome disappearing,” says Hawley. “I’m hoping that this paper has settled this controversy.”
Jennifer Graves, a geneticist at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, and one of the scientists to predict the demise of the human Y in the 2002 Nature article, commends the new study, but she still questions the Y’s long-term prospects. The human version is full of inverted DNA duplications containing both active and broken genes. Graves considers these duplications to be the chromosome's dying gasps.
“The Y could disappear tomorrow if another sex-determining gene were to arise on an autosome,” she says.
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Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
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Men can breathe a sigh of relief — their sex-determining chromosomes aren’t going anywhere. A study of human and rhesus monkey Y chromosomes questions the notion that the Y is steadily shedding genes and is doomed to degenerate.
In fact, the version of the Y chromosome that every human male carries around has lost just a single gene in the 25 million years since humans and rhesus macaques shared a common ancestor.
“I think it should finally put an end to the speculation about the demise of the Y. Twenty-five million years is a big chunk of the history of the Y,” says Jennifer Hughes, a geneticist at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She and colleague David Page led the study, which is published online today in Nature1.
A brief history of Y
The Y chromosome emerged around 200 or 300 million years ago, in a common ancestor of most mammals. Males and females already existed, but their sex was determined by environmental factors such as temperature, rather than genetics.
This all changed when a gene called SRY evolved from a related gene, SOX3. For reasons that scientists are still studying, SRY, and not the environment, now made males male. The chromosome on which SRY evolved became the first Y, and its former pair, home to SOX3, became the X chromosome.
Like normal pairs of chromosomes, or autosomes, the early X and Y chromosomes reshuffled their genetic material in each generation. Gradually the Y withered away, losing hundreds of genes and most of its ability to recombine with the X. The chromosomes now reshuffle their DNA at the tips only.
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no
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Virology
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Is the Zika virus only transmitted by mosquitoes?
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yes_statement
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the "zika" "virus" is "transmitted" only by "mosquitoes".. "mosquitoes" are the only carriers of the "zika" "virus".
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https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/zika-virus
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Zika virus
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Zika virus
Key facts
Zika virus is transmitted primarily by Aedes mosquitoes, which bite mostly during the day.
Most people with Zika virus infection do not develop symptoms; those who do typically have symptoms including rash, fever, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain, malaise and headache that last for 2–7 days.
Zika virus infection during pregnancy can cause infants to be born with microcephaly and other congenital malformations as well as preterm birth and miscarriage.
Zika virus infection is associated with Guillain-Barré syndrome, neuropathy and myelitis in adults and children.
In February 2016, WHO declared Zika-related microcephaly a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), and the causal link between the Zika virus and congenital malformations was confirmed. WHO declared the end of the PHEIC in November of the same year.
Although cases of Zika virus disease declined from 2017 onwards globally, transmission persists at low levels in several countries in the Americas and other endemic regions.
Overview
Zika virus is a mosquito-borne virus first identified in Uganda in 1947 in a Rhesus macaque monkey followed by evidence of infection and disease in humans in other African countries in the 1950s.
From the 1960s to 1980s, sporadic human infections were detected across Africa and Asia. However, since 2007 outbreaks of Zika virus disease have been recorded in Africa, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific.
In outbreaks over the last decade Zika virus infection was found to be associated with increased incidence of Guillain-Barré syndrome. When Zika virus emerged in the Americas, with a large epidemic in Brazil in 2015, an association between Zika virus infection and microcephaly (smaller than normal head size) was first described; there were similar findings in French Polynesia upon retrospective review. From February to November 2016, WHO declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) regarding microcephaly, other neurological disorders and Zika virus, and the causal link between Zika virus and congenital malformations was soon confirmed (1,2). Outbreaks of Zika virus disease were identified throughout most of the Americas and in other regions with established Aedes aegypti mosquitos. Infections were detected in travellers from active transmission areas and sexual transmission was confirmed as an alternate route of Zika virus infection.
Cases of Zika virus disease globally declined from 2017 onwards; however, Zika virus transmission persists at low levels in several countries in the Americas and in other endemic regions. In addition, the first local mosquito-transmitted Zika virus disease cases were reported in Europe in 2019 and Zika virus outbreak activity was detected in India in 2021. To date, a total of 89 countries and territories have reported evidence of mosquito transmitted Zika virus infection; however, surveillance remains limited globally.
Symptoms
Most people infected with Zika virus do not develop symptoms. Among those who do, they typically start 3–14 days after infection, are generally mild including rash, fever, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain, malaise and headache, and usually last for 2–7 days. These symptoms are common to other arboviral and non-arboviral diseases; thus, the diagnosis of Zika virus infection requires laboratory confirmation.
Complications
Zika virus infection during pregnancy is a cause of microcephaly and other congenital malformations in the infant, including limb contractures, high muscle tone, eye abnormalities and hearing loss. These clinical features are collectively referred to as congenital Zika syndrome.
The risk of congenital malformations following infection in pregnancy remains unknown; an estimated 5–15% of infants born to women infected with Zika virus during pregnancy have evidence of Zika-related complications (3). Congenital malformations occur following both symptomatic and asymptomatic infection. Zika infection in pregnancy can also cause complications such as fetal loss, stillbirth and preterm birth.
Research is ongoing to investigate the risk and effects of Zika virus infection on pregnancy outcomes, strategies for prevention and control, and effects of infection on other neurological disorders in children and adults.
Transmission
Zika virus is primarily transmitted by infected mosquitoes of the Aedes (Stegomyia) genus, mainly Aedes aegypti, in tropical and subtropical regions. Aedes mosquitoes usually bite during the day. These mosquitoes also transmit dengue, chikungunya and urban yellow fever.
Zika virus is also transmitted from mother to fetus during pregnancy, as well as through sexual contact, transfusion of blood and blood products, and possibly through organ transplantation.
Diagnosis
Infection with Zika virus may be suspected based on symptoms of persons living in or visiting areas with Zika virus transmission and/or Aedes mosquito vectors. A diagnosis of Zika virus infection can only be confirmed by laboratory tests of blood or other body fluids, and it must be differentiated from cross-reactive related flaviviruses such as dengue virus, to which the patient may have been exposed or previously vaccinated.
Treatment
There is no specific treatment available for Zika virus infection or disease.
People with symptoms such as rash, fever or joint pain should get plenty of rest, drink fluids, and treat symptoms with antipyretics and/or analgesics. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs should be avoided until dengue virus infections are ruled out because of bleeding risk. If symptoms worsen, patients should seek medical care and advice.
Pregnant women living in areas with Zika transmission or who develop symptoms of Zika virus infection should seek medical attention for laboratory testing, information, counselling and other clinical care.
Prevention
No vaccine is yet available for the prevention or treatment of Zika virus infection. Development of a Zika vaccine remains an active area of research.
Mosquito bites
Protection against mosquito bites during the day and early evening is a key measure to prevent Zika virus infection, especially among pregnant women, women of reproductive age and young children.
Personal protection measures include wearing clothing (preferably light-coloured) that covers as much of the body as possible; using physical barriers such as window screens and closed doors and windows; and applying insect repellent to skin or clothing that contains DEET, IR3535 or icaridin according to the product label instructions.
Young children and pregnant women should sleep under mosquito nets if sleeping during the day or early evening. Travellers and those living in affected areas should take the same basic precautions described above to protect themselves from mosquito bites.
Aedes mosquitoes breed in small collections of water around homes, schools and work sites. It is important to eliminate these mosquito breeding sites, including covering water storage containers, removing standing water in flowerpots, and cleaning up trash and used tires. Community initiatives are essential to support local government and public health programs to reduce mosquito breeding sites. Health authorities may also advise use of larvicides and insecticides to reduce mosquito populations and disease spread.
Prevention of sexual transmission
For regions with active transmission of Zika virus, all people with Zika virus infection and their sexual partners (particularly pregnant women) should receive information about the risks of sexual transmission of Zika virus.
WHO recommends that sexually active men and women be counselled and offered a full range of contraceptive methods to be able to make an informed choice about whether and when to become pregnant in order to prevent possible adverse pregnancy and fetal outcomes.
Women who have had unprotected sex and do not wish to become pregnant due to concerns about Zika virus infection should have ready access to emergency contraceptive services and counselling. Pregnant women should practice safer sex (including correct and consistent use of condoms) or abstain from sexual activity for at least the entire duration of pregnancy.
For regions with no active transmission of Zika virus, WHO recommends practicing safer sex or abstinence for a period of three months for men and two months for women who are returning from areas of active Zika virus transmission to prevent infection of their sex partners. Sexual partners of pregnant women living in or returning from areas where local transmission of Zika virus occurs should practice safer sex or abstain from sexual activity throughout pregnancy.
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Overview
Zika virus is a mosquito-borne virus first identified in Uganda in 1947 in a Rhesus macaque monkey followed by evidence of infection and disease in humans in other African countries in the 1950s.
From the 1960s to 1980s, sporadic human infections were detected across Africa and Asia. However, since 2007 outbreaks of Zika virus disease have been recorded in Africa, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific.
In outbreaks over the last decade Zika virus infection was found to be associated with increased incidence of Guillain-Barré syndrome. When Zika virus emerged in the Americas, with a large epidemic in Brazil in 2015, an association between Zika virus infection and microcephaly (smaller than normal head size) was first described; there were similar findings in French Polynesia upon retrospective review. From February to November 2016, WHO declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) regarding microcephaly, other neurological disorders and Zika virus, and the causal link between Zika virus and congenital malformations was soon confirmed (1,2). Outbreaks of Zika virus disease were identified throughout most of the Americas and in other regions with established Aedes aegypti mosquitos. Infections were detected in travellers from active transmission areas and sexual transmission was confirmed as an alternate route of Zika virus infection.
Cases of Zika virus disease globally declined from 2017 onwards; however, Zika virus transmission persists at low levels in several countries in the Americas and in other endemic regions. In addition, the first local mosquito-transmitted Zika virus disease cases were reported in Europe in 2019 and Zika virus outbreak activity was detected in India in 2021. To date, a total of 89 countries and territories have reported evidence of mosquito transmitted Zika virus infection; however, surveillance remains limited globally.
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no
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Virology
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Is the Zika virus only transmitted by mosquitoes?
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yes_statement
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the "zika" "virus" is "transmitted" only by "mosquitoes".. "mosquitoes" are the only carriers of the "zika" "virus".
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https://www.cdc.gov/zika/prevention/transmission-methods.html
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Zika Transmission | Zika Virus | CDC
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Zika Transmission
Through mosquito bites
Zika virus is transmitted to people primarily through the bite of an infected Aedes species mosquito (Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus). These are the same mosquitoes that spread dengue and chikungunya viruses.
These mosquitoes typically lay eggs in or near standing water in things like buckets, bowls, animal dishes, flower pots, and vases. They prefer to bite people, and live indoors and outdoors near people.
Mosquitoes that spread chikungunya, dengue, and Zika bite during the day and night.
A mosquito gets infected with a virus when it bites an infected person during the period of time when the virus can be found in the person’s blood, typically only through the first week of infection.
Infected mosquitoes can then spread the virus to other people through bites.
From mother to child
A pregnant woman can pass Zika virus to her fetus during pregnancy. Zika is a cause of microcephaly and other severe fetal brain defects. We are studying the full range of other potential health problems that Zika virus infection during pregnancy may cause.
A pregnant woman already infected with Zika virus can pass the virus to her fetus during the pregnancy or around the time of birth.
Zika virus has been found in breast milk. Possible Zika virus infections have been identified in breastfeeding babies, but Zika virus transmission through breast milk has not been confirmed. Additionally, we do not yet know the long-term effects of Zika virus on young infants infected after birth. Because current evidence suggests that the benefits of breastfeeding outweigh the risk of Zika virus spreading through breast milk, CDC continues to encourage mothers to breastfeed, even if they were infected or lived in or traveled to an area with risk of Zika. CDC continues to study Zika virus and the ways it can spread and will update recommendations as new information becomes available.
It can be passed from a person with Zika before their symptoms start, while they have symptoms, and after their symptoms end.
Though not well documented, the virus may also be passed by a person who carries the virus but never develops symptoms.
Studies are underway to find out how long Zika stays in the semen and vaginal fluids of people who have Zika, and how long it can be passed to sex partners. We know that Zika can remain in semen longer than in other body fluids, including vaginal fluids, urine, and blood.
Through blood transfusion
To date, there have not been any confirmed blood transfusion transmission cases in the United States.
There have been multiple reports of possible blood transfusion transmission cases in Brazil.
During the French Polynesian outbreak, 2.8% of blood donors tested positive for Zika and in previous outbreaks, the virus has been found in blood donors.
Through laboratory and healthcare setting exposure
There are reports of laboratory acquired Zika virus infections, although the route of transmission was not clearly established in all cases.
Risks
Anyone who lives in or travels to an area with risk of Zika and has not already been infected with Zika virus can get it from mosquito bites. Once a person has been infected, he or she is likely to be protected from future infections.
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Zika Transmission
Through mosquito bites
Zika virus is transmitted to people primarily through the bite of an infected Aedes species mosquito (Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus). These are the same mosquitoes that spread dengue and chikungunya viruses.
These mosquitoes typically lay eggs in or near standing water in things like buckets, bowls, animal dishes, flower pots, and vases. They prefer to bite people, and live indoors and outdoors near people.
Mosquitoes that spread chikungunya, dengue, and Zika bite during the day and night.
A mosquito gets infected with a virus when it bites an infected person during the period of time when the virus can be found in the person’s blood, typically only through the first week of infection.
Infected mosquitoes can then spread the virus to other people through bites.
From mother to child
A pregnant woman can pass Zika virus to her fetus during pregnancy. Zika is a cause of microcephaly and other severe fetal brain defects. We are studying the full range of other potential health problems that Zika virus infection during pregnancy may cause.
A pregnant woman already infected with Zika virus can pass the virus to her fetus during the pregnancy or around the time of birth.
Zika virus has been found in breast milk. Possible Zika virus infections have been identified in breastfeeding babies, but Zika virus transmission through breast milk has not been confirmed. Additionally, we do not yet know the long-term effects of Zika virus on young infants infected after birth. Because current evidence suggests that the benefits of breastfeeding outweigh the risk of Zika virus spreading through breast milk, CDC continues to encourage mothers to breastfeed, even if they were infected or lived in or traveled to an area with risk of Zika. CDC continues to study Zika virus and the ways it can spread and will update recommendations as new information becomes available.
It can be passed from a person with Zika before their symptoms start, while they have symptoms, and after their symptoms end.
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no
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Virology
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Is the Zika virus only transmitted by mosquitoes?
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yes_statement
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the "zika" "virus" is "transmitted" only by "mosquitoes".. "mosquitoes" are the only carriers of the "zika" "virus".
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https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/23/7/16-1633_article
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Effects of Zika Virus Strain and Aedes Mosquito Species on Vector ...
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Author affiliations: New York State Department of Health, Slingerlands, New York, USA (A.T. Ciota, S.M. Bialosuknia, S.D. Zink, M. Brecher, D.J. Ehrbar, M.N. Morrissette, L.D. Kramer); State University of New York at Albany School of Public Health, Albany, New York, USA (A.T. Ciota, L.D. Kramer)
Abstract
In the Western Hemisphere, Zika virus is thought to be transmitted primarily by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. To determine the extent to which Ae. albopictus mosquitoes from the United States are capable of transmitting Zika virus and the influence of virus dose, virus strain, and mosquito species on vector competence, we evaluated multiple doses of representative Zika virus strains in Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus mosquitoes. Virus preparation (fresh vs. frozen) significantly affected virus infectivity in mosquitoes. We calculated 50% infectious doses to be 6.1–7.5 log10 PFU/mL; minimum infective dose was 4.2 log10 PFU/mL. Ae. albopictus mosquitoes were more susceptible to infection than Ae. aegypti mosquitoes, but transmission efficiency was higher for Ae. aegypti mosquitoes, indicating a transmission barrier in Ae. albopictus mosquitoes. Results suggest that, although Zika virus transmission is relatively inefficient overall and dependent on virus strain and mosquito species, Ae. albopictus mosquitoes could become major vectors in the Americas.
Zika virus (family Flaviviridae, genus Flavivirus) is the latest in a series of arboviruses to successfully invade the Americas; cases locally acquired in the Western Hemisphere were first identified in Brazil in May 2015 (1), and invasion subsequently expanded throughout Latin America and into the United States. To date, >460,000 suspected cases of autochthonous transmission have occurred in at least 45 Western countries (http://www.paho.org). Zika virus was first isolated in Uganda in 1947 (2) but was not implicated in a major epidemic until an explosive outbreak occurred on the island of Yap in Micronesia in 2007 (3). Subsequent outbreaks occurred in Cambodia in 2010, French Polynesia in 2013, and surrounding South Pacific islands in 2014 (4). Phylogenetic studies have suggested that the South Pacific islands are probably the source of the current outbreak in the Americas (5).
Although Zika virus infection had generally been thought to be asymptomatic or to result in a mild febrile illness (6), the 2013 outbreak marked the first time the virus was implicated as a causative agent of Guillain-Barré syndrome (7). It has also been confirmed that Zika virus can have teratogenic effects (8), causing a spectrum of neurologic problems, referred to as Zika congenital syndrome, in developing fetuses (9), particularly in women infected during their first trimester of pregnancy (10). Although the primary route of transmission is through blood feeding by an infected mosquito, efficient sexual transmission (11) and long-term persistence in male reproductive tissues and fluids have been well documented (12).
Epidemiologic and laboratory studies have implicated various Aedes spp. mosquitoes as Zika virus vectors (3,13–16). In the Americas, Ae. aegypti mosquitoes are the primary vector for Zika virus, as they are for dengue and chikungunya viruses (17). Ae. albopictus mosquitoes potentially act as a secondary or supplemental vector (18). In the laboratory, mosquitoes of both species have been shown to be efficient vectors (14,18–20). However, few Zika virus isolates have been obtained from mosquitoes in the Americas and few experiments have assessed competence with currently circulating strains and representative mosquito populations. In addition, because previous experimental studies generally used individual blood meal doses with virus titers rarely achieved in nature, the relationship between viremia levels and vector competence is largely uncharacterized, making determination of the duration and likelihood of host transmissibility difficult.
We conducted comparative studies of recent Zika virus isolates from the Americas and an isolate from the 2010 outbreak in Cambodia (21). Genetic differences identified among these strains translated to modest variability in replicative kinetics in vitro in mosquito (C6/36) and mammalian (Vero) cells. In addition, we characterized the dose response for vector competence in Ae. aegypti mosquitoes and a recently colonized Ae. albopictus mosquito population from New York, USA.
Methods
Viruses
The New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) Arbovirus Laboratory isolated Zika virus HND (2016–19563, GenBank accession no. KX906952) from serum from a patient who had traveled to Honduras in early 2016. Amplification was obtained by inoculating 100 μL of serum into shell vials (ViroMed Laboratories, Burlington, NC, USA) confluent with Vero cells (ATCC, Manassas, VA, USA), followed by centrifugation at 700 × g for 40 min at 37°C and an additional 4 days of growth (22). Zika virus CAM (strain FSS130325, GenBank accession no. JN860885; kindly provided by C. Pager, State University of New York at Albany, NY, USA) was originally isolated in 2010 from human serum in Cambodia and passaged 3 times on Vero cell culture and 1 time on C6/36 cell culture. Zika virus PR (kindly provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Fort Collins, CO, USA; strain PRCABC59, GenBank accession no. KU5012 15), used for preliminary experiments, was initially obtained from serum of a patient who had traveled to Puerto Rico in 2015 and was passaged 3 times on Vero cell culture and 1 time on C6/36 cell culture. Nucleotide and amino acid sequence alignments were created with Zika virus coding regions by using the MegAlign module of the DNAStar software package (http://www.dnastar.com).
In Vitro Growth Kinetics
We inoculated confluent monolayers of Vero and C6/36 cells with Zika virus strains in duplicate at a multiplicity of infection of 0.01 PFU/cell. After a 1-hour absorption period at 37°C (Vero) or 28°C (C6/36), the inoculum was removed and cells were washed twice with appropriate maintenance media. Cultures were maintained in 6-well plates with 3 mL of maintenance media (Eagle minimum essential medium with 2% fetal bovine serum) and incubated at 37°C (Vero) or 28°C (C6/36). Samples of 100 μL supernatant were harvested at days 1–4 (Vero) or 1–7 (C6/36) after infection, diluted 1:10 in media containing 20% fetal bovine serum, and stored at −80°C. Titrations were performed in duplicate, by plaque assay on Vero cells (23); mean titers for each time point were calculated and compared by t-test. Growth kinetics were compared by using repeated measured analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey post hoc tests (GraphPad Prism version 5.0; GraphPad Software, La Jolla, CA, USA).
Experimental Infections and Mosquito Competence
Ae. albopictus mosquitoes (kindly provided by Illia Rochlin, Suffolk County Health Department, Yaphank, NY, USA) were originally collected in Suffolk County in 2014 and subsequently colonized in the NYSDOH Arbovirus Laboratory. F5–F7 female mosquitoes from New York were used for experimental feedings. Ae. aegypti mosquitoes used for preliminary experiments were collected by C. Mangudo in Salta, Argentina, in 2014 and initially colonized by V. Micieli and L.D. Kramer at the Centro de Estudios de Parasitología y Vectores (La Plata, Argentina) before being shipped to the NYSDOH Arbovirus Laboratory for maintenance. F4–F5 females from Argentina were used for experimental feedings. Ae. aegypti mosquitoes (kindly provided by G.D. Ebel, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA) were originally collected in Poza Rica, Mexico. F7–F8 females from Mexico were used for experimental feedings. For preliminary blood feeding experiments, Ae. aegypti mosquitoes from Argentina were fed Zika virus PR stock virus diluted 1:1, 1:5, or 1:20 in defibrinated sheep blood (Colorado Serum Co., Denver, CO, USA) with 2.5% sucrose. For feedings with freshly propagated virus, supernatant from infected C6/36 cultures was harvested at 96 h after infection (multiplicity of infection ≈1.0) and diluted 1:1 with blood-sucrose mixture without freezing. Female mosquitoes, 4–7 days of age, were deprived of sucrose for 18–24 h and offered blood meal mixtures by use of a Hemotek membrane feeding system (Discovery Workshops, Acrington, UK) with a porcine sausage casing membrane. For all subsequent experiments assessing dose-dependent vector competence, similarly prepared fresh C6/36 cultures of Zika virus HND and Zika virus CAM were used to feed Ae. aegypti mosquitoes from Mexico and Ae.albopictus mosquitoes from New York. In addition to undiluted supernatant, 1:20, 1:400, and 1:8,000 dilutions were made in C6/36 maintenance media before being mixed with blood.
For all blood feeding experiments, mosquitoes were sedated with CO2 after 1 h of feeding, and fully engorged mosquitoes were transferred to 0.6-L cartons and maintained at 27°C for experimental testing. Infection, dissemination, and transmission rates were determined as previously described (24) on day 14 or 21 after feeding. After the mosquitoes were sedated, the legs were removed from 12–30 mosquitoes and placed in 1 mL mosquito diluent (20% heat-inactivated fetal bovine serum in Dulbecco phosphate-buffered saline plus 50 μg/mL penicillin/streptomycin, 50 μg/mL gentamicin, and 2 μg/mL Fungizone [Sigma Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA]). For 30 minutes, mosquitoes were allowed to expectorate into capillary tubes containing ≈20 μL fetal bovine serum plus 50% sucrose (1:1), at which time the mixture was ejected into 250 μL mosquito diluent. Mosquito bodies were then placed in individual tubes with mosquito diluent. All samples were held at −80°C until tested. To test for infection, dissemination, and transmission, we processed and screened bodies, legs, and salivary secretions, respectively, by Zika virus–specific quantitative reverse transcription PCR (25). Zika virus body titers were calculated from standard curves based on infectious particle standards created from matched virus stocks. Data were analyzed by using GraphPad Prism version 4.0. Rates were compared by using Fisher exact tests, and dose dependence was evaluated and compared by using linear regression analyses.
Initial experiments that used previously amplified Zika virus PR stock frozen at −80°C failed to achieve high levels of infection in Ae. aegypti mosquitoes. No infection was identified at 14 days after feeding for mosquitoes fed 6.0 log10 PFU/mL, and only 3 (10%) of 30 mosquitoes were Zika virus positive when the dose was increased to 7.4 log10 PFU/mL (Figure 2). In an effort to achieve higher infectivity, we freshly harvested supernatant from mosquito cells after virus propagation and immediately used it for blood meal preparation. Blood meal titers for this experiment were high, 9.1 log10 PFU/mL, as were rates of infection and dissemination. At day 14 after feeding, 24 (96%) of 25 mosquitoes were Zika virus positive. Of the 24 positive mosquitoes, 22 (91.6%) had disseminated infections and 13 (54.2%) had Zika virus–positive saliva. To clarify the extent to which differences in infectivity were the result of virus titer or preparation (freshly propagated vs. frozen virus stocks), we fed a subset of mosquitoes the same blood meal (titer 9.1 log10 PFU/mL) after freezing at −80°C for 2 weeks. Although feeding rates were poor and survival was low for this cohort (n = 12), only 2 of the mosquitoes surviving to day 14 after feeding were Zika virus positive, which equated to a significantly lower infection rate than that obtained with freshly propagated virus (p<0.001 by Fisher exact test; Figure 2). All subsequent experiments were therefore completed with C6/36-derived Zika virus–positive supernatant before freezing.
After isolation, Zika virus HND was used as the representative Western Hemisphere strain and compared with Zika virus CAM for all experiments assessing the relationships between dose, vector competence, virus strain, and mosquito species. To maximize transmission potential, we waited until day 21 after mosquito feeding to conduct these studies. For Ae. aegypti mosquito feedings, the highest doses achieved for Zika virus HND and CAM were 8.9 and 8.7 log10 PFU/mL, respectively. Similar titers of 8.9 (Zika virus HND) and 8.6 (Zika virus CAM) log10 PFU/mL were used for Ae. albopictus feedings (Table 2). For Zika virus HND, significantly higher viral loads were measured in Ae. aegypti relative to Ae. albopictus mosquitoes at both the highest dose and the 1:20 dilution (≈7.5 log10 PFU/mL; Figure 3; p<0.01 by t-test). Although differences were also measured at the lower doses, deviation is higher and statistical power is constrained by the smaller sample sizes. Viral loads among mosquitoes of each species were similar for Zika virus CAM, yet significantly higher than Zika virus HND in Ae. albopictus mosquitoes (Figure 3; p<0.001 by t-test), indicating an influence of mosquito species and of virus strain on Zika virus replication.
Infection rates for high-dose feedings were 80%–100% (Table 2). Susceptibility, particularly for Zika virus HND, was generally higher among Ae. albopictus mosquitoes. This difference was highly significant for the Zika virus HND 1:20 dilution (≈7.5 log10 PFU/mL), for which 93.3% of Ae. albopictus mosquitoes were infected compared with 46.7% of Ae. aegypti mosquitoes (p<0.001 by Fisher exact test). Although the higher infection rate measured in Ae. albopictus mosquitoes was not significant at the 1:400 dilution (33.3% vs. 16.7%; p = 0.233 by Fisher exact test), it is notable that the input titer was ≈5-fold lower for the Ae. albopictus mosquito feeding (6.6 vs. 5.9 log10 PFU/mL), consistent with the increased infectiousness of Zika virus HND in this species.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Relationship between dose and competence of Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus mosquitoes for Zika virus HND and CAM. Graphs show proportion of blood-engorged mosquitoes infected, with disseminated infections, and transmitting. Lines...
To measure and compare dose dependence and competence among species and strains, we completed linear regression analyses of each individual feeding and used best-fit lines to calculate doses at which 50% of mosquitoes were infected, had disseminated infections, and were capable of transmission (ID50, DD50, TD50, respectively; Figure 4). Although the relationship between dose and infection (as measured by slope) was similar among strains and species, infectiousness was higher in Ae. albopictus relative to Ae. aegypti mosquitoes for both strains. Infectiousness was determined both by statistical comparison of Y-intercepts by linear regression analyses (p<0.05) and comparisons of calculated ID50s. The ID50 of Zika virus HND was found to be greater than a log lower in Ae. albopictus compared with Ae. aegypti mosquitoes (6.1 vs. 7.5 log10 PFU/mL) and ≈5-fold lower for Zika virus CAM (6.6 vs. 7.3 log10 PFU/mL; Figure 4).
The increased infectivity of Ae. albopictus mosquitoes did not translate to increased rates of dissemination and transmission (Table 2; Figure 4) and is consistent with the fact that similar (Zika virus CAM) or lower (Zika virus HND) viral loads were measured in mosquitoes of this species (Figure 3). Dissemination rates for infected individuals were generally statistically equivalent among strains and species. Significant differences were achieved only when compared with the Ae. albopictus mosquito 1:20 Zika virus CAM feeding, yet the input titer for this feeding was ≈1 log10 lower than that for the other 1:20 feedings, which probably contributed to this difference. The linear regression analysis, for which the exact dose is considered, demonstrates again that the relationship of dissemination rate and dose is similar among virus strain and mosquito species (Figure 4). Although DD50 values for both strains were lower in Ae. albopictus mosquitoes, differences were significant only for Zika virus HND and can be wholly explained by differences in infectivity.
Transmission rates for Ae. aegypti mosquitoes were consistently higher, particularly for Zika virus HND (Table 2). Although no transmission occurred in mosquitoes of either species at the lowest dose, an average of 45% more Zika virus HND–infected Ae. aegypti than Ae. albopictus mosquitoes transmitted virus. These differences were highly significant at the undiluted and 1:20 doses (≈8.8 and 7.5 log10 PFU/mL; p<0.001 by Fisher exact test; Table 2). Although transmission of Zika virus CAM was also higher among Ae. aegypti mosquitoes, differences were smaller and only significant at the 1:20 dose (p<0.001 by Fisher exact test; Table 2). It is notable that the only instance for which transmission was measured at the lowest dose (1:8,000, 4.3 log10 PFU/mL) was with Zika virus CAM in Ae. aegypti mosquitoes. Despite increased infection rates for Ae. albopictus mosquitoes, dose dependence for Zika virus HND transmission was significantly lower than that for Ae. aegypti mosquitoes (p = 0.035 by linear regression analysis; Figure 4), resulting in a TD50 ≈4 log10 higher for Ae. albopictus mosquitoes. Overall transmission efficiency was highly strain dependent for Ae. albopictus mosquitoes; the TD50 of Zika virus CAM was ≈3 log10 lower than that for Zika virus HND. Unlike slopes and intercepts for Zika virus HND, those for Zika virus CAM TD50 were similar among species (Figure 4).
Discussion
Reports of autochthonous Zika virus transmission in Florida demonstrate the capacity of Zika virus to continue to expand in the Americas (26), yet a comprehensive assessment of the current and future threat requires experimental assessment of the transmission potential of various mosquito populations and circulating strains. Our initial attempts to infect large numbers of Ae. aegypti mosquitoes by using previously frozen stocks of Zika virus were largely unsuccessful, even at unnaturally high doses (>9.0 log10 PFU/mL). Previous studies have noted differences in arbovirus infectivity and vector competence when use of artificial feeding was compared with feeding on experimentally infected hosts (27) or previously frozen to freshly propagated stocks (28–30). These studies almost exclusively identified significant differences in vector competence with lower titer blood meals, yet our results clearly demonstrate that freezing/thawing of Zika virus significantly impairs infectivity to mosquitoes at a range of doses. Although the mechanistic basis of this difference has not been adequately studied and plaque assays did not indicate a decline in Zika virus infectious particles on Vero cell culture after freeze/thaw, differences in competence may be attributed to structural perturbations of the virion that inhibit efficient particle binding in vivo (31). Future studies characterizing Zika virus structure and binding could help elucidate the unique sensitivity of this virus to the negative effects of freeze/thaw.
Although information about Zika virus kinetics and tropism in humans remains limited, current estimates of mean viremia range from 4.4 to 4.7 log10 copies/mL, probably equating to <2.5 log10 PFU/mL (25,32). Symptomatic persons may at times have higher levels of viremia (32,33), and these estimates are probably low because sample acquisition generally occurs after symptom onset (well past peak viremia) and because titers may be higher in whole blood than in serum (34). Despite these caveats, current data still suggest that peak and mean levels for dengue and chikungunya viruses are substantially higher than those for Zika virus (32). Of course, transmission efficiency of host to vector is dependent on both host viremia and vector susceptibility. Calculations of ID50 for dengue and chikungunya viruses in Aedes spp. mosquitoes are variable but have generally been estimated to be <105 PFU/mL (35–37). We estimated Zika virus ID50 to be 6.1–7.5 log10 PFU/mL, with a low threshold for infection of 4.2 log10 PFU/mL. The recent success of Zika virus in the Western Hemisphere unequivocally demonstrates the capacity for widespread transmission, yet the combination of lower host viremia levels and mosquito susceptibility suggests that the intensity of vector-to-host transmission could be less efficient than has been observed with previous epidemics of dengue and chikungunya virus infection. It is feasible that efficient sexual transmission could supplement current levels of mosquito transmission (38) or that vertical transmission among particular mosquito populations could play a larger role than is documented for other flaviviruses (39–41). In addition, as demonstrated here and in previous studies (20), Zika virus vector competence can vary by virus strain and population, so particular vector/virus combinations may be more efficient at maintaining transmission. Highly variable vector competence that is specific for population and virus strain is well documented for other flaviviruses (42,43), and specific mosquito/virus genotype-by-genotype interactions have been well described in the Aedes mosquito/dengue virus system (42,44–46). Our analysis reveals 13 aa differences between the Zika virus 2010 CAM and 2016 HND strains and additional base changes that could be associated with phenotypically relevant changes to RNA structure. Although the CAM strain is ancestral to the America strains, it is notable that the 2 America strains used in this study (HND and PR) possess 8 aa differences. More comprehensive genetic studies demonstrate a range of mutations among strains currently circulating in the Western Hemisphere (5), all of which could feasibly translate to variability in virus fitness and vector competence.
We have demonstrated that US populations of Ae. albopictus mosquitoes exposed to a Zika virus strain currently circulating in the Americas are competent vectors that may be capable of maintaining virus transmission. Although these mosquitoes have been colonized for >1 year and may not be fully representative of current populations, this population was derived from a location (Suffolk County, NY) adjacent to New York City, which is among the largest centers for the movement of Zika virus–exposed travelers. Indeed, the highest number of confirmed travel-associated cases of Zika virus infection in the United States are reported from New York state (http://www.cdc.gov/zika/geo/united-states.html). The combination of the recent success of Ae. albopictus mosquitoes in the region (47) and the influx of viremic patients is probably what led to the first documented locally acquired case of dengue virus infection in the state (Suffolk County, 2013; http://diseasemaps.usgs.gov). Despite this potential vulnerability, transmission intensity is dependent on more than host and vector competence and it is the frequent and highly anthropophilic feeding of Ae. aegypti mosquitoes that often results in their relative success as vectors, even in the absence of high competence (48). In addition, the increased infectivity of Zika virus in Ae. albopictus mosquitoes does not translate to increased overall competence; transmission efficiency was significantly higher for Ae. aegypti mosquitoes. These data are consistent with a midgut escape barrier and, more significantly, with a salivary gland infection or transmission barrier. Although it is well documented that these barriers are capable of preventing transmission (49), increased infectivity in Ae. albopictus mosquitoes is notable because the increased infectivity we measured in Ae. albopictus mosquitoes translates to more opportunity for adaptive events that could increase fitness or competence over time. The potential epidemiologic consequences for adaptation to Ae. albopictus mosquitoes are well documented for chikungunya virus, for which primary and secondary epistatic mutations increased competence in mosquitoes of this species and facilitated the explosive outbreaks in the islands of the Indian Ocean and beyond (50). The combination of additional laboratory studies assessing the adaptive potential of Zika virus in various Ae. albopictus mosquito populations, together with continued genetic and phenotypic monitoring of circulating strains, will help elucidate the potential for similar adaptive events enabling increased transmission efficiency of Zika virus in the Americas.
Dr. Ciota is deputy director of The Arbovirus Laboratory at the Wadsworth Center, New York State Department of Health, and an assistant professor at the State University of New York at Albany School of Public Health, Department of Biomedical Sciences. His primary research interests are virus evolution and vector–virus interactions.
Acknowledgments
We thank members of the New York State Arbovirus Laboratory insectary staff for assistance with this project. We thank the Wadsworth Center tissue and media facility for supplying cells and media for these studies.
Construction of the Arbovirus Laboratory insectary facilities was partially funded by National Institutes of Health grant C06-RR-17715. These studies were partially funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Vector-borne Disease Regional Center of Excellence, CDC # CK17-005.
The conclusions, findings, and opinions expressed by authors contributing to this journal do not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Public Health Service, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or the authors' affiliated institutions. Use of trade names is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by any of the groups named above.
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Effects of Zika Virus Strain and Aedes Mosquito Species on Vector Competence
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Zika virus was first isolated in Uganda in 1947 (2) but was not implicated in a major epidemic until an explosive outbreak occurred on the island of Yap in Micronesia in 2007 (3). Subsequent outbreaks occurred in Cambodia in 2010, French Polynesia in 2013, and surrounding South Pacific islands in 2014 (4). Phylogenetic studies have suggested that the South Pacific islands are probably the source of the current outbreak in the Americas (5).
Although Zika virus infection had generally been thought to be asymptomatic or to result in a mild febrile illness (6), the 2013 outbreak marked the first time the virus was implicated as a causative agent of Guillain-Barré syndrome (7). It has also been confirmed that Zika virus can have teratogenic effects (8), causing a spectrum of neurologic problems, referred to as Zika congenital syndrome, in developing fetuses (9), particularly in women infected during their first trimester of pregnancy (10). Although the primary route of transmission is through blood feeding by an infected mosquito, efficient sexual transmission (11) and long-term persistence in male reproductive tissues and fluids have been well documented (12).
Epidemiologic and laboratory studies have implicated various Aedes spp. mosquitoes as Zika virus vectors (3,13–16). In the Americas, Ae. aegypti mosquitoes are the primary vector for Zika virus, as they are for dengue and chikungunya viruses (17). Ae. albopictus mosquitoes potentially act as a secondary or supplemental vector (18). In the laboratory, mosquitoes of both species have been shown to be efficient vectors (14,18–20). However, few Zika virus isolates have been obtained from mosquitoes in the Americas and few experiments have assessed competence with currently circulating strains and representative mosquito populations. In addition,
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Virology
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Is the Zika virus only transmitted by mosquitoes?
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yes_statement
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the "zika" "virus" is "transmitted" only by "mosquitoes".. "mosquitoes" are the only carriers of the "zika" "virus".
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https://www.ci.poquoson.va.us/343/Zika-Virus-Information
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Zika Virus Information | Poquoson, VA
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Zika Virus Information
What is Zika virus infection?
Zika virus infection is a viral disease primarily spread to people through bites of infected mosquitoes, but sexual transmission has also been documented. Mosquitoes become infected by feeding on infected persons. Zika virus is transmitted primarily by Aedes aegypti (Yellow fever mosquito). Aedes albopictus (Asian tiger mosquito) can also spread the virus. The basic facts about Zika can be found on VDH' s website.
The Virginia State Zika Response Plan has been published and provides information related to the management of zika as we move through mosquito season.
There are several steps to be followed in order to avoid mosquito bites and some of them are:
- wear long-sleeve clothing when spent time outside
- prevent mosquitoes from going inside your home by installing or replacing windows screens
- clear any standing water collected in containers in your property to reduce the number of mosquito's breeding sites
- wear EPA approved repellent ( make sure to follow the instructions from the product labels)
More information regarding how to avoid mosquito bites can be found on the CDC website.
The CDC website publishes the best and up to date information regarding where the virus is and how to protect while being on a vacation or visiting family. Also, see the CDC's pamphlet to keep travelers safe while abroad.
A person with Zika infection may be unaware his/hers condition because he or she would not develop any symptoms. If they become symptomatic, the most frequent symptoms are rash, conjunctivitis, fever and joint pain. The illness usually lasts less than a week. It is important to seek medical advice in order to be diagnosed promptly. This is especially valid for pregnant women and those who traveled recently to areas with Zika outbreaks. More information for Zika signs, symptoms, treatment and diagnostic tests can be found here.
Infographic presenting several different methods of protection from mosquito bites and prevention of Zika infection. Information regarding the registered insect-repellents by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
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Zika Virus Information
What is Zika virus infection?
Zika virus infection is a viral disease primarily spread to people through bites of infected mosquitoes, but sexual transmission has also been documented. Mosquitoes become infected by feeding on infected persons. Zika virus is transmitted primarily by Aedes aegypti (Yellow fever mosquito). Aedes albopictus (Asian tiger mosquito) can also spread the virus. The basic facts about Zika can be found on VDH' s website.
The Virginia State Zika Response Plan has been published and provides information related to the management of zika as we move through mosquito season.
There are several steps to be followed in order to avoid mosquito bites and some of them are:
- wear long-sleeve clothing when spent time outside
- prevent mosquitoes from going inside your home by installing or replacing windows screens
- clear any standing water collected in containers in your property to reduce the number of mosquito's breeding sites
- wear EPA approved repellent ( make sure to follow the instructions from the product labels)
More information regarding how to avoid mosquito bites can be found on the CDC website.
The CDC website publishes the best and up to date information regarding where the virus is and how to protect while being on a vacation or visiting family. Also, see the CDC's pamphlet to keep travelers safe while abroad.
A person with Zika infection may be unaware his/hers condition because he or she would not develop any symptoms. If they become symptomatic, the most frequent symptoms are rash, conjunctivitis, fever and joint pain. The illness usually lasts less than a week. It is important to seek medical advice in order to be diagnosed promptly. This is especially valid for pregnant women and those who traveled recently to areas with Zika outbreaks. More information for Zika signs, symptoms, treatment and diagnostic tests can be found here.
Infographic presenting several different methods of protection from mosquito bites and prevention of Zika infection. Information regarding the registered insect-repellents by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
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no
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Virology
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Is the Zika virus only transmitted by mosquitoes?
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yes_statement
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the "zika" "virus" is "transmitted" only by "mosquitoes".. "mosquitoes" are the only carriers of the "zika" "virus".
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https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/zika
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Zika Virus | Johns Hopkins Medicine
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Zika Virus
Overview
Zika is a mosquito-borne virus, similar to dengue fever, yellow fever and West Nile virus. The infection is associated with a birth defect called microcephaly, which can affect babies born to people who become infected with Zika while pregnant.
What You Need to Know
Symptoms of Zika are mostly mild, with only 1 in 5 infected people exhibiting any signs of illness. Hospitalization is rare with this infection.
Zika can be diagnosed through a blood test.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention keeps an updated list of countries where Zika outbreaks have occurred. Pregnant women should speak to their obstetrician-gynecologist if they must travel to an affected area, and take precautions to prevent mosquito bites.
There is currently no vaccine or antiviral treatment for Zika.
Treatment addresses symptoms, and cases clear up on their own.
What is Zika?
Zika is an infectious disease caused by a virus. The virus is carried by infected mosquitoes, including the Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus species, which are found throughout the Americas.
The infection itself (sometimes called Zika fever) is usually mild and goes away on its own. However, the impact of the virus has most significantly been seen in pregnant women and their fetuses.
Zika in Pregnancy
If you are pregnant and have traveled to a location where Zika virus cases have been reported, please contact your doctor as soon as possible.
People who are pregnant or are planning to become pregnant are at the greatest risk for the Zika virus if traveling to an area with ongoing outbreaks. While it is unknown if pregnancy itself increases vulnerability to the virus, Zika can cross the placenta and affect the fetus. With that in mind, pregnant people should delay traveling to areas where Zika outbreaks are ongoing. Likewise, those considering pregnancy should speak with their obstetrician-gynecologists about prospective travel to areas with Zika outbreaks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention keeps an updated list of affected countries.
Those who have recently traveled to an area affected by Zika virus and who exhibit symptoms should wait eight weeks before trying to get pregnant.
If I’ve had Zika in the past, am I at risk for giving birth to a baby with microcephaly?
There is no evidence to suggest that Zika virus presents a risk of birth defects for future pregnancies after it has cleared from the bloodstream. Zika virus usually remains in the blood of an infected person for about a week, but may be present longer in semen and urine. The virus may last longer in the blood of a pregnant woman.
How is Zika spread?
Zika virus is primarily spread through the bite of infected mosquitos.
If a pregnant woman is bitten by an infected mosquito, the infection can cross the placenta, infecting the fetus.
The virus has also been transmitted through blood transfusion or laboratory exposure. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has published guidelines to help protect the blood supply.
Can I get Zika from sex?
Yes: Sexual transmission of the Zika virus can occur. Transmission has been reported from infected men and women to their sexual partners through anal, oral or vaginal sex. If a man travels to an area of active Zika virus infection and has a pregnant partner, they should abstain from sexual activity or consistently and correctly use condoms during sex for the duration of the pregnancy.
How to Prevent Zika Virus Infection
The best way to protect yourself is to limit your exposure by not traveling to countries where Zika outbreaks are happening. If you must travel to an affected area, avoid mosquito bites by taking these steps:
Wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants to limit skin exposure.
Stay indoors in screened-in or air-conditioned rooms as much as possible.
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The infection itself (sometimes called Zika fever) is usually mild and goes away on its own. However, the impact of the virus has most significantly been seen in pregnant women and their fetuses.
Zika in Pregnancy
If you are pregnant and have traveled to a location where Zika virus cases have been reported, please contact your doctor as soon as possible.
People who are pregnant or are planning to become pregnant are at the greatest risk for the Zika virus if traveling to an area with ongoing outbreaks. While it is unknown if pregnancy itself increases vulnerability to the virus, Zika can cross the placenta and affect the fetus. With that in mind, pregnant people should delay traveling to areas where Zika outbreaks are ongoing. Likewise, those considering pregnancy should speak with their obstetrician-gynecologists about prospective travel to areas with Zika outbreaks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention keeps an updated list of affected countries.
Those who have recently traveled to an area affected by Zika virus and who exhibit symptoms should wait eight weeks before trying to get pregnant.
If I’ve had Zika in the past, am I at risk for giving birth to a baby with microcephaly?
There is no evidence to suggest that Zika virus presents a risk of birth defects for future pregnancies after it has cleared from the bloodstream. Zika virus usually remains in the blood of an infected person for about a week, but may be present longer in semen and urine. The virus may last longer in the blood of a pregnant woman.
How is Zika spread?
Zika virus is primarily spread through the bite of infected mosquitos.
If a pregnant woman is bitten by an infected mosquito, the infection can cross the placenta, infecting the fetus.
The virus has also been transmitted through blood transfusion or laboratory exposure. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has published guidelines to help protect the blood supply.
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no
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Virology
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Is the Zika virus only transmitted by mosquitoes?
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yes_statement
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the "zika" "virus" is "transmitted" only by "mosquitoes".. "mosquitoes" are the only carriers of the "zika" "virus".
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https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/epidemiology/epidemiology-fact-sheets/zika-virus-disease/
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Zika Virus - Epidemiology
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Zika Virus
What is Zika?
Zika is a virus that is transmitted to people primarily through bites of infected mosquitoes. Most people exposed to Zika virus will have no symptoms or only mild symptoms. The primary concern about this virus is that it can pass from an infected mother to her baby during pregnancy and cause serious birth defects. People exposed to Zika virus who have no symptoms are said to have a Zika virus infection; those who have symptoms are said to have Zika virus disease. Both conditions will be referred to as “Zika” below.
Where does Zika occur?
Zika is a risk in many countries and territories, and has been found in the Americas, Pacific Islands, and parts of Africa and Asia. For a map showing where Zika is a risk, see the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) webpage on areas at risk for Zika. Because the mosquitoes that spread the virus are found around the world, it is possible that outbreaks will occur in new countries and territories. Some limited spread of Zika virus by mosquitoes in the continental United States has occurred, but this has not occurred in Virginia. For a map of where the mosquitoes that could spread Zika virus are located in the United States, see CDC’s Zika webpage on the geographic range of mosquitoes.
How does Zika spread?
Zika virus is usually transmitted to people through the bite of an infected mosquito. The primary mosquito that spreads Zika virus is the yellow fever mosquito (Aedes aegypti); the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) can also spread the virus. An infected person will have the virus circulating in their blood, especially in the first week of illness. If a mosquito bites an infected person while the virus is still in the person’s blood, the mosquito can become infected. If the infected mosquito lives long enough for the virus to multiply and spread to its salivary glands, the mosquito can then bite another person to pass on the virus. People who are infected but who are not sick can still pass the virus on to mosquitoes that bite them. Zika virus can also be transmitted from an infected mother to her baby during pregnancy. A person with Zika virus can infect his or her sex partner through unprotected sex, even if the infected person is not sick. The virus can also be spread through blood transfusion.
Who gets Zika?
Anyone who lives in or travels to an area with risk of Zika, and has not already been infected, can get Zika. Anyone who has unprotected sex with someone who lives in or travels to these places can also become infected. For a map of areas with risk of Zika, see the CDC webpage on areas at risk for Zika.
What are the symptoms of Zika?
About 80% of people who are infected with Zika virus do not become sick. For the 20% who do become sick, the most common symptoms include fever, an itchy rash, joint pain, conjunctivitis (red eyes), headache, and muscle pain. The illness is usually mild and the symptoms typically last several days to a week.
How soon do symptoms occur?
Symptoms, if present, can appear within 3 to 14 days after exposure to Zika virus.
How dangerous is Zika?
Zika virus infection during pregnancy can cause the fetus to develop microcephaly and/or other severe birth defects. Microcephaly is a birth defect in which a baby’s head is much smaller than expected. CDC estimates 6% of babies born to moms with Zika during pregnancy will have Zika-associated birth defects, such as damage to the brain, eye damage, and/or microcephaly at birth. An estimated 9% of babies born to moms with Zika during pregnancy can have neurodevelopment abnormalities such as hearing loss, limb defects, seizures, microcephaly after birth, and slowed growth or development. In a small number of infected people, there have also been reports of neurologic syndromes, such as Guillain‐Barré Syndrome (GBS). Ongoing studies are investigating the connection between GBS and Zika.
What special precautions should pregnant women take to prevent Zika?
Pregnant women should not travel to areas with Zika outbreaks. Pregnant women should talk to their healthcare providers to carefully consider the risks and possible consequences of travel to other areas with risk of Zika. For a map of areas with Zika outbreaks and areas with Zika risk, see CDC’s Zika webpage on areas at risk for Zika. If a pregnant woman does travel, she should talk to her healthcare provider before travel and take the following steps to prevent Zika infection:
Prevent mosquito bites
Choose an EPA‐registered insect repellent with one of the following active ingredients: DEET, picaridin, IR3535, oil of lemon eucalyptus or para-menthane-diol, or 2-undecanone, and use the repellent according to the product label. When used as directed, EPA-registered insect repellents are proven safe and effective even for pregnant and breast-feeding women.
Use the repellent day and night because the mosquitoes that transmit Zika virus bite during the day, but will also enter buildings and bite at night.
Use permethrin‐treated clothing.
Cover exposed skin by wearing long sleeves, socks, pants, and hats.
Sleep indoors in rooms with screened windows or air‐conditioning, or use a bed net if you sleep in a room that is exposed to the outdoors.
Practice safe sex
For the rest of the pregnancy, use a condom every time during sex, or abstain from sex to prevent potential Zika transmission.
After returning, she should talk to her healthcare provider about her travel to an area with risk of Zika. If you think you have Zika, see your healthcare provider. Your healthcare provider may test your blood or urine for Zika virus and other similar conditions.
What special precautions should couples trying to become pregnant take to prevent Zika?
Couples planning to become pregnant within three months should work with their healthcare providers to carefully consider the risks and possible consequences of travel to areas with a Zika outbreak or other areas with risk of Zika. For a map of where Zika is occurring, see CDC’s webpage on areas at risk for Zika. If a member of the couple travels to an area with a Zika outbreak or other areas with risk of Zika, the couple should take these steps to prevent Zika infection:
Follow the same recommended steps for pregnant women to prevent mosquito bites (above).
Consider waiting for a period of time before trying to become pregnant. If only the female partner traveled, the couple should abstain from sex for at least two months from when symptoms began (if sick) or after returning from travel (if not sick). If only the male partner traveled, the couple should wait at least three months from when symptoms began (if sick) or after returning from travel (if not sick). If both partners traveled, the couple should wait three months from when symptoms began (if sick) or after returning from travel (if not sick). While waiting to conceive, couples should either avoid sex or use condoms every time during sex or sexual activities.
What is the treatment for Zika?
There is no specific treatment for Zika. Healthcare providers can only provide supportive care to relieve symptoms. This may include rest, fluids, and over‐the‐counter medicine, such as acetaminophen.
How can Zika be prevented?
There is no vaccine to prevent Zika. Infections can be prevented by avoiding mosquito bites and sexual exposure to the virus. Avoid mosquito bites includes wearing long‐sleeved shirts, long pants and socks, using insect repellent or permethrin‐treated clothing (especially during the daytime when mosquitos are active), use air conditioning or window/door screens to keep mosquitoes outside. Eliminate standing water from containers in yards (including bird baths, flower pots, buckets) to stop mosquito breeding. People who have returned from travel to an area with risk of Zika should also follow steps to avoid mosquito bites for three weeks after returning to prevent them from passing Zika virus to local mosquitoes that could spread the virus to others.
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Zika Virus
What is Zika?
Zika is a virus that is transmitted to people primarily through bites of infected mosquitoes. Most people exposed to Zika virus will have no symptoms or only mild symptoms. The primary concern about this virus is that it can pass from an infected mother to her baby during pregnancy and cause serious birth defects. People exposed to Zika virus who have no symptoms are said to have a Zika virus infection; those who have symptoms are said to have Zika virus disease. Both conditions will be referred to as “Zika” below.
Where does Zika occur?
Zika is a risk in many countries and territories, and has been found in the Americas, Pacific Islands, and parts of Africa and Asia. For a map showing where Zika is a risk, see the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) webpage on areas at risk for Zika. Because the mosquitoes that spread the virus are found around the world, it is possible that outbreaks will occur in new countries and territories. Some limited spread of Zika virus by mosquitoes in the continental United States has occurred, but this has not occurred in Virginia. For a map of where the mosquitoes that could spread Zika virus are located in the United States, see CDC’s Zika webpage on the geographic range of mosquitoes.
How does Zika spread?
Zika virus is usually transmitted to people through the bite of an infected mosquito. The primary mosquito that spreads Zika virus is the yellow fever mosquito (Aedes aegypti); the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) can also spread the virus. An infected person will have the virus circulating in their blood, especially in the first week of illness. If a mosquito bites an infected person while the virus is still in the person’s blood, the mosquito can become infected. If the infected mosquito lives long enough for the virus to multiply and spread to its salivary glands, the mosquito can then bite another person to pass on the virus.
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no
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Virology
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Is the Zika virus only transmitted by mosquitoes?
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yes_statement
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the "zika" "virus" is "transmitted" only by "mosquitoes".. "mosquitoes" are the only carriers of the "zika" "virus".
|
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/health/what-is-zika-virus.html
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Short Answers to Hard Questions About Zika Virus - The New York ...
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Short Answers to Hard Questions About Zika Virus
The World Health Organization has declared an international health emergency over the spread of the Zika virus, now known to cause devastating birth defects. The agency expects the virus to spread from northern Argentina to the southern United States by the end of the year, infecting many millions of people. In late July, Florida officials announced what appeared to be the first locally transmitted cases of Zika infection in the continental United States.
The W.H.O. and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have urged pregnant women against travel to more than 45 countries in which the Zika virus is spreading, mostly in the Caribbean and Latin America. All pregnant women who have been to these regions should be tested for the infection, health officials have said, and should refrain from unprotected sex with partners who have visited these regions.
The Zika virus has been linked to unusually small heads and brain damage in newborns — called microcephaly — in children born to infected mothers, as well as blindness, deafness, seizures and other congenital defects. In adults, the virus is linked to a form of temporary paralysis, called Guillain-Barré syndrome.
By The New York Times | Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Pan American Health Organization
1.
What is the Zika virus?
A tropical infection new to the Western Hemisphere.
The Zika virus is a mosquito-transmitted infection related to dengue, yellow fever and West Nile virus. Although it was discovered in the Zika forest in Uganda in 1947 and is believed to be common across Africa and Asia, it did not begin spreading widely in the Western Hemisphere until recently — perhaps sometime in 2013, although its presence was not confirmed until May 2015, when it was identified as the “mystery disease” sweeping across northeast Brazil.
Almost no one in the Americas is immune, so it has spread rapidly.
About four in five victims have no symptoms, and those who do usually recover within a week. Common symptoms include a fever rarely higher than 102 degrees, an itchy pink rash, bloodshot eyes, sensitivity to light, headaches and joint pains.
Only female mosquitoes bite people: they need blood to lay eggs, while males drink plant nectar. In the female, the virus travels from the gut to the salivary glands and is injected into the next human victim. When a mosquito bites, it first injects an anti-coagulant saliva so blood does not clog its strawlike proboscis.
Range of the Yellow Fever Mosquito
UNITED
STATES
Atlantic
Ocean
MEXICO
VENEZUELA
PANAMA
COLOMBIA
Pacific
Ocean
ECUADOR
BRAZIL
PERU
BOLIVIA
100%
Probable range
of the yellow
fever mosquito,
Aedes aegypti
PARAGUAY
50%
0%
ARGENTINA
UNITED
STATES
Atlantic
Ocean
MEXICO
VENEZUELA
PANAMA
COLOMBIA
Pacific
Ocean
ECUADOR
BRAZIL
PERU
BOLIVIA
100%
Probable range
of the yellow
fever mosquito,
Aedes aegypti
PARAGUAY
50%
0%
ARGENTINA
UNITED
STATES
Atlantic
Ocean
MEXICO
VENEZUELA
PANAMA
Pacific
Ocean
COLOMBIA
ECUADOR
BRAZIL
PERU
BOLIVIA
100%
Probable range
of the yellow
fever mosquito,
Aedes aegypti
PARAGUAY
50%
ARGENTINA
0%
UNITED
STATES
Atlantic
Ocean
MEXICO
VENEZUELA
PANAMA
COLOMBIA
ECUADOR
Pacific
Ocean
BRAZIL
PERU
BOLIVIA
100%
Probable range
of the yellow
fever mosquito,
Aedes aegypti
PARAGUAY
50%
ARGENTINA
0%
By The New York Times | Source: Moritz U. G. Kraemer et al., eLife Sciences; Simon Hay, University of Oxford
3.
What areas is Zika likely to reach?
Wherever certain mosquitoes go.
Zika is spread by mosquitoes of the Aedes genus, which can breed in a pool of water as small as a bottle cap and usually bite in daytime. The yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti, takes several bites for each blood meal and prefers biting people; it accounts for most Zika infections. This mosquito is common in the United States typically only in Florida and along the Gulf Coast, although it has been found as far north as Connecticut in hot weather.
The Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, also can transmit the virus, but not as effectively. It bites many kinds of animals and is found as far north as Maine and Minnesota in summer, and also in Hawaii.
4.
Can the Zika virus be sexually transmitted?
Yes.
Although experts believe that the vast majority of Zika infections are transmitted by mosquitoes, sexual transmission has been reported in 10 countries, including the United States, France, Germany, Italy and New Zealand.
In all known cases as of late June, transmission has been from a man to a woman or to another man, not from a woman to anyone else. The Zika virus has clearly been transmitted by vaginal and anal sex, and possibly by oral sex.
Viral RNA has been found in semen more than two months after symptoms disappeared. Scientists believe the prostate or testes serve as a reservoir, sheltering the Zika virus from the immune system. In at least one case, a man who never had Zika symptoms transmitted it sexually.
Health authorities now recommend that women who are pregnant or trying to become pregnant avoid contact with semen from men who have visited areas where the virus is transmitted. Pregnant women should abstain until they give birth, or should have sex only with partners using a condom.
To reduce the risk of sexual transmission, health authorities recommend that men who have visited areas in which the Zika virus is transmitted by mosquitos and who have had symptoms avoid unprotected sex for six months. Men who have had no symptoms should wait eight weeks.
5.
How might Zika cause brain damage in infants?
Experts aren’t yet certain.
Although it is known that the virus causes brain damage, the mechanism is still being studied. The virus can cross the placenta and attack fetal nerve cells, including some that develop into the brain. The radial glial cells, which form the initial “scaffolding” that guides other fetal brain cells into place, appear particularly vulnerable.
Microcephaly Cases in Brazil
Atlantic
Ocean
VENEZUELA
PANAMA
Pacific
Ocean
COLOMBIA
ECUADOR
BRAZIL
PERU
Recife
BOLIVIA
Microcephaly cases in Brazil
By state, as of March 26
Rio de Janeiro
ARGENTINA
10
100
1,000
10
100
Possible cases
under investigation
Confirmed
cases
Atlantic
Ocean
VENEZUELA
PANAMA
Pacific
Ocean
COLOMBIA
ECUADOR
BRAZIL
PERU
Recife
BOLIVIA
Microcephaly cases in Brazil
By state, as of March 26
Rio de Janeiro
ARGENTINA
10
100
1,000
10
100
Possible cases
under investigation
Confirmed
cases
Microcephaly cases in Brazil
By state, as of March 26
VENEZUELA
COLOMBIA
BRAZIL
PERU
Recife
BOLIVIA
Rio de Janeiro
ARGENTINA
10
100
1,000
10
100
Possible cases
under investigation
Confirmed
cases
Microcephaly cases in Brazil
By state, as of March 26
BRAZIL
Recife
Rio de Janeiro
10
100
1,000
10
100
Possible cases
under investigation
Confirmed
cases
By The New York Times | Source: Brazil’s Ministry of Health
6.
What is microcephaly?
An unusually small head, often accompanied by brain damage.
Babies with microcephaly have unusually small heads. Normally, some degree of microcephaly occurs in 1 in 5,000 to 1 in 10,000 of all births. In roughly 15 percent of cases, a small head is just a small head, with no effect on the infant.
But infection with the Zika virus causes a severe form of microcephaly. The brain may stop growing and be small and smooth, lacking the normal indentations. The long nerves connecting the eyes and ears to the brain may be damaged. Children may suffer from constant seizures or be born with permanently rigid limbs.
Microcephaly can also be caused by other infections of the fetus, including German measles (also known as rubella), toxoplasmosis (a disease caused by a parasite found in undercooked meat and cat feces) and cytomegalovirus.
Microcephaly may also result from alcoholism, drug use or some industrial toxins during pregnancy, or from severe malnutrition of the mother. It can be caused by complications of diabetes and by the genes like those that cause Down syndrome.
There is no treatment for the brain damage.
“There is no way to fix the problem, just therapies to deal with the downstream consequences,” said Dr. Hannah M. Tully, a neurologist at Seattle Children’s Hospital who specializes in brain malformations.
What countries should pregnant women avoid?
United States
Haiti
Dominican Republic
Puerto Rico
Guadeloupe
St. Martin
Martinique
Barbados
U.S. Virgin Islands
Curaçao
Trinadad and Tobago
Atlantic
Ocean
Mexico
Cuba
Jamaica
Guatemala
Honduras
El Salvador
Nicaragua
Costa Rica
Guyana
Suriname
French Guiana
Venezuela
Panama
Colombia
Ecuador
Pacific
Ocean
Brazil
Peru
Areas
pregnant women
should avoid
Bolivia
Paraguay
Argentina
Note: American Samoa, Cape Verde, Tonga and the Marshall Islands should also be avoided.
Haiti
Dominican Republic
Puerto Rico
Guadeloupe
St. Martin
Martinique
Barbados
U.S. Virgin Islands
Curaçao
Trinadad and Tobago
Atlantic
Ocean
Mexico
Cuba
Jamaica
Guatemala
Honduras
El Salvador
Nicaragua
Costa Rica
Venezuela
Guyana
Suriname
French Guiana
Panama
Colombia
Ecuador
Pacific
Ocean
Brazil
Peru
Areas
pregnant women
should avoid
Bolivia
Paraguay
Note: American Samoa, Cape Verde, Tonga and the Marshall Islands should also be avoided.
Argentina
Haiti and Dom. Rep.
Puerto Rico
Guadeloupe
St. Martin
Martinique
Barbados
U.S. Virgin Islands
Curaçao
Trinadad and Tobago
Mexico
Jamaica
Guatemala
Honduras
El Salvador
Nicaragua
Costa Rica
Venezuela
Guyana
Suriname
French Guiana
Panama
Colombia
Ecuador
Pacific
Ocean
Brazil
Areas
pregnant women
should avoid
Bolivia
Note: American Samoa, Cape Verde, Tonga and the Marshall Islands should also be avoided.
Paraguay
Atlantic
Ocean
Mexico
Venezuela
Pacific
Ocean
Colombia
Ecuador
Areas
pregnant women
should avoid
Brazil
Bolivia
Note: American Samoa, Cape Verde, Tonga and the Marshall Islands should also be avoided.
Paraguay
By The New York Times | Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Pan American Health Organization
7.
What places should pregnant women avoid?
More than 45 countries and territories, mostly in the Americas and South Pacific.
World health authorities expect the outbreak to eventually reach every place in the Americas where the Aedes aegypti mosquito has previously spread the dengue virus. That includes everywhere from Florida and the Gulf Coast to northern Argentina. Hawaii may be affected as well. Some Pacific Islands are now having outbreaks.
Even within those countries, according to the C.D.C., pregnant women can safely visit areas at altitudes above 6,500 feet because mosquitoes are not normally found there. The latest C.D.C. updates are here.
8.
How do I know if I’ve been infected? Is there a test?
It’s often a silent infection and hard to diagnose.
Only one of five infected people develop symptoms. There is currently no rapid test that can be done in a doctor’s office; tests must be sent to sophisticated laboratories, which delays diagnosis.
The surest way to detect the virus itself is with a blood or urine sample gathered in the first two weeks or less after symptoms appear. Antibody tests can be done later but, because the disease is closely related to dengue and yellow fever, false positives and false negatives may occur, especially in areas where those diseases circulate. More complex “neutralization assay testing” can lower the false-positive rate, but not eliminate it.
9.
I’m pregnant and live in or recently visited a country with Zika virus. What do I do?
Pregnant women should get blood tests and ultrasound scans.
According to the C.D.C., all pregnant women who have visited areas with Zika transmission should be tested, whether or not they have symptoms.
All pregnant women who live in those areas, such as Puerto Rico or American Samoa, should be tested at least twice during their pregnancies, whether or not they have symptoms.
All pregnant women who test positive or had symptoms should have a series of ultrasounds looking for evidence of fetal microcephaly or calcifications, small white spots indicating cell death or inflammation in the brain.
Brain damage has been detected as early as week 19 of a pregnancy — about midway through the second trimester. But it is not clear how quickly damage becomes detectable after an infection.
10.
I’m of childbearing age, but not pregnant and not planning to get pregnant. Should I go to an affected country?
Only if you use birth control consistently.
Half of pregnancies are unintended, according to some surveys. If you want to visit a country where Zika transmission has been reported, Dr. Laura E. Riley, a specialist in high-risk pregnancies at Massachusetts General Hospital, advises strict use of birth control.
Women who become unexpectedly pregnant while traveling or shortly afterward will have to deal with blood tests, regular ultrasounds and a great deal of anxiety.
“Why would you ever sign yourself up for that?” Dr. Riley said. “There’s enough in life to worry about. I wouldn’t add that to my list.”
11.
I’m pregnant now, but wasn’t when I visited one of the affected countries. What’s the risk?
Virtually nil.
Women who recover from the infection are believed to immune to it, so no harm can come to a new baby.
To be sure no virus is in the blood even after a silent infection, the C.D.C. recommends waiting eight weeks — triple the amount of time the virus has been known to persist — before trying to conceive.
Whether that immunity is lifelong is not yet known, because the virus has only been studied carefully for a brief time. But it is believed to be long-lasting.
“Our understanding thus far is that the risk is very, very low if you were in that place prior to conception,” Dr. Riley, of Massachusetts General Hospital, said.
“I wouldn’t be worried about if you conceived after you got back to the U.S.”
12.
If I live in an area where the virus is circulating, should I delay becoming pregnant?
That may be wise, some officials say.
Health officials in several countries, including Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador and Jamaica — and in the territory of Puerto Rico — have suggested that women delay pregnancy temporarily. Obstetricians in some countries are privately giving patients the same advice, saying the risk of fetal damage during an epidemic’s peak is too great.
Once “herd immunity” is strong because many people have been bitten and have recovered, local epidemics may fade out, so that women can safely become pregnant again. Also, many companies are working on Zika vaccines, and delaying pregnancy will buy time for them to arrive.
Gleyse Kelly da Silva holding her daughter, Maria Giovanna, who was born with microcephaly in Recife, Brazil. The birth defect has been linked to the Zika virus.
Credit
Felipe Dana/Associated Press
13.
Does it matter when in her pregnancy a woman is infected with the Zika virus?
Anytime during pregnancy may be dangerous.
Originally, doctors in Brazil believed that infections in the first trimester were the most dangerous, because mothers who gave birth to babies with microcephaly were usually infected then.
A later study found that some mothers infected late in pregnancy also had disastrous outcomes, including the sudden deaths of infants in the womb.
Some experts who have studied the long-term consequences of rubella — another virus that attacks fetuses — say they believe that children who survive a Zika infection without microcephaly nonetheless may suffer serious consequences, including blindness and deafness at birth, learning and behavior difficulties in childhood, and perhaps even mental disabilities later in life.
14.
Should infants be tested?
Other birth defects may be linked to the virus.
Federal health officials say that newborns should be tested for infection with the Zika virus if their mothers have visited or lived in any country experiencing an outbreak and if the mothers’ own tests are positive or inconclusive.
The reason, officials said, is that infection with the virus could be linked to defects in vision and hearing, among other abnormalities, even if the child does not suffer microcephaly.
15.
I’m a man and have returned from a place where the Zika virus is spreading. How long until I can be sure that I won’t infect a sexual partner?
Err on the side of caution.
Whether or not you have had symptoms, you should do everything you can to avoid infecting a woman who may be pregnant or is trying to become pregnant, because the consequences for the baby may be disastrous.
To do that, you must avoid vaginal, anal and oral sex for the length of the pregnancy — or use condoms every time.
It is not known how long the Zika virus remains infectious in semen, but viral RNA has been found in semen more than two months after symptoms subsided. The testes are somewhat shielded from the immune system, so it may take longer for the body to eliminate an infection there.
The C.D.C. recommends that men who have traveled to Zika-infected areas, but had no symptoms, wait eight weeks before having unprotected sex.
Men who have had a positive Zika test or any symptoms of infection, on the other hand, should wait six months.
And in one case in France, a man who never reported symptoms is believed to have infected his wife through sex.
16.
Is there a treatment?
No.
The C.D.C. does not recommend a particular antiviral medication for people infected with the Zika virus. The symptoms are mild – when they appear at all – and usually require only rest, nourishment and other supportive care.
Health workers sprayed insecticide in the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro as part of a campaign to combat mosquitoes, which transmit the Zika virus.
17.
Is there a vaccine? How should people protect themselves?
Protection is difficult in mosquito-infested regions.
There is no vaccine against the Zika virus. Efforts to make one have just begun, and creating and testing a vaccine normally takes years and costs hundreds of millions of dollars.
Because it is impossible to completely prevent mosquito bites, the C.D.C. has advised pregnant women to avoid going to regions where the virus is being transmitted, and has advised women thinking of becoming pregnant to consult doctors before going.
Travelers to these countries are advised to avoid or minimize mosquito bites by staying in screened or air-conditioned rooms or sleeping under mosquito nets; wearing insect repellent at all times; and wearing long pants, long sleeves, shoes and hats.
How Zika Spread Around the World
How Zika Spread
Around the World
Pakistan
Nigeria
Before 2007
Costa Rica
Uganda
Indonesia
2007-2014
Yap (Micronesia)
Thailand
Gabon
French Polynesia
Easter Island
2015-2016
Mexico
Cape
Verde
Brazil
Maldives
Fiji
How Zika Spread
Around the World
Pakistan
Nigeria
Before 2007
Costa Rica
Uganda
Indonesia
2007-2014
Thailand
Yap (Micronesia)
Gabon
Easter Island
2015-2016
Cape
Verde
Mexico
Fiji
Brazil
Maldives
How Zika Spread
Around the World
Before 2007
Uganda
2007-2014
Gabon
Yap (Micronesia)
2015-2016
Brazil
Fiji
Maldives
By Jasmine Lee | Source: World Health Organization
18.
If the Zika virus has been in Africa and Asia for decades, why wasn’t a link to microcephaly detected earlier?
It may be that the virus had never struck such a large population without immunity.
Microcephaly is rare, and it has many other causes, including infection of the fetus with rubella (German measles), cytomegalovirus or toxoplasmosis; poisoning of the fetus by alcohol, mercury or radiation; or severe maternal malnutrition and diabetes. It is also caused by several gene mutations, including Down syndrome.
Until recently, health officials paid little attention to the Zika virus. It circulated in the same regions as dengue and chikungunya, and compared with those two painful infections – nicknamed “break-bone fever” and “bending-up fever” – Zika was usually mild.
The virus is thought to have reached Asia from Africa at least 50 years ago. While it may have caused spikes in microcephaly as it first spread, there was no testing to pin down which of many possible causes was to blame.
In 2007, a Southeast Asian strain of the Zika virus began leapfrogging the South Pacific, sparking rapid outbreaks on islands where no one had immunity to it. Because island populations are small, rare side effects did not occur often enough to be noticed. But in 2013, during an outbreak in French Polynesia, which has 270,000 residents, doctors confirmed 42 cases of Guillain-Barrê syndrome, which can cause paralysis. That was about eight times the normal number and the first hint that the Zika virus can attack the nervous system, which includes the brain.
Zika was first confirmed in Brazil – a country of 200 million – last May, and it spread rapidly. The first alarms about microcephaly were raised in October, when doctors in the northeastern state of Pernambuco reported a surge in babies born with it. Pernambuco has nine million people and 129,000 annual births. In a typical year, nine are microcephalic infants.
By November 2015, when Brazil declared a health emergency, Pernambuco had had 646 such births.
19.
Has a Zika outbreak outside Brazil ever been linked to microcephaly?
Officials in French Polynesia have suspicions about an outbreak two years ago.
French Polynesia is the only area outside Brazil to be affected by a Zika outbreak in which public health officials have identified an increase in the number of fetuses and babies with unusually small heads. There is “very high suspicion” of a link between the Zika virus and microcephaly in French Polynesia, said Dr. Didier Musso, an infectious disease specialist at the archipelago’s Institut Louis Malardé – though he said additional research was needed.
In November, French Polynesian officials took another look at an outbreak of the Zika virus that lasted from October 2013 to April 2014. They reported finding an unusual increase – from around one case annually to 17 cases in 2014-15 – of unborn babies developing “central nervous system malformations,” a classification that includes microcephaly.
There were no investigations at the time to determine whether the mothers were infected with the Zika virus during pregnancy. Four of the mothers were tested later, and the results indicated they may have been infected. Additional research is underway, Dr. Musso said.
|
Yes.
Although experts believe that the vast majority of Zika infections are transmitted by mosquitoes, sexual transmission has been reported in 10 countries, including the United States, France, Germany, Italy and New Zealand.
In all known cases as of late June, transmission has been from a man to a woman or to another man, not from a woman to anyone else. The Zika virus has clearly been transmitted by vaginal and anal sex, and possibly by oral sex.
Viral RNA has been found in semen more than two months after symptoms disappeared. Scientists believe the prostate or testes serve as a reservoir, sheltering the Zika virus from the immune system. In at least one case, a man who never had Zika symptoms transmitted it sexually.
Health authorities now recommend that women who are pregnant or trying to become pregnant avoid contact with semen from men who have visited areas where the virus is transmitted. Pregnant women should abstain until they give birth, or should have sex only with partners using a condom.
To reduce the risk of sexual transmission, health authorities recommend that men who have visited areas in which the Zika virus is transmitted by mosquitos and who have had symptoms avoid unprotected sex for six months. Men who have had no symptoms should wait eight weeks.
5.
How might Zika cause brain damage in infants?
Experts aren’t yet certain.
Although it is known that the virus causes brain damage, the mechanism is still being studied. The virus can cross the placenta and attack fetal nerve cells, including some that develop into the brain. The radial glial cells, which form the initial “scaffolding” that guides other fetal brain cells into place, appear particularly vulnerable.
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no
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Mammalogy
|
Is the blue whale the largest mammal that has ever lived?
|
yes_statement
|
the "blue" "whale" is the "largest" "mammal" that has ever "lived".. the "blue" "whale" holds the record for being the "largest" "mammal" that has ever "lived".
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Largest_organisms
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Largest organisms - Wikipedia
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Although it appears to be multiple trees, Pando is a clonal colony of an individual quaking aspen with an interconnected root system. It is widely held to be the world's most massive single organism.
This article lists the largest organisms for various types of life and mostly considers extant species,[a] which found on Earth can be determined according to various aspects of an organism's size, such as: mass, volume, area, length, height, or even genome size. Some organisms group together to form a superorganism (such as ants or bees), but such are not classed as single large organisms. The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest structure composed of living entities, stretching 2,000 km (1,200 mi), but contains many organisms of many types of species.
If considered individual entities, the largest organisms are clonal colonies which can spread over large areas. Pando, a clonal colony of the quaking aspen tree, is widely considered to be the largest such organism by mass.[1] Even if such colonies are excluded, trees retain their dominance of this listing, with the giant sequoia being the most massive tree.[2] In 2006 a huge clonal colony of the seagrassPosidonia oceanica was discovered south of the island of Ibiza. At 8 kilometres (5 mi) across, and estimated at around 100,000 years old,[3] it may be one of the largest and oldest clonal colonies on Earth.[4][5][6]
The largest single-stem tree by wood volume and mass is the giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum), native to Sierra Nevada and California; it typically grows to a height of 70–85 m (230–280 ft) and 5–7 m (16–23 ft) in diameter.
The largest organism in the world, according to mass, is the aspen tree whose colonies of clones can grow up to 8 kilometres (5 mi) long. The largest such colony is Pando, in the Fishlake National Forest in Utah.
A form of flowering plant that far exceeds Pando as the largest organism on Earth in area and probably also mass, is the giant marine plant, Posidonia australis, living in Shark Bay, Australia. Its length is about 180 km (112 mi) and it covers an area of 200 km2 (77 sq mi).[7][8] It is among the oldest known clonal plants too.
Another giant marine plant of the genus Posidonia, Posidonia oceanica discovered in the Mediterranean near the Balearic Islands, Spain may be the oldest living organism in the world, with an estimated age of 100,000 years.[9]
Green algae are photosynthetic unicellular and multicellular protists that are related to land plants. The thallus of the unicellular mermaid's wineglass, Acetabularia, can grow to several inches (perhaps 0.1 to 0.2 m) in length. The fronds of the similarly unicellular, and invasive Caulerpa taxifolia can grow up to a foot (0.3 m) long.[citation needed]
In 2023, paleontologists estimated that the extinct whale Perucetus, discovered in Peru, may have outweighed the blue whale, with a mass of 85-340 t (84-335 long tons; 94-375 short tonnes.)[16] While controversial, estimates for the weight of the sauropodBruhathkayosaurus suggest it was around 110-170 tons, with the highest estimate being 240 tons, if scaled with Patagotitan.[17] The upper estimates of weight for these two prehistoric animals would have easily rivaled or exceeded the blue whale.
The African bush elephant (Loxodonta africana) is the largest living land animal. A native of various open habitats in sub-Saharan Africa, males weigh about 6.0 tonnes (13,200 lb) on average.[18] The largest elephant ever recorded was shot in Angola in 1974. It was a male measuring 10.67 metres (35.0 ft) from trunk to tail and 4.17 metres (13.7 ft) lying on its side in a projected line from the highest point of the shoulder, to the base of the forefoot, indicating a standing shoulder height of 3.96 metres (13.0 ft). This male had a computed weight of 10.4 tonnes.[10]
A spatial genetic analysis estimated that a specimen of Armillaria ostoyae growing over 91 acres (37 ha) in northern Michigan, United States weighs 440 tons (4 x 105 kg).[23][24] Approximations of the land area of the Oregon "humongous fungus" are 3.5 square miles (9.1 km2) (2,240 acres (910 ha), possibly weighing as much as 35,000 tons as the world's most massive living organism.[25]
In Armillaria ostoyae, each individual mushroom (the fruiting body, similar to a flower on a plant) has only a 5 cm (2.0 in) stipe, and a pileus up to 12.5 cm (4.9 in) across. There are many other fungi which produce a larger individual size mushroom. The largest known fruiting body of a fungus is a specimen of Phellinus ellipsoideus (formerly Fomitiporia ellipsoidea) found on Hainan Island.[26] The fruiting body masses up to 500 kg (1,100 lb).[27][28]
Until P. ellipsoideus replaced it, the largest individual fruit body came from Rigidoporus ulmarius. R. ulmarius can grow up to 284 kg (626 lb), 1.66 m (5.4 ft) tall, 1.46 m (4.8 ft) across, and has a circumference of up to 4.9 m (16 ft).
The largest known species of bacterium is named Thiomargarita magnifica, which grows to 1 cm (0.39 in) in length,[37] making it visible to the naked eye and also about five thousand times the size of more typical bacteria.[38]BBC News described it as possessing the "size and shape of a human eyelash."[39]Science published a new paper on the bacterium on June 23, 2022.[40] According to a study coauthored by Jean-Marie Volland, a marine biologist and scientist at California's Laboratory for Research in Complex Systems, and an affiliate at the US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, T. magnifica can grow up to 2 centimeters long.[41]
The largest virus on record is the Pithovirus sibericum with the length of 1.5 micrometres, comparable to the typical size of a bacterium and large enough to be seen in light microscopes. It was discovered in March 2014 in an ice core sample collected from a permafrost in Siberia. Prior to this discovery, the largest virus was the peculiar virus genus Pandoravirus, which have a size of approximately 1 micrometer and whose genome contains 1,900,000 to 2,500,000 base pairs of DNA.[43]
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Its length is about 180 km (112 mi) and it covers an area of 200 km2 (77 sq mi).[7][8] It is among the oldest known clonal plants too.
Another giant marine plant of the genus Posidonia, Posidonia oceanica discovered in the Mediterranean near the Balearic Islands, Spain may be the oldest living organism in the world, with an estimated age of 100,000 years.[9]
Green algae are photosynthetic unicellular and multicellular protists that are related to land plants. The thallus of the unicellular mermaid's wineglass, Acetabularia, can grow to several inches (perhaps 0.1 to 0.2 m) in length. The fronds of the similarly unicellular, and invasive Caulerpa taxifolia can grow up to a foot (0.3 m) long.[citation needed]
In 2023, paleontologists estimated that the extinct whale Perucetus, discovered in Peru, may have outweighed the blue whale, with a mass of 85-340 t (84-335 long tons; 94-375 short tonnes.)[16] While controversial, estimates for the weight of the sauropodBruhathkayosaurus suggest it was around 110-170 tons, with the highest estimate being 240 tons, if scaled with Patagotitan.[17] The upper estimates of weight for these two prehistoric animals would have easily rivaled or exceeded the blue whale.
The African bush elephant (Loxodonta africana) is the largest living land animal. A native of various open habitats in sub-Saharan Africa, males weigh about 6.0 tonnes (13,200 lb) on average.[18] The largest elephant ever recorded was shot in Angola in 1974.
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no
|
Mammalogy
|
Is the blue whale the largest mammal that has ever lived?
|
yes_statement
|
the "blue" "whale" is the "largest" "mammal" that has ever "lived".. the "blue" "whale" holds the record for being the "largest" "mammal" that has ever "lived".
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https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/08/02/biggest-heaviest-animal-ever-discovered/70508824007/
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Biggest, heaviest animal ever? Perucetus colossus whale was ...
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Scientists have discovered what they say could be the heaviest animal that ever lived on Earth: a gigantic ancient whale that may have been two to three times as heavy as the modern blue whale.
The newly discovered whale, which has been given the Latin name Perucetus colossus (“the colossal whale from Peru”), lived about 39 million years ago.
Though its roughly 66-foot length doesn't break records, its weight does. The study estimates it weighed 375 tons − or about as heavy as 35 school buses.
Blue whales are still historically large animals: Some can grow to more than 100 feet.
Perucetus colossus was “possibly the heaviest animal ever,” said study co-author Alberto Collareta, a paleontologist at Italy’s University of Pisa. But “it was most likely not the longest animal ever.”
"This finding challenges our understanding of body-size evolution," J. G. M. Thewissen and David A. Waugh write in a companion article. In fact, the findings suggest that the trend toward gigantism in marine mammals may have begun earlier than thought, according to the study.
Discovery sheds new light on largest known animals on Earth
Whales, dolphins and porpoises belong to a group called cetaceans, which includes the largest known animals that ever lived, the two scientists write. Until now it had been assumed that the blue whale holds the record for the largest body size.
But "the estimated skeletal mass of P. colossus exceeds that of any known mammal or aquatic vertebrate," the authors write in the study. It was led by Eli Amson, a paleontologist at the State Museum of Natural History in Stuttgart, Germany.
The whale is modeled from a partial skeleton, which includes 13 vertebrae, four ribs and one hip bone. Each vertebra weighs more than 220 pounds, and its ribs measure nearly 5 feet long.
According to the study, the whale is a member of the basilosaurid group, a family of extinct cetaceans. It not only was extremely large, but it also had an exceptionally heavy skeleton relative to its body mass. "It substantially pushes the upper limit of skeletal mass in mammals, as well as in aquatic vertebrates in general," the study says.
The animal was a slow swimmer that probably lived close to the coast and fed near the bottom of the sea.
'A previously unknown life form'
The findings show cetaceans had reached peak body mass an estimated 30 million years before it had been assumed. The features of P. colossus were fully adapted to an aquatic environment.
Further research is needed to answer more questions about the animal and how it lived. As Thewissen and Waugh note, "the importance of this fossil goes beyond the documentation of a previously unknown life form."
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Scientists have discovered what they say could be the heaviest animal that ever lived on Earth: a gigantic ancient whale that may have been two to three times as heavy as the modern blue whale.
The newly discovered whale, which has been given the Latin name Perucetus colossus (“the colossal whale from Peru”), lived about 39 million years ago.
Though its roughly 66-foot length doesn't break records, its weight does. The study estimates it weighed 375 tons − or about as heavy as 35 school buses.
Blue whales are still historically large animals: Some can grow to more than 100 feet.
Perucetus colossus was “possibly the heaviest animal ever,” said study co-author Alberto Collareta, a paleontologist at Italy’s University of Pisa. But “it was most likely not the longest animal ever.”
"This finding challenges our understanding of body-size evolution," J. G. M. Thewissen and David A. Waugh write in a companion article. In fact, the findings suggest that the trend toward gigantism in marine mammals may have begun earlier than thought, according to the study.
Discovery sheds new light on largest known animals on Earth
Whales, dolphins and porpoises belong to a group called cetaceans, which includes the largest known animals that ever lived, the two scientists write. Until now it had been assumed that the blue whale holds the record for the largest body size.
But "the estimated skeletal mass of P. colossus exceeds that of any known mammal or aquatic vertebrate," the authors write in the study. It was led by Eli Amson, a paleontologist at the State Museum of Natural History in Stuttgart, Germany.
The whale is modeled from a partial skeleton, which includes 13 vertebrae, four ribs and one hip bone. Each vertebra weighs more than 220 pounds, and its ribs measure nearly 5 feet long.
According to the study, the whale is a member of the basilosaurid group, a family of extinct cetaceans.
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no
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Mammalogy
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Is the blue whale the largest mammal that has ever lived?
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yes_statement
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the "blue" "whale" is the "largest" "mammal" that has ever "lived".. the "blue" "whale" holds the record for being the "largest" "mammal" that has ever "lived".
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https://us.whales.org/whales-dolphins/record-breakers/
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Record-breakers - Whale & Dolphin Conservation USA
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Record-breakers
Whales and dolphins are some of the most remarkable creatures to be found on the planet. They not only represent some of the largest, but also have within their number the most ambitious commuters and deepest divers in the world. Here are some of the records they hold!
WDC - cetacean consultant to Guinness World Records
Largest creature
The blue whale is not only the largest whale living today; the blue whale is the largest creature ever to have lived on Earth. Blue whales are mind-bogglingly gigantic; they are overall larger than any of the dinosaurs. Blue whales and the other ocean giants live their whole lives in the ocean, where their bodies are fully supported by the salt water.
Blue whales can reach lengths of over 100 feet (30m), which is almost as long as a basketball court or two yellow school buses parked end to end.. Blue whales in the Southern Hemisphere are generally larger than those in the Northern Hemisphere and female blues are larger than males.
The longest blue whale on record is a female measured at a South Georgia whaling station in the South Atlantic (1909); she was 110' 17" (33.58m) long. The heaviest blue whale was also a female hunted in the Southern Ocean, Antarctica, on March 20, 1947. She weighed 418,878 pounds (190 tonnes) which is equivalent to about 30 elephants or 2,500 people. Even an average blue whale weighs 160 tons (145 tonnes) or as much as 25 adult African elephants.
With such gigantic proportions you’d expect some other record-breaking achievements and, again, the blue whale doesn’t disappoint. Blue whales have the biggest hearts on the planet; a football team could stand on a blue whale's tongue without falling off and they give birth to the biggest babies too.
Incidentally, in case you were wondering which is the second largest animal on the planet, look no further as it’s another whale. Fin whales can weigh over 110 tons (220,000 lbs) and reach an impressive 85 ft. (26m) in length.
Deepest diver
The Cuvier’s beaked whale is the ocean’s deep diving champion. The longest dive recorded was by a whale that held his or her breath for a phenomenal 222 minutes (3 hours and 42 minutes). The deepest dive recorded by a Cuvier's beaked whale is 2,992m (just under 3km or 2 miles) below the surface of the ocean in southern California.
Top predator
At the very top of all food chains or food pyramids are carnivores. The absolute top, gold-medal winning oceanic predator, above sharks even, is the orca. Orcas have even been recorded attacking and killing great white sharks so they can eat their energy-rich livers.
Who eats the most?
Sperm whales are the biggest creature with teeth on Earth (the blue whale is much bigger, but is toothless.) Male sperm whales are bigger than females and grow to 60 ft. (18m) in length and weigh up to 62 tons (~125,500 lbs). Sperm whales mostly hunt prey found on or near the ocean floor; giant, large and medium-sized squid are their favorite food.
Largest mouth
The bowhead whale has the largest mouth in the world; measuring 16 ft. (5m) long, 13 ft. (4m) high and 8 ft. (2.5m). Their mouths are steeply arched to accommodate their long baleen plates. When feeding, bowheads open their mouths and skim through the water. As the water flows through their mouths, it passes through the baleen and food (tiny crustaceans) gets trapped on the plates. Bowheads use their huge, muscular tongues, (which weigh about 2,000 lbs) to wipe off the prey caught in their baleen plates.
Longest mammal migration
Baleen whales are long-distance travelers, and the champions among them include gray whales and humpback whales. These whales regularly make incredible annual journeys of between 4,000 and 5,095 miles (6,400 to 8,200 km) each way, as they travel between their cold water feeding grounds and their warm water breeding grounds. Some humpback whale populations have been found to journey even further than this, swimming between Antarctic waters where they feed and crossing the Equator to reach their coastal breeding sites in Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica. This is a round-trip of up to 7,000 miles (11,300 km).
For the time being though, the award for the longest whale migration and the longest migration recorded for any mammal, goes to a grey whale named ‘Vavara’. Scientists tracked Vavara, a female gray whale, as she swam a round-trip of 13,988 miles (22,511km) in 172 days. She migrated between the east coast of Russia to the gray whale breeding grounds in Mexico and back again.
Smartest marine creature
Although it is hard for scientists to agree on how best to measure intelligence and it is difficult to compare intelligence from one species to another, intelligence can broadly be defined as the ability to learn and apply knowledge; to understand new or challenging situations and the ability to think abstractly. Dolphins clearly demonstrate the ability to do all of these things and most scientists agree that dolphins are very intelligent creatures.
Dolphins have a large brain. Large brain animals like humans, chimpanzees, and dolphins have a number of things in common.
They generally live long lives.
They form stable communities.
They demonstrate complex emotions such as happiness, sadness, and grief.
They can assess situations and problem solve.
Their offspring are totally dependent on their parents during childhood.
Dolphins have large and complex brains. They are fast learners, have advanced communication systems and develop complex social networks. They make plans together and cooperate with one another to hunt, protect themselves and raise their young. Dolphins have senses of empathy, altruism and attachment. They are creative and playful creatures and seem to enjoy playing and seek the companionship of others. They will work together to take care of injured or sick pod members.
Dolphins are one of only a few species who pass the ‘mirror test’. They recognize their own reflection in a mirror; they inspect themselves and look at parts of their bodies in the mirror that they can’t usually see, and they also make movements and examine themselves for this movement. These behaviors indicate self-awareness of a highly intelligent species.
Best gymnast
Dolphins are the best marine gymnasts in the world with the most impressive acrobats being dusky, spinner and striped dolphins.
Dusky dolphins are fast, active swimmers and are famous for their high, complex leaps and group leaping sessions. They perform amazingly high jumps, flips, and twists. Experts think dolphins leap for a number of reasons; as a social activity, to scout for food or just to have fun. Six or more dusky dolphins can launch simultaneously in a small patch of ocean, each heading in a different direction, yet seemingly very much in tune with one another. They are definitely huge show-offs!
Spinner dolphins are best known for their aerial displays of leaping and spinning. No other dolphins except for the Clymene dolphin, spin like this and only spinner dolphins complete several full body rotations (barrel rolls) during mid-flight before slapping back down on the surface. Spinners can leap up to 14 times in a row and a single spinning leap can include as many as four body revolutions. Spinners can also somersault head over tails.
Striped dolphins also deserve a mention here as they are also skilled acrobats. They are fast swimming dolphins who can leap 20-23 ft. (6 or 7m) above the surface. They are capable of amazing acrobatics including somersaults, tail spins and backward flips. Striped dolphins display a unique acrobatic behavior called roto-tailing where they make high arcing jumps while rapidly rotating their tail which gives them extra thrust!
Biggest heart
A fully grown blue whale’s heart can weigh up to 1,000 lbs (455kg) which is the same size as a fully grown male polar bear or a concert grand piano. For comparison, a human heart weighs up to a measly 0.77 lb. (350g) about the same as a 4-week old kitten or a can of tomato soup. Several museums around the world have full- size models of blue whale hearts, which are as tall as an adult man and show that the aorta (main heart artery) is big enough to fit a person inside!
A blue whale’s heart beats only 8 to 10 times per minute and circulates 1,165 gallons (5,300 liters) of blood around the whale’s body. A human heart beats 60 to 80 times per minute and circulates ~1 gallon (4.5 - 5.5 liters) of blood around our bodies.
Biggest brain
The largest brain on Earth belongs to the sperm whale. The adult sperm whale brain is 500 in3 (8,000 cm3), which is more than five times the volume of ours, a comparably small 80in3 (1,300 cm3). A sperm whale’s brain weighs up to 20 lbs (9 kg) which is 6 times heavier than a human brain.
In evolutionary terms, we humans have only had the big brains we do now for about 200 thousand years. In contrast, the current size of the sperm whale brain has changed little from that of its cetacean ancestors, which evolved some 55 million years ago.
Sperm whales have huge heads which account for up to a third of their overall body length. Most of the space inside their heads is taken up by their unique spermaceti echolocation organ. This is a cavity filled with yellowish fine oil called spermaceti that was much sought after by whalers.
Biggest tongue
An average blue whale who weighs 60-70 tons has a tongue that weighs 3 tons. It is by far the largest tongue in the animal kingdom.
Largest testicles
The male right whale has the largest testicles (and penis) in the world. An average right whale penis measures 7.5 ft. (2.3m) long and the testicles together weigh almost a ton (2,000 lbs)!
Longest living mammal
Bowhead whales live in icy-cold Arctic waters year round. They are slow moving and slow-growing whales and do not reach sexual maturity until they are 20 to 25 years old. Scientists believe bowheads can live longer than humans and are the longest-lived of all mammals. The maximum lifespan for bowheads is currently unknown, but multiple lines of evidence including stone harpoon tips found embedded in bowhead blubber from failed attempts by whalers and detailed analysis of their eye tissues, point to bowheads being able to live for at least 150 years and quite possibly over 200 years.
A bowhead whale killed in 2007 by Eskimos was found to have carried a harpoon point in its neck for more than a hundred years. Experts matched the harpoon to a New England factory which was making these harpoons around 1880. Assuming this bowhead was an adult when an attempted hunt lodged the harpoon point, if the bowhead was 20 years old when first hit, that would make the whale 127 years old (minimum) when hunted in 2007.
Biggest baby
Blue whales give birth to the biggest and heaviest babies in the world. At birth, a blue whale baby measures 20-23 ft. (6-8m) long and weighs between 6,000 and 7,900 lbs (up to 3583kg or 3.5 tonnes). This is similar to the weight of a fully grown female Asian elephant.
The baby feasts on it's mother's fat-laden milk (it is 40-50% fat) and drinks about 50 gallons (225 liters) which is about enough to fill a bath tub. By drinking this much each day, blue whale babies gain about 9 lbs (4 kg) each hour. This is the fastest growth rate of any creature on Earth, as the baby gains up to 220 lbs (100kg) in body weight every day. That’s up to a ton in weight every 10 days!
A blue whale baby is weaned at 7-9 months old and about 49 ft. (15m) from nose to tail. The mother and calf stay together for about a year in total and the youngster will reach maturity at 5-15 years old. Blue whales are thought to live for 70 – 80 years.
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Record-breakers
Whales and dolphins are some of the most remarkable creatures to be found on the planet. They not only represent some of the largest, but also have within their number the most ambitious commuters and deepest divers in the world. Here are some of the records they hold!
WDC - cetacean consultant to Guinness World Records
Largest creature
The blue whale is not only the largest whale living today; the blue whale is the largest creature ever to have lived on Earth. Blue whales are mind-bogglingly gigantic; they are overall larger than any of the dinosaurs. Blue whales and the other ocean giants live their whole lives in the ocean, where their bodies are fully supported by the salt water.
Blue whales can reach lengths of over 100 feet (30m), which is almost as long as a basketball court or two yellow school buses parked end to end.. Blue whales in the Southern Hemisphere are generally larger than those in the Northern Hemisphere and female blues are larger than males.
The longest blue whale on record is a female measured at a South Georgia whaling station in the South Atlantic (1909); she was 110' 17" (33.58m) long. The heaviest blue whale was also a female hunted in the Southern Ocean, Antarctica, on March 20, 1947. She weighed 418,878 pounds (190 tonnes) which is equivalent to about 30 elephants or 2,500 people. Even an average blue whale weighs 160 tons (145 tonnes) or as much as 25 adult African elephants.
With such gigantic proportions you’d expect some other record-breaking achievements and, again, the blue whale doesn’t disappoint. Blue whales have the biggest hearts on the planet; a football team could stand on a blue whale's tongue without falling off and they give birth to the biggest babies too.
Incidentally, in case you were wondering which is the second largest animal on the planet, look no further as it’s another whale.
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yes
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Mammalogy
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Is the blue whale the largest mammal that has ever lived?
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yes_statement
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the "blue" "whale" is the "largest" "mammal" that has ever "lived".. the "blue" "whale" holds the record for being the "largest" "mammal" that has ever "lived".
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https://www.britannica.com/animal/blue-whale
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Blue whale | Facts, Habitat, & Pictures | Britannica
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Recent News
blue whale, (Balaenoptera musculus), also called sulfur-bottom whale, the most massive animal ever to have lived, a species of baleen whale that weighs approximately 150 tons and may attain a length of more than 30 metres (98 feet). The largest accurately measured blue whale was a 29.5-metre female that weighed 180 metric tons (nearly 200 short [U.S.] tons), but there are reports of 33-metre catches that may have reached 200 metric tons. The heart of one blue whale was recorded at nearly 700 kg (about 1,500 pounds).
The blue whale is a cetacean and is classified scientifically within the order Cetacea as a rorqual (family Balaenopteridae) related to the gray whale (family Eschrichtiidae) and the right whales (Balaenidae and Neobalaenidae) of the baleen whale suborder, Mysticeti.
Blue whales are blue-gray in colour with lighter gray mottling in the form of large spots, which appear as if they were dabbed on with a huge paintbrush. The lower surfaces of the flippers are lighter gray or white in some instances. The blue whale has been called the sulfur-bottom whale because of the yellowish underside of some individuals that is reminiscent of the pale yellow colour of that chemical element; this coloration is imparted by certain algae (diatoms) living on the whale’s body. The blue whale has a wide head, a small dorsal fin located near the fluke, and 80–100 long grooves running lengthwise down the throat and chest. Its mouth contains up to 800 plates of short, wide, black baleen, or “whalebone,” with thick, coarse bristles used for catching food. Females are generally larger than males, and the largest animals live in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica.
The blue whale is found alone or in small groups in all oceans, but populations in the Southern Hemisphere are much larger. In the Northern Hemisphere, blue whales can be seen regularly in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and off the coasts of Monterey, California, and Baja California, Mexico. They spend the summer in polar waters, feeding on shrimplike crustaceans called krill. During a dive, the blue whale may engage in a series of turns and 360° rolls to locate prey and rapidly reorient its body to sweep up large concentrations of krill in a single open-mouthed lunge. A single adult blue may consume as much as eight tons of krill per day. In the winter blue whales move toward the Equator to breed. After a gestation of about 12 months, one calf about 8 metres (about 26 feet) long is born in temperate waters. While nursing, calves gain up to 90 kg (about 198 pounds) per day on the rich milk of their mothers. Young are weaned after seven to eight months, when they have reached a length of about 15 metres (about 49 feet).
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Recent News
blue whale, (Balaenoptera musculus), also called sulfur-bottom whale, the most massive animal ever to have lived, a species of baleen whale that weighs approximately 150 tons and may attain a length of more than 30 metres (98 feet). The largest accurately measured blue whale was a 29.5-metre female that weighed 180 metric tons (nearly 200 short [U.S.] tons), but there are reports of 33-metre catches that may have reached 200 metric tons. The heart of one blue whale was recorded at nearly 700 kg (about 1,500 pounds).
The blue whale is a cetacean and is classified scientifically within the order Cetacea as a rorqual (family Balaenopteridae) related to the gray whale (family Eschrichtiidae) and the right whales (Balaenidae and Neobalaenidae) of the baleen whale suborder, Mysticeti.
Blue whales are blue-gray in colour with lighter gray mottling in the form of large spots, which appear as if they were dabbed on with a huge paintbrush. The lower surfaces of the flippers are lighter gray or white in some instances. The blue whale has been called the sulfur-bottom whale because of the yellowish underside of some individuals that is reminiscent of the pale yellow colour of that chemical element; this coloration is imparted by certain algae (diatoms) living on the whale’s body. The blue whale has a wide head, a small dorsal fin located near the fluke, and 80–100 long grooves running lengthwise down the throat and chest. Its mouth contains up to 800 plates of short, wide, black baleen, or “whalebone,” with thick, coarse bristles used for catching food. Females are generally larger than males, and the largest animals live in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica.
The blue whale is found alone or in small groups in all oceans, but populations in the Southern Hemisphere are much larger.
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yes
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Mammalogy
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Is the blue whale the largest mammal that has ever lived?
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yes_statement
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the "blue" "whale" is the "largest" "mammal" that has ever "lived".. the "blue" "whale" holds the record for being the "largest" "mammal" that has ever "lived".
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https://a-z-animals.com/blog/blue-whale-vs-whale-shark-comparing-two-giants/
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Blue Whale vs. Whale Shark: Comparing Two Giants - AZ Animals
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Blue Whale vs. Whale Shark: Comparing Two Giants
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Key Points
Blue whales reach sizes beyond 100 feet and weigh up to 219 tons.
The largest whale sharks on record reached 61.7 feet and weighed over 41,000 pounds.
Blue whales and whale sharks are both filter feeders and have a similar diet.
When considering the “kings” of the ocean, two names that regularly pop up are the whale shark and the blue whale. These ocean giants are truly remarkable and have their own unique role in the ocean ecosystem. Although these species are rather different, they are similar in a few ways. Let’s compare both and learn why these magnificent animals are worthy of conservation, as well as our wonder. And of course, we’ll answer the question of which animal is bigger when pitting blue whales vs. whale sharks!
Blue Whale vs. Whale Shark: Which One Is Bigger?
When it comes to size, there is a clear winner: blue whales are significantly larger than whale sharks. In fact, blue whales are the largest animal on the planet, ocean, or land. Even more, they are possibly the largest animals to have ever lived on the planet. Looking through the fossil record, it seems reasonable that blue whales are larger than any dinosaur, fish, mammal, or bird that has ever lived.
How big are blue whales? Blue whales reach sizes beyond 100 feet and weigh up to 219 tons. For humans, these numbers are rather difficult to quantify. In length, you could fit 17 men end to end across it with some room to spare. Using other imagery, they are as long as three school buses lined up end to end. The longest blue whale ever to be recorded clocked in at a bit more than 110 feet long. When it comes to weight, the behemoths weigh as much as 30 elephants or nearly double that of the Statue of Liberty.
Although blue whales are massive, whale sharks aren’t anything to scoff at either. Blue whales hold the record for being the largest animals ever, but whale sharks are the largest fish species to live. The largest whale sharks on record reached 61.7 feet and weighed over 41,000 pounds. They are the largest living nonmammalian vertebrate, and seeing one swim past is truly breathtaking. For comparison, they are about the size of a large school bus.
The Evolution of Blue Whales and Whale Sharks
Blue Whale underwater with sunlight streaming down from the surface above
Although they share the name ‘whale,’ the two are actually not related. Let’s talk about their classification, as well as their evolutionary history.
Blue whales are marine mammals that have likely been on the earth for 1.5 million years, although whales have been around for 50 million. They are the largest animals in history and primarily feed on krill, small crustaceans that live in the ocean. Filter feeders, blue whales swim through the water and suck in water, trapping their tiny food bits. This method of eating is known as filter-feeding and classifies the blue whale as a “baleen whale.” There are four subspecies of blue whales and a potential fifth that lives off the coast of Chile. They were present in oceans worldwide until they began to be hunted for their oil by whalers. Driven nearly to extinction, blue whales have made a comeback after the practice was banned in 1966. Currently, they are classified as endangered.
Whale sharks are ocean-dwelling fish that have likely been around (in some form) for 265 million years. They are the only living member of the Rhincodontidae family. They are filter feeders and one of only three known shark species to do so (alongside megamouth and basking sharks). Although it shares the name “whale” with the blue whale, the species isn’t related and is likely just a result of the large size.
What Do Whale Sharks and Blue Whales Eat To Get So Big?
Whale sharks and blue whales are both filter feeders with a similar diet.
Blue whales and whale sharks are both filter feeders and have a similar diet.
The Diet of Blue Whales
Baleen whales, of which the blue whale is included, are a group of filter-feeder whales that feed using baleen structures. Baleen are keratinized structures that are similar to a bony hair mesh. Swimming along, a baleen whale will pull water into its mouth, close the baleen, and squeeze the water through it. Acting as a filter, the baleen captures the food and allows the water to escape. When only the food is left, the whale can swallow it without any water.
Blue whales’ diets are almost entirely krill-based. Krill are small crustaceans that cycle through the sea depths to the surface along a 24-hour water column. The whales follow the krill and use their baleen to capture it in their massive mouthfuls of water. Typically, blue whales “lunge feed,” swimming very fast at large densities of their food. They can take in 220 tons of water brimming with krill in a single mouthful. Blue whales eat 2,469 pounds of krill a day to maintain their caloric needs.
The Diet of Whale Sharks
Whale sharks are filter feeders as well, although their method is usually more passive. Using filter pads in their mouths, whale sharks swim through the ocean and allow water to pass through their mouths and gills. The filter pads act as kitchen sieves and trap microbes, crustaceans, algae, and plankton in their latticework of tubes. The water is then expelled through the gills, allowing the food to make its way back to the throat. Whale sharks will occasionally feed vertically, placing their head near the surface and bobbing up and down to catch the plankton near the top of the water.
Do Blue Whales and Whale Sharks Have Any Predators?
As the largest animal on earth and the largest extant fish species, respectively, blue whales and whale sharks have few natural predators. Still, they face environmental challenges that threaten their species as a whole.
Blue whales have only one real natural predator. Killer whales are the only animals large and smart enough to prey on blue whales, although they must attack baby blue whales as the adults are much too large. Aside from that, humans, boat strikes, and climate change are the real dangers to the blue whale.
Whale sharks are also only vulnerable when they are young. As babies, whale sharks are attacked and eaten by merlin, sharks, and other predatory fish. At birth, whale sharks are roughly two feet in length, but they grow quickly. Once they reach adulthood, however, humans and boat strikes are the real danger.
Where Do Blue Whales and Whale Sharks Live?
Blue whales and whale sharks can be found almost everywhere, but both migrate to follow food and mate.
Blue whales were once widespread across the earth’s oceans until whaling reduced numbers drastically. Now, they are found in all oceans except the arctic. Most species migrate between summer and winter feeding grounds, but there are some species that stay stagnant.
Whale sharks are found in two major populations but can be found anywhere the water stays above 70 degrees. There is an Indian Ocean population that has 75% of the entire species, but they also live in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
The Featured Image
Colby is a freelance writer from Charlotte, North Carolina. When he isn't distracted by his backyard birdfeeder, you can find him camping, exploring, and telling everyone around him about what he's recently learned. There's a whole world to learn about and Colby is content to spend his life learning as much as he can about it!
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Blue Whale vs. Whale Shark: Which One Is Bigger?
When it comes to size, there is a clear winner: blue whales are significantly larger than whale sharks. In fact, blue whales are the largest animal on the planet, ocean, or land. Even more, they are possibly the largest animals to have ever lived on the planet. Looking through the fossil record, it seems reasonable that blue whales are larger than any dinosaur, fish, mammal, or bird that has ever lived.
How big are blue whales? Blue whales reach sizes beyond 100 feet and weigh up to 219 tons. For humans, these numbers are rather difficult to quantify. In length, you could fit 17 men end to end across it with some room to spare. Using other imagery, they are as long as three school buses lined up end to end. The longest blue whale ever to be recorded clocked in at a bit more than 110 feet long. When it comes to weight, the behemoths weigh as much as 30 elephants or nearly double that of the Statue of Liberty.
Although blue whales are massive, whale sharks aren’t anything to scoff at either. Blue whales hold the record for being the largest animals ever, but whale sharks are the largest fish species to live. The largest whale sharks on record reached 61.7 feet and weighed over 41,000 pounds. They are the largest living nonmammalian vertebrate, and seeing one swim past is truly breathtaking. For comparison, they are about the size of a large school bus.
The Evolution of Blue Whales and Whale Sharks
Blue Whale underwater with sunlight streaming down from the surface above
Although they share the name ‘whale,’ the two are actually not related. Let’s talk about their classification, as well as their evolutionary history.
Blue whales are marine mammals that have likely been on the earth for 1.5 million years, although whales have been around for 50 million.
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yes
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Mammalogy
|
Is the blue whale the largest mammal that has ever lived?
|
yes_statement
|
the "blue" "whale" is the "largest" "mammal" that has ever "lived".. the "blue" "whale" holds the record for being the "largest" "mammal" that has ever "lived".
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https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent/ocean-life/blue-whale-model
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Blue Whale Model | American Museum of Natural History
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Blue Whale Model
In fact, the blue whale is the biggest animal ever known to have existed. It's even bigger than the enormous dinosaurs that lived over 65 million years ago.
This colossal species uses plates of baleen in its mouth to filter huge numbers of tiny prey, including small crustaceans called krill. Blue whales migrate long distances, traveling alone or in small groups called pods. They breed in warm southern waters during the winter and feed in polar seas during the spring and summer.
[Black and white photos of the Museum’s blue whale model.]
NARRATOR: What color is a blue whale? Is that a trick question? Or is the answer as easy as it sounds? Let’s start at the beginning...
[A hand pulls a copy of Moby Dick off a book shelf.]
NARRATOR: The first person to refer to a “blue whale” is Herman Melville in 1851.
[Close-up of the novel’s title page, showing the author’s name—Herman Melville—and the date of publication.]
[Archival footage of the sailor, now looking out a telescope. He sees whales spouting in the distance.]
NARRATOR: The ocean giant makes one other brief appearance in the novel, but this time, under a name sailors and scientists generally used at the time:
[Close-up of a page in Moby Dick. Text is highlighted reading “(Sulphur Bottom).”]
NARRATOR: …Sulphur-Bottom whale.
[Archival illustration of a whale in black and white.]
NARRATOR: So, is the blue whale blue?
[Blue tint appears on whale illustration.]
NARRATOR: Yellow-bellied?
[Blue tint disappears, and yellow tint appears on the underside of the illustrated whale.]
NARRATOR: The world’s largest animal was a cryptic character even to those who knew the sea best.
[Archival footage from the early 20th century shows just the back of a large whale, seen far out at sea.]
NARRATOR: And for more than a century, the Museum’s model whales have mirrored that mystery.
[Various archival images of the Museum’s whale models, as they appeared throughout the decades of the 20th century.]
[SHIMMERING MUSIC]
[Animated title with American Museum of Natural History logo. Text reads, “ICONS – What Color Is a Blue Whale?” and appears over color footage of the blue whale model in the modern-day Hall of Ocean Life.]
[Curator Melanie Stiassny speaks from the Museum collections. Shelves with numerous jars are in the background. An onscreen title identifies her as, “Melanie Stiassny, Curator, Milstein Family Hall of Ocean Life.”]
MELANIE STIASSNY (Herbert R. and Evelyn Axelrod Research Curator, Department of Ichthyology, Division of Vertebrate Zoology): We tend to think that all the action’s on land. You know, that’s where the daffodils are. That’s where the monkeys are.
[Flat oceanscape, with a single small sailboat floating on the horizon, far in the distance.]
STIASSNY: I mean, when we stand on land and we look out at the sea, you know, it’s just this flat blue thing.
[Dolphins swim past the camera. An enormous school of hundreds of fish circles.]
STIASSNY: But in fact, the open ocean is really the largest biome on our planet.
[Stiassny speaks from the collections.]
STIASSNY: So, you don’t come across blue whales very often.
[A blue whale spouts at the ocean’s surface.]
STIASSNY: And there’s still a tremendous amount that we don’t know about them.
NARRATOR: For many years, the blue whale was known as the sulphur-bottom whale
NARRATOR: But blue whales dive deep and swim fast—up to 30 miles an hour fast—faster than wind-powered ships could chase them.
[Animated sequence: A whaler throws a harpoon at the whale in front of the ship, but it falls far short of the whale. The whale flips its tail and dives deep into the ocean.]
NARRATOR: So, when Moby Dick was written, blues had largely escaped the harpoon. Even if whalers had managed to find their mark, without steam-powered winches, they could never have hauled a 100-ton blue whale carcass from the deep.
[Animated sequence: Men standing on a ship’s deck heave on a rope hanging from a pulley. As we peer over the side of the ship, something heavy crashes into the ocean and throws up a huge splash.]
NARRATOR: That all changed in the 1870s with Norwegian whaler Svend Foyn.
[Archival footage of two men on the prow of a ship.]
NARRATOR: Like Melville’s Captain Ahab, Captain Foyn was on the hunt for a near-mythic creature—in his case, not for revenge, but for profit.
[Archival footage of a whaling ship, two men screwing a pointed tip on a large harpoon, and a whaler manning a harpoon gun mounted on a ship.]
NARRATOR: He mounted an explosive harpoon gun on the bow of a steam-powered ship, and the blue whale had met its match.
[Archival footage of a harpoon shooting a blue whale. Ocean spray is thrown up all around and the scene is chaotic.]
[Archival image of a large wire frame sitting on the floor of a Museum gallery.]
NARRATOR: Only about 30 years later, the American Museum of Natural History constructed its first blue whale model.
[Various archival images of the model whale’s construction, and the finished model hanging in the gallery. It is large and chunky—more like a hoagie than a sleek whale.]
NARRATOR: The dimensions and features were based on a dead whale,
[Archival image of two men taking a cast of a dead whale’s mouth.]
NARRATOR: …hauled into a Newfoundland port by a whaling ship.
[Archival footage of a large whale pulled by its tail along a dock.]
[Quinn speaks in an interview.]
QUINN: Its pose was less than inspiring, in that it really appeared like a giant knockwurst.
[Archival image of the early model whale hanging in the Museum.]
QUINN: It was painted a battleship grey.
[Quinn speaks in an interview.]
QUINN: Not really reflecting the color of an actual, living blue whale.
NARRATOR: Contemporary critics were more complimentary, although during construction, visitors did ask why the Museum was building a submarine.
[Various headlines and articles from period newspapers and magazines. Highlighted text reads, “The Whale In the American Museum of Natural History—A life-like model of the Largest Living Mammal,” “PRINCE OF WHALES - …the splendid new model,” “76 FOOT WHALE AT THE MUSEUM – 66 Foot Dinosaur Will Retire To Second Place,” and “…questions as to why he is building a submarine.”]
[Archival footage of a man hosing down the carcass of a blue whale, distended on a dock.]
NARRATOR: By the time technology caught up with blues, the demand for baleen and whale oil as fuel was almost non-existent. But a demand for margarine, soap, pet food, and nitroglycerin kept the hunt profitable.
[A montage of images from vintage advertisements for margarine, soap, and pet food is followed by archival footage of a hand pressing down on a plunger and an explosion.]
[Vintage footage of a blue whale floundering next to the side of a whaling ship.]
NARRATOR: For those four products, blue whales were almost driven to the point of extinction. From an estimated 350,000 individuals in pre-whaling years, some 99% of the population was wiped out.
[Stiassny speaks from the collections.]
STIASSNY: It was really treating the ocean as a pantry. Here’s a place where we can get our oil. Here’s a place where we can get our meat. So, it really reflects a very different attitude to the oceans.
[Archival image of the Hall of Ocean Life under construction in the 1930s.]
NARRATOR: When the Museum’s Hall of Ocean Life opened in 1933,
[Archival map of the Museum’s floor plan. The room labeled “Ocean Life” shows an image of a man harpooning a whale.]
NARRATOR: …the early dioramas depicted animals that were seen as commodities—
[Archival image of various dioramas—a family of fur seals, a man diving for pearl oysters, and a painting of a whaling ship hunting a sperm whale.]
NARRATOR: …the fur seal, pearl oysters, the sperm whale. Many were expected to go extinct in the 20th century.
[Archival image of blue whale spouting.]
NARRATOR: And the blue whale was no exception.
[Stiassny speaks from the collections.]
STIASSNY: I think whales- I think whales occupy such an important place in our culture because we have hunted them, we have used them. We’ve knocked their populations right down. And yet, in many ways, they became the icon of conservation—Save the Whale.
[Archival images showing “Save the Whales” poster and protest.]
NARRATOR: By the 1960s, the tide of public opinion was turning.
[Page from International Whaling Commission report. Highlighted text reads, “10. Protection of the Blue Whale. Total protection of the blue whale in the North Atlantic was continued for a further five years.”]
NARRATOR: Blue whales had been granted protected status…
[Blueprints from the Museum’s renovation of the Hall of Ocean Life show a whale’s outline next to architectural features.]
NARRATOR: …and the Museum wanted to renovate the Hall of Ocean Life, with the world’s largest model of the world’s largest animal at its center. There was one problem…
[Quinn speaks in an interview.]
QUINN: Blue whales were difficult to study, difficult to see, and find.
[Flat open ocean.]
QUINN: Back then, they were very rare.
[View of the Earth from space, image of the Earth rising over the Moon’s surface, image of Buzz Aldrin on the Moon.]
STIASSNY: Amazingly, we’d actually walked on the moon before we’d seen a live blue whale underwater.
QUINN: …the nose and jaws were distorted. So, we had quite a job ahead of us.
[Various archival images of whale re-sculpting in process.]
NARRATOR: They’d have to taper the tail flukes, re-shape the flippers, adjust the eyes, add a belly button, anus, and even blowholes. And of course, there was the question of paint.
[Stiassny speaks from the collections.]
STIASSNY: We really had to redo things—like the color in life is so different from the color in death.
[Quinn indicates sections of a blue whale skin paint sample.]
QUINN: —a darker tone blue and pale patches. And also has a little bit of the yellow, which is where the sulphur-bottom whale name comes in.
[Archival images of the blue whale scale model in the Hall, surrounded by construction materials.]
NARRATOR: Finally, the Museum had reference material.
[A blue whale swims underwater.]
NARRATOR: Researchers had captured images of blues underwater. So, at last, this model could be truer to life.
[Quinn speaks in an interview.]
QUINN: When an artist goes about undertaking the job of painting a blue whale, there are lots of things to consider. Things that you take for granted. For instance, when an object is underwater, it doesn’t look wet.
[A series of archival images taken from a similar angle gives a sort of time lapse effect as construction lifts and materials move around the blue whale model in the Hall of Ocean Life.]
NARRATOR: Donning 25 gallons of paint, the whale now wore a new coat of color. It was science, presented with more than a dash of awe.
[Drone footage of blue whale cow and calf spouting at the ocean footage.]
STIASSNY: I think whales hold a very special place in our hearts, perhaps because they’re so big.
[Stiassny speaks from the collections.]
STIASSNY: We know they’re intelligent. We know they’re social. I think they really grasp people’s imaginations, not just as a kind of big animal,
[Drone footage shows a blue whale lunge feeding on a cloud of krill near the ocean’s surface.]
STIASSNY: …but an animal that really represents the wild nature still on our planet. We hope that that will inspire people to really think a little bit more about their impact on the oceans and how we can do something about it.
[Drone footage shows a blue whale cow and calf spouting from afar.]
NARRATOR: Since the international ban on commercial whaling in 1982, populations have made recoveries.
[Humpback whale leaps out of water and splashes back down.]
NARRATOR: Humpbacks have made a remarkable comeback.
[Humpback whale swimming underwater.]
NARRATOR: There are now an estimated 135,000 swimming the oceans.
[Blue whale cow and calf surface to spout and then dive into the ocean.]
NARRATOR: Blue whales are still considered endangered, numbering only about 5,000-15,000 worldwide. They are still incredibly mysterious, and their habitat is still in peril.
[A blue whale swims underwater.]
EARLE: The ocean is not infinite. It is not too big to fail. It is failing. The big question—how do we create a real awareness?
[Earle speaks in an interview, indicates the Museum around her with her hands.]
EARLE: This museum, the American Museum of Natural History and fellow institutions around the world—it’s our collective knowledge, our history.
[Footage of the blue whale model in today’s Hall of Ocean Life is surrounded by animated colors. The whale’s eye sparkles and a cartoon version “swims” out of the ceiling and into the ocean.]
EARLE: As a kid, I remember museum experiences that inspired me to want to go see the creatures that I could not see in my backyard, but I knew they existed.
[The animated whale swims up in front of our view. Its eye twinkles and that transitions to footage of two young children running into the Hall of Ocean Life with the blue whale visible in front.]
EARLE: I know that the kids who come through this institution have experiences like that. And years later, they will look back and say, “It’s when I stood under the great blue whale that I knew I had to go see one for myself.”
[Earle speaks in an interview.]
EARLE: I know of no faster way to make people aware…
[A series of time lapse photos overlaid on one another shows the paths of visitors as they walk around the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life, surrounding the whale and creating intricate patterns on the stairs and walkways.]
EARLE: …and create a feeling of humility and respect,
[Earle speaks in an interview.]
EARLE: …and to realize we’re a part of it, not apart from it. To put ourselves in perspective—that is so worth doing.
***END***
The Annotated Blue Whale Model
The Museum's iconic blue whale model, first constructed in the mid-1960s, was based on photographs of a female blue whale found dead in 1925 off the southern tip of South America. At the time, little was known about blue whales in their natural habitats.
Click on the + signs below to find out more about the Museum's blue whale model.
Gone to Pieces
This model replaced a 76-foot-long plaster model of a blue whale created in 1907 for what was then the Hall of the Biology of Mammals on the fourth floor. Some of the old model’s pieces were sold as memorabilia at auction in 1974. A woman who bid $530 for a glass eye said, “Once you look in the eye of a whale, you never forget it.”
Record Setter
On November 1968, the whale’s body was lifted up to the ceiling as two halves: the 66-foot-long front section and the 28-foot-long tail. The Hall of Ocean Life and Biology of Fishes opened on Wednesday, February 26, 1969, and the next Sunday, more than 35,000 people came to see the whale—setting a new attendance record for the Museum.
Source Material
When the Museum redesigned the Hall of Ocean Life in anticipation of its 100th anniversary in 1969, artist Richard Ellis received one of the biggest assignments: designing the new life-sized blue whale model. But the first photographs of living whales underwater weren’t taken until the mid-1970s. So Ellis had to rely on eyewitness descriptions— and extrapolate from photos or casts of whale corpses.
True to Life
The very last detail added to the model were 28 tiny hairs on the whale’s chin. To determine their placement, the preparators consulted the Discovery Reports, dispatches by a British Museum expedition on whaling in the Antarctic. But they forgot about the belly button. That wasn’t added until the hall was renovated in 2003 and became the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life.
Whoosh!
During the planning phase, Richard van Gelder, then chair of the Mammalogy Department, refused suggestions to depict the blue whale with its mouth open. He argued it would be scientifically inaccurate for a whale that was poised to dive— and also too tempting as a target for “potential basketball stars.”
Cutting Room Floor
Other scrapped plans? Depicting a beached whale, accompanied by a soundscape of scavenging birds and faux phosphorescent bacteria. Propping it atop a 3-foot-diameter pedestal on its belly. Surrounding it with artificial water and three killer whales in a walk-in habitat group. Floating a rubber model filled with helium (van Gelder thought it “too much like the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade.” )
Heavy Weight
The model ended up being 10 tons, including the weight of the polyurethane plastic, the fiberglass coating, and 600 pounds of paint. After x-raying the welded joints, engineers concluded the margin of safety built into the design would handle it.
By 2001, Museum artists working on the renovation of the 94-foot-long model had many more images and live footage of blue whales. They flattened the model's once overly-bulging eyes, corrected the blowholes, and tapered the tail. They also added a belly button–which visitors can find about four-fifths of the way down the model's body, a reminder of just one of the traits humans share with this majestic mammal.
At 21,000 pounds of foam and fiberglass, how does the model stay up? It's suspended by a single steel pipe, connected to structures hidden in both the model and the ceiling.
#WhaleWash
Each year, the blue whale model receives a thorough scrub. What does it take to clean this massive exhibit? Three days, an electric lift, an industrial vacuum cleaner, and strong arms! See for yourself in the video below.
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Blue Whale Model
In fact, the blue whale is the biggest animal ever known to have existed. It's even bigger than the enormous dinosaurs that lived over 65 million years ago.
This colossal species uses plates of baleen in its mouth to filter huge numbers of tiny prey, including small crustaceans called krill. Blue whales migrate long distances, traveling alone or in small groups called pods. They breed in warm southern waters during the winter and feed in polar seas during the spring and summer.
[Black and white photos of the Museum’s blue whale model.]
NARRATOR: What color is a blue whale? Is that a trick question? Or is the answer as easy as it sounds? Let’s start at the beginning...
[A hand pulls a copy of Moby Dick off a book shelf.]
NARRATOR: The first person to refer to a “blue whale” is Herman Melville in 1851.
[Close-up of the novel’s title page, showing the author’s name—Herman Melville—and the date of publication.]
[Archival footage of the sailor, now looking out a telescope. He sees whales spouting in the distance.]
NARRATOR: The ocean giant makes one other brief appearance in the novel, but this time, under a name sailors and scientists generally used at the time:
[Close-up of a page in Moby Dick. Text is highlighted reading “(Sulphur Bottom).” ]
NARRATOR: …Sulphur-Bottom whale.
[Archival illustration of a whale in black and white.]
NARRATOR: So, is the blue whale blue?
[Blue tint appears on whale illustration.]
NARRATOR: Yellow-bellied?
[Blue tint disappears, and yellow tint appears on the underside of the illustrated whale.]
NARRATOR: The world’s largest animal was a cryptic character even to those who knew the sea best.
[Archival footage from the early 20th century shows just the back of a large whale, seen far out at sea.]
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yes
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Mammalogy
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Is the blue whale the largest mammal that has ever lived?
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yes_statement
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the "blue" "whale" is the "largest" "mammal" that has ever "lived".. the "blue" "whale" holds the record for being the "largest" "mammal" that has ever "lived".
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https://a-z-animals.com/blog/discover-the-largest-blue-whale-ever-recorded/
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Discover The Largest Blue Whale Ever Recorded - AZ Animals
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Discover The Largest Blue Whale Ever Recorded
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Key Points
Blue Whales are bigger than any dinosaur to have ever lived.
The smallest blue whale – the Pygmy – is still one of the largest whales at an average of 79 feet.
Calves are usually around 23 feet long when they are born and weigh 6,000 pounds which is roughly the same weight as an African elephant.
The largest blue whale ever weighed 418,878 pounds.
Of all the animals in the world, both on the land and in the sea, there are none bigger than the blue whale. This giant cetacean dates back as early as 1.5 million years ago and has roamed the seas for centuries and are bigger than any dinosaur to have ever lived. They have an average length of 90 feet while weighing over 300,000 pounds with females being slightly larger than males.
But how big was the largest blue whale ever recorded? We’ll analyze the largest blue whales ever discovered and also dive into whether they are the largest species to ever live on Earth!
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The Background on Blue Whales
Blue whales are solitary animals and are usually alone or occasionally in pairs. They don’t form strong bonds other than mother and calf bonds. Females usually give birth every two or three years and carry their young for twelve months. Even blue whale calves are huge.
As big as an African elephant when born: Blue whale calves are usually around 23 feet long when they are born and weigh 6,000 pounds which is roughly the same weight as an African elephant.
Grow the size of a human every day: Calves gain around 200 pounds per day during their first year, drinking solely their mother’s milk for the first seven months, and usually leave their mother at around a year old.
These giants of the sea are found in every major ocean in the world apart from the Arctic ocean. Not a lot is known about their location throughout the year but it is believed that some, although not all of them, migrate to new feeding grounds during the summer and back to warmer waters during the winter. There is an area in the Gulf of California, also known as the Sea of Cortés, that is thought to be a place that is favored by blue whales for calving and nursing between December and March as there has been a number of sightings of females with calves there.
There are five subspecies of the blue whale – Northern, Southern (Antarctic), Northern Indian, Pygmy, found in the Southern Indian Ocean, and South Pacific. Blue whales in the southern hemisphere are generally larger than those in the northern hemisphere, and in all subspecies, the females are larger than the males. However, even the smallest – the Pygmy blue whale – is still one of the largest whales at an average of 79 feet.
Blue whales can also be found off of the Chilean Coast but due to their unique song types, geographic separation, and genetics, they may be a separate subspecies.
How Much Do Blue Whales Eat to Get So Big?
As their name suggests, blue whales have a blue-grey appearance that usually looks blue when they are in the water. Despite their length, their bodies are actually relatively slim and slender, although they have huge, broad heads. Blue whales are baleen whales which means that they don’t have teeth, instead, they have huge baleen plates that they use to filter krill (small crustaceans) through. The krill is caught on the baleen plates while the saltwater is sent back out, allowing them to swallow the krill. As they are so large they need to eat a lot of krill every day to survive and one blue whale can eat 40 million of them per day (around 8,000 pounds).
A single blue whale can eat more than 40 million krill per day!
Although blue whales can reach a top speed of 30mph in short bursts, they usually travel at 12mph, and when feeding they lunge into clouds of krill at high speed, then slow down to around 3mph as they are filtering the seawater back out. Because of their massive size, it takes a lot of energy for blue whales to slow down and speed up when feeding, so blue whales will often bypass a cloud of krill if it isn’t big enough to be worth their effort to feed on it.
The Largest Blue Whale Ever Recorded
Blue whales are record breakers when it comes to the size department. The largest blue whale on record weighed 418,878 pounds and the longest blue whale ever recorded was a female that was measured in South Georgia in the South Atlantic in 1909. This massive whale recorded a whopping length of 110 feet and 17 inches.
Although no weight was recorded for her, a smaller female from the South Atlantic (90 feet and 6 inches) was weighed in 1947 and tipped the scales at a colossal 418,878 pounds which was far heavier than the average for the species. Both of these are recorded in the Guinness World Records as the longest mammal and the heaviest animal respectively.
Is the Blue Whale the Largest Whale in the Ocean?
For more than a million years blue whales have been the largest animal in the world and that’s not about to change anytime soon. The nearest animal to them in length is the fin whale which averages around 85 feet, although none have ever gotten near the impressive 110 feet of the longest blue whale.
Scientists believe that blue whales are still increasing in size due to the abundance of krill in the Antarctic which means that they’re not short of food. Not only that, but marine mammals have gotten much bigger much quicker than land mammals because of the way that the water supports their weight. This is because of the way the water provides buoyancy, meaning it is much easier for an animal to grow bigger in the sea than it is on land.
With that in mind, it is entirely possible that there are blue whales that are even longer, larger, and heavier than the record breakers that we’ve mentioned, especially considering that it is more than one hundred years since the record was set. However, one of the most limiting factors in determining if larger blue whales exist is simply that they live in some of the deepest parts of the ocean and are often hundreds of miles away from coastlines, meaning they are often difficult to spot. Regardless of that, the blue whale’s position as the biggest animal in the world as well as the biggest whale ever looks secure for years to come.
Is the Blue Whale the Largest Species Ever?
They are believed to be the largest species that have ever lived! That’s an astonishing fact considering that animals ranging from prehistoric insects to sharks, and reptiles have ancient relatives that are significantly larger than today’s species. While the blue whale is the largest species to ever live, here are some past giants from the ocean that were also gigantic.
Megalodon: An ancient shark species that hunted whales. Some research points to Megalodon having a maximum weight of 227,510 lbs. More conservative estimates put Megalodon‘s maximum weight at around 50 tons (105,733 lbs). Megalodon went extinct before the blue whale evolved. The absence of these apex predators led to the gigantism found in the largest whales today.
Leedsichthys problematicus: Was a prehistoric fish that may have reached 54 feet in length!
Finally, an ancient ichthyosaur discovered in England in Somerset, England in 2016 may be the biggest competitor to the blue whale’s size title yet! The species was only recently described, but estimates place its size at up to 85 feet in length!
The Future of the Species
These huge whales have a life expectancy of around 90 years and scientists are able to estimate their age fairly accurately by counting the layers of wax in deceased whales “earplugs”. These earplugs build up new layers year by year and are known as a reliable method of aging blue whales. Not only that, but the earplugs can even give great insights into any pollutants that the whales have been exposed to or significant periods of stress that they have been through by the number of hormones present in each layer.
Sadly, despite their numbers once being in the hundreds of thousands, there are now only around 25,000 of these gentle giants left and they are now classed as an endangered species. Whaling originally significantly damaged their numbers, but despite it now being illegal to hunt blue whales, their numbers continue to fall. Blue whales don’t have any major natural predators in the wild, although groups of orcas have been known to kill calves and to chase and attempt to kill adults. Possibly the greatest danger that they face in the water at the moment is the threat of being struck by ships. Due to their size, blue whales often cannot get out of the way of ships quickly enough, on top of an increase in the speed of modern vessels in already busy shipping lanes.
The Featured Image
I have been writing professionally for several years with a focus on animals and wildlife. I love spending time in the outdoors and when not writing I can be found on the farm surrounded by horses, dogs, sheep, and pigs.
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Is the Blue Whale the Largest Whale in the Ocean?
For more than a million years blue whales have been the largest animal in the world and that’s not about to change anytime soon. The nearest animal to them in length is the fin whale which averages around 85 feet, although none have ever gotten near the impressive 110 feet of the longest blue whale.
Scientists believe that blue whales are still increasing in size due to the abundance of krill in the Antarctic which means that they’re not short of food. Not only that, but marine mammals have gotten much bigger much quicker than land mammals because of the way that the water supports their weight. This is because of the way the water provides buoyancy, meaning it is much easier for an animal to grow bigger in the sea than it is on land.
With that in mind, it is entirely possible that there are blue whales that are even longer, larger, and heavier than the record breakers that we’ve mentioned, especially considering that it is more than one hundred years since the record was set. However, one of the most limiting factors in determining if larger blue whales exist is simply that they live in some of the deepest parts of the ocean and are often hundreds of miles away from coastlines, meaning they are often difficult to spot. Regardless of that, the blue whale’s position as the biggest animal in the world as well as the biggest whale ever looks secure for years to come.
Is the Blue Whale the Largest Species Ever?
They are believed to be the largest species that have ever lived! That’s an astonishing fact considering that animals ranging from prehistoric insects to sharks, and reptiles have ancient relatives that are significantly larger than today’s species. While the blue whale is the largest species to ever live, here are some past giants from the ocean that were also gigantic.
Megalodon: An ancient shark species that hunted whales. Some research points to Megalodon having a maximum weight of 227,510 lbs.
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yes
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Mammalogy
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Is the blue whale the largest mammal that has ever lived?
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yes_statement
|
the "blue" "whale" is the "largest" "mammal" that has ever "lived".. the "blue" "whale" holds the record for being the "largest" "mammal" that has ever "lived".
|
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-03/ancient-whale-from-peru-may-be-most-massive-animal-ever-on-earth/102681896
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Could this massive whale from 40 million years ago have been the ...
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Move over, blue whale, there is a new contender for the heaviest animal in Earth's history.
Key points:
The Perucetus colossus lived about 38-40 million years ago during the Eocene epoch
It was about 20 metres long and weighed up to 340 tonnes
The biggest-known blue whale weighed around 190 tonnes
Scientists have described fossils of an early whale unearthed in Peru called Perucetus colossus that lived about 38-40 million years ago during the Eocene epoch.
It was a creature built like a manatee that may have been heavier than the blue whale, which has long been considered the heftiest animal on record.
Italian researchers who published their findings the scientific journal, Nature, estimated Perucetus, or "colossal Peruvian whale", was about 20 metres long and weighed up to 340 tonnes, a mass greater than any known animal, including the blue whale and the largest dinosaurs.
The Perucetus Colossus may have been heavier than the blue whale.(Reuters: Alberto Gennari)
"The main feature of this animal is certainly the extreme weight, which suggests that evolution can generate organisms that have characteristics that go beyond our imagination," University of Pisa palaeontologist Giovanni Bianucci said.
The minimum mass estimate for Perucetus was 85 tonnes, with an average estimate of 180 tonnes.
The biggest-known blue whale weighed around 190 tonnes, though it was longer than Perucetus at 33.5 metres.
A long-necked, four-legged herbivore known as Argentinosaurus, that lived about 95 million years ago in Argentina and was ranked in a study published in May as the most-massive dinosaur, was estimated to weigh about 76 tonnes.
Part of Perucetus's skeleton was excavated in a coastal desert of southern Peru — a region rich with whale fossils — with 13 vertebrae, four ribs and one hip bone unearthed.
Perucetus colossus was a marine mammal built somewhat like a manatee. (Reuters: Alberto Gennar)
The bones were extremely dense and compact.
This characteristic, called pachyosteosclerosis, is absent in living cetaceans — including whales, dolphins and porpoises — but present in sirenians, another marine mammal group that includes manatees and dugongs.
Its skeletal mass alone was between 5 and 8 tonnes, at least twice the weight of the blue whale.
"Its fat, bloated body may have been more like that of a sirenian than of any living whale," Mr Bianucci said
"Among sirenians, due to its giant size and probable similar lifestyle, it could recall Steller's sea cow, discovered in 1741 and exterminated by humans a few years later."
'Peaceful giant'
No cranial or tooth remains were found, making it difficult for researchers to understand its diet and lifestyle.
They suspect Perucetus lived like sirenians as an animal that fed near the bottom of shallow coastal waters, rather than an active predator.
In southern Peru, 13 vertebrae, four ribs and one hip bone were unearthed.(Reuters: Giovanni Bianucci)
Palaeontologist Olivier Lambert from the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels said the mammal would have moved slowly due to its size.
"Because of its heavy skeleton and, most likely, its very voluminous body, this animal was certainly a slow swimmer," he said.
"This appears to me, at this stage of our knowledge, as a kind of peaceful giant, a bit like a super-sized manatee.
"It must have been a very impressive animal, but maybe not so scary."
A history of gigantism
Mr Bianucci said it was unlikely Perucetus was a filter-feeder like today's baleen whales including the blue whale.
"Perhaps it was herbivorous like the sirenians, but this would be the only case among cetaceans [or] it fed on small molluscs and crustaceans in sandy bottoms like the gray whale. Or it could have been a scavenger on vertebrate carcasses, similar to some extant large-body sharks," he said.
Whales evolved over 50 million years ago from hoofed, land-dwelling mammals as big as a medium-sized dog and Perucetus still had vestigial back limbs to prove this.
Skeletal traits indicate Perucetus was related to Basilosaurus, another early whale that was similar in length but not as big an a predator, boasting a streamlined body, powerful jaws and large teeth.
Mr Bianucci said Perucetus indicates to them that "cetaceans developed gigantism at least twice".
"In relatively recent times, with the evolution of the large baleen whales, and some 40 million years ago, with the radiation of the Basilosaurus relatives of which Perucetus is the most extraordinary representative," he said.
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Move over, blue whale, there is a new contender for the heaviest animal in Earth's history.
Key points:
The Perucetus colossus lived about 38-40 million years ago during the Eocene epoch
It was about 20 metres long and weighed up to 340 tonnes
The biggest-known blue whale weighed around 190 tonnes
Scientists have described fossils of an early whale unearthed in Peru called Perucetus colossus that lived about 38-40 million years ago during the Eocene epoch.
It was a creature built like a manatee that may have been heavier than the blue whale, which has long been considered the heftiest animal on record.
Italian researchers who published their findings the scientific journal, Nature, estimated Perucetus, or "colossal Peruvian whale", was about 20 metres long and weighed up to 340 tonnes, a mass greater than any known animal, including the blue whale and the largest dinosaurs.
The Perucetus Colossus may have been heavier than the blue whale.(Reuters: Alberto Gennari)
"The main feature of this animal is certainly the extreme weight, which suggests that evolution can generate organisms that have characteristics that go beyond our imagination," University of Pisa palaeontologist Giovanni Bianucci said.
The minimum mass estimate for Perucetus was 85 tonnes, with an average estimate of 180 tonnes.
The biggest-known blue whale weighed around 190 tonnes, though it was longer than Perucetus at 33.5 metres.
A long-necked, four-legged herbivore known as Argentinosaurus, that lived about 95 million years ago in Argentina and was ranked in a study published in May as the most-massive dinosaur, was estimated to weigh about 76 tonnes.
Part of Perucetus's skeleton was excavated in a coastal desert of southern Peru — a region rich with whale fossils — with 13 vertebrae, four ribs and one hip bone unearthed.
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no
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Mammalogy
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Is the blue whale the largest mammal that has ever lived?
|
no_statement
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the "blue" "whale" is not the "largest" "mammal" that has ever "lived".. there is a "mammal" larger than the "blue" "whale" that has ever "lived".
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https://www.nationalgeographic.com/premium/article/ancient-whale-perucetus-colossus-largest-animal-ever
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Ancient whale may be largest animal ever
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The blue whale may no longer be the largest animal ever
The 37-million-year-old fossil bones were so large, experts thought they were boulders. They may have come from the heaviest animal that ever lived.
The ancient whale Perucetus colossus depicted in its coastal habitat.
Illustration by Alberto Gennari
ByRiley Black
Published August 2, 2023
• 7 min read
The blue whale has long held the title of largest animal of all time, an ocean giant reaching more than 100 feet in length and weighing more than 200 tons. But now, paleontologists have uncovered an immense cetacean that was shorter but possibly even heavier, a species that swam along the coast of ancient Peru more than 37 million years ago.
Named Perucetus colossus by University of Pisa paleontologist Giovanii Bianucci and colleagues, the prehistoric whale may have weighed more than 300 tons. The roughly 60-foot-long whale was described today in the journal Nature.
National University of San Marcos paleontologist and study co-author Mario Urbina found the partial skeleton 13 years ago among the rocks of the Ica Valley in southern Peru. The find was not immediately impressive, the bones so large that they looked more like boulders.
A body and skeletal reconstruction of Perucetus colossus with the recovered bones in red.
Illustration by Giovanni Bianucci
Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.
“At first, he had to convince the other members of the team that what he found was actually some fossil, because of the weird shape of it,” recounts Eli Amson, a co-author of the study and paleontologist at the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart in Germany. But when researchers looked at thin sections of fragments from the site, the strange pieces turned out to be bones, and field teams spent the next ten years freeing Perucetus from the rock.
All told, the fossils excavated from the Ica Valley include 13 vertebrae, four ribs, and part of the hip. The anatomy of the bones, as well as the time period when the whale was swimming off the coast of South America, indicate that it was a relative of Basilosaurus, a fully aquatic whale that had a long snout full of piercing and cutting teeth. By comparing the known bones of Perucetus with the more complete skeletons of both living and fossil whales, Amson and colleagues were able to come up with size estimates for the giant.
While not remarkably long, Perucetus must have been a very heavy whale. The recovered fossils show signs of extensive pachyosteosclerosis, a condition marked by thick, dense bones seen in manatees as well as other early whales. Such dense bones help marine mammals remain heavy enough to stay submerged without being too heavy to come back to the surface.
Perucetus colossus specimen being transported from the discovery site in southern Peru to the Natural History Museum in Lima.
Photograph by Giovanni Bianucci
Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.
“Too dense of a body means sinking to the bottom and having to consistently spend energy to move back up,” Amson says. To counter these heavy bones, marine mammals require enough buoyant tissues like muscles and fat to remain in a sweet spot where they can float easily in the water column without expending excess energy to swim up or down. “We used the ratio of skeletal tissue to all other tissues known in several living species of marine mammals to come up with overall body mass estimates for Perucetus,” Amson says, which place the whale somewhere between 93 tons and 370 tons.
If Perucetus was on the heavier end of these estimates, that would make it the largest known animal to ever live.
Piecing together the clues
More fossil material is needed to determine exactly how large the ancient whale was. “The specimen is missing the top half of the skeleton, and so we’re missing a complete picture of this species’ entire size, which is a core challenge for estimating its weight,” says Nicholas Pyenson, a whale researcher at the National Museum of Natural History, who was not involved in the new study.
The fact that Perucetus belonged to an extinct group of whales that had different body proportions from living whales also complicates the weight estimates. These ancient whales were likely lighter for their length than modern whales are, Pyenson says. “The upper estimates of 300 tons seem incredulous to me, and even the lower estimate of 60 to 80 tons is spectacularly big,” he adds.
Even if Perucetus doesn’t turn out to be more massive than the blue whale, the cetacean was still a giant for its time. “What is clear is that this was an enormous animal, and indeed looks like its body mass was in and around that of the blue whale despite doing things in a completely different way,” says whale researcher Travis Park of the Natural History Museum London, who was not involved in the new study.
Until now scientists thought that whales began to evolve giant sizes around five million years ago, when changes in ocean circulation allowed huge filter feeders to grow, feeding on copious amounts of krill and other planktonic food. But Perucetus belonged to a group of whales that were active predators, generally munching on larger prey like fish.
“The find shows that we underestimated the late Eocene spike in body size for the earliest whales,” Pyenson says, which raises the question of how Perucetus caught enough food to fuel its enormous body.
The diet of a giant
While scientists have learned a lot about this colossal cetacean, it’s still unclear how exactly Perucetus lived. Such a big body undoubtedly required huge quantities of food, but what the whale ate is as-yet-unknown. “The head of Perucetus is a complete mystery,” Amson says.
Still, the animal’s extreme body mass points to a few possible diets. Unlike related basilosaurids that chased prey through the oceans, Percetus does not appear to have been an agile swimmer, Amson says, so it would not have hunted fast-moving prey like fish. It’s also unlikely that the whale was eating plants, as there are no known herbivorous whales.
The large marine mammal may have been a bottom feeder, searching the shallows for clams, crustaceans, and other morsels among the sand. A skull with teeth would go a long way to resolving the question, Park notes, because “if Perucetus was feeding on a lot of benthic, hard-shelled prey, then I would expect there to be adaptations to the skull and teeth for coping with this.”
For now, experts can only guess what the animal was eating in the ancient seas. “My personal favorite idea, though it is only speculation, is that Perucetus was a scavenger,” Amson says, “feeding on the carcasses of other large animals.”
Future finds will likely add new context to what the unusual whale was doing and why it evolved such a thickened skeleton. If one of these unusual whales has turned up, there are likely others.
Even as new fossil finds have outlined some of the major moments in whale evolution, Pyenson says, “we really haven’t yet discovered all the many ways of being a whale.”
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The blue whale may no longer be the largest animal ever
The 37-million-year-old fossil bones were so large, experts thought they were boulders. They may have come from the heaviest animal that ever lived.
The ancient whale Perucetus colossus depicted in its coastal habitat.
Illustration by Alberto Gennari
ByRiley Black
Published August 2, 2023
• 7 min read
The blue whale has long held the title of largest animal of all time, an ocean giant reaching more than 100 feet in length and weighing more than 200 tons. But now, paleontologists have uncovered an immense cetacean that was shorter but possibly even heavier, a species that swam along the coast of ancient Peru more than 37 million years ago.
Named Perucetus colossus by University of Pisa paleontologist Giovanii Bianucci and colleagues, the prehistoric whale may have weighed more than 300 tons. The roughly 60-foot-long whale was described today in the journal Nature.
National University of San Marcos paleontologist and study co-author Mario Urbina found the partial skeleton 13 years ago among the rocks of the Ica Valley in southern Peru. The find was not immediately impressive, the bones so large that they looked more like boulders.
A body and skeletal reconstruction of Perucetus colossus with the recovered bones in red.
Illustration by Giovanni Bianucci
Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.
“At first, he had to convince the other members of the team that what he found was actually some fossil, because of the weird shape of it,” recounts Eli Amson, a co-author of the study and paleontologist at the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart in Germany. But when researchers looked at thin sections of fragments from the site, the strange pieces turned out to be bones, and field teams spent the next ten years freeing Perucetus from the rock.
All told, the fossils excavated from the Ica Valley include 13 vertebrae, four ribs, and part of the hip.
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no
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Mammalogy
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Is the blue whale the largest mammal that has ever lived?
|
no_statement
|
the "blue" "whale" is not the "largest" "mammal" that has ever "lived".. there is a "mammal" larger than the "blue" "whale" that has ever "lived".
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https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/heaviest-animal-ever-whale-peru-desert-rcna97912
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The heaviest animal ever? Ancient whale found in Peru desert
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“The estimated skeletal mass of P. colossus exceeds that of any known mammal or aquatic vertebrate,” the journal article said, adding that this makes it “a contender for the title of heaviest animal on record.”
“The body mass of this ancient cetacean may have been ... almost twice that of the largest blue whales and more than three times that estimated for Argentinosaurus, one of the largest dinosaurs ever found,” said the study’s lead author Giovanni Bianucci, from the University of Pisa in Italy, in a press release.
Paleontologist Mario Urbina poses for a photo next to the vertebrae of the newly found species during a presentation in Lima, Peru on Wednesday.Martin Mejia / AP
An international team of scientists spent years digging in the Ica desert along the southern coast of Peru, an area that was once underwater and is famed for its paleontological discoveries.
Eventually they uncovered and extracted 13 vertebrae, four ribs and a hip bone. Each vertebrae would have weighed more than 220 pounds.
This posed quite a challenge for the research team, who struggled not only to lift the bone fossils but to fully analyze them via the usual methods.
Instead they used pioneering structured light scanning to make a three-dimensional model of them and drilled inside.
This allowed them to estimate the whale's size and weight despite having an incomplete skeleton.
A single vertebra of Perucetus colossus is transported from the site of origin in the Ica desert in Ica Province, southern Peru in 2017.Giovanni Bianucci / AP file
Dating of volcanic ash at the site means the team could date the species to between 39.8 and 37.84 million years ago, in the Eocene epoch.
At that point other members of the cetacean family — which includes dolphins and whales — were still “abandoning the terrestrial lifestyle in favor of a marine one,” said Elisa Malinverno, a member of the research team.
The Perucetus colossus may have used its heavy skeleton as a ballast to roam around the ocean floor, feeding along the seabed like modern-day sea cows and some sharks, the study said.
“It’s just exciting to see such a giant animal that’s so different from anything we know,” said Hans Thewissen, a paleontologist at Northeast Ohio Medical University who had no role in the research, according to the Associated Press.
The Ica desert, one of the driest places on Earth, is also where scientists found the oldest known four-legged cetacean to reach the Pacific Ocean and the earliest ancestor of the modern baleen whales.
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“The estimated skeletal mass of P. colossus exceeds that of any known mammal or aquatic vertebrate,” the journal article said, adding that this makes it “a contender for the title of heaviest animal on record.”
“The body mass of this ancient cetacean may have been ... almost twice that of the largest blue whales and more than three times that estimated for Argentinosaurus, one of the largest dinosaurs ever found,” said the study’s lead author Giovanni Bianucci, from the University of Pisa in Italy, in a press release.
Paleontologist Mario Urbina poses for a photo next to the vertebrae of the newly found species during a presentation in Lima, Peru on Wednesday. Martin Mejia / AP
An international team of scientists spent years digging in the Ica desert along the southern coast of Peru, an area that was once underwater and is famed for its paleontological discoveries.
Eventually they uncovered and extracted 13 vertebrae, four ribs and a hip bone. Each vertebrae would have weighed more than 220 pounds.
This posed quite a challenge for the research team, who struggled not only to lift the bone fossils but to fully analyze them via the usual methods.
Instead they used pioneering structured light scanning to make a three-dimensional model of them and drilled inside.
This allowed them to estimate the whale's size and weight despite having an incomplete skeleton.
A single vertebra of Perucetus colossus is transported from the site of origin in the Ica desert in Ica Province, southern Peru in 2017.Giovanni Bianucci / AP file
Dating of volcanic ash at the site means the team could date the species to between 39.8 and 37.84 million years ago, in the Eocene epoch.
At that point other members of the cetacean family — which includes dolphins and whales — were still “abandoning the terrestrial lifestyle in favor of a marine one,” said Elisa Malinverno, a member of the research team.
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no
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Creationism
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Is the complexity of the human eye evidence of design?
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yes_statement
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the "complexity" of the "human" "eye" is "evidence" of "design".. the intricate structure of the "human" "eye" points to intelligent "design".
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https://richardesimmons3.com/the-mystery-of-the-human-eye/
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The Mystery of the Human Eye - Richard E. Simmons III
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The Mystery of the Human Eye
William Paley was an English philosopher who lived in the late 1700s and died in 1805. He believed that God was a master craftsman, similar to a person who assembles a watch or a telescope. To help people understand this, he presented to his friends the similarities of the human eye with a high-powered telescope. This is what he determined:
The eye was made for vision; the telescope was made for assisting it.
Each uses a sophisticated lens to achieve its function and purpose.
Both reflect and manipulate light.
Both are able to bring an object into proper focus. The muscles surrounding the soft lens of the eye move to bring objects into focus, while a telescope uses dials to move the lens.
With this in mind, he asked his friends if it would be reasonable to believe that the telescope was created by a craftsman while the eye was not. Should they not both be considered products of design?
I mention Paley’s illustration because natural selection has a difficult time accounting for the human eye. Darwin clearly recognized that understanding how the eye was formed posed a problem to his theory, as he wrote bluntly in a letter:
“The eye to this day gives me a cold shudder.”
The complexity of the eye causes problems for evolutionary theory because a biological system like the eye had to develop over millions of years, and would have never worked until fully developed.
The August 15, 2005, cover story of Time magazine was “Evolution Wars.” It was a fairly lengthy article on the theory of evolution versus the theory of intelligent design. It addressed this thorny issue of the human eye. It would be very difficult for the eye to be the product of accidental mutations. As Michael Behe, an American biochemist, asks, “How could a process of gradual improvements produce a complex organ that needs all its parts—pinhole, lens, light-sensitive surface—in order to work?” Behe says the eye closely resembles a camera, which is clearly a product that someone has designed.
The tiny retina of the eye has 130 million receptor cells, 124 million of which are rod-shaped and enable us to differentiate between light and darkness. Six million of these receptor cells are cone-shaped and can identify up to eight million variations of color. Could this really occur by a random, purposeless process?
“A partial eye is useless. Five percent of an eye would not give five percent vision—it would give none. What is more, even if all the physical components of an eye were in place, they would achieve nothing unless they were precisely ‘wired’ to an amazing complex of nerve cells in the brain. Small wonder that someone has suggested, ‘Examination of the eye is a cure for atheism.’”
Dr. Ming Wang is a world-renowned eye surgeon who earned his MD from Harvard and his Ph.D. in laser physics from MIT. He is one of the few LASIK surgeons in the world who holds a doctorate in laser physics. He has performed over fifty-five thousand cataract and LASIK procedures, including more than four thousand on fellow doctors.
Wang grew up in China and moved to the United States in 1982. In his years at Harvard and MIT, he was an atheist. However, over time as he considered the human brain and how it was assembled, he began to question his atheistic belief. He says:
“As a medical doctor and a scientist, I can firmly attest to the fact that it is impossible for natural selection to form the intricacies of the eye.”
Over time, he became a Christian because he could not find in science answers to those questions in life that he had been searching for. He said:
“The more I learned about science, the more—not less—evidence that I saw of God’s creation and design. For example, as I was becoming an ophthalmologist and learning about the inner workings of the eye, the amazing and logical arrangement of photoreceptors, ganglion cells, and neurons, I realized that there is absolutely no way that an intricate structure such as the human eye could ever evolve from a random compilation of cells. The very complexity of a human eye is, in fact, the most powerful evidence of the existence of God.”
This is a very powerful argument particularly since Darwin himself saw that the complexity of the eye had the potential to completely undermine his theory.
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The complexity of the eye causes problems for evolutionary theory because a biological system like the eye had to develop over millions of years, and would have never worked until fully developed.
The August 15, 2005, cover story of Time magazine was “Evolution Wars.” It was a fairly lengthy article on the theory of evolution versus the theory of intelligent design. It addressed this thorny issue of the human eye. It would be very difficult for the eye to be the product of accidental mutations. As Michael Behe, an American biochemist, asks, “How could a process of gradual improvements produce a complex organ that needs all its parts—pinhole, lens, light-sensitive surface—in order to work?” Behe says the eye closely resembles a camera, which is clearly a product that someone has designed.
The tiny retina of the eye has 130 million receptor cells, 124 million of which are rod-shaped and enable us to differentiate between light and darkness. Six million of these receptor cells are cone-shaped and can identify up to eight million variations of color. Could this really occur by a random, purposeless process?
“A partial eye is useless. Five percent of an eye would not give five percent vision—it would give none. What is more, even if all the physical components of an eye were in place, they would achieve nothing unless they were precisely ‘wired’ to an amazing complex of nerve cells in the brain. Small wonder that someone has suggested, ‘Examination of the eye is a cure for atheism.’ ”
Dr. Ming Wang is a world-renowned eye surgeon who earned his MD from Harvard and his Ph.D. in laser physics from MIT. He is one of the few LASIK surgeons in the world who holds a doctorate in laser physics. He has performed over fifty-five thousand cataract and LASIK procedures, including more than four thousand on fellow doctors.
Wang grew up in China and moved to the United States in 1982.
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yes
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Creationism
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Is the complexity of the human eye evidence of design?
|
yes_statement
|
the "complexity" of the "human" "eye" is "evidence" of "design".. the intricate structure of the "human" "eye" points to intelligent "design".
|
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/15-answers-to-creationist/
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15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense - Scientific American
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In Brief
Despite definitive legal cases that have established the unconstitutionality of teaching intelligent design or creationist ideology in science class, the theory of evolution remains consistently under attack.
Creationist arguments are notoriously errant or based on a misunderstanding of evolutionary science and evidence.
Hundreds of studies verify the facts of evolution, at both the microevolutionary and macroevolutionary scale—from the origin of new traits and new species to the underpinnings of the complexity we see in life and the statistical probability of such complexity arising.
When Charles Darwin introduced the theory of evolution through natural selection 158 years ago, the scientists of the day argued over it fiercely, but the massing evidence from paleontology, genetics, zoology, molecular biology and other fields gradually established evolution's truth beyond reasonable doubt. Today that battle has been won everywhere—except in the public imagination. Embarrassingly, in the 21st century, in the most scientifically advanced nation the world has ever known, creationists can still persuade politicians, judges and ordinary citizens that evolution is a flawed, poorly supported fantasy. They lobby for creationist ideas such as “intelligent design” to be taught as alternatives to evolution in science classrooms. When this article first went to press in 2002, the Ohio Board of Education was debating whether to mandate such a change. Prominent antievolutionists of the day, such as Philip E. Johnson, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of Darwin on Trial, admitted that they intended for intelligent-design theory to serve as a “wedge” for reopening science classrooms to discussions of God.
The good news is that in 2005 the landmark legal case Kitzmiller v. Dover in Harrisburg, Pa., set binding precedent that the teaching of intelligent design in U.S. public schools is unconstitutional because the idea is fundamentally religious, not scientific. The bad news is that in response, creationists have reinvented their movement and pressed on. When they lost the ability to claim that creationist ideas are valid science, they switched to arguing that they were only supporting “academic freedom.” Worse, to further obscure the religious roots of their resistance, they now push for “critical analysis” of climate change, cloning research and other scientific endeavors that they paint as culturally oppressive.
Consequently, besieged teachers and others are still likely to find themselves on the spot to defend evolution and refute creationism, by whatever name. Creationists' arguments are typically specious and based on misunderstandings of (or outright lies about) evolution. Nevertheless, even if their objections are flimsy, the number and diversity of the objections can put even well-informed people at a disadvantage. The following list recaps and rebuts some of the most common “scientific” arguments raised against evolution. It also directs readers to further sources for information and explains why creation science has no place in the classroom. These answers by themselves probably will not change the minds of those set against evolution. But they may help inform those who are genuinely open to argument, and they can aid anyone who wants to engage constructively in this important struggle for the scientific integrity of our civilization.
1. Evolution is only a theory. It is not a fact or a scientific law.
Many people learned in elementary school that a theory falls in the middle of a hierarchy of certainty—above a mere hypothesis but below a law. Scientists do not use the terms that way, however. According to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), a scientific theory is “a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world that can incorporate facts, laws, inferences, and tested hypotheses.” No amount of validation changes a theory into a law, which is a descriptive generalization about nature. So when scientists talk about the theory of evolution—or the atomic theory or the theory of relativity, for that matter—they are not expressing reservations about its truth.
In addition to the theory of evolution, meaning the idea of descent with modification, one may also speak of the fact of evolution. The NAS defines a fact as “an observation that has been repeatedly confirmed and for all practical purposes is accepted as ‘true.’” The fossil record and abundant other evidence testify that organisms have evolved through time. Although no one observed those transformations, the indirect evidence is clear, unambiguous and compelling.
All sciences frequently rely on indirect evidence. Physicists cannot see subatomic particles directly, for instance, so they verify their existence by watching for telltale tracks that the particles leave in cloud chambers. The absence of direct observation does not make physicists' conclusions less certain.
2. Natural selection is based on circular reasoning: the fittest are those who survive, and those who survive are deemed fittest.
“Survival of the fittest” is a conversational way to describe natural selection, but a more technical description speaks of differential rates of survival and reproduction. That is, rather than labeling species as more or less fit, one can describe how many offspring they are likely to leave under given circumstances. Drop a fast-breeding pair of small-beaked finches and a slower-breeding pair of large-beaked finches onto an island full of food seeds. Within a few generations the fast breeders may control more of the food resources. Yet if large beaks more easily crush seeds, the advantage may tip to the slow breeders. In pioneering studies of finches on the Galpagos Islands, Peter Grant and Rosemary Grant of Princeton University observed these kinds of population shifts in the wild.
The key is that adaptive fitness can be defined without reference to survival: large beaks are better adapted for crushing seeds, irrespective of whether that trait has survival value under the circumstances.
3. Evolution is unscientific because it is not testable or falsifiable. It makes claims about events that were not observed and can never be re-created.
This blanket dismissal of evolution ignores important distinctions that divide the field into at least two broad areas: microevolution and macroevolution. Microevolution looks at changes within species over time—changes that may be preludes to speciation, the origin of new species. Macroevolution studies how taxonomic groups above the level of species change. Its evidence draws frequently from the fossil record and DNA comparisons to reconstruct how various organisms may be related.
These days even most creationists acknowledge that microevolution has been upheld by tests in the laboratory (as in studies of cells, plants and fruit flies) and in the field (as in the Grants' studies of evolving beak shapes among Galpagos finches). Natural selection and other mechanisms—such as chromosomal changes, symbiosis and hybridization—can drive profound changes in populations over time.
The historical nature of macroevolutionary study involves inference from fossils and DNA rather than direct observation. Yet in the historical sciences (which include astronomy, geology and archaeology, as well as evolutionary biology), hypotheses can still be tested by checking whether they accord with physical evidence and whether they lead to verifiable predictions about future discoveries. For instance, evolution implies that between the earliest known ancestors of humans (roughly five million years old) and the appearance of anatomically modern humans (about 200,000 years ago), one should find a succession of hominin creatures with features progressively less apelike and more modern, which is indeed what the fossil record shows. But one should not—and does not—find modern human fossils embedded in strata from the Jurassic period (65 million years ago). Evolutionary biology routinely makes predictions far more refined and precise than this, and researchers test them constantly.
Evolution could be disproved in other ways, too. If we could document the spontaneous generation of just one complex life-form from inanimate matter, then at least a few creatures seen in the fossil record might have originated this way. If superintelligent aliens appeared and claimed credit for creating life on Earth (or even particular species), the purely evolutionary explanation would be cast in doubt. But no one has yet produced such evidence.
It should be noted that the idea of falsifiability as the defining characteristic of science originated with philosopher Karl Popper in the 1930s. More recent elaborations on his thinking have expanded the narrowest interpretation of his principle precisely because it would eliminate too many branches of clearly scientific endeavor.
4. Increasingly, scientists doubt the truth of evolution.
No evidence suggests that evolution is losing adherents. Pick up any issue of a peer-reviewed biological journal, and you will find articles that support and extend evolutionary studies or that embrace evolution as a fundamental concept.
Conversely, serious scientific publications disputing evolution are all but nonexistent. In the mid-1990s George W. Gilchrist, then at the University of Washington, surveyed thousands of journals in the primary literature, seeking articles on intelligent design or creation science. Among those hundreds of thousands of scientific reports, he found none. Surveys done independently by Barbara Forrest of Southeastern Louisiana University and Lawrence M. Krauss, now at Arizona State University, were similarly fruitless.
Creationists retort that a closed-minded scientific community rejects their evidence. Yet according to the editors of Nature, Science and other leading journals, few antievolution manuscripts are even submitted. Some antievolution authors have published papers in serious journals. Those papers, however, rarely attack evolution directly or advance creationist arguments; at best, they identify certain evolutionary problems as unsolved and difficult (which no one disputes). In short, creationists are not giving the scientific world good reason to take them seriously.
5. The disagreements among even evolutionary biologists show how little solid science supports evolution.
Evolutionary biologists passionately debate diverse topics: how speciation happens, the rates of evolutionary change, the ancestral relationships of birds and dinosaurs, whether Neandertals were a species apart from modern humans, and much more. These disputes are like those found in all other branches of science. Acceptance of evolution as a factual occurrence and a guiding principle is nonetheless universal in biology.
Unfortunately, dishonest creationists have shown a willingness to take scientists' comments out of context to exaggerate and distort the disagreements. Anyone acquainted with the works of paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould of Harvard University knows that in addition to co-authoring the punctuated-equilibrium model, Gould was one of the most eloquent defenders and articulators of evolution. (Punctuated equilibrium explains patterns in the fossil record by suggesting that most evolutionary changes occur within geologically brief intervals—which may nonetheless amount to hundreds of generations.) Yet creationists delight in dissecting out phrases from Gould's voluminous prose to make him sound as though he had doubted evolution, and they present punctuated equilibrium as though it allows new species to materialize overnight or birds to be born from reptile eggs.
When confronted with a quotation from a scientific authority that seems to question evolution, insist on seeing the statement in context. Almost invariably, the attack on evolution will prove illusory.
6. If humans descended from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?
This surprisingly common argument reflects several levels of ignorance about evolution. The first mistake is that evolution does not teach that humans descended from monkeys; it states that both have a common ancestor.
The deeper error is that this objection is tantamount to asking, “If children descended from adults, why are there still adults?” New species evolve by splintering off from established ones, when populations of organisms become isolated from the main branch of their family and acquire sufficient differences to remain forever distinct. The parent species may survive indefinitely thereafter, or it may become extinct.
7. Evolution cannot explain how life first appeared on Earth.
The origin of life remains very much a mystery, but biochemists have learned about how primitive nucleic acids, amino acids and other building blocks of life could have formed and organized themselves into self-replicating, self-sustaining units, laying the foundation for cellular biochemistry. Astrochemical analyses hint that quantities of these compounds might have originated in space and fallen to Earth in comets, a scenario that may solve the problem of how those constituents arose under the conditions that prevailed when our planet was young.
Creationists sometimes try to invalidate all of evolution by pointing to science's current inability to explain the origin of life. But even if life on Earth turned out to have a nonevolutionary origin (for instance, if aliens introduced the first cells billions of years ago), evolution since then would be robustly confirmed by countless microevolutionary and macroevolutionary studies.
8. Mathematically, it is inconceivable that anything as complex as a protein, let alone a living cell or a human, could spring up by chance.
Chance plays a part in evolution (for example, in the random mutations that can give rise to new traits), but evolution does not depend on chance to create organisms, proteins or other entities. Quite the opposite: natural selection, the principal known mechanism of evolution, harnesses nonrandom change by preserving “desirable” (adaptive) features and eliminating “undesirable” (nonadaptive) ones. As long as the forces of selection stay constant, natural selection can push evolution in one direction and produce sophisticated structures in surprisingly short times.
As an analogy, consider the 13-letter sequence “TOBEORNOTTOBE.” A million hypothetical monkeys, each typing out one phrase a second on a keyboard, could take as long as 78,800 years to find it among the 2613 sequences of that length. But in the 1980s Richard Hardison, then at Glendale College, wrote a computer program that generated phrases randomly while preserving the positions of individual letters that happened to be correctly placed (in effect, selecting for phrases more like Hamlet's). On average, the program re-created the phrase in just 336 iterations, less than 90 seconds. Even more amazing, it could reconstruct Shakespeare's entire play in just four and a half days.
9. The Second Law of Thermodynamics says that systems must become more disordered over time. Living cells therefore could not have evolved from inanimate chemicals, and multicellular life could not have evolved from protozoa.
This argument derives from a misunderstanding of the Second Law. If it were valid, mineral crystals and snowflakes would also be impossible, because they, too, are complex structures that form spontaneously from disordered parts.
The Second Law actually states that the total entropy of a closed system (one that no energy or matter leaves or enters) cannot decrease. Entropy is a physical concept often casually described as disorder, but it differs significantly from the conversational use of the word.
More important, however, the Second Law permits parts of a system to decrease in entropy as long as other parts experience an offsetting increase. Thus, our planet as a whole can grow more complex because the sun pours heat and light onto it, and the greater entropy associated with the sun's nuclear fusion more than rebalances the scales. Simple organisms can fuel their rise toward complexity by consuming other forms of life and nonliving materials.
10. Mutations are essential to evolution theory, but mutations can only eliminate traits. They cannot produce new features.
On the contrary, biology has catalogued many traits produced by point mutations (changes at precise positions in an organism's DNA)—bacterial resistance to antibiotics, for example.
Mutations that arise in the homeobox (Hox) family of development-regulating genes in animals can also have complex effects. Hox genes direct where legs, wings, antennae and body segments should grow. In fruit flies, for instance, the mutation called Antennapedia causes legs to sprout where antennae should grow. These abnormal limbs are not functional, but their existence demonstrates that genetic mistakes can produce complex structures, which natural selection can then test for possible uses.
Moreover, molecular biology has discovered mechanisms for genetic change that go beyond point mutations, and these expand the ways in which new traits can appear. Functional modules within genes can be spliced together in novel ways. Whole genes can be accidentally duplicated in an organism's DNA, and the duplicates are free to mutate into genes for new, complex features. Comparisons of the DNA from a wide variety of organisms indicate that this is how the globin family of blood proteins evolved over millions of years.
11. Natural selection might explain microevolution, but it cannot explain the origin of new species and higher orders of life.
Evolutionary biologists have written extensively about how natural selection could produce new species. For instance, in the model called allopatry, developed by Ernst Mayr of Harvard University, if a population of organisms were isolated from the rest of its species by geographical boundaries, it might be subjected to different selective pressures. Changes would accumulate in the isolated population. If those changes became so significant that the splinter group could not or routinely would not breed with the original stock, then the splinter group would be reproductively isolated and on its way toward becoming a new species.
Natural selection is the best studied of the evolutionary mechanisms, but biologists are open to other possibilities as well. Biologists are constantly assessing the potential of unusual genetic mechanisms for causing speciation or for producing complex features in organisms. Lynn Margulis of the University of Massachusetts Amherst and others have persuasively argued that some cellular organelles, such as the energy-generating mitochondria, evolved through the symbiotic merger of ancient organisms. Thus, science welcomes the possibility of evolution resulting from forces beyond natural selection. Yet those forces must be natural; they cannot be attributed to the actions of mysterious creative intelligences whose existence, in scientific terms, is unproved.
12. Nobody has ever seen a new species evolve.
Speciation is probably fairly rare and in many cases might take centuries. Furthermore, recognizing a new species during a formative stage can be difficult because biologists sometimes disagree about how best to define a species. The most widely used definition, Mayr's Biological Species Concept, recognizes a species as a distinct community of reproductively isolated populations—sets of organisms that normally do not or cannot breed outside their community. In practice, this standard can be difficult to apply to organisms isolated by distance or terrain or to plants (and, of course, fossils do not breed). Biologists therefore usually use organisms' physical and behavioral traits as clues to their species membership.
Nevertheless, the scientific literature does contain reports of apparent speciation events in plants, insects and worms. In most of these experiments, researchers subjected organisms to various types of selection—for anatomical differences, mating behaviors, habitat preferences and other traits—and found that they had created populations of organisms that did not breed with outsiders. For example, William R. Rice of the University of New Mexico and George W. Salt of the University of California, Davis, demonstrated that if they sorted a group of fruit flies by their preference for certain environments and bred those flies separately over 35 generations, the resulting flies would refuse to breed with those from a very different environment.
13. Evolutionists cannot point to any transitional fossils—creatures that are half reptile and half bird, for instance.
Actually, paleontologists know of many detailed examples of fossils intermediate in form between various taxonomic groups. One of the most famous fossils of all time is Archaeopteryx, which combines feathers and skeletal structures peculiar to birds with features of dinosaurs. A flock's worth of other feathered fossil species, some more avian and some less, has also been found. A sequence of fossils spans the evolution of modern horses from the tiny Eohippus. An amazing fossil creature from 375 million years ago named Tiktaalik embodies the predicted and long-sought transition of certain fishes to life on land. Whales had four-legged ancestors that walked on land, and creatures known as Ambulocetus and Rodhocetus helped to make that transition. Fossil seashells trace the evolution of various mollusks through millions of years. Perhaps 20 or more hominins (not all of them our ancestors) fill the gap between Lucy the australopithecine and modern humans.
Creationists, though, dismiss these fossil studies. They argue that Archaeopteryx is not a missing link between reptiles and birds—it is just an extinct bird with reptilian features. They want evolutionists to produce a weird, chimeric monster that cannot be classified as belonging to any known group. Even if a creationist does accept a fossil as transitional between two species, he or she may then insist on seeing other fossils intermediate between it and the first two. These frustrating requests can proceed ad infinitum and place an unreasonable burden on the always incomplete fossil record.
Nevertheless, evolutionists can cite further supportive evidence from molecular biology. All organisms share most of the same genes, but as evolution predicts, the structures of these genes and their products diverge among species, in keeping with their evolutionary relationships. Geneticists speak of the “molecular clock” that records the passage of time. These molecular data also show how various organisms are transitional within evolution.
14. Living things have fantastically intricate features—at the anatomical, cellular and molecular levels—that could not function if they were any less complex or sophisticated. The only prudent conclusion is that they are the products of intelligent design, not evolution.
This “argument from design” is the backbone of most recent attacks on evolution, but it is also one of the oldest. In 1802 theologian William Paley wrote that if one finds a pocket watch in a field, the most reasonable conclusion is that someone dropped it, not that natural forces created it there. By analogy, Paley argued, the complex structures of living things must be the handiwork of direct, divine invention. Darwin wrote On the Origin of Species as an answer to Paley: he explained how natural forces of selection, acting on inherited features, could gradually shape the evolution of ornate organic structures.
Generations of creationists have tried to counter Darwin by citing the example of the eye as a structure that could not have evolved. The eye's ability to provide vision depends on the perfect arrangement of its parts, these critics say. Natural selection could thus never favor the transitional forms needed during the eye's evolution—what good is half an eye? Anticipating this criticism, Darwin suggested that even “incomplete” eyes might confer benefits (such as helping creatures orient toward light) and thereby survive for further evolutionary refinement. Biology has vindicated Darwin: researchers have identified primitive eyes and light-sensing organs throughout the animal kingdom and have even tracked the evolutionary history of eyes through comparative genetics. (It now appears that in various families of organisms, eyes have evolved independently.)
Today's intelligent-design advocates are more sophisticated than their predecessors, but their arguments and goals are not fundamentally different. They criticize evolution by trying to demonstrate that it could not account for life as we know it and then insist that the only tenable alternative is that life was designed by an unidentified intelligence.
15. Recent discoveries prove that even at the microscopic level, life has a quality of complexity that could not have come about through evolution.
“Irreducible complexity” is the battle cry of Michael J. Behe of Lehigh University, author of Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution. As a household example of irreducible complexity, Behe chooses the mousetrap—a machine that could not function if any of its pieces were missing and whose pieces have no value except as parts of the whole. What is true of the mousetrap, he says, is even truer of the bacterial flagellum, a whiplike cellular organelle used for propulsion that operates like an outboard motor. The proteins that make up a flagellum are uncannily arranged into motor components, a universal joint and other structures like those that a human engineer might specify. The possibility that this intricate array could have arisen through evolutionary modification is virtually nil, Behe argues, and that bespeaks intelligent design. He makes similar points about the blood's clotting mechanism and other molecular systems.
Yet evolutionary biologists have answers to these objections. First, there exist flagellae with forms simpler than the one that Behe cites, so it is not necessary for all those components to be present for a flagellum to work. The sophisticated components of this flagellum all have precedents elsewhere in nature, as described by Kenneth R. Miller of Brown University and others. In fact, the entire flagellum assembly is extremely similar to an organelle that Yersinia pestis, the bubonic plague bacterium, uses to inject toxins into cells.
The key is that the flagellum's component structures, which Behe suggests have no value apart from their role in propulsion, can serve multiple functions that would have helped favor their evolution. The final evolution of the flagellum might then have involved only the novel recombination of sophisticated parts that initially evolved for other purposes. Similarly, the blood-clotting system seems to involve the modification and elaboration of proteins that were originally used in digestion, according to studies by Russell F. Doolittle of the University of California, San Diego. So some of the complexity that Behe calls proof of intelligent design is not irreducible at all.
Complexity of a different kind—“specified complexity”—is the cornerstone of the intelligent-design arguments of author William A. Dembski in his books The Design Inference and No Free Lunch. Essentially his argument is that living things are complex in a way that undirected, random processes could never produce. The only logical conclusion, Dembski asserts, in an echo of Paley 200 years ago, is that some superhuman intelligence created and shaped life.
Dembski's argument contains several holes. It is wrong to insinuate that the field of explanations consists only of random processes or designing intelligences. Researchers into nonlinear systems and cellular automata at the Santa Fe Institute and elsewhere have demonstrated that simple, undirected processes can yield extraordinarily complex patterns. Some of the complexity seen in organisms may therefore emerge through natural phenomena that we as yet barely understand. But that is far different from saying that the complexity could not have arisen naturally.
Misleading Semantics of Creationism
Only methodological naturalism can determine how all life came to be
“Creation science” is a contradiction in terms. A central tenet of modern science is methodological naturalism—it seeks to explain the universe purely in terms of observed or testable natural mechanisms. Thus, physics describes the atomic nucleus with specific concepts governing matter and energy, and it tests those descriptions experimentally. Physicists introduce new particles, such as quarks, to flesh out their theories only when data show that the previous descriptions cannot adequately explain observed phenomena. The new particles do not have arbitrary properties, moreover—their definitions are tightly constrained, because the new particles must fit within the existing framework of physics.
In contrast, intelligent-design theorists invoke shadowy entities that conveniently have whatever unconstrained abilities are needed to solve the mystery at hand. Rather than expanding scientific inquiry, such answers shut it down. (How does one disprove the existence of omnipotent intelligences?)
Intelligent design offers few answers. For instance, when and how did a designing intelligence intervene in life's history? By creating the first DNA? The first cell? The first human? Was every species designed, or just a few early ones? Proponents of intelligent-design theory frequently decline to be pinned down on these points. They do not even make real attempts to reconcile their disparate ideas about intelligent design. Instead they pursue argument by exclusion—that is, they belittle evolutionary explanations as far-fetched or incomplete and then imply that only design-based alternatives remain.
Logically, this is misleading: even if one naturalistic explanation is flawed, it does not mean that all are. Moreover, it does not make one intelligent-design theory more reasonable than another. Listeners are essentially left to fill in the blanks for themselves, and some will undoubtedly do so by substituting their religious beliefs for scientific ideas.
Time and again, science has shown that methodological naturalism can push back ignorance, finding increasingly detailed and informative answers to mysteries that once seemed impenetrable: the nature of light, the causes of disease, how the brain works. Evolution is doing the same with the riddle of how the living world took shape. Creationism, by any name, adds nothing of intellectual value to the effort. —J.R.
Other Resources for Defending Evolution
How to Debate a Creationist: 25 Creationists' Arguments and 25 Evolutionists' Answers. Michael Shermer. Skeptics Society, 1997. This well-researched refutation of creationist claims deals in more depth with many of the same scientific arguments raised here, as well as other philosophical problems.
Skeptic magazine routinely covers creation/evolution debates and is a solid, thoughtful source on the subject: www.skeptic.com
Defending Evolution in the Classroom: A Guide to the Creation/Evolution Controversy. Brian J. Alters and Sandra M. Alters. Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 2001. This up-to-date overview of the creation/evolution controversy explores the issues clearly and readably, with a full appreciation of the cultural and religious influences that create resistance to teaching evolution. It, too, uses a question-and-answer format that should be particularly valuable for teachers.
Science and Creationism: A View from the National Academy of Sciences. Second edition. National Academy Press, 1999. This concise booklet has the backing of the country's top scientific authorities. Although its goal of making a clear, brief statement necessarily limits the detail with which it can pursue its arguments, the publication serves as handy proof that the scientific establishment unwaveringly supports evolution. It is also available via www.nap.edu/catalog
The Triumph of Evolution and the Failure of Creationism. Niles Eldredge. W. H. Freeman and Company, 2000. The author, a leading contributor to evolution theory and a curator at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, offers a scathing critique of evolution's opponents.
Intelligent Design Creationism and Its Critics. Edited by Robert T. Pennock. Bradford Books/MIT Press, 2001. For anyone who wishes to understand the “intelligent design” controversy in detail, this book is a terrific one-volume summary of the scientific, philosophical and theological issues. Philip E. Johnson, Michael J. Behe and William A. Dembski make the case for intelligent design in their chapters and are rebutted by evolutionists, including Pennock, Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Dawkins.
Talk. Origins archive (www.talkorigins.org). This wonderfully thorough online resource compiles useful essays and commentaries that have appeared in Usenet discussions about creationism and evolution. It offers detailed discussions (some of which may be too sophisticated for casual readers) and bibliographies relating to virtually any objection to evolution that creationists might raise.
National Center for Science Education Web site (www.ncseweb.org). The center is the only national organization that specializes in defending the teaching of evolution against creationist attacks. Offering resources for combating misinformation and monitoring antievolution legislation, it is ideal for staying current with the ongoing public debate.
PBS Web site for evolution (www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution). Produced as a companion to the seven-part television series Evolution, this site is an enjoyable guide to evolutionary science. It features multimedia tools for teaching evolution. The accompanying book, Evolution, by Carl Zimmer (HarperCollins, 2001), is also useful for explaining evolution to doubters.
This article was originally published with the title "15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense" in Scientific American 287, 1, (July 2002)
Scientific American is part of Springer Nature, which owns or has commercial relations with thousands of scientific publications (many of them can be found at www.springernature.com/us). Scientific American maintains a strict policy of editorial independence in reporting developments in science to our readers.
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Generations of creationists have tried to counter Darwin by citing the example of the eye as a structure that could not have evolved. The eye's ability to provide vision depends on the perfect arrangement of its parts, these critics say. Natural selection could thus never favor the transitional forms needed during the eye's evolution—what good is half an eye? Anticipating this criticism, Darwin suggested that even “incomplete” eyes might confer benefits (such as helping creatures orient toward light) and thereby survive for further evolutionary refinement. Biology has vindicated Darwin: researchers have identified primitive eyes and light-sensing organs throughout the animal kingdom and have even tracked the evolutionary history of eyes through comparative genetics. (It now appears that in various families of organisms, eyes have evolved independently.)
Today's intelligent-design advocates are more sophisticated than their predecessors, but their arguments and goals are not fundamentally different. They criticize evolution by trying to demonstrate that it could not account for life as we know it and then insist that the only tenable alternative is that life was designed by an unidentified intelligence.
15. Recent discoveries prove that even at the microscopic level, life has a quality of complexity that could not have come about through evolution.
“Irreducible complexity” is the battle cry of Michael J. Behe of Lehigh University, author of Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution. As a household example of irreducible complexity, Behe chooses the mousetrap—a machine that could not function if any of its pieces were missing and whose pieces have no value except as parts of the whole. What is true of the mousetrap, he says, is even truer of the bacterial flagellum, a whiplike cellular organelle used for propulsion that operates like an outboard motor. The proteins that make up a flagellum are uncannily arranged into motor components, a universal joint and other structures like those that a human engineer might specify.
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no
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Creationism
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Is the complexity of the human eye evidence of design?
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yes_statement
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the "complexity" of the "human" "eye" is "evidence" of "design".. the intricate structure of the "human" "eye" points to intelligent "design".
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https://answersingenesis.org/intelligent-design/what-about-design-arguments-like-irreducible-complexity/
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Design Arguments for God & “Irreducible Complexity” | Answers in ...
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Chapter 29
Design Arguments for God & “Irreducible Complexity”
What Is the Design Argument?
The design argument says that design reveals a designer and the attributes
of the designer. In the same way that the intricate design of an aircraft
shows the skill and care of a human designer, so the intricate design of creation
shows the skill and care of the divine Designer.
There are many verses in the Bible that contain the design argument. The
most famous verse is Romans 1:20 which says, “For since the creation of the
world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things
that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without
excuse.” This verse teaches that God’s handiwork in creation is clear for everyone
to see and that no one has an excuse not to believe in a Creator.
Another example of the design argument can be found in Hebrews 3:4
where we read, “For every house is built by someone, but He who built all
things is God.” In the same way that a house requires intricate design to make it
suitable for humans to live in, so the earth requires intricate design to make it fit
for human habitation. In fact, Isaiah 45:18 says that God deliberately designed
the earth to be inhabited.
The Book of Job contains many verses on the wonder of creation, including
the design of fish, birds, animals, dinosaurs, rain, snow, clouds, and the stars.
The Book of Job speaks of how creation is so wonderfully designed that it is
beyond human comprehension (Job 9:10 and 37:5). The Psalms also give glory
to God for His creation. Psalm 139:14 speaks of the wonder of the design of the
human body and how God deserves our praise for His workmanship.
Christians have used the design argument in preaching and writing down
through the ages. The Apostle Paul used the design argument when he preached
to the Athenians in Acts 17. In 1692, the Puritan preacher Thomas Watson
used the following design argument in his writing:
If one should go into a far country and see stately edifices he would
never imagine that they could build themselves, but that there had
been an artificer to raise such goodly structures; so this great fabric of
the world could not create itself, it must have some builder or maker,
and that is God.1
In 1802, William Paley wrote a famous book called Natural Theology in
which he argued that in the same way that a mechanical watch must have a
human designer, so the natural world must have a divine Designer. In recent
times, creationists have written many books and articles on how creation is
wonderfully designed. Creationists have explained how there are specific hallmarks
of design, such as irreducible complexity, common design, over-design,
and added beauty, which defy evolution. The following sections give a brief
introduction to these arguments for design.
Irreducible Complexity
Irreducible complexity is an evidence for design that represents a key scientific
test for evolution. Irreducible complexity is the term applied to a structure
or mechanism that requires several precise parts to be assembled simultaneously
for there to be a useful function for that structure or mechanism. Irreducible
complexity cannot be produced by evolution because evolution is restricted to
step-by-step change where every change must give a survival advantage. Evolution
has no ability to bring about the many precise design changes that are
necessary to make the leap from one design concept to another. If there are
examples of irreducible complexity in nature, then the theory of evolution absolutely
breaks down.
Charles Darwin himself knew full well that irreducible complexity was a
key test for evolution. Even though Darwin did not use the term “irreducible
complexity,” he said:
If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which
could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight
modifications, my theory would absolutely break down. But I can find
out no such case.2
Creation scientists have shown that creation actually does contain many cases
of irreducible complexity. In microbiology there are many irreducible structures
like the living cell and bacterial flagellum and there are irreducible processes
like blood clotting.3 Other examples of irreducible complexity are the eye,4
human knee joint,5 and the upright stature of humans.6 Creationists have also
shown how design requires information to be specified and that information
must come from an intelligent source.7 It would be fascinating to know if
Charles Darwin would still believe his theory of evolution if he were here today
and able to see the many case studies of irreducible complexity!
The Irreducible Human Arched Foot
Human feet represent a clear example of irreducible complexity.8 Human
feet have a unique arch structure that is completely different from the flat feet of
apes. Arched feet are very important for the upright stature of humans because
they allow fine control of the position of the body over the feet. When standing
upright, a person can maintain balance by adjusting the relative pressures on the
heels and balls of the feet.
Human feet have an arch between the heel and the ball of the foot, as
shown in figure 1. The equivalent engineering arch is also shown in figure 1. The human foot has 26 precisely shaped bones, together with many ligaments,
tendons, and muscles. Several of the bones are wedge-shaped so that a strong
arch is formed. There are several parts in the foot that must be in place and
correctly designed before the foot can function properly. In other words, the
human foot cannot evolve step by step from a non-arched structure like a hand.
It is well known in engineering that an arched structure is an irreducible structure. An arch needs the right components, like a keystone and wedge-shaped blocks, to be in place to work, as shown in figure 1. Since the human foot has parts equivalent to a keystone and wedge-shaped blocks, the human foot must be an irreducible structure. Only an intelligent designer has the ability to think ahead and plan all the features needed to make an arch like the foot.
The arched structure of the human foot is a perfect design for giving humans upright mobility. In contrast to humans, apes have very flexible feet that are effectively a second pair of hands for gripping branches. In consequence, apes have very limited abilities for two-legged standing, walking, and running.
The Fossil Record Confirmes Irreducible Complexity
The fossil record confirms the biblical truth that organisms have not gradually evolved step by step. One of the reasons we know that humans have not evolved from a type of ape-like creature is that there has never been a fossil of a foot that is a transitional form between the flat ape foot and the human arched foot. All fossils of so-called ape-men have either fully ape feet or fully human feet, showing that they are either fully ape or fully human, respectively.
The absence of fossil evidence for intermediary stages between major transitions in organic design, indeed our inability, even in our imagination, to construct functional intermediates in many cases, has been a persistent and nagging problem for gradualistic accounts of evolution.9
The human foot is a clear example of a structure where evolutionists cannot imagine what intermediate forms would look like. The reason for this is that there are no physically plausible intermediate structures due to the need for the foot to be assembled simultaneously.
Common Design
Common design is another important evidence for design that is a challenge for evolution. Common design is where the same design solution is used in different situations by a common designer. Human designers often carry out common design because it represents good design practice. For example, a designer will select nuts and bolts as a method for joining parts together in different products such as bicycles, cars, and spacecraft because this is the best design solution in each case. In the case of the common design of nuts and bolts, this is not an evidence of evolution but evidence of the careful work of a designer.10
The eye is a good example of common design by the common Designer in creation. The eye is seen in very different types of creatures like mammals, birds, fish, amphibians, and reptiles. In each case, there are specialized light-sensitive cells, nerve pathways for conveying the signals to the brain, and a part of the brain for processing the signals. In addition, there is usually some form of lens for directing the light onto the light-sensing cells. When you consider the great differences between different classes of creatures, it is remarkable how the eye for each creature is so similar in design. The similarity in design is just what would be expected from the common Designer, because He would know it is the best solution in each case. Interestingly, the Bible tells us in Proverbs 20:12 that the Lord “made the seeing eye.”
Figure 2. The eye is an example of common design by the common Designer.
The similarity of the eye in different classes of creature is not what would be expected from evolution, because evolution has no ability to coordinate designs in different applications. The evolutionist has to believe that the eye evolved independently around 30 times.11 It takes a lot of faith to believe that the same basic layout of eye evolved independently so many times. Some evolutionists argue that a common ancestor would help explain why structures like the eye appear in different creatures. However, the eye is found in such diverse creatures and has such similar design that common ancestry is not a credible explanation for the common design of the eye, even within the evolutionary worldview.
There is also a remarkable pattern in the design of the face across the whole animal kingdom with the easily recognizable features of two eyes, a nose, and a mouth. Such a common pattern is just what would be expected from the Creator who wanted to create an ordered and beautiful creation. A recognizable face also helps people to enjoy the company of animals like dogs, cats, and horses.
The principle of common design shows that it is wrong for secular biology books to use commonality of features in organisms as an evidence for evolution (sometimes referred to as homology). At the very least, biology books should mention that common design can be seen as evidence for the Creator or evidence for evolution. But the most accurate statement is that common design is more an evidence for creation than evolution.
Over-design
Over-design is another hallmark of design and a big challenge to evolution. Over-design involves design features that are above and beyond what is needed for survival. Human designers often carry out over-design, especially in luxury products like expensive cars where the aim is to greatly exceed the basic requirements.12 Over-design should not be produced by evolution because, with evolution, every aspect of design must be capable of being explained in terms of what is needed to survive.
One area where we clearly see over-design in creation is in the design of the human being.13 Humans are over-designed with skills and creativity that are far beyond what is needed to survive. The survival abilities of apes include the ability to find food and water, climb trees, build a den, defend territory, find a mate, and reproduce. The fact that humans have abilities that are vastly beyond these basic survival tasks provides great evidence that humans have not evolved from an ape-like creature but have been specially created to be beings of great skill and intelligence.
Over-design of Man
Figure 3. Muscles used for facial expressions
One aspect of over-design in humans is the ability to make facial expressions. Humans have around 25 unique facial muscles, as shown in figure 3. These muscles are dedicated to making expressions like smiling, grinning, and frowning, as shown in figure 4. Such expressions convey emotions such as happiness, pleasure, concern, anger, worry, and surprise. Researchers have found that humans have the amazing ability to make up to 10,000 different facial expressions!14 Facial expressions are very important in human communication even though we are often unaware that we are making expressions and responding to expressions. Smiling is one of the first things a baby does in its first few weeks of life, and one of the first things a baby can recognize.
According to evolution, facial muscles and facial expressions came about because there was a survival advantage. But evolution cannot adequately explain what survival advantage comes from smiling or frowning. However, such expressions are just what would be expected since God has created humans to be emotional beings made in the image of God.
According to evolution, facial muscles and facial expressions came about because there was a survival advantage. But evolution cannot adequately explain what survival advantage comes from smiling or frowning. However, such expressions are just what would be expected since God has created humans to be emotional beings made in the image of God.
Figure 4. Examples of facial expressions in a young boy.
Skillful hands are another example of over-design in humans. According to evolution, human hands have evolved to perform survival tasks such as throwing spears, building dens, and making simple clothes. However, human hands are capable of so much more than these basic tasks. Humans have potential for immense skill in areas like playing music, carpentry, medicine, engineering, and craftwork. Evolution has no credible explanation for why humans are able to hold a pen and other instruments in a perfect tripod grip with thumb, index finger, and middle finger. In contrast, the dexterity of human hands is just what would be expected since man is made in the image of God as a creative being.
There are several other areas where over-design can be seen in human beings. For example, humans have the ability to think and communicate complex thoughts through intricate languages due to the specialized design of the throat, tongue, and brain. However, there is no credible reason why such ability was ever essential for survival. Also, humans have a uniquely fine skin that helps them enjoy the sense of touch. However, the ability to enjoy the sense of touch does not help survival. Perhaps the greatest example of over-design is in the human brain that is so much more powerful than is needed for a person to simply survive.
The over-design of man is just what would be expected since God had created humans to be creative beings, able to appreciate beauty, develop technology, create works of art, play sports, and be stewards of creation. As spiritual and creative beings, God had to equip humans with special skills and intelligence that are far beyond what is needed to survive. One of the reasons why humans are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14) is that they are over-designed.
Added Beauty
Added beauty is another powerful evidence for design. Human designers often add beauty solely for beauty’s sake in architecture and engineering in order to create pleasing aesthetics. An example of added beauty is the embellishments in classical architecture. The intricate patterns on pillars and walls in classical architecture represent compelling evidence for design because there is no physical purpose for the intricate design. Of course, beauty is subjective and cannot be quantified. However, there are real and clearly recognizable features that produce beauty, such as patterns, borders, embellishments, surface textures, colors, and variety. To produce intricate beauty requires not just creativity but also design information, and that design information has to come from somewhere.
Evolution cannot produce added beauty because, as with over-design, evolution
can only produce what is needed for survival. Many evolutionists realize
that beauty is a big problem for evolution. One leading evolutionist, Dr. John
Maynard Smith, said:
Figure 5. The peacock tail feather
No topic in evolutionary biology
has presented greater difficulties for
theorists [than beauty].15
Some of the clearest examples of
added beauty in creation are the brightly
colored feathers of birds like peacocks,
as shown in figure 5. There are several
intricate design features in the peacock
tail feather, such as the multi-layered segments
that reflect light to produce bright and iridescent colors. These segments
are so precisely designed and coordinated that amazing digital patterns are
produced. There are also subtle features like multiple borders and a lack of stem
in the eye pattern.
The peacock tail feather is a big problem for evolution because the only
function of the feather is to create a beautiful display. The feather does not
help the bird in any physical way. In fact, the feather makes flying harder and even makes the bird easier for predators to see. Evolutionists say that birds like
peacocks need display feathers to attract a mate, but that does not explain the
need for beauty. Most animals make very basic calls to attract a mate, showing
that intricate beauty is not required. The fact that peacocks display their tails to
attract mates is just what would be expected form the Creator who wanted the
beauty of peacocks to be visible to humans.
Darwin was well aware that there was beauty for beauty’s sake in creation.
He said:
A great number of male animals have been rendered beautiful for beauty’s sake.16
Since the beauty of bird feathers contradicted Darwin’s theory of evolution, he created another theory called the theory of sexual selection. However, that theory has been shown to be totally inadequate for giving a naturalistic explanation of the origin of beauty.17
There are many other areas of creation where we see added beauty such as
birdsong, flowers, tropical fish, and the human being. Even though we live in a
fallen world with death and decay, we still see glimpses of outstanding beauty
that point to the Creator. We can also look forward to heaven, which is the
perfection of beauty (Psalm 50).
The Effect of the Fall
Genesis 3 teaches that God cursed creation as a result of Adam’s sin and
rebellion. As a consequence, creation was changed very significantly, including
the design of plants and animals. Thorns and hard-to-control plants appeared,
and these made farming and gardening much more difficult. Evolutionists
argue that thorns evolved as a way of protecting plants. However, the fact that
many plants come with and without thorns, like blackberries, raspberries, and
palm trees, shows that thorns are not necessary for survival.
Some creatures became carnivores, and this introduced violence and
suffering into creation. Predators like cats and dogs were vegetarian before
the Fall but became meat-eaters after the Fall. Predators may have had new
design features for killing introduced at the time of the Fall, or they may have
developed features through natural selection (or a combination of both). In other cases, the designs may have been used for a different purpose, such as
vegetarianism.
There is no doubt that everything was beautiful in the Garden of Eden
because the Bible tells us that God made everything beautiful in its time (Ecclesiastes
3:11). The Curse that followed the Fall had the effect of tarnishing the beauty
of creation. Some plants and creatures became marred with sin and reflected an
“ugliness” where the predator-prey relationship meant many animals had to be
camouflaged, thus reducing the number of brightly colored creatures in creation.
Violence and suffering have also reduced the beauty of creation.
The negative effects of the Fall will not last forever. The Book of Isaiah
teaches that in heaven, predators will be changed back to being harmless and
pleasant creatures. Isaiah 11:16 says that predators like wolves, leopards, and
lions will live peacefully with gentle animals like lambs and goats. In heaven,
the full beauty of creation will be restored, because heaven is the perfection of
beauty (Psalm 50:2).
What Is the Intelligent Design Movement?
The Intelligent Design (ID) movement argues the case for intelligent design
without any reference to the identity of the Creator and without any reference
to the Bible. The ID movement is helpful in some ways because it publicizes
examples of design arguments like irreducible complexity and shows the weaknesses
of evolution. However, there are limitations to the ID movement.18
One limitation is that it does not give an explanation for the origin of
death and suffering in nature. This can be a problem because people always
want to know why a Designer would design some creatures to kill. When
people do not know the biblical origin of suffering, a result of man’s sin, they
may find it hard to believe there is a creator, or they may have an incorrect
view of the Creator. Only with the right biblical understanding of the Fall
can people understand that God is a loving Creator who cares deeply for His
creation, including mankind.
A second limitation of the ID movement is that it does not promote a
biblical worldview. Instead it attempts to be neutral, with no doctrinal agenda.
However, it is impossible to be completely neutral, and everyone has a worldview
that is ultimately biblical or non-biblical.
Conclusion
According to evolution, creation should contain designs that are inferior
to the designs of humans because of the limitations of step-by-step evolution
compared to intelligent design. However, the reality is clearly different; creation
contains vastly superior designs to human designs showing that God must exist.
Creation reveals the Designer who is powerful (Romans 1:20), caring (Matthew
6:30), and perfect in knowledge (Job 37:16). I have personally worked
with some of the best engineering designers in the world in America, Japan, and
Europe, but it is clear that all of them are limited in their knowledge. This is
why so many engineers today are keen to copy solutions from creation to make
better airplanes, materials, and other products in order to utilize the brilliant
designs that God has placed before us.
There has been a sad change of worldview in the majority of the scientific
community. In past ages, most scientists acknowledged God and gave glory to
God for His creation. That is no longer the case. However, there are still many
scientists who are prepared to face criticism and even demotion by giving glory
to the Creator. In addition, there are many believers today who have the joy of
knowing, personally, the one true Creator God.
It is not possible to scientifically prove the truth about origins, as science is
vastly limited in this area. Only God was there at the foundation of the world
(Job 38:4), and so we rely on the testimony of His written Word to find out
how the world was made. We also need faith to believe God’s Word. This is
why the Bible says, “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the
Word of God” (Hebrews 11:3).
Keep in mind that it is important to realize that the faith of the Christian is
not blind faith. God has left His fingerprints and hallmarks on His creation so
that His existence and attributes are clear for all to see. However, faith is important,
because without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:5). The
origins debate is ultimately about faith versus faith. The atheist has great faith
in chance, and the Christian has faith in a great God who has given us eternal
life through His Son, Jesus Christ.
An important limitation is that it takes the glory due Jesus Christ as the Creator (Hebrews 1:1–4; Colossians 1:13–18) and gives that glory to some vague idea of an intelligent creator that could fit in with Islam, Hinduism, deism, and many forms of theism.
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One of the reasons we know that humans have not evolved from a type of ape-like creature is that there has never been a fossil of a foot that is a transitional form between the flat ape foot and the human arched foot. All fossils of so-called ape-men have either fully ape feet or fully human feet, showing that they are either fully ape or fully human, respectively.
The absence of fossil evidence for intermediary stages between major transitions in organic design, indeed our inability, even in our imagination, to construct functional intermediates in many cases, has been a persistent and nagging problem for gradualistic accounts of evolution.9
The human foot is a clear example of a structure where evolutionists cannot imagine what intermediate forms would look like. The reason for this is that there are no physically plausible intermediate structures due to the need for the foot to be assembled simultaneously.
Common Design
Common design is another important evidence for design that is a challenge for evolution. Common design is where the same design solution is used in different situations by a common designer. Human designers often carry out common design because it represents good design practice. For example, a designer will select nuts and bolts as a method for joining parts together in different products such as bicycles, cars, and spacecraft because this is the best design solution in each case. In the case of the common design of nuts and bolts, this is not an evidence of evolution but evidence of the careful work of a designer.10
The eye is a good example of common design by the common Designer in creation. The eye is seen in very different types of creatures like mammals, birds, fish, amphibians, and reptiles. In each case, there are specialized light-sensitive cells, nerve pathways for conveying the signals to the brain, and a part of the brain for processing the signals. In addition, there is usually some form of lens for directing the light onto the light-sensing cells. When you consider the great differences between different classes of creatures, it is remarkable how the eye for each creature is so similar in design.
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yes
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Creationism
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Is the complexity of the human eye evidence of design?
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yes_statement
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the "complexity" of the "human" "eye" is "evidence" of "design".. the intricate structure of the "human" "eye" points to intelligent "design".
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https://evolution-outreach.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1007/s12052-009-0184-6
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The Argument from Design: A Guided Tour of William Paley's ...
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The Argument from Design: A Guided Tour of William Paley’s Natural Theology (1802)
Abstract
According to the classic “argument from design,” observations of complex functionality in nature can be taken to imply the action of a supernatural designer, just as the purposeful construction of human artifacts reveals the hand of the artificer. The argument from design has been in use for millennia, but it is most commonly associated with the nineteenth century English theologian William Paley and his 1802 treatise Natural Theology, or Evidence of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity, Collected from the Appearances of Nature. The book remains relevant more than 200 years after it was written, in large part because arguments very similar to Paley’s underlie current challenges to the teaching of evolution (indeed, his name arises with considerable frequency in associated discussions). This paper provides an accessible overview of the arguments presented by Paley in Natural Theology and considers them both in their own terms and in the context of contemporary issues.
I did not at that time [as a Cambridge theology student, 1827–1831] trouble myself about Paley’s premises; and taking these on trust, I was charmed and convinced by the long line of argumentation. (p. 59)
The old argument from design in nature, as given by Paley, which formerly seemed to me so conclusive, fails, now that the law of natural selection has been discovered. (p. 87)
Charles Darwin, Autobiography
Introduction
The “teleological argument,” better known as the “argument from design,” is the claim that the appearance of “design” in nature—such as the complexity, order, purposefulness, and functionality of living organisms—can only be explained by the existence of a “designer” (typically of the supernatural variety). In its most familiar manifestation, the argument from design involves drawing parallels between human-designed objects (e.g., telescopes, outboard motors) and biological counterparts with similar functional roles (e.g., eyes, bacterial flagella). The former are complex, often indivisibly so if they are to maintain their current function, clearly perform specific functions, and are known to have been the product of intentional design. The functional complexity of living organisms is far greater still, it is argued, and, therefore, must present even stronger evidence for the role of intelligent agency.
Though the basic premise of the teleological argument had been articulated by thinkers as far back as ancient Greece and Rome, today it is almost universally associated with the writings of one person: William Paley (Fig. 1). Paley was born in July 1743 in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England. He was educated at Christ’s College, Cambridge, and was ordained a deacon in 1766 and soon thereafter a priest in Cambridge. He was appointed Archdeacon of Carlisle Cathedral in 1782 and awarded a Doctor of Divinity degree at Cambridge in 1795. He authored several successful theological works, the best-known being Natural Theology, or Evidence of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity, Collected from the Appearances of Nature.
Natural Theology was published in 1802, only three years before Paley’s death on May 25, 1805. It was very successful, going through ten editions in the first four years alone (see Fyfe 2002). Despite being written in labyrinthine prose (by modern standards), Natural Theology remains an especially lucid exposition of the classic argument from design. This undoubtedly is one of the reasons that Paley’s name is most commonly linked with the design argument even though it was by no means original to him.Footnote 1
Darwin was influenced by Paley’s work, and some modern authors have cited it as an important example of pre-Darwinian “adaptationist” thinking (e.g., Dawkins 1986; Williams 1992; but see Gliboff 2000; McLaughlin 2008). Whatever its significance in the past, it is clear that Paley’s contribution continues to be of direct relevance in the current educational and political climate. Notably, Natural Theology was exhibit P-751 in the landmark 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover trial, which successfully challenged the constitutionality of promoting “intelligent design” in US public schools. Paley’s name appears more than 80 times in the trial testimony transcripts, and he is mentioned a further half a dozen times in Judge Jones’s decision.Footnote 2
In light of their continuing importance in current discourse, it is worth exploring the arguments presented in Paley’s classic treatise. This review is intended to provide a “guided tour” of Natural Theology,Footnote 3 giving the reader an abridged and annotated rendition of Paley’s widely referenced (but less often read) account of the argument from design.
Watches and Watchmakers
Natural Theology opens with the paragraph for which it is best (if not exclusively) known, in which Paley draws a contrast between a rock and a pocket watch:Footnote 4
In crossing a heath, suppose I pitched my foot against a stone, and were asked how the stone came to be there; I might possibly answer, that, for any thing I knew to the contrary, it had lain there for ever: nor would it perhaps be very easy to show the absurdity of this answer. But suppose I had found a watch upon the ground, and it should be inquired how the watch happened to be in that place; I should hardly think of the answer which I had before given, that, for any thing I knew, the watch might have always been there. Yet why should not this answer serve for the watch as well as for the stone? why is it not as admissible in the second case, as in the first? For this reason, and for no other, viz. that, when we come to inspect the watch, we perceive (what we could not discover in the stone) that its several parts are framed and put together for a purpose, e. g. that they are so formed and adjusted as to produce motion, and that motion so regulated as to point out the hour of the day; that, if the different parts had been differently shaped from what they are, of a different size from what they are, or placed after any other manner, or in any other order, than that in which they are placed, either no motion at all would have been carried on in the machine, or none which would have answered the use that is now served by it. (p.1–2)
Thus, in the very first passage of a book written more than two centuries ago, Paley encapsulates the core components of the argument from design—an argument that has been revived in much the same form by proponents of “intelligent design.” Specifically, Paley points out that the watch exhibits an irreducibly complex organization that was obviously constructed to perform a specific function. Remove or rearrange any of its intricate inner workings, and the watch becomes barely more effective at keeping time than the rock formerly dismissed with a kick.Footnote 5 From this, Paley concludes that
...the inference, we think, is inevitable, that the watch must have had a maker: that there must have existed, at some time, and at some place or other, an artificer or artificers who formed it for the purpose which we find it actually to answer; who comprehended its construction, and designed its use. (p.3)
Furthermore, like modern proponents of the argument from design, Paley argues that one need not know any details of the designer’s identity or methods to conclude that an intelligent agent was involved:
Nor would it, I apprehend, weaken the conclusion, that we had never seen a watch made; that we had never known an artist capable of making one; that we were altogether incapable of executing such a piece of workmanship ourselves, or of understanding in what manner it was performed; all this being no more than what is true of some exquisite remains of ancient art, of some lost arts, and, to the generality of mankind, of the more curious productions of modern manufacture. (p.3–4)
Today’s neo-Paleyans must also concur with Paley that the watch’s delicate functionality could not be the product of chance, inherent “principles of order,” or laws of matter, nor merely an illusion of design. For Paley, this conclusion supersedes all other considerations and renders additional details largely superfluous. As he wrote,
Neither...would our observer be driven out of his conclusion, or from his confidence in its truth, by being told that he knew nothing at all about the matter. He knows enough for his argument: he knows the utility of the end: he knows the subserviency and adaptation of the means to the end. These points being known, his ignorance of other points, his doubts concerning other points, affect not the certainty of his reasoning. The consciousness of knowing little, need not beget a distrust of that which he does know.Footnote 6 (p.7)
However, given their aggressive resistance to the notion of suboptimality or nonfunction of biological structures,Footnote 7 it appears that many modern design proponents disagree with Paley’s subsequent assertions that neither imperfections nor ambiguous—or even nonexistent—functions refute the thesis of design for the origin of complex, (mostly) functional objects or organs. In this sense, Paley could be said to adhere more closely to the analogy with human artifacts than do many of his present-day counterparts:
Neither, secondly, would it invalidate our conclusion, that the watch sometimes went wrong, or that it seldom went exactly right. The purpose of the machinery, the design, and the designer, might be evident, and in the case supposed would be evident, in whatever way we accounted for the irregularity of the movement, or whether we could account for it or not. It is not necessary that a machine be perfect, in order to show with what design it was made: still less necessary, where the only question is, whether it were made with any design at all. (p.4–5)
Nor, thirdly, would it bring any uncertainty into the argument, if there were a few parts of the watch, concerning which we could not discover, or had not yet discovered, in what manner they conduced to the general effect; or even some parts, concerning which we could not ascertain, whether they conduced to that effect in any manner whatever. For...if by the loss, or disorder, or decay of the parts in question, the movement of the watch were found in fact to be stopped, or disturbed, or retarded, no doubt would remain in our minds as to the utility or intention of these parts, although we should be unable to investigate the manner according to which, or the connexion by which, the ultimate effect depended upon their action or assistance; and the more complex is the machine, the more likely is this obscurity to arise. Then, as to the second thing supposed, namely, that there were parts which might be spared, without prejudice to the movement of the watch, and that we had proved this by experiment,—these superfluous parts, even if we were completely assured that they were such, would not vacate the reasoning which we had instituted concerning other parts. The indication of contrivance remained, with respect to them, nearly as it was before. (p.5–6)
Continuing with the analogy of the watch, Paley next argues that one could not explain away the evidence of design even if the watch in hand had, through some exceptional mechanics, been produced by the self-replication of a parental watch. It matters not, according to Paley, whether any particular entity had been born of similar entities, as this accounts only for its existence and not its complex functional characteristics. Indeed, discovering the watch’s capacity to reproduce would only increase an observer’s admiration for its remarkable complexity:
No answer is given to this question, by telling us that a preceding watch produced it. There cannot be design without a designer; contrivance without a contriver; order without choice; arrangement, without any thing capable of arranging; subserviency and relation to a purpose, without that which could intend a purpose; means suitable to an end, and executing their office, in accomplishing that end, without the end ever having been contemplated, or the means accommodated to it. Arrangement, disposition of parts, subserviency of means to an end, relation of instruments to a use, imply the presence of intelligence and mind. No one, therefore, can rationally believe, that the insensible, inanimate watch, from which the watch before us issued, was the proper cause of the mechanism we so much admire in it;—could be truly said to have constructed the instrument, disposed its parts, assigned their office, determined their order, action, and mutual dependency, combined their several motions into one result, and that also a result connected with the utilities of other beings. All these properties, therefore, are as much unaccounted for, as they were before. (p.11–12)
Thus, Paley argues, no matter how many generations of watches beget watches (or, by obvious implication, organisms produce offspring or cells generate daughter cells), the specific, irreducible, and purposeful arrangement of watches’ inner workings can only be attributed to the action of intelligent agency.
The Cosmic Optician
Having established the connection between watches and watchmakers, Paley begins his third chapter by arguing that the principle applies equally to living organisms and their components—or indeed, more so, given that their degree of adaptive complexity is vastly greater. As he might have argued, human hands more thoroughly evince design than anything crafted by them.
As did many of his predecessorsFootnote 8 (and followers), Paley considered eyes to provide a particularly illuminating exemplar of organic design: “there is precisely the same proof that the eye was made for vision, as there is that the telescope was made for assisting it” (p. 18). Paley noted that telescopes and eyes rely on similar optical principles but that in fact vertebrate eyes are much more effective by virtue of their ability to adjust to different distances and brightness, in their well-developed protective features including eyelids and nictitating membranes, and by their capacity to correct for spherical aberration. In fact, he pointed out, telescope designers solved the problem of aberration by adopting features observed in biological lenses. In the absence of a natural explanation for their occurrence, eyes provided one of the best-known cases in support of the design argument. Darwin exposed the fallacy of this conclusion, and the efforts of countless scientists since then have resolved in increasingly fine detail how the various components of eyes are likely to have evolved.Footnote 9
In considering the eyes of different types of animals, Paley noted two critical facts: (1) that eyes differ according to the environment in which they are used to see and (2) that despite these differences, all vertebrate eyes are constructed according to the same basic physical plan. Eyes specialized for sight underwater, on land, or in the dark are not fundamentally different from each other; rather, they are modifications of a general theme: “Thus, in comparing the eyes of different kinds of animals, we see, in their resemblances and distinctions, one general plan laid down, and that plan varied with the varying exigencies to which it is to be applied” (p. 31). Today, this similarity amidst diversity is explained by the fact that all vertebrates share a common ancestor that was possessed of eyes and that specializations to different lifestyles have involved descent with modification of this ancestral organ.
The fact that all eyes have evolved through the modification of prior form and the cooption of preexisting components also explains some otherwise puzzling structural complications (not to mention features that are downright maladaptive; see Novella 2008 for several examples). However, through his teleological lens, Paley viewed complexities as further evidence of good design, as with his example of muscles in the eyes of cassowaries:
In the configuration of the muscle which, though placed behind the eye, draws the nictitating membrane over the eye, there is...a marvellous mechanism....The muscle is passed through a loop formed by another muscle: and is there inflected, as if it were round a pulley. This is a peculiarity; and observe the advantage of it. A single muscle with a straight tendon, which is the common muscular form, would have been sufficient, if it had had power to draw far enough. But the contraction, necessary to draw the membrane over the whole eye, required a longer muscle than could lie straight at the bottom of the eye. Therefore, in order to have a greater length in a less compass, the cord of the main muscle makes an angle. This, so far, answers the end; but, still further, it makes an angle, not round a fixed pivot, but round a loop formed by another muscle; which second muscle, whenever it contracts, of course twitches the first muscle at the point of inflection, and thereby assists the action designed by both. (p.37–38; italics in original)
In mammals, the recurrent laryngeal nerve provides a connection between the brain and the larynx, though not a direct one. Instead of taking a direct route, it passes down into the chest, circles under the aorta, and ascends back up to the neck (in giraffes, this nerve is more than 2 meters long; Harrison 1995). Similarly, the mammalian vas deferens connects the testes to the urethra, but not before passing into the pelvic cavity, looping around the urinary bladder and then descending back to complete its circuitous path. Meanwhile, the urethra itself passes directly through the prostate gland, an arrangement that readily engenders urinary difficulties if the prostate becomes swollen. It is only with great effort that arrangements such as these might be characterized as optimizations rather than as simple quirks of evolutionary historyFootnote 10 (for additional examples, see Williams 1997; Shubin 2008; Coyne 2009).
But why bother with eyes at all? If the designer is omnipotent, why does the detection of visual information require such a complex arrangement of lenses, receptors, nerves, muscles, and neurons? In Paley’s words,
Why make the difficulty in order to surmount it? If to perceive objects by some other mode than that of touch, or objects which lay out of the reach of that sense, were the thing proposed; could not a simple volition of the Creator have communicated the capacity? Why resort to contrivance, where power is omnipotent? Contrivance, by its very definition and nature, is the refuge of imperfection. To have recourse to expedients, implies difficulty, impediment, restraint, defect of power. (p.39)
Thus answers Paley his own rhetorical queries:
...beside reasons of which probably we are ignorant, one answer is this: It is only by the display of contrivance, that the existence, the agency, the wisdom of the Deity, could be testified to his rational creatures. This is the scale by which we ascend to all the knowledge of our Creator which we possess, so far as it depends upon the phenomena, or the works of nature. Take away this, and you take away from us every subject of observation, and ground of reasoning; I mean as our rational faculties are formed at present. Whatever is done, God could have done without the intervention of instruments or means: but it is in the construction of instruments, in the choice and adaptation of means, that a creative intelligence is seen. It is this which constitutes the order and beauty of the universe. God, therefore, has been pleased to prescribe limits to his own power, and to work his end within those limits. (p.40)
According to Paley, the exquisite function of eyes bespeaks the great power of a designer, but the very decision to create eyes reflects an intentional limitation of this power so that humans might understand how eyes came to be. This logic may strike the modern reader as rather tortuous, but it serves to illustrate a very important point: that any explanation for complex organs must account not only for their adaptive characteristics but also their imperfections. Today, this duality can be accounted for by the countervailing influences of adaptive modification and the constraints of genetics, anatomy, and history, but for Paley, the intent of a designer provided the only conceivable answer. As noted, Paley did not consider imperfections to challenge the conclusion that design indicates the work of a designer. It is only if one wishes to defend the infallibility of the designer that one must assume all features of an object to be functional, and optimally so (see pp.56–57). Paley considered nonfunctional aspects of organisms to be “extremely rare,” and as is clear from later chapters, he viewed most aspects of the world to be optimally designed, but he was careful not to base his argument for the existence of a designer on these secondary considerations. Again, this represents something of a more sophisticated application of the argument from design than is often encountered in contemporary discourse.
Not a Chance
One of the most obstinate misconceptions about evolutionary theory is that it hypothesizes that eyes and other complex organs arise “by chance.” Even under the most charitable assessment, such a view of adaptive evolution must be considered deeply misguided. Whereas genetic mutation is both integral to the process and indeed is random with respect to its effects, natural selection is, by definition, the nonrandom survival and reproduction of individuals. Variation is generated at random, but whether or not it is preserved depends on its effects on survival and reproduction within a given environmentFootnote 11 (for reviews, see Gregory 2008, 2009). No serious evolutionary biologist of the past 150 years has suggested that the emergence of complex organs is merely the result of chance.
Writing as he did before Darwin and Wallace proposed the theory of natural selection, it was not possible for Paley to make this error (modern neo-Paleyans, by contrast, do so with remarkable proficiency). In the early 1800s, chance was not the only suggested alternative to conscious design (McLaughlin 2008), but Paley viewed its refutation as an important part of his argument. Paley (and Darwin) understood that chance plays a role in nature, but that it is incapable of producing adaptive complexity:
What does chance ever do for us? In the human body, for instance, chance, i.e. the operation of causes without design, may produce a wen, a wart, a mole, a pimple, but never an eye. Amongst inanimate substances, a clod, a pebble, a liquid drop might be; but never was a watch, a telescope, an organized body of any kind, answering a valuable purpose by a complicated mechanism, the effect of chance. (p.63)
Modern evolutionary biologists do not part company with Paley on the claim that complex organs must arise through a mechanism other than pure chance. The disagreement is only with his subsequent assertion, that “in no assignable instance hath such a thing existed without intention somewhere” (p.63).
Paley takes his argument against the role of chance a step farther, in the process raising—and summarily rejecting—a possible explanation that exhibits shades of the principle of natural selection. However, his description is of an ancient version of the idea that, as Paley rightly notes, is unworkable in practice.Footnote 12
There is another answer which has the same effect as the resolving of things into chance; which answer would persuade us to believe, that the eye, the animal to which it belongs, every other animal, every plant, indeed every organized body which we see, are only so many out of the possible varieties and combinations of being, which the lapse of infinite ages has brought into existence; that the present world is the relict of that variety: millions of other bodily forms and other species having perished, being by the defect of their constitution incapable of preservation, or of continuance by generation. Now there is no foundation whatever for this conjecture in any thing which we observe in the works of nature; no such experiments are going on at present: no such energy operates, as that which is here supposed, and which should be constantly pushing into existence new varieties of beings. Nor are there any appearances to support an opinion, that every possible combination of vegetable or animal structure has formerly been tried. Multitudes of conformations, both of vegetables and animals, may be conceived capable of existence and succession, which yet do not exist. Perhaps almost as many forms of plants might have been found in the fields, as figures of plants can be delineated upon paper. A countless variety of animals might have existed, which do not exist. Upon the supposition here stated, we should see unicorns and mermaids, sylphs and centaurs, the fancies of painters, and the fables of poets, realized by examples. Or, if it be alleged that these may transgress the limits of possible life and propagation, we might, at least, have nations of human beings without nails upon their fingers, with more or fewer fingers and toes than ten, some with one eye, others with one ear, with one nostril, or without the sense of smelling at all. All these, and a thousand other imaginable varieties, might live and propagate. We may modify any one species many different ways, all consistent with life, and with the actions necessary to preservation, although affording different degrees of conveniency and enjoyment to the animal. And if we carry these modifications through the different species which are known to subsist, their number would be incalculable. No reason can be given why, if these deperdits ever existed, they have now disappeared. Yet, if all possible existences have been tried, they must have formed part of the catalogue. (p.63–65)
The problem, of course, is not the notion that great variety may arise by chance and be narrowed by differential survival—this is the basis of natural selection as it is now understood. Rather, the implausibility of Paley’s scenario is the scale at which he considered the process. Specifically, he envisioned an unconstrained morphospace in which drastically divergent species continually pop into existence. This lies in stark contrast to Darwin’s later emphasis on small-scale variation arising within species and then being sorted generation by generation.
In this context, it is also worth noting Paley’s view on extinction—namely that it does not happen. According to Paley, the classification of species into larger taxa would be rendered impossible by widespread extinction. In contrast, extinction was established as a common process in the history of life by Darwin’s time, and today it is acknowledged that the overwhelming majority of species that have existed no longer grace the Earth. In fact, the major divisions among extant lineages are now understood to exist precisely because so many ancestors and intermediate forms have perished.
Design and Diversity
The preceding arguments occupy only the first six of the 27 chapters in Natural Theology. In Chapters 7 through 20, Paley leads the reader on an expedition through the annals of early nineteenth century biological knowledge as he understands it, pausing along the way to admire the elegance of the bones (Chapter 8), muscles (Chapter 9), blood vessels (Chapter 10), and digestive systems (Chapters 7 and 10) of vertebrates, as well as features of insects (Chapter 19) and plants (Chapter 20) which, though less well understood, he also described as bearing the hallmarks of design.
Once again, modern biology does not contradict Paley’s enthusiastic exposition of features well-suited to specific functions, only the way in which their origin is explained. Similarly, Paley takes a broad comparative approach that would be at home in modern evolutionary biology were it interpreted from a different perspective. He recognizes that specializations for particular lifestyles reflect modifications of traits shared by many animals. He grasps the unity of underlying body plans. And he notes that though it dissipates among groups living in widely divergent habitats, the similarity does not disappear. Consider the following passages from Chapter 12 on “Comparative Anatomy”:
Whenever we find a general plan pursued, yet with such variations in it as are, in each case, required by the particular exigency of the subject to which it is applied, we possess, in such plan and such adaptation, the strongest evidence that can be afforded of intelligence and design; an evidence which most completely excludes every other hypothesis. If the general plan proceeded from any fixed necessity in the nature of things, how could it accommodate itself to the various wants and uses which it had to serve under different circumstances, and on different occasions? (p.211)
Very much of this reasoning is applicable to what has been called Comparative Anatomy. In their general economy, in the outlines of the plan, in the construction as well as offices of their principal parts, there exists between all large terrestrial animals a close resemblance. In all, life is sustained, and the body nourished by nearly the same apparatus. The heart, the lungs, the stomach, the liver, the kidneys, are much alike in all. The same fluid (for no distinction of blood has been observed) circulates through their vessels, and nearly in the same order. The same cause, therefore, whatever that cause was, has been concerned in the origin, has governed the production of these different animal forms.
When we pass on to smaller animals, or to the inhabitants of a different element, the resemblance becomes more distant and more obscure; but still the plan accompanies us. (pp.212–213)
Chapter 13 deals with the opposite subject, namely adaptations (“Peculiar Organizations”) that are unique to particular groups: features of the neck of large mammals, the swim bladder of fishes, the fangs of snakes, the pouches of marsupials, the claws of birds, the stomach of camels, the tongue of woodpeckers, and the curved tusks of wild boars. These, like functional traits shared more broadly, also reflect the remarkable fit of species to their environments which Paley takes as strong evidence for their origin by design.
In Chapter 14, Paley lends particular credence to examples of adaptive features that emerge ontogenetically before they are needed, in preparation for use later in life (“Prospective Contrivances”):
I can hardly imagine to myself a more distinguishing mark, and, consequently, a more certain proof of design, than preparation, i.e. the providing of things beforehand, which are not to be used until a considerable time afterwards; for this implies a contemplation of the future, which belongs only to intelligence. (p.252)
The teeth of mammals, the milk that nourishes their young, their eyes that develop while still in the darkness of the womb, and their lungs that form before encountering any opportunity to draw a breath—in the absence of knowledge about developmental genetics, these struck Paley as especially weighty examples of foresightful design.
Fitting Together
Paley does not only rely on individual examples of function to support his position. In addition, he expounds upon the close interaction of parts in service of a specific function. He returns to the analogy of the watch in this capacity at the opening of Chapter 15:
When several different parts contribute to one effect; or, which is the same thing, when an effect is produced by the joint action of different instruments; the fitness of such parts or instruments to one another, for the purpose of producing, by their united action the effect, is what I call relation: and wherever this is observed in the works of nature or of man, it appears to me to carry along with it decisive evidence of understanding, intention, art. In examining, for instance, the several parts of a watch, the spring, the barrel, the chain, the fusee, the balance, the wheels of various sizes, forms, and positions, what is it which would take an observer's attention, as most plainly evincing a construction, directed by thought, deliberation, and contrivance? It is the suitableness of these parts to one another; first, in the succession and order in which they act; and, secondly, with a view to the effect finally produced. (pp. 261–262)
These “relations” are common in nature, and they form a central part of the modern incarnation of the argument from design just as they did two centuries before (albeit recast in terms of the “specified,” “irreducibly complex,” or “purposeful” arrangements of parts in service of a particular function). Contemporary embodiments of the teleological argument typically appeal to examples from microbiology and biochemistry, but the basic approach is the same as in Paley’s discussion of systems involved in feeding, digestion, and excretion. Paley is especially taken by close interactions among independent components (which today are explained as the product of co-evolution):
But relation perhaps is never so striking as when it subsists, not between different parts of the same thing, but between different things. The relation between a lock and a key is more obvious, than it is between different parts of the lock. A bow was designed for an arrow, and an arrow for a bow: and the design is more evident for their being separate implements.
Nor do the works of the Deity want this clearest species of relation. The sexes are manifestly made for each other. They form the grand relation of animated nature; universal, organic, mechanical; subsisting like the clearest relations of art, in different individuals; unequivocal, inexplicable without design.
So much so, that, were every other proof of contrivance in nature dubious or obscure, this alone would be sufficient. The example is complete. Nothing is wanting to the argument. I see no way whatever of getting over it. (pp. 268–270)
According to Paley, the fit of parts is also especially significant “when the defects of one part, or of one organ, are supplied by the structure of another part or of another organ” (p.275), a special case of “relation” that he dubs “compensation.” For example, the neck of an elephant is inflexible, but this is compensated for by its dexterous trunk. Paley’s ideas of “inconveniency” and “compensation” are recognizable in the modern concept of tradeoffs:
When I speak of an inconveniency, I have a view to a dilemma which frequently occurs in the works of nature, viz. that the peculiarity of structure by which an organ is made to answer one purpose, necessarily unfits it for some other purpose. (pp.278–279)
Not surprisingly, the fit of organisms to their physical environments (e.g., wings for movement in air, fins in water) also provides evidence for design under Paley’s view:
We have already considered relation, and under different views; but it was the relation of parts to parts, of the parts of an animal to other parts of the same animal, or of another individual of the same species.
But the bodies of animals hold, in their constitution and properties, a close and important relation to natures altogether external to their own; to inanimate substances, and to the specific qualities of these, e.g. they hold a strict relation to the elements by which they are surrounded. (p.291; italics in original)
Paley also contemplates instincts as an example of “relations” indicative of design. In so doing, he confronts what are now labeled as proximate versus ultimate causes (and, in a long-outdated dichotomy, “nature vs. nurture”). Citing examples of reproductive behaviors—the incubation of eggs by birds, the host specificity of egg laying by butterflies, the spawning journeys of salmon—he argues that many behaviors are neither learned nor simple reactions to stimuli but are hardwired by design.
Beyond Biology
For Paley, evidence of design is not restricted to examples from the living world but also comes from the conditions of the world that make life possible. Chapter 21, dedicated to “The Elements,” considers the beneficial properties of air, water, fire, and light. The extent of Paley’s teleological reasoning is illustrated with particular clarity in the case of light which, he argues, travels so fast that it might obliterate both eyes and beholders had the designer not provided a safeguard:Footnote 13
Urged by such a velocity, with what force must its particles drive against (I will not say the eye, the tenderest of animal substances, but) every substance, animate or inanimate, which stands in its way! It might seem to be a force sufficient to shatter to atoms the hardest bodies.
How then is this effect, the consequence of such prodigious velocity, guarded against? By a proportionable minuteness of the particles of which light is composed. (p.376)
The properties of the sun, the planets, and the physical laws that govern their motions also point to the action of a designer according to Paley’s interpretation. For example, the sun, which provides heat and light, is situated in a convenient central location; the Earth’s axis of rotation provides climatological stability; and the laws of gravity are restricted to the miniscule subset of all possible configurations that is compatible with life. Paley held to a particularly strong version of the anthropic principle (not unlike one still invoked by many modern creationists):
That the subsisting law of attraction falls within the limits which utility requires, when these limits bear so small a proportion to the range of possibilities upon which chance might equally have cast it, is not, with any appearance of reason, to be accounted for, by any other cause than a regulation proceeding from a designing mind. But our next proposition carries the matter somewhat further. We say, in the third place, that, out of the different laws which lie within the limits of admissible laws, the best is made choice of; that there are advantages in this particular law which cannot be demonstrated to belong to any other law; and, concerning some of which, it can be demonstrated that they do not belong to any other. (pp. 395–396)
The Nature of the Maker
Unlike modern proponents of “intelligent design,” Paley is totally forthright in his view on the identity of the designer. As he concludes at the close of Chapter 23, “The marks of design are too strong to be gotten over. Design must have had a designer. That designer must have been a person. That person is God.” (p.441). From this starting position, Paley proceeds in Chapters 24 through 26 to rally evidence from nature for the omnipotence, omniscience, and benevolence of the Designer. He must, therefore, contend with examples not only confirmatory (e.g., the good fit of organisms to their needs, the capacity for pleasure) but also seemingly contradictory (e.g., death, disease, predation, pain) to such a theological stance. Thus, predation is presented as a form of population control that prevents the potentially disastrous effects of superfecundity (and the application of venom is a particularly merciful method of dispatching prey). Other apparent ills are depicted as being similarly beneficial upon closer inspection. As Paley argues, “It is a happy world after all” (p. 456).
Design Since Darwin
As Darwin noted, Paley’s thesis that the appearance of design must in fact be the outcome of design was refuted by the advent of a workable theory of evolutionary change. Nevertheless, 150 years later, biologists are still awed—but are no longer stunned—by complexity in natural systems. Evolutionary theory provides a means of exploring the origin of complex adaptations using a variety of analytical approaches (e.g., fossil record, genetics, comparative anatomy and physiology, phylogenetics, developmental biology), rather than drawing a conclusion based on the observation of complexity alone. Evolutionary theory, which includes more than adaptive mechanisms, also provides a straightforward explanation for suboptimality, vestigial traits, and wastefulness, including excessive complexity and redundancy where simpler solutions could easily be envisioned.
Interestingly, evolutionary biologists who strongly emphasize adaptive evolution by natural selection (e.g., Dawkins 1986; Williams 1992)—the theory that undermined Paley’s central conclusion—more often express positive opinions of Natural Theology than do modern proponents of the argument from design. It is not difficult to see why, as Paley passionately addressed what they see as the most important question in evolutionary biology: the origins of complex adaptations. Contemporary design proponents, by contrast, generally attempt to distance themselves from Paley so as not to be seen as simply repackaging a 200-year-old theological argument. The examples may have changed (e.g., from eyes to flagella), but the premise has not.
Concluding Remarks
Like many of the early works that have had a lasting impact on biological thought, Paley’s Natural Theology remains worthy of reading by the current generation of biologists, educators, and students. It presents the argument from design in a clear fashion, unencumbered by the mathematical and biochemical accoutrements with which it recently has been festooned. That arguments very similar to Paley’s are now being used in an attempt to undermine the teaching and acceptance of evolutionary science gives Natural Theology continued relevance. From a much more positive point of view, his wonder at the complexity of the natural world, expressed with sincerity and style, is something to which all evolutionary biologists can relate. It is to be hoped that, in time, it will be for this reason alone that Paley’s classic treatise retains its significance.
Like many of the arguments most famously attributed to Paley, an analogy to a timepiece was used by various thinkers before him. For example, Marcus Tullius Cicero wrote in his De Natura Deorum in 45 BCE: “When you see a sundial or a waterclock, you see that it tells the time by design and not by chance. How then can you imagine that the universe as a whole is devoid of purpose and intelligence, when it embraces everything, including these artifacts themselves and their artificers?” Numerous other examples are reviewed by Moore (2009).
But, as the old cliché goes, even a broken watch gives the correct time twice per day.
For Paley, biochemistry represented a particularly impenetrable frontier that reinforced the existence of a designer with a more thorough knowledge of chemistry (pp.83–91). For their part, modern design proponents tend to focus on subcellular and molecular features whose origins have only recently become amenable to investigation.
A prime example is provided by so-called junk DNA. A common myth, repeatedly invoked by anti-evolutionists, science writers, and misinformed biologists alike, asserts that potential functions for non-genic components of the genome were long dismissed by mainstream science. Reference to the scientific literature from the relevant time period thoroughly undermines this claim (http://genomicron.blogspot.com/2008/02/junk-dna-quotes-of-interest-series.html).
For example, Paley cites the work of Johann Christophorous Sturm from a century before: “Sturmius held, that the examination of the eye was a cure for atheism” (p.33). Paley himself wrote that “Were there no example in the world, of contrivance, except that of the eye, it would be alone sufficient to support the conclusion which we draw from it, as to the necessity of an intelligent Creator” (p.75).
Paley does make an effort to portray the tiny vestigial eyes of moles, which are permanently covered with skin, as an example of good design (pp.273–274).
This refers specifically to evolution by natural selection. Variation can also be sorted by chance through genetic drift, especially when it is neutral with respect to reproductive success and in small populations, but this mechanism is not responsible for the evolution of complex adaptations.
Similar notions of extreme trial-and-error date back to the ancient Greeks, including Lucretius and Empedocles (Gliboff 2000).
Indeed, he later states that “The eye is made for light, and light for the eye. The eye would be of no use without light, and light perhaps of little without eyes” (p.424).
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According to Paley, the exquisite function of eyes bespeaks the great power of a designer, but the very decision to create eyes reflects an intentional limitation of this power so that humans might understand how eyes came to be. This logic may strike the modern reader as rather tortuous, but it serves to illustrate a very important point: that any explanation for complex organs must account not only for their adaptive characteristics but also their imperfections. Today, this duality can be accounted for by the countervailing influences of adaptive modification and the constraints of genetics, anatomy, and history, but for Paley, the intent of a designer provided the only conceivable answer. As noted, Paley did not consider imperfections to challenge the conclusion that design indicates the work of a designer. It is only if one wishes to defend the infallibility of the designer that one must assume all features of an object to be functional, and optimally so (see pp.56–57). Paley considered nonfunctional aspects of organisms to be “extremely rare,” and as is clear from later chapters, he viewed most aspects of the world to be optimally designed, but he was careful not to base his argument for the existence of a designer on these secondary considerations. Again, this represents something of a more sophisticated application of the argument from design than is often encountered in contemporary discourse.
Not a Chance
One of the most obstinate misconceptions about evolutionary theory is that it hypothesizes that eyes and other complex organs arise “by chance.” Even under the most charitable assessment, such a view of adaptive evolution must be considered deeply misguided. Whereas genetic mutation is both integral to the process and indeed is random with respect to its effects, natural selection is, by definition, the nonrandom survival and reproduction of individuals. Variation is generated at random, but whether or not it is preserved depends on its effects on survival and reproduction within a given environmentFootnote 11 (for reviews, see Gregory 2008, 2009). No serious evolutionary biologist of the past 150 years has suggested that the emergence of complex organs is merely the result of chance.
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Creationism
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Is the complexity of the human eye evidence of design?
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yes_statement
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the "complexity" of the "human" "eye" is "evidence" of "design".. the intricate structure of the "human" "eye" points to intelligent "design".
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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK254313/
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Darwin's Greatest Discovery: Design Without Designer - In the Light ...
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Darwin’s greatest contribution to science is that he completed the Copernican Revolution by drawing out for biology the notion of nature as a system of matter in motion governed by natural laws. With Darwin’s discovery of natural selection, the origin and adaptations of organisms were brought into the realm of science. The adaptive features of organisms could now be explained, like the phenomena of the inanimate world, as the result of natural processes, without recourse to an Intelligent Designer. The Copernican and the Darwinian Revolutions may be seen as the two stages of the one Scientific Revolution. They jointly ushered in the beginning of science in the modern sense of the word: explanation through natural laws. Darwin’s theory of natural selection accounts for the “design” of organisms, and for their wondrous diversity, as the result of natural processes, the gradual accumulation of spontaneously arisen variations (mutations) sorted out by natural selection. Which characteristics will be selected depends on which variations happen to be present at a given time in a given place. This in turn depends on the random process of mutation as well as on the previous history of the organisms. Mutation and selection have jointly driven the marvelous process that, starting from microscopic organisms, has yielded orchids, birds, and humans. The theory of evolution conveys chance and necessity, randomness and determinism, jointly enmeshed in the stuff of life. This was Darwin’s fundamental discovery, that there is a process that is creative, although not conscious.
There is a version of the history of the ideas that sees a parallel between the Copernican and the Darwinian revolutions. In this view, the Copernican Revolution consisted in displacing the Earth from its previously accepted locus as the center of the universe and moving it to a subordinate place as just one more planet revolving around the sun. In congruous manner, the Darwinian Revolution is viewed as consisting of the displacement of humans from their exalted position as the center of life on earth, with all other species created for the service of humankind. According to this version of intellectual history, Copernicus had accomplished his revolution with the heliocentric theory of the solar system. Darwin’s achievement emerged from his theory of organic evolution.
What this version of the two revolutions says is correct but inadequate, because it misses what is most important about these two intellectual revolutions, namely that they ushered in the beginning of science in the modern sense of the word. These two revolutions may jointly be seen as the one Scientific Revolution, with two stages, the Copernican and the Darwinian.
The Copernican Revolution was launched with the publication in 1543, the year of Nicolaus Copernicus’ death, of his De revolutionibus orbium celestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), and bloomed with the publication in 1687 of Isaac Newton’s Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica (The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy). The discoveries by Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton, and others, in the 16th and 17th centuries, had gradually ushered in a conception of the universe as matter in motion governed by natural laws. It was shown that Earth is not the center of the universe but a small planet rotating around an average star; that the universe is immense in space and in time; and that the motions of the planets around the sun can be explained by the same simple laws that account for the motion of physical objects on our planet, laws such as f = m × a (force =mass ×acceleration) or the inverse-square law of attraction, f = g(m1m2)/r2 (the force of attraction between two bodies is directly proportional to their masses, but inversely related to the square of the distance between them).
These and other discoveries greatly expanded human knowledge. The conceptual revolution they brought about was more fundamental yet: a commitment to the postulate that the universe obeys immanent laws that account for natural phenomena. The workings of the universe were brought into the realm of science: explanation through natural laws. All physical phenomena could be accounted for as long as the causes were adequately known.
The advances of physical science brought about by the Copernican Revolution had driven mankind’s conception of the universe to a split-personality state of affairs, which persisted well into the mid-19th century. Scientific explanations, derived from natural laws, dominated the world of nonliving matter, on the Earth as well as in the heavens. However, supernatural explanations, which depended on the unfathomable deeds of the Creator, were accepted as explanations of the origin and configuration of living creatures. Authors, such as William Paley, argued that the complex design of organisms could not have come about by chance or by the mechanical laws of physics, chemistry, and astronomy but was rather accomplished by an Intelligent Designer, just as the complexity of a watch, designed to tell time, was accomplished by an intelligent watchmaker.
It was Darwin’s genius to resolve this conceptual schizophrenia. Darwin completed the Copernican Revolution by drawing out for biology the notion of nature as a lawful system of matter in motion that human reason can explain without recourse to supernatural agencies. The conundrum faced by Darwin can hardly be overestimated. The strength of the argument from design to demonstrate the role of the Creator had been forcefully set forth by philosophers and theologians. Wherever there is function or design, we look for its author. It was Darwin’s greatest accomplishment to show that the complex organization and functionality of living beings can be explained as the result of a natural process—natural selection—without any need to resort to a Creator or other external agent. The origin and adaptations of organisms in their profusion and wondrous variations were thus brought into the realm of science.
Darwin accepted that organisms are “designed” for certain purposes, that is, they are functionally organized. Organisms are adapted to certain ways of life and their parts are adapted to perform certain functions. Fish are adapted to live in water, kidneys are designed to regulate the composition of blood, and the human hand is made for grasping. But Darwin went on to provide a natural explanation of the design. The seemingly purposeful aspects of living beings could now be explained, like the phenomena of the inanimate world, by the methods of science, as the result of natural laws manifested in natural processes.
Darwin occupies an exalted place in the history of Western thought, deservedly receiving credit for the theory of evolution. In The Origin of Species, published in 1859, he laid out the evidence demonstrating the evolution of organisms. Darwin did not use the term “evolution,” which did not have its current meaning, but referred to the evolution of organisms by the phrase “common descent with modification” and similar expressions. However, Darwin accomplished something much more important for intellectual history than demonstrating evolution. Indeed, accumulating evidence for common descent with diversification may very well have been a subsidiary objective of Darwin’s masterpiece. Darwin’s Origin of Species is, first and foremost, a sustained effort to solve the problem of how to account scientifically for the design of organisms. Darwin seeks to explain the design of organisms, their complexity, diversity, and marvelous contrivances, as the result of natural processes. Darwin brings about the evidence for evolution because evolution is a necessary consequence of his theory of design.
INTELLIGENT DESIGN: THE ORIGINAL VERSION
William Paley (1743–1805), one of the most influential English authors of his time, argued forcefully in his Natural Theology (1802a) that the complex and precise design of organisms and their parts could be accounted for only as the deed of an Intelligent and Omnipotent “Designer.” The design of organisms, he argued, was incontrovertible evidence of the existence of the Creator.
Paley was an English clergyman intensely committed to the abolition of the slave trade. By the 1780s, Paley had become a much sought-after public speaker against slavery. Paley was also an influential writer of works on Christian philosophy, ethics, and theology. The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy (1785) and A View of the Evidences of Christianity (1794) earned him prestige and well-endowed ecclesiastical benefices, which allowed him a comfortable life. In 1800, Paley gave up his public speaking career for reasons of health, providing him ample time to study science, particularly biology, and to write Natural Theology; or, Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity (1802a), the book by which he has become best known to posterity and which would greatly influence Darwin. With Natural Theology, Paley sought to update the work of another English clergyman, John Ray’s Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation (1691). But Paley could now go much beyond Ray by taking advantage of one century of additional biological knowledge. Paley’s keystone claim is that “There cannot be design without a designer; contrivance, without a contriver; order, without choice; . . . means suitable to an end, and executing their office in accomplishing that end, without the end ever having been contemplated” (1802a, pp. 15–16).
Natural Theology is a sustained argument for the existence of God based on the obvious design of humans and their organs, as well as the design of all sorts of organisms, considered by themselves, as well as in their relations to one another and to their environment. The argument has two parts: first, that organisms give evidence of being designed; second, that only an omnipotent God could account for the perfection, multitude, and diversity of the designs.
There are chapters dedicated to the complex design of the human eye; to the human frame, which displays a precise mechanical arrangement of bones, cartilage, and joints; to the circulation of the blood and the disposition of blood vessels; to the comparative anatomy of humans and animals; to the digestive tract, kidneys, urethras, and bladder; to the wings of birds and the fins of fish; and much more. For 352 pages, Natural Theology conveys Paley’s expertise: extensive and accurate biological knowledge, as detailed and precise as was available in the year 1802. After detailing the precise organization and exquisite functionality of each biological entity, relationship, or process, Paley draws again and again the same conclusion, that only an omniscient and omnipotent Deity could account for these marvels of mechanical perfection, purpose, and functionality and for the enormous diversity of inventions that they entail.
Paley’s first model example in Natural Theology is the human eye. Early in chapter 3, Paley points out that the eye and the telescope “are made upon the same principles; both being adjusted to the laws by which the transmission and refraction of rays of light are regulated” (1802a, p. 20). Specifically, there is a precise resemblance between the lenses of a telescope and “the humors of the eye” in their figure, their position, and the ability of converging the rays of light at a precise distance from the lens—on the retina in the case of the eye.
Paley makes two remarkable observations, which enhance the complex and precise design of the eye. The first observation is that rays of light should be refracted by a more convex surface when transmitted through water than when passing out of air into the eye. Accordingly, “the eye of a fish, in that part of it called the crystalline lens, is much rounder than the eye of terrestrial animals. What plainer manifestation of design can there be than this difference? What could a mathematical instrument maker have done more to show his knowledge of this principle . . . ?” (Paley, 1802a, p. 20).
The second remarkable observation made by Paley that supports his argument is dioptric distortion: “Pencils of light, in passing through glass lenses, are separated into different colors, thereby tinging the object, especially the edges of it, as if it were viewed through a prism. To correct this inconvenience has been long a desideratum in the art. At last it came into the mind of a sagacious optician, to inquire how this matter was managed in the eye, in which there was exactly the same difficulty to contend with as in the telescope. His observation taught him that in the eye the evil was cured by combining lenses composed of different substances, that is, of substances which possessed different refracting powers” (Paley, 1802a, pp. 22–23). The telescope maker accordingly corrected the dioptic distortion “by imitating, in glasses made from different materials, the effects of the different humors through which the rays of light pass before they reach the bottom of the eye. Could this be in the eye without purpose, which suggested to the optician the only effectual means of attaining that purpose?” (Paley, 1802a, p. 23).
ARGUMENT AGAINST CHANCE
Paley summarizes his argument by stating the complex functional anatomy of the eye. The eye consists “first, of a series of transparent lenses—very different, by the by, even in their substance, from the opaque materials of which the rest of the body is, in general at least, composed” (Paley, 1802a, p. 48). Second, the eye has the retina, which as Paley points out is the only membrane in the body that is black, spread out behind the lenses, so as to receive the image formed by pencils of light transmitted through them, and “placed at the precise geometrical distance at which, and at which alone, a distinct image could be formed, namely, at the concourse of the refracted rays” (1802a, p. 48). Third, he writes, the eye possesses “a large nerve communicating between this membrane [the retina] and the brain; without which, the action of light upon the membrane, however modified by the organ, would be lost to the purposes of sensation” (1802a, p. 48).
Could the eye have come about without design or preconceived purpose, as a result of chance? Paley had set the argument against chance in the very first paragraph of Natural Theology (1802a, p. 1), reasoning rhetorically by analogy: “In crossing a heath, suppose I pitched my foot against a stone, and were asked how the stone came to be there, I might possibly answer, that for any thing I knew to the contrary it had lain there for ever; nor would it, perhaps, be very easy to show the absurdity of this answer. But suppose I had found a watch upon the ground, and it should be inquired how the watch happened to be in that place, I should hardly think of the answer which I had before given, that for any thing I knew the watch might have always been there. Yet why should not this answer serve for the watch as well as for the stone; why is it not as admissible in the second case as in the first? For this reason, and for no other, namely, that when we come to inspect the watch, we perceive—what we could not discover in the stone—that its several parts are framed and put together for a purpose, e.g., that they are so formed and adjusted as to produce motion, and that motion so regulated as to point out the hour of the day; that if the different parts had been differently shaped from what they are, or placed after any other manner or in any other order than that in which they are placed, either no motion at all would have been carried on in the machine, or none which would have answered the use that is now served by it.” In other words, the watch’s mechanism is so complicated it could not have arisen by chance.
PALEY’S IRREDUCIBLE COMPLEXITY
The strength of the argument against chance derives, Paley tells us, from what he names “relation,” a notion akin to what some contemporary authors have named “irreducible complexity” (Behe, 1996). This is how Paley formulates the argument for irreducible complexity: “When several different parts contribute to one effect, or, which is the same thing, when an effect is produced by the joint action of different instruments, the fitness of such parts or instruments to one another for the purpose of producing, by their united action, the effect, is what I call relation; and wherever this is observed in the works of nature or of man, it appears to me to carry along with it decisive evidence of understanding, intention, art” (Paley, 1802a, pp. 175–176). The outcomes of chance do not exhibit relation among the parts or, as we might say, they do not display organized complexity. He writes that “a wen, a wart, a mole, a pimple” could come about by chance, but never an eye; “a clod, a pebble, a liquid drop might be,” but never a watch or a telescope.
Paley notices the “relation” not only among the component parts of an organ, such as the eye, the kidney, or the bladder, but also among the different parts, limbs, and organs that collectively make up an animal and adapt it to its distinctive way of life: “In the swan, the web-foot, the spoon bill, the long neck, the thick down, the graminivorous stomach, bear all a relation to one another. . . . The feet of the mole are made for digging; the neck, nose, eyes, ears, and skin, are peculiarly adapted to an under-ground life. [In a word,] this is what I call relation” (Paley, 1802a, pp. 180, 183).
Throughout Natural Theology, Paley displays extensive and profound biological knowledge. He discusses the fish’s air bladder, the viper’s fang, the heron’s claw, the camel’s stomach, the woodpecker’s tongue, the elephant’s proboscis, the bat’s wing hook, the spider’s web, insects’ compound eyes and metamorphosis, the glowworm, univalve and bivalve mollusks, seed dispersal, and on and on, with accuracy and as much detail as known to the best biologists of his time. The organized complexity and purposeful function reveal, in each case, an intelligent designer, and the diversity, richness, and pervasiveness of the designs show that only the omnipotent Creator could be this Intelligent Designer.
Paley was not the only proponent of the argument from design in the first half of the 19th century. In Britain, a few years after the publication of Natural Theology, the eighth Earl of Bridgewater endowed the publication of treatises that would set forth “the Power, Wisdom and Goodness of God as manifested in the Creation.” Eight treatises were published during 1833–1840, several of which artfully incorporate the best science of the time and had considerable influence on the public and among scientists. One of the treatises, The Hand, Its Mechanisms and Vital Endowments as Evincing Design (1833), was written by Sir Charles Bell, a distinguished anatomist and surgeon, famous for his neurological discoveries, who became professor of surgery in 1836 at the University of Edinburgh. Bell follows Paley’s manner of argument, examining in considerable detail the wondrously useful design of the human hand but also the perfection of design of the forelimb used for different purposes in different animals, serving in each case the particular needs and habits of its owner: the human’s arm for handling objects, the dog’s leg for running, and the bird’s wing for flying. “Nothing less than the Power, which originally created, is equal to the effecting of those changes on animals, which are to adapt them to their conditions.”
Paley and Bell are typical representatives of the intellectual milieu prevailing in the first half of the 19th century in Britain as well as on the Continent. Darwin, while he was an undergraduate student at the University of Cambridge between 1827 and 1831, read Paley’s Natural Theology, which was part of the university’s canon for nearly half a century after Paley’s death. Darwin writes in his Autobiography of the “much delight” and profit that he derived from reading Paley: “To pass the B.A. examination, it was also necessary to get up Paley’s Evidences of Christianity, and his Moral Philosophy. . . . The logic of . . . his Natural Theology gave me as much delight as did Euclid. . . . I did not at that time trouble myself about Paley’s premises; and taking these on trust, I was charmed and convinced by the long line of argumentation” (Darwin, 1887a).
Later, however, after he returned from his 5-year voyage around the world in the HMS Beagle, Darwin would discover a scientific explanation for the design of organisms. Science, thereby, made a quantum leap.
DARWIN’S “MY THEORY”
Darwin considered natural selection, rather than his demonstration of evolution, his most important discovery and designated it as “my theory,” a designation he never used when referring to the evolution of organisms. The discovery of natural selection, Darwin’s awareness that it was a greatly significant discovery because it was science’s answer to Paley’s argument from design, and Darwin’s designation of natural selection as “my theory” can be traced in Darwin’s “Red Notebook” and “Transmutation Notebooks B to E,” which he started in March 1837, not long after returning (on October 2, 1836) from his 5-year voyage on the Beagle, and completed in late 1839 (see Eldredge, 2005).
The evolution of organisms was commonly accepted by naturalists in the middle decades of the 19th century. The distribution of exotic species in South America, in the Galápagos Islands, and elsewhere and the discovery of fossil remains of long-extinguished animals confirmed the reality of evolution in Darwin’s mind. The intellectual challenge was to explain the origin of distinct species of organisms, how new ones adapted to their environments, that “mystery of mysteries,” as it had been labeled by Darwin’s older contemporary, the prominent scientist and philosopher Sir John Herschel (1792–1871).
Early in the Notebooks of 1837 to 1839, Darwin registers his discovery of natural selection and repeatedly refers to it as “my theory.” From then until his death in 1882, Darwin’s life would be dedicated to substantiating natural selection and its companion postulates, mainly the pervasiveness of hereditary variation and the enormous fertility of organisms, which much surpassed the capacity of available resources. Natural selection became for Darwin “a theory by which to work.” He relentlessly pursued observations and performed experiments to test the theory and resolve presumptive objections.
WALLACE: A DISTINCTION WITH A DIFFERENCE
Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913) is famously given credit for discovering, independently of Darwin, natural selection as the process accounting for the evolution of species. On June 18, 1858, Darwin wrote to Charles Lyell that he had received by mail a short essay from Wallace such that “if Wallace had my [manuscript] sketch written in [1844] he could not have made a better abstract.” Darwin was thunderstruck.
Darwin and Wallace had started occasional correspondence in late 1855. At the time Wallace was in the Malay Archipelago collecting biological specimens. In his letters, Darwin would offer sympathy and encouragement to the occasionally dispirited Wallace for his “laborious undertaking.” In 1858, Wallace came upon the idea of natural selection as the explanation for evolutionary change and he wanted to know Darwin’s opinion about this hypothesis, because Wallace, as well as many others, knew that Darwin had been working on the subject for years, had shared his ideas with other scientists, and was considered by them as the eminent expert on issues concerning biological evolution.
Darwin was uncertain how to proceed about Wallace’s letter. He wanted to credit Wallace’s discovery of natural selection, but he did not want altogether to give up his own earlier independent discovery. Eventually, Sir Charles Lyell and Joseph Hooker proposed, with Darwin’s consent, that Wallace’s letter and two of Darwin’s earlier writings would be presented at a meeting of the Linnean Society of London. On July 1, 1858, three papers were read by the society’s undersecretary, George Busk, in the order of their date of composition: Darwin’s abbreviated abstract of his 230-page essay from 1844; an “abstract of abstract” that Darwin had written to the American botanist Asa Gray on September 5, 1857; and Wallace’s essay, “On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from Original Type; Instability of Varieties Supposed to Prove the Permanent Distinctness of Species” (Wallace, 1858).
The meeting was attended by some 30 people, who did not include Darwin or Wallace. The papers generated little response and virtually no discussion, their significance apparently lost to those in attendance. Nor was it noticed by the president of the Linnean Society, Thomas Bell, who, in his annual address the following May, blandly stated that the past year had not been enlivened by “any of those striking discoveries which at once revolutionize” a branch of science.
Wallace’s independent discovery of natural selection is remarkable. But the lesser credit given to Wallace than to Darwin for this discovery may not be misplaced. Wallace was not interested in explaining design but rather in accounting for the evolution of species, as indicated in his paper’s title: “On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type.” Wallace thought that evolution proceeds indefinitely and is progressive. Wallace (1858) writes: “We believe that there is a tendency in nature to the continued progression of certain classes of varieties further and further from the original type—a progression to which there appears no reason to assign any definite limits. This progression, by minute steps, in various directions . . . .”
Darwin, on the contrary, did not accept that evolution would necessarily represent progress or advancement, nor did he believe that evolution would always result in morphological change over time; rather, he knew of the existence of “living fossils,” organisms that had remained unchanged for millions of years. For example, “some of the most ancient Silurian animals, as the Nautilus, Lingula, etc., do not differ much from living species” (Darwin, 1859b, p. 306). In 1858, Darwin was at work on a multivolume treatise, intended to be titled “On Natural Selection.” Wallace’s paper stimulated Darwin to write The Origin, which would be published the following year. Darwin saw The Origin as an abbreviated version of the much longer book he had planned to write.
DARWIN’S EXPLANATION OF DESIGN
Darwin’s focus in The Origin was the explanation of design, with evolution playing the subsidiary role of supporting evidence. The Introduction and chapters I–VIII of The Origin explain how natural selection accounts for the adaptations and behaviors of organisms, their “design.” The extended argument starts in chapter I, where Darwin describes the successful selection of domestic plants and animals and, with considerable detail, the success of pigeon fanciers seeking exotic “sports.” The success of plant and animal breeders manifests how much selection can accomplish by taking advantage of spontaneous variations that occur in organisms but happen to fit the breeders’ objectives. A sport (mutation) that first appears in an individual can be multiplied by selective breeding so that after a few generations, that sport becomes fixed in a breed, or “race.” The familiar breeds of dogs, cattle, chickens, and food plants have been obtained by this process of selection practiced by people with particular objectives.
The ensuing chapters (II–VIII) of The Origin extend the argument to variations propagated by natural selection for the benefit of the organisms themselves rather than by artificial selection of traits desired by humans. As a consequence of natural selection, organisms exhibit design, that is, exhibit adaptive organs and functions. The design of organisms as they exist in nature, however, is not “intelligent design,” imposed by God as a Supreme Engineer or by humans; rather, it is the result of a natural process of selection, promoting the adaptation of organisms to their environments. This is how natural selection works: Individuals that have beneficial variations, that is, variations that improve their probability of survival and reproduction, leave more descendants than individuals of the same species that have less beneficial variations. The beneficial variations will consequently increase in frequency over the generations; less beneficial or harmful variations will be eliminated from the species. Eventually, all individuals of the species will have the beneficial features; new features will arise over eons of time.
Organisms exhibit complex design, but it is not, in current language, “irreducible complexity,” emerging all of a sudden in full bloom. Rather, according to Darwin’s theory of natural selection, the design has arisen gradually and cumulatively, step by step, promoted by the reproductive success of individuals with incrementally more adaptive elaborations.
It follows from Darwin’s explanation of adaptation that evolution must necessarily occur as a consequence of organisms becoming adapted to different environments in different localities and to the ever-changing conditions of the environment over time, and as hereditary variations become available at a particular time that improve, in that place and at that time, the organisms’ chances of survival and reproduction. The Origin’s evidence for biological evolution is central to Darwin’s explanation of design, because this explanation implies that biological evolution occurs, which Darwin therefore seeks to demonstrate in most of the remainder of the book (Darwin, 1859b, chapters IX–XIII).
In the concluding chapter XIV of The Origin, Darwin returns to the dominant theme of adaptation and design. In an eloquent final paragraph, Darwin asserts the “grandeur” of his vision:
It is interesting to contemplate an entangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent on each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us. . . . Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved (Darwin, 1859b, pp. 489–490; emphasis added).
Darwin’s Origin addresses the same issue as Paley: how to account for the adaptive configuration of organisms and their parts, which are so obviously designed to fulfill certain functions. Darwin argues that hereditary adaptive variations (“variations useful in some way to each being”) occasionally appear, and that these are likely to increase the reproductive chances of their carriers. The success of pigeon fanciers and animal breeders clearly shows the occasional occurrence of useful hereditary variations. In nature, over the generations, Darwin’s argument continues, favorable variations will be preserved, multiplied, and conjoined; injurious ones will be eliminated. In one place, Darwin avers: “I can see no limit to this power [natural selection] in slowly and beautifully adapting each form to the most complex relations of life” (Darwin, 1859b, p. 469).
In his Autobiography, Darwin wrote, “The old argument of design in nature, as given by Paley, which formerly seemed to me so conclusive, falls, now that the law of natural selection has been discovered. We can no longer argue that, for instance, the beautiful hinge of a bivalve shell must have been made by an intelligent being, like the hinge of a door by a man” (Barlow, 1958).
Natural selection was proposed by Darwin primarily to account for the adaptive organization, or design, of living beings; it is a process that preserves and promotes adaptation. Evolutionary change through time and evolutionary diversification (multiplication of species) often ensue as by-products of natural selection fostering the adaptation of organisms to their milieu. Evolutionary change is not directly promoted by natural selection, however, and therefore it is not its necessary consequence. Indeed, some species may remain unchanged for long periods of time, as Darwin noted. Nautilus, Lingula, and other so-called “living fossils” are Darwin’s examples of organisms that have remained unchanged in their appearance for millions of years.
MUTATION AND NATURAL SELECTION
Evolution affects all aspects of an organism’s life: morphology (form and structure), physiology (function), behavior, and ecology (interaction with the environment). Underlying these changes are changes in the hereditary materials. Hence, in genetic terms, evolution consists of changes in the organisms’ hereditary makeup.
Evolution can be seen as a two-step process. First, hereditary variation arises by mutation; second, selection occurs by which useful variations increase in frequency and those that are less useful or injurious are eliminated over the generations. “Useful” and “injurious” are terms used by Darwin in his definition of natural selection. The significant point is that individuals having useful variations “would have the best chance of surviving and procreating their kind” (Darwin, 1859b, p. 81). As a consequence, useful variations increase in frequency over the generations, at the expense of those that are less useful or injurious.
The process of mutation provides each generation with many new genetic variations, in addition to those carried over from previous generations. Thus, it is not surprising to see that, when new environmental challenges arise, species are able to adapt to them. More than 200 insect and rodent species, for example, developed resistance to DDT, Warfarin, and other pesticides in places where spraying was intense. Although these animals had never before encountered these synthetic compounds, mutations allowed some individuals to survive in their presence. These individuals reproduced and, thus, the mutations providing resistance increased in frequency over the generations, so that eventually the population was no longer susceptible to the pesticide. The adaptation had come about by the combined processes of mutation and natural selection.
The resistance of disease-causing bacteria and parasites to antibiotics and other drugs is a consequence of the same process. When an individual receives an antibiotic that specifically kills the bacteria causing a disease—say, tuberculosis—the immense majority of the bacteria die, but one in several million may have a mutation that provides resistance to the antibiotic. These resistant bacteria survive, multiply, and spread from individual to individual. Eventually, the antibiotic no longer cures the disease in most or all people because the bacteria are resistant. This is why modern medicine treats bacterial diseases with cocktails of antibiotics. If the incidence of a mutation conferring resistance to a given antibiotic is one in a million, the probability of one bacterium carrying three mutations, each conferring resistance to one of three antibiotics, is one in a quintillion (one in a million million million). Even at the peak of infection, when billions or trillions of bacteria exist in a sick person, it is not likely, if not altogether impossible, that any bacteria resistant to all three antibiotics will occur in any infected individual.
Natural selection is much more than a “purifying” process, for it is able to generate novelty by increasing the probability of otherwise extremely improbable genetic combinations. Natural selection in combination with mutation becomes, in this respect, a creative process. Moreover, it is a process that has been occurring for many millions of years in many different evolutionary lineages and a multitude of species, each consisting of a large number of individuals. Evolution by mutation and natural selection has produced the enormous diversity of the living world with its wondrous adaptations.
Several hundred million generations separate modern animals from the early animals of the Cambrian geological period (542 million years ago). The number of mutations that can be tested, and those eventually selected, in millions of individual animals over millions of generations is difficult for a human mind to fathom, but we can readily understand that the accumulation of millions of small, functionally advantageous changes could yield remarkably complex and adaptive organs, such as the eye.
Natural selection is an incremental process, operating over time and yielding organisms better able to survive and reproduce than others. Individuals of a given species differ from one another at any one time only in small ways; for example, the difference between bacteria that have or lack an enzyme able to synthesize the sugar lactose or between moths that have light or dark wings. These differences typically involve one or only a few genes, but they can make the difference between survival or death, as in the resistance to DDT or to antibiotics. Consider a different sort of example. Some pocket mice (Chaetodipus intermedius) live in rocky outcrops in Arizona. Light, sandy-colored mice are found in light-colored habitats, whereas dark (melanic) mice prevail in dark rocks formed from ancient flows of basaltic lava. The match between background and fur color protects the mice from avian and mammal predators that hunt guided largely by vision. Mutations in one single gene (coding for the melanocortin-1-receptor, represented as MC1R) account for the difference between light and dark pelage (Nachman et al., 2003).
Adaptations that involve complex structures, functions, or behaviors involve numerous genes. Many familiar mammals, but not marsupials, have a placenta. Marsupials include the familiar kangaroo and other mammals native primarily to Australia and South America. Dogs, cats, mice, donkeys, and primates are placental. The placenta makes it possible to extend the time the developing embryo is kept inside the mother and thus make the newborn better prepared for independent survival. However, the placenta requires complex adaptations, such as the suppression of harmful immune interactions between mother and embryo, delivery of suitable nutrients and oxygen to the embryo, and the disposal of embryonic wastes. The mammalian placenta evolved more than 100 million years ago and proved a successful adaptation, contributing to the explosive diversification of placental mammals in the Old World and North America.
The placenta also has evolved in some fish groups, such as Poeciliopsis. Some Poeciliopsis species hatch eggs. The females supply the yolk in the egg, which furnishes nutrients to the developing embryo (as in chicken). Other Poeciliopsis species, however, have evolved a placenta through which the mother provides nutrients to the developing embryo. Molecular biology has made possible the reconstruction of the evolutionary history of Poeciliopsis species. A surprising result is that the placenta evolved independently three times in this fish group. The required complex adaptations accumulated in each case in <750,000 years (Reznick et al., 2002; Avise, 2006).
Natural selection produces combinations of genes that would seem highly improbable because natural selection proceeds stepwise over long periods of time. Consider the evolution of the eye in humans and other vertebrates. Perception of light, and later vision, were important for the survival and reproductive success of their ancestors, because sunlight is a predominant feature of the environment. Accordingly, natural selection favored genes and gene combinations that increased the functional efficiency of the eye. Such mutations gradually accumulated, eventually leading to the highly complex and efficient vertebrate eye.
How complex organs, such as the human eye, may arise stepwise from a very simple structure can be observed in living mollusks (Fig. 1.1). The mollusks (squids, clams, and snails) are a very ancient group of organisms, older than the vertebrates. Marine organisms have variable visual needs, depending on their lifestyle. Limpets have the simplest imaginable eye; just an eye spot consisting of a few pigmented cells with nerve fibers attached to them. Slit-shell mollusks have a slightly more advanced organ, consisting of some pigmented cells shaped as a cup, which allow these mollusks some perception of the direction of light. Nautilus, a group of open ocean mollusks that have remained virtually unchanged for millions of years, have an extended and nearly closed cup, with a pinhole opening but without a lens. Murex, a group of marine snails, have eyes with a primitive refractive lens protected by a layer of skin cells serving as cornea. Octopuses and squids have eyes just as complex as the human eye, with cornea, iris, refractive lens, retina, vitreous internal substance, optic nerve, and muscle.
Steps in the evolution of eye complexity in living mollusks. The simplest eye is found in limpets (far left), consisting of only a few pigmented cells, slightly modified from typical epithelial (skin) cells. Slit-shell mollusks (second from the left) (more...)
DESIGN WITHOUT DESIGNER
Natural selection sorting out spontaneously arising mutations is a creative process because it causes favorable mutations to combine and accumulate, yielding a great diversity of organisms over eons of time. But there are important features that distinguish the kind of “design” achieved by natural selection, namely the adaptations of organisms, from the kind of design produced by an intelligent designer, an engineer.
An engineer has a preconception of what the design is supposed to achieve and will select suitable materials and arrange them in a preconceived manner so that it fulfills the intended function. On the contrary, natural selection does not operate according to some preordained plan. It is a purely natural process resulting from the interacting properties of physicochemical and biological entities. Natural selection is simply a consequence of the differential survival and reproduction of living beings. It has some appearance of purposefulness because it is conditioned by the environment: which organisms survive and reproduce more effectively depends on which variations they happen to possess that are useful or beneficial to them in the place and at the time where they live.
Natural selection does not have foresight; it does not anticipate the environments of the future. Drastic environmental changes may introduce obstacles that are insuperable to organisms that were previously thriving. In fact, species extinction is a common outcome of the evolutionary process. The species existing today represent the balance between the origin of new species and their eventual extinction. The available inventory of living species describes nearly 2 million species, although at least 10 million are estimated to exist. But we know that perhaps more than 99% of all species that have ever lived on Earth have become extinct.
Increased complexity is not a necessary consequence of natural selection, but it does emerge occasionally, when mutations that increase complexity are favored over mutations that do not. That complexity-increasing mutations do not necessarily accumulate over time is apparent in many evolutionary lineages. For example, the longest living organisms on Earth are the microscopic bacteria, which have existed continuously on our planet for ≈3.5 billion years. Yet, modern bacterial species appear to exhibit no greater complexity than their ancient ancestors. More complex organisms came about much later, without the elimination of their simpler relatives. Nevertheless, over the eons, multitudes of complex organisms have arisen on Earth. Some groups of complex organisms came into existence only recently (on the evolutionary scale). The primates appeared on Earth only 50 million years ago; our species, Homo sapiens, less than 200,000 years ago.
In evolution, there is no entity or person who is selecting adaptive combinations. These combinations select themselves because the organisms possessing them reproduce more effectively than those with less adaptive variations. Therefore, natural selection does not strive to produce predetermined kinds of organisms but only organisms that are adapted to their present environments. As pointed out, which characteristics will be selected depends on which variations happen to be present at a given time in a given place. This, in turn, depends on the random process of mutation as well as on the previous history of the organisms (that is, on the genetic makeup they have as a consequence of their previous evolution). Natural selection is an opportunistic process. The variables determining the direction in which natural selection will proceed are the environment, the preexisting constitution of the organisms, and the randomly arising mutations.
Thus, adaptation to a given habitat may occur in a variety of different ways. For example, many plants have adapted to a desert climate. Their fundamental adaptation is to the condition of dryness, which holds the danger of desiccation. During most of the year, and sometimes for several years in succession, there is no rain. Plants have adapted to the scarcity of water in different ways. Cacti have transformed their leaves into spines and thus avoid the evaporation that occurs in the leaves; photosynthesis is performed on the surface of the stem instead. In addition, their stems have evolved into barrel-like structures that store a reserve of water. A second mode of adaptation occurs in desert plants that have no leaves during the dry season, but after it rains, they burst into leaves and flowers and quickly produce seeds. A third mode of adaptation is that of desert ephemeral plants, which germinate from seeds, grow, flower, and produce seeds, all within the few weeks of the year when rainwater is available; at other times, the seeds lie quiescent in the soil.
CHANCE AND NECESSITY: NATURAL SELECTION AS A CREATIVE PROCESS
The fossil record shows that life has evolved in a haphazard fashion. The radiations of some groups of organisms, the numerical and territorial expansions of other groups, the replacement of some kinds of organisms by other kinds, the occasional but irregular occurrence of trends toward increased size or other sorts of change, and the ever-present extinctions are best explained by natural selection of organisms subject to the vagaries of genetic mutation, environmental challenge, and past history. The scientific account of these events does not necessitate recourse to a preordained plan, whether imprinted from the beginning or through successive interventions by an omniscient and almighty Designer. Biological evolution differs from a painting or an artifact in that it is not the outcome of preconceived design. The design of organisms is not intelligent but imperfect and, at times, outright dysfunctional.
Natural selection accounts for the “design” of organisms because adaptive variations tend to increase the probability of survival and reproduction of their carriers at the expense of maladaptive, or less adaptive, variations. The arguments of intelligent design proponents that state the incredible improbability of chance events, such as mutation, to account for the adaptations of organisms are irrelevant because evolution is not governed by random mutations. Rather, there is a natural process (namely, natural selection) that is not random but oriented and able to generate order or “create.” The traits that organisms acquire in their evolutionary histories are not fortuitous but rather determined by their functional utility to the organisms, designed, as it were, to serve their life needs.
Chance is, nevertheless, an integral part of the evolutionary process. The mutations that yield the hereditary variations available to natural selection arise at random. Mutations are random or chance events because (i) they are rare exceptions to the fidelity of the process of DNA replication and because (ii) there is no way of knowing which gene will mutate in a particular cell or in a particular individual. However, the meaning of “random” that is most significant for understanding the evolutionary process is (iii) that mutations are unoriented with respect to adaptation; they occur independently of whether or not they are beneficial or harmful to the organisms. Some are beneficial, most are not, and only the beneficial ones become incorporated in the organisms through natural selection.
The adaptive randomness of the mutation process (as well as the vagaries of other processes that come to play in the great theater of life) is counteracted by natural selection, which preserves what is useful and eliminates what is harmful. Without hereditary mutations, evolution could not happen because there would be no variations that could be differentially conveyed from one to another generation. But without natural selection, the mutation process would yield disorganization and extinction because most mutations are disadvantageous. Mutation and selection have jointly driven the marvelous process that, starting from microscopic organisms, has yielded orchids, birds, and humans.
The theory of evolution conveys chance and necessity jointly enmeshed in the stuff of life; randomness and determinism interlocked in a natural process that has spurted the most complex, diverse, and beautiful entities that we know of in the universe: the organisms that populate the Earth, including humans who think and love, endowed with free will and creative powers, and able to analyze the process of evolution itself that brought them into existence. This is Darwin’s fundamental discovery, that there is a process that is creative although not conscious. And this is the conceptual revolution that Darwin completed: the idea that the design of living organisms can be accounted for as the result of natural processes governed by natural laws. This is nothing if not a fundamental vision that has forever changed how mankind perceives itself and its place in the universe.
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In other words, the watch’s mechanism is so complicated it could not have arisen by chance.
PALEY’S IRREDUCIBLE COMPLEXITY
The strength of the argument against chance derives, Paley tells us, from what he names “relation,” a notion akin to what some contemporary authors have named “irreducible complexity” (Behe, 1996). This is how Paley formulates the argument for irreducible complexity: “When several different parts contribute to one effect, or, which is the same thing, when an effect is produced by the joint action of different instruments, the fitness of such parts or instruments to one another for the purpose of producing, by their united action, the effect, is what I call relation; and wherever this is observed in the works of nature or of man, it appears to me to carry along with it decisive evidence of understanding, intention, art” (Paley, 1802a, pp. 175–176). The outcomes of chance do not exhibit relation among the parts or, as we might say, they do not display organized complexity. He writes that “a wen, a wart, a mole, a pimple” could come about by chance, but never an eye; “a clod, a pebble, a liquid drop might be,” but never a watch or a telescope.
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