On Jack Torrance As a Fossil Form

The essay starts with the photograph that reveals the mystery of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (1980) to introduce the notion of a fossil as a mineral compound that continues to evolve into something biologically distinct from the cadaver that provided its origin. The fossil represents a form of survival in stone, a material within which the dead body can continue to decay and so, in a certain sense, to live on. Considered to be a state of suspended animation, the fossil holds a particular attraction for the cinema, as we see in the character of Jack Torrance, a paradoxical figure who takes on a clear identity if we recognise him as a fossil—and more precisely a ‘living fossil’.

The new Early Miocene bat records from the Molasse sites of South Germany

Fossil bats are described from deposits of the Upper Freshwater Molasse of the Forsthart and Rembach sites in East Bavaria of South Germany (MN 4). The material comprises 13 fragments, representing at least six different species, all belonging to Vespertilionidae. A fossil form from Rembach, close to the Oriental clade of Hesperoptenus, represents the first and oldest fossil record of this clade in Europe. The assignment of bat records to extant Oriental clades Hesperoptenus and Submyotodon in Rembach, as well as different forms of Miostrellus in Forsthart indicate considerable diversity in Early Miocene vespertilionid bats, and have exciting palaeobiogeographic implications. Fossils are discussed in regards to taxonomic, stratigraphic and palaeoecological significance.

W poszukiwaniu „brakującego ogniwa”

Eighty years ago Raymond A. Dart wrote the papers about Australopithecus africanus and decided to classify it as a “missing link". The creature from Taung represented an ultra-simian and pre-human stock. Therefore, he proposed a new family Homo - simiadae. Nowadays, scientists on the occasion of this anniversary publish, many papers about this event. They want to remind discussion about Taung's child and in homage to Raymond A. Dart. Surprisingly, the discussion which took place in the thirties and forties was an exact repetition of the earlier debate about Trinil's fossil! In 1890/91 Dubois had found already ancient fossils in Java which classified as Pithecanthropidae - this new family was an evolutionary "bridge" between apes and man. However, despite the fact that anthropologists wanted to find a “missing link” they rejected those interpretations! Some of them thought that fossil form Taung and Trinil belonged to a true ape. Whereas the others believed that remains should have been classified as a hominid family. Those two debates indicate one scheme of thinking: 1. theoretical view of “missing link”; 2. empirical researching; 3. taxonomic debate about fossil; and 4. rejecting the idea of “missing link”.

An Impasse

Dawson had received widespread recognition, but died too soon to be given any special award from a scientific body. Twenty years later his achievement was commemorated by the erection of a memorial stone at the site of the gravel pit at Barkham Manor. Sir Arthur Smith Woodward had taken the initiative in this and borne most, if not all, of the expense. The unveiling was done, at his request, by his old friend Sir Arthur Keith at the well-attended ceremony on 22 July 1938. Keith gave a brief but eloquent oration. He dwelt on the wonderful achievement of the keen-sighted amateur Dawson, an achievement which he likened in the history of discovery to that of the French lock-keeper, Boucher de Perthes—the first man, three-quarters of a century ago, to recognize clearly the human workmanship of the Ice Age flint hand-axes of the Somme. The discovery at Piltdown ranked worthily, too, with that of Neanderthal man discovered in 1857, the first known of all fossil men. These discoveries had encountered tremendous opposition before acceptance was won. The claims of Perthes had brought incredulity and set the scientific world a momentous problem, and only after years of stormy argument were these claims conceded; the discovery of Neanderthal man likewise brought disagreement and controversy. But this fossil form was accepted in the end. As Keith said, then came Dawson’s discovery, and this brought the greatest problem of all. But Keith did not go on to claim that all was now well with ‘the earliest known representative of man in Western Europe’, of which he had just finished a laborious re-study. A puzzle it had always been and a puzzle it was still. Keith could not hide his underlying doubt, and ten years later he expressed it again in the Foreword which he wrote at Lady Smith Woodward’s request to Woodward’s own book, The Earliest Englishman, published posthumously in 1948. He declared: ‘The Piltdown enigma is still far from a final solution.’ Why should Keith still express such doubt and bewilderment? But it was no longer surprising.