I Thought Darwin Studied Finches

While reading the Guardian (the UK newspaper) over the weekend, I came across a little article in which a British scientist was complaining about the absurdity of featuring a drawing of a hummingbird (below) on the 10-pound note that honors Charles Darwin (it’s the 200th anniversary of his birth next February). The scientist points out, correctly, that there are no hummingbirds on the Galapagos Islands and they didn’t appear in On the Origin of Species. What I am wondering, though, is why he chose to make this an issue eight years after the design of the note was released and, presumably, after several of them had passed through this guy’s wallet?

Sarah Zielinski | | READ MORE

Sarah Zielinski is an award-winning science writer and editor. She is a contributing writer in science for Smithsonian.com and blogs at Wild Things, which appears on Science News.