My friend Professor Brian Gardiner was one of the ‘Gang of Four’ whose 1981 paper on lungfish relationships polarized the world into those who clove to comfy old-fashioned zoological storytelling, and those who woke up to the scientific rationality of cladistics. I wrote about this in my book Deep Time.
One of Prof Gardiner’s less successful ideas was his notion that mammals and birds are close sister groups, to the exclusion of reptiles such as crocodiles. In graduate school I enjoyed giving my students his paper to deconstruct, which they managed with such ease that most worried that it might have been a trick question.
But that was then.
This morning at the Maison des Gs I was refilling water bottles for the guinea pigs, and read the following legend.
This size suitable for guinea pigs, rabbits, parrots, pigeons and other small birds
Perhaps Professor Gardiner knew a thing or two after all.
The authors of those lines obviously have never seen the wood pigeons that sit in the tulip tree over my car. They must be drinking out of 10L jerrycans, given what they eject.
“When pigs fly” also comes to mind.
My local pub has air, water and earth sections to its menu. The pork chops are listed under air, with a note about flying pigs. There is also a flying pig suspended from the ceiling, along with a UFO. People either love this place or hate it!