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Today, 25th June, is the International Day of the Seafarer – a United Nations observance day.

Many will know the quote from Kenneth Grahame’s book The Wind in the Willows when Water Rat (“Ratty”, who is actually a Water Vole!) says to Mole:

“Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.”

What is less well known is the adventurer, Sea Rat’s, speech:

“And now,” he was softly saying, “I take to the road again, holding on southwestwards for many a long and dusty day; till at last I reach the little grey sea town I know so well, that clings along one steep side of the harbour. There through dark doorways you look down flights of stone steps, overhung by great pink tufts of valerian and ending in a patch of sparkling blue water. The little boats that lie tethered to the rings and stanchions of the old sea-wall are gaily painted as those I clambered in and out of in my own childhood; the salmon leap on the flood tide, schools of mackerel flash and play past quay-sides and foreshores, and by the windows the great vessels glide, night and day, up to their moorings or forth to the open sea. There, sooner or later, the ships of all seafaring nations arrive; and there, at its destined hour, the ship of my choice will let go its anchor. I shall take my time, I shall tarry and bide, till at last the right one lies waiting for me, warped out into midstream, loaded low, her bowsprit pointing down harbour. I shall slip on board, by boat or along hawser; and then one morning I shall wake to the song and tramp of the sailors, the clink of the capstan, and the rattle of the anchor-chain coming merrily in. We shall break out the jib and the foresail, the white houses on the harbour side will glide slowly past us as she gathers steering-way, and the voyage will have begun! As she forges towards the headland she will clothe herself with canvas; and then, once outside, the sounding slap of great green seas as she heels to the wind, pointing South!

And you, you will come too, young brother; for the days pass, and never return, and the South still waits for you. Take the Adventure, heed the call, now ere the irrevocable moment passes!!”

The expression, running away to sea, like running away to join the circus, speaks to us of a desire for adventure, for shores anew, and for a life lived to the full, despite, or even because of the elements of danger. Life, and work, at sea can still fulfil these desires, and dangers remain – the sea is an unpredictable force of nature, personified by the ancient Greeks and Romans as Poseidon and Neptune respectively. Seafaring for work is, by definition, a global enterprise, and around 90% of goods are transported by sea. The International Maritime Organisation is marking today’s Day of the Seafarer with its 2020 campaign, “Seafarers are Key Workers” to acknowledge the work that they do, and continue to despite the pandemic, and how they play an important, if often unseen, key part in all our lives.

Learn More

Learn more about the history of seafaring:

• The Lost World of Sailing Ships 1780 – 1880
• British Merchant Shipping c.1810 – 1914

(by Learn for Pleasure on 25th June 2020)

Islands are the epitome of isolated evolution and Madagascar holds the crown for producing phenomenal plants and animals from hissing cockroaches to panther chameleons. It is the 4th largest island on earth and is where this 66 million-year-old, opossum-sized mammal fossil was found.

On 29th of April 2020, the journal Nature announced that a research team which was led by Dr. David Krause has discovered this perfectly preserved, not to mention practically complete skeleton in Madagascar. This new Mesozoic mammal was named Adalatherium which means “crazy beast’’, the name being derived from Malagasy and Greek languages.

Dr. Krause who is the Senior curator of vertebrate palaeontology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science says that, compared to known mammals’ skeletal anatomies, it is astonishing how an ancient mammal like this managed to evolve. According to him, it is an inconceivable discovery which even breaks prevailing theories of palaeontology.

Gondwanatheria is an extinct group of Mammals which were previously recognised from cranial fragments, teeth and a few lower jaws. These mammals lived in the Southern Hemisphere in the ancient supercontinent Gondwana, hence the name. The first fossils were discovered in the 1980s in Argentina, and other fossils were found later in other countries including Africa, India, Madagascar and Antarctic Peninsula. These mammals were assumed to be similar to Armadillos, Anteaters and Sloths.

However, according to Dr. Krause, Gondwanatheria was a failed evolutionary experiment which came to an end during the Eocene. Adalatherium belongs to these mammals that went extinct approximately 45 million years ago. This mammal, which lived among dinosaurs and mammoth crocodiles, had bizarre nerves and blood vessel supply passageways. No living nor extinct mammal had this many of holes or (foramina) on its face – its most distinguished feature is the large hole which is located on top of its ultra-sensitive snout which was covered in whiskers. The teeth of Adalatherium also had peculiar traits compared to other mammals, one of the leg bones was curved in an abnormal way and its backbone had several more vertebrae than previous Mesozoic mammals that have been unearthed.

Its other pre-eminent quality is that Adalatherium was rather large as the other mammals who lived among the dinosaurs were usually the size of a mouse. The scientific team is still baffled by the bizarre features of Adalatherium. For one, according to Simone Hoffmann from the New York Institute of Technology who is the primary collaborator of Dr. Krause, Adalatherium’s anatomy tells two different stories from its front and back, making it quite tricky to figure out its movements other than presuming it was capable of running and digging.

Adalatherium’s extraordinary traits were developed as a result of the isolation of Madagascar from the mainland being alienated in the Indian Ocean. As the plate tectonic history of Gondwana evidence suggests, this isolation helped these mammals to evolve for over 20 million years.

Over the past 25 years Dr. Krause and his team have managed to uncover other vertebrates including a predatory frog (Beelzebufo), a buck-toothed dinosaur (Masiakasaurus) and a pug-nosed, vegetarian crocodile (Simosuchus) on Madagascar.

Even though Adalatherium is just a small piece of a puzzle in the long history of early mammalian evolution, it unfolds many new opportunities to further understand the lives of Gondwanatherians.

Learn more about fossils.

(by Learn for Pleasure on 4th May 2020)