The figure below comes from Helmets and Body Armor in Modern Warfare, a book written by the medieval armour expert Bashford Dean (1867 – 1930). The similarities between the evolution of these European war helmets and ‘proper’ biological evolution are striking. At the base we can see the ancestor of this clade of helmets: the Spangenhelm. Gradual modifications drive the descendants of the Spangenhelm in different directions as they adapt to specific niches. Around the time gunpowder is introduced in European warfare, many lineages suddenly go extinct. The few lineages that survive find new niches, while still showing the vestigial remains of their ancestor’s designs.
The analogy to biological evolution is too perfect and too well crafted to be coincidental. But how did an expert of medieval armour obtain such a good grasp of evolutionary principles? The answer is as simple as it is elegant: by being a biologist at the same time! Besides his love for medieval armour and weapons, Bashford Dean was a zoologist specialized in fish biology. One of his greatest interests was the the extinct group of Placodermi. Placodermi ! The armoured fish of the Devonian era! That cannot be a coincidence. He even wrote his dissertation on the intimidating fossil skull of one of the most enigmatic Placodermi of all time, the huge marine predator Dunkleosteus.
But it would be too obvious to merely make a funny comment about Bashford Dean’s fascination with armoured fish and armoured men and leave it at that. While he never made the connection explicitly, Bashford Dean must have seen that the history of Placodermi mirrors the evolution of medieval helmets in multiple ways. Let me explain. Placodermi first appear in rocks of Silurian age, but only really get going when the Devonian comes about. In the Devonian the Placoderms diversify until they have occupied all sorts of marine niches, ranging from fearsome carnivorous predators to bottom dwelling filter feeders. They could be found in all corners of the Devonian world, highlighting the success of these plated fish. In the Carboniferous, the entire group suddenly goes extinct, without leaving any descendants behind. Changes in terrestrial vegetation and the closing of the equatorial ocean between Laurasia and Gondwana closed might have have affected the global and oceanic climate in such a dramatic way that the Placoderms were unable to cope.
The menacing skull of a Dunkleosteus. It's beak is formed by two gnathal plates, and was capable one of delivering one the strongest bites in the animal world.
The evolutionary histories of Placoderms and medieval armour both show the recurring patterns of ongoing diversification, doused by sudden extinction. There’s an important evolutionary lesson here: the adaptations that have contributed to an organism’s success in the world of today, don’t guarantee it’s survival tomorrow. In other words, that closed helmet might keep lances and swords out of your face, but it’s not going to stop bullets any time soon.
It took a man with a passion for both the history of man and the history of life to let these insights seep from one domain into the text. As the curator of both the American Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bashford Dean bridged more than just medieval armour and Devonian fish. He bridged the sciences and the arts. From everything that I’ve read about him, he sounded like a wonderful man who I would’ve loved to meet.
From his obituary in Time Magazine:
He felt that a suit of armor on a museum rack is as dead as a fish’s skeleton. Fine armor is meant to be worn. Its beauty is not alone in the lines of the steel, the delicacy of the engraving, but in the play of light on the moving body, the way pauldron and cuisse move with the wearer. [..] Many times he begged the museum authorities to set aside certain days on which the public could see men-at-arms walking about the museum floor. Children in Riverdale loved him for the cool afternoons when he would dress himself in 60 lbs. of 17th Century harness and stride about the lawns of his Riverdale home for their benefit.
Bashford Dean, I tip my helmet to you!
Bashford Dean, suited up in armour. From the accompanying description: "He was a verray parfit gentle knight."
Young, G. (2010). Placoderms (Armored Fish): Dominant Vertebrates of the Devonian Period Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 38 (1), 523-550 DOI: 10.1146/annurev-earth-040809-152507
Sources for pictures 1, 2 and 3
The helmet evolution picture came to my attention via Kevin Kelly’s post on his new book.
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I agree that adaptations of organisms don’t gaurantee their survival but it does strength the species by teaching other survivors where the faulty adaptations may be. With the advent of firearms further adaptation was required. By looking at how weapons were modified throughout history you can see how the later generations survived by making improvements.
Thanks for your comment mizerman! While your statement definitely holds true for humans who can learn from the past (I’m still hopeful..), non-conscious biological organisms cannot plan for the future. Life is unable learn from past mistakes.
Take dinosaurs for example. They were the largest animals in their day. A sensible strategy, because a large size offers many benefits. Except that when a comet struck and the climate went haywire, their high energetic demands were a huge disadvantage, so they went extinct. Nowadays, many of the ecological niches that were occupied by dinosaurs, are now filled by mammals. Should some similar catastrophe happen today, large mammals (giraffes, wolves, lions, elephants, moose etc.) would be the first ones to go.