Happy #NationalAardvarkWeek!
Besides being one of my favorite mammals, the Aardvark (Orycteropus afer) is also the most evolutionarily distinct one, which makes it very special indeed:
The aardvark…has the highest score for being the most evolutionarily distinctive (ED) using the EDGE scientific method. Species such as the aardvark are much more distinct than others because they represent a larger amount of unique evolution: they have few or no close relatives and have been evolving independently for millions of years. The aardvark is the only living representative of an entire order of animals, the Tubilidentata. Its closest relatives in this order have been extinct since the late Pleistocene age (2 million to 10,000 years ago) and now aardvarks are the only remaining species.
ZSL EDGE of Existence
[FYI, the only other mammal order with a single living member is Microbiotheria, represented by the Monito del Monte (Dromiciops gliroides); however, this little marsupial has more living relatives one step out in their superorder Australidelphia than the Aardvark does in the Afrotheria.]
To kick off this week’s celebrations, here are four pages of aardvarks from the albums of Robert Jacob Gordon (Scotch-Dutch, 1743-1795). Gordon became a colonel in the Dutch East India Company and commanded the Dutch Cape Colony garrison from 1780 – 1795. He also undertook at least five expeditions through South Africa between 1773 and 1786, during which he collected and produced a phenomenal amount of information about the region:
…he had amassed an enormous quantity of material, both visual and verbal, concerning the topography, fauna, flora, meteorology, geology and inhabitants of South Africa which, taken together, give an astonishingly complete and detailed overview of the country during the final decades of the Dutch East India Company’s regime. His achievement is all the more remarkable in that he collected and classified it almost single-handedly, showing equal skills as a botanist, zoologist, ethnographer, linguist, geologist, cartographer and draughtsman, assisted only by a small group of untrained servants and semi-skilled soldiers.
Rijksmuseum
These records are now preserved in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (455 drawings and maps) and the Brenthurst Library in Johannesburg (930 manuscript pages). The entire collection has been digitized and united online on a site hosted by the Rijksmuseum, and is an incredible resource:
Robert Jacob Gordon: His Written and Visual Descriptions of South Africa (1777-1795)
The Rijksmuseum is also home to The Gordon African Collection, 4 albums full of his natural history illustrations. Here are the aardvarks from the Quadrupeds album (RP-T-1914-17B):
paper, deck paint, ink, watercolor (paint), pencil, chalk; pen/brush
height 660 mm × width c. 480 mm
annotation: ‘onder: Caaps Sogenaamt Aardvarken / Sijnde een regte Miereneter van het Vrouwelijk geslagt ~.; l.b.: regter voor poot, van onder gesien.; r.b.: regter agter poot van onder gesien; m.b. Lengte […]’
Rijksmuseum RP-T-1914-17-215
annotation: ‘onderaan: Caaps Sogenaamt Aardvarken / sijnde een regte Mieren – eter, van het Vrouwelijk geslagt ~.’
paper, ink, watercolor (paint), pencil, chalk; pen/brush
height c. 660 mm × width 480 mm
Rijksmuseum RP-T-1914-17-234
annotation: ‘onderaan: Caaps Sogenaamt Aardvarken / Sijnde een regte Mieren = eter. van het Vrouwelijk geslagt~. / […]’
paper, ink, watercolor (paint), pencil, chalk; pen / brush
height c. 660 mm × width 480 mm
Rijksmuseum RP-T-1914-17-235
annotation: ‘een Caaps zogenaamd Aardvarken, zijnde een regte Mieren Eter, dog niet de Americaansche, […]’ signature and date: ‘[…] den 16.August: R:J: Gordon’
paper, ink, watercolor (paint), pencil, chalk; pen / brush
height c. 660 mm × width 480 mm
Rijksmuseum RP-T-1914-17-236
Stay tuned for more aardvark art both here and on the social media channels!
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