This song, set to the tune of "It's a Long Way to Tipperary", has verses written by Philip H. Pope (later of Whitman College) in 1921. His fiancee Louise Smith heard students in the summer course of the Biological Laboratories of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories on Long Island, New York singing a version of the chorus to the song "Tipperary". She suggested to Philip that he write lyrics to the song. He did. The song soon also became a favorite at the summer courses of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. For more information about the Popes click here. On another page I have posted information on appearances of the song in MBL songbooks in 1921 and 1922, as well as a page with an image of Pope's own copy of the words.

The Amphioxus Song was also included in a small book, "Songs Of Biology", by Frank R. Brooks, published by the Beta Beta Beta biological honor society in 1948 (it may also have been in the first edition of 1939). A 1965 edition of this book was reprinted in 1978 by the MBL. Songs Of Biology credited Philip Pope with the lyrics.

The song was further popularized by the late folk singer (and marine biologist) Sam Hinton, in his well-received 1961 record "The Song Of Men: All Sorts and Kinds" (Smithsonian Folkways FA 2400).

Hinton learned the words in 1934, when he was a zoology student at Texas A&M University, from his instructor Sewell H. Hopkins. Hopkins did not sing it but declaimed it as a poem. He said that he had learned it in the 1920's in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, but he did not know the name of the author, saying only that its words were found posted on a bulletin board. MBL records show that Hopkins attended the Zoölogy course at the MBL in the summer of 1927.

The song is sometimes erroneously credited to the excellent present-day Seattle-area songwriter Mark Graham, who does not claim it.

Performance by Hinton (MP3 format)

A video of a performance by me (Quicktime movie) shot by Anna Malaspinas at the 2010 annual retreat of the Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Program of the University of California, Berkeley, at the Marconi Center, Marshall, California, another of my performances, this one at the Workshop on Molecular Evolution in 2011 at the MBL in Woods Hole, and my 2015 performance there.

The amphioxus Branchiostoma

Illustration courtesy of The BIODIDAC Project, which is no longer on the web.

Sam Hinton's diagram of the
anatomy of an amphioxus,
from his album liner notes

Well, yes and no. The origin of the chordates from the annelids is an obsolete idea (you could come closer by singing "among the tunicates" or, better yet, "among echinoderms" instead). But the Cephalochordates (the group consisting of the species of amphioxus) do in fact seem to be the closest relative (sister taxon) of the craniate chordates (the hagfish and the vertebrates). This was proposed almost 150 years ago. In between, it fell out of favor. But molecular evolution studies have restored Branchiostoma to this honorable position. However, more recent molecular evolution studies have suggested a more intriguing possibility: the tunicates (sea squirts) may be more closely related to us than is the amphioxus. The cephalochordates (the amphioxus species) may have branched off the chordate line before the tunicates separated from the craniate chordates. If so, this makes the amphioxus more rather than less interesting, as reflecting an even earlier state of chordate evolution. The matter is under debate; stay tuned.

Sam Hinton to Joe Felsenstein, e-mail of 18 February 1997

I had asked him whether the song originated from MBL or WHOI (the better-known Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution next door to the MBL). (I later found out that WHOI could not have been involved as it didn't exist at that time).

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I wish I could be certain about this, but can't.  In 1934, when I was a
freshman zoology major at Texas A & M, I learned this song from Mr. Sewell H.
Hopkins of the Zoology Department.  He said that it dated from sometiime in
the '20's, and that he had learned it at Woods Hole. He didn't specify WHERE
at Woods Hole.  But I think it more likely that he had been at MBL rather
than WHOI; I know he went on to obtain a PhD somewhere, and he became
Director of the State Fish, Game and Oyster Commission of Virginia-- and that
sounds more like an MBL guy than a WHOI one!

Mr. Hopkins didn't sing it for me, but declaimed it as a poem, with quite
vivid histrionics.

He did say that, wherever it was, it had appeared anonymously on a bulletin
board.
Some have tried to credit it to Prof. Walter Garstang (1868-1949) of the
U.K., but I understand he disavowed it, and it does not appear in his book of
collected poems entitled _Larval Forms_.(Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1962 [3rd
printing]}.  In his day Amphioxus  (now _Branchiostoma_) was often cited as
proving the theory of recapitulation, and Garstang was the first scientist to
try to repudiate that theory. One of his last communications was to the
effect that Amphioxus most nearly represented a paedomorphic neotenous larva
of a Cyclostome.  So I guess he didn't write the song!

When I sing it these days, I try to warn the audience not to take seriously
the idea that there is some sort of Lamarckian tendency toward complexity and
"perfection" in the processes of evolution....

Anyway, I think you should sing it as an MBI creation, and ask the audience
if anyone knows for sure.  

I wish I could hear your lecture and singing!

Sam Hinton in liner notes, 1961.

In the liner notes to his record: "Sam Hinton Sings the Song of Men: All Sorts and Kinds", Folkway Records, FA2400, Hinton wrote:

For some years this was practically the theme-song of the summer
students at the Woods Hole Biological Institution in Massachusetts; it
was made up by persons unknown back in the days when _amphioxus_ (now
technically known as _Branchiostoma_) was thought to resemble the
theoretical ancestor of all the vertebrate groups.  Nowadays,
most systematic biologists agree that amphioxus is a
sideline, and that the sea-squirts and other ascidians are more like
our Great-Great-Great-to-the-Nth-power Grandparents.  It's still a
good song, though, and has a sort of cheerful optimism for the future
that we need today ....  I learned it when I was a freshman at Texas
A&M College, from Dr. Sewell H. Hopkins of the Zo Department, and I
shall never forget the deep feeling and fervor with which he used to
declaim it.  

Prehistory: earlier songs about the amphioxus

Nicholas Hopwood has witten a charming historical article about the fascination with the amphioxus in the 1800s. It includes the words and translations of two humorous songs in German about the amphioxus and its scientific significance. Neither song is similar in tune or words to the present Amphioxus Song. This web page is referenced in Hopwood's article.

Here is a link to Hopwood's article.

• Jeff Moran's "Dr. Chordate" pages include a copy of the song and mention of its presence in the book "Songs of Biology" in 1948, as well as a statement that "The above lyrics are claimed by a Philip Pope of Whitman College (probably long since deceased)".
• Joseph M. Newcomer has presented The Annotated Amphioxus, which explains much of the terminology of the song.
• The excellent Cephalochordate page at the web site of the University of California Museum of Paleontology in Berkeley, California, has lots of information about the amphioxus and, in the page title, makes reference to the song.
• The song has been adopted as the official song of the Biological Sciences Collegiate Division at the University of Chicago.
• It is performed yearly at the Workshop on Molecular Evolution course at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole.

This page prepared by Joe Felsenstein. I am indebted to the late Sam Hinton, Jeff "Dr. Chordate" Moran, Joel Weintraub, Heidi Dobson, Jean Monahan (MBL Archivist), Clare Bunce (CSHL Archivist), and especially to the late Arthur Rempel of Whitman College and the late Edith Pope Patten of Shoreline, Washington, who shared recollections and provided materials about Art's friends and Edith's parents Philip Pope and Louise Smith Pope.