Pelicans have kept their body design unchanged for 30 million years

Evidence

Behind them rose the skyline of San Francisco, with its new Salesforce tower and its high-rise condos. If I squinted, I could just make out the building where I used to work, where they might have been discussing “brand pillars” at this very moment. Back there, things moved so quickly that we had separate catalogs for Spring 1, Spring 2, and Spring 3. But the pelicans made all of that seem like a joke with no punch line. Based on a fossil dating from the Oligocene Epoch, the general design of the pelican appears not to have changed for 30 million years. In the winter, as they have for countless ages, the pelicans will be heading south to the Channel Islands and to Mexico to build the nests whose designs, too, have remained largely unchanged. — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 681

Categorization

• CANDY: A pelican whose design predates fashion seasons is a vivid, shareable image pitting geologic time against corporate sprints.