Selected Essays

Cover......Page 1
Eight Little Piggies......Page 2
Bent Out of Shape......Page 18
An Earful of Jaw......Page 34
Full of Hot Air......Page 48
The Declining Empire of Apes......Page 60
Defending the Heretical and the Superfluous......Page 72
The Reversal of Hallucigenia......Page 88
A Dog's Life in Galton's Polyhedron......Page 99
Betting on Chance-- and No Fair Peeking......Page 113
Bushes and Ladders in Human Evolution......Page 124
The Misnamed, Mistreaded, and Misunderstood Irish Elk......Page 131
Organic Wisdom, or Why Should a Fly Eat Its Mother from Inside......Page 143
Of Bamboos, Cicadas, and theEconomy of Adam Smith......Page 149
The Problem of Perfection, of How Can a Clam Mount a Fish on Its Rear End?......Page 155
The Validation of Continental Drift......Page 163
Size and Shape......Page 171
Big Fish, Little Fish......Page 179
Nonmoral Nature......Page 190
Quick Lives and Quirky Changes......Page 204
Worm for a Century, and All Seasons......Page 214
Hyena Myths and Realities......Page 226
Kingdoms Without Wheels......Page 237
Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes......Page 245
Helpful Monsters......Page 255
Evolution as Fact and Theory......Page 265
A Visit to Dayton......Page 275
The Panda's Thumb......Page 292
Double Trouble......Page 300
Death Before Birth, or a Mite's Nunc Dimmitis......Page 310
Piltdown Revisited......Page 317
Our Greatest Evolutionary Step......Page 334
The Great Scablands Debate......Page 343
An Early Start......Page 353
Might We Fit Inside a Sponge's Cell......Page 363
Were Dinosaurs Dumb?......Page 375
Nature's Odd Couples......Page 383
Sticking Up for Marsupials......Page 394
Our Alloted Lifetimes......Page 401
Natural Attraction: Bacteria, the Birds, and the Bees......Page 408
Bully for Brontosaurus......Page 416
Of Kiwi Eggs and the Liberty Bell......Page 431
Male Nipples and Clitoral Ripples......Page 446
Not Necessarily a Wing......Page 461
Life's Little Joke......Page 474
Literary Bias on the Slippery Slope......Page 488
Glow, Big Glowworm......Page 500
To Be a Platypus......Page 514
Bligh's Bounty......Page 526
Here Goes Nothing......Page 539
Knight Takes Bishop?......Page 552
William Jennings Bryan's Last Campaign......Page 569
An Essay on a Pig Roast......Page 585
The Ant and the Plant......Page 601