The Lying Stones of Marrakech: Penultimate Reflections in Natural History

Contents......Page 8
Preface......Page 12
I. Episodes in the Birth of Paleontology: The Nature of Fossils and the Histor y of the Earth......Page 18
l. The Lying Stones of Marrakech......Page 20
2. The Sharp-Eyed Lynx, Outfoxed by Nature......Page 38
3. How the Vulva Stone Became a Brachiopod......Page 64
II. Present at the Creation: How France’s Three Finest Scientists Established Natural History in an Age of Revolution......Page 84
4. Inventing Natural History in Style......Page 86
5. The Proof of Lavoisier’s Plates......Page 102
6. A Tree Grows in Paris: Lamarck’s Division of Wormsand Revision of Nature......Page 126
III. Darwin\'s Century-and Ours: Lessons from Britain’s Four Greatest Victorian Naturalists......Page 156
7. Lyell’s Pillars of Wisdom......Page 158
8. A Sly Dullard Named Darwin: Recognizing the Multiple Facets of Genius......Page 180
9. An Awful Terrible Dinosaurian Irony......Page 194
10. Second-Guessing the Future......Page 212
IV. Six Little Pieces on the Meaning and Location of Excellence......Page 228
Substrate and Accomplishment......Page 230
11. Drink Deep, or Taste Not the Pierian Spring......Page 232
12. Requiem Eternal......Page 238
13. More Power to Him......Page 242
De Mortuis When Truly Bonum......Page 246
14. Bright Star Among Billions......Page 248
15. The Glory of His Time and Ours......Page 252
16. This Was a Man......Page 256
V. Science in Society\n......Page 260
17. A Tale of Two Work Sites......Page 262
18. The Internal Brand of the Scarlet W......Page 280
19. Dolly’s Fashion and Louis’s Passion......Page 298
20. Above All, Do No Harm......Page 310
VI. Evolution at all Scales......Page 326
21. Of Embryos and Ancestors......Page 328
22. The Paradox of the Visibly Irrelevant......Page 344
23. Room of One’s Own......Page 358
Illustration Credits......Page 368
Index......Page 369