The Panda's Thumb
More Reflections in Natural History

Publisher:  W.W. Norton & Co., USA
Year Published:  1980
Pages:  343pp   ISBN:  0-393-30819-7
Library of Congress Number:  QH361.G66 1980   Dewey:  575.01'62
Resource Type:  Book

A collection of essays centering on evolutionary theory, with an emphasis on Darwin's thoughts and impact.

Abstract: 
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Table of Contents

Prologue

Part I. Perfection and Imperfection: A Trilogy on a Panda's Thumb
1. The Panda's Thumb
2. Senseless Signs of History
3. Double Trouble

Part II. Darwiniana
4. Natural Selection and the Human Brain: Darwin vs. Wallace
5. Darwin's Middle Road
6. Death Before Birth, or a Mite's Nunc Dimittis
7. Shades of Lamarck
8. Caring Groups and Selfish Genes

Part III. Human Evolution
9. A biological Homage to Mickey Mouse
10. Piltdown Revisited
11. Our Greatest Evolutionary Step
12. In the Midst of Life …

Part VI. Science and Politics of Human Differences
13. Wide Hats and Narrow Minds
14. Women's Brains
15. Dr Down's Syndrome
16. Flaws in a Victorian Veil

Part V. The Pace of Change
17. The Episodic Nature of Evolutionary Change
18. Return of the Hopeful Monster
19. The Great Scablands Debate
20. A Quahog is a Quahog

Part VI. Early Life
21. An Early Start
22. Crazy Old Randolph Kirkpatrick
23. Bathybius and Eozoon
24. Might We Fit Inside a Sponge's Cell

Part VII. They Were Despised and Rejected
25. Were Dinosaurs Dumb?
26. The Telltale Wishbone
27. Nature's Odd Couples
28. Sticking Up for Marsupials

Part VIII. Size and Time
29. Our Allotted Lifetimes
30. Natural Attraction: Bacteria, The Birds and the Bees
31. Time's Vastness

Bibliography
Index

Subject Headings

• Natural History