- Part I. EVOLUTION AND THE FOSSIL RECORD Acknowledgments xxiii
- 1 The Nature of Science
- What Is Science?
- Science and Belief Systems
- Belly Buttons and Testability
- Natural and Supernatural
- Science, Pseudoscience, and Baloney Detection
- Follow the Evidence Wherever It May Lead
- 2 Science and Creationism
- Mything Links
- The Genesis of Genesis
- What Is Creationism?
- Twentieth-Century Creationism
- “Intelligent Design”—or “Breathtaking Inanity”?
- The Monkey Business of Creationism
- 3 The Fossil Record
- Lucky Accidents of Fossilization
- Faunal Succession or “Flood Geology”?
- The Surreal World of “Flood Geology”
- The Grand Canyon Through the Looking Glass
- Ship of Foolishness?
- Dates with Rocks
- Punk Eek, Transitional Forms, . . . and Quote Miners
- 4 The Evolution of Evolution
- Before Darwin
- The Evolution of Darwin
- The Neo-Darwinian Evolutionary Synthesis
- Challenges to Neo-Darwinism
- Unfinished Synthesis
- Lamarck Revisited
- Neutralism, Junk DNA, and Molecular Clocks
- Macroevolution and Evo/Devo viii Contents
- The Evidence of Evolution
- The Family Tree of Life
- Homology
- Vestigial Structures and Other Imperfections
- Embryology
- Biogeography
- Evolution Happens All the Time!
- 5 Systematics and Evolution
- What Is Systematics?
- What Is Taxonomy?
- Ladders, Bushes, Mosaics, and “Missing Links”
- The Cladistic Revolution
- Ancestor Worship
- The Molecular Third Dimension
- The Branching Tree of Life
- Part II. EVOLUTION? THE FOSSILS SAY YES!
- 6 Life’s Origins
- To the Blazing Hot North Pole
- Recipe for Primordial Soup
- Mosh Pits, Fool’s Gold, Kitty Litter, Black Smokers, and Mud
- Communal Living Builds Complex Cells
- Probability and the Origin of Life
- 7 Cambrian “Explosion”—Or “Slow Fuse”?
- The Creationists’ Favorite Myth
- Step 1: Planet of the Scum
- Step 2: The Garden of Ediacara
- Step 3: The Little Shellies
- Step 4: In with a Whimper, Not a Bang
- 8 Spineless Wonders of Evolution
- Invertebrate Transitions
- The Incredible World of Microfossils
- The Story in the Seashells
- What About Macroevolution?
- 9 Fish Tales
- Show Some Backbone!
- It’s a Long Way from Amphioxus
- Jaws: The Evolutionary Story
- 10 Fish Out of Water Contents ix
- The Great Leap Upward
- Lobe Fins Lead the Way
- Four on the Floor
- The “Frogamander”
- 11 Onto the Land and Back to the Sea: The Amniotes
- Innovative Eggs
- Evolution of the Great Sea Dragons
- Snakes with Legs and Hopping Crocodiles
- 12 Dinosaurs Evolve—and Fly
- Dinosaur Transitions
- Lifestyles of the Huge and Ancient
- Dinosaurs Are Alive!
- 13 Mammalian Explosion
- From Amniote to Synapsid to Mammals
- Furballs in the Age of Dinosaurs
- Radiation in the Aftermath
- Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!
- 14 Bossies and Blowholes
- Thundering Hooves
- Tiny Horses, Hornless Rhinoceroses, and Thunder Beasts
- Kingdom of Cloven Hooves
- Walking Whales
- Dumbo and the Mermaid
- 15 The Ape’s Reflection?
- The Only Transition That Really Matters
- The Truth About Human Fossils
- The Third Chimpanzee
- 16 Why Does It Matter?
- Deceit in the Name of the Lord
- Why Should We Care?
- Choices for the Future
- Bibliography
- Index
elliott
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