Paperback ( )

Volume 3 of the collected essays of this author was a mix as usual of rather dry ones I found hard to get into, and more interesting topics such as whether all varieties of zebra (there are three, each with distinctive stripe patterns) are actually related and whether the capacity for stripes is inherent in horses as a whole (it is). Another essay deals with the development of the horse leg and how two toes fused to another bone but in some throw backs appear as large toes branching off the leg too high up to actually function as toes.

I was puzzled by the section on the Piltdown Man hoax since the previous volume included a similar article on the subject - it seems that after the one in the present volume was originally published a furore resulted with defenders of Teilhard de Chardin launching vicious attacks upon Gould. In this volume, a second article appears where he refuted the arguments of a few more prominent attacks (while drawing a veil over nastier comments which, reading between the lines, might have been anti-Semitic, the author being Jewish). I don't know why they reacted thus after this second essay when seemingly the first very similar one passed unremarked.

One essay discusses the possibility of an asteroid being responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs - this is so well accepted today that it's interesting to see the early stages of the introduction of this idea.

On the whole this balances out as 3 stars. ( )

A collection of essays on evolutionary biology by provocative and original thinker Stephen Jay Gould, a paleontologist at Harvard University. A good bit of debunking and setting the record straight on matters pertaining to evolution and evolutionary theory.

Witty and well-informed as ever. One of the best is on how pioneers of statistics got it all wrong about immigration, moulding their criteria to fit their racist prejudices. Several excursions into Darwin, how wide-ranging he was, what a master of detail as well as grand theory. Strong on, or rather against, creationists - no such thing as "scientific creationism". Seems to be a particularly American delusion, a precursor to our present "post-truth" culture. ( )

Another set of Gould's essays, mostly focused on the theme of evolution in one form or another. Like many of these volumes, some of the essays have dated a bit more than others, but there remain some interesting bits. ( )