Contents

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. Preface vii
4. Chapter 1 The Three Musketeers of Macroevolution: Does Anyone Get to Be D’Artagnan? 1
5. Chapter 2 Asleep at the Switch: Paleontological Life Lessons, Stasis, and the Genius of Yogi Berra 18
6. Chapter 3 Survival of the Laziest: Does Evolution Permit Naps? 28
7. Chapter 4 Time’s Arrow, Time’s Cycle, Times Square: Gould, Kant, and Super Dave 37
8. Chapter 5 Expanding Evolution: Organisms and Species, the Soma, and the Technosphere 57
9. Chapter 6 Declining Volatility: A General Evolutionary Principle and Its Relevance to Fossils, Stocks, and Stars 79
10. Chapter 7 Paleo Personas: Musings on a Soviet Cephalopod, Norman Newell, and Mass Extinctions 102
11. Chapter 8 Stardust Memories: Reading Evolution and Extinction in the Stars 116
12. Chapter 9 Is Eternal Sex Necessary? Or, What Are These Coywolves Doing in My Backyard? 128
13. Chapter 10 Darwin in the Galápagos: Running the Beagle Tape Backward 141
14. Chapter 11 Of Cultural Nationalism, Hamlet, and the Cloaca Universalis: Why Citation Is the Best Policy 155
15. Chapter 12 When Is a Raptor a Parrot? The Curious Case of the American Kestrel 171
16. Chapter 13 What’s Your Favorite Trilobite? Walter Winchell Wouldn’t Have Cared 180
17. Acknowledgments 191
18. Notes 193
19. References 197
20. Index 201