Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms: Essays on Natural History

433 Pages·2011·3.19 MB·English

by  Stephen Jay Gould

L o n r d o ’ s
e a
Mountain of
Clams ANd the
Diet of Worms

L o n r d o ’ s
e a
Mountain of
Clams ANd the
Diet of Worms
E s s a y s o n N a t u r a l H i s t o r y
Stephen Jay Gould
TheBelknapPressofHarvardUniversityPress
Cambridge,Massachusetts
London,England
2011
Copyright©1998byTurbo,Inc.
Allrightsreserved
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
PublishedbyarrangementwithHarmonyBooks,animprintof
TheCrownPublishingGroup,adivisionofRandomHouse,Inc.
FirstHarvardUniversityPressedition,2011.
Alloftheessayscontainedinthisworkwerepreviouslypublished
NaturalHistory
in magazine.
DesignbyLynneAmft
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Gould,StephenJay.
Leonardo’smountainofclamsandtheDietofWorms:
essaysonnaturalhistory/StephenJayGould.
—1stHarvardUniversityPressed.
p. cm.
Originallypublished:NewYork:HarmonyBooks,c1998.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-0-674-06163-7(pbk.:alk.paper)
1.Naturalhistory. 2.Evolution(Biology). I.Title.
QH81.G673232011
508—dc23 2011017706
TO RAY SIEVER
AND TO THE MEMORY OF BERNIE KUMMEL,
twodearcolleaguesandfriends
whonurtured(andprotected)
ayoungpainintheass
andhelpedhimtobecomeascientist

C o n t e n t s
I N T R O D U C T I O N
PiecesofEight:ConfessionofaHumanisticNaturalist 1
I. A R T A N D S C I E N C E
1. TheUpwardlyMobileFossilsofLeonardo’s
LivingEarth 17
2. TheGreatWesternandtheFightingTemeraire 45
3. SeeingEyetoEye,ThroughaGlassClearly 57
II. B I O G R A P H I E S I N E V O L U T I O N
4. TheClamStrippedBarebyHerNaturalists,Even 77
5. Darwin’sAmericanSoulmate:ABird’s-EyeView 99
6. ASeahorseforAllRaces 119
7. Mr.Sophia’sPony 141
III. H U M A N P R E H I S T O R Y
8. UpAgainstaWall 161
9. ALessonfromtheOldMasters 179
10. OurUnusualUnity 197
Contents
IV. O F H I S T O R Y A N D T O L E R A T I O N
11. ACerionforChristopher 215
12. TheDodointheCaucusRace 231
13. TheDietofWormsandtheDefenestration
ofPrague 251
V. E V O L U T I O N A R Y F A C T S A N D
T H E O R I E S
14. Non-OverlappingMagisteria 269
15. Boyle’sLawandDarwin’sDetails 285
16. TheTallestTale 301
17. BrotherhoodbyInversion(or,AstheWormTurns) 319
VI. D I F F E R E N T P E R C E P T I O N S O F
C O M M O N T R U T H S
18. WaroftheWorldviews 339
19. TriumphoftheRoot-Heads 355
20. CanWeTrulyKnowSlothandRapacity? 375
21. ReversingEstablishedOrders 393
B i b l i o g r a p h y 405
I l l u s t r a t i o n C r e d i t s 412
I n d e x 414
L o n r d o ’ s
e a
Mountain of
Clams ANd the
Diet of Worms