10176A London Jonathan Cape 1993 Reprint ed. Paperback octavo, very good plus condition, black & white text-photos, old price marks. Heavy (1.0 Kg). 479 pp. The sixth and most contemplative and personal of Gould's books. Examines the importance of unbroken connections within our own lives and to our ancestors - a theme of supreme importance to evolutionists who study extinction as the ultimate fate of all species. Environmental deterioration and the massive extinction of species on our present earth is of concern. He chooses unusual and telling examples: the demise of the land snail Partula from Moorea (the Bali Ha'i of South Pacific); and why the battle that raged over the Mount Graham red squirrel of Arizona was worth fighting. There are more than thirty of those "pretty pebbles" that make Gould's work unique, opening to us the mysteries of fish tails and frog calls, of the coloration of pigeons, and the eye tissue of completely blind mole rats. We learn the story behind the bent tail of an ichthyosaur, how hearing bones evolved, and why we have five fingers and toes (the title essay) - as having evolved from ancestors that had six or eight fingers. ISBN: 0224037161 $20.00AUD
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