Book Description

This book presents the statistical methods that are useful in the study of molecular evolution and illustrates how to use them in actual data analysis. It is appropriate for graduate students and researchers (assuming a basic knowledge of evolution, moecular biology, and elementary statistics), allowing many investigators to incorporate refined statistical analysis of large-scale data in their own work. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

A valuable addition
I don't look for any one book to answer all my questions. This one carries its weight, though, and maybe a bit more.

The first section gives the clearest and most detailed description of nucleotide sequence comparisons I've seen. I'm no biologist, but it really got me thinking about some new ways to talk about substitution matrices.

The bulk of the book covers what I hoped for originally: phylogenetic trees. The authors choose an unusual approach - it doesn't quite meet the authors' initial promise of math-minimization, but doesn't climb too far up the ivory tower, either. I find it a very practical, usable level of presentation. I'd be nervous about going beyond their formulas, since the math for real understanding isn't all there. Still, the phylogeny discussion covers a lot of material, and covers it well enough for me to write programs about most of it.

The final section addresses population genetics. I have nothing against population genetics, it just never seemed to point where I'm headed. Nei and Kumar corrected my mis-impression. Population gentics is the background model, the null hypothesis, behind the functions that score population differences. It really shows what happens when the tree of life branches out.

The book has some minor weaknesses. It emphasizes nucleotide sequences at the expense of peptides; I can't fault an author for writing what they want as opposed to what I want. On page one, the authors decline an intensely mathematical approach. By page 25, they're up to Poisson and gamma distances. The typography make the section breaks into a "Where's Waldo" experience. Nei's favorite author, based on citations, is Nei. Well, false modesty is no virtue. This book seems authoritative and Nei seems to be an authority, maybe not just in Nei's opinion.

This book really has given me a lot more to work with than most. Education isn't cheap these days, and this book is very educational. I just hope no one asks me to lend it any time soon.

OK, until something better comes along
Nei and Kumar's "Molecular Evolution and Phylogenetics" is basically an updated version of Nei's 1987 "Molecular Evolutionary Genetics" book. Accordingly, attention is shifted to reviewing many recent advances in methods of phylogenetic inference with an obvious bias towards distance methods, particularly those which the senior author devised. In fairness, they give decent coverage to the more popular parsimony and likelihood methods as well. The great strength of the book is the number of real examples used to illustrate properties of the methods, and their focus on statistical methodology without miring the reader in detailed mathematics. The disappointment is that while breadth of coverage is tolerable, depth is lacking. Expanding their views on the shortcomings of likelihood in choosing tree topology and likelihood ratio-tests in choosing models of sequence evolution would have been most enlightening, particularly as these issues have been brushed lightly aside by phylo-likelihoodists. Other methods (Hadamard transformations, Bayesian phylogenetic inference) were absent altogether. Further the chapter on molecular clocks was disappointing--old 1980s controversies were rehashed, while there was nothing on methods that relax the assumption of rate constancy while still allowing divergences to be dated. Admittedly some of this is very new and research is ongoing, but there isn't even a hint of these developments in this chapter. Another plus though is the addition of a chapter on inferring ancestral states of molecular sequences.

Unlike Molecular Evolutionary Genetics, far too little of the book is devoted to methods at the population level, and what is there again smacks of state-of-the-art 15-20 years ago. I was hoping for much more coverage of microsatellite and AFLP data. There was very little for either, while now rarely-used RFLPs were given extensive coverage.

In short, this book was too short, particularly for the price, and I almost gave it 3 stars rather than 4. However, if you are a phylogeneticist, you will probably want to have this book on your shelf. A lighter introduction for the uninitiated would be Rod Page's "Molecular Evolution" or Graur and Li's "Fundamentals of Molecular Evolution". However, my hopes for a good comprehensive text and reference on phylogenetic methods now rest on publication of Joseph Felsenstein's "Inferring Phylogenies".

Top in its Field
This book is an excellent text and reference for both graduate students and faculty. It covers several topics in molecular evolution and phylogenetic analysis, as the title suggests. It stands as a unique contribution because the authors explain the mathematical and conceptual framework of a given topic in molecular evolution or phylogenetic analysis and give subsequent examples to show how various analytical methods can be applied to the study of that topic. In that context, the explanation of concepts was exceptionally clear, which made it easy to understand potentially difficult subject matter. This book is highly recommended to those wishing to study the analysis of genes and proteins in an evolutionary framework.

An advanced textbook for graduate students.
This is an advanced textbook on population genetics and molecular evolution. It is best recommended for graduate students with some background in population genetics and statistics. It gives a broad and thorough view of the field of molecular evolution and phylogenic different models up to date. The authors have included a lot of numerical examples to demonstrate the principles of the various models dealt with (mainly by using the MEGAII software), which helps a lot to relate to. Unlike some other general textbooks of population genetics, this book indeed concentrate mainly on phylogenic analysis and hence it's uniqueness and advantage. ... Read more

Book Description

In The Crucible of Creation, paleontologist Simon Conway Morris describes the marvelous finds of the Burgess Shale--a fantastically rich deposit of Cambrian fossils discovered in Western Canada.One of the few paleontologists ever to explore the Burgess Shale, he provides a complete overview of this remarkable find, ranging from a fascinating description of the painstaking on-site scientific work to an informative discussion of the origins of life on earth.

At the heart of the book, Conway Morris takes the reader on imaginative trip in a time machine back to the Cambrian seas, bringing the fossilized creatures to life as they existed then. And perhaps most important, he applies the revelations of the Burgess Shale to modern evolutionary thinking. In particular, he lays out a critique of Stephen Jay Gould's ideas, drawing quite different conclusions from Gould on the nature of evolution. This finely illustrated volume takes the reader to the forefront of paleontology as it provides fresh insights into the nature of evolution and of life on earth. ... Read more

Reviews (22)

A Fascinating Look at the Burgess Shale Organisms
Having read and loved Professor Gould's book, Wonderful Life, I have always wanted to read and learn more about the Cambrian fauna.This book was just what I was looking for. It provides information about other organisms from other Cambrian fossil localities and ties these into the Burgess Shale story. I appreciate the way Conway-Morris brings the organisms to life in his time-travel scenario. And the photographs of the fossils are beautiful! Obviously a great deal of care went into taking these unretouched photos. His disagreements with Gould are also illuminating and add depth to the book, providing another way of looking at these organisms. Conway-Morris's account of how Wiwaxia and the halkieriids tie together the Annelids, the Mollusca and the Brachiopods is particularly fascinating.

Conway Morris (and lots of reviewers of his book). . .
take potshots at Stephen Gould's extended speculation on contingency. This is unfortunate because it is all a waste of words-- "contingency", as used by Gould, cannot be science because it is not possible to devise a test of falsifiability (ref: Karl Popper.) What Gould's book is about is the context of science within its culture--why Walcott made his "big mistake". (If you are possibly wondering if Charles Walcott was some amateur rockhound then disabuse yourself with Ellis Yochelson's recent biography.)

What Simon Conway Morris's book is about is an ecological approach to the Cambrian menagerie.

What *all* the Burgess books are about is a celebration of the most important animals fossils yet discovered. (You get your best look [apart from the museums] with Chip Clark's excellent photographs in Derek Briggs's "Fossils of the Burgess Shale".)

Five-eyed arthropods.
A reviewer of this book explains that Opabinia could not possibly be related to the arthropods, because it has five eyes. This most erudite person seems to ignore that many present-day arthropods have, in fact, five eyes. They are called insects! Many insects have two composite eyes and three small simple eyes. Now 2+3=5, so many insects, like the cicada, etc. do have five eyes. Since insects are arthropods, five-eyed arthropods are not unheard of, and are in fact very common.

A much better book on the Burgess Shale fossils than Gould's
This is a very good book on the Burgess Shale fossils, written by one of the people who ACTUALLY did the work that Gould uses in his "Wonderful Life". It shows that Gould's interpretation is biased toward his peculiar view of "Evolution without Progress". It also shows that many of Gould's main arguments are based on simple mistakes, like the upside-down Hallucinogenia. While Gould present a fringe view of evolution, Morris presents the standard neo-Darwinian picture.

He shows that most of the Burgess Shale fossils fit in ordinary phyla, after all. Or are clearly related to ancestors of the present phyla. Mysterious animals like the halkieriids are shown to be intermediate between the annelida and the brachiopoda, while wiwaxia is probably a stem lineage annelid. Just as Darwin would have expected! While some details can still be wrong, the overall picture fits well with ordinary ideas of how evolution works.

It is amusing to see a Christian (Morris) defend orthodox neo-Darwinism against a materialist (Gould). In fact, compared to Morris, Gould looks like a creationist! This book is not just better science than Gould's, it is also better philosophy.

The book is much more than a polemic against Gould. It tells a story of hunting fossils from Greenland to China: a most satisfying story to read. Unfortunately, I am sure than far fewer copies of this informative and up-to-date book have been sold than of the misleading "Wonderful Life". What a pity!

Superb study on the Burgess Shale
Morris, one of two contemporary specialists on the Burgess Shale, has produced an exceedingly well-written survey of the Burgess shale fauna and their meaning for evolutionary biology. The book is loaded with scores of B/W photos, 4 color drawings, a 13-page glossary of terms for the uninitiated, an imaginative underwater excursis with time-travelling paleontologists to the middle Cambrian, and a chapter on developmental evolutionary genetics (wherein he argues that many Burgess forms *are* related to contemporary forms). Stephen Jay Gould's view of the significance of the Burgess Shale is that the bizarre life-forms seen then demonstrate the historical contingency of evolution--rewind the tape and let it play out again, and things would turn out differently (a la Jimmy Stewart's "Wonderful Life"). Morris's thesis is that Gould's tape-player metaphor is misleading, overemphasizing contingency at the cost of ignoring the powerful role played by ecology . One need only consider the evolution of convergent traits in insular life-forms (e.g., Australian marsupial cat-like predators) to get the point. (I should point out that I am suspicious of monolithic theories from either pole of the necessity-chance spectrum.) I find it unfortunate that Gould never discussed Bradley Efron's Bootstrap, a technique used widely in evolutionary and population genetics, or cellular automata, a la Stuart Kauffman, which give rise to the same recurrent patterns with astonishing regularity.) Morris is an adaptationist senstive to the power of ecology to shape evolution, who sees Burgess forms not as deviant freaks that accidentally went extinct but as ancestral to contemporary animals. As usual, there is likely to be truth to both positions; indeed, in some ways, their different views turn on different understandings of probability. For anyone with more than a passing interest in evolutionary biology and paleontology, who finds Gould's incessant digressions distracting, or wonders about the hypertrophy of contingency, this book should not be missed. ... Read more

Book Description

Information Theory, Evolution and the Origin of Life presents a timely introduction to the use of information theory and coding theory in molecular biology. The genetical information system, because it is linear and digital, resembles the algorithmic language of computers. George Gamow pointed out that the application of Shannon's information theory breaks genetics and molecular biology out of the descriptive mode into the quantitative mode and Dr Yockey develops this theme, discussing how information theory and coding theory can be applied to molecular biology. He discusses how these tools for measuring the information in the sequences of the genome and the proteome are essential for our complete understanding of the nature and origin of life. The author writes for the computer competent reader who is interested in evolution and the origins of life. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Clears confusions with different concepts of entropy.
Biological literature is full of confusions stemming from using different concepts of entropy as if they are the same or related.
Thermodynamic entropy and logical (information) entropy don't correlate, and as an interesting recent example of one way that they don't, Rolf Landauer has shown that "there is no umavoidable minimal energy requirement per transmitted bit."

Yockey gives an insightful treatment of this subject, forcefully pointing out how different types of entropy are unrelated. For instance, he explains that Shannon entropy and Maxwell-Boltzmann-Gibbs entropy have nothing to do with each other, and shows how Shannon's information form of entropy makes no distinction between meaningful DNA sequences that encode life and random DNA sequences of equal length. Concluding, that evolution does not create any paradox for Shannon entropy.

Quantitative analysis of the human genome, version 2.0
I found this book to be an important and valuable resource while researching a possible Ph.D. thesis topic on interactions of DNA with enzyme pathways. Having previously studied about 95% of the math and spent a month as a Visiting Scholar in the most mathematical of the genetics labs at Harvard Medical School, I feel pretty confident that I can recommend the first half of the book to those seeking to build or broaden their professional knowledge of applied mathematics in the biological and biomedical sciences or in bioengineering. Despite its obvious importance to calculating the information content of proteins, protein folding, and cell-to-cell signalling, information theory is rarely covered in the standard biomathematics texts at all. § I think Cambridge University Press ought to ask Yockey to add text material on traditional subjects like Lottka-Volterra population studies, Turing diffusion models, Hopfield networks, and the like. Also, the book needs more exercises, so it would be easier to use for teaching. And wouldn't it be great if it were packaged in Mathematica or MatLab form! § I wish I could say something intelligent about the applications to molecular biology in the second half of the book, but I don't think I've gotten enough biochemistry and molecular genetics yet. One thing's for sure, though, it's written clearly enough that any molecular biologist familiar with the state of the art ought to be able to gauge its worth pretty quickly. Yockey's math is so good it's pretty hard to imagine he flopped on the science. § Maybe some of my own work will arrive in the 2nd edition. I can hope, can't I?

A very scientific book by a very clear-thinking scientist.
Dr. Yockey is an extremely clear thinker, and has apparently been thinking about the connections between genetics and the mathematics of information theory for some time (1956 at least). This book, probably a difficult read for the layman, is nevertheless written in an entertaining and unbiased style. Although he slyly sneaks in references to the Bible ("...through a glass darkly...", "...stones that must be rejected by the builder...", etc.), he illuminates with equanimity both creationist and evolutionist theories with the cold light of mathematics. Ultimately, he concludes that life did not happen by chance, although he admits that he has no scenario to explain its origin. He speaks as a pure scientist and should be greatly respected for this. ... Read more

Book Description

The year is 2051. An enigmatic entity has its own plan for human evolution, using the supercomputer known as CUSP-the first machine designed to run on the software of the human mind... ... Read more

Reviews (5)

hard science fiction at its best
There are so many ideas in this book that you almost need a road map.The basic problem -- how to save the earth as the sun begins to act strangely and giant rings appear on the earth -- which will apparently propel the earth to a new star system.From there, we get to plots that are 65 million years old, quantum manipulation, teams of lemurs and dinosaurs in flying astroids, debates on free will -- you name it, it is in this book.The love interest?The love between family members and friends.This is really a great, challenging book.If you like hard science fiction, then read it.

A Great Hard SF novel
Robert Metzger Is in my opnion probably one of the best writers of hard SF. In cusp he creates a world where the earth has been divided by huge rings circumfericing the planet. The sun has sprouted a huge jet. This sets up The premise that both earth and sun are going to leave the solar system. The novel is a page turner from beginning to end. Its character are well developed and it keeps you guessing till the end.If you love hard sf you'll love CUSP.

Metzger does it again
I thoroughly enjoyed Metzger's earlier work, PICOVERSE (for which he was nominated the Nebula) and have thoroughly enjoyed CUSP as well.It's fairly fast-paced, and packed to the gills with ideas that get bigger and bigger with each page.If you like true Hard SF, this is it. Try it.You'll like it.

From one of the names in the front of the book.
I'm one of the few people who have read this in paperback form. The advanced reading copy, or uncorrected proof.

Facts can be found elsewhere. I'm going to stick to opinions. There are lots of good science fiction books out there that are both good to read and are a good reading. And then months later you don't remember many details. Only that it was a good read. I don't think you'll be able to do that here.

Scenes will stick. Parts will be so vivid that you'll swear you can hear the John Williams' music as you read it.

And that should be more useful in a review than merely repeating the facts.

William Taylor

For anyone who likes hard science fiction
In the year 2031, two events change the earth as we have known it.The sun moves into a different position and two rings made of photonic energy encircle the earth from the north to south poles and around the equator.The geography of the earth changed as land bases are torn apart and sent into a sea that is vastly depleted due to the rings.Billions die.

By 2051, with food in short supply, much of the United States population is indentured to the agricultural collectives.Many of the remainder are Tools, people that are part machine.General Sutherland effectively runs the country and is responsible for integrating his daughter to CUSP (Controllable Universal Sentient Plasma) causing her to go post point (the next step in evolution).The general knows that the rings are firing up as is the jet in the sun so that the journey to alpha centaury can be made.The hope of earth surviving what is coming rests on the shoulder of a woman who is no longer human but something much more.

Anyone who likes hard science fiction reminiscent of the works of Arthur C. Clark and Mike Resnick will definitely enjoy CUSP.There is a lot of advanced science research used for some of the concepts in the book but readers will understand it because the author smoothly explains them through the voice of his characters.General Sutherland is portrayed as a Machiavellian manipulator but readers don't get turned off by his arrogance because he does what is needed to save earth and its remaining inhabitants.Robert A. Metzger has written a fast-paced action packed work that will keep readers turning the pages to see what happens next.

Harriet Klausner

... Read more

Book Description

As an introduction to principles of evolution, this inexpensive paperback text is ideally suited as a main text for general evolution or as a supplement for general biology, genetics, zoology, botany, anthropology or any life science course that utilizes evolution as the underlying theme of all life. ... Read more

Book Description

Today it is common knowledge that the dinosaurs were wiped out by a meteorite impact 65 million years ago that killed half of all species then living. Far less well-known is a much greater catastrophe that took place at the end of the Permian period 251 million years ago: 90 percent of life was destroyed, including saber-toothed reptiles and their rhinoceros-sized prey on land, as well as vast numbers of fish and other species in the sea.

This book documents not only what happened during this gigantic mass extinction but also the recent rekindling of the idea of catastrophism. Was the end-Permian event caused by the impact of a huge meteorite or comet, or by prolonged volcanic eruption in Siberia? The evidence has been accumulating through the 1990s and into the new millennium, and Michael Benton gives his verdict at the very end.

From field camps in Greenland and Russia to the laboratory bench, When Life Nearly Died involves geologists, paleontologists, environmental modelers, geochemists, astronomers, and experts on biodiversity and conservation. Their working methods are vividly described and explained, and the current disputes are revealed. The implications of our understanding of crises in the past for the current biodiversity crisis are also presented in detail. 46 b/w illustrations. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

A fabulous flatulence!
The public is being subjected to a litany of accounts of how life can, and has been, eliminated en masse. After learning ice ages may have swept away numerous creatures, we discovered dinosaurs may have been wiped out by the Big Rock. While trying to comprehend the amount of life an asteroid can dispose of, Michael Benton demonstrates the numbers pale in comparison to what a Big Burp can achieve. Combining his own field work with the research from numerous others, Benton skilfully builds a scenario of real mass destruction. His fine prose style keeps this book a compelling read throughout.

Sharply criticising Darwin's contemporaries and successors for clinging too resolutely to the notion that Nature's forces merely creep along, Benton notes the persistence of one theme. The "uniformitarians", he says, blinded scholars to the evidence - evidence that suggested life could end suddenly. Charles Lyell, one of Charles Darwin's inspirations, argued that what is seen today typifies the entire, and lengthy, history of our world. Slow, gradual change on today's surface is but the most recent example of the panorama of millions of years. Sudden change, "catastrophism", promoted by Baron Cuvier in France, was false. In life, Darwin's evolution by natural selection reflected the gradualist theme.

Benton dismisses Lyell and his adherents as overcommitted to gradualism. He contends they shut their eyes to contrary evidence. He admits the data was less than readily apparent, but argues some questions should have been raised long before now. New research, sometimes in places already once observed, finally brought reassessment. The Ural Mountains in Russia offered the first clues. Roderick Murchison toured there in the 1840s, naming the "Permian System" of rocks. Wars and revolutions interrupted the surveys and geologists and paleontologists peered at new ground. The Great Karoo of South Africa, China and other sites provided new information. A gradually emerging picture revealed a massive die-off 251 million years ago. What had happened?

After a long introduction of chapters recounting the researchers and their findings around the planet, Benton dismisses the notion of a bolide impact. This idea, fostered by the discovery that the Dinosaur Era had likely been concluded by the impact of a 10 kilometre asteroid, wasn't matched by the evidence. While the Permian Extinction may have been accompanied by darkened skies and deluges of rain, the real killer was something else. The dinosaur extinction wasn't typified by massive intrusions of poisonous gases, but the Permian was another matter. Benton surmises that 251 million years ago a series of volcanic fissures spewed immense waves of lava over the land near the North Pole. This area, now known as Siberia, is still covered by the remnants of the outburst. With the lava came noxious gas, mostly carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide. These "greenhouse" gases warmed the seas, releasing life-killing methane. The catastrophe may have killed off up to 96% of all living things.

This is not simply an arcane analysis of events in the ancient past. It's a book that should gain a wide readership, since the events of all those millions of years ago have implications for today. Benton notes the sediments at the bottom of our seas contain a build-up of methane equalling or exceeding that of the Permian. Today's human-spurred global warming may be leading to the same scenario. Extinction, Benton reminds us, isn't limited to dinosaurs or other ancient life. It is clear that we must learn how these mechanisms work to make rational decisions about our dealings with the biosphere. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

A great long overdue book on the Permian mass extinction
Distinguished vertebrate paleontologist Michael J. Benton's latest book, "When Life Nearly Died: The Greatest Mass Extinction Of All Time", is a long overdue popular account of the worst mass extinction in Earth's history, the end Permian extinction of approximately 251 million years ago. Other customers have complained that this book only devotes less than a quarter of its text to the Permian extinction. However, Benton does an elegant job describing the rise of a uniformitarian view of geology in the 19th Century (One major omission is not citing Scottish geologist James Hutton, who can be regarded correctly as Charles Lyell's intellectual precursor with respect to uniformitarianism.) which was eloquent expressed and defended by Charles Lyell in "Principles of Geology", his influential text on geology which helped shaped the careers of other distinguished scientists, most notably Charles Darwin. Next Benton gives a mesmerizing account of the career of Scottish geologist Roderick Murchison, who coined the name Permian for a suite of rocks found in the Ural Mountains of Russia. These lengthy digressions are important - and will become apparent to the astute reader - once Benton describes the Permian mass extinction.

The second third of the book discusses the nature of mass extinctions, describing why paleontologists were inclined originally to think of mass extinctions as the result of apparent bias in sampling of the fossil record, not as real events denoting substantial loss of the Earth's biodiversity. Benton devotes much space to discussing possible scenarios for the end Cretaceous mass extinction, noting that that the asteroid impact theory proposed by Luis Alvarez, his son Walter, and their colleagues at Berkeley is the one accepted now by scientists. And he notes how ecosystems recover following a mass extinction, noting some of the important work done by ecologists and paleontologists in their analyses of recent ecological data as well as the fossil record.

In the final chapters Benton describes what he thinks did happen at the end Permian mass extinction, offering a plausible scenario for this event (However, he dismisses a probable impact scenario which may be more likely in light of current understanding of planetary impacts, most notably the work done by the Alvarez team and others for the terminal Cretaceous impact.). And he gives a thorough overview of man's negative impact on current biodiversity, noting that this could be yet another important extinction in Earth's history. Students of paleontology, historians of science and the general public will find this fine book a splendid overview of mass extinctions, especially the Permian extinction. It is one of the best recent books on the history of geology and paleontology that I have come across lately.

Mistitled book.
There was only one chapter donated to this subject, while the rest of the book dealt with the beginnings of paleoentology and the people who were promanent in this science. A lot of history and extraneous geological information. This is a good read and I managed to read the book in one and one half days. I could not put it down. I recommend this book for its history contents alone.

A superb review of the science of extinction of species
Dr. Michael Benton, an eminent vertebrate paleontologist, has authored many books on the subject. This is one of his finest.
In this book, Dr. Benton addresses the multiple quandaries underlying mass extinctions, and ever-continuing, sometimes controversial, even acrimonious, effort to solve them. As per his high standards, Dr. Benton's text is highly readable, even though complex problems are being analyzed. He introduces the reader to alien or new concepts capably, and the text forms a seamless web along which any reader having a limited exposure to scientific disciplines may proceed without strenuous effort.

NOTE: Although the book's title appears to indicate a rather exclusive discussion about the largest mass extinction, the Permian-Triassic event, which ended the Paleozoic Era and ushered in the Mesozoic, the actual scope of the book is more broad. This is a pleasant, and very helpful, surprise.

Dr. Benton begins with the discovery of dinosaurs, and the history of the mapping of Europe's stratigraphy, before moving into the area of mass extinctions. Without this preliminary discussion, it would be far more difficult to understand how the concept and science of these events developed. I view this as a positive aspect of the book, since the concept of catastrophic events affecting the course of life's progress was most difficult for pioneers in the field to accept. The text admirably demonstrates that science is, after all, a human endeavor, complete with feuds, rivalries, and disputes. Indeed, much scientific progress has been achieved via disagreements and attempt to disprove the opponent's theories. I recommend this discussion to the students of ANY scientific discipline, not just paleontology.

The book moves to an examination of the five largest mass extinction events, with special emphasis being placed on the Mesozoic-ending extinction of the dinosaurs and the Permian-Triassic event. Smaller events are also addressed, such as the loss of species at the end of the Eocene epoch in our era. Dr.
Benton observes that the very large extinction episode at the end of the Cretaceous Period is almost universally accepted to have been the result of a colossal asteroid collision. He very properly notes that as one moves backward in time, the problem of causation of extictions becomes much more difficult to solve owing to plate movements, erosion and sedimentation, and diminution of appropriate outcrops of rocks.

Addressing the book's titled subject, Dr. Benton reviews the various claims that have been advanced for the cause of this "Mother of Extinctions". These include another huge collision with an extraterrestrial body, great climate change, enormous volcanic eruptions in what is now Siberia, a gigantic release of methyl hydrate gases in the oceans, a large drop in oceanic water levels, the uniting of all land masses into a single continent, the explosion of a nearby supernova, and on and on. Though he is taken to task by some reviewers, Dr. Benton reaches no categorical conclusion as to which of these events, singly or in combintion, offers the best explanation of the wiping out of over 90% of Earth's species of life. His best guess, phrased largely as such, is that the removal of so many lifeforms was a combination of large volcanic eruptions, only one land mass, and the freeing of enormous amount of carbon dioxide into Earth's atmosphere by the breakdown of methane hydrates in the oceans of that time.

NOTE: This writer disagrees, preferring the theory that an enormous impact event in the Falkland Island Basin caused antipodal supervolcnic Siberian lava flows, and that the combination of these two events almost destroyed the Earth's atmosphere, and its life. But am I right, or is the far more qualified Dr. Benton right? Or are we both wrong? The answer awaits further data and analysis of it. And coming full circle, this how the body of scientific knowledge grows.

In closing, this is one of the very best books I have ever read on science and its processes of growth. I recommend this book to one and all, and very, very highly. It is a true feast for the mind.

Great story of science, scientists an scientific method
I found the detective story and the scientific method (and biases) it revealed to be engrossing. Apparently there weren't enough fireworks and special effects for the other reviewers, but I found the book hard to put down.

Do yourself a favor and read the book. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Who is the subject of evolution?
With some reservations I found this compendium of disparate information a useful survey and a flying question mark about the meaning of the term 'evolution', a term long since fallen into a ditch whence it stumbles forth into still more confusion, with a black eye from the brain-dead Darwin debate. The number of wild pitches (the phantom index in most such books being high)is not out of hand. The New Age attempts to define the term 'evolution' are at their best as an indirect comment on Darwinian versions, but fail as soon as they attempt to remap its meaning in 'spiritual' terms. Nevertheless this text indicates the only avenue of approach, which is to map out just what creature it is that we are supposed to be explaining. And the answer is that we don't know. The temporary ongoing 'conclusion' is that we can't produce a theory of evolution because we haven't the foggiest what man's 'evolutionary psychology' really is. But one thing is clear, Darwinism is very far off the mark, and the current ostrich style of pontificating the subtle side of man out of existence in the name of Darwin's phoney theory can't go on forever. Or maybe it can. Scientists simply don't respond to suggestions that they don't have a grip on man, and who man is.
The standard problem with books like this (and this one is much better than most)is the 'passing of bad pennies', sudden passages of garbage in, garbage out. That is, metaphysical versions of occult or other 'spiritual' phenomena. The road is long and hard here, but, taken with reserve, we have grounds for protest at the amputation of man being enforced in an age of Big Science dogma.
One problem is that New Age thinking has spawned a category of 'self-evolution' and this has become the favorite of many gurus, and others. This attempt to appropriate the word 'evolution' adds still more confusion. The problem is that 'evolution' is confused with 'self-realization', the evolution of that self being unknown, a mystery of the descent of humans in the Paleolithic. Sometimes evolution and involution are confused or braided together. It is not true that realized men have a better understanding of evolution. Indeed, the legacy of gurus show they can't reckon their own history,let alone the large scale development of the species man. It is worth noting the legacy of German classical philosophy, as this suggests, prior to such figures as Hegel, the 'noumenal' aspect of the conscious subject. That insight might be helpful in putting the labyrinth in perspective, for the New Age field is littered with metaphysical zoo items mixed with the genuine insights into the sheer complexity of human nature that make the 'sociobiology crammed down our throats' an episode of primitive hi-tech cavemen. The implications of the Axial Age concept and data give one hint of the scale of 'macro evolution' that transcends even the insights of the Enlightened, for there we see the 'generated' aspect of world religion, acting beyond the realm of the oblivious yogi, what to say of the mechanized monotheist.
Usefully provoking book, taken with considerable caution.

Interesting Book
I gave this book 5 stars because it is very extensive in its scope - it is not, however, the final word on this topic, there is more - I guess there is always more and there are always even more amazing stories. The book explores different phenomena, some rather rare and unusual, as in the following excerpt:

"Thurston quoted a sister Margherita Cortonesi:

"On one occasion, among others, when [Sister Veronica] being in a trance state was reciting her Office alternately with some invisible being, she was observed gradually to stretch out until the length of her throat seemed to be out of all proportion in such a way that she was altogether much taller than usual. We, noticing this strange occurrence, looked to see if she was raised from the ground, but this, so far as our eyes could tell, was not the case. So, to make sure, we took a yard-measure and measured her height, and afterwards when she had come to herself we measured her again, and she was at least a span (ten inches or more) shorter. This we have seen with our own eyes, all of us nuns who were in the chapel."

In 1629, a Donna Hortenzia Ghini stated under oath that:

"Sister Lisabetta Pancrazi, formerly a nun in the same convent, told me that on one occasion, seeing that the said Sister Veronica when in ecstasy seemed taller than in her normal state, took a yard-measure and measured her height, and that after the said Sister Veronica came to herself she measured her again with the said yard-measure, and she found that she was half an arm's length shorter."

Among other religious who allegedly exhibited elongation, the Capuchiness Abbess Costante Maria Castreca was said to have grown a considerable height from the ground during a religious ecstasy; the Venerable Domenica dal Paradiso grew taller in trance, according to her spiritual director and confidants. Because such phenomena were not thought to be marks of holiness, they were noted simply because they were unusual.

I include such phenomena in this discussion because they indicate the body's responsiveness to altered states of mind. When consciousness is released from some of its ordinary constraints, whether in ecstasies or dissociated states, ligaments and muscles are sometimes liberated too.:

Encyclopedic, Compelling, but Not Entirely Convincing,
This is an ambitious book, and must have been a labor of love for Mr. Murphy. It is a thorough treatment of every conceivable mystical or healing arts practice, with plenty of anecdotal evidence, some of it well supported, some not. I say the book is not convincing because so much of this stuff is so bizarre that I need to "see it to believe it." For example, exhumed bodies of highly religious poeple, such as saints, that show no decomposition after years of being buried. How could that be possible? Without photographs you just have to take the witnesses' words as gospel...or not.

If you want a thorough survey of these themes, though, this is definitely your book.

An encyclopedia for the New Age.
Michael Murphy is the co-founder of Esalen Institute, a gorgeous little retreat in Northern California, part spa, part think tank, that was a key incubator of the "New Age" movement. He's also author of some compelling books including the amazing "Golf in the Kingdom." He has spent a great deal of time over the years studying the possibilities of human transformation - of our becoming more alive and conscious and happy and tuned in to the true vibes of universe. In this book he tells us pretty much everything he's learned. It turns out to be quite a lot.

It's a 785-page tome. The bibliography lists something like 2000 books and articles. He provides a rich and detailed history about human efforts toward transformation and transcendence over the centuries, and includes capsule summaries of many technologies used today in pursuit of that elusive goal, including bodywork (Alexander work, Feldenkrais, etc.) and new philosophical/psychological/spiritual approaches such as psychosynthesis. He examines spiritual healing. He delves into mesmerism, hypnosis, the martial arts and the contemplative practices of modern-day monks. He talks about erotic love, sports and stigmata. He's nothing if not wide-ranging. Murphy's basic belief is that we humans have vast "uncharted powers" in our bodies, psyches and spirits beyond what we think we have, and that these can be cultivated to our benefit. He is a true believer in the possibilies of the New Age; he thinks that we may be on the verge of a significant leap in evolution, and that if we diligently pursue some of the disciplines described here, we will hasten the process. He writes, "I remain convinced that as a species - and as individuals - we either grow or die. If we deny the actuality of these uncharted powers, they either stagnate within us or erupt painfully and perversely." The book is impressive and inspiring if you're into this sort of thing and may be an eye-opener for you if you're not. My only criticism is, the prose style is too often dry and pedestrian, so you actually may NEED to be into this sort of thing to wade through it all.

A wonderful resource for knowing all of who you can be.
The Future of the Body, has been on my book shelf for years, I picked it up often for a practical explanation of all things unexplainable. Everything from Astral Projection to the Zone. This huge book keeps on giving in a practical easy to comprehend manor. A must for folks working in the spiritual arts, metaphysics, or healing arts. I felt the author to have researched and recorded some of the best information on subjects hard to research, such as Kundalini, channeling, levitation, etc. A wonderful book. Thanks. ... Read more

Book Description

A critical, synthetic and comprehensive account offering discussion of early environments, the history of thought on land plant origins, various approaches used to study early plant evolution and the characteristics of green algae. Includes new ideas regarding evolution, comparative studies of fossil plants and carbon availability. Features abundant illustrations and an extensive bibliography. ... Read more

Book Description

This book offers a unique insider's perspective on the unfolding discovery of a crucial link in our evolution: Proconsul, a fossil ape named whimsically after a performing chimpanzee called Consul.

The Ape in the Tree is written in the voice of Alan Walker, whose involvement with Proconsul began when his graduate supervisor analyzed the tree-climbing adaptations in the arm and hand of this extinct creature. Today, Proconsul is the best-known fossil ape in the world.

The history of ideas is set against the vivid adventures of Walker's fossil-hunting expeditions in remote regions of Africa, where the team met with violent thunderstorms, dangerous wildlife, and people isolated from the Western world. Analysis of the thousands of new Proconsul specimens they recovered provides revealing glimpses of the life of this last common ancestor between apes and humans.

The attributes of Proconsul/ have profound implications for the very definition of humanness. This book speaks not only of an ape in a tree but also of the ape in our tree.

Reviews (1)

Essays on our roots
The greatest scientific quest is finding our place in Nature. This leading primatologist has collected a series of essays on primate behaviour in an outstanding effort aimed at answering that question. De Waal's credentials as a student of chimpanzee behaviour are well-known. He's joined here by researchers of equal status in presenting the most recent findings in the field. De Waal states in the Introduction that research in human behaviour falls into two camps - human beings are an entirely unique species or human evolutionary roots are visible in many of our related species. He and his fellow essayists adhere to the second theme, the one that has gained significant adherence over the past several decades of research. "The proliferation of research on monkeys and apes . . . has influenced the way we look at our place in nature."

This collection brings to view much of that research, a compendium long overdue in de Waal's estimation. His team provides new insights into primate behaviour. They combine the research finding with speculations on how modern monkeys and apes reflect the evolutionary roots of our own relations with each other. The topics covered show the impact of environment, the patterns of sex and reproduction, social organization and cognition. The collection addresses the "process of hominization" leading from ape-like ancestors to modern humans. If all this sounds like a series of lofty scientific pedantry, fear not. All the authors present their information in open, conversational style. Although the result of a scholarly seminar, the writing throughout is clear and unpretentious. Anyone interested in their evolutionary roots or in the status of the research will find this collection rewarding.

The quality of this compilation makes choice of place difficult, if not impossible. Each author presents new information and delightful analyses of the importance of the findings. Craig Stanford discusses the role of meat eating [not hunting] in building social relationships. Studied closely in the field in both ape and human societies, meat distribution and sex have a clear evolutionary role. Richard Wrangham carries this theme a step further in his analysis of the social role of food preparation - cooking. He stresses how early cooking must have emerged in hominid evolution and what its likely social impact was in our development. Richard Byrne extends this analysis to describe several forms of food acquisition and processing among various primate species.

If any issue transcends the others in the role of humanity, it is that of human cognition. To those contending only human cognitive abilities are worth studying, several authors respond that "evolution does not proceed by inspired jumps . . . but by accretion of beneficial variants" over time. In order to comprehend the evolutionary path of cognition, definitions are of primary importance. Cognition is here defined as "a species' package of information-processing capabilities" encompassing individual, social, technical and other skills. Robin Dunbar shows how these skills were likely reinforced through selectively chosen group size. He examines variations in primate group size and how these impact social behavior. Charles Snowdon addresses the mainstay of human "uniqueness" in an outline of language
development. In the final essay, William McGrew considers the question of "culture." What is it and how was it derived? McGrew refers to eight criteria, developed many years ago by Alfred Koeber, and applies them in a historical context. McGrew emphasizes that humans are not the only social species. Language enhanced abilities inherited from our predecessors.

This book addresses older ideas and breaks new ground. With a strong foundation in the intensive primate studies achieved during the past three decades, the collection calls for further studies in the field. What these will bring to light will increase our knowledge of where we fit in Nature. There are assuredly many surprises remaining to be revealed. Will you help search for answers to some of these questions? ... Read more

Book Description

Although there are hundreds of books dealing with evolutionary theory and human origins, the large majority fall into one of two categories:

-conventional natural science that embrace either atheistic naturalism or theistic evolutionism that fails to support basic elements of Christian theology particularly the historicity of Adam and Eve and the reality of Original Sin.
-young-Earth creationism whose scientific credentials are suspect.

Origin of the Human Species differs in that is shows in great detail how conventional human evolutionary theory is entirely compatible with sound Scriptural interpretation and traditional theology. Dr. Bonnette explores the force of opposing views, but adds philosophical analysis that affirms the absolute need for God’s continuous creative presence in any metaphysically complete explanation of the world. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Promising book undone by lack of method
Dr. Dennis Bonnette is a Catholic, a thomist and a theistic evolutionist. As such, I expected him to have written a masterful treatment of the subject of human evolution, enlightened by the magisterium of the one true Church, structured by the intellectual rigor of the best philosophical system I know of, and spared the necessity of ignoring or distorting scientific evidence which plagues all creationist writings. Those expectations were all the higher as *Origin of the Human Species* seems to have received almost nothing but glowing reviews.

Unfortunately, Bonnette is not particularly interested in what the magisterium of the Catholic Church has to say. He does devote one chapter to it, but it is awkwardly located (in the middle of the book), less than nine pages long, and mostly based on the decision of the 1909 Biblical Commission, with scanty references to the Council of Trent and Pius XII's encyclicals Humani Generis and Divino Afflante Spiritu.

Bonnette's thomism, moreover, seems to have been shaped to a large extent by the writings of a 20th century Australian philosopher, Austin M. Woodbury, whose books unfortunately exist only as unpublished manuscripts; and those of Jacques Maritain, whose very Kantian distinction between dianoetic and perinoetic knowledge Bonnette makes extensive use of to undermine the certainty of scientific knowledge.

As for the scientific validity of Bonnette's arguments, it is much undermined by his endorsement of Vedic scientists Michael Cremo and Richard L. Thompson, whose books try to rewrite the whole field of paleoanthropology by using allegedly suppressed evidence and various paranormal techniques such as past-life regression. (Readers curious to learn more about Bonnette's attitude towards Cremo's books can read his own five-star reviews of two of them on this very site.)

Bonnette also claims that his evaluation of the emergence of intellect in man is «consistent with the work of anthropologist Thomas Wynn», but Wynn is not mentioned anywhere in the body of the text, the bibliography or the index, and I had to do a search on this site to learn that Wynn is the author of a 120-page study on «The Evolution of Spatial Competence» (1989.)

Summarizing his evaluation of the science in the first edition of the book, Glenn R. Morton (author of the very stimulating *Foundation, Flood and Fall* and *Adam, Apes and Anthropology*) wrote that «Bonnette's anthropological knowledge is positively paleolithic, the average age of his anthropological references being 1980 with only three references to the literature of the 1990s. Indeed, the average age of the scientific reference is 1978. Because of this, the book abounds with falsified claims.»

But perhaps the major flaw of the volume is its lack of method. Rather than a full-fledged book structured by an overall argument, with each chapter resting on what the previous chapters have established, *Origin of the Human Species* is much closer to being a collection of articles. Indeed, the longest and most praised chapter of the book, «The Significance of Recent Ape Language Studies» (with whose conclusions I wholeheartedly agree) was initially published in 1993 as an article in the Christendom Press periodical *Faith & Reason*.

The chapters themselves are often unstructured cacophonies of quotes from authors of various persuasions, generally leading to unconclusive assessments by the author. Chapter 1, for instance, on «Darwinian evolution versus scientific creationism» ends with Bonnette's willful suspension of judgment and a determination to leave to others the «ongoing great debate over the general scientific validity of biological evolution.» In chapter 14, Bonnette even confesses his fear that because of Cremo's work, his whole «effort might be in vain.»

Finally, the style is often atrocious, as Bonnette overuses the possessive case and noun determination and seems to be allergic to the definite article, creating such monstrous phrases as «gradualistic human intellective emergence» or sentences like «inability to determine presence of spontaneous movement or sense organs reveals present inability to make a definitive determination, not absence of a demarcation line within organisms» or «in alteration of DNA macromolecule genetic micro-structure, germinal material organization suffers confluence of two-fold agency». So much for the lucid and easily accessible language one of the reviewers praises. (To be honest, I must admit that these are the most horrid excerpts I came across and fortunately much of the book is better written.)

I am not saying that *Origin of the Human Species* is all bad. On the contrary, I am almost tempted to say that most of it is good. But a book should not be a grab-bag of truths, anymore than a military campaign should consist in roaming about in enemy territory and firing in all directions, which is more or less what this book feels like.

Bonnette's masterful analysis (ISBN 1932589007)
[This review refers to the newer Sapientia Press edition (ISBN 1932589007).]

Dr. Dennis Bonnette has, by all accounts, done a masterful job of honestly assessing, and even more coolly dispatching, the exagerrated claims of Darwinian agitprop-men like Ridley, Dawkins, and Dennett. The other reviews here mention well enough the foci of this book -- a Thomistic critique of Darwinian naturalistic assumptions, a very close analysis of ape-language studies, etc. -- so I won't go into great detail there. (That's what reading the book is for! *wink*wink*)

The two special merits of Bonnette's book are 1) its conceptual broadness and 2) its philosophical acuteness. First, Bonnette shows the broad arenas of thought that are being disputed -- and then shows what other areas of thought too easily get the green light in Darwinism (e.g., naturalistic presumption, causal contingency, shallow exegetical assumptions, etc.). He doesn't pound away at one or two arcane theoretical points; rather he shows the theological, philosophical and anthropological contours of this debate.

Second, while he covers a lot methodological ground in Origin of the Human Species, Bonnette never relents from his Thomistic precision of thought. He doesn't just throw quotes around. He carefully analyzes the relevant points with a thoroughness his mentor, the Angelic Doctor of Aquino, would admire. In a word, Bonnette sees the forest for the trees, and vice versa.

If you're serious about "the evolution debate," buy this book. As the author himself wrote to me: "I shall never get rich selling this book. But I do hope it will help resolve the 'evolution vs. Bible' problem that has caused so much loss of faith on the part of many scientists, students, and scholars."

Comments on Origin of the Human Species
This book is very definitive about the philosophical meaning of the human origin.
It is not a simple read for the everyday man on the street, yet he could derive some benefits reading this book.
This book would make a great college textbook about the subject of human orgins and the science and philosohy behind it
all.
It is important for us to know about evolution especially when it comes to educating our young people. Being a homeschooling mother, I believe reading this book greatly helps to improve my personal understanding of human beginnings and allows me to refute some of the myths about evolution toted as fact to our children.

A valuable book for theology and philosophy
As a professor of Catholic theology, I found Dr. Bonnette's book especially helpful as a defense of the historicity of original sin. Many people today believe it is an either/or situation in regard to evolution and the Bible. They do not understand that in addition the alternatives of "young-earth scientific creationism" and "atheistic evolutionism," there are other logical and scientific possibilities, including what Bonnette calls "theistic evolution" and "progressive creationism." It takes a philosophy professor like Bonnette, well-trained in logic and epistemology, to examine so-called "scientific claims" of naturalistic/atheistic evolutionism. After reading this book, Christians can have assurance that there is nothing in science which shows that there was not or could not have been a historical fall from God's grace of an original pair of humans (i.e. Adam and Eve) from whom we all descend. While Bonnette's book does not treat the statements of more recent popes such as
Paul VI and John Paul II, he does provide a firm foundation for what both Vatican II and the Catechism of the Catholic Church affirm, i.e. that even though the account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses "figurative language," it does affirm "a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man." This book deserves a wide circulation among all who take the Bible and original sin seriously.

n/a
Bonnette's wide-ranging and erudite study examines not only the origin but also the destiny of the human species. A fascinating work. ... Read more

Reviews (14)

Two Panda's thumbs up.
First published on 1980, The Panda's Thumb is a collection of slightly edited essays from Professor Gould's monthly column at Natural History Magazine.

The thirty one essays are grouped in eight chapters according to their similarities. The Chapters are:

Perfection and imperfection: A trilogy on a panda's thumb - that deals with comparative anatomy;

Darwiniana - that brings the context of Darwin's revolution and the preceding ideas;

Human evolution - that also brings an article on Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse evolution;

Science and politics of Human differences - that shows how science used to foster or justify prejudice and sexism.

The pace of change - in which Gould introduces his and Niles Eldredge's theory of Punctuated Equilibrium;

Early life - a chapter on pre-Cambrian biology or early ideas about pre-Cambrian biology.

They were despised and rejected - on evolutionary dead ends or not quite as in the essay about birds descending from dinosaurs and;

Size and time.

Most essays are very interesting and surprisingly up to date despite the fact that many were written almost thirty years ago. The essays can be read one by one in no particular order since they bring references to each other when necessary. The scope of the book goes way beyond biology including also geology, history of science, gender and race relations, and the ever lasting debate between science and religion. The style is again accessible and witty. After introducing the only exponential equation on the whole book the author almost apologizes.

In my opinion some of the most interesting essays are The Death Before Birth of a Mite; Caring Groups and Selfish Genes; Dr. Down's Syndrome; Nature Odd Couples; Our Allotted Lifetimes; Time's Vastness; and all essays under the chapter The Pace of Change.

The Pace of Change is the most original and still controversial chapter of the book. It introduces Gould and Eldredge's theory of Punctuated Equilibrium that is, in short, a slight correction on Darwin's belief of slow and continuous change throughout the process of evolution.

This is a very interesting and enjoyable book. I doubt anyone interested in science, just by reading a random article of this book, would not feel compelled to read the rest of the book and also other Stephen Gould's books.

Leonardo Alves - January 2001

Gould's best
Stephen Jay Gould is probably the finest scientific writer working today. His books, based on the column he has written for Natural History magazine since the 1970s, mix evolutionary biology with references to baseball, Mickey Mouse, and anything else he can use to teach the reader. As head of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard, he is an authority on modern evolutionary theory. In what I believe is his finest book, he argues that it is the imperfections in life's design, like the panda's thumb formed out of its wrist instead of as a full digit, that prove evolution by natural selection. In one essay, he teaches about neotony, some animals' tendency to stay younger-looking, by describing the "evolution" of the drawing of Mickey Mouse. A great read for experts and laymen alike.

Evolutionary theory meets Mickey Mouse and selfish genes
The second collection of Gould's articles from Natural History continues to explore Darwin's themes and the resultant ideas since. There's several interesting essays here, including my favorite one in which the evolution of Mickey Mouse is discussed.

One of the essays here dealt with Richard Dawkins' controversial stand (in The Selfish Gene) on genes in which he states that a person is just a gene's way to make another gene. (This is different from normal evolutionary thought in that genes there are the subject of random variation which then is subject to the environment and tested.) Gould is not convinced by Dawkins' theory, mainly because, he says, there is no evidence that genes can be linked to specific attributes, i.e., there isn't an "eye" gene. Gould wrote this some years back, so it will be interesting to see if he revisits this subject now that researchers have indeed discovered the "eye" gene (through testing on flies).

Gould also covers Robert Bakker's theories about warm-blooded dinosaurs (later written up in Bakker's The Dinosaur Heresies) and the link to birds, a good essay for people to review prior to the hullabaloo that will follow Jurassic Park 2 (it's always fun to check up on an author's source material).

Enjoyable but dated
An entertaining and elegantly written collection of discursive essays on natural history and evolution. The nature stories and the anecdotes about eccentric naturalists are interesting.
It has a 1980 original publication date. Perhaps because of this date there is very little about DNA and nothing about HLA and tissue-typing. I shall check his later books to see if he ever got up-to-date on these. (He died a month ago). He was concerned to defend his field as being real science against "haughty and high-riding mathematicians and experimentalists." In fact this sort of biology seems more akin to history and archeology than to hard science, but that adds to its readability rather than detracts from it.

The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History
The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History by Stephen Jay Gould is classic Gould with a more open and approachable style. This is Gould's second in a series of books gleamed from his essays in "Natural History" and they have a timeless value to them.

As Henry Adams said, "A teacher... can never tell where his influence stops." So it can be said of Stephen Jay Gould as these essays are twenty plus years old they still have inherent and intrinsic value as they are essential in historical character. Gould's writings here are compassionate, well founded, plausible, and spot-on. As Gould explores evolutionary biology, were dinosaurs dumb, a panda's thumb, or why are there as many men as women born, to magneticly seeking food... Gould explores the realm of biological theory and does an excellent in expanding the readers mind .

If found this book to be a wonderful look into how biology, theory and history all interplay with discovery. Gould acts as a tour guide to thought and observation as he writes. This is an excellent book written in a more relaxted style, but his rapier skill is apparent and you cannot help but read on and enjoy his elegantly explored essays.

These essays have a broad range, but are integrated and organized into eight sections of thought-provoking prose. Enjoy Gould's arguments as he takes you on a ride. A ride that compels us to seek the answers within ourselves. ... Read more

Book Description

5 b/w photographs, 2 line illustrations, 1 table The overwhelming similarity of human and ape genes is one of the best-known facts of modern genetic science. But what does this similarity mean? Does it, as many have suggested, have profound implications for understanding human nature? Well-known molecular anthropologist Jonathan Marks uses the human-versus-ape controversy as a jumping-off point for a radical reassessment of a range of provocative issues--from the role of science in society to racism, animal rights, and cloning. Full of interesting facts, fascinating personalities, and vivid examples that capture times and places, this work explains and demystifies human genetic science--showing ultimately how it has always been subject to social and political influences and teaching us how to think critically about its modern findings.Marks presents the field of molecular anthropology--a synthesis of the holistic approach of anthropology with the reductive approach of molecular genetics--as a way of improving our understanding of the science of human evolution. As he explores the intellectual terrain of this field, he lays out its broad areas of interest with issues ranging from the differences between apes and humans to the biological and behavioral variations expressed in humans as a species. Marks confronts head-on the problems of racial classification in science. He describes current theories about race and uses work in primatology, comparative anatomy, and molecular anthropology to debunk them. He also sheds new light on the controversial Great Ape Project, the Human Genome Diversity Project, and much more. This iconoclastic, witty, and extremely readable book illuminates the deep background of human variation and asks us to reconsider the role of science in modern society. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

He's yet to meet Ishmael
A catchy and provocative title is now de-rigueur for popular science books on the subject of genetics. It's somewhat surprising then that the message of WHAT IT MEANS TO BE 98% CHIMPANZEE is that it doesn't really mean that much at all. Marks takes a distinctly middle-of-the-road position on most of the scientific debate that has spun off from the human versus ape discussion. Marks says that "the extent to which our DNA resembles an ape's predicts nothing about our genetic similarity to apes, much less about any moral or political consequences arising from it."

In chapters such as "The Ape in You", "How People Differ from One Another" "The Meaning of Human Variation" and "Human Nature" the author lays out his views on hot-button topics such as the biological reality of "races" and "nature vs nurture". Marks is not a believer in strict genetic determinism and therefore does not take a reductionist view of human nature - i.e genetics as a causal factor for everything. He's somewhat more of a humanist but this nod to a more environmentally deterministic view does not extend to an all embracing view of our fellow primates. The non-human primates - Chimpanzees, Bonobos, Gorillas, and Oranutans have an increasing number of human advocates who say that there are moral and ethical consequences that stem from the genetic similarity between apes and humans. Primatologists such as Jane Goodall argue that the higher intelligence and emotional awareness of apes demands a distinction in how we view them, and more importantly, how we treat them. In the chapter "Human Rights for Apes?" Marks discusses the Great Ape Project and the long term objective of getting an U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Apes. Marks will have none of this and sees such positions as pretentiousness on the part of scientists.

The science on animal consciousness is still inconclusive especially as it relates to the Great Apes. It's in the area of self-awareness and higher order thinking ("thinking about thoughts") where much of the debate takes place but this is not Marks' primary interest. Marks' main point is that there is a better approach to understanding these issues, one that is holistic rather than a binary "either/or" argument. Marks introduces us to his speciality in chapter one - "Molecular Anthropology" - and tells us that it combines the reductive power of genetics with the humanistic vision of anthropology. It thus allows practitioners to steer clear of ideologically influenced science.

It's ironic because in arguing about the merits of his field of study, Marks himself comes across as tunnel-visioned and obviously enamored with his own view of things. This is the only problem with this otherwise well written and wide-ranging discussion on some of the current debates in science. Although Marks wouldn't support it because it talks about a sentient Gorilla, for me, Daniel Quinn's book ISHMAEL provides the best overview on this whole debate. Our scientific beliefs give us a view of the world. Ishmael says it's going to be hard for us to give it up because what we're doing is "right" and "giving up would mean that all along [we've] been wrong. It would mean [we've] never known how to rule the world. It would mean relinquishing [our] pretensions to godhood." As if to prove the point, this book can't end without trying to tackle the "big" questions. Marks concludes with a chapter on "Science, Religion, and Worldview".

Enjoy the book for what it is: a good general introduction to genetics, with particular reference to apes and ourselves. Just remember that scientists - even iconoclasts such as Marks who does a great job of cutting through the debate - still are subject to their own biases and particular worldviews. Science itself is still undecided on much of what you read about here.

Post-modernist persiflage
Accepting the fallacy of Marks' title, let us start on a positive note. Marks wants to keep apes and humans separate. Fair enough. I don't want to live on termites on a stick, and it's doubtful chimps want to worry about traffic congestion, tax rates or political corruption. Marks wants scientists to do their job well. Who can argue? Marks has courage - he has the temerity to assault the venerable E. O. Wilson, the articulate Richard Dawkins and the revered Jane Goodall. Marks is against racism. Hardly debatable. Marks seems a pretty upstanding fellow. Why then, is this book such an insult to the intelligence?

Mostly because it is a froth of misleading statements, misdirected wrath, misconceptions and mistaken views of science. Marks goes to unusual lengths in dismissing the research achievements of many scientists in both field and laboratory. He blithely dismisses the disclosure that chimpanzee and human genes are nearly identical as "the most overly exposed factoid in modern science." It's not significant because it confuses precision with accuracy. From there, Marks goes on to castigate a legion of scientists for their failure to "get it right" the first time around. Few escape his lash - even Linneaus, who virtually invented classifying life, is a victim, and perpetrator, of cultural artifacts in naming species. This from a man who finds culture an unbridgeable chasm between humans and animals!

Marks spends much of the remainder of the book discussing racial/cultural undercurrents in science. He finds far too much of it in current anthropology. He's correct in this, but his case is "overblown"- a favourite phrase of his. In a welter of complaints, he finds but two scientists to exonerate of the charge: Richard Leowntin and - himself. He doesn't want any cultural or behavioural relationship between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom, a favourite plaint of Lewontin's. Any hint of sociobiology, which he incorrectly defines as the study of human behaviour, must be rejected. This attitude ignores the wealth of research published during the past generation.

Marks' shots against sociobiology would be amusing except that so many will accept them uncritically. Like his mentor, Marks wants humanity to evolve without any evolutionary baggage. Behavioural studies of modern animals are irrelevant according to Marks. Thus is cast aside the whole realm of Darwin's evolution by natural selection. At least as far as it concerns humans. This attitude fits adroitly with Marks' intended reader community. He blames science for many social attitudes, delving deeply into the history of science to build his case. His brief runs from Plato onward, ending with the efforts to map the human genome. Science has long suffered from its cultural roots. The case is flawed by Marks failure to recognize that all through history, science has sought to reveal natures' secrets. It's a process of fits and starts, each gain a limited success. That inability to "get it all right the first time" is inherent in the process. It accomplishes little to portray the process as invalid. If some people have not performed to his expectations doesn't mean science should give up trying.

The area that Marks clearly wants abandoned is understanding of what drives human beings. That some scientists want to look more deeply into the human genome he perceives as a wasted effort. Along with Lewontin, Marks rails against "genes for" this or that aspect of life - particularly human life. Are we to assume then that we should stop looking? Because faulty genes have been shown to invoke certain disorders but haven't been found for others, is the list now complete? He inveighs against looking for genes for criminal behaviour. We don't know enough about how DNA works to decide one way or another. Do we give up analysing how genes perform? And what exactly is criminal behaviour? Even Marks uses statistics of prison populations to build his case. But none of the Enron executives are in prison, nor are likely to be. Do we exclude them from genetic analysis to unravel what gen