[Reflections in Natural History 02] • Le Pouce Du Panda

With sales of well over one million copies in North America alone, the

commercial success of Gould's books now matches their critical acclaim. _The

Panda's Thumb_ will introduce a new generation of readers to this unique

writer, who has taken the art of the scientific essay to new heights.

Were dinosaurs really dumber than lizards? Why, after all, are roughly the

same number of men and women born into the world? What led the famous Dr. Down

to his theory of mongolism, and its racist residue? What do the panda's

magical "thumb" and the sea turtle's perilous migration tell us about

imperfections that prove the evolutionary rule? The wonders and mysteries of

evolutionary biology are elegantly explored in these and other essays by the

celebrated natural history writer Stephen Jay Gould.