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Index
Foreword: Why People Do Not Accept Evolution
To the Reader: Is Evolution a Threat to Your Religious Beliefs?
Prologue: Fossils and Evolution
Acknowledgments
Part I: Evolution and the Fossil Record
1 The Nature of Science
What Is Science?
Science and Belief Systems
Belly Buttons and Testability
Natural and Supernatural
Science, Pseudoscience, and Baloney Detection
Follow the Evidence Wherever It May Lead
2 Science and Creationism
Mything Links
The Genesis of Genesis
What Is Creationism?
Twentieth-Century Creationism
“Intelligent Design”—or “Breathtaking Inanity”?
The Monkey Business of Creationism
3 The Fossil Record
Lucky Accidents of Fossilization
Faunal Succession or “Flood Geology”?
The Surreal World of “Flood Geology”
The Grand Canyon Through the Looking Glass
Ship of Foolishness?
Dates with Rocks
Punk Eek, Transitional Forms—and Quote-Miners
4 The Evolution of Evolution
Before Darwin
The Evolution of Darwin
The Neo-Darwinian Evolutionary Synthesis
Challenges to Neo-Darwinism
Unfinished Synthesis
Lamarck Revisited
Neutralism, Junk DNA, and Molecular Clocks
Macroevolution and Evo/Devo
The Evidence of Evolution
The Family Tree of Life
Homology
Vestigial Structure and Other Imperfections
Embryology
Biogeography
Evolution Happens All the Time!
5 Systematics and Evolution
What Is Systematics?
What Is Taxonomy?
Ladders, Bushes, Mosaics and “Missing Links”
The Cladistic Revolution
Ancestor Worship
The Molecular Third Dimension
The Branching Tree of Life
Part II: Evolution? The Fossils Say YES!
6 Life’s Origins
To the Blazing Hot North Pole
Recipe for Primordial Soup
Mosh Pits, Fool’s Gold, Kitty Litter, Black Smokers, and Mud
Communal Living Builds Complex Cells
Probability and the Origin of Life
7 Cambrian “Explosion”—or Slow Fuse?
The Creationists’ Favorite Myth
Step 1: Planet of the Scum
Step 2: The Garden of Ediacara
Step 3: The Little Shellies
Step 4: In With a Whimper, Not a Bang
8 Spineless Wonders of Evolution
Invertebrate Transitions
The Incredible World of Microfossils
The Story in the Seashells
What About Macroevolution?
9 Fish Tales
Show Some Backbone!
It’s a Long Way From Amphioxu s
Jaws: The Evolutionary Story
10 Fish Out of Water
The Great Leap Upward
Lobe Fins Lead the Way
Four on the Floor
11 Onto the Land and Back to the Sea: The Amniotes
Innovative Eggs
Evolution of the Great Sea Dragons
Snakes with Legs and Hopping Crocodiles
12 Dinosaurs Evolve—and Fly
Dinosaur Transitions
Lifestyles of the Huge and Ancient
Dinosaurs are Alive!
13 Mammalian Explosion
From Amniote to Synapsid to Mammals
Furballs in the Age of Dinosaurs
Radiation in the Aftermath
Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!
14 Bossies and Blowholes
Thundering Hooves
Tiny Horses, Hornless Rhinoceroses, and Thunder Beasts
Kingdom of Cloven Hooves
Walking Whales
Dumbo and the Mermaid
15 The Ape’s Reflection?
The Only Transition That Really Matters
The Truth About Human Fossils
The Third Chimpanzee
16 Why Does It Matter?
Deceit in the Name of the Lord
Why Should We Care?
Choices for the Future
Bibliography
Index
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