Do elephants have knees? : and other Darwinian stories of origins / Charles R. Ault Jr.

Previously issued in print: 2016.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Thinking whimsically makes serious science accessible. That's a message that should be taken to heart by all readers who want to learn about evolution. This work invites readers into serious appreciation of Darwinian histories by deploying the playful thinking found in children's books. The text weds children's literature to recent research in paleontology and evolutionary biology. Inquiring into the origins of origins stories, the author presents three portraits of Charles Darwin - curious child, twentysomething adventurer, and elderly worm scientist.

Specialized.

Online resource; title from home page (viewed on December 6, 2016).

Introduction : wonderful relationships : Darwinian stories of origins -- "Curtiosity's" child : Bobby Darwin's impertinent early years -- Darwin and the pampas pirates : adventure in search of treasure -- Fossils, fools, & faults : rounding South America -- Irritating worms : the elderly Darwin fascinated by the intelligence of worms -- A lungfish walked into the zoo : on the origin of limbs from lobe-fins -- Out on a limb : sketching at the zoo to compare limb anatomy -- Nosey elephants : a tale of trunks and tusks -- The bearduck of baleen : on the origin of new traits from existing ones -- The saga of Mooshmael : the logic of evolutionary relationships -- The higgledy-piggledy whale : calling a whale a whale on purpose -- Archaic chickengators : amniotic archosaur ancestors of dinosaurs and birds -- Coral pigs and tidepool sheep : novel selections of behavior and anatomy -- Epilogue : femurs and footprints : on the trail of megabeasts.

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