The Panda's Thumb

This collection of natural-history essays uses odd structures and historical cases to explain how evolution works. Gould writes about the panda's false thumb, the sizes of living things, early theories of race and recapitulation, the pace of speciation, and the ways scientists have misread fossils and embryos. Each piece is a short argument from a particular animal, fossil, or forgotten book. The recurring thesis is that history, constraint, and accident shape organisms as much as perfect design. The book is a set of independent essays in evolutionary biology, not a textbook and not a single narrative of discovery.

Bound in printed paper with soft touch lamination, blocked in neon foil on front cover with a picture, light blue spine with titling in black. Plain slipcase.