Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes

Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes
Author Steven Jay Gould
Country United States
Language English
Publisher Norton
Publication date
 1983
Media type Print
Pages 413
ISBN 0393017168
LC Class QH366.2 .G66 1983
Preceded by The Panda's Thumb
Followed by The Flamingo's Smile

Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes (1983) is Stephen Jay Gould's third volume of collected essays reprinted from his monthly columns for Natural History magazine titled "This view of life". Three essays appeared elsewhere. "Evolution as Fact and Theory" first appeared in Discover magazine in May 1981; "Phyletic size decrease in Hershey bars" appeared in C. J. Rubins's Junk Food, 1980; and his "Reply to critics", was written specifically for this volume as a commentary upon criticism of essay 16, "The Piltdown Conspiracy".

Chapters

  • Prologue.
  • Section I. Sensible oddities.
    • Big fish, little fish
    • Nonmoral nature
    • The guano ring
    • Quick lives and quirky changes.
  • Section II. Personalities. Three geologists.
    • The titular bishop of Titiopolis
    • Hutton's purpose
    • The stinkstones of Oeningen.
    • Three biologists. Agassiz in the Galápagos
    • Worm for a century, and for all seasons
    • A hearing for Vavilov.
  • Section III. Adaptation and development. Adaptation.
    • Hyena myths and realities
    • Kingdoms without wheels
    • What happens to bodies if genes act for themselves?
    • Development. Hen's teeth and horse's toes
    • Helpful monsters.
  • Section IV. Teilhard and Piltdown.
    • The Piltdown conspiracy
    • A reply to critics
    • Our natural place.
  • Section V. Science and politics.
    • Creationism. Evolution as fact and theory
    • A visit to Dayton
    • Moon, Mann, and Otto. Race and creed. Science and Jewish immigration
    • The politics of census.
  • Section VI. Extinction.
    • Phyletic size decrease in Hershey bars
    • The belt of an asteroid
    • Chance riches
    • O grave, where is thy victory?
  • Section VII. A zebra trilogy.
    • What, if anything, is a zebra?
    • How the zebra gets its stripes
    • Quaggas, coiled oysters, and flimsy facts.

Reviews

  • Steven Rose, "And Zebra Stripes and Chocolate Bars", The New York Times, 8 May 1983, section 7, page 3.
  • Richard Dawkins, "The Art of the Developable. Review of Pluto's Republic by Peter Medawar and Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes by Stephen Jay Gould", reprinted in The Devil's Chaplain: Selected Essays, Phoenix, 2003 ( ISBN 978-0-7538-1750-6).

Awards

The book was awarded the 1983 Phi Beta Kappa Award for Science from the Phi Beta Kappa Society.

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