Evolution In A Wonderful Life By Stephen J Gould

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In not being a science major, or really having much interest in science at all it was difficult for me to fully immerse myself into this subject. I was under the impression that the only idea of evolution was that of forward progress, the one that we all see in advertisements and on Google when you type in “evolution”. In stark contrast to this idea of evolution, Stephen J Gould presents a less restricted idea of evolution. He left some of the decision up to chance and showed this theory by discussing it within the Cambrian Burgess Shale. More specifically, there are two main themes represented in this book by Stephen J Gould: showing evolution as a ladder or cone, and if it were possible to “replay the tape of evolution” the results would be considerably different and specifically that humans may not come out of that result.
Being the curious person I am, after I read A Wonderful Life I researched different theories surrounding evolutionary history. There was one that specifically struck my attention and seemed to fall in line very closely with Gould’s ideas about evolution. ...

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