"The Greatest Show on Earth is a counter-attack on advocates of "Intelligent Design," explaining the evidence for evolution while exposing the absurdities of the creationist "argument." Richard Dawkins sifts through rich layers of scientific evidence: from living examples of natural selection to clues in the fossil record; from natural clocks that mark the epochs wherein evolution ran its course to the intricacies of developing embryos; from plate tectonics to molecular genetics. Combining these elements and many more, he makes the airtight case that " we find ourselves perched on one tiny twig in the midst of a blossoming and flourishing tree of life and it is no accident, but the direct consequence of evolution by non-random selection.""--BOOK JACKET.
Record details
ISBN:9781416594796 (pbk.)
ISBN:9781416594789 :
ISBN:1416594787
Physical Description:print ix, 470 p., 32 p. of plates : ill. (some col.), col. map ; 25 cm.
Edition:1st Free Press hardcover ed.
Publisher:New York : Free Press, c2009.
Content descriptions
Bibliography, etc. Note:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Formatted Contents Note:
Ch. 1. Only a theory? -- Ch. 2. Dogs, cows and cabbages -- Ch. 3. The primrose path to macro-evolution -- Ch. 4. Silence and slow time -- Ch. 5. Before our very eyes -- Ch. 6. Missing link? What do you mean, 'missing'? -- Ch. 7. Missing persons? Missing no longer -- Ch. 8. You did it yourself in nine months -- Ch. 9. The ark of the continents -- Ch. 10. The tree of cousinship -- Ch. 11. History written all over us -- Ch. 12. Arms races and 'evolutionary theodicy' -- Ch. 13. There is grandeur in this view of life -- Appendix. The history-deniers.