Hen

Bookreport on Hen’s teeth and horse’s toesStephen Jay Gould’s Hen’s teeth and horse’s toes writes about Darwinian theory by exploring the “peculiar and mysterious particulars of nature.” He introduces the reader to some of the many and wonderful manifestations of evolutionary biology. I really enjoyed reading this book because it is written in such a way that it does not bore the reader like the Darwin’s Origin of SpeciesHe starts the chapter with the size between the human sexes. He says that human males are generally larger than human females but, females are larger than males in a majority of animal species. For example female insects are larger than males and that would also relate to whales. Why? Females are more active than males in brooding their young. Then, Gould goes into stuff about the genetic functions between males and females.Through the whole book he brings up Darwin’s theories and relates them in a more simplistic method. I really liked the explanation on the myths on different types of animals. For example, the three myths of hyenas that gives them such a poor reputation. One of the myths declared that they were regard as scavengers but, some hyenas live in hunting clans and kills most of its own food. They were also considered hybrids by being both dog and cat. In fact, there are three different species of hyena form a family of their own within the order Carnivora. They are most closely related to the mustelids (weasels and their allies). The last false fact was that they were hemorphrodites. Obviously they are not. He goes into fine detail why people thought of them this way

I learned a lot from this book and had fun reading. I really like Gould’s way of writing so that the reader can understand the facts without going to the nearest encyclopedia. by [email protected]