“To a first approximation . . . all species are extinct.” Quoted by Gould, Eight Little Piggies, p. 46.
“the average lifespan of a species . . .” Leakey and Lewin, The Sixth Extinction, p. 38.
“The alternative to extinction is stagnation . . .” Ian Tattersall, interviewed at American Museum of Natural History, New York, May 6, 2002.
“invariably associated with dramatic leaps afterward . . .” Stanley, p. 95; and Stevens, p. 12.
“In the Permian, at least 95 percent of animals . . .”Harper’s, “Planet of Weeds,” October 1998, p. 58.
“Even about a third of insect species . . .” Stevens, p. 12.
“It was, truly, a mass extinction . . .” Fortey, Life, p. 235.
“Estimates for the number of animal species alive . . .” Gould, Hen’s Teeth and Horse’s Toes, p. 340.
“For individuals the death toll could be much higher . . .” Powell, Night Comes to the Cretaceous, p. 143.
“Grazing animals, including horses, were nearly wiped out . . .” Flannery, The Eternal Frontier, p. 100.
“At least two dozen potential culprits . . .” Earth, “The Mystery of Selective Extinctions,” October 1996, p. 12.
“tons of conjecture and very little evidence. . . .” New Scientist, “Meltdown,” August 7, 1999.
“Such an outburst is not easily imagined . . .” Powell, Night Comes to the Cretaceous, p. 19.
“The KT meteor had the additional advantage . . .” Flannery, The Eternal Frontier, p. 17.
“Why should these delicate creatures . . .” Flannery, The Eternal Frontier, p. 43.
“In the seas it was much the same story.” Gould, Eight Little Piggies, p. 304.
“Somehow it does not seem satisfying . . .” Fortey, Life, p. 292.
“could well be known as the Age of Turtles.” Flannery, The Eternal Frontier, p. 39.
“Evolution may abhor a vacuum . . .” Stanley, p. 92.
“For perhaps as many as ten million years . . .” Novacek, Time Traveler, p. 112.
“guinea pigs the size of rhinos . . .” Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker, p. 102.
“a gigantic, flightless, carnivorous bird . . .” Flannery, The Eternal Frontier, p. 138.
“built in 1903 in Pittsburgh . . .” Colbert, p. 164.
“came from only about three hundred specimens . . .” Powell, Night Comes to the Cretaceous, pp. 168-69.
“There is no reason to believe . . .” BBC Horizon, “Crater of Death,” first broadcast May 6, 2001.
“Humans are here today because . . .” Gould, Eight Little Piggies, p. 229.
CHAPTER 23 THE RICHNESS OF BEING
“The spirit room alone holds fifteen miles of shelving . . .” Thackray and Press, The Natural History Museum, p. 90.
“forty-four years after the expedition had concluded.” Thackray and Press, p. 74.
“still to be found on many library shelves . . .” Conard, How to Know the Mosses and Liverworts, p. 5.
“The tropics are where you find the variety . . .” Len Ellis interview, Natural History Museum, London, April 18, 2002.
“he sifted through a bale of fodder . . .” Barber, p. 17.
“To the parts of one species of clam . . .” Gould, Leonardo’s Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms, p. 79.
