Highly recommend www.phylopic.org

Indeed - even without humans we often draw phylogenetic trees that imply our biased view of ‘progress’

No - because it’s a bush and not a straight road. No living species gave rise to us and we haven’t necessarily discovered our ancestral species - also hybridization etc.

Yes the incorrect progressive model often gives wrong impression that existing species gave rise to other species (chimps to humans for instance) - google images for ‘evolution’ and you will see many versions of the ‘Road to Homo sapiens’

I have a talk that starts with that statement (which I’ve heard a lot too) in order to dispel it. www.ted.com/talks/prosan...

Not Darwin’s image. As discussed in the post - the most common depiction of evolution is the misleading image ‘March of Progress’ or ‘Road to Homo sapiens’ by Rudolph F. Zallinger

Thank you for sharing

Hope you had a happy birthday - my birthday twin! And thanks for the claps!

I met him briefly once after he spoke at McGill University in Montreal where I was doing my undergrad in zoology. He signed my copy of 'Panda's Thumb' but I was too nervous to tell him he was my hero. Wish he was still around.

I love Stephen Jay Gould - he wasn't perfect, but growing up as a New Yorker interested in evolution and natural history, I adored how he could write so clearly and beautifully while still throwing around modern analogies to baseball or skyscrapers that added to his points instead of detracting.