d, alcott failed to discern t c from tory,” Gould e in anotLittle Piggies, “alcott to misinterpret t fossils in tpossible ral to today’s o appreciate tinctness. “Under sucerpretation,” Gould sigy and moved inexorably,predictably ono more and better.”

    alcott died in 1927 and tten. For nearly ury tayed s aural ory inason, seldom consulted and never questioned. te student fromCambridge University named Simon Con to tion. onis  tted in ings. In taxonomy tegory t describes ter draies—all amazingly and unaccountably unrecognized by them.

    ittington, and felloe student Derek Briggs, Con t several years making a systematic revision of tire collection, andcranking out one exciting monograper anotures employed body plans t  simply unlike anyt . One, Opabinia,  oia, looked almost comically like apineapple slice. A tly tottered about on roilt-like legs, and  t y in tiont at one point upon opening a neter,“O another phylum.”

    team’s revisions s time of unparalleledinnovation and experimentation in body designs. For almost four billion years life  any detectable ambitions in tion of complexity, and t five or ten million years, it ed all till in use today. Name a creature, from a nematode o Cameron Diaz, and tecture first created in ty.

    surprising,  t o make t, so to speak, and left no descendants. Altogeto Gould, atleast fifteen and pery of to no recognizedps to as many as one ists ever actually claimed.) “tory of life,” e Gould,“is a story of massive removal foll