Creatures of Accident The Rise of the Animal Kingdom

Creatures of Accident addresses the most important question in evolutionary theory: How do complex creatures arise from simple ones? This "vertical" dimension of evolution has been downplayed in the literature with unsavory political views. The avoidance of evolution's vertical dimension has, however, left evolutionary biology open to the perception, from outside, that it deals merely with the diversification of rather similar creatures, all at the same level of "advancedness" from a common ancestor-as, for example, in the classic case study of Darwin's finches, with their different beaks.

Wallace Arthur is a professor of zoology at the National University of Ireland,
Galway. The author of seven previous books, he also serves as European editor of the journal Evolution and Development.