It isn't easy to become a fossil. ... Only about one bone in a billion, it is thought, becomes fossilized. If that is so, it means that the complete fossil legacy of all the Americans alive today - that's 270 million people with 206 bones each - will only be about 50 bones, one-quarter of a complete skeleton. That's not to say, of course, that any of these bones will ever actually be found.

Taxonomy is described sometimes as a science and sometimes as an art, but really it’s a battleground.

18th century scientists, the French in particular, seldom did things simply if an absurdly demanding alternative was available.

Not writing the same kind of book over and over again is to me the real pleasure of what I do.

My first rule of travel is never to go to a place that sounds like a medical condition and Critz is clearly an incurable disease involving flaking skin.

Houses aren't refuges from history. They are where history ends up.

Boston's freeway system is insane. It was clearly designed by a person who had spent his childhood crashing toy trains.