Genes key to the development of modern animals' body plans show up in primitive-looking comb jellies.

Unsuspected genetic diversity found in asexual animals.

Chock-full of unicorn horns (narwhal teeth), griffin claws (antelope antlers), leopard skins, petrified wood or other gems hand-picked from nature, “cabinets of curiosities” have developed a modern-day reputation as whimsical caboodles of miscellaneous oddities. This book will overturn that impression. A proper collection was “a model of universal nature, made private,” as Francis Bacon, the 17th century philosopher and statesman, is quoted as saying. In providing a grand tour of Western European collections, Arthur MacGregor shows that “purposeful collecting” embodied n...

With a mix of reptilian, bird and mammalian features, the duck-billed platypus genome looks as strange as the animal.

A team of biologists places comb jellies, not sponges, at the base of a new tree of animal life. (p. 214)