I am particularly fond of [Emmanuel Mendes da Costa's] Natural History of Fossils because this treatise, more than any other work written in English, records a short episode expressing one of the grand false starts in the history of natural science and nothing can be quite so informative and instructive as a juicy mistake.
![I am particularly fond of [Emmanuel Mendes da Costa's] Natural History of Fossils because this treatise, more than any other work written in English, records a short episode expressing one of the grand false starts in](http://cdn.quoteddaily.com/images/stephen-jay-gould/i-am-particularly-fond-of-emmanuel-mendes-da-costas-natural-history-of-fossils-because-this-treatise-more-than-any-other.jpg)