Stephen J. Gould

Today's news of a previously unknown pocket of bio-diversity in New Guinea calls to mind Stephen J. Gould (really, how could it not?), whose lament for the lost Partula snails of the South Pacific has stuck with me. This discovery won't bring Partula back, but it might go a little ways toward replacing the evolutionary knowledge lost when they were unwittingly eradicated. Gould tells the story of Partula in Unenchanted Evenings in the collection "Eight Little Piggies." It's the first essay in the collection, so Amazon's Look Inside will let you read the first several pages.