Genome (The Extinction Files, #2)

by A.G. Riddle

“Evolution. Survival of the fittest. Fittest is a thoroughly misunderstood concept in the theory. Fitness is determined by the environment. It’s not about being the biggest or the baddest. It’s about being fit—the best adapted to the world you find yourself in.”

“But I believe it. And you have to believe it. Don’t give up hope. It’s a very powerful thing, darling.”

Bodleian

“Punctuated equilibrium,” Lin said, “is a theory proposed in 1972 by Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould. Before that time, evolutionary biologists had debated how new species developed. Most thought it happened gradually over time—what we call phyletic gradual evolution. But the fossil record doesn’t support that. It shows that when a species emerges, it is generally stable, with little genetic change, for long stretches of time. When evolution does occur, it happens rapidly—new species branch off in a relatively short period of time. On a geological scale, anyway.”

“This moment is more important than any of you understand. The sacrifices that have been made. The giants whose shoulders we stand upon. We’re on the precipice of something incredible.”

A wall within Peyton broke. A tear formed at the corner of her eye and rolled down her face. In any other moment, she would have wiped it away, embarrassed, but now she let it slide down, like the last grain of sand falling through an hourglass, a symbol of her time with her mother, which might be up.

Lin Shaw’s work came first—and this room held the crowning achievement to that work. Lin Shaw had cajoled and killed and sacrificed for decades to find it. And now, in what might be the final chapter of her life, she had revealed what was truly important to her: Peyton.