Our anatomy is a palimpsest, and so is our genome. Both of them harbor layer upon layer of residual traces of ourselves when we looked quite different. The Quest that Quirks set for itself was to peel away those veils to reveal how we acquired the body we have now. During the process, we have uncovered abundant relics of our former incarnations as reptiles, amphibians, fish, protochordates, and, ultimately, as Urbilaterians.

By focusing on our Urbilaterian ancestors in particular, we found a closer kinship to flies and their ilk than anyone had ever guessed. Indeed, the reality of that affinity has shattered our prejudices and transported us beyond the outermost reaches of science fiction. Who would ever have thought that fact could be so much stranger than fiction!

As we have wandered through this Wonderland where up seems down and down seems up, we have encountered a menagerie of other species that we thought we already knew. We used to just yawn and mutter, “Oh, yes, I know them,” but now we see how strange they look through the lenses of evo-devo. Our earthly zoo has been transformed from a dusty old museum into an amusement park full of funhouse mirrors that show us ourselves as we could have looked if the aeolian breezes of natural selection had blown us along a different course through Morphospace.

Darwin's odyssey aboard the Beagle changed his life and led him to write a book that changed ours. On the 150th anniversary of Origin, Quirks reminds us of what he gave us. For evo-devotees, his most lasting legacy, ironically, may be more spiritual than intellectual.