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Epigraph "Reptiles are abhorrent because of their cold body, pale color, cartilaginous skeleton, filthy skin, fierce aspect, calculating eye, offensive smell, harsh voice, squalid habitation, and terrible venom; wherefore their Creator has not exerted his powers to make many of them."



~ LINNAEUS, 1797 "You cannot recall a new form of life."

~ ERWIN CHARGAFF, 1972



Dedication For A-M and T

First words Prologue

The tropical rain fell in drenching sheets, hammering the corrugated roof of the clinic building, roaring down the metal gutters, splashing on the ground in a torrent. Introduction

The late twentieth century has witnessed a scientific gold rush of astonishing proportions: the headlong and furious haste to commercialize genetic engineering. Mike Bowman whistled cheerfully as he drove the Land Rover through the Cabo Blanco Biological Reserve, on the west coast of Costa Rica.

Quotations Reptielen zijn weerzinwekkend vanwege hun koude lichaam, hun bleke kleur, hun kraakbeenskelet, hun vuile huid, hun wrede uitdrukking, hun berekenende blik, hun afstotelijke geur, hun scherpe stemgeluid, hun smerig nest en hun vreselijk vergif; daarom heeft hun schepper zijn macht niet gebruikt om er vele te maken. (Linnaeus, 1797) Een nieuwe levensvorm kun je niet ongedaan maken. (Erwin Chargaff, 1972) Because the history of evolution is that life escapes all barriers. Life breaks free. Life expands to new territories. Painfully, perhaps even dangerously. But life finds a way.

Last words As they did, Grant looked back just once, and saw the island against a deep purple sky and sea, cloaked in a deep mist that blurred the white-hot explosions that burst rapidly, one after another, until it seemed the entire island was glowing, a diminishing bright spot in the darkening night. (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.) Epilogue

And then he turned, and walked back toward the entrance of the hotel. (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

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