The following errata refer to the first US edition:

• GLOBAL: change all "jerry rig" to "jury rig"
  
  
• page 74, 2^nd paragraph, last line:
  delete "pulp and"
  
  
• page 85, 2^nd paragraph, 6 lines from bottom:
  change supercilli to supercili
  
  
• page 88, 2^nd paragraph, 2^nd line:
  change 1820 to 1790
  
• page 88, 2^nd paragraph, 4th line:
  change Vienna to Venice
  
  
• page 121, 2^nd paragraph, 1^st sentence:
  change "whose name literally means Before Life"
  to
  "a period thought to be devoid of life"
  
  
• page 127, 2^nd paragraph, 4^th line:
  change "between the cells" to "within"
  
  
• page 158, 2^nd paragraph, 4^th line from bottom:
  change "gel" to "fluid"
  
• page 158, 2^nd paragraph, 4^th line from bottom:
  change sentence that begins "Swishing gel..." to "Swishing fluid bends hairs on sensory cells that triggers a nerve impulse to the brain, which interprets this as sound."
  
  
• page 159, 2^nd paragraph, 2^nd sentence:
  insert "appear to" between "don't" and "have"
  
  
• page 160, 2^nd paragraph, 2^nd sentence:
  change "...the stapes from the first arch, and the malleus and incus from the second arch."
  to
  "...the stapes from the second arch, and the malleus and incus from the first arch."
• page 160, 3^rd paragraph, 5^th line from the bottom:
  insert "parts of" between "as" and "the"
  
  
• page 164, last paragraph, 2^nd line from the bottom:
  delete "nerve"
• page 164, last paragraph, last line:
  change "the nerve" to "these"
  
  
• page 166, 5^th paragraph, end of first sentence:
  add the phrase "via connections in our brain" after "to our eye muscles"
  
• page 166, 5 ^th paragraph, 3^rd line:
  change "eight" to "six"
  
  
• page 168, 2^nd paragraph, 4^th line:
  change "gel" to "fluid"
• page 168, 2^nd paragraph, 3^rd, 4^th, & 5^th sentences:
  delete "...like the result of pouring...ear swirls. The convection"
  add "...that the fluid in our inner ear becomes less dense. This change in density"
  
  
• page 169, 2^nd paragraph, 5^th line:
  delete "organ"
  
  
• page 205
  insert as 2^nd paragraph in Notes for Chapter 3:
  
  A note on what I mean when I use the term "primitive." We tend to use this term to describe features of organisms, not the organisms themselves. That is, fins are primitive to limbs, but fish are not primitive to people. The reason for this is that living fish are highly specialized animals in their own right, just like we are. I occasionally call creatures primitive as a short hand for the notion that they are similar to the ancestral condition in whatever feature I'm describing.
  
  
• page 212
  insert as 1^st paragraph in Notes for Chapter 11
  
  Biologists now use the family tree of life as the basis for classification. This makes sense, as the names for our groups of animals have biological meaning—they reflect their ancestry. If we use the tree of life in this way groups, like phyla, families, genera, etc, would include everything on one branch. To use the family analogy again, this is akin to saying that everybody who has descended from my dad's parents are Shubins. Nobody is arbitrarily excluded. The challenge for non-specialists comes about when we use the family tree of life as the basis for our taxonomy, many of the names we are familiar with cease to have scientific meaning. Take, reptiles, for example. We all learn what reptiles are from our trips to the zoo, they include things like lizards, snakes, turtles, dinosaurs, and crocodiles, to name a few. But it turns out that that the branch of the tree of life that includes all of these creatures also includes other animals, such as mammals and birds. Reptiles include some but not all members of a branch of the tree of life, something that is just as arbitrary as excluding a blood relative from one's family.