GOULD WEAVES WORTHWHILE EVOLUTIONARY WEB\Author continues winning way with scientific subjects.

Byline: Alan Doyle Contra Costa Times 

Title: "Dinosaur in a Haystack"

Author: Stephen Jay Gould 

Data: 480 pages, Random House; $25

Our rating: Four Stars

Despite the rise to power of the religious right and its creationist cohorts, or perhaps because of that American political phenomenon, the countervailing theory of evolution again is a popular literary topic.

The past 18 months or so have seen the publication of such titles as "Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meaning of Life," by Daniel C. Bennett; "The Neanderthal Enigma: Solving the Mystery of Modern Human Origins," by James Shreeve; and "The Stone Age Present: How Evolution has Shaped Modern Life," by William F. Allman.

We even have dueling predictions of global disaster in the form of "The Sixth Extinction: Patterns of Life and the Future of Humankind," by Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin; and "The End of Evolution: A Journey in Search of Clues to the Third Mass Extinction Facing Planet Earth," by Peter Ward.

Now we begin the new year with less heavy, but in many ways even more rewarding, reading on the subject.

"Dinosaur in a Haystack," which arrived in bookstores recently, looks not only at evolution, but also at almost everything else under the sun and under a few rocks, too, where author Stephen Jay Gould finds monstrous, million-year-old fungi lurking in support of evolution theory.

"Dinosaur" is the seventh collection of essays from the brilliant, iconoclastic mind of Gould, the Harvard University professor who is a highly regarded evolutionary biologist.

Gould is a prolific and respected writer; it is from his monthly columns for Natural History magazine that this collection has been drawn.

He deals with the same complicated issues of deep science as his fellow academics. But Gould's genius, honed by 22 years of writing for general audiences, is the ability to use objects and incidents from popular culture and everyday life to illustrate the evolving insights and theories of science.

That talent, and Gould's refreshing sense of humor, is evident throughout "Dinosaur in a Haystack," beginning with the titles he has chosen for his 34 essays.

Such phrases as "The Late Birth of a Flat Earth," "Lucy on the Earth in Stasis," "Four Antelopes of the Apocalypse," "A Humongous Fungus Among Us" and "Ordering Nature by Budding and Full-Breasted Sexuality" are guaranteed to draw in even the most science-shy reader.

And rarely will the reader be disappointed. Time and again, Gould weaves seemingly disparate threads of science, culture, history, literature and arcana into a common cloth by essay's end.

The result is not only a greater understanding of the esoteric issues of science and Gould's own specialty of evolution theories, but also of the world around us and how it has come to be that way.

Gould obviously anticipates an educated audience that shares his love of knowledge and of discovery. Indeed, much of the pleasure of Gould's writing is embarking with him on an intellectual inquiry and marveling at where and how it concludes. For most readers, the journey with Gould will be as worthwhile as the destination.

About the only readers who will be disappointed in "Dinosaur in a Haystack" are those who seek simple solutions through religious certainty or Darwinian determinism.

Gould was among the early defenders of evolution science against creationist attacks and continues that defense here in "Dinosaur"; he simply does not find creationism credible.

But Gould also is something of a maverick in the world of evolution, departing from Darwin's view of gradual change and orderly accession. Instead, Gould sees a world formed by short bursts of great change between long periods in which there is almost none.

In the "Dinosaur" essays, Gould offers evidence to support that theory.

The result is a lively, thought-provoking read that offers new insights into why things are and how they came to be that way.

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Photo no caption (Book cover - DINOSAUR IN A HAYSTACK)