How the Snake Lost Its Legs fly embryo. His books on evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo) include "Imaginal Discs: The Genetic and Cellular Logic of Pattern Formation" (2002), "Quirks of Human Anatomy: An Evo-Devo Look at the Human Body" (2009), and "Deep Homology? Uncanny Similarities of Humans and Flies Uncovered by Evo-Devo" (2017). In Held's view, "Quirks", "Snake", and "Deep Homology" form a trilogy on evo-devo. "How the Snake Lost Its Legs" is ostensibly organised into six chapters, but in effect into three parts. The first chapter serves as an introduction and overview. The next four chapters provide what Held calls "the meatier aspects of evo-devo" with
How the Snake Lost Its Legs many of the, "nuts and bolts of evolution, deeper than just natural selection," are on display in the book, revealing, "precisely what genetic/physiological mechanisms are being selected for." The molecular biologist Arnaud Martin observes that, "As children, we have all wondered about 'the How and the Why' of animal features, and if you are reading this it is in fact quite possible that a similar inquisitiveness still burns within you. The tone of "How the Snake Lost its Legs" finds its roots in the famous "Just So Stories" of Joseph Rudyard Kipling by tickling this curiosity with the formulaic "How