I never thought I’d look at formaldehyde aesthetically. Through the lens of the adept nature photographer Susan Middleton, the archives of the California Academy of Sciences—those taxidermied beavers and parrots, rows of pinned beetles, jars brimming with lizards—receive a clean framing and a fresh styling. The Academy’s Evidence Of Evolution (Abrams, $29.95) includes tortoise-shell shapes, lizard coloration, and, of course, the slight variations in finches’ beaks; these are vivid real-world illustrations of the evidence that led Darwin to his theories. The at-times elusive processes, patterns, and phenomena are further clarified in the sparkling and approachable text by Mary Ellen Hannibal. Her historical account of evolutionary discovery goes beyond Darwin’s cult to depict the contributing discoveries of Lyell, Goethe, Mendel, and Wallace, also taking time to dwell upon the history of evolution, and the curve ball of climate change.