fossil record
"When you think about it, the fossil record is like a series of photographs: frozen moments from what is really a moving, ongoing reality"
"The fossil record is like a movie with most of the frames cut out. Because it is so incomplete, it can be difficult to establish exactly when particular evolutionary changes happened."
"The fossil record is like an old, scratchy vinyl '78. The needle skips and jumps around, playing stretches that are clear and sweet, but never giving you the complete song"
METAMIA is a free database of analogy and metaphor. Anyone can contribute or search. The subject matter can be anything. Science is popular, but poetry is encouraged. The goal is to integrate our fluid muses with the stark literalism of a relational database. Metamia is like a girdle for your muses, a cognitive girdle.