 Some commentators have noted that Gould’s defense of evolutionary contingency sits in tension with his arguments, in the 1970s and early 1980s, for a more “nomothetic” paleobiology (e.g., Raup &amp; Gould 1974). A more nomothetic paleobiology would seem to place the emphasis on laws and predictability. However, contingency is thought by some to mean that there are no distinctively biological laws (Beatty 1995). Haufe (2015) addresses this puzzle by arguing that Gould was interested in developing a “nomothetic” science of macroevolution involving generations at large spatial and (especially) temporal scales, but that this is compatible with saying that contingency reigns at other scales. One other larger theme that may help to unify some of Gould’s thinking is his skepticism about the power of natural selection, which is the classic example of a micro-evolutionary process (see also Gould &amp; Lewontin 1979). One way to limit the importance of natural selection is to insist on the autonomy of macroevolutionary theory, and to show that natural selection is insufficient to explain certain larger scale patterns. Another way is to insist that evolutionary history is contingent, since one would expect selection to produce convergent outcomes.