Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History [L0092]

1989 -PB with some wear and underlined text. Stephen Jay Gould was a prominent American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science. He was also one of the most influential and widely read writers of popular science of his generation. Gould spent most of his career teaching at Harvard University and working at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. High in the Canadian Rockies is a small limestone quarry formed 530 million years ago called the Burgess Shale. It hold the remains of an ancient sea where dozens of strange creatures lived -- a forgotten corner of evolution preserved in awesome detail. In this book Stephen Jay Gould explores what the Burgess Shale tells us about evolution and the nature of history.

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "Though Gould's work has been controversial and conclusions overturned with the passing of time a great theories give rise to great books only for greater theories to take their turn, then it's a small price to pay to have such good things to read while we wait for the next in line. Reading this seminal work I must say Stephen Jay Gould really is one of if not the best science writers of all time." "I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in evolution and life sciences. There are quite a few scientific names used here and you need to be up on the various terms to keep track of which types of animals they are talking about. A review of the Burgess fossils done during the 1970s led to many new discoveries regarding the creatures that were not known at the time of their discovery back in the 1910s. Gould gives several alternate scenarios of how life could have developed differently."; "It should be noted that Gould's interpretations are controversial. Recently gene sequencing has identified relationships between animals that the fossil record missed. Still the phyla determination of many Burgess Fossils remains unresolved. Some people see Gould's idea of punctuated equilibrium as inconsistent with phyletic gradualism, the predominant theory. Many paleontologists see no contradiction. Evolutionary change may be more or less rapid but even "rapid" change operates over geologic timescales of millions of years. It makes me appreciate just being here and having the opportunity to read wonderful books like Wonderful Life."