Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History by Stephen Jay Gould (PDF)

Description

“[An] extraordinary book. . . . Mr. Gould is an exceptional combination of scientist and science writer. . . . He is thus exceptionally well placed to tell these stories, and he tells them with fervor and intelligence.”—James Gleick, New York Times Book ReviewHigh 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.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐This work by Gould is as important in its central message as the original one by Charles Darwin. Darwin established the theory of the survival of the fittest. Gould now clarifies that by demonstrating via the remains at the Burgess Shale formation, that in the short term the survival of the fittest is accurate, but not necessarily in the long term. It is instead the “survival of the luckiest” that governs the process. It may be considered a corollary to Darwin’s idea, but some like me may consider it a new and autonomous step.The reading may be too detailed and “boring” to the lay–but that is what a seminal and perfectly reasoned logical epoch making piece should be. After 30 years, I am still awe-stricken when thinking of the ramification of this corollary to Darwin’s original idea. Gould makes it so much more complete—and mathematical: the laws of probabilities working as the final determinant.I was lucky enough (pawns intended) to meet Dr. Gould as a colleague (but not fit enough–given the major age difference). And I am so proud of having held the company of a giant of science and a keen observer such as him.

⭐This is a great scientific book that helps explain an apparent contradiction in evolution. Why are there so few but vastly different animal types in the world today? A jellyfish seems to have little in common with a song bird. And yet it iseasy to identify and name the leg bones of a T Rex from hundreds of millions of years ago because the bone structure is virtually identical to humans. The answer seems to be random physical events for which particular characteristicsof life forms have particular survival value. Thus evolution is not a steady march toward perfection but a journey through time interrupted by physical events that semi-randomly select for particular life forms.

⭐A la vez ensayo, a la vez libro de ciencia, S. J. Gould, con su estilo que lo caracteriza, pone habilidosamente en escenario un drama en actas con sus tensiones narrativas este fascinante tema. El lector recorrerá tanto una monografía describiendo enciclopédicamente la fauna del Burgess Shale, como el contexto científico de su descubrimiento exhaustivamente narrado. Algunas de estas partes se pueden hacer largas para un neófito (como yo), pero aquí también radican las ideas más brillantes del autor y de su talento a conciliar ciencias naturales y exactas con letras y ciencias humanas. Las reflexiones de Stephen Jay Gould llegan de esta manera a una reflexión sorprendente sobre la teoría de la evolución, pero mucho más (SPOILER): la fragilidad de nuestra existencia es lo que hace que la vida sea tan maravillosa

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⭐Gould’s book is a must read for any person claiming to be educated, and I mean any person. It is a great antidote to creation fervor. I say no more.This is just one of Gould’s many wonderful (no pun intended) books about biology, and they make great gifts and even great reading–entertaining with unexpected content.Go Gould!

⭐Awesome book! It was my first foray into Gould’s work, but after I made a visit to Yoho Natl. Park on a trip to Banff and heard about the invertebrate fauna in a historcial geology course, I had to learn more about it, and I’m glad I picked up this book. It is so eloquently written and every argument is highly structured, I really enjoyed reading it. For reference, I’m an engineering student with an interest in geology, so don’t be put off by tales of extreme taxonomy or cladistics, it’s all spelled out to the point where you can understand the important features and get a feeling for the whole story of the Burgess.

⭐Excellent book! Stephen Jay Gould is a master when it come to taking a very complicated issue and boiling it down to an understandable point. His style of writing keeps the book flowing and easily readable. His topic is one that is usually way above the average person’s head, but he brings it down to earth and doesn’t insult you as he does it. Enough information and scientific conclusions to be useful to the more advanced reader or student.

⭐530 million years ago something happened that would change the way scientists would look at evolution and it would take the humor, knowledge and artistic skill of Stephen Jay Gould to explain WHY it changed the way they look at evolution and WHY we should all care.Mr. Gould takes evolution and shows how it worked in the ancient sea and why it seemed to change how it works now. Mr. Gould is an honest writer, brave enough to say that what he says might be proven wrong later on, but is willing to dive right in anyway. He is willing to get his hands messy while trying to work out the paleontological puzzle of the Burgess Shale and he takes us along, we go together during every step, we watch scientists overcome every barrier and we are able to judge the results that we saw built right before our eyes, piece by piece.Great read.

⭐Stephen J. Gould is a wonderful science writer. He loves his craft. This book is not for the uninformed. It assumes some science background, but with that said, it is a great read on the burgess shale fossils. Worth the work of reading this tome.

⭐A fine, well written account of a rigorous investigation, exploration and reinterpretation of the 3-dimensional structures of Cambrian fauna and ecology. An enlightened perspective, which dispels several paleontologica myths. The writing has many delightful touches, such as describing the first known examples of cannibalism, analogies involving Sylvester, the cartoon cat and steam rollers, the use of passive verbs in monographs and finally, the comparison of logical versus psychological. A quality read.

⭐God read

⭐Very interesting book. Highly recommended.

⭐This book is very detailed and informative (very thorough). It does have pictures (a few) but is written such that a young teen can enjoy it. The kid’s feedback is that it is extremely interesting! A more obscure subject (interest peeked after a Nature of Things with David Suzuki episode) – it’s been well received and enjoyed.

⭐Un classico che ogni paleontologo dovrebbe avere nella sua libreria. Lo stile di Gould, come al solito, non delude, presentando teorie scientifiche e concetti complessi senza perder la leggerezza tipica di un libro divulgativo. Sebbene alcuni dei concetti esposti siano ad oggi stati aggiornati da studi scientifici più approfonditi, Wonderful Life rimane una delle più dettagliate raccolte di informazioni sulla straordinaria fauna cambriana degli Scisti di Burgess. Un argomento del genere, che potrebbe sembrare destinato a un pubblico di specialisti, in realtà ha un’importanza enorme dal punto di vista del significato che la fauna cambriana ha per tutta la storia successiva del regno animale. Uno dei concetti che Gould fa comprendere meglio è il fatto che mai prima e dopo, nella storia evolutiva dei phyla animali, ci sia stata una tale innovazione in termini di differenti tipologie di piani anatomici. Insomma, un libro da non perdere.

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