The final chapters of the book are devoted to the implications that the Burgess Shale and Burgess Shale-type biotas have for evolutionary thought.Ĭonway Morris reveals his view of what the fossils of the Burgess Shale tell us about evolution and he draws quite different conclusions than does Stephen Jay Gould, whose Wonderful Life (Gould 1989) drew extensively on Conway Morris' Burgess Shale work. The literary vehicle of time-travel transports the reader to the Cambrian seas, where we are given a first-hand view of the remarkable diversity of life during the Middle Cambrian.
He then gives a colorful description of Charles Walcott's discovery of the Burgess Shale, and describes the more recent discoveries of Burgess Shale-type biotas in Greenland and China. Conway Morris provides the reader with an informative, basic discussion of the origins of life and animals on Earth. This well-organized text is thoroughly footnoted and referenced, and contains a helpful glossary. Oxford University Press, Oxford, England, 1998, 242 pagesĮarth Sciences at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, 2801 South University, Little Rock, Arkansas 72204-1099, USA.Īfter devoting more than a quarter century to the study of the Burgess Shale biota, Simon Conway Morris has summarized his vision of life during the Middle Cambrian in The Crucible of Creation. The Crucible of Creation: The Burgess Shale and the Rise of Animals
0 kommentar(er)
