17 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fossils and Species that Show Little or No Evolutionary Change in Millions of Years of Existence?, March 27, 2009
This review is from: Evolution: The Grand Experiment: Vol. 2 - Living Fossils (Hardcover)
Carl Werner and, his wife, Debbie Werner have done humanity a great service in writing their series called "Evolution: The Grand Experiment". Their approach to their investigation is synonymous to Charles Darwin's and Alfred Wallace's naturalist approach as is evidenced in their early writings of
The Voyage of the Beagle: Journal of Researches into the Natural History and Geology of the Countries Visited During the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle Round the World (Modern Library Classics) and
The Malay Archipelago, respectively. Carl Werner and his wife visited more than 60 museums, multiple excavations, noticeable aquariums, forests, rain forests, and did diving expeditions worldwide; photographed over 20,000 fossils, interviewed notable authorities in the field such as John Long on prehistoric fishes and searched for over 30 years for answers on how far natural selection has allowed for diversity and macro evolution to occur. They accept micro evolution like all humans do (Example: humans micro evolved to other humans: Africans, Hispanics, Caucasians, Asians, Polynesians). However, macro evolution ( Example: some Theropods (a category of dinosaur) evolve to Aves (birds)) and the limits of this is what is investigated in this book.
Punctuated Equilibrium is seen throughout the fossil record, it seems.
All of this was done out of their own pocket and their furious curiosity for better answers on the origins of speciation and just to take closer look at paleontological evidences that are available for the public on museums and excavations. Yep Carl Werner is an avid naturalist and basically did his research to a significant degree like Darwin and Wallace once did. Werner is old school, man.
This book is a naturalist account of their investigation involving creatures that have been dubbed as "living fossils" since many of these don't look like they have evolved much at all. These fossils extremely resemble their modern descendants nearly on all aspects so much so that look almost completely unevolved despite the changing ecosystems theses species lived in, broad geographic expansion of species, and the ridiculous amount of time, usually more than 65 million years, these prehistoric creatures had to actually evolve, as is generally presumed by many who watch too much popular media documentaries on macro evolved species. Take a look at Lamarcks historical work on evolution via acquired characteristics due to environment changes, it has a ring of truth for many who believe all species macro evolved and is still prevalent today believe it or not: "Zoological Philosophy, An Exposition with Regard to the Natural History of Animals" by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. Also look at Alfred Russel Wallace's theory of Natural Selection in
Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection: A Series of Essays for more on the different views on evolution that have emerged that include God or a purposeful mind and teleology in creation believe it or not. Wallace's collection includes his 1855 paper that was to make Wallace the first to publish the modern theory of natural selection before Darwin did in 1859.
This book has its strengths in many ways:
1) I have not found an actual book that focuses strictly on creatures that have rarely evolved despite having multiple opportunities, ridiculous amount of time, and necessities for adaption. This book focuses strictly on living fossils.
2) This book has multiple examples of modern species that strongly resemble their ancestral forms and photographs of both the fossils and the modern creature that resembles the fossil specimen are placed side by side for comparison.
The photographs of the fossils are all documented by:
(1) short description of creature
(2) genus (in blue ink), species (in red ink)
(3) geological layer where fossil was found in
(4) country where the fossil was found
(5) where the photo was taken (photos were taken by the author's wife and by outside photographers in out of reach cases)
The photographs of modern descendants are documented by:
(1) short description of creature
(2) genus (in blue ink), species (in red ink)
(3) country where the species was found or where the photo was taken (photos were taken by the author's wife and by outside photographers in out of reach cases)
3) It focuses strictly on actual photographs of the fossil specimens, which is not too common in many paleontological works, especially the text books I have on vertebrates, invertebrates, botanical fossils, insect fossils and microfossils. Two good examples of some paleontological works that focus strictly on actual photographs or replica sketches of fossil specimens when they try to plot plausible ancestral chains are
From Lucy to Language: Revised, Updated, and Expanded. The reason I want actual photographs of fossil specimens is so they I can see what we can conclude on and how far we can and should conclude on. Sometimes it seems like the drawings on the other paleontological books like some diagrams and artist renditions in
Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters and "After the Dinosaurs: The Age of Mammals (Life of the Past)" are the ones macro evolving, not necessarily ALL the fossils that they are trying to claim ancestry macro evolved.
4) Examples of old living fossils and their presumably unevolved decedents for 7 major animal phyla (Chordata, Echinodermata, Arthropoda, Mollusca, Annelida, Porifera, and Cnidaria) are given, usually from the Cretaceous period and further back. Examples of old living fossils and their presumably unevolved decedents for 7 major plant phyla (Magnoliophyta, Coniferae, Pteriodophyta, Cycadophyta, Ginkgophyta, Lycopodiophyta, Bryophyta) are given, usually from the Cretaceous Period and further back.
Most people do not focus or care for the botanical fossil record and so having him focus a good chunk of the book on this serves as an excellent introduction to the field. Another book on plant evolution and botanical fossils is
Paleobotany: The Biology and Evolution of Fossil Plants, Second Edition.
5) He critiques some of the naming found in museums and how some important information is sometimes withheld in museums such as the substantial coexistence of mammals and flowering plants in the Cretaceous period.
6) He stays away in general from placing ideology into the mix and allows for the evidence to speak for itself and let the reader absorb the information and decide for themselves the extent of evolution on many species, without much focusing on "evolution vs creation" debate which can get annoying for anyone who is just trying to evaluate the evidence.
Here are the Chapter Titles:
1. The Challenge that Would Change My Whole Life
2. How Can You Verify Evolution?
3. The Naming Game
4. Echinoderms
5. Aquatic Arthropods
6. Land Arthropods
7. Bivalve Shellfish
8. Snails
9. Other Types of Shellfish
10. Worms
11. Sponges and Corals
12. Bony Fish
13. Cartilaginous Fish
14. Jawless Fish
15. Amphibians
16. Crocodilians
17. Snakes
18. Lizards
19. Turtles
20. Birds
21. Mammals
22. Cone-Bearing Plants
23. Spore-Forming Plants
24. Flowering Plants
25. Coming Full Circle- My Conclusions
Appendices A,B,C,D - these are on assumptions made on fossil reconstructions by paleontologists at museums and in publications, some gaps of living fossils in the fossil record- their appearance, disappearance, and reappearance; difficulties of identifying species in the fossil record, etc.
Overall Bravo for Werner once more!
I love the colorful pictures and the interesting comparisons to modern descendants he makes. I couldn't put the book down. The only thing missing that would have made it more complete that it already was would have been a study of living microfossils and their modern descendants (bacteria, protists, etc), which are just as easily overlooked as botanical fossils. But in terms of the scope and the limits of the book, its way more than what I expected. Just to add to the research, look at
The Cambrian Fossils of Chengjiang, China: The Flowering of Early Animal Life where discourse on the Cambrian fossils and the existence of ridiculous diversity in the Cambrian period sheds light on how rapidly diversity of body plans emerged during this time including all the phyla that we see today, not in the expected slow and gradual Wallace-Darwinian prediction it seems. Read on for more info. Please read Read Werner's other work: "Evolution: The Grand Experiment Vol. 1" if anyone likes to see the first part of the book series.
Anyone interested in plausible natural unselection and natural selection should read this and challenge themselves. Maybe not all species macro evolved....Read on.
For information on the new evolutionary theory that is going to go beyond Darwin's purposed mechanism and how molecular data has challenged the Wallace-Darwinian gradual evolution by interviews with molecular evolutionary biologists and astrobiologists that feel the need to propose a newer evolutionary synthesis, please read
The Altenberg 16: An...
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Does the evidence prove evolution is true?, June 21, 2011
This review is from: Evolution: The Grand Experiment: Vol. 2 - Living Fossils (Hardcover)
Dr. Carl Werner grew up in a Catholic church where he learned about and believed in creation and the other stories in the Bible. As he headed into his teen years, he started to have some doubt as to whether what he had been taught was true. When he entered college and medical school, several of his professors presented evolution to him in a manner that made sense. He started to believe in evolution until one day his friend challenged him to prove that evolution was true. This challenge would prove to be a life-long journey....
Once Dr. Werner decided to embrace the challenge, he approached it from a scientific viewpoint. He decided to construct an experiment that would help him prove that evolution is true. He predicted that if evolution was not true, then animals and plants would not change significantly over time. Accordingly, he predicted that he should find fossils of modern animal and plant species in the "older" fossil layers.
Little did he know it at the time, but this experiment would take him all over the world. He would learn that many of his assumptions were wrong. He would take pictures and footage of fossils as well as live plants and animals from 3 different continents. This book shows readers glimpses into what he (and his wife) found during their travels.
He concludes the book by giving the evidence for and against both creation and evolution. He wants readers to make up their own mind on what his challenge produced.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book which is overflowing with beautiful images. The comparisons between pictures of current plants and animals and fossilized (dinosaur-era) plants and animals are wonderful. Many of the specimens shown in the book were things that I probably would not have seen if not for this book. I had to chuckle at several points during the reading as we've often said some of the same things about the "pre-historic" fossils looking just like current animals and plants when we've viewed them.
There is a teacher's manual as well as a presenter's cd available to accompany the Living Fossils book.
Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from Master Books/New Leaf Publishing to help facilitate the writing of a frank and honest review. I positive review is not guaranteed, and all opinions are my own.
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3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
welcome addition to scientific literature on Darwinian evolution, July 17, 2009
This review is from: Evolution: The Grand Experiment: Vol. 2 - Living Fossils (Hardcover)
I did a review of the first book in this series, Evolution: The Grand Experiment--The Quest for an Answer, which also appeared on several websites. In our homeschool, we used the book for our science last year with both Mark, who graduated in June, and Jeremy, who was in seventh grade. Also, in March of this year, I had the privilege of working with Dr. Werner as one of our speakers at the Greater St. Louis Area Home Educators Expo. He is truly a fascinating man. In Living Fossils, Carl weaves the story of his own personal journey with the results of his research. As a young man, he was raised to believe in the Bible and creation, but in high school began drifting from his religious beliefs, and by 1977 in an accelerated medical college program cast his vote for evolution. However, a year later, a friend challenged him to prove evolution. After hearing from his friend about the many problems with evolutionary theory, he was unnerved and determined to begin a quest to find evidence for and against evolution. For the next eighteen years, he immersed himself in reading and studying the topic of evolution, in the meantime becoming a physician. His plan was based on the prediction that if evolution was not true, then animals and plants would not change significantly over time and therefore one should find fossils of modern animal and plant species in the "older" fossil layers. Finally, in 1997 he and his photographer wife Debbie began visiting museums all over the world and talking to recognized experts in the field of fossils. You would be amazed at what they found. I shall leave you to read (and see) the details in the book, but in short Carl looked for and located in geologic strata which evolutionists consider as coming from the era of dinosaurs fossils of every major category of modern animals (both invertebrates and vertebrates) and plants living today. His conclusion is as follows. "If I ignore the genus and species names and simply compare the fossils found in dinosaur rock layers to modern forms, I see a lack of significant change in all of the major animal phyla and all of the major plant divisions. My findings support the idea that animals and plants have not significantly changed (evolved) over time, but simply some animals and plants have gone extinct, while others have remained relatively unchanged." As with Vol. 1, there is a teacher's manual containing chapter objectives, class discussion questions, and tests for each of the 25 chapters to help in using this book for classroom or homeschooling purposes. This book is certainly a welcomed addition to the growing body of scientific literature which poses questions for Darwinian evolution.
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