Gorgon: Paleontology, Obsession, and the Greatest Catastrophe in Earth's History [Hardcover]

Peter Ward (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 2004

The gorgons ruled the world of animals long before there was any age of dinosaurs. They were the T. Rex of their day until an environmental cataclysm 250 million years ago annihilated them—along with 90 percent of all plant and animal species on the planet—in an event so terrible even the extinction of the dinosaurs pales in comparison. For more than a decade, Peter Ward and his colleagues have been searching in South Africa’s Karoo Desert for clues to this world: What were these animals like? How did they live and, more important, how did they die?

In Gorgon, Ward examines the strange fate of this little known prehistoric animal and its contemporaries, the ancestors of the turtle, the crocodile, the lizard, and eventually dinosaurs. He offers provocative theories on these mass extinctions and confronts the startling implications they hold for us. Are we vulnerable to a similar catastrophe? Are we nearing the end of human domination in the earth’s cycle of destruction and rebirth? Gorgon is also a thrilling travelogue of Ward’s long, remarkable journey of discovery and a real-life adventure deep into Earth’s history.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In Gorgon, geologist Peter Ward turns his attention reluctantly away from the asteroid collision that killed all the dinosaurs and instead focuses on a much older extinction event. As it turns out, the Permian extinction of 250 million years ago dwarfs the dino's 65-million-year-old Cretaceous-Tertiary armageddon. Ward's book is not a dry accounting of the fossil discoveries leading to this conclusion, but rather an intimate, first-person account of some of his triumphs and disappointments as a scientist. He draws a nice parallel between the Permian extinction and his own rather abrupt in research focus, revealing the agonizing steps he had to take to educate himself about a set of prehistoric creatures about which he knew almost nothing. These were the Gorgons, carnivorous reptiles whose ecological dominance preceded that of the more pop-culture-ready dinosaurs.

They would have had huge heads with very large, saberlike teeth, large lizard eyes, no visible ears, and perhaps a mixture of reptilian scales and tufts of mammalian hair.... The Gorgons ruled a world of animals that were but one short evolutionary step away from being mammals.

With characteristic enthusiasm, Ward transports readers with him to South Africa's Karoo desert, where he participated in field expeditions seeking fossils of these fearsome creatures. He suffers routine tick patrols, puff-adder avoidance lessons, stultifying thirst, and the everyday humiliations of being the new guy on a field team. Besides telling a fascinating paleological story, Gorgon lets readers feel a bone-hunter's passion and pain. --Therese Littleton

From Publishers Weekly

Millions of years before dinosaurs, gorgons roamed the earth. Like a creature out of Greek mythology, the gorgon was a lizard the size of a lion, with a huge head, razor-sharp teeth, reptilian eyes, a long, slashing tail and, perhaps, mammalian hair along with its reptilian scales. Then, almost in an instant, at the end of the Permian period 250 million years ago, the gorgons were gone, along with most other major land and maritime species, both plants and animals. The Permian extinction was greater than the catastrophe that killed off the dinosaurs. Paleontologist Ward (Rare Earth; The End of Evolution; etc.) recounts in this memoir his decade-long search in South Africa's Karoo Desert for clues to the cause of this extinction. By studying the fossil record in the Karoo, Ward concluded, contrary to accepted belief, that the extinction took place simultaneously on land and in the sea, rather than in two stages, and that the gorgon was in essence asphyxiated by a decrease of oxygen in the atmosphere, caused by a series of catastrophes that began with the dropping of sea levels. Some readers may wish Ward had cut to the chase and arrived at his conclusions a chapter or two sooner and focused less on elements of personal memoir, but young people aspiring to be the next Indiana Jones will learn from this realistic account of the quotidian details and battles of fieldwork. 16 pages of b&w photos not seen by PW.
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult; 1St Edition edition (January 15, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670030945
• ISBN-13: 978-0670030941
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,181,810 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #15 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Biological Sciences > Paleontology > Paleozoology

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Paleontology at a Personal Level, January 16, 2004

By 

R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Gorgon: Paleontology, Obsession, and the Greatest Catastrophe in Earth's History (Hardcover)

Today's schoolchildren, fascinated by Jurassic creatures, learn that the dinosaurs were mostly wiped out by a meteor that struck the area of the Yucatan 65 million years ago. This explanation was put forward only a couple of decades ago, and though it was revolutionary at the time, it has been confirmed so well that it is hard to imagine that there will ever be evidence to disconfirm it. Peter D. Ward, now a professor of geological sciences at the University of Washington, worked on evidence for this Cretaceous extinction, and then turned his attention to a previous extinction, one that makes the Cretaceous look like a fender-bender. In _Gorgon: Paleontology, Obsession, and the Greatest Catastrophe in Earth's History_ (Viking), Ward has told the story of his researches into the Permian extinction, which 250 million years ago exterminated forever 95% of the species then living. This is a personal account, a memoir to tell about field adventures, the atmosphere in modern South Africa, and the theory he has come up with. It is a fine introduction to current ideas about the Permian extinction, and what it is that paleontologists do.

The Gorgon of the title was a beast something like a tiger, ten feet long. The fearsome Gorgon was not a mammal; it had eyes at the side of its head and it had scales on its body, both characteristics more associated with lizard-type creatures. And the Gorgon itself left no descendants. It was one of the victims of the Permian wipeout. Ward was in South Africa in 1991 to research another type of fossil, but circumstances sent him into the heat, cold, storms, flies, ticks, snakes, ants, and scorpions of the Karoo desert. The stratification there, and other evidence, brought fundamental changes in the way paleontologists view the Permian extinction. The eventual explanation includes that there was not a single, rapid event, but a series of short, successive ones altering the atmosphere and changing the population of creatures that could survive to beget the dinosaurs and mammals that were to come. The explanation isn't final; no scientific explanation really is, but it is how things stand right now.

In addition to being a scientific memoir, Ward's book describes visits to South Africa when that country was going through amazing changes. On one visit, he was interrogated by severe and unfriendly white passport controllers, for instance, whereas years later he would be greeted by welcoming black ones. He would also visit during times where he could show his white self anywhere with impunity, whereas years later to be white "meant that one had money and was fair game." He was informed on a later visit to avoid a certain region because it was Thursday; seeking clarification, he learned that Thursday was cremation day. AIDS had come, and he was being advised not to be downwind of the burning of the week's accumulated bodies. Also, Ward is open about the effect of his career on his family, which he obviously loves, but he loves his travel to the field as well. Leaving them again for Africa, he can't find words to explain why the hunt is so important for him, and the parting becomes an unsweet sorrow, even an angry one. "Why do we do what we do?" he asks. It is a great question. He has answered the scientific questions as directly as he can, and in his report of struggling to overcome many physical, emotional, and societal hurdles to find answers, he has given an indirect but satisfying answer to his personal why.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars This is not a science book., July 9, 2005

By 

Robert Merritt (Boone, NC United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Gorgon: Paleontology, Obsession, and the Greatest Catastrophe in Earth's History (Hardcover)

Peter Ward writes of gorgons, the Permian extinction, and life as a paleontologist.

It is an interesting read, and there is a lot in here that's worth your time and money. I found some bits of it fascinating (especially his accounts of what it's like in the field). My problem was that I was expecting a book about gorgons. About what science knows (or hypothesizes) about the gorgon. In fact, most of the book doesn't mention the gorgon at all. And only a little is used to explain different ideas regarding the Permian extinction (with very little evidence being offered for Ward's views).

If you're looking to learn more about the gorgon - this isn't the books for you. If you're looking to learn more about the Permian extinction, this isn't the book for you.

If you're looking for an entertaining read about the process of field paleontology, about the experiences of doing work in a foreign country, then you should pick this up.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars He suffered for his work. Now it's your turn!, November 15, 2004

By 

The Sanity Inspector (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gorgon: Paleontology, Obsession, and the Greatest Catastrophe in Earth's History (Hardcover)

First, let's have a big groan for Viking's uninformed jacket copy editor, who in the photo credits calls the gorgonopsian on the front cover a "dinosaur." I trust they'll fix that for the paperback edition.

I enjoyed and reviewed Dr. Ward's book _Rare Earth_, so I know he is capable of producing rewarding science writing for the educated layman. But as I progressed through this book, I was a bit disappointed to realize that it was mostly about himself. His is an interesting story, but the actual science content of the book could be told in the space of an article in Discover magazine.

The writing is gratingly overwrought much of the time, and the intensely personal nature of some of it is discomfiting. He keeps going on about the taciturnity of his South African colleague Roger Smith, apparently not thinking that it might be a reaction to Ward's stereotypically American puppy-dog gregariousness. The purplish prose works effectively in the first few scenes of field work in the Karoo, though; when the extreme conditions call for descriptive passages to match.

As he and the reader slog on, the scientific data slowly accumulate. The crew is bedeviled by human error and bad luck, on top of the hostile conditions. For instance, after one grueling expedition is finally wrapped up, the rock samples are ruined in a lab accident, necessitating a return trip to the South African wilderness. But eventually enough dots are connected for Ward to venture a hypothesis about the nature of the Permian/Triassic extinction, and about mass extinctions in general.

So, does his evidence add up? You can skip most of the book and just read the last chapter, and judge for yourself. Or you can read the whole thing, and get an idea of the travails of field paleontology, a much more detailed idea than you ever might have wanted.