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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Exhaustive Assumptions Simply Don't Make the Grade,
By
This review is from: Vertebrate History (Paperback)
Updated from the March 28, 2002 review
I'm not surprized that I'm the first person to write a review for this book, or that it is no longer in print. If I were a die-hard Darwinian, I would probably feel a bit uncomfortable having this volume spread very far. That's how revealing this book is, from cover to cover. It's not an 'easy reading' book by any means, but it IS a tremendous resource. I would recommend this book to anyone who thinks the evidence for evolution is 'overwhelming'. I say, then you need to read this book. Stahl, a solid evolutionist, provides her readers with a great service, although it was 'almost certainly' unintended. What do I mean by that? Simply put, Stahl gives an utterly exhaustive review of the 'alleged' evolutionary lineages of all the major vertebrate fossil groups, and provides the OPINIONS of the key experts who have studied them. Let me say it again, she presents INTERPRETATIONS of the evidence that usually lead to purely speculative conclusions. And there is often QUITE a lot of disagreement along the way. The sub-title of Stahl's book says it all ("Problems in Evolution"), which is an incredible understatement, because Stahl is brutally honest in revealing how little we really understand about the evolutionary history of nearly all vertebrate groups - and this is perhaps her greatest service to her readers. In example after example she points out how paleontologists have come up empty-handed in unequivocally identifying the transitional forms for nearly all the major vertebrate groups. Her meticulous investigation reveals an incredible dearth of evidence that most science professionals and educators assume is quite abundant. For example: "Paleontologists are quite certain of the relationship between the rhipidistians and the amphibians even though they have not discovered the animals intermediate between the finned and limbed forms" which has left them with no other choice than "to speculate how legs and aerial breathing evolved and why a group of fishes produced forms that habituated themselves little by little to life on land." (p. 194-95) Or, "For the present, at least, the environment of the first vertebrates, like the identity of their ancestors, remains unknown." (pg. 44) One after another Stahl traces the evidence leading to a failure to explain how this or that critter came to be, who it's ancestors were, or how it could have possibly transitioned from the best known ancestral candidates. In many instances, it is clear that the experts can't even IMAGINE how certain vertebrates evolved. Stahl's book is replete with so many comments of this type that I marveled in the end why anyone would feel comfortable being a strong advocate of evolution if this is all we have. Though it is probably due to her writing style rather than any deliberate intent, Stahl makes the distinction between evidence and speculation ABOUT the evidence crystal clear in this volume, and THAT is another great service she provides. The sheer volume of speculation she has duly noted will be sure to impress most alert readers - it's stunningly obvious. Stahl's opinion is that we simply do not yet adequately or accurately understand how to interpret much of the evidence from an evolutionary perspective, i.e., though she maintains throughout that an evolutionary explanation is merely waiting to be discovered or articulated. While Stahl and many leading Darwinians are quick to point out that disputes are common among scientists who are still working out the 'bugs' in evolutionary relationships, I'd suggest that's an awful lot like a used car salesmen trying to sell someone a car that can't make it out of the parking lot on its own power -AND- Stahl should know better. If the evidence isn't compelling (and Stahl makes it abundantly clear that it isn't), then why promote evolutionary theory so hard? She puts her finger on some of the most pressing issues in vertebrate evolution - and literally makes the case that evolutionary explanations are sorely lacking - yet refuses to admit that perhaps evolutionary explanations are so distressingly inadequate for a less attractive (but very logical) reason, i.e., maybe there are none. Perhaps the most surprizing thing is, after painting the broad picture for us (she pulls together some of the best specialists who are strong in their areas of expertise...) and we come to see just how much speculation colors the evolutionary landscape for vertebrates, she is still a trooper for evolution. In short, Stahl's book is one of the best examples I have found of exhaustively exposing just how little we really know about vertebrate evolution. It serves as one of the definitive works on what the experts imagine 'must have happened' during the course of vertebrate evolution. But the ephiphany that many might come to - the big 'Aha' - is completely missed here. There is a vast difference between KNOWLEDGE and SPECULATION: no amount of speculation ever amounts to knowledge. Stahl underscores just how heavily vertebrate evolution relies on imagination, speculation, extrapolation, and a host of other types of non-evidence to give it the appearance of respectability - and she even identifies the failure to adequately explain evolutionary lineages as 'Problems' - but she never seems to come to grips with one of the most obvious implications: maybe the problems will *never* be adequately resolved from an evolutionary perspective. As for me, I'd put good money on that.
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