FREE delivery: Nov 23 - 30

Only 1 left in stock - order soon.

$$29.00 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Secure transaction

Ships from

books4seasons

Sold by

books4seasons

Details

Ships from

books4seasons

Sold by

books4seasons

Return policy: Returnable until Jan 31, 2022

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

FREE delivery: Tuesday, Nov 30 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon. Details

Used: Good | Details

Sold by Page to Pebble Books

Fulfilled by Amazon

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See this image

Follow the Author

Peter Douglas Ward

Gorgon: Paleontology, Obsession, and the Greatest Catastrophe in Earth's History Hardcover – January 19, 2004

by Peter Ward (Author)

34 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$29.00

$10.50

$1.72

Hardcover
$29.00

62 Used from $1.72 5 New from $10.50 2 Collectible from $12.00

Enhance your purchase

An investigation into a 250-million-year-old environmental apocalypse that predated the age of the dinosaurs describes an event that caused the annihilation of ninety percent of all plant and animal species on Earth, taking a close up look at the prehistoric world of the gorgons, the causes of mass extinctions, and their implications for the future of humankind.

Print length

288 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Viking Adult
Publication date

January 19, 2004
Dimensions

6.34 x 1.04 x 9.36 inches
ISBN-10

0670030945
ISBN-13

978-0670030941
See all details

Frequently bought together

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Douglas H. Erwin
19
Paperback
31 offers from $4.00
Peter Ward
176
Paperback
36 offers from $9.34
Peter Ward
61
Paperback
50 offers from $2.25
Peter D. Ward
310
Hardcover
63 offers from $2.49
Sébastien Steyer
55
Paperback
21 offers from $17.98
Peter D. Ward
106
Hardcover
42 offers from $1.35

What other items do customers buy after viewing this item?

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Peter Ward
176
Paperback
36 offers from $9.34
Peter D. Ward
310
Hardcover
63 offers from $2.49
Peter Ward
61
Paperback
50 offers from $2.25
Peter Ward
39
Hardcover
34 offers from $2.43

Special offers and product promotions

Create your FREE Amazon Business account to save up to 10% with Business-only prices and free shipping.

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.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Viking Adult; 1st edition (January 19, 2004)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0670030945
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0670030941
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.22 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.34 x 1.04 x 9.36 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,755,923 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #24 in Paleozoology
- #1,522 in Weather (Books)
- #1,530 in Rivers in Earth Science

Customer Reviews:
34 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		55%
4 star		14%
3 star		17%
2 star		5%
1 star		9%

How are ratings calculated?

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

David Read

Not about the gorgonopsians

Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2004

Verified Purchase

I bought this book hoping to learn more about the gorgonopsians and other mammal-like reptiles. No such luck. This book contains very little about the mammal-like reptiles. In fact, it is almost entirely free of scientific facts.

It is about Peter Ward's experiences working in the Karoo desert of South Africa in the 1990s and early 2000s. During the 1980s, he had worked on the KT boundary, and the conclusion that the KT mass extinction was caused by an asteroid hit caused him to wonder whether the Permian/Triassic mass extinction also result from some sort of catastrophe. That was the ostensible purpose of the fieldwork. But this book is really about paleontological fieldwork, and the thoughts and emotions that go through a paleontologists mind as he struggles to find fossils in a very harsh and forbidding environment. Ward is a good writer, and the book is very readable, it's just that I would not have bought it if I'd known it was just a journal or diary written during the author's Karoo field work.

The last few chapters have a rushed discussion of the current opinions about the P/T mass extinction, but that problem has apparently never been solved. The author notes that most of the hypotheses have been falsified, and engages in some unconvincing speculation that lower oxygen levels caused the extinction. But the real point of the book is just to give the reader a feel for the day-to-day emotions of paleontological fieldwork, and on that level it succeeds.

22 people found this helpful

Helpful

Rod Builder

Fantastic book, his findings have held up in recent studies by others

Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2021

Verified Purchase

Although not a new book this is a super book to read. It not only provides information on the the Great Dying it also shows how scientists go about their work. If you want to see what the life of a scientist is like as they go about their research this is a great way to find out.

Helpful

Tadeusza Kosci

Title a bit misleading.....

Reviewed in the United States on June 19, 2020

Verified Purchase

I was all ready to learn more about Permian therapsids and instead read all about a paleontologist's career, his multitude of trips, and his theories about the P-T extinction. Interesting book but I learned nothing about gorgons.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

BulB

Great account from one who helped change our thinking of this significant event

Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2017

Verified Purchase

I have read a number of books discussing the PT extinction prior to this and it was interesting to read an account from someone who helped redefine thinking on this event. I enjoyed the account by Dr Ward and found the mix of science with travelog very entertaining.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

bobcat

Gorgonopsids Lived!

Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2013

Verified Purchase

I had to buy three copies of this book, nobody would believe me, so I gave it as presents. There were a lot of crazy critters out there in the last 4.567 billion years. Good luck if we can match the past chaos and live to tell about it.
Schnozz

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Armande Clerc

Too much emotion, too little Gorgon

Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2021

The title is misleading. The book barely talks about the gorgonopsids. In fact, I had to Google "gorgonopsians" in order to learn more about them. That being said, I can't really blame the author and his editor for choosing a title that is a bit more catchy than something like "Searching for the Causes of the Permian Extinction in the South African Karoo." It is precisely the name and the cover photo of the Gorgon that led me to buy this book, for which I am grateful. As a layperson interested in geology, I did find the story interesting and informative. It kindled my interest in the P/T extinction. My only negative criticism is that there is too much emotion running through the book. At times, it became such a downer (much of it is sadness, regret, frustration, etc) that it really distracted me from the topic. It's all nice and good to know that geological research isn't as romantic or exciting as it sounds but there is such a thing at TMI.

Helpful

RisingSkeptic

Needs a different title...

Reviewed in the United States on December 24, 2020

...maybe something along the line of "On the Road with a Paleontologist." Probably 85 percent of the book is no more than a travelogue describing the author's experience rooting around the Karoo of South Africa. Maybe 5 percent is about the gorgons and the remaining 10% is about the mass extinction that wiped out the gorgons. He compresses so much research into so few pages that it is essentially worthless for learning about either of those two subjects.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

The Crone

so far so good. But the real story here is how obsessed ...

Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2014

I found this book tucked away in my eldest's library. Intrigued by the picture of a seeming cross between a reptile and a saber-toothed tiger on the cover (also that catchy title), I decided to give it a go.

My, my, life is full of surprises. First, I was unaware (or forgot) except in the most rudimentary way that there were actual large-ish animals before the dinosaurs. Ward describes his life-long effort to discover more about them through studying fossils and rock strata in a place called the Karoo Desert in South Africa. He is concerned with figuring out how the animals became extinct. Over time, he and his colleagues find that the extinction was rapid (in geological terms--probably less than100,000 years or so)and eventually concluding that the die-out was caused by global warming. The warming was caused, he posits, by an excess of methane gas, which somehow or other--I'm no chemist--leeches the oxygen out of the air.

Okay, so far so good. But the real story here is how obsessed the scientists become: never giving up, living under the harshest conditions one can imagine, eternally picking at the rocks to find fossils. Family and health are given short shrift; these are dedicated people. The story of their lives is more interesting than the story of the Gorgon.

Another fascinating aspect of the book is the coverage of the internal feuds among scientists, who become heavily invested in their own theories.

The book is interesting and compelling, but the technical terms make it difficult for the layperson to keep track of what's going on in the science end of things. If you're interested in paleontology or global warming and can read Stephen Jay Gould's work, this would be a great choice for you. It will require strict attention if your level of interest in science is limited to the kind of book written by Simon Winchester.

1.1 *s knocked off for difficulty level and a slight lack of closure

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Follow the Author

Similar authors to follow