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Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History

by Stephen Jay Gould (Author)

4.6 491 ratings

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"[An] extraordinary book. . . . Mr. Gould is an exceptional combination of scientist and science writer. . . . He is thus exceptionally well placed to tell these stories, and he tells them with fervor and intelligence."―James Gleick, New York Times Book Review

High in the Canadian Rockies is a small limestone quarry formed 530 million years ago called the Burgess Shale. It hold the remains of an ancient sea where dozens of strange creatures lived―a forgotten corner of evolution preserved in awesome detail. In this book Stephen Jay Gould explores what the Burgess Shale tells us about evolution and the nature of history.

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Amazon.com Review

The Burgess Shale of British Columbia "is the most precious and important of all fossil localities," writes Stephen Jay Gould. These 600-million-year-old rocks preserve the soft parts of a collection of animals unlike any other. Just how unlike is the subject of Gould's book.

Gould describes how the Burgess Shale fauna was discovered, reassembled, and analyzed in detail so clear that the reader actually gets some feeling for what paleobiologists do, in the field and in the lab. The many line drawings are unusually beautiful, and now can be compared to a wonderful collection of photographs in Fossils of the Burgess Shale by Derek Briggs, one of Gould's students.

Burgess Shale animals have been called a "paleontological Rorschach test," and not every geologist by any means agrees with Gould's thesis that they represent a "road not taken" in the history of life. Simon Conway Morris, one of the subjects of Wonderful Life, has expressed his disagreement in Crucible of Creation. Wonderful Life was published in 1989, and there has been an explosion of scientific interest in the pre-Cambrian and Cambrian periods, with radical new ideas fighting for dominance. But even though many scientists disagree with Gould about the radical oddity of the Burgess Shale animals, his argument that the history of life is profoundly contingent--as in the movie It's a Wonderful Life, from which this book takes its title--has become more accepted, in theories such as Ward and Brownlee's Rare Earth hypothesis. And Gould's loving, detailed exposition of the labor it took to understand the Burgess Shale remains one of the best explanations of scientific work around. --Mary Ellen Curtin

From Publishers Weekly

The Burgess Shale, a small quarry in the mountains of British Columbia, opened a window on the first multicellular animals. Gould, eminent life-historian and author, introduces us to the creatures of Burgess Shale and to those who have painstakingly examined them. "This is exciting and illuminating material on the beginnings of life," wrote PW. Illustrated.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company (September 17, 1990)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 039330700X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393307009
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.1 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.1 x 1 x 9.2 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #255,839 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #216 in Natural History (Books)
- #887 in History & Philosophy of Science (Books)
- #165,048 in Literature & Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.6 491 ratings

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Stephen Jay Gould
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Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) was the Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology and Professor of Geology at Harvard University. He published over twenty books, received the National Book and National Book Critics Circle Awards, and a MacArthur Fellowship.
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Masataka Watanabe
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Customers say

Customers find the book readable and interesting. They appreciate the insightful writing style and clear explanations that help them understand evolution. The illustrations are described as beautiful or great, but opinions differ on whether the photos were used instead of drawings or scanned poorly.

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Readability Insight Writing style Illustrations

34 customers mention "Readability"34 positive0 negative

Customers find the book interesting and useful. They say it's a joy to read through, with a compelling beginning. The book arrived in good condition and on time.

"What a joy to read through! Gould’s tone is playful and alight with happy metaphors and..." Read more

"...The book, published in 1989, was a best seller and won the Aventis prize for science books in 1991 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in..." Read more

"What a wonderful writer, scientist and educator...." Read more

"...is nice; the writing at times technical but easy to follow and enjoyable; the illustrations of the wildlife clear and easy to see; and the photos of..." Read more

26 customers mention "Insight"26 positive0 negative

Customers find the book insightful and enjoyable to read. They appreciate the clear explanations and illustrations that enhance the understanding. The book provides an overview of evolution and the scientific method, with enough information and scientific conclusions to be useful.

"...book provides a great opportunity to joust with some of the broadest paleontological, evolutionary and perhaps even philosophical themes in the..." Read more

"...Gould does a detailed accounting of the methodology and technics used in that study...." Read more

"...Illustrations are plentiful and add greatly to the explanations. My personal favourite fossil, the amazing pikaia, is left to the end...." Read more

"...A lot of wisdom about the scientific method, our place in the universe and great window into a primitive and mysterious world...." Read more

22 customers mention "Writing style"17 positive5 negative

Customers find the writing style clear and easy to read. They appreciate the author's skill in writing for the interested layperson. The book draws attention to exciting wildlife photos with its unique style.

"...Gould writes incredibly clearly with scarcely any waste or redundancy and just the right amount of context-clue-definable big words that one feels..." Read more

"...in Natural History magazine knows that he is an accomplished writer for the interested layperson and Wonderful Life is no exception to that rule...." Read more

"What a wonderful writer, scientist and educator...." Read more

"...Mr. Gould is an honest writer, brave enough to say that what he says might be proven wrong later on, but is willing to dive right in anyway...." Read more

7 customers mention "Illustrations"4 positive3 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the illustrations. Some find them beautiful and easy to see, while others say the photos are better than drawings. The book uses photos instead of drawings, but some customers report issues with the images not downloading properly or being poorly scanned.

"...Illustrations are plentiful and add greatly to the explanations. My personal favourite fossil, the amazing pikaia, is left to the end...." Read more

"...found the deposits didn’t identify things correctly and used photos instead of drawings. WHO CARES?..." Read more

"...times technical but easy to follow and enjoyable; the illustrations of the wildlife clear and easy to see; and the photos of the specimens are great...." Read more

"Cool book, but the pictures in the kindle addition seemed poorly scanned." Read more

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Aeon
A Wonderful Life, Wonderfully Written
Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2024
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What a joy to read through! Gould’s tone is playful and alight with happy metaphors and
anecdotes even as he deals with deeply existential material. In fact, part of Gould’s motivation in this treaty is to disabuse readers of the notion that humanity is anything more than a happy accident, at least in the universe known to science. Yet even in the face of this truth, Gould infuses his telling with such scientific optimism that the existential abyss is staved off in favor of the wonder of what is and was and could’ve been. Gould writes incredibly clearly with scarcely any waste or redundancy and just the right amount of context-clue-definable big words that one feels intellectually accomplished reading through.

This book provides a great opportunity to joust with some of the broadest paleontological, evolutionary and perhaps even philosophical themes in the framework of a very specific fossil fauna: The amazing creatures of the Burgess Shale. Gould will challenge you to think of the history of life as we know it is/was an inevitable… and in answering that question the reader can better contextualize just how Wonderful this Life is.

10/10 would recommend!

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LastRanger
Through A Glass Darkley.
Reviewed in the United States on May 15, 2013
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In British Columbia, Canada paleontologist Charles D Walcott made the discovery of a lifetime. The year was 1909 and Walcott's field season was just winding down when he and his team began finding fossils in the Burgess Shale formation of the Rocky Mountains. Over the next 15 years Walcott collected thousands of strange and unusual fossils that he considered to be ancestral to all of our modern day phyla. In Wonderful Life, Stephen Jay Gould traces the history of this incredible find and comes to some controversial conclusions of his own. The book, published in 1989, was a best seller and won the Aventis prize for science books in 1991 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in that same year. Some of Gould's colleagues agreed with his conclusions, some did not. The resulting debates went on for years and, on some points, continues to this day. Although some of his original examples were later invalidated by newer research, his main theme is still a matter of some contention. Anyone who has read Gould's monthly essays in Natural History magazine knows that he is an accomplished writer for the interested layperson and Wonderful Life is no exception to that rule. Some 50 years after Walcott's time, in the late '60s a team of of modern scientist led by Harry Whittington did a extensive rework of Walcott's original study resulting in new insights on the biology of these long dead animals. Gould does a detailed accounting of the methodology and technics used in that study. Some of Whittington's findings agreed with Walcott's and some did not, but from this layman's point of view, it made for fascinating reading. A good part of the book addresses some long standing questions in paleontology. Multicellular animals make their first appearance in the fossil record with the Cambrian Explosion and with the Ediacara fauna. How did life get to that point? Did evolution proceed from a simple beginning that, over time, became more complex and diverse? Or did one-celled life first evolve, in a kind of explosion, into many varieties of multi-celled organisms, only a few of which survive today? Did Walcott "shoehorn" his fossils into modern phyla? Were some of the Burgess Shale animals just dead ends that were out competed in the race for survival? The answers to these questions depend on who is doing the analysis and who is doing the asking. In paleontology the study of fossils is like having an obscure, imperfect view of reality and it's only with time and further study that we can get closer to the truth. Wonderful Life is a great book that will give you one mans view on the nature of history and of life.

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Jenny
Gould - The Master Educator
Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2017
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What a wonderful writer, scientist and educator. Gould's passion for explanation of the evidence for evolution of living things on our planet is shown here. Instead of the same old dinosaur story we find ourselves exploring life long before dinosaurs appeared. How many people even consider that there must have been life that led up to the relatively recent dinosaurs?
Gould writes to be accessible to all people, certainly not just scientists. But he's also faithful to the science, patiently describing the evidence and its place in the story.
Illustrations are plentiful and add greatly to the explanations.
My personal favourite fossil, the amazing pikaia, is left to the end. I wanted more about this little treasure. For this I removed a star.
For the rest of the book I give five stars.
If you're interested in the real history of life on Earth, you'll be glad to read this. Especially if you're not a traditional scientist.

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9 people found this helpful

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florent boico
An amazing voyage
Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2014
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Amazing.

Such a fascinating subject and told in such a great way. A lot of wisdom about the scientific method, our place in the universe and great window into a primitive and mysterious world.

That is pretty much it.

I think the author pushes a bit on the notion of complete randomness in evolution at the very end of the book, walks a fine line and maybe crosses it at time when he argues that the animals consisting the extinct phylums appears very adapted to their environment. Truth is you can't know for sure how well their are adapted by just looking at their shape. Behavior (neural composition and connection in other words) and finer micro-biology are unknown so how can we know for sure.

As for the argument that replaying the tape might yield other result, it is again not obvious. Assuming asteroids fall at the same moments and solar activity follows the same exact pattern, assuming all the atoms in the world have their electrons aligned with the same spin as they had in the first "play" from the moment the universe was created etc... wouldn't everything happen exactly in the same way? Like the laws of physics (would we be here to discuss why they are so fit to sustain our life if they were different and therefore unfit?), isn't the fact that evolution took the way it did a consequence of the creation of the universe and therefore a given thing considering we are here to discuss it?

I guess the real ultimate answer lies in quantum physics. But I think the fight against the cone of increasing complexity that Mr Gould is pursuing and his theory of increased then reduced diversity is healthy and likely right and allows us to rethink our place in the world and some other concepts we were taught since childhood.

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Jen D.
Very good, informative book about a lesser known (but fascinating) topic!
Reviewed in Canada on January 8, 2021
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This book is very detailed and informative (very thorough). It does have pictures (a few) but is written such that a young teen can enjoy it. The kid's feedback is that it is extremely interesting! A more obscure subject (interest peeked after a Nature of Things with David Suzuki episode) - it's been well received and enjoyed.

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Emi Rosas
Excelente libro de Gould
Reviewed in Mexico on November 25, 2019
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Magnífico libro

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Natália Ranauro
Maravilhoso!
Reviewed in Brazil on May 21, 2018
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Assim como o título esse livro é maravilhoso! Gould escreve de forma poética sobre bichos incríveis e alucinantes que viverem num passado muito distante. Assim como os dinossauros esses animais já não existem no presente, surgiram muito antes dos dinossauros e são muito mais interessantes, apesar de se serem muito menos conhecidos. Recomendo esse livro para todos que tem curiosidade em conhecer um mundo totalmente diferente do que vivemos nos dias atuais. Essa história se passa na Terra mas ao ver as descrições dos animais desse livro vc vai achar que está lendo sobre animais de outro planeta. Boa leitura! A vida é maravilhosa !

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Ochwat, Christian
Für Geologen und Paläontologen oder Evolutionsbiologen ein sehr wertvolles Buch!
Reviewed in Germany on July 27, 2017
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Der Autor, vom Beruf Paläontologe und Evolutionsbiologe, hat sehr interessant die mühsamen Arbeiten an Fossilien von Lebewesen, die vor ca. 500 Millionen lebten, in seinem Buch beschrieben.

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plinio_1959
un classico della paleontologia
Reviewed in Italy on January 7, 2017
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Un classico che ogni paleontologo dovrebbe avere nella sua libreria. Lo stile di Gould, come al solito, non delude, presentando teorie scientifiche e concetti complessi senza perder la leggerezza tipica di un libro divulgativo. Sebbene alcuni dei concetti esposti siano ad oggi stati aggiornati da studi scientifici più approfonditi, Wonderful Life rimane una delle più dettagliate raccolte di informazioni sulla straordinaria fauna cambriana degli Scisti di Burgess. Un argomento del genere, che potrebbe sembrare destinato a un pubblico di specialisti, in realtà ha un’importanza enorme dal punto di vista del significato che la fauna cambriana ha per tutta la storia successiva del regno animale. Uno dei concetti che Gould fa comprendere meglio è il fatto che mai prima e dopo, nella storia evolutiva dei phyla animali, ci sia stata una tale innovazione in termini di differenti tipologie di piani anatomici. Insomma, un libro da non perdere.

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