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Wonderful Life
Reviewed by: Henry E. Neufeld
Gould, Stephen Jay; Wonderful Life: The
Burgess Shale and the Nature of History. New York, W. W.
Norton & Company, 1989.
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My qualifications for reviewing this book are limited, but I
consider it an exceptionally worthwhile book to read. It is
written in an engaging style which is accessible to the lay
person. You can expect to be challenged in your thinking as you
read.
Dr. Gould takes the case of the Burgess Shale in British
Columbia as a case study and deals with the changes in
interpretation between the original work, done early in the 20th
century, and later work done in classifying the creatures found
there. The Burgess Shale is a rich fauna from the early Cambrian,
and its original discoverers had forced, according to Dr. Gould
and some others, all of the creatures from it into existing
categories. In fact, instead of fitting into existing categories,
many of the creatures were quite different in the basic body
type, many of them showing a basic body structure which is no
longer known in any surviving animal.
From this, Dr. Gould draws support for his concept of
contingency and also for the idea that the evolution of life does
not produce an inevitable ladder of progress or even anything
like the standard "trees of life" one sees in museums,
but rather that a sort of natural lottery takes place, in which,
due to no fault of their own, many whole concepts of organization
of creatures simply die out. He maintains that while we can find
explanations for why certain ones survived, given the fact that
they did survive, we could probably just as well find
explanations (rationalizations?) for why other creatures had
survived, if they had survived instead.
He suggests that if we roll lifes tape back to a particular
point, there is no guarantee that it will repeat itself in the
same way. Perhaps there are options in which some of the more
anomalous of the creatures of the Burgess Shale survive and
become the dominant form of life on the planet. Perhaps there are
options where there are no human beings, even no consciousness
developed to discuss the matter.
Whatever one thinks of the conclusions Dr. Gould draws from
the data, the book is fascinating both in its discussion of
Burgess Shale fauna itself and of the history behind the original
discovery and the reinterpretation.
This book was a very enjoyable read.
Energion.com Author Page: Stephen Jay Gould
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