| Description |
xiv, 304 p., [8] p. of plates : ill. (some col.) ; 23 cm. |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (p. 261-294) and index. |
| Contents |
In search of lost worlds -- The devil's toenail -- A fossilized jelly baby -- The first terror with teeth -- A worm that changed the world -- A mistaken point -- Reign of the Snow Queen -- Through a lens, darkly -- Torridon. |
| Summary |
"This book is about the quest to solve Darwin's Dilemma. Since Darwin's time, paleontologists have been seeking the hidden history of animals. And sure enough, they have found fossils, all over the world, going back far into the past; fossils that would have thrilled Darwin - large, enigmatic marine forms, and a veritable feast of tiny single cells. But the relatively sudden (geologically speaking) dawn of the modern world of animals - the 'Cambrian explosion' - has remained a puzzle. Was it really an 'explosion' of new forms? Or was it simply an explosion of fossils, once animals acquired hard parts which could be well preserved?" "In this book, Martin Brasier describes the nature and challenges of the quest, which has taken scientists to the remotest locations. He argues that the Cambrian explosion was real - a genuine and profound change affecting the whole Earth system. And the cause may have been intrinsic to life itself. Small changes can cascade into massive ones. It might only have taken the appearance of one or a handful of predators to change the world. The Cambrian explosion was a watershed: once life acquired teeth, the Earth was never the same again."--BOOK JACKET. |
| Subject |
Geology, Stratigraphic -- Precambrian.
|
|
Evolution (Biology)
|
| ISBN |
9780199548972 (hbk.) |
|
0199548978 (hbk.) |
|
