Wonderful life

the Burgess Shale and the nature of history

Plot

'A wonderful book ... No one interested in understanding the melodrama of evolution, and how it impacts on the philosophy of history, should pass up this landmark work' - Martin Gardner

'A masterpiece of analysis and imagination ... It centres on a sensational discovery in the field of palaeontology - the existence, in the Burgess Shale ... of 530-million-year-old fossils unique in age, preservation and diversity ... With skill and passion, Gould takes this mute collection of fossils and makes them speak to us. The result challenges some of our most cherished self-perceptions and urges a fundamental re-assessment of our place in the history of life on earth' - Michael Stewart in the Sunday Tunes

'Gould shows again that he is unique among evolutionists in the subtlety and depth of his thinking about the history of life'
R. C. Lewontin in the New York Review of Books

'He weaves together three extraordinary themes - one palaeontological, one human, one theoretical and historical - as he discusses the discovery of the Burgess Shale, with its amazing, wonderfully preserved fossils - a time-capsule of the early Cambrian seas' - Oliver Sacks in the Mail on Sunday

'Gould is an exceptional combination of scientist and science writer, one of America's foremost palaeontologists and the author of many books on evolution and on scientific history. He is thus exceptionally well placed to tell these stories, and he tells them with fervour and intelligence'

James Gleick in The New York Times Book Review