Gorgon: Paleontology, Obsession, and the Greatest Catastrophe in Earth's History

This book relates an approximately decade long period of the author’s work collecting fossils in South Africa. Throughout the book, Ward writes as though there will be some revelation towards the end, but there is not. I was ultimately left feeling like nothing happened, despite the long period of time covered. Ward attempts to capture the magnitude of the extinction event he studies and the grandeur of desert he explores, but it comes across flat and a little “gee-whiz, mister!” He does address the political turmoil of the end of apartheid, but often he simply relates how scared he was of Black South Africans. Additionally, the way he describes the women he works with in the field is a bit creepy. I think he’s attempting to describe how impressed he is with them, but it always made me cringe. I give Ward the benefit of the doubt: he’s a probably a bit of a hapless academic and trying to be earnest, not malicious or degrading. But the writing doesn’t work and story falls flat.

By now, almost everyone must be familiar with the discovery of the iridium concentrations at the K-T (Cretaceous-Tertiary) boundary, and the Chicxulub impact crater, first reported in 1981, that appears to exactly the right age and the right size to have terminated most of the life on Earth, sixty-five million years ago. The author of "Gorgon" began his career with field work on the proof of the quick and terrible extinction at the K-T boundary--the death knell of the dinosaurs. However, Dr. Ward found himself more and more intrigued by an even great extinction event that occurred 250 million years ago at the boundary of the Permian and the Triassic (P/T). Was it caused by another comet or meteor strike? Did the elimination of 95 % of Earth's marine life and 70% of all land species proceed as quickly as at the K-T termination, or did it take place in pulses over a much longer period of time? According to the author (and others), there is no credible, unambiguous evidence for an impact as is the case for the K-T extinction. What is more likely is that massive greenhouse gas emissions reduced oxygen availability, ultimately resulting in the collapse of marine ecosystems, and most of the land-based systems as well. This was possibly caused by volcanic eruptions on the supercontinent of Pangea, in what is now Siberia (the Siberian Traps). In the final chapter of his book, "Resolution," the author puts forth two interesting observation-based theories: (1) the abundance of oxidized, reddish rock in the Triassic beds above the P/T boundary (about 50 million years worth) implies "...the oxygen in our atmosphere plunged to very low levels as it became tied up in the rocks...so low, in fact, that any poor human...would very quickly suffer from altitude sickness, even at sea level."; (2) on land at least, the near extinction of animals that didn't use oxygen efficiently, including most but not all of the mammal-like reptiles that dominated the Permian. "Heat [greenhouse effect] and asphyxiation [were] the two agents of the long mysterious mass extinction." Except for the last chapter, "Gorgon" is light on theory and heavy on field work and proof-of-concept. Here is how geologists, paleontologists, and other scientists interact in the field, braving the heat of South Africa's Karoo Desert, the omnipresent ticks, flies, and puff adders, and the digestive challenges of bad water and mystery-meat pizza. Dr. Ward takes his readers not only on a trip through the lost world of the Permian, but also through an African culture that seems to be on the brink of chaos. He is a sensitive and at times acerbic observer of both present and deep past. "Gorgon" is a compelling, thoroughly readable story.

Previous reviewers seem disappointed with the fusion of people, politics, and NSF grants with "the science". But, I found this to be an important part of the appeal of the book. As a former engineer on groundbreaking developments in signal processing in the satellite industry, I realize that exciting discoveries usually involve incremental progress, a lot of toil, a few "ah-ha" moments, paperwork, and false starts. By painting the discoveries, as they unfolded, you get a real feeling about how the science really advanced. I, for one, very much enjoyed reading about how the experiments had to be conducted and independently verified by multiple parties or at different locations. I commiserated with the tensions between great thinkers, and really admired the dedication and professionalism of the particpants. As for South Africa -- the discussion of the changing politics there only served to emphasize the risks these folks took going out to the field (or leaving their families behind in S. African urban centers). Bravo to Peter Ward for giving us the nitty gritty.

I used to do a bit of Fossil Hunting about 30 years ago and read a fair bit about fossils and the Fossil Record. Most of what I did was searching for Belemnites,shark teeth,and hopefully some bones in Cretaceous marl and an adjacent stream bed in New Jersey.At that time there were great discussions going on as to what caused the great extinction of the huge creatures that roamed the earth.The Cretaceous Period was 60-120 million years ago. I can't recall any discussions about creatures the size of lions roaming around 250 million years ago called Gorgons;and a possible extinction at the end of the Permian Period. So,when I saw this book ,I figured it would make interesting reading. As other reviewers have already stated,the book is pretty short on data and provides very little proof. However,it is well worth reading for anyone who has ever searched for fossils and all the mud,muck,heat,cold,wet and just plain hard dirty work that is involved. However,the rewards come when your hunches or bull work pay off;and you find something good.What a thrill it is, when you unearth a fossil and realize that this thing lived over 100 million years ago and has been waiting there for you to find. I found this book to be a great read and shows how people can devote years of their lives pursuing an interest or obsession. It is well written and the author reveals himself and his associates ;and I think that is more what one should look for in this book ; rather than the answer;because the search will continue and the theories will be put forward and debated as long as there are people with the desire to find those answers.Just imagine,if every question could be answered,what a dull world it would be.The excitement of the journey often surpasses the destination.

Peter Ward writes with such enthusiasm that it is easy to be carried away on his adventures. While I wish he would have spend more time explaining life before the Permian extinction and the theories of that catastrophe, most of the book was dedicated to his quest for the answers. He focuses on the laborious excavations in South Africa, tensions between various scientists, professional jealousy and the political climate and changes in South Africa. After reading this, you will have a good idea about the extensive research that field scientists do and the various dangers they face, including bandits, weather, difficult terrain and inadequate rental cars.

"It's not as glamorous as you think," is the underlying theme in Peter Ward's book Gorgon. Ward describes the efforts to understand what caused the Permian-Triassic (P/T) extinction that occurred 250 Million years ago and brought about the demise of over 90% of the species of plant and animal life on earth. The reader is taken on several trips to the Karoo, a semi-arid plateau in the southwest of South Africa to try and tease answers out of the strata. In addition to the physical hardships provided by a harsh climate, taxing work, and poisonous snakes, the shadow of the upheaval brought about by the end of apartheid makes the tedious search for fossils life threatening at times. Gorgon is short for gorgonopsian, a mammal-like reptile that Ward describes as the T.rex of the Permian era. Named for the three hideous sisters in Greek mythology, the gorgon was about 10 feet long with the body of a lizard and a huge head with teeth that resemble those of a saber-toothed tiger, obviously adapted for capturing and shredding animals. Most interesting to me were the various methods used to determine the character of the extinction, a key to learning its cause. What was the time span of the extinction: was it sudden, like the K/T event caused by a comet, or, was there a slow die off over millions of years? No single clue could provide all the answers and several methods were discussed that required the scientists become intimate with the layers of rock that, 250 Million years ago, were the surface of the earth. Ward gave understandable descriptions of paleostratigraphy, the study of the makeup of each stratum; isotopic perturbation, the analysis of the relative carbon content of each stratum; and magnetostratigraphy; use of the earth's periodic geomagnetic reversal to isolate a time frame for each stratum. Ward came to the P/T extinction project with a great deal of experience; he had participated in the work done throughout the 1980s to prove the cause of the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K/T) extinction that occurred about 65 Million years ago. This sudden extinction, the result of a comet striking the earth, raised questions about the causes of other extinctions and led Ward to delve into the P/T event. The unbroken chain of life; that is what makes the paleontology so interesting. In his book, A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson congratulates the reader for "making it here," for being fortunate enough to have been part of an unbroken lineage that began... well, at the beginning. Ward's book brings the thought back time and again by showing that even through the biggest catastrophe in history, some of our more tenacious, more fortunate relatives survived.