Life: A Natural History of the First Four Billion Years of Life on Earth

Successfully melding personal adventure with good science and skilled narrative techniques, Fortey's book compels attention. "An Unauthorized Biography" is a telling catch phrase conveying the idea that paleontology is a dynamic science. New ideas emerge almost with every fossil discovery and dogmatic thoughts have no place in the science. As a professional paleontologist [ i almost said "practicing", but his approach is far to serious for that!]. he has all the qualifications to relate this story. With the growing number of general level books on the development of life being released recently, it's difficult to choose among them. This book certainly ranks among the top choices. Quite simply, this book is what it claims to be: a history of 3 500 million years of earth's plant and animal inhabitants. Fortey achieves masterful balance between presenting general themes with illustrative details. In one example, he shows the value of mites in soil development and what their loss would mean to global environment. The unspoken message about the use of pesticides is a silent outcry for us to recognize such details. Merged with the scientific work of many researchers are Fortey's accounts of his personal experiences as a paleontologist. His scenario of the scientific conference makes compelling reading for anyone wishing to grasp the underlying themes of scientific conflicts. Reaching beyond his own work, he introduces us to many noteworthy colleagues. Few are criticized for the value of their work, but their personal habits are subjected to pointed comments. None of these are out of place; Fortey clearly mourns the loss of colleagues who would have continued producing welcome results had they not been lost. On the other hand, some contemporaries are given short shrift: although Graham Cairns Smith's proposal of clay crystals providing the template for replicating molecules is well described, his name appears neither in the text nor the brief bibliography. Fortey's chapter on mammalian evolution among the finest in print. His awareness is global, not limited to a few well-known sites. He ranges over both time and place with skilled ease, giving the reader vivid pictures of scenarios in life's past. He's comfortable with geology, biology and genetics. In particular, the Australian conditions over time are well drawn, an exception to many of the books of this genre. Australia, of course, brings up the issue of marsupials contrasted with placentals. The adaptive strengths of marsupials should have given them a competitive edge with placental species, but remained mostly isolated on the island continent.

While many books focus exclusively on dinosaurs (not that I don't love them to death mind you) they often fail to discuss those plants and animals that shared their world, as well as came before and after this mighty creatures. Fortey in a wonderful, informative, well-written, and highly readable book details the history of life on earth from its origin to the last ice age. He brings to light (and life) many topics not as well known to the popular follower of things paleontological, such as the discovery of diverse faunas in the late Precambrian, debates over the nature and importance of the Burgess Shale fauna, and issues over the origination of the first land vertebrates. He discusses in an authoritative but easily understood manner some of the lesser known but none the less important organims in earth's past, many of which are I weren't familiar with, such as graptolites and conodonts. Fortey intersperses his wonderful text with personal ancedotes from his years in the field - he is an expert on all things trilobite - as well as asides from the history of paleonotology as a science. Not distracting, but fun to read and really show how paleontology exists as a field and a profession. I found the book quite delightful and highly recommend it. I look forward to reading his book on trilobites, which I am sure is excellent as well. Fortey shows there is more to prehistoric life than dinosaurs (though he does cover them too), and what wonderful life that was.

It's hard to imagine a more ambitious project than writing a natural history of the first four billion years of life on earth. It's even harder to imagine writing it for the interested layperson without making too many oversimplifications or leaving out too much important detail in a book with just over 300 pages. Richard Fortey has risen to the occasion though, and in the process has created a book that's engaging and highly worth reading.You might expect a book like this to be mechanistic, starting at the beginning and cranking by rote through the sequence of events that constitute the earth's history. Fortey doesn't do this. In a cordial and poetic style he first introduces us to the real world of paleontology. A world of dirt, grime and fierce winds on forsaken beaches bordering forgotten islands of the far north. This is where Fortey began his carrier, and where he made a first mark in the study of extinct organisms from earth's ancient past. This first chapter is important because it reminds us that our knowledge of earth's history has come in fitful starts in which chance and luck have played a central roll. Only a fraction of all creatures leave fossilized remains, only a fraction of those are ever found, and even then they must be interpreted through the preconceptions of scientists. The miracle is that we know anything at all - but we do, and what a story it is.Having introduced the working of paleontology, Fortey devotes the second chapter to the origin of the first life forms. This chapter is of necessity the most barren of all. We still don't understand the origin of life, though there have been remarkable strides in recent years. The author describes the central importance of carbon and the fact many carbon-based molecules necessary for life are found in extraterrestrial objects (but he does not advocate the idea that first life was extraterrestrial). He makes a strong point for the proposition that all life originated with a common ancestor. Much of Fortey's discussions about first life discuss the roll that life played in creating our current environment. The atmosphere is literally a created thing, with the oxygen we breathe constituting a poisonous gas given off by the first organisms on earth. This makes creatures like the chemolithoautotrophic hyperthermophiles a little more understandable - first life evolved in an environment that we today would find very inhospitable - and vise versa.From here the book pretty much follows in chronological order with the Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian and Carboniferous periods. The author explains how life first evolved in the seas, how it flourished, about extinction, and the eventual migration of life onto land. Fortey does not simply recite history, though. He has a style that brings these ancient animals and ecosystems to life. I particularly enjoyed his recollection of conodonts. Conodonts are tooth-like objects of cal

Wow. It is a tomb, but I couldn't put it down! I am long out of college, and I don't buy textbooks. I read magazines for my science. Every once in a while, I'll purchase a summary book like this to pull the subject together in my mind. This book did an admirable job.

A book which attempts to cover four billion years in less than four hundred pages is going to have to be a survey aimed at the general reader. If you like serious scientific tomes which discourage humour and a bit of artistic license in written presentations-- this is not for you. Fortney's book is an engaging and enjoyable read that gives insight into the development of life on earth and the scientific field of paleontology. His gifts for constructing an accessible and often charming narrative, quoting poets and bards, noting geniuses and quacks, is a great tribute to English educational system-- which here has developed a devoted scientific mind, obviously entranced by his subject matter, who can express himself with elegance, comprehension, wit and some self deprecation, a refreshing attribute for a scientist.