Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History

Gould is at the top of his inductive-logic game here. He starts with the fine details of a famed archaeological find- the Burgess Shale. Through a 'perfect storm' of circumstances, these rocks house a remarkably well-preserved set of 600-million-year-old fossils of bizarre creatures. The beginning of the book winds through the minutiae of these oddballs, and he describes all the confusion in the scientific community regarding them, down to animals where we literally had a great deal of trouble figuring out which way was up (or front). This trivia is interesting on its own, but Gould uses it to build a devastating point- during the mass extinctions that followed, the animals that survived seemed to be "more lucky than good", as the kings of the pre-Cambrian seas were usurped by dark horses who happened to fill the right niches. He challenges the reader to re-think a rather arrogant conclusion some people draw from the lessons of evolutionary biology- are human-like creatures the expected result of billions of years of optimization, or are we just the things that happened to win the lottery o' life this time around?

This is exactly what you would expect from the combination of one of the great scientific prose writers of our generation and one of the most important, yet counterintuitive sources of data regarding the history of life. This fascinating, popularly written text focuses on the critters of the early Cambrian and a bold interpretation of their fossils that insinuate a rapid diversification of multicultural life, referred to by some as the "Cambrian explosion". It also becomes a platform from which Gould expands upon several of the general observations on Natural History that emerge as themes from his essay collections. His uncompromising fidelity to the data (interpreting what he sees rather than what he thinks he should see), his gift for weaving a narrative around a bunch of rocks, and the importance of the animals of the early Cambrian combine to make this a truly outstanding text. Far from widely accepted, this rendering has sparked debate in the paleontology community and is often referenced in popular scientific literature. I highly recommend it.

Gould presents his thesis that the evolution of life on earth developed through luck; Gould uses the word contingency. Luck serves as the raw material on which the creative processes of evolution, such as Natural Selection, operate. His device is the fauna of the Burgess Shale, animals from just after the Cambrian explosion, half a billion years ago. Wonderful Life gives us the story of the re-evaluation of the Burgess fauna that revealed them to be animals utterly different from anything alive today. Gould gives a fascinating biography of Charles D. Walcott, administrator extraordinaire, who discovered the Burgess Shale and classified all its animals into existing phyla. Gould uses the image of a shoehorn to stress that these classifications were forced. Gould then introduces us to the three men who re-evaluated the fauna: Harry Whittington, Derek Briggs, and Simon Conway-Morris. They return to the Burgess fauna with a suspicion that these animals might not be correctly identified after all. Gould describes their work in detail, letting Whittington, Briggs, and Conway-Morris show us how very different these creatures are. Gould's point is that though the Burgess animals were exquisitely adapted to their environment, their phyla are today extingt so of course most of them left no descendant. More importantly, the surviving creatures from that age did NOT seem better adapted than their now dead contemporaries. The lesson is that the fittest died too and that surviving lineages made it because they were just plain lucky. Survival of the luckiest. To underscore his point, Gould uses the plot of Frank Capra's movie "It's a Wonderful Life": what would happen if we started again, if this or that event in the history of life on earth was different? His conclusion is that we probably wouldn't be here. I read Wonderful Life for the first time in 1992. One of the rewards was that I was reading science as it was happening. If today we read Darwin, we can still converse with his thought and still appreciate the works, but we can never experience the thrill of reading the Origin of Species right off the press as a completely new and (r)evolutionary theory. Some of the facts in WL have been already shown incorrect, but most of the book's conclusions are still being debated. Gould is often condemned by his peers. Even Derek Briggs and Simon Conway-Morris, two of the heroes of WL, severely criticize his work. Is Gould right? Are we all just lucky to be here? Time will tell.

Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History by Stephen Jay Gould focuses mainly on the Burgess Shale in British Columbia high up in the Canadian Rockies.The book's title has a meaning to it, not only about life in the Burgess Shale, but also one of Gould's favorite movies. So, with all of Gould's writings, you have to read, understand, and follow the author's intent. Gould brings a wealth of history to his writings, so the reader can understand the footing and basis for Gould's conclusions.As with this stand alone book, about an area no greater than a city block and ten feet deep yeilds a look into the past some six hundred millions years ago. Now, under the watchfull eye of Gould we see how that long ago life functioned and how those dozens of creatures lived. Gould makes these creatures come to a Wonderful Life.We see Gould review what Dr. Charles D. Walcott had. There is still some controversy as to whom is correct... Walcott vs. Gould, but as more people review this empirical data, we shall see the truth emerge, emphaticly emprised as it may be. Gould writes about Professor H.B. Whittington's reinterpretation of these fossils after forty years in the drawers of the Smithsonian.Throughout the book Gould moves methodically, bringing the reader ever closer to his interpretation of the data, as to how these perfectly preserved creatures tell their stories to those who will listen. Gould does a good job bringing this story to the masses in a way that is comprehesible and understandable.Also, you'll find Gould's highly inquisitive mind working the possibilities of natures struggle, intensely debating the outcome of vastly different scenarios had things and events changed the Burgess Shale's outcome. Gould ponders the importance of the diversity of the Burgess Shale and why it is important.All in all, this book is thought-provoking, well written and displays Gould's depth in writing. Reading this book will educate the reader and helps in the understanding of life and it tenuousness.

Gould sets up a premis in this overview and discussion of animals represented in the fossils of the Burgess shale that makes for interesting reading and thinking. The author uses the same premis of the Frank Capra classic, "It's a Wonderful Life" starring Jimmy Stewart. What would life be like if one of the players had never existed? ...like poor old George Bailey who thought everyone would be happier and better off without him.In this book Gould takes the position that animals that exist today do so primarily because they were lucky during their early evolutionary history, along with having characteristics that allowed them to survive and succeed in their environment long enough to reproduce -- a contingency hypothesis. They turned right instead of left and consequently avoided predation...OR...they turned left instead of right, were eaten, and that was the end of an entire ancestral line. This book is a must read for anyone interested in ideas surrounding the diversity of early animal life. The book provides an informative overview of what evolution is, how the now famous Burgess shale fossil beds were discovered and studied, and why some of the body plans found amongst the Burgess shale fauna are not found today. There are also excellent drawings of Burgess shale fossils and the animals they may once have been, and a reasonable selection of descriptions of their possible behaviors based on animal form and function.Gould also recounts ideas others have had about the Burgess shale fauna and its contribution to our understanding of the Cambrian fauna in general.It's interesting to note that this book was written prior to the discovery of several other Burgess shale-type fossil beds around the world, most notably in China. But, given what Gould had to work with at the time, this is an admirable work.If this general topic interests you, you may want to take a look at another book -- "The Crucible of Creation" by Simon Conway Morris. Morris' book provides addtional excellent graphic presentations of cambrian fauna, a different explanation of some possible paleo-ecologies of those animals, and a fundamentally different read on why we have the kinds of animals that we have today. Morris also includes information about newly discovered Burgess shale-like fossil beds and specimens.All in all, Gould's book is a 5-star work. I'd recommend reading it AND Morris' book for a balanced set of different opinions about this important animal group.