Trilobite: Eyewitness to EvolutionWith Trilobite, Richard Fortey, paleontologist and author of the acclaimed Life, offers a marvelously written, smart and compelling, accessible and witty scientific narrative of the most ubiquitous of fossil creatures. Trilobites were shelled animals that lived in the oceans over five hundred million years ago. As bewilderingly diverse then as the beetle is today, they survived in the arctic or the tropics, were spiky or smooth, were large as lobsters or small as fleas. And because they flourished for three hundred million years, they can be used to glimpse a less evolved world of ancient continents and vanished oceans. Erudite and entertaining, this book is a uniquely exuberant homage to a fabulously singular species. From the Trade Paperback edition. |
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - drmaf - www.librarything.comWonderful and entertaining book about one of the humblest but most successful creatures in the long history. Far from just being simple bugs who crawled in the mud of long-gone oceans, trilobites ... Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - Mrs_McGreevy - LibraryThingIf you’ve ever tried to read a science book, especially one written by a respected expert in a given field, then you know that the books can be a bit…dry. All that material, all of those facts, all ... Read full review
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ancestor ancient animals appendages arthropods Avalonia axis bacteria Baltica Barrande blind Burgess Shale calcite Calymene Cambrian carapaces Carboniferous century cephalon cliffs collections continents cranidium creatures crustaceans crystal Cyclopyge Deprat described Devonian discovered discovery dozen edge evolution evolutionary example explosion extinction faunas flatfish fossils free cheek genal spines genes geological geologist glabella Gondwana Gould Hardy Hardy’s Harry Whittington head headshield hundred imagine Joachim Barrande Kaufmann kind known larvae legs lens lenses limbs limestones living look million years ago mineral moulting Mucronaspis Museum Natural History ocean Ogygiocarella Olenellus olenid once Opipeuter Ordovician original palaeontologist Palaeozoic Pangaea Paradoxides Phacops photographs plate Precambrian preserved Professor pygidium recognized reconstruction relatives rocks scientific scientist seafloor sediment shells Shumardia Silurian similar Simon Conway Morris slates soft species specimens spiny Spitsbergen strata surface tail tectonic thoracic segments tiny Triarthrus trilobite eye Trinucleus truth Walcott Wales wonderful