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Crucible of Creation (was "some articles from American Scientist")


Steve,
I recommend Crucible of Creation (by Simon Conway Morris, 1998, Oxford Univ. Press). Obviously more up-to-date and his approach to the Cambrian "explosion" is preferable to that of Gould. He also sets the stage with a discussion of the Ediacaran (Vendian) fauna. Waggoner's criticisms of McMenamin's book are right on target in my opinion.
The transition from PreCambrian to Cambrian faunas is not as abrupt as the word "explosion" would imply. It's probably more an explosion of "hard parts" popping up in a variety of groups. Gould's phyletic explosion is misleading at best.
Perhaps we should call it the "Cambrian Acceleration" of diversification, accompanied by an arms race of hard parts. It's not the Big Bang of metazoans that it's sometimes made out to be.
------Ken Kinman
*******************************************************
From: "Steve Brusatte" <dinoland@lycos.com>
Reply-To: dinoland@lycos.com
To: dinosaur@usc.edu
Subject: Re: some articles from American Scientist (was: Ever Since _Wonderful Life_)
Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2001 17:11:09 -0500

On Fri, 20 Apr 2001 12:26:20
 Mickey Rowe wrote:
>
>Daniel Bensen <dbensen@gotnet.net> asked:
>
>> Can anybody recommend books, websites, or publications where I can
>> learn more about the Cambrian explosion?
>
>The first thing that popped into my head was an article by Erwin,
>Valentine, and Jablonski published in _American Scientist_ four years
>ago.  It's still on the web:
>
>http://www.AmericanScientist.org/articles/97articles/Erwin.html

Since Mickey has commented on this, it cannot be off topic, so I guess I'll chime in :-)

Erwin (or is it Andrew Knoll??) has also written a book on the Cambrian explosion, I believe. There is also an excellent Time Magazine article from 1995 which discusses the work of Erwin, Andrew Knoll, and John Hayes in regard to what led to the Cambrian explosion, how oxygen levels are involved, etc., etc.
Of course, although it isn't Cambrian per se, there is also a book out entitled "The Garden of Ediacara," written by Mark A. S. McMenamin. This book, as the title suggests, discusses the discovery and study of the Vendian fauna in Australia, Russia, Canada, and a few other places. I recall that invertebrate paleontologist Ben Waggoner gave it a somewhat poor review, but I've seen the book and the parts that I've read are fine.

I like vertebrates much better than invertebrates, with the possible exception of Cambrian animals. I always enjoy looking at Cambrian specimens in museums. The Redpath Museum in Montreal has an incredible collection of Burgess Shale animals. I would love for a nice, detailed study of the Burgess Shale to come out in book form...

Steve

-----
Steve Brusatte
Dino Land Paleontology
http://www.geocities.com/stegob
-----


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