The Crucible of Creation: The Burgess Shale and the Explosion of Life Book

In The Crucible of Creation, paleontologist Simon Conway Morris describes the marvelous finds of the Burgess Shale--a fantastically rich deposit of Cambrian fossils discovered in Western Canada. One of the few paleontologists ever to explore the Burgess Shale, he provides a complete overview of this remarkable find, ranging from a fascinating description of the painstaking on-site scientific work to an informative discussion of the origins of life on earth.

At the heart of the book, Conway Morris takes the reader on imaginative trip in a time machine back to the Cambrian seas, bringing the fossilized creatures to life as they existed then. And perhaps most important, he applies the revelations of the Burgess Shale to modern evolutionary thinking. In particular, he lays out a critique of Stephen Jay Gould's ideas, drawing quite different conclusions from Gould on the nature of evolution. This finely illustrated volume takes the reader to the forefront of paleontology as it provides fresh insights into the nature of evolution and of life on earth.