- Hardcover: 312 pages
- Publisher: Columbia University Press (26 May 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0231105584
- ISBN-13: 978-0231105583
- Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 14.7 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
1,442,685 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #42 in Books > Scientific, Technical & Medical > Geology > Stratigraphy
- #74 in Books > Science & Nature > Earth Sciences & Geography > Geology > Sedimentology & Stratigraphy
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Review
"[A] thought-provoking personal exploration of what the Ediacaran fossils represent." -- "Tree"
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Product Description
During an expedition in Sonora, Mexico, palaeontologist Mark McMenamin unearthed fossils of creatures dated at approximately 600 million years old. These circular fossils, which are known as Ediacarans, seemed to defy explanation. This book documents their discovery. The Ediacarans were a marine life form that existed in Precambrian times, as much as 50 million years before life on earth began to diversify rapidly. Bearing a perhaps superfical resemblance to the jellyfish, the Ediacarans had a quilted body with three curving arms at the centre and a fringe of fine radial lines. McMenamin's curiosity was fuelled by the question of whether the Ediacarans were animals or some other type of organism. How could complex forms of life appear without respect to adaptation, without extensive records of prior evolution? This, it seemed, was exactly what the Ediacarans had done. This book details McMenamin's trip to Namibia, where, with a party including palaeontologist Adolf Seilacher, he investigates a cast made from a colony of fossils in the Nama desert. He chronicles the long, often futile search made by earlier scientists for Ediacara, which began more than a century ago in South Australia, and of the various types of Ediacaran fossils that have been uncovered since. McMenamin concludes that although they were related to animals, Ediacarans were not animals in the strict sense, because they never passed through the embryonic stage that is peculiar to known animal life forms. But they seem to have developed a central nervous system and brains independent from animal evolution. This finding has ramifications for our understanding of evolutionary biology, for it indicates that the path toward intelligent life was embarked upon more than once on this planet.
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First Sentence
Coming across an arresting full-page illustration in the colorful Time-Life Nature Library, I became aware for the first time of the appeal of Ediacaran organisms. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Coming across an arresting full-page illustration in the colorful Time-Life Nature Library, I became aware for the first time of the appeal of Ediacaran organisms. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
The author shows little understanding of evolution,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Garden of Ediacara: Discovering the First Complex Life (Hardcover)
The author makes the hypothesis that Edicaran fauna are distinct from other multicellular animals and that they underwent a different type of embryological development. The book presents no real scientific test of these ideas. Instead appeals to over extended analogies and conjecture.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Extremely provocative ideas, but hard to substantiate.,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Garden of Ediacara: Discovering the First Complex Life (Hardcover)
McMenamin takes up where Dolf Seilacher left off in theorizing that the Ediacara (precursors to the animals of the Cambrian explosion) were in fact a separate experiment in body plan, distinct from both plants and animals. He goes so far as to suggest that they may have independently developed nervous systems and sense organs. If McMenamin is right he is presenting evidence for the independent development of intelligence in more than one evolutionary lineage. Such a finding would have profound implications to our understanding of our place in the universe. Unfortunately, I didn't find his arguments very convincing. Seilacher has made a good case for the Ediacara having a unique and tough body plan unlike that of subsequent animals. Some Ediacara do show organs that may be heads--but to assert this is not to assert that they were heads, that they had nervous systems or sense organs. There may be plenty of other sensible explanations for Ediacaran body plans. We j! ust don't have evidence either way. As to the debate about whether the Ediacara were precursors of Cambrian animals or a separate line, there is no reason why they could not have been a separate evolutionary line; the fact that Ediacaran fossils are preserved in sediments that wouldn't preserve Cambrian-type organisms or soft-bodied creatures like worms suggests that a parallel development of animals with Ediacarans was possible, but simply isn't recorded. This is a very intriguing book, and obviously a very political one, designed to land like a bomb in the middle of the debate about Ediacara. As such I think readers should read it with some skepticism, bearing in mind that the Ediacara are almost the last virgin territory for evolutionary biologists to stake fundamental claims. If McMenamin is right it's groundbreaking stuff--but it's way too early to say.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A real delight to read! A stimulating journey!,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Garden of Ediacara: Discovering the First Complex Life (Hardcover)
Reading this book was a real delight. McMenamin weaves his personal experiences in the field with a fascinating account of his quest to solve the problem of the Ediacara fossils - just what were they, animals, or some other multicellular organism or perhaps a mixture of both? This book is well documented so the reader can follow up the argument from primary sources. For me there is nothing more intellectually stimulating than a following a debate on the cutting edge of science with the underlying philosophical issues fully discussed. This book is an exemplar of science writing at its best. I am in complete sympathy with McMenamin's support of the concept of evolutionary directionality driven by both internal and external factors. In particular, the author views encephalization as a biological attractor. Whole new research programs should follow from this book.
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