or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
13 used & new from £29.95
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
The Garden of Ediacara: Discovering the First Complex Life
 
 
Share your own customer images
Search inside this book

The Garden of Ediacara: Discovering the First Complex Life (Hardcover)

by MAS McMenamin (Author) "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..." (more)
3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
RRP: £57.50
Price: £48.88 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £8.62 (15%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
Usually dispatched within 6 to 11 days.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

8 new from £46.44 5 used from £29.95
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Paperback (New Ed) 5 used & new from £28.95
Unbound Order it used

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

The Cambrian Fossils of Chengjiang, China: The Flowering of Early Animal Life

The Cambrian Fossils of Chengjiang, China: The Flowering of Early Animal Life

by Xian-Guang Hou
£75.00
The Rise of Animals: Evolution and Diversification of the Kingdom Animalia

The Rise of Animals: Evolution and Diversification of the Kingdom Animalia

by Arthur C. Clarke
£48.39
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Hardcover: 368 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)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1,457,890 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #49 in  Books > Science & Nature > Earth Sciences & Geography > Geology > Sedimentology & Stratigraphy
    #49 in  Books > Scientific, Technical & Medical > Geology > Stratigraphy

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Product Description

Review

"[A] thought-provoking personal exploration of what the Ediacaran fossils represent." -- "Tree"


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.
See all Product Description
Inside This Book (Learn More)
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
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
 
stratigraphic paleontology
paleontology
mark a s mcmenamin
evolution

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Snowball Earth
83% buy
Snowball Earth 3.6 out of 5 stars (9)
£6.15
The Garden of Ediacara: Discovering the First Complex Life
17% buy the item featured on this page:
The Garden of Ediacara: Discovering the First Complex Life 3.0 out of 5 stars (3)
£48.88
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
5 star:
 (1)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
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, 9 Dec 1998
By A Customer
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.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Extremely provocative ideas, but hard to substantiate., 11 Aug 1998
By A Customer
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.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
5.0 out of 5 stars A real delight to read! A stimulating journey!, 22 Mar 1999
By A Customer
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.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 

   

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject

















i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Ad

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.