Wonderful Life

A marvelous work of popular science. Gould does not merely describe the fauna of the Burgess Shale: he tells the story of how scientists have reinterpreted their classification, and he argues that this revision fundamentally reframes our understanding of life on earth. Essentially, Gould's thesis is that there is no such thing as an inevitable evolutionary trend towards progression, and that our presence on this world is just as much the product of fortunate circumstances as it is of consistent evolutionary principles.

Gould writes in an engaging and beautiful way. He explains technical concepts clearly and enriches his presentation with a variety of apt literary and cultural allusions. The evidence presented for his thesis is thorough. Paleontology advancing as fast as it does, I have to assume that a good deal of the information is outdated; Gould explicitly anticipates and even welcomes this inevitability. (While I love learning about paleontology, I'm certainly not qualified to comment on particular inaccuracies.)

I am particularly impressed by the amount of understanding that Walcott extends towards Charles Doolittle Walcott, the geologist who first discovered the Burgess Shale fossils. Just as a teacher must look for the logic in a student's mistake, Gould examines Walcott's biography in great detail to establish why he interpreted the Burgess fossils the way he did. Gould's comments about the dichotomy between experimental and historical sciences resonated with me, as I immensely enjoy learning about historical sciences but was confused in school when that love didn't necessarily transfer to the experimental side. Gould's book is subtitled “The Nature of History,” but in many ways it's just as much about the historical qualities of nature.

Prior to Wonderful Life, I had not read a proper book focused on paleontology in over a year. While I was obsessed with the subject as a child, the last book I read about it disappointed me. Gould demonstrated to me that paleontology is just as captivating a subject as an adult when presented in the right way. I look forward to continue learning about ancient life, even if my childhood aspirations towards professional paleontology never worked out.