The fact that nature must build on what it has, and not on what it wants, is still at the centre of evolutionary thinking. Wonderful Life By: Stephen Jay Gould Narrated by: Jonathan Sleep Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins Language: English 5 out of 5 stars 1 rating 20.99 or Free. Even so, scientific ideas often change, and that volume, like most of his others, remains a rattling good read. Wonderful Life, Gould's 1989 book on the Burgess Shale, suggests that the obscure fauna of the late pre-Cambrian represents a lost universe wiped out by some unknown disaster, but now we know that they have descendants among modern animals. His other great passion, contingency - the notion that evolution goes on with sudden bangs rather than protracted whimpers - has also not held up particularly well. To them, an instant in geology may represent almost an infinity in biology, leaving plenty of time for evolution by natural selection to do its normal job. Norton & Company, Inc Book Club (BCE/BOMC) edition (January 1, 1989) Item Weight : 1.
Many biologists, by contrast, insist that what look like palaeontological leaps can be explained by simple Darwinism. Wonderful Life STEPHEN JAY GOULD 6 Hardcover 16 offers from 11.10 Product details ASIN : B000TX9K1S Publisher : W. Gould saw punk eek as a “coordinating centrepiece” that “congealed into a coherent critique” of evolutionary theory. But if that is what contingency is all about, then it is difficult to see why Gould drew so much inspiration from the Frank Capra movie from which he took his ti tle (WL 287-89). Whatever the importance of sudden leaps in the fossil record, his notorious idea of punctuated equilibria, nicknamed 'punk eek' and referred to as 'evolution by jerks' by some of its critics - their own views characterized by Gould as “evolution by creeps” - gave the fossilized field of palaeontology a much-needed kick in the pants. Gould was hurt by that acidulous statement, which was without doubt unfair.
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