Trilobite: Eyewitness to Evolution

As this is my first book written by Richard Fortey I didn't quite know what to expect from this British paleontologist. Part science, part history and autobiography, Trilobite is written with a poetic slant that can take the reader off on some of the author's personal musings on a variety of subjects that are seemingly unrelated to trilobites but, sooner or later, he reveals the connection. Fortey's first job as a professional paleontologist was at a museum, a dream come true, "Getting paid for what I loved doing!". I found the chapter on museums and the process of naming a new species to be to be very interesting, but some readers might not agree with me on that. The opening chapter takes place on the North Cornwall Coast of South West England near the town of Boscastle and starts with the author retracing the steps of a fictional character, from a novel that I was not familiar with, who encounters a fossil trilobite on a storm-tossed cliff overlooking the Atlantic. In this round about way he brings you to the heart of his book: trilobites. And this book is indeed about trilobites and everything you ever wanted to know about them. In the late 17th century we find the earliest reference to trilobites when a "gentleman fossil-collector" wrote of finding some fossil "flat fish" that turned out to be trilobites. In exploring the history of trilobite research the author introduces you to some early workers like Charles D Walcott (about 1910) and Harry B Whittington (late 1960's) of Burgess Shale fame (see S Gould's 1989 Wonderful Life). Walcott discovered appendages (legs) in a fossil trilobite (1876). In 1893 William D Matthew was the first to spot fossilized antennae, plated with Iron Pyrite, confirmed by a Professor Charles E Beecher. All of these early workers were not only finding fossils, they were also doing research on trilobite anatomy, evolution and number of species. The research continues to this day. Traditionally, trilobites were considered, by some, to be losers in their evolutionary race for success but they were around for over 300my, had thousands of species and each were finely tuned to their environment--sounds like success to me. What caused their extinction is open for debate but changes in their habitat and environmental conditions that they were unable to keep up with is a good bet, that's the fate of all species and maybe us humans as well. I found Fortey's writing style to be ornate and, at times, quite technical, but not so technical that it overwhelms the layperson reader. The chapter on trilobite eyes was outstanding, some had them mounted on long stalks others were large and bulbous and some species were even blind. I had no idea that trilobites were so diverse, evolving to fill a wide range of habitats from shallow seas to the abyssal deep with numbers beyond counting. Some sported an assortment of spines or bumps that must have served some sort of function. Fortey covers it all in fine detail mixed with some speculation. While not for everyone, this book is right on track for anyone interested in paleontology, evolution and nature in general. I had no technical or formatting problems with this Kindle edition and, as far as I could tell, all of the illustrations and plates are included.LastRanger

Natural history, deep-time may conjure up images of Stephen J. Gould's wondrous creatures of the early Cambrian (530 million years ago), dug out of the Burgess Shale in British Columbia. I realize that other paleontologists have had problems with some of his anatomical descriptions and theory of punctuated equilibrium ("Trilobite" spends a chapter defending Gould from some of his more vigorous critics), but the world that he created was strange, beautiful, and compelling.Fortey creates a similar vision of Earth as it existed for 300 million years, starting like Gould, in the Cambrian. No animals better exemplify the drama of evolution and extinction than trilobites, except perhaps for the Johnny-come-lately dinosaurs. If you are interested in really deep time, you must travel back before the dinosaurs and peer with the author through the eyes of a trilobite. "'Look into my eyes,' the trilobite seems to say, 'and you will see the vestiges of your own history.'"And very strange eyes they are. In the chapter, "Crystal Eyes" the author plays an exuberant, complex riff on vision as it first evolved, most specifically on the uniquely developed eyes of trilobites. I used to think of these creatures as mud-colored beetles that spent their lives crawling around on the bottoms of shallow Paleozoic seas--interesting basically because they lasted so long. But according to Fortey, their eyes were made of calcite crystals, which "makes them unique in the animal kingdom...Look into a crystal of Iceland spar and you can see the secret of the trilobyte's vision."The author then goes into quite a bit of detail as to why double vision was not a problem for these amazing arthropods, even though their eyes were made up of six-sided crystals.Since the trilobite's eyes were part of its exoskeleton and just as hard, it had to shed them with each molt. Imagine, a new set of eyes every time you shed your 'skin!'Trilobites ranged from platter-size down to bitty bugs that were barely a millimeter long. Fortey describes them in loving detail and also defends the need to collect and study trilobites. Lord Rutherford's remark that 'all science is either physics or stamp collecting' is vigorously repudiated (I think Rutherford's aphorism must have really stung, because it gets a good bashing in nearly every natural history book in my library).Just one of the reasons why trilobites are not like stamps is that studying their distribution helps us determine the outlines of continents and islands that predated not just the modern world, but the ancient supercontinent of Pangaea.Trilobites managed to squeeze through several evolutionary bottlenecks, surviving and multiplying for over 300 million years. In his heart of hearts, the author admits to hoping that, like the ancient coelacanth, a remnant of this once-vast family of arthropods will be rediscovered, curled up on some unexplored sea bottom, or gazing through crystalline eyes at a newer denizen of the deep.After reading Fortey's "Trilobite," I can only hope the same.

I enjoyed Richard Fortey's other books, and this one is just as good.

この本はｻﾝﾖｳﾁｭｳについてのべた本のなかでもっとも読み物性の高い本だと思います。内容もよく非常に興味深いです。和訳された方も買ってみてはいかがでしょうか。

商品は予定通りに届きましたが、もう少し画像が多いかなと思っておりました。　殆どが英文で書かれており、次は画像集を購入しなければと思っております。

I've been reading books about ancient creatures and some of them are really good, concise, direct to the point and informative. And I expected a similar reading experience with this book. However it is just totally not. It seems to me this book is full of jibber-jabbering account of Fortey's life events. After reading the first two chapters, I learned very little about trilobites, but a lot about Fortey's education experience, his admiration for some of his colleagues, his philosophy and value, etc. This book is more like an autobiography than an account of trilobites. This style is just so not for me.

A great read for the nature lover and curious. Presented in an entertaining and diverse way with many fascinating insights into these remarkable creature and the people who researched them.The author has a dry sense of humour which bounces the subject along in a most enjoyable way.