The quest of scientists since Darwin to solve a case he found 'inexplicable' - the lack of fossils in rocks before the Cambrian, over 540 million years old. An account of the earliest known animals - the enigmatic Ediacaran creatures, and the small shelly fossils - that have hardly ever been described before to a lay audience. (Books by Gould and Conway-Morris focus on the more famous, and much later animals of the Burgess Shale). A personal account of the piecing together of clues about the lead up to the Cambrian from an Oxford scientistinvolved at the forefront of work on early life. A richly readable and engaging account of the trials and tribulations of expeditions to remote places suchas Siberia and Outer Mongolia. Tackles deep and still unresolved questions ofevolution: when and how did animals evolve and what drove the great evolutionary innovations of the 'Cambrian Explosion'? These are areas of intense and exciting current research and Brasier here gives his own take on the emerging answers, as one of the leading players in the field
- ISBN: 978-0-19-954898-9
- Editorial: Oxford University
- Encuadernacion: Rústica
- Páginas: 320
- Fecha Publicación: 31/03/2010
- Nº Volúmenes: 1
- Idioma: Inglés