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Simon Conway Morris

The Crucible of Creation

If you're going to read The Crucible of Creation by Simon Conway Morris then you'll need to know about Wonderful Life in which Stephen J Gould argues for contingency in evolution, based upon the reinterpretation of the Burgess Shale fauna - in which Conway Morris played a significant part. But Conway Morris clearly doesn't like his work being used in support of an idea which he disagrees with, and so argues against it in this book. Unfortunately this leads to the book having a very strange first chapter, which seems more like a rant than reasoned argument - the author seems prone to repeat simple arguments which have already been addressed in Gould's book.

After the first chapter the book settles down into a more normal flow, describing the discovery of the Edicarian fossils and the Burgess Shale, and going on to talk about the work done at Cambridge on these fossils. Later in the book - which is where such discussion belongs - Conway Morris looks at some of the implications, discussing at contingency and convergent evolution. Overall I feel that he gives a substantial account of the study of early fossils, and what it implies, without becoming too technical. If you don't take the first chapter too seriously then I think that you'll find much of value in this book.

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Hardcover 276 pages
ISBN: 0198502567
Salesrank: 788207
Weight:0.85 lbs

Published: 1998 Oxford University Press, USA

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Paperback 276 pages
ISBN: 0192862022
Salesrank: 115174
Weight:0.44 lbs

Published: 1999 Oxford Paperbacks

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Paperback 276 pages
ISBN: 0192862022
Salesrank: 40715
Weight:0.44 lbs

Published: 1999 Oxford Paperbacks

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Product Description
In The Crucible of Creation, paleontologist Simon Conway Morris describes the marvelous finds of the Burgess Shale--a fantastically rich deposit of bizarre and bewildering Cambrian fossils, located in Western Canada. Conway Morris is one of the few paleontologists ever to explore the Burgess Shale, having been involved in the dig since 1972, and thus he is an ideal guide to this amazing discovery. Indeed, he provides a complete overview of this remarkable find, ranging from an informative, basic discussion of the origins of life and animals on earth, to a colorful description of Charles Walcott's discovery of the Burgess Shale and of the painstaking scientific work that went on there (as well as in Burgess collections held at Harvard and the Smithsonian), to an account of similar fossil finds in Greenland and in China. The heart of the book is an imaginative trip in a time machine, back to the Cambrian seas, where the reader sees first-hand the remarkable diversity of life as it existed then. And perhaps most important, Conway Morris examines the lessons to be learned from the Burgess Shale, especially as they apply to modern evolutionary thinking. In particular, he critiques the ideas of Stephen Jay Gould, whose best-selling book Wonderful Life drew on Conway Morris's Burgess Shale work. The author takes a fresh look at the evidence and draws quite different conclusions from Gould on the nature of evolution. This finely illustrated volume takes the reader to the forefront of paleontology as it provides fresh insights into the nature of evolution and of life on earth.

Product Description

In The Crucible of Creation, paleontologist Simon Conway Morris describes the marvelous finds of the Burgess Shale--a fantastically rich deposit of bizarre and bewildering Cambrian fossils, located in Western Canada.
Conway Morris is one of the few paleontologists ever to explore the Burgess Shale, having been involved in the dig since 1972, and thus he is an ideal guide to this amazing discovery. Indeed, he provides a complete overview of this remarkable find, ranging from an informative, basic discussion of the origins of life and animals on earth, to a colorful description of Charles Walcott's discovery of the Burgess Shale and of the painstaking scientific work that went on there (as well as in Burgess collections held at Harvard and the Smithsonian), to an account of similar fossil finds in Greenland and in China. The heart of the book is an imaginative trip in a time machine, back to the Cambrian seas, where the reader sees first-hand the remarkable diversity of life as it existed then. And perhaps most important, Conway Morris examines the lessons to be learned from the Burgess Shale, especially as they apply to modern evolutionary thinking. In particular, he critiques the ideas of Stephen Jay Gould, whose best-selling book Wonderful Life drew on Conway Morris's Burgess Shale work. The author takes a fresh look at the evidence and draws quite different conclusions from Gould on the nature of evolution.
This finely illustrated volume takes the reader to the forefront of paleontology as it provides fresh insights into the nature of evolution and of life on earth.

A Crucible of Wacky Reptilian Neural Logic 4.0 x Inifity ****
Hi everyone it's me Carl Flygare again trolling Amazon for anti-Darwinist books to rate down and creationists to harass! Whoooo hooo is this book bunkum. It has silly stuff in it like uranamium evidence that my brain is caved in so that I can't think straight and like to hate! This so called "scientist" guy is stuck half way between the evolutionary tree of the banana and giant naked mole rat. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRcUMCSTANCES BELIEVE THIS BOOK! IT'S WACKY PEEPLES! TRUST ME! MEEE EMOTIONZ SED SO! Uh uh uh, frets crazily while pounding desk in fury and wishing to destroy his monitor DAMNIT! DAMNIT YOU WHO WILL NOT AGREE WITH DARWIN OR WHATEVER I TELL YOU IS TRUE! LISTEN DAMNIT: DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES BY THIS AND LIKE, THINK ABOUT ALTERNATIVE STUFF! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME PEOPLE! I WILL RATE MY REVIEWS UP 300 TIMES IN A ROW AND YOURS DOWN 400 TIMES IN A ROW IF I HAVE TO FORCE YOU TO AGREE WITH ME RATHER THAN CAREFULLY THINK ON YOUR OWN! DAMNIT! Sincerely, Carl the Zealot P.S. Tyraniosaurs eat fish man, yeah.

A Crucible of Wacky Reptilian Neural Logic 4.0 x Inifity ****

Hi everyone it's me Carl Flygare again trolling Amazon for anti-Darwinist books to rate down and creationists to harass! Whoooo hooo is this book bunkum. It has silly stuff in it like uranamium evidence that my brain is caved in so that I can't think straight and like to hate!

This so called "scientist" guy is stuck half way between the evolutionary tree of the banana and giant naked mole rat.

DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRcUMCSTANCES BELIEVE THIS BOOK! IT'S WACKY PEEPLES! TRUST ME! MEEE EMOTIONZ SED SO!

Uh uh uh, *frets crazily while pounding desk in fury and wishing to destroy his monitor* DAMNIT! DAMNIT YOU WHO WILL NOT AGREE WITH DARWIN OR WHATEVER I TELL YOU IS TRUE! LISTEN DAMNIT:

DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES BY THIS AND LIKE, THINK ABOUT ALTERNATIVE STUFF! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME PEOPLE! I WILL RATE MY REVIEWS UP 300 TIMES IN A ROW AND YOURS DOWN 400 TIMES IN A ROW IF I HAVE TO FORCE YOU TO AGREE WITH ME RATHER THAN CAREFULLY THINK ON YOUR OWN!

DAMNIT!

Sincerely,

Carl the Zealot

P.S.

Tyraniosaurs eat fish man, yeah.

Good but not good enough ***
About 90% of this book can be said to be "fascinating", if only because it deals with a fascinating subject, the creatures of the Burgess Shale. The author, Simon Conway Morris, is one of the authors of the scientific descriptions of many of these animals. That alone should make this book of some value. And it does have a value of sorts, but one that is spoiled by a sometimes odd writing style, hints of design and religion, and a needless and constant poking at Stephen Jay Gould, the famous late professor of paleontology at Harvard University. Oddly enough, it was Gould who made Morris famous in his book "Wonderful Life". Morris returns the favor with backhanded slaps at Gould's view on how life would turn out if the "tape" of life were re-run again. Gould thinks everything would be different; Morris thinks convergence would play a major role to make things all closely similar. While it is clear that Morris disagrees with Gould, Morris' argument is not convincing and sometimes seems like mere meanness. I think Gould wins. Nice pictures, though.

Good but not good enough ***

About 90% of this book can be said to be "fascinating", if only because it deals with a fascinating subject, the creatures of the Burgess Shale. The author, Simon Conway Morris, is one of the authors of the scientific descriptions of many of these animals. That alone should make this book of some value. And it does have a value of sorts, but one that is spoiled by a sometimes odd writing style, hints of design and religion, and a needless and constant poking at Stephen Jay Gould, the famous late professor of paleontology at Harvard University. Oddly enough, it was Gould who made Morris famous in his book "Wonderful Life". Morris returns the favor with backhanded slaps at Gould's view on how life would turn out if the "tape" of life were re-run again. Gould thinks everything would be different; Morris thinks convergence would play a major role to make things all closely similar. While it is clear that Morris disagrees with Gould, Morris' argument is not convincing and sometimes seems like mere meanness. I think Gould wins. Nice pictures, though.

Not the best book on the subject ***
The Burgess Shale is interesting in itself as well as for the deeper points that it makes (or rather than people make with it) for evolutionary history. Conway Morris' updated explanation of the fauna from the Burgess and recent research into similar deposits in China and Greenland is important but suffers in comparision with A Wonderfull Life. It is simply not as detailed or engaging. As for his larger points, Conway Morris points out several flaws and hidden assumtions in Gould's work but his conclusions are themselves quite weak. His later book Life's Solution does a much better job at presenting his points and marshalling evidence for them, even if they still, in my opinion, remain unproven.

Not the best book on the subject ***

The Burgess Shale is interesting in itself as well as for the deeper points that it makes (or rather than people make with it) for evolutionary history. Conway Morris' updated explanation of the fauna from the Burgess and recent research into similar deposits in China and Greenland is important but suffers in comparision with A Wonderfull Life. It is simply not as detailed or engaging. As for his larger points, Conway Morris points out several flaws and hidden assumtions in Gould's work but his conclusions are themselves quite weak. His later book Life's Solution does a much better job at presenting his points and marshalling evidence for them, even if they still, in my opinion, remain unproven.

Superb study on the Burgess Shale *****
Morris, one of two contemporary specialists on the Burgess Shale, has produced an exceedingly well-written survey of the Burgess shale fauna and their meaning for evolutionary biology. The book is loaded with scores of B/W photos, 4 color drawings, a 13-page glossary of terms for the uninitiated, an imaginative underwater excursis with time-travelling paleontologists to the middle Cambrian, and a chapter on developmental evolutionary genetics (wherein he argues that many Burgess forms are related to contemporary forms). Stephen Jay Gould's view of the significance of the Burgess Shale is that the bizarre life-forms seen then demonstrate the historical contingency of evolution--rewind the tape and let it play out again, and things would turn out differently (a la Jimmy Stewart's "Wonderful Life"). Morris's thesis is that Gould's tape-player metaphor is misleading, overemphasizing contingency at the cost of ignoring the powerful role played by ecology . One need only consider the evolution of convergent traits in insular life-forms (e.g., Australian marsupial cat-like predators) to get the point. (I should point out that I am suspicious of monolithic theories from either pole of the necessity-chance spectrum.) I find it unfortunate that Gould never discussed Bradley Efron's Bootstrap, a technique used widely in evolutionary and population genetics, or cellular automata, a la Stuart Kauffman, which give rise to the same recurrent patterns with astonishing regularity.) Morris is an adaptationist senstive to the power of ecology to shape evolution, who sees Burgess forms not as deviant freaks that accidentally went extinct but as ancestral to contemporary animals. As usual, there is likely to be truth to both positions; indeed, in some ways, their different views turn on different understandings of probability. For anyone with more than a passing interest in evolutionary biology and paleontology, who finds Gould's incessant digressions distracting, or wonders about the hypertrophy of contingency, this book should not be missed.

Superb study on the Burgess Shale *****

Morris, one of two contemporary specialists on the Burgess Shale, has produced an exceedingly well-written survey of the Burgess shale fauna and their meaning for evolutionary biology. The book is loaded with scores of B/W photos, 4 color drawings, a 13-page glossary of terms for the uninitiated, an imaginative underwater excursis with time-travelling paleontologists to the middle Cambrian, and a chapter on developmental evolutionary genetics (wherein he argues that many Burgess forms *are* related to contemporary forms). Stephen Jay Gould's view of the significance of the Burgess Shale is that the bizarre life-forms seen then demonstrate the historical contingency of evolution--rewind the tape and let it play out again, and things would turn out differently (a la Jimmy Stewart's "Wonderful Life"). Morris's thesis is that Gould's tape-player metaphor is misleading, overemphasizing contingency at the cost of ignoring the powerful role played by ecology . One need only consider the evolution of convergent traits in insular life-forms (e.g., Australian marsupial cat-like predators) to get the point. (I should point out that I am suspicious of monolithic theories from either pole of the necessity-chance spectrum.) I find it unfortunate that Gould never discussed Bradley Efron's Bootstrap, a technique used widely in evolutionary and population genetics, or cellular automata, a la Stuart Kauffman, which give rise to the same recurrent patterns with astonishing regularity.) Morris is an adaptationist senstive to the power of ecology to shape evolution, who sees Burgess forms not as deviant freaks that accidentally went extinct but as ancestral to contemporary animals. As usual, there is likely to be truth to both positions; indeed, in some ways, their different views turn on different understandings of probability. For anyone with more than a passing interest in evolutionary biology and paleontology, who finds Gould's incessant digressions distracting, or wonders about the hypertrophy of contingency, this book should not be missed.

From a Reader in Sanibel Island Florida **
I started this book with high hopes but found it consistently disappointing and annoying. He comtinually comes up with sentences that are so imprecise as to be meaningless. For example (page 205) ' It is my opinion that human history can make no sense unless evil doings are recognized for what they are, and that they are bearable only if somehow they may be redeemed' Then in debating convergence he argues that whales are inevitable in the sense that life will inevitably produce a 'fast ocean going animal that sieves sea water for food' True, but it is surely not logical to deduce from that the inevitability of homo sapiens. One could argue the inevitability of 'something like an ape' ie 4 limbs, 2 for standing 2 for grasping, upright stance, omnivore etc. Sure, but not such a specific and unusual creature as man. Especially recognising that the features which give us uniqueness have emerged so recently in geological time. Surely something so inevitable and important would not have waited three and a half million years just to enjoy 50,000 years of existence. The key characteristics of man in this context are intelligence and consciousness. If it is argued that convergence inevitably leads to the emergence of man (with these characteristics) then why do they not emerge (with similar inevitably) in some or all of the other phylla. Having heard his arguments I am afraid I side with Gould on this particular topic ie we could have lots of re-runs but still not lead to that fortunate (or unfortunate!) outcome labeled 'homo sapiens'.

From a Reader in Sanibel Island Florida **

I started this book with high hopes but found it consistently disappointing and annoying. He comtinually comes up with sentences that are so imprecise as to be meaningless. For example (page 205) ' It is my opinion that human history can make no sense unless evil doings are recognized for what they are, and that they are bearable only if somehow they may be redeemed'

Then in debating convergence he argues that whales are inevitable in the sense that life will inevitably produce a 'fast ocean going animal that sieves sea water for food' True, but it is surely not logical to deduce from that the inevitability of homo sapiens. One could argue the inevitability of 'something like an ape' ie 4 limbs, 2 for standing 2 for grasping, upright stance, omnivore etc. Sure, but not such a specific and unusual creature as man. Especially recognising that the features which give us uniqueness have emerged so recently in geological time. Surely something so inevitable and important would not have waited three and a half million years just to enjoy 50,000 years of existence.

The key characteristics of man in this context are intelligence and consciousness. If it is argued that convergence inevitably leads to the emergence of man (with these characteristics) then why do they not emerge (with similar inevitably) in some or all of the other phylla. Having heard his arguments I am afraid I side with Gould on this particular topic ie we could have lots of re-runs but still not lead to that fortunate (or unfortunate!) outcome labeled 'homo sapiens'.

To understand the Burgess Shale fossils read this *****
If you read Stephen Jay Gould's 'Wonderful Life', you must read this, to get the story right. Gould might be more entertaining, but Morris will give you the facts. Very interesting.

To understand the Burgess Shale fossils read this *****

If you read Stephen Jay Gould's 'Wonderful Life', you must read this, to get the story right. Gould might be more entertaining, but Morris will give you the facts. Very interesting.

limited but fun **
An interesting, good value book focussing on a particularly rich source offossils that give a detailed account of the range of body plans thatemerged during the Cambrian explosion about 500MYr ago. Not suitable as ageneral text for students of evolution

limited but fun **

An interesting, good value book focussing on a particularly rich source offossils that give a detailed account of the range of body plans thatemerged during the Cambrian explosion about 500MYr ago. Not suitable as ageneral text for students of evolution

Wonderful Life reassessed *****
A decade on from the publication of Stephen Jay Gould's 'Wonderful Life' there is much new information to be told about the Burgess Shale and similar deposits around the world, and Conway Morris is in the best place to tell it as one of the leading researchers in this subject. He succeeds brilliantly in bringing the fossils to life by visiting them in a time travelling submersible to view their ecology. Conway Morris does not agree with Gould's interminable arguments for contingency in 'Wonderful Life' and makes a very strong case for a degree of predictability in evolution, there being only a limited number of ways to scratch a living on planet earth. If you have read 'Wonderful Life' you really should read this. I can find no justification for the reviewer below complaining of excessive religious content - this is an objective, scientific account seeking to piece evidence together to address important questions, and there is no 'religious' material. Conway Morris does have a philosophical side, however, rightly condemning our current behaviour towards our environment as 'utterly reckless'. Unfortunately, the evolution of consciousness came with extraordinary capacities for greed and self-deception, linked traits that suggest the experiment will not last for very long.

Wonderful Life reassessed *****

A decade on from the publication of Stephen Jay Gould's 'Wonderful Life' there is much new information to be told about the Burgess Shale and similar deposits around the world, and Conway Morris is in the best place to tell it as one of the leading researchers in this subject. He succeeds brilliantly in bringing the fossils to life by visiting them in a time travelling submersible to view their ecology.
Conway Morris does not agree with Gould's interminable arguments for contingency in 'Wonderful Life' and makes a very strong case for a degree of predictability in evolution, there being only a limited number of ways to scratch a living on planet earth. If you have read 'Wonderful Life' you really should read this.
I can find no justification for the reviewer below complaining of excessive religious content - this is an objective, scientific account seeking to piece evidence together to address important questions, and there is no 'religious' material. Conway Morris does have a philosophical side, however, rightly condemning our current behaviour towards our environment as 'utterly reckless'. Unfortunately, the evolution of consciousness came with extraordinary capacities for greed and self-deception, linked traits that suggest the experiment will not last for very long.

Really interesting! ****
This is really interesting! I am new to this, but looked at "crucible" after "wonderful life" and found the perspective illuminating. The references to Stephen J Gould come think and fast but the book stands on its own.

Really interesting! ****

This is really interesting! I am new to this, but looked at "crucible" after "wonderful life" and found the perspective illuminating. The references to Stephen J Gould come think and fast but the book stands on its own.

Disappointing. The author's religous beliefs appear often! **
My feelings about this book clearly differ from the other reviewers. As an update to Wonderful Life (for example), presenting the newer interpretations of Burgess shale organisms and some ideas on the eclogy of the Burgess shale, it is interesting enough. But Conway Morris is not shy about making his religous and political views clear, and too much of this book reads as an attack on S.J. Gould for what Morris appears to think of as a threateningly atheistic interpretation of the nature of history (please read Gould's absolutely wonderful "Wonderful Life"). Intermixed with the science of this book you'll find statements by theologians used to try to bolster Conway Morris' view of the history of life. As a professional scientist (albeit in a totally different field) I found this to be totally innapropriate, even if it is "just" a popular science book. If you are fascinated by the Cambrian explosion, then maybe buy the paperback, but be warned: there is a lot of religion mixed in.

Disappointing. The author's religous beliefs appear often! **

My feelings about this book clearly differ from the other reviewers. As an update to Wonderful Life (for example), presenting the newer interpretations of Burgess shale organisms and some ideas on the eclogy of the Burgess shale, it is interesting enough.

But Conway Morris is not shy about making his religous and political views clear, and too much of this book reads as an attack on S.J. Gould for what Morris appears to think of as a threateningly atheistic interpretation of the nature of history (please read Gould's absolutely wonderful "Wonderful Life"). Intermixed with the science of this book you'll find statements by theologians used to try to bolster Conway Morris' view of the history of life. As a professional scientist (albeit in a totally different field) I found this to be totally innapropriate, even if it is "just" a popular science book.

If you are fascinated by the Cambrian explosion, then maybe buy the paperback, but be warned: there is a lot of religion mixed in.

Five-eyed arthropods. *****
A reviewer of this book explains that Opabinia could not possibly be related to the arthropods, because it has five eyes. This most erudite person seems to ignore that many present-day arthropods have, in fact, five eyes. They are called insects! Many insects have two composite eyes and three small simple eyes. Now 2+3=5, so many insects, like the cicada, etc. do have five eyes. Since insects are arthropods, five-eyed arthropods are not unheard of, and are in fact very common.

Five-eyed arthropods. *****

A reviewer of this book explains that Opabinia could not possibly be related to the arthropods, because it has five eyes. This most erudite person seems to ignore that many present-day arthropods have, in fact, five eyes. They are called insects! Many insects have two composite eyes and three small simple eyes. Now 2+3=5, so many insects, like the cicada, etc. do have five eyes. Since insects are arthropods, five-eyed arthropods are not unheard of, and are in fact very common.

A much better book on the Burgess Shale fossils than Gould's *****
This is a very good book on the Burgess Shale fossils, written by one of the people who ACTUALLY did the work that Gould uses in his "Wonderful Life". It shows that Gould's interpretation is biased toward his peculiar view of "Evolution without Progress". It also shows that many of Gould's main arguments are based on simple mistakes, like the upside-down Hallucinogenia. While Gould present a fringe view of evolution, Morris presents the standard neo-Darwinian picture. He shows that most of the Burgess Shale fossils fit in ordinary phyla, after all. Or are clearly related to ancestors of the present phyla. Mysterious animals like the halkieriids are shown to be intermediate between the annelida and the brachiopoda, while wiwaxia is probably a stem lineage annelid. Just as Darwin would have expected! While some details can still be wrong, the overall picture fits well with ordinary ideas of how evolution works. It is amusing to see a Christian (Morris) defend orthodox neo-Darwinism against a materialist (Gould). In fact, compared to Morris, Gould looks like a creationist! This book is not just better science than Gould's, it is also better philosophy. The book is much more than a polemic against Gould. It tells a story of hunting fossils from Greenland to China: a most satisfying story to read. Unfortunately, I am sure than far fewer copies of this informative and up-to-date book have been sold than of the misleading "Wonderful Life". What a pity!

A much better book on the Burgess Shale fossils than Gould's *****

This is a very good book on the Burgess Shale fossils, written by one of the people who ACTUALLY did the work that Gould uses in his "Wonderful Life". It shows that Gould's interpretation is biased toward his peculiar view of "Evolution without Progress". It also shows that many of Gould's main arguments are based on simple mistakes, like the upside-down Hallucinogenia. While Gould present a fringe view of evolution, Morris presents the standard neo-Darwinian picture.

He shows that most of the Burgess Shale fossils fit in ordinary phyla, after all. Or are clearly related to ancestors of the present phyla. Mysterious animals like the halkieriids are shown to be intermediate between the annelida and the brachiopoda, while wiwaxia is probably a stem lineage annelid. Just as Darwin would have expected! While some details can still be wrong, the overall picture fits well with ordinary ideas of how evolution works.

It is amusing to see a Christian (Morris) defend orthodox neo-Darwinism against a materialist (Gould). In fact, compared to Morris, Gould looks like a creationist! This book is not just better science than Gould's, it is also better philosophy.

The book is much more than a polemic against Gould. It tells a story of hunting fossils from Greenland to China: a most satisfying story to read. Unfortunately, I am sure than far fewer copies of this informative and up-to-date book have been sold than of the misleading "Wonderful Life". What a pity!

interesting but misses the point ***
In a very interesting book, on a fascinating and inspiring topic, one of the key figures is making his ideas public, and does not convince. Simon Conway Morris tries to undermine or oppose the views of S.J. Gould, and while he might scientifically be the most likely person to succeed in such a feat, he utterly fails to do so. Conway Morris is very hostile to the views presented in Gould's "wonderful life", which were largely based upon his OWN earlier view, and does little justice to the man who brought him under the public (although by no means scientific, a task in which he succeeded extremely well on his own merit) spotlights. Conway Morris's arguments are based upon 3 major arguments: that of convergence, that of cladistics, and that of disparity. The first one is undoubtedly true, but trivial. Convergence can and will occur, but as it can be brought up by taxa belonging to extant groups, it has no bearing on the shape of the tree of life. Gould made no claim that ecological niches will not be filled - just that they will be filled later in evolution by more closely related taxa. The second argument is irrelevant and misleading. Again, Gould does not claim all the Burgess shale's weird wonders arose separately - quite on the contrary, but he does claim they arose early on the tree of life. Every life form can be fitted on a dendrogram, so the fact you can put Opabinia and Sidenyia on the same tree, is irrelevant to the argument presented. So we are basically left with the third argument. Throughout the book Conway Morris is claiming to have refuted the arguments of "Wonderful life", and as his own arguments are weak you are constantly waiting for him to pull the smoking gun. This appears not before about 15 pages from the end, and one is startled to see all of Conway Morris's argument relies on just one study - Foote's 1990 study of disparity in Burgess-shale and later trilobites. The conclusions arising from this analysis are in no way the clear cut evidence Conway Morris wants them to be: the debate is on between scientists as to their validity and implications, and more importantly - they do not even directly bear on the question of disparity between HIGHER taxonomic units (e.g. Phyla): the major issue at hand. Thus Conway Morris's book fails to convince. It does however a fascinating story, and the most updated one today, of the wonderful story about animal origins. Conway Morris is modest in his claims to knowledge, and fully acknowledges what he don't know, or not sure of (this goes to facts, not arguments) and noble in his efforts to relate his story to recent conservation issues. All in all I'd read his book for the most updated info on the animals, and "Wonderful life" for the best philosophy of science

interesting but misses the point ***

In a very interesting book, on a fascinating and inspiring topic, one of the key figures is making his ideas public, and does not convince.
Simon Conway Morris tries to undermine or oppose the views of S.J. Gould, and while he might scientifically be the most likely person to succeed in such a feat, he utterly fails to do so.
Conway Morris is very hostile to the views presented in Gould's "wonderful life", which were largely based upon his OWN earlier view, and does little justice to the man who brought him under the public (although by no means scientific, a task in which he succeeded extremely well on his own merit) spotlights.
Conway Morris's arguments are based upon 3 major arguments: that of convergence, that of cladistics, and that of disparity.
The first one is undoubtedly true, but trivial. Convergence can and will occur, but as it can be brought up by taxa belonging to extant groups, it has no bearing on the shape of the tree of life. Gould made no claim that ecological niches will not be filled - just that they will be filled later in evolution by more closely related taxa.
The second argument is irrelevant and misleading. Again, Gould does not claim all the Burgess shale's weird wonders arose separately - quite on the contrary, but he does claim they arose early on the tree of life. Every life form can be fitted on a dendrogram, so the fact you can put Opabinia and Sidenyia on the same tree, is irrelevant to the argument presented.
So we are basically left with the third argument. Throughout the book Conway Morris is claiming to have refuted the arguments of "Wonderful life", and as his own arguments are weak you are constantly waiting for him to pull the smoking gun. This appears not before about 15 pages from the end, and one is startled to see all of Conway Morris's argument relies on just one study - Foote's 1990 study of disparity in Burgess-shale and later trilobites. The conclusions arising from this analysis are in no way the clear cut evidence Conway Morris wants them to be: the debate is on between scientists as to their validity and implications, and more importantly - they do not even directly bear on the question of disparity between HIGHER taxonomic units (e.g. Phyla): the major issue at hand.
Thus Conway Morris's book fails to convince. It does however a fascinating story, and the most updated one today, of the wonderful story about animal origins. Conway Morris is modest in his claims to knowledge, and fully acknowledges what he don't know, or not sure of (this goes to facts, not arguments) and noble in his efforts to relate his story to recent conservation issues. All in all I'd read his book for the most updated info on the animals, and "Wonderful life" for the best philosophy of science