false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174258894m/373571.jpg 373571 7 "The excitement of discovery cannot be bought, or faked, or learned from books," London Natural History Museum senior paleontologist Richard Fortey writes in <I>Life</I>. The first chapter, an engrossing account of an Arctic fossil-hunting expedition he undertook as a university student, will bring shivers to anyone who has ever ignored cold hands, hunger, and filthy socks to keep looking for something new, some piece of rock or bit of plant that may hold the key to the gleaming certainty of understanding. Fortey's descriptions of scruffy field assistants and eccentrically brilliant scientists are easily as interesting as the billions of years of evolution he so imaginatively describes. After all, the fossil record has not been accepted without controversy, and the arguments among fallible evolutionary biologists as they refined their theories make for great reading. But it is the little animals that make up our distant ancestry that are the focus here. The often mysterious fossils they left behind are like a history book in a language we don't know--the history of bugs and birds, humans and cauliflowers. One by one, Fortey reveals how the puzzles of paleontology have been subjected to the scientific method and to the politics and personal ambitions of academia, until a beautifully clear path is traced from the very first traces of life all the way across the eons to the advent of <I>Homo sapiens</I>. Fortey's elegantly written tour lets us share his passion for ancient seas and the animals that frolicked in them, and understand how time and chance contributed to the biography of us all. <I>--Therese Littleton</I> 1120848 book 1997 total:66|5:29|4:17|3:17|2:3|1:0| 66 270 161 8 3 2 false false Fri Feb 23 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Thu Jan 31 06:34:56 -0800 2008 Sat Feb 09 05:54:54 -0800 2008 Bill Bryson, on the other hand, took an outsider'...more...]]> 2 0 false false Fri Nov 28 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Nov 28 06:17:21 -0800 2008 Fri Nov 28 06:17:46 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 12 08:08:56 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 17 09:39:35 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Thu Jun 04 18:46:14 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 04 18:49:37 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Tue Sep 04 00:37:01 -0700 2007 Tue Sep 04 00:41:14 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Feb 26 10:22:22 -0800 2008 Tue Feb 26 10:23:45 -0800 2008 5 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Mon Mar 03 15:49:58 -0800 2008 Mon Mar 03 15:51:21 -0800 2008 5 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Wed Apr 11 15:20:06 -0700 2007 Tue Apr 17 22:09:45 -0700 2007 0 0 false false Tue Mar 18 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Nov 18 09:11:06 -0800 2009 Wed Nov 18 09:11:35 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Mon Nov 16 17:25:24 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 16 17:25:24 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Tue Nov 10 22:56:29 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 10 22:56:29 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Sun Nov 08 12:01:28 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 08 12:01:28 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Mon Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Tue Nov 03 19:40:52 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 03 19:41:01 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Tue Nov 03 18:03:05 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 03 18:03:15 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Mon Oct 12 02:38:47 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 12 02:38:47 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Sun Sep 27 04:42:29 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 27 04:42:29 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Sep 24 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 24 12:51:49 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 24 12:52:01 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Sep 22 02:01:25 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 22 02:01:25 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Sep 21 19:44:26 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 21 19:44:26 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Sep 20 17:30:16 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 20 17:30:16 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=373571