Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History

Written by Stephen Jay Gould

Narrated by Jonathan Sleep

"[An] extraordinary book . . . Mr. Gould is an exceptional combination of scientist and science writer . . . He is thus exceptionally well placed to tell these stories, and he tells them with fervor and intelligence."—James Gleick, New York Times Book Review



High in the Canadian Rockies is a small limestone quarry formed 530 million years ago called the Burgess Shale. It holds the remains of an ancient sea where dozens of strange creatures lived—a forgotten corner of evolution preserved in awesome detail. In this book, Stephen Jay Gould explores what the Burgess Shale tells us about evolution and the nature of history.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Audio
• Release date: Apr 11, 2023
• ISBN: 9798765090725

Reviews for Wonderful Life

[Andrea Author · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I listened to the 2023 audiobook of this classic and was surprised that it didn't sound dated. Admittedly, I'm not up-to-date on the latest scholarship relating to the Cambrian period. But since the book largely focuses on the history of how the Burgess Shale fossils were interpreted, it captures and analyzes a snapshot of time in a way that illuminates not just the research but the process of research itself.

There's a wistful quality about this book, about the way it dismantles the Chain of Being from microorganisms to Homo sapiens sapiens as if it were a natural progression. Because the Cambrian shows other routes life could have taken. The reason some forms of life survived while others didn't may come down to luck.

The book also shows, in a compassionate way, how the worldview of scientists may affect their work and limit their interpretations of the data. This story is as much about people as it is about the Cambrian fossils.

If you're interested in how multicellular life began to flourish and create the world we know today, you won't want to miss this book.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.