Trilobite!

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‘In Richard Fortey’s capable hands the humble grey trilobite has been transformed into the E.T. of the Lower Palaeozoic – a remarkable and fascinating book.’ SIMON WINCHESTERRichard Fortey is one of Britain’s leading popular scientists. Life: An Unauthorised Biography, was short-listed for the Rhone Poulenc prize and has been reprinted five times. In all he writes, Fortey displays extraordinary range, delight and descriptive gifts which make complicated scientific facts and concepts not only easy to understand but a delight to absorb.Trilobite! is an unashamedly trilobito-centric view of the world unravelling the history of the exotic, crustacean-like animals which dominated the seas for three hundred million years. These arthropods witnessed continents move, mountain chains elevated and eroded; they survived ice ages and volcanic eruptions, evolving and adapting exquisitely to their environment. They watched through their crystal eyes whilst life evolved. Their own evolution calibrated geological time itself.Structured like a detective story, this is a light, but highly informative account of the wonders of scientific discovery and an engaging, quirky and fascinating introduction to evolution.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Flamingo (5 March 2001)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0006551386
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0006551386
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 kg 50 g
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.9 x 1.93 x 19.8 cm
Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ United Kingdom

Reviewer: Botanist
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
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Review: Excellent book by Richard Fortey, a world expert on the Trilobite. What surprised me most was the easy writing style, light, humorous at times but very informative. A good read easy to understand and I gained much from reading it.

Reviewer: Sandy Tsalavoutas
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
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Review: I enjoyed Richard Fortey’s other books, and this one is just as good.

Reviewer: Charlotte Davis
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
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Review: Richard Fortey never fails to make his science books interesting, even entertaining, and true page-turners. An avowed trilobite fan, he describes both these creatures’ evolution in connection with shifting conditions in their ecosystems and the evolution of other lives as well. His story offers autobiographical elements that illustrate how Fortey chose his career – no surprise, considering his childhood fascination with fossils.Adaptive radiation, catastrophes that led to the loss of biodiversity, Fortey manages to make it all eminently readable. For those who are leery of science texts, this book is the one to select to become truly hooked on the subject at hand.

Reviewer: LastRanger
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
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Review: 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

Reviewer: I. Dobson
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
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Review: Trilobites were some of the most successful organisms to ever populate the planet and most people have never heard of them. This book is both an indepth look at trilobites and a story of one man’s lifelong passion for his work. You don’t have to like fossils, geology or bugs to like this book. I would recommend this book to anyone with an innate curiosity for life on earth. If nothing else, your new found knowledge of trilobites will make you the center of attention at cocktail parties…

4.5

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