Lavinia reviewed Remarkable Creatures by Sean B. Carroll
Review of 'Remarkable Creatures' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
"All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them".
This book is a chronicle of the greatest adventures in natural history in the last 200 years. The author Sean Carroll, a professor of genetics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, looks at the lives of people who had gone into the wild, with one purpose, to find evidence of evolution. He starts with Darwin and his voyage around the world. Darwin's passion for collecting and for exploring the unknown was remarkable, and helped him endure the loneliness, constant seasickness, discomfort, and dangers of the voyage.
Next is Alfred Russell Wallace with his two expeditions. Wallace spent in the Amazon four years and he almost lost his life when the ship that was bringing him in England caught fire and sank along with almost all the specimens he had collected. He was rescued, after ten …
"All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them".
This book is a chronicle of the greatest adventures in natural history in the last 200 years. The author Sean Carroll, a professor of genetics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, looks at the lives of people who had gone into the wild, with one purpose, to find evidence of evolution. He starts with Darwin and his voyage around the world. Darwin's passion for collecting and for exploring the unknown was remarkable, and helped him endure the loneliness, constant seasickness, discomfort, and dangers of the voyage.
Next is Alfred Russell Wallace with his two expeditions. Wallace spent in the Amazon four years and he almost lost his life when the ship that was bringing him in England caught fire and sank along with almost all the specimens he had collected. He was rescued, after ten days in a lifeboat, only to leave again, this time to New Guinea, where he spent eight years collecting. It was there, that he came up with the same idea Darwin did, about the evolution, of species.
One of most interesting portraits in the book is the one of Charles Walcott. Despite the fact that he never finished formal education, he developed a passion for fossils and became an expert on trilobites - they are arthropods that went extinct in the Permian. He was the first to explore and survey the rocks and the fossils in the Grand Canyon only with himself, a cook and a mule. The task was enormous, but it didn't deter Walcott to make one of the major discoveries in the field of natural sciences. He found the earliest fossil evidence of life; the simplest form of life, during the Precambrian period. Later, Walcott become director of the U.S. Geological Survey, and a trusted advisor to seven different presidents. He also played and significant role in promoting aviation in the United States, and helped in the creation of a new organisation called NACA which was the civil aviation authority in the US and 50 years later, developed into being NASA.
Carroll also talks about Eugene Dubois, who found in Java the missing link between apes and humans. It was a molar skullcap and a thigh bone of what we called today, Homo Erectus. Probably the most exciting portrait is that of Roy Chapman Andrews. He had an intriguing personality; an explorer and adventurer, a spy and gifted scientist. He was captivated by Mongolia and the Gobi desert. With his team he discovered the first nest of dinosaur eggs and several new dinosaur species, including Velocipartor and Tarborsaurus.
The book is beautifully written. The description of the adventures and struggles of the scientists to discover and fill the gaps in the natural history and human evolution is captivating, and easily grasps the attention of the reader, especially the younger ones. The photographs, maps and charts are useful supplement in the text. The reading list is extensive and comprehensive, and definitely you should go through it. In total, the book is highly recommended.