Cambrian Ocean World: Ancient Sea Life of North America (Life of the Past Series)

This is the first serious paleontology book I have read, and it was a wonderful learning experience for me. I am a retired educator in the vertebrate biological sciences and have recently become a self-taught student of geology through textbooks, online videos and visits to a few notable US geologic sites.The author is a very experienced and knowledgeable field paleontologist with a self-professed obsession for trilobites. He very ably shared his knowledge of and enthusiasm for searching for Cambrian fossils in biostratographic units in arid and mountainous regions of the North American West.This book concentrates on Cambrian fossils and biological features of the lifeforms found primarily in strata that formed at ocean sites off the Paleozoic continent of Laurentia which went on to become the geologic core of North America. The Cambrian Radiation in these oceans over 53 million years led from simple sponges and metazoan colonies in the Ediacaran period to the development of every major body plan or Phylum of animal that is on Earth today. These newly evolved organisms were fossilized to varying degrees in the shale and limestone that formed at Cambrian fossil sites in North America such as the Burgess Shale deposit in British Columbia and the Wheeler formation in Utah.Fossils found in the Burgess Shale are discussed in detail and give the most complete picture of Cambrian life because the site facilitated fossilization of soft body parts that are lost in most other Cambrian sites. Factors controlling formation and persistence of fossils are discussed, and the science and art of evaluating Cambrian populations and ecology are presented. Introductory chapters on geologic principles important in understanding Cambrian paleontology are brief and helpful to set the stage for what is presented. The sections on trilobite anatomy, physiology and ecology are excellent. I appreciated that the author has mini-sections recognizing notable current and upcoming scholars in the field of Cambrian paleontology.Reading/Studying the Book for Maximum Learning EffectI also purchased the Audible version of the book and studied the Kindle version including illustrations and photos on my laptop while listening to the Audible version at 1.35x speed. I was also simultaneously reviewing information for fossils described on my desktop (mostly Wikipedia entries). For fossils from the Burgess Shale site, Canada’s website (The Burgess Shale) offers beautiful photographs of the fossils, 2D and 3D life restorations as well as 3D videos of the animals in their environment which go together well with the book author’s descriptions of the animal’s anatomy, locomotion and other biological characteristics. The Audible version narrator does an excellent job. For many of the sections, it was like attending lectures by a really great college professor with superb speaking and teaching ability. The narrator’s delivery helped me with pronunciations of many of the fossil names and also helped me enjoy many of the self-deprecating and other humorous comments that the author makes amid highly technical passages. Sitting back and listening to the narration of author’s descriptions of his trips to remote, arid stratigraphy sites in Nevada and California was like being there.

This book is for you. The author walks you through the Cambrian Period via a series of fossil beds, mostly in North America. You get a lot here: details on fossilization, paleontological fields and approaches, the prehistoric geology that led to these beds, and much more. Some of this gets a little dry and technical for an amateur enthusiast like myself. But I did learn a lot more than I had even hoped. The coverage of the various creatures and phyla of the Cambrian is excellent. There's extended discussion of the various theories behind the Cambrian Explosion and why it happened. The book helped me to envision the Cambrian world and has increased my desire to look for fossils on my next trip out West.

It pains me to give this book just four stars but it is more properly a study of the biostratigraphy of the Cambrian Era, mostly in the United States and although pelagic forms are discussed, the book more concentrates on benthic creatures. The stress is hardly oceanic: more like close inshore areas, alluvial fans, and shallow cratonic transgressions.It takes over 100 pages to get to the discussion of animals in some detail and then, again too much concentration on stratigraphy. Yes, that's important or even crucial, but the life forms themselves are shortchanged in favor of the rocks. Trilobites receive their due but the discussions seem interminable and, for example, too little is made of the incredible variety of eyes these creatures had. I was hoping for detail on such marvelous creatures like Wiwaxia, Marella, and the impossible-to-conceive Opabinia. They're all there but there isn't much new here.Not all is this way. Foster, in talking about the wide array of trilobites found in situ altogether, sensibly suggests that the array bespeaks a certainty that the trilobites had many ways of making a living. Another example: Foster casts doubt on the idea that Anomalocaris was probably not 'the terror of the Cambrian seas' as has been posited ever since the creature's various fossilized parts were determined to be from one animal. More likely, considering the mouth plates, the animal was a scavenger or preyed on softer animals. Indeed, bite marks on trilobite fossil could have come from predatory trilobites. I was also happily surprised that Anomalocaris was just one species of an anomalocaridid family.For me, unfortunately, there was little sense of wonder like that in books by Stephen Gould and Simon Conway Morris. That is a personal observation only, as others I am sure will hardly be able to put this book down. One major caveat: this is not a book for beginners but there is a great glossary and extensive suggestions for further reading. 3.5 stars, for me, but 3 stars are not warranted, hence the four star rating posted.

I loved this book and recommend it to anyone who wants to see our planet 500+ million years ago. It's better to have some background in biology for better understanding but in any case this book will show another world we are unable to see now

Worth every penny of the cost! Having read Gould's Wonderful Life years ago, this was a reprise but much broader in scope and with newer findings/research. The mental image you develop of the Earth during those bygone eons is thrilling. Evolution is written big and wide, understandable and amazing. I will donate it to my local high school library. Hopefully some youngster will pick it up, be inspired and enlightened.I recommend The Trilobite Book recently out too. The photographs of the fossils are spectacular!

More than anything, my fascination with paleontology is what led me to this book and it's what kept me reading for over a month when I could have been doing anything else. It's an interesting topic but the author's delivery is more fitting to a textbook.

Great read if you’re a Cambrian fan. Very detailed- you might get dizzy trying to remember all the trilobite names...

Yes it's got academic phrases buts it's deeper truth iscwell worth the occasional struggle. An epic story.

This book is very well written. I have just started it, and found it a great pleasure to read. I am transported to that time 542 million years ago.

Wonderful book on the development of life on planet Earth

This would have been a marvellous book, were it not for American exceptionalism. The USA does not extend backwards in time to the Cambrian, and there are real difficulties in describing the ancient world from a parochial, if geologically well-endowed, isolation. The story is incomplete and distorted.