The great fossil enigma : the search for the conodont animal / Simon J. Knell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Knell, Simon J.

Series:

Life of the Past

Life of the past

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Conodonts.

Science--Social aspects.

Science.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (438 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Stephen Jay Gould borrowed from Winston Churchill when he described the conodont animal as a ""riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma."" This animal confounded science for more than a century. Some thought it a slug, others a fish, a worm, a plant, even a primitive ancestor of ourselves. The list of possibilities grew and yet an answer to the riddle never seemed any nearer. Would the animal that left behind these miniscule fossils known as conodonts ever be identified? Three times the animal was ""found,"" but each was quite a different animal. Were any of them really the one? Simon J

Contents:

Cover; Title Page; Copyright Page; Dedication Page; Table of Contents; List of Illustrations; Preface & Acknowledgments; Prelude: The Impossible Animal; 1: The Road to El Dorado; 2: A Beacon in the Blackness; 3: The Animal with Three Heads; 4: Another Fine Mess; 5: Outlaws; 6: Spring; 7: Diary of a Fossil Fruit Fly; 8: Fears of Civil War; 9: The Promised Land; 10: The Witness; 11: The Beast of Bear Gulch; 12: The Invention of Life; 13: El Dorado; 14: Over the Mountains of the Moon; Afterword: The Progress of Tiny Things; Notes; Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781283735452

1283735458

9780253006066

0253006066

OCLC:

826449458