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In Search of Nautilus: Three Centuries of Scientific Adventures in the Deep Pacific to Capture a Prehistoric—Living—Fossil
In the lively tradition of Stephen Jay Gould and Horace Judson, this is a thrilling tale of true adventure in scientific discovery, the story of a quest that has obsessed generations of scholars. With an eye for detail and a novelist's instinct for action, Peter Ward, a zoologist/geologist at the University of Washington and one of the world's foremost authorities on the nautilus, describes man's attempt to understand one of the oldest and most mysterious creatures on earth.
Ward recounts his own exciting and dangerous voyages to the South Pacific and those of his predecessors, many of whom risked their very lives to continue their investigations. He examines the enormous evolutionary significance of the nautilus, whose powerful jaws and ability to hover weightlessly have enabled it to survive and flourish for more than 500 million years. He also describes how we have come to understand many of the nautilus's mysteries—its buoyancy mechanism, its nightly migrations, its reproductive system—and in so doing offers and illuminating glimpse of scientists practicing science.
Peter Ward has given us one of those rare works that blend science and reportage to both entertain and inform. In Search of Nautilus, published in cooperation with The New York Academy of Sciences, is an important report from the forefront of scientific exploration and a stunning example of science as a detective story.
Ward recounts his own exciting and dangerous voyages to the South Pacific and those of his predecessors, many of whom risked their very lives to continue their investigations. He examines the enormous evolutionary significance of the nautilus, whose powerful jaws and ability to hover weightlessly have enabled it to survive and flourish for more than 500 million years. He also describes how we have come to understand many of the nautilus's mysteries—its buoyancy mechanism, its nightly migrations, its reproductive system—and in so doing offers and illuminating glimpse of scientists practicing science.
Peter Ward has given us one of those rare works that blend science and reportage to both entertain and inform. In Search of Nautilus, published in cooperation with The New York Academy of Sciences, is an important report from the forefront of scientific exploration and a stunning example of science as a detective story.
238 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1988
41 people want to read
About the author
Peter D. Ward
29 books104 followersPeter Douglas Ward is an American paleontologist and professor of Biology and of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington, Seattle. He has written popular numerous science works for a general audience and is also an adviser to the Microbes Mind Forum.
His parents, Joseph and Ruth Ward, moved to Seattle following World War II. Ward grew up in the Seward Park neighborhood of Seattle, attending Franklin High School, and he spent time during summers at a family summer cabin on Orcas Island.
Ward's academic career has included teaching posts and professional connections with Ohio State University, the NASA Astrobiology Institute, the University of California, McMaster University (where he received his PhD in 1976), and the California Institute of Technology. He was elected as a Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences in 1984.
Ward specializes in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, the Permian–Triassic extinction event, and mass extinctions generally. He has published books on biodiversity and the fossil record. His 1992 book On Methuselah's Trail received a Golden Trilobite Award from the Paleontological Society as the best popular science book of the year. Ward also serves as an adjunct professor of zoology and astronomy.
His book The End of Evolution was published in 1994. In it, he discussed in three parts, each about an extinction event on earth.
Ward is co-author, along with astronomer Donald Brownlee, of the best-selling Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe, published in 2000. In that work, the authors suggest that the universe is fundamentally hostile to advanced life, and that, while simple life might be abundant, the likelihood of widespread lifeforms as advanced as those on Earth is marginal. In 2001, his book Future Evolution was published, featuring illustrations by artist Alexis Rockman.
Ward and Brownlee are also co-authors of the book The Life and Death of Planet Earth: How the New Science of Astrobiology Charts the Ultimate Fate of the World, which discusses the Earth's future and eventual demise as it is ultimately destroyed by a warming and expanding Sun.
According to Ward's 2007 book, Under a Green Sky, all but one of the major mass extinction events in history have been brought on by climate change—the same global warming that occurs today. The author argues that events in the past can give valuable information about the future of our planet. Reviewer Doug Brown goes further, stating "this is how the world ends." Scientists at the Universities of York and Leeds also warn that the fossil record supports evidence of impending mass extinction.
His parents, Joseph and Ruth Ward, moved to Seattle following World War II. Ward grew up in the Seward Park neighborhood of Seattle, attending Franklin High School, and he spent time during summers at a family summer cabin on Orcas Island.
Ward's academic career has included teaching posts and professional connections with Ohio State University, the NASA Astrobiology Institute, the University of California, McMaster University (where he received his PhD in 1976), and the California Institute of Technology. He was elected as a Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences in 1984.
Ward specializes in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, the Permian–Triassic extinction event, and mass extinctions generally. He has published books on biodiversity and the fossil record. His 1992 book On Methuselah's Trail received a Golden Trilobite Award from the Paleontological Society as the best popular science book of the year. Ward also serves as an adjunct professor of zoology and astronomy.
His book The End of Evolution was published in 1994. In it, he discussed in three parts, each about an extinction event on earth.
Ward is co-author, along with astronomer Donald Brownlee, of the best-selling Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe, published in 2000. In that work, the authors suggest that the universe is fundamentally hostile to advanced life, and that, while simple life might be abundant, the likelihood of widespread lifeforms as advanced as those on Earth is marginal. In 2001, his book Future Evolution was published, featuring illustrations by artist Alexis Rockman.
Ward and Brownlee are also co-authors of the book The Life and Death of Planet Earth: How the New Science of Astrobiology Charts the Ultimate Fate of the World, which discusses the Earth's future and eventual demise as it is ultimately destroyed by a warming and expanding Sun.
According to Ward's 2007 book, Under a Green Sky, all but one of the major mass extinction events in history have been brought on by climate change—the same global warming that occurs today. The author argues that events in the past can give valuable information about the future of our planet. Reviewer Doug Brown goes further, stating "this is how the world ends." Scientists at the Universities of York and Leeds also warn that the fossil record supports evidence of impending mass extinction.
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March 28, 2012
This was a good book on the chambered nautilus, and I learned a lot from it. The author describes the history of the attempts to investigate and find a nautilus. The most interesting part of the book described how the nautilus controls it's buoyancy, it's migratory habits, reproductive system, and the creation of new chambers. A truly fascinating book on an obscure animal, it was a relatively easy read and held my interest throughout.
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