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On Methuselah's Trail: Living Fossils and the Great Extinctions
Presents examples of animals, such as the horseshoe crab, which have existed through ice ages, changes in ocean levels, and more, while other species have died out
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First published January 1, 1991
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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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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 13, 2022
So with regard to Peter D. Ward's 1993 On Methuselah's Trail: Living Fossils and the Great Extinctions I am going to post my review as I complete my perusal and primarily so because there is both a lot of presented text in On Methuselah's Trail: Living Fossils and the Great Extinctions for me to absorb, for me to think about and also that since I am NOT a biologist and have in fact not had any biology taught to me since about grade eleven (since 1983), I do feel the need to proceed very slowly and to also point out that much of what I am penning in my review is very likely going to be rather speculative at best on my part and is also simply going to be showing how I personally am textually reacting to Peter D. Ward's thematics and featured contents (and to equally point out that I definitely have found Steven M. Stanley's Foreword for On Methuselah's Trail: Living Fossils and the Great Extinctions rather annoying and presumptive, as no, Mr. Stanley, although I might not have university degrees in biology etc., I also do NOT AT ALL assume or believe that living fossils will mean or should mean discovering surviving dinosaurs or that the Yeti exists, I do well know that the Loch Ness Monster you have mentioned in fact cannot be a relict plesiosaur since there would have been no way for an air breathing plesiosaur fish reptile to have survived the ice ages with its watery habitat being totally frozen solid from top to bottom).
And yes, the first part of my review for On Methuselah's Trail: Living Fossils and the Great Extinctions is therefore going to focus on Peter D. Ward's introduction, which I have both appreciated (in so far that I now know why in the text proper of On Methuselah's Trail: Living Fossils and the Great Extinctions Ward will not be covering either New Zealand's Tuatara and the limpet like Neopilina) and have also (and much more importantly and frustratingly) found rather confusing and question begging. For while I have indeed enjoyed being given a basic textual presentation of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, personally, I do certainly wonder why Charles Darwin would consider evolution as not having (even naturally occurring) causes, since for me, natural selection would mean that a given random mutation providing a genetical boost should of course be seen as something that is causal, that engenders some very specific changes (and in particular since in the introduction to On Methuselah's Trail: Living Fossils and the Great Extinctions, Peter D. Ward in my opinion definitely shows that both he and also Charles Darwin claim that mass extinction events have direct reasons for occurring, so why then causes for extinctions but none for evolution, as I do seem to see both as kind of being similar in many ways).
And well, after having now perused the main textual body of On Methuselah's Trail: Living Fossils and the Great Extinctions (this being chapters two to eight), I have unfortunately mostly been pretty well disappointed (and that I was certainly expecting much more and much better, since albeit the Introduction to On Methuselah's Trail: Living Fossils and the Great Extinctions has definitely left me with far more questions than answers, it certainly also has the promise of a decent and interesting reading experience, but which has not really materialised for me). Because Peter D. Ward obviously does NOT in On Methuselah's Trail: Living Fossils and the Great Extinctions really consider living fossils to be long-term successful species or classes of animals or plants but basically either undeservedly fortunate or inhabiting an environment so unsuitable that only the living fossil species could thrive there, so that the oldest living fossils, so that the stromatolites only still exist because according to Peter D. Ward their current habitats are only suitable for stromatolites and that animals like nautilusses, horseshoe crabs and the coelacanth have simply lucked out so to speak. As yes, it sure is more than a bit problematic and suspicious for me and in my opinion, that basically ALL truly to be seen as universally and globally successful living fossils have been totally ignored in On Methuselah's Trail: Living Fossils and the Great Extinctions, for the author, for Peter D. Ward features no sharks, no cockroaches, no dragonflies, no crocodilians and no turtles and tortoises, not to mention that the absence of a bibliography is also hugely annoying (since for me, just having footnotes kind of makes On Methuselah's Trail: Living Fossils and the Great Extinctions rather research and thus also user unfriendly).
And yes, the first part of my review for On Methuselah's Trail: Living Fossils and the Great Extinctions is therefore going to focus on Peter D. Ward's introduction, which I have both appreciated (in so far that I now know why in the text proper of On Methuselah's Trail: Living Fossils and the Great Extinctions Ward will not be covering either New Zealand's Tuatara and the limpet like Neopilina) and have also (and much more importantly and frustratingly) found rather confusing and question begging. For while I have indeed enjoyed being given a basic textual presentation of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, personally, I do certainly wonder why Charles Darwin would consider evolution as not having (even naturally occurring) causes, since for me, natural selection would mean that a given random mutation providing a genetical boost should of course be seen as something that is causal, that engenders some very specific changes (and in particular since in the introduction to On Methuselah's Trail: Living Fossils and the Great Extinctions, Peter D. Ward in my opinion definitely shows that both he and also Charles Darwin claim that mass extinction events have direct reasons for occurring, so why then causes for extinctions but none for evolution, as I do seem to see both as kind of being similar in many ways).
And well, after having now perused the main textual body of On Methuselah's Trail: Living Fossils and the Great Extinctions (this being chapters two to eight), I have unfortunately mostly been pretty well disappointed (and that I was certainly expecting much more and much better, since albeit the Introduction to On Methuselah's Trail: Living Fossils and the Great Extinctions has definitely left me with far more questions than answers, it certainly also has the promise of a decent and interesting reading experience, but which has not really materialised for me). Because Peter D. Ward obviously does NOT in On Methuselah's Trail: Living Fossils and the Great Extinctions really consider living fossils to be long-term successful species or classes of animals or plants but basically either undeservedly fortunate or inhabiting an environment so unsuitable that only the living fossil species could thrive there, so that the oldest living fossils, so that the stromatolites only still exist because according to Peter D. Ward their current habitats are only suitable for stromatolites and that animals like nautilusses, horseshoe crabs and the coelacanth have simply lucked out so to speak. As yes, it sure is more than a bit problematic and suspicious for me and in my opinion, that basically ALL truly to be seen as universally and globally successful living fossils have been totally ignored in On Methuselah's Trail: Living Fossils and the Great Extinctions, for the author, for Peter D. Ward features no sharks, no cockroaches, no dragonflies, no crocodilians and no turtles and tortoises, not to mention that the absence of a bibliography is also hugely annoying (since for me, just having footnotes kind of makes On Methuselah's Trail: Living Fossils and the Great Extinctions rather research and thus also user unfriendly).
October 4, 2016
Some random notes:
Brachiopods are millions of years older than clams, and taste awful.
Flat clams evolved before shell-breaking predators appeared.
Robert Hooke was interested in ammonite fossils.
Ammonites died out with the dinosaurs, but nautiloids survived (probably due to their reproductive strategy).
Some horseshoe crab ancestors may have been land animals.
Plants began living on land 400 million years ago. The earliest seed-bearing plants were gymnosperms, including conifers and gingko trees. Flowering plants (angiosperms) only appeared about 100 million years ago. Magnolias were among the first angiosperms.
Coelocanths are big, smelly, ornery fish.
Brachiopods are millions of years older than clams, and taste awful.
Flat clams evolved before shell-breaking predators appeared.
Robert Hooke was interested in ammonite fossils.
Ammonites died out with the dinosaurs, but nautiloids survived (probably due to their reproductive strategy).
Some horseshoe crab ancestors may have been land animals.
Plants began living on land 400 million years ago. The earliest seed-bearing plants were gymnosperms, including conifers and gingko trees. Flowering plants (angiosperms) only appeared about 100 million years ago. Magnolias were among the first angiosperms.
Coelocanths are big, smelly, ornery fish.
August 27, 2020
Peter Ward describes some of the creatures living today, that have survived the various extinction events in our history. A great read. Peter Ward describes his few chosen "living fossils" with sympathy and obvious admiration.
May 13, 2009
Methulselah becomes a metaphor for living fossils in Peter Ward's eloquent book On Methuselah's Trail: Living Fossils and the Great Extinctions . The presence of peculiar forms like, the horseshoe crab, the nautilus, echinoids, and assorted other animals and plants puzzled Darwin. How, he asked, could these species have survived millions of years with little change while most other species evolved, sometimes slowly, sometimes rapidly, often becoming extinct? He resolved the question to his satisfaction by arguing that some species did not experience any predatory pressure or competition, nor did their environment change so drastically as to compel metamorphosis or extinction: i.e., they were well adapted to their particular environment and had generalized enough not to have to change.
Ward's specialty is the nautilus, and his book is most fascinating when he is discussing the differences between the ammonites (a species similar to the nautilus, but which specialized in response to environmental and predatory changes and which, despite flourishing during several epochs, became extinct. Ward takes us on location to various parts of the world in search of fossil evidence. His enthusiasm and fascination for pieces of rock is almost enough to cause you to resign from your job and switch to geology as a new career.
"Paleontologists live like that in some sense; their physical lives run along in simple, linear track of time, but their minds move back and forth through the ages, jumping onto the tracks where time moves at a more complicated pace. Perhaps we are searching for the lessons of our own survival, chasing clues by studying the lives of the Methuselahs."
Ward's specialty is the nautilus, and his book is most fascinating when he is discussing the differences between the ammonites (a species similar to the nautilus, but which specialized in response to environmental and predatory changes and which, despite flourishing during several epochs, became extinct. Ward takes us on location to various parts of the world in search of fossil evidence. His enthusiasm and fascination for pieces of rock is almost enough to cause you to resign from your job and switch to geology as a new career.
"Paleontologists live like that in some sense; their physical lives run along in simple, linear track of time, but their minds move back and forth through the ages, jumping onto the tracks where time moves at a more complicated pace. Perhaps we are searching for the lessons of our own survival, chasing clues by studying the lives of the Methuselahs."
October 27, 2012
Fascinating good read. Peter Ward is one of my favorite authors. He weaves the past, present and future into a web that makes me feel a part of the large plannetary life. I love his stories of fossil gathering and his descriptions of the lives of these extinct creatures. He doesn't mince words when it comes to our present day extinctions, global warming, and the future we are heading into.
In this book we travel with Peter to locate those few creatures that has slipped by inevitable extinction, not changing for hundreds of millions of years. A wonder tale unfolds of deep sea life and the people who study evolution.
In this book we travel with Peter to locate those few creatures that has slipped by inevitable extinction, not changing for hundreds of millions of years. A wonder tale unfolds of deep sea life and the people who study evolution.
May 31, 2008
This book is wonderful in the it describes the advent of many different life forms, from Brachiopods to land plants to horseshoe crabs. It also goes on in great detail about species and body plans that have stood the test of time and give us glimpses into the distant past.
April 4, 2011
This was a tough read for me, but very worthwhile.
October 19, 2011
This is a very good palentology book. It tells a story with the science overview of the early fossil record. It is a fun read.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews