Cambrian Ocean World: Ancient Sea Life of North America

by John Foster

This volume, aimed at the general reader, presents life and times of the amazing animals that inhabited Earth more than 500 million years ago. The Cambrian Period was a critical time in Earth's history. During this immense span of time nearly every modern group of animals appeared. Although life had been around for more than 2 million millennia, Cambrian rocks preserve the record of the first appearance of complex animals with eyes, protective skeletons, antennae, and complex ecologies. Grazing, predation, and multi-tiered ecosystems with animals living in, on, or above the sea floor became common. The cascade of interaction led to an ever-increasing diversification of animal body types. By the end of the period, the ancestors of sponges, corals, jellyfish, worms, mollusks, brachiopods, arthropods, echinoderms, and vertebrates were all in place. The evidence of this Cambrian "explosion" is preserved in rocks all over the world, including North America, where the seemingly strange animals of the period are preserved in exquisite detail in deposits such as the Burgess Shale in British Columbia. Cambrian Ocean World tells the story of what is, for us, the most important period in our planet's long history.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Palaeontology, Natural History, Biology, History, Animals

416 pages, Hardcover

Published June 6, 2014

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

John Russell Foster is an American paleontologist. He earned his Ph. D. from the University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado in 1998.
He was Curator of Paleontology at the Museums of Western Colorado from 2001 to 2014. Since 2014 he has been the Director of the Museum of Moab.
He is adjunct faculty of geology at Colorado Mesa University, Grand Junction, Colorado.
(Source: en.wikipedia.org)

Reviews

[Pam Hurd · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is so much information that it is like sipping from a fire hydrant. I learned so much yet was able to retain a fairly small fraction of what was presented. And I am not even talking about the often long lists of scientific names. This could be a textbook that would take at least two semesters to cover. It is not hard to understand but rather there is just that so much presented. I listened and read (immersive reading). The narrator did a wonderful job.

[Michaela Paule · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an incredible book. Great information, well written AND fun to read!!!

[Laura Koerber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything you ever wanted to know about trilobites.

I got this book because I wanted some escapist reading and lo and behold the Cambrian was the era of the Garden of Evil and original sin: the first appearance of creatures that preyed on each other. Prior life forms got by on various chemical processes that didn't involve terminating another life form. But darned if those creatures didn't evolve into something that had to eat somebody else and it's been down hill ever since.

Seriously, this is an interesting book though there is A LOT of geology in it and yes trilobites. A LOT about trilobites. The author livens the text up with vivid descriptions of his geological investigation such as his climb down into the Grand Canyon and he occasionally makes jokes. But there is an awful lot of geology and trilobites and I have to admit I skipped pages.

[Nisha Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting subject matter, dense delivery

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.

[Volodymyr Holovatyi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not easy to read, especially as a first book of the year. Many times was quite challenging, geological part especially. On the other hand it was really interesting to find out more about Cambrian explosion, life forms and many other things... More or less trilobites are well known but have never heard about anomalocaris before - terror of the Cambrian as they call it.

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent…amazing. And so well written!

[Codrin]

This volume, aimed at the general reader, presents life and times of the amazing animals that inhabited Earth more than 500 million years ago. The Cambrian Period was a critical time in Earth’s history. During this immense span of time nearly every modern group of animals appeared. Although life had been around for more than 2 million millennia, Cambrian rocks preserve the record of the first appearance of complex animals with eyes, protective skeletons, antennae, and complex ecologies. Grazing, predation, and multi-tiered ecosystems with animals living in, on, or above the sea floor became common. The cascade of interaction led to an ever-increasing diversification of animal body types. By the end of the period, the ancestors of sponges, corals, jellyfish, worms, mollusks, brachiopods, arthropods, echinoderms, and vertebrates were all in place. The evidence of this Cambrian "explosion" is preserved in rocks all over the world, including North America, where the seemingly strange animals of the period are preserved in exquisite detail in deposits such as the Burgess Shale in British Columbia. Cambrian Ocean World tells the story of what is, for us, the most important period in our planet’s long history.

**

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although billed as written for the general reader this does stray into text book territory being rather dry at times. It does however go into more depth than most books aimed at the layman and would be a great starting point for readers looking to deepen their knowledge of the fascinating ancient world of the Cambrian.