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, Geology

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]

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]

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

[Laura Koerber]

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]

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]

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.

[Toby]

This book is special to me.

On an objective level:
This book is an excellent guide to the Cambrian period, and how rapid changes in life occurred to result in the diversity we see today. Foster equips the reader with the relevant knowledge they need before taking them on a tour through the Cambrian epoch by epoch. What makes the difference between this book and others is Foster's clear illustration of the geology surrounding the specimens he talks about, using diagrams of formations and rock types to elucidate the concepts discussed.

Cambrian Ocean World is aimed at a reader with a more advanced understanding than books like The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, as is reflected by it's more in-depth exploration of the relevant time period, and I would Recommend it to readers who already have a basic understanding of the Cambrian (although that is a very wholehearted and strong recommendation to that demographic).

On a more subjective and personal level:
It was recommended to me by someone on Reddit, as I was asking which books to start with to learn more about Palaeontology, so that I could decide whether I wanted to study it formally. I picked it up second hand for about £45 overall, as I had to get it imported from the states. I was worried that it would be a lot of money for one book, and I may not even enjoy reading it and Palaeontology as a whole.

I started very slowly, the first couple of chapters are background on the geologic history of the Cambrian and how a section can tell you about the history of the space it formed, and a formation the history of whole areas. I was very much overwhelmed, and re-read passages multiple times in order to digest and comprehend them. It took me about 3 months to reach the halfway point in the text. I put it aside and picked up a text book instead.

Over the next 9 months I improved my basic understanding of Palaeontology and read multiple other books, aimed at a more general audience. I picked it up again this month, and finished the remaining text in a week. This book represents to me the advancement in my understanding and my renewed commitment to study.

I am starting my Palaeontology Undergrad Degree in September!

[J]

This book claims to be for general readers. It absolutely is not. It is also not interesting, which is almost impressive since the topic (the Cambrian explosion) is difficult to make uninteresting, but this book succeeded at that. If you like reading lists and lists and lists of scientific names, this book has lots. If you want to read an author painting a vivid picture about one of the most interesting time periods in all of deep time, look elsewhere.

For a book titled "Cambrian Ocean World," a huge amount of it is not about the Cambrian at all. The author also takes concepts that are easily understandable and explains them in significantly slower and more confusing ways than literaly any other geologist or palaeontologist I've ever read. This book is awful. I cannot understand how it has over 4 stars on Goodreads.

[artemis]

this sounds probably insane but i would honestly give this 3.9. its not quite a four star only due to the fact i wasn't a big fan of how in depth it went into the places they find a lot of their fossils. if you dont know about the grand canyon, oh boy you will learn Everything about the grand canyon by the end of this book. incredibly informative and explains terminology used right in the moment, as well as using a glossary as well. hallucigenia you are such a freak and i think thats cool

[Kathleen]

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]

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.