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The Great Fossil Enigma

The Search for the Conodont Animal

By: Simon J. Knell

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Hardcover | 1 November 2012

At a Glance

Hardcover
440 Pages

Grade
17+

Dimensions(cm)
23.5 x 16.2 x 3.0

Hardcover

$80.62

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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. Knell takes the reader on a journey through 150 years of scientific thinking, imagining, and arguing. Slowly the animal begins to reveal traces of itself: its lifestyle, its remarkable evolution, its witnessing of great catastrophes, its movements over the surface of the planet, and finally its anatomy. Today the conodont animal remains perhaps the most disputed creature in the zoological world.

About the Author

Simon J. Knell, Professor of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester, is renowned for his innovative studies of fossils as scientific and cultural objects. Previously a popular geology columnist for Geology Today, Knell has published The Making of the Geological Society of London; The Culture of English Geology, 1815-1851; and The Age of the Earth: From 4004 BC to 2002 AD.

Industry Reviews

"Simon J. Knell takes the reader on a journey through 150 years of scientific thinking, imagining, and arguing. Slowly the animal begins to reveal traces of itself: its lifestyle, its remarkable evolution, its witnessing of great catastrophes, its movements over the surface of the planet, and finally its anatomy. Today the conodont animal remains perhaps the most disputed creature in the zoological world." Ian Paulsen, Grrlscientist hosted by the Guardian, November 4th 2012 "Excellent and refreshing... Will be the seminal source [on] the interpretation of conodonts and the origin of vertebrates... Among the plethora of history of science books, and especially histories of... palaeontology and the earth sciences, nothing comes close." Michael J. Benton, University of Bristol "Quite a remarkable and well-executed story... It should be of great interest not only to conodontologists but to palaeontologists in general as well as to everyone interested in the history of science. I cannot think of any other comparable work dealing so thoroughly with the exploration history of a widespread and important fossil group." Stig M. Bergstrom, Ohio State University "[A]n in-depth analysis of the complex culture of the scientists who drew different conclusions regarding the likely type of animals that produced these teeth. ... Readers will learn how scientists develop ideas and interact with colleagues, and how animosities and cooperative relationships develop and change. ... Recommended."--Choice

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