Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters | 
| Author: Donald R. Prothero
Creator: Carl Buell
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $29.50
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Avg. Customer Rating:  31 reviews
Sales Rank: 10123
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 408
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.1
Dimensions (in): 9.9 x 7.2 x 1
ISBN: 0231139624
Dewey Decimal Number: 576.8
EAN: 9780231139625
ASIN: 0231139624
Publication Date: October 11, 2007
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Product Description
Over the past twenty years, paleontologists have made tremendous fossil discoveries, including fossils that mark the growth of whales, manatees, and seals from land mammals and the origins of elephants, horses, and rhinos. Today there exists an amazing diversity of fossil humans, suggesting we walked upright long before we acquired large brains, and new evidence from molecules that enable scientists to decipher the tree of life as never before. The fossil record is now one of the strongest lines of evidence for evolution. In this engaging and richly illustrated book, Donald R. Prothero weaves an entertaining though intellectually rigorous history out of the transitional forms and series that dot the fossil record. Beginning with a brief discussion of the nature of science and the "monkey business of creationism," Prothero tackles subjects ranging from flood geology and rock dating to neo-Darwinism and macroevolution. He covers the ingredients of the primordial soup, the effects of communal living, invertebrate transitions, the development of the backbone, the reign of the dinosaurs, the mammalian explosion, and the leap from chimpanzee to human. Prothero pays particular attention to the recent discovery of "missing links" that complete the fossil timeline and details the debate between biologists over the mechanisms driving the evolutionary process. Evolution is an absorbing combination of firsthand observation, scientific discovery, and trenchant analysis. With the teaching of evolution still an issue, there couldn't be a better moment for a book clarifying the nature and value of fossil evidence. Widely recognized as a leading expert in his field, Prothero demonstrates that the transformation of life on this planet is far more awe inspiring than the narrow view of extremists.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 26 more reviews...
An Excellent Book for learning about Fossils and how they evolved July 25, 2008
This is an excellent book, with very good illustrations, that is an excellent introduction to paleontology for any age. The information is up to date, and the author makes a case that we should not abandon reason and evidence to hang on to select sentences in the Bible as being literally true.
To me there is no problem with the belief that there is a God as well as the belief in Evolution, as seen from the fossil record. Who is to say that evolution was not the way creation was started, while the story was simplified in the Bible?
I especially enjoyed the section on the evolution of dinosaurs. My only quibble is that the print was a bit small, as most technical books are.
Will this book prove effective? July 24, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A society driving an eminent scientist to produce a book such as this is in need of some serious reflective thinking. Prothero's account is not the first such investigation of the clash of science and superstition, but it ranks as one of the most thorough and revealing. Although this is a work of science, it is also a campaign manifesto. The author is eager to expose the fallacies of "Christian" creationism and the duplicitous methods used to foster it. The account may appear strident in some places, but it's too well researched - at many levels - and too well written to dismiss it as purely polemical. Above all, it's a needed work, deserving serious attention.
Evolution, he declares forthrightly, is real. The fossils support it in too many ways to be subjected to doubt. Those who try to erode the idea or dismiss the evidence are mistaken, misdirected and often malicious in their methods. Let there be no uncertainty, the panorama of life is there to see. There are many ways of confirming how animal life has varied over time and Prothero takes us through the analysis tools used to assess the evidence. Radiometric dating should be well understood by now, but creationists still find ways to attempt to challenge it. We learn about taxonomy and cladistics, one of the more arcane aspects of fossil analysis. Molecular analysis, what DNA can tell us about the past is, of course, the fastest growing field in palaeontology.
These tools, applied to the fossils and the environment they were found in, establish the relationships demonstrating that challenging evolution is a meaningless enterprise. Still, the challengers continue to emerge. Prothero's prime target in his account is Duane Gish. The Institute for Creation Research. Gish, who seems to have been around at least since the Noachean Flood, still plods the lecture circuit, where Prothero demolished his presentation at least once. Prothero notes that ICR publications, and Gish's lecture presentations are, at best two decades behind what real research has revealed. Prothero is scathing about those who can write of palaeontology without even gotten their hands dirty doing field work. Even creationism's illegitimate offspring, "Intelligent Design", fares no better in the author's hands. If a "designer" was involved in prompting evolution, It botched the job. Why so many forms of wings, for example, when one or two would suffice? Wings and hands are physically related through what palaeontologists call "homology". As Prothero ably demonstrates, adaptations of similar bone arrangements through time produced wings and hands in various animals. Creationists, who continue to call for "missing links" want the entire process lined out in exquisite detail. That's not likely in the world in which fossils form.
Prothero then describes the emergence of early life. His discussion of the Cambrian Period - once referred to as the "Cambrian Explosion" - and its precursor "The Garden of Ediacara" makes an excellent read. He goes on to the value of invertebrate fossils, most notably the formenifera, in showing the slow, but discernable progress of life over time. Vertebrates, who form the beginnings of our own body plan with a backbone, brain and vision systems, are well depicted. In "The Great Leap Upward", he explains how some of those vertebrates learned to live on land. The lobe-finned fishes led the way, and the recent find of Tiktaalik in Canada, gives much information on how they did it. More significant is the revelation of what body plan changes could lead to dinosaurs, primates, and us.
In his conclusion, "Why Does It Matter?", the author answers the question in two ways. First, he castigates his fellow "Christians" for using deceit and deception in thinking they are reinforcing their faith by deluding others about the validity of evolution. The story of the roots of who we are is too important to dismiss or take lightly. Such tactics must be kept out of classrooms - particularly in the US where Constitutional strictures apply [lucky US!]. Most important of all, he urges, the movement is creating a scientifically illiterate population. In a highly competitive technological world, such a condition bodes ill. Denial of evolution, he notes, reaches into domestic realms such as health care and agriculture. Allowing ideologues influence into the political realm is liable to result bad decisions with long-term effects. How to avoid such ill-considered eventualities? The place to start is here, by reading this book carefully, shedding as much as possible preconceived notions about life and how it works. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
One of the best! June 25, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
There are a few recent books on religion, science, skepticism, and evolution that will probably go down in history as the "great ones". In that mix I include Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World and Sam Harris's The End of Faith. Donald Prothero's book should certainly be included among such prestigious company!
 Pretty good, but too much venom June 24, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
Dr. Donald Prothero is clearly a leading paleontologist and highly qualified to write a book about the fossil evidence's support of neo-Darwinian theory. His research and field experience place him at the top of the list of experts in this arena. He has, so it seems, fallen prey to the angry war raging between evolutionists and creationists. By this I mean that he has allowed his frustration with the bad pseudo-science of young earth creationists burst forth in such a rage in this book that it takes away from the true meat of what it could have been. Evan after saying that, I want to make it clear that I am not one of the radical young earth creationists who Prothero attacks in this book.
Dr. Prothero's venomous anger at creationism, particularly the young earth group, rings clear and loud. The book is entitled Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters, not Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why I Hate Creationists with Every Fiber of My Being, though the latter would be a much more descriptive title. He spends quite a large part of his monograph discrediting the creationists and deservedly so, especially when considering their scientific dishonesty (i.e., ICR's recent 2 volume "report" on radiometric dating and the age of the earth, quite expensive, lengthy, and full of unscientific speculation that should discredit them, but probably won't because of the general scientific illiteracy in this country). Even though the creation "scientists" deserve discrediting, the venomous name-calling in Dr. Prothero's book demonstrates his unwillingness to show a higher integrity level than they. He even resorts to comparing them with holocaust deniers!
I am not a trained paleontologist, so I cannot speak to the accuracy of the fossil evidence that he present in the book. Prothero's book is quite informative and much of it was quite demonstrative of evolution, certainly taking its place as a part of the significant amount of evidence. There are, however, a few areas that need addressing.
First, Dr. Prothero claims to have a rather extensive knowledge of biblical scholarship and presents a brief outline of the Wellhausen source hypothesis (a.k.a., JEPD). Contrary to his presentation, this hypothesis is anything but controversial. After discussing Prothero's discussion and references with a "real" Hebrew scholar (a member of the Old Testament translation team for both the NIV and NLT), I can confidently say that Prothero is presenting as mainstream an outdated hypothesis that, particularly since Cyrus Gordon's work, is now supported by an every shrinking percentage of Old Testament scholars. Prothero goes even further in his misrepresentation here by repeatedly saying that this hypothesis applies to the whole Old Testament. This is clearly an error that is difficult to explain. Even the most hardlined advocates of JEPD are clear that it only applies to the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible). This is very much like the methodology of the creationists that Dr. Prothero so aggressively lambastes.
The second area that drew a red flag for me was his confident presentation of the old primordial soup hypothesis for the origin of life. He presents the 50 year old experiment creating amino acids in the lab and a handful more experiments that have created some more amino acids as immensely successful. It was in its time but the lack of significant further developments has been significantly disappointing. He continues with a couple of highly speculative hypotheses regarding catalysis and common clay as replication templates, later to be succeeded by nucleic acid. I was quite surprised by his confident presentation in a field which I thought was so highly speculative as be nearly as unknown as the first few microseconds after the Big Bang. To verify my concern I checked with an acquaintance of mine who is a professor of chemistry in Texas (at a research university, not just a teaching one - another criticism Dr. Prothero makes). He informed me that my concerns were right on, saying, "Yes, the old simple soup picture is passe in chemistry, if not biology texts. ... [T]he guesses about clays seem to be more fashionable now. Frankly, we dunno and it's only good science to admit it."
The third problematic area of intellectual integrity came in his chapter on human evolution. He does a fine job of presenting the rather speculative field of human descent. I'm quite fond of his discussion on our genomic similarity to chimpanzees. I found it particularly interesting that we seem to be closer cousins with the chimps than any other pair of closely related animals are to each other - quite impressive data that I've also seen verified elsewhere.
His presentation of humans and Neanderthals being distinct species is not uncommon, but his insistence (aggressively so) on it is a bit overdone. Of my three areas of concern, this is the one where I am personally the weakest to address. I did remember a biological anthropologist friend of mine who mentioned to me once that the jury was still out in this area. I presented Prothero's arguments and figures to him for comment. (Before I present his response, I should point out that this anthropologist friend specializes in human bones and has even helped the FBI's forensics team when they were unable to make any progress in identifying the skeleton of a murder victim. In addition to the usual age, gender, and size of the victim, this man was able to determine the exact type of knife used as the murder weapon (a rather obscure one used in packing plants), that the man was ambidextrous, and that he was Guatemalan - all from the skeleton only. His ability to determine the race is particularly relevant here.) He pointed out to me that Dr. Prothero used two of the most different skulls available to compare modern humans with Neanderthals, pointing out that Neanderthal and Australian Aboriginal skulls are actually quite similar, enough at least to convince this gentleman as well as his graduate adviser (the renown C. Loring Brace of the Univ. of Mich.) of the possibility that Neanderthals are actually a human subspecies. This is not to say that they believe this to be true. It's just a possibility - one that Prothero clearly dismisses. (The anthropologist friend of mine was clear to tell me that he is not up to date with the latest genomic comparison that Prothero refers to.)
Having said all this, I feel I need to add that, when discussing fossils and their relation to evolution, as well as the importance of improving scientific education in this country, Prothero is excellent. Unfortunately, his anger with creationists and the above mentioned issues tend to discredit his objectivity. It left me questioning whether his otherwise quite well done presentation of what the title indicates the book is about is as objective as it needs to be. I was trying to decide between 2 stars and 3 - I chose 3 because of the good points in the book.
Creationists beware. June 11, 2008
1 out of 5 found this review helpful
Prothero's book is simply stellar. An outstanding overview of the fossil record of evolution. As beautifully written as it is well referenced. A devastating corrective to creationist nonsense.
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