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:  29 reviews
Sales Rank: 4282
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 24 more reviews...
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
3 out of 4 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 3 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.
Completely recommended! June 10, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
What a fantastic book....and yet, extremely sad and worrying. The author explains with extreme clarity the scientific method, evolution, transitional fossils, etc. It's lovely reading, I only wish I had such a concise, concentrated series of effective chapters when I was an undergraduate student! What's the sad part? Despite the overwhelming evidence...well, there are a lot of people out there who would wish us to stay in the Dark Ages. I had no idea (as a British citizen) how well organised, funded and determined these Creationists types are. It's very worrying indeed. This book acts as a perfect example to what is required - an affordable book with explanatory laymen's terms - to all scientists out there, never mind the next paper - get writing like Prothero, a scientific literate society NEEDS YOU, urgently. Well done, an excellent book!
Here we go again June 7, 2008
I have little to add to all of the other excellent 5-star reviews. Although I was trained in biochemistry, I have never taken a formal course in either paleontology or evolution, so the survey of the fossil evidence for evolution was very enlightening for me. This is a gorgeous book, too, glossy paper with many illustrations, including twelve color plates, making it quite a hefty little tome at fewer than 400 pages. It is extremely well written and readable, considering the density of information, although a little strident at times when refuting creationism. Of course, it is easy to understand Prothero's frustration with the need to keep on refuting it. Prothero would do well to avoid ad hominem arguments, though. For example, he considers creationists like Duane Gish and Henry Morris unqualified to comment on evolution because their PhDs are in biochemistry and engineering. The same logic could be used against Prothero when he discusses abiogenesis or molecular biology, to say nothing of biblical criticism! His comments in those areas are excellent--it would be a shame to disregard them because he is a geologist!
Chapter 16 is a very compelling description of why it matters. It begins with a cartoon mocking "teaching both theories," with examples like physics and magic as alternative theories. Biology has taken the brunt of the creationist onslaught, but biblical literalism is inconsistent with virtually all of modern science. Our Milky Way Galaxy, for example, is thought to be about 100,000 light years in diameter. If the universe is less than 10,000 years old (and, by the way, God created the earth before he created the sun and the stars), how does that light reach us? Maybe we don't know the speed of light after all. Einstein must have been wrong. And an atheist to boot.
As I was sitting down to write this review, I was trying to think of where the creationists will attack next. Surely, I thought, not the schools or the courts, where they have been thoroughly thrashed, even in the insidious guise of "Intelligent Design." Glancing at today's New York Times, I see they are at it again in Texas, where the State Board of Education is considering a science curriculum that teaches the "strengths and weaknesses" of evolution. Here we go again!
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