Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History

342 Pages·1990·13.89 MB·English

by  Stephen Jay Gould

BY STEPHEN JAY GOULD IN
NORTON PAPERBACK
EVER SINCE DARWIN
Reflections in Natural Hislory
THE PANDA'S THUMB
More Reflections in Natural History
THE MISMEASURE OF MAN
HEN'S TEETH AND HORSE'S TOES
Furlher ReflectUms in Natural Hislory
THE FLAMINGO'S SMILE
Reflections in Natural History
AN URCHIN IN THE STORM
Essays about Books and Ideas
ILLUMINATIONS
A Besliary (with R. W. Purcell)
WONDERFUL LIFE
The Burgess Shale and lhe Nature of Hislory
BULLY FOR BRONTOSAURUS
Reflections in Natural Hislory
FINDERS, KEEPERS
Treasures and Oddities of Natural Hislory
Collectors from Peter the Great to Louis Agassiz
(with R. W. Purcell)
Wonderful Life
w .
W .
NORTON & COMPANY' NEW YORK· LONDON
Wonderful Life
The Burgess Shale
and the Nature of History
STEPHEN JAY GOULD
Copyright C 19!!9 by St<.pl<~l Jay Could
All rights rt'SCl\l.'<I.
Prink-<i in the Unik-<i Slilt~ of America.
The text of this boobs composed in 10 Ih/ 13 Avanta, with
display type set in Fenice Light. Composition and
manufacturing by The Haddon Craftsmen, Inc.
Book design by Antonina Krass.
"Design" copyright 1936 by Robert Frost and renewed 1964 by Lesley Frost Ballantine.
Reprinted from The Poetry of Robert Frost, edited by Edward Connery Lathem, by
permission of Henry Holt and Company, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging· in· Publication Data
Could, Stephen Jay.
Wonderful life: the Burgess Shale and the nature of history / Stephen Jay Could.
p. em. Bibliography: p. Includes index.
I. Evolution-History. 2. Invertebrates, Fossil. 3. Paleontology-Cambrian.
4. Paleontology-British CoIumbia-Yoho National Park. 5. Burgess
Shale. 6. Paleontology-Philosophy. 7. Contingency (Philosophy)
8. Yoho National Park (B.C.) I. Title.
QETIO.C67 1989
560'.9---«19 83-37469
ISHN II-W,.,n7IMI·X
W. W. Nonon & Company. Inc.
SOO Fifth Avenue:. New York. N.Y. 10110
www.wwnonon.com
W. W. Nonon & Company Ltd.
Castle ~Iousc. 7Sn6 Wells Street. London WIT 3QT
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
To NORMAN D. NEWELL
Who was, and is, in the most noble
word of all human speech, my teacher
Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments I3
I. The Iconography of an Expectation 23
CHAPTER
23
A PROLOGUE IN PICTURES
THE UDDER AND THE CONE: ICONOGRAPHIES OF PROGRESS 27
45
REPLAYING LIFE'S TAPE: THE CRUCIAL EXPERIMENT
Inset: The Meanings of Diversity and Disparity 49
II. A Background for the Burgess Shale 53
CHAPTER
LIFE BEFORE THE BURGESS: THE CAMBRIAN EXPLOSION AND
53
THE ORICIN OF ANIMALS
LIFE AFrER THE BURGESS: SoFr-BoDIED FAUNAS AS WINDOWS
INTO THE PAST 60
64
THE SETTINC OF THE BURGESS SHALE
64
WHERE
69
WHY: THE MEANS OF PRESERVATION
70
WHO, WHEN: THE HISTORY OF DISCOVERY
I
10 CONTENTS
III. Reconstruction of the Burgess Shale:
CHAPTER
Toward a New View of Life 79
A QUIET REVOLUTION 79
A METHODOLOGY OF RESEARCH 84
THE CHRONOLOGY OF A TRANSFORMATION 97
Inset: Taxonomy and the Status of Phyla 98
Inset: The Classification and Anatomy of Arthropods 102
The Burgess Drama 107
Act I. Manella and Yo/lOia: The Dawning and
Consolidation of Suspicion, 1971-1974 107
TIle Conceptual World That Whittington Faced 107
Manella: First Doubts 113
Yohoia: A Suspicion Grows 121
Act 2. A New View Takes Hold: Homage to OpabinUz, 1975 124
Act 3. TIle Revision Expands: The Success of a Research Team,
1975-1978 136
Setting a Strategy for a Generalization 136
Mentors and Students 139
Conway Morris's Field Season in Walcott's Cabinets: A Hint
Becomes a Generality, and the Transformation Solidifies 141
Derek Briggs and Bivalved Arthropods: The Not-So-F1ashy but
Just-As-Neccssary Final Piece 157
Act 4. Completion and Codification of an Argument: Naraoia
and Aysheaia, 1977-1978 164
Act 5. The Maturation of a Research Program: Life after
Ayshedia, 19 79-Doomsday (TIlere Are No Final Answers) 172
The Ongoing Saga of Burgess Arthropods 173
Orphans and Specialists 173
A Prescnt from Santa Claws 185
Continuing the March of Weird Wonders 188
Wiwaxia 189
Anomalocoris 194
Coda 206
III
CONTENTS
SUMMARY STATEMENT ON THE BESTIARY OF THE BURCESS
207
SHALE
207
DISPARITY FOLLOWED BY DECIMATION: A GENERAL STATEMENT
ASSESSMENT OF GENEALOGICAL RELATIONSHIPS FOR BURGESS
212
ORGANISMS
218
THE BURCESS SHALE AS A CAMBRIAN GENERALITY
PREDATORS AND PREY: THE FUNcrlONAL WORLD OF BURGESS
219
ARTHROPODS
222
THE ECOLOGY OF THE BURGESS FAUNA
224
THE BURGESS AS AN EARLY WORLD-WIDE FAUNA
227
THE Two GREAT PROBLEMS OF THE BURCESS SHALE
228
THE ORIGIN OF THE BURGESS FAUNA
233
THE DECIMATION OF THE BURGESS FAUNA
IV. Walcott's Vision and the Nature of History 240
CHAPTER
THE BASIS FOR WALCOTT'S ALLEGIANCE TO THE CoNE OF
240
DIVERSITY
240
A BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
243
THE MUNDANE REASON FOR WALCOTT'S FAILURE
253
THE DEEPER RATIONALE FOR WALCOTT'S SHOEHORN
253
WALCOTT'S PERSONA
WALCOTT'S GENERAL VIEW OF LIFE'S HISTORY AND
257
EVOLUTION
THE BURGESS SHOEHORN AND WALCOTT'S STRUGGLE WITH
263
THE CAMBRIAN EXPLOSION
277
THE BURCESS SHALE AND THE NATURE OF HISTORY
Inset: A Plea for the High Status of Natural History 280
V. Possible Worlds: The Power of "Just History" 292
CHAPTER
292
A STORY OF ALTERNATIVES
299
GENERAL PATTERNS THAT ILLUSTRATE CONTINCENCY
301
THE BURGESS PATTERN OF MAXIMAL INITIAL PROLIFERATION
305
MASS EXTINcrlON