Horseshoe Crabs and Velvet Worms : The Story of the Animals and Plants That Time Has Left Behind

by Fortey, Richard

• ISBN13: 9780307263612
• ISBN10: 0307263614
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-04-10
• Publisher: Knopf

Summary

One of the world's most gifted natural scientists--acclaimed author of Dry Storeroom No 1, Life, Earth,and Trilobite--now gives us a fascinating book that reveals what the narratives of living creatures tell us about the history of evolution. Evolution does not simply obliterate its tracks as more advanced organisms evolve. Scattered across the globe, organisms and ecosystems that survive from far earlier times can speak to us of seminal events in the history of life. It is these animals and plants that Richard Fortey visits in the field, taking the reader on a voyage to the exotic, and sometimes everyday, places in which they live. Landscapes are evoked, boulders are turned over, seas are paddled as he explains the importance of understanding plants and animals as pivotal points in evolutionary history itself. Horseshoe Crabs and Velvet Wormsis a journey across the globe and across time that weaves a rich and brilliantly delineated tapestry of how life and our planet have evolved together.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. ix
Prologue	p. xiii
Table of Geological Periods	p. xv
Old Horseshoes	p. 3
The Search for the Velvet Worm	p. 32
Slimy Mounds	p. 61
Life in Hot Water	p. 96
An Inveterate Bunch	p. 124
Greenery	p. 154
Of Fishes and Hellbenders	p. 186
Heat in the Blood	p. 216
Islands, Ice	p. 243
Survivors Against the Odds	p. 273
Epilogue	p. 297
Glossary	p. 301
Illustration Credits	p. 307
Further Reading	p. 315
Index	p. 319
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

PROLOGUE

These anomalous forms may almost be called living fossils; they have endured to the present day, from having inhabited a confined area, and from having thus been exposed to less severe competition.
—Charles Darwin: The Origin of Species

Evolution has not obliterated its tracks as more advanced animals and plants have appeared through geological time. There are, scat- tered over the globe, organisms and ecologies which still survive from earlier times. These speak to us of seminal events in the history of life. They range from humble algal mats to hardy musk oxen that linger on in the tundra as last vestiges of the Ice Age. The history of life can be approached through the fossil record; a narrative of forms that have vanished from the earth. But it can also be understood through its survivors, the animals and plants that time has left behind. My intention is to visit these organisms in the field, to take the reader on a journey to the exotic, or even everyday, places where they live. There will be landscapes to evoke, boulders to turn over, seas to pad- dle in. I shall describe the animals and plants in their natural habitats, and explain why they are important in understanding pivotal points in evolutionary history. So it will be a journey through time, as well as around the globe.

I have always thought of myself as a naturalist first, and a palaeon- tologist second, although I cannot deny that I have spent most of my life looking at thoroughly dead creatures. This book is something of a departure for me, with the focus switched to living organisms that help reveal the tree of life (see endpapers). I will frequently return to considering fossils to show how my chosen creatures root back into ancient times. I have also broken my usual rules of narrative. The logical place to start is at the beginning, which in this case would mean with the oldest and most primitive organisms. Or I could start with the present and work backwards, as in Richard Dawkins’The Ancestor’s Tale. Instead, I have opted to start somewhere in the mid- dle. This is not perversity on my part. It seemed appropriate to start my exploration in a place, biologically speaking, that is familiar to me. The ancient horseshoe crabs of Delaware Bay were somehow fit- ting, not least on account of their trilobite connections. Amid all the concern about climate change and extinction, it is encouraging to begin with an organism whose populations can still be counted in their millions. From this starting point somewhere inside the great and spreading tree of life I can climb upwards to higher twigs if I wish, or maybe even delve downwards to find the trunk. Let us begin to explore.