In the Blink of an Eye: The Cause of the Most Dramatic Event in the History of LifeFree Press, 2003 - 316 sayfa Between 543 and 538 million years ago, something remarkable happened. After hundreds of millions of years of gradual and painstaking evolution, suddenly the process exploded into life. For the first time animals evolved hard external parts. For the first time there was evidence of active predation, with both hunters and hunted rapidly developing both armaments and defences. And in this short space of time -- the blink of an eye, in geological terms -- the number of different classifications of animals, or phyla, mushroomed from three to thirty-eight, the number we still have today. The 'when' and the 'what' of this extraordinary event, known as the 'Cambrian Explosion', have been known for some years and were made famous in Stephen Jay Gould's bestselling book WONDERFUL LIFE. What has until now been speculation is the 'why'. Andrew Parker's astounding explanation, which is becoming increasingly influential and accepted, is fully explored and described in this groundbreaking book. A scientific detective story which encompasses disciplines as diverse as biology, history, geology and art, IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE is destined to become a popular-science classic. |
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Evolutions Big Bang | 1 |
The Virtual Life of Fossils | 48 |
The Infusion of Light | 82 |
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543 million adaptation to light ammonites ammonoids ancient animal phyla Anomalocaris appear arthropods Australian Bathynomus became become beetles behaviour bioluminescence birds blue bristle worms Burgess Shale Cambrian explosion camera-type eye camouflage Canadaspis cause cave cells chapter chemical chordates compound eyes conodonts crabs crustaceans dark detect detectors diffraction gratings dinosaurs Earth Ediacaran environment evidence evolution evolutionary tree evolved exist exoskeleton external extinct eyespots fish flash fossil record geological halophores images internal body plans iridescence isopods jellyfish known layers lens lenses living mammoth metres microscope million years ago mirror multicelled animals Museum nautilus niches notched seed-shrimps optical organisms palaeontologists phyla phylum pigments plate Precambrian preserved prey receptors reef reflected reflector retina revealed rocks sea floor selective pressures shape shells shrimps similar skin Snowball Earth species specimen spines stimulus structural colours sunlight surface thin tion traps trilobites ultraviolet velvet worms vision visual Waptia wavelengths Wiwaxia