Remarkable Creatures: A Remarkable Book

by tristero

I’m rather busy right now preparing for some recording sessions with Kitka. We’re going to record their contribution to The Origin next weekend for release as an EP, about which more in some later posts. But I did want to call your attention to a wonderful new book by Sean Carroll, Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species which tells the story of the explorers, from Darwin to Neil Shubin (the discoverer of the amazing tiktaalik) and beyond, who scoured the earth for evidence of the evolution of life. The book is a page turner and will interest any science lover from 12 to 112. I think it’s a classic: It reminded me of the books I read when I was a kid that introduced me to the excitement of scientific discovery.

You couldn’t ask for a more enjoyable late spring/early summer read. By the way, if you want to some more detail about modern evolutionary theory, pick up Carroll’s earlier books, Endless Forms Most Beautiful and The Making of the Fittest. They are both just as compelling reads as Remarkable Creatures but go into the actual science in more depth; I’d say all three are among the very finest, most informative, and most enjoyable lay-level books I’ve read on evolution.