Wonderful Life

Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History

Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History is a book on the evolution of Cambrian fauna by Harvard paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould. The volume was the 1991 winner of The Aventis Prizes for Science Books, and a 1991 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Gould's thesis in Wonderful Life was that chance was one of the decisive factors in the evolution of life on earth. He based this argument on the wonderfully preserved fossil fauna of the Burgess Shale, animals from around 505 million years ago, just after the Cambrian explosion. Gould argued that although the Burgess animals were...
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quick facts
Author:Stephen Jay Gould
Genre:Non-fiction, Science, Mathematics
Year published:1989
Number of editions:13

Honors and Awards

YearAward Won
1990 Phi Beta Kappa Book Award in Science
1990 Forkosch Award
1991 The Aventis Prizes for Science Books
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YearAward Nomination
1990 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction
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Author of Wonderful Life

Stephen Jay Gould
Stephen Jay Gould
September 10, 1941 - May 20, 2002
Birthplace:Queens, New York

Stephen Jay Gould was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science. He was also one of the most influential and widely read writers of popular science of his generation. Gould spent most of his career teaching at Harvard University and working at the American Museum...
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Additional works by Stephen Jay Gould
BookCopyright DateGenre
The Structure of Evolutionary Theory 2002 Non-fiction
The Mismeasure of Man 1981 Non-fiction
Time's Arrow, Time's Cycle: Myth and Metaphor in the Discovery of Geological Time Non-fiction
Full House: The Spread of Excellence From Plato to Darwin 1996 Non-fiction
Bully for Brontosaurus Non-fiction
An Urchin in the Storm: Essays About Books and Ideas 1987 Non-fiction
The Hedgehog, the Fox, and the Magister's Pox 2003 Non-fiction
The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History Non-fiction
Dinosaur in a Haystack: Reflections in Natural History 1995 Non-fiction
Eight Little Piggies: Reflections in Natural History 1992 Non-fiction
Ever Since Darwin: Reflections in Natural History Non-fiction
Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes: Further Reflections in Natural History Non-fiction
I Have Landed Non-fiction
Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms Non-fiction
Ontogeny and Phylogeny Non-fiction
Questioning the Millennium: A Rationalist's Guide to a Precisely Arbitrary Countdown 1997 Non-fiction
Rocks of Ages: Science and Religion in the Fullness of Life Non-fiction
The Flamingo's Smile: Reflections in Natural History Non-fiction
The Lying Stones of Marrakech 2000 Non-fiction
La foire aux dinosaures 1997 Non-fiction
Erase Una Vez El Zorro y El Erizo 2004 Non-fiction
An evolutionary microcosm: Pleistocene and recent history of the land snail P. (Poecilozonites) in Bermuda
Ciencia Versus Religion - Un Falso Conflicto 2001 Non-fiction
Punctuated Equilibrium 2007 Non-fiction
Un hérisson dans la tempête 1994 Non-fiction
Crossing Over: Where Art and Science Meet 2000 Non-fiction
Der Jahrtausend- Zahlenzauber. Durch die Scheinwelt numerischer Ordnungen
Darwin et les grandes énigmes de la vie 1984 Non-fiction
Comme les huit doigts de la main 1998 Non-fiction
Alexis Rockman 2003 Non-fiction
The Richness of Life: The Essential 2006 Non-fiction
Between Home and Heaven: Contemporary American Landscape Photography 1992 Non-fiction
Et Dieu dit: "Que Darwin soit!" 2000 Non-fiction
The Book of Life Non-fiction
The individual in Darwinʼs world 1990 Non-fiction
Conversations About the End of Time 1999 Non-fiction
Finders, Keepers: Eight Collectors Non-fiction
Illusion Fortschritt. Die vielfältigen Wege der Evolution 1999 Non-fiction
Les Quatre Antilopes de l'Apocalypse 2000 Non-fiction
L'Eventail du vivant 1997 Non-fiction
Natural history of Cerion VIII
Brontosaurus Y La Nalga Del Ministro 1993 Non-fiction
The Evolution of Gryphaea Non-fiction
Triumph and Tragedy in Mudville: A Lifelong Passion for Baseball 2003 Non-fiction
Crossing over
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Literary Genres

Non-fiction
Non-fiction

Non-fiction is the form of any narrative, account, or other communicative work whose assertions and descriptions are understood to be factual. This...
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Science
Science

Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. In...
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Mathematics
Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, structure, space, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians...
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Frequently Asked Questions

  • Q:
    When was the title "Wonderful Life" first printed?
  • A:
    The book debuted in 1989.
  • Q:
    The work, "Wonderful Life" covers which literary subjects?
  • A:
    "Wonderful Life" is cataloged in the category: Geology, Paleozoology and Invertebrate
  • Q:
    "Wonderful Life" is of which genre?
  • A:
    The written work is categorized as- Non-fiction, Science, Fiction and Mathematics.
  • Q:
    How long is the book: "Wonderful Life"?
  • A:
    The work is 347 pages.

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