“A masterpiece of analysis and imagination… It centres on a sensantional discovery in the field of palaeontology - the existence, in the Burgess Shale…of 530-million-year-old fossils unique in age, preservation and diversity…With skill and passion, Gould takes this mute collection of fossils and makes them speak to us. The result challenges some of our most cherished self-perceptions and urges a fundamental re-assessment of our place in the history of life on earth” MICHAEL STEWART, “SUNDAY TIMES’ "Gould shows again that he is unique among evolutionists in the subtlety and depth of his thinking about the history of life” R.C. LEWONTIN, “NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS” “He weaves together three extraordinary themes - one palaeontological, one human, one theoretical and historical - as he discusses the discovery of the Burgess Shale, with its amazing, wonderfully preserved fossils - a time-capsule of the early Cambrian seas” OLIVER SACKS, “MAIL ON SUNDAY”