Carl Werner

This is the second in a series and I'm going to acquire the first, soon. The author was challenged, while in medical school, to prove the theory of evolution. He spent decades just thinking about how to approach the challenge and then decided that the best way to prove evolution would be to attempt to disprove it.

With that in mind, he set out to search for fossils that matched closely enough to current plant and animal life that he believed they could potentially reproduce -- the test for whether there was a species match. He called those animals and plants that have survived since dinosaur days "living fossils".

The author and his wife traveled all over the world, visiting museums, photographing and comparing fossils to currently-living plants and found many examples that he considered close matches, but without access to stored fossils his ability to view recovered fossils was limited to those on display. He also interviewed fossil experts and there is a video series that can also be purchased.

I was impressed with the author's results and very surprised. What he found was that those who find fossils don't typically look for a comparison to modern plants and the person who discovers a new fossil gets the privilege of naming it. So, fossilized and modern plants and animals that look like a perfect match may not even have the same species classification.

This is a fascinating book that really surprised me. I believed in evolution when I opened it and now I'm not so sure.… (mehr)