At the end of my last review I promised I'd follow with the
latest from Peter D. Ward so here it is. Time
Machines, Scientific Explorations in Deep Time is
Ward's newest book. Published in 1998 by Copernicus, the hard
cover edition lists for $25.00. I was not disappointed since Ward
has done another masterful job as in the previous
books I have reviewed. I will take a shot at the editing
however. There are far too many typos and double words than
should appear in the final edit of any $25.00 book. Having said
that, the good stuff follows.
Time Machines will, dare I say, teach you
about geologic time, paleo location, paleo environments, paleo
communities, and the means by which paleontologists determine
these. I hesitated to use the word "teach" for fear of
implying that Time Machines is some dusty
old text with complex technical terms. No, your learning will
just happen as Ward presents the methods of paleo sleuthing
through dynamic stories of discovery and investigation. You will
end the book with a better understanding and confidence in how
paleontologists can recreate the life and times of creatures
known only through their fossilized remains.
Ward uses the first three chapters to deal with geologic time.
Biostratigraphy and its use as the earliest means of telling
relative geologic time begins the presentation. I know that you
will remember that Biostratigraphy is the use of fossils to
correlate localities and is the foundation of the
"classic" Cincinnatian formations we still use today.
True age dating has come with the twentieth century development
of radiometric and magnetic clocks. Ward uses his own field work
and questions through his career to demonstrate the use of these
three tools.
Place is the topic of the second section of Time
Machines. You'll be fascinated to hear of the tale
of Baja British Columbia as Ward explains the proof that part of
British Columbia was part of Baja, California in the Cretaceous.
The second chapter in this section deals with ancient
environments and ancient sea levels - the clues that tell
paleontologists water depth and temperature.
Section three is entitled Inhabitants. Here Ward has fascinating
chapters on his favorites - ammonites and Nautilus - and huge
Cretaceous clams. He uses the techniques and background developed
in the first sections to sleuth out the answers to some very
interesting paleontological problems.
I imagine that most of you have seen, at least in pictures, the
famous fossil ammonites (there are many of these fossils) with
tooth marks from a Mosasaur. This has been a widely accepted
explanation for the circular holes in the ammonite shells that
seem to line up with the tooth rows in Mosasaur jaws. This
interpretation, Ward explains, originated in a paper by Kauffman
and Kessling in 1960. This was the earliest attempt in
paleontological papers to go beyond strictly taxonomic
descriptions of fossils and determine something about the once
living creatures.
Ward's contrary evidence is simple and understandable so long as
one doesn't presume the answer before investigating the
possibilities - a mistake made in the earlier paper and by other
overzealous paleontologists in the past. One of his proofs? - A
circular hole can not be formed in the shell of a mollusc by
pushing a cone shaped tooth into it. This merely shatters the
shell leaving no hole. Ward's next chapter in section three deals
with the enigma of the complex and dendritic suture patterns of
ammonites. The distinctive patterns are used to identify
ammonites but their use by the living creature is problematic.
The long time and most accepted purpose was that these
strengthened the shell to allow for deeper water habitats. Using
modern computer modeling Ward shows that the suture pattern
actually is weaker than the simple sutures of the nautiloid
cephalopods. He proposes an alternative advantage to the living
creature: more rapid filling of the chambers for faster buoyancy
changes. Unfortunately for me this was presented as a jump in
faith with insufficient discussion to gain easy buy in (my only
complaint). I presume that the explanation must be too complex
for the audience of this popular book and hence the omission.
I am giving away too much. My main goal is to encourage you to
seek out the book not to present every minute detail and spoil Time
Machines for you (after all, who would go see a
movie about the Titanic if they knew how it ended??). I will tell
you that Ward uses modern cladistics to ferret out the paleo
history of the living Nautilus and establish a second genus for
living nautiloids. Also using modern analogues he determines that
some Cretaceous sea creatures lived near cold methane seeps.
Time Machines ends with what I consider
to be one of Peter Ward's trademarks: a fictional trip back in
time ala H.G. Wells. He recreates the living Cretaceous ocean
from the discoveries and creatures dealt with in the text. Maybe
Peter could have done Jurassic Park with more accuracy. As I've
said of his other books, Peter Ward transports the reader into
the midst of the story and you will learn without effort.