Annal:1991 Aventis Prize for General Science Book
From AwardAnnals
Results of the Aventis Prize in the year 1991. For a ranked list of books, try an honor roll:
- Aventis Prize for General Science Book
- Nonfiction books
- Nonfiction authors
- Science/Technology books
- Science/Technology authors.
Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History
- 1991 Aventis-General winner
- 1990 Pulitzer–Nonfiction finalist
- Score: 16.41
Tucked into the Canadian Rockies is a small limestone quarry formed 530 million years ago called the Burgess Shale. Discovered early in the century, the shale holds the remains of an ancient sea that nurtured more varities of life than can be found in all of our modern oceans.
Darwinian theory says that animals living so long ago were necessarily simple in design and limited in scope. But more recent interpretations unexpectedly reveal the great diversity locked in the shale.
Explosive stuff, for it blasts the belief that the history of life has been a…
