Architects of Eternity

Sinopse

Man has always been fascinated by fossils, but it is only relatively recently that
we have begun to appreciate fully what they might actually tell us about our world. Scattered across eternity, the fossil record is our only
tangible link to the measureless tracts of Deep Time which precede the advent of humankind.
Perhaps predictably, the way fossils have been interpreted and classified in the past often tells us
more about the political and moral agendas of the people involved than it does about prehistory. But
it is to these larger-than-life personalities – from Othniel Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope literally
battling it out in the wildernesses of nineteenth century Wyoming right up to the bitter feuds of scientists today – that we owe our knowledge
about the origins of life on earth.
Richard Corfield’s authoritative but accessible
book takes us on an incredible journey, from the
early days of paleontology to the very cutting
edge of research today. Along the way, he shows
us just why it is that the subject matters so much,
why fossils – whether huge dinosaur skeletons or
microscopic nannofossils – hold such fascination for us all, and how it is possible to interpret information while looking back across the vastness of eternity.