Fossils: A Very Short Introduction by Keith Stewart Thomson
Most Very Short Introductions employ a style, sometimes with quirky examples or expansive commentary, to make it more than just a bland introduction to a topic.
Early in this book, Thomson, an Emeritus Professor from Oxford, offers a chapter "A Cultural Phenomenon" which oozes erudition and charm. Its constrained, suffer no fools, style is ideal for this topic and reminiscent of some leading lights in science. He admits a focus on vertebrate fossils, his specialty, although this does not seem to detract from the book. Thomson continues with a history of fossil collection and interpretation in Western society, then a discussion of Earth's geology and the symbiosis between its study and that of fossils. The key chapter, Against the Odds, focuses on the formation of fossils and the day-to-day work of finding, preparing and interpreting them. This chapter covers some of the information for which many readers would have chosen the book, while the other chapters provide important contextual understanding and convey the inexact 'detective work' nature of palaeontology. There is not scope in this volume to prepare the potential collector to take up his or her hammer and start lifting rocks, but the background will make further research more useful.
Thomson then examines fossils in an evolutionary context. His discussion of punctuated equilibrium is balanced and a reasonably accessible contribution on a complex topic. He then moves on to hominid fossils and discusses current interpretations. Interestingly, he points out the contradiction, accountable only in terms of the error for estimation methods, between the age of the last common ancestor for non-African humans of 52,000 years and the influx of humans into Australia 60,000 years ago. Thomson concludes with some mention of fossil frauds, importantly considering the motivation for such schemes, and the future of fossil hunting. This Very Short Introduction provides a useful background for the study of the various aspects fossil science, enabling the reader to consult more specialist literature on fossil collection. The bibliography and index are adequate.