| View Larger Image | In The Blink Of An Eye: How Vision Sparked The Big Bang Of Evolution | Paperbackby Andrew Parker (Author)
| List Price: | $15.00 | | Price: | $11.70 | | You Save: | $3.30 (22%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Paperback | | Publisher: | Basic Books | | Page Count: | 336 Pages | | Publication Date: | April 13, 2004 | | Sales Rank: | 755,455th |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
An accomplished young scientist solves one of the greatest mysteries of evolution: What caused the dramatic explosion of life half a billion years ago? About 550 million years ago, there was literally an explosion of life forms, as all the major animal groups suddenly and dramatically appeared. Although several books have been written about this surprising event, known as the Cambrian explosion, none has explained why it occurred. Indeed, none was able to. Here, for the first time, Oxford zoologist Andrew Parker reveals his theory of this great flourishing of life. Parker's controversial but increasingly accepted"Light Switch Theory" holds that it was the development of vision in primitive animals that caused the explosion. Drawing on evidence not just from biology, but also from geology, physics, chemistry, history, and art, In the Blink of an Eye is the fascinating account of a young scientist's intellectual journey, and a celebration of the scientific method. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 19 reviews)
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A reasonable theory presented in an annoying manner by a reader (the middle of nowhere, pennsylvania)  3 Stars
November 23, 2009
The "Light Switch Theory" of the Cambrian Explosion can be summarized in Wikipedia or on the cover of the book. While I find it an interesting theory (thus, I gave the book 3 instead of 2 stars), I am not sure why it takes the author 299 pages to get to the point. Perhaps it is the seemingly endless digressions which illustrate how well-educated and how well-travelled the author is. Personally, I wish he would just stick to the science.
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Species and Specious by Robert Carlberg (Seattle)  2 Stars
July 15, 2009
Author Parker posits that vision triggered the Cambrian explosion of variety in body styles, but his reasoning is specious. He assumes for instance that eyes developed spontaneously, all at once, allowing perfect vision on the first try ("That first eyed individual literally saw a whole new suite of niches open up. It observed areas of the sea floor in light and shade, which had previously been combined. But importantly it could easily identify the other animals sharing its environment.") Obviously, we know from the fossil record that the evolution of sight was a long and gradual process.
Second, although a professional zoologist (Oxford-trained no less!) Parker makes the common but unforgivable mistake of confusing evolutionary results with intention, or direction. Evolution does not "want" to create sight, and sight would not evolve merely because it is a good idea. There must be selective pressure to reinforce the mutational gains in sight's emergence, and these Parker cannot explain with his thesis.
Third, Parker has an unfortunate habit of tripping over his own ill-advised word choices. He describes the cuttlefish eye as a "red herring," convergence as a "stumbling block," and when recounting the historical record states "I should like to change the facts" when he means "I should like to clarify matters." It's jarring and one quickly learns not to trust what one is reading.
Sean Carroll presents a much richer, more logical and ontologically-supported explanation for the Cambrian explosion in his book "Endless Forms Most Beautiful." Parker's vision, if it was a factor at all, would have been a minor footnote at best.
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A great work on evolutionary theory by Newton Ooi (Phoenix, Arizona United States)  5 Stars
May 24, 2008
When one thinks of prehistoric life, the first thoughts to come to mind are often dinosaurs, then maybe wooly mammoths and cavemen. But prehistoric life extended farther back, and one of the most intriguing periods is the Cambrian age when the diversity of animal life exponentially increased. This "Cambrian Explosion" is one of the most studied aspects of prehistoric life, and its origins is one of biology's greatest questions. This book answers the question by showing how the development of vision, that is the evolution of the eye, dramatically changed life on earth. The author comes to this answer as someone would piece together a puzzle, one piece at a time. Each piece is one chapter of this book. Some of the pieces include an explanation of how eyes and vision work, a study of color and its importance in ecosystems and the survival of individuals and species, a comparison of different ecosystems and how the amount of light in each one has affected evolution, and a review of life's evolution, covering both knowns and unknowns. Over the course of this book, the author very clearly and objectively shows that the development of eyes, sensory organs that could identify and locate objects, was the spark that accelerated the rate of species diversification and the onset of numerous external features such as skin color, teeth, spikes, horns, etc... All in all, a great work of science.
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Eyes Wide Open by John Lyons (Atlanta, Georgia) 5 Stars
October 31, 2007
Imagine what it must have been like to be the first creature that had eyes, that could see through the murky waters. The world is no longer just what you touch, or what chemicals drift your way. Now you can range widely to hunt for food, and your dinner can't even see you coming!
From an evolutionary perspective, this must have been the nuclear scenario for many species, and the true start of the evolutionary arms race. This is Andrew Parker's thesis, presented for a general audience. At times, you might feel like he's belaboring his points, but long before the end of the book you'll wonder why something this obvious never occurred to you. On the way you run into some unique characters, some mysterious creatures, and get some fossil-digging history too.
Very interesting and easy to read.
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Enjoyable & informative, but with multiple flaws by W. J. Wade (Houston, TX USA)  4 Stars
October 01, 2007
Other reviewers have mentioned Andrew Parker's proclivity in 'In the Blink of an Eye' to digress, to present his thesis as more revolutionary & unique than it actually is, & to fall into a 'gee whiz' style from time to time, & I will merely second those critiques, while agreeing with previous reviewers that Parker's book is nevertheless an entertaining & surprisingly broadly informative read.
But my primary criticism of Parker's book is his failure to construct a solid logical argument for his thesis, which is that the evolution of vision was THE cause of the Cambrian Explosion ('CE'). Parker tends to zigzag through his chapters, & upon reaching the end, claim that he has formulated a logically-sequenced argument, which he rarely has.
Few paleontologists, I think, would disagree with the idea that the development of vision (as distinct from mere light sensitivity) gave an enormous acceleration to Early Cambrian evolutionary rates, but Parker wants more than mere primum inter pares for vision, he wants it to have sole credit for the Explosion. To quote one reviewer: "What happened in the explosion is that animals acquired armor, hard body parts, and a huge variety of different shapes. Parker explains that the shapes and armor came along because eyes came along."
Yes, that's precisely Parker's explanation, but his argument leaves a skeptical reader not entirely convinced. At one point, Parker states (paraphrasing) that one must separate the CE itself (i.e., the evolution of fossilizable hard parts made of calcite) from the Cause of the CE. Stating it doesn't necessarily make it so. Sometimes an events IS the same thing as its cause.
Parker spends considerable time making the case that trilobites were the first creatures to develop vision. By Parker's own, slightly buried, report, this first lens that made vision possible was a calcite lens. I.e., it was either literally or virtually a modified bit of calcite body armor. If a bit of modified armor came first & made vision possible, how can one claim that "...armor came along because eyes came along."?
I don't want to argue that the evolution of vision wasn't crucial, merely that it's more reasonable to view it as 'primum inter pares', 'first among equals'. There's just too many evolutions of 'firsts' happening in the CE: first calcite secretion by multiple phyla, first eyes with considerable degrees of vision in multiple phyla, and several new body plans. It's probably more realistic to view these all as giving important positive feedback to each other, instead of crediting one as being the sole source of all the changes.
On this account, I think Parker's book would have been improved by a consideration of how & why so many different phyla evolved both calcite body coverings & vision so nearly simultaneously. The problem, to the best of my knowledge, is that we're still pretty much stumped by this one. Perhaps it's a useful place in earth history to postulate the incorporation, by several phyla, of bacterial DNA coded for calcite secretion, a la Lynn Margulis.
It makes no sense to somehow imply that the evolution of vision by trilobites somehow produces the evolution of vision in trilobite prey species. Evolution doesn't work that way, though that's the impression Parker just sorta leaves hanging out there.
Parker, like Dawkins before him, cites Nilson & Pelger's theoretical calculations of the rapidity--in geological time terms--with which "eyespots" can evolve into camera-type eyes. Perhaps a fruitful field for Parker to consider than would have been why then did vision not evolve prior to the CE? 99+% of all animal lenses through geologic history have been made of organic materials rather than calcite. Why then did lenses not evolve in multicellular life prior to the evolution of calcite secretion & hence the first calcite lens?
But again, the final line here is that Parker's book is an enjoyable & worthwhile read, even if it ultimately fails to marshall a complete & compelling argument in support of its thesis.
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