Review: Living Fossils

Living Fossils: Evolution the Grand Experiment Vol. 2
by Dr. Carl Werner

Munchkin has enjoyed learning about dinosaurs and fossils from a very young age, so I’m always thrilled when we’re able to review dinosaur and/or fossil books.  Munchkin really liked the first book in this series, Evolution: The Grand Experiment, so I had high hopes for the second volume.  I was not disappointed.

Dr. Carl Werner grew up in a Catholic church where he learned about and believed in creation and the other stories in the Bible.  As he headed into his teen years, he started to have some doubt as to whether what he had been taught was true.  When he entered college and medical school, several of his professors presented evolution to him in a manner that made sense.  He started to believe in evolution until one day his friend challenged him to prove that evolution was true.  This challenge would prove to be a life-long journey….

Once Dr. Werner decided to embrace the challenge, he approached it from a scientific viewpoint.  He decided to construct an experiment that would help him prove that evolution is true.  He predicted that if evolution was not true, then animals and plants would not change significantly over time. Accordingly, he predicted that he should find fossils of modern animal and plant species in the “older” fossil layers.

Little did he know it at the time, but this experiment would take him all over the world.  He would learn that many of his assumptions were wrong.  He would take pictures and footage of fossils as well as live plants and animals from 3 different continents.  This book shows readers glimpses into what he (and his wife) found during their travels.

He concludes the book by giving the evidence for and against both creation and evolution.  He wants readers to make up their own mind on what his challenge produced.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book which is overflowing with beautiful images.  The comparisons between pictures of current plants and animals and fossilized (dinosaur-era) plants and animals are wonderful.  Many of the specimens shown in the book were things that I probably would not have seen if not for this book.  I had to chuckle at several points during the reading as we’ve often said some of the same things about the “pre-historic” fossils looking just like current animals and plants when we’ve viewed them.

There is a teacher’s manual as well as a presenter’s cd available to accompany the Living Fossils book.

I received a copy of this book from Master Books/New Leaf Publishing to help facilitate the writing of a frank and honest review. I positive review is not guaranteed, and all opinions are my own.