oiation ocks, nottional tale of steadily increasing excellence, complexity, and diversity.”

    Evolutionary success, it appeared, tery.

    One creature tdid manage to slip to ive spinal column, making it t knoorof all later vertebrates, including us.Pikaia  among to extinction. Gould, in a famousquotation, leaves no doubt t unate fluke: “ind back tape of life to t it play again from an identical startingpoint, and t anytelligence he replay.”

    Gould’s book ical acclaim and  commercialsuccess.   generally kno many scientists didn’t agree  all, and t it o get very ugly. In text of to do empers t ps.

    In fact, ed at least a  sooner. Nearly forty years after alcottmade  in Australia, a young geologistnamed Reginald Sprigg found somets  as remarkable.

    In 1946 Sprigg ant government geologist for tate of Soutraliao make a survey of abandoned mines in tback some to see if t migably reec studying surface rocks at all, still less fossils. But one day o put itmildly—to see t te fossils, rated t the dawn of visible life.

    Sprigg submitted a paper to Nature , but it urned doead at tannual meeting of tralian and Neion for t ofScience, but it failed to find favor ion’s s uitous inorganic markings”—patterns made by ides, but not living beings.  yet entirely crusraveled to London andpresented o ternational Geological Congress, but failed to exciteeiterest or belief. Finally, for  of a better outlet, ransactions of ty of Soutralia. t  job andtook up oil explorat