Winner
Fire Weather A True Story from a Hotter World
John Vaillant
Eyewitness to Evolution
Richard Fortey
Trilobite! is an unashamedly trilobito-centric view of the world unravelling the history of the exotic, crustacean-like animals which dominated the seas for three hundred million years. These arthropods witnessed continents move, mountain chains elevated and eroded; they survived ice ages and volcanic eruptions, evolving and adapting exquisitely to their environment. They watched through their crystal eyes whilst life evolved. Their own evolution calibrated geological time itself.
Structured like a detective story, this is a light, but highly informative account of the wonders of scientific discovery and an engaging, quirky and fascinating introduction to evolution.
Richard Fortey is a British paleontologist and writer. He studied geology at the University of Cambridge and had a long career as a palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum in London. His research interests include, above all, trilobites; he has named numerous trilobite species and still continues his research despite having retired from the Museum. Professor Fortey was elected President of the Geological Society of London for its bicentennial year of 2007 and was recently awarded an honorary degree by the University of St Andrews. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2009.
Winner
John Vaillant
Longlist
Chris van Tulleken
Longlist
Siddhartha Mukherjee
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Thomas Halliday