Title: The great fossil enigma : the search for the conodont animal /
Authors: Knell, Simon J.
Publisher: Indiana University Press,
Year: 2012
Subjects: Conodonts.; Science Social aspects
Abstract: Stephen Jay Gould borrowed from Winston Churchill when he described the conodont animal as a "riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma." This animal confounded science for more than a century. Some thought it a slug, others a fish, a worm, a plant, even a primitive ancestor of ourselves.
Contents: Prelude : the impossible animal -- The road to El Dorado -- A beacon in the blackness -- The animal with three heads -- Another fine mess -- Outlaws -- Spring -- Diary of a fossil fruit fly -- Fears of civil war -- The promised land -- The witness -- The beast of Bear Gulch -- The invention of life -- El Dorado -- Over the mountains of the moon -- Afterword : The progress of tiny things.