I purchased this Audible version of the book to use as an adjunct to the Kindle version of the textbook. The Kindle version of the book is necessary to get the most satisfying use out of the audiobook.
This book focuses on paleontology of the Cambrian period. It describes the fossils found in geologic strata that formed at ocean sites off the Paleozoic continent of Laurentia which formed the geologic core of North America. The Cambrian Radiation in these oceans over 53 million years led from simple sponges and metazoan colonies in the Ediacaran period to the development of every major body plan or Phylum of animal that is on Earth today. These newly formed life forms were fossilized to varying degrees in the shale and limestone that formed at Cambrian fossil sites in North America such as the Burgess Shale deposit in British Columbia and the Wheeler formation in Utah.
I listened to large sections of the book as an audiobook at 1.35x speed and looked at the images and other supportive material while listening. The narrator does an excellent job. For many of the sections, it was like attending lectures by a really great college professor with superb speaking and teaching ability. The narrator’s delivery helped me with pronunciations of many of the fossil names and also helped me enjoy many of the self-deprecating and other humorous comments that the author makes amid highly technical passages. Sitting back and listening to the narration of author’s descriptions of his trips to remote, arid stratigraphy sites in Nevada and California was like being there.
I am a retired educator with degrees in the biological sciences and have recently become a self-taught student of geology. Reading and listening to this book was a wonderful paleontology learning experience for me. I have submitted a separate book review of the Kindle version on the Amazon site.