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The following quote is found in "The Mars Mystery" by Graham Hancock.

"a profound diversification that saw the first appearance in the fossil record of virtually all animal phyla living today. With relative evolutionary rates of more that 20 times normal, nothing like it has occurred since."

Please help me to comprehend the '...diversification ... saw the first appearance...'. I guess it is said that traces of a diversification are found in the fossil. And 'saw' is the past tense of 'see'. Something prevents me from accepting it as a grammatically correct and clear statement in English language. Is it because of my poor knowledge of English or rephrasing the sentence might not be a waste of time?

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  • Could you please add the beginning of the sentence that contains "a profound diversification..."? Currently, the definition of "saw" is somewhat ambiguous.
    – as4s4hetic
    Commented Jul 2, 2017 at 8:14
  • It is the actual beginning. I quoted in full. No omissions.
    – Vladimir Zolotykh
    Commented Jul 2, 2017 at 8:21
  • A quick google search came up with the sentence "At that time, life on Earth underwent a profound diversification that saw the first appearance in the fossil record of virtually all animal phyla living today." Perhaps the text from which you retrieved the sentence was incomplete? The sentence makes much more sense when you add the bolded section.
    – as4s4hetic
    Commented Jul 2, 2017 at 8:40
  • I apologize. I'm reading the Kindle edition of the book where emphasized only the text I quoted here. Immediately before the quote we read: "It should therefore come as no surprise to learn that the extinction of an estimated 80 percent of all genera of life occurred at this time. With almost miraculous speed, life then bounced back and the extinction was followed by"
    – Vladimir Zolotykh
    Commented Jul 2, 2017 at 9:45

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"At that time, life on Earth underwent a profound diversification that saw the first appearance in the fossil record of virtually all animal phyla living today" - Graham Hancock, The Mars Mystery

Firstly, the definition of diversification, as given by the Oxford Dictionary, is:

(noun) The action of making or becoming more diverse or varied.

In this instance, "diversification" refers to the process of becoming more diverse.

The definition of saw is given by the Oxford Dictionary definition 3.1 as:

To be the time or setting of (something).

Or rather, it is not the "diversification" that saw the first appearance in the fossil record, but rather "That time".

Therefore, the sentence can be best interpreted as:

  • At that time, life on earth underwent the process of diversification.
  • It was also the time of the first appearance in the fossil record...
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  • After reading "the 1970s saw the beginning of a technological revolution" (an example from Oxford Dictionaries) I understand that "that" word before "saw" in the quote is the key and should be understood as a reference to some period in the Earth history. I was mislead partly by abbreviated quoting and mainly by my sloppy English knowledge.
    – Vladimir Zolotykh
    Commented Jul 2, 2017 at 9:56
  • Glad to be of help! I hope you are enjoying the book :) @VladimirZolotykh
    – as4s4hetic
    Commented Jul 2, 2017 at 10:19
  • I sure am! The subjects Mr. Hancock discusses are fascinating, also plenty of perfect English to learn.
    – Vladimir Zolotykh
    Commented Jul 2, 2017 at 19:16

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