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The Accidental Species: Misunderstandings of Human Evolution
By Henry Gee. 2013
The idea of a missing link between humanity and our animal ancestors predates evolution and popular science and actually has…
religious roots in the deist concept of the Great Chain of Being. Yet, the metaphor has lodged itself in the contemporary imagination, and new fossil discoveries are often hailed in headlines as revealing the elusive transitional step, the moment when we stopped being “animal” and started being “human.” In The Accidental Species, Henry Gee, longtime paleontology editor at Nature, takes aim at this misleading notion, arguing that it reflects a profound misunderstanding of how evolution works and, when applied to the evolution of our own species, supports mistaken ideas about our own place in the universe. Gee presents a robust and stark challenge to our tendency to see ourselves as the acme of creation. Far from being a quirk of religious fundamentalism, human exceptionalism, Gee argues, is an error that also infects scientific thought. Touring the many features of human beings that have recurrently been used to distinguish us from the rest of the animal world, Gee shows that our evolutionary outcome is one possibility among many, one that owes more to chance than to an organized progression to supremacy. He starts with bipedality, which he shows could have arisen entirely by accident, as a by-product of sexual selection, moves on to technology, large brain size, intelligence, language, and, finally, sentience. He reveals each of these attributes to be alive and well throughout the animal world—they are not, indeed, unique to our species.The Accidental Species combines Gee’s firsthand experience on the editorial side of many incredible paleontological findings with healthy skepticism and humor to create a book that aims to overturn popular thinking on human evolution—the key is not what’s missing, but how we’re linked.Chirotheres: Tracking the Ancestors of Dinosaurs and Crocodiles (Life of the Past)
By Hendrik Klein, Andrew B. Heckert. 2023
Comprehensive in detail and worldwide in scope, Chirotheres is the definitive compendium of what is known about the five-toed footprints…
of Triassic archosaurs, ancestors of the crocodiles. Sandstone slabs with extensive trackways have been known for almost two centuries and are highlights in museum exhibits around the globe. These trackways provide direct insight into the locomotion and behavior of the fascinating reptiles that made these tracks, and, together with known skeletons, they allow a richer reconstruction of chirothere lifestyle than is possible from bones alone.Written by expert researchers in the fields of vertebrate ichnology, vertebrate paleontology, and scientific illustration, Chirotheres explores the various facets of chirothere research including the history of their study, footprint formation and preservation, the bone record, the environment and lifestyle of chirotheres, and finally, their disappearance at the end of the Triassic.Chirotheres also features a global compendium of track collections with chirothere material, including specimen numbers, detailed phylogenetic definitions of track makers, and extensive measurements from key chirothere tracks and trackways. It represents an invaluable resource of anyone interested in these ancient animals.The Trilobite Book: A Visual Journey
By Riccardo Levi-Setti. 2014
Distant relatives of modern lobsters, horseshoe crabs, and spiders, trilobites swam the planet’s prehistoric seas for 300 million years, from…
the Lower Cambrian to the end of the Permian eras--and they did so very capably. Trilobite fossils have been unearthed on every continent, with more than 20,000 species identified by science. One of the most arresting animals of our pre-dinosaur world, trilobites are also favorites among the fossil collectors of today, their crystalline eyes often the catalyst for a lifetime of paleontological devotion. And there is no collector more devoted--or more venerated--than Riccardo Levi-Setti. With The Trilobite Book, a much anticipated follow-up to his classic Trilobites, Levi-Setti brings us a glorious and revealing guide to these surreal arthropods of ancient Earth. Featuring specimens from Bohemia to Newfoundland, California to the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, and Wales to the Anti-Atlas Mountains of Morocco, Levi-Setti’s magnificent book reanimates these "butterflies of the seas” in 235 astonishing full-color photographs. All original, Levi-Setti’s images serve as the jumping-off point for tales of his global quests in search of these highly sought-after fossils; for discussions of their mineralogical origins, as revealed by their col∨ and for unraveling the role of the now-extinct trilobites in our planetary history. Sure to enthrall paleontologists with its scientific insights and amateur enthusiasts with its beautiful and informative images, The Trilobite Book combines the best of science, technology, aesthetics, and personal adventure. It will inspire new collectors for eras to come.Cro-Magnon: The Story of the Last Ice Age People of Europe
By Trenton W. Holliday. 2023
During the Last Ice Age, Europe was a cold, dry place teeming with mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, reindeer, bison, cave bears,…
cave hyenas, and cave lions. It was also the home of people physically indistinguishable from humans today, commonly known as the Cro-Magnons. Our knowledge of them comes from either their skeletons or the tools, art, and debris they left behind.This book tells the story of these dynamic and resilient people in light of recent scientific advances. Trenton Holliday—a paleoanthropologist who has studied the Cro-Magnons for decades—explores questions such as: Where and when did anatomically modern humans first emerge? When did they reach Europe, and via what routes? How extensive or frequent were their interactions with Neandertals? What did Cro-Magnons look like? What did they eat, and how did they acquire their food? What can we learn about their lives from studying their skeletons? How did they deal with the glacial cold? What does their art tell us about them?Holliday offers new insights into these ancient people from anthropological, archaeological, genetic, and geological perspectives. He also considers how the Cro-Magnons responded to Earth’s postglacial warming almost 12,000 years ago, showing that how they dealt with climate change holds valuable lessons for us as we negotiate life on a rapidly warming planet.Megafauna: Giant Beasts Of Pleistocene South America (Life Of The Past Ser.)
By Sergio F. Vizcaíno, Gerry de De Iuliis, Sebastián Tambusso, Richard A. Fariña. 1995
More than 10,000 years ago spectacularly large mammals roamed the pampas and jungles of South America. This book tells the…
story of these great beasts during and just after the Pleistocene, the geological epoch marked by the great ice ages. Megafauna describes the history and way of life of these animals, their comings and goings, and what befell them at the beginning of the modern era and the arrival of humans. It places these giants within the context of the other mammals then alive, describing their paleobiology--how they walked; how much they weighed; their diets, behavior, biomechanics; and the interactions among them and with their environment. It also tells the stories of the scientists who contributed to our discovery and knowledge of these transcendent creatures and the environment they inhabited. The episode known as the Great American Biotic Interchange, perhaps the most important of all natural history "experiments," is also an important theme of the book, tracing the biotic events of both North and South America that led to the fauna and the ecosystems discussed in this book.Oceans of Kansas, Second Edition: A Natural History of the Western Interior Sea (Life Of The Past Ser.)
By Michael J. Everhart. 2017
Revised, updated, and expanded with the latest interpretations and fossil discoveries, the second edition of Oceans of Kansas adds new…
twists to the fascinating story of the vast inland sea that engulfed central North America during the Age of Dinosaurs. Giant sharks, marine reptiles called mosasaurs, pteranodons, and birds with teeth all flourished in and around these shallow waters. Their abundant and well-preserved remains were sources of great excitement in the scientific community when first discovered in the 1860s and continue to yield exciting discoveries 150 years later. Michael J. Everhart vividly captures the history of these startling finds over the decades and re-creates in unforgettable detail these animals from our distant past and the world in which they lived—above, within, and on the shores of America’s ancient inland sea.Hadrosaurs (Life Of The Past Ser.)
By James O. Farlow. 2015
Hadrosaurs--also known as duck-billed dinosaurs--are abundant in the fossil record. With their unique complex jaws and teeth perfectly suited to…
shred and chew plants, they flourished on Earth in remarkable diversity during the Late Cretaceous. So ubiquitous are their remains that we have learned more about dinosaurian paleobiology and paleoecology from hadrosaurs than we have from any other group. In recent years, hadrosaurs have been in the spotlight. Researchers around the world have been studying new specimens and new taxa seeking to expand and clarify our knowledge of these marvelous beasts. This volume presents the results of an international symposium on hadrosaurs, sponsored by the Royal Tyrrell Museum and the Royal Ontario Museum, where scientists and students gathered to share their research and their passion for duck-billed dinosaurs. A uniquely comprehensive treatment of hadrosaurs, the book encompasses not only the well-known hadrosaurids proper, but also Hadrosaouroidea, allowing the former group to be evaluated in a broader perspective. The 36 chapters are divided into six sections--an overview, new insights into hadrosaur origins, hadrosaurid anatomy and variation, biogeography and biostratigraphy, function and growth, and preservation, tracks, and traces--followed by an afterword by Jack Horner.Assembling the Dinosaur: Fossil Hunters, Tycoons, and the Making of a Spectacle
By Lukas Rieppel. 2019
A lively account of the dinosaur’s role in Gilded Age America, examining the connection between business, paleontology, and museums.Although dinosaur…
fossils were first found in England, a series of dramatic discoveries during the late 1800s turned North America into a world center for vertebrate paleontology. At the same time, the United States emerged as the world’s largest industrial economy, and creatures like Tyrannosaurus, Brontosaurus, and Triceratops became emblems of American capitalism. Large, fierce, and spectacular, American dinosaurs dominated the popular imagination, making front-page headlines and appearing in feature films.Assembling the Dinosaur follows dinosaur fossils from the field to the museum and into the commercial culture of North America’s Gilded Age. Business tycoons like Andrew Carnegie and J. P. Morgan made common cause with vertebrate paleontologists to capitalize on the widespread appeal of dinosaurs, using them to project American exceptionalism back into prehistory. Learning from the show-stopping techniques of P. T. Barnum, museums exhibited dinosaurs to attract, entertain, and educate the public. By assembling the skeletons of dinosaurs into eye-catching displays, wealthy industrialists sought to cement their own reputations as generous benefactors of science, showing that modern capitalism could produce public goods in addition to profits. Behind the scenes, museums adopted corporate management practices to control the movement of dinosaur bones, restricting their circulation to influence their meaning and value in popular culture.Tracing the entwined relationship of dinosaurs, capitalism, and culture during the Gilded Age, Lukas Rieppel reveals the outsized role these giant reptiles played during one of the most consequential periods in American history.Praise for Assembling the Dinosaur“A penetrating study of legitimacy and capitalism in the realm of fossils.” —Verlyn Klinkenborg, The New York Review of Books“A solid entry into the growing body of literature on Gilded Age American paleontology, but it is particularly valuable for its contribution to enhancing our understanding of how science and its representation during that period were influenced by, and in turn affected, society as a whole. By incorporating cultural, economic, and scientific developments, Rieppel shines new light on the history of both American paleontology and museum exhibition practice.” —Ilja Nieuwland, ScienceGeology & Mineralogy, Considered with Reference to Natural Theology, Volume II, 1836
By William Buckland. 2003
Moving away from his earlier belief in a short, catastrophic history of the Earth, this volume shows how Buckland envisages…
instead progressive change as the Earth gradually cooled as it was prepared for human occupation. Extinct creatures did not die out because they were poorly designed; God loved the dinosaurs and had adapted them to their various circumstances.Forerunners of Mammals: Radiation * Histology * Biology (Life Of The Past Ser.)
By Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan. 2012
About 320 million years ago a group of reptiles known as the synapsids emerged and forever changed Earth's ecological landscapes.…
This book discusses the origin and radiation of the synapsids from their sail-backed pelycosaur ancestor to their diverse descendants, the therapsids or mammal-like reptiles, that eventually gave rise to mammals. It further showcases the remarkable evolutionary history of the synapsids in the Karoo Basin of South Africa and the environments that existed at the time. By highlighting studies of synapsid bone microstructure, it offers a unique perspective of how such studies are utilized to reconstruct various aspects of biology, such as growth dynamics, biomechanical function, and the attainment of sexual and skeletal maturity. A series of chapters outline the radiation and phylogenetic relationships of major synapsid lineages and provide direct insight into how bone histological analyses have led to an appreciation of these enigmatic animals as once-living creatures. The penultimate chapter examines the early radiation of mammals from their nonmammalian cynodont ancestors, and the book concludes by engaging the intriguing question of when and where endothermy evolved among the therapsids.Europe: A Natural History
By Tim Flannery. 2018
A tale of cave bears and comet strikes and a hundred million years of history by the bestselling author of…
Here on Earth: &“Marvelous.&”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) In Europe: A Natural History, world-renowned scientist, explorer, and conservationist Tim Flannery applies the eloquent interdisciplinary approach he used in his ecological histories of Australia and North America to the story of Europe. He begins 100 million years ago, when the continents of Asia, North America, and Africa interacted to create an island archipelago that would later become the Europe we know today. It was on these ancient tropical lands that the first distinctly European organisms evolved. Flannery teaches us about Europe&’s midwife toad, which has endured since the continent&’s beginning, while elephants, crocodiles, and giant sharks have come and gone. He explores the monumental changes wrought by the devastating comet strike and shows how rapid atmospheric shifts transformed the European archipelago into a single landmass during the Eocene. As the story moves through millions of years of evolutionary history, Flannery eventually turns to our own species, describing the immense impact humans had on the continent&’s flora and fauna—within 30,000 years of our arrival in Europe, the woolly rhino, the cave bear, and the giant elk, among others, would disappear completely. The story continues right up to the present, as Flannery describes Europe&’s leading role in wildlife restoration, and then looks ahead to ponder the continent&’s future: with advancements in gene editing technology, European scientists are working to recreate some of the continent&’s lost creatures, such as the great ox of Europe&’s primeval forests and even the woolly mammoth.Sabertooth (Life Of The Past Ser.)
By Mauricio Antón. 2005
With their spectacularly enlarged canines, sabertooth cats are among the most popular of prehistoric animals, yet it is surprising how…
little information about them is available for the curious layperson. What's more, there were other sabertooths that were not cats, animals with exotic names like nimravids, barbourofelids, and thylacosmilids. Some were no taller than a domestic cat, others were larger than a lion, and some were as weird as their names suggest. Sabertooths continue to pose questions even for specialists. What did they look like? How did they use their spectacular canine teeth? And why did they finally go extinct? In this visual and intellectual treat of a book, Mauricio Antón tells their story in words and pictures, all scrupulously based on the latest scientific research. The book is a glorious wedding of science and art that celebrates the remarkable diversity of the life of the not-so-distant past.Dinosaurs in the attic: an excursion into the American Museum of Natural History
By Douglas J Preston. 1986
Somewhat whimsical history of Manhattan's American Museum of Natural History by a longtime museum staffer. No more than two percent…
of the museum's collection is on exhibit on its 700,000 square feet of floor space; the rest is squirreled away in twenty-three interconnected buildings. Preston takes us on a grand tour of its library of bones, labs, vaults, corridors, and storage rooms, reporting on the museum's mind-boggling treasuresPrehistoric: Dinosaurs, Megalodons, and Other Fascinating Creatures of the Deep Past
By Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld, Julius Csotonyi. 2019
A look at the history of life on Earth starts in the present and goes back hundreds of millions of…
years to the Ediacaran Period, profiling the creatures that existed at each time. For grades 2-4. 2019On the Origin of Species, 1859 (The evolution Debate, 1813-1870 Ser.)
By Charles Darwin. 2003
On the Origin of Species caused an uproar when it was first published in 1859. Darwin's theory was that species…
had evolved from simpler organisms by natural selection acting upon the variability of populations. This view was directly opposed to the doctrine of special creation by God and angered the Church and Victorian public opinion. This volume is a facsimile of one of the original copies sent to the eminent geologist Leonard Horner. The volume also includes sample pages from Darwin's original handwritten manuscript; the exclusive property of the Natural History Museum.Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters (Oxford Monographs On Geology And Geophysics Ser. #15)
By Donald R. Prothero. 2017
Donald R. Prothero’s Evolution is an entertaining and rigorous history of the transitional forms and series found in the fossil…
record. Its engaging narrative of scientific discovery and well-grounded analysis has led to the book’s widespread adoption in courses that teach the nature and value of fossil evidence for evolution. Evolution tackles systematics and cladistics, rock dating, neo-Darwinism, and macroevolution. It includes extensive coverage of the primordial soup, invertebrate transitions, the development of the backbone, the reign of the dinosaurs, and the transformation from early hominid to modern human. The book also details the many alleged “missing links” in the fossil record, including some of the most recent discoveries that flesh out the fossil timeline and the evolutionary process.In this second edition, Prothero describes new transitional fossils from various periods, vividly depicting such bizarre creatures as the Odontochelys, or the “turtle on the half shell”; fossil snakes with legs; and the “Frogamander,” a new example of amphibian transition. Prothero’s discussion of intelligent design arguments includes more historical examples and careful examination of the “experiments” and observations that are exploited by creationists seeking to undermine sound science education. With new perspectives, Prothero reframes creationism as a case study in denialism and pseudoscience rather than a field with its own intellectual dynamism. The first edition was hailed as an exemplary exploration of the fossil evidence for evolution, and this second edition will be welcome in the libraries of scholars, teachers, and general readers who stand up for sound science in this post-truth era.Why Dinosaurs Matter (TED Books)
By Kenneth Lacovara. 2017
What can long-dead dinosaurs teach us about our future? Plenty, according to paleontologist Kenneth Lacovara, who has discovered some of…
the largest creatures to ever walk the Earth.By tapping into the ubiquitous wonder that dinosaurs inspire, Lacovara weaves together the stories of our geological awakening, of humanity’s epic struggle to understand the nature of deep time, the meaning of fossils, and our own place on the vast and bountiful tree of life. Go on a journey––back to when dinosaurs ruled the Earth––to discover how dinosaurs achieved feats unparalleled by any other group of animals. Learn the secrets of how paleontologists find fossils, and explore quirky, but profound questions, such as: Is a penguin a dinosaur? And, how are the tiny arms of T. rex the key to its power and ferocity? In this revealing book, Lacovara offers the latest ideas about the shocking and calamitous death of the dinosaurs and ties their vulnerabilities to our own. Why Dinosaurs Matter is compelling and engaging—a great reminder that our place on this planet is both precarious and potentially fleeting. “As we move into an uncertain environmental future, it has never been more important to understand the past.”An Illustrated Guide to Dinosaur Feeding Biology
By Ali Nabavizadeh, David B. Weishampel. 2023
This beautifully illustrated exploration of the diversity, anatomy, and evolution of dinosaur feeding adaptations is the first and only in-depth…
look at this crucial aspect of paleoecology.In An Illustrated Guide to Dinosaur Feeding Biology, experts Ali Nabavizadeh and David B. Weishampel bring dinosaurs to life on the page by exploring and illustrating their feeding adaptations. Whether dinosaurs were carnivorous, herbivorous, or omnivorous, their evolution produced a multitude of specialized adaptations that helped shape their ecologies. Dinosaur skulls show a variety of bone and joint specializations ideal for withstanding stresses and strains induced by high bite forces with strong jaw musculature. The bladed, steak-knife dentition of many carnivorous dinosaurs was well-suited for slicing meat and crushing bones, while the leaf-shaped, sometimes tightly packed dentition of many herbivorous dinosaurs was ideal for grinding up a variety of plant material.The first book of its kind, An Illustrated Guide to Dinosaur Feeding Biology is a synthesis of over a century of dinosaur feeding biology research, from the earliest hypotheses in the 1800s to today's studies using advanced techniques. Intended for both researchers and dinosaur enthusiasts alike, this book discusses functional morphological studies highlighting comparative anatomy, tooth wear, muscle reconstruction, and biomechanical analysis using modeling techniques like finite element analysis and multibody dynamics analysis. In addition to the feeding apparatus, Nabavizadeh and Weishampel explore postcranial adaptations and discuss the evolution of dinosaurs and their paleoecology more broadly. Integrating these various factors improves our understanding of dinosaurs as the living beings they were in their ecosystems millions of years ago and ultimately expands our knowledge and perspective of today's ecosystems by framing them in a broader evolutionary context.Meet the menagerie of lifeforms that dig, crunch, bore, and otherwise reshape our planet. Did you know elephants dig…
ballroom-sized caves alongside volcanoes? Or that parrotfish chew coral reefs and poop sandy beaches? Or that our planet once hosted a five-ton dinosaur-crunching alligator cousin? In fact, almost since its fascinating start, life was boring. Billions of years ago bacteria, algae, and fungi began breaking down rocks in oceans, a role they still perform today. About a half-billion years ago, animal ancestors began drilling, scraping, gnawing, or breaking rocky seascapes. In turn, their descendants crunched through the materials of life itself—shells, wood, and bones. Today, such “bioeroders” continue to shape our planet—from the bacteria that devour our teeth to the mighty moon snail, always hunting for food, as evidenced by tiny snail-made boreholes in clams and other moon snails. There is no better guide to these lifeforms than Anthony J. Martin, a popular science author, paleontologist, and co-discoverer of the first known burrowing dinosaur. Following the crumbs of lichens, sponges, worms, clams, snails, octopi, barnacles, sea urchins, termites, beetles, fishes, dinosaurs, crocodilians, birds, elephants, and (of course) humans, Life Sculpted reveals how bioerosion expanded with the tree of life, becoming an essential part of how ecosystems function while reshaping the face of our planet. With vast knowledge and no small amount of whimsy, Martin uses paleontology, biology, and geology to reveal the awesome power of life’s chewing force. He provokes us to think deeply about the past and present of bioerosion, while also considering how knowledge of this history might aid us in mitigating and adapting to climate change in the future. Yes, Martin concedes, sometimes life can be hard—but life also makes everything less hard every day.The Ecphoras: Iconic Fossils of Eastern North America
By Edward J. Petuch, David P. Berschauer. 2023
In the Miocene and Pliocene fossil shell beds of the eastern United States, the single most spectacular molluscan species radiation…
is seen in the ecphora shells (the Tribe Ecphorini). These bizarrely shaped gastropods, with their distinctive ribbed shell sculpture, represent a separate branch of the Subfamily Ocenebridae, Family Muricidae. Characteristically, these muricid gastropods are heavily ornamented with spiral ribs and cords and are considered some of the most beautiful and interesting groups of fossil mollusks found along the Atlantic Coastal Plain and Floridian Peninsula. The ecphoras are greatly sought after by fossil collectors. The ecphora faunas, and their individual species and subspecies, are illustrated and described in detail, along with photographs of ecphora-bearing geological units and in-situ specimens. The authors list the 67 known species and subspecies that are recognized as valid, arranged by the eight genera and five subgenera that encompass these taxa.