Author: Richard OwenPublisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 176
Book Description
Description of the Skeleton of an Extinct Gigantic Sloth, Mylodon Robustus ...
Author: Richard OwenTwilight of the Mammoths
Author: Paul S. MartinPublisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520252438
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 276
Book Description
"Paul S. Martin's innovative ideas on late quaternary extinctions and wildlife restoration have fueled one of science's most stimulating recent debates. He expounds them vividly here, and defends them eloquently. A must-read."—David Rains Wallace, author of Beasts of Eden "This is a marvelous read, by a giant in American prehistory, about one of the greatest mysteries in the earth sciences."—Tim Flannery, author of The Eternal Frontier "Whether or not you agree with Paul Martin, he has shaped how we think about our Pleistocene ancestors and their role in transforming this planet."—Ross D. E. MacPhee, Curator of Mammalogy, American Museum of Natural History
Descrptn Skeleton Extinct Gigantic Sloth 184
Author: R. OwenThings New and Strange
Author: G. Wayne CloughPublisher: University of Georgia Press
ISBN: 0820355232
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 264
Book Description
Things New and Strange chronicles a research quest undertaken by G. Wayne Clough, the first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution born in the South. Soon after retiring from the Smithsonian, Clough decided to see what the Smithsonian collections could tell him about South Georgia, where he had spent most of his childhood in the 1940s and 1950s. The investigations that followed, which began as something of a quixotic scavenger hunt, expanded as Clough discovered that the collections had many more objects and documents from South Georgia than he had imagined. These objects illustrate important aspects of southern culture and history and also inspire reflections about how South Georgia has changed over time. Clough’s discoveries—animal, plant, fossil, and rock specimens, along with cultural artifacts and works of art—not only serve as a springboard for reflections about the region and its history, they also bring Clough’s own memories of his boyhood in Douglas, Georgia, back to life. Clough interweaves memories of his own experiences, such as hair-raising escapes from poisonous snakes and selling boiled peanuts for a nickel a bag at the annual auction of the tobacco crop, with anecdotes from family lore, which launches an exploration of his forebears and their place in South Georgia history. In following his engaging and personal narrative, we learn how nonspecialists can use museum archives and how family, community, and natural history are intertwined.
Extinct Monsters
Author: Henry Neville HutchinsonPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Dinosaurs
Languages : en
Pages : 332
Book Description
Darwin's Fossils
Author: Adrian ListerPublisher: Smithsonian Institution
ISBN: 158834617X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 233
Book Description
Reveals how Darwin's study of fossils shaped his scientific thinking and led to his development of the theory of evolution. Darwin's Fossils is an accessible account of Darwin's pioneering work on fossils, his adventures in South America, and his relationship with the scientific establishment. While Darwin's research on Galápagos finches is celebrated, his work on fossils is less well known. Yet he was the first to collect the remains of giant extinct South American mammals; he worked out how coral reefs and atolls formed; he excavated and explained marine fossils high in the Andes; and he discovered a fossil forest that now bears his name. All of this research was fundamental in leading Darwin to develop his revolutionary theory of evolution. This richly illustrated book brings Darwin's fossils, many of which survive in museums and institutions around the world, together for the first time. Including new photography of many of the fossils--which in recent years have enjoyed a surge of scientific interest--as well as superb line drawings produced in the nineteenth century and newly commissioned artists' reconstructions of the extinct animals as they are understood today, Darwin's Fossils reveals how Darwin's discoveries played a crucial role in the development of his groundbreaking ideas.
A Memoir on the Extinct Sloth Tribe of North America
Author: Joseph LeidyPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Mammals, Fossil
Languages : en
Pages : 108
Book Description
Vintage Collection of Animal Skeleton Illustrations
Author: Jeremy WarlenPublisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 62
Book Description
This is a rare collection of vintage illustrations of animal skeletons and anatomy. All the drawings done in this book were done by Edouard Joseph d'Alton in 1821-1838.The wide range of animals his work covers (or rather uncovers) include elephants and hippopotamuses, hyenas and polar bears, giraffes and camels, porcupines and red squirrels, as well as the extinct megatherium or giant ground sloth. They are depicted both as complete skeletons inside a silhouette of the living animal and also in separate studies of individual skulls and other bones.
Prehistoric Monsters
Author: Allen A. DebusPublisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786458151
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 341
Book Description
Over centuries, discoveries of fossil bones spawned legends of monsters such as giants and dragons. As the field of earth sciences matured during the 19th century, early fossilists gained understanding of prehistoric creatures such as Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops and Stegosaurus. This historical study examines how these genuine beasts morphed in the public imagination into mythical, powerful engines of destruction and harbingers of cataclysm, taking their place in popular culture, film, and literature as symbols of "lost worlds" where time stands still.
The Rhinoceros and the Megatherium
Author: Juan PimentelPublisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674974425
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 216
Book Description
One animal left India in 1515, caged in the hold of a Portuguese ship, and sailed around Africa to Lisbon—the first of its species to see Europe for more than a thousand years. The other crossed the Atlantic from South America to Madrid in 1789, its huge fossilized bones packed in crates, its species unknown. How did Europeans three centuries apart respond to these two mysterious beasts—a rhinoceros, known only from ancient texts, and a nameless monster? As Juan Pimentel explains, the reactions reflect deep intellectual changes but also the enduring power of image and imagination to shape our understanding of the natural world. We know the rhinoceros today as “Dürer’s Rhinoceros,” after the German artist’s iconic woodcut. His portrait was inaccurate—Dürer never saw the beast and relied on conjecture, aided by a sketch from Lisbon. But the influence of his extraordinary work reflected a steady move away from ancient authority to the dissemination in print of new ideas and images. By the time the megatherium arrived in Spain, that movement had transformed science. When published drawings found their way to Paris, the great zoologist Georges Cuvier correctly deduced that the massive bones must have belonged to an extinct giant sloth. It was a pivotal moment in the discovery of the prehistoric world. The Rhinoceros and the Megatherium offers a penetrating account of two remarkable episodes in the cultural history of science and is itself a vivid example of the scientific imagination at work.