Author: Clare Milsom
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1444311239
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 168
Book Description
Life on Earth has been evolving and interacting with the surface and atmosphere for almost four billion years. Fossils provide a powerful tool in the study of the Earth and its history. They also provide important data for evolutionary studies and contribute to our understanding of the extinction of organisms and the origins of modern biodiversity. Introduces the study of fossils in a simple and straightforward manner. Short chapters introduce the main topics in the current study of fossils. The most important fossil groups are discussed, from microfossils through invertebrates to vertebrates and plants, followed by a brief narrative of life on earth. Diagrams are central to the book and allow the reader to see most of the important data 'at a glance'. Each topic covers two pages and provides a self-contained suite of information or a starting point for future study.
Fossils at a Glance
Author: Clare Milsom
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1444311239
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 168
Book Description
Life on Earth has been evolving and interacting with the surface and atmosphere for almost four billion years. Fossils provide a powerful tool in the study of the Earth and its history. They also provide important data for evolutionary studies and contribute to our understanding of the extinction of organisms and the origins of modern biodiversity. Introduces the study of fossils in a simple and straightforward manner. Short chapters introduce the main topics in the current study of fossils. The most important fossil groups are discussed, from microfossils through invertebrates to vertebrates and plants, followed by a brief narrative of life on earth. Diagrams are central to the book and allow the reader to see most of the important data 'at a glance'. Each topic covers two pages and provides a self-contained suite of information or a starting point for future study.
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1444311239
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 168
Book Description
Life on Earth has been evolving and interacting with the surface and atmosphere for almost four billion years. Fossils provide a powerful tool in the study of the Earth and its history. They also provide important data for evolutionary studies and contribute to our understanding of the extinction of organisms and the origins of modern biodiversity. Introduces the study of fossils in a simple and straightforward manner. Short chapters introduce the main topics in the current study of fossils. The most important fossil groups are discussed, from microfossils through invertebrates to vertebrates and plants, followed by a brief narrative of life on earth. Diagrams are central to the book and allow the reader to see most of the important data 'at a glance'. Each topic covers two pages and provides a self-contained suite of information or a starting point for future study.
Fossils at a Glance
Author: Clare Milsom
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118687817
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 339
Book Description
Fossils provide a powerful tool for the study of the nearly 4-billion-year history of life, and its role in the evolution of Earth systems. They also provide important data for evolutionary studies, and contribute to our understanding of the extinction of organisms and the origins of modern biodiversity. Fossils At A Glance is written for students taking an introductory level course in paleontology. Short chapters introduce the main topics in the modern study of fossils. The most important fossil groups are discussed, from microfossils through invertebrates to vertebrates and plants, followed by a brief narrative of life on Earth. Diagrams are central to the book and allow the reader to see most of the important data “at a glance”. Each topic covers two pages and provides a self-contained suite of information or a starting point for future study. This second edition has been thoroughly revised and brought up to date. It includes new line diagrams as well as photographs of selected fossils
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118687817
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 339
Book Description
Fossils provide a powerful tool for the study of the nearly 4-billion-year history of life, and its role in the evolution of Earth systems. They also provide important data for evolutionary studies, and contribute to our understanding of the extinction of organisms and the origins of modern biodiversity. Fossils At A Glance is written for students taking an introductory level course in paleontology. Short chapters introduce the main topics in the modern study of fossils. The most important fossil groups are discussed, from microfossils through invertebrates to vertebrates and plants, followed by a brief narrative of life on Earth. Diagrams are central to the book and allow the reader to see most of the important data “at a glance”. Each topic covers two pages and provides a self-contained suite of information or a starting point for future study. This second edition has been thoroughly revised and brought up to date. It includes new line diagrams as well as photographs of selected fossils
Your Inner Fish
Author: Neil Shubin
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307377164
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 258
Book Description
The paleontologist and professor of anatomy who co-discovered Tiktaalik, the “fish with hands,” tells a “compelling scientific adventure story that will change forever how you understand what it means to be human” (Oliver Sacks). By examining fossils and DNA, he shows us that our hands actually resemble fish fins, our heads are organized like long-extinct jawless fish, and major parts of our genomes look and function like those of worms and bacteria. Your Inner Fish makes us look at ourselves and our world in an illuminating new light. This is science writing at its finest—enlightening, accessible and told with irresistible enthusiasm.
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307377164
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 258
Book Description
The paleontologist and professor of anatomy who co-discovered Tiktaalik, the “fish with hands,” tells a “compelling scientific adventure story that will change forever how you understand what it means to be human” (Oliver Sacks). By examining fossils and DNA, he shows us that our hands actually resemble fish fins, our heads are organized like long-extinct jawless fish, and major parts of our genomes look and function like those of worms and bacteria. Your Inner Fish makes us look at ourselves and our world in an illuminating new light. This is science writing at its finest—enlightening, accessible and told with irresistible enthusiasm.
Life Traces of the Georgia Coast
Author: Anthony J. Martin
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253006023
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 715
Book Description
Have you ever wondered what left behind those prints and tracks on the seashore, or what made those marks or dug those holes in the dunes? Life Traces of the Georgia Coast is an up-close look at these traces of life and the animals and plants that made them. It tells about how the tracemakers lived and how they interacted with their environments. This is a book about ichnology (the study of such traces) and a wonderful way to learn about the behavior of organisms, living and long extinct. Life Traces presents an overview of the traces left by modern animals and plants in this biologically rich region; shows how life traces relate to the environments, natural history, and behaviors of their tracemakers; and applies that knowledge toward a better understanding of the fossilized traces that ancient life left in the geologic record. Augmented by illustrations of traces made by both ancient and modern organisms, the book shows how ancient trace fossils directly relate to modern traces and tracemakers, among them, insects, grasses, crabs, shorebirds, alligators, and sea turtles. The result is an aesthetically appealing and scientifically grounded book that will serve as source both for scientists and for anyone interested in the natural history of the Georgia coast.
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253006023
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 715
Book Description
Have you ever wondered what left behind those prints and tracks on the seashore, or what made those marks or dug those holes in the dunes? Life Traces of the Georgia Coast is an up-close look at these traces of life and the animals and plants that made them. It tells about how the tracemakers lived and how they interacted with their environments. This is a book about ichnology (the study of such traces) and a wonderful way to learn about the behavior of organisms, living and long extinct. Life Traces presents an overview of the traces left by modern animals and plants in this biologically rich region; shows how life traces relate to the environments, natural history, and behaviors of their tracemakers; and applies that knowledge toward a better understanding of the fossilized traces that ancient life left in the geologic record. Augmented by illustrations of traces made by both ancient and modern organisms, the book shows how ancient trace fossils directly relate to modern traces and tracemakers, among them, insects, grasses, crabs, shorebirds, alligators, and sea turtles. The result is an aesthetically appealing and scientifically grounded book that will serve as source both for scientists and for anyone interested in the natural history of the Georgia coast.
Window Into the Jurassic World
Author: Nicholas G. McDonald
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780982590508
Category : Dinosaur State Park (Conn.)
Languages : en
Pages : 105
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780982590508
Category : Dinosaur State Park (Conn.)
Languages : en
Pages : 105
Book Description
The Illustrated Handbook of Fossils
Author: Steve Parker
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780754829591
Category : NATURE
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
This superb visual directory profiles some of the most fascinating fossils on the planet, with fine photographs of some of the world's best specimens. Over 300 generic groups are named, described and dated. These fossilized organisms are divided into three biological groups: plants, invertebrate animals, and vertebrate animals. With over 600 illustrations showing the complex, intricate process of fossilization as well as the appearance of the living organisms, here is a book to inspire and educate. This handbook provides an informative and accessible approach to the subject that will encourage budding fossil-hunters to trace the remnants of ancient life.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780754829591
Category : NATURE
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
This superb visual directory profiles some of the most fascinating fossils on the planet, with fine photographs of some of the world's best specimens. Over 300 generic groups are named, described and dated. These fossilized organisms are divided into three biological groups: plants, invertebrate animals, and vertebrate animals. With over 600 illustrations showing the complex, intricate process of fossilization as well as the appearance of the living organisms, here is a book to inspire and educate. This handbook provides an informative and accessible approach to the subject that will encourage budding fossil-hunters to trace the remnants of ancient life.
The Dinosaur Artist
Author: Paige Williams
Publisher: Hachette Books
ISBN: 0316382507
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 476
Book Description
In this 2018 New York Times Notable Book,Paige Williams "does for fossils what Susan Orlean did for orchids" (Book Riot) in her account of one Florida man's attempt to sell a dinosaur skeleton from Mongolia--a story "steeped in natural history, human nature, commerce, crime, science, and politics" (Rebecca Skloot). In 2012, a New York auction catalogue boasted an unusual offering: "a superb Tyrannosaurus skeleton." In fact, Lot 49135 consisted of a nearly complete T. bataar, a close cousin to the most famous animal that ever lived. The fossils now on display in a Manhattan event space had been unearthed in Mongolia, more than 6,000 miles away. At eight-feet high and 24 feet long, the specimen was spectacular, and when the gavel sounded the winning bid was over $1 million. Eric Prokopi, a thirty-eight-year-old Floridian, was the man who had brought this extraordinary skeleton to market. A onetime swimmer who spent his teenage years diving for shark teeth, Prokopi's singular obsession with fossils fueled a thriving business hunting, preparing, and selling specimens, to clients ranging from natural history museums to avid private collectors like actor Leonardo DiCaprio. But there was a problem. This time, facing financial strain, had Prokopi gone too far? As the T. bataar went to auction, a network of paleontologists alerted the government of Mongolia to the eye-catching lot. As an international custody battle ensued, Prokopi watched as his own world unraveled. In the tradition of The Orchid Thief, The Dinosaur Artist is a stunning work of narrative journalism about humans' relationship with natural history and a seemingly intractable conflict between science and commerce. A story that stretches from Florida's Land O' Lakes to the Gobi Desert, The Dinosaur Artist illuminates the history of fossil collecting--a murky, sometimes risky business, populated by eccentrics and obsessives, where the lines between poacher and hunter, collector and smuggler, enthusiast and opportunist, can easily blur. In her first book, Paige Williams has given readers an irresistible story that spans continents, cultures, and millennia as she examines the question of who, ultimately, owns the past.
Publisher: Hachette Books
ISBN: 0316382507
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 476
Book Description
In this 2018 New York Times Notable Book,Paige Williams "does for fossils what Susan Orlean did for orchids" (Book Riot) in her account of one Florida man's attempt to sell a dinosaur skeleton from Mongolia--a story "steeped in natural history, human nature, commerce, crime, science, and politics" (Rebecca Skloot). In 2012, a New York auction catalogue boasted an unusual offering: "a superb Tyrannosaurus skeleton." In fact, Lot 49135 consisted of a nearly complete T. bataar, a close cousin to the most famous animal that ever lived. The fossils now on display in a Manhattan event space had been unearthed in Mongolia, more than 6,000 miles away. At eight-feet high and 24 feet long, the specimen was spectacular, and when the gavel sounded the winning bid was over $1 million. Eric Prokopi, a thirty-eight-year-old Floridian, was the man who had brought this extraordinary skeleton to market. A onetime swimmer who spent his teenage years diving for shark teeth, Prokopi's singular obsession with fossils fueled a thriving business hunting, preparing, and selling specimens, to clients ranging from natural history museums to avid private collectors like actor Leonardo DiCaprio. But there was a problem. This time, facing financial strain, had Prokopi gone too far? As the T. bataar went to auction, a network of paleontologists alerted the government of Mongolia to the eye-catching lot. As an international custody battle ensued, Prokopi watched as his own world unraveled. In the tradition of The Orchid Thief, The Dinosaur Artist is a stunning work of narrative journalism about humans' relationship with natural history and a seemingly intractable conflict between science and commerce. A story that stretches from Florida's Land O' Lakes to the Gobi Desert, The Dinosaur Artist illuminates the history of fossil collecting--a murky, sometimes risky business, populated by eccentrics and obsessives, where the lines between poacher and hunter, collector and smuggler, enthusiast and opportunist, can easily blur. In her first book, Paige Williams has given readers an irresistible story that spans continents, cultures, and millennia as she examines the question of who, ultimately, owns the past.
The First Fossil Hunters
Author: Adrienne Mayor
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691245606
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 400
Book Description
The fascinating story of how the fossils of dinosaurs, mammoths, and other extinct animals influenced some of the most spectacular creatures of classical mythology Griffins, Centaurs, Cyclopes, and Giants—these fabulous creatures of classical mythology continue to live in the modern imagination through the vivid accounts that have come down to us from the ancient Greeks and Romans. But what if these beings were more than merely fictions? What if monstrous creatures once roamed the earth in the very places where their legends first arose? This is the arresting and original thesis that Adrienne Mayor explores in The First Fossil Hunters. Through careful research and meticulous documentation, she convincingly shows that many of the giants and monsters of myth did have a basis in fact—in the enormous bones of long-extinct species that were once abundant in the lands of the Greeks and Romans. As Mayor shows, the Greeks and Romans were well aware that a different breed of creatures once inhabited their lands. They frequently encountered the fossilized bones of these primeval beings, and they developed sophisticated concepts to explain the fossil evidence, concepts that were expressed in mythological stories. The legend of the gold-guarding griffin, for example, sprang from tales first told by Scythian gold-miners, who, passing through the Gobi Desert at the foot of the Altai Mountains, encountered the skeletons of Protoceratops and other dinosaurs that littered the ground. Like their modern counterparts, the ancient fossil hunters collected and measured impressive petrified remains and displayed them in temples and museums; they attempted to reconstruct the appearance of these prehistoric creatures and to explain their extinction. Long thought to be fantasy, the remarkably detailed and perceptive Greek and Roman accounts of giant bone finds were actually based on solid paleontological facts. By reading these neglected narratives for the first time in the light of modern scientific discoveries, Adrienne Mayor illuminates a lost world of ancient paleontology.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691245606
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 400
Book Description
The fascinating story of how the fossils of dinosaurs, mammoths, and other extinct animals influenced some of the most spectacular creatures of classical mythology Griffins, Centaurs, Cyclopes, and Giants—these fabulous creatures of classical mythology continue to live in the modern imagination through the vivid accounts that have come down to us from the ancient Greeks and Romans. But what if these beings were more than merely fictions? What if monstrous creatures once roamed the earth in the very places where their legends first arose? This is the arresting and original thesis that Adrienne Mayor explores in The First Fossil Hunters. Through careful research and meticulous documentation, she convincingly shows that many of the giants and monsters of myth did have a basis in fact—in the enormous bones of long-extinct species that were once abundant in the lands of the Greeks and Romans. As Mayor shows, the Greeks and Romans were well aware that a different breed of creatures once inhabited their lands. They frequently encountered the fossilized bones of these primeval beings, and they developed sophisticated concepts to explain the fossil evidence, concepts that were expressed in mythological stories. The legend of the gold-guarding griffin, for example, sprang from tales first told by Scythian gold-miners, who, passing through the Gobi Desert at the foot of the Altai Mountains, encountered the skeletons of Protoceratops and other dinosaurs that littered the ground. Like their modern counterparts, the ancient fossil hunters collected and measured impressive petrified remains and displayed them in temples and museums; they attempted to reconstruct the appearance of these prehistoric creatures and to explain their extinction. Long thought to be fantasy, the remarkably detailed and perceptive Greek and Roman accounts of giant bone finds were actually based on solid paleontological facts. By reading these neglected narratives for the first time in the light of modern scientific discoveries, Adrienne Mayor illuminates a lost world of ancient paleontology.
Seven Skeletons
Author: Lydia Pyne
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0698409426
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 290
Book Description
An irresistible journey of discovery, science, history, and myth making, told through the lives and afterlives of seven famous human ancestors Over the last century, the search for human ancestors has spanned four continents and resulted in the discovery of hundreds of fossils. While most of these discoveries live quietly in museum collections, there are a few that have become world-renowned celebrity personas—ambassadors of science that speak to public audiences. In Seven Skeletons, historian of science Lydia Pyne explores how seven such famous fossils of our ancestors have the social cachet they enjoy today. Drawing from archives, museums, and interviews, Pyne builds a cultural history for each celebrity fossil—from its discovery to its afterlife in museum exhibits to its legacy in popular culture. These seven include the three-foot tall “hobbit” from Flores, the Neanderthal of La Chapelle, the Taung Child, the Piltdown Man hoax, Peking Man, Australopithecus sediba, and Lucy—each embraced and celebrated by generations, and vivid examples of how discoveries of how our ancestors have been received, remembered, and immortalized. With wit and insight, Pyne brings to life each fossil, and how it is described, put on display, and shared among scientific communities and the broader public. This fascinating, endlessly entertaining book puts the impact of paleoanthropology into new context, a reminder of how our past as a species continues to affect, in astounding ways, our present culture and imagination.
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0698409426
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 290
Book Description
An irresistible journey of discovery, science, history, and myth making, told through the lives and afterlives of seven famous human ancestors Over the last century, the search for human ancestors has spanned four continents and resulted in the discovery of hundreds of fossils. While most of these discoveries live quietly in museum collections, there are a few that have become world-renowned celebrity personas—ambassadors of science that speak to public audiences. In Seven Skeletons, historian of science Lydia Pyne explores how seven such famous fossils of our ancestors have the social cachet they enjoy today. Drawing from archives, museums, and interviews, Pyne builds a cultural history for each celebrity fossil—from its discovery to its afterlife in museum exhibits to its legacy in popular culture. These seven include the three-foot tall “hobbit” from Flores, the Neanderthal of La Chapelle, the Taung Child, the Piltdown Man hoax, Peking Man, Australopithecus sediba, and Lucy—each embraced and celebrated by generations, and vivid examples of how discoveries of how our ancestors have been received, remembered, and immortalized. With wit and insight, Pyne brings to life each fossil, and how it is described, put on display, and shared among scientific communities and the broader public. This fascinating, endlessly entertaining book puts the impact of paleoanthropology into new context, a reminder of how our past as a species continues to affect, in astounding ways, our present culture and imagination.
Dinosaur Discovery
Author: Chris McGowan
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1442435550
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 48
Book Description
What do dinosaurs look like from the inside out? Take a journey with renowned paleontologist Chris McGowan as he examines species from Allosaurus to T. rex! Along with descriptions and depictions of each creature are experiments that readers can do on their own to make sedimentary rock, replicate a fossil, dissect bone structure, and discover how we know about dinosaurs even though they’ve been extinct for millions of years. With Dinosaur Discovery’s accessible and entertaining information and more than twenty-five engaging experiments, aspiring young scientists will be paleontologists in no time!
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1442435550
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 48
Book Description
What do dinosaurs look like from the inside out? Take a journey with renowned paleontologist Chris McGowan as he examines species from Allosaurus to T. rex! Along with descriptions and depictions of each creature are experiments that readers can do on their own to make sedimentary rock, replicate a fossil, dissect bone structure, and discover how we know about dinosaurs even though they’ve been extinct for millions of years. With Dinosaur Discovery’s accessible and entertaining information and more than twenty-five engaging experiments, aspiring young scientists will be paleontologists in no time!