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Books : Science : Evolution : Paleontology : Paleozoology
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Griffins, Cyclopes, Monsters, 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
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Sharks and dinosaurs, dinosaurs and sharks, we find them both alien and awe-inspiring, at once utterly inhuman and somehow irresistibly compelling. But forget Jaws and Jurassic Park—nothing can prepare you for Sea Monsters: Prehistoric Creatures of the Deep, an amazing plunge into the Cretaceous oceans of 80 million years ago, a merciless realm ruled by the most ferocious animals ever to stalk the seas of planet Earth. More terrifying than anything known to humankind, it scarcely seems possible that these swift, massive underwater predators actually existed, but they did—and this is their frightening, fascinating, unforgettable story.
Featuring incredibly realistic computer-generated images and 3-D film clips—with 3-D glasses—field photography by National Geographic cameramen, and much more, the book interweaves dramatic scenes of the far, far distant past; up-to-the-minute scientific profiles of nearly two dozen sea monsters; and a group portrait of the eccentric Sternberg family, Kansas-bred pioneers of marine paleontology. From giant sharks and fierce reptiles to the fossil-hunters who proved that today's land-locked Great Plains were once submerged, to the cutting-edge Large Format Film technology that made Sea Monsters possible, this book and the movie behind it will forever change how we think about marine predators—and make us look at the oceans of our world with new eyes and a shivery mix of wonderment and ancient, instinctive fear.
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Xiaoming Wang and Richard H. Tedford have spent the past 20 years studying the evolutionary history of the family Canidae. Both are well known for having established the modern framework for the evolutionary relationship of canids. Combining their research with Mauricio Antón's impeccable reconstructions of both extinct and extant species, Wang and Tedford present a remarkably detailed and nuanced portrait of the origin and evolution of canids over the past 40 million years.
The authors cull their history from the most recent scientific research conducted on the vast collections of the American Museum of Natural History and other leading institutions. The fossil record of the Canidae, particularly those from their birth place in North America, are the strongest of their kind among known groups of carnivorans. Such a wonderfully detailed evolutionary history provides access to a natural history that is not possible with many other groups of carnivorans.
With their rich fossil record, diverse adaptations to various environments, and different predatory specializations, canids are an ideal model organism for the mapping of predator behavior and morphological specializations. They also offer an excellent contrast to felids, which remain entrenched in extreme predatory specializations. The innovative illustrated approach in this book is the perfect accompaniment to an extremely important branch of animal and fossil study. It transforms the science of paleontology into a thrilling visual experience and provides an unprecedented reference for anyone fascinated by dogs.
(6/1/09)
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Among the major events in evolutionary history, few rival in importance the appearance of animals. The Rise of Animals—a significant reference providing a comprehensive synthesis of the early radiation of the animal kingdom—fully captures this moment in geologic time.
Five of the world's leading paleontologists take us on a journey to the most important fossil sites that serve as unique windows to the earliest animal life—including the Ediacara Hills of Australia, the Russian taiga and tundra, the deserts of southwest Africa, and the rugged coasts of Newfoundland. Each of these places holds a rich fossil record that reveals how the animal form came into existence and why some groups succeeded while others failed. The authors describe the diversification of the Kingdom Animalia into the familiar body plans of today: from simple animals such as sponges to complex groups like mollusks, arthropods, echinoderms, and chordates that appear explosively in the Cambrian.
This exquisitely illustrated book reveals the early moments of an evolutionary process that eventually resulted in our own species. An essential resource for paleontologists, biologists, geologists, and teachers, The Rise of Animals is the best single reference on one of earth’s most significant events.
(2008)
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This is a hands-on guide for graduate students and young researchers wishing to perfect the practical skills needed for a successful research career. By teaching junior scientists to develop effective research habits, the book helps to make the experience of graduate study a more efficient and rewarding one. The authors have taught a graduate course on the topics covered for many years, and provide a sample curriculum for instructors in graduate schools wanting to teach a similar course. Topics covered include: choosing a research topic, department, and advisor; making workplans; the ethics of research; using scientific literature; perfecting oral and written communication; publishing papers; writing proposals; managing time effectively; and planning a scientific career and applying for jobs in research and industry. The wealth of advice is invaluable to students, junior researchers and mentors in all fields of science, engineering, and the humanities.
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The date is January 11, 1911. A young German paleontologist, accompanied only by a guide, a cook, four camels, and a couple of camel drivers, reaches the lip of the vast Bahariya Depression after a long trek across the bleak plateau of the western desert of Egypt. The scientist, Ernst Freiherr Stromer von Reichenbach, hopes to find fossil evidence of early mammals. In this, he will be disappointed, for the rocks here will prove to be much older than he thinks. They are nearly a hundred million years old. Stromer is about to learn that he has walked into the age of the dinosaurs.
At the bottom of the Bahariya Depression, Stromer will find the remains of four immense and entirely new dinosaurs, along with dozens of other unique specimens. But there will be reversals—shipments delayed for years by war, fossils shattered in transit, stunning personal and professional setbacks. Then, in a single cataclysmic night, all of his work will be destroyed and Ernst Stromer will slip into history and be forgotten.
The date is January 11, 2000—eighty-nine years to the day after Stromer descended into Bahariya. Another young paleontologist, Ameri-can graduate student Josh Smith, has brought a team of fellow scientists to Egypt to find Stromer’s dinosaur graveyard and resurrect the German pioneer’s legacy. After weeks of digging, often under appalling conditions, they fail utterly at rediscovering any of Stromer’s dinosaur species.
Then, just when they are about to declare defeat, Smith’s team discovers a dinosaur of such staggering immensity that it will stun the world of paleontology and make headlines around the globe.
Masterfully weaving together history, science, and human drama, The Lost Dinosaurs of Egypt is the gripping account of not one but two of the twentieth century’s great expeditions of discovery.
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Renowned dinosaur artist Luis V. Rey and paleontologist and writer Henry Gee use up to the minute research findings to paint a vivid picture of the dinosaurs' world. Their unique approach gives readers lifelike portrayals of dinosaurs similar to that of naturalists in the wild, observing living animals of our own era.
- Experience dinosaurs as living, breathing creatures, each kind described "from the field" and shown in breathtaking illustrations
- Observe dinosaur physiology in full color paintings, anatomical sketches, and a host of fascinating incidental detail, much of it never published outside specialist journals
- Understand the dinosaurs' environment in terms of the world's changing face throughout the 180 million year extent of the dinosaur dominated Mesozoic Era, with a detailed, full color chart that relates the time span of each dinosaur group
- At a glance icons convey key information about different dinosaur groups, including size, taxonomy, geological period, and geographical origins
- Experience dinosaurs as living, breathing creatures, each kind described "from the field" and shown in breathtaking illustrations
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Mammoths, Sabertooths, and Hominids takes us on a journey through 65 million years, from the aftermath of the extinction of the dinosaurs to the glacial climax of the Pleistocene epoch; from the rain forests of the Paleocene and the Eocene, with their lemur-like primates, to the harsh landscape of the Pleistocene Steppes, home to the woolly mammoth. It is also a journey through space, following the migrations of mammal species that evolved on other continents and eventually met to compete or coexist in Cenozoic Europe. Finally, it is a journey through the complexity of mammalian evolution, a review of the changes and adaptations that have allowed mammals to flourish and become the dominant land vertebrates on Earth.
With the benefit of recent advances in geological and geophysical techniques, Jordi Agustí and Mauricio Antón are able to trace the processes of mammalian evolution as never before; events that hitherto appeared synchronous or at least closely related can now be distinguished on a scale of hundreds or even dozens of thousands of years, revealing the dramatic importance of climactic changes both major and minor. Evolutionary developments are rendered in magnificent illustrations of the many extraordinary species that once inhabited Europe, detailing their osteology, functional anatomy, and inferred patterns of locomotion and behavior. Based on the latest research and field work, Mammoths, Sabertooths, and Hominids transforms our understanding of how mammals evolved and changed the face of the planet.
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Other than seeing them in popular movies such as Jurassic Park, how do people today know what dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals looked like? Only their fossils remain, but thanks to paleoartists most people have a good idea of what these creatures looked like. The world of paleoart and its artists are the subject of this richly illustrated work. It explores themes in the depiction of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals, paleoart's history and speculative nature and its effect on scientists' impressions of prehistoric animals. Also explored are such topics as the careers of several paleoartists, including Georges Cuvier, Gideon Mantell, John Martin, Neave Parker, Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins and Charles R. Knight, the depiction of scientific ideas about dinosaurs and prehistoric animals on canvas and in sculpture, the purpose and process of restoring them in museums, the significance of certain restorations and images, and the development of paleoart in America.
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Science. Earth's First Steps is the story of one man's determined search to unlock the mysteries of animals that roamed the earth 280 million years ago, long before the dinosaurs.
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Throughout the four hundred thousand years that humanity has been collecting fossils, sea urchin fossils, or echinoids, have continually been among the most prized, from the Paleolithic era, when they decorated flint axes, to today, when paleobiologists study them for clues to the earth’s history.
In The Star-Crossed Stone, Kenneth J. McNamara, an expert on fossil echinoids, takes readers on an incredible fossil hunt, with stops in history, paleontology, folklore, mythology, art, religion, and much more. Beginning with prehistoric times, when urchin fossils were used as jewelry, McNamara reveals how the fossil crept into the religious and cultural lives of societies around the world—the roots of the familiar five-pointed star, for example, can be traced to the pattern found on urchins. But McNamara’s vision is even broader than that: using our knowledge of early habits of fossil collecting, he explores the evolution of the human mind itself, drawing striking conclusions about humanity’s earliest appreciation of beauty and the first stirrings of artistic expression. Along the way, the fossil becomes a nexus through which we meet brilliant eccentrics and visionary archaeologists and develop new insights into topics as seemingly disparate as hieroglyphics, Beowulf, and even church organs.
An idiosyncratic celebration of science, nature, and human ingenuity, The Star-Crossed Stone is as charming and unforgettable as the fossil at its heart.
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The mammoth is one of the great icons of extinction. This book tells the exciting story of the mammoth, how it lived and died and how its memory lives on in the present day.
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Paleontological history was made in 1877 when tons of fossil dinosaur bones were uncovered at Como Bluff, Wyoming, the first major discovery of such remains anywhere in the world. Onthniel C. March, then director of Yale's Peabody Museum, managed to finance and claim the greater portion of the excavations. He reunited the sections and, at a total cost during the 1880s of over $45,000, had lithographs mage of many of the bones. This volume, to be published in conjunction with the centennial celebration in October 1966 of the founding of the museum, makes most of the lithographs available for the first time in published form. In addition to to providing the descriptive data accompanying each plate, the authors recount, in their Introduction, the fascinating story behind the collection of the coveted Como Bluff fossil bones. 149 plates, 5 watercolors, 4 maps, and fold-out photograph of the Como Bluff site are included.Mr. Ostrom and Mr. McIntosh are associate curator and research associate, respectively, of vertebrate paleontology at the Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University.This edition of the book includes a new foreword by Peter Dodson that places the discovery at Como Bluff—as well as the book that describes it—in historical perspective, and a historical overview by Clifford Miles and David Hamblin that presents the current state of work at this famous site.
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This volume highlights current research in the field of animal behavior, with an emphasis on evolutionary perspectives. The contributors represent paleontological, field, and experimental approaches. They focus on a series of studies that confront wide-ranging issues, including sexual selection, mate choice, differential parental investment, apparent altruism, cooperative behavior, and the relevance of phylogenetic constraints and historical information. The volume will be of special interest to evolutionary biologists, behavioral ecologists, and paleontologists.
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Ancient DNA refers to DNA which can be recovered and analyzed from clinical, museum, archaeological and paleontological specimens. Ancient DNA ranges in age from less than 100 years to tens of millions of years. The study of ancient DNA is a young field, but it has been revolutionized by the application of polymerase chain reaction technology, and interest is growing very rapidly. Fields as diverse as evolution, anthropology, medicine, agriculture, and even law enforcement have quickly found applications in the recovery of ancient DNA. This book contains contributions from many of the "first generation" researchers who pioneered the development and application of ancient DNA methods. Their chapters present the protocols and precautions which have resulted in the remarkable results obtained in recent years. The range of subjects reflects the wide diversity of applications that are emerging in research on ancient DNA, including the study of DNA to analyze kinship, recovery of DNA from organisms trapped in amber, ancient DNA from human remains preserved in a variety of locations and conditions, DNA recovered from herbarium and museum specimens, and DNA isolated from ancient plant seeds or compression fossils. Ancient DNA will serve as a valuable source of information, ideas, and protocols for anyone interested in this extraordinary field.
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On Methuselah's Trail tells the story of some of the Earth's most remarkable inhabitants living fossils. Labelled 'living fossils' by Darwin, the ancient animals and plants Peter Ward explores have survived with little or no change the cataclysmic events that transformed life on earth. These 'Methuselahs' can tell us much about the history of life and about the great extinction periods in which so many other species died out.