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Books : Science : Evolution : Paleontology : Vertebrate
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Since ancient times humans have felt intuitively that emotions and health are linked. But without compelling evidence, it has been impossible to say for sure that such a connection really exists and especially how it works. Now that evidence has been discovered.A thrilling scientific detective story, The Balance Within tells how researchers finally uncovered the elusive mind-body connection. In this beautifully written book, author Esther Sternberg--a scientist whose discoveries were pivotal in helping to solve this mystery--provides first hand accounts of the breakthrough experiments that revealed the physical mechanisms--the nerves, cells, and hormones--used by the brain and immune system to communicate with each other. She describes just how the immune system can alter our moods, and how stress can make us more susceptible to all types of illnesses. Finally, she explains why understanding these connections in scientific terms can help answer such crucial questions as "Does stress make you sick?" "Does believing make you well?" and "How do our personal relationships affect our health?"
A fascinating, elegantly written portrait of a rapidly emerging science with enormous potential for finding new ways to treat disease and cope with stress, The Balance Within is essential reading for anyone interested in making their body and mind whole again.
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For courses in Vertebrate Zoology, Vertebrate Biology Function, as well as specialty courses such as Paleontology and Herpetology. Widely praised for its comprehensive coverage and exceptionally clear writing style, this best-selling exploration of vertebrate life is the only text that integrates the ecology, behavior, morphology and physiology of vertebrates in a phylogenetic context. It focuses on how animals work and the consequences - in ecological and evolutionary time - of working one way versus another. *NEW - Expands the cladistic classification - especially in our treatment of anatomy and physiology. *NEW - Simplifies cladograms. - Prunes excessive detail while retaining information about the geologic time span for the lineages illustrated. *NEW - Updates literature citations - with many references from 1995 onward. *Presents information in a phylogenetic (evolutionary) context *Integrates ecology, behavior, physiology and morphology to present a view of animals as functioning systems *Offers a cladistic perspective, reflecting the widespread adoption of phylogenetic systematics (cladistics) as the basis for determining the evolutionary relationships of organisms *Includes cladograms - with accompanying synopses and primary references - illustrating the postulated relationships of vertebrates to reconcile the views of various authorities and illuminates major areas of disagreement
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Discover how dinosaurs evolved, how they looked, where they lived, how they behaved, and why they died: the current state of knowledge about the Monsters of the Mesozoic, complete in one volume.
Acclaimed dinosaur paleontologist and paleo-artist Gregory S. Paul conducts this definitive tour through the 140-million-year existence of the most exotic and interesting group of animals ever to walk the earth, assisted by the world's leading dinosaur experts.
Here you'll find remarkable stories about the first discoveries of dinosaur fossils, the beginnings of dinosaur paleontology, how the field has changed with modern technology, the most sensational finds, and the latest theories. You'll also explore the answers to such questions as:
- Did dinosaurs have feathers?
- Did dinosaurs fly?
- Were the dinosaurs sluggish, cold-blooded reptilians, or something
radically different?
- What are the different dinosaur families, how were they named,
and how are they related?
- What was the dinosaurs' world like, and how did it change during
their reign?
- Are the birds of today the living descendants of predatory dinosaurs?
- How and why did the major dinosaur famihes become extinct?
Filled with spectacular full-color illustrations of dinosaurs in action, plus black-and-white art and graphics. The Scientific American Book of Dinosaurs features the latest information from the field of dinosaur paleontology, presented in a fascinating and accessible format.
You'll never think about dinosaurs the same way again!
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An accessible introduction to the study of dinosaurs that advocates an eclectic approach and places the scientific method at the crux of the studies. This book will balance scientific rigor with a lively text that shows how dinosaurs lived and died as well as what happened to them after they died. Body fossils, trace fossils and taphonomy will be themes.- an accompanying web page for further information
www.blackwell-science.com/dinosaurs- chapter opening 'real life' problem used to introduce topic
- 'So What' section at chapter end to address significance of content to student
- scientific method integrated throughout
- trace fossil theme
- ethics highlighted throughout
- end chapter exercises
Visit the Dinosaur website for web links and resources: http://www.blackwell-science.com/dinosaurs
- an accompanying web page for further information
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This book is the most authoritative encyclopedia ever prepared on dinosaurs and dinosaur science. In addition to entries on specific animals such as Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, and Velociraptor, the Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs covers reproduction, behavior, physiology, and extinction. The book is generously illustrated with many detailed drawings and photographs, and includes color pictures and illustrations that feature interpretations of the best known and most important animals. All alphabetical entries are cross-referenced internally, as well as at the end of each entry. The Encyclopedia includes up-to-date references that encourage the reader to investigate personal interests.
Key Features
* The most authoritative encyclopedia ever prepared on dinosaurs
* Includes many detailed drawings, photographs and illustrations in both color and black-and-white
* Contains comprehensively cross-referenced alphabetical entries with internal references, as well as references at the conclusion of each entry
* Provides in-depth references, allowing readers to pursue independent interests
* Includes sixteen plates and 35 color illustrations
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If you went back in time to the site of Los Angeles as it looked 12,000 years agoat the height of the last Ice Agethe animal population might remind you of Africa. You would see saber-toothed tigers, giant ground sloths and camels, hippos, lions, and enormous scavenging condors, as well as giant bears and wolves. Most spectacular of all would be the great herds of proboscideans: giant mastodons and mammoths, extinct relatives of the elephant. Why are these splendid creatures no longer with us? Why are the great mammals that once walked the earth now largely extinct outside of Africa?Of the two suspected culprits, climate change and human hunting, Ward builds a compelling case for human hunting. Humans arrived in Australia about 40,000 years ago, and the marsupial lions and giant kangaroos vanished soon after; they came to New Zealand 2,000 years ago, and the giant moa was quickly gone; and the American extinction coincides with the spread of the first human population there.
Surprisingly, however, this most recent of prehistoric mass extinctions is far from the best known or most thoroughly studied. In order to understand what happened in the Ice Age, Ward takes us on a tour of mass extinctions through earth's history. He presents a compelling account of the great comet crash that killed off the dinosaurs and describes other extinctions that were even worse. In so doing he introduces us to a profound paradigm shift now taking place in paleontology: rather than arising from the gradual workings of everyday forces, all mass extinctions are due to unique, catastrophic events. They throw a wild card into the game of evolution and start the contest anew.
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For over a century, dinosaurs have been thought of as plodding, dim-witted giant lizards too awkward and ill-equipped to survive the ravages of environmental change. Bakker offers startling new evidence destined to forever alter the perception of the much-maligned monsters, depicting them as never before imagined: hot-blooded, amazingly agile, and surprisingly intelligent. Illustrations.
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The story of the evolution of vertebrates is fascinating. Recently, there has been an explosion of new research topics in the field - the closest fossil relatives of the vertebrates, dramatic new fish specimens unlike anything now living, the adaptations required for the move on to land, the relationships of the early amphibians and reptiles, the origins and biology of the dinosaurs, the role of mass extinction in vertebrate evolution, new Mesozoic birds, the earliest mammals, ecology and mammalian diversification, and the origins and evolution of human beings.This book presents a complete outline of the history of vertebrates, based on the latest studies by palaeontologists around the world. New material comes from North and South America, Australia, Europe, China, Africa and Russia.
A key aim of the book is to show how vertebrate palaeontologists obtain their information. There is an illustrated account of how to dig up a dinosaur and how to interpret the bones. In addition, detailed case studies explain: how palaeontologists study taphonomy, exceptional preservation, the form and function of bizarre animals, and the reconstruction of phylogeny from cladistic analyses of morphological and molecular data.
The new edition is extensively revised, and there is a great deal of new material based on work in the 1990s. There is a new chapter on how to study fossil vertebrates. Another major change is that more emphasis has been given to cladograms. They are set apart from the body of the text, and full lists of diagnostic characters are now given.
The book is designed for palaeontology courses in biology and geology departments. It is also aimed at the enthusiast who wants to experience how leading palaeontologists design their research programs and carry out multidisciplinary studies of ancient vertebrates. The book has a strong phylogenetic focus, and this makes it an up-to-date source of the latest broad-scale systematic data on vertebrate evolution.
- The second edition of a very popular and proven text.
- Detailed case studies are presented, which show how palaeontologists actually work.
- Includes an illustrated account of how to dig up a dinosaur, and how to interpret the bones.
- The second edition of a very popular and proven text.
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This bird's-eye view of evolution through the story of "Archaeopteryx", the fossil skeleton of a transitional bird-reptile, offers a stunning glimpse into the origins of flight--and the drama with which scientific understanding unfolds. Illustrations National print publicity.
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An investigation of the evolution of backboned animals (vertebrates), now appearing in its Fourth Edition. Traces the history of each major vertebrate group from its origin to its extinction or the emergence of the next, more advanced group. Contains drawings and illustrations depicting lifelike renderings of these creatures of the past.
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THIS IS A SHORT DISCOUNT TITLE BOOK AND THE MAXIMUM DISCOUNT (ON ANY QUANTITY) IS ONLY GOING TO BE 20%!!
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An unmatched reference work distinguished by its erudition and beauty, The Simon & Schuster Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Creatures is an illustrated who's who of prehistoric life, a Baedeker of more than 500 million years of evolution on Earth.
With entries for more than 600 species, each arranged in its evolutionary sequence, the book presents a panorama of enormous diversity, from predatory dinosaurs to primitive amphibians, from giant armored fish to woolly mammoths, saber-tooth tigers and dire wolves. Each entry features a specially commissioned full-color painting prepared according to the best research of today in close collaboration with world-renowned paleontologists. The records of the rocks -- fossil bones, teeth, skin, hair and even footprints and nests -- have been combined with knowledge of the anatomy and behavior of present-day descendants to arrive at informed judgments about posture, color and other aspects of appearance.
Lively and informative "biographies" of the creatures accompany these remarkable illustrations: how they moved, what they ate, where they ranged and the habitats and ecological niches they occupied. Comparisons are made wherever possible with familiar living animals, highlighting both the contrasts and similarities. Also included are articles on subjects such as the time scale of evolution, fossil formation and interpretation and convergent evolution.
Truly a magnificent sourcebook, The Simon & Schuster Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Creatures is both a triumph of scholarship and a work of art. It will stand as the best and most accurate presentation of the prehistoric animal world available.
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Since the extinction of the dinosaurs, hoofed mammals have been the planet's dominant herbivores. Native to all continents except Australia and Antarctica, they include not only even-toed artiodactyls (pigs, hippos, camels, deer, antelopes, giraffes, sheep, goats, and cattle) and odd-toed perissodactyls (horses and rhinos), but also tethytheres (elephants and their aquatic relatives, manatees and seas cows) and cetaceans (whales and dolphins), which descended from hoofed land mammals. Recent paleontological and biological discoveries have deepened our understanding of their evolution and in some cases have made previous theories obsolete. In Horns, Tusks, and Flippers, Donald R. Prothero and Robert M. Schoch present a compelling new evolutionary history of these remarkable creatures, combining the latest scientific evidence with the most current information about their ecology and behavior.Using an approach based on cladistics, the authors consider both living and extinct ungulates. Included in their discussion are the stories of rhinos, whose ancestors include both dinosaur-sized hornless species and hippo-like river waders; elephants, whose earliest ancestors had neither tusks nor trunks; and whales, whose descent from hoofed mesonychids has never properly been described for the lay audience. Prothero and Schoch also update the evolutionary history of the horse, correcting the frequent errors made in textbooks and popular works, and they make available to the general public new evidence about the evolution of camels, horned antelopes, and cattle. In addition, they raise important conservation issues and relate anecdotes of significant fossil finds.
Scientifically accurate and up to date, generously illustrated, and clearly written, Horns, Tusks, and Flippers is a useful and much-needed resource for specialists in the fields of paleontology, zoology, ecology, and evolutionary biology, as well as for general readers interested in learning more about the story of life on earth.
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This monumental book is a comprehensive and profusely illustrated exploration of all that is known about the origin of birds and of avian flight. Alan Feduccia, a leading ornithologist and evolutionary biologist, draws on fossil evidence and studies of the structure and biochemistry of living birds to present current knowledge and fresh data on avian evolution and to propose a major new model of this evolutionary process.
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The Primate Fossil Record is a profusely illustrated, up-to-date, and comprehensive treatment of primate paleontology that captures the complete history of the discovery and interpretation of primate fossils. Each chapter emphasizes three key components of the record of primate evolution: history of discovery, taxonomy of the fossils, and evolution of the adaptive radiations they represent. The volume objectively summarizes the many intellectual debates surrounding the fossil record and provides a foundation of reference information on the last two decades of astounding discoveries and worldwide field research for physical anthropologists, paleontologists, and evolutionary biologists.
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