Download or read book Greenhouse of the Dinosaurs written by Donald R. Prothero and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2009-07-01 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Donald R. Prothero's science books combine leading research with first-person narratives of discovery, injecting warmth and familiarity into a profession that has much to offer nonspecialists. Bringing his trademark style and wit to an increasingly relevant subject of concern, Prothero links the climate changes that have occurred over the past 200 million years to their effects on plants and animals. In particular, he contrasts the extinctions that ended the Cretaceous period, which wiped out the dinosaurs, with those of the later Eocene and Oligocene epochs. Prothero begins with the "greenhouse of the dinosaurs," the global-warming episode that dominated the Age of Dinosaurs and the early Age of Mammals. He describes the remarkable creatures that once populated the earth and draws on his experiences collecting fossils in the Big Badlands of South Dakota to sketch their world. Prothero then discusses the growth of the first Antarctic glaciers, which marked the Eocene-Oligocene transition, and shares his own anecdotes of excavations and controversies among colleagues that have shaped our understanding of the contemporary and prehistoric world. The volume concludes with observations about Nisqually Glacier and other locations that show how global warming is happening much quicker than previously predicted, irrevocably changing the balance of the earth's thermostat. Engaging scientists and general readers alike, Greenhouse of the Dinosaurs connects events across thousands of millennia to make clear the human threat to natural climate change.
Download or read book Extinction and Evolution written by Niles Eldredge and published by Firefly Books. This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eldredge's groundbreaking work is now accepted as the definitive statement of how life as we know it evolved on Earth. This book chronicles how Eldredge made his discoveries and traces the history of life through the lenses of paleontology, geology, ecology, anthropology, biology, genetics, zoology, mammalogy, herpetology, entomology and botany. While rigorously accurate, the text is accessible, engaging and free of jargon.
Download or read book Tempo and Mode in Evolution written by George Gaylord Simpson and published by . This book was released on 1965 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Extinction Evolution written by Nicholas Sansbury Smith and published by Orbit. This book was released on 2017-02-14 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fourth book in USA Today bestselling author Nicholas Sansbury Smith's propulsive post-apocalyptic series about one man's mission to save the world. Central Command is gone, the military is fractured, and the surviving members of Team Ghost, led by Master Sergeant Reed Beckham, have been pushed to the breaking point. Betrayed by the country they swore to defend and surrounded by enemies on all sides, Team Ghost has one mission left: protect Dr. Kate Lovato and Dr. Pat Ellis while they develop a weapon to defeat the Variants once and for all. But after a grisly discovery in Atlanta, Kate and Ellis realize their weapon might not be able to stop the evolution of the monsters. Joined by unexpected allies and facing a new threat none of them saw coming, the survivors are running out of time to save the human race from extinction. There's a storm on the horizon. . .
Download or read book The Ghosts Of Evolution written by Connie Barlow and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2008-08-05 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new vision is sweeping through ecological science: The dense web of dependencies that makes up an ecosystem has gained an added dimension-the dimension of time. Every field, forest, and park is full of living organisms adapted for relationships with creatures that are now extinct. In a vivid narrative, Connie Barlow shows how the idea of "missing partners" in nature evolved from isolated, curious examples into an idea that is transforming how ecologists understand the entire flora and fauna of the Americas. This fascinating book will enrich and deepen the experience of anyone who enjoys a stroll through the woods or even down an urban sidewalk. But this knowledge has a dark side too: Barlow's "ghost stories" teach us that the ripples of biodiversity loss around us now are just the leading edge of what may well become perilous cascades of extinction.
Download or read book How I Changed My Mind About Evolution written by Kathryn Applegate and published by Monarch Books. This book was released on 2016-07-15 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over two dozen Christian leaders describe how they changed their minds about evolution Perhaps no topic appears as potentially threatening to evangelicals as evolution. The very idea seems to exclude God from the creation the book of Genesis celebrates. Yet many evangelicals have come to accept the conclusions of science while still holding to a vigorous belief in God and the Bible. How did they make this journey? How did they come to embrace both evolution and faith? Here are stories from a community of people who love Jesus and honor the authority of the Bible, but who also agree with what science says about the cosmos, our planet and the life that so abundantly fills it. Among the contributors are Scientists such as: Francis Collins Deborah Haarsma Denis Lamoureux Theologians and philosophers such as: James K. A. Smith Amos Yong Oliver Crisp Biblical scholars such as: N. T. Wright Scot McKnight Tremper Longman III Pastors such as: John Ortberg Ken Fong Laura Truax
Download or read book The Intellectual Species written by John Rodden and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2022 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the prospects for survival of what we have come to know as â oethe intellectualâ in the post-Gutenberg age. It addresses the contemporary history of this â oespeciesâ spawned in the print age, meditating on the precarious future of international intellectual life in the digital era of nanosecond soundbites, fake news, smart phones, and clicks and scrolls in lieu of reading. The book ponders these issues as it addresses the examples of a diverse group of British, American, French, and German intellectuals of the post- World War II era. These â oecase historiesâ showcase concretely the â oestate of the cultureâ in the context of particular lives, offering diverse intellectual portraiture featuring a wide range of writers across the ideological spectrum. The key family resemblance of these figures is that most of them are contrarians, regardless of whether they were freelance writers or academic intellectuals, American or British or European, and chiefly imaginative writers or non-fiction writers and scholars. Among the intellectuals discussed are George Orwell, Dwight Macdonald, Irving Howe, Camille Paglia, Albert Camus, Robert Havemann, and others. Regardless of which intellectual domains occupied their energies, the histories of all of them yield insight into the transformation of cultural life in recent decades and the contrasting challenges faced by intellectuals of earlier eras versus our own. These issues are of paramount significance for all those who care about the life of the mind and the future of homo sapiens.
Download or read book The Sixth Extinction written by Elizabeth Kolbert and published by Henry Holt and Company. This book was released on 2014-02-11 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR A major book about the future of the world, blending intellectual and natural history and field reporting into a powerful account of the mass extinction unfolding before our eyes Over the last half a billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. This time around, the cataclysm is us. In The Sixth Extinction, two-time winner of the National Magazine Award and New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert draws on the work of scores of researchers in half a dozen disciplines, accompanying many of them into the field: geologists who study deep ocean cores, botanists who follow the tree line as it climbs up the Andes, marine biologists who dive off the Great Barrier Reef. She introduces us to a dozen species, some already gone, others facing extinction, including the Panamian golden frog, staghorn coral, the great auk, and the Sumatran rhino. Through these stories, Kolbert provides a moving account of the disappearances occurring all around us and traces the evolution of extinction as concept, from its first articulation by Georges Cuvier in revolutionary Paris up through the present day. The sixth extinction is likely to be mankind's most lasting legacy; as Kolbert observes, it compels us to rethink the fundamental question of what it means to be human.
Download or read book The Mistaken Extinction written by Lowell Dingus and published by W H Freeman & Company. This book was released on 1998 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For centuries, science has been searching for clues to the disappearance of the dinosaurs without answering a critical question - Are all the dinosaurs really extinct? In The Mistaken Extinction: Dinosaur Evolution and the Origin of Birds, crackerjack paleontologists Lowell Dingus, President of Infoquest, a nonprofit education and research foundation, and former Director of the Fossil Hall Renovation at the American Museum of Natural History and Timothy Rowe, J. Nalle Gregory Regents Professor of Geology at the University of Texas, Austin, and Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Texas Memorial Museum lead us on an adventurous tour through the history of our own planet Earth. And they force us to face a shocking truthThe answer to that critical question is no.
Download or read book Catastrophic Thinking written by David Sepkoski and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2023-12-06 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A history of scientific ideas about extinction that explains why we learned to value diversity as a precious resource at the same time as we learned to “think catastrophically” about extinction. We live in an age in which we are repeatedly reminded—by scientists, by the media, by popular culture—of the looming threat of mass extinction. We’re told that human activity is currently producing a sixth mass extinction, perhaps of even greater magnitude than the five previous geological catastrophes that drastically altered life on Earth. Indeed, there is a very real concern that the human species may itself be poised to go the way of the dinosaurs, victims of the most recent mass extinction some 65 million years ago. How we interpret the causes and consequences of extinction and their ensuing moral imperatives is deeply embedded in the cultural values of any given historical moment. And, as David Sepkoski reveals, the history of scientific ideas about extinction over the past two hundred years—as both a past and a current process—is implicated in major changes in the way Western society has approached biological and cultural diversity. It seems self-evident to most of us that diverse ecosystems and societies are intrinsically valuable, but the current fascination with diversity is a relatively recent phenomenon. In fact, the way we value diversity depends crucially on our sense that it is precarious—that it is something actively threatened, and that its loss could have profound consequences. In Catastrophic Thinking, Sepkoski uncovers how and why we learned to value diversity as a precious resource at the same time as we learned to think catastrophically about extinction.
Download or read book Biodiversity Conservation and Phylogenetic Systematics written by Roseli Pellens and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-02-24 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is about phylogenetic diversity as an approach to reduce biodiversity losses in this period of mass extinction. Chapters in the first section deal with questions such as the way we value phylogenetic diversity among other criteria for biodiversity conservation; the choice of measures; the loss of phylogenetic diversity with extinction; the importance of organisms that are deeply branched in the tree of life, and the role of relict species. The second section is composed by contributions exploring methodological aspects, such as how to deal with abundance, sampling effort, or conflicting trees in analysis of phylogenetic diversity. The last section is devoted to applications, showing how phylogenetic diversity can be integrated in systematic conservation planning, in EDGE and HEDGE evaluations. This wide coverage makes the book a reference for academics, policy makers and stakeholders dealing with biodiversity conservation.
Download or read book The Evolution and Extinction of the Dinosaurs written by David E. Fastovsky and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2005-02-07 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This 2005 edition of The Evolution and Extinction of the Dinosaurs is a unique, comprehensive treatment of this fascinating group of organisms. It is a detailed survey of dinosaur origins, their diversity, and their eventual extinction. The book can easily be used as a teaching textbook for a class, but it is also written as a series of readable, entertaining essays covering important and timely topics appealing to non-specialists and all dinosaur enthusiasts: birds as 'living dinosaurs', the new feathered dinosaurs from China, 'warm-bloodedness'. Along the way, the reader learns about dinosaur functional morphology, physiology, and systematics using cladistic methodology - in short, how professional paleontologists and dinosaur experts go about their work, and why they find it so rewarding. The book is spectacularly illustrated by John Sibbick, a world-famous illustrator of dinosaurs, commissioned exclusively for this book.
Download or read book Future Evolution written by Peter D. Ward and published by W. H. Freeman. This book was released on 2002-01-06 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Everyone wonders what tomorrow holds, but what will the real future look like? Not decades or even hundreds of years from now, but thousands or millions of years into the future. Will our species change radically? Or will we become builders of the next dominant intelligence on Earth- the machine? These and other seemingly fantastic scenarios are the very possible realities explored in Peter Ward's Future Evolution, a penetrating look at what might come next in the history of the planet. Looking to the past for clues about the future, Ward describes how the main catalyst for evolutionary change has historically been mass extinction. While many scientist direly predict that humanity will eventually create such a situation, Ward argues that one is already well underway--the extinction of large mammals--and that a new Age of Humanity is coming that will radically revise the diversity of life on Earth. Finally, Ward examines the question of human extinction and reaches the startling conclusion that the likeliest scenario is not our imminent demise but long term survival--perhaps reaching as far as the death of the Sun! Full of Alexis Rockman's breathtaking color images of what animals, plants and other organisms might look like thousands and millions of years from now, Future Evolution takes readers on an incredible journey through time from the deep past into the far future.
Download or read book Grandmother Fish written by Jonathan Tweet and published by Feiwel & Friends. This book was released on 2016-09-06 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Where did we come from? It's a simple question, but not so simple an answer to explain—especially to young children. Charles Darwin's theory of common descent no longer needs to be a scientific mystery to inquisitive young readers. Meet Grandmother Fish. Told in an engaging call and response text where a child can wiggle like a fish or hoot like an ape and brought to life by vibrant artwork, Grandmother Fish takes children and adults through the history of life on our planet and explains how we are all connected. The book also includes comprehensive backmatter, including: - An elaborate illustration of the evolutionary tree of life - Helpful science notes for parents - How to explain natural selection to a child
Download or read book The Microcosm Within written by William B. Miller, Jr. and published by Universal-Publishers. This book was released on 2013-12-04 with total page 573 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: You are not what you think you are. New research is transforming how we understand ourselvesfrom a singular 'self' to a vast cooperative, co-dependent and collaborative network of cellular environments and ecologiesa microcosm within. From this unique perspective, a startling revision of evolutionary theory unfurls. Sharply reasoned and certain to be controversial, The Microcosm Within takes its readers on a sweeping scientific journey that reorganizes our thinking about our biological selves, evolution, and extinction. Darwin has dominated evolution for over a century. But many issues remain puzzlingWhat is the origin of self-sacrifice? Does natural selection really account for evolution? Why is homosexuality commonplace in the animal kingdom? Why were the arms of Tyrannosaurus Rex so small? Why do some species go extinct yet others endure? The Microcosm Within offers intriguing and profound answers by exploring our extraordinary world of cellular consciousness, connections, and collaboration. Current research has unexpectedly revealed that all cells and microbes have elemental cognition and a previously unappreciated capacity for discrimination and awareness. From these faculties, cooperative natural genetic engineering is enabled; and it is from this starting point that biological complexity evolves. The Microcosm Within illuminates how immunological factors dominate evolution and extinction. Biology and evolutionary theory will never be the same.
Download or read book Genetics and the Extinction of Species written by Laura Landweber and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-01-12 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Darwin's Origin of Species and Dobzhansky's Genetics and the Origin of Species have been the cornerstones of modern evolutionary and population genetic theory for the past hundred years, but in the twenty-first century, biologists will face graver problems of extinction. In this collection, a team of leading biologists demonstrates why the burgeoning field of conservation biology must continue to rely on the insights of population genetics if we are to preserve the diversity of living species. Technological and theoretical developments throughout the 1990s have allowed for important new insights into how populations have evolved in response to past selection pressures, while providing a broad new understanding of the genetic structure of natural populations. The authors explore these advances and argue for the applicability of new genetic methods in conservation biology. The volume covers such topics as the reasons for extinctions, the best ways to measure biodiversity, and the benefits and drawbacks of policies like captive breeding. Genetics and the Extinction of Species is a rich source of information for biologists and policymakers who want to learn more about the host of tools, theories, and approaches available for conserving biodiversity. In addition to the editors, the contributors to the volume are William Amos, Rebecca Cann, Kathryn Rodriguez-Clark, Leslie Douglas, Leonard Freed, Paul Harvey, Kent Holsinger, Russell Lande, and Helen Steers.
Download or read book Improbable Destinies written by Jonathan B. Losos and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2017-08-08 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A major new book overturning our assumptions about how evolution works Earth’s natural history is full of fascinating instances of convergence: phenomena like eyes and wings and tree-climbing lizards that have evolved independently, multiple times. But evolutionary biologists also point out many examples of contingency, cases where the tiniest change—a random mutation or an ancient butterfly sneeze—caused evolution to take a completely different course. What role does each force really play in the constantly changing natural world? Are the plants and animals that exist today, and we humans ourselves, inevitabilities or evolutionary flukes? And what does that say about life on other planets? Jonathan Losos reveals what the latest breakthroughs in evolutionary biology can tell us about one of the greatest ongoing debates in science. He takes us around the globe to meet the researchers who are solving the deepest mysteries of life on Earth through their work in experimental evolutionary science. Losos himself is one of the leaders in this exciting new field, and he illustrates how experiments with guppies, fruit flies, bacteria, foxes, and field mice, along with his own work with anole lizards on Caribbean islands, are rewinding the tape of life to reveal just how rapid and predictable evolution can be. Improbable Destinies will change the way we think and talk about evolution. Losos's insights into natural selection and evolutionary change have far-reaching applications for protecting ecosystems, securing our food supply, and fighting off harmful viruses and bacteria. This compelling narrative offers a new understanding of ourselves and our role in the natural world and the cosmos.
