Full color, full page reconstructions of life in Virginia from the Cambrian Period (over 500 million years ago) down to the present day. Includes color drawings of representative living plants and animals as well as fossil specimens. Simplified paleogeographic and geologic maps are provided for each period of Earth's history that is represented in Virginia's fossil record. By the author of "Fossil Collecting in the Mid-Atlantic States" and many other books about fossils, prehistoric life, and human and natural history.

Throughout the last Ice Age, hundreds of tribes of talented swarthy, dark-haired, brown-eyed, small stature humans found shelter and lived in deep dark mountain caves of southern France for thousands of years. During this long frigid almost sunless tundra-like cave life existence, these Ice Age refugees metamorphosed by natural selection into the world's blonde haired, blue-eyed, fair-skinned race. The astonishing prehistoric survival and changes in these "Glacier People" is incomprehensible. This book relates up to modern day the incredible whereabouts and times of these people.

The piercing together of the extensive research for this book has exposed unsought answers to many unsolved mysteries of the world, including those listed below:

Who built Stonehenge? Where is the specific location of the Garden of Eden? Why and when was Atlantis drowned and where is it located? Why did the North Pole axis migrate into Greenland 18,000 years ago? When and where did Noah's flood occur and who were drowned? Who were the ancient Hebrews and from where did they come? Why does global warming cyclically occur every 100,000 years? What scientifically confirmed occurrences caused the recent Ice Age? Who were the biblical "giants in the land"-Were they your ancestors? Why were no Arabs in Egypt during the pyramid-building era? Why were there no camels in Egypt in the pyramid era? Who erected the thousands of ancient European coastline megaliths? From where did the black Irish, Druids and Piets come? Why was England exclusively German before it became "English"? Is that why the German word "England" was chosen? Why are some racial groups addictable to alcohol and others not? What is an echo in the genes?
Enjoy, have fun, be amazed and learn.

As recently as 11,000 years ago--"near time" to geologists--mammoths, mastodons, gomphotheres, ground sloths, giant armadillos, native camels and horses, the dire wolf, and many other large mammals roamed North America. In what has become one of science's greatest riddles, these large animals vanished in North and South America around the time humans arrived at the end of the last great ice age. Part paleontological adventure and part memoir, "Twilight of the Mammoths "presents in detail internationally renowned paleoecologist Paul Martin's widely discussed and debated "overkill" hypothesis to explain these mysterious megafauna extinctions. Taking us from Rampart Cave in the Grand Canyon, where he finds himself "chest deep in sloth dung," to other important fossil sites in Arizona and Chile, Martin's engaging book, written for a wide audience, uncovers our rich evolutionary legacy and shows why he has come to believe that the earliest Americans literally hunted these animals to death.
As he discusses the discoveries that brought him to this hypothesis, Martin relates many colorful stories and gives a rich overview of the field of paleontology as well as his own fascinating career. He explores the ramifications of the overkill hypothesis for similar extinctions worldwide and examines other explanations for the extinctions, including climate change. Martin's visionary thinking about our missing megafauna offers inspiration and a challenge for today's conservation efforts as he speculates on what we might do to remedy this situation--both in our thinking about what is "natural" and in the natural world itself.

Hadrosaurs--also known as duck-billed dinosaurs--are abundant in the fossil record. With their unique complex jaws and teeth perfectly suited to shred and chew plants, they flourished on Earth in remarkable diversity during the Late Cretaceous. So ubiquitous are their remains that we have learned more about dinosaurian paleobiology and paleoecology from hadrosaurs than we have from any other group. In recent years, hadrosaurs have been in the spotlight. Researchers around the world have been studying new specimens and new taxa seeking to expand and clarify our knowledge of these marvelous beasts. This volume presents the results of an international symposium on hadrosaurs, sponsored by the Royal Tyrrell Museum and the Royal Ontario Museum, where scientists and students gathered to share their research and their passion for duck-billed dinosaurs. A uniquely comprehensive treatment of hadrosaurs, the book encompasses not only the well-known hadrosaurids proper, but also Hadrosaouroidea, allowing the former group to be evaluated in a broader perspective. The 36 chapters are divided into six sections--an overview, new insights into hadrosaur origins, hadrosaurid anatomy and variation, biogeography and biostratigraphy, function and growth, and preservation, tracks, and traces--followed by an afterword by Jack Horner.

A guide book for common fossils of terrestrial animals found in the State of Florida

The Amistad National Recreation Area Paleontology Survey includes information regarding the scope and significance of the fossil record within Amistad National Recreation Area as well as paleontological resource management recommendations.

A guide book of common mollusk fossils found in the State of Florida

Examining and interpreting recent spectacular fossil discoveries in China, paleontologists have arrived at a prevailing view: there is now incontrovertible evidence that birds represent the last living dinosaur. But is this conclusion beyond dispute? In this book, evolutionary biologist Alan Feduccia provides the most comprehensive discussion yet of the avian and associated evidence found in China, then exposes the massive, unfounded speculation that has accompanied these discoveries and been published in the pages of prestigious scientific journals. Advocates of the current orthodoxy on bird origins have ignored contrary data, misinterpreted fossils, and used faulty reasoning, the author argues. He considers why and how the debate has become so polemical and makes a plea to refocus the discussion by "breaking away from methodological straitjackets and viewing the world of origins anew." Drawing on a lifetime of study, he offers his own current understanding of the origin of birds and avian flight.

A pictorial guide to common fossils that are found in Florida at a variety of locations around the state.

This is the official guide to Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins' sculptures at Crystal Palace, Sydenham, including dinosaurs and other monsters. Owen's guide offers technical descriptions of their biology and geology.

This book examines how human interactions with animals, in particular now extinct cave bears (Ursus spelaeu), affected the social lives of prehistoric hunter-gatherers (hominins - Neanderthals and AMH) living in Central Europe (Moravia and Silesia/Eastern Czech Republic) during OIS3 (c. 60,000-24,000 Cal. BP). The author adopts a multidisciplinary approach, using published literature, animal remains, digital data, and GIS, together with odontometric and tooth-wear analyses, and spatial reconstruction techniques to identify potential interactions between hominins and cave bears. New theoretical concepts are used to interpret the results and as a means for making statements about the role that cave bears, and potential interactions with cave bears, played in the social lives of hominins.

An enthralling scientific and cultural exploration of the Ice Age-from the author of How the Canyon Became Grand From a remarkable father-daughter team comes a dramatic synthesis of science and environmental history-an exploration of the geologic time scale and evolution twinned with the story of how, eventually, we have come to understand our own past. The Pleistocene is the epoch of geologic time closest to our own. The Last Lost World is an inquiry into the conditions that made it, the themes that define it, and the creature that emerged dominant from it. At the same time, it tells the story of how we came to discover and understand this crucial period in the Earth's history and what meanings it has for today.

The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is the location of one of the best-known terrestrial records for the late Cretaceous. Prior fieldwork confirmed the richness of the area, but a major effort begun in the new century has documented over 2,000 new vertebrate fossil sites, provided new radiometric dates, and identified five new genera of ceratopsids, two new species of hadrosaur, a probable new genus of hypsilophodontid, new pachycephalosaurs and ankylosaurs, several kinds of theropods (including a new genus of oviraptor and a new tyrannosaur), plus the most complete specimen of a Late Cretaceous therizinosaur ever collected from North America, and much more. The research documented in this book is rewriting our understanding of Late Cretaceous paleobiogeography and dinosaur phyletics. At the Top of the Grand Staircase: The Late Cretaceous of Southern Utah is a major stepping stone toward a total synthesis of the ecology and evolution of the Late Cretaceous ecosystems of western North America.

Our understanding of vertebrate origins and the backbone of human history evolves with each new fossil find and DNA map. Many species have now had their genomes sequenced, and molecular techniques allow genetic inspection of even nonmodel organisms. But as longtime Nature editor Henry Gee argues in Across the Bridge, despite these giant strides and our deepening understanding of how vertebrates fit into the tree of life, the morphological chasm between vertebrates and invertebrates remains vast and enigmatic. As Gee shows, even as scientific advances have falsified a variety of theories linking these groups, the extant relatives of vertebrates are too few for effective genetic analysis. Moreover, the more we learn about the species that do remain--from seasquirts to starfish--the clearer it becomes that they are too far evolved along their own courses to be of much use in reconstructing what the latest invertebrate ancestors of vertebrates looked like. Fossils present yet further problems of interpretation. Tracing both the fast-changing science that has helped illuminate the intricacies of vertebrate evolution as well as the limits of that science, Across the Bridge helps us to see how far the field has come in crossing the invertebrate-to-vertebrate divide--and how far we still have to go.

In the follow up to Darwin's Lost World, Martin Brasier introduces the quest for the missing history of life and the cell. Through a series of journeys it emerges that the modern plant cell is one of the most deeply puzzling and unlikely steps in the whole history of life. Decoding this puzzle is a great adventure that has mainly taken place over the last half century. Brasier puts the big questions into context through lively descriptions of his explorations around the world, from the Caribbean Sea and the Egyptian pyramids, to the shores of the great lakes in Canada, and to the reefs and deserts of Australia. Covering the period from 1 to 2 billion years ago - a period he once dubbed 'the boring billion' - he demonstrates how it in fact involved great evolutionary potential with the formation of the complex (eukaryotic) cell. Without this cell there would be nothing on Earth today except bacteria, and the formation of this cell was a fundamental turning point in the history of life on Earth. Weaving together several threads, Brasier emphasizes the importance of single-celled forms to marine ecosystems; symbiosis and coral reefs; and the architecture and beauty of single-celled Foraminifera and what they tell us about evolution. From a master storyteller comes a vivid description of the earliest biological forms and a set of fascinating tales of travels and research.

Over the past 25 years, a stream of fossil and artifact discoveries in the Afar Depression of Ethiopia has produced the longest single record of human ancestors in the world. Many of the fossils found in this region are the missing links leading to modern humans. This book chronicles the exploration of this unique desert area, focusing especially on the 1970s when the valley was mapped and many fossils and archeological sites were discovered. The author gives his personal account of the 25 years he spent researching the region.
As co-founder of the team that discovered Lucy, Jon Kalb has first-hand knowledge of the research that was involved in the findings of this region and of the intense rivalry that has accompanied those findings. He discusses the political drama of Ethiopia and the effects this chaos had on the Afar. This book covers the scientific discoveries of the area, the author's own explorations and findings, and the political struggles involved with these discoveries.

More than 10,000 years ago spectacularly large mammals roamed the pampas and jungles of South America. This book tells the story of these great beasts during and just after the Pleistocene, the geological epoch marked by the great ice ages. Megafauna describes the history and way of life of these animals, their comings and goings, and what befell them at the beginning of the modern era and the arrival of humans. It places these giants within the context of the other mammals then alive, describing their paleobiology-how they walked; how much they weighed; their diets, behavior, biomechanics; and the interactions among them and with their environment. It also tells the stories of the scientists who contributed to our discovery and knowledge of these transcendent creatures and the environment they inhabited. The episode known as the Great American Biotic Interchange, perhaps the most important of all natural history "experiments," is also an important theme of the book, tracing the biotic events of both North and South America that led to the fauna and the ecosystems discussed in this book. -- Indiana University Press

Travel back in time and get up close and personal with the biggest, fastest, and strangest creatures that ever roamed the earth.

Take a dip with the plesiosaur that's bigger than a bus, race the dinosaur that's faster than a galloping horse, and grin at the big cat with teeth that are longer than daggers. Prepare to be amazed as more than 40 incredible prehistoric creatures come roaring back to life in stunning CGI reconstructions.

Alongside the amazing images, SuperDinosaur is packed with incredible facts about these extraordinary creatures. Did you know that the fearsome Tyrannosaurus has the most powerful bite of any land animal that has ever lived? Or that the bizarre Amargasaurus had spines that stuck out 60 cm (24 in) from its neck? Or perhaps you fancy your chances in a staring competition with Temnodontosaurus - just be warned, its eyes are 25 cm (9.8 in) wide! Features on fascinating fossils and the latest scientific techniques will show you exactly how paleontologists piece together information about how dinosaurs would have looked and lived.

The perfect read for children aged 9 and over, this brilliant and informative guide will appeal to budding dinosaur experts of all ages.

From one of the world's leading natural scientists and the acclaimed author of "Trilobite , Life: A Natural History of Four Billion Years of Life on Earth" and "Dry Storeroom No. 1 "comes a fascinating chronicle of life's history told not through the fossil record but through the stories of organisms that have survived, almost unchanged, throughout time. Evolution, it seems, has not completely obliterated its tracks as more advanced organisms have evolved; the history of life on earth is far older--and odder--than many of us realize.
Scattered across the globe, these remarkable plants and animals continue to mark seminal events in geological time. From a moonlit beach in Delaware, where the hardy horseshoe crab shuffles its way to a frenzy of mass mating just as it did 450 million years ago, to the dense rainforests of New Zealand, where the elusive, unprepossessing velvet worm has burrowed deep into rotting timber since before the breakup of the ancient supercontinent, to a stretch of Australian coastline with stromatolite formations that bear witness to the Precambrian dawn, the existence of these survivors offers us a tantalizing glimpse of pivotal points in evolutionary history. These are not "living fossils" but rather a handful of tenacious creatures of days long gone.
Written in buoyant, sparkling prose, "Horseshoe Crabs and Velvet Worms" is a marvelously captivating exploration of the world's old-timers combining the very best of science writing with an explorer's sense of adventure and wonder.

The belief that some dinosaurs were so gigantic that they couldn't exist with today's gravity is a topic frequently discussed on internet websites. The opinion posted the most is that the Earth's mass must have changed significantly resulting in an alteration of surface gravity or that the Earth somehow expanded. Neither of these opinions have scientific support. The theory explained in this book, the GTME, does have that support.
Readers familiar with basic rotational physics understand that when there is a redistribution of mass within a rotating symmetrical object, like the Earth, there are two laws of physics that must be obeyed: the conservation of (1) rotational kinetic energy and (2) angular momentum. When the Earth's continents coalesced to form Pangea, their center of mass shifted south of the equator, an action which would have reduced (1) and (2). Something had to offset the above continental movement in order to conserve the two quantities described. That something was either the shifting of the Earth's core elements (inner/outer cores and densest lower mantle) away from Pangea or the increase in rotational velocity of the Earth (i.e., shortening of the day). The latter has not been detected during Pangea's existence.
Considerable circumstantial evidence supports the GTME. The most obvious is the existence of the largest dinosaurs, the sauropods. As Pangea broke apart and surface gravity increased the extinction of all non-avian dinosaurs, sea-going reptiles, ammonites, pterosaurs, etc., occurred. Core element movement is supported by the massive flood basalt volcanism of the Mesozoic and the two superchrons, the periods when magnetic pole reversal didn't occur.
The most powerful support for the GTME comes from the science of paleomagnetism. Paleomagnetists are split between support of the Pangea A vs. Pangea B models. Relying on the magnetic Geocentric Axial Dipole (GAD) model to reconstruct continental positions of Pangea they encountered a roadblock; the continents appeared to overlap. The GTME solves this problem because the shifting of the core elements from the Earth's geocenter mandates a non-GAD model. A recent study hypothesizes that geomagnetic pole reversals are directly linked to continental plate distribution; a concept already posited by the GTME As explained in this book, many if not most of the mass extinctions were the result of changes in the Earth's surface gravity due to core element movement resulting from continental tectonic plate movement.