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Books > Earth & environment > Earth sciences > Palaeontology
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, North American and European governments generously funded the discoveries of such famous paleontologists and geologists as Henry de la Beche, William Buckland, Richard Owen, Thomas Hawkins, Edward Drinker Cope, O. C. Marsh, and Charles W. Gilmore. In Patrons of Paleontology, Jane Davidson explores the motivation behind this rush to fund exploration, arguing that eagerness to discover strategic resources like coal deposits was further fueled by patrons who had a genuine passion for paleontology and the fascinating creatures that were being unearthed. These early decades of government support shaped the way the discipline grew, creating practices and enabling discoveries that continue to affect paleontology today.
Fossils, and the life of the past that they represent, are themes of great interest to the general public. This book identifies and describes essentially all publicly accessible, interpreted plant and animal fossil localities in the western half of Canada and the United States -- from Manitoba to Texas and westward. These are educationally oriented sites where the public may visit proven fossil localities, normally see fossils in place or in on-site collections, and learn about the geology and palaeontology of the site or region. Section 1 provides geological and biological contexts for the area and sites covered in the book. Section 2, which occupies the greatest part of the volume, describes and provides access information about the individual sites. Section 3 identifies sources of additional information about the sites and the subject matter reviewed in the first section. These sources include museum exhibits, pertinent literature! , sources of fossil replicas, and organised field experiences in palaeontology open to the public.
'Vivid, thrilling, a delight ... Tim Flannery is a palaeontologist and ecologist of global standing, and this is a compelling and authoritative narrative of the evolution of Europe's flora and fauna, from the formation of the continent to its near future ... an exciting book, full of wonder' James McConnachie, Sunday Times A place of exceptional diversity, rapid change, and high energy, Europe has literally been at the crossroads of the world ever since the interaction of Asia, North America and Africa formed the tropical island archipelago that would become the continent of today. In this unprecedented evolutionary history, Tim Flannery shows how for the past 100 million years Europe has absorbed wave after wave of immigrant species; taking them in, transforming them, and sometimes hybridising them. Flannery reveals how, in addition to playing a vital role in the evolution of our own species, Europe was once the site of the formation of the first coral reefs, the home of some of the world's largest elephants, and now has more wolves than North America. This groundbreaking book charts the history of the land itself and the forces shaping life on it - including modern humans - to create a portrait of a continent that continues to exert a huge influence on the world today.
During the Early Cretaceous, lakes, meandering streams, and flood plains covered the region where the current foothills of Rioja now exist. Today the area is known for its wine and for the dozens of sites where footprints and trackways of dinosaurs, amphibians, and even pterosaurs can be seen. The dinosaurs that lived here 120 million years ago left their footsteps imprinted in the mud and moist soil. Now fossilized in rock, they have turned Rioja into one of the most valuable dinosaur footprint sites in all of Europe. Felix Perez-Lorente and his colleagues have published extensively on the region, mostly in Spanish-language journals. In this volume, Perez-Lorente provides an up-to-date synthesis of that research in English. He offers detailed descriptions of the sites, footprints, and trackways, and explains what these prints and tracks can tell us about the animals who made them."
The discovery of stunning, feathered dinosaur fossils coming out of China since 2006 suggest that these creatures were much more bird-like than paleontologists previously imagined. Further evidence-bones, genetics, eggs, behavior, and more-has shown a seamless transition from fleet-footed carnivores to the ancestors of modern birds. Mixing colorful portraits with news on the latest fossil findings and interviews with leading paleontologists in the United States, China, Europe, and Australia, John Pickrell explains and details dinosaurs' development of flight. This special capacity introduced a whole new range of abilities for the animals and helped them survive a mass extinction, when thousands of other dinosaur species that once populated the Earth did not. Pickrell also turns his journalistic eye toward the stories behind the latest discoveries, investigating the role of the Chinese black market in trading fossils, the controversies among various dinosaur hunters, the interference of national governments intent on protecting scientific information, and the race to publish findings first that make this research such a dynamic area of science.
Fungi are ubiquitous in the world and responsible for driving the evolution and governing the sustainability of ecosystems now and in the past. Fossil Fungi is the first encyclopedic book devoted exclusively to fossil fungi and their activities through geologic time. The book begins with the historical context of research on fossil fungi (paleomycology), followed by how fungi are formed and studied as fossils, and their age. The next six chapters focus on the major lineages of fungi, arranging them in phylogenetic order and placing the fossils within a systematic framework. For each fossil the age and provenance are provided. Each chapter provides a detailed introduction to the living members of the group and a discussion of the fossils that are believed to belong in this group. The extensive bibliography (~ 2700 entries) includes papers on both extant and fossil fungi. Additional chapters include lichens, fungal spores, and the interactions of fungi with plants, animals, and the geosphere. The final chapter includes a discussion of fossil bacteria and other organisms that are fungal-like in appearance, and known from the fossil record. The book includes more than 475 illustrations, almost all in color, of fossil fungi, line drawings, and portraits of people, as well as a glossary of more than 700 mycological and paleontological terms that will be useful to both biologists and geoscientists.
Land bridges are the causeways of biodiversity. When they form, organisms are introduced into a new patchwork of species and habitats, forever altering the ecosystems into which they flow; and when land bridges disappear or fracture, organisms are separated into reproductively isolated populations that can evolve independently. More than this, land bridges play a role in determining global climates through changes to moisture and heat transport and are also essential factors in the development of biogeographic patterns across geographically remote regions. In this book, paleobotanist Alan Graham traces the formation and disruption of key New World land bridges and describes the biotic, climatic, and biogeographic ramifications of these land masses' changing formations over time. Looking at five land bridges, he explores their present geographic setting and climate, modern vegetation, indigenous peoples (with special attention to their impact on past and present vegetation), and geologic history. From the great Panamanian isthmus to the boreal connections across the North Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans that allowed exchange of organisms between North America, Europe, and Asia, Graham's sweeping, one-hundred-million-year history offers new insight into the forces that shaped the life and land of the New World.
'A masterpiece of analysis and imagination. . . It centres on a sensation al discovery in the field of palaeontology - the existence, in the Bur gess Shale. . . of 530-million-year-old fossils unique in age, preservat ion and diversity. . . With skill and passion, Gould takes this mute coll ection of fossils and makes them speak to us. The result challenges s ome of our most cherished self-perceptions and urges a fundamental re-assessment of our place in the history of life on earth' Sunday Times.
Only recently was it determined that two of the world's most devastating plagues, the plague of Justinian and the medieval Black Death, were caused by distinct strains of the same pathogen. Use of paleomicrobiological techniques led to this discovery. This work is just one example of the historical mysteries that this emerging field has helped to clarify. Others, such as when tuberculosis began to afflict humans, the role of lice in plague pandemics, and the history of smallpox, are explored and further illuminated in Paleomicrobiology of Humans. Led by editors Michel Drancourt and Didier Raoult, the book's expert contributors address larger issues using paleomicrobiology. These include the recognition of human remains associated with epidemic outbreaks, identification of the graves of disasters, and the discovery of demographic structures that reveal the presence of an epidemic moment. In addition, the book reviews the technical approaches and controversies associated with recovering and sequencing very old DNA and surveys modern human diseases that have ancient roots. Essentially, paleomicrobiologists aim to identify past epidemics at the crossroads of different specialties, including anthropology, medicine, molecular biology, and microbiology. Thus, this book is of great interest not only to microbiologists but to medical historians and anthropologists as well. Paleomicrobiology of Humans is the first comprehensive book to examine so many aspects of this new, multidisciplinary, scientific field.
This book highlights the knowledge about landscapes and characteristics of the earliest hunter-gatherer lifeway in Southern Patagonia. It presents an analysis of the archaeological investigations carried out during three decades by an interdisciplinary team that involved archaeologists, anthropologists, paleontologists, geologists and specialists in pollen and diatoms. The database yielded was recovered from systematic survey and excavations from the Pleistocene and Holocene stratigraphic layers of the rockshelter known as AEP-1, Piedra Museo Locality, situated in the central plateau of Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. Piedra Museo is a unique place in the world of high academic interest with some of the earliest archaeological remains in the Americas. Researchers defined two strata and several Stratigraphic units in the site based on the sedimentological and pedological characteristics. The depositional zones contain archaeological remains that are interpreted as hunting events corresponding to two main different occasions in the human colonization of the region, and a third human occupation during the Middle Holocene. Last one occurred then of the massive rockshelter roof colapse. The faunal remains led to a new approach to the palaeoenvironmental evolution of this enclosed basin. This volume describes the management of lithic raw materials and social networks from first human occupation of the Patagonian region to territorial consolidation of hunter-gatherer societies.
Paleontology is one of the most visible yet most misunderstood fields of science. Children dream of becoming paleontologists when they grow up. Museum visitors flock to exhibits on dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals. The media reports on fossil discoveries and new clues to mass extinctions. Nonetheless, misconceptions abound: paleontologists are assumed only to be interested in dinosaurs, and they are all too often imagined as bearded white men in battered cowboy hats. Roy Plotnick provides a behind-the-scenes look at paleontology as it exists today in all its complexity. He explores the field's aims, methods, and possibilities, with an emphasis on the compelling personal stories of the scientists who have made it a career. Paleontologists study the entire history of life on Earth; they do not only use hammers and chisels to unearth fossils but are just as likely to work with cutting-edge computing technology. Plotnick presents the big questions about life's history that drive paleontological research and shows why knowledge of Earth's past is essential to understanding present-day environmental crises. He introduces readers to the diverse group of people of all genders, races, and international backgrounds who make up the twenty-first-century paleontology community, foregrounding their perspectives and firsthand narratives. He also frankly discusses the many challenges that face the profession, with key takeaways for aspiring scientists. Candid and comprehensive, Explorers of Deep Time is essential reading for anyone curious about the everyday work of real-life paleontologists.
Advances in Quaternary Entomology addresses the science of
fossil insects by demonstrating their immense contribution to our
knowledge of the paleoenvironmental and climatological record of
the past 2.6 million years. In this comprehensive survey of the
field, Scott A. Elias recounts development of scholarship, reviews
the fossil insect record from Quaternary deposits throughout the
world, and points to rewarding areas for future research. The study
of Quaternary entomology is becoming an important tool in
understanding past environmental changes. Most insects are quite
specific as to habitat requirements, and those in non-island
environments have undergone almost no evolutionary change in the
Quaternary period. We therefore can use their modern ecological
requirements as a basis for interpreting what past environments
must have been like.
Although it is generally accepted that the Arctic Ocean is a very
sensitive and important region for changes in the global climate,
this region is the last major physiographic province of the earth
whose short-and long-term geological history is much less known in
comparison to other ocean regions. This lack of knowledge is mainly
caused by the major technological/logistic problems in reaching
this harsh, ice-covered region with normal research vessels and in
retrieving long and undisturbed sediment cores. During the the last
about 20 years, however, several international and
multidisciplinary ship expeditions, including the first scientific
drilling on Lomonosov Ridge in 2004, a break-through in Arctic
research, were carried out into the central Artic and its
surrounding shelf seas. Results from these expeditions have greatly
advanced our knowledge on Arctic Ocean paleoenvironments.
The defining masterwork on the evolution of reptiles. Over 300 million years ago, an early land vertebrate developed an egg that contained the embryo in an amnion, allowing it to be deposited on land. This moment marked the first step in the fascinating and complex evolutionary journey of the reptiles. In The Rise of Reptiles, paleontologist Hans-Dieter Sues explores the diversity of reptilian lineages, discussing the relationships among turtles, crocodylians, lizards and snakes, and many extinct groups. Reflecting the tremendous advances in the study of reptilian diversity and phylogeny over recent decades, this book is the first detailed, contemporary synthesis of the evolutionary history of these remarkable animals. Reptiles have always confused taxonomists, who have endlessly debated and rewritten their classifications. In this book, Sues adopts an explicitly phylogenetic framework to sift through the evidence and discuss the origin and diversification of Reptilia in a way no one has before. He also examines the genealogical link between dinosaurs and birds and sheds new light on the Age of Reptiles, a period that saw the rise and fall of most dinosaurs. With this single meticulously researched volume, Sues paints a complete portrait of reptilian evolution. Numerous photographs of key specimens from around the world introduce readers to the reptilian fossil record, and color images of present-day reptiles illustrate their diversity. The extensive bibliography provides an invaluable guide for readers who are interested in exploring individual topics more deeply. Accurate, synthetic, and sweeping, The Rise of Reptiles is the definitive work on the subject.
The present volume is the first in a series of two books dedicated
to the paleoceanography of the Late Cenozoic ocean. The need for an
updated synthesis on paleoceanographic science is urgent, owing to
the huge and very diversified progress made in this domain during
the last decade. In addition, no comprehensive monography still
exists in this domain. This is quite incomprehensible in view of
the contribution of paleoceanographic research to our present
understanding of the dynamics of the climate-ocean system. The
focus on the Late Cenozoic ocean responds to two constraints.
Firstly, most quantitative methods, notably those based on
micropaleontological approaches, cannot be used back in time beyond
a few million years at most. Secondly, the last few million years,
with their strong climate oscillations, show specific high
frequency changes of the ocean with a relatively reduced influcence
of tectonics. The first volume addresses quantitative methodologies
to reconstruct the dynamics of the ocean andthe second, major
aspects of the ocean system (thermohaline circulation, carbon
cycle, productivity, sea level etc.) and will also present regional
synthesis about the paleoceanography of major the oceanic basins.
In both cases, the focus is the "open ocean" leaving aside
nearshore processes that depend too much onlocal conditions. In
this first volume, we have gathered up-to-date methodologies for
the measurement and quantitative interpretation of tracers and
proxies in deep sea sediments that allow reconstruction of a few
key past-properties of the ocean( temperature, salinity, sea-ice
cover, seasonal gradients, pH, ventilation, oceanic currents,
thermohaline circulation, andpaleoproductivity). Chapters encompass
physical methods (conventional grain-size studies,
tomodensitometry, magnetic and mineralogical properties), most
current biological proxies (planktic and benthic foraminifers, deep
sea corals, diatoms, coccoliths, dinocysts and biomarkers) and key
geochemical tracers (trace elements, stable isotopes, radiogenic
isotopes, and U-series). Contributors to the book and members of
the review panel are among the best scientists in their specialty.
They represent major European and North American laboratories and
thus provide a priori guarantees to the quality and updat of the
entire book. Scientists and graduate students in paleoclimatology,
paleoceanography, climate modeling, and undergraduate and graduate
students in marine geology represent the target audience. This
volume should be of interest for scientists involved in several
international programs, such as those linked to the IPCC (IODP -
Integrated Ocean Drilling Program; PAGES - Past Global Changes;
IMAGES - Marine Global Changes; PMIP: Paleoclimate Intercomparison
Project; several IGCP projects etc.), That is, all programs that
require access to time series illustrating changes in the
climate-ocean system.
This book serves as an up-to-date introduction, as well as overview
to modern trace fossil research and covers nearly all of the
essential aspects of modern ichnology. Divided into three section,
Trace Fossils covers the historical background and concepts of
ichnology, on-going research problems, and indications about the
possible future growth of the discipline and potential connections
to other fields. This work is intended for a broad audience of
geological and biological scientists. Workers new to the field
could get a sense of the main concepts of ichnology and a clear
idea of how trace fossil research is conducted. Scientists in
related disciplines could find potential uses for trace fossils in
their fields. And, established workers could use the book to check
on the progress of their particular brand of ichnology. By design,
there is something here for novice and veteran, insider and
outsider, and for the biologically-oriented workers and for the
sedimentary geologists.
Barthelemy Faujas de Saint-Fond (1741 1819) abandoned the legal profession to pursue studies in natural history. Appointed a royal commissioner of mines in 1785, he also served as professor of geology at the natural history museum in Paris from 1793 until his death. His keen interest in rocks, minerals and fossils led to a number of important discoveries, among which was confirmation that basalt was a volcanic product. The present work appeared in three parts between 1803 and 1809. The first volume features an introductory discussion of the current state of geology, before going on to consider the fossils of plants, shells, fish, cetaceans, crocodiles, and various mammalian quadrupeds. Of related interest in the history of geology, Mineralogie des volcans (1784) and the revised English edition of A Journey through England and Scotland to the Hebrides in 1784 (1907) are two other works by Faujas which are also reissued in this series."
Barthelemy Faujas de Saint-Fond (1741 1819) abandoned the legal profession to pursue studies in natural history. Appointed a royal commissioner of mines in 1785, he also served as professor of geology at the natural history museum in Paris from 1793 until his death. His keen interest in rocks, minerals and fossils led to a number of important discoveries, among which was confirmation that basalt was a volcanic product. The present work appeared in three parts between 1803 and 1809. The second volume was divided into two. This first part discusses rocks, minerals and metals, notably limestone, quartz and feldspar. Of related interest in the history of geology, Mineralogie des volcans (1784) and the revised English edition of A Journey through England and Scotland to the Hebrides in 1784 (1907) are two other works by Faujas which are also reissued in this series."
Revised, updated, and expanded with the latest interpretations and fossil discoveries, the second edition of Oceans of Kansas adds new twists to the fascinating story of the vast inland sea that engulfed central North America during the Age of Dinosaurs. Giant sharks, marine reptiles called mosasaurs, pteranodons, and birds with teeth all flourished in and around these shallow waters. Their abundant and well-preserved remains were sources of great excitement in the scientific community when first discovered in the 1860s and continue to yield exciting discoveries 150 years later. Michael J. Everhart vividly captures the history of these startling finds over the decades and re-creates in unforgettable detail these animals from our distant past and the world in which they lived-above, within, and on the shores of America's ancient inland sea.
The Late Devonian and Permian-Triassic intervals are among the most
dynamic episodes of Earth history, marked by large secular changes
in continental ecosystems, dramatic fluctuations in ocean
oxygenation, major phases of biotic turnover, volcanism, bolide
impact events, and rapid fluctuations in stable isotope systems and
sea level. This volume highlights contributions from a broad range
of geological sub-disciplines currently striving to understand
these critical intervals of geologically rapid, global-scale
changes.
French astronomer Camille Flammarion (1842 1925) won acclaim for bringing science to a general readership. His Astronomie populaire (1880) and its translation into English as Popular Astronomy (1894) are both reissued in this series. The present work, on the origins of the Earth and humankind, sold tens of thousands of copies. Flammarion's original purpose was to update Zimmermann's Le monde avant la creation de l'homme, published a quarter of a century earlier. However, scientific understanding had progressed so much that he decided to rewrite the work completely. First published in 1886, it contains some 400 wood engravings depicting dramatic landscapes, dinosaurs, fossils and much more. Ranging from early chapters on the universe and solar system, through to later discussion of the emergence of humankind after aeons of evolution, this book will prove an absorbing read for those interested in a nineteenth-century perspective on the origins of life."
This book summarizes the most relevant published paleontological information, supplemented by our own original work, on the record of Mesozoic mammals' evolution, their close ancestors and their immediate descendants. Mammals evolved in a systematically diverse world, amidst a dynamic geography that is at the root of the 6,500 species living today. Fossils of Mesozoic mammals, while rare and often incomplete, are key to understanding how mammals have evolved over more than 200 million years. Mesozoic mammals and their close relatives occur in a few dozen localities from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Bolivia, and Peru spanning from the Mid- Triassic to the Late Cretaceous, with some lineages surviving the cataclysmic end of the Cretaceous period, into the Cenozoic of Argentina. There are roughly 25 recognized mammalian species distributed in several distinctive lineages, including australosphenidans, multituberculates, gondwanatherians, eutriconodonts, amphilestids and dryolestoids, among others. With its focus on diversity, systematics, phylogeny, and their impact on the evolution of mammals, there is no similar book currently available.
A lavish volume in celebration of the astonishing fossils uncovered in Abu Dhabi's deserts, a region once lush, green, and teeming with now-extinct animals This lavish volume celebrates the astonishing wealth of fossils uncovered in recent decades in Abu Dhabi's desert. These prehistoric findings, around seven million years in age, record a period when the region was lush, green, and teeming with diverse mammals, all now extinct. With more than one hundred full-color photographs, including reconstructions of extinct animals, this book is both a visual delight and a unique glimpse into Arabia's ancient past. All text in the book is presented in both English and Arabic. Distributed for the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History |
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