Here's something that doesn't happen every millennium: Roughly
35 million years ago, a stray meteorite dropped out of the sky over
Virginia and left an impact that helped shape one of the
continent's most distinctive coastlines. This scene of cataclysmic
violence now lies beneath the calm waters of Chesapeake Bay. The
occurrence of this prehistoric event only recently came to light,
and the consequences of that impact will stretch far past our
lifetimes. As Diane Casto Tennant makes clear in her new book, it
wasn't the last interesting thing to happen in these parts.
Selected from Tennant's widely admired writing for the "Norfolk
Virginian-Pilot, " these stories reveal the rich natural history
Virginia had compiled long before the first human set eyes on
it--as well as the fascinating phenomena that still surround
us.
Her search for stories takes the author from dinosaur footprints
along the Rappahannock to the best-preserved insect fossils on
earth. On the way, she encounters a cast of characters that
includes shark fishermen, math geniuses, wolf callers, and a birder
with extraordinary eyesight. She speaks with a man who can read the
minds of horses and introduces us to a very special Jamestown
skeleton that could help solve a 400-year-old mystery.
Tennant also explores those other inhabitants of the
mid-Atlantic, looking to animals for miraculous stories of survival
and adaptation. We witness the difficult life of Sea Turtle No. 62,
whose journey illustrates the hazards confronting its species. We
consider what it means to be the fastest dog in the world. We join
a quest to find a barking tree frog and glimpse the strange
afterlife of beached whales.
While the author doesn't avoid the hard in the hard sciences,
these stories speak primarily to the wonder of science. For the
common reader, whose stores of scientific knowledge may not be vast
but whose curiosity is, the perfect guide has just arrived.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!