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"In this book, palaeontologist and popular science author John Long unravels the mysteries of the origin of birds and the evolution of flight. He details the transition from small, feathered dinosaur to primitive flying bird - a shift that is now widely accepted as an anatomically seamless evolutionary event."--Jacket.
A mammoth effort and the final word on climbing techniques, this guide is for the established climber to refine and polish form.
Armored fishes and monster sharks, fishes with arms and fishes that breathe air--these and many other strange creatures are part of the remarkable story told in this book. In The Rise of Fishes, John Long traces the evolutionary history of fishes over the course of 500 million years, describes the discovery of extraordinary fossil remains, and explains the techniques used in their interpretation. Featuring more than 300 color illustrations, the book includes photographs of fossils from around the world as well as the author's dramatic color illustrations of what the fish may have actually looked like. Long tells the story of how these creatures lived and developed and why their rise from the waters of the archaic seas and rivers onto land was so momentous an event in the evolution of life on earth. He combines current scientific information with entertaining stories about his own field work in Australia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Antarctica. Detailed, accessible, and lavishly illustrated, The Rise of Fishes is a book for anyone with an interest in evolution, fossils, or fish.
“[A] deliciously written account of the evolution of sex, in all of its bizarre manifestations” by a noted paleontologist—"Read, blush, and enjoy!” (Jared Diamond, author of Guns, Germs, and Steel). We all know about the birds and the bees, but what about the ancient placoderm fishes and the dinosaurs? In 2008, paleontologist John A. Long and a team of researchers announced their discovery of a 380-million-year-old placoderm fish fossil, known as “the mother fish,” which revealed the earliest known example of internal fertilization. As a result, placoderms are now considered to be the first species to have had intimate sexual reproduction, or sex as we know it—sort of. Inspired...
This completely revised and updated edition with all new color photos brings together in a single volume the anchoring systems most popular among climbers. Most climbers today learn their craft on artificial climbing walls and on sport routes with fixed protection. Their first efforts to lead on trad routes often come as a rude shock--they find that they haven't the skills and training to safeguard the climb or to set up solid belays. This new edition of Climbing Anchors is the climber's complete and authoritative source of information on protection, from fundamental knots to sophisticated rigging and equalizing skills.
When David Attenborough filmed his ground-breaking series Life on Earth in 1978, he chose one place in the world to demonstrate the early evolution of fishes: Gogo. Gogo, in the wild Kimberly district of Western Australia, is one of the world's most significant fossil sites because it shows 375 million-year old fishes preserved in stunning three-dimensional preservation. These fossils provide a rare window into the anatomy of primitive fishes at the critical stage when fishes were starting to evolve into the first land animals the line ultimately leading to humans. Yet, despite being such an important fossil site, it has had a mysterious and checkered history of discovery. Written by paleontologist John Long, who has spent over 20 years searching and working the Gogo sites, Swimming in Stone tells the amazing stories of the people who discovered the fossils, the development of the chemical preparation methods that freed the old bones from their rocky tombs, and how the flood of new da
Taking risks and exploring the unknown are as vital to human beings as our need for air, for growth, for affirmation that we exist for something. These 19 stories reach deep into humanity’s compulsion for the rush of new experiences. But gently, because it’s not only records we might shatter. When does adventure turn to recklessness? What happens when we toe the edge above the void and face the big silence, where we might see God -- and die without warning? The Icarus Syndrome seeks to capture our push for more and hold it to the light, lofty and free, for as long as we dare tempt the downward slip. Both are possible; only one is assured.
No other continent on Earth has undergone such radical environmental changes as Antarctica. In its transition from rich biodiversity to the barren, cold land of blizzards we see today, Antarctica provides a dramatic case study of how subtle changes in continental positioning can affect living communities, and how rapidly catastrophic changes can come about. Antarctica has gone from paradise to polar ice in just a few million years, a geological blink of an eye when we consider the real age of Earth. Frozen in Time presents a comprehensive overview of the fossil record of Antarctica framed within its changing environmental settings, providing a window into a past time and environment on the continent. It reconstructs Antarctica’s evolving animal and plant communities as accurately as the fossil record permits. The story of how fossils were first discovered in Antarctica is a triumph of human endeavour. It continues today with modern expeditions going out to remote sites every year to fill in more of the missing parts of the continent’s great jigsaw of life.
Winner in the Scholarly Reference section of the 2004 Australian Awards for Excellence in Educational Publishing. Introduced Mammals of the World provides a concise and extensive source of information on the range of introductions of mammals conducted by humans, and an indication as to which have resulted in adverse outcomes. It provides a very valuable tool by which scientists can assess future potential introductions (or re-introductions) to avoid costly mistakes. It also provides tangible proof of the need for political decision makers to consider good advice and make wise and cautious decisions. Introduced Mammals of the World also provides a comprehensive reference to students of ecolog...
In these collected stories, Long explores watery, secluded jungle caves in South America, tackles remote thawing iceflows on Baffin Island, and solos cutting-edge rock climbs over a desert hungry for his failure.