You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
A multi-author volume Major Events in Early Vertebrate Evolution examines the origin and early evolution of the backboned animals (vertebrates)-the group which comprises all fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, including ourselves. This volume draws together evidence from fossils, genes, and developmental biology (the study of how embry
Over the past decade, fossil finds from China have stunned the world, grabbing headlines and changing perceptions with a wealth of new discoveries. Many of these finds were first announced to English speakers in the journal Nature.Rise of the Dragon gathers together sixteen of these original reports, some augmented with commentaries originally published in Nature's "News and Views" section. Perhaps the best known of these new Chinese fossils are the famous feathered dinosaurs from Liaoning Province, which may help end one of the most intense debates in paleontology—whether birds evolved from dinosaurs. But other finds have been just as spectacular, such as the minutely preserved (to the cellular level) animal embryos of the 670 million-year-old Duoshantuo phosphorites, or the world's oldest known fish, from the Chengjiang formation in southwestern Yunnan Province. Rise of the Dragon makes descriptions and detailed discussions of these important finds available in one convenient volume for paleontologists and serious fossil fans.
Travels with the Fossil Hunters tells twelve stories of expeditions to remote parts of the world in search of diverse fossils such as dinosaurs and human ancestors. Palaeontologists relate the problems and curiosities they encounter whilst working in extreme conditions, from the deserts of the Sahara and Yemen to the frozen wastes of Antarctica, from the mountains of India to the forests of Latvia. They tell us what field expeditions are really like: dodging bullets in West Africa or rabid dogs in Pakistan, surviving yak-butter tea in Tibet or raw fish in China. Along the way they also describe the palaeontology and geology of the countries they visit and the scientific reasons for their expeditions. Copiously illustrated with spectacular colour photographs and with a foreword from David Attenborough and an introduction from Richard Fortey, this fascinating book will appeal to anyone interested in travelling and fossils, amateurs and professionals alike.
This book presents an original discussion and analysis of epistemic peer disagreement. It reviews a wide range of cases from the literature, and extends the definition of epistemic peerhood with respect to the current one, to account for the actual variability found in real-world examples. The book offers a number of arguments supporting the variability in the nature and in the range of disagreements, and outlines the main benefits of disagreement among peers i.e. what the author calls the benefits to inquiry argument.
We cannot catechise our stony ichthyolites, as did the necromantic lady of the Arabian Nights did the coloured fishes of the lake which had once been a city, when she touched their dead bodies with her wand, and they straightaway raised their heads and rephed to her queries. We would have many a question to ask them if we could - questions never to be solved. Hugh Miller, The Old Red Sandstone When I started this book in 1991, the subject of vertebrate origins was fusty and unfashionable. Early drafts for this preface read like an extend ed complaint at the lot of traditional morphologists, cast aside by the march of modern molecular biology. But no longer - this book should reach you at a time of renewed inter est in the origin of the vertebrates, our own particular corner of creation. For although the topic has excited interest for well over a century, molec ular biology has only lately achieved the maturity necessary to test its predictions. As a legitimate field of study, it is fashionable again.
It provides insights and solutions to questions about ourselves ordinarily considered beyond the realm of science."--BOOK JACKET.
Comprising by far the largest and most diverse group of vertebrates, fishes occupy a broad swathe of habitats ranging from the deepest ocean abyss to the highest mountain lakes. Such incredible ecological diversity and the resultant variety in lifestyle, anatomy, physiology and behavior, make unraveling the evolutionary history of fishes a daunting task. The successor of a classic volume by the same title, Interrelationships of Fishes, provides the latest in the "state of the art" of systematics and classification for many of the major groups of fishes. In providing a sound phylogenetic framework from leading authorities in the field, this book is an indispensable reference for a broad range of biologists, especially students of fish behavior, anatomy, physiology, molecular biology, genetics and ecology--in fact, anyone who wishes to interpret their work on fishes in an evolutionary context. - Provides thorough and comprehensive treatment of the Phylogency of fishes - Assembles an International team of expert contributors - Useful to a wide variety of fish biologists
Sir Joseph Banks was a great Georgian figure. He circumnavigated the world with Captain James Cook on the H.M.S. Endeavor (1768-1771). He took with him a team of naturalists, illustrators and assistants at a personal cost of pounds 10,000. They made unprecedented collections of flora and fauna in most of the places the H.M.S. Endeavor visited. Banks also led the first British scientific expedition to Iceland, in 1772. Later, he settled in London and assembled an enormous herbarium-cum-library. This was remarkable for its size and for the unique material gathered from the Pacific. Banks was elected President of the Royal Society in 1778, a position he held for 41 years -- the longest anyone h...
Winner, 2023 Choice Outstanding Academic Title Bronze Winner, 2024 Nonfiction Book Awards Where would we be without the knee? This down-to-earth joint connecting the thigh and the lower leg doesn’t receive the attention it deserves. Yet, as The Curious Human Knee reveals, it is crucial to countless facets of science, medicine, culture, and history—and even what makes us human. The science writer Han Yu provides an informative, surprising, and entertaining exploration of the human knee across time and place. She begins with our earliest ancestors, emphasizing that walking upright separates us from the apes and bipedal knees appeared long before big brains and sophisticated tools. Yu consi...
The evolution of vertebrate hearing is of considerable interest in the hearing community. However, there has never been a volume that has focused on the paleontological evidence for the evolution of hearing and the ear, especially from the perspective of some of the leading paleontologists and evolutionary biologists in the world. Thus, this volume is totally unique, and takes a perspective that has never been taken before. It brings to the fore some of the most recent discoveries among fossil taxa, which have demonstrated the sort of detailed information that can be derived from the fossil record, illuminating the evolutionary pathways this sensory system has taken and the diversity it had achieved.