Books about Paleobiology from Amazon.com

Over the past twenty years, paleontologists have made tremendous fossil discoveries, including fossils that mark the growth of whales, manatees, and seals from land mammals and the origins of elephants, horses, and rhinos. Today there exists an amazing diversity of fossil humans, suggesting we walked upright long before we acquired large brains, and new evidence from molecules that enable scientists to decipher the tree of life as never before.

The fossil record is now one of the strongest lines of evidence for evolution. In this engaging and richly illustrated book, Donald R. Prothero weaves an entertaining though intellectually rigorous history out of the transitional forms and series that dot the fossil record. Beginning with a brief discussion of the nature of science and the "monkey business of creationism," Prothero tackles subjects ranging from flood geology and rock dating to neo-Darwinism and macroevolution. He covers the ingredients of the primordial soup, the effects of communal living, invertebrate transitions, the development of the backbone, the reign of the dinosaurs, the mammalian explosion, and the leap from chimpanzee to human. Prothero pays particular attention to the recent discovery of "missing links" that complete the fossil timeline and details the debate between biologists over the mechanisms driving the evolutionary process.

Evolution is an absorbing combination of firsthand observation, scientific discovery, and trenchant analysis. With the teaching of evolution still an issue, there couldn't be a better moment for a book clarifying the nature and value of fossil evidence. Widely recognized as a leading expert in his field, Prothero demonstrates that the transformation of life on this planet is far more awe inspiring than the narrow view of extremists.

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Unprecedented in its approach, the number and diversity of the species presented, and the quality of the photographs, Evolution is the book on how we came to be what we are. Spectacular, mysterious, elegant, or grotesque, the skeletons of the vertebrates that inhabit the earth today carry within them the imprint of an evolutionary process that has lasted several billion years. This book is the result of a dual approach, scientific as well as aesthetic, rigorous yet accessible. Each chapter is made up of a short text that illuminates one theme of the evolutionary process-repetition, adaptation, polymorphism, sexual selection-and a series of exquisitely composed photographs of skeletons against a black background. Approximately three hundred photographs of whole skeletons or details have been made possible by the French National Museum of Natural History. The reader learns, by experiencing each text and photograph together, how the structure of every creature has been shaped by its environmental and genetic inheritance.

Author Jean-Baptiste de Panafieu, a professor of natural sciences and a doctor of biological oceanography, has published a number of popular scientific works for younger readers and written and directed documentaries.

Photographer Patrick Gries has photographed over two thousand artworks for the new Quai Branly Museum and collaborated with the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art, among other recent projects.

Linda Asher, a former fiction editor for The New Yorker, has translated into English Victor Hugo, Georges Simenon, and Milan Kundera. Her translation of Martin Winckler's The Case of Dr. Sachs (La maladie de Sachs) won the French-American Foundation Translation Prize in 2000.

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Price: $38.64 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The first bursts of life found in the fossil record were single-celled bacteria and algae, the foundation of life that led to the extraordinary cavalcade of organisms that have walked the stage of Earth ever since. From the initial signs of life in the Precambrian Period to the end of the Cambrian Period about 488 million years ago, "Early Life" explores the development of early life that culminated in one of the most extraordinary periods in the evolution of life on Earth. Characterized as a "biological big bang," the Cambrian Period was a relatively short span of time during which nearly all basic forms of animal life that still exist first appear in the fossil record of the ancient oceans. Alien-looking marine creatures developed in the oceans, and the first predators began hunting down other species in a biological "arms race" that pitted elegant strategies for defense against increasingly efficient means of attack..
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-- E. Gittenberger, National Museum of Natural History, Leiden, The Netherlands, Koninklijke Brill (Crustaceana)

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Price: $19.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This volume brings together faunal analysts working at many sites spanning the East African Pliocene. Although most chapters focus on the vertebrate fauna of particular localities, authors take a broad approach that seeks to compare paleoenvironmental and paleoecological patterns across localities and among various taxonomic groups. This volume aims to synthesize large amounts of faunal data, and to present the evolution of East African vertebrates in the context of environmental and climatic changes during the Pliocene.

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Price: $91.72 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Unlocking the Mysteries of Creation is a textbook on origins that provides alternative explanations-- based on biblical premises--to counteract secular evolutionary theories..
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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..
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Greenhouse gases, global warming, thinning ozone layers -- understanding the Earth's climatic changes is one of today's most pressing international concerns. How fast has the climate changed? Where and why is it changing? What is the impact of climate change on our ecosystems, coastal regions, glaciers, forests, and lakes, and even on the evolution of our own species?

This introduction to the rapidly emerging field of paleoclimatology explains the patterns and processes in the history of the Earth's climate to answer such essential questions. Using the geologic records of ocean and lake sediment, ice cores, corals, and other natural archives, Principles of Paleoclimatology describes the history of the Earth's climate -- the ice age cycles, sea level changes, volcanic activity, changes in atmosphere and solar radiation -- and the resulting, sometimes catastrophic, biotic responses. These paleoclimate records provide a baseline against which we can compare modern climate trends. Designed to give a fundamental background -- including both history and methodology -- to the discipline of paleoclimatology, this book is the first to advance our understanding of how climate change develops, how those changes are detected, and how the climate of the past can shape the climate of the future.

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Price: $37.19 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Toward the end of the Age of Dinosaurs, during a time known as the Late Cretaceous, a new type of giant predator appeared along the southern coasts of North America. It was a huge species of crocodylian and is called Deinosuchus. Neither a crocodile nor an alligator, it was an ancestor of both modern groups, but it reached weights of many tons and it had some features unique to the species. Average-sized individuals were bigger than the carnivorous dinosaurs with which they cohabited; the largest specimens were the size of a T-rex. This book is the biography of these giant beasts, including the long history of their discovery, new research about their makeup, and the first published evidence about their prey. Generations of people have stared at the 6-foot reconstructed skull at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, not realising that the only real bones in the specimen were bits of snout and lower jaw. New fossils and research show that the actual animal was quite different from the reconstruction, and now we can reliably assemble the skull and the remainder of the animal. The book also deals with the ancient life and geology of the coastal areas where Deinosuchus thrived, including its competitors and its prey, which likely included carnivorous dinosaurs among its numbers. Since Deinosuchus is found on eastern and western sides of the Great Inland Sea that split North America, it must have crossed this vast seaway during the Late Cretaceous. How and why the crocodylian crossed the seaway is the focus of a key chapter in the book. There is also detailed discussion of the methods used to determine the size of these giant animals, how we can date the fossils and describe their living environments, and why we can be sure who at whom 80 million years ago..
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Just 50,000 years ago the world was filled with fabulous creatures that are now forever gone. There were wooly elephants and rhinos, saber-toothed cats, great wolves and lions, giant tortoises - and in Australia giant lizards. Megalania was one of those. These frightful beasts could reach 19 feet in length and weigh as much as a polar bear. On their home turf they were top dog and it was the rare animal that dared to challenge them. "Dragons in the Dust" tells the story of these amazing lizards and the world in which they lived.The book explores the Pleistocene, the time of the ice ages, when climates changed and glaciers advanced over vast stretches of the globe. In Australia the changes in environment had an impact on the evolution of that continent's unique fauna. While mammals ruled elsewhere, here reptiles held their dominance. Large monitor lizards survive to this day, but the discovery of fossil remains of Megalania revealed that their ancestors were true giants and formidable predators. How scientists have reconstructed how these animals lived and what factors encouraged their evolution make up part of the story. What caused their extinction remains a mystery, and one that makes an intriguing conclusion to this fascinating look at a true dragon of the past..
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