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The Emerald Planet: How Plants Changed Earth's History
Global warming is contentious and difficult to measure, even among the majority of scientists who agree that it is taking place. Will temperatures rise by 2oC or 8oC over the next hundred years? Will sea levels rise by 2 or 30 feet? The only way that we can accurately answer questions like these is by looking into the distant past, for a comparison with the world long before the rise of mankind. We may currently believe that atmospheric shifts, like global warming, result from our impact on the planet, but the earth's atmosphere has been dramatically shifting since its creation. This book reveals the crucial role that plants have played in determining atmospheric change - and hence the conditions on the planet we know today. Along the way a number of fascinating puzzles arise: Why did plants evolve leaves? When and how did forests once grow on Antarctica? How did prehistoric insects manage to grow so large? The answers show the extraordinary amount plants can tell us about the history of the planet -- something that has often been overlooked amongst the preoccuputations with dinosaur bones and animal fossils. David Beerling's surprising conclusions are teased out from various lines of scientific enquiry, with evidence being brought to bear from fossil plants and animals, computer models of the atmosphere, and experimental studies. Intimately bound up with the narrative describing the dynamic evolution of climate and life through Earth's history, we find Victorian fossil hunters, intrepid polar explorers and pioneering chemists, alongside wallowing hippos, belching volcanoes, and restless landmasses..
Price: $19.59
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Landscaping with Native Plants of Minnesota
Gardeners use native plants for several reasons. For many, their initial attraction is to native plants’ reputation for being low maintenance, as well as their ability to survive difficult soil and weather conditions. But equally appealing is the joy of connecting with nature and our state’s natural heritage and the satisfaction of creating a real sense of place rather than just another cookie-cutter landscape. "Landscaping with Native Plants of Minnesota" is the first book designed to help you identify Minnesota’s native plants and plant communities and to demonstrate how to use them effectively in a typical home landscape. In this book you’ll find the basic gardening information you need for working with the native plants of Minnesota. You’ll learn what level of native-plant landscaping is right for you and get valuable information on the process of designing a natural garden that fits your lifestyle and family. You’ll also find lots of plant lists for specific styles of gardens. In the Gallery of Gardens section, you’ll be inspired by what your fellow Minnesota gardeners have done with native plants in their own landscapes, including a prairie restoration, a suburban woodland garden, and a garden for wildlife. The Native Plant Profiles section includes comprehensive descriptions of some 600 species of flowers and groundcovers, trees, shrubs, vines, evergreens, grasses, and ferns native to Minnesota, as well as information on planting, maintenance, and landscape uses for each plant. About the Author: Lynn M. Steiner is one of the best-known gardening writers in Minnesota. Her enthusiasm for native plants and gardening stems from her childhood curiosity about all things natural as well as 20 years of tending her own extensive home gardens. For 15 years she was the editor of Northern Gardener magazine, and under her direction it earned several awards for ""Overall Excellence"" from the Minnesota Magazine & Publications Association. .
Price: $14.95
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FOSSIL PLANTS PB (Smithsonian's Living Past)
An amazing look at plants of the past through an examination of the fossils that remain.Long before there were animals on the earth, many kinds of plants covered the prehistoric planet. The soft remains rarely fossilized, but sometimes leaves, flowers, and branches would fall into soft mud or be encased by the ash of exploding volcanoes. These plants were preserved and now offer a sampling of life in the distant past and a contrast to our present flora. This complete guide to fossil plants explains both the lives of ancient plants and why certain plants became fossilized. Kenrick and Davis trace the evolution of land plants, ferns, conifers, and their relatives, the flowering plants. Interwoven are snapshots of landscapes and environments of various periods, focusing on plant and animal interactions. The included photographs present these ancient, sometimes delicate pieces of shale, and Kenrick and Davis explain the story that fossil plants can tell us about the past. 16 pages of color photographs, 100 b/w photographs..
Price: $14.88
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Petrified Wood : The World of Fossilized Wood, Cones, Ferns, and Cycads
176 pages with 430 full color photographs of some of the most beautiful fossil specimens in existence Chapters include Paleobotany, Geology, Mineralogy, and Collecting Petrified Materials. Hundreds of specimens from private collections are for the first time available for public view. Petrified Wood: The World of Fossilized Wood, Cones, Ferns, and Cycads presents photographs of fossil specimens from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Madagascar, Turkey, and Zimbabwe, and from Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming in the United States. Photographs include a variety of types and genera of wood, including Araucaria, Woodworthia, Schilderia, Pentoxylon, Hermanophyton, oak, maple, tamarack, and Ginkgo; cones of Araucaria, Pararaucaria, Cycadeoidea, and Sequoia; and the ferns Tietea singularis, Tempskya, and Osmundacaulis..
Price: $64.99
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Paleobotany: The Biology and Evolution of Fossil Plants, Second Edition
This book provides up-to-date coverage of fossil plants from Precambrian life to flowering plants, including fungi and algae. It begins with a discussion of geologic time, how organisms are preserved in the rock record, and how organisms are studied and interpreted and takes the student through all the relevant uses and interpretations of fossil plant. With new chapters on additional flowering plant families, paleoecology and the structure of ancient plant communities, fossil plants as proxy records for paleoclimate, new methodologies used in phylogenetic reconstruction and the addition of new fossil plant discoveries since 1993, this book provides the most comprehensive account of the geologic history and evolution of microbes, algae, fungi, and plants through time. * Major revision of a 1993 classic reference * Lavishly illustrated with 1800 images and user friendly for use by paleobotanists, biologists, geologists and other related scientists * Includes an expanded glossary with an extensive up-to-date bibliography and a comprehensive index * Provides extensive coverage of fungi and other microbes, and major groups of land plants both living and extinct.
Price: $99.95
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Archaeological Parenchyma (University College London Institute of Archaeology Publications)
The parenchymous remains of roots and tubers are increasingly becoming recognized as an important category of plant remain alongside seeds, fruits and wood charcoal Identification is however frequently viewed as problematical and such important indicators of past diet are often left unidentified. This book describes the full range of anatomical and morphological characters used in the identification of the parenchymous remains of roots and tubers. Each of the characters is illustrated by photographs of modern and archaeological plant tissues and by line drawings. Further sections of the book also deal with the examination of archaeological tissues and the preparation of modern plant tissue reference collections..
Price: $89.00
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Origin and Evolution of Gymnosperms
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