In the visual arts of the 15th to the early 19th centuries in Europe, animals were understood in relation to the human world. At the same time, increasing investigation of the natural world engaged artists in the problems of accurate representation: prints were particularly important in distributing information across a wide audience. This illustrated book explores perceptions of the natural world as seen through the eyes of imaginative artists.
The world's wildest collection of animal knowledge and lore! Lions, and tigers, and bears . . . and dinosaurs, dragons, and monsters. Oh my! For hundreds of years, the most popular books in the Western world next to the Bible were "bestiaries," fanciful encyclopedias collecting all of human knowledge and mythology about the animal kingdom. In these pages, eagles and elephants lived next to griffins and sea monsters. Now, in The Big, Bad Book of Beasts, award-winning author Michael Largo has updated the medieval bestsellers for the twenty-first century, illuminating little-known facts, astonishing secrets, and bizarre superstitions about the beasts that inhabit our world—and haunt our imaginations. You'll learn about the biggest bug ever, the smallest animal in the world, and the real creatures that inspired the fabled unicorns. You'll discover how birds learned to fly, why cats rub against your legs, and a thousand other facts that will make you look at nature in a wonderfully new way. Did you know? The fastest animal in the world is the peregrine falcon, which reaches speeds of over 200 miles per hours. Circus ringmaster P.T. Barnum fooled many when he displayed a "mermaid" carcass that was later proved to be monkey bones sewed together with the body of a fish. Discovered in a remote volcanic crater in New Guinea, the Bosavi wolly rat grows to the size of a cat. President Andrew Jackson bought an African gray parrot to keep his wife company. The bird outlived them both and was removed from Jackson's funeral for cussing in both English and Spanish. A to Z: From Aardvark to Zooplankton! For all ages! Includes 289 illustrations!
Beasts of the World is a seven-part series, which seeks to investigate the histories, evidence, and common theories surrounding the numerous cryptid creatures that have been reported around the globe. In Volume 1. - Hairy Humanoids, we examine the diverse collection of hairy, bipedal, man-like monsters that are believed to inhabit the world’s remote and lonely regions and ask the question - do they represent a single species, or, could there be other lesser-known varieties of Wildmen, yet to be revealed? This book seeks to classify some of these distinct kinds and proposes a separation (even when two or more ‘types’ or ‘species’, appear to be sharing a similar geographic area) based upon key physiological and behavioural differences. And so, we find that the Man-Ape – Bigfoot of the Pacific Northwest, is something quite different to the Wildman – Almasti, of the Caucuses Mountains; and that the Relict Ape – known as the Yeti, is more akin to the Florida Skunk Ape, than the Chinese Yeren... Are these mysterious monsters surviving Gigantopithecus, extant Neanderthals, undiscovered apes, hidden tribes, or simply folklore and fable, repackaged for the modern world? Join me, as I go in search of these Hairy Humanoids and the many yet to be discovered Beasts of the World.
A New York Times / National Bestseller "America's funniest science writer" (Washington Post) Mary Roach explores the science of keeping human beings intact, awake, sane, uninfected, and uninfested in the bizarre and extreme circumstances of war. Grunt tackles the science behind some of a soldier's most challenging adversaries—panic, exhaustion, heat, noise—and introduces us to the scientists who seek to conquer them. Mary Roach dodges hostile fire with the U.S. Marine Corps Paintball Team as part of a study on hearing loss and survivability in combat. She visits the fashion design studio of U.S. Army Natick Labs and learns why a zipper is a problem for a sniper. She visits a repurposed movie studio where amputee actors help prepare Marine Corps medics for the shock and gore of combat wounds. At Camp Lemmonier, Djibouti, in east Africa, we learn how diarrhea can be a threat to national security. Roach samples caffeinated meat, sniffs an archival sample of a World War II stink bomb, and stays up all night with the crew tending the missiles on the nuclear submarine USS Tennessee. She answers questions not found in any other book on the military: Why is DARPA interested in ducks? How is a wedding gown like a bomb suit? Why are shrimp more dangerous to sailors than sharks? Take a tour of duty with Roach, and you’ll never see our nation’s defenders in the same way again.
An enchanting adult coloring book from New York Times bestselling author Millie Marotta, whose books have sold more than 8-1/2 million copies worldwide What awaits eager fans of Millie Marotta's magical art? In her fourth collection, the bestselling author of Animal Kingdom and Tropical World has created enchanting images of exotic flora and fauna to color in. Millie's engaging and intricately designed illustrations will beckon artists to make their mark on such creatures as an Amazonian royal flycatcher, macaroni penguin, mimic octopus, Tibetan fox, and golden pheasant, as well as a variety of plants, including rare orchids.
He awoke in total darkness. Alone in a world of cannibalistic beasts and four-legged fiends with jet black eyes, Trumpet prefers to travel alone. Friends turn. Friends die. Friends find their destiny at the end of his blade. He prefers his music, both the music he sometimes plays with his trumpet and the other music he hears in his head walking the abandoned streets of the dead cities. When the girl comes into his life he is forced to choose. A simple life alone living by his father’s rules or a perilous journey destined for a bloody end.
