Some bugs are bigbut they cant beat the ancient dragonfly called Meganeura. Its wingspan was as wide as a seagulls. Try squishing that with a fly swatter! Readers will love the astounding prehistoric world in the vivid pages of this informative book. Besides stunning facts about dragonflies, theyll learn about dinosaurs and other creatures that roamed Earth at that time. Amid information that will ignite their imaginations, they'll also contemplate significant science subjects that aid in understanding the animals that walk Earth today.
Some bugs are bigbut they cant beat the ancient dragonfly called Meganeura. Its wingspan was as wide as a seagulls. Try squishing that with a fly swatter! Readers will love the astounding prehistoric world in the vivid pages of this informative book. Besides stunning facts about dragonflies, theyll learn about dinosaurs and other creatures that roamed Earth at that time. Amid information that will ignite their imaginations, they'll also contemplate significant science subjects that aid in understanding the animals that walk Earth today.
At forty-two and given to the occasional panic attack, Randy Roman is taking a leave of absence from her life. After twenty years of working at a bank—no husband, no kids—she's hitting the road with her young nephews Mickey and Eric, and Dexter, a precocious dog they pick up along the way. With each passing mile of prairie, farmland and raspberry fi eld, Randy feels the thrill of freedom…. Their destination is Cranberry Portage, a quaint lakeside town her mother loved and Randy can barely remember. But a surprise awaits them at journey's end. Call it fate, karma, or the chance for renewal, it will give Randy the courage to take a risk that will change her life….
Here, for the first time, is a comprehensive and accessible overview of one of the world’s most popular insect groups, the Odonata. Written for interested amateurs as well as more experienced professionals, Dragonflies of the World covers their evolution, ecology, behaviour, physiology and taxonomy. It describes their unique attributes and the distinctive features of the suborders, superfamilies, families and subfamilies.
“In the land where caribou now roam, there once lived strange and amazing creatures…” Discover Alaska's dinosaurs when you travel back through prehistoric time in Thunderfeet. Take a trip through 70 million years of history from the day of the dinosaurs to the migration of North America's animals across the Bering Land Bridge. Ages 5 and up. Includes a glossary for curious kids with more information about dinosaurs and other prehistoric critters. Thunderfeet is dedicated to all of Alaska’s animals. We hope the Last Frontier will stay a wild place.
A lavishly illustrated introduction to the world's dragonflies and damselflies Dragonflies and damselflies are often called birdwatchers’ insects. Large, brightly colored, active in the daytime, and displaying complex and interesting behaviors, they have existed since the days of the dinosaurs, and they continue to flourish. Their ancestors were the biggest insects ever, and they still impress us with their size, the largest bigger than a small hummingbird. There are more than 6,000 odonate species known at present, and you need only visit any wetland on a warm summer day to be enthralled by their stunning colors and fascinating behavior. In this lavishly illustrated natural history, leading dragonfly expert Dennis Paulson offers a comprehensive, accessible, and appealing introduction to the world’s dragonflies and damselflies. The book highlights the impressive skills and abilities of dragonflies and damselflies—superb fliers that can glide, hover, cruise, and capture prey on the wing. It also describes their arsenal of tactics to avoid predators, and their amazing sex life, including dazzling courtship displays, aerial mating, sperm displacement, mate guarding, and male mimicry. Dragonflies and Damselflies includes profiles of more than fifty of the most interesting and beautiful species from around the world. Learn about the Great Cascade Damsel, which breeds only at waterfalls, the mesmerizing flight of Blue-winged Helicopters, and how the larva of the Common Sanddragon can burrow into sand as efficiently as a mole. Combining expert text and excellent color photographs, this is a must-have guide to these remarkable insects. A lavishly illustrated, comprehensive, and accessible natural history that reveals the beauty and diversity of one of the world’s oldest and most popular insect groups Offers a complete guide to the evolution, life cycles, biology, anatomy, behavior, and habitats of dragonflies and damselflies Introduces the 39 families of dragonflies and damselflies through exemplary species accounts Features tips on field observation and lab research, and information on threats and conservation
A dragonfly lays her clutch of eggs and the life cycle of dragonflies has begun. Watch as the little nymphs change over time into beautiful adults who can move through the air like an acrobat.
You haven’t changed a bit! Living fossils, or modern-day animals that very closely resemble their ancient relatives. Meet the coelacanth, horseshoe crab, dragonfly, tuatara, nautilus, and Hula painted frog. All are living fossils. Why have they changed so little over time, while other animals evolved or went extinct? Using contrasting "then" and "now" illustrations, veteran nonfiction writer Caroline Arnold alternates between a prehistoric creature in its native environment and its contemporary living-fossil counterpart. An amazing way to experience the ancient past! Back matter includes a time line, additional information about the six living fossils, a glossary, and suggestions for further reading.
Millions of years ago in the Cretaceous period, the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex--with its dagger-like teeth for tearing its prey to ribbons--was undoubtedly the fiercest carnivore to roam the Earth. Yet as What Bugged the Dinosaurs? reveals, T. rex was not the only killer. George and Roberta Poinar show how insects--from biting sand flies to disease-causing parasites--dominated life on the planet and played a significant role in the life and death of the dinosaurs. The Poinars bring the age of the dinosaurs marvelously to life. Analyzing exotic insects fossilized in Cretaceous amber at three major deposits in Lebanon, Burma, and Canada, they reconstruct the complex ecology of a hostile prehistoric world inhabited by voracious swarms of insects. The Poinars draw upon tantalizing new evidence from their amazing discoveries of disease-producing vertebrate pathogens in Cretaceous blood-sucking flies, as well as intestinal worms and protozoa found in fossilized dinosaur excrement, to provide a unique view of how insects infected with malaria, leishmania, and other pathogens, together with intestinal parasites, could have devastated dinosaur populations. A scientific adventure story from the authors whose research inspired Jurassic Park, What Bugged the Dinosaurs?? offers compelling evidence of how insects directly and indirectly contributed to the dinosaurs' demise.
