Imagine the blooming of the very first flower. Or a 3-ton sloth with massive claws standing as tall as a giraffe. And horses the size of small dogs that have toes instead of hooves. This is not a dream or vision of an artist or author. This is North America over 20 million years ago! Journey into the distant past with this book and witness the earliest events in North America; when mammals rose from the shadows of the extinct dinosaurs to fill the land, and the first flowers and grasslands bloomed.
In this attractively illustrated volume, eminent biologist Sir Richard Southwood offers a remarkable survey of life in all its forms, ranging from the earliest single-celled bacteria, to the evolution and extinction of animals such as the dinosaurs, to the variety of life today. The book follows the major geological periods--such as the Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, and Devonian--explaining how great planetary changes such as the movement of the continents, the rising and falling of sea level, and the periods of glaciation, affected the forms of life on Earth. Beginning with the earliest and simplest forms of life, Southwood discusses such amazing creatures as bacteria that live around geysers and thermal vents and can survive in boiling water. He explains how the development of skeletons triggered the Cambrian Explosion, when animals such as trilobites, sea scorpions, shellfish, cephalopods first spread around the earth. He also examines such landmarks of evolution as the appearance of eggs in shells and of insects in flight. We read about the great dinosaurs and the arrival of the mammals and the primates, and the great extinctions, including the Permian (the largest in fossil history, wiping out 95% of animals) and the Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) extinction (the one that wiped out the dinosaurs). Southwood concludes by examining the impact of humanity on Earth, considering if we ourselves might not unleash the next major extinction. Southwood's love for his subject, for the life he describes so vividly, shines through this carefully crafted story. Generously illustrated with line drawings showing the fauna and flora of the Earth, both past and present, The Story of Life will enthrall anyone interested in nature and natural history.
Explores the Cenozoic era from the extinction of dinosaurs to life today, including ice ages covering Earth, the formation of the Grand Canyon, and the evolution of humans.
Travel back in time to the Ice Age in this installment of the hit nonfiction graphic novel series about prehistoric Earth! After the dinosaurs died out, Earth was by no means empty. There were still some little resourceful critters around who, without big predators to hunt them down, survived and thrived. Who were these scrappy creatures? Early mammals, our ancestors! In the Cenozoic Era, mammals rose to dominance and spread over the globe, resulting in woolly mammoths, saber-toothed tigers, and eventually all of humankind. In this adventure, readers will meet the three kinds of mammals—monotremes, marsupials, and placental mammals—as well as the other amazing ancient beasts they shared the Earth with during the Cenozoic Era. Travel along on this fascinating journey through time, from 66 million years ago to present day. Want more adventures in prehistoric Earth? Check out the other books in the Earth Before Us series: Dinosaur Empire! and Ocean Renegades!
When Ronnie’s parents go on a business trip and leave her with Miss Lernin for the week, Ronnie is sure she’s in for a big, dinosaur-size adventure. After all, her last trip with Miss Lernin involved real-life dinosaurs! So, when they end up at the aquarium's jellyfish exhibit, Ronnie is confused. Surely jellyfish aren’t as cool as dinosaurs, right? Wrong! Determined to show Ronnie just how interesting prehistoric life was before the age of the dinosaurs, Miss Lernin takes her back in time to the six parts of the Paleozoic era to study the earliest lifeforms on Earth, and how many left the ocean for life on land.
Antarctic Climate Evolution is the first book dedicated to furthering knowledge on the evolution of the world's largest ice sheet over its ~34 million year history. This volume provides the latest information on subjects ranging from terrestrial and marine geology to sedimentology and glacier geophysics. - An overview of Antarctic climate change, analyzing historical, present-day and future developments - Contributions from leading experts and scholars from around the world - Informs and updates climate change scientists and experts in related areas of study
One of Springer’s Major Reference Works, this book gives the reader a truly global perspective. It is the first major reference work in its field. Paleoclimate topics covered in the encyclopedia give the reader the capability to place the observations of recent global warming in the context of longer-term natural climate fluctuations. Significant elements of the encyclopedia include recent developments in paleoclimate modeling, paleo-ocean circulation, as well as the influence of geological processes and biological feedbacks on global climate change. The encyclopedia gives the reader an entry point into the literature on these and many other groundbreaking topics.
Its constant evolution over the millennia since its inception has made the Earth a dynamic entity, subject to numerous climactic and environmental forces that are forever changing this planet. In its most recent stage, the planet has seen an incredible diversification in plant and animal life, with the most prominent development of the Cenozoic era being the emergence of mammals. This book examines our most immediate ancestors and the geologic, geographic, and environmental factors that helped make their primacy inevitable.
This book is a comprehensive collection of the best scholarship available on the transition between the Paleocene and Eocene epochs--when the earth experienced the warmest climatic episode of the Cenozoic era. These 21 contributions detail the major turnover among marine and terrestrial organisms that resulted from sudden global warming.
