The Last Synapsid

The Last Synapsid

Author: Timothy Mason

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Published: 2009-02-10

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 0375892028

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Faith, Colorado, doesn't get many visitors. But this spring, a mysterious creature is lurking on the mountain. Fiercer than a mountain lion, it’s been hunting pets and leaving their remains scattered over the mountainside. But what is it, and what does it want? Only Rob and his best friend, Phoebe, are brave enough to investigate. What they find on the mountain is the Last Synapsid—a squat, drooly creature that looks like a dinosaur crossed with a wienerdog—that claims to need Rob and Phoebe’s help. Having wandered into a time snag from his own era, 30 million years before the dinosaurs, “Sid” is chasing a violent carnivore called a gorgonopsid. The Gorgon has become fascinated by humanity and refuses to return to his proper place in time. But if he doesn’t, history will re-align, humans will never evolve, and Rob and Phoebe will end up as nothing more than characters in an elderly synapsid’s dream. Timothy Mason is a playwright who wrote the book and lyrics for the Broadway musical version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! He lives in New York. The Last Synapsid is his first novel.


Get Those Guys Reading!

Get Those Guys Reading!

Author: Kathleen A. Baxter

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2012-05-07

Total Pages: 413

ISBN-13:

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Want to identify fiction books that boys in grades three through nine will find irresistible? This guide reveals dozens of worthwhile recommendations in categories ranging from adventure stories and sports novels to horror, humorous, and science fiction books. In Get Those Guys Reading!: Fiction and Series Books that Boys Will Love, authors Kathleen A. Baxter and Marcia A. Kochel provide compelling and current reading suggestions for younger boys—information that educators, librarians, and parents alike are desperate for. Comprising titles that are almost all well-reviewed in at least one major professional journal, or that are such big hits with kids that they've received the "stamp of approval" from the most important reviewers, this book will be invaluable to anyone whose goal is to help boys develop a healthy enthusiasm for reading. It includes chapters on adventure books; animal stories; graphic novels; historical fiction; humorous books; mystery, horror, and suspense titles; science fiction and fantasy; and sports novels. Within each chapter, the selections are further divided into books for younger readers (grades 3–6) and titles for older boys in grades 5–8. Elementary and middle school librarians and teachers, public librarians, Title One teachers, and parents of boys in grades 3–9 will all benefit greatly from having this book at hand.


Early Evolutionary History of the Synapsida

Early Evolutionary History of the Synapsida

Author: Christian F. Kammerer

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-09-20

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13: 9400768419

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Non-mammalian synapsids were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates from the Late Carboniferous to the Middle Triassic and play a key role in understanding the origin and evolution of mammals. Despite these facts and the outstanding fossil record of the group, early synapsids remain obscure. This book showcases the full breadth of contemporary research on non-mammalian synapsids, ranging from taxonomy and phylogenetics to functional morphology, biogeography, paleoecology, and patterns of diversity. It also underscores the importance and potential of studying non-mammalian synapsid paleobiology in its own right, not just in the context of mammalian evolution.​


Carboniferous Giants and Mass Extinction

Carboniferous Giants and Mass Extinction

Author: George R. McGhee Jr.

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2018-08-07

Total Pages: 279

ISBN-13: 0231543387

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Picture a world of dog-sized scorpions and millipedes as long as a car; tropical rainforests with trees towering over 150 feet into the sky and a giant polar continent five times larger than Antarctica. That world was not imaginary; it was the earth more than 300 million years ago in the Carboniferous period of the Paleozoic era. In Carboniferous Giants and Mass Extinction, George R. McGhee Jr. explores that ancient world, explaining its origins; its downfall in the end-Permian mass extinction, the greatest biodiversity crisis to occur since the evolution of animal life on Earth; and how its legacies still affect us today. McGhee investigates the consequences of the Late Paleozoic ice age in this comprehensive portrait of the effects of ancient climate change on global ecology. Carboniferous Giants and Mass Extinction examines the climatic conditions that allowed for the evolution of gigantic animals and the formation of the largest tropical rainforests ever to exist, which in time turned into the coal that made the industrial revolution possible—and fuels the engine of contemporary anthropogenic climate change. Exploring the strange and fascinating flora and fauna of the Late Paleozoic ice age world, McGhee focuses his analysis on the forces that brought this world to an abrupt and violent end. Synthesizing decades of research and new discoveries, this comprehensive book provides a wealth of insights into past and present extinction events and climate change.


Phylonyms

Phylonyms

Author: Kevin de Queiroz

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2020-04-30

Total Pages: 995

ISBN-13: 0429821204

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Phylonyms is an implementation of PhyloCode, which is a set of principles, rules, and recommendations governing phylogenetic nomenclature. Nearly 300 clades - lineages of organisms - are defined by reference to hypotheses of phylogenetic history rather than by taxonomic ranks and types. This volume will document the Real World uses of PhyloCode and will govern and apply to the names of clades, while species names will still be governed by traditional codes. Key Features Provides clear regulations for implementing new guidelines for naming lineages of organisms incorporates expressly evolutionary and phylogenetic principles Works with existing codes of nomenclature Eliminates the reliance on rank-based classification in favor of phylogenetic relationships Related Titles: Rieppel, O. Phylogenetic Systematics: Haeckel to Hennig (ISBN 978-1-4987-5488-0) Cantino, P. D. and de Queiroz, K. International Code of Phylogenetic Nomenclature (PhyloCode) (ISBN 978-1-138-33282-9).


Mammalian Evolution, Diversity and Systematics

Mammalian Evolution, Diversity and Systematics

Author: Frank Zachos

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2018-10-22

Total Pages: 742

ISBN-13: 3110382547

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There are nearly 6,000 mammalian species, among them our own. Research on our evolutionary cousins has a long history, but the last 20 years have seen particularly rapid progress in disentangling the interrelationships and evolutionary history of mammals. The present volume combines up-to-date reviews on mammalian phylogenetics with paleontological, taxonomic and evolutionary chapters and also summarizes the historical development of our insights in mammalian relationships, and thus our own place in the Tree of Life. Our book places the present biodiversity crisis in context, with one in four mammal species threatened by extinction, and reviews the distribution and conservation of mammalian diversity across the globe. This volume is the introductory tome to the new Mammalia series of the Handbook of Zoology and will be essential reading for mammalogists, zoologists and conservationists alike.


Vertebrate Skeletal Histology and Paleohistology

Vertebrate Skeletal Histology and Paleohistology

Author: Vivian de Buffrénil

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2021-06-24

Total Pages: 838

ISBN-13: 1351189581

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Vertebrate Skeletal Histology and Paleohistology summarizes decades of research into the biology and biological meaning of hard tissues, in both living and extinct vertebrates. In addition to outlining anatomical diversity, it provides fundamental phylogenetic and evolutionary contexts for interpretation. An international team of leading authorities review the impact of ontogeny, mechanics, and environment in relation to bone and dental tissues. Synthesizing current advances in the biological problems of growth, metabolism, evolution, ecology, and behavior, this comprehensive and authoritative volume is built upon a foundation of concepts and technology generated over the past fifty years.


Mammalogy

Mammalogy

Author: George A. Feldhamer

Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press

Published: 2020-03-24

Total Pages: 741

ISBN-13: 1421436523

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The fifth edition includes• for the first time, stunning color photographs throughout• chapters rearranged and grouped to best reflect phylogenetic relationships, with updated numbers of genera and species for each family• updated mammalian structural and functional adaptations, as well as ordinal fossil histories• recent advances in mammalian phylogeny, biogeography, social behavior, and ecology, with 12 new or revised cladograms reflecting current research findings• new breakout boxes on novel or unique aspects of mammals; new work on female post-copulatory mate choice, cooperative behaviors, group defense, and the role of the vomeronasal system• discussions of the current implications of climate change and other anthropogenic factors for mammalsMaintaining the accessible, readable style for which Feldhamer and his coauthors are well known, this new edition of Mammalogy is the authoritative textbook on this amazingly diverse class of vertebrates.


The Darwin Affair

The Darwin Affair

Author: Tim Mason

Publisher: Algonquin Books

Published: 2020-06-23

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 1643750461

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“Intellectually stimulating and viscerally exciting, The Darwin Affair is breathtaking from start to stop.” —The Wall Street Journal Get ready for one of the most inventive and entertaining novels of 2019—an edge-of-your-seat Victorian-era thriller, where the controversial publication On the Origin of Species sets off a string of unspeakable crimes. London, June 1860: When an assassination attempt is made on Queen Victoria, and a petty thief is gruesomely murdered moments later—and only a block away—Chief Detective Inspector Charles Field quickly surmises that these crimes are connected to an even more sinister plot. Was Victoria really the assassin’s target? Are those closest to the Crown hiding something? And who is the shadowy figure witnesses describe as having lifeless, coal-black eyes? Soon, Field’s investigation exposes a shocking conspiracy in which the publication of Charles Darwin’s controversial On the Origin of Species sets off a string of murders, arson, kidnapping, and the pursuit of a madman named the Chorister. As the investigation takes Field from the dangerous alleyways of London to the hallowed halls of Oxford, the list of possible conspirators grows, and the body count escalates. And as he edges closer to the Chorister, he uncovers dark secrets that were meant to remain forever hidden. Tim Mason has created a rousing page-turner that both Charles Dickens and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would relish and envy.