Neptune's Ark (eBook)

From Ichthyosaurs to Orcas

David Rains Wallace (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2007
313 Seiten
University of California Press (Verlag)
978-0-520-93145-9 (ISBN)

Infos

Neptune's Ark illuminates the dramatic saga of evolution spanning 500 million years of marine life along the magnificent Pacific coast of western North America. In an engaging narrative that artfully blends elements of science, history, folklore, and personal observation, renowned naturalist David Rains Wallace reveals a marvelous diversity of creatures, not only modern ones, but those from the far prehistoric past. Mysterious forms have abounded-from giant sea cows, oyster bears, and flightless toothed birds to the orcas, elephant seals, and sea otters of modern times. Wallace tells a story about evolution as well as a tale of the storms, scurvy, and shipwrecks that plagued the coast's explorers, naturalists, and scientists, many of whom led turbulent or tragic lives, with themes reflected in the wonder and danger of the coast itself. Neptune's Ark is full of vivid characters-from explorers like Sir Francis Drake and Captain James Cook, to pioneer naturalists including Georg Steller and Charles Scammon, to early paleontologists Othniel Marsh and Edward Cope, and to recent scientists and ecological visionaries.

Inhalt

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments

Prologue. Steller’s Sea Ape

1 / Reefs in the Desert
2 / Amphibious Ambiguities
3 / Bird Teeth and Reptile Necks
4 / Tail Tales
5 / Cope’s Elusive Ophidians
6 / Hooves into Flippers
7 / Marsh’s Deceptive Desmostylians
8 / Emlong’s Whale
9 / Paws into Flippers
10 / Sea Cows and Oyster Bears
11 / The Long, Warm Summer
12 / Emptying Bays
13 / Punctuated Pinnipeds and Darwinian Sirenians
14 / Advent of Autumn
15 / Ice Age Invasions
16 / Hands into Paddles
17 / Pileated Woodpecker’s Boat
18 / The End of the Earth
19 / An Industrial Interlude
20 / Intimations of Communication

Epilogue. The Old Man of the Sea

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 14.5.2007
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Limnologie / Meeresbiologie
• Schlagworte: Amphibians • ancient animals • Ancient history • Ancient World • animal biology • Animal Evolution • animal life • Animal physiology • aquatic animals • Birds • Communication • Darwin • Dinosaurs • Fauna • Fossil Record • fossils • Ice Age • Ichthyosaurs • Illustrated • Industrial • ocean • Ocean Life • Orca • Prehistory • reefs • Reptiles • species • Tails • Teeth
• ISBN-10: 0-520-93145-9 / 0520931459
• ISBN-13: 978-0-520-93145-9 / 9780520931459