Will temperatures rise by 2�C or 8�C over the next hundred years? Will sea levels rise by 2 or 30 feet? The only way that we can accurately answer questions like these is by looking into the distant past, for a comparison with the world long before the rise of mankind.We may currently believe that atmospheric shifts, like global warming, result from our impact on the planet, but the earth's atmosphere has been dramatically shifting since its creation. This book reveals the crucial role that plants have played in determining atmospheric change - and hence the conditions on the planet we know today. Along the way a number of fascinating puzzles arise: Why did plants evolve leaves? When and how did forests once grow on Antarctica? How did prehistoric insects manage to grow so large? The answers show the extraordinary amount plants can tell us about the history of the planet -- something that has often been overlooked amongst the preoccuputations with dinosaur bones and animal fossils.David Beerling's surprising conclusions are teased out from various lines of scientific enquiry, with evidence being brought to bear from fossil plants and animals, computer models of the atmosphere, and experimental studies. Intimately bound up with the narrative describing the dynamic evolution of climate and life through Earth's history, we find Victorian fossil hunters, intrepid polar explorers and pioneering chemists, alongside wallowing hippos, belching volcanoes, and restless landmasses.

    The story starts in earnest 3.8 billion years ago, with the earliest-known form of life on Earth, a bacteria that still exists today, and journeys through action-packed millennia, charting the appearance of new life forms as well as devastating extinction events. Of course, the ever-popular and endlessly intriguing dinosaurs feature large, but Prehistoric Life gives you the whole picture, and the plants, invertebrates, amphibians, birds, reptiles, and mammals that are the ancestors of today's species also populate its pages, making this book unprecedented in its coverage of prehistory. Specially commissioned artworks use cutting-edge technology to render species in breathtakingly realistic fashion, with astonishing images of prehistoric remains, such as skeletons and fossils, to complete the story. To put all the evidence in context, the concept of geological time is explored, as is the classification of species and how the evidence for their evolution is preserved and can be deciphered.New technologies have brought new life to inanimate fossils. CT scanning, for example, unlocks a 3D image of a plant or animal from a piece of rock, which can then be viewed from all angles revealing never-before-seen details. From this researchers can fill in missing pieces and even simulate how an animal might have moved. Panels explore these and numerous other scientific techniques for recovering, dating, and reconstructing, as well as profiling individuals, key excavations and discoveries, and some of the unique anatomical features that nature has developed over the course of time.The last section of the book looks at the development of humans and the eventual rise to dominance of Homo sapiens, exploring not only their changing anatomy as revealed by the fossils but also the evidence for culture and society as evidenced by extraordinary cave paintings and intricately worked tools.In combination, the stunning visuals, captivating, authoritative text, and comprehensive approach make Prehistoric Life a fascinating and revealing encyclopedia that will appeal to the whole family.TABLE OF CONTENTS1. LIVING PLANET (38 pp)Foundations of a living planet. The Earth's structure. Plate tectonics, formation of oceans and continents.Changing climate. factors that contribute to climate change, how those can be seen in the geological record, and how that has affected life on Earth.Reconstructing the past. Using the present to understand the past (rocks and the rock cycle, layers of rock and dating)Fossils. Types of fossils, how they form, reconstructing the past from them (digging up, analysis), reconstructing past environments, dating using fossils.Geological timescale. Explanation of geological time.Life on Earth. What is life? Natural selection, DNA, molecular clocks, mass extinctions.Timeline of Evolution. Broad-scale look at major evolutionary markers through time.Classification. How we classify living organisms. The kingdoms of life.2. ON EARTH (398 PP) This chapter will be organized so that pages can be removed to leave a section of 360pp.his consists of a catalog divided into geological periods. Each period introduction covers the conditions on Earth at the time (geology and climate) and includes a chart showing the evolution of the main forms of life. The subsequent catalog entries are organized into groups: Microscopic life; Plants and Fungi; Invertebrates; and Vertebrates, with each having an introduction detailing the main evolutionary developments within the group.Archean 3.8-2.5 billion years ago (4pp)Period introduction. (1p)Archean life intro - (1p) the rise of life. Biology of cells; prokaryotes, cyanobacteria, stromatolites.Catalog of species.Proterozoic 2.5 billion-543 mya (6pp)Period introduction. (2pp)Microscopic life intro. (1p)Catalog of species. (1p)Invertebrates intro. (1p)Catalog of species. (1p)Cambrian 543-490 mya (20pp)Period introduction (4pp)Microscopic life intro. (1p)Catalog of species. (3pp)Invertebrates intro. (2pp)Catalog of species. (8pp)Vertebrates intro. (1p)Catalog of species. (1p)Ordovician 490-443 mya (14pp)Period introduction. (4pp)Microscopic life intro. (1p)Catalog of species. (1p)Plants and fungi intro. (1p)Catalog of species.(1p)Invertebrates intro. (1p)Catalog of species. (3pp)Vertebrates intro. (1p)Catalog of species. (1p)Silurian 443-417 mya (20pp)Period introduction. (4pp)Microscopic life intro. (1p)Catalog of species. (1p)Plants and fungi intro. (1p)Catalog of species. (1p)Invertebrates intro. (1p)Catalog of species. (7pp)Vertebrates intro. (1p)Catalog of species. (3p)Devonian 417-354 mya (34pp)Period introduction. (4pp)Microscopic life intro. (1p)Catalog of species. (1p)Plants and fungi intro. (1p)Catalog of species. (7pp)Invertebrates intro. (1p)Catalog of species. (7pp)Vertebrates intro. (2p)Catalog of species. (10pp)Carboniferous 354-290 mya (38pp)Period introduction. (4pp)Microscopic life intro. (1p)Catalog of species. (1p)Plants and fungi intro. (2pp)Catalog of species. (8pp)Invertebrates intro. (1p)Catalog of species. (9pp)Vertebrates intro. (2pp)Catalog of species. (10pp)Permian 290-248 mya (26pp)Period introduction. (Microscopic life intro. (1p)Catalog of species. (1p)Plants and fungi intro. (1p)Catalog of species. (3pp)Invertebrates intro. (1p)Catalog of species. (7pp)Vertebrates intro. (1p)Catalog of species. (7pp)Triassic 248-206 mya (30pp)Period introduction. (Microscopic life intro. (1p)Catalog of species. (1p)Plants and fungi intro. (1p)Catalog of species. (5pp)Invertebrates intro. (1p)Catalog of species. (3pp)Vertebrates intro. (1pp)Catalog of species. (13pp)Jurassic 206-144 mya (56pp)Period introduction. (4pp)Microscopic life intro. (1p)Catalog of species. (1p)Plants and fungi intro. (1p)Catalog of species. (5pp)Invertebrates intro. (1p)Catalog of species. (9pp)Vertebrates intro. (2pp)Catalog of species. (24pp)Cretaceous 144-65 mya (54pp)Period introduction. (4pp)Microscopic life intro. (1p)Catalog of species. (1p)Plants and fungi intro. (2pp)Catalog of species. (10pp)Invertebrates intro. (1p)Catalog of species. (9pp)Vertebrates intro. (2pp)Catalog of species. (24pp)Paleogene 65-23.8 mya (34pp)Period introduction. (4pp)Microscopic life intro. (1p)Catalog of species. (1p)Plants and fungi intro. (1p)Catalog of species. (6pp)Invertebrates intro. (1p)Catalog of species. (6pp)Vertebrates intro. (2pp)Catalog of species. (12pp)Neogene 23.8-1.8 mya (32pp)Period introduction. (4pp)Microscopic life intro. (1p)Catalog of species. (1p)Plants and fungi intro. (1p)Catalog of species. (6pp)Invertebrates intro. (1p)Catalog of species. (7pp)Vertebrates intro. (1p)Catalog of species. (10pp)Quaternary 1.8 mya-Present (26pp)Period introduction. (4pp)Microscopic life intro. (1p)Catalog of species. (1p)Plants and fungi intro. (1p)Catalog of species. (Invertebrates intro. (1p)Catalog of species. (5pp)Vertebrates intro. (1p)Catalog of species. (8pp)3. THE RISE OF HUMANS (44PP)Timeline of human evolution.Coverage of: Sahelanthropus tchadensis, Orrorin tugenesis, Ardipithecus kadabba, Ardipithecus ramidus, Australopithecus anamensis, Australopithecus afarensis, Kenyanthropus platyops, Australopithecus africanus, Australopithecus aethiopicus, Australopithecus garhi, Homo habilis, Homo rudolfensis, Paranthropus boisei, Homo ergaster, Paranthropus robustus, Homo erectus, Homo heidelbergensis, Homo neanderthalensis, Homo sapiens.Themes of anatomy, DNA, global expansion, tool use, diet, communication, ecology, society, and culture run through the section.Glossary/Index/Acknowledgements

    In 2007 bird-watching is one of the most popular pastimes, not just in America, but throughout the world, and the range of interest runs from the specialist to the beginner.In The Wisdom of Birds, Birkhead takes the reader on a journey that not only tells us about the extraordinary lives of birds - from conception and egg, through territory and song, to migration and fully fledged breeder - but also shows how, over centuries, we have overcome superstition and untested 'truths' to know what we know, and how recent some of that knowledge is.Conceived for a general audience, and illustrated throughout with more than 100 exquisitely beautiful illustrations, many of them rarely, if ever, seen before, The Wisdom of Birds is a book full of stories, knowledge and unexpected revelations.

    Random genetic mutation, long believed to be the main source of variation, is only a marginal factor. As the authors demonstrate in this book, the more important source of speciation, by far, is the acquisition of new genomes by symbiotic merger. The result of thirty years of delving into a vast, mostly arcane literature, this is the first book to go beyond -- and reveal the severe limitations of -- the "Modern Synthesis" that has dominated evolutionary biology for almost three generations. Lynn Margulis, whom E. O. Wilson called "one of the most successful synthetic thinkers in modern biology," and her co-author Dorion Sagan have written a comprehensive and scientifically supported presentation of a theory that directly challenges the assumptions we hold about the variety of the living world.

    MacKinnon realized the grassland he grew up on was not the pristine wilderness he had always believed it to be. Instead, his home prairie was the outcome of a long history of transformation, from the disappearance of the grizzly bear to the introduction of cattle. What remains today is an illusion of the wild--an illusion that has in many ways created our world. In 3 beautifully drawn parts, MacKinnon revisits a globe exuberant with life, where lions roam North America and 20 times more whales swim in the sea. He traces how humans destroyed that reality, out of rapaciousness, yes, but also through a great forgetting. Finally, he calls for an "age of restoration," not only to revisit that richer and more awe-filled world, but to reconnect with our truest human nature. MacKinnon never fails to remind us that nature is a menagerie of marvels. Here are fish that pass down the wisdom of elders, landscapes still shaped by "ecological ghosts," a tortoise that is slowly remaking prehistory. "It remains a beautiful world," MacKinnon writes, "and it is its beauty, not its emptiness, that should inspire us to seek more nature in our lives."

    In the great halls of science, dogma holds that Darwin's theory of natural selection explains every branch on the tree of life: which species thrive, which wither away to extinction, and what features each evolves. But can adaptation by natural selection really account for everything we see in nature? Yale University ornithologist Richard Prum--reviving Darwin's own views--thinks not. Deep in tropical jungles around the world are birds with a dizzying array of appearances and mating displays: Club-winged Manakins who sing with their wings, Great Argus Pheasants who dazzle prospective mates with a four-foot-wide cone of feathers covered in golden 3D spheres, Red-capped Manakins who moonwalk. In thirty years of fieldwork, Prum has seen numerous display traits that seem disconnected from, if not outright contrary to, selection for individual survival. To explain this, he dusts off Darwin's long-neglected theory of sexual selection in which the act of choosing a mate for purely aesthetic reasons--for the mere pleasure of it--is an independent engine of evolutionary change. Mate choice can drive ornamental traits from the constraints of adaptive evolution, allowing them to grow ever more elaborate. It also sets the stakes for sexual conflict, in which the sexual autonomy of the female evolves in response to male sexual control. Most crucially, this framework provides important insights into the evolution of human sexuality, particularly the ways in which female preferences have changed male bodies, and even maleness itself, through evolutionary time. The Evolution of Beauty presents a unique scientific vision for how nature's splendor contributes to a more complete understanding of evolution and of ourselves.

    Weed. Grass. Mary Jane. We all think we know what cannabis is and what we use it for. But do we? Our collective understanding of this surprising plant has been muddled by politics and morality; what we think we know isn’t the real story.A war on cannabis has been waged in the United States since the early years of the twentieth century, yet in the past decade, society has undergone a massive shift in perspective that has allowed us to reconsider our beliefs. In Brave New Weed, Joe Dolce travels the globe to "tear down the cannabis closet" and de-mystify this new frontier, seeking answers to the questions we didn’t know we should ask.Dolce heads to a host of places, including Amsterdam, Israel, California, and Colorado, where he skillfully unfolds the odd, shocking, and wildly funny history of this complex plant. From the outlandish stories of murder trials where defendants claimed "insanity due to marijuana consumption" to the groundbreaking success stories about the plant’s impressive medicinal benefits, Dolce paints a fresh and much-needed portrait of cannabis, our changing attitudes toward it, and the brave new direction science and cultural acceptance are leading us.Enlightening, entertaining, and thought-provoking, Brave New Weed is a compelling read that will surprise and educate proponents on both sides of the cannabis debate.

    But how has the earth itself determined our destiny? Our planet wobbles, driving changes in climate that forced the transition from nomadism to farming. Mountainous terrain led to the development of democracy in Greece. Atmospheric circulation patterns later on shaped the progression of global exploration, colonization, and trade. Even today, voting behavior in the south-east United States ultimately follows the underlying pattern of 75 million-year-old sediments from an ancient sea. Everywhere is the deep imprint of the planetary on the human.From the cultivation of the first crops to the founding of modern states, Origins reveals the breathtaking impact of the earth beneath our feet on the shape of our human civilizations.

    Focusing on four specific examples — corn, silkworms, domestic cats, and apples — she traces the histories of species that have been fundamentally altered over the centuries by the whims and needs of people.

    See ISBN 9780465094646History is full of strange animal stories invented by the brightest and most influential, from Aristotle to Disney. But when it comes to understanding animals, we’ve got a long way to go.Whether we’re watching a viral video of romping baby pandas or looking at a picture of penguins ‘holding hands’, we often project our own values – innocence, abstinence, hard work – onto animals. So you’ve probably never considered that moose get drunk and that penguins are notorious cheats.In The Unexpected Truth About Animals Zoologist Lucy unravels many such myths – that eels are born from sand, that swallows hibernate under water, and that bears gave birth to formless lumps that are licked into shape by their mothers – to show that the stories we create reveal as much about us as they do about the animals.Astonishing, illuminating and laugh-out-loud funny.

    In Beloved Beasts, acclaimed science journalist Michelle Nijhuis traces the movement’s history: from early battles to save charismatic species such as the American bison and bald eagle to today’s global effort to defend life on a larger scale.She describes the vital role of scientists and activists such as Aldo Leopold and Rachel Carson as well as lesser-known figures in conservation history; she reveals the origins of vital organizations like the Audubon Society and the World Wildlife Fund; she explores current efforts to protect species such as the whooping crane and the black rhinoceros; and she confronts the darker side of conservation, long shadowed by racism and colonialism.As the destruction of other species continues and the effects of climate change escalate, Beloved Beasts charts the ways conservation is becoming a movement for the protection of all species—including our own.

    The subject of widespread attention when it was first published in 2004—including a full front-page review in the Washington Post Book World and features on NPR’s Talk of the Nation and the History Channel—this book gives us a glimpse into classrooms across the globe, where opinions about the United States are first formed.Heralded as “timely and important” (History News Network) and “shocking and fascinating” (New York Times), History Lessons includes selections from Russia, France, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Canada, and others, covering such events as the American Revolution, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Iran hostage crisis, and the Korean War, providing an alternative history of the United States from the Viking explorers to the post–Cold War era.By juxtaposing starkly contrasting versions of the historical events we take for granted, History Lessons affords us a sometimes hilarious, often sobering look at what the world learns about America’s past.

    Radiometric dating of nearby rocks indicated the skeleton, classified as Ardipithecus ramidus, was 4.4 million years old, more than a million years older than "Lucy," then the oldest known human ancestor. The findings challenged many assumptions about human evolution--how we started walking upright, how we evolved our nimble hands, and, most significantly, whether we were descended from an ancestor that resembled today's chimpanzee--and repudiated a half-century of paleoanthropological orthodoxy.Fossil Men is the first full-length exploration of Ardi, the fossil men who found her, and her impact on what we know about the origins of the human species. It is a scientific detective story played out in anatomy and the natural history of the human body. Kermit Pattison brings into focus a cast of eccentric, obsessive scientists, including one of the world's greatest fossil hunters, Tim White--an exacting and unforgiving fossil hunter whose virtuoso skills in the field were matched only by his propensity for making enemies; Gen Suwa, a Japanese savant who sometimes didn't bother going home at night to devote more hours to science; Owen Lovejoy, a onetime creationist-turned-paleoanthropologist; Berhane Asfaw, who survived imprisonment and torture to become Ethiopia's most senior paleoanthropologist and who fought for African scientists to gain equal footing in the study of human origins; and the Leakeys, for decades the most famous family in paloanthropology.An intriguing tale of scientific discovery, obsession and rivalry that moves from the sun-baked desert of Africa and a nation caught in a brutal civil war, to modern high-tech labs and academic lecture halls, Fossil Men is popular science at its best, and a must read for fans of Jared Diamond, Richard Dawkins, and Edward O. Wilson.

    Fathoms: The World in the Whale blends natural history, philosophy, and science to explore: How do whales experience ecological change? Will our connection to these storied animals be transformed by technology? What can observing whales teach us about the complexity, splendour, and fragility of life? In Fathoms, we learn about whales so rare they have never been named, whale songs that sweep across hemispheres in annual waves of popularity, and whales that have modified the chemical composition of our planet’s atmosphere. We travel to Japan to board the ships that hunt whales and delve into the deepest seas to discover the plastic pollution now pervading the whale’s undersea environment. In the spirit of Rachel Carson and Rebecca Solnit, Giggs gives us a vivid exploration of the natural world even as she addresses what it means to write about nature at a time of environmental crisis.

    It’s an epidemic, with a cost to society in medical expenses and lost productivity that is steeper than heart disease. But remember the 80% figure—that’s the astonishing cure rate at Dr. Jeremy James’s Aspen Club Back Institute. A Doctor of Chiropractic who took that path because of his own severe injury-induced back pain, he has developed a revolutionary behavioral/whole-body approach to help sufferers heal—and often eliminate—back pain forever. Co-written with Chris Crowley, The Younger Next Year Back Book follows the alternating chapter format of the #1 New York Times bestselling Younger Next Year and other books in the series. And just as millions of readers positively changed their lives following Harry’s Rules in Younger Next Year, the millions of back pain sufferers can find relief following Jeremy’s rules, including Stop Doing Dumb Stuff, Be Still So You Can Heal, and Stand Tall for the Long Haul. He explains the workings of the spine and muscles, and then why back pain is almost never a disease, per se, but the result of behavior. He then shows how to change our behavior, find a neutral spine, and begin a regimen of simple exercises—with step-by-step two-color illustrations—to realign our core to virtually eliminate back pain forever. Chris Crowley, in his been-there-done-that-and-you-can-too-damnit! voice, provides all the motivation and patient perspective we need.