b&w illustrations throughout.

    From the first microbes and jawless fishes that evolved into the myriad species we know today-sharks, whales, dolphins, and, of course, humans-Ellis reveals the deep evolutionary mysteries of the sea. Encyclopedic in scope and complemented by more than sixty drawings, Aquagenesis is a fascinating work that will astonish readers with the wonder, richness, and complexity of the evolution of life. "Quite simply, the best account we now have of the origins of human life." (Te Christian Science Monitor)

    In the bestselling tradition of The Orchid Thief, comes the quirky and dramatic story of the last days of six North American bird species.

    Veteran science writer Jon Luoma uncovers the inner workings of an ancient forest, from the microscopic bugs in the soil to the giant trees.

    Advancements in technology and frenzied development have created the world’s largest energy project in Fort McMurray where, rather than shooting up like a fountain in the deserts of Saudi Arabia, the sticky bitumen is extracted from the earth. Providing almost 20 percent of America’s fuel, much of this dirty oil is being processed in refineries in the Midwest. This out-of-control megaproject is polluting the air, poisoning the water, and destroying boreal forest at a rate almost too rapid to be imagined. In this hard-hitting book, journalist Andrew Nikiforuk exposes the disastrous environmental, social, and political costs of the tar sands and argues forcefully for change.

    Congress declared the locust “the single greatest impediment to the settlement of the country between Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains.” Throughout the nineteenth century, swarms of locusts regularly swept across the American continent, turning noon into dusk, devastating farm communities, and bringing trains to a halt. The outbreaks subsided in the 1890s, and then, suddenly—and mysteriously—the Rocky Mountain locust vanished. A century later, entomologist Jeffrey Lockwood vowed to discover why.Locust is the story of how one insect shaped the history of the western United States. A compelling personal narrative drawing on historical accounts and modern science, this beautifully written book brings to life the cultural, economic, and political forces at work in America in the late nineteenth century, even as it solves one of the greatest extinction mysteries of our time.

    The Los Angeles Times has listed it among the one hundred most influential books published in the last quarter century, Outside Magazine has included it in a survey of books that changed our world, and it has been called the Book of Genesis for environmentalists. Now a fourth edition of this highly regarded work is available, with a new preface and epilogue in which Nash explores the future of wilderness and reflects on its ethical and biocentric relevance.

    Yet we take supplies of clean water and secure food for granted, rarely considering the free work nature does for Britain. In fact for years we have damaged the systems that sustain us under the illusion that we are keeping prices down, through intensive farming, drainage of bogs, clearing forests and turning rivers into canals. As Tony Juniper's new analysis shows, however, the ways in which we meet our needs often doesn't make economic sense. Through vivid first hand accounts and inspirational examples of how the damage is being repaired, Juniper takes readers on a journey to a different Britain from the one many assume we inhabit, not a country where nature is worthless or an impediment to progress, but the real Britain, the one where we are supported by nature, wildlife and natural systems at almost every turn.

    Consistently insightful and beautifully written, this work is especially compelling at a time when the forest, as a source of wonder, respect, and meaning, disappears daily from the earth."Forests is one of the most remarkable essays on the human place in nature I have ever read, and belongs on the small shelf that includes Raymond Williams' masterpiece, The Country and the City. Elegantly conceived, beautifully written, and powerfully argued, [Forests] is a model of scholarship at its passionate best. No one who cares about cultural history, about the human place in nature, or about the future of our earthly home, should miss it.—William Cronon, Yale Review"Forests is, among other things, a work of scholarship, and one of immense value . . . one that we have needed. It can be read and reread, added to and commented on for some time to come."—John Haines, The New York Times Book Review

    We find animals and plants where we do because, over time, the continents have moved, separating and uniting in a long, slow dance; because sea levels have risen, cutting off one bit of land from another; because new and barren volcanic islands have risen up from the sea; and because animals and plants vary greatly in their ability to travel, and separation causes the formation of new species. This is the story of how life has responded to, and has in turn altered, the ever-changing Earth. And it includes many fascinating tales--of pygmy mammoths and elephant birds and of radical ideas by bold young scientists.

    Most of us will never travel to these great wildernesses and, even for those lucky enough to have gone, this portrait of our polar regions will surprise and astound.Take a journey to the last truly great wilderness regions. From the Great Melt in Spring to the 24-hour summer, the beginning of the Big Freeze and long dark winter, this epic series will follow the dramatic landscapes and the emotional life stories of the animals that live there.Following the stories of the polar bear and wolf in the North Pole and the adelie penguin and killer whale in the South Pole, we see how they survive these extremes, how they feed, mate and rear their young. Using the latest hi-tech cameras, the series will reveal animal behaviour as we've never seen before - the long, tender mating ritual of the polar bears, the vast penguin colonies, the Arctic's most impressive hunter, the wolf as well as eider ducks, gentle seals and socialable ravens.But the real star of this series is the ice and Frozen Planet will tell its story, from its formation to its movement and its beauty. And of course what the future holds for it.This is the last chance to explore our Frozen Planet before it changes forever.

    It floats like a jewel in the inky black void. The reflection of the suns light from the vast expanse of water covering its surface creates its gem-like blue colour. In the entire solar system Earth is the only planet that has water in its liquid form in such quantities. Scientists have calculated that 70% of our planet is covered by water; small wonder then that humans have always been so fascinated by the oceans and what lies beneath. Today while we still have so much more of the ocean realm to uncover we have discovered enough to know that beneath the waves lies a vast treasure-trove of rich and diverse life. The Blue Planet leads us on a voyage of exploration from the coasts, the very edges of the oceans, to the deep where weird and monstrous fish lurk in a world of perpetual darkness. Along the way we meet a host of wonderful creatures from tiny copepods to majestic blue whales, from the grotesque hairy anglerfish, to the amazing tripod fish that stands on 3 delicate legs waiting to snap up unsuspecting prey. With a foreword by David Attenborough and 400 colour photos The Blue Planet is the first complete and comprehensive portrait of the whole ocean system.

    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.

    Moffett, “the Indiana Jones of entomology,” takes us around the globe on a strange and colorful journey in search of the hidden world of ants. In tales from Nigeria, Indonesia, the Amazon, Australia, California, and elsewhere, Moffett recounts his entomological exploits and provides fascinating details on how ants live and how they dominate their ecosystems through strikingly human behaviors, yet at a different scale and a faster tempo. Moffett’s spectacular close-up photographs shrink us down to size, so that we can observe ants in familiar roles; warriors, builders, big-game hunters, and slave owners. We find them creating marketplaces and assembly lines and dealing with issues we think of as uniquely human—including hygiene, recycling, and warfare. Adventures among Ants introduces some of the world’s most awe-inspiring species and offers a startling new perspective on the limits of our own perception.• Ants are world-class road builders, handling traffic problems on thoroughfares that dwarf our highway systems in their complexity• Ants with the largest societies often deploy complicated military tactics• Some ants have evolved from hunter-gatherers into farmers, domesticating other insects and growing crops for food

    It's difficult for us to imagine what he saw, but for more than a decade, landscape ecologist Eric Sanderson has been working to do just that. Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City is the astounding result of those efforts, reconstructing, in words and images, the wild island that millions of New Yorkers now call home.By geographically matching an 18th-century map of Manhattan's landscape to the modern cityscape, combing through historical and archaeological records, and applying modern principles of ecology and computer modeling, Sanderson is able to re-create the forests of Times Square, the meadows of Harlem, and the wetlands of downtown. Filled with breathtaking illustrations that show what Manhattan looked like 400 years ago, Mannahatta is a groundbreaking work that gives readers not only a window into the past, but inspiration for green cities and wild places of the future