The Natural History Of Earth

Author : Richard Fortey
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 0307761185
Total Pages : 566 pages
Book Rating : 4.87/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Life written by Richard Fortey and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2011-03-23 with total page 566 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By one of Britain's most gifted scientists: a magnificently daring and compulsively readable account of life on Earth (from the "big bang" to the advent of man), based entirely on the most original of all sources--the evidence of fossils. With excitement and driving intelligence, Richard Fortey guides us from the barren globe spinning in space, through the very earliest signs of life in the sulphurous hot springs and volcanic vents of the young planet, the appearance of cells, the slow creation of an atmosphere and the evolution of myriad forms of plants and animals that could then be sustained, including the magnificent era of the dinosaurs, and on to the last moment before the debut of Homo sapiens. Ranging across multiple scientific disciplines, explicating in wonderfully clear and refreshing prose their findings and arguments--about the origins of life, the causes of species extinctions and the first appearance of man--Fortey weaves this history out of the most delicate traceries left in rock, stone and earth. He also explains how, on each aspect of nature and life, scientists have reached the understanding we have today, who made the key discoveries, who their opponents were and why certain ideas won. Brimful of wit, fascinating personal experience and high scholarship, this book may well be our best introduction yet to the complex history of life on Earth. A Book-of-the-Month Club Main Selection With 32 pages of photographs

Author : Kathryn Hennessy
Publisher : DK Publishing (Dorling Kindersley)
ISBN 13 : 9780756667528
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.26/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Natural History written by Kathryn Hennessy and published by DK Publishing (Dorling Kindersley). This book was released on 2010 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A landmark in reference publishing and overseen and authenticated by the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, Natural History presents an unrivaled visual survey of Earth's natural history. Giving a clear overview of the classification of our natural world-over 6,000 species-Natural History looks at every kingdom of life, from bacteria, minerals, and rocks to fossils to plants and animals. Featuring a remarkable array of specially commissioned photographs, Natural History looks at thousands of specimens and species displayed in visual galleries that take the reader on an incredible journey from the most fundamental building blocks of the world's landscapes, through the simplest of life forms, to plants, fungi, and animals.

Author : Andrew H. Knoll
Publisher : HarperCollins
ISBN 13 : 0062853937
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.36/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Brief History of Earth written by Andrew H. Knoll and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-04-27 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Harvard’s acclaimed geologist “charts Earth’s history in accessible style” (AP) “A sublime chronicle of our planet." –Booklist, STARRED review How well do you know the ground beneath your feet? Odds are, where you’re standing was once cooking under a roiling sea of lava, crushed by a towering sheet of ice, rocked by a nearby meteor strike, or perhaps choked by poison gases, drowned beneath ocean, perched atop a mountain range, or roamed by fearsome monsters. Probably most or even all of the above. The story of our home planet and the organisms spread across its surface is far more spectacular than any Hollywood blockbuster, filled with enough plot twists to rival a bestselling thriller. But only recently have we begun to piece together the whole mystery into a coherent narrative. Drawing on his decades of field research and up-to-the-minute understanding of the latest science, renowned geologist Andrew H. Knoll delivers a rigorous yet accessible biography of Earth, charting our home planet's epic 4.6 billion-year story. Placing twenty first-century climate change in deep context, A Brief History of Earth is an indispensable look at where we’ve been and where we’re going. Features original illustrations depicting Earth history and nearly 50 figures (maps, tables, photographs, graphs).

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780241393345
Total Pages : 664 pages
Book Rating : 4.45/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Natural History Book written by and published by . This book was released on 2021-08-31 with total page 664 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Augustin Berque
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 0429535066
Total Pages : 207 pages
Book Rating : 4.62/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Poetics of the Earth written by Augustin Berque and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-04-25 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Poetics of the Earth is a work of environmental philosophy, based on a synthesis of eastern and western thought on natural and human history. It draws on recent biological research to show how the processes of evolution and history both function according to the same principles. Augustin Berque rejects the separation of nature and culture which he believes lies at the root of the environmental crisis. This book proposes a three stage process of "re-worlding" (moving away from the individualized self to become a part of the common world), "re-concretizing" (understanding the meaning and historical development of words and things) and "re-engaging" (reconsidering the relationship between history and subjectivity at every level of being) in order to bring western thought on nature and culture into sustainable harmony and alignment. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental studies, environmental philosophy, Asian studies and the natural sciences.

Author : Pascal Richet
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226712893
Total Pages : 487 pages
Book Rating : 4.95/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Natural History of Time written by Pascal Richet and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2009-10-15 with total page 487 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The quest to pinpoint the age of the Earth is nearly as old as humanity itself. For most of history, people trusted mythology or religion to provide the answer, even though nature abounds with clues to the past of the Earth and the stars. In A Natural History of Time, geophysicist Pascal Richet tells the fascinating story of how scientists and philosophers examined those clues and from them built a chronological scale that has made it possible to reconstruct the history of nature itself. Richet begins his story with mythological traditions, which were heavily influenced by the seasons and almost uniformly viewed time cyclically. The linear history promulgated by Judaism, with its story of creation, was an exception, and it was that tradition that drove early Christian attempts to date the Earth. For instance, in 169 CE, the bishop of Antioch, for instance declared that the world had been in existence for “5,698 years and the odd months and days.” Until the mid-eighteenth century, such natural timescales derived from biblical chronologies prevailed, but, Richet demonstrates, with the Scientific Revolution geological and astronomical evidence for much longer timescales began to accumulate. Fossils and the developing science of geology provided compelling evidence for periods of millions and millions of years—a scale that even scientists had difficulty grasping. By the end of the twentieth century, new tools such as radiometric dating had demonstrated that the solar system is four and a half billion years old, and the universe itself about twice that, though controversial questions remain. The quest for time is a story of ingenuity and determination, and like a geologist, Pascal Richet carefully peels back the strata of that history, giving us a chance to marvel at each layer and truly appreciate how far our knowledge—and our planet—have come.

Author : Clémence Dupont
Publisher : Prestel
ISBN 13 : 9783791373737
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.30/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Brief History of Life on Earth written by Clémence Dupont and published by Prestel. This book was released on 2018-11 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of life on earth unfolds in dramatic fashion in this amazing concertina picture book that takes readers from 4.6 billion years ago to the present day. Fully expanded to 8 meters (26 feet), this spectacular visual timeline is a very impressive panorama that reveals evolution in all its glory. Full color.

Author : Tim Fridtjof Flannery
Publisher : Penguin UK
ISBN 13 : 0241950732
Total Pages : 345 pages
Book Rating : 4.39/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Here on Earth written by Tim Fridtjof Flannery and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2012 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Here on Earth' is a revolutionary dual biography of the planet and of our species. Tim Flannery reimagines the history of Earth, from its earliest origins as a chaotic ball of elemental dust and gases to the teeming landscape we currently call home.

Author : Andrew H. Knoll
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 1400866049
Total Pages : 302 pages
Book Rating : 4.45/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Life on a Young Planet written by Andrew H. Knoll and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015-03-22 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Australopithecines, dinosaurs, trilobites--such fossils conjure up images of lost worlds filled with vanished organisms. But in the full history of life, ancient animals, even the trilobites, form only the half-billion-year tip of a nearly four-billion-year iceberg. Andrew Knoll explores the deep history of life from its origins on a young planet to the incredible Cambrian explosion, presenting a compelling new explanation for the emergence of biological novelty. The very latest discoveries in paleontology--many of them made by the author and his students--are integrated with emerging insights from molecular biology and earth system science to forge a broad understanding of how the biological diversity that surrounds us came to be. Moving from Siberia to Namibia to the Bahamas, Knoll shows how life and environment have evolved together through Earth's history. Innovations in biology have helped shape our air and oceans, and, just as surely, environmental change has influenced the course of evolution, repeatedly closing off opportunities for some species while opening avenues for others. Readers go into the field to confront fossils, enter the lab to discern the inner workings of cells, and alight on Mars to ask how our terrestrial experience can guide exploration for life beyond our planet. Along the way, Knoll brings us up-to-date on some of science's hottest questions, from the oldest fossils and claims of life beyond the Earth to the hypothesis of global glaciation and Knoll's own unifying concept of ''permissive ecology.'' In laying bare Earth's deepest biological roots, Life on a Young Planet helps us understand our own place in the universe--and our responsibility as stewards of a world four billion years in the making. In a new preface, Knoll describes how the field has broadened and deepened in the decade since the book's original publication.

Author : Paul D. Taylor
Publisher : Smithsonian Institution
ISBN 13 : 1588345025
Total Pages : 212 pages
Book Rating : 4.28/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A History of Life in 100 Fossils written by Paul D. Taylor and published by Smithsonian Institution. This book was released on 2014-10-14 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A History of Life in 100 Fossils showcases 100 key fossils that together illustrate the evolution of life on earth. Iconic specimens have been selected from the renowned collections of the two premier natural history museums in the world, the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, and the Natural History Museum, London. The fossils ahve been chosen not only for their importance in the history of life, but also because of the visual story they tell. This stunning book is perfect for all readers because its clear explanations and beautiful photographs illuminate the significance of these amazing pieces, including 500 million-year-old Burgess Shale fossils that provide a window into early animal life in the sea, insects encapsulated by amber, the first fossil bird Archaeopteryx, and the remains of our own ancestors.