Frank H. T. Rhodes

Origins (eBook, ePUB)

The Search for Our Prehistoric Past

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

"Fossils are the fragments from which, piece by laborious piece, the great mosaic of the history of life has been constructed. Here and there, we can supplement these meager scraps by the use of biochemical markers or geochemical signatures that add useful information, but, even with such additional help, our reconstructions and our models of descent are often tentative. For the fossil record is, as we have seen, as biased as it is incomplete. But fragmentary, selective, and biased though it is, the fossil record, with all its imperfections, is still a treasure. Though whole chapters are missing, many pages lost, and the earliest pages so damaged as to be, as yet, virtually unreadable, this-the greatest biography of all-is one in whose closing pages we find ourselves."-from Origins

In Origins, Frank H. T. Rhodes explores the origin and evolution of living things, the changing environments in which they have developed, and the challenges we now face on an increasingly crowded and polluted planet. Rhodes argues that the future well-being of our burgeoning population depends in no small part on our understanding of life's past, its long and slow development, and its intricate interdependencies.

Rhodes's accessible and extensively illustrated treatment of the origins narrative describes the nature of the search for prehistoric life, the significance of geologic time, the origin of life, the emergence and spread of flora and fauna, the evolution of primates, and the emergence of modern humans.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Cornell University Press
• Seitenzahl: 344
• Erscheinungstermin: 29. Juli 2016
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781501706776
• Artikelnr.: 48789271

Autorenporträt

Frank H. T. Rhodes is President Emeritus of Cornell University. A geologist by training, he has published numerous works on geology and education including the books Earth: A Tenant's Manual and The Creation of the Future: The Role of the American University (both from Cornell), The Evolution of Life, and Language of the Earth. He holds the Bigsby Medal of the Geological Society, the Ian Campbell Medal of the American Geological Institute, and the Clark-Kerr Medal of the University of California-Berkeley. He holds more than thirty honorary degrees from universities both in the United States and abroad.

Inhaltsangabe

1. Defrosting the Mammoth
2. Terrestrial Timepieces
3. "From So Simple a Beginning"
4. Classification: The Diversity of Life
5. Spineless Wonders
6. Bone, Scales, and Fins: The Early Vertebrates
7. The Greening of the Land
8. The Amphibian Foothold
9. The Reign of the Reptiles
10. The Air
11. The Blossoming Earth
12. The Rise of the Mammals
13. The Mammalian Explosion
14. The Leakeys' Legacy
15. "Endless Forms, Most Beautiful and Most Wonderful"
16. On Extinction
17. "Have Been and Are Being Evolved": The Development of Life
Epilogue