Most major recent advances in understanding the history of life on Earth have been through the study of exceptionally well preserved biotas (Fossil-Lagerstätten). These are windows on the history of life on Earth and can provide a fairly complete picture of the evolution of ecosystems through time. This book follows the success of Evolution of Fossil Ecosystems by the same authors which covered Fossil-Lagerstätten around the world. The success of the first book prompted this new book which draws on four localities from the original book and adds another ten, all located in North America. Following an introduction to Fossil-Lagerstätten, each chapter deals with a single fossil locality. Each chapter contains a brief introduction placing the Lagerstätte in an evolutionary context; there then follows a history of study of the locality; the background sedimentology, stratigraphy and palaeoenvironment; a description of the biota; discussion of the palaeoecology, and a comparison with other Lagerstätten of a similar age and/or environment. At the end of the book is an Appendix listing museums in which to see exhibitions of fossils from each locality and suggestions for visiting the sites.

Evolution of Fossil Ecosystems describes all of the main Fossil Lagerstätten (sites of exceptional fossil preservation) from around the world in a chronological order. It covers the history of research, stratigraphy and taphonomy, main faunal and floral elements, and the palaeoecology of each site and gives a comparison with coeval sites around the w

The incredible story of the creation of a continent—our continent— from the acclaimed author of The Last Volcano and Mask of the Sun. The immense scale of geologic time is difficult to comprehend. Our lives—and the entirety of human history—are mere nanoseconds on this timescale. Yet we hugely influenced by the land we live on. From shales and fossil fuels, from lake beds to soil composition, from elevation to fault lines, what could be more relevant that the history of the ground beneath our feet? For most of modern history, geologists could say little more about why mountains grew than the obvious: there were forces acting inside the Earth that caused mountains to rise. But what were those forces? And why did they act in some places of the planet and not at others? When the theory of plate tectonics was proposed, our concept of how the Earth worked experienced a momentous shift. As the Andes continue to rise, the Atlantic Ocean steadily widens, and Honolulu creeps ever closer to Tokyo, this seemingly imperceptible creep of the Earth is revealed in the landscape all around us. But tectonics cannot—and do not—explain everything about the wonders of the North American landscape. What about the Black Hills? Or the walls of chalk that stand amongst the rolling hills of west Kansas? Or the fact that the states of Washington and Oregon are slowly rotating clockwise, and there a diamond mine in Arizona? It all points to the geologic secrets hidden inside the 2-billion-year-old-continental masses. A whopping ten times older than the rocky floors of the ocean, continents hold the clues to the long history of our planet. With a sprightly narrative that vividly brings this science to life, John Dvorak's How the Mountains Grew will fill readers with a newfound appreciation for the wonders of the land we live on.

Co-published with the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. Thoroughly revised and updated, Mammals of Colorado, Second Edition is a comprehensive reference on the nine orders and 128 species of Colorado's recent native fauna, detailing each species' description, habitat, distribution, population ecology, diet and foraging, predators and parasites, behavior, reproduction and development, and population status. An introductory chapter on Colorado's environments, a discussion of the development of the fauna over geologic time, and a brief history of human knowledge of Coloradan mammals provide ecological and evolutionary context. The most recent records of the state's diverse species, rich illustrations (including detailed maps, skull drawings, and photographs), and an extensive bibliography make this book a must-have reference. Amateur and professional naturalists, students, vertebrate biologists, and ecologists as well as those involved in conservation and wildlife management in Colorado will find value in this comprehensive volume.

A dinosaur book like no other, this irreverent chronicle of science and pseudoscience takes the reader on a journey through numerous bizarre ideas about ancient reptiles. Were dragon legends inspired by human encounters with fire-breathing dinosaurs? Do the Bible and other ancient works of literature and art depict dinosaurs? Astoundingly, those and other strange notions have infiltrated grade-school science textbooks. This exposé unmasks the errors that underlie such notions and reveals the science that flattens them, while treating readers to explanations of rocket fuel, nuclear power plants, the electric eel’s shocking capabilities, and how the young-Earth creationist position contradicts the very scripture that it strives to uphold. Finding humor in absurdity, the book shows fans of science, religious studies, folklore, and fire that young-Earth creationist dinosaur pseudoscience is deeply comic once one gets to know it properly.

Breathtaking in scope, this is the first survey of the entire ecological history of life on land—from the earliest traces of terrestrial organisms over 400 million years ago to the beginning of human agriculture. By providing myriad insights into the unique ecological information contained in the fossil record, it establishes a new and ambitious basis for the study of evolutionary paleoecology of land ecosystems. A joint undertaking of the Evolution of Terrestrial Ecosystems Consortium at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, and twenty-six additional researchers, this book begins with four chapters that lay out the theoretical background and methodology of the science of evolutionary paleoecology. Included are a comprehensive review of the taphonomy and paleoenvironmental settings of fossil deposits as well as guidelines for developing ecological characterizations of extinct organisms and the communities in which they lived. The remaining three chapters treat the history of terrestrial ecosystems through geological time, emphasizing how ecological interactions have changed, the rate and tempo of ecosystem change, the role of exogenous "forcing factors" in generating ecological change, and the effect of ecological factors on the evolution of biological diversity. The six principal authors of this volume are all associated with the Evolution of Terrestrial Ecosystems program at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.

Nematodes are one of the most abundant groups of invertebrates on the face of the earth. Their numbers are estimated to range from 1000 per cm2 in the sand-covered hydrogen sulphide ‘black zone’ beneath the ocean floors to 1.2 billion in a single hectare of soil. Estimates for their species diversity range from 100 000 to 10 million. The past history of nematodes is a mystery, since very few fossils have been discovered. This book establishes a solid base in palaeonematology with descriptions of 66 new fossil species and accounts of all previous fossil and subfossil nematodes from sedimentary deposits, coprolites, amber and mummies. It shows how nematode fossils can be used to establish lineages at various locations and time periods in the earth’s history and when nematodes entered into symbiotic and parasitic associations with plants and animals.