Extinction And Radiation

Author : J. David Archibald
Publisher : JHU Press
ISBN 13 : 0801898056
Total Pages : 121 pages
Book Rating : 4.51/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Extinction and Radiation written by J. David Archibald and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2011-03-15 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study identifies the fall of dinosaurs as the factor that allowed mammals to evolve into the dominant tetrapod form. It refutes the single-cause impact theory for dinosaur extinction and demonstrates that multiple factors--massive volcanic eruptions, loss of shallow seas, and extraterrestrial impact--likely led to their demise. While their avian relatives ultimately survived and thrived, terrestrial dinosaurs did not. Taking their place as the dominant land and sea tetrapods were mammals, whose radiation was explosive following nonavian dinosaur extinction. The author argues that because of dinosaurs, Mesozoic mammals changed relatively slowly for 145 million years compared to the prodigious Cenozoic radiation that followed. Finally out from under the shadow of the giant reptiles, Cenozoic mammals evolved into the forms we recognize today in a mere ten million years after dinosaur extinction.

Author : Thomas Stainforth Kemp
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0198766947
Total Pages : 169 pages
Book Rating : 4.40/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Mammals written by Thomas Stainforth Kemp and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Relative newcomers within the story of evolution, mammals are hugely successful and have colonized land, water, and air. Tom Kemp discusses the great diversity of mammalian species, and looks at how their very disparate characteristics, physiologies, and behaviours are all largely driven by one uniting factor: endothermy, or warm-bloodedness.

Author : Annalee Newitz
Publisher : Anchor
ISBN 13 : 0385535929
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.22/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Scatter, Adapt, and Remember written by Annalee Newitz and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2013-05-14 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In its 4.5 billion–year history, life on Earth has been almost erased at least half a dozen times: shattered by asteroid impacts, entombed in ice, smothered by methane, and torn apart by unfathomably powerful megavolcanoes. And we know that another global disaster is eventually headed our way. Can we survive it? How? As a species, Homo sapiens is at a crossroads. Study of our planet’s turbulent past suggests that we are overdue for a catastrophic disaster, whether caused by nature or by human interference. It’s a frightening prospect, as each of the Earth’s past major disasters—from meteor strikes to bombardment by cosmic radiation—resulted in a mass extinction, where more than 75 percent of the planet’s species died out. But in Scatter, Adapt, and Remember, Annalee Newitz, science journalist and editor of the science Web site io9.com explains that although global disaster is all but inevitable, our chances of long-term species survival are better than ever. Life on Earth has come close to annihilation—humans have, more than once, narrowly avoided extinction just during the last million years—but every single time a few creatures survived, evolving to adapt to the harshest of conditions. This brilliantly speculative work of popular science focuses on humanity’s long history of dodging the bullet, as well as on new threats that we may face in years to come. Most important, it explores how scientific breakthroughs today will help us avoid disasters tomorrow. From simulating tsunamis to studying central Turkey’s ancient underground cities; from cultivating cyanobacteria for “living cities” to designing space elevators to make space colonies cost-effective; from using math to stop pandemics to studying the remarkable survival strategies of gray whales, scientists and researchers the world over are discovering the keys to long-term resilience and learning how humans can choose life over death. Newitz’s remarkable and fascinating journey through the science of mass extinctions is a powerful argument about human ingenuity and our ability to change. In a world populated by doomsday preppers and media commentators obsessively forecasting our demise, Scatter, Adapt, and Remember is a compelling voice of hope. It leads us away from apocalyptic thinking into a future where we live to build a better world—on this planet and perhaps on others. Readers of this book will be equipped scientifically, intellectually, and emotionally to face whatever the future holds.

Author : Paul D. Taylor
Publisher : Clarendon Press
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 464 pages
Book Rating : 4.97/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Major Evolutionary Radiations written by Paul D. Taylor and published by Clarendon Press. This book was released on 1990 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This unique volume takes a close look at patterns of evolutionary change responsible for the astounding diversity of life and the major radiations seen in many taxonomic groups. Evidence from the fossil record shows that this process has not occurred at an even rate. Rather, relatively short but highly active periods of evolution have yielded the multiplication of species and morphological divergences, such as the emergence of flowering plants during the late Cretaceous. The contributors to this work, all recognized authorities in their fields, discuss general aspects of major radiations, and then focus on evolution in taxonomic groups with ample fossil records. The book is an important complement to the literature of extinction and paleontology, and will be read with interest by paleontologists and evolutionary biologists alike.

Author : Pascal Neige
Publisher : Elsevier
ISBN 13 : 0081004745
Total Pages : 152 pages
Book Rating : 4.46/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Events of Increased Biodiversity written by Pascal Neige and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2015-05-14 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fossil record offers a surprising image: that of evolutionary radiations characterized by intense increases in cash or by the sudden diversification of a single species group, while others stagnate or die out. In a modern world, science carries an often pessimistic message, surrounded by studies of global warming and its effects, extinction crisis, emerging diseases and invasive species. This book fuels frequent "optimism" of the sudden increase in biodiversity by exploring this natural phenomenon. Events of Increased Biodiversity: Evolutionary Radiations in the Fossil Record explores this natural phenomenon of adaptive radiation including its effect on the increase in biodiversity events, their contribution to the changes and limitations in the fossil record, and examines the links between ecology and paleontology’s study of radiation. Details examples of evolutionary radiations Explicitly addresses the effect of adaptation driven by ecological opportunity Examines the link between ecology and paleontology’s study of adaptive radiation

Author : Michael Boulter
Publisher : HarperCollins UK
ISBN 13 : 0007404867
Total Pages : 33 pages
Book Rating : 4.65/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Extinction: Evolution and the End of Man written by Michael Boulter and published by HarperCollins UK. This book was released on 2010-10-07 with total page 33 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How long do humans have left on Earth? Using cutting-edge science that revolutionises our understanding of evolution, Michael Boulter explains how we may be closer to our own extinction than we imagined.

Author : Lee Hannah
Publisher : Island Press
ISBN 13 : 1610911822
Total Pages : 417 pages
Book Rating : 4.25/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Saving a Million Species written by Lee Hannah and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2012-06-22 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The research paper "Extinction Risk from Climate Change" published in the journal Nature in January 2004 created front-page headlines around the world. The notion that climate change could drive more than a million species to extinction captured both the popular imagination and the attention of policy-makers, and provoked an unprecedented round of scientific critique. Saving a Million Species reconsiders the central question of that paper: How many species may perish as a result of climate change and associated threats? Leaders from a range of disciplines synthesize the literature, refine the original estimates, and elaborate the conservation and policy implications. The book: examines the initial extinction risk estimates of the original paper, subsequent critiques, and the media and policy impact of this unique study presents evidence of extinctions from climate change from different time frames in the past explores extinctions documented in the contemporary record sets forth new risk estimates for future climate change considers the conservation and policy implications of the estimates. Saving a Million Species offers a clear explanation of the science behind the headline-grabbing estimates for conservationists, researchers, teachers, students, and policy-makers. It is a critical resource for helping those working to conserve biodiversity take on the rapidly advancing and evolving global stressor of climate change-the most important issue in conservation biology today, and the one for which we are least prepared.

Author : for the National Academy of Sciences
Publisher : National Academies Press
ISBN 13 : 0309552672
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.77/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Tempo and Mode in Evolution written by for the National Academy of Sciences and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1995-02-09 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since George Gaylord Simpson published Tempo and Mode in Evolution in 1944, discoveries in paleontology and genetics have abounded. This volume brings together the findings and insights of today's leading experts in the study of evolution, including Ayala, W. Ford Doolittle, and Stephen Jay Gould. The volume examines early cellular evolution, explores changes in the tempo of evolution between the Precambrian and Phanerozoic periods, and reconstructs the Cambrian evolutionary burst. Long-neglected despite Darwin's interest in it, species extinction is discussed in detail. Although the absence of data kept Simpson from exploring human evolution in his book, the current volume covers morphological and genetic changes in human populations, contradicting the popular claim that all modern humans descend from a single woman. This book discusses the role of molecular clocks, the results of evolution in 12 populations of Escherichia coli propagated for 10,000 generations, a physical map of Drosophila chromosomes, and evidence for "hitchhiking" by mutations.

Author : Natasha Zaretsky
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231542488
Total Pages : 316 pages
Book Rating : 4.87/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Radiation Nation written by Natasha Zaretsky and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2018-02-13 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On March 28, 1979, the worst nuclear reactor accident in U.S. history occurred at the Three Mile Island power plant in Central Pennsylvania. Radiation Nation tells the story of what happened that day and in the months and years that followed, as local residents tried to make sense of the emergency. The near-meltdown occurred at a pivotal moment when the New Deal coalition was unraveling, trust in government was eroding, conservatives were consolidating their power, and the political left was becoming marginalized. Using the accident to explore this turning point, Natasha Zaretsky provides a fresh interpretation of the era by disclosing how atomic and ecological imaginaries shaped the conservative ascendancy. Drawing on the testimony of the men and women who lived in the shadow of the reactor, Radiation Nation shows that the region's citizens, especially its mothers, grew convinced that they had sustained radiological injuries that threatened their reproductive futures. Taking inspiration from the antiwar, environmental, and feminist movements, women at Three Mile Island crafted a homegrown ecological politics that wove together concerns over radiological threats to the body, the struggle over abortion and reproductive rights, and eroding trust in authority. This politics was shaped above all by what Zaretsky calls "biotic nationalism," a new body-centered nationalism that imagined the nation as a living, mortal being and portrayed sickened Americans as evidence of betrayal. The first cultural history of the accident, Radiation Nation reveals the surprising ecological dimensions of post-Vietnam conservatism while showing how growing anxieties surrounding bodily illness infused the political realignment of the 1970s in ways that blurred any easy distinction between left and right.

Author : J. David Archibald
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780231076258
Total Pages : 260 pages
Book Rating : 4.58/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Dinosaur Extinction and the End of an Era written by J. David Archibald and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Broadening the basis of information on the topic of the Cretaceous extinction, this book particularly highlights evidence that points away from the global catastrophic scenario, towards a fossil based theory suggesting that a multitude of factors resulted in the period's radical changes.