Prehistoric past revealed : the four billion year history of life on earth
Douglas Palmer
Bok · Engelsk · 2003
| Omfang | 176 sider : illustrasjoner i farger og svart hvitt, kart
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| Opplysninger | 1. How the present reveals the past ; The diversity of life today ; Life's relationship with the environment ; Processes which change environments over time ; Earth, a dynamic system in constant flux ; Environments today as potential sites of fossilization ; Our view of the geological past ; 2. Ice Age (0-1.8 million years ago) ; The present as a warm interglacial ; The discovery of the Ice Age ; Evidence of life during the Ice Age ; Human prehistory ; The environmental impact of the Ice Age ; 3. Life's third age (1.8-65 million years ago) ; Discovering the ancient testimony of rocks ; Our oldest human relatives ; A world dominated by grasses, insects, and mammals ; Opening and closing oceans ; Building and destroying mountains ; 4. Life's Middle Age (65-205 million years ago) ; Evolution ; The discovery of the sea dragons ; The discovery of the dinosaurs ; Life in the shadow of the dinosaurs ; Windows on the past in China ; 5. Life's extinction events ; The discovery of extinction events ; Extraterrestrial events ; Volcanism and the climate change ; Ice ages ; Changing sea levels ; 6. Life's Early Age (205-545 million years ago) ; The discovery of deep time ; Fossil fuels fire the Industrial Revolution ; Climate change and shifting continents ; The move from sea to land ; Putting the backbone into life ; 7. Life's beginnings (545-4000 million years ago) ; The discovery of the Precambrian ; The search for the oldest fossils ; Discovering the origin of life ; The trouble with fossils ; 8. Earth's beginnings (4000-4600 million years ago) ; Discovering the age of the Earth ; The rock record of Earth's origin ; 9. The Earth's future ; Climate change ; Shifting continents ; A material world ; A dangerous wold ; Conclusion ; Glossary.. - Prehistoric Past Revealed gives an overview history of life on Earth, including the most up-to-date research and discoveries from around the world, as it covers a wide range of fascinating topics - the fossil record, dinosaurs, extinction events, our earliest human anceslors, global environments, climate change - in a highly accessible format. Using timelines, diagrams, sidebar discussion, and breaking down complex ideas into digestible topics, Palmer shows how it has been possible to recover the story of life from the petrified remains of shells and bones scattered through rock strata. He takes us from the present day gradually back into the "terra incognita" of the deep past with its extinct life forms, tracing human ancestry back by centering his discussion around internationally famous fossil sites. Each site reveals another episode in the history of life, as Palmer tells how the environment and life of the time have been reconstructed from its rocks and fossil remains. As it reveals the inner secrets of the Earth, Prehistoric Past Revealed also shows how these discoveries have irrevocably changed our world view.
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| Emner | fossiler historisk geologi
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| ISBN | 9780520248274
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