Extinction and Radiation - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Extinction and Radiation write by J. David Archibald. This book was released on 2011-03-15. Extinction and Radiation available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. 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.
Mammals
Mammals - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Mammals write by Thomas Stainforth Kemp. This book was released on 2017. Mammals available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. 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.
Major Evolutionary Radiations
Major Evolutionary Radiations - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Major Evolutionary Radiations write by Paul D. Taylor. This book was released on 1990. Major Evolutionary Radiations available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. 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.
Scatter, Adapt, and Remember
Scatter, Adapt, and Remember - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Scatter, Adapt, and Remember write by Annalee Newitz. This book was released on 2013-05-14. Scatter, Adapt, and Remember available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. 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.
Events of Increased Biodiversity
Events of Increased Biodiversity - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Events of Increased Biodiversity write by Pascal Neige. This book was released on 2015-05-14. Events of Increased Biodiversity available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. 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
