Chuckwalla land : the riddle of California's desert / David Rains Wallace.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wallace, David Rains, 1945-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Desert biology--California.

Desert biology.

Deserts--California.

Deserts.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (279 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, c2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Described as "a writer in the tradition of Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, and other self-educated seers" by the San Francisco Chronicle, David Rains Wallace turns his attention in this new book to another distinctive corner of California-its desert, the driest and hottest environment in North America. Drawing from his frequent forays to Death Valley, Red Rock Canyon, Kelso Dunes, and other locales, Wallace illuminates the desert's intriguing flora and fauna as he explores a controversial, unresolved scientific debate about the origin and evolution of its unusual ecosystems. Eminent scientists and scholars appear throughout these pages, including maverick paleobiologist Daniel Axelrod, botanist Ledyard Stebbins, and naturalists Edmund Jaeger and Joseph Wood Krutch. Weaving together ecology, geology, natural history, and mythology in his characteristically eloquent voice, Wallace reveals that there is more to this starkly beautiful landscape than meets the eye.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Prologue. Bushes and Lizards

1. A Sphinx in Arcady

2. The Country of Dried Skin

3. A Cactus Heresy

4. The Creator's Dumping Ground

5. An Evolutionary Backwater

6. Anti-Darwinian Lacertilians

7. Descriptive Confusion

8. A Murderous Brood

9. Hopeful Monsters

10. An Old Earth-Feature

11. A Climatic Accident

12. An Evolutionary Frontier

13. A Neo-Darwinian Galapagos

14. Mexican Geneses

15. Desert Relicts

16. Madro-Tertiary Attitudes

17. A Friendly Land

18. Furry Paleontologists

19. Dawn Horses and Dinosaurs

20. Axelrod Antagonistes

21. The Midday Sun

22. Lacertilian Ambiguities

23. Xerothermic Invasions

24. Sand Swimmers

25. Axelrod Ascendant

26. An Evolutionary Museum

27. The Riddle of the Palms

28. Bushes and Camels

29. Axelrod Askew

30. Paradigms Postponed

31. The Falcon and the Shrikes

Epilogue. The Sphinx's Lair

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786613277794

9781283277792

1283277794

9780520948662

0520948661

OCLC:

741492736