Beasts of Eden : Walking Whales, Dawn Horses, and Other Enigmas of Mammal Evolution / David Rains Wallace.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wallace, David Rains, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mammals--Evolution.

Mammals.

Mammals, Fossil.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (369 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley, CA : University of California Press, [2004]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Mammals first evolved at about the same time as dinosaurs, and their story is perhaps the more fascinating of the two-in part because it is also our own story. In this literate and entertaining book, eminent naturalist David Rains Wallace brings the saga of ancient mammals to a general audience for the first time. Using artist Rudolph Zallinger's majestic The Age of Mammals mural at the Peabody Museum as a frame for his narrative, Wallace deftly moves over varied terrain-drawing from history, science, evolutionary theory, and art history-to present a lively account of fossil discoveries and an overview of what those discoveries have revealed about early mammals and their evolution. In these pages we encounter towering mammoths, tiny horses, giant-clawed ground sloths, whales with legs, uintatheres, zhelestids, and other exotic extinct creatures as well as the scientists who discovered and wondered about their remains. We meet such memorable figures as Georges Cuvier, Richard Owen, Edward D. Cope, George Gaylord Simpson, and Stephen Jay Gould and learn of their heated disputes, from Cuvier's and Owen's fights with early evolutionists to present controversies over the Late Cretaceous mass extinction. Wallace's own lifelong interest in evolution is reflected in the book's evocative and engaging style and in the personal experiences he expertly weaves into the tale, providing an altogether expansive perspective on what Darwin described as the "grandeur" of evolution.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

list of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Prologue. The Fresco and the Fossil

1 / Pachyderms in the Catacombs

2 / Dr. Jekyll and the Stonesfield Jaws

3 / The Origin of Mammals

4 / The Noblest Conquest

5 / Terrible Horns and Heavy Feet

6 / Mr. Megatherium versus Professor Mylodon

7 / Fire Beasts of the Antipodes

8 / Titans on Parade

9 / Five-Toed Horses and Missing Links

10 / The Invisible Dawn Man

11 / A Bonaparte of Beasts

12 / Love and Theory

13 / Simpson's Cynodont-to-Smilodon Synthesis

14 / Shifting Ground

15 / Dissolving Ancestries

16 / Exploding Faunas

17 / The Revenge of the Shell Hunters

18 / Simpson Redivivus

19 / Winds Thieves of the Kyzylkum

20 / The Serpent's Offering

21 / Anthropoid Leapfrog

Epilogue. Cenozoic Parks

Select Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 297-314) and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9786612358319

9781282358317

1282358316

9780520939400

0520939409

9781597344814

1597344818

OCLC:

567812456