Life sculpted : tales of the animals, plants, and fungi that drill, break, and scrape to shape the earth / Anthony J. Martin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Martin, Anthony J., 1960- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Animals, Fossil.

Boring.

Paleontology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (382 pages)

Place of Publication:

Chicago, IL : The University of Chicago Press, [2023]

Summary:

"As the co-discoverer of the first known burrowing dinosaur and a popular science author, Anthony J. Martin is an expert at explaining his fossil-finding work to broad audiences. In this engaging book, Martin uses modern and fossil traces to introduce readers to a menagerie of animals and other lifeforms that dig, crunch, bore, and otherwise reshape our planet. We meet elephants that dig ballroom-sized caves alongside volcanoes, parrotfishes that chew coral reefs and poop out sandy beaches, dinosaur-eating crocodiles, and moon snails that drill into clams, or even other moon snails. In a detective story that spans millions of years, ranging from microbes to whales, Martin shows how when life got hard, life got boring, using bodies and behavior to hide, eat, attack, and defend, affecting both our world and our understanding of evolution, climate, and life itself"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Preface

1. A Boring History of Life

2. Small but Diminishing

3. Rock, Thy Name Is Mud

4. Your Beach Is Made of Parrotfish Poop

5. Jewelry-Amenable Holes of Death

6. Super Colossal Shell-Crushing Fury!

7. Woodworking at Home

8. Driftwood and Woodgrounds

9. Bone Eaters of the Deep

10. More Bones to Pick

11. The Biggest and Most Boring of Animals

Acknowledgments

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-226-81050-X

OCLC:

1380467011