Description |
x, 274 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm |
Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Contents |
Greenhouse of the dinosaurs -- Bad lands, good fossils -- Magnets and lasers -- "Punk eek" in the badlands -- Death of the dinosaurs -- Marine world -- Rocky mountain jungles and eel's ears -- From greenhouse to icehouse -- Once and future greenhouse? -- Kids, dinosaurs, and the future if paleontology. |
Summary |
"Donald Prothero links the climate changes that have occurred over the past 200 million years to their effects on plants and animals. In particular, he contrasts the extinctions that ended the Cretaceous period, which wiped out the dinosaurs, with those of the later Eocene and Oligocene epochs." "Prothero begins with the "greenhouse of the dinosaurs," the global-warming episode that dominated the Age of Dinosaurs and the early Age of Mammals. He describes the remarkable creatures that once populated Earth and draws on his experiences collecting fossils in the Big Badlands of South Dakota to sketch their world. Prothero then discusses the growth of the first Antarctic glaciers, which marked the Eocene-Oligocene transition, and shares his own anecdotes of excavations and controversies among colleagues that have shaped our understanding of the contemporary and prehistoric world. The volume concludes with observations about Nisqually Glacier and other locations that show how global warming is happening much quicker than previously predicted, irrevocably changing the balance of Earth's thermostat."--BOOK JACKET. |
Subject |
Dinosaurs -- Extinction.
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Dinosaurs -- Extinction. |
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Climatic changes.
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Climatic changes. |
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Geology -- United States.
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Geology. |
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United States. |
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Paleontology -- United States.
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Paleontology. |
ISBN |
9780231146609 cloth alkaline paper |
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0231146604 cloth alkaline paper |
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9780231518321 e-book |
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0231518323 e-book |
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