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BestsellerE-book
Author Hennessy, Elizabeth (Elizabeth Ann), author.

Title On the backs of tortoises : Darwin, the Galápagos, and the fate of an evolutionary Eden / Elizabeth Hennessy.

Publication Info. New Haven : Yale University Press, [2019]
©2019

Item Status

Description 1 online resource (xix, 310 pages) : illustrations, maps
Physical Medium polychrome
Description text file
Summary The Galápagos archipelago is often viewed as a last foothold of pristine nature. For sixty years, conservationists have worked to restore this evolutionary Eden after centuries of exploitation at the hands of pirates, whalers, and island settlers. This book tells the story of the islands' namesakes--the giant tortoises--as coveted food sources, objects of natural history, and famous icons of conservation and tourism. By doing so, it brings into stark relief the paradoxical, and impossible, goal of conserving species by trying to restore a past state of prehistoric evolution. The tortoises, Elizabeth Hennessy demonstrates, are not prehistoric, but rather microcosms whose stories show how deeply human and nonhuman life are entangled. In a world where evolution is thoroughly shaped by global history, Hennessy puts forward a vision for conservation based on reckoning with the past, rather than trying to erase it
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents What we stand on -- In Darwin's footsteps -- What's in a name? -- The many worlds at world's end -- Making a natural laboratory -- Restoring evolution -- Laboratory life -- All the way down
Local Note eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America
Subject Galapagos tortoise.
Galapagos tortoise.
Galapagos tortoise -- Conservation.
Rare reptiles -- Galapagos Islands.
Rare reptiles.
Galapagos Islands.
Extinct reptiles -- Galapagos Islands.
Extinct reptiles.
Nature -- Effect of human beings on -- Galapagos Islands.
Restoration ecology -- Galapagos Islands.
Nature -- Effect of human beings on.
Galapagos Islands -- Environmental conditions.
Restoration ecology.
Environmental conditions.
SCIENCE -- Life Sciences -- Zoology -- Ichthyology & Herpetology.
Ecology.
Genre/Form Electronic books.
Other Form: Print version: Hennessy, Elizabeth (Elizabeth Ann). On the backs of tortoises. New Haven : Yale University Press, [2019] 9780300232745 (DLC) 2019936401 (OCoLC)1089967868
ISBN 9780300249156 (electronic book)
0300249152 (electronic book)
9780300232745 (hardcover)
0300232748 (hardcover)