Avian Body Size and Underwater Locomotion in the Mesozoic

Avian Body Size and Underwater Locomotion in the Mesozoic PDF Author: Sanja Hinić-Frlog
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 398

Get Book Here

Book Description

Avian Body Size and Underwater Locomotion in the Mesozoic

Avian Body Size and Underwater Locomotion in the Mesozoic PDF Author: Sanja Hinić-Frlog
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 398

Get Book Here

Book Description


The Inner Bird

The Inner Bird PDF Author: Gary W. Kaiser
Publisher: UBC Press
ISBN: 0774859814
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 402

Get Book Here

Book Description
Birds are among the most successful vertebrates on Earth. An important part of our natural environment and deeply embedded in our culture, birds are studied by more professional ornithologists and enjoyed by more amateur enthusiasts than ever before. However, both amateurs and professionals typically focus on birds' behaviour and appearance and only superficially understand the characteristics that make birds so unique. The Inner Bird introduces readers to the avian skeleton, then moves beyond anatomy to discuss the relationships between birds and dinosaurs and other early ancestors. Gary Kaiser examines the challenges scientists face in understanding avian evolution - even recent advances in biomolecular genetics have failed to provide a clear evolutionary story. Using examples from recently discovered fossils of birds and near-birds, Kaiser describes an avian history based on the gradual abandonment of dinosaur-like characteristics, and the related acquisition of avian characteristics such as sophisticated flight techniques and the production of large eggs. Such developments have enabled modern birds to invade the oceans and to exploit habitats that excluded dinosaurs for millions of years. While ornithology is a complex discipline that draws on many fields, it is nevertheless burdened with obsolete assumptions and archaic terminology. The Inner Bird offers modern interpretations for some of those ideas and links them to more current research. It should help anyone interested in birds to bridge the gap between long-dead fossils and the challenges faced by living species.

Perspectives in Ornithology

Perspectives in Ornithology PDF Author: Alan H. Brush
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521248570
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 598

Get Book Here

Book Description
Collects together a series of essays and commentaries by leading authorities about active areas of research on the biology of birds.

Evolution and Development of Fishes

Evolution and Development of Fishes PDF Author: Zerina Johanson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107179440
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 283

Get Book Here

Book Description
World-class palaeontologists and biologists summarise the state-of-the-art on fish evolution and development.

Biological Materials of Marine Origin

Biological Materials of Marine Origin PDF Author: Hermann Ehrlich
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9400757301
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 439

Get Book Here

Book Description
This is the second monograph by the author on biological materials of marine origin. The initial book is dedicated to the biological materials of marine invertebrates. This work is a source of modern knowledge on biomineralization, biomimetics and materials science with respect to marine vertebrates. For the first time in scientific literature the author gives the most coherent analysis of the nature, origin and evolution of biocomposites and biopolymers isolated from and observed in the broad variety of marine vertebrate organisms (fish, reptilian, birds and mammals) and within their unique hierarchically organized structural formations. There is a wealth of new and newly synthesized information, including dozens of previously unpublished images of unique marine creatures including extinct, extant and living taxa and their biocomposite-based structures from nano- to micro – and macroscale. This monograph reviews the most relevant advances in the marine biological materials research field, pointing out several approaches being introduced and explored by distinct modern laboratories.

Great Transformations in Vertebrate Evolution

Great Transformations in Vertebrate Evolution PDF Author: Kenneth P. Dial
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022626839X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 435

Get Book Here

Book Description
How did flying birds evolve from running dinosaurs, terrestrial trotting tetrapods evolve from swimming fish, and whales return to swim in the sea? These are some of the great transformations in the 500-million-year history of vertebrate life. And with the aid of new techniques and approaches across a range of fields—work spanning multiple levels of biological organization from DNA sequences to organs and the physiology and ecology of whole organisms—we are now beginning to unravel the confounding evolutionary mysteries contained in the structure, genes, and fossil record of every living species. This book gathers a diverse team of renowned scientists to capture the excitement of these new discoveries in a collection that is both accessible to students and an important contribution to the future of its field. Marshaling a range of disciplines—from paleobiology to phylogenetics, developmental biology, ecology, and evolutionary biology—the contributors attack particular transformations in the head and neck, trunk, appendages such as fins and limbs, and the whole body, as well as offer synthetic perspectives. Illustrated throughout, Great Transformations in Vertebrate Evolution not only reveals the true origins of whales with legs, fish with elbows, wrists, and necks, and feathered dinosaurs, but also the relevance to our lives today of these extraordinary narratives of change.

Feathered Dragons

Feathered Dragons PDF Author: Philip J. Currie
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 9780253343734
Category : Birds
Languages : en
Pages : 404

Get Book Here

Book Description
The setting -- Osteology and Ichnology -- Eggs, nests, feathers, and flight.

Dinosaur Odyssey

Dinosaur Odyssey PDF Author: Scott D. Sampson
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520269896
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 360

Get Book Here

Book Description
"The best general-audience dinosaur book since the Dinosaur Renaissance began in the 1970s."—Philip J. Currie, coeditor of Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs, from the foreword “Dinosaur Odyssey is not only a personable and highly accessible tour of the up-to-date discoveries about the gigantic and famous. It also builds on dinosaur paleontology to far-ranging topics like extinction, climate change, and the possibility of life on Mars. The gift to the reader is both fascination and enlightenment.”—Michael Novacek, author of Terra and Dinosaurs of the Flaming Cliffs "An odyssey indeed! One of the world's leading dinosaur paleontologists, Sampson draws on a wide variety of sciences, from astronomy and cosmology to microbiology and ecology, in order to portray dinosaurs as living animals. The reader is in for a treat and will emerge with fresh and valuable insights."—Peter Dodson, author of The Horned Dinosaurs

Dinosaur Facts and Figures

Dinosaur Facts and Figures PDF Author: Rubén Molina-Pérez
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691180318
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Get Book Here

Book Description
An illustrated record book of theropod facts and figures--from the biggest to the fastest to the smartest. This compendium features more than 3,000 records, covers some 750 theropod species, and includes a wealth of illustrations ranging from diagrams and technical drawings to full-color reconstructions of specimens.

Oceanic Abstracts with Indexes

Oceanic Abstracts with Indexes PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Marine biology
Languages : en
Pages : 598

Get Book Here

Book Description