| Description |
xiv, 304 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages [269]-292). |
| Contents |
Early days: The origin of life in the vents ; Water, water everywhere ; Here we come, ready or not--. -- From fossil to squid: The garden of the Ediacara ; Wonders of the Burgess Shale ; The Cambrian explosion ; What happened to the trilobites? ; "Living fossils" ; Here come the mollusks ; Brachiopods ; Cephalopods. -- The vertebrates: What did it mean to have a backbone? ; The jawless fishes ; The lungfishes ; The coelacanths ; Pisces triumphant ; The evolution of bioluminescence ; Sharks, etc. ; Land ho! -- Return to the sea: Marine reptiles ; Encased in armor plate ; The sea snakes ; The crocodilians ; Birds that swim. -- Marine mammals: The sea cows ; The sea weasels ; Flippers for feet ; The desmostylians ; The cetaceans ; The living whales. -- Everybody back into the water: The aquatic ape ; The end of the beginning. |
| Summary |
Life on earth began in the sea, and in this natural history, authority on marine biology and illustrator Richard Ellis chronicles more than three billion years of aquatic history. From the first microbes and jawless fishes that evolved into the myriad species we know today--sharks, whales, dolphins, and, of course, humans--Ellis reveals the deep evolutionary mysteries of the sea.--Publisher. |
| Subject |
Marine animals -- Evolution.
|
|
Life -- Origin.
|
| ISBN |
0670030236 alkaline paper |
|
0142001562 paperback |
|
