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]

Copies

Location	Call No.	Status
Farmington, Main Library - Adult Department	508.866 HEN	Check Shelf
Mansfield, Main Library - Adult Nonfiction	508.8665 HENNESSY	Check Shelf
Newington, Lucy Robbins Welles Library - Adult Department	508.8 HENNESSY	Check Shelf
South Windsor Public Library - Non Fiction	508.8 HENNESSY	Check Shelf

Description	xix, 310 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm
Bibliography	Includes bibliographical references (pages 223-297) 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.
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.
Subject	Galapagos tortoise.
	Galapagos tortoise -- Conservation.
	Rare reptiles -- Galapagos Islands.
	Extinct reptiles -- Galapagos Islands.
	Evolution (Biology) -- History.
	Nature -- Effect of human beings on -- Galapagos Islands.
	Island ecology -- Galapagos Islands.
	Restoration ecology -- Galapagos Islands.
	Galapagos Islands -- Environmental conditions.
	Ecology. (OCoLC)fst00901476
	Evolution (Biology) (OCoLC)fst00917302
	Extinct reptiles. (OCoLC)fst01893679
	Galapagos tortoise. (OCoLC)fst00937105
	Island ecology. (OCoLC)fst00980097
	Nature -- Effect of human beings on. (OCoLC)fst01034564
	Rare reptiles. (OCoLC)fst01090184
	Restoration ecology. (OCoLC)fst01095983
	Galapagos Islands. (OCoLC)fst01219610
Genre/Form	History. (OCoLC)fst01411628
ISBN	9780300232745 hardcover
	0300232748 hardcover

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

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