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More About This Title History of Life 5e
English
This text is designed for students and anyone else with an interest in the history of life on our planet. The author describes the biological evolution of Earth’s organisms, and reconstructs their adaptations to the life they led, and the ecology and environment in which they functioned. On the grand scale, Earth is a constantly changing planet, continually presenting organisms with challenges. Changing geography, climate, atmosphere, oceanic and land environments set a stage in which organisms interact with their environments and one another, with evolutionary change an inevitable result. The organisms themselves in turn can change global environments: oxygen in our atmosphere is all produced by photosynthesis, for example. The interplay between a changing Earth and its evolving organisms is the underlying theme of the book.
The book has a dedicated website which explores additional enriching information and discussion, and provides or points to the art for the book and many other images useful for teaching. See: www.wiley.com/go/cowen/historyoflife.
English
English
Preface vii
About the Companion Website x
1 The Origin of Life on Earth 1
2 Earliest Life on Earth 17
3 Sex and Nuclei: Eukaryotes 30
4 The Evolution of Metazoans 41
5 The Metazoan Radiation 54
6 Changing Life in a Changing World 66
7 The Early Vertebrates 84
8 Leaving the Water 98
9 Tetrapods and Amniotes 112
10 Early Amniotes and Thermoregulation 122
11 The Triassic Takeover 134
12 Dinosaurs 144
13 The Evolution of Flight 164
14 The Modernization of Land and Sea 183
15 The Origin of Mammals 199
16 The End of the Dinosaurs 212
17 Cenozoic Mammals 220
18 Geography and Evolution 236
19 Primates 249
20 Evolving Toward Humans 259
21 Life in the Ice Age 276
Index 294
English
“Though biogeographical patterns take a backseat to the grand narrative of descent, as an entry‐level textbook this is hard to surpass.” (Frontiers of biogeography, 5 February 2013)
