Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

Why do we look the way we do? What does the human hand have in common with the wing of a fly? Are breasts, sweat glands, and scales connected in some way? To better understand the inner workings of our bodies and to trace the origins of many of today's most common diseases, we have to turn to unexpected sources: worms, flies, and even fish. Neil Shubin, a leading paleontologist and professor of anatomy who... (more)

Wonderful Life

The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History

by Stephen Jay Gould

"Luminous. . .Filled with profound and upsetting ideas like the Burgess Shale itself and just as solid. It is surely one of nature's best stories, told with a light touce by a master of the field."--Lewis Thomas, M.D.

The Mismeasure of Man

by Stephen Jay Gould

The definitive refutation to the argument of The Bell Curve . When published in 1981, The Mismeasure of Man was immediately hailed as a masterwork, the ringing answer to those who would classify people, rank them according to their supposed genetic gifts and limits. Yet the idea of biology as destiny dies hard, as witness the attention devoted to The Bell Curve , whose arguments are here so... (more)

The Panda's Thumb

More Reflections in Natural History

by Stephen Jay Gould

With sales of well over one million copies in North America alone, the commercial success of Gould's books now matches their critical acclaim. Reissued in a larger format, with a handsome new cover, The Panda's Thumb will introduce a new generation of readers to this unique writer, who has taken the art of the scientific essay to new heights. Illustrations.

The Big Cats and Their Fossil Relatives

by Alan Turner

Voted Best Book on Prehistoric Animals of 1997 by the readers of Prehistoric Times In this beautifully illustrated natural history that links extinct larger feline species with those still in existence, collaborators Alan Turner and Mauricio Antón weave together the evidence of modern feline behavior with that of the fossil record.

Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms: Essays on Natural History

Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms: Essays on Natural History

by Stephen Jay Gould

Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms is the newest collection of best-selling scientist Stephen Jay Gould's popular essays from Natural History magazine (the longest-running series of scientific essays in history). It is also the first of the final three such collections, since Dr. Gould has announced that the series will end with the turn of the millennium. In this collection, Gould... (more)

Raptor

by Paul Zindel

Out in the mountains, Zack and his friend, Uta, discover what they think is a large fossilized dinosaur egg. This could make their fortune! Zack takes it home to keep it safe. Only the egg isn't fossilized - it's hatching! And there's an angry mother dinosaur out there, who wants her baby back.

The Dinosaur Heresies: New Theories Unlocking the Mystery of the Dinosaurs and Their Extinction

The Dinosaur Heresies: New Theories Unlocking the Mystery of the Dinosaurs and Their Extinction

by Robert T. Bakker

For over a century, dinosaurs have been thought of as plodding, dim-witted giant lizards too awkward and ill-equipped to survive the ravages of environmental change. Bakker offers startling new evidence destined to forever alter the perception of the much-maligned monsters, depicting them as never before imagined: hot-blooded, amazingly agile, and surprisingly intelligent. Illustrations.

Tyrannosaurus SUE

by Steve Fiffer

Over 65 million years ago in what is now Cheyenne River Sioux territory in South Dakota, a Tyrannosaurus rex matriarch locked in a ferocious battle fell mortally wounded into a riverbed. In 1990, her skeleton was found, virtually complete, in what many call the most spectacular dinosaur fossil discovery to date. And then another battle began--a "Survival of the Fittest" free-for-all involving commercial... (more)

Jurassic Park: Book 1

Jurassic Park

by Michael Crichton

An astonishing technique for recovering and cloning dinosaur DNA has been discovered. Creatures once extinct now roam Jurassic Park, soon-to-be opened as a theme park. Until something goes wrong...and science proves a dangerous toy.... "Wonderful...Powerful." THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD

Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin

Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin

by Stephen Jay Gould

Respected scientist Stephen Jay Gould suggests that perhaps variety--not complexity--is our true measure of excellence. To illustrate his theme, Gould discusses seemingly disparate topics such as a drunkard's walk, the absence of modern Mozarts, the evolution of the horse, the continuing dominance of bacterial life on the planet, and more. 50 illus.

After the Dinosaurs: The Age of Mammals (Life of the Past)

After the Dinosaurs: The Age of Mammals (Life of the Past)

by Donald R. Prothero

Perhaps nudged over the evolutionary cliff by a giant boloid striking the earth, the incredible and fascinating group of animals called dinosaurs became extinct some 65 million years ago (except for their feathered descendants). In their place evolved an enormous variety of land creatures, especially the mammals, which in their way were every bit as remarkable as their Mesozoic cousins. The Age of Mammals, the... (more)

Predatory Dinosaurs of the WorldGregory S. Paul

Predatory Dinosaurs of the World

by Gregory S. Paul

Paul thinks dinosaurs are fun, and he conveys his enthusiasm in this well-written account of their life and times. In the first part of the book he describes how the predatory dinosaurs (meat-eating dinosaurs, as opposed to herbivorous dinosaurs) evolved, what they looked like and how they lived. He dispels some commonly held notions: dinosaurs were not cold-blooded, slow or stupid; they were, in fact, the... (more)

Fossil Legends of the First Americans

by Adrienne Mayor

The burnt-red badlands of Montana's Hell Creek are a vast graveyard of the Cretaceous dinosaurs that lived 68 million years ago. Those hills were, much later, also home to the Sioux, the Crows, and the Blackfeet, the first people to encounter the dinosaur fossils exposed by the elements. What did Native Americans make of these stone skeletons, and how did they explain the teeth and claws of gargantuan animals no... (more)

Vertebrate Palaeontology

by M. J. Benton

Vertebrate Palaeontology is a complete, up-to-date history of the evolution of vertebrates. The third edition of this popular text has been extensively revised to incorporate the latest research, including new material from North and South America, Australia, Europe, China, Africa and Russia. Highlights astonishing new discoveries including new dinosaurs and Mesozoic birds from China features a new chapter on... (more)

The Dinosauria

When the The Dinosauria was first published more than a decade ago, it was hailed as "the best scholarly reference work available on dinosaurs" and "an historically unparalleled compendium of information." This second, fully revised edition continues in the same vein as the first but encompasses the recent spectacular discoveries that have continued to revolutionize the field. A state-of-the-science view of... (more)

The Bonehunters' Revenge: Dinosaurs and Fate in the Gilded Age

The Bonehunters' Revenge: Dinosaurs and Fate in the Gilded Age

by David Rains Wallace

When dinosaur fossils were first discovered in the Wild West, they sparked one of the greatest scientific battles in American history. Over the past century it has been known by many names -- the Bone War, the Fossil Feud -- but the tragic story of the competition for fame and natural treasure between Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh, two leading paleontologists of the Gilded Age, remains prophetic of... (more)

The Lost Dinosaurs of Egypt

by William E. Nothdurft

The date is January 11, 1911 . A young German paleontologist, accompanied only by a guide, a cook, four camels, and a couple of camel drivers, reaches the lip of the vast Bahariya Depression after a long trek across the bleak plateau of the western desert of Egypt. The scientist, Ernst Freiherr Stromer von Reichenbach, hopes to find fossil evidence of early mammals. In this, he will be disappointed, for the rocks... (more)

How to Build a Dinosaur: Extinction Doesn't Have to Be Forever

How to Build a Dinosaur: Extinction Doesn't Have to Be Forever

by John R. Horner, James Gorman

A world-renowned paleontologist takes readers all over the globe to reveal a new science that trumps science fiction: how humans can re-create a dinosaur. In movies, in novels, in comic strips, and on television, we’ve all seen dinosaurs—or at least somebody’s educated guess of what they would look like. But what if it were possible to build, or grow, a real dinosaur, without finding ancient DNA? Jack Horner,... (more)

The Link: Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor

The Link: Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor

by Colin Tudge, Josh Young

For more than a century, scientists have raced to unravel the human family tree and have grappled with its complications. Now, with an astonishing new discovery, everything we thought we knew about primate origins could change. Lying inside a high-security vault, deep within the heart of one of the world’s leading natural history museums, is the scientific find of a lifetime — a perfectly fossilized early primate,... (more)

Shelfari Book Activity

Tags: paleontology

A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body

by Neil Shubin

The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History

by Stephen Jay Gould

by Stephen Jay Gould

More Reflections in Natural History

by Stephen Jay Gould

by Alan Turner

by Stephen Jay Gould

by Paul Zindel

by Robert T. Bakker

by Steve Fiffer

by Michael Crichton

by Stephen Jay Gould

by Donald R. Prothero

by Gregory S. Paul

by Adrienne Mayor

by M. J. Benton

by David Rains Wallace

by William E. Nothdurft

by John R. Horner, James Gorman

by Colin Tudge, Josh Young