Description
Book SynopsisFossils are the fragments from which, piece by laborious piece, the great mosaic of the history of life has been constructed. Here and there, we can supplement these meager scraps by the use of biochemical markers or geochemical signatures that add useful information, but, even with such additional help, our reconstructions and our models of descent are often tentative. For the fossil record is, as we have seen, as biased as it is incomplete. But fragmentary, selective, and biased though it is, the fossil record, with all its imperfections, is still a treasure. Though whole chapters are missing, many pages lost, and the earliest pages so damaged as to be, as yet, virtually unreadable, thisthe greatest biography of allis one in whose closing pages we find ourselves.from Origins
In Origins, Frank H. T. Rhodes explores the origin and evolution of living things, the changing environments in which they have developed, and the challenges we now face on an increasingly
Trade Review
"In Origins, an overview of the history of life on Earth for the nonspecialist reader, Frank H. T. Rhodes starts with origins and traces a winding path to human evolution. This book is a highly readable treatment of an important and interesting topic." -- Michael Foote, University of Chicago
"In this compact and elegant volume, Frank H. T. Rhodes does far more than beautifully updating his classic 1962 book The Evolution of Life. He provides a new narrative of the history of life on Earth for a new set of generations. He covers familiar territory with a fresh and lyrical prose that reveals new insights into both species past and present and the people who have studied them. This is a perfect introduction by a virtuoso." -- Warren D. Allmon, Director, Paleontological Research Institution
Table of Contents
1. Defrosting the Mammoth
2. Terrestrial Timepieces
3. "From So Simple a Beginning"
4. Classification: The Diversity of Life
5. Spineless Wonders
6. Bone, Scales, and Fins: The Early Vertebrates
7. The Greening of the Land
8. The Amphibian Foothold
9. The Reign of the Reptiles
10. The Air
11. The Blossoming Earth
12. The Rise of the Mammals
13. The Mammalian Explosion
14. The Leakeys' Legacy
15. "Endless Forms, Most Beautiful and Most Wonderful"
16. On Extinction
17. "Have Been and Are Being Evolved": The Development of Life
Epilogue
