[PDF] American Paleontologist eBook

Author : Url Lanham
Publisher : Courier Corporation
Page : 306 pages
File Size : 13,33 MB
Release : 2012-05-23
Category : Nature
ISBN : 0486144445

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"Highly recommended to all scientists and non-scientists interested in paleontology and the West." — Science Books A century after the founding of the Republic, the United States was a leader in the science of vertebrate paleontology — the study of the fossils of backboned animals. In this lucid, nontechnical study, a noted popularizer of science and former curator at the Museum of the University of Colorado first reviews the geology of the western United States and provides an overview of American paleontology since the days of Thomas Jefferson. Dr. Lanham next focuses on the paleontologists themselves and the astounding fossil discoveries that revolutionized our understanding of vertebrate evolution. You'll learn how nineteenth-century paleontologists struggled against hostile Indians, scorching summers and frigid winters, loneliness, isolation, lack of funds and other hardships as they excavated tons of fossil bones from beds and quarries in South Dakota, Kansas, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and other areas. While many eminent scientists are profiled, including Samuel Williston, John Bell Hatcher, Ferdinand Vandiveer Hayden, and Joseph Leidy, much of the book is devoted to the explorations and achievements of Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope. These two brilliant paleontologists, whose discoveries revolutionized the discipline, eventually became bitter rivals and the central figures in one of the most notorious scientific feuds of the century. These and many other aspects of nineteenth-century paleontology are covered in this fascinating and readable book. Easily accessible to the layman, The Bone Hunters will appeal to any reader interested in the behind-the-scenes drama and inspired scientific fieldwork that resulted in an explosion of knowledge about the nature and evolution of the prehistoric animals that once roamed the American West.

Author : Adrienne Mayor
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 488 pages
File Size : 29,87 MB
Release : 2023-04-11
Category : History
ISBN : 0691245614

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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 one had seen alive? Did they speculate about their deaths? Did they collect fossils? Beginning in the East, with its Ice Age monsters, and ending in the West, where dinosaurs lived and died, this richly illustrated and elegantly written book examines the discoveries of enormous bones and uses of fossils for medicine, hunting magic, and spells. Well before Columbus, Native Americans observed the mysterious petrified remains of extinct creatures and sought to understand their transformation to stone. In perceptive creation stories, they visualized the remains of extinct mammoths, dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and marine creatures as Monster Bears, Giant Lizards, Thunder Birds, and Water Monsters. Their insights, some so sophisticated that they anticipate modern scientific theories, were passed down in oral histories over many centuries. Drawing on historical sources, archaeology, traditional accounts, and extensive personal interviews, Adrienne Mayor takes us from Aztec and Inca fossil tales to the traditions of the Iroquois, Navajos, Apaches, Cheyennes, and Pawnees. Fossil Legends of the First Americans represents a major step forward in our understanding of how humans made sense of fossils before evolutionary theory developed.

Author : Gregory Paul
Publisher : Macmillan
Page : 452 pages
File Size : 29,28 MB
Release : 2003-04-22
Category : Nature
ISBN : 9780312310080

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Collects writings by experts in paleontology, from John Horner on dinosaur families to Robert Bakker on the latest wave of fossil discoveries.

Author : Thom Holmes
Publisher : Enslow Publishing, LLC
Page : 130 pages
File Size : 27,39 MB
Release : 2015-07-15
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN : 0766069656

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Are you interested in dinosaurs and how they lived? Do you want to travel the world, digging through the earth's history? Then perhaps a career in paleontology is for you! Through first-hand accounts, interviews, and case studies, you'll learn what it takes to be a paleontologist.

Author : Peter L. Larson
Publisher :
Page : 220 pages
File Size : 34,92 MB
Release : 2004
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN :

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Shows kids how to dig for, clean, and study fossils. Also teaches kids actual field and lab techniques, how to develop scientific theories, how to incorporate fossils into schoolwork, and how to plan for a future in paleontology.

Author : Lowell Dingus
Publisher : University of California Press
Page : 384 pages
File Size : 14,59 MB
Release : 2011-12-27
Category : Science
ISBN : 0520272617

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From his stunning discovery of Tyrannosaurus rex one hundred years ago to the dozens of other important new dinosaur species he found, Barnum Brown led a remarkable life (1873–1963), spending most of it searching for fossils—and sometimes oil—in every corner of the globe. One of the most famous scientists in the world during the middle of the twentieth century, Brown—who lived fast, dressed to the nines, gambled, drank, smoked, and was known as a ladies’ man—became as legendary as the dinosaurs he uncovered. Barnum Brown brushes off the loose sediment to reveal the man behind the legend. Drawing on Brown’s field correspondence and unpublished notes, and on the writings of his daughter and his two wives, it discloses for the first time details about his life and travels—from his youth on the western frontier to his spying for the U.S. government under cover of his expeditions. This absorbing biography also takes full measure of Brown’s extensive scientific accomplishments, making it the definitive account of the life and times of a singular man and a superlative fossil hunter.

Author : Edwin Harris Colbert
Publisher : Columbia University Press
Page : 350 pages
File Size : 25,78 MB
Release : 1992
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780231079648

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This is the only biography of William Diller Matthew (1871-1930), a paleontologist's paleontologist, and a man who occupies a major position in the history of North American paleontology. Using personal letters, archives, and accounts from those who knew Matthew, Edwin Colbert paints a compelling portrait of the scientist's work, presenting a delightful look at Matthew's family and life in New York at the turn of the century, complete with photographs of his excavations and world travels, relatives, and environs.

Author : David Lambert
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 73 pages
File Size : 24,6 MB
Release : 2010
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN : 0756658101

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Text and photographs explore the world of the dinosaurs, focusing on such aspects as their teeth, feet, eggs, and fossils.