1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910454611803321

Autore

Fastovsky David E.

Titolo

Dinosaurs : a concise natural history / / David E. Fastovsky and David B. Weishampel ; with illustrations by John Sibbick [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2009

ISBN

1-107-20133-0

1-283-33023-7

9786613330239

1-139-13474-4

0-511-80518-7

1-139-12969-4

1-139-13363-2

0-511-47789-9

0-511-47941-7

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xii, 379 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Disciplina

567.9

Soggetti

Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs - Extinction

Vertebrates - Evolution

Paleontology - Mesozoic

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Nota di contenuto

To catch a dinosaur -- Dinosaur days -- Who's related to whom--and how do we know? -- Who are the dinosaurs? -- Thyreophorans : the armor-bearers -- Marginocephalia : bumps, bosses, and beaks -- Ornithopoda : the tuskers, antelopes, and "mighty ducks" of the Mesozoic -- Sauropodomorpha : the big, the bizarre, and the majestic -- Theropoda I : nature red in tooth and claw -- Theropoda II : the origin of birds -- Theropoda III : early birds -- Dinosaur thermoregulation : some like it hot -- The flowering of the Mesozoic -- A history of paleontology through ideas -- The Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction : the frill is gone.

Sommario/riassunto

From the authors of The Evolution and Extinction of the Dinosaurs,



comes a  general introduction to the study of dinosaurs for non-specialists, designed to excite readers about science by using the ever-popular animals - the dinosaurs - to illustrate and discuss geology, natural history and evolution. While it focuses on dinosaurs, it also uses them to convey other aspects of the natural sciences, including fundamental concepts in evolutionary biology, physiology, life history, and systematics.  Considerable attention is devoted the nature of science itself:  what it is, what it is not, and how science can be used to investigate particular kinds of questions. Dinosaurs is unique because it  fills a gap between the glossy, fact-driven dinosaur books for younger readers, and the higher-level academic books, addressing the palaeontology of dinosaurs exactly as professionals in the field do.