Research Catalog

Title

At the water's edge : macroevolution and the transformation of life / Carl Zimmer.

Author

Zimmer, Carl, 1966-

Publication

New York : Free Press, [1998], ©1998.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

290 pages : illustrations; 25 cm

Summary

• At the Water's Edge takes you to the icy peaks of Greenland, the ancient shores of the Tethys Sea, and the warm waters of the Bahamas to visit with dolphins as it surveys how we have come to understand two special cases of macroevolution. In the first, around 360 million years ago, the descendants of one lineage of fish came ashore and rushed over the continents, eventually evolving into everything from turtles and dinosaurs to elephants and people.
• Then around 50 million years ago, and just as remarkably, one branch of these descendants crept back into the water and evolved into whales, dolphins, and other highly intelligent underwater life. The resulting portrait of the origin of whales is as marvelous as it is compelling. The story begins before Darwin's revolution when the first mysterious fossils from these transitions were unearthed - often by colorful entrepreneurs more familiar with the techniques of the circus than those of the laboratory.
• Escorting us along the trail of discovery up to the current dramatic research in paleontology, ecology, genetics, and embryology, Zimmer shows how scientists today are unveiling the secrets of life that biologists struggled with two centuries ago.

Subject

• Macroevolution

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [273]-274) and index.

Contents

Introduction: Life's Warps -- 1. After a Lost Balloon -- 2. Limitless Air, Ho! -- 3. How to Make a Hand -- 4. Darwin's Saplings -- 5. The Mind at Sea -- 6. The Equation of a Whale -- 7. Along the Tethyan Shores -- 8. Walking to Swimming -- 9. A Voyage Out -- 10. On the Trails of Macroevolution -- Evolutionary Chronology.

ISBN

0684834901 (hc)

LCCN

97029331

OCLC

• 37513018
• ocm37513018

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries