Research Catalog

Title

Greenhouse of the dinosaurs : evolution, extinction, and the future of our planet / Donald R. Prothero.

Author

Prothero, Donald R.

Publication

New York : Columbia University Press, c2009.

Supplementary Content

Klappentext

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

x, 274 p. : ill., maps; 24 cm.

Summary

"Donald Prothero links the climate changes that have occurred over the past 200 million years to their effects on plants and animals. In particular, he contrasts the extinctions that ended the Cretaceous period, which wiped out the dinosaurs, with those of the later Eocene and Oligocene epochs." "Prothero begins with the "greenhouse of the dinosaurs," the global-warming episode that dominated the Age of Dinosaurs and the early Age of Mammals. He describes the remarkable creatures that once populated Earth and draws on his experiences collecting fossils in the Big Badlands of South Dakota to sketch their world. Prothero then discusses the growth of the first Antarctic glaciers, which marked the Eocene-Oligocene transition, and shares his own anecdotes of excavations and controversies among colleagues that have shaped our understanding of the contemporary and prehistoric world. The volume concludes with observations about Nisqually Glacier and other locations that show how global warming is happening much quicker than previously predicted, irrevocably changing the balance of Earth's thermostat."--Jacket.

Subjects

• Paläoklimatologie
• Geology > United States
• Climatic changes
• Klimaänderung
• Dinosaurs > Extinction
• Paleontology > United States

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN

• 9780231146609 (cloth : alk. paper)
• 0231146604 (cloth : alk. paper)
• 9780231518321 (e-book)
• 0231518323 (e-book)

LCCN

2008052555

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries