Gathering of Wonders : Behind the Scenes at the American Museum of Natural History

by Wallace, Joseph

• ISBN13: 9780312280390
• ISBN10: 0312280394
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-08-21
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Summary

Since it was founded in 1869, the American Museum of Natural History has stood as one of the world's greatest repositories of scientific information and investigation. This delightful book takes us behind the exhibits and shows us some of the great researchers and fabulous objects from the Museum's past and present, including: * the famous Oviraptor eggs unearthed in the Gobi desert. * the stunning new Hall of Biodiversity, whose trees hold 411,000 model leaves * the 563-carat Star of India sapphire and the 632-carat Patricia emerald * Katharine Burden's hunt for the Komodo dragon : "Woman Huntress Revolts Against Playing Safe---Kills Huge 'Malay Dragon' " * the epic saga of the huge blue whale model This book offers a backstage tour through the halls and history of the Museum, venturing into ornithology, invertebrates, zoology, entomology, herpetology, and other disciplines. Museum-goers will find their enjoyment enhanced by the wonderful anecdotes and insights, and armchair travelers will find the back-scenes tour enriching and enlightening.

Author Biography

Joseph Wallace has written numerous books on science and natural history. An adventurer at heart, he has been menaced by leopards in the midst of African game parks, canoed through rainforests, and even stumbled upon the wreck of a World War II fighter jet in Papua, New Guinea during the course of his career as a writer. He lives with his family in New York state.

Table of Contents

Foreword	xi
John Nichols
Introduction	1	(6)
The Specter of Extinction	7	(38)
Evolution's Clay	45	(27)
Messengers From the World's Wild Places	72	(28)
The Original Creation Tale	100	(25)
Tiny Glories of Biodiversity	125	(21)
Stories of Stasis and Change	146	(24)
The Life and Times of the Ancient World	170	(39)
The Front Lines of Conservation	209	(35)
Stories of Human Diversity	244	(33)
Index	277